BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - EU WRAPS UP, WAVE 4 NEWS (UPDATE #130)

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**Flinty**

There is no way any other retail launch could have netted more than they got from 25,000 plastic hungry maniacs on a post KS high. This was not an act of mercy, given that they apparently made another several million dollars in the post campaign backerkit stage.

**Ghaz**

If you have a physical copy of the Art of War or the Art of Cooking in your pledge, it will not be shipping with the rest of your pledge but will ship directly to the backers when available. This is because they're behind on the physical copies and to include them with your pledge would delay fulfillment by one to two months (yes, months!).

From the BattleTech Forums

Lorcan Nagle wrote:Episode 18. Guest Mike Richie, board games division director.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZBgsirlOu8

-Last week Rem and Randall were in LA teaching Alpha Strike to a bunch of Actors and other Hollywood people including Freddie Prinze Jr and Seth Green's Wife! Before COVID he was streaming a lot of tabletop games like X-Wing but his studio got broken into and he swore off YouTube, but he's interested in streaming again and doing some BattleTech with Sam Witwer.
-BattleTech products for Gencon: Universe (standard book), First Star League Command Lance, Second Star League Assault lance, Force Manual Davion and the plastic map-scale dropships, 40th anniversary hoodies, mugs, and a new T-shirt. They decided against selling stuff the Kickstarter explicitly funded at the con as it's too close to the fulfillment date. Mike showed off the 40th anniversary mug
-Mercenaries shipping update: QML is determining fulfillment groups by number of picks. Larger backers by pick totals are going first with other groups being worked on as they can. If you need an address change via the QML survey give QML your email, old address and new address in your initial contact. There may be some damage to the pin cases but these are just meant for transit and the pins will be fine themselves. Art of War and the Cookbook were delayed getting to QML in the US and Canada so they'll be sent out separately later at no additional cost to backers.
-Regional shipping hubs are getting closer to being ready, but it's still moving slowly.

Q&A
-Activitiy Book 3 is up on Amazon, will it be up on the CGL webstore? Unsure at this point
-Will RecGuide ilClan 2 be at Gencon/Before Gencon? They don't know, it's in the process of shipping at present.
-When will Second Star League Assault Lance be available to retailers? Unsure, they're airshipping the ones for GenCon in.
-When will Aces be released officially? Rem has some info but she's not sure what she can say publicly yet. They have news though.
-Any update on Trial of Bloodright? It's been pushed, In The Shadow of the Dragon will be out first. Hopefully it'll be out in July
-Who is the local partner for Mercs fulfillment in the UK/Europe? Gamesquest.
-Didn't update 88 say QML had all the books at hand? Rem isn't sure, the info she got says no. She noted that QML had a time budget for fulfillment as well as everything else so it had to start now.
-Will European shipping be delayed 1-2 months for Art of War and the cookbook? No, that's not how it works.
-Any news on the Succession Wars successor? Mike hasn't seen it yet, he expects the BattleTech team will show him when it's ready.

It's nice to see that BattleTech also has its own celebrity fanbase. Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Sam Witwer may not be the equal to Henry Cavill but you can't have it all

**Flinty**

Hah. The cynic in me suggests that there will be no additional postage for the missing books as everyone has already paid for postage 3 times over.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just checked the GamesQuest website, but Mercs isn’t listed there yet.

**schoon**

Universe book at GenCon.

That's excellent news.

**No One Important**

Yeaaaaaaaah, I looked over the cookbook's pdf and if they want to charge me shipping again for that, I might just not.

**Ghaz**

Since some seem to have not read what was in the Tuesday Newsday recap:

Art of War and the Cookbook were delayed getting to QML in the US and Canada so they'll be sent out separately later at no additional cost to backers.

The rest of the world is not affected by the delay as the books will be at the hubs outside of North America in time for fulfillment. Catalyst will send out the books at no additional cost for those affected by the delay.

**AegisGrimm**

Shadox wrote:
zend wrote:
Did the pack with the Hatamoto-Chi get funded through late pledges? I didn’t remember seeing it as an option, but certainly wouldn’t mind picking it up at retail

Iirc it was available as an add-on even before late pledges. I'm in the same boat, you can never have enough Bushwackers and while I don't play dragons the Mauler and Hatamoto are both really cool

I was joking with a friend that if you squint, the Somerset Strikers pack is essentially also a Kurita lance pack, lol.

**Stormonu**

Glad to see this is on the move. I've got enough plasic/resin stuff backed up to get painted I can wait on picking a few mechs/vehicles up (IS mech were always more my jam) when it finally hits retail.

Someone can tide me over though, showing me a painted Urbi-lam when they have a moment though.

**frankelee**

Part of me laughs at how Loren was bragging that they might deliver months early and then June rolls around and they're like "Oh

we forgot to make the dice! ...Oh

we forgot to make the patches! ...Oh

we forgot to make the books!"

**Kothra**

I've seen some people supposedly getting single vehicles in their Mecenaries Salvage Boxes that are only supposed to contain Battlemechs. Vehicles were only supposed to be in the Battlefield Support Salvage Boxes at two each. Keep an eye out for this when you get your shipment.

Also heard of missile carriers coming with a duplicate of one type of missile instead of having one each SRM and LRM in the same set.

**Flinty**

Someone posted this in the KS comments

https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/1dtzzbu/comment/lbdkhdb/

Not looking great.

**Kothra**

They just posted an update regarding the salvage boxes.

Thanks to reddit user kahadin, it was brought to our attention last night that some Mercenaries Salvage boxes contain vehicles. Catlayst has confirmed this error.

Loren and Randall have been meeting with Liya, our manufcaturer in China, to identify how the error occured and how widespread it is. Then they had more meetings with Liya and our fullfilment agent QML to determine how to fix it, together. Out of the 300,000 Salvage Boxes manufactured 6,008 have vehicles. Liya has been onboard from the first call to help make things right – as such, they have committed to comping an extra Salvage Box to every order going out to keep shipping from stalling.

For those who have already received a shipment, or have a shipment already in the mail, we are working on the best way to correct this for you. Because of the holiday weekend, please give us some time to find the best way to do this in collaboration with Liya and QML.

On the small chance that anyone received TWO vehicles in the same shipment we will work with you individually to correct this mistake. We will post instructions next week so we can resolve this as efficiently as possible.

**Ghaz**

Just checked my five Salvage Boxes before I turn in for the night. I received a Devastator, an Imp, a Hoplite, a Griffin IIC and a Maxim Hover Tank. I’m also missing a Clan Diamond Shark challenge coin. How lucky am I

**Shadox**

Wait, they did a plastic Imp? Which box is that from?

**Prometheum5**

Wait, there's not supposed to be an Imp. That was specifically denied/didn't make the cut. I'm stoked if true, but wtf is going on with the Salvage Boxes?

**frankelee**

Probably it's actually a Hoplite in a trench coat.

**Platuan4th**

Imp Shadow Dropped?

**Flinty**

Cool, free salvage box.

Actually a decent response. And a pretty major one. How many spare salvage boxes did they make that they can add about 20,000 of them! I imagine most orders included at least one salvage box.

**Ghaz**

My bad, it wasn’t an Imp but the other Dragoons ‘Mech, a Shogun

**Prometheum5**

Damn you.

**Flinty**

I left a message on the GamesQuest page and got this as a response:

Please keep an eye on the Kickstarter page for updates or contact QML with any questions you may have.

To contact the QML customer service team please contact: https://www.qmlogistics.com/contactUs.html

- Team GamesQuest

Slightly weird, and I wonder if it means that they are subcontracted to QML rather than directly to Catalyst.

**Ghaz**

Catalyst likes hiding sneak peeks in plain sight, such as the updated Falconer and Dragon Fire in the new Activity Book

**Prometheum5**

I dig the Falconer, but the Dragon Fire still looks bad.

**Ghaz**

Prometheum5 wrote:
I dig the Falconer, but the Dragon Fire still looks bad.

Unless it's to fix a 'Mech that physically wouldn't work (e.g., the Falconer), the goal is to tweak the 'Mech and keep it close to the original. The original Dragon Fire wasn't the prettiest 'Mech but it did work. Personally, I'd have to wait and see a 3D render on the Dragon Fire before making a decision.

**chaos0xomega**

I like both

**Kothra**

Got my box. No wrong or missing items. 2 salvage boxes were Highlander IIC and Javelin.

**legionaires**

We are supposed to get email confirmation first, correct?

**Kothra**

I did get an email with a tracking number before it shipped (FedEx).

**Ghaz**

Here is what the email will look like:

Your Battletech: Mercenaries order has shipped!
Catalyst Game Labs c/o Quartermaster Logistics <shipping@qmlogistics.com>

YOUR NAME

Congratulations! Quartermaster Logistics has shipped your order on behalf of Catalyst Game Labs for the Battletech: Mercenaries fulfillment!

Your order contains the following items:

YOUR ITEMS

Your order is being sent to the address below:

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS

Your Tracking Number is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. (Please note the tracking number may take up to 24 hours to become active in the FedEx system) We have provided the tracking number so you can monitor the status of your package. Below is a link that was created to update you on the status of your shipment. Please understand that if you just received this email, the tracking number may not be active. Go ahead and try it, but if it doesn't work you may have to wait a few hours for it to be active. If for some reason the link doesn't work there are instructions below the link to check the status manually.

YOUR LINK

If the above link did not work, go to https://www.fedex.com/apps/fedextrack/ and enter your tracking number, then click "Track".

If your package has already arrived, we apologize for the delay in getting this notification to you and please disregard this email. If you have any questions about the status of your order or do not notice movement on your tracking in the next 72 hours, please reach out to us at https://www.qmlogistics.com/contactUs.html.

Sincerely,
Quartermaster Logistics

**Ghaz**

From the BattleTech Forums. It's third hand from Anthony's Patreon, so take with a grain of salt:

shivanwurm wrote:This is a quote from Scroggins apparently

“Dragon Fire Concept Sketch
23 hours ago
Show less
With another Battletech Activity Book dropping recently there were a few new art reveals, including the Dragon Fire here.

I don't believe we've revealed how this mech will be releasing as a miniature yet, but it is coming and in a pretty interesting set.

I'd put this mech solidly on my list of the most ugly mechs in Battletech's history. Definitely not at the top, but the raw chicken body with actual chicken thin legs, combined with some questionable weapon placements (and the art being eternally published backwards) all do it no favors. To ice the cake, the metal miniature is even worse, being a blob pill on legs.

Now all that said, I could immediately see potential in Loose's work, as I stipulated this thing was going to be blown up. We're clearly working with a dragon here, so I laid into a reptilian form for the torso. The eclectic weapons placement was also pushed, which will be played into even further alongside its Marauder co-origins with a new variant we'll be introducing. I like how it has barrels and sensors protruding from all over.

I'm looking forward to this mech having a gameplay revival because it has a very compelling stat line for an IS 75ton mech. Now it has the looks to match.

Who's throwing this on the table? Who was already running the old blob?”

So it looks like we'll be getting another ForcePack with all of the one's announced HERE, and an 'interesting' one as well.