OBT Forum

One more reason to buy this when it is available in dead tree format.

I would argue with a lot of the choices there and plus Provincial organization for the Hegemony was smaller like a Liao Duchy before this product.

I believe I'm going to start calling this the book of "justifications for Taurian whines." I was really interested in the book...until I've seen the reaction on the forums. I believe I'm going to pass now.

Don't pass up on it, as it is a good read and provides some great detail.  The whiners fall into the usual category of a small minority who wish for The Reunification War - Volumes I-XXV each of which would be a 500 page monster in and of itself and totaly focused on thier Fanboy and faction specific dreams.

Catalyst have done a good job of taking old and conflicting material, which was coloured a nice shade or rose, of a massive 20 year conflict and condensed it into a managable book, which provides an enormous amount of new and detailed canon material, as well as a good look at this mamoth conflict.

Are there errors and a few odd bits that crept in? Yes there are.

Will it piss the fanboys off? Yes it will.

Is it revisionist? As with all history, of course it is.

Does it provide a great look at the reunification war and the state of every realm at the time. YES IT DOES.

And for that last point, it is one of the most valuble books Catalyst have produced in recent years.

It's probably heresy, but I think I've just fallen out of love with the Star League era. I actually think I've fallen out of love with most of the eras, as I'm largely tired of hearing about how awful "X" is and how much better "Y" was. I just want the storyline to move forward. Put out the material on previous eras, sure. But I just don't think I have a taste for it anymore. I've had 20 years of tastes of it. I'm done with it, and it's time to move on. That's probably a big reason why I've given up on the alt-setting I was working on. The Star League has been covered, and alt settings for it (and much better ones) have been done to death. I'm looking forward to the Dark Age, the setting moving beyond that, and seeing the game and storyline evolve. Looking backwards doesn't fit those desires for me.

I enjoy some of the old stuff as well for a historical viewpoint. I just think the pacing of releases has bothered me lately. It feels like we're getting slammed with historical PDF exclusives/PDF early releases. I'd like to see a little more balance in the schedule to get more information about moving forward. TRO 3085 is nice, but it's certainly not a Field/Era Report, the last Jihad book, or anything of that kind of size. In the meantime, we've had a lot more Turning Points and Era Reports that are looking back into the past. Having a bit more balanced schedule would probably help ease some of my unhappiness, as it doesn't make sense to me that the production focus is more than 50% focused on looking backwards (as it has been recently).

just want to duck in real quick. About publishing new 'old stuff': I guess DM and I represent opposite sides of the coin. The way I see it, I'm very happy overall that Catalyst is doing the historical series; there is the impression that they are finally listening to what the fans want. Given what comes across to me as stubborn, prickly arrogance when it comes to their Jihad timeline, it's nice to see that maybe they finally understand that not all of us like the Jihad. Even with the details I already posted, I'm quite satisfied overall with Historical: Reunification War.

You realise those sorts of words would get you burnt at the stake on the CBT boards and/or start a flame war that would crash the baords permanently. 

This is why I have so much trouble bringing myself to logging in at cbt.com