Shattered Fortress Review

 Hey Game Fam, we have another book review for you today. Today’s creature feature is Shattered Fortress, for Battletech. Offered by Catalyst Game Labs, Shattered Fortress covers the events transpiring in the Inner Sphere during the years 3146-3150. It is a precursor to the IlClan book and sets up the events in that book. Let’s inspect Shattered Fortress and explore the Inner Sphere.

This book is a shorty at 122 pages. It’s available in both pdf and softcover print (if you can find it). As stated, the book covers the major events around the Inner Sphere. It’s divided by years, starting in 3146 and ending in 3150. It features Touchpoint campaigns for the major historical battles of this era, new technology, and a Record Sheet for one of the major players in the battletech Universe for the Touchpoint campaign.  

It begins with a bit of fiction like all the battletech sourcebooks. This features a conversation between Julian Davion and Devlin Stone, discussing the strategy of how Julian can save the Federated Suns. It’s worth its page count, if only to see how it compares with the characterization you’ll see of Devlin Stone later.  

The five yearly breakdowns are in chronological order, starting with a major military campaign in that year. Once the opening stages of that year’s campaign take shape, the book jumps to another nation, moving chronologically. Things bounce around a bit, but by the end of the section, every major Inner Sphere and most of the Periphery nations get a little coverage. After the 3150 breakdown is a chronological timeline.

The book follows this up with a Unit Profiles section, which details the important military commands. Battletech Authors, please do this in all future releases. Other books scatter them around, but collating them in one place makes life a lot easier for someone who’s going to use this book to set up a campaign or a game.  

After the Unite Profiles is a two-page profile of technology. I dislike this section because it doesn’t actually tell you anything useful in terms of gameplay. This is an easy argument to make: “Well, these technologies shouldn’t affect game play?” I refute that argument with “why include them in the book then?” Most other instances where technology has found its way into one of these books include game mechanics and other explanations. This section is unhelpful beyond offering In universe theories for what’s going on.  

Then the Touchpoint tracks are waiting for you to run them. These are a collection of major battles that happened during this period, with force briefings and game rules. They’re fine as set pieces, but mandate a certain level of prior familiarity with the game to be playable. Fortunately, the rules needed to play the game appear in no less than 5 other books. The tracks are compatible with either Alpha Strike or Total Warfare gameplay, which is a plus.  

What this book is:

This is a historical recap of the last five years of the Dark Ages Era, where the Battletech Universe descends back into warfare. Everyone (Pretty much everyone) is looking for a fight with one of their neighbors, and battlemechs once again march into battle. Everything that Devlin Stone tried to build with his Republic of the Sphere is in ashes. All that remains is Earth itself (and that’s covered in IlClan). As a work of fictional history, it’s very good.  

What this book is not:

It’s not a technical readout, nor is it a game aid. As stated above, to play these scenarios, you’re going to need at least three other books and an understanding of the game mechanics. You can’t plug and play this book. That said, it’s an excellent resource when you play to its strengths.  

Overall Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)

You can find this book at the Catalyst Game Labs Store here. You can get a pdf copy for $19.99. I hope this review is helpful for you all, and if you’re interested in learning more about Battletech, someone can probably persuade me to write more articles about this game. Let me know Friends.