Craig Tenhoff
United States
Simi Valley
California
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Jihad Turning Point: Luthien is the first ebook in the Chaos Campaign system. It is a twenty two page book, containing a variety of information on Luthien and the battles that took place there during the Jihad. It is fully compatible with both the Chaos Campaign system and the Jihad series of scenarios.
THE GOOD
The book contains a beautiful 11 x 17 map of the planet Luthien, identifying all the cities and continents of the planet. In addition to the graphic map at the start of the book, this map is duplicated on the last four pages of the book in 11 x 17 format and is in a format that is compatible with Battleforce 2.
One page provides a brief history of Luthien. This page also includes definitions for the types of terrain used in the battles: Light Urban, Dense Urban, Reclaimed Forest, and Industrial. Each of these terrain types has a table to select battlemaps. In additon, recommended rules from Tactical Operations and Strategic Operations are listed to give games a 'Luthien flavor' when running the battles.
Also listed are the Word of Blake Naval forces that provided naval fire support to the invaders during the siege. Record Sheets for each of the ships are included in the book.
The combatant section lists thirteen different units that participated in the battle for Luthien. This includes Three Samurai (Loyalist) units, Four Kokurya-kai (Traitor) units, One Nova Cat Galaxy, Three Ghost Bear Galaxy, and Three Word of Blake Divisions. Each unit includes: it's name;, Average Experience (how many veterans per lance/star/level II); the Random Access Table (RAT) that it rolls on for equipment; the unit's special ability; and a note section that gives some historical background on the unit.
There are six tracks (missions) included in the book. These included:
* Traitor's Kiss: Both forces include a traitor, revealed by random roll after the start of the battle.
* Bullet in the Blue Sky: A three way battle between the Samurai, the Traitors and the Word of Blake all looking for salvage.
* Feline Ferocity: A Clan Nova Cat unit attempts to attack the Word of Blake with support from the Samurai.
* Tunnel Rats: Word of Blake attempt to clear out the Traitors and secure the starport. This track has a unique underground tunnel complex.
* Light Machine: Word of Blake and the Traitors attempt to capture a weapon system developer to gain his knowledge. The player who holds him at the end of the track, gains 3 Large X-Pulse Lasers (new technology)
* Damnation: Clan Ghost Bear comes to Luthien to destroy the Word of Blake.
Two official mech record sheets round out the book: the BHKU-O Black Hawk Ku Albert, the command ’Mech of Tai-sa Albert Benton of Sorenson’s Sabres [Samurai] during his time on Luthien; and an Inner Sphere-modified Thresher Edward, the command ’Mech of Tai-sa Edward Brandon of the Fortieth Dieron Regulars [Kokuryu-kai].
THE BAD
Their are numerous references to other products, especially the Random Access Tables for mech assignments that are included in nine (!) different products. While the default tables from Total Warfare is adequate, knowing that there is more advanced information available, but it's scattered all over the place is a bit annoying.
THE UGLY
$4.95 for a Twenty Two Page ebook might be considered a bit high, especially considering that the Jihad Hotspots 3072 (approximately 160 page book) sells for $24.99 list.
CONCLUSION
If you're a big fan of the Battletech Jihad series, a fan of House Kurita, or just have to collect everything related to Battletech, you'll enjoy this book.
On the other hand if you're new to the game, trying to expand your Battletech collection in an economical fashion, don't care for the Jihad storyline, or don't like the Warchest system, you'll probably want to pass on this expansion.
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