Commander Edition book

[almonsin]

Hi, sorry for the stupid question, but I found a copy of the Commander's Ed. and I want to be sure that this is the right book.
Why do I ask that? Because the cover of the book seems different from the one I see on Catalyst site and PDF.
See the attached images: the first one is from Catalyst, and the second's from the market site.
It is the same manual?

[Death_from_above]

Hi,

The Trebuchet version (top) is a more recent edition of the Thunderbolt version.

Apart from errata/corrections, they are in essence the same manual.

If I'm not mistaken, getting the book via CGL means you'll get updates (PDF) in case of future errata.

[MarauderD]

You can always get an older edition and download the errata and read it.  The differences between the editions aren't nothing, but they aren't huge either. 

[Geg]

I am going to disagree with the above posters.   The core concepts are the same in each book.

But...

Everything I have actually had to look up in game play in my 1st printing has been wrong compared to the more recent ones.   There is a lot ore change in Alpha Strike than BT players are typically use to.

[Charistoph]

And if you want the errata, it's here.

[Static]

I am going to disagree with the above posters.   The core concepts are the same in each book.

But...

Everything I have actually had to look up in game play in my 1st printing has been wrong compared to the more recent ones.   There is a lot ore change in Alpha Strike than BT players are typically use to.

Agreed. Alpha Strike is heavily errata'd, especially if you want to play with the full suite of rules. I'd buy the most recent printing if you can find and afford it.

[Xotl]

The errata page, in addition to giving you the errata files, gives you a thumbnail gallery with alt text detailing all the printings associated with a cover.

https://bg.battletech.com/errata/

I would also add that the images seen on sales sites are often deceptive, in that they commonly just take the image available for the book at the time they make the listing and then don't bother to update it, since most companies don't tend to release new cover art for identically titled and product coded books.