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At some point between the previous KS campaign running and Wave 2 delivering, I bought a 3d printer. It's great. I've used it to fill in the gaps from the KS, along with the odd mech or two that I didn't order because I didn't realise that I wanted them at the time.

As a result, I thought that I would have no further need for anything that CGL can produce, but how wrong was I?

It's an interesting example of how 3d printing augments, rather than destroys a market for traditional minis in a similar way to how their previous KS has created a demand for the retail product, instead of saturating the market and killing off the books and minis at retail.

Just look at that Devastator render! Just look at it! I have no idea how I'm going to be able to mentally justify having one in a Clan Invasion era merc company, but I'll manage it.

 Chillreaper wrote:
I have no idea how I'm going to be able to mentally justify having one in a Clan Invasion era merc company, but I'll manage it.

DVS-1D.

I'm going to continue holding out hope for a Cochraine's Goliaths lance pack. I want to buy that sculpt in bulk.

I'm excited about everything shown, only drag with having this much info is having to wait now. It's still better than the outlook a week ago when the future was a big mystery. I am glad I didn't get to my modern GDL yet, I have a Goliath ready to cut up and convert but I can wait now. I was a little peeved at the idea of the Regent being in the GDL pack and being so far out, but the IWM metal version will be out this summer so I should already have a year of Space Pope action under my belt by the time that pack ships.

I'd love to have some Camacho's Caballeros minis -

Confirmed that the new Kickstarter will have no Clan vehicles and no Inner Sphere OmniMechs. It's also been confirmed that the Vindicator will not be a part of the Kickstarter but will be "... sooner than you think.".

I wonder why no IS Omnis.

A plastic Sunder would be rad.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Chillreaper wrote:
I have no idea how I'm going to be able to mentally justify having one in a Clan Invasion era merc company, but I'll manage it.

DVS-1D.

You're not even funny...

I mean a proper, overly-optimised Devastator. Ah well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mr Morden wrote:
I'd love to have some Camacho's Caballeros minis -

That's what I've been building up for my mercs! I still haven't got round to ordering the decals for them, though.

Not that I can ever imagine them putting together a lance pack for them, because they've not got anything special, but what could you have in there?

Madcat, Atlas, Wasp and for the brand new sculpt, an O-Bakemono?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I wonder why no IS Omnis.

A plastic Sunder would be rad.

Could be a case like that of the Vindicator and they’re “closer than we think “?

Imma need a company/trinary of Krakens...

Bit disappointed to hear no clan vehicles are forthcoming, but glad to see an effort to continue sculpting new stuff, etc.

Any word on whether the creative juggernaut variants are ever going to see a reappearance from MFC or Catalyst?

Ok now that i have recovered from game night i can put up the report of last nights action at the game matrix our local FLGS.

First off i grabbed a new terrain mat originally made for infinity, it looked so nice for a battletech outpost i had to get it.



Most of the terrain is from steel warrior studios with a few pieces from brigade miniatures as well as monpoc and some old JR minitures terrain.

Game one happened while i was off playing a game of warmachine so i do not know much about what happened here. i know they were fighting over building objectives

It was a single lance on lance battle of kurita VS marik.

I do know the most epic part of the game was the guillotine taking an ammo explosion that destroyed it and knocked over both opposing atlas's that were near by. and the thung taking an ammo explosion to the face shooting the stalker from behind. the stalker had standard engines and case so it survived as did the thug but just barely.


Kuirta side



Marik side



The battle






Game two i got to take part in.

Since the kurita player is somewhat new and has not experienced the full joy of the classic battletech line i decided to give him an introduction to fighting a combined arms force of my hells horse.

We used the standard 1.3/1 trade off so 2 IS lances to one clan star. i threw in some proto mechs and vehicles to spice things up a bit as well as some clan HH iconic mechs.

I broke out my mobile HQ tank as the added objective this game with an 8 turn limit to destroy it.

The clans invade-



The defenders rally



I kept my mechs together on the left flank and pushed hard with my faster protos and tanks on the right.

Being a bit new to the game he deployed to far back even though he had half the table. he also had a fear of my range advantage so he hid from my mechs for the first few turns.





He was more focused on the fast movers. he did manage to jam the turret on one tank in the rear firing direction that i never had a chance to fix...but that was ok because he was chasing me from behind for the next few turns. he also managed to damage 2 protomechs, one heavily.

By that time however it was a target rich environment and they were gleefully jumping around harassing anything close enough.







I managed to pincer his command tank into a corner so we ended the game on turn 6 since there was no way he could escape.



There were surprisingly very few losses on either side this game. the clans took some heavy damage to the vulture, one proto took a couple pilot hits from leg damage and then there was that tank turret but otherwise everything survived the battle on my side.

The Kurita force lost the spider early (2 clan large pulse to the same location tends to do that). and the cyclops to cumulative damage.

The protos and tanks were doing the harrassing thing that they do as expected but the most impressive output was the vulture that scored nearly max damage with it's ATM 12 on more than one occasion. the last being a 10 and 12 missile volley with the intermediate 2 damage missiles as well as an ER medium laser on the atlas.

I am sure we will be adding some more to the battles next week. battletech is thriving in our local area with this Kurita player and a Ghost Bears player joining us recently. They are also spreading the love to their other friends we do not know who play at other locations.

chaos0xomega wrote:


Any word on whether the creative juggernaut variants are ever going to see a reappearance from MFC or Catalyst?

The Black Knight and Stormcrow TC are coming from IWM this Spring and Summer.

*sigh* was hoping to avoid metal minis.

First sketch of the new Maxim Hover Transport.

chaos0xomega wrote:
*sigh* was hoping to avoid metal minis.

Eh, the modern minis done in CAD mostly fall together, plenty easy to work with.

Sure, but IWM releases minis at a glacial pace and their site is awful for identifying which minis are based on the latest CAD remodels being done by Catalysts crew vs ones which IWM is doing in house (and therefore don't quite match my 400+ catalyst plastics minis in terms of scale and aesthetic design elements). I know its probably not an issue to most of you, but Catalysts redesigns are the reason why after 20 years in the hobby I finally decided to give BT the time of day - scale and aesthetic consistency matters a lot to me.

Iron Wind Metals has their own sub-forum on the BattleTech Forum and they should be able to answer your questions.

And I imagine that, as these are metals based off the new designs, they should be in scale with the new plastics.

A new Ryoken sculpt is very tempting...

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
And I imagine that, as these are metals based off the new designs, they should be in scale with the new plastics.

A new Ryoken sculpt is very tempting...

I can verify the new minis from IWMs are indeed scaled up. i will post a pic of the new blood asp mini next to one of the CGL plastics for comparison in a few.

The warhammer and awesome are CGL plastics, the osteon and blood asp are newish IWM metals.

Does that mean we will be able to buy singles in metal rather than plastic packs? If we are talking about the same designs Catalyst offers I'm looking forward to it even if I have to eat the extra int shipping cost..

M.

The scale isn't all that different for most mechs unless you get the really old ones from the late 80s early 90s. they tend to be a bit on the small side.

The re-sculpts of the CGL plastics do look very good, i almost want to buy a few packs to replace some of the old metals i have like the cauldron born, masakari, behemoth and others....but i would need to buy so many replacements for all the mechs i already have assembled and painted.....so i resist the urge.

For people coming in fresh it is a no brainer.

Trust me, I have old metals, plastics from the 2000s, and the new ones. In some cases I feel bad for the old guys when compared to the new stuff.

As I'm not really collecting for painting but rather to complete my fictional units I don't mind, aactually I need, doubles as long as the mechs fit in my TO&E.

M.

Well considering there are 698 base models of mechs + all the variants (not counting all the vehicles) you are talking thousands of mechs that CGL has never released in plastic.

At least with IWM most of them are available and they also sell bits to make the alternate variants for many mechs if you feel the need to be WYSIWYG.

Catalyst Games posted this today:

https://store.frontlinegaming.org/products/aco-2022-aco-2022-battletech?fbclid=IwAR1p3m1fI2CIy7G1CLM-lh3K9Zcgiiu3729T0TV4mwqBV9jgRPyVAH_zxUQ

The official Battletech Championship Circuit era has begun.

 auticus wrote:
Catalyst Games posted this today:

https://store.frontlinegaming.org/products/aco-2022-aco-2022-battletech?fbclid=IwAR1p3m1fI2CIy7G1CLM-lh3K9Zcgiiu3729T0TV4mwqBV9jgRPyVAH_zxUQ

The official Battletech Championship Circuit era has begun.

Google Docs link for the event pack (which seems to be generic rather than for that specific event)

Painting is not required in a BattleTech Championship Circuit event unless the venue hosting the event requires it. Whenever possible, at least 80% of each mini in use on the table should be a mini currently available for purchase by players from either CGL or Iron Wind Metals. Older miniatures from CGL, Iron Wind Metals or Ral Partha are also acceptable. You may not use any miniature produced from another company, reproduction minis from a non-official mold, or 3D printed miniatures. You may 3D print arms if you wish, but 80% of the model must be from the original mini you are trying to represent.

I anticipate the "no fully 3d printed minis" clause is going to result in mass kvetching from the community, even though the majority of people who will complain will never ever participate in said circuit.

chaos0xomega wrote:
I anticipate the "no fully 3d printed minis" clause is going to result in mass kvetching from the community, even though the majority of people who will complain will never ever participate in said circuit.

Can confirm.

It certainly did when we ran a wolfnet premiere tournament at our store!

"Use the miniatures the company makes" seems like a basic requirement to me.

With 3d printing becoming more and more a thing, and with Battletech not really having an official championship tournament scene until today going forward... I can see where some people will lose their mind because they don't want to buy models and print them instead.

But if you want to be a tournament circuit pro-style gamer, thats part of the costs. And owning a lance of models won't break the bank. Especially if you are going iron wind for singles. And if not then you can hit ebay for singles as well.

For anyone wondering how my Clan Invasion scenario went, I was the IS Periphery OpFor and we did not kill a single Clan 'Mech I nearly crippled an Adder and the best I did was to tag the Star Commander's Cauldron Borne with a MG to the cockpit and knock the pilot unconscious for a turn, which I took advantage of to kick while they were down with my Thunderbolt.

 Prometheum5 wrote:
For anyone wondering how my Clan Invasion scenario went, I was the IS Periphery OpFor and we did not kill a single Clan 'Mech I nearly crippled an Adder and the best I did was to tag the Star Commander's Cauldron Borne with a MG to the cockpit and knock the pilot unconscious for a turn, which I took advantage of to kick while they were down with my Thunderbolt.

Working as intended!

M.

Edit: I hate the Clans.