Descent aside, there’s two things I really like in games: Mechs and Strategy. But for the most part they hadn’t been put together until this game hit the shelves.
MechCommander allows you to take the role of… well… MechCommander. You tell your group of Mechs, which can number up to 12, what you want them to do and they do it. There’s not base-building involved meaning you can focus completely on strategy and fighting.
Now the two downfalls to the game are the fact that it’s a 2D sprite game and the AI is less than smart. Those, however, are way downplayed by the gameplay (which is awesome).
I would recommand that you find this game and play it. It was well worth the money back when I first got it, and it’s a steal now.
I’m not sure how much I like StrategySoC telling me what to do, though…
This is the final book of Classic BattleTech. Classic BattleTech dies here and Dark Age is born…
*pauses for a moment of silence*
Okay… now on to the review.
While it is a good book, it’s not quite the quality of the last few. There’s a lot of errors (spelling and grammar) that should’ve been caught and such. Even so, it’s worth reading.
Kai Allard Liao makes an appearance, helping Victor come to terms with Omi’s Death. Galen Cox, AKA Jerry Cranston, goes off in search of her killer. Victor, once he’s back in action, decides it’s time to end the war. He plans and carries out a strike against Katrina’s power base: New Avalon. It has an ending that surprised me a little, and kinda took away from the story, but after thinking about it, I agreed with what happened.
I would strongly recommend this book. *sniff* It’s just so sad that classic BattleTech is over after this…
While Storms of Fate follows Victor going through the Inner Sphere, Operation Audacity follows Archer Christifori as he takes the battle to the Falcons who dare invade.
Basically Operation Audacity’s goal is to strike at a planet in the Falcon occupation zone to cause them to have to pull back. This would be easy if not for the need to link up with Adam Stiener, a relative of both Victor and Katrina. He just happens to believe (thanks to Katrina) that Victor killed Melissa, Victor and Katrina’s mother. He was also responsible for a guass slug that almost killed Victor early in the War (read: Patriots and Tyrants).
Well I’m sure you can see the “fun” that ensues. You should read this book, it’s definitely worth it.
Stupid Clanners… mucking things up worse than they already were.
Storms of Fate is the next book in the FedCom civil war. It follows Victor as he struggles to bring his sister out of power before she tears the Inner Sphere to pieces.
It starts with the saddest of all the events of BattleTech: the death of Omi Kurita, Victor’s girlfriend. Of course he doesn’t know about it for about six months (IIRC). And he gets told by his sister, as she almost gloats about having done it to him. This pushes Victor out of the fight for a few months while he tries to sort it all out.
Of course, the Jade Falcons aren’t making that any easier on him when they attack all along the border of their occupation zone.
Overall, it’s very much worth the read. And you should read this one before reading Endgame.
It’s like Victor got all the good of the family blood and Katrina got all the bad…
This is the first expansion to MechWarrior 4 and it rocks!
First you add a few more ‘Mechs into the already large selection – especially ‘Mechs like the Uller, Ryoken, Wolfhound and the Black Knight – and some awesome paint schemes and you have a really good game.
Then there’s the storyline. You’re a lackey in a large mercenary company. And you get hired to depose the very character you put on the throne in the previous game by Stiener.
This is another game I would reccommend getting as it is even better than the original.
Who doesn’t love having more hulking death machines to destroy their enemies with?
I started with MechWarrior 2 and had fun with that. Then there was MechWarrior 3 and that was a heck of a lot better. MechWarrior 4 takes the cake though…
First off, it has the prettiest looking ‘Mechs yet. Add a large selection on top of that and you have a very nice looking and large selection of ‘Mechs.
[CynicSoC: That was a bit redundant… ]
And the storyline is really involving. You basically have to retake your homeworld. This is set smack-dab in the middle of the FedCom civil war, as well.
Anyways, I’d reccommend that you find and play this game. It’s really fun to walk around in a Daishi willing smaller ‘Mechs to explode…
Recently, MechWarrior 4 was released for FREE! In addition, MekTek has made available MekPack 3.1 which makes over 110 different ‘Mechs playable in MW4. Be sure to check this out!
The book starts off with Victor, who’s been dethroned and is learning to live with it. Well about halfway through, his brother, Arthur, gets killed in an explosion that he believes was set up by his treacherous sister, Katherine – or Katrina as she likes to be called. He also suspects her of killing their own mother in a similar explosion. Well that pretty much sets Victor to action and he starts the now famous FedCom Civil War.
This is definitely a book worth looking for and reading.
A girl willing to blow up relatives – including her own mother – to rule, does need to be visited by the business end of a Mad Cat’s laser.
While this wasn’t my favorite BT book, it’s also not the worst I’ve read. The quality of the book was quite high and the writing style was okay, but the events were rather small and insignificant to the main plot of BT, IMO.
Basically it’s about a commander who comes back from Task Force Serpent (the task force that destroyed Clan Smoke Jaguar) and wants to retire on his homeworld in peace. Well, it wouldn’t be a BT novel without the ‘Mech battles, so you know that his plan never came to fruition.
Overall it’s a good book, rather short, but good. If you see it, it’s a nice short read, but don’t search for it unless you are like me and just want to read all of them for completeness’ sake.
In the conclusion of the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy Comstar finally decides to stop the Clans – but only because they want to take Terra away from them.
Phelan Wolf begins his trials for the Ward Bloodname, ultimately pitting him against his nemesis, Vlad.
Kai tries to stay alive behind enemy lines and is paired up with the Dr. Lear, a woman whose father had been killed by Kai’s father in a Solaris 7 arena match.
Victor works to rebuild his unit into the ultimate Clan killing machine.
The Draconis Combine struggles to rebuild it’s military after defending Luthien from a massive Clan attack (1300 IS ‘Mechs against 800 Clan ‘Mechs).
This is a great finish to the trilogy. It leaves room for other authors to build on it while tying up most of the loose ends. I would recomand you find this book, no… the whole trilogy and read them! They are the best three BT books I’ve read.
Ah, the battle of Tukkayid… Where the Inner Sphere showed the Clans how they fight.
In the second part of the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy, you get to see why a few names are so big in the BattleTech Universe. Names like Kai Allard Liao and Victor Stiener Davion.
Kai shows how truly skilled he is when he singlehandedly takes out 5 of the six greatest ‘MechWarriors in the Inner Sphere in a simulation. Then he shows his loyalty when he takes a modified Centurion, named Yen-lo-wang, through a star of Clan Heavy ‘Mechs to make sure Victor can escape.
Victor starts showing his skills in leadership when he’s given his second command.
But all that happens either during or after a training period that Jaime Wolf pulled all of the major Inner Sphere houses into.
Also you get to watch Phelan Kell, now a Wolf MechWarrior, start moving up in the Clans.
This is another must-read for BattleTech fans! Although I would recommend reading the first one beforehand… it clears alot up. <–voice of experience
And here, the Inner Sphere starts to fight back. But don’t do what I did and try to start reading the series here. It will seriously confuse you.
Stackpole and BattleTech go together very well. I can’t wait to start reading some of his Star Wars novels. If they are as good as the BattleTech novels he’s written, then they will be awesome!
Anyway, I’ve read through the entire Blood of Kerensky Trilogy now and here’s my thoughts on the first book.
I’m glad they got Stackpole to write this trilogy, because I don’t think anyone else could have handled bringing in the Clans so well. It starts off following Phelan Kell of the Kell Hounds. During a mission out in the Periphery going after some pirates, they encounter ‘Mechs their computers can’t identify. For example: one kept switching between a Catapult and a Marauder. Of course the Mad Cat was more than a match for his Wolfhound and he ended up getting taken as a bondsman.
Meanwhile, the Federated Commonwealth and Draconis Combine got a taste of the Clans as well losing about a dozen worlds each.
I really enjoyed the book and would urge you to find it, if you can. It’s well worth the effort.
Ah, the Clan invasion… Clanners invading the Inner Sphere by surprise… The Inner Sphere basically bending over and taking it through this first book. Good times, good times…
This book I will have to list as my least favorite BT book yet. IMO it kept building to a big battle at the end, but then failed to deliver.
On the good side though, the character development is some of the best I’ve seen in a book. The main character goes from being completely hate filled, to accepting his Clan’s new path.
I wouldn’t name this book if I was naming a list of BT novels, but if you like stories about house Kurita or the Nova Cats this is a good one for you.
The way this book started off, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be any good. It jumped around alot and confused me a good many times.
But as it picked up, it got better and actualy turned out to be a pretty good book.
The story is about a soldier who’d been discharged dishonorably and goes to the game world of Solaris VII to prove his worth. After three years he’s worked his way near the top and it’s within reach. Then his whole world comes crashing down as fighting breaks out of the arenas and into the streets.
The character development in this book is done very well. The main character goes from being a soldier with honorable intentions to being a jerk with no conscience and back again.
If you find this book, it’s worth a read, even if it’s not the best of the BattleTech series.
It’s a classic story: man gets kicked out of military and signs up to show his skills in a civilian arena, but ends up becoming a selfish jerk. Then something happens that kickstarts the honorable side of the hero and gets him back to being a good guy again. Only this time, there are 30-100 ton ‘Mechs stomping around as well. Doesn’t get much better!
This is the first BattleTech novel I’ve read that is done from the Clan perspective and it really has opened my eyes. I now see why the Clans lost their invasion.
The story is about a Ghost Bear MechWarrior being granted a new trinary; she gets to hand-pick her warriors and her equipment. Then she’s told that her trinary (which ends up consisting of 14 ‘Mechs and 5 Elementals) will be defending a planet – alone. This might not seem like a big deal, except that a Wolf Clan Star Colonel decides he wants to take this planet. He also just happens to be the leader of a cluster (3 trinaries) of veteran and elite warriors.
The story is very well written and shows that the author has a good idea for strategy. Also a very descriptive book, though sometimes the adjectives were a little repetitive and lacking variety.
Anyways, it’s a good book. I’d urge you to get it if you can find it.
As a staunch Inner Sphere supporter, I have no problems with Clanners killing each other off. Although, with Ghost Bear being a warden clan, I’m glad they win.
Before I start on this review, let me point a few things out.
First off I have almost no love for MechWarrior Dark Age. I’m sorry, but ‘Mechs are the main unit of something called “MECHWarrior” and as such shouldn’t have their numbers reduced just to make them more special.
Secondly, I do enjoy some of the designs they have within MDA. The Forestry ‘Mech just makes me all warm and fuzzy. Others I don’t really care for. IE: The new MDA Atlas. An Atlas is ugly enough already, you don’t have to add spikes and such to it.
Finally, I’d never read Stackpole, but had heard only the best of him. I guess he writes some of the new Star Wars books as well as BattleTech and his own fantasy stuff. After reading this book, I now want to read more of his stuff – he’s that good a writer.
Okay on with the Review.
This is set in the MDA timeline, so it’s a lot farther along than the other BT book I’ve read. Anyways, It’s written from the first person perspective of the main character Mason Dunne. Of course you won’t know his real name until about the 13th chapter, as he goes by an alias of Sam Donelly.
It is very well written and Stackpole obviously has a mind for tactics and politics. The only thing that confused me about this book was his description of a Black Hawk ‘Mech. Unless there’s a MDA version that’s different from the Classic BT Black Hawk, this would seem to be the only error in the book. But hey, I haven’t seen all the new MDA designs, so I could be wrong.
Anyways, despite my reservations about MDA, this book is very well written and merits being read. If you can, get it and read it.
This was the only time I dabbled in Dork Age… I mean Dark Age.
This is the first BattleTech book I ever finished. I had started Blood Legacy once, but I wasn’t much into reading at the time, so I couldn’t appreciate it much.
This one puts you smack-dab in the middle of the FedCom civil war. It takes place on a planet named New Syrtis which is in the Capellan March – a neutral zone until now. Katrina Stiener-Davion orders the invasion of the planet which is unexpectedly well-prepared for such an attack.
Overall I thought it was a good book, but kinda jumpy. You’d be reading about some military leaders doing some planning then you’re right in the middle of a ‘Mech battle. It was kinda confusing, but easily dealt with.
If you see it, it would be worth getting, but I wouldnt go searching for it. I enjoyed it, though.
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*sniff* It’s just so sad that classic BattleTech is over after this… 
