Customer Reviews

Battletech Field Manual: Mercenaries

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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This book is a wonderful resource that gives a lot of history on some of the more famous (and infamous) mercenary units out there. It also gives a huge amount of information on how to create your own mercenary unit and run it. Everything from creating a heroic commander, to determining scenarios, to figuring out monthly payroll! It is wonderful!

I loved this book! It is a wellspring of information on tons of Mercenary units. I'm a pretty hard-core Battletech player, and from day 1 I've loved mercenaries, especially Wolf's Dragoons. I have tons of sourcebooks, but this one is easily the best I have. It has detailed information on many famous and infamous mercenary units. Such as the Kell Hounds, Battle Magic, Hell's Black Aces, the Blue Star Irregulars, Storm's Metal Thunder, Avanti's Angels, the Gray Death Legion, Wolf's Dragoons(oh yeah!), plus many more. I've created my own mercenary unit, dubbed Eric's Avatars(OH YEAH!), so I love mercenaries. The book has detailed information on how to create your own mercenary units, from founding members to unit strength. One of the biggest treats is that it contains full specs on the Gray Death Legion's scout battle armor! Sweet! I've said it before, and I'll probably say it a thousand times more, this book rocks!

This book contains very good details about running a merc unit, such as soldier's salaries, contracts, the MRBC, mission pay, potential employers, ect., ect. Details about many aspects of a merc' unit, such as soldier's pay and technichal maintenence could be usful even for a regular house unit. There are still some nagging questions I have, such as: were do I put the supplies (ammo, mech parts, food, ect.) on a raid. Well I don't have any warehouses, so I'll suspend them from my 'mechs, but that will reduce their combat effectivness, so I'll put them in my vehiles. But wait, my dropship doesn't accomodate vehicles! So how the hell do I get supplies on to the planet and salvage off? Also, they could have replaced the commander's influnce rating with the scrounge skill from MWII or MW3. Other than that, it's a great book!

I read the book from cover to cover. It gives great detail about outreach and the different mercenary units already out there. The rules for making your own unit are a little hard to understand. I had to read them three times before I understood what to do and even then you need a few tech readouts to decide just what designs you want for mechs, vehicles, battle armor, aerospace fighters, and especially dropships and jumpships. The contracts at the back are very detailed and fun to use. This is a must for all mercs.

I seem to have purchased a earlier issue of this work. Mine shows a different cover then the one shown on Amazon. Its a great addition to the game, listing some 43 mercenary units from a wide range of backgrounds and levels of experience. For the series BT Fan, this is a must have.

This and all the other Field Manuals are well worth it for the amount and quaility of information. Provides great help in creating and looking after any Merc units you want. Small complaint, two of my all time favorite mercenary units the Black Thorns and Comanceo's Cabaleros get only a tiny mention, strange considering that Avanti's Angels are featured in only a single novel and become a A rated command and the Comanceos have 3 novels and the Thorns have two novels and even got a Sourcebook on them.

All together, I see this book as a prety good one. The content that adds the the Battletech universe is exceptional. The Mercinary unit creation system however, could use some work. FASA needs to rember when making these books that everyone does not have the Technical Readouts. I for one will be buying the TR for the dropships and jumpships for this book. It is worth it.

This book is an excellent resource for any Mechwarrior or Battletech player. It contains lost of useful information. I like the section on creating a full unit and the random terrain generation tables. You will need this book if you are a serious Battletech player.

For those who are going to read this book, you will find it to be much better than most of the other sourcebooks. It's got details on all the best mercenaries in the Inner Sphere and even allows you to create your own unit. It takes a wider view of the Sphere than the other sourcebooks and it gives a detailed history of the merc unit Wolf's Dragoons (though you can find it in the Dragoons sourcebook, if there is one). Anyway, if you are looking for Battletech info or just picking a sourcebook at random, the Mercs is the way to go.

its alright. the unit generation system could use some work and some of the more famous merc units are not even mentioned (where's the 15th Dracon, or big MAC). however, listing of wages and expenses is very useful.