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I'll do some tests both ways and see what seems more fun. Thinking about the new method more, that might not work after all, seems like it'll be easy to min-max.. like you could take a team with a captain and 2 heavies, and that would probably stomp all over normal teams

Also, I think it's going to end up taking longer to get the KS campaign going for this. I decided I want to get all 6 teams drawn up first, just the starter set so each will be 1 medium team captain and 4 light mechs. Then I want to get the Terran and Bushido starters sculpted, printed and cast so I can paint them up and have pics of the real painted figs and a nice how to play video. Then I'm thinking to start the campaign will be to fund the first 2 teams, then each additional team as a stretch goal, followed by a goal for each heavy.

Also planning to put together some terrain kits, mostly ruined buildings. I'd like to try and do something modular like GW's cities of death, only in 15mm. Been talking with Proxie models about that, so I might be able to do them in plastic

Sounds like you've got it planned out, all i'll say is just remember a captain and 2 heavies may seem powerful,but remember in play theres going to be terrain and objectives. 3 mechs isnt going to give much board control, and am i safe in thinking the heavies may end up being slower? Plus theres target saturation to consider with teams of lights... just some stuff to keep in mind.

Also: how much terrain cover are you thinking for this? 2-3 pieces per quarter bored like 40k or say infinity/DZC levels of stuff eveywhere?

Yeah you will need a lot of terrain (because I'm going to make it and I want people to buy it ) .. but I'm thinking of it as mostly a "cityfight" style of game. Lots of ruined buildings. I think the cardstock buildings & board from Dropzone Commander would be a good idea of the amount of terrain you'll need.

if I can do my own printed board, I was planning to have the center of each square be like a city block, with about 2" of road going all around each edge. So it would look like a grid style city road system, and each 12" square should have 1 or 2 buildings.

Heavy mechs can be kind of fast. Their Speed can go up to 6 so then would move 6", but they can only run 1". Mediums can run 2" and lights can run 3". I think I'm going to change that around though, and have heavies not able to run, mediums can add half their speed if they run and lights can double their speed.

There's also booster jets, that add 3" to your movement and you ignore terrain in your path as you're jumping over stuff. Thinking about changing that to say heavies can't have boosters, only medium and light. Or maybe heavies need 2 boosters? so if they do that, that's 2 less weapons they would be able to have.

Worth considering at least. To me the heavies seem like something youd use to slowly lead a charge covering the lights behind it, or sit on a cross road to give it support avanues of fire. When I hear "heavy mech" my first thought isnt "120 mph and can do backflips".

Slightly more off current topic though im growing a lot more attached to the terran light designs. Remind me a bit of the mechs from lost planet.

Yeah, heavies can have any stat up to 6, mediums 5 and lights 4. But for a heavy you are going to want to focus mostly on combat and energy.. you'll need lots of energy to fire those extra weapons, and a high CPU is also good for having extra upgrades.

I was kind of thinking about changing movement & actions around a bit though. Your speed is still how many inches you move, but your Energy = how many actions you get. Moving up to your speed in inches = 1 energy. Firing 1 gun or using an upgrade or special action = 1 energy. So, you can move as much as your energy will allow, if you don't plan on shooting.

So if your energy is 4 and speed is 3, you can move up to 12" and not shoot. Or 6" and shoot 2 weapons. Or stand still and shoot 4 weapons. Or move 3", shoot 1, move 3", shoot again. Or shoot 3, then hit your booster jets to jump behind a building and get in cover. This would probably mean removing running from the game, you wouldn't really need it anymore.

Weapons wouldn't have an energy rating anymore, just power and range, but I think heavy weapons would take 2 energy to fire, since they're heavy and all, and each heavy only has 1 heavy weapon.

Also, i'm going to be getting a new medium terran concept done. I think the light is my favorite, and the heavy bushido too I like the medium now, but it feels like the chicken legs don't fit with the way the light and heavy look so the current one will become one of the Free Agents that can join any team. The new one will be kind of a cross between the heavy and light. Then I'll also be getting 3 new light mechs for the terrans and bushido. Same basic look as what we have, just the others will have different weapons and poses.

So, I'm getting a new version of the Terran medium mech drawn up, I want to go for something more of a cross between the light and heavy. I felt like the chicken legs we have now don't match the other 2. So the current terran mech will become the first Free Agent, who can join any team like hired guns in BWG. Or you can use it as a standard medium mech if you're building your own team. Also I have Bob Naismith doing the 3D sculpts for the light terrans this week. Hopefully I'll have screenshots to show off real soon.

I'm working on the "public preview test rules" now, that will have all of the diagrams and stuff. I'm also going to make preliminary pilot cards for each mech that will go in a starter set, and maybe even some printable minis as a paper standee so it will be a big print & play thing, if people don't want to use proxy models. Will take a little while to finish that. I was kind of thinking of doing the printable minis when I get the 3D sculpts done, so I can use screenshots of the fronts and backs instead of just the concept art that's 1 view.

1 other rules change.. Right now I have it where light mechs can have 3 weapons, mediums 4 and heavies 5. I decided to change that to be like BWG, where you can have as many as your Power (strength) will allow.

I also officially changed it to have Energy = amt of actions like I talked about before. I did a quick test game and I liked it.. but I'm kind of wondering if it could end up being a pain for some players, where you step out of cover, shoot, and then jump back in so it will be really tough to ever get a clean shot at someone. I'll have to play some more and see. So if a pesky mech keeps hopping behind a building, you could blow it up then blow him away.

The energy=actions thing could make some mechs go really far in one turn, especially heavies that could add extra points to speed.. so I was also thinking of adding a max movement per activation.. heavies max at 6", mediums 9" and lights 12".

Here's a quick WIP sketch for the martians

Final martian #1 .. not sure if this will be the light or the medium. If it's light then the next one will be bulkier and more armored, but if we make it medium then the next one will be wimpier looking I think we'll make this the light version though probably. He's equipped with 2 death rays, and every martian mech gets a shield generator, so they always have +1 shields. Just keep them away from germs.

Decided to make the one above be the medium mech, here is the light mech. I think the actual models will have the legs more elongated so they are taller, and so they can fit on the same sized base as the other teams. Likely to be some changes when it comes time to sculpt too. I'm thinking the lower pointy part of the legs will probably have to go, so that there's some surface area to glue the legs to the base. Also may give this guy a more pointed roof to match the medium too. We'll see how it goes.

Also, after lots of feedback I have the next version of the text rules ready to go. Here's a link if you'd like to read them
http://www.gangfightgames.com/temp/mechadrome-test-v07.pdf

Added the changes I mentioned in the last few posts, plus there's more weapons, each team is defined and I also added the rules for Capture the Flag and No Mech's Land scenarios.

I also decided to add a turn limit to the game, so each game will last 8 turns and you calculate your points based on how many kills you got. The games I've been playing seemed to be in the 10-12 turn range, so I thought 8 would be a good point to try and rush and get as many points as you can in the time limit.




Tomorrow or over the weekend I should be getting some concepts for the Aphid Swarmers, and next week I should be getting the first screenshots for the Terran light mech sculpt

Think I finally nailed down a card layout that I like. Back down to the standard playing card size instead of tarot. I'd like to stick with what's most common. That way players can easily find sleeves or use baseball card pages, and they'll also fit the clamshell packs I have. So here's what I have now.. it will just have color art in the end

Got the final logos




And here's the first Aphid, a light biomech with extra armor and 2 powerblades. Going for a "part bug part dinosaur" kinda of thing. The medium will probably be more crab looking though, only with cannons instead of claws.

Dang I am liking that Aphid :O More like trained animals than giant mecha heh.

Yeah that's kind of what I was going for They are a race that doesn't use metal, all of their vehicles and buildings are made out of chitinny stuff that's bioengineered and grown instead of manufactured. But since human-run Galactic Mechadrome League decides all the rules and regulations, if they want to play in our sandbox they have to adapt their designs to work with human tech too.. so their mechs are half giant monster and half robot

I think the final mini might be a little more upright.. but still this guy is only gonna be 30mm tall like the other light mechs. Some will have cannon arms, or lobstery claw arms and other stuff

Just got the initial sculpts for the light bushido mech.. he did that first instead of terrans. gonna wait till the next round of pics to show that off since some stuff has to change and it's mostly just a basic shape right now.

kinda sounds like Wexter from Axe Cop




Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://axecop.com/comic/ask-axe-cop-8/

Hmm.. how about the Aphid Wexler Pattern Light Biomech with Chaingun Salvo

huh...and now as much as i like those aphids i'm finding myself looking at toy dinosaurs and spare gun bitz....

Here's the concept art for the top secret 7th team *




* not really

WAIT! I thought this was going to be the 7th team!

Dino Riders for the win!

Can we not have the best of both, a gundam riding a trex?

So, I'm also working on some papercraft terrain for the game. Will be mostly ruined building corners and that sort of thing. They will just be PDFs that people can download off my website, I figured it would be an easy way to get some obstacles going for the game if you don't normally play 15mm games.

Just starting to plan them out now, but I'm starting with a modular road system like the pic below (only it will be nice and textured in the end.) My idea was to have a bunch of 4x4" squares with straight roads and a sidewalk on either side, and then also right or left turns, T's and +'s too. You print out the pieces you want, mount them to a board if you want, and cut them out, then lay out the road pieces you want on your board.



Would that be a pain to play with though? a whole bunch of paper road squares mixed in with buildings, all made of paper or cardstock.. I worry it will be easy to knock things around and make the game annoying.

Also, just thinking aloud... looking at thegamecrafter.com, I could have the roads professionally printed if I stick to the 4x4" squares. It could be a heavy cardstock that's just 1 sided, but probably kind of pricey for a "page" of 8 tiles. Or, I could go with double-sided playing card thickness for a lot cheaper. But, it would be pretty much print on demand, so I wouldn't need to buy tons of it, folks that want pre-printed could order right from them and I'll get a little cut. Sounds like a better deal to go with the thin cards, but I think they would be tougher to play with and would slide around easily. But, I wouldn't be able to have the buildings printed unless I go with a pro printing option with die cuts and all that stuff, and I'd need to order like 1000 copies so it could end up being expensive.

Next up, aphid medium. Armed with 2 crusher claws and 2 acid guns



I think for the actual sculpt I'm going to have the body a bit wider and the legs a little closer in, but you get the idea

If the large isn't a giant scorpion made of metal and nightmares i'm going to be a little disappointed

Actually, yes it will be will have a similar look as this, just larger and with his heavy weapon as the scorpion tail

Gonna move on and get the last 2 teams done first then go back and do the heavies. Still waiting on the screenshot of the sculpts for the Bushido, hopefully will have them soon.

And here's the new Terran Medium mech. This will be the team captain armed with a chaingun, railgun and missile pod, plus booster jets and a shield generator. The flag is just to say "Hi, I'm the team captain" .. going to have an extra flag or banner piece that you can add to any mech that will be your captain so you can tell them apart, or leave that piece off if it's just going to be a normal medium mech. Also planning to reuse the banners for objective marker models too

And here's the Light Bushido sculpt so far. Still not done and not posed yet but I like where it's going. Just asked to change the animal looking face to something more like a samurai armor mask

Would you be annoyed with multi-part metal figures?

Been thinking about how to sculpt the minis, and it might be good to do them sort of like the Warmachine jacks, where you have 2 legs, a body and weapon arms. But that might only work because they're big.. would gluing 2 little legs to a torso, to make a 30mm tall figure? Or should I try and go for 1 full body and just separate weapons? Or 2 legs & hips, separate torso, separate weapons kinda like a space marine?

I personally like the idea of having more pieces so you can make your own cool poses. But maybe I'm just used to GW kits that are plastic... a little worried multi part metals would be a pain to build, and break easy. Would I be better off just saving that kind of thing for the larger heavy mechs? Would mono-pose light mechs be a bad idea, even if they'll all have different weapons?

What do you guys think?

I actually have no problems with multi part metal, so long as the pieces arent microscopically tiny (been building 6mm tanks, i'd take giant metals over them any day). Though I think this falls into the usual metal vs other material debate generally. I dunno, my vote goes to metal at any rate. Like to feel the weight of the money i'v just blown

Yeah, I'm kind of thinking of them like my PHR walkers from Dropzone Commander.. They have 2 legs, hips, a body and then the weapons/arms. I think I'd do something similar, but keep the hips and body as 1 piece. But my light mechs will be a bit bigger anyway.

I'm feeling like it's gonna be the only way to show all the cool details mechs will need like the cogs and pistons and armor plates and all that stuff. It's not a cowboy wearing jeans...

I'm also going to see about handling the 3D sculpting myself for most mechs.. maybe not the first batch since I'm still a noob, but I'm learning fast. Cutting out the high sculpting costs will let me just make what I want when I want without having to rely on Kickstarter for everything. BWG is another story though, I think Mechs will be a lot easier to sculpt than people.

Working on the rulebook still, got delayed since I've been learning 3D modeling.. and holiday stuff. And Assassins Creed 4.

Kind of curious about the rulebook ... do you like seeing character stats in the rules? Or should I just do all that with cards?

I was going to leave them out to save space, since all the info is on the cards, but I'm wondering if it would be worth it to add a little bio for each mech. It would be 6-8 pages per team probably, and with 6 teams that could be 48 pages. I'm up to 50 or so right now, with very little art.. adding art will bump it up to around 60 probably. The BWG rulebook is around 80 so that's what I was aiming for. An 80 page book will probably cost around $25.

Also been thinking of going with Wargame Vault for the book & card printing.. I can order a bunch for the KS orders, and then it would be print on demand if anyone wants to order one after that. And they can ship from the UK or the US too which is nice.