New PDFs for sale!

[lrose]

I haven't read the book yet but how legitimate is the vote- was the choice of Amaris or Amaris or was it more like elections in the US.

[Takiro]

Well the way it worked for the Hegemony was a candidate for the Director-Generalship was nominated by the High (Hegemony) Council. The people could either approve or reject this nomination which in this contest they supposedly did by 2/3rds majority. Now I'm not aware of a Director candidate that was ever rejected by the people and I doubt the Council would nominate someone who might fail this final test.

Really I have no problem with the election as the High Council could have easily been manipulated by Amaris over the years he was Richard's closest friend. Richard would have picked these 9 individuals and Amaris could probably install a Councilor of his choice or more accurately one he could manipulate through their greed or other obvious weakness. These Councilors would IMO be the most infamous collobrators during the Coup nominating and backing Amaris for the post.

The people could then have been fooled by withholding the facts of the Coup (the Throne Massacre for example wouldn't have been revealed for one and other extreme actions - nuking the Black Watch a necessary evil - would be minimized). So while the election is disappointing to me I could see it happening and going Amaris however I have a major problem with it being called "fair" (truth was withheld by Amaris and his minions from the public) and the comparison to McKenna's original election is outrageous. However such revisionist history which makes an effort to transform good into evil and evil into not so bad is the disappointing norm today.

I have more details of what I've read thus far here.

http://www.shatteredcore.net/forum/index.php?topic=481.0

[Ice Hellion]

An indirect election...
it could make sense.

[Hessian]

For all those interested: I just saw That TRO: 3085 is available in pdf-format now.

Ciao
Hessian

[Rainbow 6]

For all those interested: I just saw That TRO: 3085 is available in pdf-format now.

Ciao
Hessian

Sweet, thanks mate, the credit card will be taking a hit shortly.

[Takiro]

For all those interested: I just saw That TRO: 3085 is available in pdf-format now.

Excellent catch Hessian, thanks for the heads up!

[Ice Hellion]

The Firefighter drawing (you can see it in preview on Classic Battletech) is a nice one.

[Hessian]

Just curious:
Are any new, or previously unknown, or reopened construction facilities mentioned in TRO: 3085?

Ciao
Hessian

[Takiro]

I noticed some more specifics on where stuff is on Terra thus far but that is about it.

[Takiro]

Well Catalyst has begun to release a new series that may very well impact our BTSD universe.

Experimental Technical Readout: Primitives V1 (PDF) [CAT35646p]    $4.95

Ancient Wonders

Before there was even a Star League, the technologies taken for granted in the thirty-first century went through their awkward paces in a universe newly opened to humankind. In an age when the BattleMech was nearly unknown, when the DropShip was a new concept, and when tanks and fighters dominated the battle zones, the technology of the day was primitive by modern standards…and each new design with an experiment unto itself.

Experimental Tech Readout: Primitives, Volume 1 samples the early technology designs that dominated the universe of BattleTech during the pre-Star League Age of War period. Each design featured in this book demonstrates the primitive technology level of the first generation of BattleMechs, the last generation of Combat Vehicles (before the ’Mech supplanted them), and the low-tech aerospace units that flew above them. Although many were ultimately upgraded to “modern standards” and shown in Technical Readout: 3075, the units featured here reflect these designs as they were when first introduced to the universe they fought for. Statistics and Record Sheets are included for 13 Primitive BattleMechs, vehicles, aerospace units presented in this book, ready for play in advanced BattleTech games.

[Ice Hellion]

Sounds potentially cool. 

[Rainbow 6]

Just got it and started reading it, its nice to see the 1st Tamar Hussars getting some love in the Commando entry.

[lrose]

so far this is the best of the XTROs in my opinion.  I saw a few interesting bits -like the fact that the LC supplied the MOC with mechs prior to the RW and the MOC weapons were more advanced then those used by the FWL and SL.

[Takiro]

Got a few nitpicks though Irose. The date is wrong in the Phoenix (RWR aero) for initial League invasion (should be in 2571 not the 2600s). Did the Aquila feel right to you? Picture wise I thought the Philadelphia seen in ISP2 was a Challenger class Primitive Warship one of the first six built. Now we have the Aquila picture and it appears to be an Aquila. Did I get the wrong idea somewhere along the line??

[lrose]

Got a few nitpicks though Irose. The date is wrong in the Phoenix (RWR aero) for initial League invasion (should be in 2571 not the 2600s).

That's obvious a typo -2681 instead of 2581.  I found a few grammatical errors but I'm not holding them against them.

Did the Aquila feel right to you? Picture wise I thought the Philadelphia seen in ISP2 was a Challenger class Primitive Warship one of the first six built. Now we have the Aquila picture and it appears to be an Aquila. Did I get the wrong idea somewhere along the line??

The picture of the Aquila on page 16 of the XTRO is originally from HBMPS page 12 - based on where it was in the book I had assumed it was an Aquilla class so this confirms my suspicions.  It's possible that the Charger (it was TAS Charger not Challenger) was based on the Aquilla since the Charger was an armed Jumpship while the Dreadnaught was considered the first true warship. 

I would also say take a good look at page 12 of HBMPS- the ship in the forefront looks slight different in style from the others in the same picture- in particular the bottom ship has 4 vertical cylinders that the upper ship lacks, the sides of the foward wedge section are noticably different (particularly along the front edge which forms a point on the lower ship but not the upper, the upper ships middle section (between the wedge and the "wing") is set back, while on the lower ship it is flush and the prongs on the back of the lower ship are not visible on the upper one.  The TAS Philadelphia looks like the lower ship more then the upper one in my opinion.   But I digress..

Over all the Aquilla looks good.  The cargo seems a bit on the low side- given that trips took twice as along as with a modern JS (which I like) and the distance the expedition traveled (from the future LC/DC border to the Cluster by the circular route) and the amount of equipment they must have brought (since they were able to industrialize quickly) the cargo space seems too low.  But putting that aside I like the ship.