Classic Battletech: Dawn of the Jihad (FPR35023) Paperback – September 1, 2005

I was sorry to see Battletech go after Loren Coleman's "Endgame", but got right back into it (now Mechwarrior) with the release of Dark Age. Even though DA is ok, I still prefer the classics, so I was really excited to see that the gap between the two time periods was going to be bridged. I must also agree with the first reviewer of this book - FanPro tried to 'fudge' its way out of having to produce both novels and sourcebooks by kinda mashing the two into one. Although I did enjoy the book, it really wasn't what I was hoping for. I was also hoping for something akin to the FedCom Civil War, but what can you do? I would actually give this book 3.5 stars if I could, but I decided to round up for the sheer fact that Battletech continues to live and thrive in a renewed galaxy of unprecidented chaos.

Like the other reviewer, I'm not a big fan of the "news story" format, but I still think this is a good sourcebook. It kind of leaves you hanging when it comes to some of the info, but that's what will make me buy the other sourcebooks when they are published. I just hope that all is eventually revealed in these sourcebooks, rather than having to glean things from other sources like their online publisher battlecorps.

Lots of good information and a lot of structure to my Jihad era games.

This Sourcebook has been a huge disappointment for me. I have been a Battletech fan since 1993 and have purchased most Sourcebooks and Readouts published by FASA. And I must say that this sourcebook is not close to the old standards, it lacks the customary artwork and layout that is confusing. Fortunately, they were able to fix this with Jihad 3072 and 3076.I give the quality and abundance of artwork only 1 star, and the writing 3 stars.

As a long time BattleTech player, I was initially hesitant to play games set in the Jihad era. I knew enough from reading reviews of MechWarrior Dark Ages/Age of Destruction to have a broad idea of what would happen, and it turned me off. The idea that the Word of Blake, a minor faction at best, could cause so much turmoil in the universe made little to no sense to me. Then, I got a decent deal on Dawn of the Jihad, and it helped to change my mind. The opening fiction is amazing - while the death of a fictional character has absolutely no impact on the real world, I have to admit that the particular character (not to spoil it) has been an important part of my decision to play a mercenary unit & I actually got a little tear in my eye. The format is different than most books in that it follows news stories and only gives so much "hard" evidence. This was intentional, as the Jihad is meant to be a chaotic event, with little details not always adding up until later. The new Chaos Unleashed campaign system works surprisingly well with vets and newbies alike.

Unlike the first two reviewers I enjoyed the new layout and the media stories. I enjoyed the fact that the book left a lot of open ends for authors to follow up on later. I was not as interested in what regiment hit where, that I think will come in a later book. Without novels to expand the story line, TRO's are changing to allow us to stay in time with the universe and this does that very well. Hopefully [...] will follow up with stories that tie up loose ends.

First, I want to say that I'm not a fan of the new format FanPro has picked up for its recent run of sourcebooks. I was expecting sometime akin to the FedCom Civil War, with details on which divisions hit where, so on and so forth. Nope. This book is done up similar to Interstellar Players, as a collection of breaking news stories and political commentary show-clips. Inventive, but not what I was hoping for.That being said, I did enjoy the book. It addresses the opening steps of the Word of Blake Jihad in all of the Successor States, the counter-actions of ComStar, and even some unconnected but similar unrest amongst the Clans. The Word of Blake believes that they are leading humanity to the light. . . but in reality are plunging it into impenetrable darkness.