The Black Thorns: A Battletech Scenario Pack

The Product:

This Scenario pack follows the pattern of early scenario packs, first giving a brief history of the unit, then the personalities of the unit, then the scenarios. That unit happens to be the Black Thorns. Based on the two books by James Long ( Main Event and D.R.T.), the scenario pack follows first Jeremiah Rose’s experiences on Tukayyid, then follows him on to Solaris 7, Outreach, Borghese, and finally Courcheval.

The Personalities of the pre-Courcheval Thorns are outlined, showing their MechWarrior 2 stats and giving a brief outline of each character. Any character that was historically killed is also mentioned.

In the back of the book, new ‘Mechs are introduced: the Shootist, Grendel, Kingfisher, and Shadow Cat. The art work for these new ‘Mechs is less than to be desired, especially after looking through TRO: 3058, which all four eventually made it into.

The Good:

There is some awesome artwork in here, not just of OOP ‘Mechs (hey that’s always a plus) but of others as well. If you are into recreating stories via scenarios, this is a scenario book for you. The rules for each scenario are precise, and most of them are not two on two engagements; generally they range from 6 on 6 or more. Good for long engagements, to say the least. I also enjoyed the Tukayyid scenarios, since it gives you a picture as to how that battle was fought and gives eye-witness accounts.

The Bad:

Well, this book is defiantly not the books that James Long wrote. You get more of the story from those books than you do from this scenario pack. The history is just a brief rush through of the events covered in Main Event and D.R.T. and only give you part of the picture. Some of the artwork sucks. Sounds like I’m contradicting myself, I know, but there’s good and bad, as with most of FASA’s stuff. Also, some of the scenarios are impossible to recreate when compared to the fiction, but you’ll have to be the judge to that.

Continuity:

There is none to speak of right now, unless there’s some material I’ve missed. People still try to get a hold of this piece due to the fact it is very OOP. MacAttack mentioned the Thorns being a “pet” unit of one of the developers, and when a developer goes, his pet unit does as well. The Thorns are unique and it would be interesting to see what has happened to them.

Conclusion:

This book has it’s perks and also has it’s downsides. You would really have to be into the Black Thorns to truly appreciate it, although I liked the Battle of Tukayyid scenarios. Another perk is the fact that it has been OOP for some time and there are some people that might give some cash for it (ed. Of course no TRUE BattleTech fan would ever consider that!). So, in conclusion, this isn’t a necessity for your game play. Only gives you some FASA-based ideas for scenarios.