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Help With Old Battletech Books


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#1 TurkeyMcCoolRay

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Posted 16 November 2016 - 06:39 AM

I have been picking up some old Battletech stuff since I have been getting more and more interested in the universe over the past few years. I played the old Mechwarrior games but I never played the table top game until recently so this is the cause of my new found interest. I just had a question though.

Can anybody tell me the difference between this book:

https://www.amazon.c...ds=house+davion

And this book:

https://www.amazon.c...ds=house+davion

Is the 1st book just a reprint of the 2nd book or is it a totally new book? Also if anyone has any recommendations for books to pick up that they liked or feel are good reads for lore, then that would be greatly appreciated as well. I am trying to pick up most stuff for House Davion reading at the moment, although from what I understand most books were written from their perspective anyway.

Thanks

#2 martian

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Posted 16 November 2016 - 08:35 AM

View PostTurkeyMcCoolRay, on 16 November 2016 - 06:39 AM, said:

Is the 1st book just a reprint of the 2nd book or is it a totally new book?


That's simple: The book from your second link (House Davion - Federated Suns) is from 1988. Its in-universe date is 3028 - that's after the end of the Third Succession War. It describes the founding of the Federated Sun, its rise, the Star League era, and of course the Davion role during Succession Wars. The book contains the description of FedSuns political and economical system, the most important nobles, etc.

Significant part of the book is analysis of the AFFS (FedSuns army), including uniforms, organization, etc. in 3028.

The book from your first link is Handbook: House Davion and it is from 2007. It describes the shape of Federated Suns in 3067, right after the conclusion of the FedCom Civil War. This Handbook is not reprint of the original Housebook from 1988, as it adds all what happened between 3028 and 3067. However, this Handbook contains "compressed" and summarized facts previously described in the original Housebook.

So it's your choice. If you want to have the most bang for your buck, buy the new Handbook. After all, you can buy the original Housebook later.

View PostTurkeyMcCoolRay, on 16 November 2016 - 06:39 AM, said:

Also if anyone has any recommendations for books to pick up that they liked or feel are good reads for lore, then that would be greatly appreciated as well. I am trying to pick up most stuff for House Davion reading at the moment, although from what I understand most books were written from their perspective anyway.

Thanks

Well, if you are interested in the House Davion, the logical next step would be Field Manual: Federated Suns. It's from 3062, practically from the era of Clan Invasion, i.e. the era we are in MWO.

Is any period that you are especially interested in? Succession Wars? Clan Invasion? FedCom Civil War? Jihad, Federated Suns in the current Dark Age era?

#3 TurkeyMcCoolRay

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Posted 16 November 2016 - 02:11 PM

Thanks for the thorough reply.

I was kind of thinking that the two books I posted may have been separate, but there is so much fragmented information through so many different sources that I wasn't sure where some of the information was coming from.
Just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to basically purchase the same book twice, however if they are from different era's then both may not be a bad purchase, I will go with the newer first and see what it all entails.

I am guessing Field Manual: Federated Suns is a good third book to get after the two that I already posted?

I am also interested in pretty much all of it except for the Dark Age era stuff. If I had to start somewhere though as my main interest, I would probably pick the Succession Wars period.

Also is there much material on the Star League era or is that something they just kind of talk about in all the other stories, kind of like a fabricated past thing for the purpose of explaining why things are the way they are.

#4 martian

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Posted 17 November 2016 - 12:28 AM

View PostTurkeyMcCoolRay, on 16 November 2016 - 02:11 PM, said:

Just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to basically purchase the same book twice, however if they are from different era's then both may not be a bad purchase, I will go with the newer first and see what it all entails.

Good decision.

View PostTurkeyMcCoolRay, on 16 November 2016 - 02:11 PM, said:

I am guessing Field Manual: Federated Suns is a good third book to get after the two that I already posted?

As I said above, it's from 3062. The first short chapter is the historical overview of the AFFS. The next chaper details the structure of the AFFS, the chain of command and various departments.

Then you get the description of Davion military academies, tactics and strategy of the AFFS. Some important officers' profiles are here too. List of awards and decorations, ranks, etc..

The longest part of the book provides a detailed info on all brigades and regiments of the AFFS in 3062. Each regiment gets a chapter with a summary of such regiment's history, tactics and combat specialization. Often you will get a characteristics of a regimental command staff that mentions strong suits of various officers.

Since many regiments have various auxiliary units (tank, aerospace or infantry), the chapter lists when, where and how they are deployed.

The book chas a chapter describing various March Militias (House Davion regional defence units).

About 10% of the book is filled with special rules for BattleTech (how to translate those regimental specialities to BattleTech) and Mechwarrior RPG (what personal traits should Davion soldier and officer have, what equipment, etc.).

The "new units" section has info on new Davion 'Mechs (Templar OmniMech), Battle Armor (Cavalier and Puma), WarShips (Avalon) and new Davion weapons (Rotary ACs and special AC ammo). These things were later incorporated in newer TROs.

A few colour panels depict AFFS uniforms, medals, the most common Davion 'Mechs in various regimental liveries, etc.

View PostTurkeyMcCoolRay, on 16 November 2016 - 02:11 PM, said:

I am also interested in pretty much all of it except for the Dark Age era stuff. If I had to start somewhere though as my main interest, I would probably pick the Succession Wars period.

For BattleTech fans, "The Succession Wars period" can have two meanings.

In the narrower sense it often means the end of the Third Succession War and the Fourth Succession War - so the period from let's say 3000 or 3010 to 3030.

In the broader sense it means all four Succession Wars, starting with the First SW, right after the fall of the Star League.

View PostTurkeyMcCoolRay, on 16 November 2016 - 02:11 PM, said:

Also is there much material on the Star League era or is that something they just kind of talk about in all the other stories, kind of like a fabricated past thing for the purpose of explaining why things are the way they are.

The BattleTech storyline has started after 3000, with the Star League and its fall being exactly what you said - the reason why the universe in 3000 is "broken".

Later FASA published two Star League products: Star League sourcebook and Technical Readout: 2750 (SL 'Mechs, vehicles, equipment, ASFs and WarShips). And since 1990 some other Star League products have occassionaly appeared too, so today we have a pretty good info on the Star League universe, army, technology, etc.

#5 SnagaDance

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Posted 17 November 2016 - 02:43 AM

martian did an excellent job in providing you with answers, I'd just like to add that you can also find a lot of information on the excellent sarna.net BattleTech wiki.

One thing in particular that you might find interesting is that those old House books are available as pdf's from that site. The only pdf's of former print material you can legally acquire if I'm not mistaken. It takes some digging to find the links as the site no longer has a dedicated download section that can be easily found. Basically you need to find the article of the particular book: 'House X' and then at the bottom you'll find a download link to the pdf.

So at the bottom of: http://www.sarna.net..._Federated_Suns)

You'll find: http://cf.sarna.net/...ouse_davion.pdf

Please note that the pdf's have been stripped of all their illustrations and that they're still rather clunky and unwieldy (they're not the fastest loading). I can wholeheartedly recommend getting your hands on the actual product with all the classic illustrations, but at least you'll be able to make up your mind if you actually want such an old sourcebook with its old lay-out etc. (personally I'm a great fan of the time period it describes and leads up to, and that's the beauty of the book, it never goes out of date).

Welcome to the lore! Posted Image

#6 TurkeyMcCoolRay

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Posted 18 November 2016 - 02:48 PM

Martian thanks for all the info, you provided far more than what I expected to get on here. You have definitely helped me determine what sort of supplements I want to get first and which ones I may be interested in pursuing later. Also thanks for the heads up on the Star League stuff, I am definitely going to check that out. I was hoping that FASA had put some stuff out on the topic.

Snagadance, Wow thanks for letting me know about the old house books being available on the sarna site. I generally like having a physical copy of a book, especially for collecting type purposes but being able to skim through all the books on the site, as well as taking a look at the material on the other houses will be extremely helpful.

Thanks guys for the help





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