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

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**BrookM**

Found in the latest newsletter:

Last month the newest iteration of the Catalyst Web Store launched! We upgraded the storefront to improve the back-end. This will allow us to better serve our international community as we work to set up our international fulfilment hubs.

I'll believe it when I see it.

**Ghaz**

More of the news on the updated webstore from AdeptiCon originally posted HERE

Webstore and general updates with Loren Coleman, Talon Coleman and Michael Ciaravella
Talon’s been working on the last ten months on the webstore back-end, it went live last week
Some features like filtering are still to come
The back-end upgrade also has support for international shipping
They’re working out contracts for EU, UK and AUS warehouses.
They’ll be able to send products from manufacturing partners to the local hubs, and then people can get local shipping costs and timeframes
The process has been a lot harder than they expected
A lot of elements on the webstore were hard-coded, meaning it was harder to do quick changes and development. This has been changed out for more modules that can be updated or swapped out.
When the hubs go live we’ll see a small number of items that are well-stocked, and then moving out to more products.
Talon thanked people for feedback on the store changes like issues with viewing on mobile devices
Patches, pins, shirts, the Lostech dice, and the liquid core dice will be up on the site soon
The plan for the hubs is that once they come online all new products would go out to them from manufacturing, with older items being shipped out from the US when they can or when they reprint. New items produced in the US, like mugs may move to the hubs slowly.
There’ll be an interface for store owners to order direct form CGL if you can’t get it from distributors
They might be able to offer some items to retailers via the store that aren’t available via distributors
Will CGL do monthly AMAs again? Loren would like to
They’re going to focus on the top 100 products for the hubs to begin with
The EU warehouse is likely to be in the Netherlands

**beast_gts**

Talon’s been working on the last ten months on the webstore back-end, it went live last week

Still showing $133.65 shipping to the UK for a ForcePack or single Premium mech - so either they haven't fixed it or it's on the Shopify side.

**Ghaz**

Any word on international stores? The webstore has had a major overhaul which makes it easier to integrate with multiple warehouses. They’ve signed a contract with an Australian partner and are working on UK and EU ones right now. They’re planning a smoke test of the retail integration soon too.

Just because the webstore is live doesn't mean that there's still not some things needing sorted out.

**deleted20250424**

.

**BrookM**

The EU warehouse is likely to be in the Netherlands

Well now, if true, not a bad idea, always struck me as odd that GW never did the same, given how much of a gateway and transport hub we are for the rest of the EU, especially for Germany, which is still second place world wide when it comes to BT sales and whatnot, they'll be rejoicing as well if true.

**catbarf**

TalonZahn wrote:
[Edit] Awesome read, feel free to skip to the part about Tariffs, from someone in the game industry.

https://www.highnoongame.com/post/the-boardgame-industry-is-burning

So the straightforward explanation from CGL is 'word salad' but this meandering, repetitive post that gets debunked in its own comments section (hint: 9903.01.63 imposes 125% tariff on top of the values he listed) is an 'awesome read'.

Lol. Lmao even.

**catbarf**

The sum of that article is that the author did no research but has an axe to grind and a book to hock. The tariff schedule is public and, currently, HTSUS 9903.01.63 asserts a 125% tariff rate on top of the 20% rate for the HTS subheading codes he discusses. That's where the 145% figure comes from that industry vets are discussing- people with a lot more experience in this field than Cenac.

I don't know why CGL makes you so upset you felt compelled to send me an angry PM accusing me of shilling for Loren and telling me to go feth myself, but get help dude.

**deleted20250424**

Rule 1 is not optional, please adhere to it and not make snide and rude remarks -ingtaer

**Mangod**

TalonZahn wrote:
Loren's "straightforward explanation" was bloviated Boomer bs to justify a 30%+ increase on something CGL will see a "COGS" increase of $1.50 on their end.

The article you're quoting claims that the tariffs are only 20%, while the government says it's 40%, so your source is already out of date, or just plain wrong.

**chaos0xomega**

frankelee wrote:
, but I never see anyone say it takes one month to scope out unused facilities for rent, find a suitable one, and sign a lease.

Ive spent the last 12+ years building and standing up operations in the american manufacturing sector as a full time job.

This is not how it works.

There are low level very basic production operations you can do something along these lines with - those are the types of operations which will shutter and be shipped overseas again overnight the moment tariffs are eliminated.

That or someone will be smart enough to realize they can buy plastic injection molding machines, rent or quick build a tiny industrial building, and start an American company. I've seen bigger pieces of equipment hauled around the countryside out where I live, just people who actually do for a living and know what they're talking about have to get interested, it won't ever be done by the EXPERTS in the COMMENTS.

Also not how it works. If I was I wouldnt be getting paid what I am to do what I do.

**Dysartes**

Question, chaos - ignoring whether setting up a plastic production facility in the US would be viable in the long-term, once this whole tariffs mess is sorted out, in your experience how long do you think it would take to set one up in the US, and do it properly?

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Wargames Atlantic began their plastic (HIPS) production to the USA in Nov 2021 in collaboration with Altera Industrial their experienced plastic production partner https://wargamesatlantic.com/blogs/news/us-production-begins

but even a factory site and machines imported (?) and installed and with a cooperative partner who brought their existing moulds with them, knew exactly what they were doing, how the machines worked and exactly what the final product should be, it was not a smooth process getting production quality and capacity back up to that of the original Chinese based operation

https://wargamesatlantic.com/blogs/news/statum-atlanticum-anno-mmxxiii

this finally seemed to be settled by Jan 2023

so however long it takes to buy/hire suitable factory space, buy/rent machines (quite possibly importing them) & hiring and trainng staff plus at least a year

so probably at least 2 years in totally favourable conditions

**chaos0xomega**

So depends what you are asking. There are plastics operations in the US - a lot of them - but they support other industries (medical devices, aerospace, etc), often use different equipment that would be less than ideal for miniatures, and require entirely different skillsets in terms of tool and part design that dont directly translate to whats needed for miniature design.

Theres two minis related plastic production compamies in the US already - Wargames Atlantic and Best Hobby.

WGA as I understand it has its tooling made in China by another firm (probably wargames factoey I wpuld guess) and then shipped to the US. The tooling is really the high skill hard part and the expensive part. Theres engineering that happens once you set it up on a press, etc, but its minimal compared to actually design your parts and creating a functioning mold.

Best Hobby on has been building the full end to end capability in the US, but isnt quite there yet.

If you were looking at doing what WGA did, in a pretariff environment you could probably get set up in a 12-18 month window for about $1-1.5 mil.

To do what Best Hobby is doing, youre probably looking at more like 3 years and 3-4 million dollars to set up operations at scale (iirc theyve spent a couple years and $1 mil establishing one work cell which gives them enough throughput to get started but not enough to sustaun a steady flow of business long term)

Those numbers assume leased facilities that have the necessary utility infrastructure and life safety/environmental health compliance systems already in place, etc. and requires no modifications to support your operations.Thats generally kind of rare because of how triple net zero leases commonly used in the US function, etc. More likely youre talking an additional 1-2 million of capital investment into facilities modifications to support necessary power and hvac requirements, pneumatic systems, process fluids/gasses, and fire suppressuon capabilities to your equipment at a minimum. Figure ~3 months doing engineering design, another 3 months aligning contraxtors and pulling permits, and another 3 months or so for construction - lead times on equipment will be variable depending on what it is youre ordering, but up to 2 years is possible and easily probable. Ideally speaking this is done in parallel with acquiring production equipment which itself will have lead times in the range of 6-18 months for your baseline capabilities.

And again pre-tariff conditions. Doing that today is at least 50% more expensive, and would probably take a lot longer due to chinas move to ban exports pf certain componemts and systems. If those export bans remain in place the entire american manufacturing industry is going to start choking from shortages of critical parts and materials within the next few months - building out any new factory will also become very close to impossible.

The real variable is the training and education component. If you can find/hire experienced professionals (which probably means importing talent from China, realistically) then it cuts down on it, otherwise youre going to spend probably 2 to 3 years with your staff, assuming no turnover, tinkering with the equipment to figure out your own basic best practices and ways of working, tricks of the trade, etc. You can hire consultants (again, probably from china) to help expedite this but youre looking at least at 1-2 years of tinkering to figure out how to work the equipment and get workable results before you are ready to begin selling anything, and the quality of those first few prodicts off the lime will be not so great, figure another 3-5 years aftwr you start production before youre designing modern kits that can compete with companies like GW

**Vulcan**

Ghaz wrote:
The Thunderbolt is available in the A Game of Armored Combat boxed set and the Eridani Light Horse and the House Davion Cavalry ForcePacks.

The Marauder is available in the Inner Sphere Command and all three Legendary MechWarriors ForcePacks.

The Timber Wolf is available in the Clan Invasion box set, the Legendary MechWarriors I and III, and the Wolf's Dragoons ForcePacks.

Which is nice and all, but I may not want all the OTHER stuff that comes with them in those packs.

Not everyone has unlimited room for dozens of minis they do not want and probably won't ever use. Sure, you can TRY to sell off the rest, but how many people want Blackjacks or Quickdraws or Caesars?

**NH Gunsmith**

Vulcan wrote:
Ghaz wrote:
The Thunderbolt is available in the A Game of Armored Combat boxed set and the Eridani Light Horse and the House Davion Cavalry ForcePacks.

The Marauder is available in the Inner Sphere Command and all three Legendary MechWarriors ForcePacks.

The Timber Wolf is available in the Clan Invasion box set, the Legendary MechWarriors I and III, and the Wolf's Dragoons ForcePacks.

Which is nice and all, but I may not want all the OTHER stuff that comes with them in those packs.

Not everyone has unlimited room for dozens of minis they do not want and probably won't ever use. Sure, you can TRY to sell off the rest, but how many people want Blackjacks or Quickdraws or Caesars?

A lot actually, I trade or sell my spare mechs with almost zero trouble on the Battletech Trades and Sales group.

**No One Important**

Vulcan wrote:
Ghaz wrote:
The Thunderbolt is available in the A Game of Armored Combat boxed set and the Eridani Light Horse and the House Davion Cavalry ForcePacks.

The Marauder is available in the Inner Sphere Command and all three Legendary MechWarriors ForcePacks.

The Timber Wolf is available in the Clan Invasion box set, the Legendary MechWarriors I and III, and the Wolf's Dragoons ForcePacks.

Which is nice and all, but I may not want all the OTHER stuff that comes with them in those packs.

Not everyone has unlimited room for dozens of minis they do not want and probably won't ever use. Sure, you can TRY to sell off the rest, but how many people want Blackjacks or Quickdraws or Caesars?

I like blackjacks and need nine more.

**Dysartes**

Will that give you twenty-one of them?

**Ghaz**

**Kagetora**

Ghaz wrote:

Damn. Just let me buy unassembled parts and I'll do it myself with what I want. You know, like nearly every other miniature company in the world. What a concept.

**Ghaz**

Kagetora wrote:
Damn. Just let me buy unassembled parts and I'll do it myself with what I want. You know, like nearly every other miniature company in the world. What a concept.

Again, too many SKUs for Catalyst to handle. If you want unassembled, either get the premium 'Mechs of go to Iron Wind Metals.

**No One Important**

Dysartes wrote:
Will that give you twenty-one of them?

How'd you know?

**kodos**

Kagetora wrote:
Damn. Just let me buy unassembled parts and I'll do it myself with what I want. You know, like nearly every other miniature company in the world. What a concept.

yeah, a concept for a different audience as for the regular boardgame market the regular pre-build models would still be a must
add in that regular miniature gaming people don't like to work with PVC at all, so even those would just complain if the sell the single parts instead of pre-build models

**Overread**

It's one reason I've not jumped on a load of their models. PVC is just a nightmare to clean up compared to most resin/metal/plastics in the model market and pre-assembled is even harder to clean up because of how you get spots you can't get your tools into easily or at all.

That said preassembled models in a box with a clear front cover 100% does sell well to many people. Also not everyone is as fussy; they want a cool looking toy for the tabletop game and that's all they need.

Honestly the only time that pre-assembled tends to fail is when its done to a firm that built itself up and was growing and doing well on parted models.
Because then its basically trying to change its market focus.

Battletech was like that, but it was so niche and not really growing before the PVC plastics that a restart on its community growth worked.

**AegisGrimm**

To tell the truth, I echo your sentiment.

The models, despite being insanely better looking than the old metals and plastic for Battletech, are only just barely awesome enough to make me suffer through the mold line cleaning on them. I have hated Restic since backing Sedition Wars 13 years ago, and it really hasn't improved in the slightest bit for model cleanup. I can clean 5 HIPs models in the time it takes to clean 1 PVC model, and there will still be spots I am unhappy with but are forced to give up on.

**Ghaz**

3D renders of the Hammerhead and Havoc from the upcoming Third Star League Strike Force ForcePack

Spoiler:

**Ghaz**

From the BattleTech Forums

Lorcan Nagle wrote:Episode 49
29th April 2025
Guest: Tom Leveen, author of Blood Will Rise

News
-BattleTech
--New releases
---April 2nd
----Battlefield Support: Recon and Hunter Lances
----Inner Sphere Heavy Recon Lance
---April 16th
----Battlefield support: Objectives
----Legendary MechWarriors II
----BattleMat: Savannah River Delta
----Salvage pack: Savannah Master
----Salvage pack: Blood Asp
----The Art of Cooking
---April 18th
----Blood will Rise
---May 14th
----Inner Sphere Pursuit Lance
----Legendary MechWarriors III
----Salvage box: Legendary Mechwarriors II and III
---May 28th
----Inner Sphere Assault Lance
----Battlefield Support: Heavy Battle and Sweep Lances
----Battlemat: City/Central Park
--Aces
---A series of four box sets for co-op and solo games
---The first set is out later this year
--Gothic
---An alternate universe, stand-alone and non-canon
---The first in a series of alternate universe sets
-A new newsletter went out this week. You can subscribe on the webstore
-Loren’s essay about tariffs was brought up
--There will be a follow-up communication to detail CGL’s price increases in face of the tariffs.
-Next week Jennifer Bixby will be on to talk about the Art of Cooking.

Discussion
-Tom’s first BattleTech writing credit was Shrapnel issue 5, June 2021.
-He was first introduced to BattleTech in the early 90s, and from his perspective the game fell away and he kept playing with his old FASA books and stuff. He found out about Shrapnel, discovered from that that BattleTech was thriving again and submitted a story
-He and Mike Stackpole go way back and he figures Stackpole is the one who pointed him in the direction of BattleTech’s revival.
-His first writing was in second grade in school, where he was given an assignment to write a story. The teacher told him to rewrite it, expand it and then read it to the class below him. The kids were all enthralled and he was hooked on writing.
-He wrote a bunch of stuff as a kid, got into theatrical production, and really wanted to see a book of his in the shops he haunted.
-He sold his first story in 2008 to Penguin.
-Zero, his second published novel was a reworking of a draft novel he had written in college, nineteen years prior.
-His very early writing was largely horror, influenced by renting exploitation horror movies at a young age
-His first published work was YA stuff more influenced by current events, and he used that to move into horror and SF
-Prior to BattleTech, his only licensed work was writing a few issues of Spawn
-He did three or four short stories in Shrapnel, and then some fiction in sourcebooks and kickstarter material, and then pitched the serial novella Three Ways Home to Phil which was published in Shrapnel. And then he was offered a novel.
-Or at least, he mailed the editors asking if he can write a book after his first couple of Shrapnel publications, and they told him to slow down a bit.
-His favourite factions are in the Periphery, especially the Taurians
-He tends to come into a story with character first, and then plugs them into the universe.
-He found having the framework of his novel being a sequel to Blood Will Tell and fitting into the events of ilKhan’s Eyes Only quite comfortable. It helped him keep on-track and not go off the beaten track.
-He felt there was a potential relationship between Danai and Noah in Blood Will Tell, and he brought that out a little in Blood Will Rise. He said he’d love to ask Jason Schemtzer if this was a thing he was seeding intentionally.
-Blood Will Rise picks up shortly after Blood Will Tell’s conclusion. At the start Danai is on Liberty trying to put down an insurgency, she returns to Castrovia to take a breather, and is then sent to Sheratan to put down another insurgency where things go horribly wrong. The back half of the book kicks off with Daoshen “bringing out some big guns”
-He’s never been attracted to writing for any of the bigger IPs. If Star Wars called, he’d say yes because he’s not stupid but he’s got no great desire to write for it. But he said when Rem mentioned Voltron his eyes lit up. He’s a con person and he loves interacting with the fans of smaller fandoms so he’s more attracted to working in those spaces partially because of the interactions he could have with the passionate fans. He also mentioned Hero and Johnny Quest

Q&A
-What do you think about the interplay between Daoshen and Danai? Did it make a Capellan fan out of you? It kinda did, he wasn’t given a lot of specificity about Daoshen beyond saying he couldn’t do a couple of things, and he had to fit things into IKEO. There wasn’t as much structure around Danai beyond building on what came before. As a drama guy he loved being able to bounce them off each other.
-If you could choose the next Successor Lord to write a big novel about, who is it and why? Nikol Marik, he’d love to see where she ends up.

**Miguelsan**

I'd love to have some in-depth stories about Marik, and the FWL that go beyond they are killing each other again.

M.