Jumping into the latest Edition

[Hotwire]

I've been playing BattleTech since 1985, and have pretty much stuck with 2nd Edition Rules, 3rd Succession War and Unseen 'Mechs, but the new Edition has me hooked with the new look of the 'Mechs and the professionalism of the boxed sets, both of which I have snagged.  My question is, what should I get next?  Do I need the BattleTech Manual? Do I need the Technical Readout: Succession Wars? What else do I need to update my battles in the 3rd Succession War? Please tell me more miniatures are on the way!
 :drool:

[Hotwire]

Oh, and is the reprint of BattleTech Total Warfare with the Atlas on the cover any different from the previous print?

[nckestrel]

Oh, and is the reprint of BattleTech Total Warfare with the Atlas on the cover any different from the previous print?

Each reprint incorporates the errata up to that point.
https://bg.battletech.com/errata/
Under Total Warfare errata version 5.01 (fourth printing) lists only those changes for the "Atlas cover" version (fourth printing) from the previous third printing.

[Bosefius]

This will get more attention and answers in General than in "Rules Questions", which is specifically for waiting about rules.

[Bosefius]

Check out this thread https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=44730.0

[AdmiralObvious]

The tech manual is there if you're the guy who wants to build your own 'Mech from scratch. You don't "need" it, but it's a bit fun to do as long as you don't abuse anything too hard (I'm looking at you MLasers).

Technical Readout has a bunch of 'Mechs and their stats, as well as a bit of fluff about them and notable pilots (like most of the readouts). You don't "need" that either if you don't want, but it will give you more details on what things are. If you're familiar with Battletech, you probably already know what most of the Mechs are that are provided. I don't remember if they have record sheets or not though. If they do have record sheets, that's probably going to be useful if you're setting up a cannon only game.

[Colt Ward]

Admiral, I think he is jumbling two titles . . .

The BattleMech Manual (BMM) is all you really need if you just want to play with mechs.  Total Warfare gets you the combined arms play that is going to cover the level you mentioned before.  TacOps gets into more of the optional rules and one change from some of the previous rulesets is that its where full Artillery resides.  The Tech Manual (TM) is for unit construction- not sure construction rules has changed much if you are not playing in the Star League or post Clan Invasion.

One thing, you might be interested in is the tech fall- they recently released 2 sourcebooks, First Succession War and Second Succession War- that covers that and has a few designs that were half-steps down to the basic designs of 3025.

[AdmiralObvious]

Admiral, I think he is jumbling two titles . . .

The BattleMech Manual (BMM) is all you really need if you just want to play with mechs.  Total Warfare gets you the combined arms play that is going to cover the level you mentioned before.  TacOps gets into more of the optional rules and one change from some of the previous rulesets is that its where full Artillery resides.  The Tech Manual (TM) is for unit construction- not sure construction rules has changed much if you are not playing in the Star League or post Clan Invasion.

One thing, you might be interested in is the tech fall- they recently released 2 sourcebooks, First Succession War and Second Succession War- that covers that and has a few designs that were half-steps down to the basic designs of 3025.

Yeah, possibly. I was just going for the books he specifically asked about.

I've not been able to get ahold of the BMM, but apparently it rolls together a bit of tacops into the bundle as well, while focusing explicitly on 'Mechs.

[Sartris]

It pulls the gear from tacops used by units in TRO 3145/50 (with a few exceptions like some advanced armor and TSEMP). It also has a a smattering of optional rules and weather conditions as well