Actually, looking at the statistics like hull strength and armament, Rheinland battleships are the best of the 4 Houses... Plus they have Gunboats, which Liberty do not, giving them another advantage. It's a nice thought, but consider Rheinland's rather strong position in the story

But only Liberty have the capital ship super cannon!
3 shots from a thing like that and even a Rheinland Battleship is down.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of. It could be that Liberty's strength relies on numbers as a whole, but either way, I still feel that the four Houses are equally matched, through firepower or ships.

@HS, eh, no. Ever played an open SP mod using a Liberty cruiser? I have, and its front gun sucks. I was at point blank and it still took me 10 minutes to destroy the battleship. Not to mention all of the fighter and cruiser cover.

Owner, CEO, CFO, President, and Manager of McCardy's. McCardy's:So much Cardamine, you'll wish you had more!
Come visit our new Buffalo Base Location:
Take a ship to Buffalo and, uh, go inside McCardy's.

Let's see what the official guide has to say on the matter. According to the book, all of the battlships in the game have either 69,280 or 69,300 hit points. At the max though, the best varriants of Liberty heavy fighters have a grand total of 5,770 while Rheinland has 6,750 hit points. It's pretty closely matched (a good pilot could easily overcome the difference). Combine that with the fact that Rheinland has only one battleship, that the liberty pilots know the land better and are on defense, and the fact that the other houses (particually bretonia) would rush to liberty's aid and invasion becomes immensly diffacult. Besides, as unfortunate as it is, the Rheinland navy sucks. They lost the 80-years war and they lost an initial battle to Kusari in the story line. Rhineland just can't win a war, and they have no reason to start one. --- VH16

I am Nobody; Nobody is Perfect; Therefore, I am Perfect

I often pondered along similar lines. I mean during the SP campaign, it took only 4 starkiller torpedoes for the Rheinland defectors to destroy the battleship blocking the jump hole. On a similar note, the GMG defeated the Rheinland military and they dont even have a home planet! Additionally, during the SP campaign, on numerous occasions Trent and 4 or less companions broke through entire fleets. Battleships are weak in the game, even the Nomad battleships fell to a few Order sorties. No house really has a strategic advantage. But if I had to choose a faction to take over Sirius it would have to be the Corsairs.

"Hi, Help You?"

In all fairness to the Rheinlanders, IIRC, the GMG actually tricked or lured the Rheinland Navy into a bunch of oxygen gas pockects in the nebula. Boom....

Those GMG fighters are tough though.


Micah

Look at this:

1.RHIENLAND: best ships, fighters and the rest of the ships. The largest trading ships. Built like Hitlers German war machine.
HOWEVER only one BS has left and Rhienland is not the strongest army because of the 80 years war, and the fact that their military is weak.
2.KUSARI: Fast and medium armed ships. Loyal to the Emperor and live like the Japanies in the 30th and the 40th of the 20th century.
3.BERTONIA: A scientific nation like todays UK. Medium ships and weaponery.
4.LIBERTY: The most powerful eco-house in the sirius sector, weak ships, however some high lvl ships who were built to fight other armies. Weak-Med weaps, Operates like todays America.

OH NO! TIME TO HUMP JUNI!
oh hello king, what are you here for?

TO iiiiVIVAHISPANIA!!!

RHIENLAND didn't lose to KUSARI IN THE INVATION, I read that they have got to planet New-Tokio and called to the KUSARI government to surrender or they will bombard the planet.
This is maby a spoiler but it is true. I checked this rumer in the freelancer explorer.

OH NO! TIME TO HUMP JUNI!
oh hello king, what are you here for?

myself i thought that the Westfalen was the last ship of the old Rheinland fleet, not the only battleship they had.

I think it does say somewhere that the Westfalen is the only ship. I mean, you don't see any more in the whole of Rheinland space

He didn't say that the Kusari won during the war, he merely said that they won the initial battle. Also consider that of all the battleships you saw from the Rheinland fleet, you only see one after the war. I don't see any reason why the Rheinland government would hide all its remaining battleships except the one...

Don't forget that Bretonia is loosing to the MOLLIES (!!) in Dublin, that's just sad.

On a side note, why are all the Brit scum small-time?? I mean, the gaians and mollies have but 1 base a piece (the mollies' being pointless to get to), but when you check out liberty its like the mafia. The rogues have bases spanning all of C-W liberty, the Junkers have N-S liberty, and the xenos have C-N liberty. That's two IN-HOUSE bases, plus the umpteen bases scattered throught the border worlds on the fringe of Liberty space. Criminally, the Liberians have the strongest force of any actual house.

Also, notice that no criminal organization fights directly for the total irradication of Liberty's government system, not even the Rogues are true anarchists, and would come to the aid of Jacobi if arrogant Rhineland or unscruptulous Kusari decided to invade. The border-world xenos would waste Kusari, and I can say that I'd be with them. Where do your alliances lie?

The Outcasts will take over Sirius

Reasons
1: All they have to do is make everyone dependent on Cardamine and then they will all be slaved to the Outcasts
2: They have big allies like the Lane Hackers and the Red Hessians so they have reinforcements for the take-over