BattleTech Universe

''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs's Xbox Game Studios; Catalyst Game Studios licenses the franchise from Topps.

The series began with FASA's debut of the board game ''BattleTech'' (originally named ''Battledroids'') by Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock III and has since grown to include numerous expansions to the original game, several board games, role playing games, video games, a collectible card game, a series of more than 100 novels, and an animated television series.

Gameplay

At its most basic, the boardgames of ''BattleTech'' are played on a map sheet composed of hexagonal terrain tiles. The combat units are roughly humanoid armored combat units called BattleMechs, powered by fusion reactors and armed with a variety of weapons. Typically, these are represented on the game board by two-inch-tall miniature figurines that the players can paint to their own specifications, although older publications such as the 1st edition included small scale plastic models originally created for the ''Macross'' TV series, and the 2nd and 4th edition boxed sets included small cardboard pictures (front and back images) that were set in rubber bases to represent the units. The game is played in turns, each of which represents 10 seconds of real time, with each turn composed of multiple phases.

Setting

''BattleTechs fictional history covers the approximately 1,150 years from the end of the 20th century to the middle of the 32nd. Most works in the series are set during the early to middle decades of the 31st century, though a few publications concern earlier ages. ''MechWarrior: Dark Ages'' and its related novels take place in the mid 3100s.

A detailed timeline stretching from the late 20th century to the mid-32nd describes humanity's technological, social and political development and spread through space both in broad historical terms and through accounts of the lives of individuals who experienced and shaped that history, with an emphasis on (initially) the year 3025 and creating an ongoing storyline from there. Generally, ''BattleTech'' assumes that its history is identical to real-world history up until approximately 1984, when the reported histories begin to diverge; in particular, the game designers did not foresee the fall of the Soviet Union, which plays a major role past 1990 in the fictional ''BattleTech'' history. Individual lifestyles remain largely unchanged from those of modern times, due in part to stretches of protracted interplanetary warfare during which technological progress slowed or even reversed. Cultural, political and social conventions vary considerably between worlds, but feudalism is widespread, with many states ruled by hereditary lords and other nobility, below which are numerous social classes.

A key feature of the ''BattleTech'' universe is the absence of non-human intelligent life. Despite one or two isolated encounters in novels, mankind is the only sentient species.

Above all, the central theme of ''BattleTech'' is conflict, consistent with the franchise's wargaming core. Interstellar and civil wars, planetary battles, factionalization and infighting, as well as institutionalized combat in the shape of arena contests and duelling, form the grist of both novelized fiction and game backstories.

The level of technology evident in ''BattleTech'' is an unusual blend of the highly futuristic and the nearly modern. The universe is largely based in hard science fiction concepts — much of the technology used is either similar in advancement to that of the present day, or based on technology considered plausible in the near-future, such as the railgun. A handful of exceptions, notably faster-than-light interstellar travel and superluminal communication, depend on purely fictional or speculative principles. Radically advanced tech mixes with seemingly anachronistic technologies such as internal combustion engines and projectile weapons. Artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, androids, and many other staples of future fiction are generally absent or downplayed. Incessant warfare is generally blamed for the uneven advancement, the destruction of industry and institutes of learning over the centuries of warfare having resulted in the loss of much technology and knowledge. As rivalries and conflicts have dragged on, advanced technologies are redeveloped for the battlefield.

History

Conception

Chicago-based FASA Corporation's original 1984 game focused on enormous robotic, semi-humanoid battle machines battling in a science-fiction feudalistic Dark Age setting. The game was at first called ''Battledroids''. The name of the game was changed to ''BattleTech'' in the second edition because George Lucas and Lucasfilm claimed the rights to the term " droid"; the machines themselves were renamed BattleMechs from the second edition onward.

The game components included:
*First edition: two full-color terrain maps, 48 stand-up BattleMech counters, four sheets of playing markers, plastic counter stands, dice, and a rule book.
*Third edition: two color maps, a pack of record sheets, and fourteen 2" plastic miniatures of various BattleMech war machines.
*Fourth edition: two rule-books, a booklet of record sheets, 48 stand-up playing pieces, and a sheet of 144 insignia stickers.

Rather than create their own original robot art, FASA decided to use already-extant designs that had originally been created for a variety of different Japanese anime, including ''Dougram'', ''Crusher Joe'', and ''Macross''. The rights to these images were licensed from '' Twentieth Century Imports (TCI)''. In later years, FASA abandoned these images as a result of a lawsuit brought against them by Playmates Toys and Harmony Gold over the use of said images.
In 2007, Classic BattleTech line developer Randall N. Bills explained that FASA had sued Playmates over the use of images owned by FASA. Although Playmates was ordered to stop using the images in question, FASA received no financial compensation. FASA realized that the use of licensed images made them vulnerable to lawsuits and worried that such a suit would bankrupt the company. Following the suit, FASA made the decision to use only images that they owned in future products.

The anime-sourced BattleMechs continued to be referenced in-universe, but their images were no longer seen in new sourcebooks. This led them to be termed by fans as "the Unseen". When Fantasy Productions licensed the property, these "Unseen" images were expanded to include all art produced "out-of-house" – that is, whose copyrights resided with the creators, not the company. Catalyst Game Labs has continued this practice.

Expansions

The game's popularity spawned several variants and expansions to the core system, including ''CityTech'' which fleshed out urban operations, infantry, and vehicle combat, '' AeroTech'' which focused on air and space-based operations, and ''BattleSpace'' which detailed large spacecraft combat. FASA also published numerous sourcebooks, known as Technical Readouts, which featured specifications for new combat units that players could select from. However, despite the large number of such pre-designed BattleMechs, vehicles, aerospace units and other military hardware, the creators also established a system of custom design rules, enabling players to generate their own units and field them in combat. In addition to game rule books, FASA published several background books detailing the history, political and social structures of various factions in the game, including all five Great Houses of the inner sphere, ComStar, the Periphery States and the fallen Star League.

FASA launched two additional systems to complement the core game: ''BattleTroops'', an infantry combat system, and '' BattleForce'', a large-scale combat simulator governing the actions of massed ''BattleTech'' units. ''The Succession Wars'', a board game released in 1987, is one of only two purely strategic titles of the series (the other being "The Inner Sphere in Flames" from the Combat Operations book). ''The Succession Wars'' is played on a political star map, with players trying to capture regions of space.

Recent years have seen a trend of consolidating the expansions into "core products" for efficiency. Beginning under FanPro's aegis, then continued under Catalyst Game Labs, the various rulesets have been combined into a series of Core Rulebooks:

*Total Warfare (TW) integrates the original boardgame with ''CityTech'', ''BattleTroops'', and parts of ''AeroTech 2'' (itself a consolidation of ''AeroTech'' and ''BattleSpace'') pertaining to atmospheric operations (such as simplified rules for Dropship operations, and the use of AeroTech Fighters in atmospheric combat).
*Tactical Operations (TO) supplements ''Total Warfare'' with rules for expanded game-play (advanced rules). These include an expanded weapons / equipment table listing (Lostech), advanced unit types (such as "mobile structures", planetary fortresses, and "large support vehicles") as well as numerous optional gameplay enhancements for planetary-level conquests (consolidating ''Maximum Tech'' and other expansion packs, like ''Explorer Corps'').
*Strategic Operations (SO) consolidates the rules for multi-game campaigns within a single star system (such as unit morale and management, repair and maintenance, equipment salvage, in-game construction, and unit-level economics) with the remaining ''AeroTech 2'' rules omitted from TW. These include the introduction of capital-level spacecraft (Jumpships / Warships / Space Stations / Fighter Squadrons) and equipment, space warfare rules, and the use of space travel as a gameplay element. A revised version of ''BattleForce'' is also consolidated into the book.
*TechManual (TM) consolidates the customization rules with technical fluff from various products for units compliant to ''Total Warfare'' rules. (Construction rules for the missing units are listed in TO or SO, as these units are not considered to be "tournament legal" for gameplay).
* Interstellar Operations (IO) was originally a project that had been available in beta form. The book was designed to introduce rules for faction-wide operations (such as entire Clans / Succession Houses / Empires) across multiple campaigns and star systems—up to and including the entire Inner Sphere. The book itself would have also included an expansion of additional technologies which stipulated per time period in the game universe's history, including revised rules for more advanced types of vehicles such as Land-Air 'Mechs, Superheavy BattleMechs, and unique period technologies. The size of the materials slated for the book forced its splitting into two volumes; the second, which was initially known as the ''Campaign Companion'', was renamed.
* Campaign Operations (CO) is the self-contained companion book to Interstellar Operations. The book provides core rules handling player campaigns, using different rules sets. Taking older legacy rules found in previous source books, CO presented them in a singular core rulebook for better accessibility for the player. Included in the publication are rules to build environments for players to create and maintain combat units to be played in the game universe and rules allowing them to design their own worlds and star systems if desired.
*BattleMech Manual is an alternative Core Rulebook to Total Warfare. Unlike Total Warfare, the Battlemech Manual ignores all elements of combined operations, instead presenting concise and developed rules for playing games of Battletech focused exclusively on BattleMechs fighting against Battlemechs. The book is marketed as "table usage friendly" and serves as a complete, standalone game experience for players who want a single book for Mech focused combat.

After FASA

After the FASA Corporation closed in 2000, Wizkids bought the rights to the game in January 2001. They reworked the IP to launch their MechWarrior: Dark Age collectible miniatures game, but licensed the rights to continue to publish products for the old game to FanPro (itself a subsidiary of Fantasy Productions). Topps bought Wizkids in 2003, but this did not change any publishing agreements at that time. FanPro held the license to the original tabletop game (which they rebranded as "Classic BattleTech") until 2007. At that point Catalyst Game Labs

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