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I think it will, as I said above it is better suited as a boardgame.

The box art is interesting, but it looks like box arts, so I am expecting many packs of two merc teams? maybe expansions with other stuff?

So it seems this is going to go the Shadows of Brimstone route of two boxes at the same time?

An interesting gambit. We'll see how that plays out.

Better yet, we'll see what the initial price point is that gets you all the stretch goals.

Then again, there's no way to know how many pieces are going to be in each box.

Curious if it will be like Zombicide Season 2, where 150 netted you everything bar the add ons.

Looks like CCC vs. EUinc. and Kemvar vs. Keizai Waza. The more I see stuff for this, the more I think I will back it. Too bad we probably won't be getting 3d terrain. How cool would it be to have 3d offices with cubicles and desks to fight around?

Not much, 3D terrain really gets in the way of a boardgame, or at least it will go in the table they design, if they design space to have the terrain out of the games way, it would be cool.

Their prototype boards look pretty static. Hope the actual games are more modular. I wonder if you'll draw office tiles as you explore the buildings...

There may be a chance for 3D terrain as some sort of stretch goal/ add on- remember they made the lairs and traps for Myth, which previously were all going to be cardboard tokens.

I'm curious as to what can possibly be included in this. At least with the fantasy stuff you can pull all sorts of nonsense into the game.

I would guess we'll see more specialists available for the heroes, and maybe more fodder for the board? Maybe bigger and badder fodder if the game operates on a threat/ doom track type mechanic?

I'm always game for mechs and machines.

The main difference is, as you can see the lairs are an inaccessible square, so they can be 3D, the office block has the desk were the models are supposed to be.

The boards are reported to modular, and come in several different sizes that are combined to form the 8x8 playing area

8x8 playing AREA?????

That's bigger than my biggest 40k table...???

8x8 tiles, as seen in the pictures, I doubt it would be bigger than 2x2 feet in dimensions.

based on the size reference of the bases in the pics,.... each individual square playing area appears to be 3"x3"

making the playing surface about a 2ft square

At this point, I'd just like to get some more information.

So 8"x8" (inches) not 8'x8' (feet). That makes more sense

 RiTides wrote:
So 8"x8" (inches) not 8'x8' (feet). That makes more sense

no,.... I meant 8x8 game squares,...... each square is about 3 inches,......

so the board is about 24" x 24"

So according to today's comments, we might be looking at seeing this launch next week.

Nothing set in stone, but they said they're shooting for next Wednesday.

Going to be a fun few weeks with a bunch of big name, big ticket KS campaigns running!

I would rather they waited, or have it timed to end in April, cause two kickstarters in the same month are too much.

Actually,... the KS feeding frenzy along with cross promotional opportunities could make it a really good time.

Plus,.... they have a release schedule to hit,..... they can't just burn more time sitting on a project that is ready to go.

In the realm of actual news, .... they said today that there will be some cross over MYTH content in the RECON KS,.....

I'd be interested to see how that plays out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
EU Inc sculpts:

These May or may not be the same as used in the board game,... But these are metal minis for the tabletop game.

Heavy:



Sniper and Spotter:



I'm guessing that snipers won't be in RECON due to the office building setting,..... But I could be wrong.

MERCS confirmed that there will be some Myth stuff tied up as crossovers with Recon.

Mercs also put out some pretty bold words in a comment today.

Our thinking is along the same line. The competition out there is Fantasy. There is no Sci-Fi to compete with and (in our opinion) no KS right now is controlling the marketplace. Yes, there are some big names... but I think we have earned the right to be called a big name. The current KS seem to be rather slow and the momentum uninspired. And as you said, there will always be competition; right now, however, there is no competition in our genre.

If the competition comes down to the best product and minis, I think we win hands down. If it comes down to the best game, we'll have rules and videos available day one for you to make that decision.

We'll reevaluate over the weekend and make a decision early next week.

All the testers playing the game LOVE it. I think it will surprise people on the fence...our stretch goals are pretty good too .

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

I am excited to see what they've got up their sleeves.

As good as Myth looks to be, they haven't earnt gak yet since they haven't delivered gak yet. Also, being arrogant dicks isn't an especially endearing characteristic...

Wow, that is a bold statement! Unfortunately, that's not what I've heard from people who have tried Mercs... but is this a whole new (improved?) ruleset, to make it a boxed game?

Thinking they have no competition KS running right now, and that the big ones being a little slow (normal mid-KS lull) is an indication something is going badly just tells me that they understand little about neither their target audience nor how a kickstarter typically runs.

I had little interest to begin with, but now it's dropped to absolutely zero.

I think they clearly need to step back and reevaluate a few things.

Bellow personal opinions.

First of all there is Genre competing kickstarter Dreadball extreme is sci fi and boardgame so its competing on the genres of both sci fi and boardgame, there are quite a few boardgames running at the moment and the new SDE announced boardgame standalone expansion, just adds another KS that has a big following tied up, because its a follow up, just like dreadball extreme.

So while there might be no sci fi combat/ dungeon crawler boardgame to compete with, there is a sci fi sports boardgame and an upcoming fantasy combat/ dungeon crawler boardgame plus a few more boardgames on KS to compete with.

And they compete for the limited resources of backers, who are not genre specific and usually mix genres.

So yes, there is competition from both big and small names.

Have they earned the right to be called a big name? no, not really, Myth went exceptionally well, but one can call it a one hit wonder until they have another big success under their belt, not that I am not wishing them to have it, but one successful (with good reviews), yet undelivered, KS does not give a right to be called a big name, definitely a known name, but not a big one.

Its good to be confident in their product and Myth has shown they can make good boardgame rules (and in my opinion Mercs to some extend too) but minis? I am underwhelmed by the above sculpts as I am with most mercs line, while Myth successfully captures their art style and makes interesting models out of it, their Mercs models (almost) never managed it, I do hope they somehow manage to pull it right for Recon but I still have my doubts, the models above are not a good indication though.

Now unrevealed rules, streachgoals and playtesters positive feelings are really an unknown potential, they could be good or not, but until they get revealed their value is potentially unknown and practically zero.

In my opinion, they could wait for DBE (and the SDE v2 to be finishing) to end and use this time to build up the excitement for their own, with art, maybe models and definitely play through videos, their Myth would be in delivery and generally positive mood would be up for them.

@ RiTides
Recon is not Mercs, so the rules and what you have heard about it, is not really significant up to a point, in my opinion though, Mercs major issue is trying to be a tabletop wargame, when it is fundamentally a boardgame wargame.

 RiTides wrote:
Wow, that is a bold statement! Unfortunately, that's not what I've heard from people who have tried Mercs... but is this a whole new (improved?) ruleset, to make it a boxed game?

The board game is completely different and apart from the tabletop game,... I imagine there may be some cross over with the minis,.. But beyond that: who knows? Also; the tabletop game is a 1v1 head to head war game,... RECON is supposed to be a co-op board game for 2-5 players (no overlord).

The point is,... Any experience that you've had with the rules for the tabletop game may have little relation to the board game.


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 PsychoticStorm wrote:

Mercs major issue is trying to be a tabletop wargame, when it is fundamentally a boardgame wargame.

I'm not sure that I'm following you here,.... You feel that the skirmish game is like a board game? Or you think it would play better in a board game environment,... Because there are no board game elements,... Squares or spaces,... No event generation mechanics through cards or otherwise. Now,.... The RECON board game may very well take things in a direction that could be more successful in the long run,.... But in my mind,... The original MERCS product is definitely a skirmish level tabletop game,..... Maybe the movement cards make it seem different,... But if you had standard movement measurements with a tape measure,... Would you view it any differently?

I feel the rule set and the scope of the game is better served as a boardgame and not as a skirmish wargame.

The movement rules with cards and snap to cover, the essentially 2D terrain environment and the character based army list the card attacks all feel they are ideas that could better served in a boardgame environment, than in a wargame environment.

Isn't Recon going to be a board game anyway?

Ok,... I get that.

I've always played with 3D terrain, and I can see how the 2D makes it feel more like a board game,.... But it is much more tactical,... More so than a board game with spaces or squares,... But I digress,.....

I think that the "MERCS universe" does lend itself very well to a board game, so I'm anxious to see how RECON plays.

The good news is that from the comments, it sounds like the rules are already fully baked at this point and that we will get to see them from the start.

That's some interesting rhetoric coming from them.

I don't think the EUinc. figures look bad though. The detail is just washed out. All of the figures of theirs I've seen, and the few I own look really nice and have great details. The only ones I think I'm really disappointed with are the Texaco ones as they all just look kind of samey.

I'll still back this one. If nothing else, I'll be able to get four full teams that I can use somewhere else.

Higher Res Pics:

Heavy:


Sniper & Spotter:

They still do not tick....

I'll ask the "Dreaded yet Inevitable and Very Important Material Question" now - what are they going to be made out of?

Assumption here, but they should be made from the same material Myth is and probably preassembled, there is little point in alienating the boardgame market they aim for.