Classic Battletech: Combat Operations (FPR10979)

The Book itself is great. Sadly USPS shoved it in the mailbox and bent the hell out of the thing.

Excellent

A highly anticipated book, I waited and waited for Amazon.com to ship it out, and watched as the date of release sailed past. I finally bought it from retailer Fast Forward Enterprises (on the web). They got it to me in less than two weeks.As for the book, I had heard and read a lot about the various features of this collection of rulesets for Classic BattleTech. Unlike some of the recent sourcebooks, this isn't filled with cut & paste material from previous titles, but a minimum number of essays on 'modern' 31st century warfare before launching into Operations Rules. This first ruleset details the issues previous only handled in regards to forming mercenary units: force composition, logistics, new equipment rules, morale & fatigue and maintenance & Repair.The second ruleset is long anticipated and mostly without error: Infantry Platoon Construction. This goes back into defunct FASA's MechWarrior RPG and allows the user to convert weaponry previously only encountered in that genre of gaming and brings it into table-top tactical gaming. It handles assembling squads & platoons, disposable weapons and the necessary issue of BattleValue (BV).The AeroTech Operations Rules expands upon the AeroTech 2 ruleset, with guidance on boarding actions, crew quality, advanced sensors, force composition, zero-g ops and finally the use of grounded dropships in regards to standard BattleTech unit combat.The brief Linked Scenario rules precedes the eagerly anticipated BattleTech Strategic Game (BSG) ruleset. These rules allow for a larger scale of play than even the Planetary Assault ruleset that came with BattleForce 2. Now you control your favorite state, House, Clan or military unit in a manner that was unheard of, or at the least, impractical, and it does it without making things too basic (for which the Succession Wars boardgame was infamous). While they probably could have made BSG a little bit more clearer, especially in regards to Personalities (both supporting and hostile to your character), the rules in no way limit the detail to which you can add houserules.If you are looking to make your BattleTech Universe more expansive and a lot more detailed, then this book is what you're looking for. If you tend to play pick-up games of BattleTech, without really worrying about unit or state history so much, then you can pass this one by.

This book has little to offer the casual player or those who only play in tournaments or pickup games, but to those who hold long-term campaigns or want to hold games on a multi-planatary scale (from a small district to Inner Sphere level conflicts), this book has a lot going for it. From rules for a game along the lines of Risk or FASA's long out of print Succession Wars, military unit formation and maintenence, producing infantry teams, to preparation for battles from any time (data including military equipment from the original Star League to post-Federated Commonwealth Civil War) this has a lot of useful info for those who want to go beyond single battlefields. However, for the more casual player, owning or having a friend who owns it is quite useful, especially for the complete factional unit list, including when certain units were developed, convenient for setting campaigns in times other than the current fiction and story arc.

It was a gift. They were very happy with it.