Actual up-to-date ATOW books

[verythrax]

Hi,

I've never played ATOW or CBTRPG before, but I've studied the Fanpro's CBTRPG book just before CGL entered the fray - I was hoping to GM an RPG/BT hybrid campaign, starting as a arena mechwarriors then moving to mercenary missions - the main idea is that one of the players was a minor Steiner noble, caught in the coup d'etats (I don't remember the era and the NPCs now) and so to avoid the backslash from being supportive to the losing side, he left his domain to his sister and spent part of his fortune creating an mercenary unit, for glory and profit (and to be able to engage war for his birthright or joing a side that would be auspicious for this future and family).

Anyway, the group never took off, and I've ended up moving to another city. So my question is - is ATOW as complete as the TW-TO-TM are to the main BT game, like making obsolete any CBTRPG sourcebooks before it? Which supplements are still valid/needed/nice to have from the Fanpro times? I'm under the impression that Fanpro was more focused on the RPG, while Catalyst releases very little ATOW stuff, besides fluff books.

As example, I've found the Combat Equipment, Guide to Covert Ops and Combat Operations books very interesting, is it ok to use with the current iteration of the game? Do there rules and gear already present in the actual ATOW books?

Thanks!

[Atlas3060]

I believe that AToW's (and the companion) list of equipment encapsulates most, if not all, the equipment from 3rd edition (CBTRPG). Minus stuff that was super redundant of course, I can't remember what exactly on hand. If it was for the RPG, the scale of game dealing with one person, AToW and the Companion will cover 95% of it. Handbooks for the Houses and the Major Periphery States still have one or two little things not in those two books.

Combat Equipment's contributions were sifted through AToW and Tech Manual, due to some items being used by support vehicles/Battle armor which is where the latter book comes into play.

Combat Operations, parts went to Strat Ops (How do you wage a big war? Here's some write ups) while the rest went to Interstellar Operations (How to make a bigger war than a Strat Ops version? Here's some write ups!).
They also took that monsterous Inner Sphere in Flames (*shudders*) and put a fixed version called Inner Sphere at War within IO.
At the moment the rule set is geared to 3025, but I'm betting that other eras will follow somehow when the book is no longer beta.

The completionist in me says that any book can be used for RPGs, but whenever there's a conflict in print newer trumps older most of the time.

For the RPG player; I'd suggest AToW, the Companion, and the Handbooks that were recently released.
From there you have at least a good assortment of history, fluff, up to date rules, and potential hooks for fledgling RPG sessions.

The older stuff like Guide to Covert Ops, is nice, but the AToW Companion took over in terms of the equipment.
Guide to the Clans might be useful for establishing a base idea of Clan culture, some of the adventure can be converted to AToW as well.

I'm under the impression that Fanpro was more focused on the RPG, while Catalyst releases very little ATOW stuff, besides fluff books.

Catalyst has released Lance Pack Dossiers, small lances with RPG stats, and hopefully will help get more AToW stuff out the door with upcoming releases.
http://bg.battletech.com/books/upcoming-releases/
Touring the Stars, Milestones, maybe even Gladiator Gazette but those are future products at the time of this posting.

I hope this helps.

Edit:
Oh also TRO Vehicle Annex is a nice one to get, support vehicles and such for RPGs.
I recommend the Revised version.