BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => General BattleTech Discussion => Topic started by: Sartris on 12 March 2017, 16:34:15
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Recently a piece of Dev-Level errata was added to the IO thread that removed the clause stating that items with a "common" date in the Universal Technology Advancement Table are no longer automatically Tournament Legal (e.g. Artillery). After inquiring, it was subsequently revealed that the only true method of tracking what is classified as TL/ADV/EXP at the present is to follow the tables provided in TRO: Prototypes and TRO: 3145. While the forthcoming BattleMech Manual contains the new Tournament Legal regime for 3145, many non-mech technologies are not present.
I started by charting the tech advances of 3090 and 3145 in a sortable spreadsheet format. Over the past six months, I have also been filling the gaps in my FASA sourcebook collection and had acquired the remaining main rulebooks and advanced tech companions so I decided to jump down the rabbit hole and follow through with tracking technology progression in the old Level 1/2/3 system as well.
The attached spreadsheet is the result of this time (unapologetically) wasted. What I discovered was that there have been no less than eight tech shifts in the history of the game. Perhaps most surprising was the overall pace - the gap between BTC and BMRr was twelve years (1990-2002), and covered about the same period of time in the BTU (3052-3064), so many of these standards are relatively closely clumped together from an in-universe standpoint, even though it felt much more stretched out (indeed, from 1990-2002, I aged from a third grader to a sophomore in college).
I - BattleTech Manual ('87) (not included as its own sheet because it's just the introbox tech plus mines)
II - The BattleTech Compendium ('90) / The Tactical Handbook ('94)
III - BattleTech Compendium: The Rules of Warfare ('94) / Maximum Tech ('97)
IV - BattleTech Master Rules ('98) / Maximum Tech, Revised ('98)
V - BattleTech Master Rules, Revised ('02) / Classic BattleTech Maximum Tech ('05)
VI - Total Warfare ('06) / Tactical Operations ('08)
VII - Total Warfare ('06) / Tactical Operations ('08) with adjustments from TRO: Prototypes ('11)
VIII - Total Warfare ('06) / Tactical Operations ('08) with adjustments from TRO: 3145 ('13) and The BattleMech Manual ('17)
Note that anything classified before TW as TL is the former Level 2 and as EXP is the old Level 3
I've largely excluded infantry weapons and aerospace equipment (for now). Also, this is likely to be rife with errors due to missed sections / books, bad C/P jobs, and my own general propensity to commit basic errors by the bushel - that is to say, all corrections welcome.