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Stackpole is an appalling writer, he makes his adversaries stupid because he cannot write an intelligent plot and makes his heroes alloying glib to the point you end up rooting for their adversaries no matter how doomed they are.

If it wasnt Battletech I wouldnt read his gak. I prefer any of the other writers to him.

What's with the Stackpole hate? I admit, I have not read any of his Battletech stuff, but I really enjoyed his Star Wars X-Wing books and I didn't think of of his heroes in those books, original or otherwise were annoyingly glib or his adversaries stupid....

Corran Horn is probably one of the best new Star Wars heroes, and a lot of his adversaries like Isard or Kirtan Loor didn't seem stupid or doomed.

I'm not saying all his stuff is like high brow literature, but I would certainly not call him an appalling writer. Maybe just his Battletech stuff is not as good?

I read all of the battletech books though anything published in 1999. Stackpole was by far the best of the B-tech writers in comparison (like Far Country... Seriously who wrote that gak?)

Compare Stackpole to other Starwars / 40k writers and I find he comes out quite favorably.

There's nothing really wrong with his BTech stuff. He's not the best writer to every touch a pen or keyboard but he does pretty well. There are certainly many CBT writers who are much, much worse.

Personally I checked out with the Jihad. The FedCom civil war was somewhat interesting but the aftermath is just such a clusterfeth that I just don't care. The WoB turning into a horrific threat for the whole Inner Sphere was such an asspull that no one should have taken it seriously. Of course it all started with the Twilight of the Clans series that was one long continuous "feth you," to every clan fan.

The jihad was envisioned as part of the storyline, but recent events werre packed too close together and with no reasoning to them. At least after the 4th succession war they moved forward a generation, it wass time for that to happen again.

However the jighad changed was accelerated and made a lot worse in order to set the stage for the crud that was/is Dark Age.

In the Dark Age every factiion is the same and they all have good mechs bad mechs indusrial mechs tanks light vehicles and all types of infantry. To get a rebel faction like Bannsons raiders like that meakes sense, but not whole fething clans and successor states.
Talk about dumb down. Dark Age gutted the factions and kiddified the mech designs. A cheap shot to sell the short lived clickytech crap.

Stackpole is my favorite Btech writer, though I do like Victor Milan.

I read Warrio En Garde and Warrior Coupe and that other one so long ago I don't remember who the author was. I really liked how it was mostly political maneuvering and scheming and not so much centered on the actual combat, which I thought was very cool. I find 'action' novels very boring that's why I don't read much black library gak. But does anybody know that author of the origional 'warrior' trilogy?

I believe it was Stackpole.

skyth wrote:I believe it was Stackpole.

Yes, Stackpole wrote both the Warrior Trilogy and the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy. Pretty much the two iconic BT book series.

Outside of the Warrior Trilogy and Blood of Kerensky Trilogy, my favorite set was the Grey Death Legion series. There were a few other hits here and there (Main Event) but in general, if I were recommending B-Tech reading, the 3 trilogies above would be my call.

Edit

I'd probably have to recommend the Jade Falcon books as well, at least the first 3.

Endgame wrote:Outside of the Warrior Trilogy and Blood of Kerensky Trilogy, my favorite set was the Grey Death Legion series. There were a few other hits here and there (Main Event) but in general, if I were recommending B-Tech reading, the 3 trilogies above would be my call.

Edit

I'd probably have to recommend the Jade Falcon books as well, at least the first 3.

I find the Grey Death novels awful, along with the Jade Phoenix trilogy. I can't stand either writer. William Keith didn't seem to understand the universe particularly well, and Thurston's writing is nothing but the horrible abortion of Battletech and the English Language's love child.

Mattlov wrote:
I find the Grey Death novels awful, along with the Jade Phoenix trilogy. I can't stand either writer. William Keith didn't seem to understand the universe particularly well, and Thurston's writing is nothing but the horrible abortion of Battletech and the English Language's love child.

And yet, they are still all miles better than anything I've read from the black library. I guess it depends on the measuring stick you're comparing to. I've recently been reading Jack McDevitt and much prefer anything I've read from him over almost any "universe driven" authors I've read, but unfortunately you have to deal with the writers chosen to write B-Tech / Starwars / 40k / whatever.

My main complaint about the GDL series what how the Locust and Shadow Hawk kept overheating... I mean, how? The Locust literally CANNOT overheat; it would need to lose 6 heat sinks to do so, by which time the thing is gone anyway. And while the Shadow Hawk builds a bit more heat, well... 3 Jump, M-Laser, SRM-2, LRM-5 and AC/5 all together don't generate 10 heat, so again we are looking at major battle damage to overheat the bloody thing.

Just picky of me, I suppose.

Vulcan wrote:My main complaint about the GDL series what how the Locust and Shadow Hawk kept overheating... I mean, how? The Locust literally CANNOT overheat; it would need to lose 6 heat sinks to do so, by which time the thing is gone anyway. And while the Shadow Hawk builds a bit more heat, well... 3 Jump, M-Laser, SRM-2, LRM-5 and AC/5 all together don't generate 10 heat, so again we are looking at major battle damage to overheat the bloody thing.

Just picky of me, I suppose.

You forgot about the posibility of each might have had 2 Engine Hits

What REALLY bugs me about decision at thunder rift, is how did a Shadow Hawk, and a couple 20 tonners fight off a marauder and a couple heavies (Or was it mediums?). No way that should happen.

skyth wrote:What REALLY bugs me about decision at thunder rift, is how did a Shadow Hawk, and a couple 20 tonners fight off a marauder and a couple heavies (Or was it mediums?). No way that should happen.

Not as improbable as what the Black Thorns did in Main Event.

I had a lance known as The 115 that was 3x 25 ton Mechs and a 40 ton that would tackle assualt Mechs successfuly, until they started to run into 2 Gunneries.
It was called the 115 becouse that was its tonage.

Problem is, it wasn't one Marauder...It was a Marauder and friends. Plus that these were suboptimal designs (Shadow Hawk, Locust, and I think a Stinger) and they weren't moving.

What part of Main Event was not believeable?

The fiction is much different than the game. Although, there are the random ammo explosions, frequent hits to the same leg location, and headshots in the game that could still explain a complete upset in the 'Marauder-and-friends' example. I guess if you rolled it out as a game it would be highly unlikely, but it could happen.

I knocked out my buddy's battlemaster with a turn one headshot from a PPC on my 45 ton Vindicator. Improbable? of course. Impossible? no. Heroic? Not really, it was just lucky dice.

In the fictional world of authors however such an unlikely turn of events could be turned into some kind of description of heroism against all impossible odds sort of theme. That's why the average and predictable battletech game is not the focus of the fiction, just the 'heroic' actions which everyone loves in any genre in any universe, triumph against the odds is a standard fictional theme.

skyth wrote:Problem is, it wasn't one Marauder...It was a Marauder and friends. Plus that these were suboptimal designs (Shadow Hawk, Locust, and I think a Stinger) and they weren't moving.

What part of Main Event was not believeable?

Two lances of Inner Sphere 'Mechs (and not so great ones) taking down a Jade Falcon Trinary with only one KIA pilot, and successfully salvaging a full Star of Falcons. With no actual full technicians in the unit.

Mattlov wrote:

skyth wrote:Problem is, it wasn't one Marauder...It was a Marauder and friends. Plus that these were suboptimal designs (Shadow Hawk, Locust, and I think a Stinger) and they weren't moving.

What part of Main Event was not believeable?

Two lances of Inner Sphere 'Mechs (and not so great ones) taking down a Jade Falcon Trinary with only one KIA pilot, and successfully salvaging a full Star of Falcons. With no actual full technicians in the unit.

I belive it, I had this happen to me in a Mechwarror RPG game more than once.

Given how crappy the Mechs the Thorns had and how good Clan mechs and their pilots are the Thorns were outgunned about 6 to 1 in that engagement. Still, it's fiction.

Twilight of the Clans, that pretty much killed CBT for me.

Mattlov wrote:
Two lances of Inner Sphere 'Mechs (and not so great ones) taking down a Jade Falcon Trinary with only one KIA pilot, and successfully salvaging a full Star of Falcons. With no actual full technicians in the unit.

Falcons getting buttkicked by author fiat, I can beleive that.

Apparently the only one the Falcon's are allowed to defeat are the Steel Vipers!

And the Wolves

But only by cheating.

Tyyr wrote:But only by cheating.

A win's a win, and if the other guy is dead no one can argue...

Too bad you botched that part up and got both your Khan's killed.

Tyyr wrote:Too bad you botched that part up and got both your Khan's killed.

That's OK. It let us get a couple of GOOD Khans instead.

Back to the OP, my favourite 'Mech design was the Archer.


It was one of the original classic BattleTech designs ripped right off RoboTech. In RoboTech the Archer design was called the Gladiator. It was always green with grey hands.

I still have the original BattleTech pewter model. At 70 tons it was a good 'Mech with two LRM-20's and a few medium lasers for in close. It could fire indirectly and had decent enough firepower to cause even assault 'Mechs some worry.

I started playing in 1988 and thus became a diehard fan of the original game. The Clans were okay but stuff after that just got overcomplicated and ridiculous. I played the WizKids' MechWarrior too but nothing ever matched the old classic BT. Even the older books and novels were far superior to the newer BT universe books and novels.