DS/FT/SG: Tuffleyverse Cannon & Personal Stratrgy/Tactics/Design Philosophies

It's been several years since I first purchased DS II, and it looks like
I'm 
drawing nigh unto a time when I'll actually have a chance to PLAY it, 
hallelujah, as well as maybe get involved in the other fine games GZG
makes. 
  The question I have is this:

How many people out there ever stray from the official "Tuffleyverse"
and 
come up with their own political/military powers to scrap it out?  It
was 
this possibility that first drew me to the game (Having been introduced
to 
sci fi wargaming via Battletech, I had grown weary of the
"House/Clan/Merc 
strictures of that game.  I wanted to be able to have my friends and I
come 
up with our own countries/powers to fight, since the DS rulebook really 
pushes the "generic" quality of the game).  Yet as I observe discussions
of 
the game, I notice that the political entities of the "canon" are almost
as 
integral to the discussions as are the rules themselves, though I admit
this 
is least rampant in discussions of DS II (eg Hammer's Slammers
discussions, 
etc.).

For those that stick to the Tuffleyverse, I have a further question:  In

deciding on which entity you'd focus on (Are you FSE? NSL? NAC? etc),
did 
you pick one that reflected your own preferences for tactics and
strategy, 
or did you pick the one with the most esthetically pleasing 
ship/tank/uniform designs (or coolest name), and learn to follow their 
tactical doctrines?  Or do you just pick a power to name yourself, and 
design units/tactics to suit yourself, whether that's typical of s aid
power 
or not?

Final question, for SG/DS:  Has anyone done anything with what happens
in 
the future to the French Foreign Legion? Are the in the TO&E of one of
the 
powers in the Tuffleyverse?

Thanks,

Brian

"The Irish are the only race of people on Earth for which psychoanalysis
is 
of no use."

				 - S. Freud

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