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Obviously the next step is for Robotech Tactics to actually ship, hopefully more or less on time and that it be pretty decent.

But what next?

Robotech has 2 or 3 more series (Southern Cross, Next Generation and maybe Sentinels/Shadow War) Palladium can do.

The problem is Macross is by far the best in terms of mech designs and quality, the fact it's had a half dozen sequels in Japan is a sign of this while Southern Cross and Mospeada have had none.

Plus they have far fewer mechs.

So a solo Southern Cross of Next Gen Kickstarter may not make much of an impression. Combining the two, maybe with some of the Sentinels stuff would make more sense.

Then, if the Tactics engine and models are a hit Palladium can try for Rifts Tactics, an intellectual property they created and (unless they messed up somewhere in work for hire contracts) own outright.

Giant Stompy Robots vs Demons and Dragons? Heck yeah!

Y'know if Robotech Tactics works out I might even skip the next 2 Robotech series and try for Rifts minis next.

Thoughts?

I would guess that new gen/mospeada and shadow chronicles will be combined for the next kickstarter. Southern Cross (at least in it's previous RPG incarnation... didn't buy the current one) didn't have enough variety in models outside of the various nontransformable battloids. Assuming nothing major is screwed up with the macross release, I'd be in likely for the freebie pledge of both. That said... I do hope that they wait until macross is delivered before offering up the next one.

Going from memory...

Southern Cross
Veritech Hovertank (3 models)
Logan fighter (2 models)
Helicopter (2 models)
Various non transforming battloids, robots and fighters (who cares?)
Infantry (who cares?)

Bioroid
Bioroid on Jet Ski

New Gen/Mospeada
Alpha Fighter (3 models)
Beta Fighter (3 models)
Shadow Fighter (3 models)
Cyclone (2 models, really really tiny)
Various non transformable vehicles (who cares?)
Infantry (who cares?)

Invid Scout
Invid Warrior
Invid elite man shaped thing

So yeah, even padded out with the who cares vehicles and minor variants I've forgotten, that's a lot less than the Macross Kickstarter. And all of them will be half the size of a VT, around the size of WH dwarf or goblin.

I recall the invid having more (at least in the RPG). Two versions of the little scout, two versions of the warrior (with and w/o the guns), the shock trooper, and the royal command battloid.. plus the cyclone sized armored guy. Judging from some of the strong opinions on destroids in macross, I'd suspect some people would care about the sentinels versions of them as well (although they'd lose the battletech crowd of course). Adding in sentinels to that pot, you'd also have the two zentraedi REF mecha as well. It all depends on how much they're willing to lump together. Thematically and visually, I don't see an issue personally with putting out Sentinels, New Gen, and Shadow Chronicles together.

The RPG had some cool designs later on at the end of their first license (like transformable REF officers pods, super alphas, and female power armor style REF micronized battloid prototypes) as well but I doubt they'd make it into any release.

I hope they do a full release for New Gen. I would buy the feth out of the Invid. I loved all of their designs. Throw in some Southern Cross, Sentinels or whatever, and I'd probably go for the sweet spot pledge and pick and choose add-ons.

During the Kickstarter both Palladium books and the Ninja crew stated that they had plans to release the other two chapters. It WAS dependent on the success of the KS, but I don’t think that will be an issue. They also stated that the intent was to do all of the figures in the 6mm scale so everything would be compatible. If I recall correctly, there were issues with Sentinels and Shadow Chronicles but I could be very wrong.

First off, if they did release a Next Generation line, I would buy the feth out of it.

But Cyclones, those would be tiny compared to Alpha's and Shock Troopers etc. How would they do them?

I would say, if you want the most variety with Southern Cross, go 28mm infantry. That show had TONS of armor designs for a wide range of troops. Most wound up not even being used in the show, much like a lot of the non-transformable mecha. And there's no reason they couldn't try designing some new units, particularly for the bad guys.

And imagine how a Mospeada/New Generation game could be if it was done as an asymmetrical game where squads of humans in (or out of) powered armor have to try and take down a single Shock Trooper or Pincer. Or have them fighting teams of Inorganics or those funky human sized Invid power armors. I think it could be done.

I might be alone, but I'd totally buy the hell out of Southern Cross figures, be it humans in armor or Bioroids on hover bikes.

Incompatible scales for the eras would be a monumental mistake. I don't mind them fudging it a bit to make the mospeada/southern cross stuff a bit bigger (like 1/250 scale) as long as it stays visually smaller than macross. The problem with cyclones is their own size doesn't match the rest of the frankenstein universe. If you make a cyclone 28mm then a scale alpha ends up bigger than a dreadkinght and way too expensive. If anything, they need to radically decrease the MDC of cyclones and make them 15mm sized infantry figures with multiples on each 40mm base instead.

A transformed cyclone might be about the size of an epic dread, and they could always exaggerate the size but having them posed on rubble or something.

Not a great solution but there you go.

I really like the "univesre" of the Southern Cross, but the show was just terrible. Dana Streling, Max and Miriya are ashamed of you!

The Robottech masters had....

Infantry Tyrolian Clones
Civilian Tyrolian Clones
Blue Bioroids
Green Bioroids
Red Bioroids
Assault carriers
Bioroid Skiffs

and of course, the "salestastic"....

Invid Fighter Bioroids (That always worked in groups of three and packaged individually for your convenience)

Edit:
I hope they come out with some Zentraedi in battle armor and without so I can play games set during the Reconstruction Blues era.

Id love to have some Invid, but the scale they chose to use is useless to me. Im looking for stuff that can blend in with 15mm mecha, things between 60mm-90mm tall. The Robotech stuff is half that size at best.

 Easy E wrote:


I hope they come out with some Zentraedi in battle armor and without so I can play games set during the Reconstruction Blues era.

You're easy to please.

Now if only we could get them to ride on some Battle Pods!

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Going from memory...

Southern Cross
Veritech Hovertank (3 models)
Logan fighter (2 models)
Helicopter (2 models)
Various non transforming battloids, robots and fighters (who cares?)
Infantry (who cares?)

Bioroid
Bioroid on Jet Ski

New Gen/Mospeada
Alpha Fighter (3 models)
Beta Fighter (3 models)
Shadow Fighter (3 models)
Cyclone (2 models, really really tiny)
Various non transformable vehicles (who cares?)
Infantry (who cares?)

Invid Scout
Invid Warrior
Invid elite man shaped thing

So yeah, even padded out with the who cares vehicles and minor variants I've forgotten, that's a lot less than the Macross Kickstarter. And all of them will be half the size of a VT, around the size of WH dwarf or goblin.

I'm a huge fan of Southern Cross. I think there's plenty of excellent mecha designs in the series. Remember, even most of the Macross-era Destroids only got a few seconds of screen-time across 36 episodes.

Using your method of "Who Cares?" for things, well, you make the Macross portion into:

Veritechs (a couple of models)
Robots you see for a few seconds (who cares?)

and

Battle Pods (maybe with some missiles?)
sweet Power Armor
infantry (who cares?)

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

Invid Scout
Invid Warrior
Invid elite man shaped thing

On screen in order of size the Invid had

black and white Invid Soldier (the little one)
red Invid Scout (2 versions)
purple Invid Trooper (2 versions)
Invid Commander (Corg and Sera)
black and white Invid Enforcer

That's enough to cover infantry (Soldier), light fighter (Scout), heavier fighter (Scout Fighter), standard mecha (Trooper), artillery mecha (Shocktrooper), commander and characters (Commander + Corg and Sera), and heavy mecha (Enforcer). Still short of the Zentraedi, but not by a huge amount.

Yes the Invid also have the strange bio-constructs from The Sentinels series as well.

Their actual name escapes me at the moment.

To be honest I'd rather the game was renamed to Macross Tactics and that they continued on with Macross since the Valkyries are awesome and it would be great to see miniatures of the VF-11 and the VF-17. Mospeada stuff would be cool though to see in a minis form on the table. I'd pay for that without a doubt.

Has anyone in the South Florida area done the kickstarter for the Robotech game? I live in that area and I was curious if anyone would be willing to play it.

 Andrewdrexler wrote:
During the Kickstarter both Palladium books and the Ninja crew stated that they had plans to release the other two chapters. It WAS dependent on the success of the KS, but I don’t think that will be an issue. They also stated that the intent was to do all of the figures in the 6mm scale so everything would be compatible. If I recall correctly, there were issues with Sentinels and Shadow Chronicles but I could be very wrong.

The issues with Sentinels is HG wrote it out of the time line and when Palladium new contect is alot tighter on what the can add. So no Sentinels, plus side the Inorganics are in one of the new books.

I think there is a huge wait and see factor, namely how tight are the rules and is it fun to play?

Macross had everything going for it, the anime fans, the robotech fans and the battletech fans all wanted those sweet sweet models.

With the other parts of the series, a lower model count could help them, limit it to an expansion box. Personally I dont think they will be the huge seller the macross based one was, but i have my fingers crossed for NewGen alpha fighters.

In the RPG, cyclones were dropped in squads of 12 or 24? it was basically a cargo container full of guys and cyclones attached to a dropship. for the game they could probably do cyclone squads, 6 guys to a base? It keeps them in scale and still effective vs larger mecha.

 Mecha_buddha wrote:
I think there is a huge wait and see factor, namely how tight are the rules and is it fun to play?

Even if the game itself sucks, I am still getting models to make my own Robotech game with.

I also wonder how much they are going to branch off into other Macrosse Era units that are NOT mecha? I recall helicopters, aircraft, space fighters, and otehr stuff seeing some screen time.

 Easy E wrote:

 Mecha_buddha wrote:
I think there is a huge wait and see factor, namely how tight are the rules and is it fun to play?

Even if the game itself sucks, I am still getting models to make my own Robotech game with.

I also wonder how much they are going to branch off into other Macrosse Era units that are NOT mecha? I recall helicopters, aircraft, space fighters, and otehr stuff seeing some screen time.

I doubt we will beyond what we've gotten in the kickstarter for a long while; we've got the space fighters already btw. I suspect Palladium will be focusing on the big splash kickstarters for each era before moving onto releasing more individual units for already covered eras.

You know what's sad? If they actually make a Southern Cross expansion, it will have what might be considered the first toys of just about every mech from that show.

Red Comet wrote:To be honest I'd rather the game was renamed to Macross Tactics and that they continued on with Macross since the Valkyries are awesome and it would be great to see miniatures of the VF-11 and the VF-17. Mospeada stuff would be cool though to see in a minis form on the table. I'd pay for that without a doubt.

Yeah but Harmony Gold will NEVER get the rights to another anime ever again EVER. So I don't see that happening. There was some speculation earlier that if the game has legs perhaps a 3rd party mini maker will churn out some 'not veritechs'.

Easy E wrote:
I also wonder how much they are going to branch off into other Macrosse Era units that are NOT mecha? I recall helicopters, aircraft, space fighters, and otehr stuff seeing some screen time.

Ninja division had some comments that their licence did NOT extend to non-mecha and that they needed permission for every model they made. The Cat's Eye recon and Breetai were both named as things they wanted to do but could not. Now things might be more complicated that that, I think we all know in our hearts that APCs and tanks would not sell and there are low cost alternatives available. They may also be holding back some things (Max and Miraya VTs come to mind) for a commercial release.

Barzam wrote:You know what's sad? If they actually make a Southern Cross expansion, it will have what might be considered the first toys of just about every mech from that show.

Yeah, but that should also tell us and Palladium about how much/little demand there is for SC. I can walk into toy stores in Japan and still find Macross stuff, I don't think I've ever seen Southern Cross models or toys and I've been going to Japan since 1994. It's just not nearly as good as Macross as a show or as a line of mechs.

Yeah Harmony Gold will also never allow anyone to ever hold the license of Macross ever in the United States. Its gotten out of hand. =( Even then I'm not 100% sure they have the license to Macross.

 Red Comet wrote:
Yeah Harmony Gold will also never allow anyone to ever hold the license of Macross ever in the United States. Its gotten out of hand. =( Even then I'm not 100% sure they have the license to Macross.

According to TVTropes.com (so OK not the most reliable source) Harmony Gold signed a deal with a Japanese studio called Tatsunoko (makers of Gatchaman/G-Force/Battle of the Planets among others) for the rights to all 3 shows.

The problem is Tatsunoko was only a part owner of Macross, Big West were the real owners.

Sometime in the 90s they basically agreed to detante, HG kept Macross but cannot develop sequels or spin offs form it, BW won't bring any more Macross stuff to the US (Macross II and Plus slipped in while HG was in disarray).

So that's the state of things.

If they really do make a live action Macross/Robotech movie I hope that someone just buys out or squished HG so we can be done with this.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Red Comet wrote:
Yeah Harmony Gold will also never allow anyone to ever hold the license of Macross ever in the United States. Its gotten out of hand. =( Even then I'm not 100% sure they have the license to Macross.

According to TVTropes.com (so OK not the most reliable source) Harmony Gold signed a deal with a Japanese studio called Tatsunoko (makers of Gatchaman/G-Force/Battle of the Planets among others) for the rights to all 3 shows.

The problem is Tatsunoko was only a part owner of Macross, Big West were the real owners.

Sometime in the 90s they basically agreed to detante, HG kept Macross but cannot develop sequels or spin offs form it, BW won't bring any more Macross stuff to the US (Macross II and Plus slipped in while HG was in disarray).

So that's the state of things.

If they really do make a live action Macross/Robotech movie I hope that someone just buys out or squished HG so we can be done with this.

Oh ok. I didn't know the last part. I've heard so many different stories in the past years that I just stopped listening to it all until something definite was actually done about it. Shame HG still has the rights.