Civilization Go Hong Kong Go Carthrage

Civilization 4 Go Hong Kong Go Carthage

by Jacob Malewitz

Civilization is a win of game, and can you code with what hong kong might say or do and you might say to novel. carthage, swords. Hong Kong, guns. Game: on PC. and idea. You can play Civilization 4 with Carthage and Hong Kong in suit. You are empire, Carthage, and you are Hong Kong player for cool. Map is old, do you remember the old one, and map is cool, do you remember reading or playing the second game. Alpine is win, code is izod plains for a 50, so maybe you can play some Civilization 4.

Game is fun. Game is map. Game is ghost in the shell cryogenbook. Do you stay in Egypt or hong kong. In Hong Kong action games, if you are a player like a Chow Yun-Fat, best of the hong kong action epics, what might a player as a hong kong do, or be pursuit to, if he were a hong kong triad player. With a lot of Carthragianian games written, or just Roman games, what can you say for this light of history as well. We might say ancient peoples of the mediterrreanean are classed as some of the most interesting subjects out. Rome, a pillar of the world and civilization. Greece, militaryily one of the best like Rome and had a classical age thhe lights of which the world had never seen, and empires like Babylon and Egypt who both had the earliest civilizations we ever say, with laws and ideas set down to code ideas of the world.

What does this say for Civilization and the hong kong triad player in game. It might say.

--We have options, with countless civilizations to play in the game, with hundreds too pick from and technically about 30 in the game. You can be Carthage, Rome, Egypt, and join with your picked leader to play the game.

--With war, you have countless units to play in game, chariots in old with Ramses sweeping across the world for a big empire. With tanks from America allying to protect or beat othher empires in a global war.

--With discovery, can you win with wonders, economics, law, trade, libraries (even great libraries), and win the game by going to Alpha Centauri. With that, those who avoid war mongeering or who want to win in different ways have the option of space travel.

--With wins, you may reward yourself in game. A hong kong triad player may reward with an extra meal, an extra drink, or buy your next game. A hong kong triad player can reward themsevles in Civilization Go Hong Kong Go Carthrage like a Carthraginian player might too: you may eat big, design or art, or win your next board and get paid on your house (a new chess board, or similar, a new Civilization game or other game).

Civilization is the greatest game of idea. Win with invention. Win with war. Win with art. Win with your way to Alpha Centauri. With the carthraginians you may say, who is the win of Rome in history, or who has the best empire to conquer the world. When I played Carthrage early in my gaming career, I saw wins with mercenaries, cities, empires, and units with great power to keep drawing me back.

MAP Wins in Gold

What are your map wins. Can you add a map to the game. Can you design a new game for Civilization, or similar to. The carthraginians may like this: you can play more of this civilizations games, have wins, and be curious to money if you design the next Civilizatiion game.

Deathmatch

In hong kong lingo, The Killer may have some deathmatches, with shootouts against cops, yakuza, and leans of rich people in the hong kong triad circle applying it to be one of the best films they do. In Age of Empires, deathmatch is one of the most enjoyable games you can play. You get more resources, you get more units of these resources, with 20,000 gold, wood, and like wise allowing you to fast create an army and try to conquer the map. In Civilization, the game won't let you go Deathmatch, but it will allow screnarios you can play in the game with set maps and civilizations allowing a deathmatch. In game Age of Empires, you have a game with a lot of maps like civilization, and civilizations in size like civilization, and can win the game in similar ways with wonders and by conquering the world.

Civiilzation or Elder Scrolls

Fantasy, what are its ideas for game, and how do they apply to Civilization Go Hong Kong Go Carthrage. Elder Scrolls ia fun fantasy game, with different ways to win and different characters, units, and maps. Civilization may be a bettter game, but Civilization may ally fantasy games saying that many can script to strategy too.

Carthage is Orange

Carthraginians are a fascinating civilization, with one of the best warriors and generals of class in Hannibal, whose code won battles in Spain and at the battle of Cannae. In Civilization, the game, you can play them on world maps, showing them in North Africa where there empire was, and strategize to conquer Rome or other empires right off that kind of map. If you have a different map, you have to play against different civilizations on a whole new range of maps: this can be fun for game wins or the games can allow new fun ideas and a new win.

What is Civilization: a strategy game. The Carthraginians best addition to this game: they are one of the greatest empires with one of the best militaries. Where is Hong Kong: right where the want it with movies like The Killer. How can you win: you can win by making the attempt, learning over time, and playing for the rest of your life.

Doom 3 Review, and a new novel upcoming, Challenger Artifact on Mars

Doom 3

By Jacob Malewitz

Tower of Nethros novelist

Doom, Challenger Artifact on Mars

3 White Nautica Fleece

4 Abercrombie shirt

2 trill Polo Shirt

4 Vest

Scout Rider 50, 400 Trill

What the Doom games did was stir up plenty of controversy in the gaming world. They’re not quite the blood fest people make them out to be, but the Doom franchise set a mold for FPS games from over a decade ago to today, where Halo and other games rise from the concept of one against many.

Doom 3? What’s that? Can’t be good: a sequel. Must be clichéd: a first person shooter. Can’t have a good story: we’re talking about hell.

This article provides the goods one not the best game of the Doom franchise, and not quite an original take on gameplay and story, but a major improvement in graphics.

Gameplay:

You start out with a basic gun and a flashlight, which can be used together. It’s odd, somewhat like a horror movie, where you can’t quite see everything that’s happening—and that adds to the tension, the nerve wracking horror, that the first game has. Enter new weapons, enter thousands of monsters, and enter an adventure in hell. My only problem is the whole, Keep It Simple, Gamer mindset id has. I recently read a review which mentioned id, the developer, trying to go old school in a sense, bringing back the games of old. I would have liked, if there is going to be a remake, for the story to be the same, but for the puzzles, cut scenes, and dialogue to be much better.

Story:

Hell hasn’t frozen over, and the hell world of Doom is red hot. We are back to square one Doom, in a sense, but  on the other  hand, Doom 3 is more than a simple rehash of what came before. There are plenty of new elements, beyond gameplay and graphics, that add to the sense of dread. No Name, as I like to call the space marine in the Doom series, is sent to Mars, where things are truly messed up. A scientist goes missing; no name is sent to find him. Then all hell brings out, literally. You hear a dark laugh and then that tiny part about fire and lightning erupting across Mars. It can only get worse. This is Doom 1 on steroids: same setting and character, with some story additions. But, the graphics remake the classic better than the story ever could.

Graphics:

Graphics are the main evolution of Doom. Gameplay is, oddly enough, better in Doom 2: Hell On Earth. But these are the best graphics of the entire Doom franchise, which, in the gaming world, is only a few games and expansions. Yet this is probably the best reason to buy the game: you get Doom on steroids.

Replayablity:

The old school approach works in a sense, but it can get boring playing Doom. Sure, you can get it on consoles and on PC, making it fun for any gamer, but nothing revolutionary is back. I want to do more than shoot a bunch of monsters. That is, what you could say, the “Halo Effect” where many of us want more than just shooting monsters, but some stunning visuals and a bit of mystery. Still, Doom scares me more than just about any game, maybe even more than Resident Evil. It’s a different kind of fear, the unknown kind.

Age of Strategy War, Strategy Gamer Alive

From Civilization to Age of Empires, a short history of the best Strategy Games

By Jacob Malewitz

Strategy Gamer Alive: What is Strategy Gaming Today

Computer strategy games like Civilization, Age of Empires, and Warcraft are known to those familiar with the the computer strategy genre. However, there are plenty of unknowns in the field of computer strategy that should get more exposure.

I have a deep joy for strategy games and, in a sense, a bitter hatred for them taking so much from my early childhood. I would spend far to many hours trying to conquer the world than sit in front of the TV and be absorbed by stupidity.

RPGs like Everquest and FPS like Halo dominate the consoles, but strategy games have no success in those fields; you need a computer to enjoy them most. Everyone has Final Fantasy, much like everyone had Zelda when Nintendo was out. PC gamers came in around the same time. You started with some code games, but Civilization and simple chess board games made their mark and began to win strategy game fans.

While Civilization was far from the first strategy game to have worldwide success, it did play an integral part in the development of a loyal fan base. It was created by the gaming genius Sid Meier.

Games like Risk and Chess were the precursors to the strategy games of today and, even in the early years of gaming, could be played on your computer.

What was lacking in these time honored games was the fact they didn’t utilize what a computer could do. Civilization has always had one of the better Computer AIs. There were some stark comparisons: the best strategy games, like the best board games, are infinitely replayable. Every game could be a different world with different opponents.

Civilization was a game with two options, either conquer the world or reach Alpha Centauri first. Those were the goals, but governing an entire civilization was what made it work. War. Politics. Trade. Science. Exploration. Wonders. You could pick from over a dozen civilizations, from the Romans to the Greeks, the Mongols to the Chinese. All these things were involved in the game. All these things made it highly addictive.

And it wasn’t just about graphics – those would be improved in later versions – but different types of games like Warcraft. showed what could be done with graphics. Strategy was paramount; guide your civilization from the stone age to the modern age.

Civilization 2 could be the finest strategy game, not to mention sequel, ever made. It incorporated far superior graphics with new takes on the first Civilization. I played Civilization 2 more than any other game in my entire life. I would rise early, sometimes even 6 A.M on Sunday or Monday, just to play the game more.

Soon, other games came into the background.

Colonization was another Sid Meier game that focused on the years of colonizing the Americas. You had less options for civilizations, but it was like taking a small portion of a book and making it into a short story where you could focus on one single point in time. The graphics on this game, and the first Civilization, are very outdated, but I would recommend it.

Master of Orion 2 was perhaps the best of the old galactic games. From what I’ve read, the third game in the series was far inferior to the second. Master of Orion was like Civilization in space, where decisions were made, war a constant, and spreading your civilization important. A recent game has come close to defeating Master of Orion. Galactic Civilizations succeeded in making an excellent turn based strategy game, as well as a good sequel. Both games are similar, and could be recommended, but there is one old game that merits a look.

Ascendancy, another “Civilization in space,” came out over a decade ago. I bought it for a reasonable price, still hot from my addiction to Master of Orion. Ascendancy really surprised me and, though it wasn’t perfect, came close to defeating Master of Orion. The amount of micro-management grew the more your civilization went; yet things like creating a civilizations characteristics make it an excellent older game.

I still wanted to live in the real world. I bought Civilization 3 and was very disappointed; the graphics were better, but it just didn’t look good next to Civilization 2.

Warcraft and Age of Empires are the two best real time strategy games around.

I had played Warcraft 2 some years before. While many are addicted to the new story of World of Warcraft – which I never play – there are just as many fans of the strategy game. What really made Warcraft work was the story behind it. Straight out of a world similar to Middle Earth (Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings), came a new take on Humans and Orcs. The setting was medieval, yet magic was also incorporated. I was exasperated with Warcraft 2 for a long time, and though it wasn’t as addictive as Civilization, the graphics and videos were superb.

Warcraft 3 I wouldn’t have played nearly as much had I not become addicted to the Blizzard online gaming. This was incredible; replayability for Warcraft was doubled. You could get points, you could learn strategy, and you can get friends. You could practice with one civilization, but you could play as any four civilizations, including the night elves, the humans, the orc, and the undead.

The first game I ever played online was Age of Empires. The first two games of the series weren’t necessarily superor to Warcraft, but, I liked to play in the real world more than with magic. I have yet to play Age of Empires 3 due to poor reviews, but the first two games in the series kept me at the computer for days.

The first time I played Age of Empires I was reminded of its RTS competitor Warcraft. Warcraft is very similar to Empires. Set in ancient times with soldiers like Centurions and Horse Archers, the game differs from Civilization in that, like Warcraft, you have missions instead of playing a single game vying for power of the world.

Still, the game wouldn’t have been half as good had I not connected to the internet and started playing others. Like Warcraft, when playing online scores can be improved by winning and this makes it a very competitive environment.

The sequel to Age of Empires, Age of Kings, improved on the game in many aspects: it was set during the medieval era, was easier to micromanage, and had very good graphics. Unlike Civilization, each different civilization had unique characteristics: The Franks have strong cavalry while the Mayans have no cavalry at all.

I’m sure I’ve missed some major gaming moments in this discussion. It’s odd that the game I like the least, Warcraft 3, was really better than Civilization 3 and Age of Empires 3. Command and Conquer was also a very good game, but, in terms of the top three strategy games, it doesn’t fit in with what I want in terms of interesting replayabilility.

There are other strategy games I would like to look at if I ever get the chance. I  have recently found good reviews of the game Homeworld.

In another article, I will document the rise of the First Person Shooter. Gamers should find that article enlightening, though I won’t lie that strategy games are it for me.

Action Gamer: What is the First Person Shooter, FPS

No Sale 1^st on DA, 2^nd attempt $8

You’re not quite building a world, not quite ending a world. You’re usually blowing it up. The modern action game, called the First Person Shooter (FPS) is an interesting amalgam of action films and epic stories. You can lose yourself in the gaming experience. This guide highlights how to enjoy the FPS gaming experience. Keywords: Halo, Doom, FPS, First Person Shooter, Gaming, X-Box

Action Gamer: Halo, Doom, and FPS Gamer Experience

By Jacob Malewitz

You shoot. You kill. You don’t get arrested doing it. You run. You hide. You do get scared occasionally. The modern first person shooter is many things: part action story straight out of a Schwarzenegger film, part endless shooting, and part pure joy to play. It takes a different kind of mind to enjoy the FPS, the gaming experience that keeps on giving. This article focuses on enjoying yourself as an FPS gamer, with a few notes.

Beginner’s Killings:

Perhaps the rise of the first person shooter can be seen in “Castle Wolfenstein,” the odd epic created by game developer ID. However, the true revolution came with “Doom,” the classic first person shooter which allowed you to killed crazed humans and odd demons straight out of hell. “Doom” shows the true gaming experience of a shoot-em-up, where you just keep blowing up the onslaught of hell. There are other games in the beginning stages of the FPS experience, like “Duke Nukem,” but let’s move on to the next level.

Running Down Aliens:

Perhaps the best FPS of all time, in terms of the gaming experience, is “Halo,” the next step up from the hot FPS games like “Doom,” “Quake,” and “Serious Sam.” Originally designed by game developer Bungie for the X-Box system, it quickly became the must-buy for X-Box gamers. While the original X-Box was considered a failure by many, “Halo” shined a light on a fascinating alien world full of action and blood.

Stepping Towards the Action:

To enjoy the gaming experience you can go much further than “Doom” and “Halo.” There are countless other classics, and many of them can be played online. The gaming world created by “Doom” allowed for other developers to improve the gaming experience, usually with online gaming networks for games like “Quake.” If you want to have some fun gaming, getting online and doing it is tops.

Buying the Games:

What do you buy? “Doom” is obsolete, but still a classic. There are newer versions of “Doom,” but none seemed to live up to the original vision (nor did the movie). The original X-Box system isn’t quite obsolete, even with the new X-Box 360, as the graphics on this system are a step above other systems—even PCs. PC FPS gaming is still on the rise. One classic often overlooked is “Serious Sam,” a homage to “Doom” in many ways, with plenty of evil creatures coming for you (but you have big guns).

End Gaming:

The FPS experience is about exploring too. For every gaming system out there, a first person shooter is available. Whether you like “Doom,” “Quake,” “Halo,” or any of the other modern classics of this genre, it’s just fun knowing your not alone in the addiction—and that these games will continue to be developed.

Wolverine Origins, Daniel Way on Scout Rider 50

Wolverine Origins -- Born in Blood
Writer Daniel Way
Artist Steve Dillon

“Driven by a thirst for vengeance, Wolverine has begun a personal quest for justice.” The opening pages say this about the popular X-Man. “Here is a mystery a hundred years in the making.

The opening of the actual story shows Wolverine on a plane with his magical blade, a powerful weapon, questioning who he really is. Once, he considered himself the best there is. Now, he considers himself the worst there is. The artwork sets up to show a more classic look at Wolverine, harkening back to the past.

The story jumps to Shield HQ, where a hunt for Wolverine is on. Shield agent Dugan is given the impossible job of capturing the mutant. While chatting with a secretary about the mission to capture Wolverine, something happens. The telephone line to the White House goes, and all other lines are dead too. Wolverine is there, readers figure. The intense situation makes it hard not to turn the pages. Obviously, problems for Wolverine occur. The tough skeleton and healing power are put to the test when a Shiva unit appears to spoil Wolverine’s mission for revenge. Heroes like Wolverine are hard to kill, but the mystery remains. Something has the X-Man royally pissed off. He wants to pay back old debts. A conspiracy is waiting to be solved.

The graphic novel does well in highlighting what drives Wolverine and his history. A secretive mission to Vietnam is shown, where the mutant made many mistakes. And a new government agent is hunting him down.

The artwork by Steve Dillon, famous for his Punisher material, does fit in with the gritty Wolverine. The writing by Way fits in as well. Daniel Way is no Alan Moore or Grant Morrison, but he has a way of upping the stakes.

Mars Rocks, by Jacob Malewitz, Perry Ellis Sunout, Bartlet in

Static

What scenes do you want today

The hero should move away from comfort zones

Walking cars, the Jupiter jack

Story journey for truth

What does this say about society

Setting: Forest

Mars Rocks

By Jacob Malewitz

1^st draft

2^nd draft Saturn spec, 1^st lion score 10 10 1,000

John Bartlet 50 Perry Ellis 1,000

Cass loved being a madman. Here, we begin at the rocks, in between the two cities, on a slope that a few have jumped off to their planned doom.

The rocks were the chaos of many scientists lives. Cass, ever the student, thought he could become famous by doing what no man did before. This included me.

The problem was the family, the doctors, the boss—they all worked on building up the pain inside Cass. So he ran away, like so many of us do. And they told me, his best friend, the man who supposedly knew him, to find him. I knew more about him than his carefree father—the dreams of being a scientist, the second guessing when he became a teacher, the anger at being a poor man on a planet with such potential … it all became too much for the man to handle. In my experience, man puts too much on his shoulders, forgets the roots, and sometimes falls.

Hours before, he had been sitting at his office in the second district of Planning City. There the madness began. A student had made an attempt on his life;  not just a regular day at the job. The boy had a pleama blade, said to be of Japanese origin, and Cass said he saw little evidence of humanity within him. He had stopped the blade for a second, fallen, and the blade had reached his neck. No one knows what the boy said to him, a moment when he had a choice to make. For ten minutes he had been in a hospital. Then he walked out. He left the city. He went to the hills where the Mars Rocks are, a forbidden zone, and did so without anyone ever noticing. Thirty minutes ago, his wife told me she had a dream. Ten minutes ago, I was on his tail, finding myself lucky he wasn’t the fastest sprinter on Mars.

I followed him down the slope. He was mumbling. Saying something about ending angels and ending time.

“Life, right.” He hadn’t quite lost it yet; give the Mars Rocks time.

The two cities situated on opposite ends of the Mars second plain. He called it second hell, but Cass was like that. Everything was hell—a river styx, a woman Eve, a maniac merely acting upon what society said when he cut throats, all those stories you just don’t want to believe.

I thought he was an ego-maniac. I heard a famous man say, once, “You really have to be an egomaniac in this biz.” Perhaps he intended to change the world all by himself, to teach his classes the truth about life, and tell them how to make a choice. In my experience, students should and shouldn’t be given choices. Deciding whether or not to give them is as painful as putting a blade to a teacher’s neck.

“Styx,” I heard Cass say. I wanted to catch him before he fell, but how would I do that?

“Styx,” he repeated.

I wanted to walk up to him, tell him who I was, see if he remembered, but I would fall. I would not even come close to him.

I watched him move around the Mars Rocks. They stood ten feet in the air, spears, they looked like spears. He never actually touched them, never showing a sign he knew I watched him, and forgetting of the two towers that recorded his every move.

He kicked a stone towards the rocks, but nothing happened—there was no sound of impact, in other words no sign something was there. This made me curious, but let’s move forward anyways.

I sensed, within Cass, a drive to improve. I had this way with people; I could capture them in my mind. In him I sensed fear too, and this fear was becoming of a school teacher whose live had been threatened. A man can only take so much chaos. Eventually he starts fighting back. I so wanted to walk to him, reveal myself, but as a detective I could do little but watch him in his final acts, before he was lost to a mystery.

Finally, he went towards the rocks. He entered. Entered and my heart leapt. This man was not a hero, nor was he a villain, but occupied the space in between, that troublesome gray area angels stood in. He would not be prepared for this, and he would only find an ending in that place. I so hoped he would find his way out before the madness spread, took hold of this red planet, and worst of all entered me.

 “Don’t worry,” I said to myself, “someone will catch him.”

I advanced upon the rocks. The problem was the race to find information, the late hours of study, none of it mattered now that I had to act. I moved in, stopped, waited for him to leave the rocks again, but he never did.

“Call it what you will,” a voice behind me said, “just avoid calling it nothing.” I turned back, to the voice, but standing there was air, a few pebbles on the ground, no signs of movement, only signs of madness.

I recall a conversation with Cass. He studied evil, saying we must acknowledge it, but  within him I saw a living question. Nothing made sense to him. That day, when the conversation occurred, he had given up drinking, so I did the same. Then Cass said he had witnessed an angel falling into the soil of Mars. A deep boom lifted, the angel spreads it wings, and he saw the Mars Rocks. He didn’t understand why, but he told me that one day he would go there and find all those answers to life. I laughed. He did too. We almost ordered a couple shots.

 The angels were the true story years back, when people started seeing them and calling them Sepher’s after a popular angelic story. Sepher World, to me, was just a way to sell magazines and net works—money was everything. He wrote a study for nothing, did case-by-case interviews, tried to sell a book too, but money was not his goal. He wanted truth.

The rocks broke under me as I looked for any sign of movement. The two towers beamed at me from either side, and I wondered why the madman had built them in the first place. Some say God made them, others said Billionaires retired there to spend there lives watching the skies. Yes, two towers, and Mars Rocks, and mysterious voices.

“Don’t fall just yet,” the voice said again.

“Who the hell are you!” I gathered myself; there was no one there, the Rocks were said to have energy, and that was what I heard. Voices entered the Rocks, they left different, a tangle of languages that sometimes turned into clear sentences. Some people said the angels of Mars were to blame. Others said man had pushed to hard to make the world their own.

“I hate life.” And I did, then, but it came out the wrong way. It entered the rocks, came back sounding like a wish instead of something clear.

I walked towards the rocks. Walked and waited to fall, or see Cass step out and find, or even an angel to appear. It made me think—a bad proposition—of how I was chasing down a madman. I had no proof of this: I loved the man, his wife who he hated loved him, his students thought he gave out too much homework but still respected him. He had been unable to find his dream.

I waited. Expecting the voices to return, I just stood a few feet away. There was nothing special to these rocks, a school trip to a museum would find things that appealed to the eyes more, but it did nothing to take the absolute of it. I didn’t want this. I loved my wife; Cass didn’t. I loved teaching; Cass didn’t know what he loved. You plant seeds with every action you take, and something always grows from them.

I made no decision at that moment. I waited. And when I grew sick of that, I sounded off of all the things of order in my life. The Mars Rocks worked on my mind, I wanted to scream, but when I tried nothing came out except Cass. He left the void that was these rocks, entered a new dreamworld, walking immediately out of this field of nothing. I stepped in his way. He walked into me.

For a moment I did not know what to do. I saw the madman, what some would call the inner child, deep within his body. The Rocks had the answers. “Cass,” I said, “we can work something out. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“The angels will fall.”

I went into the rocks, hoping to save a friend. I saw things there which entered my mind to fast. A chaotic place, madness was here, and I could not work the thought of how it seemed so much like the way Cass’s mind worked. I could almost see the boy who tried to kill him and the wife who slept around on him. These things were life changing, and they were life.

“Tell me the truth,” I said, stepping away from the rocks.

“When the angels fall.”

“What?”

“Truth is when angels fall.”

I stepped into his eyes, saw it, and I think he saw something in mine as well. He began to run, laughing like he had injected himself with something fierce, and I knew I couldn’t let Cass move away. But what had the Mars Rocks done? What did he mean by angels falling?

I lost him after ten minutes of chasing him. I cursed the man who created cigarettes. Coughing, coughing and hacking for miles. I followed his tracks across the lands of Mars. The two cities would not be his destination. He found something within the rocks, they mapped out his mind, and it was my duty to step out of the gray area, to think rationally, and stop him.

I caught up with him a mile later, sitting on a rock, his eyes wide, his mouth open. And amidst it all, I found a gun in his hand, a cut on his chin. There was still life there.

“Tell me everything.”

“I cannot tell a lie.”

I touched the gun, waited for him to end me, but Cass did nothing. I looked into his eyes.

“Just tell me what you saw.”

“I saw what we all see.”

I caught him when I put the bullet in his head. He fell back, his eyes still wide, his mouth still open, and for a brief moment I understood what he had seen at the Mars Rocks. No angels fell when I closed his eyes. Cass always loved playing the madman.

           

Battletech Deconstructed: A Short Guide to the Hit Series of Novels
By Jacob Malewitz
BattletechHits.Wordpress.com

Battletech is a hit series of science fiction stories told over many mediums. While the Battletech universe has expanded in the past to video games (Mechwarrior), there are othert games and art created by the series. There is an animated series (1st Somerset Strikers by Saban Entertainment) and even plans for a movie.

This short guide will focus on the universe created by the Battletech novels.

The Battletech universe owes much of its original designs to animes like Macross and Robotech, and later science fiction influences in Warhammer 40k. There have even been discussions on the similarities between Battletech and Star Wars.

In short, Battletech is a universe set in the future against the backdrop of near constant war between humans. The main fighter in all the battles is a mech, which is a huge machine built like a tank but with flexibility and appearance close to that of a person. The mechs range in size from 20 tons to 100 tons, though some construction and farming mechs are even smaller. What the x-wing fighter is to Star Wars the mech is to the Battletech universe.

Mechs dominate the stories of Battletech mainly due to the Ares convention, which was a law enacted to place restrictions on things like nuclear bombs. This led to increased development of mechs because the machines were considered more humane. If the Ares convention hadn't been enacted, perhaps mechs would not have been considered as important.

At the same time, a league of warriors who could fight for profit, mercenaries, were born again. These mercenaries provided the backbone of many galactic empires forces, and fought often. Many novels in the universe are devoted to chronicling top mercenary groups like Wolf’s Dragoons and the Eridani Light Horse.

Most of what happens in the Battletech universe is in the Inner Sphere—a series of worlds within the scope of colonized human planets. There are no aliens in Battletech, which makes it different from series like Warhammer 40k, Robotech, and Star Wars. Many fans have stated that the series could be superior if aliens played a part in it like these stories.

The main conflicts addressed in Battletech novels are between houses within the Inner Sphere and a group of war-like clans who reside outside the Inner Sphere. The houses in the Battletech universe include the Davion house, Steiner, Liao, Kurita, and Marik. The clans who fight against these houses include the Jade Falcon Clan, Ghost Bear clan, and Nova Cat clan, and over a dozen others.

The majority of the early novels in the Battletech universe, including “The Saga of the Gray Death Legion,” were before the arrival of the warring clans. Top writers penned many of these, including Michael A. Stackpole, a regular writer in both Star Wars novels and Battletech novels.

The clans arrived in the “Blood of Kerensky” trilogy written by Michael A. Stackpole (who also wrote earlier novels in the universe). This is perhaps a good point for those unfamiliar with the Battletech universe to begin. All you need to know is this: For centuries the houses have been at war, but the old Star League army, descendants of a general Kerensky and those who fought with him, has returned to take back the Inner Sphere from the warring houses. These are the clans, and they intend to conquer the whole of the Inner Sphere.

The early novels in the Battletech universe are hard to come by even on Ebay. The first published novels set in this universe were the “Saga of The Gray Death Legion,” which alludes to a mercenary outfit serving in the Inner Sphere. 

The current novels being published in the Battletech universe are called “Mechwarrior Dark Age.” After the clans were pushed back, rogue agents destroyed communication equipment across the Inner Sphere, leading to a "Dark Age" of sorts where communications between worlds was very hard.

The first Dark Age novel was “Ghost War.” The Dark Age novels are set almost a hundred years into the future of the Clan Invasion time, and are not as popular with fans as the earlier novels.

Battletech is a rewarding science fiction series to read. It doesn't even take all this knowledge to enjoy it, but this should be a start on the road to being a fan of the hit series of novels.