I'm considering doing something to keep all the potentially-loose parts on the models from this KS (ie. vehicle turrets, stuff that plugs loosely into its base like the Savannah Masters or flight stands, etc.) stable and accounted for. Don't want to lose a main gun during drunken Alpha Strike lol.
But I also don't want to permanently commit with something like superglue. Need to keep my options open when painting & basing in the (distant) future.
Would PVA glue be good for a temporary-but-indefinite hold? It should remain water soluble, but I'm not sure if water would actually penetrate all the way into a PVA'ed turret socket...
PVA can work, but it'll break immediately with rough handling or after awhile with careful handling, and does leave that PVA skin you'd want to break off before super gluing. I really like to use white poster tack aka removeable poster putty for things like that. Maybe not in the connection joint itself, but a small ball of on the base that gets smooshed down by the model on the base, or in a ring around the connector at the connection point gripping onto the model, for flight bases and things like that. Though other people may have smarter solutions. Also I avoid the blue tack because the blue dye can leach out leave a blue mark on the model and I don't care for it.
I almost feel annoyed enough to make my own cookbook, but I lack the budget to hire enough muscular women to play the part of elementals in the photos and I will NOT compromise my artistic vision.
I didn’t think they would be plumbing the deep depths of ancient family recipes for what is a pretty throwaway joke publication. Where else were they going to be getting the recipes from?
Flinty wrote: I didn’t think they would be plumbing the deep depths of ancient family recipes for what is a pretty throwaway joke publication. Where else were they going to be getting the recipes from?
That's cool hyperbole there.
I'm no chef, but I can come up with 10 recipes of stuff that I cook off the top of my head.
It would have been easier to send out a company EMail and ask, lol
Flinty wrote: I didn’t think they would be plumbing the deep depths of ancient family recipes for what is a pretty throwaway joke publication. Where else were they going to be getting the recipes from?
Flinty wrote: I didn’t think they would be plumbing the deep depths of ancient family recipes for what is a pretty throwaway joke publication. Where else were they going to be getting the recipes from?
Lmao what is this justification?
Plumbing the Depths:
10 plums, cut in half place skin side down in 9x13 pan
Sprinkle Fairy Dust ( cinnamon and sugar ) on top of plum halves
Squeeze Coolant from 1 Orange cut in half over plums
Cover with tinfoil and throw in the reactor at 375 degrees for 30 minutes
Flinty wrote: I didn’t think they would be plumbing the deep depths of ancient family recipes for what is a pretty throwaway joke publication. Where else were they going to be getting the recipes from?
There's no excuse for not,
- crediting the original sources
- rewriting the instructions (if they are indeed close to word-for-word copies)
Flinty wrote: I didn’t think they would be plumbing the deep depths of ancient family recipes for what is a pretty throwaway joke publication. Where else were they going to be getting the recipes from?
Public Domain cookbooks. There are a number of them at Project Gutenberg.
Flinty wrote: I didn’t think they would be plumbing the deep depths of ancient family recipes for what is a pretty throwaway joke publication. Where else were they going to be getting the recipes from?
There's no excuse for not,
- crediting the original sources
- rewriting the instructions (if they are indeed close to word-for-word copies)
I imagine its a combination of:
- Not really caring about the project because they thought it was a joke;
- not wanting to spend any money on the project;
- forgetting that the internet is full of people who like poking things with sticks to find mistakes; and
- not wanting to spend any money
- did I mention the money part?
I appreciate the former, ahem, Battletech Reddit mod's message here, but good luck making something out of this one fellas.
I don't know if it's right or not, I'll let the chefs in the forum come to their own conclusions, but most recipes in that book are generic as can be, and there usually is no such thing as citations or end of book credits given in a cook book. You can't own a recipe, and usually any recipe you find online is simply a passing down of common knowledge. They shouldn't plagiarize right off the internet, but as to the rest of it, "okay."
I'm considering doing something to keep all the potentially-loose parts on the models from this KS (ie. vehicle turrets, stuff that plugs loosely into its base like the Savannah Masters or flight stands, etc.) stable and accounted for. Don't want to lose a main gun during drunken Alpha Strike lol.
But I also don't want to permanently commit with something like superglue. Need to keep my options open when painting & basing in the (distant) future.
Would PVA glue be good for a temporary-but-indefinite hold? It should remain water soluble, but I'm not sure if water would actually penetrate all the way into a PVA'ed turret socket...
You can also use clear nail polish or water-based polyurethane to coat a loose fitting part. It'll wear down over time as you move/remove the piece, but it's easy to re-coat.
Besides the personalities on display there (well one in particular) the whole subcontract a gimmick product to a small source with minimal oversight is not often a path to success.
Peachstate Hobby Distribution has the new BattleTech product from the Kickstarter on their website along with retail release dates. You will need to consult your Magic 8 Ball for accuracy
SB Mercenaries - 10/24
SB Battlefield Support - 10/24
SB Visigoth - 11/24
SB Blood Asp - 1/25
SB Savannah Master - 3/25
SB Legendary Mechwarriors II & III - 5/25
Union DropShip - 5/25
Overlord DropShip - 5/25
Overlord C DropShip - 5/25
Map Pack Savannah - 10/24
Map Pack City - 12/24
Battle Mat Savannah Lg. Lakes - 1/25
Battle Mat City Heliport - 1/25
Battle Mat Savannah River Delta - 2/25
Battle Mat City Engineering - 2/25
Battle Mat City Central Park - 3/25
Battle Mat Savannah Sinkholes - 3/25
Battle Mat AS Grasslands/Desert - 4/25
Battle Mat AS Lunar/City - 4/25
Battle Mat Grasslands/Desert - 5/25
Battle Mat Lunar City - 5/25
I got my order today. I have not checked the salvage box yet as dealing with some water in the basement from heavy rains. I only got the $35 basic bundle because the group was not excited. $29 shipping and the box was 4 times the size it needed to be to ship this.
Id just love to receive a shipping notification. I'm sure they're just taking their time cause a $200 shipping fee must mean my package is extra special.
Ghaz wrote: Looks like the fix for those who received a Maxim/Galleon in a Mercenaries Salvage Box will either be an $8 refund of a $15 store credit.
Where'd you see this? And, wherever it was, did it say that any action would need to be taken? Or will it be an automated offer to everyone whose order went out before they started adding the extra salvage box?
Ghaz wrote: Looks like the fix for those who received a Maxim/Galleon in a Mercenaries Salvage Box will either be an $8 refund of a $15 store credit.
Where'd you see this? And, wherever it was, did it say that any action would need to be taken? Or will it be an automated offer to everyone whose order went out before they started adding the extra salvage box?
It was early in today's Tuesday Newsday. There's a Kickstarter update coming soon which should have more details.
News:
-No kickstarter shipping update right now. They're waiting on an update from QML.
-There'll be a backer update soon.
-If you got a vehicle in a mech salvage box you can apply got a $8 refund or $15 in store credit.
-If you have damages in shipping or other QC issues, a parts replacement process is being prepared for QML
-In the Shadow of the Dragon is out now
-New unabridged audiobook of Heir to the Dragon is on Audible now
-They'll have the list of GenCon events next week
-Rem and Randall will be at San Diego Comicon next week.
-Rem's team has officially started work on sorting out the outstanding issues with Clan Invasion custom characters. She went into detail on the issues but suffice it to say, it's a mess
Q&A:
-Is CGL aware of the possible QC issues with the Inner Sphere BattleArmour? Rem's seen one post. People should contact CGL to see how widespread the issue is. If it's not that big it'll be sorted in the QML parts replacement process.
-Is the Heir to the Dragon audiobook a Kickstarter reward? No. They have a bunch of the Kickstarter reward audiobooks ready to go, but they're reluctant to just put the files up for download as they're too big to upload into Backerkit's reward system.
-Can we get an update on international shipping out as a Kickstarter update? Yes, the next backer update should have details pending an update from QML. Apparently some of the info Rem was given last week was incorrect so she's reluctant to say anything else until she has a formal update.
-Any update on store credit from the Mercs Kickstarter? Rem needs to poke Talon to see the status, but it all needs to be done manually so they might need to hire a part-timer to do it
-Is there a timeframe to get all kickstarter shipments done? No idea, when it's done it's done.
-Any word on the Legendary (presumably they meant premium) BattleMaster? Not right now
-Is there a BattleTech Missions submissions group? Not an open one, it'll hopefully be discussed at GenCon.
-Is there a process for becoming a BattleTech writer (similar to Aaron outlining paths to becoming a Shadowrun one earlier in-stream)? Yes, there are a few paths. Rem will be doing author interviews and a fiction panel at GenCon and she'll be asking people in those. (As noted last week, they won't be streaming from GenCon but recording stuff for later release). Aaron brought up Shrapnel.
-What did the canon character prominence upgrade entail? They don't know right now?
-Any plans to fix international shipping from the Webstore? They're still working on it, ongoing issues with red tape, they're close to signing deals with distributors.
-Loren mentioned maybe making the 40th anniversary patch available outside Randall's tour? There's been an ad-hoc thing so far, reach out to CGL and then they'll try and get one out to you, they're thinking about doing an online event as part of this.
-Any chance of restocking plus-size shirts? Email the store, increased demand on that front will help get restocks done faster.
That no shipping update sucks. I'm about to be traveling for 2 weeks and if it's coming by USPS I'm about guaranteed my local delivery guy will trash the package if we aren't home. Dude folded a hardback book once so he won't have to walk to the front door.
Ghaz wrote: Looks like the fix for those who received a Maxim/Galleon in a Mercenaries Salvage Box will either be an $8 refund of a $15 store credit.
If this is the case, anyone outside the US needs a refund or they will get hosed on shipping from their store.
I regret asking for store credit instead of a shipping discount.
For anything I order, regardless of size, it’s a flat $55 shipping.
Isn't it the case that their store is buggy when it comes to international shipping, with the general guidance being to contact CGL Customer Service so they can manually do something about it?
Not saying that's a good thing, but at least it is a known issue with a workaround.
Dysartes wrote: Isn't it the case that their store is buggy when it comes to international shipping, with the general guidance being to contact CGL Customer Service so they can manually do something about it?
Not saying that's a good thing, but at least it is a known issue with a workaround.
I wanted the Alpha Strike rulebook when they actually had it in stock. £32, with postage being £118 to my UK address.
I contacted them, but never heard a thing back.
Tuesday Newsday Episode 1 wrote:-Any update on European webstore? They hired a part-time salesperson who also works for PSI after Gencon, he's been working with international contacts to try and improve the situation, but it's slow.
Tuesday Newsday Episode 12 wrote:Talon talked about the International shipping issues.
-Everything ships from the US, so they had to find regional warehouseing and shipping partners. While that's not necessarily hard to do, it can be very hard to integrate their stock management with the webstore's one. Talon has been working with Shopify to try and resolve this, and in the middle of all this Shopify changed some back-end stuff and the CGL store is non-complaiant, so they need to fix that as well. Talon is in the process of designing a new compliant website. There are about 1400 SKUs between BattleTech and Shadowrun, and improving search and index for them is a priority for the new store, so hopefully with all this in place they'll be able to properly integrate everything and be able to do print runs specifically to go the the regional hubs when they go live.
-It took an excessive amount of time to find a partner who can do everything they need for the integrated store, they're working on small details and features now.
-They're using a third-party search feature which fell apart under the pressure of the store's size, apparently the Shopify theme they chose didn't have an integral search feature! The new Shopify compliant site will have integral search.
-Front end/back-end integration is one of the major hurdles to cross to getting international shipping sorted, once that's done they can start signing deals with warehouse/shipping partners.
-VAT is still an ongoing issue they're working on, but it's outside Talon's remit.
-Wholesale to stores is on the horizon, it's also waiting on the webstore upgrade. They tried with the current store and the shopify compliance issues wound up negating a lot of work Talon had done.
Tuesday Newsday Episode 20 wrote:-Any plans to fix international shipping from the Webstore? They're still working on it, ongoing issues with red tape, they're close to signing deals with distributors.
So yes, they are trying to make the store more friendly for both US and International shoppers.
Would be nice, but it sounds like one of those "it'll get sorted eventually" things. BT stuff isn't as easy to get around here and paying close to €200 in shipping is not exactly great either.
never ordered directly and they are not the only company having problems with international shipping
that said, availability of BT stuff from German/Austrian shops is good in general, certain things sell out fast and takes a while for restock but not long enough to pay the extra shipping from CGL
We are partnering with Bundle of Holding to bring to you some awesome bundles of new and classic BattleTech product!
For your core rulebook fix, check out the BattleTech Total War bundle! Filled with Total Warfare, TechManual, and four Operations Manuals, this bundle is fantastic for expanding your games!
For all of your units, check out the BattleTech Readouts bundle! Filled with Technical Readouts and Record Sheets, this bundle is great for getting more unique units on the table!
Go help out charity and grab yourself some new PDFs at the same time!
News:
-Products intended to be on sale at Gencon:
Second Star League Assault Lance, Universe (regular version only), Force Manual: Davion, RecGuide IlClan Volume 2, Con-exclusive BattleTech and Shadowrun Dice trays and dice sets. Mercenaries Paint Set might be at GenCon
Upcoming retail/web releases:
August: RecGuide IlClan 2, The Corps reprint, A Skulk of Foxes (general release of the Kickstarter fiction)
September: BattleTech Universe, Force Manual Davion, Mercs paint set
Kickstarter update:
-Rem was on a call with QML earlier. A Backer update should hopefully be out later tonight
-VAT has been secured in the UK and EU, there is one more document to clear in the UK -All hubs that have their stock are due to have in understock reports in by Monday. Once they have their shortage lists the remaining material will need to be shipped, this will take 2-4 weeks to complete depending on how much is missing.
-Domestic shipping is about 6,000 people in right now. Anyone who paid their shipping before May 17th is in the list to be shipped now.
Planned Gencon events
-The CGL footprint is different this year. They’re still in the convention centre but they have a Catalyst corner. There will be fewer tables but more events, they had a lot of empty tables at any given time in prior years. They’re still one of the biggest spaces at the con. The Shadowrun room is the same space as always.
-The VWE Pods will be at the CGL booth. Events may include a Masters and Minions pod game and an Urbie Derby
-BattleTech events:
-Bootcamp
-Alpha Strike Academy
-Grinder
-Open tournament
-Solaris Melee Challenge
-Championship Circuit
-Alpha Strike 350 Singles and Doubles
-Escalation
-Grand Melee
-Raise the Flag
-Missions
-Painting classes
-Trial of Bloodright, this year’s Bloodname is Kerensky
-Feature Event
-James Kirtley will be running some Encounters: BattleTech games
-Masters and Minions - they have added more Masters and will have a small number of tickets on-sale at the con. They might be first come, first serve or they might do a lottery, to be confirmed.
-Author signings in the booth on Friday and Saturday
Q&A:
-Will Mike be bringing his Gray Watch Lance to the con? Maybe, maybe not.
-How much extra space will CGL have at Adepticon next year? It will be a much larger space, negotiations are underway.
-When will we get “Wonderful Things, the Michael Ciaravella Podcast?” When he was time (This was an in-joke about Mike repeating the phrase a lot at Adepticon)
-Any word of Aces at Gencon? It’s still being worked on, Rem got to play it at Origins, it won’t be an event at Gencon though.
-Will there be live streaming at Gencon? No. The numbers weren’t worth it because a lot of the stream audience is at Gencon. Instead they’re going to record let’s plays, interviews and panels at the con and release them over time. Mike talked about wanting to show off the tournaments and other events happening at the con
-There have been worrying reports about Kickstarter products showing up on Amazon? There were issues with the street dates on Amazon, this has been updated and will be covered by the upcoming Kickstarter update.
-Will regional hubs begin shipping even while they’re short stock? That’s a QML/Regional partner decision.
-Will the longer delays for non-US shipping mean there won’t be two waves? Also a QML/regional partner decision
-What companies are handling regional distribution? GamesQuest has been mentioned for UK/EU, they’re hesitant to mention any others because all customer service is meant to be coming through QML
-Any news on Voidbreaker? It should be out Q1 2025
-When will the Twycross/Misery neoprenes be out? .Tentatively Q2/3 2025
-Any news on the Succession Wars board game? Stll being worked on.
-Will we see more events at Game Hole Con? Yes, this will be the first year they have a booth, there’ll be special guest games with RJ Thomas and Jason Hardy.
Does anyone know if they sell their Challenge Coins at conventions/Gencon?
Mid-kickstarter I would have listed the coins in the "useless merch I'd gladly cut from my order" category, but after receiving the two I grudgingly selected I kind of like them as objective tokens. But ~5 would be a better count than 2 for me to actually use them for that.
Probably can't get the Mercenaries coins there even if they sell other coins, right? The sets of coins are exclusive to each KS?
We met with QML today, and here is where everything stands.
International Shipping VAT has been secured for the UK and EU. We are waiting on one more document to clear for the UK.
Hubs are counting inventory and providing understock/shortage reports (due Monday)
Then, final shipments for any stock shortages will be sent to each hub. Shipments will take 2-4 weeks depending on location and size of shipment
Once that is complete, regional fulfillment begins
Domestic Shipping Approximately 6,000 orders are completed. About 1/3 of the total orders that have been provided to QML as part of the first segment have shipped.
QML Assistance QML is getting hundreds of emails asking about the status of individual orders. They are unable to provide shipping time estimates for specific orders
Before reaching out to QML, please make sure you’ve locked your order and you’ve paid for your order AND shipping within BackerKit.
You will receive an address verification email from QML prior to your order shipping AND you will receive a tracking email once it has shipped. (likely from shipping@qmlogistics.com)
If you paid for your order and shipping in Backerkit by July 2nd, QML has your order. If you paid after July 2nd, Catalyst will give QML your order once first segment fulfillment is closer to completion. This can be the reason that QML may report they cannot find your order.
Segment 1 fulfillment includes all orders fully locked and paid (including shipping) on or before May 17th. If you paid after May 17th, your order will be included in the second segment of fulfillment, which will begin shortly after completion of the first.
Cookbook It was recently reported that a majority of the recipes in the soon-to-release BattleTech Cookbook were compiled from internet sources. This is correct. The contractor assembling the cookbook relied on relaxed copyright protection concerning internet-published recipes. Our own investigation into this turned up a lot of confusion and uncertain procedure, but at the very least our preference would have been to publish a credits/source listing as part of the copyright page.
While this has been corrected in our ebook version of the BattleTech Cookbook, it was missed on the print version. Still, we are frustrated by this oversight. As such, Catalyst Game Labs will donate all profits from this product among several charitable organizations.
We are grateful to the community for its understanding and ongoing support.
Audiobook Releases Audiobooks will be released via the Catalyst Online Store in the coming days. All backers receiving them will be sent instructions on how to claim these in your email. We will let you all know about this process once it is finalized, so that backers can claim Close Quarters as well as the other Audiobooks to come.
Amazon It was brought to our attention that one of the Mercenaries Forcepacks was temporarily available on Amazon last week. The street date was listed incorrectly, and has been fixed. It is now available for pre-order only. Our team is partnering with our distributors to make sure all other street dates are correct and will not be available through Amazon until after Kickstarter completion. According to our distributor, only 13 individual forcepacks were purchased before the problem was corrected.
Thank you all for your continued patience and support!
Altruizine wrote: Does anyone know if they sell their Challenge Coins at conventions/Gencon?
Mid-kickstarter I would have listed the coins in the "useless merch I'd gladly cut from my order" category, but after receiving the two I grudgingly selected I kind of like them as objective tokens. But ~5 would be a better count than 2 for me to actually use them for that.
Probably can't get the Mercenaries coins there even if they sell other coins, right? The sets of coins are exclusive to each KS?
Ive seen a lot of references to CGL selling off spare merch stock off at conventions, but I think it’s unlikely that they will be doing so for Mercs merch at anything in the near future due to so few backers having received their stuff yet. They have had to apologise already for early releases of a couple of things by their distribution chain. If they just start selling stuff before it gets to backers then there would be quite a bit of backlash.
Now I don’t know actually what impact such backlash would be given the absorption of eye watering shipping fees by the backers and the general lack of apparent caring by CGL, but they might moderate their behaviour a bit for things under their direct control.
Automatically Appended Next Post: They might be selling Clan coins though, so if you are going anyway worth checking out. The Clans coins would be uncoloured though.
The Clan Invasion challenge coins are for sale on the Catalyst Game Labs web store. Note that these are not enameled, as the black enameled coins were exclusive to the Clan Invasion Kickstarter.
So according to their own update, I should be in wave 1 shipment, as I cleared up my shipping by May 13.
I have yet to even get an address confirmation from QML. There have been others in my area that have already received their pledges.
So what gives?
Ghaz wrote: The Clan Invasion challenge coins are for sale on the Catalyst Game Labs web store. Note that these are not enameled, as the black enameled coins were exclusive to the Clan Invasion Kickstarter.
They still have a supply of the enamel ones that they sell at cons. I bought a couple at LVO from their booth in January.
Ghool wrote: So according to their own update, I should be in wave 1 shipment, as I cleared up my shipping by May 13.
I have yet to even get an address confirmation from QML. There have been others in my area that have already received their pledges.
So what gives?
Wave 1 consists of about 10k people, and they are only averaging a couple of thousand a week. Just need to wait. I find being snarky about CGL on the Kickstarter comments to help the time pass
Ghool wrote: So according to their own update, I should be in wave 1 shipment, as I cleared up my shipping by May 13.
I have yet to even get an address confirmation from QML. There have been others in my area that have already received their pledges.
So what gives?
Domestic Shipping
Approximately 6,000 orders are completed. About 1/3 of the total orders that have been provided to QML as part of the first segment have shipped.
So I would guess that just means you're part of the 12,000 they're working on now.
Paid/confirmed shipping back on may 1st. Got an email on july 2nd to confirm-confirm that "yes, this is indeed my address to ship to". Pledge didn't actually ship out until july 19th from Florida w/ tracking, got an email from QML with the tracking info and also a text notification from Fedex since I have an account. Fedex tracking shows it to be on the delivery truck for later today, should be waiting for me when I get home tonight.
Seen a lot of posts from people that have already received theirs, so I don't know how indicitive my own shipping will be for others in the US
Ghool wrote: So according to their own update, I should be in wave 1 shipment, as I cleared up my shipping by May 13.
I have yet to even get an address confirmation from QML. There have been others in my area that have already received their pledges.
So what gives?
Wave 1 consists of about 10k people, and they are only averaging a couple of thousand a week. Just need to wait. I find being snarky about CGL on the Kickstarter comments to help the time pass
It's more than 10k.
They said they've shipped 6k, about 1/3rd, of Wave 1 which means it's closer to 18k.
Ghool wrote: So according to their own update, I should be in wave 1 shipment, as I cleared up my shipping by May 13.
I have yet to even get an address confirmation from QML. There have been others in my area that have already received their pledges.
So what gives?
Wave 1 consists of about 10k people, and they are only averaging a couple of thousand a week. Just need to wait. I find being snarky about CGL on the Kickstarter comments to help the time pass
It's more than 10k.
They said they've shipped 6k, about 1/3rd, of Wave 1 which means it's closer to 18k.
18k is all of the US and Canada, based on the Kickstarter community stats. I’m willing to believe they have shipped 6k so far, but I guess I just don’t believe any of their other stats really. CGL just say stuff, and QML don’t really care. I may be feeling all rather cynical about the thing at the moment.
• Approximately 6,000 orders are completed. About 1/3 of the total orders that have been provided to QML as part of the first segment have shipped.
QML Assistance • QML is getting hundreds of emails asking about the status of individual orders. They are unable to provide shipping time estimates for specific orders
• Before reaching out to QML, please make sure you’ve locked your order and you’ve paid for your order AND shipping within BackerKit.
• You will receive an address verification email from QML prior to your order shipping AND you will receive a tracking email once it has shipped. (likely from shipping@qmlogistics.com)
• If you paid for your order and shipping in Backerkit by July 2nd, QML has your order. If you paid after July 2nd, Catalyst will give QML your order once first segment fulfillment is closer to completion. This can be the reason that QML may report they cannot find your order.
• Segment 1 fulfillment includes all orders fully locked and paid (including shipping) on or before May 17th. If you paid after May 17th, your order will be included in the second segment of fulfillment, which will begin shortly after completion of the first.
Yeah, I just don’t believe it very much. CGL haven’t got the foggiest idea of what is actually going on as they seem to have no real oversight of the process, and QML have no incentive to be particularly accurate/truthful.
I mean a few weeks ago all the books and models and merch were at the local hubs, oh except for the books that will turn up later, and actually now they are not sure if they have all the stuff at the hubs because they are only now clearing customs and need another few weeks to identify and rectify understocks.
Hey, at least they updated the PDF Cookbook to credit sources and are going to donate all profits from *this* product among "several charitable organizations".
Flinty wrote: Yeah, I just don’t believe it very much. CGL haven’t got the foggiest idea of what is actually going on as they seem to have no real oversight of the process, and QML have no incentive to be particularly accurate/truthful.
I mean a few weeks ago all the books and models and merch were at the local hubs, oh except for the books that will turn up later, and actually now they are not sure if they have all the stuff at the hubs because they are only now clearing customs and need another few weeks to identify and rectify understocks.
Yeah, at this point I'm pretty pissed. Why didn't they do the inventory of the stuff that was at the hubs while waiting for the missing goodies?
Shadox wrote: Yeah, at this point I'm pretty pissed. Why didn't they do the inventory of the stuff that was at the hubs while waiting for the missing goodies?
Here in the US, you don't get your shipment until any applicable duties and taxes have been calculated and paid. If they just 'secured VAT' (whatever that actually means) for the UK and EU then they most likely couldn't do an inventory any earlier.
Shadox wrote: Yeah, at this point I'm pretty pissed. Why didn't they do the inventory of the stuff that was at the hubs while waiting for the missing goodies?
Here in the US, you don't get your shipment until any applicable duties and taxes have been calculated and paid. If they just 'secured VAT' (whatever that actually means) for the UK and EU then they most likely couldn't do an inventory any earlier.
If I'm understanding what you are saying correctly (many similar sounding terms with slightly different meanings in both languages; having almost no direct contact with tariffs anymore thanks to the EU) this is true here in Germany for tariffs but not for VAT, which is payable after the sale if you are a residential company and they have a service partner in the EU and as they were only mentioning the VAT, I didn't assume tariffs were still a problem.
And if they are getting it piecemeal like they seem to, they would have to pay the tariffs per shipment anyway (people with insight in these kind of procedures should correct me if I'm wrong on any of this), so my point was just that they should have started with the stuff they already had.
My ire just comes from a lingering feeling of disregard for the international market, as it looks now wave 1 of the American deliveries will be finished before ours even gets started and the aussies even get a timetable for theirs... and I mean the stuff with the shipping in the online store is known for literally years now and we don't know if that has moved forward at all...
I'd imagine the shipping firm wouldn't have wanted to touch anything until everything had (at least theoretically) arrived,
as once containers are unpacked, pallets of stuff split open etc it starts taking up a lot more space and they'd want it out of their warehouse as fast as possible
Shadox wrote: Yeah, at this point I'm pretty pissed. Why didn't they do the inventory of the stuff that was at the hubs while waiting for the missing goodies?
Here in the US, you don't get your shipment until any applicable duties and taxes have been calculated and paid. If they just 'secured VAT' (whatever that actually means) for the UK and EU then they most likely couldn't do an inventory any earlier.
If I'm understanding what you are saying correctly (many similar sounding terms with slightly different meanings in both languages; having almost no direct contact with tariffs anymore thanks to the EU) this is true here in Germany for tariffs but not for VAT, which is payable after the sale if you are a residential company and they have a service partner in the EU and as they were only mentioning the VAT, I didn't assume tariffs were still a problem.
And if they are getting it piecemeal like they seem to, they would have to pay the tariffs per shipment anyway (people with insight in these kind of procedures should correct me if I'm wrong on any of this), so my point was just that they should have started with the stuff they already had.
My ire just comes from a lingering feeling of disregard for the international market, as it looks now wave 1 of the American deliveries will be finished before ours even gets started and the aussies even get a timetable for theirs... and I mean the stuff with the shipping in the online store is known for literally years now and we don't know if that has moved forward at all...
From what I can tell, the European Union does have tarriffs which would still be practically the same situation. (i.e., you don't get your shipment until any applicable duties and taxes have been calculated and paid.).
Ghaz wrote: From what I can tell, the European Union does have tarriffs which would still be practically the same situation. (i.e., you don't get your shipment until any applicable duties and taxes have been calculated and paid.).
I formulated that poorly. I meant to say that I thought they already dealt with the tariffs
Ghaz wrote: From what I can tell, the European Union does have tariffs which would still be practically the same situation. (i.e., you don't get your shipment until any applicable duties and taxes have been calculated and paid.).
I formulated that poorly. I meant to say that I thought they already dealt with the tariffs
They said they would deal with the tariffs, etc. for the backers. They never said that they had already been taken care of before the product entered the European Union and the UK.
The Second Star League Assault Lance ForcePack will be on sale at GenCon this coming weekend. This was painted by CSO artist Wackrabbit and has been posted to social media (note I believe it has been mentioned that the Daishi Prometheus is not the prepaint). From the left, working clockwise there is the Emperor, the Daishi Prometheus, the Helios, the Argus and a Coolant Truck.
Flinty wrote: The Kintaro is looking a bit rounded isn’t it? Or is it just the digital art assets that have it as a slab sided beastie?
The OG Kintaro is quite round:
Spoiler:
I see that Barnes & Noble has a listing for the McCarron's Armored Cavalry ForcePack up on their website (even though it's listed as 'Temporarily Out of Stock Online) and none of the stores within 100 miles have it is stock (i.e., it's not been released yet).
Guest: Lorcan Nagle, CDT member, writer, community moderator
News:
Kickstarter update
-They are about halfway through US/Canada fulfillment
-Shortages lists for Rest of World have been turned in and passed to CGL, now that everyone is back from GenCon this will be sorted ASAP
-There is an update due to Loren today
-QML passed on appreciation for how courteous the backers have been overall.
-Rem had videos of the new/highlighted products available at Gencon
-Army Painter Mercenaries box
-Carry Case. Has space for books, removable shoulder strap counters/dice/cards and other items, plus pluck foam
-Premium minis: Vulture, Eris, Rifleman, Wolverine, Phoenix Hawk were all available from prior releases. New releases: Nova Cat and BattleMaster
-Map Scale Dropships
-UrbanMech LAM salvage pack
-UrbanMech Lance
-Star League Command Lance
-Second Star League Assault lance
-40th Anniversary Mug
-Dice trays
-Dice pack - hex-shaped case with 40th Anniversary logo, 3 pairs of laser-cut dice with Atlas head for the 6.
-Free dice with every purchase - D6s in various colours with the CGL logo on the 6
-RecGuide Mercs 2
-Activity Book 3
-BattleTech Universe
-In The Shadow of the Dragon
-Without Question
-Force Manual Davion
-Force Manual Kurita
-Technical Blueprints - only 100 copies at the con but will get a wider release later
-40th Anniversary Beginner’s box and GoAC
-UrbanMech Legion hoodies - pink with black image and black with pink image, a fundraiser in memory of Connor Coleman
-The BattleTech pods were in the demo area
-Rem played in Masters and Minions and had a great time. She was paired with Jason Hansa, and played with Tuck from YouTube. People were joking that Rem had to carry Jason because one of his mechs died very quickly
-They also had a hotel suite and recorded a lot of content to be released in the coming months
-Interviews with:
-Jason Hansa
-Brent Evans
-Randall Bills
-Michael Ciaravella
-James Topa
-James Kirtley
-Bryan Young
-Mike Stackpole
-Jason Hardy
-Eric Salzman
-Zac Schwarz
-Steven Torpov
-Bryn Bills
-Wunji Lau
-Loren, Heather and Talon Coleman as a family
-Time lapse videos of setup and teardown, the line for the booth at the con
-CGL fiction panel with Bryan Young, Kate Monsanto, Jennifer Brozek, Phil Lee, and Michael Stackpole
-Clips from the paint and take and the demo areas
Q&A
-Any update on international shipping? There’s been so much red tape, now that VAT is done for the Kickstarter and beyond they’re hoping there’ll be faster progress soon
-Will the Premium Mechs be available in the UK? They’ll be on the webstore and anything that’s been released will be at Essen and UK Games Expo
-Will there be mech t-shirts in the future? Yes, there was a grey UrbanMech shirt and it did will so there’ll probably be more in the future. I mentioned I’d love to see a reissue of the athletics shirts, Rem said send any suggestions like that email store@catalystgamelabs.com as it goes to Talon
-Where’s the Leviathans video? There’s a lot of footage that was taken at the con that needs to be gone through for all games and all areas which will be compiled and shared. Rem would love to have some sort of community gallery with CGL and fan media.
-What is my most cherished accomplishment supporting my fellow gamers? Receiving the Spirit of Gaelcon award.
-Is there foam to hold minis in the BattleTech case? Yes, one side is all pluck foam, 24 spaces for minis.
-What should people do if they got 2 vehicles in salvage packs? Contact CGL via kickstarter messaging.
A pic of this year's GenCon diorama featuring the Battle of New Avalon (3151)
Along the front line you have (in Sword of Light colors) a Cricket and a Savage Wolf. Behind the Savage Wolf is a Rokurokubi while behind the Atlas is a Wendigo.
Gunsmith (next to Davion Guards Marauder II) and Legionnaire (between Davion Guards Pixie and Victor) in Swordsworn colors. Looks like the upcoming new CGL plastics.
EDIT : and a Davion Guards Templar at the bottom of the picture.
Terrain is by Hardware Studios for those wondering.
Old-Four-Arms wrote: Gunsmith (next to Davion Guards Marauder II) and Legionnaire (between Davion Guards Pixie and Victor) in Swordsworn colors. Looks like the upcoming new CGL plastics.
EDIT : and a Davion Guards Templar at the bottom of the picture.
All of which can be seen here further up the page.
The team is back home from Gen Con, and many are recovering from con-crud and/or COVID. We did get a quick update from QML. Last Monday, the shortage reports were due from the hubs, and they've all been turned in, reviewed, and sent to us as Catalyst. Our team will be working on those shipments for the rest of this week and into next week. Just wanted to pop in with a quick update on progress from the steps given 2 weeks ago.
Also, US and Canada fulfillment is about 50% complete!
Thank you all, and we'll check in as soon as we have more news.
I’ve seen some comments on KS indicating missing mechs and suchlike as well. Not overwhelming, but must be particularly unhappy moments after all the waiting and the godawful postage.
Flinty wrote: I’ve seen some comments on KS indicating missing mechs and suchlike as well. Not overwhelming, but must be particularly unhappy moments after all the waiting and the godawful postage.
The rate at which CGL functions does not bode well for anyone waiting on corrections.
In the first KS they literally just gave up trying to do the Characters and refunded money.
This KS they are offering CGL store credit to offset outrageous S&H, and it hasn't showed up for so many people *months* later.
I have zero faith in any reasonable turnaround time on sending people an extra vehicle to make up for salvage box mistakes let alone an entire FOUR incorrect minis.
TalonZahn wrote: Reports are coming in of mispacked Lance Packs.
What are your sources? I pluralized that, since you pluralized reports.
While I wouldn't be surprised if this problem was real, it's also trivially easy to hoax (unlike the Salvage Box issue where incorrect vehicle Salvage Boxes had distinctive protective shells).
I don't doubt there are others, but one reported instance doesn't make a trend.
While it sucks to get incorrect/damaged/etc. items after believing the wait is over, it also isn't usually the end of the world either and most companies will either refund the cost, provide credit, or send a complete replacement (meaning you end up benefiting in the long run). Again, waiting for it isn't fun, but I always tend to view things like this as being a net bonus in the long run in cases where the product you originally received wasn't damaged/unusable (and even in cases where it is, it makes for great kit-bashing fodder).
Here's hoping those affected get a beneficial resolution.
TalonZahn wrote: Reports are coming in of mispacked Lance Packs.
What are your sources? I pluralized that, since you pluralized reports.
While I wouldn't be surprised if this problem was real, it's also trivially easy to hoax (unlike the Salvage Box issue where incorrect vehicle Salvage Boxes had distinctive protective shells).
It was originally posted in Facebook BT groups and that's my thread on Reddit.
Sorry there's not multiple shots of each side of the pack for proof that the little plastic circle wasn't removed or surgically cut to create this ruse.....lol
As many mistakes that CGL has made, this one is a bridge too far?
[Edit] Here's another update for you, Dropships missing in orders. Other than word from a backer in a group, I don't have a picture of the missing item from them......
Long story short, which was the point to begin with, go through your order IF IT EVER ARRIVES, and make sure it's complete.
While delivery is taking time, I think going straight to "IF IT EVER ARRIVES" is a wee bit hyperbolic, don't you?
However, the advice to check you order when it turns up is solid... for any order you make, with anyone.
Question regarding the mispack box - was the guy saying he got shipped the wrong box, or that it was the right box on the outside, but with the wrong mechs inside?
I don't know if it's just one instance or somebody messed up but the Wolf Dragoon's Archer has the right LRMs mounted upside down, and the arms poised like the Dasher.
QML said, on their Facebook, they are on Segment #4 of the first, what CGL calls Segments. Address verification for the next Segment #5 will be sent Friday August 16th.
That equates to 50% of the first segment according to CGL.
So people in CGL "Segment 2" are quite a ways off at this pace.
[Edit] Here's a picture of the high quality IS Armor to keep your hope alive.
In real life, your eyes don't emit a camera flash. (They are just as good/bad/whatever your viewpoint is, of the rest of the plastic CGL mechs) Personally, the set I got is awesome, and I immediately wished I had gotten more sets.
From a quick glance my IS BA box looks decent overall, only one stand is as lumpy as others I've seen online. I'm wondering if they are pulling from the mold too fast, or if one of the tool cavities is bad.
TalonZahn wrote: QML said, on their Facebook, they are on Segment #4 of the first, what CGL calls Segments. Address verification for the next Segment #5 will be sent Friday August 16th.
That equates to 50% of the first segment according to CGL.
So people in CGL "Segment 2" are quite a ways off at this pace.
[Edit] Here's a picture of the high quality IS Armor to keep your hope alive.
Not trying to be obtuse, but I'm not putting this together on what that means (combination of baby brain and jet lag)
Is Segment 2 the folks that missed the May 17th payment? If so it's starting to look like I'll end up with mine 6 months after General release at this point.
TalonZahn wrote: QML said, on their Facebook, they are on Segment #4 of the first, what CGL calls Segments. Address verification for the next Segment #5 will be sent Friday August 16th.
That equates to 50% of the first segment according to CGL.
So people in CGL "Segment 2" are quite a ways off at this pace.
[Edit] Here's a picture of the high quality IS Armor to keep your hope alive.
Not trying to be obtuse, but I'm not putting this together on what that means (combination of baby brain and jet lag)
Is Segment 2 the folks that missed the May 17th payment? If so it's starting to look like I'll end up with mine 6 months after General release at this point.
The QML person on Facebook did say they will try to start referring things consistent to CGL phrasing.
Segment 1 (Before May 17th) and Segment 2 (After May 17th)
And they are on Segment 1, Wave 4 shipping and Wave 5 Emails will go out this Friday the 16th.
According to CGL, this 4th Wave is 50% of Segment 1 and Segment 1 is 18000 total Backers. Segment 2 would be 6000-7000 people.
So yes, if you're in Segment 2, your stuff will arrive just before the heat death of the universe.
General release shouldn't happen until all backers have received their stuff, or there will be a huge amount of bad will directed at CGL. They are reasonably thick skinned, but I think that could still damage them.
At the current rate, I would expect the vast majority of stuff to have been delivered by mid-October, certainly for US and Canada.
For the rest of the world there is no real indication of what is happening at the moment (other than a general "checking stock"), or how long it might take.
QML - Battletech: Mercenaries news! The address verifications for the next (fifth so far) wave of segment one have been sent this morning, totaling over 2,900 backers. Those addresses will lock Monday morning and we'll start them immediately!
Ghaz wrote: Unboxing of the forthcoming Second Star League Assault Lance ForcePack
After the release of the Orion in the first Star League ForcePack I feel that there's going to be many who are disappointed with the Prometheus.
I haven't seen a clear pic yet and they only showed it briefly in the video. It's the pre-paint I'm most excited for by far, hoping it came out nice.
Count me as one of the North America orders with no communication from the fulfillment centers as of yet on a battalion level pledge. The only comms I’ve gotten in the last few months was an email with a link for a partial fulfillment of the digital rewards…While I’m glad others are getting their toys, it is odd I’ve received so little communication for, what I’m assuming is a fairly small order.
With stuff like this they often start with the biggest orders first since they need more manpower to sort and pack, as well as more paperwork to ensure they included everything.
mithril2098 wrote: With stuff like this they often start with the biggest orders first since they need more manpower to sort and pack, as well as more paperwork to ensure they included everything.
As a Segment 1 Wave 5 loser with an order north of $2000, I can assure you that's not true.
mithril2098 wrote: With stuff like this they often start with the biggest orders first since they need more manpower to sort and pack, as well as more paperwork to ensure they included everything.
I have a Company pledge with only a Blood Asp and a challenge coin as add-ons and I received my pledge July 3rd. They’re definitely not doing just the biggest pledges first. They are most likely using a number of factors combined to determine which pledges are worked on first (or it’s truly just random).
For any Clan Burrock players, Camo Specs has started posting canon Clan Burrock paint schemes on their web site. At present it's just Alpha and Beta Galaxies.
Transcript of episode 24 of Tuesday Newsday
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Episode 24
20th August 2024
Guest: Jason Hansa, Author
News:
-No update on ROW kickstarter shipping, Loren has Covid and it has slowed down updates.
-People were asking what the “Indie Eight combo” constitutes: Kell Hounds, Eridani Light Horse, Hansen’s Roughriders, Northwind Highlanders, Snord’s Irregulars, Wolf’s Dragoons, UrbanMech, Proliferation Cycle
-All store credit due to people with “usable” email addresses should have gone out by now
-House Arano challenge coins are missing, they’re shipping to QML now. If you’re getting multiple packages and would be getting one of these coins, the package containing this coin will be delayed until it arrives, but all others will ship.
-Tentative BattleTech release schedule, pending Kickstarter fulfillment
--August
---Recguide: ilClan volume 2
--September
---Universe (standard edition)
---Force Manual Davion
---Mercs paint set
--October
---Mercs box
---Recon lance
---Battlefield Support: Recon and Hunter Lances
---Battlefield Support: Assault and Cavalry lances
---Cavalry Star
---Salvage Box: Battlefield Support
---Salvage Box: Mercenaries
---McCarron’s Armoured Cavalry (B&N Exclusive)
---Map Pack: Savannahs
--Rem wants to double-check the Second Star League Assault Lance release date, she feels it should be soon.
--The new Premium Mechs that were on-sale at Gencon won’t be on this list as they don’t got to retail
-Booth and Inflatable urbie will be at Nova, everything that was at Gencon will be on-sale
-Upcoming events: Pax West, Pax Australia, Essen, Gamehole con (this last one is primarily RPGs, RJ Thomas, Jason Hardy and maybe Rem will be running games)
-Jason always loved creative writing, and got his intro to BattleTech via their open submissions policy. He was stationed in Afghanistan and sending his work in via physical post. He got a lot of rejections but kept resubmitting.
-He got into BattleTech via his friends, they played the game via a photocopied copy of the rules and knew nothing of the universe. He was more into the FASA Star Trek RPG -Another friend loaned him the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy and while he enjoyed them he didn’t get why he should care about some of the characters until he tracked down the Warrior Trilogy and found their back story. He had just joined the military when FASA/Roc were releasing a novel every 90 days or so and the regular releases really worked for him.
-Jason’s first accepted story was Citations of Respect. He based it around a point in the Galtor Campaign scenario pack where a Davion Battalion vanished, with a pair of Davion and Kuritan historians working out what happened. He’s been published 17 times in total
-A Skulk of Foxes, Jason’s Kickstarter novella is being released to the general public in a few days. It features the Screaming Eagles as they try to regain their honour and rebuild their reputation, a Sea Fox Watch Agent is investigating raids around Son Hoa and they have to work together to save the planet.
-Upcoming from Jason:
--One book of the Wars of Reaving trilogy with Phil Lee and Craig Reed. These books will be mostly stand-alone but will have some connections.
--The Strength of the Pack. Serial novel about Clan Wolf beginning immediately before the invasion.
Q&A:
-Any update on the missing cookbooks and art of war books? They’re shipping with newly picked orders, Rem will chase up what the plan is for people who didn’t get them yet.
-What if I haven’t had a response about a Kickstarter issue? Rem said to email tyler atl tbuckner@catalystgamelabs.com for a follow-up
-Has everyone due store credit got it now? Not yet, a number of people still need their email verified.
-How do I contact CGL via the kickstarter page? At the top-right of the project page, click on Created by Catalyst Games. Click on that and then click the contact page.
-Some people report issues with the shoulder-mounted LRM on the Bushwacker from the Somerset Strikers forcepack. Rem hasn’t heard of any issues, email Tyler with photos so they can track the issue
-When will Somerset Strikers be available for purchase? Currently set for December, pending fulfillment of the kickstarter
-Are segment 4 Kickstarter orders with the missing Arano coin being held entirely? No, only the package which would have the coin if you have multiple boxes.
-When will the dice be available? They’re not going to retail, Rem is going to chase up when they’ll be on the webstore/at cons.
-Can the store credit be used for the Army Painter sets? If you buy them via the CGL store, yes.
-Will the Blood Asp Salvage box be at retail? Currently set for January.
-Did Jason start wanting to be a writer or did it sneak up on him? It kinda snuck up on him, he had fun entering the unique BattleMech
-When/where did Jason serve? He was in a medical supply and optical unit in Korea, took the GI bill, was commissioned as a lieutenant through ROTC, was stationed in Germany but was deployed for half of them, back to the US, then back to Korea, and then “a couple more deployments”. He’s working for the army as a civilian right now, trying to make the army better for new recruits
-Who is Jason’s favourite Shrapnel contributor and why is it Lorcan Nagle? He took the opportunity to big Shrapnel up in general
-What is Jason looking forward to the most from the Kickstarter? The Mercs box because he’s excited for the new BSP vehicle rules
-Tips for Shrapnel applicants? Do what the submission guidelines say, they’re a test to make sure you can follow the rules. Play to your strengths, find a corner of the universe, focus on one character, and explain why the events are important to them. Don’t try and do anything big. Show your work to friends and rewrite on their feedback. Write, write, submit, repeat. Keep working, hone your craft.
-Any news on the MUL update? No, but Josh Perian will be the guest on September 10th, and it’ll be discussed then
-When will the Legendary Battle Neoprene mats and BFM Urban/Lunar be available? July according to the current schedule. While looking for it Rem mentioned scheduled dates for some other products:
--Map pack: City - December
--Field Commander case -: December
--Battlemat city and Savannah get one each over January-March
--Something Kurita: February. Unclear if this is the Force Manual or one of the lance packs
--Alpha Strike FieldTech mats April-May
--How do you feel about aces? Rem got to play it at Origins and she really likes it. She likes the co-op and AI vs elements.
Does the bit about the premium mechs not going to retail mean they'll only be available through the webstore or they won't be available outside of cons?
TalonZahn wrote: I got my QML Email on Friday and my CGL Voucher EMail on Monday.
For S&G, I placed an order with CGL Monday and now the race is on for which shows up first.
My bet would be on the kickstarter product. I placed an order from CGL July 19 that I'm still waiting on. Patiently waiting - as I assume they're still dealing with postcon/illness/etc - but still waiting.
No One Important wrote: Does the bit about the premium mechs not going to retail mean they'll only be available through the webstore or they won't be available outside of cons?
In the Tuesday Newsday video, Rem said 'distro' (i.e., distribution) and not 'retail'. Therefore, I would assume they will be available on the Catalyst web store as usual.
No One Important wrote: Does the bit about the premium mechs not going to retail mean they'll only be available through the webstore or they won't be available outside of cons?
In the Tuesday Newsday video, Rem said 'distro' (i.e., distribution) and not 'retail'. Therefore, I would assume they will be available on the Catalyst web store as usual.
Nifty, thanks. Really want to get a couple of those Wolverines and was worried I'd missed out forever.
legionaires wrote: So it's really starting to look like the retail release will happen before I get my pledge the way the waves have been going. So annoyed.
Note the use of the term "... pending Kickstarter fulfillment..." with the tentative release dates. They're literally telling us that those dates can (and most likely will) change depending on how the Kickstarter fulfillment has progressed.
legionaires wrote: So it's really starting to look like the retail release will happen before I get my pledge the way the waves have been going. So annoyed.
Note the use of the term "... pending Kickstarter fulfillment..." with the tentative release dates. They're literally telling us that those dates can (and most likely will) change depending on how the Kickstarter fulfillment has progressed.
I missed that. Thanks for the correction. That's what I get for posting while juggling the baby.
A little correction on what's being done on orders with the missing Arano challenge coins via the BattleTech Forums:
NeonKnight wrote:Additionally, based on my conversations with QML - they are not sending out shipments until they get the replacement/top ups of coins.
The Tuesday ReCap makes it sound as if QML will send out partial shipments and then send the rest when the coins come in. They are not
Thanks for the follow up and the timestamp! I've reviewed this with our team internally and it turns out the information in the video is not exactly accurate. The "split shipments" that were referred to were only in regard to orders that were already in the middles of processing and their first parcel had shipped when the shortage was discovered.
We have all orders affected noted and will resolve them as soon as available stock has arrived. Thank you for your understanding and I hope you have a great rest of your day!
Best,
Ali
Customer Service Specialist | (they/them)
Quartermaster Logistics
So, if you HAVE received a partial shipment, this is likely the reason, if your shipment (in my case) has not been shipped yet, it will not be shipped until the coins arrive at QML
legionaires wrote: So it's really starting to look like the retail release will happen before I get my pledge the way the waves have been going. So annoyed.
Note the use of the term "... pending Kickstarter fulfillment..." with the tentative release dates. They're literally telling us that those dates can (and most likely will) change depending on how the Kickstarter fulfillment has progressed.
I missed that. That's for the correction. That's what I get for posting while juggling the baby.
Now to see if they delay retail until all backers have been served, or if they conveniently forget RoW like they seem to have in terms of fulfilment.
I got an email back from Catalyst on Kickstarter about my three bad Salvage Boxes and they said they'd pass it on the QML. Maybe they'll send me three replacement Salvage Boxes when they get around to sending me my book.
frankelee wrote: I got an email back from Catalyst on Kickstarter about my three bad Salvage Boxes and they said they'd pass it on the QML. Maybe they'll send me three replacement Salvage Boxes when they get around to sending me my book.
What email address did you email?
I only got one of the bum boxes, but I messaged them via KS on July 22 and haven't gotten a reply yet.
News stream thingy is up. Good grief that thing is annoying to interact with. An hour of crap adverts and poorly delivered vagueness.
All I could stand to stick around for was that new stock is at some point in The distribution process to fill the identified stock gaps. When the shifting is done, international fulfilment begins. No timescale.
Also it seems that some distributors are getting bored and forwarding stuff to stores anyway, and CGL are like really grumpy about it.
There is supposed to be a formal update posted at some point. Then I stopped watching .g
27th August 2024
Guest: Jay Erickson, Shadowrun author
News:
-There will be a backer update released later in the day.
-Reported shortages have been processed and stock is being moved between hubs at present. There are 20 shorted swag items that need to be shipped to hubs by CGL. As soon as these are resolved international shipping will commence.
-Several European retailers reported Kickstarter-funded items were being shipped to them this week. This was due to a miscommunication in street dates and CGL’s sales manager has told distributors to embargo these items.
NOVA Open events: Urbie Derbies, Grinders, Alpha Strike Narrative event, tournament
PAX West events: Grinders, Boardgame demos - do a demo and get a 20% discount on a boardgame. BattleTech Saturday Night Fight - Steiner vs Jade Falcon. Shadowrun First Taste.
Q&A
-Does Shadowrun has as rigorous fact-check as BattleTech? They’re trying!
-Who is handling store credit for Kickstarter shipping? Tyler, email tbuckner@gmail.com -If I received QML address confirmation a month ago, who should I contact to check status? You shouldn’t need to do anything, but contact QML via their webpage if you have concerns.
-Score out of 100 for Gencon? Things to learn/want to do? The big thing they want to do is entirely review the booth, they hate the scaffolding they use to create the booth. Boardame sold out of almost everything - they had maybe 25 copies of Centurion left. Most boardgames sold out by Saturday and they brought additional stock. They need to do more on RPGs, they had no merch, Voltron demo space felt a bit hidden but Frostpunk was very popular. Filmed content is being edited for release soon. Rem gives it 90/100
-Is there an ETA on BattleTech 40th Anniversary dice tray and dice sets hitting the webstore? Rem has to check if they’ve reached the warehouse. Rem is very happy as they sold very well at GenCon and they were her idea.
-Are there updates on Randall’s Operation Unification stops for Europe? Not sure if he’s doing any stops around the CGL trip to Essen
-Will anything new be sold at Essen? Everything available at GenCon should be at NOVA, PAX West and Essen.
-No Tuesday Newsday next week
Project Update #98: BattleTech: Mercenaries by Catalyst Games wrote:Fulfillments and Shipping Update 8/28
Hey backers,
Plenty of updates today, so let’s hop in:
European Retailers It has been brought to our attention that several European retailers received notifications from their distributors that shipments were on their way for items from the Kickstarter that are not due for release yet. Our sales manager has contacted all distributors to put an embargo on those items, and to stop any shipments they can to stores. Our release dates were communicated in July, and we expect our partners to communicate and honor those dates. Thank you to the retailers, fans, and friends that reached out to us to tell us about these issues.
Fulfillment During fulfillment, QML and its hubs, through no fault of their own, identified incorrect stock levels for items that had originally shipped from the manufacturers. Catalyst is working with QML to shift stock between warehouses and hubs.
Other than the stock shifts, The EU, UK, and AU hubs are still short a few items that were either in the US or were first shipped to the US before being parceled out to the needed hubs. The remaining short-stocked items are Catalyst's focus for the week, and we expect to have those stock levels fixed quickly, as well. These items are being sorted now into the needed shipments and we hope to begin international fulfillment in the near future.
Parts Replacement QML has now received the parts catalog and will be able to fulfill defective/missing parts replacements following the completion of full orders.
Art of War / BattleTech Cookbook These items, for any backer who may not have received them, are being shipped separately from the rest of the orders and will be on their way following full orders. We are prioritizing full orders in this case to expedite the shipping process.
Store Credit Backers who have not yet received their store credit, please message tbuckner@catalystgamelabs.com for this issue along with the appropriate email address to send these credits to. These must be done in batches and we will be sending them out as soon as possible.
Segment 6 Fulfillment and Address Verification QML will be sending out the next batch of address verifications on Thursday to run over the holiday weekend. If you have received your address verification email and have still not received your pledge, please do not worry, as these are sent out in advance to give backers ample time to reroute their order if necessary.
Thank you backers for your patience as we work to fulfill one of the largest Kickstarters out there!
I shouldnt be surprised after the fiasco that was their dice from their last release, but I'm deeply dissatisfied with the "laser effect" dice, the patterning on some of them is barely in a single corner. And the liquid core dice, those arent great.
VictorVonTzeentch wrote: I shouldnt be surprised after the fiasco that was their dice from their last release, but I'm deeply dissatisfied with the "laser effect" dice, the patterning on some of them is barely in a single corner. And the liquid core dice, those arent great.
Their dice with sharp edges aren't really suitable for rolling anyway (they're made for being thrown like you would do in craps). You can use them as markers, etc. but for rolling get some precision backgammon dice with the beveled edges like these instead (or just plain beveled dice if you're not concerned with them being perfectly balanced).
VictorVonTzeentch wrote: I shouldnt be surprised after the fiasco that was their dice from their last release, but I'm deeply dissatisfied with the "laser effect" dice, the patterning on some of them is barely in a single corner. And the liquid core dice, those arent great.
Their dice with sharp edges aren't really suitable for rolling anyway (they're made for being thrown like you would do in craps). You can use them as markers, etc. but for rolling get some precision backgammon dice with the beveled edges like these instead (or just plain beveled dice if you're not concerned with them being perfectly balanced).
Using them for stuff like that or to put up with my faction related stuff was the point. But they look so bad that it defeats the purpose.
Supporters should learn patience, some of the issues that keep rearing their ugly heads are completely Catalyst's fault, like the shipping, others are out of their control like the shops selling stuff earlier.
But whoever is mass reporting comments on the KS page, either somebody from Catalyst, or a self appointed white knight, is making nobody favors. You cannot stop people complaining by abusing moderation, and looks really bad.
Supporters should learn patience, some of the issues that keep rearing their ugly heads are completely Catalyst's fault, like the shipping, others are out of their control like the shops selling stuff earlier.
But whoever is mass reporting comments on the KS page, either somebody from Catalyst, or a self appointed white knight, is making nobody favors. You cannot stop people complaining by abusing moderation, and looks really bad.
M.
There's also a good chance that those post being flagged as violating Kickstarter's Community Guidelines are being done by some sort of automated system working off of keywords and/or phrases, awaiting a review by an actual human when they get a chance.
How Do I Report Comments on a Project? wrote:Please note: Only creators can report comments on their project
I would imagine that very few people would have access to the creator account, plus some of these posts have been flagged when it would be the middle of the night in Seattle which again further reinforces my belief that it is an automated system (along with a lot of the flagged posts eventually being restored).
The hysteria over this KS is indeed getting farcical, over what is mostly waiting for fullfillment.
At the risk of straying off-topic....Was anyone reading here involved in the Sedition Wars kickstarter 12 years ago? Now THAT sucked all the way through.
It pretty much was the first successful large-scale miniatures Kickstarter (making over a million), and took about a year and a half past it's posted fulfillment date to actually arrive to people, with lots of problems involved. I think there were a couple of things from my order that took two years past the fulfillment date, so like 2.5 years after pledging.
The PDF for the finalized rulebook that was going to be shipping inside of the game had a bunch of errors that could not be fixed pre=production, so the offer was made to buy a whole new rulebook, and if I remember correctly....barely anything even got changed. It took a fan group's aftermarket effort to make the game even playable.
Sedition Wars wasn't that bad, mostly because by the time it was due to fulfill I had already stopped caring. Now Super Dungeon Legends - THAT was a disaster.
I do know it's a bit random, though. One of my gaming group has had their product in hand for weeks already from Mercs, but another just got their notification today.
AegisGrimm wrote: I do know it's a bit random, though. One of my gaming group has had their product in hand for weeks already from Mercs, but another just got their notification today.
And then there's others in places like the UK who just get the feeling that it will be in retail long before we see it - and then any errors won't be fixable as the items have become sold out.
What tickes me off is that last KS I got my stuff more or less during the middle of the fulfillment window. But this time around RoW seems like an afterthought for Catalyst even if I joined early during the second day of the KS, and paid the shipping charges way before the May 17th cut off date.
Yes, agitated backers should keep in mind the difference between their pledge arriving three or four months late and being robbed at gunpoint in a dark alley. They're not the same thing.
It's funny how Catalyst makes a point of having a news show every week, yet backers couldn't feel less informed by it. I think it does border on salting the wound, it's not just you can't get a straight answer because they're slow to communicate, you can't get a straight answer over a two hour livestream every Tuesday.
I'm still waiting on my Cthulhu: Death May Die 2 KS that was supposed to be delivered December 2023, apparently won't start delivering until November, and will probably take two months to ship through. And also everything from that Kickstarter is scheduled to go on sale at the middle of this month, officially. Nobody there seems a tenth as upset about any of it as the average European backer I see make a comment on the Mercenaries KS page.
Huh, still waiting on that Raging Heroes art book from their first KS aeons ago..
But from what I've seen, they are keeping people in the loop and making a visible effort to show that they're working on things, unlike some out there.
The original campaign ran 11 years ago, ouch and as late as 2019 they had this to say on the subject:
Also the TGG art book hasn’t been forgotten: we're working on it and it should be done soon. As we stated in previous updates, we want the artbook to be as complete as possible: it will feature stuff from the upcoming TGG3 Kickstarter, as well as TGG1 & TGG2 stories and characters. So it will give you a fantastic overview of the TGG universe and of the creative work that brought the TGG miniatures to life.
Got my stuff last night. Since I grew up here and am not used to Sunday deliveries, it sat on the porch all night (Sunday deliveries are new in my neighborhood). Fortunately it did not fall prey to porch pirates. All was in order, and the Challenge Coin was well protected in a hard plastic case with foam rubber and the whole in a ziplock bag. Of my seven Merc Salvage Boxes, got mostly Clanners, but at least some of them are ones I wanted.
BTW, if I want vehicle rules for Alpha Strike, I need the Commander's Rulebook, right? The one that has been OoS for about 18 months.
BrookM wrote: The original campaign ran 11 years ago, ouch and as late as 2019 they had this to say on the subject:
Also the TGG art book hasn’t been forgotten: we're working on it and it should be done soon. As we stated in previous updates, we want the artbook to be as complete as possible: it will feature stuff from the upcoming TGG3 Kickstarter, as well as TGG1 & TGG2 stories and characters. So it will give you a fantastic overview of the TGG universe and of the creative work that brought the TGG miniatures to life.
Bloody liars.
Oh yes, I backed that one too. Forgot that Raging Heroes still owe us that art book.
BTW, if I want vehicle rules for Alpha Strike, I need the Commander's Rulebook, right? The one that has been OoS for about 18 months.
You kind of need that book to play AS anyway.
Unless you're talking about playing AS with whatever documents came in the Alpha Strike Boxed Set? If so, those rules are already slimmed-down and missing many optional/advanced rules (rules that affect 'mechs as often as they do vehicles).
Which is to say, if that's the version of AS you're already playing, you should be able to introduce vehicles to it without any trouble. The vehicles unit cards you'll find on the MUL are nearly identical to the 'mech cards you'll already be familiar with.
The most important vehicle-specific rules have to do with critical hits, and those differences can be found here: https://i.imgur.com/nOZ9viK.jpeg
Beyond that, most of the vehicle-specific rules have to do with moving on certain terrain types (but I believe you'll already be overlooking those kinds of rules if you play Boxed Set AS, because 'mechs are subject to them as well, like eg. when they move on paved surfaces).
Ancestral Hamster wrote: BTW, if I want vehicle rules for Alpha Strike, I need the Commander's Rulebook, right? The one that has been OoS for about 18 months
The Alpha Strike: Commander's Edition is the current rules source for Alpha Strike. As an alternative if you don't want to wait until the book comes back into stock, you can pick up a PDF copy of the book from the Catalyst webstore for $19.99.
Ancestral Hamster wrote: BTW, if I want vehicle rules for Alpha Strike, I need the Commander's Rulebook, right? The one that has been OoS for about 18 months
The Alpha Strike: Commander's Edition is the current rules source for Alpha Strike. As an alternative if you don't want to wait until the book comes back into stock, you can pick up a PDF copy of the book from the Catalyst webstore for $19.99.
Plus, that one updates so you don't ever have to buy the new edition.
Ancestral Hamster wrote: BTW, if I want vehicle rules for Alpha Strike, I need the Commander's Rulebook, right? The one that has been OoS for about 18 months
The Alpha Strike: Commander's Edition is the current rules source for Alpha Strike. As an alternative if you don't want to wait until the book comes back into stock, you can pick up a PDF copy of the book from the Catalyst webstore for $19.99.
Been trying to pick up a physical book from CGL for ages now... wonder when they will finally get them in stock again.
Yup, I received a Commanders Edition book with my Mercenary KS just a few weeks ago, perhaps they are waiting until KS fulfillment before putting them up for regular sale? Or allocated from stock before it was gone?
Right now I would just wait on getting the AS book in hardcover. The 7.X errata dropped recently so even if they did another print run of 6th for the KS the 7th printing should be not too far off. PDF is great though for free updates.
Thanks for the replies, and Altruizine, also thanks for the advice. Yes, at the moment I only have the simplified rules from the Alpha Strike box, which is why I'd like to get the full rules. I'd prefer hardcopy, though I admit PDFs are easier to search.
On a tangent, while waiting for my Mercs pledge to arrive I realized that despite buying Citytech back in the day when FASA first released the vehicle and building rules, I have actually never played with vehicles. I'm going to try more combined arms this time.
Alpharius Walks wrote: Right now I would just wait on getting the AS book in hardcover. The 7.X errata dropped recently so even if they did another print run of 6th for the KS the 7th printing should be not too far off. PDF is great though for free updates.
I got my MERC stuff yesterday and looks like it’s all there. To be honest, I didn’t realize there was a delay on the shipping, so I can’t complain. Can’t wait to see what’s in all my boxes
10h September 2024
Guest: John Helfers, Executive Editor
News:
-MUL Discussion has been postponed due to illness, instead they did some snippets from Shrapnel 18
-Kickstarter updates
--If you have gotten more than one vehicle from Mercs salvage boxes, email tbuckner@catalystgamelabs.com.
--Over 14,000 orders shipped to date.
--Fortunes of War 5 are now distributed to backers at Regiment level and above via Backerkit
--There will be more Fortunes of War novellas, but they will not be part of the Kickstarter, available as general releases
--Another round of store credit for shipping issues is being sent out today
--No update for ROW fulfillment except that items are still in transit
--Distributor release dates for october are tentative, these will be pushed back until 30 days after retailer backer fulfillment whenever that completes.
-Upcoming events:
--Randall, Brynn and Talon will be at Essen and Pax Australia
--Gamehole Con
--Voltcon, CGL will have a small presence to promote the RPG -Voltron kickstarter is planned for October 8th
-Shrapnel 18 is out on Friday September 13th
-Pre-orders are ebook only, for some reason Amazon won’t let you pre-order POD
-Shrapnel 18 is themed around the Hinterlands, the bulk of the episode is discussing the issue’s contents and John and Rem reading a selection from the various stories
--Nesting Falcons by Alex Fairbanks, Set in the Tamar Pact and has mercenaries encountering Jade Falcon loyalists
--Potters Pounders by Ken’ Horner, about a group of mercs who have to deal when something goes wrong on a mission
--What next for Blue Hole by Lorcan Nagle, a chatterweb transcript of a discussion on a world surrounded by factions
--Hide and Seek by Sam Barrett, about a pilot assigned to an Urbanmech against their will
--A sequel to CUPPS by James Kirtley
--A Mission Briefing for MechWarrior Destiny by Eric Salzman
--The Shadow of the Mad Tea Master by James Hauser . A Dark Age story set in the Draconis Combine
--Brewer’s House of Cards by Eric Salzman, an article about the Vesper Marches
--Planet Digest: Leskovic
--A Violent Inception part 2 by Russel Zimmerman
--(They ran out of time and skipped to the end)
--The Zealot’s Nest By Bryan Young, set on Arc Royal after the Kell Hounds liberated the world
-Q&A
--How’s it going with the Audiobooks? There should be one dropping this month, the program is moving forward, at least two more should drop this year, if not four.
--Any news on Den of Wolves? Last John was aware, it’s at least 75% done, John is hoping to have a draft in his hands by the end of the year.
--What are the next books to be released, looking forward to Voidbreaker?
---The Bounty Hunter anthology will hopefully be to Kickstarter backers at the end of the month
---Night in the Woods, Mike Stackpole’s second Death Kangaroos story is in progress
---Shrapnel 19 due for December
---The Strength of the Pack, the Honour and Glory Omnibus hopefully out soon
---BattleTech novel schedule for 2025
----Voidbreaker in January
----Blood will Rise by Tom Leveen in April
----Letter of the Law by Phil Lee in July
----A Treachery of Ravens by Michael Ciaravella in October
---Stackpole is working on a number of short novels, more info later
--What about people who didn’t get an extra mercs salvage box as compensation for the vehicle packs? They’re being sent separately, orders are generated.
--When will we see record sheets for the Star Leage and kickstarter forcepacks? Unsure, Rem will chase it up
--Kickstarter Audiobook fulfillment? They’re still working on the distribution method. Close Quarters is ready to go.
--Rem will be in Toronto next week, she should be able to get on for stream but it might not happen.
--What about people who didn’t get an extra mercs salvage box as compensation for the vehicle packs? They’re being sent separately, orders are generated.
Have they changed their mind on this again? Last I heard it was supposed to be a partial refund or something.
I heard the rumour, big mine of salt, that the lack of information on RoW delivery is because quartemaster raided the stocks asigned to cover for NA shortfalls.
If true that makes me really happy. Very, very happy.
Also worth noting that IKEO should be out by the end of the year:...
Randall: I think in the best of all worlds, it could have gone a little faster. But these big universe-updating campaign books of Tamar Rising, Empire Alone, Dominions Divided, and now ilKhan’s Eyes Only—that’s at the printer and we’ll be out at the end of the year—they are a crap ton of work to do. Then combine that with this mega Kickstarter—25,000-plus backers and 500 SKUs that we had to make and deliver—it just constantly sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
Just received the following message from Catalyst Games via Kickstarter:
Catalyst Games wrote:All potentially affected backers have/will be sent an additional Salvage Box to offset this issue for any backers with one vehicle. So there should be no problem here, if it hasn't made it to you yet, it will likely be soon!
Oddly, I only was supposed to get 11 boxes, and got 13 total so however you want to split it... I ended up with 2 single vehicle boxes with 1 Galleon in each.
So I either got 2 extra for some reason, or they knew I had a box with 1 Galleon and got lucky getting a second Galleon.
Total rumourmongering here, but this gem just showed up on the Kickstarter comments allegedly from a CGL discord mod
"Why would backers need this information?
Simply put, why are you entitled to this information?
Your stuff is coming. Your stuff will be there before it hits retail. That is all the information that you need.
How many kickstarters have just vanished in smoke because the company behind them discontinued the project?
This one is still getting active updates, even if it is 'No news' on a weekly basis. You don't need to know the processes inner workings in order to know that you are getting your stuff"
Good to see such a deep understanding of human drives in their customer facing cohort.
Flinty wrote: Total rumourmongering here, but this gem just showed up on the Kickstarter comments allegedly from a CGL discord mod
"Why would backers need this information?
Simply put, why are you entitled to this information?
Your stuff is coming. Your stuff will be there before it hits retail. That is all the information that you need.
How many kickstarters have just vanished in smoke because the company behind them discontinued the project?
This one is still getting active updates, even if it is 'No news' on a weekly basis. You don't need to know the processes inner workings in order to know that you are getting your stuff"
Good to see such a deep understanding of human drives in their customer facing cohort.
I went and double-checked the Discord. I didn't see the original post but did see where the mod was made to apologize. The discussion over there seems to be a total mess.
Flinty wrote: Total rumourmongering here, but this gem just showed up on the Kickstarter comments allegedly from a CGL discord mod
"Why would backers need this information?
Simply put, why are you entitled to this information?
Your stuff is coming. Your stuff will be there before it hits retail. That is all the information that you need.
How many kickstarters have just vanished in smoke because the company behind them discontinued the project?
This one is still getting active updates, even if it is 'No news' on a weekly basis. You don't need to know the processes inner workings in order to know that you are getting your stuff"
Good to see such a deep understanding of human drives in their customer facing cohort.
This was in response to a guy with a long, bad history. He finally ended up getting banned as well.
Fresh off of the weekly meeting with QML, here’s some information we can share.
Shortages We know you’ve been waiting for information on shortages, so here we go! About 20 SKU shortages were found across the hubs and QML. After assessing what CGL, QML and the hubs could all ship amongst each other, we also had to work with our various manufacturing partners to produce merchandise to backfill shortages. Those items should be finished production within 2-3 weeks, then ship directly to both QML and the worldwide hubs.
Several of the short items are in the majority of international orders, which is the reason shipping isn’t able to begin until everything gets to the hubs. We also want to be sure that shipping from a hub can begin at the same time for all of that region’s backers in order to reduce customer confusion and stress. (Note that each hub will fulfill when their own stock arrives, not when stock arrives at ALL hubs, so some regions may begin before others.)
One of the items that is causing a hold-up for NA shipments is the plain House Arano Challenge Coin (Please note: This is different than the enamel House Arano Challenge Coin). If your pledge contains this coin, you can choose to message QML to see if that is the only item holding your order. If so, you can choose to have it removed from your order permanently and you will receive a CGL store credit of $10. Contact QML through their customer service link below if this applies to you. This is the only item available for cancellation at this time.
Waves Wave 1 (shipping was paid on or before May 17th, 2024) has stalled while awaiting restocks. Wave 2 (shipping was paid after May 17th, 2024 but before August 12th 2024) has not yet begun but will begin soon once restocks arrive. Wave 3 (shipping has not been charged) will be communicated at a later date. Retail backers who have paid shipping prior to August 12th, will be fulfilled at the end of Wave 2, and will not be held for Wave 3. We will be sending Address Verifications on Thursday for Wave 2 backers that are not short any items in their order. Fulfilment is expected to start for Wave 2 sometime next week. This should not cause any additional inventory issues for those Wave 1 backers that are waiting for stock to arrive at QML.
Damages or Lost Shipments Contact QML at the following link if you have damaged items, or if you believe a package/shipment has gone missing. This applies to all backers, regardless of country.
Late Backer Support If you are a backer who backed via BackerKit rather than Kickstarter, and require support regarding your pledge, you can reach out to us using the following steps:
4.) If the pre-filled answer does not answer your question, use the "Still have questions?" button to send a support request to Catalyst. (Check your spam folder)
Street Dates We are still committed to waiting to release any KS Backer exclusive rewards until after the Kickstarter has fulfilled globally AND all Company Store-level retailer backers have had 30 days to sell before we release items through our own retail avenues.
There are a few items where we committed to pushing production sooner, and those will be released over the next several months.
Here’s a summary of where we are for now on releases through the rest of the year:
Not bound to Kickstarter fulfillment: Force Manual: Davion – September release Universe: Standard Edition – September release Mercs Paint Set (Army Painter) – September release Hot Spots: Hinterlands – November release IlKhan’s Eyes Only – December release Drop Ships – 2025 release
Kickstarter Release First Some of these were slated for an October release but have since been moved to November, and release dates may be further adjusted pending Kickstarter fulfillment.
Planned for November 11/27/2024
Mercs Box Set (Standard Edition) Inner Sphere Recon Lance ForcePack Battlefield Support: Recon & Hunter Lances ForcePack Battlefield Support: Assault & Cavalry Lances ForcePack Clan Cavalry Star ForcePack Salvage Box: Battlefield Support (Point of Purchase) Salvage Box: Mercenaries (Point of Purchase) MapPack: Savannah Planned for December 12/11/2024
Battlefield Support: Battle & Fire Lances ForcePack BattleTech Encounters BattleTech: Inner Sphere Security Lance ForcePack Salvage Box: Visigoth (Point of Purchase) Statistics These are the approximate total order counts from Wave 1 and Wave 2 (see: Waves, above) Aus/NZ: 1000 orders EU: 3000 orders UK: 1700 orders Asia: 400 orders US/Can/Rest of World: 20,575 Orders completed for US/CAN/RoW: 14,500 (currently waiting on restocks)
Wave 3 orders expected: Approximately 400 orders worldwide A personal note… We’d like to thank our backers for your support and patience. This is the largest Kickstarter that either Catalyst or QML have ever undertaken and you helped us to get there. Those who haven’t received their items yet – we know you are excited to have them delivered, and we are excited to get them to you!
Before we launch a Kickstarter, we are required to put in an expected fulfillment date to the Kickstarter page. We went for June 2024, but were hopeful for earlier. We also expected a maximum of $4 million for this Kickstarter. Including the pledge manager, we almost TRIPLED that! Still, we pulled through with our manufacturing partners to start delivering in June.
There are also over 25,000 orders worldwide, and over 400 individual items involved! This is a logistical mountain, and anyone who has experience with fulfillment knows there are always unexpected roadblocks along the way. The CGL team and our partners have all been racing to mitigate these as much as possible, while still ensuring orders will be accurate when they get out the door. Again, we are so grateful for the kind words of support from so many of you as we keep pushing through our last hurdles.
Once those shortages arrive, everything will be full steam ahead on delivering your rewards! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Keep posting your paint jobs, unboxings, and excitement for playing with your new mechs, and we’ll all be joining you soon!
Given that they knew to a high level of precision exactly what was required, it does surprise me that there are so many shortages. There must be a huge number of rejected or lost consignments.
It is surprising, and a little bit worrying. If the 20 SKUs are from the same supplier and all small items it could be as simple as a lost container, but it could also be that QML are sloppy checking thinks into their warehouses and they're sat somewhere waiting to be found...
Do we know how many SKUs there are in total for the KS? It would be interesting to know what % 20 is.
24th September 2024
Guest: Jordan Weisman, co-founder of FASA, founder of Wizkids, founder of Harebrained Schemes, co-creator of BattleTech, Shadowrun, et al
News:
-Kickstarter update 99 went out shortly before the stream. It was a big one so Rem didn’t read it out but encouraged questions
Upcoming events:
-Randall is in East Europe on his World Tour, Rem thought it was Budapest tonight. He actually went into Ukraine to meet fans there!
-CGL will be at Spiel in Essen.
-Pax Australia. Talon was there last year to check it out and see if it was suitable for CGL and they decided to head over this year.
-Gameholecon in Madison, WI. RPG-heavy, booth is outside the vendor hall. Will have cool stuff like neon lights and “hologram” fans. They’ll be demoing Voltron, Shadowrun and so on. RJ Thomas, Jason Hardy and Rem will be running games, the World of shadows streaming team will do a live play. There will be some BattleTech but not a huge amount.
-Jordan joked about all these universes coming from psychedelic drugs (but he really didn’t do drugs)
-He was severely dyslexic as a kid and as a result spent a lot of time in his own mind, and as a teenager he was introduced to D&D. He was unaware of Tolkien and working his way through LOTR helped him get better at reading.
-He and his friends went to TSR (AKA Gary Gygax’ house at the time) to get the game, and Dave Arneson was manning the register. They bought 7 copies between them and Arneson brought them through an adventure.
-FASA was Jordan’s first company, from there he founded Virtual World and FASA Interactive, from there he went to Microsoft and lead the XBox launch, then left to do Wizkids, then 42 entertainment and then Harebrained Schemes, then an AR project with Wallmart and now he’s doing -Endless Adventures/Sea of Legends, which he described as going back to a company run out of a garage.
Q&A
-What inspirations did Jordan draw from to come up with Shadowrun and BattleTech?
-BattleTech came from being at a hobby trade show, they met up with a guy importing model kits from Japan. Jordan was blown away from them, he bought a few and from there he came up with the BattleDroids/Tech universe and as always stole from history, specifically the fall of Rome, and worked with Boy Peterson and a couple of other on the rules
-For Shadowrun he was reading a lot of cyberpunk/proto-cyberpunk books and was inspired to make an RPG setting. RTG published Cyberpunk and Jordan didn’t want to be second to market with a good cyberpunk RPG, went back to the roots of Cyberpunk and worked to add a contrast to the dehumanising elements of the milieu, which ended up being adding magic. His dad loved Meso-American culture and that’s where the idea of the Sixth World came from.
-Was there any discussion around naming one Mech Mad Cat and one as Mad Dog being a contrast? Jordan doesn’t think so but he doesn’t remember and wishes it was the case.
-Is there any chance of merging BattleTech into a single owner? Probably not. Jordan cringes at some of the decisions about selling off bits of BattleTech even though it felt necessary to do the things he wanted to do at the time.
-What is Jordan’s favourite Mech? Some of them stand out for him, the Atlas when he saw Duane Loose’s art and was blown away. The other he mentioned was the Mad Cat, which came out of necessity for the limited resources of the BattleTech Centre’s pods. Because they only had so many assets, they needed a new justification for why these units would have universal parts, and from there the Clans were born.
-Will the mercs paint set be on the GCL store? Yes, it’s due this month, but they’ve had technical difficulties recently.
Is there any way to get official art prints? They had some one-off high-quality prints at Adepticon, and they’re open to doing more art.
-When will the Second Star league Forcepack be out? November
-When will the downloads page be updated with record sheets for more forcepacks? Rem didn’t know, she’ll chase it up.
-Rem mentioned the MUL devs are still quite ill, but one is on the mend so there’ll hopefully be an update on the new version soon
-What inspires Jordan’s gaming today? His sons, they’ve all followed him into game design and he loves working with them; reading (especially history), looking at how we can make the world a better place in your own small way, like Sea of Legends is light and fun to counteract how heavy the world is
-Does Jordan have any plans to do a new tabletop game soon? He thinks he will in the future.
Flinty wrote: Given that they knew to a high level of precision exactly what was required, it does surprise me that there are so many shortages. There must be a huge number of rejected or lost consignments.
My guess is orders had to be placed before the PM locked down and a best guess was made based on orders up to that point (there may also have been numbers would then be corrected but that didn't end up happening either because the PM closed later than initially planned or got forgotten)
Before we launch a Kickstarter, we are required to put in an expected fulfillment date to the Kickstarter page. We went for June 2024, but were hopeful for earlier. We also expected a maximum of $4 million for this Kickstarter. Including the pledge manager, we almost TRIPLED that! Still, we pulled through with our manufacturing partners to start delivering in June.
Before we launch a Kickstarter, we are required to put in an expected fulfillment date to the Kickstarter page. We went for June 2024, but were hopeful for earlier. We also expected a maximum of $4 million for this Kickstarter. Including the pledge manager, we almost TRIPLED that! Still, we pulled through with our manufacturing partners to start delivering in June.
Unexpected success can cause its own problems.
That may be true, but then does that mean they were just lying through their teeth in about May time when all the messaging was that they basically had everything that was needed, and were just waiting for some paperwork to go through? I would be having more patience for them now if they had been more transparent then.
Flinty wrote: That may be true, but then does that mean they were just lying through their teeth in about May time when all the messaging was that they basically had everything that was needed, and were just waiting for some paperwork to go through? I would be having more patience for them now if they had been more transparent then.
You know that someone can be wrong without lying, right?
They're coordinating a multimillion dollar project across multiple countries and at least three companies (probably more, counting producers of the various books, maps, merch ,etc). They're not going to have perfect information at all times.
Flinty wrote: You’re going for incompetence then. Good call
They got $12m and decided not to spend any of that on staff with relevant skills. Doesn’t make me feel like a treasured customer really.
Things go wrong on their own sometimes. No amount of money or staff can fix some problems. Calling them incompetent for doing their best with a wildly successful project that went three times over scope and is still delivering at a frankly reasonable rate... well, you can make your own conclusions on if a company would treasure a customer that's insulting them.
Flinty wrote: You’re going for incompetence then. Good call
They got $12m and decided not to spend any of that on staff with relevant skills. Doesn’t make me feel like a treasured customer really.
Over their head, which you certainly could call incompetence. IMO, If a project is only known to be feasible up to 4M, it really should stop accepting orders at 4M. Unfortunately, one of KS's problems, IMO, is that there is no maximum funding for a project nor are backers told what this maximum is (not that project creators always know), which, as said, can cause problems for it. Revenue is not profit.
As a property manager, I've seen small companies that take on more work than they realize they should have. The gardener's quality of work declines because he has too many customers. The contractor hurries through his job or sends someone less qualified (that's the staff with relevant skills, right??) to do the work. And you don't always have someone you can hire instead to do a better job.
In the end, it's your money and it's your responsibility to access risk. You need to do it ahead of the project. Not that it's always worth it, nor is it always possible. I already have too many games in the queue, too many miniatures to paint, to make an effort to screen a company.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wasteland wrote: They're coordinating a multimillion dollar project across multiple countries and at least three companies (probably more, counting producers of the various books, maps, merch ,etc). They're not going to have perfect information at all times.
Also, unfortunately, It's not always possible to find out the scope or parties involved in a KS project. The larger it is, and the less experience a creator has managing such projects, the more of a yellow flag. And some creators will stick with a project, some will walk away.
Flinty wrote: You’re going for incompetence then. Good call
They got $12m and decided not to spend any of that on staff with relevant skills. Doesn’t make me feel like a treasured customer really.
They're doing three times the work they expected to do in the same amount of time. Where's the incompetence? If the project was massively late then maybe you'd have a point, but it's proceeded pretty much according to plan...
In ANY large project, no matter how experienced the participants, there's going to be hiccups, mistakes, miscommunications. That doesn't mean that they're incompetent - competence in project management isn't somehow magically avoiding all problems, it's in how you handle the problems that do come up. In that regard, I'd give them good (but not perfect) marks.
Looking from the outside, and comparing it with some other egregious KS (Robotech RPG Tactics comes to mind, here >_> it doesn't really seem all that bad, other than having delays, which... Kickstarter.
That said, it certainly feels serendipitous that all the missing SKUs seem to be from the international orders, right? Right...
I didn't participate, so I don't have much stake in the KS (except that retail releases are tied to it), but looking from the outside, this appears to be nothing outside of the usual for KS projects in terms of delays. That makes the hostile approach seen in this thread seem a little out of proportion to me.
Albertorius wrote: Looking from the outside, and comparing it with some other egregious KS (Robotech RPG Tactics comes to mind, here >_> it doesn't really seem all that bad, other than having delays, which... Kickstarter.
That said, it certainly feels serendipitous that all the missing SKUs seem to be from the international orders, right? Right...
Yeah, so I’m grandstanding a bit, but it’s because I’m grumpy.
I would have more sympathy for them if this was some kind of surprise. It’s the second campaign that was (allegedly) beyond what was expected. So they didn’t take any of the lessons of the Clan Invasion campaign.
They knew that they had blown through their target along with roughly what they needed to deliver in April last year, and got the details by July. Despite this they didn’t bring any additional help in that time as noticeable, and since then have been prioritising swanning about at conventions over delivering.
And so here we are with the project running late and logistics screwed up because apparently they can’t order things properly.
Liya don’t seem to have been the problem in delivering all the plastics, as they appear to know what they are doing and probably took some of the extra fees for an expanded order and droppped it on extra staff so they could company with their contract.
And through it all they have consistently got the messaging wrong. They promised weekly updates, but never really bothered. They were all excited about delivering early, and here we are.
No its not the end of the world, but I’m the whole experience has just soured me to them and it makes me sad and grumpy, so I grump about it and get snarky.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh yeah, and they massively overcharged postage…
So I made this account as I couldn't find my decidedly much older account, just to reply to this.
Yes, they started shipping to the first people on time for this KS. However, they flat out quit working on another of their KS's entirely, stopping communication for several months, because they chose to prioritize this KS. That KS will ship probably close to 2 years late, as they are only now starting to cut the molds and it is already a year late. Catalyst is not a great company, and clearly their planning ability is subpar. If you can't do multiple things, then don't do multiple things. But the people pointing out how great they are doing are clearly not looking at their entire spectrum of business, just one slice of an overall subpar company that constantly tries to use a magician's subterfuge to keep you looking at the next thing.
Catalyst expected the Mercenaries Kickstarter to take in $4 million.
The Mercenaries Kickstarter took in $7.5 million.
So, what proof do you have that they didn't plan for taking in double what they did for the Clan Invasion Kickstarter and the problem is that the Mercenaries Kickstarter took in an additional $2.5 million that thy weren't expecting (along with the other problems as well)?
The Mercs Kickstarter has taken in close to $12m, including the Backerkit phase. The thing is, though, that all of that money and order information was front loaded in the system. They knew what income they had made, and they knew almost exactly what they needed to deliver as a result. I realise this is basic capitalism, but the thing that ticks me off the most is that they didn’t say “you know what, maybe we should pull in a couple of extra bodies just to dedicate to this process to keep it running smoothly”.
But they didn’t, and we just get lame excuses along the lines of “sorry we didn’t bother to keep up to date with stock checking and manifests, erasure we are all really tired from that con we went to”.
I was super excited last April, and even down to last December or so. Now I’m just hoping that the dopamine hit when the stuff arrives will help erase the utter despondancy that this whole thing makes me feel.
Everything was present and in order. Though I haven't opened the Salvage Boxes yet The Urbanmech Company is adorable. I'll probably be painting Battletech over Christmas this year.
[Edit]: Well my Salvage boxes had 3 Rifleman IICs, but at least it's a good mech
[edit] - In fact, not even just the battle armour, how are the mould lines looking?
Honestly they are so small the detail is basically irrelevant.
I don't honestly see a ton of difference in quality between these and elementals. It's a bit hard to judge in an unpainted state.
The Salvage boxes seemed to be roughly the same quality as the stuff in the Core Box. As in, "it will need some work but it's not a ton of effort to make it presentable for painting". Mostly leftover vents, not much in the way of mold lines. You get what you pay for, preassembled cheap plastics aren't going to come as clean a stuff you cut off the sprue yourself and file down.
Honestly they are so small the detail is basically irrelevant.
I don't honestly see a ton of difference in quality between these and elementals. It's a bit hard to judge in an unpainted state.
The Salvage boxes seemed to be roughly the same quality as the stuff in the Core Box. As in, "it will need some work but it's not a ton of effort to make it presentable for painting". Mostly leftover vents, not much in the way of mold lines. You get what you pay for, preassembled cheap plastics aren't going to come as clean a stuff you cut off the sprue yourself and file down.
Honestly, that's pretty bad, even at that scale... Especially given the price point. PVC just hits a hard limit for BA and infantry I'm afraid.
I've recently painted up these very basic 3D prints (and I have an ANCIENT printer by today's standard... And it really puts these new CGL models to shame.
At $30 for a box of 4 of these bases, they really did drop the ball on this box. That's really not even a cheap price point for what you get. You would pay far less than that for instance in the new Armoured Clash boxes and you don't just get 5 times as many models for the price point, it's high quality polysterene plastic too.
These new BA aren't cheap, but they sure look that way.
My experience is that for whatever reason small pockets minis don't photograph well. Every unpainted BT pvc mini i have seen in photos looks like utter crap, but then I look at the same mini in person and it's night and day.
Honestly they are so small the detail is basically irrelevant.
I don't honestly see a ton of difference in quality between these and elementals. It's a bit hard to judge in an unpainted state.
The Salvage boxes seemed to be roughly the same quality as the stuff in the Core Box. As in, "it will need some work but it's not a ton of effort to make it presentable for painting". Mostly leftover vents, not much in the way of mold lines. You get what you pay for, preassembled cheap plastics aren't going to come as clean a stuff you cut off the sprue yourself and file down.
Honestly, that's pretty bad, even at that scale... Especially given the price point. PVC just hits a hard limit for BA and infantry I'm afraid.
I've recently painted up these very basic 3D prints (and I have an ANCIENT printer by today's standard... And it really puts these new CGL models to shame.
At $30 for a box of 4 of these bases, they really did drop the ball on this box. That's really not even a cheap price point for what you get. You would pay far less than that for instance in the new Armoured Clash boxes and you don't just get 5 times as many models for the price point, it's high quality polysterene plastic too.
These new BA aren't cheap, but they sure look that way.
Mine are a different sculpt and I painted them in like 10 minutes for testing purposes, but the sculpts are way sharper than the official ones, even with my potato phone camera
Not much new news since last week, but checking in nonetheless.
Wave 2 Address Verification (Domestic, CAN, and RoW) went out last week, and shipping for Wave 2 has already begun this week.
For domestic/CAN/RoW (areas without hubs), as the shorted merchandise arrives, complete orders will be placed in the queue and will receive an Address Verification email ahead of the order being shipped.
For Europe, Asia, and Australia/NZ, hubs are still waiting for all shipments to arrive before beginning fulfillment.
Clarifier from last week on the Arano Coins in a nice bulleted list. Apologies for the confusion:
The plain coins were add-ons available that came from the Clan Invasion Kickstarter
The Enamel coins are from THIS campaign, and these were the ones we were short
You can contact QML if the Arano Coin is the only item holding up your order and choose to remove it from your order entirely for a $10 store credit.
We are aware of strikes and inclement weather world-wide and it may cause complications, but we won't know for sure unless or until it happens. So far, we are still on-track with our updates from last week.
I love most of the new stuff, but there is honestly no way I am paying $25+ for four bases of even the most detailed power armor figures (which these are definitely not) when I can get some pretty good analogues from Death Ray designs for 28 figures for less than 20 bucks (16 from my favorite online store), giving me 7 4-man bases.
Lots of people thought the Elementals were expensive, and they are still a better deal, and look better.
1st October 2024
Guests: Devin Lewis and Will Schoonover, designers of Munchkin Shadowrun
News:
-New BattleTech Kickstarter update went out, they’re hoping to put something out weekly from here even if there’s nothing new.
-New releases:
--BattleTech universe goes live tomorrow (2nd October)
--Force Manual: Davion and Mercs paint set: October 11th
--Letter of the Law and Heavy is the Head by Phil Lee both available for pre-order now.
-30th October releases:
--Technical blueprints
--Force manual: Kurita (brought forward from next year)
--Revised Support Deck
--Field Commander’s case
-The store newsletter was mentioned
Q&A
-Will there be a BattleTech Munchkin? Could be, but they don’t like to invite speculation on projects they haven’t announced
-Are the product release dates North America or Worldwide? Worldwide
-When is McCarron’s Armoured Cavalry out? It’s supposed to be October 30th, B&N exclusive for the time
-Any updates on shipping costs for international backers? The new website should be live in the next six months which will allow for more webshop functionality and they’re still pursuing international hubs
-When are we cloning Randall? The world tour has been great but it’s been a lot on Randall on top of his regular work for CGL.
-Any MUL update? Rem talked about the delayed interview, it turns out that one of the devs, Jeff Gordon, died of cancer last week. He had been quite ill for a long time and Ray noted how much of his limited time he gave to BattleTech. Tex and the Black Pants legion raised at least $18,000 for cancer research during their premiere on Saturday
I'm perfectly fine with these, they work good for tabletop. It's the price that's kept me from getting them, 4 bases for $30 is just too much. Detailwise, they're not good, but workable. A few extra blacklines painted into the recesses and a few sharp line highlights where a corner should be and they'll look great, I did the same with the old 3rd ed box set plastics that everyone compained about, they make fine gaming pieces. Ideally the model does all the work with crisp corners and deep recesses, but It's not that hard to paint a little extra detail that isn't there. Once they start hitting online discounts and sales I may pick up a box. I'll take blobby PVC over resin for these tiny, breakable minis. I need models that can survive a tumble when I inevitably drop them on the ground mid paintjob and they scatter across the floor in a direction and speed that defies physics.
New update. They have finally started dropping regular updates directly on the Kickstarter page again. Huzzah!
Unfortunately the practical upshot is that anyone outside the US is probably looking at delivery after Christmas.
Manufacturing is “on track”, which is still odd given that in June/July they were apparently just waiting for customs to clear, and then more weeks for distribution to international hubs.
Not much new information this week. Waiting on a couple straggling stock orders to ship, meanwhile some stock orders are showing tracking to be delivered in mere days!
We are in a waiting game for the next few weeks for the shipments to arrive, but we are inching forward. Wave 2 Domestic, Canada and RoW orders are still moving along.
We are so excited for international hub fulfillment to begin soon (and we know you are too!)
_______________________
Additionally, for anyone still in need of support:
If your pledge contains House Arano Challenge Coin, you can choose to message QML to see if that is the only item holding your order. If so, you can choose to have it removed from your order permanently and you will receive a CGL store credit of $10. Contact QML through their customer service link below if this applies to you. This is the only item available for cancellation at this time.
Also, contact QML at the following link if you have damaged items, or if you believe a package/shipment has gone missing. This applies to all backers, regardless of country.
* You have gotten more than one vehicle (as all potentially affected backers are receiving one additional salvage box) from Mercs salvage boxes
* You have potentially defective miniatures (Please include a picture in your first email)
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Episode 29
Tuesday Newsday: Episode 29
15th October 2024.
No guest, Q&A session only
News:
-PAX Unplugged will be the next big stream, they’re going to do a lot of product announcements including some on-stage.
-A Mercs update went out during the stream.
--Not much news. Shipping for Wave 2 domestic, Canada and areas that have no local hub is ongoing.
--Some shortfall production still finishing up, but the first shipments should be arriving to the hubs in the next couple of days.
-Rem says to definitely tune in to the Pax unplugged stream for BattleTech fans, there will be some big things announced.
Q&A
-Can we get an explanation of why international backers are behind retailers for Mercs fulfillment? They’re not. The only thing that will be delivered after retailers will be people who’s surveys were not resolved until after August - these people are now being referred to as Wave 3.
-All shipping from international hubs is held until all missing items arrive
-Will the pink Urbie hoodies be on the webstore? Yes, Rem needs to follow up with Talon on some items which haven’t been added to the store yet.
-Any update on Aces? Yes, but not until PAX Unplugged
-Will there be a sourcebook for the Free Rasalhague Republic? Nothing on the product schedule yet.
-Do we have a release date for McCarron’s Armoured Cavalry? It’s been pushed back to November, pending arrival of the boat with the shipment.
-How is the Succession Wars board game for BattleTech going? It’s still being discussed but no solid update at present. Ask again at PAX Unplugged
-Does Rem like the MW5 Clans launch trailer? Rem hasn’t seen it yet.
-I have no shorted items and should be in Wave 1, why has my order not shipped? Email QML and ask, they might be able to give an update.
At this point, Rem’s understanding is that if you haven’t got an address confirmation yet and are North America/a non-hub country
-Has Rem tried a ’Mech other than Widowmaker? Yes, she’s tried the Atlas,Rifleman, Archer, King Crab and Nova Cat. But the Daishi has so many pips to fill in
-What are the 20 items short in the hubs? Rem doesn’t know. Mentioning something that’s missing usually ends up with QML being drowned in requests to change their order and it’s impossible to fulfill all those requests.
-Any word of fixing international shipping on the webstore? It was discussed today on the Director’s call, VAT is still an issue, GDPR causes issues for the VAT filings as well, an issue which just reared its head. They’re still looking at using
-Could there be a Tuesday Newsday where Randall can show off the gifts he’s been given on his world tour? Maybe, Rem will ask and try and do it early next year
-Where can you sign up for the CGL newsletter? Scroll to the bottom of the store front page
-Update on the Retail grinder kits? This was discussed today as well. 1,000 kits were printed, 900 are going to distributors. Some are going to be given to high volume retailers. There’ll also be a SKU kit where the grinder pack will be included with a stock of starter items. They’re open to selling it to customers but they need to consider costs (there are 32 minis for example)
-Can we see a mockup of the Arano coin? Rem doesn’t have it to hand but has put it on the list.
-Can I remove any items from my Kickstarter to get it to ship faster aside from the Arano coin? No.
-Have there been any lessons learned from the mercs kickstarter communication?
-- Rem’s first CGL kickstarter was Edgezone, and she was dedicated there to full transparency and you end up being damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
--There’s always problems with Kickstarters, things that go wrong in production, shipping and so on. And what you commit to in writing will come back to haunt you if there’s a problem.
--Part of why they don’t want to communicate is, say the 20 items that are missing will lead to 7,000 people contacting QML to get things changed and that’s untenable. Ultimately giving too much information causes problems.
--Rem has taken over writing the updates recently and running them past all stakeholders for approval, and a select group of other readers like the Discord mods, and she’s trying to balance being informative and not causing issues.
--The massive success of the Kickstarter has been another issue because it’s meant that planned production orders have had to be increased which causes scheduling issues with manufacturers. The large number of SKUs has been an issue as well. Rem pushed for a lot of merch in the kickstarter in part to get it to international backers who can’t order from the store… And then it turned out the Arano Coin order for transposed with another one, so 30 Arano coins were printed instead of 3000.
-Will Somerset Strikers be out soon? It’s one of the later packs coming out next year.
-Will there be any CGL tie-ins with MW5 Clans? Rem doesn’t know, she’ll ask.
-Any plans to digitize old BattleTech products? Rem isn’t sure, she’ll ask Ray.
-When will the 40th anniversary dice tray be available? Rem will pester Talon, she’s pretty sure it’s one of the products held up with the recent store issues
-Will the Arano coin be on the webstore later? Rem isn’t sure but she thinks so.
-Any idea of release dates for the Kickstarter Audiobooks? Will Rem narrate any? Rem’s company was running the Shadowrun audiobooks and that’s ground to a halt due to her being hired by CGL, she’s hired a new manager to take over the Shadowrun audiobooks. The BattleTech books are with another company and they have some in progress but CGL won’t be renewing their contract and it’s going to be under Rem’s company as well. Rem has narrated some Shadowrun books in the past, would love to do more and do BattleTech ones, but she’s got no time and is still meant to be doing a full Shadowrun trilogy.
-Any update on store credit for Kickstarter shipping charges? Rem will double-check the status of outstanding issues
-How did the Target sales end up going? They did good, now that Essentials is on clearance in Target they want to check release strategies. They did a second print and want to get it out there.
-Do you think Mercs will be fulfilled internationally before the end of the year? Rem thinks yes. Worst case scenario stuff should be in the hubs by the end of November and she thinks it’s feasible to get those orders out by the end of the year because they’re spread between multiple hubs.
When will we have an interview with someone from CSO? Good question, Rem added it to the list.
-Any plans of expanding merch into figures or model kits? CGL is open to so much right now. No promises but there’s a million conversations about ideas like this. Part of Rem’s traveling for CGL is taking meetings with possible licensees. At San diego Comicon she met with Wētā, for example.
-How is QML doing post-hurricanes? They were only fully closed for one day, and the docker's strike resolved quickly. There are knock on delays like ships taking more time to arrive though
-Will the missing items list be made public? If it is, it won’t be until after the kickstarter is fulfilled and closed out.
-Big Red was in the chat and Rem joked about wanting to push him out of a car. When asked why, she said that you can’t say one sentence without him messing with you if he’s in the mood.
-Why is FM: Davion not on DriveThru RPG yet? Rem will chase.
"--Part of why they don’t want to communicate is, say the 20 items that are missing will lead to 7,000 people contacting QML to get things changed and that’s untenable. Ultimately giving too much information causes problems."
...while I can see the logic of this, it still feels very much like a cop out.
Its the half-measures they are taking that are so frustrating. Proper information is the list of items that are missing, the current timeline to get them rectified, and therefore what the new ETA is for things to start moving.
They don't have to offer the ability for people to change their pledges or anything complex. They didn't have to bring up the ability to drop the Arano coin, and it was probably a mistake to do so. There are lots of comments on the Kickstarter board of people dropping the coin, but then their shipment not being sent anyway because its caught with one of the other short stock items.
"giving too much information" is not the problem. the problem is that CGL are not pitting enough resource on this to understand the problem, and therfore be able to convey accurate information. Therefore its all crap platitudes like "we are excited to be able to start sending stuff soon".
22nd October 2024
Guest: Jason Hardy, RPG Division Director
News:
-Backer update is coming soon for Mercs. Rem is just back in town after last Tuesday Newsday so she doesn’t have any solid info to report.
-New releases out now:
--Mercenaries paint set
--Force Manual: Davion
--BattleTech Universe
-Rem joined a grinder late in the con and played as a bounty, the player who took her down is getting a set of the 40th Anniversary dice
-BattleTech and Shadowrun remain their own things outside Jason’s RPG division.
Q&A:
-They’re discussing what to announce for all games at Pax unplugged.
-Any word on McCarron’s Armoured Cav forcepack? It was originally slated for this month, as of two weeks ago it hadn’t arrived at PSI and Rem hasn’t gotten an update yet.
-Will the mercs forcepack release dates be announced at Pax? If they have a solid grasp on kickstarter fulfillment, yes.
-Black Widow Company Command Lance when? Rem wasn’t sure if this was a serious question or a joke she wasn’t in as, but nothing is on the schedule.
-Upcoming releases:
--October:
---Battletech Technical Blueprints
---Force manual: Kurita
---Field commander’s case
---Battlefield Support deck: Revised
--November:
---Hot Spots: Hinterlands, though it’s not at the warehouse yet so that may slip.
---Second Star League Assault lance
-Any word on Star league forcepacks 3 and 4? 3rd pack should be May, 4th isn’t on the schedule yet.
Flinty wrote: Seems like US retailers are getting their stuff now. Will AUS/EU/UK/NZ get anything this side of Christmas? Seems unlikely.
They're not getting their stuff(bar those that backed for product to put on shelves), they're getting the notification to pre-order for release of the retail product.
It's to get numbers for what they'll need on release.
Platuan4th wrote: (bar those that backed for product to put on shelves)
But that's the point though. The backers of the retail-pledge were supposed to be delivered with wave 3 after the regular backers.
Not every retailer backed at Retail. Some have been proven to cheat the system and just ordered extra on a more standard pledge to have it on shelves right away.
29th October 2024
Guest: Kevin J Anderson, author on Star Wars, Dune, X-Files and a number of creator-owned properties.
News:
-Stephen Mohan’s death was mentioned
-Amber Cook, a former general manager at CGL also died this week.
-BattleTech kickstarter update last week didn’t make it out because Tyler and CJ were at Voltcon promoting the new Voltron RPG, the related time crunch meant they weren’t able to complete it.
-Mercs Kickstarter update: Items are still arriving at the hubs. US/Canada/Non-hub ROW are at 19,300 shipped or label created so shipping will be very soon. About 1,500 remain to ship. No additional update for international shipping.
-New/recent Releases
--40th Anniversary dice tray is up on the store now
--The following should be on the store on Friday
---Commander’s case
---Force Manual Kurita
---Technical blueprints
-Pax Unplugged is coming up in December. CGL will be streaming and will be announcing the next slate of products.
The chat and most of the Q&A was around Anderson's personal work.
Q&A:
-Any update on the Premium Wolverine and BattleMaster on the webstore? Rem will check with Talon.
-Will the glittery laser-cut dice be available after the Kickstarter? Unclear, Rem’s not sure if all swag will be released just yet, they’ll update closer to the end of fulfillment
-What to expect as Pax Unplugged? Surprises!
Just checking in for all international hubs: we continue to wait on shipments to arrive at the hubs. We've gotten word that some have arrived already, some are arriving in mere days, and some we are still waiting on tracking information. Things are moving.
For US, Canada, and RoW without hubs, over 19,000 orders are complete or in process (shipping label printed, but haven't been sent out yet). There are about 1500 remaining, including short-stocked items and retail for those regions (which will complete at end of fulfillment). So close!
Additionally, those backers that completed pledge manager or shipping was paid after the August 12th date are in Wave 3 and that file has been sent to QML to schedule fulfillment. That list is just over 500 backers. We'll update you when they are ready to start sending address verification emails.
Arano Coins have arrived to QML and those orders have been released for fulfillment if that was the only item missing. No further adjustments will be made. Art of War and Cookbook shipments are processing as well.
---------
Reminders:
Damages/Missing Items
Contact QML at the following link if you have damaged items, or if you believe a package/shipment has gone missing. This applies to all backers, regardless of country.
You have gotten more than one vehicle (as all potentially affected backers are receiving one additional salvage box) from Mercs salvage boxes
You have potentially defective miniatures (Please include a picture in your first email)
Late Backers
If you are a backer who backed via BackerKit rather than Kickstarter, and require support regarding your pledge, you can reach out to us using the following steps:
4.) If the pre-filled answer does not answer your question, use the "Still have questions?" button to send a support request to Catalyst. (Check your spam folder)
Store Credit
Backers who have not yet received their store credit, please message tbuckner@catalystgamelabs.com for this issue along with the appropriate email address to send these credits to. These must be done in batches and we will be sending them out as soon as possible
cole1114 wrote: Force Manual Kurita came out, seems pretty good!
Not even seen it up for pre-order from my usual BT online stores in the UK.
Wonder if it'll sell out all its stock in the US before a several year wait for a reprint to get to the UK/RoW.
cole1114 wrote: Force Manual Kurita came out, seems pretty good!
Not even seen it up for pre-order from my usual BT online stores in the UK.
Wonder if it'll sell out all its stock in the US before a several year wait for a reprint to get to the UK/RoW.
They mentioned in Episode #30 of Tuesday Newsday (posted October 1st) that it was being brought forward from next year and being released at the end of October.
Flinty wrote:
cole1114 wrote: Force Manual Kurita came out, seems pretty good!
Is it much different to the old FASA Field Manual?
It's an update of the Combat Manual series (Combat Manual Kurita and Mercenaries) from 2016.
Ccatalyst Game Labs wrote:Its more of a 'Rem travels a lot during the summer and fall months' than a frequency issue. When things calm down more in the winter and spring, the schedule will be back to normal.
As the Community Marketing Director, her job has her being the face of the company at a lot of conventions.
Ghaz wrote: From the Catalyst Game Labs Facebook page:
Ccatalyst Game Labs wrote:Its more of a 'Rem travels a lot during the summer and fall months' than a frequency issue. When things calm down more in the winter and spring, the schedule will be back to normal.
As the Community Marketing Director, her job has her being the face of the company at a lot of conventions.
As Community Marketing Director, she should do better at delegating tasks to others if she is gallivanting about...
Automatically Appended Next Post:
beast_gts wrote: Just got an Address Confirmation email from Gamesquest - I'm in the UK. Might actually get it before Christmas!
Good grief! Can but hope!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Hah, so do I! You would have thought that might have been a good thing to mention on Tuesday...
Ghaz wrote: From the Catalyst Game Labs Facebook page:
Ccatalyst Game Labs wrote:Its more of a 'Rem travels a lot during the summer and fall months' than a frequency issue. When things calm down more in the winter and spring, the schedule will be back to normal.
As the Community Marketing Director, her job has her being the face of the company at a lot of conventions.
As Community Marketing Director, she should do better at delegating tasks to others if she is gallivanting about...
First of all, she's not 'gallivanting about', she's doing a part of the job she was hired for. Second, she's not really in a place to delegate tasks as she's not management, plus who's job goes undone if it is delegated to someone else? They don't really have a lot of choices since they only have a few full-time employees as most of the products are done by freelancers.
Ghaz wrote: From the Catalyst Game Labs Facebook page:
Ccatalyst Game Labs wrote:Its more of a 'Rem travels a lot during the summer and fall months' than a frequency issue. When things calm down more in the winter and spring, the schedule will be back to normal.
As the Community Marketing Director, her job has her being the face of the company at a lot of conventions.
As Community Marketing Director, she should do better at delegating tasks to others if she is gallivanting about...
First of all, she's not 'gallivanting about', she's doing a part of the job she was hired for. Second, she's not really in a place to delegate tasks as she's not management, plus who's job goes undone if it is delegated to someone else? They don't really have a lot of choices since they only have a few full-time employees as most of the products are done by freelancers.
If your job title includes “Director” you are by definition part of the management. And part of my whole problem with the current arrangement is that CGL hasn’t hired in enough staff to do a decent job. Y doing part of her job, she appears to be unable to do the rest of her job. As a minimum they could get some entry level comms mook in to help her out. $12m, remember.
Someone doesnt know that job titles in the gaming industry are often meaningless and negotiated terms to compensate for lower incomes so that those people can step into better positions in other industries latwr in their careers.
It's not just a gaming industry thing its a company size thing. The same job role in a firm of a halfdozen people can be (and often is) drastically different to the same title in a firm of several hundred.
Game industry is full of small firms, even smaller if you cut out all the short term/commission based staff. There's a good chance you end up doing stuff outside of "the norm" for your job role because its small and you have to be adaptive and able to pitch in on different things to get the job done because you can't just hire a dozen more staff or a specialist.
Unholy fracking crap, I just got a final address confirmation email (UK), which said any changes need to be done by the 11th, which would give an, at least, bare minimum potential shipping date (any time from next week onwards); it's not much, admittedly, but is maybe some sign of movement in the next few weeks...?.
International with Hubs: We've learned that most shipments have arrived at UK and Asia and are getting checked in. Both have started sending address verifications and are eager to get started! EU and Australia are largely still in transit, but we are expecting news any day.
The Australian distributor asked us to let you know that fulfillment will not be able to start in AUS until January due to their approaching holiday closures. As soon as the new year kicks off, they are excited to hammer these shipments out to backers as soon as possible.
Domestic, CAN and RoW (without hubs) continue to fulfill as short shipments arrive.
We have had a few issues reported where game stores have been able to order several Kickstarter items for pre-order. Each instance we have tracked down, and corrected the distributor's incorrect release dates. Those distributors are contacting their stores to hold those items until street date.
A few weeks ago, we communicated the release dates for the next several months. We keep pushing those dates every month dependent on the Kickstarter fulfillment news. We will continue to track erroneous releases, and correct the workflows with our partners, as we are committed to completing fulfillment before retail release.
A company director in the UK and the US are not the same thing. It seems very likely that Rem would not be able to have the job title of Director in the UK.
1) It doesn't seem like too much "delegation" to ask a colleague to put out a 2 sentence e-mail saying "No firm dates this week. We'll keep you posted"
2) I was wrong and they actually did manage a weekly update. Which actually had useful news for people not in the US. Horray!
1) It doesn't seem like too much "delegation" to ask a colleague to put out a 2 sentence e-mail saying "No firm dates this week. We'll keep you posted"
Seriously? They've posted updates with actual news and have people complain about it being a 'nothing' update because it didn't have the news that they wanted. They would completely lose it over an update like the one you're suggesting. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
The only "actual news" that CGL have ever posted has been the numerical progress of QML's "wave" delivery. Even then the update provisions are so haphazard its hard for people that haven't received anything yet why that may be the case, especially given that CGL's comms up to that point were all hyper positive about everything being ready to go.
Update 43 - 25th April 2023 - "You can expect a minimum of one update a week between now and fulfillment - more when we have news to share."
This was never achieved, and I think is the core of the problem. Their comms have been reactive when problems arose and people started shouting about it, because they hadn't put the effort in to keep on top of things. There were a few points where flurries of updates were provided dealing with Backerkit stuff, but then updates were more like 2-4 weeks after the campaign closed.
Update 92 - 10th May - paraphrased as "please pay your shipping"
Update 93 - 5th June (4 weeks) - paraphrased as "we just about have everything needed for fulfillment"
Update 94 - 19th June (2 weeks) - Paraphrased as "We have run all our checks and delivery is about to start"
Update 95 - 4th July (2 weeks) - dealing with the vehicles problem (cleanly and effectively as far as I'm concerned) and update on digital downloads. no real complaints in the comments at this point, as CGL are taking charge of the issue.
Update 96 - 24th July (3 weeks) - This is where it starts to fall apart for me, as they state that UK and EU are just one bit of paper away from being able to go, but actually they suddenly admit that International hubs don't have everything needed. "Wave" and "Segment" start becoming used unclearly, and given that as of 5th June they had everything needed, people start wondering why its taking so long. 6k orders processed.
Update 97 - 8th august (2 weeks) - they were at a con and decided not to make the time to process the International hub issue. Implication that another 4k or so orders processed in the 2 weeks since the last update, but this one is pretty sparse on info.
Update 98 - 28th August (3 weeks) - Actually, International hubs are nowhere near ready, but no real timeline to resolve. US Segment 6 fulfillment, but with a total lack of clarity on what a segment was, or a decent tracker of progress.
Update 99 - 24th September (4 weeks) - finally a decent numerical progress update! Which is entirely spoiled by the fact that they screwed up their ordering such that all fulfillment basically shut down at this point, and with a very vague description of the problem and the likely timeline to resolve.
Update 100 - 1st October (1 week) - no real news, when they could have provided some firm progress on what was going on, or highlighting that more things had gone wrong.
Then the rest of the updates basically boil down to "we are waiting an undisclosed time for an undisclosed amount of stuff that we didn't order properly" alongside some good news on US fulfilment.
Again, if they had kept to their schedule of weekly updates, I think people would have been more forgiving as problems were highlighted in advance, rather than thousands of people having to continually post "what is going on and where is my stuff". I think they viewed the updates as a chore rather than a critical comms channel with backers, and resourced it accordingly. And given that we paid them $12m I don't think thats good enough.
If I paid 12 million bucks to any other half dozen people in a garage I'd be expecting them to hire a half dozen more people to get things sorted out
Automatically Appended Next Post: This "oh we're just a smol little company, sorry we're a bit disorganised" does not fly when you're dealing with a 12 million dollar contract, which is only part of the work your company is doing.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And even more when you have an update that might add well include the phrase."Australia. Sucks to be you. Anyway, news for countries we care about"
Short update for you this week, but here's where we are:
US/CAN/RoW without hubs: Only about 1100 orders left in Wave 1 and 2. We expect to be finished with these regions in December. QML will then continue on with Wave 3.
UK: Started sending address verifications at the end of last week. We expect shipping to begin next week!
EU: Ship is still in transit - we expect word of arrival in the next week or two.
Asia: Packing orders has begun!
AUS: still in transit. Ship is expected in mid-December.
We're finally closing in on international fulfillment. The 'Mechs are coming - keep an eye on your email for those address verifications.
Graphite wrote: If I paid 12 million bucks to any other half dozen people in a garage I'd be expecting them to hire a half dozen more people to get things sorted out
Automatically Appended Next Post: This "oh we're just a smol little company, sorry we're a bit disorganised" does not fly when you're dealing with a 12 million dollar contract, which is only part of the work your company is doing.
Automatically Appended Next Post: And even more when you have an update that might add well include the phrase."Australia. Sucks to be you. Anyway, news for countries we care about"
You're missing a lot of what comes out of that $12 million (e.g., Kickstarter charges 5% of a successful campaign, so there goes $375k of the $7.5 million made during the campaign, the monies that go to Liya to manufacture the miniatures and the other companies that manufacture the swag items, the cost to have QML fulfill the Kickstarter, etc.).
Well fair enough, but how many of the half dozen people were Catalyst finding enough work for before they had a $12m contract?
Because if the answer is "six" then you're still in a position where you had enough folk for normal operations and need to consider having a few folk to dedicate to a project that we can only assume will be profitable.
Update 105 is fascinating. I do not know anything about international shipping logistics, but how common is it for a cargo ship to have an arrival date range of "the next week or two"?
And how does this tally with anything at all in Update 96, in July, where they said:
VAT has been secured for the UKand EU
Then, final shipments for any stock shortages will be sent to each hub. Shipments will take 2-4 weeks depending on location and size of shipment
And how does Update 105:
AUS: still in transit. Ship is expected in mid-December.
Tie up with Update 104:
The Australian distributor asked us to let you know that fulfillment will not be able to start in AUS until January due to their approaching holiday closures. As soon as the new year kicks off, they are excited to hammer these shipments out to backers as soon as possible.
That's not the Australian distributor telling you that! Thats the fact that you knew the ship was nowhere near Australia, so you told the distributor that it was going to be later than they expected, and they (quite reasonably) said that they couldn't guarantee delivery before next year if the ship was that late! It's not the Aussie distributor telling you about shipping dates! Why put the blame on them?
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Overread wrote: You also lose a huge chunk to Tax as you will pretty much qualify for the highest band you can with that amount.
Wait, that doesn't make any sense, because only profits are taxed. So if they really are spending all the money on manufacturing, shipping etc. then profit would be zero. And guess what? Staff costs wouldn't be profit either! They can't have it both ways.
Graphite wrote: Well fair enough, but how many of the half dozen people were Catalyst finding enough work for before they had a $12m contract?
Because if the answer is "six" then you're still in a position where you had enough folk for normal operations and need to consider having a few folk to dedicate to a project that we can only assume will be profitable.
Update 105 is fascinating. I do not know anything about international shipping logistics, but how common is it for a cargo ship to have an arrival date range of "the next week or two"?
Not uncommon. Ships are at the whims of the elements on the seas. Furthermore even when the ship arrives it has to have unloading slots at the port. During the Pandemic that was often one of the huge bottlenecks because of Covid Work Practice. They had ships basically sitting there with stock in their holds for months because they couldn't unload it fast enough. Even when things relaxed many major ports still had huge bottlenecks.
As for staff one consideration is that Kickstarters are one big injection of money; but its not sustained income and might even result in a reduction in your regular steady income for a time (all your best fans just blew a huge amount on the KS). What I've seen sink a good few KS firms isn't so much paying for the big lumpsum costs; its sizing up and then not having enough capital coming in steadily to meet running costs. Taking on new staff means higher running costs; esp if you want those staff to justify training and onboarding them.
Which doesn't mean they cannot expand; just that they might choose to not expand and increase their overheads
I think that's a valid concern on training and onboarding staff, in which case I would seriously suggest that they get some subcontractors in on fixed term contracts.
It wouldn't take much onboarding or training to get someone up to the level of being able to tell Australians it sucks to be them. Hell, I could do it without any training. I've known Australians.
12th November 2024
Guest: Christopher Frye, Business Development Manager at Liya International
News
-Pax Unplugged - first weekend in December, CGL will be streaming
--2025 product announcements
--Schedule will be posted soon
-Grinder kits have arrived at the CGL warehouse. 800 copies are being sent to distributors, 200 set aside for demo team.
-New releases
--BattleTech
---Kurita T-shirt (reissue of the faction logo from Clan Invasion kickstarter)
---Founding of the Clans digital box set
---Support deck revised
---Technical blueprints
---Commander’s case
---Force Manual: Kurita
--November
---Shadowrun
----Tarnished Star
---BattleTech
----Hot Spots: Hinterlands
----Essentials, full retail release
-Shadowrun fiction Humble Bundle live at the moment
-Chris was hired by Liya to get new clients, sales and so on. His role has expanded to include project management and communications. He speaks with prospective clients, mans the booth at shows, they prefer passive sales to active cold-calling and the like.
The Owner of Liya owned a factory in China, moved to the US and opened an office there while still running the factory remotely. Chris was hired to be the sociable face of the company.
-He was in the military and got a sales job in Pepsi where he learned a lot of people skills. He was in the Flames of War scene, friends of his were helping him with his CV and sent it to Battlefront as they planned to open a US office and they interviewed them to run it, he worked for Privateer Press after that, then E-figures distribution and then Liya which he loves.
-Chris was talking about how he knows about CGL’s projects a year in advance and he says there’ll be some very fun announcements coming up.
-The 4” Mad Cat was a gift from Liya, they did the tooling and everything as an apology for scheduling issues with the first Kickstarter, and presented one to Loren at a dinner meeting. Loren decided at that point to include it in the Mercs Kickstarter.
-Liya USA is very much there to aid English-speaking clients to work with Chinese manufacturers. All Chris’ project managers speak English and Mandarin. They have partners to do a lot of other work like shirts, hats and such that aren’t in-house at Liya’s factory but they have the contacts and will manage the relationship.
-CGL was already a Liya customer before Chris joined.
-Loren decided to work on product design through COVID when a lot of other companies were entirely shut down. Even though production and shipping wasn’t necessarily happening they were still working on design and the like.
-Loren will ring Chris up with an idea, which becomes a spec sheet that comes to their dedicated product manager that details what they want - say a forcepack with 4 minis, a tray, box, cards etc. That gets costed, STLs get sent over, prototypes are made, tooling includes working out how to make the separate pieces assemble as seamless as possible.
-Mini assembly, QC and boxing is detailed in their videos on YouTube.
-When asked about relative costings of minis, Chris talked about how a lot of companies have larger capital overhead like renting an office, getting people to come in and work and all that adds costs that need to be accounted for in the sales price. Using a third party factory means that the overhead and capital costs of the factory are spread among multiple clients, and being a private company means no need to provide dividends to shareholders, like a certain other games company based in the UK -Talking about production partners for the Shadowrun scroll, they talked about the production process. Liya’s contracted with separate factories to get the fabric print, the endcaps for the scroll, the wooden boxes and so on. These all came to Liya’s factory for final assembly and QC. Liya handle the billing to the partners, component overstock to account for QC issues and all that, so Randall or Talon or Loren only has to talk to a single contact to manage all that.
-Rem asked about what happens if CGL approach with a product idea that ends up with too high a cost? Loren is very adept at negotiating, either altering the product, or working out a better price by ordering more units or combining an order, or shelving it until they can better afford it.
-CGL projects Chris has been most excited for: He can’t talk about it until after PAX. From what people know about, the Mercs Kickstarter, he talked about the vehicles and BattleArmour, and that they learned a lot about the BattleArmour especially.
-Non-CGL project Chris loved the most? A Wonder Woman model for Cryptozoic, models for Wētā, Jasko’s Street Fighter line. Seeing thousands of all the same painted components that become dozens of finished models.
-Chris is always appreciative of Loren being mindful of Liya’s production capacity, they’ll hold off on projects to make sure they don’t overwhelm Liya
Q&A
-What’s the most emotionally impacting project? They do all the trains for Ticket to Ride, Asmodee did a huge order for components during COVID at a point when very little work coming in and it really helped keep the company going. From a relationship-building moment, the 4” Mad Cat really helped Liya and CGL.
-Would Liya make models of their injection-molding machines like Bandai do of the gundam ones? If you pay them enough. They’d be more likely to do STLs. Based on employee feedback they’ve added more machines with robot arms to avoid strain on employees removing parts from the machines.
-Will all the Gencon interviews be on YouTube before PAX? No, capacity issues mean editing has been slow. Tyler also had to upload some raw footage which has been done
-Any update on shipping salvage boxes for people who got vehicles? It’s still on Tyler’s to-do list, they’ll probably ship direct from PSI.
Is there any chance of unassembled mechs? In hard plastic? Hard plastic is a different product line, and CGL would have to feel they have a customer base for them. It’s a Loren and Randall decision, but it’s outside the current product line. The big question is whether the product would be good enough to restock over and over.
-Who chooses the music for the YouTube clips? Chris does, it’s the same song and it’s free in his editing app.
-Any news on the 2nd Star League Forcepack and McCarron’s Armoured Cav? They hit PSI yesterday. They’re expecting a December 11th release date right now..
-Is it possible to do injected plastic in different colours? That’s how the Grinder kits are done. They default to grey because it shows detail well. When asked if they could do two colours on a single model? Not with their current machines, they’d have to do two separate parts and attach them seamlessly.
-What about mech-scale DropShips? It’s a great idea, maybe someone will announce that in the future.
-Chris asked Rem how she got into CGL? One of the writers joined her Shadowrun group, she later wanted to to a live play of their story. She was introduced to Jason Hardy and from there to Loren who asked her to do up a promo video for her project. She did a kickstarter for it and at the end realised she could manage kickstarters for other people. One of their first contracts was managing Edgezone for CGL. She was pestering Loren to manage the Mercs campaign and he didn’t respond, then two weeks before the launch he was like “hey, want to manage the campaign?” From there she suggested she just do marketing because CGL was paying consulting rates at that point.
-Chris talked about how impressive Ross Thompson is at marketing and what a force of nature he is. Rem said she wants to be him when she grows up.
Using a third party factory means that the overhead and capital costs of the factory are spread among multiple clients, and being a private company means no need to provide dividends to shareholders, like a certain other games company based in the UK
Lmao. Id much rather be GW than Liya/CGL. GWs prices arent high because of its inefficiency, its profit margins are probably higher than both CGL and Liyas, to say nothing about the qualitative and quantitatuve advantages of controlling your enture supply chain and value stream.
A new update. US retail backers will get their stuff now anyway, making Aus/NZ and to certain extent EU backing a waste of time and nervous energy. Could have just waited for retail.
UK is estimated to take another 5 weeks for a paltry 1500 pledges or so. I reckon that means maybe 2 full time staff packing pledges.
UK and EU retail backers just get stiffed entirely, missing the Christmas period.
We have a big update for retailers today, and want to share our plan for public retail releases.
Here’s the usual news first:
US/CAN/RoW: Only about 500 orders remain for Wave 1 and Wave 2 fulfillment, including Company Store backers.
UK: Scheduled to begin fulfilling this week or next! The hub expects to take about 5 weeks to fulfill. Unless you have a specific issue with your order, please avoid reaching out to QML or the fulfillment hub for status details until after the first of the year.
EU: The shipment is arriving at the hub before the end of November. Once the shipment arrives and is checked in, we should hear from them about fulfillment timelines.
Asia: Packing shipments is in progress!
Australia: Per previous updates, the shipment will not arrive until mid-December at the earliest. Currently, we are still expecting fulfillment to begin in January.
Remember that these numbers include Wave 1 and 2 for each region. Wave 3 will not qualify for any exclusivity windows, but will continue to be fulfilled by all hubs once Waves 1 and 2 are completed.
Retail Planning
Note: We’ll be referring to retail backers as Company Store backers, and general retail as “retail”
Context:
First, here’s some context on the spirit of the policies we put into place for the Kickstarter:
Originally, fulfillment for Company Store backers was planned to take place last, after all individual backers had received their items. Our goal was that no backer should visit their local game store and see someone able to buy a product that they, as a backer, hadn’t received yet. What we didn’t anticipate was the delays causing fulfillment to complete in different parts of the world at such different times. We still want to honor our commitments to our individual backers around the world, while acknowledging that we need to pivot to support our retail backers as well.
Additionally, during the early days of the Kickstarter, we partnered with ACD Distribution, Alliance Games Distributors and Peach State Distribution. As distributors, they had the ability to market the Kickstarter to stores and offer free shipping if a store pre-ordered through them. In turn, the distributors backed the Kickstarter for those pre-orders. While these stores do not have their own Company Store pledges, they are considered Company Store backers when it comes to fulfillment and exclusivity.
Of the approximately 350 Company Store backers, 296 of them are based in North America and are able to be fulfilled. With US/CAN fulfillment nearing completion, we want to support our Company Store backers as much as possible, while still keeping to the intent of fulfilling individual backers first, as best we can. As it stands, there is a limited window of opportunity to get the majority of Company Store backers their orders before the holidays, and we don’t want them to miss that chance.
Otherwise, releases of Kickstarter products into standard, non-KS retail availability will occur regularly throughout 2025, rather than all at once. Once a particular region's exclusivity period ends, all previously released Kickstarter products will be made immediately available in that region. For details on the current release schedule, please see the “General Retail Release” section, below.
We’ve decided on the following plan, which we believe will be the most beneficial to the maximum number of backers, both at the individual and Company Store level.
Company Store Backer Fulfillment Plan
US/CAN/RoW: 296 Company Store Backers
Effective last week, QML and Alliance have begun fulfilling Company Store backer orders. Stores can begin selling their pledge merchandise upon receiving their shipment. Fulfillment is expected to finish in December, which means the 30-day exclusivity period would begin then, ending in January. Once fulfillment is complete, we will confirm those dates and provide them to distributors and retailers. We will not solidify those dates until we get word that fulfillment is complete.
Our warehouse’s general retail street date for January is Jan. 22. This will allow all retail backers at least 30 days of exclusivity. (If a further unexpected delay occurs, we will of course, push the street date again).
EU/UK: 45 European Company Store Backers
We expect EU and UK fulfillment to complete within a few weeks of each other, with Company Store backers being the last fulfilled. Exclusivity will begin at completion of each area’s fulfillment of Company Store orders. General retail will begin when BOTH EU and UK exclusivity expires, likely in February. We will set a street date for EU and UK once our partners report fulfillment is complete. The UK will likely have a longer than 30-day exclusivity period.
Because the EU is waiting a few more weeks than the UK for their fulfillment to begin, effective last week we released BattleTech: Encounters exclusively in the EU (aside from the Barnes & Noble release from March 2024). Encounters will not be released anywhere else until February at the earliest.
AUS: 12 Company Store Backers
As mentioned in previous updates, fulfillment is currently scheduled to begin in January. Assuming their fulfillment completes by the end of January, with Company Store backers fulfilled last, their 30-day exclusivity period would end at the beginning of March. We’ll announce dates as we get information on fulfillment.
Because Australia backers and retailers will be fulfilled last, we wanted to give them a little extra: At the end of the AUS exclusivity period, we’ll be releasing Salvage Box: Mercenaries Legendary II & III early to Australia for retail. We won’t be releasing that Salvage Box to the rest of the world until June.
General Retail Release Plan
We will release Mercenaries Kickstarter products for retail regularly throughout 2025. Though subject to change, our current release schedule for Mercenaries Kickstarter products is detailed below. This includes new products that were available in the Pledge Manager, even if they were not funded by the Kickstarter. In addition to the products listed below, other BattleTech products outside of the scope of the Kickstarter will continue to be released as normal. As a reminder, products are released throughout the month, not necessarily on the first day of each month.
As mentioned above, once a particular region's 30-day exclusivity period ends, all previously released Kickstarter products will be made available in that region. For example, if Australia’s exclusivity period ends in March as currently expected, all prior Kickstarter releases from January and February will be available at retail at the same time.
January:
Mercenaries box set (Standard Edition)
Inner Sphere Recon Lance ForcePack
Battlefield Support: Recon & Hunter Lances ForcePack
Battlefield Support: Assault & Cavalry Lances ForcePack
Clan Cavalry Star ForcePack
Salvage Box: Mercenaries
Salvage Box: Battlefield Support
MapPack: Savannah
BattleMat: City: HPG Heliport
February: (UK/EU will also release everything from January above during February)
Inner Sphere Security Lance ForcePack
Battlefield Support: Battle & Fire Lances ForcePack
Sun Tzu’s The Art of War: Translated by Jaime Wolf
Encounters: BattleTech
BattleMat: Savannah: Large Lakes
March: (Australia will also release everything from January and February above during March. Additionally, Australia will have Salvage Box: Mercenaries Legends II & III available in March)
Inner Sphere Heavy Recon Lance ForcePack
Battlefield Support: Objectives ForcePack
Legendary MechWarriors II ForcePack
Salvage Box: Blood Asp
BattleTech Cookbook
BattleMat: Savannah: River Delta
May:
Clan Direct Fire Star ForcePack
Battlefield Support: Rifle & Command Lances ForcePack
Salvage Box: Savannah Master
BattleMat: City: Central Park
June:
Inner Sphere Assault Lance ForcePack
Battlefield Support: Heavy Battle & Sweep Lances ForcePack
BattleMat: Savannah: Sinkholes
Salvage Box: Mercenaries Legendary II & III
July:
Legendary MechWarriors III ForcePack
Inner Sphere Pursuit Lance ForcePack
August:
BattleMat: FieldTech: Grasslands/Desert
Automatically Appended Next Post: Yep, this sounds very reassuring. And definitely reads as "GamesQuest don't know what's happening because we haven't told them. Last week we said that they'd begin shipping this week. Actually it might be this week. And then it's going to take over a month. So that would be by 31st December. We will get this delivered this year! Honest!"
UK: Scheduled to begin fulfilling this week or next! The hub expects to take about 5 weeks to fulfill. Unless you have a specific issue with your order, please avoid reaching out to QML or the fulfillment hub for status details until after the first of the year.
Graphite wrote: Yep, this sounds very reassuring. And definitely reads as "GamesQuest don't know what's happening because we haven't told them. Last week we said that they'd begin shipping this week. Actually it might be this week. And then it's going to take over a month. So that would be by 31st December. We will get this delivered this year! Honest!"
UK: Scheduled to begin fulfilling this week or next! The hub expects to take about 5 weeks to fulfill. Unless you have a specific issue with your order, please avoid reaching out to QML or the fulfillment hub for status details until after the first of the year.
Yeah - there's still no mention of it on GamesQuest's blog page so I guess they're waiting on something from CGL/QML.
19th November 2024
Guest: Joshua Franklin, BattleTech developer, Hot Spots: Hinterlands developer
News:
-CGL “may be doing something special” for Black Friday, it will be announced via the mailing list and then via social media
-PAX Unplugged is coming up soon, a list of “fun stuff” to be shared is being compiled. A list of panels and games will be announced soon
-Hot Spots: Hinterlands street date is the 27th of November. It releases on the CGL store on Black Friday
-The first big thing Joshua wrote for BattleTech was the Alpha Strike rulebook. He’s been working on the MUL and other volunteer projects before this.
-He hadn’t done any writing before this, he joked that his English instructors would be surprised that he was writing professionally in any capacity.
-He had decided to do his own compilation rulebook for Quickstrike, the Alpha Strike predecessor and when CGL decided to do a standalone rulebook for the game someone pointed out that he’d already basically done one.
-He’s been into BattleTech since the late 80s, he tended to swing between D&D and BattleTech and he’s been on the BattleTech end for a long time.
-Working on the MUL let him propose ideas that ended up in the Combat Manuals. He was credited as an assistant developer but he says that was an overstatement.
-He then wrote Turning Points Vega (War of 3039)
-Ray then asked him to work on the new Tukayyid book that became part of the Kickstarter. That was his first full developer credit.
From there he worked on the Force Manuals and Hot Spots: Hinterlands
-He’s more of a rules writer but for Hinterlands he gave the hot spot writers guidelines on what elements to use and then approached other writers to do the fiction and fluff.
-His early games were very much in the scavenger 3rd succession war vein, the players would have to capture units if they wanted to upgrade for example. That’s always been a favoured way to play and he often tries to capture that in his books
-A favourite session of his was an Alpha Strike event he ran for the Mercs Kickstarter launch party. It was a similar vibe to the Grinder but scaled for Alpha Strike. So he had 8 players running 2 mechs each, 4 objective tokens in the board and each player had a different thing to do with the tokens - one had to hold them, one destroy, one steal, one drop off supplies, etc. He loves when games provoke conversation between the players
-Rem mentioned a similar moment at Gamehole con where she joined a grinder an hour from the end, there had been no kills so she joined in an Atlas and put a bounty on herself to create that cinematic moment of the Atlas cresting a hilltop and all the other mechs turn as one.
-The core idea for the book came from Ray, to try and recreate the Chaos March vibe, that player-sized units could get involved and feel like they can make a difference. The cover image is a merc called the Sand Wyrm, a character you can recruit. The whole idea with the Hatamoto-chi in a ghille suit is that they’ve been stuck on a planet for over a decade and they offer to work for you if you can get them off-world.
-The heart of the book is the thirteen hot spots, each is a different world in the Hinterlands with a conflict going on. Each side in most of these worlds is hiring mercs, and the idea is that the games will be two player merc units fighting, one for each side.
-Some Hot Spots are player vs enemy, and in that case the player controlling the enemy side gets paid anyway, the idea is they have a quiet contract.
-There are even a couple of Hell’s Horses-centred Hot Spots, allowing a player to play as the Horses too.
-The first step in product development was working out the Hot Spot system. Everything down to determining maps, force composition and the like. Joshua then got some writers to trawl through Tamar Rising to find some conflicts where the end result wasn’t confirmed, and then figure out why there were fights on those worlds, who was hiring mercs and why.
-There’s a whole chapter on Almotacen, a planet the 21st Centauri Lancers liberated and realised they had to stay around to prevent the pirates from moving back in. They start a hiring hall and this is the home base for all the mercs in the campaign. The book details a lot of notable personalities on-world, and the book presses on the moral issues the Lancers face. There are no RPG-specific rules in the book but the idea is to have idea hooks for RPGs as well as narrative BattleTech play
-Bryan Young wrote the opening fiction, Stephen Toropov worked out the Almotacen stuff.
-Hot Spots: Hinterlands had a lot more prep work compared to Tukayyid, they had a better idea of what the format of the book would be ahead of time, as a result they feel that the playability is better. Joshua feels that the results one can get out of Tukayyid are wilder than in Hinterlands.
-The relative lack of detail on the Hinterlands compared to Tukayyid meant they had a lot more creative freedom on what they could do.
-They had to rework some proposed scenarios to be more player-centric, removing special characters or units that would be quite powerful and would overpower the player’s units if they were on the table.
-The book contains six maps of the Hinterlands showing the changes in territory in 3-month jumps.
-Why should people buy Hot Spots: Hinterlands? Because you have all these pretty miniatures and you should have interesting games to play with them
-The cover artist is Tan Ho Sim, he also did a lot of the interior art.
-Stephen Toropov will be on next week to talk more about Hinterlands
Q&A
-How long did it take to develop the book from start to end? About a year to work out the system, which was also used for the Mercs box. Another year for the writing, editing, fact checking, art etc. And then the six-month wait for it to arrive with players.
-Any update on tales of the Bounty Hunter? Still ongoing, hopefully out before the end of the year.
-Any update on McCarron’s Armoured Cav and Second Star League forcepacks? Randall basically got hit with what he described as every illness he dodged travelling hit him at once. He’s been sick for 2 weeks and even had to visit an ER. Rem and Randall sat down for a product planning session. At present the release schedule is
--November:
---Hot Spots hinterlands
---Essentials
--December
---McCarron’s Armoured Cavalry Assault Lance (B&N Exclusive)
--January
---Second Star League Assault Lance
---ilKhan’s Eyes Only
---Map Scale Union DropShip
---Map Scale Overlord DropShip
---Map-scale Overlord-C
---And Kickstarter items as per the most recent update
-Any timeframe for ilClan updates for the Force Manuals? They’re caught up in a production bottleneck and will hopefully be quick once the bottleneck clears
-Any update on the graphic novel? Writing is ongoing, Eldon Cowgur is working on character art.
-Any update on Audiobooks?
--Double Blind just came out, they expect to release six more next year.
-Any update on the audiobooks for Kickstarter backers? That’s still ongoing.
-There were queries around Big Kappa items
--Fiction releases? At present it’s just ebooks but Rem and John feel they should get physical copies and are working on it.
--Merc T-shirts? The production schedule on these has slowed as CGL has a lot of capital tied up in Mercs Kickstarter and they need to wait until sales come in.
--Will they still get the last Star league Forcepacks? Unsure at this point
--McCarron’s Armoured Cav forcepack will be given to big Kappas.
--Will the Star league mug be on the list? It should be. Also Rem needs to ensure it and some other mug designs get added to the webstore.
Graphite wrote: Yep, this sounds very reassuring. And definitely reads as "GamesQuest don't know what's happening because we haven't told them. Last week we said that they'd begin shipping this week. Actually it might be this week. And then it's going to take over a month. So that would be by 31st December. We will get this delivered this year! Honest!"
UK: Scheduled to begin fulfilling this week or next! The hub expects to take about 5 weeks to fulfill. Unless you have a specific issue with your order, please avoid reaching out to QML or the fulfillment hub for status details until after the first of the year.
Yeah - there's still no mention of it on GamesQuest's blog page so I guess they're waiting on something from CGL/QML.
It's a total bollix of a job for a distributor though, probably over a hundred SKUs that all need to be individually filled into each bespoke order, weeks of work and really easy to go wrong because lord knows how Catalyst are sending them the order details.
"Update 113 - once the carrier pigeon with everyone's order details makes its way across the Atlantic, our UK and EU hubs will be able to start packing the orders to fulfil which we expect to happen in March.
Our Australian carrier pigeon has been eaten by a drop bear or something."
BrookM wrote: I want the OG squared circle version, so IS Heavy Recon Lance it is whenever it shows up around here, many thanks! 🤘🏻
Not exactly what you mean by the 'squared circle version' but the artwork for the 1A5 with its AC/20 would look the closest to that IMHO. The 1A1 would be the image below with its popgun array of five small lasers.
BrookM wrote: I want the OG squared circle version, so IS Heavy Recon Lance it is whenever it shows up around here, many thanks! 🤘🏻
Not exactly what you mean by the 'squared circle version' but the artwork for the 1A5 with its AC/20 would look the closest to that IMHO. The 1A1 would be the image below with its popgun array of five small lasers.
Sorry, bad meme that will probably see me lynched or declared dezgra by some peeps. 😅 Source:
An interesting look into how an assault recon / cavalry mech came into being, how they used it and what sort of madmen would use it hehe. But yeah, I want the five small laser variant for my collection, as I've been collecting quite a few pre-Clan invasion mechs due to playing a lot of MW5 in coop during that era and hell, I want something stupid and crazy for my collection.
26th November 2024
Guest: Stephen Toropov, BattleTech developer, Hot Spots: Hinterlands developer
News:
-Tomorrow’s newsletter will have details of a Black Friday sale.
--Items at 50% off include
---BattleTech Essentials
---Clan Invasion box set
-Deadline for webstore orders to hopefully arrive by Christmas is December 15th
-Rem reiterated Randall’s illness travails upon his return from the world tour, which delayed sorting out the release schedule.
--Revised release schedule:
---27th November:
----Hot Spots Hinterlands
----BattleTech Essentials
---December
----McCarron’s Armoured Cavalry
---January 15th
----Second Star League Assault Lance
----ilKhan’s Eyes Only
----Map Scale Union
----Map Scale Overlord
----Map scale Overlord C
---January 22nd (Pending Kickstarter fulfillment)
----Mercenaries box set
----Inner Sphere recon lance
----Recon and hunter lances
----Assault and cavalry lances
----Clan Cavalry star
----Salvage box: mercenaries
----Salvage box: battlefield support
----Map Pack: Savannahs
----Battlemat: City HPG/Heliport
-Pax Unplugged stream starts on Friday December 6th
--Friday
---BattleTech Announcements
---BattleTech Fiction
---BattleTech Aces
---Aces co-op playthrough
---Aces solo playthrough
(Saturday and Sunday are non-BattleTech)
-Hot Spots: Hinterlands is the first hardcover sourcebook including Stephen’s work, he’s stoked that it’s a black friday release
Stephen’s part of Hinterlands is more worldbuilding and sourcebook writing. Joshua initially asked him about setting up a hiring hall in the Hinterlands. He likened it to the cool “Adventure Towns” from D&D sourcebooks. Ray had suggested Almotacen as a planet to use and Stephen then populated it with ideas and plot hooks.
-He got into BattleTech in the early 2000s via MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries and MechWarrior Dark Age.
-An art piece was brought up, it’s the opening piece from the chapter for Almotacen, a scene from a story Bryan Young wrote for the book where the 21st Centauri Lancers’ special operations unit clear out a group of pirates but realise they’ll move back in once they move on. There’s a writeup for the unit in Shrapnel 15.
-Joshua asked for Stephen to come up with the Lancers’ “equivalent of the Black Widows”. Their commander, Rosín Douglas was a unique pilot in MechWarrior: Dark Age. He liked working on the environmental storytelling, like what does Almotacen tell us about the BattleTech universe, and what does the BattleTech universe say about it.
-The Fox Patrol may be spending some time on Almotacen soon.
-Stephen’s got into BattleTech by writing for Shrapnel. He asked Phil if he could submit articles and he was added to the list. He’s been over half of the issues but big projects took over his life. His wife proposed to him via Shrapnel! He then worked on pilot cards for a while, and that built up onto working on a number of other projects that haven’t been announced yet.
-Stephen has also worked on ilKhan’s eyes only. The fourth of the new era sourcebooks, it’ll complete moving the setting to 3152 following Tamar Rising, Empire Alone and Dominions Divided. They spent a lot of time working on it to get it right, to talk about what the ilClan and the new Star League mean and how the Capellans take it. The Capellans and Wolves have been riding high for a while and have never fought, so it’s interesting to Stephen to figure out how this works out. They’ve worked really hard on the book, Josh Perian was the lead developer.
Stephen was tapped to work on IKEO late last year, and it turned out that the initial writer’s meeting was in the middle of the timeslot at a con he was going to be running the World-Wide event at - which was the Wolves vs Capellans! He said to his players that he was going to have to dip out for an hour or two in the middle of the game, and please don’t ask him why.
Q&A:
-What part of Hinterlands is Stephen most excited to get out there? The easy answer is Almotacen, but also the potential for the book to facilitate pick-up games in the setting.
-What timeframe is Hinterlands set in? It’s set during Tamar Rising, up to having maps showing the changes to the territory across the events of the books.
-Any update on the BattleTech audiobooks? No change from last week. Rem doesn’t have any insight, they’re done by another company that John is liaising with. Rem mentioned her company does the Shadowrun books and they’re hoping to have a book up in the next few days pending approval from Amazon, with another about to be turned in.
-Are there plans for the BattleTech RPGs? Nothing Rem is aware of, she’ll be surprised if anything comes up at PAX, say. Some work is being done but nothing on the schedule yet.
-Will players have to return to Almotacen or can they get contracts elsewhere? Stephen isn’t 100% sure, there’s a system for rolling up contracts and even if the book says “return to Almotacen”, you could just handwave it.
-Any word on the ilClan era supplements for the Force Manuals? Only that Josh Franklin is working very hard on them
-Are the supplements a full product or errata? Not exactly sure, it’s going to be more than a couple of pages but less than a full book.
-Any word on Den of Wolves? Nothing to report
-What is Stephen’s favourite Mech? His initial one was the Ghost, he’s partial to the Coyotl because it’s what Roisin Douglas pilots, he’s partial to the Albatross, and some new designs that are on the way.
-Why aren’t minis bases textured so basing material sticks to it better? Rem passed the question to Randall. He said “just not something we thought about at the time”
-Any word on the next printing of Alpha Strike Commander’s Edition? A new print was done for the Kickstarter and it was sent to QML, the remaining stock will be sent to PSI once fulfilment is complete
![[Disk]](/dakkaforum/templates/default/images/icon_disk.gif){kind=icon}
it doesn't really seem all that bad, other than having delays, which... Kickstarter.
