Technical Readout: 3026

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

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. The unit designs of TRO:3026 were reissued in 2003 as Technical Readout: 3026 Revised and eventually superseded by the more comprehensive Technical Readout: 3039.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

Vehicles

Ferret Light Scout VTOL

Savannah Master Hovercraft

Armored Personnel Carriers

Guardian Fighter

Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank

Warrior H-7 Attack Helicopter

Harasser Missile Platform

J. Edgar Light Hover Tank

Scorpion Light Tank

Sea Skimmer Hydrofoil

Karnov UR Transport

Hunter Light Support Tank

Pegasus Scout Hover Tank

Saladin Assault Hover Tank

Saracen Medium Hover Tank

Scimitar Medium Hover Tank

Striker Light Tank

Engineering Vehicle

Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun

Goblin Medium Tank

'MechBuster Fighter

Condor Heavy Hover Tank

Drillson Heavy Hover Tank

Maxim Heavy Hover Tank

Planetlifter Air Transport

Vedette Medium Tank

Bulldog Medium Tank

Hi-Scout Drone Carrier

LRM/SRM Carrier

Manticore Heavy Tank

Pike Support Vehicle

Monitor Naval Vessel

Demolisher Heavy Tank

Partisan Heavy Tank

Schrek PPC Carrier

SturmFeur Heavy Tank

Ontos Heavy Tank

Behemoth Heavy Tank

Neptune Submarine

Personal Equipment

Electronic Suits

Rechargers

Remote Sensors

Exoskeletons

Communicators

Artificial Limbs

Miscellaneous Personal Equipment

Weapons

General Game Use

Support Weapons

Recoilless Rifles

Flamers

Mortars

Machine Guns

Photon Particle Guns [sic]

Lasers

Personal Weapons

Needlers

Pistols

Pulse Lasers

Lasers

Submachine Guns

Rifles

Gyrojets

Grenades

LAWs

Miscellaneous

Personal Weapons Table

Support Weapons Table

Remarks on content

• 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,
    • 3 VTOL designs,
    • 3 Conventional Aircraft designs and
    • 3 Naval Vessels.
  • 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

German

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

Graphics

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. The unit's images at the correspending data sheets were instead shown in black and white.

Table of Contents

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

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

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

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

• 

  Original 1987 cover. Art by Duane Loose.

• 

  1992 German 1992 edition.

• 

  Image gallery #1 from German edition.

• 

  Image gallery #2 from German edition.

• 

  Image gallery #3 from German edition.

• 

  Image gallery #4 from German edition.