18 replies to this topic

[Illydth]

Ok, so since I have everyone here (the vast majority of you have more knowledge of the history of this game in your little fingers than I have total), I'd like to ask a book reader's question. (NOTE: I have not read nor do I own any of the "source materials"...I never had the pleasure of playing the BT Tabletop, I ask this from the perspective of someone who's read/reading the novels.)

I'm about -> <- this close to finishing the base series of books (5 left? I think? till EndGame).

I've got the Dark Age series on tap after this, but there's that huge Jihad (and others?) thing post FedCom and Pre-Dark Ages.

I've looked hard around the net but I have yet to find any kind of consolidated reading list for fiction based around this era of time in the BT Universe. I've done my own research and I think I have some information on reading for the Post FedCom/Pre Dark Ages era. (By what I'm seeing for this era they seemed to publish the source materials as half fiction, half rules?) However, if anyone can list what a BT History reader should be looking at to best understand this period of time, I would be most appreciative...bonus points if you can list them in "historical" order.

--Illydth

[PaintedWolf]

Things really calm down after the FedCom Civil War and nothing eventful takes place.

[Skylarr]

Quote

BattleTech eras




Clan Invasion 3050 – 3061 The time between the beginning of the Clan Invasion and the Inner Sphere's victory at the Great Refusal.


Civil War 3062 – 3067 The years in the shadow of the Federated Commonwealth Civil War.



Jihad 3068 – 3080 The time when the Word of Blake unleashed its Jihad.



Dark Age Republic 3081 – 3130 The time since the defeat of the Blakists and the creation of The Republic of the Sphere.




Dark Age Dark Age 3131 – The time since the collape of the HPG network causes political chaos in The Republic of the Sphere that leads to the militarization of Industrial Mechs and other civillian equipment.

Quote

Time line:

• 3062
  
• 3063
  
• 3064
  
• 3065
  
• 3066
  
• 3067
  
• 3068
  
• 3069
  
• 3070
  
• 3071
  
• 3072
  
• 3073
  
• 3074
  
• 3075
  
• 3076
  
• 3077
  
• 3078
  
• 3079
  
• 3080
  
• 3081
  
• 3082

Edited by Skylarr, 09 April 2013 - 06:03 PM.

[Spokes]

I picked up some of the dark age books after I finished the main set, but I've never been able to finish reading any of them.

They are terrible.

[FrostCollar]

Spokes, on 09 April 2013 - 07:19 PM, said:

I picked up some of the dark age books after I finished the main set, but I've never been able to finish reading any of them.

They are terrible.

I bought quite a few in the past!

What a blunder that was.

[dal10]

i liked a couple of them. pretty much patriot stand and a call to arms. that was about it.

[Lightdragon]

if you want all the facts, read all the jihad books that were releases, jihad hotspots, secrets those will tell you all

[Karenai]

Endgame is the first in a line of realy, realy bad books.
They had to bring the whole story to an end, and you feel it on every page.
Would not bother with DarkAge, even the German ClassicBattletech novels are better imho (Borderline self published 2750+ era books). If you like the story and not just mechs exploding in books, I would stop after Endgame and ignore the thing that should not be named, aka DarkAge.
Trying to win the young crowd and killing off anythig or anyone that was cool about Battletech is Battletechs Phantom Menace moment.

Edited by Karenai, 11 April 2013 - 07:01 AM.

[Merky Merc]

Ah there were a few decent Dark Age books, and there were quite a few terrible books pre-Dark Age.

Some of them were a bit too light on actual... mech presence though.

[Lightdragon]

dark age was light on mechs in general post republic there was a massive demilitarization after the jihad due to that mechs became more rare than they were during the succession war era unless you count capellan space... sun tzu horded a crap ton of mechs in secret bunkers that the republic knew nothing about

[dal10]

Lightdragon, on 11 April 2013 - 07:43 PM, said:

dark age was light on mechs in general post republic there was a massive demilitarization after the jihad due to that mechs became more rare than they were during the succession war era unless you count capellan space... sun tzu horded a crap ton of mechs in secret bunkers that the republic knew nothing about

more evidence that he was one of the smartest leaders the inner sphere ever had.

[Lightdragon]

dal10, on 12 April 2013 - 08:33 AM, said:

more evidence that he was one of the smartest leaders the inner sphere ever had.

theres also a tasty tidbit in one of the jihad secrets books that points out that sun tzu had davion blood

[Adridos]

Lightdragon, on 13 April 2013 - 04:40 AM, said:

theres also a tasty tidbit in one of the jihad secrets books that points out that sun tzu had davion blood

Considering Liao family originated from an English diplomat marrying a Nepalese woman...

Besides, logically speaking, if he was of Davion blood, it proves nothing since that means Kali also had it.

Edited by Adridos, 13 April 2013 - 05:55 AM.

[Lightdragon]

Adridos, on 13 April 2013 - 05:49 AM, said:

Considering Liao family originated from an English diplomat marrying a Nepalese woman...

Besides, logically speaking, if he was of Davion blood, it proves nothing since that means Kali also had it.

no what it was pointing out was that suntzu was made from borrowed dna that they got from hanse duing operation doppleganger

[dal10]

unlikely, sun tzu was better than hanse ever was.

[Adridos]

Lightdragon, on 13 April 2013 - 09:36 AM, said:

no what it was pointing out was that suntzu was made from borrowed dna that they got from hanse duing operation doppleganger

I don't think Romano would be capable of something like that. She has too much of fanatical hatred for all things Davion to do something like that. And Maximillian? Well, he's not quite up to such stuff after his mental brake-down with 4th SW.

[Nerroth]

If you want to get up to speed on the Jihad era (which runs from 3067 through to about 3081), there is an overview of the period as it unfolded in the Inner Sphere and near Periphery in Jihad: Final Reckoning. Of the other Jihad sourcebooks, the one which I would recommend in particular would be Jihad Hot Spots: Terra, if only for the article on Terran history included in that file.

But what I would really recommend most of all from that era is The Wars of Reaving, which takes a look at what went on in the Clan Homeworlds in the Jihad era. It's arguably the best BattleTech sourcebook Catayst have done to date, and is well worth checking out if you are at all interested in the children of Kerensky. (There's a PDF-only supplemental that offers a look at the aftermath of the Wars of Reaving, and includes a series of record sheets for the new toys introduced along the way.)


From Catalyst's point of view, the Dark Age era is divided into two sub-eras; the "Republic Era", which runs from the founding of the Republic of the Sphere in 3081 to the eve of the HPG blackout in 3132, and the "late" Dark Age proper, starting on Grey Monday (the day the Balckout began) and running at least up to 3145.

The early Republic Era is shown in Field Manual: 3085, which includes a writeup on the Republic itself, as it stood in the first few years of its existence. But if you are interested in "what lies beyond" in this immediate post-Jihad era, the recently-published Interstellar Players 3: Interstellar Expeditions shows how the remnants of the Word of Blake, the dangers surrounding the great sundering of the Clans, and the mysteries to be found in the spinward, rimward, and anti-spinward sectors of the Deep Periphery are shown as they stood as of 3095.

(If you are minded to read The Wars of Reaving, I wouldn't recommend reading ISP3 until after you've gone over that book first.)


Things are relatively quiet for the rest of the Republic Era, but there are a few border conflicts of note (such as a second war between the Ghost Bears and the Draconis Combine). These conflicts will be detailed in the upcoming Historical: Wars of the Republic Era.

The events surrounding the collapse of the HPG network itself are set to be detailed in a PDF-only work called Era Digest: Dark Age; which is reported to start in 3130 (when Devlin Stone retired as Exarch of the Republic of the Sphere) and run through to 3134 or thereabouts (when the "pirate factions" from MechWarrior: Dark Age bobbed to the surface).

The real business end of the late Dark Age (from 3135-3145, when the core Republic territories were shielded by Fortress Republic, and the rest of the Inner Sphere plunged into a series of all-out conflicts) is detailed in Era Report: 3145, which just came out in PDF format and will hopefully arrive in print form in the not too distant future.


And as for what lies in store thereafter, the only hints we have post-3145 are from the somewhat ambiguous epilogue to one of the Dark Age print novels (Surrender your Dreams), and a single word used by Catalyst to refer to the sourcebook that will (seemingly) wrap up the Dark Age era....

ilClan.

Edited by Nerroth, 14 April 2013 - 05:25 PM.

[Merky Merc]

An MWO in those post 3145 years would have me all kinds of antsies in mah pantsies.

I like the mechs, the tech evens out (mostly), and we could campaign and make our own stories... le sigh

[Adridos]

Lightdragon, on 13 April 2013 - 04:40 AM, said:

theres also a tasty tidbit in one of the jihad secrets books that points out that sun tzu had davion blood

Just a bit from the Battlechat :

Sun Tzu:
[18:18] <drufause> so some of us are still waiting to find out what happend to sunny
[18:21] <@Habeas2> Drufause - You already know. He died and got tucked into a freezer so people could keep worshiping his corpse.
[18:22] <drufause> right but what disease is it hereditary from the davions?
[18:24] <@Habeas2> Drufause - Fiat poisoning.