Casus Belli
Sarna News
 | Apocryphal Product Although the subject of this article is an official BattleTech product, it does not meet the current criteria for Canon. Its content may or may not be canonical for the BattleTech universe, and for the purpose of the Sarna.net BattleTechWiki is considered apocryphal. |
| Casus Belli | |
|---|---|
| Product information | |
| Type | Magazine |
| Publication information | |
| First published | 1980-ongoing |
| Content | |
Contents
Overview[edit]
Casus Belli is a French roleplaying and wargaming magazine first published in 1980 by Excelsior Publications.
Initial print runs of the quarterly, then bimonthly 32-page black and white magazine, were for only 2,000 copies. Initially a black-and-white magazine running 32 pages, the pagecount gradually increased; the format changed with issue 31 (1986) to a color magazine with posters and gaming supplements in most issues, with the longest issues running 124 pages. A further 25 themed hors-série issues (equivalent to specials) appeared from 1988 through 1999.
After 122 issues it ceased production in 1999 following the general decline of the roleplaying and wargaming market and in the face of competition from the internet; it was said the magazine was produced at a loss in the end.
Arkana Press revived magazine in 2000, implementing major changes. They ceased publication in 2006, after 39 issues.
A new publisher, Casus Belli Press, restarted publication in 2010 but folded again in early 2011 due to financial difficulties. Then a fourth incarnation soldiered on until at least 2013.
Canonicity[edit]
Casus Belli had close ties (at least for a time) to Jeux Descartes, who held the license for the French edition of BattleTech, in the sense of a house magazine. As such, its BattleTech-related content can arguably be regarded as apocryphal, at least for the time when it was published under Jeux Descartes' aegis.
BattleTech content[edit]
The first mention of Battledroids was in issue #32, published in 1986; new releases and ads appeared in most issues afterward.
Overviews of the BattleTech gameline appeared in issues #45, when Hexagonal held the French license for the game, and in #51, after Descartes gained the license. Product reviews appeared in #43, 52, 56, 75, 76, 94, and 122, with reviews of the BattleTech Trading Card Game and its expansions appearing in #100, 102, 106, 109, 112, 114, 116, and 118.
No. 76, juillet août 1993[edit]
Along with a review of BattleTech, Third Edition, the issue featured a cover with mecha and aircraft, by artist Thibault de la Touane.
No. 77, septembre octobre 1993[edit]
Rendez-vous manqué contains two linked scenarios by M. Salicetto.
hors-série No. 13, décembre 1994[edit]
The bonus poster for this special issue was a custom-designed mapsheet featuring a river six hexes across at its widest, with an island in the middle.
Et au milieu coule une rivière... featured three scenarios: Sauterelle et piranhas and Le petit Marauder perdu by Claude Esmein, and Dernier point de résistance by Michel Salicetto.