Regarding which states are on your hit list, there are choices.
For big Successor State/Great Houses, the Draconis Combine (Kurita) and Capellan Confederation (Liao) are the two big illiberal polities of the period. Kurita merges the tropes of samurai stuff with Imperial Japan, the Capellans are space China+Russia, more China than Russia (and even more China down timeline).
Remember, the Capellans are outright used as the antagonists and whipping boys during this period. The Fourth Succession War is the Federated Commonwealth (Lyrans + FedSuns) kicking their shit in, and they get facerolled. The War of '39 is the FedCom trying to do the same to the Dracs, and they get repulsed.
The Caps in 3025 are the actual default target. It's only down timeline that we get the Caps kinda strong again, and generally even their eventual best leader, Sun Tzu, is portrayed with the madness and whimsy characteristic of most of his family line. Now, nutty Sun Tzu is mostly fanon and not canon, but it is what it is.
I say this as a Capellan fan, mind, they are my first or second favourite faction (tossup between them and Lyran).
Beyond this, the Lyrans (in this period, there's a stretch where they are antagonistic), the FedSuns, are the clearer 'hero' houses, Steiner and Davion. The Free Worlds League (Marik) is ambigious, but at least on paper it is the most democratic of the major factions (but gets overrun by Blakists, and consequently does fracture into smaller states in late timeline).
So much for Great Houses, but there are minor Periphery powers. The Outworlds Alliance and Taurian Concordiat are bad candidates for a faceroll we're meant to cheer on. Outworlds are a mess, but they're meant to be space hippy, space academic, space democracy who hate 'Mechs but love fighters. Taurians are stubborn nationalists (and generally popularly used in fanfic as underdog heroes). Magistry of Canopus are decadent matriarchical space Las Vegas with THE best medical science. None of these are appealing targets for a 'they deserve it' narrative.
Who else? Oberon Confederation is shitty, but their 3000s-3050ish leader is actively trying to clean the cesspool and make it less of a bandit kingdom, to the degree of banning raids and signing treaties, investing in domestic development. The Oberons aren't actually 'bad' here, just rough.
Marian Hegemony is space Rome, which isn't bad if you're a citizen, but they have institutionalised slavery. Granted, reasonably, this is Roman slavery at worst, not depraved insert-whatever.
Circinus Federation (I may be spelling this wrong) is like Oberon, a bandit kingdom, but unlike Oberon, isn't really cleaning up - they've won diplomatic recognition but it ain't a concerted making right effort like Oberon. Good candidates to stomp.
Even smaller powers? The Deep Periphery states generally do not suck, like the Hanseatic League, and are so obscure that most BT fans aren't familiar. Aurigans are from the new BT video game, but aside from the Directorate period in the game, also good guys.
Depending on timeline, maybe Redjack Ryan is active as the king of Butte Hold and later the Greater Valkyriate - Redjack is a clear villain of the setting, even if I use him as an antihero for my stuff.
Single worlds? Von Strang's World, the Barony of Strang, are unambigiously shit - they still celebrate Amaris, the guy who killed the Star League. But that's literally a one planet state. Antallos/Port Krin near the Outworlds is also shit, pirate haven, but again, small fry.
Okay, that's your polities.
'Mechs... so really there are generic designs that can be found anywhere without lifting eyebrows, differing only in national variant of the chassis, but the base 'Mech is common. These are the old original first gen BattleTech tabletop units.
Wasp, Stinger, Locust are the dirt common designs, Wasp is the most common 'Mech in space. In the medium category, things like the Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Shadow Hawk, Wolverine, in heavy, stuff like Crusader, Warhammer, Marauder, Thunderbolt, Archer.
You can drop those in anywhere and have them work. There are more generics like that, but you get the idea.
Anything else will be slightly region-specific. Say let's talk lights. Near Lyran space (inc. Oberon, Circinus), expect Commandos, near Suns/Davion expect Valkyrie, near Dracs expect Jenner and Panther, and near Liaos expect UrbanMech, or if later, Raven.
And then so on, up the weight chart, like say for mediums, expect Vindicator and Clint from Liao.
For big Successor State/Great Houses, the Draconis Combine (Kurita) and Capellan Confederation (Liao) are the two big illiberal polities of the period. Kurita merges the tropes of samurai stuff with Imperial Japan, the Capellans are space China+Russia, more China than Russia (and even more China down timeline).
Remember, the Capellans are outright used as the antagonists and whipping boys during this period. The Fourth Succession War is the Federated Commonwealth (Lyrans + FedSuns) kicking their shit in, and they get facerolled. The War of '39 is the FedCom trying to do the same to the Dracs, and they get repulsed.
The Caps in 3025 are the actual default target. It's only down timeline that we get the Caps kinda strong again, and generally even their eventual best leader, Sun Tzu, is portrayed with the madness and whimsy characteristic of most of his family line. Now, nutty Sun Tzu is mostly fanon and not canon, but it is what it is.
I say this as a Capellan fan, mind, they are my first or second favourite faction (tossup between them and Lyran).
Beyond this, the Lyrans (in this period, there's a stretch where they are antagonistic), the FedSuns, are the clearer 'hero' houses, Steiner and Davion. The Free Worlds League (Marik) is ambigious, but at least on paper it is the most democratic of the major factions (but gets overrun by Blakists, and consequently does fracture into smaller states in late timeline).
So much for Great Houses, but there are minor Periphery powers. The Outworlds Alliance and Taurian Concordiat are bad candidates for a faceroll we're meant to cheer on. Outworlds are a mess, but they're meant to be space hippy, space academic, space democracy who hate 'Mechs but love fighters. Taurians are stubborn nationalists (and generally popularly used in fanfic as underdog heroes). Magistry of Canopus are decadent matriarchical space Las Vegas with THE best medical science. None of these are appealing targets for a 'they deserve it' narrative.
Who else? Oberon Confederation is shitty, but their 3000s-3050ish leader is actively trying to clean the cesspool and make it less of a bandit kingdom, to the degree of banning raids and signing treaties, investing in domestic development. The Oberons aren't actually 'bad' here, just rough.
Marian Hegemony is space Rome, which isn't bad if you're a citizen, but they have institutionalised slavery. Granted, reasonably, this is Roman slavery at worst, not depraved insert-whatever.
Circinus Federation (I may be spelling this wrong) is like Oberon, a bandit kingdom, but unlike Oberon, isn't really cleaning up - they've won diplomatic recognition but it ain't a concerted making right effort like Oberon. Good candidates to stomp.
Even smaller powers? The Deep Periphery states generally do not suck, like the Hanseatic League, and are so obscure that most BT fans aren't familiar. Aurigans are from the new BT video game, but aside from the Directorate period in the game, also good guys.
Depending on timeline, maybe Redjack Ryan is active as the king of Butte Hold and later the Greater Valkyriate - Redjack is a clear villain of the setting, even if I use him as an antihero for my stuff.
Single worlds? Von Strang's World, the Barony of Strang, are unambigiously shit - they still celebrate Amaris, the guy who killed the Star League. But that's literally a one planet state. Antallos/Port Krin near the Outworlds is also shit, pirate haven, but again, small fry.
Okay, that's your polities.
'Mechs... so really there are generic designs that can be found anywhere without lifting eyebrows, differing only in national variant of the chassis, but the base 'Mech is common. These are the old original first gen BattleTech tabletop units.
Wasp, Stinger, Locust are the dirt common designs, Wasp is the most common 'Mech in space. In the medium category, things like the Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Shadow Hawk, Wolverine, in heavy, stuff like Crusader, Warhammer, Marauder, Thunderbolt, Archer.
You can drop those in anywhere and have them work. There are more generics like that, but you get the idea.
Anything else will be slightly region-specific. Say let's talk lights. Near Lyran space (inc. Oberon, Circinus), expect Commandos, near Suns/Davion expect Valkyrie, near Dracs expect Jenner and Panther, and near Liaos expect UrbanMech, or if later, Raven.
And then so on, up the weight chart, like say for mediums, expect Vindicator and Clint from Liao.