ScrapYard Armory

Dieron takes us back to the Draconis Combine and also back to Ben Rome, the originator of the Jihad Turning Points series.  How does Mr. Rome handle the return to the Combine sandbox and how does it stack up with the first of the series?  Has the Jihad Turning Points aged well or gone sour?  Read on to find out!

The New Dieron

New Dieron opens up this edition of the Jihad Turning Point series with an action packed fire fight between elite forces from both House Kurita and the Word of Blake.  In a delicate chess match each vies to outplay their opponent.  An entertaining piece of writing from beginning to end and it sets the stage for what is to come.

Something just isn’t right though.  The way the story pans out leaves me wondering.  I expect that the peculiarities I see are evident of my general lack of knowledge of the significance of Dieron in the Jihad.  Hopefully the rest of the PDF will help illuminate the matter.

Some Special Thanks

An interesting note from Ben Rome’s special thanks.

Many thanks to the hundreds of fans who participated in the Origins and GenCon Dieron canon event in 2009, where a few key results from the reclaiming of Dieron in 3077 were determined. (You may even recognize a couple of the events herein.)

It’s great to see fan participation end up in the pages of canon fiction.  Fans of the game can still have an impact on the game even if that impact is a handful of die rolls among the many thousand it must have taken to compile the results of the Origins and GenCon games.

Atlas

The Atlas section gives a thorough account of the geographical features of the planet sprinkled with nuggets of information on the Blakist invasion and eventual liberation.  Equal parts history lesson and geography, we have a neat description of the planet to accompany the full sized planetary map we now expect from the Jihad series.  Par for the course, but the real reason I buy these PDFs is yet to come.

Combatants

Blakists, Ghost Bears and Kurita, Oh My!  My first impression was that the force abilities were rather safe.  A bit too heavy in the use of off-map movement and initiative bonuses.  Rather vanilla.  But things got better as the pages turned.  By the end I have to say I enjoyed the section and the variety of force abilities.

The notes section is full of the kind of information that I love reading as it helps to put the pieces together.  That full picture gives a very nice account of the events that occurred on Dieron during the occupation.

Best force ability goes to the 23rd Division.  When special “arsonist” squads are deployed in a track, you are bound to find yourself in some fun and interesting situations.  Still, anyone using them during a game is going to have a bear of a time following up on all of the fire and smoke rolls.  But if you don’t like rolling dice, maybe BattleTech is not the right game for you to begin with.

Tracks

We have hit the motherload.  Dieron brings us nine tracks, the most ever for the Turning Points series.

The Tracks in Dieron have a slight change.  The Situation section of each track is written as fiction instead of the factual, “who what where” style of Turning Points prior.  I read each introduction and gave it a day to marinate.  After letting it all soak in, I can say that they have grown on me.  The bulk of each track has all the facts anyways, so the extra fiction is a added blessing.  Kudos to Mr. Rome for trying something new.

Dieron provides excellent tracks with a lot to offer.  At times the objectives seem a little on the safe side.  That combined with the liberal use of Tactical Operations add-ins leads to a potential mundane set of wartracks.  The saving grace is the character within the special rules and optional bonuses.

From Banzai Courage, Air Strikes, to unique terrain requirements, the collection of Dieron tracks as a whole brings a healthy dose of creativity to the Turning Points series.  The quality of the Dieron tracks is on par for the series but does not hold a candle to either Sian or Galtor.

Record Sheets

We only get two new unique variants in this Turning Points.  For more tracks, it’s a trade I’d make any day.

Both designs are Clan chassis.  The Dasher is a bit predictable.  Run fast, hit hard and don’t get caught.  The Kodiak is a bit more interesting due to mixed technology.  It’s a frightening standard engine beast with a C3 Master and Inner Sphere weapons.

All The Rest

Dieron finishes up with the expertly crafted planetary assault map.  We are still waiting for Interstellar Operations to give us updated rules to use them but they are a welcome and expected addition at the end of each Turning Point PDF.