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On 20 August 3028, Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns launched the most successful Succession War in history. His goal was to simultaneously capture half of the Capellan Confederation, which would sideline the power of House Liao for decades, and launch a union that would lead to the formation of the largest, strongest interstellar power since the original Star League: the Federated Commonwealth. But the Fox was not content with his success, and a scant decade later moved to crush his age-old enemy, House Kurita. In April 3039, forces of Houses Davion and Steiner moved to slay an apparently weakened Dragon— only to face a fury of teeth and claws. The first in a new series, the Historical: War of 3039campaign sourcebook details the action involving every line unit in this pivotal war. Wave maps and full regiment listings convey additional details, while ample campaign rules provide a framework allowing players to replay every laser shot and autocannon blast. Sample file
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Page 1: Sample file - Wargame Vault · On 20 August 3028, Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns launched the most successful Succession War in history. His goal was to simultaneously capture

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On 20 August 3028, Hanse Davion of the Federated Sunslaunched the most successful Succession War in history. His

goal was to simultaneously capture half of the CapellanConfederation, which would sideline the power of

House Liao for decades, and launch a union thatwould lead to the formation of the largest,strongest interstellar power since the originalStar League: the Federated Commonwealth.But the Fox was not content with his

success, and a scant decade latermoved to crush his age-old enemy,House Kurita. In April 3039, forces of

Houses Davion and Steiner moved toslay an apparently weakened Dragon—

only to face a fury of teeth and claws.

The first in a new series, the Historical:War of 3039™ campaign sourcebook

details the action involving every lineunit in this pivotal war. Wavemaps and full regiment

listings convey additionaldetails, while ample campaign

rules provide a frameworkallowing players to replay everylaser shot and autocannon blast.

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Page 2: Sample file - Wargame Vault · On 20 August 3028, Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns launched the most successful Succession War in history. His goal was to simultaneously capture

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Page 3: Sample file - Wargame Vault · On 20 August 3028, Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns launched the most successful Succession War in history. His goal was to simultaneously capture

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THE HARDER THEY FALL 4Introduction 5

HOW THINGS CAME TO PASS 7The Rise of Teddy K 7

Independence Fever 8“I Will Fight No More Forever” 11

The War of 3039 11Allied Preparations 11DCMS Preparations 15

Rank and File 15PERSONALITIES 16

First Prince Hanse Davion 16Archon Melissa Steiner 17Archon-Emeritus Katrina Steiner 17Coordinator Takashi Kurita 18Gunji-no-Kanrei Theodore Kurita 19General Nondi Steiner 20Field Marshal Ran Felsner 21Field Marshal Vanessa Bisla 22Field Marshal Ardan Sortek 23Field Marshal Duke

James Sandoval 24Tai-shu Michi Noketsuna 25

WAVE ONE 26Commonwealth Thrust 28

Alnasi (April-May) 28Alrakis (April) 28Altais (April-June) 29Kessel (April-June) 30Konstance (April-July) 31Vega (April-June) 32

Dieron Thrust 33Ancha (April-June) 33Athenry (April-May) 34Biham (April-June) 34Dieron (April-June) 35Halstead Station (April-May) 36Kervil (April-June) 37Nashira (May-June) 37Pike IV (May-June) 38Sadachbia (April-June) 38Telos IV (April-June) 39

Benjamin Thrust 39Fellanin II (April-July) 41Klathandu IV (May) 42Marduk (May-July) 42Matar (April-July) 44New Mendham (April-July) 45Sadalbari (April-May) 45

Mercenary-Supported Actions 47Bergman’s Planet (March) 48Galtor III (February-March) 48Harrow’s Sun (March) 48

TABLE OF CONTENTSLima (March) 49McComb (March-July) 50New Aberdeen (March-July) 50Royal (March-April) 50

Galedon Thrust 51An Ting (April-June) 51Capra (May) 52Delacruz (May-July) 52Elidere IV (April) 53Huan (April) 55Thestria (May-July) 56

Other Wave One Actions 57Lyran Operations 58DCMS Operations 59FWL Operations 63

SHADOW WARS 64The Irregular War 64

The ISF War 64The LIC and MIIO War 66The Media Conflict 67Communications 68

WAVE TWO AND COUNTERATTACK 69Commonwealth Thrust 69

Alnasi (July-August) 70Alrakis (July-August) 70Altais (November) 74Kessel (July-December) 74Konstance (August-November) 75Vega (July-August) 76

Dieron Thrust 78Ancha (July-September) 78Athenry (July-December) 79Biham (July-September) 80Dieron (July) 82Halstead Station (August) 83Kervil (August) 83Nashira (July-November) 83Pike IV (July-November) 84Sadachbia (July-December) 86Telos IV (July-October) 86Miscellaneous Actions 88

Benjamin Thrust 88Fellanin II (August-September) 89Klathandu IV (August-October) 90Marduk (August-October) 91Matar (September-December) 93New Mendham (July-October) 94Sadalbari (July-October) 96Other Actions 97

Mercenary-Supported Actions 98Bergman’s Planet (August-

September) 99Galtor III (3041 and 3042) 99

Harrow’s Sun (July) 100Lima 100McComb 100New Aberdeen

(August-December) 101Royal 101

Galedon Thrust 102An Ting (July-August) 102Capra (July-October) 104Delacruz (August-September) 105Elidere IV (July-August) 106Huan (August-September) 107Thestria (August-September) 107Other Actions 108

DCMS Counter-Invasion 111Breed (July-November) 112Cartago (September) 113Clovis (August-September) 114Dobson (September) 114Doneval II (September-October) 115Exeter (September-October) 116Le Blanc (July-September) 117New Ivaarsen (August-October) 118Rochester (August-October) 118Xhosa VII (August-November) 119

Other Wave Two Actions 119Combine Operations 119Free Worlds League Operations 120Capellan Operations 122The Mac Attack 123Countering the Big Mac 127

AFTERMATH 131Aftershocks 131Repercussions: The Combine 134Repercussions: The Allies 134

DEPLOYMENT TABLE 135RULES ANNEX 142

Prototypes and Developmental Dead Ends 142Listen-Kill Missiles 144Prototype Systems 144

Force-Specific Abilities 145Unit Assignment Tables 145

Assigning Units 146Assigning Pilots 146

BattleForce 2 Command Lists 152The Inner Sphere in Flames:

War of 3039 Annex 153Special Rules 153Force Compositions 153Force Listings 155Leaders and Factions 165

INDEX 166

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Page 4: Sample file - Wargame Vault · On 20 August 3028, Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns launched the most successful Succession War in history. His goal was to simultaneously capture

CREDITSWriting

Chris HartfordChristoffer Trossen

Product DevelopmentRandall N. Bills

Product EditingDiane Piron-Gelman

BattleTech Line DeveloperRandall N. Bills

Production StaffArt Direction

Randall N. BillsCover Art

Klaus ScherwinskiCover Design

Jason VargasLayout

Jason VargasIllustrations

Kevin McCannChris LewisMatt Plog

MapsØystein Tvedten

AcknowledgementsTo the authors of the 20 Year Update

(Jim Musser, Donna Ippolito and Boy F.

Petersen, Jr.), the various Field Manualauthors (you know who you are) and inparticular Robert Charrette for the novelHeir to the Dragon, for building the frame-work off of which the War of 3039 couldbe fully fleshed out.

Special ThanksTo the Fact Checkers, who were shang-

haied from their work on the Handbookseries to work on this book: Paul Bowman,Peter La Casse, Mike Miller, Ben “GhostBear” Rome, Chris “Chinless” Wheeler; aswell as additional comments by Daniel Ball,Herbert Beas, Randall N. Bills, WarnerDoles, Paul Sjardijn and Øystein Tvedten. Tothe ever helpful proof checkers: Peter LaCasse, Rich Cencarik, Mike Miller, DavidMcCulloch, Ben Rome, Paul Sjardijn andØystein Tvedten.

PlaytestersJoel Agee, Ron “Steel Hawke” Barter, Rich

Cencarik, Brent Dill, John “Quentil”Dzieniszewski, John Alexander Gordon, JeffGreen, Aaron “Bear” Gregory, Anthony“Shadhawk” Hardenburgh, John “Worktroll”Haward, Glenn “Lobsterback” Hopkins,Michael “Konan” Koning, Edward“TenakaFurey” Lafferty, Chris “SCUG” Lewis,Darrell “FlamingDeath” Myers, Lou“Nukeloader” Myers, Aaron Pollyea, Simon“Big Ken” Pratt, Rick Raisley, Joel“Septicemia” Steverson, Geoff “97jedi” Swift,Scott “Clutch” Taylor, Roland “Ruger” Thigpen,

3

Todd Thrash, Jason “Panzerfaust 150” Weiser,Patrick “Roosterboy” Wynne

©2005 WizKids Inc. All Rights Reserved.Historical: War of 3039, AeroTech 2, Revised,Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech,BattleMech, Classic BattleTech RPG,MechWarrior, BattleForce 2, and WK Gamesare registered trademarks and/or trademarksof WizKids, Inc. in the United States and/orother countries. No part of this work may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, ortransmitted in any form or by any means, with-out the prior permission in writing of theCopyright Owner, nor be otherwise circulated inany form other than that in which it is pub-lished. Printed in the USA.

Version 1.0, February 2005, based on firstprinting.

Published by FanPro LLC • 1608 N. Milwaukee •Suite 1005 • Chicago, IL 60647

Find us online:[email protected] (e-mailaddress for any Classic BattleTech questions)http://www.mwdarkage.com (officialMechWarrior: Dark Age web pages)http://www.classicbattletech.com (officialClassic BattleTech web pages)http://www.fanpro.com (FanPro web pages)http://www.wizkidsgames.com (WizKids webpages)http://www.studio2publishing.com (onlineordering)

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Orbital Assault Trajectory, Telos IVDieron Military District, Draconis Combine13 August 3039

The rocking of the falling ’Mech made Chu-i JamesFujimori feel queasy, the fifteen-meter ceramic ovoid continu-ing to oscillate after its drogue chute deployed and yanked itupright. Now high in the atmosphere, the temperature insidethe pod began to fall and Fujimori no longer expected to beburned to a crisp.

“Hell of a way to gain my jump wings,” he muttered as hefought nausea. He hadn’t suffered space sickness on thetransport and had refused the tablets offered by the medicalorderly prior to the jump. Now he understood why the moreexperienced troops had sniggered at his bravado. His stom-ach heaved again as his inner ear reported wild oscillationswhile his eyes disagreed. Only another thir ty seconds.Please, only another thir ty seconds! He counted them down.

Almost per fectly on cue, his neurohelmeted headslammed forward, the sudden deceleration more than hisscrawny neck muscles could support. The restraint fitted tohis couch kept Fujimori from slamming headfirst into his com-mand console, but didn’t keep him from mashing his faceagainst the inner facing of the fragile helmet. He tastedblood, either from biting his lip or from his injured nose. He’dhave to wait until he was on the ground to check.

The deceleration faded, or at least his perception of it,and the cockpit instrumentation signaled a per fect deploy-ment of the main chute. The pod was now sub-sonic, a far cryfrom the almost 20,000 kph it had been traveling when itpunched into Telos’ upper atmosphere. Fujimori counted adozen seconds under his breath. He reached twenty-five andhis stomach lurched again as the plummeting drop-podpassed 10km altitude and the back-shell disengaged fromthe cocoon, freeing the ceramic egg from its parachute har-ness. The floor seemed to fall away. Rather than beingpressed down on the couch, he returned to freefall. This timeFujimori barely managed to lift the visor before he fouled hisfaceplate with vomit. The stomach spasms stopped, but nowthe stench assailed his sore nose. Something else to dealwith on the ground.

The cocoon began to spin, propelled in part by the back-shell release and accelerated by small pyrotechnic charges inanticipation of the final stage of separation. In carefullychoreographed sequence, additional charges detonatedthroughout the ceramic casing, some in solid blocks and oth-ers in linear arrangements. The artificial eggshell splinteredand cracked, sloughing off into the thickening air, thrownaway from the valuable cargo by centrifugal force. No longerprotected from the buffeting of the wind by its aerodynamic

cocoon, the Panther began to shudder violently, its controlledspin threatening to turn into an uncontrolled tumble. Fujimoriwrenched the humanoid body around into the traditional para-chutist’s pose and slowly drew its legs down so that the in-built jump jets could slow its descent. Without the jets, thislast phase was going to be very swift and end messily. Heneeded to concentrate on the movement controls and theattitude indicators. One wrong move or ill-timed distractioncould make the difference between life and death. He need-ed another twenty seconds, fifteen, ten …

The proximity aler t sounded. Fujimori’s attentionsnapped to the small drop-radar. With the pilot no longerfocusing on posture and attitude, the ’Mech began to tumble.

“Kuso,” he swore, as much at his own incompetence asat the inbound fighter that lit up the Threat Warning Indicator.For a moment panic gripped him, followed by steely calm. Allthoughts of the Dieron Regulars’ assault landing at TriumphSpaceport left his mind. The Way of the Samurai may bedeath but I’m not going to die here, he thought.

A dot appeared on the horizon and then, almost fasterthan his eyes could register, closed the gap with the falling‘Mech. In his brief glimpse of the flying machine Fujimori rec-ognized it as a Sparrowhawk, presumably one of the AvalonHussars. Its speed carried it flashing past, spitting fire as itwent. The jammers and noisemakers concealed in the cocoonshards drew some of its fire, but one laser beam struck thePanther high in the torso. The shot scored a long rent in thearmor but failed to breach its protective layers. The impactaccelerated the ’Mech’s tumble.

The Threat Warning Indicator remained on. Fujimori knewwhat that meant. The falling Panther was still the Davion fight-er’s target, the Sparrowhawk’s tracking radar maintaining a lockon the vulnerable descending ‘Mech. Fujimori realized he’dbeen lucky. The pod shards had protected him from the brunt ofthe attack, but on a second pass they would be a lot fartherfrom the Panther and the ’Mech would be much more vulnera-ble. He fought to maintain control of the falling machine, swear-ing at the sluggish controls while pulling, pushing and kickingwith all his might. The tumbling machine slowed, but Fujimoriwinced as he caught sight of his attacker’s contrails. At firstthey were heading away, but then they looped up and overbefore heading back toward him, an arrow pointed at his heart.

I’m dead, he thought. How do I get out of this?He rolled the Panther on its side and pointed his particle

cannon at the approaching streak. His bolt of man-made light-ning missed the approaching fighter by dozens of meters. Lastchance, he thought desperately as he aimed again. His fingertightened on the trigger as tracer fire lanced out across theSparrowhawk’s path. The Davion fighter pulled up and rolled,now more prey than hunter. A second fighter passed briefly

THE HARDER THEY FALL

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into Fujimori’s field of vision, this time a sleek Samurai inDieron Regulars colors. It pulled up sharply too, its contrailsentwining with those of the Davion fighter.

Fujimori in his Panther continued to fall. He became sud-denly, crashingly aware of the ground rushing up to meet him.Twisting desperately he aligned his ’Mech’s body with its feetdownward. Then he stamped hard on the jump pedals. ThePanther’s jets roared to life, slowing the descent. The ‘Mechcontinued to spin. From the corner of his eye he could seethe spaceport complex and beyond it the city, some dozenkilometers distant, but he didn’t have time to make a coursecorrection. He would need every ounce of skill to survive thelanding, let alone worry about where he came down.

He arched the ’Mech’s body again, seeking to control thespin, all the while maintaining pressure on the jet triggers. Airspeed bled off. An impact now would still be fatal, but atleast he wouldn’t leave a smear across the landscape. Analer t sounded as his altimeter recognized 500 meters. Onlyseconds remained of the descent. Fujimori triggered thebooster pack strapped to the Panther’s back. Solid rocketmotors cut in, fur ther slowing the plunging ‘Mech. The altime-ter warning rose in pitch to a scream. Fujimori began to pray.

Namu Amida Butsu. O Amida, I take refuge in you.There was a bone-shaking blow as the thir ty-five ton

’Mech touched down, its actuators struggling to absorb theimpact. Artificial bones and muscles creaked ominously andsensors flashed for attention. Yet the ’Mech remained intact,legs bending to absorb the stress. One knee grazed theground, tearing a jagged rent in the tur f, and the Panther fellforward. Fujimori’s right hand shot out. The sensor mesh builtinto his gloves recognized the action and produced a near-per-fect mimicry with the Panther’s own right arm. The massivehand dug into the tur f but the machine remained upright.Fujimori breathed heavily for what seemed like hours but wasprobably only half a minute, then triggered the commandmacro that stood the ’Mech upright once more. Dir t clung tothe leg and hand that had braced the unsteady machine, butthose were minor concerns now.

Pulling the Panther fully erect, Fujimori gave the ’Mech’sthrottle a shove and the humanoid machine took a step for-ward. He spun the massive war machine so that he couldobserve his immediate surroundings. Scorched grass markedhis landing site, some of it still burning from the rocket boost-er strapped to his back. He reached up to the overhead con-sole and armed a pair of switches before opening the coverover a third. He pressed it. Dull detonations sounded in hiscockpit as small pyrotechnic charges detonated and separat-ed the smoking rocket backpack from the ’Mech. He steppedforward again, clear of the straps and cables, and thenturned toward his objective, now lost beyond the horizon butclearly identifiable by the rising plume of smoke.

Time to join this war, he thought, and bring the Dragon’svengeance to his enemies. Fujimori advanced the throttle andthe ’Mech accelerated into a long-legged lope that wouldquickly eat up the kilometers.

The Davion teki won’t know what hit them.

INTRODUCTION

Victor,You may wish to circulate this treatise among your troops.

I have not corrected any of General Caradoc Trevena’s mis-conceptions about the participants or their motivations—I’msure you can understand why—but even as it stands, it pro-vides a comprehensive overview of the War of 3039 and cer-tainly avoids the political bias of Misha Auburn. I have alwaysliked Misha and her father, but neither of them has ever let goof their Steiner roots. Trevena has generally managed to bal-ance his heritage with an unbiased view of events. He doesn’tput your mother and father on a pedestal, nor does he paintTheodore as the bogeyman—a portrayal unfortunately preva-lent in contemporary AFFS and LCAF accounts. He looks at thefacts, not the image, and understands why the war happenedthe way it did and what we can learn from it.

Trevena used the DCMS, LCAF and AFFS archives to buildhis picture of the conflict, providing unparalleled insights into theactions on both sides. Where he errs is in the interpretation ofmaterial that remains classified, and also in seeking to examinethe motivations of the participants. As regards the latter, he cando little more than make educated guesses, though his “wildstabs in the dark” are often more insightful than those of thirty-year veterans in the Lyran military—in particular some of thosebuffoons now seeking to ingratiate themselves with young Peter.

One thing is worth noting. Trevena portrays your great-aunt Nondi in a favorable light that is at odds with currentperceptions of her. He depicts her as a strong and insightfulleader, moody but competent—a far cry from the caricatureput about during her regency. She and I never got on particu-larly well—childhood rivalries and all that—but I did respecther accomplishments and abilities. It is refreshing to see areport that does her justice and stands as a testament to afine General of the Armies.

I commend the manuscript to your hands. Take it toTharkad and the Star League conference and share it withHohiro and his colleagues. I should see you there, but I admitmy new garden here is most distracting. You should visit mesoon and I will tell you tales of this place and its distin-guished visitors that will prove valuable in your present role.

—Anastasius Focht,Mimir House, Fort Odin,Dromini IV, Lyran Alliance

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