Victor Davion is THE main character of Classic Battletech

Cafe Society
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SPOILERS!!!

Think about it; the first books write about the Fourth Succession War, which start because his parents (rulers of two out of five Successor States, for the uninitiated) get married. The last CBT fiction novels were about the Civil War in which he deposed his Usurper sister Kathrynne, renounced his claims as a Successor Lord, and became the Precentor-Martial of Comstar again, effectively making him the leader of the New SLDF, head of the largest army in the Universe, and personally charged with keeping the peace and staving off the Clans aggression.

For further evidence, let’s look at all the trilogies:

Warrior trilogy, by Michael A. Stackpole: Story of the 4th Succession War

Blood of Kerensky trilogy, by Stackpole: Story of the Clan Invasion, including the leaders of the Succesor States responses to it.

Legend of the Jade Phoenix trilogy, by Robert Thurston: specifically the life of a member of the Jade Falcon Clan. Not related to Victor.

Twilight of the Clans, actually an 8-book set by several of the big authors: The story of the formation of the new Star League (at the behest of Kathrynne Steiner-Davion, the sister who had their mother assasinated), the unified campaign against Clan Smoke Jaguar (led by Anastisius Focht, Victor’s great-uncle, and Victor), the jounrey to the Clan homeworlds to eradicate the Smoke Jaguars (where Victor ultimately saves the day), the futures of Thurston Jade Falcon characters, Victor’s Trial of Refusal against the Clans to stop the Invasion, and Victor’s return home to find Kathrynne has now completed her usurpation of the throne their parents left him. Oh, and the acceptance by Theodore Kurita (ruler of the long-time enemy of Victor’s realm, the Fed-Com) of Victor’s relationship with Omiko, Theodore’s daughter.

“End Game trilogy” (series of three books directly related to one another, but never listed as a trilogy), by Loren L. Coleman: The story of the Fed-Com civil war in which Victor finally deposes his sister, Omi gets assasinated (at Kathrynne’s demand) but not before giving birth to Kitsune Kurita (Kitsune are many-tailed fox demons known for trickery in Japanese myth, Victor’s dad Hanse was known as “The Fox” for his military cunning), who is secreted away and raised as a child of one of Omi’s cousins. Victor formally dissolves the Fed Com into it’s two former states, the Lyran Commonwealth (now the Lyran Alliance), and the Federated Suns, and leaves their care to his two remaining siblings (Arthur is “killed off” in the beginning of the series), Peter and Yvonne. The Inner Sphere is left in an uneasy peace, and the Clans are too busy fighting eachother to be of any imminent threat. This series was meant to wrap up Battletech’s fiction, back when FASA was going out of business, and before series-creator Jordan Weisman’s new company Wizkids Games bought up the rights and authorized Fanpro to continue the Classic series (Weisman was more interested in jumping ahead ~80 years to start a new product line). Interesting note, Stackpole wrote the original outline for the first book Patriots and Tyrants.

So, any questions?

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Is the PPC still the coolest weapon around?

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NAH, the Gauss Rifle totally kicks it’s butt.

Same damage, longer range, NO HEAT, ammo that can’t explode, and it’s not as big as the AC-20. Only catch is the weapon itself can explode with a critical hit ala ammo, and causes feedback damage to the pilot if it happens. But CASE protects from GR explosions same as ammo explosions. Ooh! Ooh! And third-level (not tournament accepted) rules allow for muzzle-loading gauss rounds spilled by other units, or indeed, any magnetic-metal object. Although non-standard ammo has reduced range, and IIRC, a to-hit penalty, and can damage the rifle (if you miss a skill-check roll), causing all future shots to be penalized (until it’s repaired).

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well, one point of heat, but let’s face it, that might as well be 0 with the double heat sinks that got added to the game around the same time.

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I always loved the first generation Phoenix Hawk.

Also Panther, and Thunderbolt.

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Three things:

First, yeah, the gauss is nice, but eight rounds of ammo per ton? If you’re going one on one in an arena match, sure, take a gauss, it’ll be over within a few volleys, but in any extended conflict it’s madness to automatically declare a gauss rifle superior to a PPC. (And to be picky, I think you mean it’s the same damage as an ER PPC - the classic PPC was 10 heat, 10 damage; the ER version bumped the damage to 15, and increased the heat to 15 for the Inner Sphere version.)

Second, why do you spell it Kathrynne instead of Katrina/Katherine? I’ve never seen the ‘Kathrynne’ spelling in any of the books.

Thirdly, if you extend ‘classic BattleTech’ to beyond Victor’s Trial of Refusal, then clearly he’s the main character - he appears in nearly every book, and is even mentioned in a good number of the standalones! However, being the crusty old fart that I am, I define ‘classic BattleTech’ as anything up to the Fourth Succession War. Newfangled jibberjabber extended-range weaponry…

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Heh. Mechs are for wimps. Real Men play tank-mashers, ariel battleships, Excess Chainsaw Massacres, Mosquito Swarms, and bombardiers.

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Bosda : If you liked the Macross inspired Phoenixhawk, check out the new Technical Readout: Project Phoenix . It’s a series of visual-redesigns of the original anime-inspired Mechs to bring them back into the product line. The Phoenixhawk is featured prominently, and looks pretty slick if you ask me. :cool: Unfortunately, there has yet to be a new product including rules for LAM’s, so it isn’t quite the same thing as the old-school rareities. :frowning:

Ino :

First, you’re right about the ER PPC. My primary interest in BT was always mech design, however, and once the Clan-tech got introduced, IS tech was dead to me, so I tend to remember everything by it’s Clan stats. I still dropped the ER because the Clans only have the one type of PPC.
However, the Gauss Rifle still is pretty impressive, considering if you’re carrying something that big you might as well set aside a few tons for ammo, and I don’t know about you but most games I ever played didn’t last much longer than ~30 rounds, so 3 tons (24 slugs) of Gauss usually put me in good stead.

As for spelling Katherine’s name wrong, well, simple mistake. :o I was writing fast, and have trouble keeping track of which spelling people use anyway. I don’t consider her Katrina because she changed her name to that form as a propaganda stunt to win over the Lyran people by associating herself more closely with her grandmother, who was still a revered figure amongst the Germanic people.

Lastly, I get what you’re saying about Classic, but… “Classic Battletech” is the official terminology used by the makers of the series (Wizkids Games, which is owned by the series-creator Jordan Weisman, and FanPro, who hold the license to continue making products for the game) to distinguish it from the NEW tabletop game Mechwarrior: Dark Age (whose subtitle changes with each new expansion to the rules). FYI, when the new MW series started, the old RPG by that name was re-named Classic Battletech: Role-Playing Game (CBT:RPG). So if I say Classic BT, I am using the manufacturer’s terminology to denote the entire product line as we knew it.

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Like I said, in a single round of combat on a single board, a Gauss is well worth its weight, but in an extended campaign, the limited ammunition becomes problematic right quick. I mean, if you’re just matching one mech up against another, sure, go for the “instant win but no staying power” design.

Yeah, I’ve read the books too, I know why she tried to call herself Katrina and why Victor kept calling her Katherine. I think Stackpole mentioned it at least once in every chapter. :wink:

And all of that is newfangled jibberjabber. Damn Wizkids! Get offa my lawn! I never really bought into the technological developments. It felt like they had to keep making everything bigger, faster, and stronger with each new rule change in order to keep people interested. For me, it felt like it was getting too far away from its roots.

I’m the BT equivalent of the guy who keeps watching his 12" black & white TV instead of getting the 54" high-def plasma wall-mounted unit.

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Ino said:

Not to be asinine (sp?), but yeah, of course everything kept getting bigger, faster, and stronger with each new product run. Each new product run moved the fictional time forward by at least a few years and, you know? Military technology is known to advance over time. :wink:

Just goofing around, man.