That's kinda my point Nomad...After Reading Star Soldier again... I can't really find anything that says the Border Worlds are in such a bad shape...I think at the Time of WC4 they had just broken away from the Confederation. Maybe that's why they were so financially bad. Or it's possible that they still are the same but I don't think the Border Worlds are such a bad shape after a period of what 15 years right? Things were bound to get better at least one could only hope. But true we don't really know how good they were after WC4.
Lack of information neither confirms status of being a superpower nor does it confirm status of being bankrupt. The most reasonable method is to look at the older, larger "Border Worlders," the Landreich. They can't go toe-to-toe with Confed due to smaller size and still using surplus machinery. And that's a proper
Navy. My memory is foggy on the conclusion of WC4, but is BWM now fully independent or did they return back under Confed's protection?
If they're independent I would say figure it like the Landreich - they have a professional Navy now, but it's a step behind Confed technology-wise. No superfighters, no superlasers, no supercarriers. This is actually where you can have some fun: ships that require lots of skill but can get the job done, rather than newfangled ships that fly themselves.
A nation can turn its fortunes around pretty quickly sometimes. The UK was the sick man of Europe (economically) when I was a kid, now it's one of the richest (GDP) - and I'm yet to turn thirty.
A little food for thought.
The UK isn't a third-world country with no real industrial base that was formerly a severely exploited colony. The UK is a former mega empire that exploited colonies and has a sophisticated industrial and high-technology that will keep it afloat in its "retirement from superpower status."
Better examples would be an actual former colony that fought for independence and has since become successful.
Remember a lot of time has passed from Black Lance incident and with the coming of nephilm. Besides in Phrophesy most of the BW top dogs are in confeds top position. And it would make sense form them to provide help to BW that went through Confed/BL conflict. So it wouldnt be that over the top for them to develop something to counter nephilms. Otherwise the ships from WC4 would allso do and old confed ships, they just need to upgrade weapons for some ships.
All those defections of Confed officers to the BWM happened because Tolwyn was trying to start the space holocaust. It has nothing to do with the BWM being saints - IIRC they were guilty of a few things, too, just none of them warranted being slaughtered wholesale for the sake of the latest eugenics programs. I don't think any favoritism would have extended to selling the BWM their secret super weapons. The Landreich was there first and the best they got was a modified escort carrier - and even then only because Confed was using them.
The best-case scenario would likely have been that the BWM was upgraded from buying "surplus heading to scrap" to "current models heading to surplus" and an officer exchange program.
Oh yeah think on this, if pirates could get their hands on Excaliburs at BL incident then they might be more common in Arena time, what with the new line of confed ships replacing old ones.
Those weren't pirates. Those were Black Lance pilots pretending to be pirates. Kind of like the Black Lance pilots in Dragons pretending to be Border Worlders. The only "real" pirates are probably the ones you fight after dueling Maniac. The rest are either being helped/run by the Black Lance or are actually the Black Lance themselves.
And this is all beside the point that the appeal of the BWM is they're underdog that has to beg, borrow, and steal just to beat the enemy. Making them Confed 2.0 removes their personality and quirks.