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But the launch parties will have at least some of the new models as prizes, months (probably years) before kickstarter fulfillment. It's a gloriously bold move, and I hope to find one within travel range.

 Ghaz wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:

 Gitzbitah wrote:
... months (probably years) before kickstarter fulfillment. ...

I believe you're seriously overestimating how long fulfillment is going to take, especially since unlike the Clan Invasion Kickstarter most of the miniatures for this one have already had 3D renders and been prototyped.

That depends of what they add for stretch goals. Many companies get carried away with their promises when pledges roll in.

From Mercenaries on the Move! (12 October 2022):

The much-anticipated BattleTech Mercenaries Kickstarter campaign has been officially scheduled for late March 2023.

As recently as last month, Catalyst Game Labs intended to launch the campaign in Q4 2022. However, the overwhelming recent success of BattleTech following the Clan Invasion Kickstarter necessitated the move.

“We simply can’t make new products quickly enough,” stated Loren Coleman, CGL’s founder and owner. “We’ve created more than half-dozen new BattleTech products in the past year, including the new Alpha Strike box set. Our miniature sculptors need more time to complete the designs required to launch the Mercenaries Kickstarter.”

The Mercenaries campaign will introduce over 50 new designs, including ’Mechs, armored and support vehicles, a VTOL, and a new aerospace fighter. Catalyst intends to have all of the new miniature sculpts completed before launching the next campaign, in an effort to prevent long delays in production. Though the campaign date has shifted into next year, the majority of our work will be completed prior to its launch to limit delays in fulfillment.

We are excited as you to launch this Kickstarter and can’t wait to return to the battlefield with BattleTech supporters around the world.

I believe that CGL has things well under control for the Mercenaries Kickstarter.

I would be absolutely delighted to be wrong. Even Reaper Bones, to me the gold standard of kickstarter campaigns, I've never seen delivered within a year. I don't think Catalyst can pull it off- especially not as I'm looking over at my Kell Hounds Lance, Eridani Light Horse, and Dominion Divided book - all of which were supposed to be coming out Quarter 3 of 2023. They make absolutely fantastic product, and the value is totally there- but the speed of release is not.

 Ghaz wrote:

 ProfSrlojohn wrote:
Finally, some vehicles, I can now make a proper Hell's Horses Nova Star, mixing and matching mechs, Elementals, and armor. Hopefully they'll go with the ones clans and Sphere can use.

No Clan vehicles in the Kickstarter, only Inner Sphere

But there is definitely hope- most of the Rec guides have given a Clan variant for each of the originally IS vehicles. Condor, Demolisher, Maxim, and even the Pike all have a clan variant. Others as well, likely.

 frankelee wrote:
I have the intuition that the pledges levels and amount of minis in the final offer will be very similar to the Clan Invasion campaign, which was a perfectly decent value. This time they may just double their funding though.

I think you're right- the notable omission is the double force packs, which will hurt the overall value of higher level pledges.

Thank you so much, Old-four Arms, that's the math I'm here for!

To be fair, I think this is a very reasonable sophomore kickstarter outing. With their first, they had objectively more popular mechs, and a much larger draw- and pulled in 2.5 million with all the bells and whistles, mystery mechs appearing at most stretch goals, doubled force packs, dice, the works. It took much longer than they anticipated to fulfill, and got away from them.

From the start, their goal with this one was a limited kickstarter that was quick to fulfill. Most of the artwork was done, scuplpting finished, heck, most of the models were even ready to go at launch! But then, the fans happened. We threw so much more money at them than they expected that they still tried to give some rewards, without messing up their timetable too badly. I suspect they got the mix wrong there, and frankly, I think a great deal fo the problems could have been avoided if they'd done this in the 10 day or 2 week format instead of the monthlong campaign. I do agree with you Talonzahn, that far from encouraging it, Catalyst actively discouraged the sort of pushes you see from stretch goals in this one, because they were quite meager. Where I disagree is that I think this was a very successful pre order style kickstarter. We are not getting the heady discounts and value of the first one, and it's nowhere near as exciting as voting on the content of forcepacks, or what mechs we want to see next, but it is far more practical. My hope is they'll fulfill (relatively) quickly, and follow this model again in a few years, less than the 4 or 5 it's been since Clan Invasion.

Ironwind metalssells unassembled metal battletech minis, often of the same sculpt. They even do some variants. If you want to assemble your mechs, give them a shot.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Yeah the Thunder Hawk in the new Rec Guide is pretty rubbish. I'm warming to the 'Slowki' though.

The ATM slowki is pretty absurd. That's a terrifying number of missiles. The T looks rock solid... but it's very odd that they have so many ammo bins in the arms.

And the new Gyrfalcon art is gorgeous! I hope we get it in plastic soon.

 legionaires wrote:
I just got an email for the digital content. Did the folks who already got the pledges get the digital notice just before the shipping notice?

I just got my digital content email as well. What an excellent question, thank you!

 Ghaz wrote:

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:
BTW, if I want vehicle rules for Alpha Strike, I need the Commander's Rulebook, right? The one that has been OoS for about 18 months

The Alpha Strike: Commander's Edition is the current rules source for Alpha Strike. As an alternative if you don't want to wait until the book comes back into stock, you can pick up a PDF copy of the book from the Catalyst webstore for $19.99.

Plus, that one updates so you don't ever have to buy the new edition.

I never thought we'd see the day the Solitaire went mainstream!

This is the best way possible to move beyond the grognards that are stuck in the 80s though- make the icons of a new era the introduction for new players. Are you a Hammerhead, or a Kontio player?