BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Novel and Sourcebook Reviews => Topic started by: 17thRecon on 02 March 2011, 22:40:43
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In the 80s, FASA had handbooks for the five major houses. Black covers with the House Logos on the cover. In the 90s, there are handbooks for the Houses as well, but I can only find House Marik, Davion, and Steiner.
First, are the newer ones updated versions of the older ones? It looks like the 80s ones update the houses covered up to 3025. Do the newer ones bring them up to 3039 or 3050, or something to that effect.
Second, was there not a newer Handbook House Kurita and Handbook House Liao made?
Third, the Handbooks are different from the Field Manuals, correct? I am under the impression that the Handbooks focus more on the history of the Houses, while the Field Manuals focus more on the House militaries. Is that correct?
Thanks
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First, are the newer ones updated versions of the older ones? It looks like the 80s ones update the houses covered up to 3025. Do the newer ones bring them up to 3039 or 3050, or something to that effect.
They update to 3067.
Second, was there not a newer Handbook House Kurita and Handbook House Liao made?
They're coming. Check out the BattleBlog (http://www.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=blog&blog=BattleBlog), where some of the art notes for Handbook: House Liao have been posted.
Third, the Handbooks are different from the Field Manuals, correct? I am under the impression that the Handbooks focus more on the history of the Houses, while the Field Manuals focus more on the House militaries. Is that correct?
Yep.
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Thanks. I've seen the previews for the Liao book, I just wanted to make sure that wasn't an update of an older one. I just purchased all the FMs and was debating on the handbooks but wanted to make sure I wasn't buying the same basic thing.
3039/ 3050.....that was close to 3067.... ;D
On a side note, are those novel time lines you had on the old forums gone forever?
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the Handbooks cover culture, history and everything non-military, while the field manuals are almost strictly military information
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The House Books in the 80s had cultural information and REALLY deep histories. 3025 time frame.
The Field Manuals in the 90s updated the story to 3050s to 3060s, but focused on military stuff.
The Handbooks coming out now are like the House Books only with less detail aimed at the 3067 time frame.
The Field Reports coming out now are like the Field Manuals only with less detail aimed at the 3070s IIRC.
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The Handbooks also incorporate errata and serve to deal with any continuity issues that may have arisen since the Housebooks were published. Nice part is, the Housebooks are available here, so you really don't need to sacrifice their info. You can get the most up to date, corrected information from the Handbooks; if there is anything missing (as I'm not sure I'd totally agree with Medron's statement of less detail universally across the Handbooks, but that's just personal opinion), you still have the Housebooks to fill in the blanks.
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Thanks. I'm in the process of purchasing most of the original books in a collectors/ nostalgia sorts of process (I'm on a Battletech/ Renegade Legion kick. I wish a trade forum was allowed on here so if someone were looking to get rid of older stuff, they could reach a person, like me say, who has an address, money, and the ability to get PMs on here, hint, hint ;) ;)). I have all the FMs and the newer Housebooks/ Updates/ Merc Supplements, etc, etc. The original five Housebooks I don't currently have and I mainly wanted to make sure that the older Housebooks actually had different information (even if it has been errataed, etc) and that the new ones weren't just reprints with new covers, so to speak.
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The House Books in the 80s had cultural information and REALLY deep histories. 3025 time frame.
The Field Manuals in the 90s updated the story to 3050s to 3060s, but focused on military stuff.
Don't forget about maps. The House Books, both old and new, had/have maps showing which planets belonged to which nation.
I'm really really surprised that the Field Manuals omitted these maps.
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I am not going to start a new topic when this contains the topic that I need to ask about so I know this is grave digging and I am sorry but I have a question regarding the new housebooks. I noticed that there are 3 Liao, Steiner, and Marik but where are Fedrats and Kurita? I am really trying to find the new one for house kurita but haven't seen it anywhere and not sure if I the store I get my stuff at will have it listed in their catalog for the BT stuff?
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Davion was published a while back. While not a "House" book, Major Periphery States is also out there.
Kurita is still somewhere in the production pipeline.
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I am not going to start a new topic when this contains the topic that I need to ask about so I know this is grave digging and I am sorry but I have a question regarding the new housebooks. I noticed that there are 3 Liao, Steiner, and Marik but where are Fedrats and Kurita? I am really trying to find the new one for house kurita but haven't seen it anywhere and not sure if I the store I get my stuff at will have it listed in their catalog for the BT stuff?
The Kurita one is not out yet.
The Davion one is available:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=24641 (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=24641)
and so is the Periphery one:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=96307 (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=96307)
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I noticed that there are 3 Liao, Steiner, and Marik but where are Fedrats and Kurita?
Handbook: House Davion was one of the last books published before FanPro lost the license to Catalyst. It's out of print, but you can still buy the PDF version (http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1825).
Handbook: House Kurita is slated for publication later this year.
Ooh, too slow!
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:o Roosterboy got roosterboy'd! :D
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ok thank you guys for the assistance.
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It used to be that the original, 1980s House books were available as free PDF downloads, I'm not sure they've been restored here, but you can find them out there on the net.
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The original house books ( Text only, sans art ) can be downloaded from sarna.
http://www.sarna.net/files/docs/products/house_books/