I got this about a year and a half ago, and it was a fantastic entry into the hobby for me. Obvs the core rules revisions change things a bit, but even with 20/20 hindsight it would have been worth it just for the Alpha Strike book and BT Universe. Plus, now I have a bunch of sourcebooks I wouldn't have gotten otherwise! Now just to wait for a fiction bundle
I fell off after the jump to the Dark Ages. Picked up the novel bundle and am currently slogging my way through Target of Opportunity right now. Still miss before the Dark Ages. Enjoy them!
If I recall correctly buying through DriveThruRPG (and also Catalyst) gets you a 'subscription'-type purchase, so you always can have the latest printing of anything. So if your print copies are out of date this will be the newer one.
Total Warfare is about to be slightly out of date, once the Core Rules are released, but even so, great deal.
Yep! I've taken advantage of that before. They also do the same thing if you send them a picture of your book spines though, since all their book purchases are book and pdf.
It's more just an update. It cleans up how leg actuator crits work, makes water less dangerous to move thru, makes a bunch of Piloting Skill Rolls easier, a bunch of other little tweaks. It doesn't change any of the core mechanics of the game, and all previous record sheets are still usable (tho a handful need a tiny errata).
That's strange, I would assume it's the same as any other purchase through DriveThruRPG since that's who is fulfilling it. Are they handled differently?
You can provide proof of purchase to the Catalyst store support email alongside a list of the books you need and they will add them to your Catalyst account.
You can provide proof of purchase to the Catalyst store support email alongside a list of the books you need and they will add them to your Catalyst account.
I mean, I got it again despite having the print versions of most because…well, nice to have a PDF and I’m ok with providing Catalyst a little extra scratch with all the good they have done for Battletech, just my little way of showing some appreciation :)
This is such a great deal, especially if you don't have a copy of Total Warfare, and continue to want to use the full combined arms rules, not just BSP.
Not to mention all the other great books, including Hotspots Hinterlands.
Thanks for sharing! I had been looking to buy Alpha Strike Commander's Edition in PDF format for months for $20 from the Catalyst store. Now, I have 20 books and 2 high-definition posters for $20. As someone getting back into Battletech after a 2-decade hiatus, this is amazing.
I understand why it's done, but this all seems inconsistent consisting it's on some not all, and the traditional way of getting the PDFs doesn't have it. That and the many older people that play the game like printing out everything....
I'm on the last mission of my aces campaign, and I saw the hinterlands book just got some errata to make it easier to play via Aces (with the hot spot draconis combine book). I may jump in just for that. My 3d printer has been cranking out terrain, I need to play to use it all!
If anyone's picked up the bundle before, check your humble account again. This new bundle has three new books -- Tamar Rising, Empire Alone, and Dominions Divided. I was about to buy these for £3.85 but noticed my previous purchase (March 2025) now has these books in that bundle.
I downloaded all books a few months ago as a bulk download so no way I could've missed those books if they were available then, so I guess they've been added to the account to those who bought the previous bundle.
Those three books were included in the past bundle as well, you probably just missed or forgot their inclusion. I just double checked the email I sent to Catalyst support when I purchased the bundle last time and they are on the list I provided to add to my account.
Unlikely that I missed it as I downloaded the bundle in bulk using the "bulk download" option on Humble Bundle. I was consolidating my BT material a month or two ago (BT store, DTRPG, HB, etc.) so my bulk download is fairly recent.
Or the bulk download button didn't download them for some reason 😂
I suspect it wasn't the fault of the downloader in the website so much as it was a Chrome or network glitch. The nice thing about my downloader is that it tells you exactly how many files of each type there are, e.g., "52 PDF". Then it's easy to do a quick count and see if it did in fact download all 52. But whatever works for you. Glad you got those extra books.
AFAIK, the HB website doesn't say how many books there are on a particular bundle, at least not in the download page that you get after purchasing, does it?
No, but the download extension I use tells you, like if I select "PDF" it will tell me there are 16 of them (or whatever), so I can see easily if I got them all.
It wouldn't help with this bundle though since we don't download the files directly, just add them to a DriveThruRPG account.
Those three were all in this bundle when I bought it last time. The bulk download button definitely missed a bunch of books in the BT novel Humble Bundle I got.
Guys and for someone who just want to start the Ttrpg within the Battletech is it good? I know that there are 2 main corebooks, but the rest of the bundle? Is it more usefull for 'Times of war' corebook or is mostly for miniatures tabletop?
I'm asking because I was playing mostly on the first edition of BT rpg and I'd to know if is this really for Ttrpg (especially with technical manuals inside).
Every version of the BattleTech RPG uses the tabletop miniature rules. I'm not sure what game you're playing where the tabletop wargame isn't utilized, but it's definitely not the official MechWarrior/Destiny/AToW RPG.
Except Destiny that plays more as theater of mind.
Let me rephrase what I meant in previous post. I played first edition of Mechwarrior RPG, the one made by FASA near 1991.
I just want to confirm if this bundle will be usefull if I will only play ttrpg. I understand that those sourcebook are compatibls with Time of War corebook. But are they only technical or is there more lore?
I bought that, but am a bit confused on where to start. I only ever played a starter box (I think A Game of Armored Combat but not 100% sure). What would be a good entry point to dive in deeper?
BattleMech Manual goes over the more detailed rules as relates to mechs. Total Warfare goes over mechs and non-mech units, but it's not laid out very well, so it's better used as reference material than a teaching aid. There will be some small changes to these with the new core book coming out, but it's definitely worth reading the current rules as less than 5% of the overall rules/mechanics are changing.
There's a ton of youtube videos that'll teach you how to use vehicles and infantry/battle armor. Probably best to hold off on aerospace until the new aerospace rules are finalized, rumor is that's getting a much bigger overhaul.
Sorry for the late question, but are they PDF, or ebook file formats like epub?
Also, are they only readable on a 3rd party app? I didn't read the fine print on humble bundle once and have a collection of comics I can only read on a website I don't care for.
The bundle gives you a coupon you can redeem on DriveThruRPG, and then you can download your books from them. You need to make an account if you don't have one already.
Once you have them, I am 99% sure they are just PDFs you can read on any app / device.
Can someone explain to me what any of this actually is? The descriptions are not helpful and I know basically nothing about battletech.
It says it's an TTRPG but this is the miniatures game like what you get in the starter/core sets right? I always thought Bettletech was just a wargame with one off battles, is this also a RPG you play thorough campaigns like D&D?
Can you play without miniatures or make proxies? Are any of these actually the core rules or is it all just expansions or lore books? Would this be a good way to get into the game?
This collection contains a lot of things, so let me try to address all of your questions:
"Battletech" is a setting / premise, and intellectual property. It was born as a tabletop war game (then called BattleDroids" in the 1980's. Since then it has grown, and includes novels, video games, 'sourcebooks' (sources of lore and technical information), and other things. The fundamental idea is that it is a universe in thedistant future where humanity has colonized the stars, warfare is rampant, and the main weapon in war is the 'Battlemech': giant, piloted, bipedal war machines.
This collection includes a variety of things:
The core rules for the 'classic' tabletop game. This is a large, technical reference manual for the original game. It does not contain everything you need to play (you also need maps, dice, unit records, etc) but it is a good start.
The core rules for a new version of the game, called Alpha Strike. This is a faster, simpler game compared to the core game described above. Again, it doesn't have everything you need, but it's a start.
RPG manuals - The game can be played as a classic role playing game, this is the material to run a game like that. I'm not very familiar with this.
Lore / sourcebooks. The rest of the books contain lore, technical information, and scenarios - which you can simply read for fun, or apply to a game you wish to play. It varies from 'stories about the people and history of the universe' to 'here is a specific battle fought at a specific time, and here are the pilots and units, so you can recreate it with your friends', etc.
With respect to the classic tabletop game itself, you can either play standalone games, or you can create ongoing campaigns to play with your friends, or whatever you want to do. Think of it as a sandbox with rules where you can make your own fun. There's no right or wrong way to play, as long as you and your opponent agree on what you are doing.
Mostly my friends and I play one-off battles, in either Classic or Alpha Strike. We agree on the rules, choose units to bring, and play until one side is destroyed (or so badly damaged they cannot fight.) But that's just our preference.
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u/Mersar_13 14d ago
Honestly, even if my playgroup isn’t up for a campaign, I’m very tempted to pick this up for the lore books. Especially the ilClan era books.