Technical Readout: 3026

TRO 3026.jpg
Technical Readout: 3026
Product information
Type Technical Readout
Development Sam Lewis
Jordan Weisman
Tara Gallagher (Production Managers)
L. Ross Babcock III (Editor-In-Chief)
Donna Ippolito (Senior Editor)
Todd Huettel (Editor)
Primary writing Kevin Stein
Sam Lewis
Pages 128
Cover Artwork Duane Loose
Interior Artwork Dana Knutson (Art Director)
Illustrations Duane Loose
Steve Venters
Publication information
Publisher FASA
Product code 8606
First published 1987
ISBN-10 0931787327
ISBN-13 978-0931787324
MSRP $15.00
Content
Era Succession Wars era
Timeline 3026
Series Technical Readouts
Followed by Technical Readout: 3026 Revised

Description[edit]

Intended as a background book for the BattleTech universe, Technical Readout: 3026 was second TRO to be released and the first to focus on the secondary weapon systems (combat vehicles) of the game. It also included personal equipment that could be used by players of MechWarrior, the roleplaying game.

It was first published in 1987 with a same-cover second edition in 1996.[1] The unit designs of TRO:3026 were reissued in 2003 as Technical Readout: 3026 Revised and eventually superseded by the more comprehensive Technical Readout: 3039. The information on personal equipment was successively replaced with MechWarrior related sourcebooks.

The German edition was published as Hardware-Handbuch: 3031 with altered content (see below).

Table of Contents[edit]

Remarks on content[edit]

  • The title comprises descriptions of 42 units in total, all vehicle designs and all previously unpublished. Furthermore it contains description and rules for a variety of personal equipment for using in MechWarrior. It contains:
    • 42 Vehicle designs,
    • 40 Personal Equipment items, spread in 7 different subcategories and
    • 46 Personal Weapon items spread in 2 subcategories with 6 respective 10 sub-subcategories.
  • The TRO has no in-universe presentation.

Foreign-Language Editions[edit]

German[edit]

Hardware-Handbuch 3031.jpg
Hardware-Handbuch 3031
Product information
Language German
Contribution Reinhold H. Mai (Translation), Dietrich Limper, Thomas Römer and Reinhold H. Mai (Editor)
Pages 162
Publication information
Publisher Fantasy Productions
First published 1992
ISBN-10 3890649092
ISBN-13 9783890649092

Published by licensee FanPro, the German edition of Technical Readout 3026 (TRO 3026) received extensive revamping, beginning with the title, which was changed to Hardware-Handbuch 3031. According to the imprint, additional texts from other sources (Technical Readout: 3050, House Liao, Wolf's Dragoons, Sorenson's Sabres, and Stardate) were included. The German version is printed as DIN A4, a standard European paper size, which is a little larger then North American Letter.

Alterations[edit]

Graphics[edit]

The original's 16 colored unit graphics were rearranged as an unnumbered four-page miniature gallery (four images per page) at the middle of the book.[3] The unit's images at the correspending data sheets were instead shown in black and white.

Table of Contents[edit]

The original content was restructured and expanded. Where the original TRO 3026 lists only "Vehicles" (of any kind), "Personal Equipment," and (personal) "Weapons," Hardware-Handbuch 3031 details the sections further, resulting in this altered table of content:

  • Battlemechs [sic]
  • Panzer (Tanks)
  • Artillerie (Artillery)
  • Senkrechtstarter und konventionelle Flugzeuge (Vertical Takeoff and Landing and Conventional Aircraft)
  • Wasserfahrzeuge (Watercraft)
  • Hilfsfahrzeuge (Support Vehicles)
  • Ausrüstung (Personal Equipment)
  • Waffen (Weapons)
  • Schautafeln (Visual Aid, a "new" section that includes equipment sketches)
  • Index
Additional content from other sources[edit]

Expanded content includes various designs from other sources, complete with Technical Readout-style fluff, combat histories, and notable pilots. In detail these are:

  • The new section Battlemechs that includes five additional BattleMech designs
    • Flea - The 20-ton FLE-15 version. Combat history and Notable Pilots (Kare Devereux and Thheiba Shakir) were translated from an (apocryphal) write-up in Stardate Vol. 3 No. 1.
    • Raven - The standard Raven as statted in the House Liao (The Capellan Confederation) sourcebook. Like in that book, the ECM Equipment (for which no rules existed) was supposedly mounted in the Center Torso location despite occupying four critical slots. The Combat History write-up and single Notable Pilot (Kevin DeNato from the 1st McCarron's Armored Cavalry regiment) given were original and have not been translated or republished elsewhere.
    • Wolfhound - Combat History is a retelling of the 'Mech's history as described in the Warrior trilogy, with Daniel Allard given as the sole entry under Notable Pilots.
    • Cataphract - Also taken from the House Liao (The Capellan Confederation) sourcebook, with an original write-up that was not translated or published anywhere else. Combat History centers on the exploits of Notable Pilot Kalidas Aniro of Warrior House Kamata in the fighting against Andurien forces under Jimmy Lee on Betelgeuse.
    • Longbow - Combat history and Notable Pilots (Beater/Hunter team Oshira Muzakka and Jon Smallberry, and Cedrick Sveinson) were translated from an (apocryphal) write-up in Stardate Vol. 3 No. 2.
  • The Panzer section includes 23 vehicle designs, from which 20 were taken from TRO 3026, the additional designs are:
    • Plainsman - taken from Wolf's Dragoons sourcebook
    • Bandit - taken from Wolf's Dragoons sourcebook
    • Zhukov - taken from Wolf's Dragoons sourcebook
  • The Artillerie section includes 5 vehicle designs (Harasser, Hetzer, LRM/SRM Carrier, Pike, and Schrek), which are all included in TRO 3026, although none of them is technically considered as artillery under BattleTech Rules.
  • The Senkrechtstarter und Konventionelle Flugzeuge section lists 8 vehicle designs, from which 6 were taken from TRO 3026, the additional designs are:
    • Kestrel - taken from Wolf's Dragoons sourcebook
    • Peregrine - also taken from Wolf's Dragoons sourcebook
  • The Wasserfahrzeuge section lists 3 designs, which are all taken from TRO 3026.
  • The Hilfsfahrzeuge section lists 6 vehicle designs, from which 5 were taken from TRO 3026, the additional design is:
    • Badger - taken from Wolf's Dragoons sourcebook
Altered and missing content[edit]

The Ausrüstung and Waffen sections were rearranged as well, with some original content being left out. The stats provided for equipment were slightly altered, presumably to account for rule changes since the publication of TRO 3026.

  • The Ausrüstung section lists just 4 categories of equipment (Communicators, Sensors, Exoskeletons and Artificial Limbs), the following categories included in TRO 3026 were left out:
    • Electronic Suits
    • Rechargers
    • Miscellaneous Personal Equipment
  • The Waffen section restructures the original content in 3 new categories (Rückstoßfreie Gewehre und Flammer (Recoilless Rifles and Flamers), Mörser und Maschinengewehre (Mortars and Machine Guns) and Partikelprojektorkanonen und Laser (Particle Projector Cannons and Lasers), which describes combined just 9 weapon systems. The vast majority of weapons described in TRO 3026 was left out.
  • All original sketches of equipment that were not included in sections Ausrüstung or Waffen were compiled in new section Schautafeln, although no stats or any information other than its name were given.

All additional content technically falls outside of the current definition of canon and must thus be considered apocryphal.

Spelling and Names[edit]

As with other German products prior to 1997 spelling and names (especially places and units) as well as most abbreviations were regularly adjusted. For instance the Mech unit Archer was renamed to Schütze, the planet Gotterdammerung was respelled to Götterdämmerung, the DCMS (Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery) became VSDK (Vereinigte Streitkräfte des Draconis Kombinats) and so on.

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Stated as "Revised 1996 edition." in normal text above the trademark information on Page 2
  2. This false denomination is only used in Table of Contents, the heading in text body correctly says "Particle Projector Cannon".
  3. Units with colored images are: Pegasus, Harasser, J. Edgar, Ontos, Schrek, Pike, Partisan, Scorpion, Hunter, Demolisher, Manticore, SturmFeur, Sea Skimmer, Warrior, Monitor and Karnov