Tactical Handbook

Tactical Handbook
Product information
Type	Rulebook
Development	Rob Cruz Scott Jenkins Sam Lewis
Primary writing	Jim Long Stuart Johnson (LAM rules)
Pages	80
Cover Artwork	Doug Chaffee (Painting) Joel Biske (Design)
Illustrations	Paul Daly John Paul Lona
Publication information
Publisher	FASA
Product code	8630
First published	1994
ISBN-10	1555602126
ISBN-13	978-1555602123
MSRP	$12.00
Content
Era	Clan Invasion era
Timeline	ca. 3055

Description

The BattleTech Tactical Handbook was the first expansion to the BattleTech board game that included so called Rules Level Three optional rules and equipment. These rules included the much-maligned Combat Value system for balancing force and the Double-Blind rules that enable players and a gamemaster to allow both sides the use of hidden units. Plenty of new arms, armor, and ammunition debuted. Some of the equipment and rules were later included in Maximum Tech.

From the back cover

“

Thirty-one hours ago your lance commander ordered you into position. Twenty-eight hours ago you finished draping the thermal camo tarps over your 'Mech. And for the past 27 hours you've been sitting in your cockpit, systems on minimum power, waiting in the dark — waiting for the Clans. Suddenly your thermal sensors detect multiple 'Mechs moving 100 meters directly ahead. Your fingers fly over the weapons controls, disengaging PPC field inhibitors, hot-loading LRMs... green board. A single pull of the trigger sends fiery missile plumes and white-hot plasma streaking through the air, and the night erupts in a lethal inferno... The BattleTech Tactical Handbook is an advanced-rules supplement for the BattleTech game universe. The Handbook provides advanced rules and equipment that enables players to add new depth and intensity to their games. Guidelines for creating long-term campaigns and double-blind games, formulas for calculating the combat values of all BattleTech combat units, detailed descriptions of advanced weapon systems and more make the BattleTech Tactical Handbook a necessity for the serious BattleTech player.

”

Contents

• Introduction
• New Rules
  • Thunder LRMs
  • Double-Blind Rules
  • Operational Game
  • Combat Values

• Level Three Rules
  • Modified Movement Sequence
  • Artillery
  • BattleMech Engine Explosions
  • BattleMech Sensors
    • Electromagnetic Sensors
    • Seismic Sensors
    • Thermographic Sensors
  • Craters
  • Disengaging PPC field inhibitors
  • Four-Legged 'Mechs
  • Hidden Placement
  • Hot Loading LRMs
  • Hull-Down Rules
  • Interlocking Streak Missiles
  • Jumping Fire
  • Land-Air BattleMechs
  • Line of Sight
    • Partial Cover
  • MechWarrior Damage
  • Selecting Terrain Elevation

• New Equipment
  • Ballistic Weapons
    • Caseless Autocannon
    • Hyper-Velocity Autocannons
    • LB-X Autocannons
    • 'Mech Mortars
    • Ultra Autocannons
  • Missile Systems
    • Acid (AX) Warhead
    • Anti-Personnel (AP) Warhead
    • Dead-Fire Missiles
    • Extended Long-Range Missiles
    • HS (Heat Seeking) Warhead
    • Magnetic-Pulse Warhead
    • Smoke Warhead
    • Streak Missile Systems
    • TC (Tandem-Charge) Warhead
    • Thunderbolt Launcher
  • Physical Weapons
    • Claw
    • Mace
  • BattleMech Accessories
    • Angel ECM Suite
    • Bloodhound Active Probe
    • Command Console
    • Coolant System
    • Mechanical Jump Boosters
    • Watchdog System
  • Defensive Armaments
    • Blazer Armor
    • Glazed Armor
    • Laser Anti-Missile System
  • Static Defenses
    • Bunkers
    • Field Works
    • Fortifications
    • Installations
  • MechWarrior Gear
    • Ablative/Flak Cooling Suit and Vest
    • Computer Voice Circuit
    • Damage-Interrupt Circuit
    • SLDF Neurohelmet

• Weapon and Equipment Tables

Notes

• A number of pieces of optional equipment are carried over from Unbound, an earlier book with optional tech.
• The Tactical Handbook was the last official publication to include the rules for construction and use of Land-Air 'Mechs, the previously tournament legal designs moved to optional/non-legal status with this book, signaling their decline and removal from the BattleTech universe.
• The book was written from perspective of the early to mid-3050s, including still non–tournament legal "prototype" Inner Sphere versions of the previously Clan-only LB-X and Ultra Autocannons and Streak launchers which would later become Rules Level 2 with the Field Manual: Draconis Combine and Field Manual: Free Worlds League prior to their "official" inclusion in BattleTech Master Rules.
• A number of pieces of equipment described here, such as the Extended Long-Range Missiles systems, are not tournament legal. Instead they have been recategorized as Advanced or Experimental Technology. This equipment is defined further in Interstellar Operations and Tactical Operations.
• The trademark title was BattleTech Tactical Handbook.