funded Catalyst Game Labs: BattleTech Clan Invasion box set

[Weird-O]

19 hours ago, klarg1 said:

In other news: I asked about the return of the classic quads over on the Battletech forums, and got a hard no. Hard enough to make me wonder if it's more of a "never".

 

I highly doubt it's a "never", probably more of a "not at this time". The AGoAC rules don't have anything for quads and given their lack of presence in Invading Clan toumans I doubt that box will have their rules either. I know veteran layersare providing most of the money for this, but plenty of new folks are as well, and this whole line of products from the Intro Box, AGoAC Box, TRO and RS Succession Wars, and now the Clan Box and add-ons are clearly aimed at providing gateways into the game for new players. It makes little sense to include mechs they cannot use due to a lack of rules.

 

Wild unsubstantiated guess on my part, but I bet that when/if there's another Kickstarter after this one, it will involve 'advanced' units, such as quads, artillerymechs, tanks...stuff to bring players up to the full Total War level.

 

As with Marauders and Kickstarters...we just need to be patient. :)

[klarg1]

1 hour ago, Weird-O said:

 

I highly doubt it's a "never", probably more of a "not at this time". The AGoAC rules don't have anything for quads and given their lack of presence in Invading Clan toumans I doubt that box will have their rules either. I know veteran layersare providing most of the money for this, but plenty of new folks are as well, and this whole line of products from the Intro Box, AGoAC Box, TRO and RS Succession Wars, and now the Clan Box and add-ons are clearly aimed at providing gateways into the game for new players. It makes little sense to include mechs they cannot use due to a lack of rules.

 

Wild unsubstantiated guess on my part, but I bet that when/if there's another Kickstarter after this one, it will involve 'advanced' units, such as quads, artillerymechs, tanks...stuff to bring players up to the full Total War level.

 

As with Marauders and Kickstarters...we just need to be patient. :)

 

Totally plausible.

 

As I said over there, it makes me sad, because I really want a "classic" Goliath redesign, but I can't fault Catalyst for limiting the number of sculpts in the campaign. There is a lot of stuff in there already.

(Actually, I find the limit on sculpt count slightly reassuring; it implies CGL is trying not to run too far ahead of what they can actually handle, even with the runaway success of their Kickstarter.)

Edited July 24, 2019 by klarg1

[Werkrobotwerk]

quads went somewhere? Unless I missed a version they're still in tech manual

[Sylverthorne]

8 minutes ago, Werkrobotwerk said:

quads went somewhere? Unless I missed a version they're still in tech manual

 

Might not be in the current; I can't remember seeing them in the most recent books.

Granted, I wasn't looking for them specifically, but quads are tricky, and I'm not really a fan. If I want to run something that low to the ground, I'll run a tank. ;p

[Werkrobotwerk]

huh... looks like they did get rid of tech manual but are still using even older books... I am a bit confused by this

[klarg1]

47 minutes ago, Werkrobotwerk said:

huh... looks like they did get rid of tech manual but are still using even older books... I am a bit confused by this

 

Forgive me if you already have this background, but to try to clarify:

 

The Goliath and Scorpion were part of the group of 'mechs whose art was taken from (later, inspired by) the Dougram anime series. When the '90's lawsuit over Battletech/Robotech/Macross hit, they were declared "unseen" along with all other designs not produced by in-house sources, and the art stricken from FASA's products. (A policy maintained by Fanpro, and later Catalyst.) When "Project Phoenix" rolled out, they got redesigns along with all the other so-called unseen, and more recently, the original designs from both Crusher Joe, and Dougram have filtered back in as the powers-that-be relaxed some of the art restrictions. That is probably where the confusion stems from - many of the older drawings have started to appear again after close to two decades of absence.

 

In the past few years, CGL has been doing a new round of art replacements, somewhat similar to "Project Phoenix", but with a different aesthetic and feel. I'll leave most of my subjective opinion out, but I will say that the newer versions, as now seen in the Kickstarter lance packs, are much closer to the original concepts than the Phoenix art. They are also done by a different artist (Anthony Scroggins, rather than Chris Lewis), so the design aesthetic is quite different.

 

Nearly all the Inner Sphere 'mechs affected by the original art purge, are represented in the sculpts on offer in this Kickstarter. For most of these redesigns, this will be the first time they have been offered as miniatures. (Many of the 2D drawings have already featured in previous print products) The two original quadrupedal designs are conspicuously absent. The reasons for that have not been stated publicly, but @Weird-O's conjecture makes sense. They do not follow standard battlemech gameplay rules, and would require supplemental material for new players to use them.

Edited July 24, 2019 by klarg1

[Werkrobotwerk]

I'm familiar with the unseen issue.

 

I'm just a little confused by them getting rid of tech manual, which was all the build rules and a post unseen book, and newer than some still in circulation.

 

It looks like the quad rules were folded into the "battlemech manual" in 2017, but not the build rules. 

[Corsair]

Quads are still legal, just not in production. Use the old rules for them. CBT has always allowed the grandfathering of rules. The only exception is the change in BV vs CV ratings over the years.

Crud you can still run LAMs.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Corsair

[klarg1]

42 minutes ago, Werkrobotwerk said:

I'm familiar with the unseen issue.

 

I'm just a little confused by them getting rid of tech manual, which was all the build rules and a post unseen book, and newer than some still in circulation.

 

It looks like the quad rules were folded into the "battlemech manual" in 2017, but not the build rules. 

 

I'm sorry @Werkrobotwerk. I totally misinterpreted your question earlier.

 

Did they actually eliminate the Tech Manual, or did they just completely fail to keep it in stock?

 

I am genuinely asking. The last I heard was that they were planning to (slowly) push through a refresh several of the hard cover rule books, but that could have changed. I think Total Warfare is still considered the "core rules", with the Battlemech Manual being more of a condensed, and more user-friendly subset.

Edited July 24, 2019 by klarg1

[Werkrobotwerk]

25 minutes ago, klarg1 said:

 

I'm sorry @Werkrobotwerk. I totally misinterpreted your question earlier.

 

Did they actually eliminate the Tech Manual, or did they just completely fail to keep it in stock?

 

I am genuinely asking. The last I heard was that they were planning to (slowly) push through a refresh several of the hard cover rule books, but that could have changed. I think Total Warfare is still considered the "core rules", with the Battlemech Manual being more of a condensed, and more user-friendly subset.

Hard to tell. They don't list it on their website any more and some of the content moved to other books, but I don't see a direct successor.

[Xiwo Xerase]

I'm a little confused.  TechManual is still the core construction rulebook.  A new print edition of TechManual was released recently and is currently available through CGL's store.  The PDF version (also up-to-date) is also available through CGL and DriveThruRPG.

 

3 hours ago, klarg1 said:

(Actually, I find the limit on sculpt count slightly reassuring; it implies CGL is trying not to run too far ahead of what they can actually handle, even with the runaway success of their Kickstarter.)

Same here.  It also means we won't have to wait forever for the later lance/star packs.  If they really expect each pack after the first two to take a month of development time each, we're looking at having those addons delivered in August 2021.  Any more packs would push out delivery even further.

[Xiwo Xerase]

(The shipping graphic was updated sometime in the past day or two.  It looks like they're going to do multiple waves of star/lance pack fulfillment rather than the two waves initially mentioned (Clan Invasion boxed set, the first couple star/lance packs, and other swag in wave #1 and then all of the other star/lance packs in wave #2).)

Edited July 24, 2019 by Xiwo Xerase

[General308]

7 hours ago, Werkrobotwerk said:

Hard to tell. They don't list it on their website any more and some of the content moved to other books, but I don't see a direct successor.

 

 

It is still on the web site

 

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by General308

[Xiwo Xerase]

Would you please remove the link/URL?  Thanks!  (Links to other (non-Reaper) commercial sites aren't allowed in the Reaper forums.)

Edited July 25, 2019 by Xiwo Xerase

[General308]

19 minutes ago, Xiwo Xerase said:

Would you please remove the link/URL?  Thanks!  (Links to other (non-Reaper) commercial sites aren't allowed in the Reaper forums.)

sure