I had been postponing buing this for a while because of other previous projects. Now that I did it I am glad that I did and could dedicate the proper attention to it.
I really liked some parts of it and some others not so much.
First the good.
The book is very well structured and makes sensible use of art from the HBS game and new art.
I liked the story of the coalition and the irony of Kamea being the second Director of the Aurigan Coalition. The Arano restoration is that: putting back the Aranos in powr but keepung with the espinosas policies. Oh the irony of that and the laugh I had.
the presentation of the forces is great, and the escenarios are cool as well.
The planet descriptions are very good, and can be milked for a lot of RPG escenarios and campaigns.
What I did not like so much.
The whole aurigan coalition has 4 batallions of mechs (plus a company) + mercs. The mercs as described seem to be small, so they add an extra batallion to the forces. 3 of the 4 arano forces are exclsuively formed by light mechs. So, they have less than 36 medium or superior mechs. I find this to be too low. the a ctions of Rampart Company are supposed to have brough A LOT of salvage in, so the listed forces do not seem to match post RESTORED HOPE.
And then we get the thing that made me cringe: the rampart Company. It makes no sense at all to have those acting all secret and neaky. I can understand the out of universe action of saying "paint each mech in the boxed set and starter set in whatwver scheme you fancy and they WILL be the Rampart Company." But in universe that unit is not a plausible deniability asset at all and should have ben a house unit painted as such. The whole escenarios being built around the rampart company is a waste of focus IMO.
I also consider it a pitty that no attention was put into alpha strike at all. This is a Classic Battletech product (grognard BT a my group calls it) where the escenarios could have been presented as AS escenarios as well doubling the number of units, for example.
The fact that the people (and nobility) is OK with Kamea not undoing the Espinosa directorate is also a letdown. there is A LOT of potential here for presenting a fractious council in more detail instead of glossing over the post-restoration situation a business as usual. The Rampart Company killing one of the founding houses would have been a great escenario, for example.
All in all a good book, well written and that reads well presenting a suitable faction. I liked it and will extract a lot of ideas from it, but there are some rough edges that could be improved.
Cheers
Xavi
