Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents

Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents is the followup to Jihad Conspiracies: Interstellar Players 2. While it is written "to" Chandrasekhar Kurita, this book has a more out-of-character feel to the beginning than many of the other Jihad-era sourcebooks. Jihad Secrets updates the Inner Sphere to early 3075, and provides a more detailed look at the early Jihad.

The book begins with a short story about the Bounty Hunter, then proceeds to tell a more complete&mdash;and less biased&mdash;story of the run-up to the Jihad than has been seen previously in print. It details some of the troop movements of the Inner Sphere powers in their struggles that did not involve the Word of Blake Militia during this period, then briefly updates them with some of the news reports a la Dawn of the Jihad. The fourth section has biographies of the some of the less-prominent, but still important, players. It follows that up with a look at the Blakist military units. While not as detailed as in the Field Manual series, there is significant information about the various units and their actions during the Jihad. The sixth section is selected excerpts from Victoria Parrdeau's journal, interspersed with other documents. Following that is another journal that seems to indicate the fate of Clan Wolverine.

The final section is a rules annex that provides players with construction rules for primitive BattleMechs and aerospace fighters, as well as five 'Mechs and a DropShip. Three of the 'Mechs are those described as new designs created by Clan Wolverine in Blaine Lee Pardoe's Betrayal of Ideals.

From the back cover
"Chandrasekhar Kurita has spent his life hunting for ancient secrets. Almost as soon as the Word of Blake formed in 3052, "Uncle Chandy" put his vast network of spies and his massive wealth toward digging behind their façade and now, two decades later, Uncle Chandy has discovered more than he ever thought possible. Now he's using that knowledge to send a coalition of forces against one of the Blakists' hidden five worlds: the Ruins of Gabriel. More importantly, he’s found a connection to the single greatest mystery in the last half-millennia. Aware he's almost guaranteed his death at the hands of a Blakist fanatic, Uncle Chandy knows the time has come to stand in the light and reveal the secrets that will change the tide of the Jihad!

Jihad Secrets: The Blake Documents contains a wealth of information on the current universe-shaking Jihad storyline, providing more "hard facts" than any book to date. Detailed information on the opening years of the Jihad, including maps of the most significant conflicts; a current 3075 "Around the Sphere" in the same vein as the Jihad Hot Spots series provides up-to-date information on the latest happenings; biographies of more than twenty individuals important to the Jihad; a complete description of all Word of Blake forces, including unit logos; and the hidden history of Clan Wolverine and the Minnesota Tribe revealed! A complete rules section rounds the book out, with game play rules for taking any Word of Blake division into the field, construction rules for "primitive units", and new ’Mechs, including Clan Wolverine’s Mercury II, Pulverizer, and Stag, the "primitive" Dervish and the mysterious Raptor II."

Contents

 * "Just Business"
 * How it Began


 * Jihad: The Early Years
 * Operation: "Sovereign Justice"
 * Operation: "Thunderstrike"
 * Operation: "Überschatten/Broken Fist"
 * Operation: "Steel Hammer"
 * Operation: "Showtime"
 * Operation: "Ice Storm"


 * Around the Sphere
 * Overview
 * The Federated Suns
 * The Lyran Alliance
 * The Draconis Combine
 * The Capellan Confederation
 * The Blake Protectorate
 * The Free Worlds League
 * The Periphery
 * The Clans
 * ComStar and the Coalition


 * Biographies
 * Albert Benton
 * Alex Keller
 * Alys Rousset-Marik
 * Janice Annapoulis
 * Jocelyn "Joey" Myrianna Nichole
 * Marcel Webb
 * Ross McKinnon
 * Stacy Church
 * The Bounty Hunter
 * Gavin Dow
 * Kiyomori Minamoto
 * Shakir Jerrar
 * "Thomas Marik"
 * Titus Cameron-Jones
 * David Lear
 * Wolfgang Hansen
 * Devlin Stone
 * Apollyon
 * Avitue
 * Berith
 * Cameron St. Jamais
 * Geoffrey Zucker
 * Lindon Ashley
 * Kali Liao


 * The Word of Blake Protectorate


 * Through the Looking Glass


 * The Not-Named


 * Rules Annex
 * Special Force Rules (Word of Blake)
 * New Construction Option: RetroTech
 * Primitive 'Mech Construction
 * Primitive Aerospace Fighter Construction
 * Primitive Weapons and Equipment
 * Primitive Unit Cost and Battle Values
 * Primitive Units in Combat (Optional)
 * New 'Mechs
 * MCY-100 Mercury II
 * ST-14G Stag
 * PUL-2V Pulverizer
 * DV-1A "Primitive" Dervish
 * RPT-2X Raptor II
 * New DropShip: Trojan

Errata

 * Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao returned from missing status in 3069, not 3070.