Battletech is one of those big games that spawned millions of rule variants, supplements, accessories, miniatures, even novels. This is an old book bringing together various Battletech miniatures rules. For those unfamiliar, the central focus of the rules is giant piloted robots battling each other with all manner of weaponry while trying to avoid shutting down from excess heat.
The original Battletech was designed by FASA as a boardgame and with a series of modular boards, took on aspects of a kind of SF Squad Leader. With Ral Partha picking up a license to manufacture miniatures under the Battletech logo it became possible to replace the cardboard counters found in the game with something more visually appealing. The compendium was designed to do away with the game boards as well not only compiling the rules from several different games under one cover but also providing rules for conversion to a pure miniatures game.