Date: June 5, 3025
Title: Technical Readout: 3025
Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe, Boy F. Petersen, Jr., Anthony Pryor, Dale L. Kemper, and Shaun Duncan (writing); Duane Loose and David R. Detrick (interior art); Dana Knutson (cover art)
Type: Sourcebook (FASA)
Notes: Swift Wind Scout Car: Despite the opening note that Swift Winds are only found in the Capellan Confederation, the notable scout is a Free Worlder. Sigh. (I’m a die-hard Capellan, and the writer’s bible for TRO:3025 and TRO:3026 appears to have included a mandate that “House Liao never wins.”)
The Swift Wind’s communications capabilities are far beyond just about any other unit in the game, and make it a “must have” unit for any Strategic Operations-level game involving conquest of a system. Grayson had to go to ridiculous lengths to get ahold of a deep space transmitter on Verthandi. It would have been much easier if he’d just had a Swift Wind on the roster.
At 10/15, the Swift Wind is much slower than a Skimmer (a one-man hovercraft favored by scouts – essentially an unarmored Savannah Master), but more than makes up for that with its communications suite.
Interestingly, the only design we’ve seen for a “Centipede Scout Car” is a hover vehicle produced in 3054. We still don’t have official stats for the 8-wheeled Lyran scout car mentioned here, though you can pretty much just take the Swift Wind stats and replicate them, I’d guess. The FedSuns “Darter” is six-wheeled, rather than three (as referenced here), and is nearly twice the size of the Swift Wind and lacks the onboard electronics package, so perhaps the wheeled Centipede justifies its own stats as well. The Combine Skulker is 2.5 times bigger, and more heavily armed (but also lacking the electronics). We’ve never seen anything on the Free Worlds League’s primary scout car – perhaps they just use the Pegasus, or rely on Skimmers.
Rommel/Patton Tanks: The reference to the height of the Demolisher is a meta-reference to the fact that the original Ral Partha Battledroids miniature was way out of scale with the ‘Mech miniatures, being far too tall, and necessitating a redesign for a much lower profile.
It appears that only the Draconis Combine was able to successfully infiltrate the “Desert Knights” project and steal the plans, which were later used by the Free Rasalhague Republic to manufacture their Axel I and Axel II tanks (Rommel and Patton clones – “Axel” means “axe” in Swedenese…though it means “shoulder” in regular Swedish). (Alternatively, the Lyrans may have given the FRR the designs to facilitate their transformation into a friendly buffer state.) If only the Rasalhagians had decided to call their clones the Axl and the Slash instead of the Axel Mk I/Axel Mk II. :)
The Periphery sourcebook has the Taurians manufacturing Rommels in 3026. With Hansen’s Roughriders deploying the tanks in the field for the first time in 3020 (we think, based on the estimated date of Bear Peters’ “The Race is Not to the Swift”), it’s possible, but this raises questions about the Taurian Ministry of Intelligence demonstrating a reach and sophistication far beyond what its reputation would suggest. Or else ComStar stole the designs and supplied them to the Taurians just to mess with House Davion.
The tank names, of course, are references to Erwin Rommel and George Patton, who fought massive tank battles against each other in North Africa during World War II. (Thus, also, the “Desert Knights” moniker for the R&D project, since their battles were in the desert between “armored” troops.)
The statement that the Rommel and Patton are the first new tanks since the Star League is nonsense. They aren’t even the first new armored vehicles Defiance Industries has created since the fall of the Star League, since their Hunter debuted in 2937. In fact, almost all the vehicles profiled in TRO:3025 and TRO:3026 are post-Star League designs, including the Demolisher that the Rommel/Patton are to supplant (intro date: 2823).
Amusingly, since William Keith only had these works to reference (and official intro dates hadn’t been established), he describes the Helm cache as filled with “dozens of tanks, from Vedettes (2943) to Demolishers (2823).” The “Ask the Writers” response to a question about this was that, no, nobody was sneaking into the Helm cache in the late 2900s to add more modern tanks, and that the designs therein should be ones that have introduction dates prior to 2770, such as the Von Luckner (2612).
Von Luckner Heavy Tank: The Von Luckner is a massively superior vehicle to the 5-ton heavier Demolisher, if only because it has the LRM 10 that makes it possible to engage enemies at long range. A Phoenix Hawk vs. a Demolisher is almost always an easy kill for the ‘Mech, which outranges and outmaneuvers the tank. Against a Von Luckner, the P-Hawk would at least have to deal with incoming missile flights from the LRM-10, while it retaliated with its Large Laser. Still gives the advantage to the ‘Mech, but at least it’s a fight, rather than an execution.
Despite their presence in very limited numbers, the bondsman garrison on Port Arthur certainly seems to have plenty of Von Luckners in the MechCommander game. Being a Star League-era unit, perhaps the Jaguars broke supplies out from Brian Caches and brought them forward to fill out Provisional Garrison Clusters.
Count Felix von Luckner is a rather colorful fellow, per his Wikipedia page. He commanded a commerce raider from 1916 to 1917, but took great effort to accomplish his mission with minimal loss of life, and managed to escape from a Chilean POW camp by pretending to put on a Christmas play, though he was captured weeks later by New Zealander forces. He was strong enough to bend coins with his bare hands, and rip phone books in half.
Galleon Light Tank: The Galleon Light Tank is a direct import from Crusher Joe, right down to the name. As such, it was the only BattleTech tank to be classified as “Unseen.”
Its combat profile pretty much matches the capabilities of the 3025 Wasp and Stinger, and so could be considered a tracked equivalent. It lacks the armor to stand up against heavier tanks, however, and its popgun array of small lasers makes it little threat to other battlefield units. Supposedly intended to operate in conjunction with the Harasser, these guys get both outgunned and outrun by the far superior hovertank.
The Zion battle paragraph is massively confused. Why would House Marik take control of a vast number of Galleons in the 2780s, own and operate the factories that make them, but not use them until 2910? The first two sentences state that the battle is House Marik vs. House Liao, which makes sense, as Zion is on the Marik/Liao border. However, the third sentence switches to “the Combine ‘Mechs” and conclude that the Galleons allowed “the Kurita ‘Mechs to finish the job.” It’s like the writer forgot which faction was involved midway through the sentence. Some of you have speculated that an editor went through the completed drafts and changed some faction references in search of balance, and that may be the case here.
House Marik seems to have captured Zion at least twice by force (2832 and 2910) and then lost it, but finally gained long-term control after convincing a Vicente Sian-Marik, who was the regional Capellan administrator for Zion and four other worlds, to defect to the Free Worlds League, forming the Zion Province and Ohrensen Province. The 2910 assault was the culmination of Operation RED ROVER, a massive FWLM raiding campaign.
I checked the Wolf’s Dragoon sourcebook, and while their Armored Support Platoons include almost every kind of vehicle from TRO: 3026, there aren’t any Galleons. I guess the Galleon platoon was a failed experiment that was disbanded (or destroyed) long before the showdown at Misery. Or, perhaps ComStar mistook the Dragoon Badger (also 30 tons, moving 6/9) for the Galleon. They have a fairly similar profile. Thanks to its fusion engine, the Badger has twice the Galleon’s firepower and longer range, with the same speed and better armor, and the capacity to carry an infantry platoon.
The naming convention for the two featured Galleon units – 1089th Light Armored Support Group and 5000th Mobile Tank Support Unit, suggest that (circa 3025) the Successor States maintain large numbers of tank and infantry units that they normally parcel out on garrison duty, but can call up and assign to task forces in support of front line ‘Mech units. The AFFS was somewhat unique in 3025 for permanently assigning such forces to ‘Mech units in regimental combat teams, whereas other Houses just assigned them on an ad-hoc basis.
The Battle(s) of Alexandria are a running theme in TRO:3025, mentioned seven times in all. The campaign in question seems to be the one that began in December 3020 and ran for seven months, through mid-3021, though it could also refer to the separate battle which took place in 3024. When entries reference the “Battles for Alexandria,” they’re probably encompassing both the 3020-3021 and 3024 campaigns.
Packrat Long Range Patrol Vehicle: With a 120-rated fusion engine, this begs the question – what units were getting the Packrats’ engines? A 120-rated engine would let a 20-tonner go 6/9 (Wasp/Stinger), so that’s probably what they were used for (though they also could have gone for Galleons.) Despite the note that most have had their fusion engines removed, stats are only given for the fusion version. An ICE conversion would likely drop the flamer (which wouldn’t have a fusion engine for power) and one ton of armor, to maintain the speed, missiles, and infantry carrying capacity.
The Packrat’s jamming abilities were used to great effect against the Gray Death Legion on Helm. The Packrats there were even referred to as Packrat ECM vehicles.
The Kurita Guards are not a unit that has ever been profiled. Assuming it’s not just a typo, it may have been a short-lived brigade that was created in the 2nd Succession War or early 3rd Succession War, and died out in the 3rd. The Federated Suns are referred to as the defenders, but the Combine has been shown as the world’s ruler on all the interbellum maps, so the AFFS must have punched a salient up to Tannil in the late 2800s and then been forced off. The FedSuns/Combine border seems to have been constantly in flux, even in the relatively “stable” duration of the Third Succession War.
Lincoln seems to have been a prominent feature of whatever map the writers were using for both TRO: 3025 and the Davion and Liao sourcebooks. The 7th Crucis Lancers were forced off Lincoln in 3001 and returned in 3010; Shawn Phillips, of the 15th Dracon, was orphaned by a Davion attack on his homeworld of Lincoln V; the Avalon Hussars attacked Lincoln in 2930; House Liao’s invasion of Lincoln was thwarted in 2990; and Kurita mercenaries (Daemian’s Destroyers) and the Dieron Regulars attacked Lincoln in 2802 and 2803. Given attacks from both the Combine and Federated Suns, it would seem to be a Tikonov Commonality world (probably former Terran Hegemony, to boot), but it has never appeared on a map.
“Mickey Rat” is an explicit reference to Mickey Mouse, calling it “some long-forgotten cartoon character of the 20th Century.” Perhaps not so forgotten as ComStar seems to think, however. In Close Quarters, Enrico Katsuyama tells Ninyu Kerai he has a half-meter tall statue of Mickey Mouse in his collection, and Ninyu doesn’t have to ask what that is.
Quinten = Quentin. It must have been Quentin IV, rather than III, since there’s nothing resembling a wilderness on that hot and toxic world. My guess is that Mickey Rat was there when Wolf’s Dragoons hit Quentin in Wolves on the Border in 3023.
Mobile Long Tom Artillery: The Long Tom’s impressive writeup conceals the fact that, at the time, the Long Tom was highly ineffectual, with just a 7-hex AOE burst. The new rules giving it an extra ring of damage make it much more of a factor. Just barely able to keep up with UrbanMechs (and with a miniature that doesn’t suffer turning well if you glue the central axis together), the Mobile Long Tom generally serves as a “thing to capture/defend” in a scenario, rather than an active participant in a dynamic battlefield. If enemy forces are within firing range of a Long Tom, the defenders have screwed up.
The phrase “last remnant of the Star League’s main guardian defense system” is intriguing. We know the Star League deployed the Reagan-class Space Defense System for Terra and lesser SDS grids for other Hegemony worlds, but did they also have a city-level Guardian Defense System (GDS) for major urban centers, consisting of mobile artillery (likely Thors and Marksmen) and other LosTech whizbangs? We know they liked drones in the SDS – perhaps the “lost” component of the GDS was Security Robots (MW1E p. 50) – 6-ton 12/18 hovercraft with two small lasers in the turret and limited pattern recognition capability. I would also guess that another “lost” GDS component would be Rattler-class mobile structures.
I’m not sure what makes them refer to Errai as a “lonely” world. It’s got a population of more than 300 million, and has lots of casinos and nightclubs. And mobsters…
The Garth/Tromoth battle on Berenson probably took place in either 2832 or 2840. Since the Mariks are described as raiders, it was probably 2832, since the Mariks were the defenders in 2840, but the conquerors in 2832.
Kearny, rather than being a planet in the Federated Suns, is actually a deep interior world of the Free Worlds League. Not sure how John Cassion would have saved the life of Dr. Banzai all the way over there. Perhaps Kittery was meant, rather than Kearny.
Boomerang Spotter Plane: William Keith used Boomerangs in both “The Price of Glory” and “The Dying Time.” He generally worked hard to showcase the non-‘Mech elements on the battlefield, ranging from spotter planes to anti-‘Mech infantry to ECM vehicles to monorail trains.
Iron Wind Metals introduced the Boomerang as one of its earliest “fan requested” web-store exclusives. I got it along with the Monitor, Sea Skimmer, and Neptune. The landing gear falls off if you look at it funny, but it’s a nice looking piece. One of the early “Support Vehicles” before TRO:VA. It makes a lot more sense to use one of these for artillery spotting than a ‘Mech, unless you’ve got hostile aerospace fighters in your vicinity.
Interestingly, the Boomerang’s movement is given in terms of BattleTech hexes – 13/20, rather than mapsheets, making it more of a VTOL than a conventional fighter.
Mobile Headquarters: Another key unit that (until recently) lacked official game rules to reflect its benefit to the unit it controls, the Mobile HQ generally represents a target to be captured. This is, in fact, its sole purpose in the MechCommander games, revealing parts of the map through the fog of war.
The updated rules give units with Mobile HQs an initiative bonus. In a Total Chaos game I participated in, our unit had a Mobile HQ, and used it to dominate the battlefield through consistent initiative wins. This resulted in the HQ being aggressively targeted by the enemy, bringing it to an untimely end in a scenario when uncoordinated deployment left the HQ out on the flank, rather than safely in the middle of the company.
In a meta-sense, tabletop games of BattleTech are being played out on the commanders’ Mobile HQ holotables (or, perhaps, jury-rigged mechanisms for representing the battlefield…such as paper maps and metal miniatures?)
The reference to HQs having “sub-space communications” seems like an accidental holdover from the writers who worked on FASA’s Star Trek RPG. It may have been intended to refer to HPG transmissions – perhaps from the mobile SLDF units, but those would be “hyperspace” rather than “sub-space.”
Coolant Truck: The planet “Buda” is not mapped. Later sources have clarified that “Buda Imperial Vehicles” is located on Luthien.
From the description of the coolant truck etiquette, I would expect to see these things racing around all over the battlefield. I’ve never actually played a battle involving them, though. (I’ve just used the miniatures as part of convoys.) It sounds like you could get a lot of extra mileage out of a Rifleman, for example, by having a coolant truck standing by. Fire all lasers, then call “time out” and cool down, then disconnect and open fire again. This also evokes the early sourcebook references to entire battlefields calling for a general “time out” to perform search & rescue of downed pilots, cool down, and perform field repairs. (Again – nothing I’ve ever seen done in a tabletop game.)
J-27 Ordnance Transport: Another “big target” support unit, the miniature for the J-27 is spectacular, though the missiles are too big to fit into, say, a Catapult’s launchers (raising scale issues). It comes with a towable Thumper artillery piece with either wheels for towing or legs for firing.
The date of the “Deadmen” incident on New Hessen certainly isn’t 2080, but it has to be within the last 10-15 years. The House Liao sourcebook lists Davion attacks on New Hessen in 3002 (Falkener’s Hussars), 2998 and 3007 (Deneb Light Cavalry). Since the forces destroyed by the Deadmen were referred to as Davion rather than ‘mercenary,’ I would guess the 125th’s moment in the sun was in 3007, against the Deneb Light Cavalry (which were said to be performing poorly – an apt description for ‘Mechs that get destroyed by J-27s).
House Steiner claims the moral high ground by not assigning prisoners to its J-27s, but they do use it as punishment duty for troops who “misbehave.” Moreover, the LCAF did use penal units for ammo reloading during the Reunification War.
Mobile Army Surgical Hospital: The MASH section includes a reference to the Korean War, a direct shout out to the show M*A*S*H. I know that I, personally, did one of my MASH trucks up in olive drab with a 4077 on the side. (The other’s in ambulance white). Given Claudius Steiner’s obsession with misuse of medical equipment, I would hate to be around when the Archon’s personal meat wagon pulled up.
MediQuick services mark their MASH units with twin yellow crosses, instead of a red cross. If you look in the background of some scenes in the BattleTech animated series, you can see some MASH units marked thusly. Their reputation is so bad that many warriors would rather die than get treated by them.
The note that surgeons can do “emergency freeze” procedures for critical patients ties in with the reference to wounded AFFS troops being cryogenically suspended and sent to rear area planets for treatment in “The Sword and the Dagger.” Later write-ups of the freezing process indicate that the procedure works, but the units are LosTech and in poor repair, making it a risky proposition to be frozen. (Not that it stopped Sun-Tzu Liao or Devlin Stone).
BattleMech Repair Facility: These large repair facilities are capable of handing a company at a time. They’re pretty much the holy grail of any 3025-era merc unit or House regular. Knock one over, and you’re set for life. You could build a whole campaign around defending or assaulting one.
In the various video games, these are portrayed as much smaller, single ‘Mech bays, with a limited stock of parts and (apparently) automated repair units. They appear in the MechCommander game (implying perhaps that the automated single-‘Mech repair facilities are IIC versions).
BattleMech repair facilities mentioned in the fiction include:
Alarion (aboard the Bowie orbital facility)
Blackjack (a small repair facility in the village of Orange)
Connaught (the remnants of Kong Interstellar Corporation)
Conroe (top notch repair facilities)
Glenmora (2nd tier)
Goshen (hit by McCarron's Armored Cavalry in 3023)
Grand Base (part of Pavel Ridzik's holdings)
Hall (South Harney)
Illyria (rumors of a lost Star League one as yet unfound)
Ironhold (one near Crash Camp)
Kaesong (repairs the Crescent Hawks en route to Luthien)
Marlette (pictured in Total Warfare)
Myrvoll (Destroyed in 3000)
Narellan (demolished in 2993)
Northwind (Cosara Weaponries)
Ohrensen (Fortress Gorndack, smashed by McCarron's Armored Cavalry in 3014)
Oliver (Brigadier Corporation facility under Warez; raided - current status unknown)
Pacifica (A chain of commercial repair facilities under the brand name "Mech-it-Lube")
Paris (at the SLDF's Fort McKittrick - probably destroyed in the Succession Wars)
Sirius (raided in 3000)
Solaris VII (a lance-capacity one for the Skye Tigers - also reference to another "main" one raided by House Marik in 2928, doing enough damage to put it out of commission for five years)
Tsitsang (in the city of Pealung - a facility capable of handling a lance)
Victoria (Star League-era repair facility)
Xanthe III (hit by Sung's Cuirassiers in 2668 - though that date is suspect, since it's in the middle of the "Good Years" of the Star League)
Yamarovka (a mammoth structure built by the Nova Cats after their Abjuration)
York (Blood Spirit main repair facility in Boques)
Since the Clans have the technology, I would assume they have plenty of repair facilities, and construct new ones all over their holdings.
