Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm intrigued I will admit. I do think this is a game which really needs a campaign/league set up where mechs show some wear and tear over time.

Yep I'm working on some campaign/league rules. I wasn't going to include them in the main rulebook though, I want to keep the book short & sweet & cheap. So the league play would be like an optional PDF. I was going to do it kind of like an escalation league, where you start with a starter set and earn fame points after games to add more mechs to your team, or upgrade your current pilots to bigger ones.

Another idea I had was where everyone starts with a light mech, with just 2 weapon arms and no upgrades. After each game you'll earn a certain amt of points that you can use to buy additional weapons or upgrades for your pilots, or upgrade to a heavier mech. You would still have to follow the team organization rule though where your team has to have at least 2 light mechs for each medium and 2 mediums for each heavy .. and some day 2 heavies for each superheavy

Just don't make where a league requires new players to buy a bunch more mechs right off to be included.

Have you an idea of the price ballpark for a starter?

Yeah, it's not going to be like where you need to buy tons of stuff. One thing I'm doing with the universal arms is most of the mechs will all be using the same weapon pieces, so you can get creative with magnets if you want and use the same weapons on a light or medium mech.

No idea what the prices will be like though, till I get the master metal mins done. I'm hoping it will be around $35 or less. Each starter will get 5 bodies, 5 basic shoulder pads, 5 team shoulder pads, 5 weapon sprues that will have a left arm & right arm version of the weapon, and 5 missile pods or booster jets. So, there's a lot of pieces that could end up driving up the costs, but I want to give players lots of options for custom mechs and conversions rather than just 5 static minis.

If we can unlock the medium mechs then every starter set will get an automatic upgrade to get 1 medium mech for the team captain, so it would be 4 lights and 1 medium, instead of 5 lights. That won't change the price in the kickstarter, but it might change it for retail. But again I won't really know till I get everything made.

I'm also planning on selling "League Sets" for each team that will be like a bigger starter set, you'd get the same 4 light mechs, 2 mediums and 1 heavy. And also full team sets that will be 8 lights, 4 mediums and 2 heavies. Every team will have 14 pilots for the official roster.

I'm also planning to make a small 20-ish page Team Playbooks for each team too, with a roster and painting guides and fluff. The roster will pretty much be the same info as what's on the pilot cards, but the book will have a 1 page bio with art and pics of minis for each pilot on the team. The team playbooks will be a PDF download and a print-on-demand version through Wargame Vault. I'll probably include one for free in the full team sets though.

I was going to include the full rosters in the main rulebook, but decided it would be better to keep them separate to keep the page count and price down.

Planning to add some new upgrades to the list for the next rulebook update, but I probably won't make the next version till the KS is about ready to go. But here's what I was thinking of adding...

Assault Mech - Combine 2 melee attacks into 1 big roll, like Salvo for shooting. Has to be either basic attacks, or 2 of the same melee weapon.

Recon - If you have line of sight to an enemy, it won't get a cover bonus if your teammates shoot him

Infiltrator - You are always considered concealed when you're in cover.

Strider - +1 speed, light mechs only.

Last Laugh - Your escape pod has a hidden turret, when your mech blows up and your pilot ejects you can get free shot at whoever blew you up with a Power of 3, and +1 to hit penalty.

Deflector Shields - If you get shot and make a successful saving throw you can deflect the blast at any enemy within 6", but it consumes 1 Energy every time.

Combat Drop - If your Mech has Booster Jets, you don't deploy with the rest of your team. On the 2nd game turn you can land anywhere on the board, but only out in the open, not in terrain. Landing uses 1 energy, so you can use remaining actions to attack or move into cover or anything else.

Just had a crazy idea, I think I'm going to change the guns around to do damage based on the Mech's power attribute.. same as melee weapons. And like melee most guns will be +1 power, but heavy weapons will be +2.. and then each gun will still have their own special ability like they currently do. I'll list the actual number with the gun info on the pilot cards for easy reference though.. so if your power is 3, your little chaingun box will say power 4.

I was just thinking this would be a good way to make the power attribute a little more valuable. it just kind of feels useless on a mech that won't get into melee combat.