petrov27 wrote: Is there any good breakdown for the value of the Kickstarter out there by pledge level depending on the funding end level? Like something that would show how much we would be paying per mini? I know there were spreadsheets out there but having trouble finding...
Yeah, I'm sitting at the Veteran level and considering a Company pledge.
"But if we hit 7m, that's $70 for 4 more force packs!" some will point out, except that $70 US is a bit under $100 Canadian, which isn't too far off what I'd expect to pay for 4 force packs (plus taxes, and yes I'm aware the cost seems to be going up with this era of releases), but also adds shipping and a possible VAT for a failure to live in the USA, which means I'm probably breaking even at best, likely paying more than retail (possibly by a substantial margin).
Not every campaign is for everyone, I get that, but still, it's a balancing act.
10m as a target is kind of funny. I do think we'll hit 7m, and 8+ doesn't seem impossible, but we're jumping from "top 30'ish campaigns by funding ever (not adjusted for inflation)" to "top 20'ish" to "feth it, top 10?" or so.
Aim for the stars, sure, but it makes it seem a bit less likely that they seriously intend to get there, which reduces the seriousness with which I can take such claims/suggestions.
And yes, I'm aware that the campaign said early on that they didn't want to cannibalize LGS sales too badly, that just buying at retail online or locally is great and good and yay!
But it's a bit at odds with folks frothing at the mouth to get everyone up to a triple Battalion or whatever. :-P
Forar wrote: "But if we hit 7m, that's $70 for 4 more force packs!" some will point out, except that $70 US is a bit under $100 Canadian, which isn't too far off what I'd expect to pay for 4 force packs....
ForcePacks will be $30 USD for Inner Sphere and Legendary MechWarriors II ForcePacks, $35 USD for Clan and Legendary MechWarriors III ForcePacks and $40 USD for the Battlefield Support packs (excluding the Objectives pack which will be $30). Note that if you select Inner Sphere ForcePacks, you will get a Mercenaries Salvage Box for each Inner Sphere ForcePack.
Fair, but the dangling "shipping + VAT" question will likely at least put them in the same ballpark, and given my local stores often charge a bit under MSRP, and that's before we start talking sales, there's almost no chance I'm saving anything buying in bulk here.
I get that some folks live in gaming deserts, and have to capitalize on every opportunity they can.
This feels (at the Company level) more like paying $200+ Canadian for $200+ Canadian in stuff 1-2+ years in advance with giant question marks on at least two fronts, the chance for delays, etc.
I'm not ruling out bumping up from Veteran, but us international folks get fethed on shipping often enough it'd be poor pattern recognition not to at least be a bit wary.
Funny that when I do it, I'm "whinging" and "whining" when I'm just sick of CGL not doing what they damn well know would drive this KS to the numbers they THINK it's going to. If you want to bend over and take the crumbs, have fun. It's people of that ilk CGL relies on to point out to everyone else the MAD VALUE they are *graciously* giving the rest of us.
Unless they whip out their tits, this isn't hitting 8m let alone 10m.
The whole KS has been more "here's some gak we digitized you can have for free and something else we'll "unlock for purchase" and less "here's some free gak you actually want and can use for the game, which happens to also be the reason you're all here" and that straight sucks.
All the "free" digital" gak was already/going to be digital. No one is paying $20 for an E-Book based off CGL value. Overvalued pot metal coins and patches are...ok I guess. I suppose I can throw them at someone.
The fact that Regiment has, and still does, remain less valuable to mini customers over double Battalion shows that CGL doesn't give a gak about what people think where the value sits. CGL made their nut $2m ago, and has punched out since.
To be fair, I think this is a very reasonable sophomore kickstarter outing. With their first, they had objectively more popular mechs, and a much larger draw- and pulled in 2.5 million with all the bells and whistles, mystery mechs appearing at most stretch goals, doubled force packs, dice, the works. It took much longer than they anticipated to fulfill, and got away from them.
From the start, their goal with this one was a limited kickstarter that was quick to fulfill. Most of the artwork was done, scuplpting finished, heck, most of the models were even ready to go at launch! But then, the fans happened. We threw so much more money at them than they expected that they still tried to give some rewards, without messing up their timetable too badly. I suspect they got the mix wrong there, and frankly, I think a great deal fo the problems could have been avoided if they'd done this in the 10 day or 2 week format instead of the monthlong campaign. I do agree with you Talonzahn, that far from encouraging it, Catalyst actively discouraged the sort of pushes you see from stretch goals in this one, because they were quite meager. Where I disagree is that I think this was a very successful pre order style kickstarter. We are not getting the heady discounts and value of the first one, and it's nowhere near as exciting as voting on the content of forcepacks, or what mechs we want to see next, but it is far more practical. My hope is they'll fulfill (relatively) quickly, and follow this model again in a few years, less than the 4 or 5 it's been since Clan Invasion.
TalonZahn wrote: Funny that when I do it, I'm "whinging" and "whining" when I'm just sick of CGL not doing what they damn well know would drive this KS to the numbers they THINK it's going to. If you want to bend over and take the crumbs, have fun. It's people of that ilk CGL relies on to point out to everyone else the MAD VALUE they are *graciously* giving the rest of us.
Unless they whip out their tits, this isn't hitting 8m let alone 10m.
The whole KS has been more "here's some gak we digitized you can have for free and something else we'll "unlock for purchase" and less "here's some free gak you actually want and can use for the game, which happens to also be the reason you're all here" and that straight sucks.
All the "free" digital" gak was already/going to be digital. No one is paying $20 for an E-Book based off CGL value. Overvalued pot metal coins and patches are...ok I guess. I suppose I can throw them at someone.
The fact that Regiment has, and still does, remain less valuable to mini customers over double Battalion shows that CGL doesn't give a gak about what people think where the value sits. CGL made their nut $2m ago, and has punched out since.
Perhaps you should sit this one out, we really, really don't need you.
Truth be told, we now know the community will simp for Battletech. So they have no incentive to offer rewards.
I am disappointed by the tight fisted response to stretchgoals, but they are a business and they have enough market incumbency that they don't have to give away a free lunch. Therefore I cannot truly blame them for going cheap on us.
I would like to get to $7M and get a final tangible reward, but wont count on that. $8M is unlikely as most people wo want in are already in.
As for the unreached unlocks, Catalyst will unlock the purchasables anyway, they will appear during the pledge manager phase, because they like money. All this unlocking is just BS. What actually matters to us are the stretchgoal bonuses.
One million in 60 hours, is possible, we might reach new blood, but I am not expecting an end rush unless we are close and people up their pledges to chase this goal.
At least 4 of us in our group have yet to jump in. We have had very little time to try our Battletech Alpha Strike, though we all have purchased at retail basically full pledges. I'm not much for all the digital stuff and as I do not live in the lore of Battletech, the swag holds no sway over me. I might still jump in on the lowest level by the end of the campaign and bump up later, but one thing that really annoys me on kickstarter is the get XXXX if you hop in during the first 24 hours. I understand it's to encourage that first giant burst to grab attention, but I have not backed a couple campaigns because I didn't hear about them until a week into them. Oh well, first world problem for me as I'll be able to print most of what I want anyway.
One million in 60 hours, is possible, we might reach new blood, but I am not expecting an end rush unless we are close and people up their pledges to chase this goal.
I don't see that much value on the 8 million goal, but maybe the cartoon nostalgia will pull in people.
Theophony wrote: I might still jump in on the lowest level by the end of the campaign and bump up later, but one thing that really annoys me on kickstarter is the get XXXX if you hop in during the first 24 hours. I understand it's to encourage that first giant burst to grab attention, but I have not backed a couple campaigns because I didn't hear about them until a week into them. Oh well, first world problem for me as I'll be able to print most of what I want anyway.
For many campaigns, that item remains utterly exclusive and impossible to acquire after the fact. For this one it's an $8 add on.
I get that for many it's the principle of the matter, but if one instead looks at it as 'the Veteran is $88, and you get a little under 10% off if you back it in the first 48 hours' it's really not that big a deal. At higher tiers it's basically a rounding error in the cost anyways.
I'm not a fan of pieces and game mechanics being time gated away, but an early bird gift that anyone can snag (in bulk if they so choose) in the PM seems like a reasonable enough middle ground.
It all comes down to the 48 hour warning I think. The live-streaming stuff hasn’t kicked off an exponential increase. The past couple of days has led to a bit of an increase but not set it on fire.
Any campaign that blows through its entire expected set of stretch goals in a day has very limited incentive to offer much more
What is CGL valuing the digital novels at? My three unread ones where $5.99 at Amazon's Kindle store. I went through the 1st three pages of GGL's own webstore, saw a few at $6.99, but most were at $4.99.
The $275 level pledge is a mistake, it was intended to be an Add On, not a whole tier unto itself, and is tied to the fact that backers who pledge for multiple tiers don't get literally everything in multiples (including the Visigoth for day 1&2 backers, the 4" Timberwolf, and the digital files that people may or may not need 1 of, let alone 2+ of).
That tier isn't indicative of a cost being negligible, it's indicative that someone screwed up.
Edit: and I say that as someone who doesn't particularly value all of the short stories and other digital odds and ends backers are getting. Even at a lower tier, I'm backing primarily for plastic, not a half dozen ebooks I may or may not ever bother reading.
Based on a quick mental count up of reward listings versus the “value” figure quoted, the ebooks seem to be about $5 each, so commensurate with your estimates AncestralHamster.
If you were as aware as you think you are, you'd realize the digital rewards are worth NOTHING.
Broadly true. They cost nothing, once the words are typed out, and thus they offer next to nothing.
You cant give them away (legally) as it is a data product, not a book, so they are no investment.
But it is not true to claim they have universally not value.
Even CGL admits that with the other $275 level pledge of just Physical rewards and no digital rewards.
Not a fair comparison. The lack of Digital rewards at Company Store is indicative of the truth that a retailer cannot sell the ebooks. Ebooks are for personal pledges, and the lack of them at a specific pledge level is not indicative of value but appropriateness for the reward tier.
A store owner who personally plays will be mindful of the direction to include a personal pledge if they want that content, and as many Company Store pledges as they want to stock up with.
This separation is not mandatory, but as the addage goes: "don't get high on your own supply".
Well alledgedly there are thousands more people signed up to the backerkit page than to the actual Kickstarter. Also there’s may well be an untapped set of fans out there somewhere. I mean I can’t believe that there are only 20k or so players in the world.
However, I also will only believe it when I see it. I think CGL did a good job in publicising the launch, but I’m not tapped into the right media to see how well they may have reached beyond that audience during the campaign.
Not the Company Store, so nice try. The OTHER one labelled Bundle.
It's not a mistake, it's for people that don't want the extra garbage, but CGL shot themselves in the foot by removing the Visigoth also.
Of course the digitals are worth nothing:
A) The majority of them were already printed and sold.
B) The majority have already been converted to digital and sold
C) Since the above has happened, there's almost no money left to be made/recovered, so they're a safe throwaway.
Flinty wrote: Well alledgedly there are thousands more people signed up to the backerkit page than to the actual Kickstarter. Also there’s may well be an untapped set of fans out there somewhere. I mean I can’t believe that there are only 20k or so players in the world.
However, I also will only believe it when I see it. I think CGL did a good job in publicising the launch, but I’m not tapped into the right media to see how well they may have reached beyond that audience during the campaign.
I want to believe this but remain sceptical. I don't want to pin any hopes on getting an extra two Forcepacks. At battalion, it would amount to just under a 'double reward' pledge that we should have unlocked millions ago.
I think it would be vain to hope for a free Blood Asp.
I want to be wrong though. I especially want to get eleven force packs for my pledge rather than nine, it looks far more like a deal. The Blood Asp would be nice, but is less important. I would settle very much for a seven million breakthough.
As for nine million dollars, I can only dream, and there is no guarantee Catalyst will offer us thirteen force packs even if we did.
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TalonZahn wrote: Not the Company Store, so nice try. The OTHER one labelled Bundle.
Apologies, my error. I had quite forgotten about that since day one, and have no idea why it is even there.
It only makes sense if this pledge level had no access to add-ons. This way Catalyst can make a literal 'bundle' of content for cheap shipping which is what is implied. However as fore packs are to be chosen this cannot be the case.
I could easily see the benefit of a minimum packaging pledge level where you get a set reward in 'retaliation' boxes for minimum volume. As this is a volumous product and shipping costs will be prohibitive a genuine saving could be made there.
However why should that disavow and DLC, there is no shipping volume attached to DLC.
This whole Bundle makes zero sense.
I would have been tempted with a 'loose mechs in a box' bundle, with only the main Mercenaries box in retail packaging. I would still have been tempted if the box of loose mechs came with a standardised set of force packs dumped in. It would result in a significant shipping saving. The last campaign resulted in two massive boxes, and mostly consisted of air shipped from China.
Flinty wrote: Based on a quick mental count up of reward listings versus the “value” figure quoted, the ebooks seem to be about $5 each, so commensurate with your estimates AncestralHamster.
Thank you, Flinty. So they've not inflated the ebooks value.
TalonZahn wrote: Not the Company Store, so nice try. The OTHER one labelled Bundle.
It's not a mistake, it's for people that don't want the extra garbage, but CGL shot themselves in the foot by removing the Visigoth also.
Let's take a quick glance at the description, shall we?
"This add-on is the equivalent of the Battalion Pledge Level."
I have no idea why they haven't bothered closing it. Being 'the Battalion but without the digital bits' is... the same as being the Battalion but they don't bother sending extra codes.
It says "add-on" in the first line of the description!
The folks running the campaign are hardly incapable of making a mistake, and I think there have been some missteps and room for improvement, but you're really reaching on this one. I'd give good odds they just treat it like a Battalion in the end, and sort it all out in the pledge manager.
They really don’t need a specific tier for that. Again, that can be sorted out in the pledge manager.
I could swear they even said that backers would only get one set of digital rewards, making it a moot point, but it’s approaching 2am so that’ll have to wait for tomorrow if someone else doesn’t find it or prove me wrong in the interim.
Forar wrote: They really don’t need a specific tier for that. Again, that can be sorted out in the pledge manager.
I could swear they even said that backers would only get one set of digital rewards, making it a moot point, but it’s approaching 2am so that’ll have to wait for tomorrow if someone else doesn’t find it or prove me wrong in the interim.
It doesn't make any sense at all. If you don't want digital rewards don't download them. They will not crawl onto your hard drive.
pleasestopit wrote: I was going to back this KS however me being EU based it doesn't seem like there will be any savings or they wouldn't be too significant.
I don't care about the digital stuff, poster and coins. It's nice that they got a lot of backing, looks good for the future of the game!
Edit: clarity
Which is a perfectly logical way of going about it. And everything will eventually go to retail anyways.
Not a real impressive start to the final 48 hours. They did promote the heck out of it, and at this point we're striving toward the stretch goal that really makes it worth pledging for, as opposed to already having it when the skeptical crowd shows up to look things over a second time.
Not to say it isn't a gigantic success even if we don't hit $7 million, because of course it is.
Well, if nothing else, the faction dice and dice trays seems to have picked things up (went from doing ~10k/hour to doing that in less than 15 minutes). Might see another bump once the US east coast starts getting off work.
Either way, it just crested $6.4mil, so here's hoping the momentum continues picking up as the day goes on.
pleasestopit wrote: I was going to back this KS however me being EU based it doesn't seem like there will be any savings or they wouldn't be too significant.
I don't care about the digital stuff, poster and coins. It's nice that they got a lot of backing, looks good for the future of the game!
Edit: clarity
Which is a perfectly logical way of going about it. And everything will eventually go to retail anyways.
Getting hold of stuff here in the UK is tricky. I'm in for a dollar, so I can add a few boxes such as the legendary packs as add ons in the pledge manager, as those probably wont make it here. The first one never has.
zend wrote: Huh, thought dice weren’t possible. What’s next, they gonna offer faction shirts even though they have like 6 on the shop already?
Shirts are a no go simply because each style of shirt is like 12 to 16 different items (Men, Woman and Child plus each individual size). Compound that with the number they would need for the Kickstarter as compared to what they need for their online shop it would seriously complicate fulfillment on their part.
And that's $6.5mil hit. The day has definitely picked up as it has gone on. It looks like it is keeping pace to beat the daily average for the first time since day 3, and may well go higher.
I have been watching this off and on the last half hour, at current rate we should reach 7 million.
It is being chased, a lot of recent funds comes from pledge upgrades, most likely people pre-paying for add ons by adding more money directly to their pledge level.
Miguelsan wrote: Those battlemats really look nice, I'd add one but I'm afraid shipping to Japan will double the price.
M.
They do say there will be an Asian fulfilment hub. Is that likely to help much on postage if it’s not in Japan? I mean Asia is obviously a big place, but at least it’s the right hemisphere
Miguelsan wrote: Those battlemats really look nice, I'd add one but I'm afraid shipping to Japan will double the price.
M.
They do say there will be an Asian fulfilment hub. Is that likely to help much on postage if it’s not in Japan? I mean Asia is obviously a big place, but at least it’s the right hemisphere
It's probably the fact that a mat consists of a ~30" tube & box, making the final package extra long and possibly subject to extra charges for the oversized dimensions (whereas most of the other rewards are smaller boxes that can be stacked up in a more compact package).
crackmachine wrote: I have never done a KS before. If I back at Battalion and the KS reaches 7m we will get 5 free forcepacks correct?
I believe so, yes.
Yep, one short of the 'double forcepacks' we should have unlocked has Catalyst not been so tight fisted.
This is assuming you are not daft and don't pledge at Regiment level.
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Graphite wrote: Buckled and bumped up to Company. Which looks like it should hit $7m, netting a reasonable amount of little plastic robots.
You will get more but in the event that you hadn't noticed you will not be getting the full bonus force packs.
At $7M you will get the Mercenaries box, 4 (2 +2 bonus) force packs, and 3 salvage boxes. For $150. One Forcepack for every $37.5 spend, more than the cost of most loose add ons. It offers a direct saving on vehicle boxes only.
At $7m you will get the Mercenaries box, 11 (6 +5 bonus) force packs, and 3 salvage boxes. For $275. One Forcepack for every $25 spend, less than the cost of any add on..
Loose forcepacks as add ons cost $30-$35 or $40.
Here are my recommendations.
- Buy in at Battalion, if you cant pledge now pledge what you can and upgrade later. Last time you could buy a Bloodnamed pledge and upgrade it later to Star Colonel. I expect this will be similar.
- If you want more forcepacks than eleven buy multiple Battalion pledges.
- If you want only a few more than eleven allocate all your vehicle packs to the included add ons and buy any lance packs separately.
- If you only want a handful of forcepacks Company is Ok. The Mercenaries box set will cost you $75 retail when you reduce that (still ignoring the three random mechs) you are paying $18.75 each for four forcepacks. It is not a bad deal. Note that with the value of the Merc box removed a battalion pledge is $18.18 per force pack. Value is closer than it looks.
axotl wrote: I backed at regiment at the start, but now want to go to double the battalion - how do I DO a double of a single pledge level?
You cant right now. If you are happy with Regiment, I wouldn't be but you do you, keep your pledge.
You can downgrade, save money and so long as you do NOT cancel and repledge but 'manage your pledge' you will keep your free Visigoth if you have got one. If you cancel then repledge you lose the early bird bonus.
There will be a pledge manager, all add-ons will be handled there. That is where you add a second pledge.
There is no guarantee Catalyst will allow duplicate pledges, but they will be daft if they do. I m prepared to buy two Battalion pledges at $275 each. I am not prepared to buy one Battalion pledge and eleven force pack add ons. I doubt I am the only one.
If in doubt keep your pledge as it is, If it is handled same as Clan Invasion, your pledge rewards are a flat total, currently it is the value of a regiment, $500, if you don't change things during the pledge management phase other than to add your address and pay shipping) this is what you get. However you can amend that pledge level later and then channel the funds you have allocated into anything. You could reduce your reward level back to recruit and spend the other $465 on shipping and add ons. Not that I would recommend that.
Currently there is no way to buy the add ons, you can allocate funds now, but you do not have to. There will be plenty of time later, and it may behoove you to spread the payment over several pay cheques.
“If I back for multiple reward tiers, do I get the stretch goals for each reward?
YES! The only things that won't stack are per-Backer gifts like the Timber Wolf and Visigoth.”
You can absolutely pledge for double battalions. People have been talking about doing so openly for weeks now. If you’re willing to spend $500+ on the campaign, and don’t care about the select choices found in the regiment specifically (or just want to buy as add ons), it’s a very valid choice to get a pile of extra plastic, especially once we hit 7m, which we’re about 100k away from now.
Edit; you can’t select multiples on KS itself. Just back at the tier you want, and if you wish you can overpledge for the extra, which will be sorted out in the pledge manager later.
Based on Orlanth's analysis above, I've bumped my pledge to Company, and added Liquid Core dice. I did notice an Add-On option for SalvageBox: Legendary II & III. Have they mentioned what is in them?
Ancestral Hamster wrote: Based on Orlanth's analysis above, I've bumped my pledge to Company, and added Liquid Core dice. I did notice an Add-On option for SalvageBox: Legendary II & III. Have they mentioned what is in them?
The 'Mechs (and venicle) from the Legendary II and III ForcePacks which are in the Kickstarter.
Ancestral Hamster wrote: Based on Orlanth's analysis above, I've bumped my pledge to Company, and added Liquid Core dice. I did notice an Add-On option for SalvageBox: Legendary II & III. Have they mentioned what is in them?
The 'Mechs (and venicle) from the Legendary II and III ForcePacks which are in the Kickstarter.
Thank you, Ghaz. Since I plan to purchase at least Legendary II at some point, I'll give those Salvage boxes a miss. Get Mercenary Salvage instead.
And with $7 million unlocked, 4 ForcePacks for Company, so I'm good.
I would have rather Somerset Strikers be the $7million goal, but I can't complain too much about more free kits, and the Somerset kit will release eventually, it'll just need to wait longer for it.
I bumped up from Veteran to Company pledge a few days ago, it's not the crazy good deal the first KS was, but it's still worth it
Basically, the 'add ons' are more of a placeholder. Oh, I'm sure they'll carry over when the pledge manager lands, but if it's anything like other big campaigns I've been in, adjusting those up and down as desired may be doable in the manager itself, if not with a little nudge from their staff.
So you can pledge for a Battalion and then 'add on a Battalion', or just coincidentally add $275 extra on top of that first Battalion, etc.
The KS/Add on stuff is more of a guideline to get people to the right ballpark of where they want to be, but it's not really a done deal until the PM where everything actually locks in.
I could be wrong, but based on past experience, I'd be shocked if that wasn't the case.
*The Faction Officer Swag package comes with a lapel pin, patch, and challenge coin. The Faction Officer Swag+Dice comes with a pair of laser dice, lapel pin, patch, and challenge coin.
*The Liquid Core Dice are only available in the BattleTech Chevron.
*Street Dates: Retailer backers should get all materials at least 30 days ahead of any release of product to the hobby trade. Since ForcePacks will be released at a rate of only 2-4 per month (at best) retailer backers should have some ForcePacks at least 90-120 days ahead of a full hobby release.
Randall just said on the end of KS stream that before the Age of Combat box they had less than 2000 active Btech players going by sales. Talk about a comeback.
Thargrim wrote: Are the laser cut dice likely to go to retail after the KS is fulfilled? Or will I miss out on them if I don't get the ones I want right now?
I've still only backed this for 1$ but I might pitch in more before this closes.
I guess you can get them from Catalyst, they didn't say anything about a Ks exclusive item. But backers above Veteran will get a free dice set that might be exclusive.
I ended up with a company pledge plus a set of maps for myself, and a merc box for a friend. Had to hold firm, and not add an extra 100 or two for the plushies.
Miguelsan wrote: I ended up with a company pledge plus a set of maps for myself, and a merc box for a friend. Had to hold firm, and not add an extra 100 or two for the plushies.
M.
Are we going to be able to add more to our pledge later? I only pledged the base amount for my level, but was planning to add on the extra for the Warrior Trilogy in hardcover. Haven't done many Kickstarters, so pretty ignorant on how it works from here.
Miguelsan wrote: I ended up with a company pledge plus a set of maps for myself, and a merc box for a friend. Had to hold firm, and not add an extra 100 or two for the plushies.
M.
Are we going to be able to add more to our pledge later? I only pledged the base amount for my level, but was planning to add on the extra for the Warrior Trilogy in hardcover. Haven't done many Kickstarters, so pretty ignorant on how it works from here.
Yes. You can even change your pledge level (I’ll be upgrading from Veteran to Company on e the pledge manager opens).
Miguelsan wrote: I ended up with a company pledge plus a set of maps for myself, and a merc box for a friend. Had to hold firm, and not add an extra 100 or two for the plushies.
M.
Are we going to be able to add more to our pledge later? I only pledged the base amount for my level, but was planning to add on the extra for the Warrior Trilogy in hardcover. Haven't done many Kickstarters, so pretty ignorant on how it works from here.
Yes. You can even change your pledge level (I’ll be upgrading from Veteran to Company on e the pledge manager opens).
Thank you for that, last Kickstarter I was a part of that went to completion was the original Zombicide one... and well, been a bit since that one ran.
I know there were only 400 or so retailer pledges in the end, but if they had given update 42 somewhat earlier, might that have done something to the final total?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also @HBMC - seems like the blood asp will be available after all, you just need to get it as an add on. You might be able to snag one after all
Stormy wrote:I mean I guess there’s some napkin math about how much the Blood Asps And Strikers FP bring in from the pledge manager. I’m rather excited about /that/ in particular, but sad I won’t be able to put Scorpion empire on my fencing jacket.
it’s all getting made and added. The swag, the fiction, etc. The only thing lost from the 8m stretch goal, are added freebies. You’ll be able to add your patch.
And if you're wondering who 'Adrian Gideon' is, he's the guy being interviewed here:
Most of us are home and recovered from the 24 hour livestreams, and we're hard at work getting the pledge manager ready to launch.
Once again - we are so grateful to each and every one of you for your support of this project, and love of this game!
There are over 400 items, bundles, and pledges to add and configure to the pledge manager JUST from this campaign. We are compiling a list of everything we want to add from the online store and the previous Kickstarter as well. For every item, we need to prepare an image, description, and price, and enter them into Backer Kit. We expect that to take 2 to 3 weeks before it's ready to launch.
You can expect a minimum of one update a week between now and fulfillment - more when we have news to share. We'll also continue the video updates with Talon, and an occasional AMA to get some face time with you all and answer your questions about the project.
Next week, we'll have some more information for our Big Kappas and get you information for your point of contact.
Thank you all again, and we'll see you at the next update!
I don't think so. There's never been an official terrain line other than a few bits, and pieces over the years. It's more probable that the next KS contains ASF along with fixed Aerospace rules than plastic terrain kits.
Official plastic terrain kits, probably not. They did show/use some cool 3D-printed buildings during the livestreams.
At one point, Randall (?) says the buildings were designed by Brent and that he printed them out at home. He then
mentions that they are looking into the possibility of making the files (STL) available to the public. No date/timeline
or hard confirmation given.
There are already quite a lot of paid and free STL sets for 3d printing, so it might not make much sense to try a serious push into that as a sustained market offering, beyond just making available whatever is made for fun. there will always be a draw for people to get 2official" things for the brand, but the market may be too dilute at this point.
Good quality pre-made and pre-painted scenery would be something that harder to compete with.
beast_gts wrote: There's some semi-official terrain coming soon - Gale Force Nine is doing Hextech Battlefield-in-a-Box pre-painted terrain (linky).
I've been printing some of the hextech buildings and they are all sorts of cool, so I'd endorse the GF9 ones for people who either don't have printers or just want a ready to go option.
Flinty wrote: Also @HBMC - seems like the blood asp will be available after all, you just need to get it as an add on. You might be able to snag one after all
I won't believe it until it is physically in my hand, which as we've already established, will never happen. Reality will warp to stop it from happening, mark my words!
Flinty wrote: Also @HBMC - seems like the blood asp will be available after all, you just need to get it as an add on. You might be able to snag one after all
I won't believe it until it is physically in my hand, which as we've already established, will never happen. Reality will warp to stop it from happening, mark my words!
Ships sink (or go sideways). Kaiju emerge right underneath the ship. Aliens decide that the containers of mechs are are actually part of our planet's R&D for our planetary defence projects...
The delivery van on its way to my places gets into an accident which, miraculously, leaves the driver and all the cargo completely unscathed... except the salvage box with the Blood Asp.
I managed a home improvement store over a decade ago. A customers remodel hit every possible snag, all unforeseen at the get go. Old wiring that should have been replaced in a previous remodel, asbestos that was signed off on as being abated during that same first remodel, cabinet manufacturer going out of business. The final straw was when we had expedited the carpet and it was going to arrive just in time for a family function to still happen at the house. The truck bringing the carpet was in an accident (not the drivers fault) and caught on fire destroying the carpet.
H.B.M.C. wrote: The delivery van on its way to my places gets into an accident which, miraculously, leaves the driver and all the cargo completely unscathed... except the salvage box with the Blood Asp.
Accidental release of urine from a passing airliner spears down through the truck and wiping out a small very specific part of the package
The arenas of Solaris VII have seen glory and defeat, honor and treachery, blood and money. Now it’s your turn to make a name for yourself on the Game World with the all-new BattleTech boxed set BattleTech: Essentials, available exclusively through Target stores and on Target.com.
BattleTech: Essentials is available for pre-order right now on Target.com, with an estimated shipping date of Sunday, June 18. The boxed set will be available in Target’s more than 1,900 U.S. stores nationwide on that day as well. At this time, there are no plans to offer this product through the Catalyst Game Labs web store or any other venues than Target. International shipping through Target is not available, but other options may be revisited at a later time.
Includes:
Quick-Start Rules booklet
2 high-quality, fully-assembled (unpainted) plastic miniatures
Punchboard including additional playing pieces as well as terrain
18” x 22” full color, double-sided game map
Instant Guide to the Inner Sphere
24-page fiction novella
4 Record sheets
4 MechWarrior cards
Solaris VII Arena Map Rules sheet
Mech selection is disappointing. I was hoping it would be a pair of common mechs as it usually ends up being pretty easy to stack these kinds of boxes cheaply when stars align. Not seeing much of a reason to for just a Rifleman and Yen-Lo-Wang.
For the best, really, but still personally disappointing.
Mech selection from this kind of boxes is always a bit of a hit or miss. Your perfect pair, is my lame pairing, and so on. Though if we are going for the Solaris feel Legend Killer, and Yeng-lo-Wang are the iconic duo.
True enough, and if I find an easy way to convert the Yen-Lo-Wang back to a normal centurion I might go for it anyway. Claw is a simple fix, but adding the missile launcher back will be complicated enough that I won't want to do it 10 times.
The important part is if it sells well enough, Target may expand its offerings. If it doesn't, I'll probably be able to pick up a dozen boxes at half price or less. Either way is a win.
I guess the Allard iterations are more iconic, but I wanted the close combat model used by Danai Liao-Centrella. I just like axe and sword armed mechs, and when I was playing there weren't rules for shields.
It's a bit annoying how if you're a "one of everything, please" kind of buyer you now end up with, iirc, 3x Mad Cats and 3x Riflemen. At least 2x Griffins, probably 3x if you went for the updated Beginner Box. Multiple Wargammmers... and probably other dupes I'm forgetting.
I don't mind it at all when there are actual variant sculpts introduced, but I think the majority of the time they're clones
GDL, Proliferation, Snords, and Urbie variants are on the same timetable/boat. 2-4 months.
Target exclusive is a big deal, but it sucks for those outside of the states. Exclusivity isn't really sought out but also hard to pass up in terms of growth and money.
Full Solaris is planned. No real eta
Faction packs (when they come) mean IS omnis are on the table.
Premiums are being reworked, and this includes the Creative Juggernaut variants (but those ones need to basically be redesigned for Monster Fight Clubs tooling/process)
Big plans for 40th.
Lots of other questions where the answer was; yes it's on the table but no solid plans.
For context, we're not looking to recreate the Solaris Box or revisit the Solaris dueling rules. There's a lot we can and want to do with Solaris down the line, there's a lot of potential without having to retread old ground.
Also still having problems manufacturing conventional infantry but definitely still in the game. Industrial mechs might come in the future as a theme pack (if I remember correctly).
Miguelsan wrote: Aaaaaand done. I didn't want one but due to HBMC I placed a Blood Asp in my order as a meme mech.
I did too. No strong feelings either way, but with two Gauss rifles on the Prime, that's a selling point for me.
Miguelsan wrote: Did you got charged for shipping? I got charged 60$ extra from my initial pledge, but I think that's the plushies I added last minute.
They did not charge me for shipping, but I'm in the continental US. Still, I can't help but wonder if that's a mistake.
Miguelsan wrote: Aaaaaand done. I didn't want one but due to HBMC I placed a Blood Asp in my order as a meme mech.
I did too. No strong feelings either way, but with two Gauss rifles on the Prime, that's a selling point for me.
Miguelsan wrote: Did you got charged for shipping? I got charged 60$ extra from my initial pledge, but I think that's the plushies I added last minute.
They did not charge me for shipping, but I'm in the continental US. Still, I can't help but wonder if that's a mistake.
Worries me because my CC expires in July, and I don't want to get blindsided by shipping charges.
M.
Edit: As per update 51 s&h has not been charged yet. I hope they don't open the pledge manager for s&h until I get my new CC.
It's cool that they're letting people select from a variety of Salvage Boxes. I'd much rather get a few fighters and a Blood Asp than X random shots at a mech I don't already have or want a double/triple/quadruple of.
Well... all the store exclusive Merc Lances are available in the pledge manager. I was not expecting that.
So there goes another $190...
With all the add-ons and pledges and things that allowed for extra Salvage boxes I ended up with 12 Salvage boxes (2 Blood Asp, 6 Mercenary, 4 Legandary).
Ooh. I hadn’t twigged to that. I’ll go back and check them out. I have no nostalgia for the Somerset Strikers but maybe one of the exclusive lances will fill a niche in my burgeoning Regiment
As I’ll never game with all of these things anyway, I’m going to get a pair of shilones to at least fill a proper aerospace Lance
Then the remaining salvage boxes on a blood asp and 3 random mechs.
I’d like a full listing of dice designs though. Hopefully they will have that by the reopening bit later on.
I didn't expect my total shopping list to come out to almost $3200....
TalonZahn wrote: CGL is now saying in the recent update people will be given credit if you message them to unlock your bundle add-on.
Although they still recommend taking the path I first suggested for your choices.
If you do neither of these options, will they just send you the appropriate number of mercenary salvage boxes for your add-on pledges by default? I added on 5 battalions, so like.... theres a lot of inner sphere lance forcepacks in there, more than I can fit in the context of my main pledge.
It sounds like Backerkit hasn't been able to do the stuff CGL wanted from them. The reporting is obviously a bit one sided, but you'd think with $7m kicking about that something could have been done.
I would also like to see a comprehensive list of the exclusive packs, since I forget which ones I've already sourced.
I think this is all of them but I would like to know if I missed any. Keep in mind that most of the exclusives are/were temporary, and may be out of the exclusive phase.
Legendary MechWarriors I (exclusive to Clan Invasion KS/CGL store; not available through Mercs KS, still avail at CGL store, then OOP)
Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star (Barnes and Noble exclusive)
Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance (Barnes and Noble exclusive)
Gray Death Legion Heavy Battle Lance (Barnes and Noble exclusive)
Hansen's Roughriders Battle Lance (distributor exclusive)
Northwind Highlanders Command Lance (distributor exclusive)
Kell Hounds Striker Lance (distributor exclusive)
Battletech Essentials (Target exclusive; I don't think this one is available in the Mercs KS)
Altruizine wrote: I would also like to see a comprehensive list of the exclusive packs, since I forget which ones I've already sourced.
I think this is all of them but I would like to know if I missed any. Keep in mind that most of the exclusives are/were temporary, and may be out of the exclusive phase.
Legendary MechWarriors I (exclusive to Clan Invasion KS/CGL store; not available through Mercs KS, still avail at CGL store, then OOP)
Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star (Barnes and Noble exclusive)
Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance (Barnes and Noble exclusive)
Gray Death Legion Heavy Battle Lance (Barnes and Noble exclusive)
Hansen's Roughriders Battle Lance (distributor exclusive)
Northwind Highlanders Command Lance (distributor exclusive)
Kell Hounds Striker Lance (distributor exclusive)
Battletech Essentials (Target exclusive; I don't think this one is available in the Mercs KS)
Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star (Barnes and Noble exclusive)
This is no longer exclusive, having been replaced by the ELH forcepack below.
Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance (Barnes and Noble exclusive) Only exclusive for six months, but I'm not sure when the six months started. Dec 2022, or Jan 2023, and I'm not certain about those dates either. Anyway, if you want to get them at a discount from a OLGS wait until August of this year and they should be no longer exclusive.
I just did my own backerkit page stuff, and it turns out that all the exclusives are listed in their own add-on category anyway. Should make it clear for anyone who wants those.
Interesting, the yet-to-be-released Urbanmech Lance and Proliferation Cycle Lance are in there, although I don't know why/how they're exclusives. Are they going to be CGL-store only?
Proliferation Cycle and Urbanmech Lance are regular retail releases. Calling that category "exclusives" is a bit misleading, it's really just a list of all the post-Clan Invasion forcepacks they have released except for those which will still have exclusivity rights at the time of anticipated shipping (thus, Grey Death Legion is not on the list).
Do you know if every "exclusive" is ultimately going to end up as a normal retail product? Or are there still some that are indefinitely exclusive?
I think the Target box falls into the latter category, although they have announced something non-committal like they "want to" get it into the hands of non-US customers. Not sure about the rest.
I had them "Unlock" my Pledge for gak and giggles.
I got credited back my second Battalion Pledge and went through it again.
It's the same as before, no salvage boxes for the second pledge. So I suspect they just want to make sure everyone got the note I dropped here, Reddit, FB, etc.
Pick Force Packs that get Salvage on your main pledge and ones that don't on your second.
chaos0xomega wrote: Proliferation Cycle and Urbanmech Lance are regular retail releases.
Yep. From the announcement, the Proliferation Cycle ForcePack, the UrbanMech Lance ForcePack and the Snord's Irregulars Assault Lance ForcePack were each noted as "This ForcePack will be available via regular distribution this spring; it is not an exclusive.".
Some of them aren't exclusive anymore, like the aforementioned Wolf's Dragoons one, but I was just surprised to see all of them listed there. Rare as hen's teeth in this part of the world, so I'm appreciative of their inclusion.
chaos0xomega wrote: Calling that category "exclusives" is a bit misleading...
Most of the things on that list were store exclusives, specifically American store exclusives.
So as it turns out, and despite all the vehicle boxes, if you get 1 of every 'Mech available that's new to this Kickstarter (and not any from the last KS), there are more 'Mechs in this one than the last.
I'm assuming one of every pack offered as part of the Kickstarter, including the add-ons like Sommerset Strikers, Proliferation and Urbie-Lance, plus the Retaliation Packs. Plus the exclusive Lance Packs as well.
Edit: The first set was offered to IWM to help with it's owner's fight agains cancer, and it's apparently all sold out. Good for Catalyst, and for fans.
I finalized my order in Backerkit but it didn’t charge me for shipping. I’m a late backer so I’m not getting the updates. Did they mention when they’re charging for shipping? I assume closer to when manufacturing is complete?
Ghool wrote: I finalized my order in Backerkit but it didn’t charge me for shipping. I’m a late backer so I’m not getting the updates. Did they mention when they’re charging for shipping? I assume closer to when manufacturing is complete?
Backerkit works like Kickstarter. Whilst the Backerkit is open you can edit and modify anything. However like KS it will only "lock in" and charge you once the Backerkit period is over.
Flinty wrote: I don’t understand CGL’s communication strategy. It pops up on the forum, but they haven’t sent out an update on Kickstarter.
It’s a holiday weekend in the U.S. (Memorial Day).
If they had organised it to the point that it gets added to the backerkit thing, how/why not just drop a wee update on Kickstarter to match. Even if the message went up early, surely that’s better than a random addition to the pledge manager with no context.
Give that every second comment just now is asking how to unlock pledges…
Ghool wrote: I finalized my order in Backerkit but it didn’t charge me for shipping. I’m a late backer so I’m not getting the updates. Did they mention when they’re charging for shipping? I assume closer to when manufacturing is complete?
So there's an E-mail going out that takes you to the backer results, which has a bunch of stats on pledge levels, popular items, and bits of trivial like who took the longest to finish the pledge manager, who was the first to pledge in the campaign, and so on.
There's the average backer pledge vs what you pledged. Mine... was a bit higher. *cough*
And it has a full list of everything you're getting, which is a good way of checking everything.
It also shows popular items, and that they'll be making over 22 thousand Blood Asp minis. With that many out there floating around the world my chances of getting at least one of the two I ordered have to be good!
Ghool wrote: I finalized my order in Backerkit but it didn’t charge me for shipping. I’m a late backer so I’m not getting the updates. Did they mention when they’re charging for shipping? I assume closer to when manufacturing is complete?
Backerkit works like Kickstarter. Whilst the Backerkit is open you can edit and modify anything. However like KS it will only "lock in" and charge you once the Backerkit period is over.
Actually, not this time, nor with any CMON project.
My pledge has already been locked and I can’t modify it at all.
I’ve already been charged as well. Just not the shipping.
Ghool wrote: I finalized my order in Backerkit but it didn’t charge me for shipping. I’m a late backer so I’m not getting the updates. Did they mention when they’re charging for shipping? I assume closer to when manufacturing is complete?
Backerkit works like Kickstarter. Whilst the Backerkit is open you can edit and modify anything. However like KS it will only "lock in" and charge you once the Backerkit period is over.
Actually, not this time, nor with any CMON project.
My pledge has already been locked and I can’t modify it at all.
I’ve already been charged as well. Just not the shipping.
From the 'Catalsyt Guide to the Mercenaries Pledge Manager Final' document that can be found in the Google Drive link in Update #50:
So that’s it? One and done? Not necessarily. A few weeks before the Pledge Manager closes, when we send an email to announce the final deadline, we will also re-open all surveys for any changes/additional shopping. This way you can budget for some items now, and some later.
You can also contact Catalyst by using the 'Contact me' by clicking on 'Catalyst Games' at the top of the Kickstarter where it says 'Created by'. Note however it may take some time as a lot of backers have been needing their pledge unlocked.
Any guesses as to how complex things will be after they reopen pledges, or what that will look like?
Liiike... if you don't want to make any changes will you still need to log in and hit "finalize" again, or can you just ignore the notice? Will you be able to change, say, one item, or will any change require you to go through the whole reward assignment system again?
I don't really need to make any changes, but there's one minor one I've been thinking about. I chose a challenge coin and a Sea Fox pin (to give to my gf, because it's vaguely kawaii) but now I'm contemplating just switching to multiple coins so I can use them as objectives and get some practical use out of the useless swag. But I absolutely do not want to do the whole survey/assignment again.
It should keep your current pledge listings and you can modify from there, rather than resetting everything. If people make changes then submit, then they get charged any excess there and then, so they can't easily go back and reset everything while maintaining all that info.
Ghool wrote: I finalized my order in Backerkit but it didn’t charge me for shipping. I’m a late backer so I’m not getting the updates. Did they mention when they’re charging for shipping? I assume closer to when manufacturing is complete?
Backerkit works like Kickstarter. Whilst the Backerkit is open you can edit and modify anything. However like KS it will only "lock in" and charge you once the Backerkit period is over.
Actually, not this time, nor with any CMON project.
My pledge has already been locked and I can’t modify it at all.
I’ve already been charged as well. Just not the shipping.
From the 'Catalsyt Guide to the Mercenaries Pledge Manager Final' document that can be found in the Google Drive link in Update #50:
So that’s it? One and done? Not necessarily. A few weeks before the Pledge Manager closes, when we send an email to announce the final deadline, we will also re-open all surveys for any changes/additional shopping. This way you can budget for some items now, and some later.
You can also contact Catalyst by using the 'Contact me' by clicking on 'Catalyst Games' at the top of the Kickstarter where it says 'Created by'. Note however it may take some time as a lot of backers have been needing their pledge unlocked.
Good to know, thanks!
I’ll just wait as I may want to adjust some things later.
We have some fantastic news to share! The pledge manager will be unlocking over the next few days and you will have until the end of July to lock in your final choices for your pledges. We'll send another announcement as soon as the unlocks go through. Don't forget that once you confirm your order, it will lock again, so be super sure of your choices!
And apparently I had $20 credit? Ok. Got a JF Dice Tray!
And despite being unlocked, you can't change anything you added previously. Friend of mine added an Urbie Company because he got mixed up between that and the Urbie Lance (not as ingrained in BTech fluff as the rest of us might be), but he can't remove the Urbie Company, only add the Urbie Lance.
So he did.
He's going to be inundated in Urbies now (he has a few from the first KS).
Latest update has dropped. Backerkit is not allowing the adjustments to previous selections in the pledge manager as they cause code issues (i.e., we broke the pledge manager again ). Catalyst is working with them to find a fix that.
Good news is that the plastic map-scale DropShips will remain in production after the Kickstarter with them being produced under the Catalyst flag. However if you can buy them during the Kickstarter please do so as the profits go to Melissa Noe of IWM as she fights cancer.
Ancestral Hamster wrote: While I was able to make changes, since they did not charge for shipping at that time, I assume they will unlock it again at some point.
From the Google Drive document in Update #50, posted May 19th:
How much will shipping cost? We continue to work hard to bring shipping costs down around the world. In order to do that, we won’t charge shipping until we are much closer to our delivery date. However, Catalyst has already committed to worldwide freight and import duties to get to our hubs. That means most of our backers will only have to pay “local” shipping rates for their country or territory, and of course local taxes/VAT. Future updates will publish likely shipping costs.
It will only be unlocked for shipping, not for adding to your pledge.
I saved the best news for last. We understand the frustration about the Salvage Boxes being unavailable for selection with the Pledge Bundle Add-ons - we're frustrated too. The challenge for a solution outside of Backerkit is complexity. The spreadsheet of backer surveys and total orders for fulfillment is MASSIVE, and we don't want to risk messing with the formatting, which could ultimately impact the distributor's fulfillment process and cause mistakes.
We've had a lot of conversations about how to work around Backerkit or the spreadsheet and what we can do, and we have an idea, but we need your help:
* As mentioned in the previous update, please use your Pledge Reward ForcePack options to choose as many of the Inner Sphere and Objectives ForcePacks that come with the Salvage Boxes as possible.
* After we reopen orders near the end of the pledge manager timeline, if you still need additional Inner Sphere or Objectives ForcePacks through your add-on bundle, go ahead and choose them . Once you submit your order and close it again, send us a message and we can add a free Salvage Box for you for your selections. This is a manual process, so please prioritize your choices to the main reward as much as possible.
We will continue to look for an easier solution in the meantime, but we have a plan!
We wanted to provide an important update for those who pre-ordered through BackerKit and did not pledge through Kickstarter. We understand that you may not be able to see the backer-only updates and content on Kickstarter. We will be able to obtain a complete email list from of all backers once the pledge manager closes, and will be sending out all of that content as emails after the final close date.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding. We appreciate your patience, and we look forward to sharing exciting updates with you soon!
Liya International has posted over two dozen short videos on their YouTube channel of the Mercenaries minis in production. Some of the minis being assembled are the Goliath, Warrior H7, JagerMech and Scorpion.
kodos wrote: that is a point a lot of people asked for a long time now
but also a lot of people like the "out of the box" playability
and having 2 different boxes for each mech is increasing logistic by a lot
Seeing how they have tabs and pegs and all? Probably should just be sold unassembled: less work hours to pay, smaller packages (meaning less shipping costs and less waste), no need for the molded transparent plastic interior... yes, they would not be 100 % "useable right off the box", but it would still be dead easy to assemble them.
You can still slap a photo of the unit on the box like everyone else does so that people knows what they're buying.
kodos wrote: need special glue, need people to care about which part goes were, needs a printed assembly guide, needs 1 model per package= more waste
For price and waste, it is cheaper to sell them as they do now
I mean, for price maybe. For waste, absolutely not (I was speaking about the unit boxes, that they should all be the same way, no duplication of anything). Unless you're counting the time you would waste assembling it.
And I haven't had much of a problem using regular super glue with the ones I've reposed or had to affix to a loose base.
Anyways, this is idle wondering, as CGL is not going to do it.
Ironwind metalssells unassembled metal battletech minis, often of the same sculpt. They even do some variants. If you want to assemble your mechs, give them a shot.
Gitzbitah wrote: Ironwind metalssells unassembled metal battletech minis, often of the same sculpt. They even do some variants. If you want to assemble your mechs, give them a shot.
Gitzbitah wrote: Ironwind metalssells unassembled metal battletech minis, often of the same sculpt. They even do some variants. If you want to assemble your mechs, give them a shot.
I did, at the time.
Still have the scars.
I may regret this, but I just pulled the trigger on 3 Ironwind minis plus 5 Clan Invasion Salvage Boxes. Not so worried about the Salvage Boxes, but the metals. Sure, grew up with metal minis, but I don't miss them. Hard plastics are so much more convenient.
With Iron Wind it's just a crapshoot as to how many pieces it'll be in when it arrives.
If you get multi-part leg with separate hips and stuff - good luck to you. If you get far fewer pieces, then you'll have a better time of it.
There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.
H.B.M.C. wrote: With Iron Wind it's just a crapshoot as to how many pieces it'll be in when it arrives.
If you get multi-part leg with separate hips and stuff - good luck to you. If you get far fewer pieces, then you'll have a better time of it.
There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.
Hopefully Fortress Miniatures will pack them securely. I was pleased they got it packed within eight hours. Miniature Market has been slow lately, even though they've gotten their new warehouse sorted out [or so they claim].
Of course, if it is the Iron Wind packaging that is at fault, the middle man can do little to mitigate the problem. When minis were still lead, manufacturers put a little foam rubber in the blisters to cushion the shocks, but they stopped that to save money. OTOH, if broken miniatures cost you customers, isn't that "penny wise, pound foolish"?
H.B.M.C. wrote: There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.
I never built my Hollander, and it's not even the worst offender from IWM. Started pinning one leg and just, decided never to use that mech. IWM are effectively dead to me.
Anyways, got an email that the pledge manager was extended again, not sure where a $50 credit came from but OK, I'll add a free rulebook. Catalyst still haven't charged shipping, correct? I haven't seen a charge listed anywhere
H.B.M.C. wrote: With Iron Wind it's just a crapshoot as to how many pieces it'll be in when it arrives.
If you get multi-part leg with separate hips and stuff - good luck to you. If you get far fewer pieces, then you'll have a better time of it.
There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.
Hopefully Fortress Miniatures will pack them securely. I was pleased they got it packed within eight hours. Miniature Market has been slow lately, even though they've gotten their new warehouse sorted out [or so they claim].
Of course, if it is the Iron Wind packaging that is at fault, the middle man can do little to mitigate the problem. When minis were still lead, manufacturers put a little foam rubber in the blisters to cushion the shocks, but they stopped that to save money. OTOH, if broken miniatures cost you customers, isn't that "penny wise, pound foolish"?
HBMC isn't talking about models broken in package, he means there are some IWM models that are intentionally designed with that many parts and tiny joins.
Kalamadea wrote: Anyways, got an email that the pledge manager was extended again, not sure where a $50 credit came from but OK, I'll add a free rulebook. Catalyst still haven't charged shipping, correct? I haven't seen a charge listed anywhere
Did you have dice, cards, etc. from the Clan Invasion Kickstarter that you were due a credit for?
Platuan4th wrote: HBMC isn't talking about models broken in package, he means there are some IWM models that are intentionally designed with that many parts and tiny joins.
H.B.M.C. wrote: It's one of the reasons I still don't own a Blood Asp, despite having bought several.
In any case, everyone log into your pledge managers. I just did it again and found another $15 worth of credit. I have absolutely no idea why.
Picked up a set of fancy Jade Falcon and FedCom dice.
if you got dice in the previous kickstarter, they're giving you credit for them, since the dice that got produced had such lousy quality control. including apparently any that came as part of a larger bundle. i didn't order any extra dice, just what came with my pledge in that KS, but i still got $5 this time around for it. and iirc some card packs as well that had been promised but ended up being cancelled due to production issues.
my suggestions is let it sit.. they've clarified that any remaining credit can go towards shipping, so unless there is some item you just really desire and you are confident you'll be able to cover whatever the shipping ends up as, i'd hold onto the credit and decide whether to add extra items right at the end when they do their final pass and you have a better idea of how much shipping will cost.
Platuan4th wrote: Interesting. I picked up extra dice with Clan Invasion and I have no credits available.
They could still be working on them (which would be one of the reasons for extending the closing date) but you could always send them a message via Backerkit to see if they have a credit due for you.
mithril2098 wrote: if you got dice in the previous kickstarter, they're giving you credit for them, since the dice that got produced had such lousy quality control. including apparently any that came as part of a larger bundle. i didn't order any extra dice, just what came with my pledge in that KS, but i still got $5 this time around for it. and iirc some card packs as well that had been promised but ended up being cancelled due to production issues.
I thought it was only if you ordered them and either didn't get them or they were such bad quality as to be unusable.
Mine were all fine (I got DC, GB and Fed Suns dice). *shrug*
Besides, this is the second time I've logged in to find credit. The first time was $20.
mithril2098 wrote: my suggestions is let it sit.. they've clarified that any remaining credit can go towards shipping, so unless there is some item you just really desire and you are confident you'll be able to cover whatever the shipping ends up as, i'd hold onto the credit and decide whether to add extra items right at the end when they do their final pass and you have a better idea of how much shipping will cost.
I didn't know that.
So, sure, I could get $35 off shipping, but... two sets of fancy dice and a Jade Falcon dice tray (I've never owned a dice tray!) for no extra cost seem pretty good to me.
Update in the OP. They're almost through all of the dice credits and will be working on the salvage boxes once the pledge manager closes at the end of the month.
H.B.M.C. wrote: There are 'Mechs I have that I love but wouldn't dream of getting a second one after putting them together. This is where the ever-expanding plastics range comes in.
I never built my Hollander, and it's not even the worst offender from IWM. Started pinning one leg and just, decided never to use that mech. IWM are effectively dead to me.
me, yeah, I own three of them. You saved yourself a lot of trouble. I put them on the same pedestal as the old GW metal land speeders, Privateer's Karchev the Terrible (they really weren't kidding with that name) and early Infinity metals (when they had you glue on individual greebles and wafer-thin antennae). Those things were hell to assemble and I will not own any more until plastic versions are available. As it is, I barely field them for fear of an errant stare or sneeze causing them to fall apart.
Flinty wrote: Nooooooo. They are glueing the turrets in !!!1!111
According to this post of mine, Anthony Scroggins states that they were going to have loose turrets, and since the LRM/SRM Carrier has been stated to specifically allow you to build either two SRM or LRM Carriers or one of each they pretty much require loose turrets.
Apple fox wrote: I was hoping the turrets would be loose, those going to be a pain to get off.
>.<
Almost looks like a ball-and-socket connection that distinctly "pops in" (which would be even harder to detach, as well as more prone to having a wonky angle out of the box). Sad :(
edit: although since the ball looks pretty beefy, hopefully the old freezer trick will be effective
Apple fox wrote: I was hoping the turrets would be loose, those going to be a pain to get off.
>.<
Almost looks like a ball-and-socket connection that distinctly "pops in" (which would be even harder to detach, as well as more prone to having a wonky angle out of the box). Sad :(
edit: although since the ball looks pretty beefy, hopefully the old freezer trick will be effective
I did see that. Will find out the hard way. It’s not the end of the world, but turrets go spin is wanted.
Aresneo wrote:Posable turrets where always talked about as something that depended on the factory and not something guaranteed. It likely ended up being that guaranteeing posable turrets would delay production as there would need to be more precise training for the people assembling minis to know when not to glue parts on. Or it could be a weaker glue to hold the turrets in place while packing, it did look like a different type of glue container from most of the other videos.
There where no LRM/SRM Carriers in any of the recent videos, just Skulkers, Demolishers, and some hovercrafts. Based on how the missile carriers are supposed to be put together it would be less likely they are glued, unless its something weak and temporary to hold them together during packing.
According to Randall, the turrets on vehicles in general are supposed to be friction-fit. He says he has received actual production sample minis (i.e., not prototypes) for about half of the vehicles so far, and the turrets work well.
As for the ForcePack in question, at this time the intent is for there to be 4 LRM turrets and 4 SRM turrets as Anthony stated. However, we have not seen a final production copy of that entire ForcePack--meaning, a boxed, complete, as-it-will-go-out version--just yet.
EDIT: It looks like they may finally have the pledge manager working like they want it to work, so the pledge manager will no longer be closing on the 31st according to the latest update.
Latest update in the OP. All of the pledge levels have been unlocked and you'll only need to message Catalyst if you need a change of pledge level. Closing date is set for September 15th and should be considered as set in stone at this time...
Just got an email from Catalyst stating that they have charged my card for the balance owed for the Blood Asp and challenge coin I added when they reopened the pledge manager. If you have any outstanding balances due expect to see a similar email soon.
frankelee wrote: Alright the pledge manager's locked, where's my stuff? I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HOURS.
i know you meant this as a joke, but as someone who has seen too many KS turn into cluster fraks because people start complaining unreasonably about how long it took to get the stuff, it is still painful to see.
Death_from_above wrote:MechForce Germany (present at Spiel Essen) managed to snag Christopher Frye from Liya International for a couple of minutes.
It would seem that we are still on track for 2023 shipping..
Timestamp 00:58 - more IlClan Mechs : 100% yes. Possibly in 2024, more probable in 2025 though.
Timestamp 01:12 - Randall has a meeting on Saturday to "determine where to localize the German language"
(So German game material quiaff ?)
Timestamp 01:16 - ProtoMech minis : Randall does have a soft spot for them, but don't hold your breath
(i.e. never say never, but definitely not in the next couple of years)
Timestamp 01:23:45 - More Campaigns books (à la Tukayyid) : Randall would love to see more of them.
They had a Luthien Campaign book planned for the Mercenaries KS, but decided to hold back. They're
also working on a Hinterlands Campaign.
Timestamp 01:25 - German Audiobooks : "spam J. Helfers e-mail"
Timestamp 01:29:20 - Audiobook with/by Tex (BPL) : good question for John H. again.
Timestamp 01:37 - Faction Packs will have IlClan-era Mechs in them.
Timestamp 01:50:43 - something something (packaging ?) BattleTech Aces : multiple (5) options on the table.
Timestamp 01:57:35 - European CGL store : worldwide shipping is still challenging. They're looking into Asmodee
Netherlands with their EPM network and another company. They'd like to offer a setup whereby one can order
via the website, but picking/shipping takes place within Europe.
Potential partners are often taken aback upon learning the number of SKUs.
Last call for Salvage boxes who need them for an Inner Sphere or BattleField Support: Objectives ForcePack taken as part of an add-on pledge level bundle.
Liya International is an OEM Plastic Manufacturer. Although we do our own plastic work we still work closely with several partners to produce the printed portions of our projects. Here is one of our printing partners who is packing our miniatures into the trays they received from a 3rd partner into the boxes they printed. Then they will go into cartons which came from a 4th partner.
At least we now know why they were placing all of those 'Mechs in blue totes instead of boxing them up.
For those not signed up for the Catalyst Game Labs newsletter, they will be attending PAX Unplugged December 1st through the 3rd. Here's what we can look forward to seeing:
Miguelsan wrote: I should have ordered one! Actually if the pledge manager allows for extras when it opens for shipping I will.
M.
I’m fairly certain that you won’t be able to adjust your pledge when the PM reopens, but fhey will be available via the CGL webstore after the Kickstarter backers have been fulfilled (yes, I know about the shipping costs for overseas customers is a little less than desirable).
LunarSol wrote: Finally jumped in with the Alpha Strike set. Kind of a redemption project from when I failed to figure the universe out in the early 90's. Now I've got to figure out what else I need before this KS adds more to the pile.
Thanks! Any suggestions on Lance/Star packs that are worth picking up?
all of them? but more seriously, there are so many that a lot of it is going to depend on what you want to do with them. are you looking for different play options? fun stuff to paint, etc.
as it is, the game isn't really tied to minis.. proxies are considered perfectly ok for casual play and even some tourney's (depends on venue) so largely just collect the ones you think look the most interesting when you get started, and as you become more familiar with the game you can branch out into getting ones with variants you are interested in.
Miguelsan wrote: I should have ordered one! Actually if the pledge manager allows for extras when it opens for shipping I will.
M.
I’m fairly certain that you won’t be able to adjust your pledge when the PM reopens, but fhey will be available via the CGL webstore after the Kickstarter backers have been fulfilled (yes, I know about the shipping costs for overseas customers is a little less than desirable).
You are supposed to lie to me, and say that I'm right. Don't pop my bubble sending me into FOMO hell
first up (Q1) : Star League Command Lance - Atlas II, Thunder Hawk, Orion and Phoenix Hawk variant (looks like a PXH-1b "Special")
2nd ForcePack will have some Civil War designs in it
Each ForcePack will have a single pre-painted mini (which can be stripped and repainted)
As I posted on the BT forums...
I really don't get this idea at all. Either have all of them pre-painted for people that hate or can't paint, but just one?
That leaves the non-painters still with 3/4 of a box unpainted and for those of us that do paint, it means the effort and equipment to strip a model down.
I really don't get this idea at all. Either have all of them pre-painted for people that hate or can't paint, but just one?
That leaves the non-painters still with 3/4 of a box unpainted and for those of us that do paint, it means the effort and equipment to strip a model down.
Agreed. It's the worst of both worlds.
BTW, as some one who has played 3055 IS tech with some Clan tech of the Clan Invasion, how does Star League tech compare to that? The Star League and possible Civil War forcepacks are of some interest to me lorewise, but I've never played at that level.
Thargrim wrote: I doubt they cleaned up the mold lines before painting them either. Having just one model in the box being pre painted is a bizarre choice.
Liya does a lot of prepaints at different levels, so I will give them the benefit of the doubt until I see otherwise.
Let's join the chorus: That's really weird. I have mechs painted in the colors of each of the Houses, plus my own merc unit in a desert camo scheme. What are the chances that the pre-painted matches? Close to 0, and that's without taking into account the chance of being a unit I utterly despise (looking at you Wolf Dragoons) so I would have to strip the paint, and depending on the product used it could be a pain in the ass because I cannot use a strong product like I do with the old metals.
Probably is going to be a hard pass for me too.
M.
Edit: That said, a painted introductory box could be a cool idea for people that enter the game.
Going by the list I posted HERE, unless there's more ForcePacks that they haven't been able to tell us about yet, that works out to just four prepainted 'Mechs. So far, the feedback on the official BattleTech forums on the prepainted 'Mechs has been overwhelmingly negative so hopefully CGL will take this feedback into consideration on any new ForcePacks.
Even if they hope that pre-painted might open up even more casual gamers, they need to be careful. Wasn't prepainted models one of the nails that contributed (not on its own of course) to the downfall of Rackheim years ago?
As noted people have their own paint schemes and if the die hard fanbase gets turned off by prepainted models then that's going to be a huge issue.
The idea is ok, but wrong product. The probable target is newcomers, but new players are more likely to enter the game through one of the large boxes. Paint those mechs, maybe not AGoAC with its 8 mechs because of cost, but the Target special, or the introductory box could work.
Veterans, like us, with dozens of mechs already painted (or at least half painted not pointing fingers...) are less likely to want something that adds scant value at a higher cost.
The prepainted thing does seem odd for all of the reasons people have mentioned. I do my minis in batches around thematic forces, so a random scheme prepaint is not really going to fit anywhere for me. The only way I'd really be into them is if they were hero 'Mechs. Devlin's skeletal Atlas II, Prometheus, Black Widow Warhammer, those are things I want in my collection and would be into getting a prepainted version of if I haven't already gotten to it, but I have also already done a bunch of the ones I'm into.
I really don't get this idea at all. Either have all of them pre-painted for people that hate or can't paint, but just one?
That leaves the non-painters still with 3/4 of a box unpainted and for those of us that do paint, it means the effort and equipment to strip a model down.
Agreed. It's the worst of both worlds.
BTW, as some one who has played 3055 IS tech with some Clan tech of the Clan Invasion, how does Star League tech compare to that? The Star League and possible Civil War forcepacks are of some interest to me lorewise, but I've never played at that level.
Star League Tech largely is 3055 IS Tech. Most 3055 IS Tech is recovered Star League Tech. Only the C3 computers and triple-strength myomers are genuinely new in 3055.
Vulcan wrote: Star League Tech largely is 3055 IS Tech. Most 3055 IS Tech is recovered Star League Tech. Only the C3 computers and triple-strength myomers are genuinely new in 3055.
Thanks Vulcan. So I know the rules for the Star League era wars already.
Overread wrote: Even if they hope that pre-painted might open up even more casual gamers, they need to be careful. Wasn't prepainted models one of the nails that contributed (not on its own of course) to the downfall of Rackheim years ago?
No, the downfall of Rackham was caused by internal issues due to a new owner that didn't know what they were buying when they bought the company. They were actually in the process of finding new manufacturers because they couldn't keep up with the demand AT-43 had when they were shut down.
The Star League Command Lance will include four Mechs:
ON1-Kb Orion (Kerensky) - new pose, pre-painted PXH-1b Phoenix Hawk "Special" - new pose AS7-D-H Atlas II - unpainted TDK-7X Thunder Hawk - unpainted
We actually had these to show on stream yesterday, but Randall was extremely ill and could not join. In heat of the moment, it was not clear what I could and could not show (or even say in some cases), so we did the best we could. I realize they showed the image of the Thunder Hawk painted by Savage Coyote on stream as I was talking about pre-painted miniatures, so things got a little conflated. We should all be so lucky as to get a SC-painted Thunder Hawk, no such luck unfortunately.
Randall says he's going to try to a) rally and be on stream today and b) show off these minis and anything else we missed.
So the prepainted Orion should look a lot like this image from the 'BattleTech Legends' book:
EDIT: Randall spilled the beans on the three other ForcePacks:
Second Star League Assault Pack:Daishi Prometheus (prepainted), Emperor, Argus, Helios, Coolant Truck
Third Star League Striker Pack:Lament, Jackalope, Kintaro, Hammerhead II, Havoc, J-27 Ordnance Transport
Third Star League Battle Pack:Savage Wolf, Wendigo, Excalibur, Peacekeeper, Malice, Savior Repair Vehicle
I still unsold on pre-painted.
It’s one of my fav mechs… But don’t like the paint, or the character particularly.
So at best it’s display piece, and still need another one.
If it does get new players/painters into the game. Then all good. But I not sure if it’s a big draw with 3 unpainted in the box.
Stripping paint is a lot of extra effort, even if you do know how.
The selection on the two Third SL packs are pretty wild. The Lament is a pretty decent modern art design, but seeing that and the Malice in CGL-vision is going to be a lot of fun. Savage Wolf will also greatly benefit.
The Excalibur I think rounds out what you'd want for classic Snord's/Rhonda's Irregulars now? Kintaro should shut a lot of people up. The vehicle asset inclusions in the packs seem a bit random.
Also, Hammerhead II would be a new variant we haven't seen yet, right?
Fair point. I think I meant re-base-coat rather than re-prime in a technical sense. Although it does depends a bit of the type of paint used and whether it is good as an acrylic base layer.
Ghaz wrote: Going by the list I posted HERE, unless there's more ForcePacks that they haven't been able to tell us about yet, that works out to just four prepainted 'Mechs. So far, the feedback on the official BattleTech forums on the prepainted 'Mechs has been overwhelmingly negative so hopefully CGL will take this feedback into consideration on any new ForcePacks.
Ok,so four prepainted mechs...so why one on each box instead of all four on the same one.
Kanluwen wrote: I mean, you're not wrong...but their push is for "themed" sets, so why not go that route instead?
Yes. Perhaps a two lance set like Davion Guards versus Kurita Sword of Light with typical mechs for said formations. Or FedCom civil war. Or as the Capellans are the whipping boy of this universe, Capellans versus any popular faction. Such hypothetical two Lance boxes would not be cheap though between having prepaints and 8 mechs.
Xotl wrote:Planned for late next year, the MechCommander's Handbook is intended to be one part small-scale campaign book (rooted in Chaos Campaign), one part overview of warfare and tactics (i.e. both in-universe and pure gameplay), and one part a guide to the product line and world of force building. It's a standalone book, not meant to replace or require any other book (besides a rulebook). This is all still tentative as it is a work in progress, but that's the plan anyways.
The part I want to discuss with you all is the era overviews. Planned at the moment are five or six chapters of this type:
* Early Succession Wars (tentative: a more obscure era playwise, and we'll see if there's enough mech selection available to make this interesting)
* Late Succession Wars
* Clan Invasion
* Jihad
* Republic
* IlClan
Chapter Goals
I have multiple aims for these chapters.
1) Provide a quick overview of the era in question. The focus is high-level, light on lore, looking primarily at military developments. As you'll see when you check the preview, any dedicated era sourcebook does a far better job. The idea here is simplicity--enough to place the rest of the material in the chapter in some sort of context. This is aimed at new players.
2) Provide a quick guide to the products available for that era. BT's product line is deep, and there's a lot of questions as to what is relevant to when, especially for the many new players we've picked up in the past five years. This will guide readers to the books and PDFs available, for those who want more depth for that era.
3) Provide a guide to mech-based force building for that era. This will give players a way to create Battlemech Formations applicable to the tabletop that are simultaneously faction-, role-, and era-appropriate. The focus is low-level, aiming at gameplay you can finish in a single session: 8 mechs on a side maximum (and even then, that's only if you want to fight an IS vs Clan battle; otherwise the focus is 4-6 mechs per side). The idea is that this is for helping set up pick-up games. As with the era overview, a dedicated faction or era book will tend to do a better job than this. For example, this will let you make a DCMS force, but it won't guide you to making, say, a Sword of Light force. And as the Clan Invasion chapter is a snapshot of the year 3050, it won't do 3057's Operation Bulldog anywhere near as well as a book on that conflict. So things like the Force Manuals will be far better at their specific job than this comparatively broad and high-level approach, but this covers a lot more ground.
Forcebuilding
The forcebuilding is the most complex part of these chapters, so I'll spend a bit more time on it. Forcebuilding is broken into three methods, in order from least to greatest complexity.
1) RATs. Generally works as normal, except I've scaled them like I have my fan RATs by making them ordered from low to high BV. Beyond that there's no rhyme or reason, other than an attempt to create faction distinctiveness whenever possible. The idea is if you're rolling on a random table, you're not after accuracy but speed. The BV beside each mech lets you get the quickest idea of balance, and instead of rolling a flat 3D6 you can roll 2D6 and apply unit quality modifiers if you're vaguely aiming at a dirtbag militia force or something top of the line. If you're looking for granularity beyond that (especially with the Clan RATs, which freely mix first- and second-line mechs), you want one of the next two methods.
2) Standard Formations. These are pre-built lances, Stars, and Level IIs, appropriate to the faction, era, and formation type. What units belong in a Formation is largely determined via roles (Ambusher, Brawler, Juggernaut etc, as seen on the MUL). All Formations of a given era are balanced by BV against all other Formations of that era and type (to within 2%). So, for example, all assault lances in the preview chapter aim for 6,000 BV. While Clan and IS Formations are slightly different in category as well as composition, this has been also scaled against Clan equivalents: all Clan Assault Stars aim for 12,000 BV, so that two IS Assault lances equal out to one Clan Assault Star, two IS Cavalry lances equal out to one Clan Cavalry Star, etc. Many Formation types use the same point totals, so that you can be more free in mixing and matching opponents. For example, all lances of the Heavy Battle, Heavy Fire, and Cavalry types aim for 5,000 BV, and all lances of the Medium Battle, Medium Fire, and Support types aim for 4,000 BV. This means that you don't have to limit yourself to the same Formation types if you're aiming for balanced matches: my Heavy Fire lance can fight your Cavalry lance.
A bonus for most Inner Sphere lists are the faction lances: upgraded lances meant to reflect a faction's preferred style. These also are designed to match up with enemies, in this case with the BVs from taking standard lances but with Gunnery 3. For example, a Gunnery 3 Marik Assault lance is the equivalent in BV to an upgraded (but still G4) Lyran Assault faction lance; again, quick mixing and matching was the goal. The Clans don't have these special Formations, and instead of giving Gunnery 3 BVs, they have values for Gunnery 3/Piloting 4. Those only mix and match amongst other Clan forces, as the BV multiplier for G3/P4 is too different to make it swappable with IS forces.
Formation types are something you may have seen in Campaign Operations, but while those are broadly used here, the Formation building criteria for this book (found in the Introduction) are much simpler than the rather granular requirements of CO. This is to make it easier to use method 3.
3) Availability. Okay, you're tired of the Standard Formations. Or you have certain minis and you want to swap those in for others you don't have. Or you want to make your own Formations from scratch. Or you're just plain curious as to what's common and what's not in a given faction. This section is for you. The most specific and time-consuming, it provides four categories for chassis: Iconic, Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Each chassis generally available to a faction in that era is listed and put into one of those four categories. If you're building your own Formation, you choose from the number of slots for a given rarity level given to each Availability category, written besides each category. For example, if building a lance, and assuming the faction has one Iconic unit for that era (not a given: most faction/weight categories don't have one):
1-2 slots can be Iconic (min 1, max 2)
2-3 can be Common (min 2, max 3)
1-2 can be Uncommon (min 1, max 2)
0-1 can be Rare (min 0, max 1)
Not every Each Iconic pick takes the place of a Common pick (so if I take one Iconic, my Common picks are now 1-2 instead of 2-3). Salvage lets you take any other faction's Iconic or Common units (but as it's a Rare choice, you can only take one, and that means giving up your own faction's Rare).
The Availability method requires the MUL to use properly, as while it gives the mech chassis, it doesn't give the specific variants/configurations, and doesn't list the roles for all those chassis, which you need to use to keep a given Formation type legal (no slow Juggernauts in the Pursuit lances, sorry). This method also works a little different from the MUL, in that the aim is more of a faction feel than what the MUL provides. The Availabilities are thus more restrictive, in the interest of flavour. The Introduction explains all of this at length, so the only thing I want to add is that this isn't a rival/alternate MUL: it's doing a different thing. The MUL remains the one true determinant of canon for BT unit access. So when you see, say, the Lyran Availability section single out the Centurion -AL as a faction unit, that's just a suggestion that if you're going to take any of the available Centurions at that time, you should focus on the -AL if you're particularly interested in being fluffy; it's not trying to override the MUL which says everyone has the -AL (since "focus on" and "available in general" are different metrics).
Of course, you don't have to use this method strictly as intended. You can just take a quick look at the rarity listings it provides, go "hey, the Dracs apparently like Jenners", and start partitioning your pile of minis if you feel like it. It can be as simple as an off-the-cuff guide.
What's It All Mean?
The most important part here is that this book does not in any way signify a change on the part of CGL towards how the game is "supposed" to be played. As anyone who has been part of BT for any meaningful amount of time knows, this is a game filled with choices: choices of scale, choices of rulesets, choices of rules within rulesets, choices of unit types, choices of era. The MCH simply gives you a few more. In particular, people have been asking for this sort of list-building advice for a good 20 years (if not more). So here it is. But in the same way that the release of Interstellar Operations did not signify a shift on the part of BT to an all-mass combat game, the MCH's listbuilding element is meant simply to give BT fans one more tool in the chest. Even after the release of this book, you can continue to ignore all faction, era, and role requirements and just thrown down whatever you want at the table. But if you did wish for guidance on how to play the game in a more lore-accurate way, or simply wished that there was a readily available source of pre-made fluffy, BV-balanced table-scale formations available, now you'll have that. The tl;dr is that this gives list-based support, but does not mandate list-based play.
The Introduction chapter, not included in the preview, spends most of its time explaining the core concepts, so the preview will be somewhat unclear in a lot of the finer details. Feel free to ask questions if something is vague, but otherwise if I didn't cover it here it's probably outside the scope of what I want to talk about and so I may just say "you'll have to wait and see". Feedback, errors spotted, ease of use suggestions, ways to make it better (within scope/practicality): it's all welcome. Previews like this are as close of a beta as the book is liable to get. Final content may differ strongly from what you see here.
Additionally, a collation of all recent information:
Lorcan Nagle wrote:OK, collating statements:
Force Manuals
-A rewriting and completion of the Combat Manual series, these are up to date with current Alpha Strike - not just a reissue for Kurita and Mercs. -- As per Joshua Franklin in the chat, they are also completely BattleTech compatible, including record sheets and Alpha Strike stats for unique units.
-Publication order is Davion in Q1, then Kurita Q2, and Mercs in Q3
-The Combat Manuals were the first of what Aaron calls the new layout, the books that didn't look like the traditional BattleTech books.
-Geoff "Doc" Smith had a draft for Combat Manual Davion submitted in 2017
-books are set in the Clan Invasion era.
-Each of the three books will have a PDF companion for the ilClan era.
-Davion is "done", Kurita is "almost done"
Hot Spots: Hinterlands
-Due out in Q3-ish
-Harkens back to the FASA-era Hot Spots book in terms of being a collection game hooks
-Set in the Hinterlands (of course)
-Has an expanded version of the Chaos Campaign rules, designed to be a step-up from the campaign rules in the Mercs box set.
MechCommander's Handbook
-Currently expected for Q4
-the campaign play book
-[Aaron] "we had campaign ops which was sort of an all in one campaign book, but it didn't have an all in one system but this does"
-Keith Hahn, who developed the BattleMech Manual is developing it
-There will be some previews dropped on the forum, a sort of "stealth playtest"
RecGuide Volume 2: ilClan
-due out "middle of 2024"
-all the "new new" stuff
-there will be a volume 33 PDF to fill it out, due out in "the next few months"
-Johannes Hiedler convinced Cubby we need "a few more pieces".
-some of the units in volume 33 will be from the Mercs Kickstarter.
ilKhan's Eyes Only
-still in development
-they're working closer with fiction so the sourcebook and related novels come out close together and don't contradict each other.
-currently hoping to be out for Q3
-story is broken, they just need to make the book
-story details have been shared with contributors for more fiction ideas
-plan is in place now for the next 3-4 years
-no time jumps!
40th Anniversary Reprints of Beginner box and GoAC
-Star League branded
-Of all the factions for Swag in the mercs Kickstarter, Star League was the most popular. Aaron's exact quote was "Of course in the ilClan era there will be a new Star League, and I think that's a sign that people are buying into the ilClan era... the new stuff. They're excited for the chance to see a third Star League in the setting. So we're playing into that"
-contents of the boxes are the same.
-Beginner's box retains the Vindicator.
-when the boxes came out originally, there was a mindset of "don't buy them, leave them on the shelf for new players", but this kills sales velocity and they were hard to restock anyway, but it's far better now to buy them and create desire for restocks now that they can do reprints relatively quickly.
-Hopefully be out in the first half of the year
-Covers are by Anthony Scroggins
SLDF forcepacks
-One per quarter
-separate from the Kickstarter
-will be on the CGL store for sure, unsure about distribution
-image of painted Thunder Hawk shown
-Star League Command Lance out Q1. Contains Atlas II, Thunder Hawk, Phoenix Hawk Special, Orion.
-Other packs themed along other lines
-Second Star League pack will have Civil War designs
-One mini per forcepack will be pre-painted
-The Pre-paint will be a notable unit in each case
-Victor Davion's Daishi will be a pre-paint.
-They showed the Thunder Hawk photo again at this point, but this seems to be an error
-The minis will be easily repaintable, either by prime over or repaint.
-the pre-paints will all be minis that have variants available elsewhere
Randall added the following on Sunday:
-he showed the prototypes of the Command Lance, including a painted Orion. Orion is a hand-painted sample by a friend of Randall's named Jared. Randall said it's 90% of what you'll get from the factory.
-Randall reiterated the prepaints will be easy to paint over or strip.
-they will put out the pantone colours for the prepaint minis online if you want to match the colours on the rest of the lance packs.
-confirmed the prepaints will all be variants or reposes of existing mechs
-Second Star League Assault Lance: Daishi Prometheus (pre-paint), Emperor, Argus, Helios, Coolant Truck
-Third Star league Striker Forcepack: Lament, Jackalope, Kintaro, Hammerhead 2( or II), Havoc. J-27 Ammo Transport
-Third Star League Battle Star Forcepack: Savage Wolf Prime (Randall said basically Alaric's Mech so presumably this will be the pre-paint, which means a plastic Savage Wolf elsewhere as well?), Wendigo, Excalibur, Peacekeeper, Malice, Saviour Repair Vehicle
-They were signed off a few weeks ago, sketches and renders will be shared soon.
Faction forcepacks
-not part of the Kickstarter
-"we have many coming"
-Not just the Star league
-Will publish in 2024
-specifics will be forthcoming, Ray didn't let Randall give more detail.
-are being worked on in between the SLDF packs.
Mercs box set
-Unboxed on stream
-fiction by Michael Ciaravella
-Battlefield support deck
-Alpha Strike cards
-Support Vehicle cards
-Pilot Cards for the 'mechs
-minis
-Rulebook contains chaos campaign
-primer book is mercs themed and includes 3151 map
-record sheet book, will also be downloadable from the website
-2 token sheets of vehicles, infantry, BattleArmour and support units
-laminated Merc Contract worksheets
-Mapsheets look to all be reworkings of classic maps - Scattered Woods, River Valley, Lake Area (all MS2) and Woodland (MS6)
-2-sided poster map of the Inner Sphere, one side is 3151, the other is 3058
-box is heaver than Alpha Strike and Aaron thinks there's more in there
-LE box's only difference is the lid. Which is very nice, Rem says it feels really nice.
Mercs forcepacks
-They unboxed Assault & Cavalry (Condor, Pegasus, Schrek, Demolisher) and Recon & Hunter lances (Skulker, Warrior VTOL, Ontos and Behemoth) boxes
-Warriors come attached to the bases but the box includes clear plastic stalks to mount them above the base as well.
-Randall showed the 5 Inner Sphere and one Clan forcepack on-screen, did not open them
-The Viper/Black Python is probably Randall's favourite redesign, he thinks the original is terrible (I disagree!)
Official Terrain
-They're still working on how to offer the 3D terrain based on the map assets
updates to other units
-There's thoughts towards collating the Shrapnel designs in another product, not as a RecGuide
-This was said in answer to "any updates for the Proliferation Cycle units, maybe in Recguide 33?"
Mercs Kickstarter swag
-Will be available after the Kickstarter
reprints of old books
-Asked about the historicals specifically, they have some POD capability, they're talking about doing Brush Wars and Wars of the Republic Era. The first few new Brush Wars PDFs were originally going to be Brush Wars II. Layout remains a bottleneck, they wanted to have Liberation of Terra out in POD to coincide with the last Founding of the Clans novel and that didn't happen at all.
Kickstarter posters
-McCarron's Armoured Cavalry poster has the deep space scene from the cover of the most recent Strat Ops cover (among other places) on the back.
-Eridani Light Horse one has the recognition chart on the back
Map Packs
-Savannah is RRP $30, City is $35. This is because City comes with three punchboard sheets of building/rubble counters of various sizes
-Randall showed off one mapsheet from City where one side is half of a HPG station.
Premium Record sheets
-combination of half-page and full-page sheets
-all mechs in the Kickstarter have full-page sheets, not all get Beginner box half-size ones though.
BattleTech universe
-a massive labour of love for many people, but "especially Ray"
-a book they've always wanted to have for people who want to know about the background
-Randall thinks it's one of the best-looking books and feels it can stand with the best of the industry
-initial print run of 10,000 which is one of the highest they've ever done, and Randall expects they'll be ordering a reprint before the end of the year.
-they showed off a lovely 2-page spread of the exodus fleet
They also showed off a hand-built preview copy of the Precentor Martial edition
-"This is what happens when Randall is not really given a budget and Randall decides to make the most gorgeous thing he can get away with"
-Randall had to cut a few things from the set for time
-Has a sound chip in the box lid that plays the MechWarrior 2 startup sequence
-Metallic ink print of the GDL Marauder art which homages the 4th Succession War Atlas cover.
-2-sided blueprint with a Warhammer on one side and Mad Cat on the other
-The version of the main book has cutaway diagrams of clear acetate pages showing interior layers of the different unit types
-the most detailed interior of a DropShip (Randall keeps saying JumpShip here, but he's showing the pages for an Overlord-class Dropship at the time). Anthony Scroggins rendered the ship out to ensire it matched the published dimensions correctly.
-Randall teased a piece of art he described as a "Dak present to you guys". I couldn't make out much detail but there seemed to be a lot of mechs
-3-page gatefold art pieces, the one shown was the ELH tryptich. the other side is clean copies of some of the best BattleTech art.
-Remembrance book. Randall can't remember if it was his or Ray's idea
-The book contains short essays by various contributors to BattleTech down through the years.
-Randall and Ray both got quite emotional reading the stories.
-There's a lot of Unseen art in the book. This does not mean the art will appear elsewhere, it's a special self-contained thing.
-the front endpaper is the MechWarrior 1st edition cover
-the cover to the 4th Succession War Atlas is the frontispiece
-contents page has the BattleDroids/BattleTech 2nd&3rd edition cover
-David Deitrick did a new piece of art for the book as well as an essay. He's in his 80s now and offered to do some new art but he has issues with his hands so asked for extra time to complete it, and it made the book.
Fiction
-In the Shadow of the Dragon by Craig Reed. Due out before the end of the year, about Yori Kurita consolidating her power
-Letter of the Law by Phil Lee. Late December/Early January release. A follow-up to Hunting Season
-Without Question by Bryan Young. Q1 2024, a sequel to A Question of Survival, focused on the Ghost Bear sibkin who were taken by the Falcons. "There is action on Sudeten"
-Trial by Birthright by Michael Ciaravella. Q2 2024. Set on Terra, catching up with the Wolves while everything's been going on in the rest of the Sphere. "What if you had a Star League and nobody came?"
-Voidbreaker by Bryan Young. Q3 2024. "Whatever happened to Tucker Harwell?" A different take on a BattleTech novel, more of a spy story.
-Tom Leveen is doing a House Liao-centric novel to be set simultaneously with Trial by Birthright. Should be out in Q3
-A Skulk of Foxes by Jason Hansa. Sea Foxes up to their usual tricks.
-War of Reaving Trilogy is progressing now.
-Shrapnel 15 is on schedule. New Kell Hounds cover and Stackpole story, Jason Schmetzer story, some new authors, two parts of Bryan young's Fox Patrol serial will be in it.
-Tales of the Bounty Hunter. Most stories are in, a few are outstanding.
-Cookbook is about to enter layout.
-Art of War is in progress as well.
-Will there be Jihad fiction? Tentatively yes. More info in the coming year.
-There are multiple Audiobooks in production. John is hoping that he can start putting out at least one per month from 2024 onwards. Lots in the pipeline, had to iron out issues with the production timeline. Close Quarters is done, should be with Kickstarter backers in December or January. Hoping to get Hour of the Wolf out in Q1
-Michael Ciaravella is working on a a Snow Raven book called A Treachery of Ravens.
-Den of Wolves has had some progress. First draft unlikely to be complete before the end of year though, John wanted him to prioritise Art of War and now that's done he's cracking his editorial whip. Once he's got the manuscript he said we'd know because his yell will be audible across the entire US
-They've "got to hit a bunch of things to hit" before doing a follow-up to Damocles Sanction. Mike Ciaravella's plate is loaded up for the next 12-18 months
-One of Daniel Isberner's German novels will be translated and hopefully released in 2024.
-John is looking into getting books translated into German as well.
-The Twilight of the Clans novels should be getting the Legends treatment next year, John liked the suggestion from Chat that there could be a Task Force Serpent anthology.
-If the War of Reaving books do well John is considering doing more event-specific trilogies
-If Jason Schemetzer had the time, John would love for him to do a 5-book series about each of the original Dragoons contracts.
-3rd GDL novella is actually a short novel, waiting on cover art. There will be a PoD Omnibus when it's out.
-There will be Shadowrun and Leviathans fiction (including a Mike Richie one about Ireland, woo, a Michael Ciaravella one about Italy and a Mike Stackpole one too. And possibly ones by people not named Mike)!
Sorry for the huge info dump, but I figure it's better to have it all in one place.
I have a ton of the Dark Age clix minis, I'm down for prepainted mechs. But it is a really odd choice to do a single one out of four. If they were sold singly or if all the mechs were prepainted, that would make more sense.
Kanluwen wrote: Maybe to give new players a "sample" they can follow?
There's a better way to do that: in the introductory box that has two mechs, plus the introductory rules.
I mean, you're not wrong...but their push is for "themed" sets, so why not go that route instead?
Because those would not be sets for newcomers, I would think. If you want the prepainted stuff to be for newcomers, one would expect to see them on something aimed at newcomers.
They could create some themed starters, though, as they did with the arena one.
An in-depth review of the news from PAX Unplugged via the BattleTech Forums:
Lorcan Nagle wrote:OK, collating statements:
Force Manuals -A rewriting and completion of the Combat Manual series, these are up to date with current Alpha Strike - not just a reissue for Kurita and Mercs. -- As per Joshua Franklin in the chat, they are also completely BattleTech compatible, including record sheets and Alpha Strike stats for unique units.
-Publication order is Davion in Q1, then Kurita Q2, and Mercs in Q3
-The Combat Manuals were the first of what Aaron calls the new layout, the books that didn't look like the traditional BattleTech books.
-Geoff "Doc" Smith had a draft for Combat Manual Davion submitted in 2017
-books are set in the Clan Invasion era.
-Each of the three books will have a PDF companion for the ilClan era.
-Davion is "done", Kurita is "almost done"
Hot Spots: Hinterlands -Due out in Q3-ish
-Harkens back to the FASA-era Hot Spots book in terms of being a collection game hooks
-Set in the Hinterlands (of course)
-Has an expanded version of the Chaos Campaign rules, designed to be a step-up from the campaign rules in the Mercs box set.
MechCommander's Handbook -Currently expected for Q4
-the campaign play book
-[Aaron] "we had campaign ops which was sort of an all in one campaign book, but it didn't have an all in one system but this does"
-Keith Hahn, who developed the BattleMech Manual is developing it
-There will be some previews dropped on the forum, a sort of "stealth playtest"
RecGuide Volume 2: ilClan -due out "middle of 2024"
-all the "new new" stuff
-there will be a volume 33 PDF to fill it out, due out in "the next few months"
-Johannes Hiedler convinced Cubby we need "a few more pieces".
-some of the units in volume 33 will be from the Mercs Kickstarter.
ilKhan's Eyes Only -still in development
-they're working closer with fiction so the sourcebook and related novels come out close together and don't contradict each other.
-currently hoping to be out for Q3
-story is broken, they just need to make the book
-story details have been shared with contributors for more fiction ideas
-plan is in place now for the next 3-4 years
-no time jumps!
40th Anniversary Reprints of Beginner box and GoAC -Star League branded
-Of all the factions for Swag in the mercs Kickstarter, Star League was the most popular. Aaron's exact quote was "Of course in the ilClan era there will be a new Star League, and I think that's a sign that people are buying into the ilClan era... the new stuff. They're excited for the chance to see a third Star League in the setting. So we're playing into that"
-contents of the boxes are the same.
-Beginner's box retains the Vindicator.
-when the boxes came out originally, there was a mindset of "don't buy them, leave them on the shelf for new players", but this kills sales velocity and they were hard to restock anyway, but it's far better now to buy them and create desire for restocks now that they can do reprints relatively quickly.
-Hopefully be out in the first half of the year
-Covers are by Anthony Scroggins
SLDF forcepacks -One per quarter
-separate from the Kickstarter
-will be on the CGL store for sure, unsure about distribution
-image of painted Thunder Hawk shown
-Star League Command Lance out Q1. Contains Atlas II, Thunder Hawk, Phoenix Hawk Special, Orion.
-Other packs themed along other lines
-Second Star League pack will have Civil War designs
-One mini per forcepack will be pre-painted
-The Pre-paint will be a notable unit in each case
-Victor Davion's Daishi will be a pre-paint.
-They showed the Thunder Hawk photo again at this point, but this seems to be an error
-The minis will be easily repaintable, either by prime over or repaint.
-the pre-paints will all be minis that have variants available elsewhere
Randall added the following on Sunday:
-he showed the prototypes of the Command Lance, including a painted Orion. Orion is a hand-painted sample by a friend of Randall's named Jared. Randall said it's 90% of what you'll get from the factory.
-Randall reiterated the prepaints will be easy to paint over or strip.
-they will put out the pantone colours for the prepaint minis online if you want to match the colours on the rest of the lance packs.
-confirmed the prepaints will all be variants or reposes of existing mechs
-Second Star League Assault Lance: Daishi Prometheus (pre-paint), Emperor, Argus, Helios, Coolant Truck
-Third Star league Striker Forcepack: Lament, Jackalope, Kintaro, Hammerhead 2( or II), Havoc. J-27 Ammo Transport
-Third Star League Battle Star Forcepack: Savage Wolf Prime (Randall said basically Alaric's Mech so presumably this will be the pre-paint, which means a plastic Savage Wolf elsewhere as well?), Wendigo, Excalibur, Peacekeeper, Malice, Saviour Repair Vehicle
-They were signed off a few weeks ago, sketches and renders will be shared soon.
Faction forcepacks -not part of the Kickstarter
-"we have many coming"
-Not just the Star league
-Will publish in 2024
-specifics will be forthcoming, Ray didn't let Randall give more detail.
-are being worked on in between the SLDF packs.
Mercs box set -Unboxed on stream
-fiction by Michael Ciaravella
-Battlefield support deck
-Alpha Strike cards
-Support Vehicle cards
-Pilot Cards for the 'mechs
-minis
-Rulebook contains chaos campaign
-primer book is mercs themed and includes 3151 map
-record sheet book, will also be downloadable from the website
-2 token sheets of vehicles, infantry, BattleArmour and support units
-laminated Merc Contract worksheets
-Mapsheets look to all be reworkings of classic maps - Scattered Woods, River Valley, Lake Area (all MS2) and Woodland (MS6)
-2-sided poster map of the Inner Sphere, one side is 3151, the other is 3058
-box is heaver than Alpha Strike and Aaron thinks there's more in there
-LE box's only difference is the lid. Which is very nice, Rem says it feels really nice.
Mercs forcepacks -They unboxed Assault & Cavalry (Condor, Pegasus, Schrek, Demolisher) and Recon & Hunter lances (Skulker, Warrior VTOL, Ontos and Behemoth) boxes
-Warriors come attached to the bases but the box includes clear plastic stalks to mount them above the base as well.
-Randall showed the 5 Inner Sphere and one Clan forcepack on-screen, did not open them
-The Viper/Black Python is probably Randall's favourite redesign, he thinks the original is terrible (I disagree!)
Official Terrain -They're still working on how to offer the 3D terrain based on the map assets
updates to other units -There's thoughts towards collating the Shrapnel designs in another product, not as a RecGuide
-This was said in answer to "any updates for the Proliferation Cycle units, maybe in Recguide 33?"
Mercs Kickstarter swag -Will be available after the Kickstarter
reprints of old books -Asked about the historicals specifically, they have some POD capability, they're talking about doing Brush Wars and Wars of the Republic Era. The first few new Brush Wars PDFs were originally going to be Brush Wars II. Layout remains a bottleneck, they wanted to have Liberation of Terra out in POD to coincide with the last Founding of the Clans novel and that didn't happen at all.
Kickstarter posters -McCarron's Armoured Cavalry poster has the deep space scene from the cover of the most recent Strat Ops cover (among other places) on the back.
-Eridani Light Horse one has the recognition chart on the back
Map Packs -Savannah is RRP $30, City is $35. This is because City comes with three punchboard sheets of building/rubble counters of various sizes
-Randall showed off one mapsheet from City where one side is half of a HPG station.
Premium Record sheets -combination of half-page and full-page sheets
-all mechs in the Kickstarter have full-page sheets, not all get Beginner box half-size ones though.
BattleTech universe -a massive labour of love for many people, but "especially Ray"
-a book they've always wanted to have for people who want to know about the background
-Randall thinks it's one of the best-looking books and feels it can stand with the best of the industry
-initial print run of 10,000 which is one of the highest they've ever done, and Randall expects they'll be ordering a reprint before the end of the year.
-they showed off a lovely 2-page spread of the exodus fleet
They also showed off a hand-built preview copy of the Precentor Martial edition
-"This is what happens when Randall is not really given a budget and Randall decides to make the most gorgeous thing he can get away with"
-Randall had to cut a few things from the set for time
-Has a sound chip in the box lid that plays the MechWarrior 2 startup sequence
-Metallic ink print of the GDL Marauder art which homages the 4th Succession War Atlas cover.
-2-sided blueprint with a Warhammer on one side and Mad Cat on the other
-The version of the main book has cutaway diagrams of clear acetate pages showing interior layers of the different unit types
-the most detailed interior of a DropShip (Randall keeps saying JumpShip here, but he's showing the pages for an Overlord-class Dropship at the time). Anthony Scroggins rendered the ship out to ensire it matched the published dimensions correctly.
-Randall teased a piece of art he described as a "Dak present to you guys". I couldn't make out much detail but there seemed to be a lot of mechs
-3-page gatefold art pieces, the one shown was the ELH tryptich. the other side is clean copies of some of the best BattleTech art.
-Remembrance book. Randall can't remember if it was his or Ray's idea
-The book contains short essays by various contributors to BattleTech down through the years.
-Randall and Ray both got quite emotional reading the stories.
-There's a lot of Unseen art in the book. This does not mean the art will appear elsewhere, it's a special self-contained thing.
-the front endpaper is the MechWarrior 1st edition cover
-the cover to the 4th Succession War Atlas is the frontispiece
-contents page has the BattleDroids/BattleTech 2nd&3rd edition cover
-David Deitrick did a new piece of art for the book as well as an essay. He's in his 80s now and offered to do some new art but he has issues with his hands so asked for extra time to complete it, and it made the book.
Fiction -In the Shadow of the Dragon by Craig Reed. Due out before the end of the year, about Yori Kurita consolidating her power
-Letter of the Law by Phil Lee. Late December/Early January release. A follow-up to Hunting Season
-Without Question by Bryan Young. Q1 2024, a sequel to A Question of Survival, focused on the Ghost Bear sibkin who were taken by the Falcons. "There is action on Sudeten"
-Trial by Birthright by Michael Ciaravella. Q2 2024. Set on Terra, catching up with the Wolves while everything's been going on in the rest of the Sphere. "What if you had a Star League and nobody came?"
-Voidbreaker by Bryan Young. Q3 2024. "Whatever happened to Tucker Harwell?" A different take on a BattleTech novel, more of a spy story.
-Tom Leveen is doing a House Liao-centric novel to be set simultaneously with Trial by Birthright. Should be out in Q3
-A Skulk of Foxes by Jason Hansa. Sea Foxes up to their usual tricks.
-War of Reaving Trilogy is progressing now.
-Shrapnel 15 is on schedule. New Kell Hounds cover and Stackpole story, Jason Schmetzer story, some new authors, two parts of Bryan young's Fox Patrol serial will be in it.
-Tales of the Bounty Hunter. Most stories are in, a few are outstanding.
-Cookbook is about to enter layout.
-Art of War is in progress as well.
-Will there be Jihad fiction? Tentatively yes. More info in the coming year.
-There are multiple Audiobooks in production. John is hoping that he can start putting out at least one per month from 2024 onwards. Lots in the pipeline, had to iron out issues with the production timeline. Close Quarters is done, should be with Kickstarter backers in December or January. Hoping to get Hour of the Wolf out in Q1
-Michael Ciaravella is working on a a Snow Raven book called A Treachery of Ravens.
-Den of Wolves has had some progress. First draft unlikely to be complete before the end of year though, John wanted him to prioritise Art of War and now that's done he's cracking his editorial whip. Once he's got the manuscript he said we'd know because his yell will be audible across the entire US
-They've "got to hit a bunch of things to hit" before doing a follow-up to Damocles Sanction. Mike Ciaravella's plate is loaded up for the next 12-18 months
-One of Daniel Isberner's German novels will be translated and hopefully released in 2024.
-John is looking into getting books translated into German as well.
-The Twilight of the Clans novels should be getting the Legends treatment next year, John liked the suggestion from Chat that there could be a Task Force Serpent anthology.
-If the War of Reaving books do well John is considering doing more event-specific trilogies
-If Jason Schemetzer had the time, John would love for him to do a 5-book series about each of the original Dragoons contracts.
-3rd GDL novella is actually a short novel, waiting on cover art. There will be a PoD Omnibus when it's out.
-There will be Shadowrun and Leviathans fiction (including a Mike Richie one about Ireland, woo, a Michael Ciaravella one about Italy and a Mike Stackpole one too. And possibly ones by people not named Mike)!
happens. Prepare for the worst pray for the best.
I hope they don't open the pledge manager for s&h until I get my new 
