Battletech Total Warfare (Classic Battletech)

first, to clear any confusion, the current cover of the Total Warfare isn't the blue background of the Classic Atlas, it's a more brownish red background of the modern design of the Atlas. wish they update it to reduce confusion, as the majority of the core books are like this using old images for current new images. keep this in mind so there isn't a miscommunication issue, it's just the image is false.this book is for those who want to run a FULL on total war game, from aircraft, ground units, even space combat, using proto-mechs the list goes on. its good to have for some extra rules to use during your Battletech game, how to use certain units, and such. i like how they divide sections of the book, with a novella inside the book, so that's a good read.is this book needed? no, the great appeal about BattleTech is a lot of the books are optional, it all depends on what kind of game you want to run. if you want just strictly Battle Mechs, get the Battle Mech Manual, and you're good to go. want to run additional units out in the field? get this book.

As you may know, Battletech rules come in several flavors:* Battletech beginner box. Simplified rules. Armor only, no heat, no internal damage. Great for newbies.* Battletech A GAme of Armored Combat boxset. It is a standard boxset. 50+ pages of rules. For bipedal mechs. Rules are somehow intimidating for newcomers.* Total Warfare (book). 300 pages. Includes all types of mechs (bipedal and other with more legs), and infantry and many types of vehicles (land, air, naval, etc). Definitely not for newbies.There is a lot of material about equipment that is not shown in the standard boxset.It also covers many forms of interaction with buildings.Whole sections are dedicated to protomechs, support vehicles, infantry, aerospace..It also covers creating scenarios, and painting miniatures. About 20 pages dedicated to that.And it has LOTS of tables.It also has short stories covering different houses and factions.Unlike the Alpha Strike book, it does not have abundant artwork, but that is because it has lots of information to show us. It is so much that Alpha Strike has 200 pages, and Total Warfare has 300.In summary, a casual player may find this book completely intimidating. The logical progression should be beginner box to see if you like it. Then standard boxset. And then as you feel you are ready to make a quantum leap, Total Warfare book.The difference between Total Warfare book and Alpha Strike is that Total Warfare is about playing with hex grid, and Alpha Strike is a fast play version without hexes. But do not be fooled. Alphs strike book is 4x bigger than the standard rulebook.And by the way, I have found no problems of printing quality after sampling pages. Still need to go into it in detail.Update: The rules for aerospace vehicles are very confusing and messy. There are different maps for different altitudes:* Ground map (where mechs fight)* Low altitude map (1 hex of this sheet equals and entire ground map sheet).* High altitude map. Unlike previous maps, hex rows do not represent planet terrain, but altitudes. 5 rows represent atmosphere and then space under gravitational influence comes. This map ends at the point where SOI (sphere of influence ends). SOI is where planet gravity is no longer effective* Space mapThe way to handle altitudes and moving from one map to another is at most messy and all over the place.

What I ordered is what I got thanks.

I got the 2021 reprint. No binding or construction issues.As far as rules systems go, please be aware this book is for combined arms style of play with Battletech Classic. If you just want Lance on Lance battle rumbles, Battlemech Manual has all the rules you need in this book, but clearly focused to that style of play.But if you want to add truly interesting and involved rules with things like navies, trains, tanks, infantry.. get this instead. This book is the basis for all the other rulebooks to build off of. The question is how much simulationism you want in your game.In terms of how it actually plays, for me and my small group of friends, quite well. The book makes it seem exceptionally involved, but within two or three games, you'd have memorized 90% of the most common rules and have a good frame of reference for the other 10% to easily look them up if necessary.My recommendation? Play a few games using AGoAC's rulebook, then add Total Warfare. Its not as massive of a leap as some people think.

Most modern wargames tends focus on throwing fists full of dice. Most units are canon fodder that drop like flies and only exist to buy time, where most game end up in dog piles spread accros the table, where tactics and positioning mean little to nothing; so i picked up CBT to look for something different. CBT is old school and it's good. CBT is slow, it requires a lot of record keeping, you have to manage your resource and you have to be aware of relative position, situation and movement. The time to kill for mechs is fairly slow, this give the mechs a sense of mass, like they are actually machines of war designed to slug it out on the battle field. The rules are designed so that complexity is added incrementally from the quickstart rules (on the CBT website) and the box set to CBT total warfare and beyond. This book and its companion book, CBT Tech manual, are best used as a reference and to expand upon the quickstart rules. When buying this book be aware that you might get the old wizkid version, like I did, instead of the catalyst version and that you will have to download the errata which is quite extensive; and is the reason for the 3 stars.

Great book and rules set. Sadly my copy the spin has detached from the outside cover during transport. Some of the gloss was also worn off from movement against the cardboard packaging during transport.

I've been an rpg-gamer for almost 25 years and this is the first time that a book delivers in all the fields. With this book you have all the rules that you will ever need to play a Battletech game, from beginners to super veterans. It is just awesome

Clean rules and layout, awesome content! But I have to concur what others are saying, the binding is horrible and there is no way this printing will physically survive over the years. Just opening the book you know pages will start falling out. (sooner than later). Catalsyt says a new printing(6th?) is coming out since the 5th sold out, so I can only hope, for future buyers, that they remediated this production problem. In comparison, the Battletech Manual has a very strong binding.

This book is amazing. The quality of writing and sheer amount of content is superb for a rulebook. It is well organized and the camospecs team did a great job painting the miniatures seen in the book as well.The binding is already showing weakness, however, and I doubt this book will stand the test of time. It is likely only a matter of years before pages start coming out.