H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:
Hmm, I wonder what this could be ...

5L or 8K?

They're the only Warhammer's with SRM4's.

 Kanluwen wrote:
WAIT, IS THAT A LOKI MARK II?!?!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Why would they bother redesigning a Loki Mk.II when there are other 'Mechs with far older/worse line art to update?

Ghaz wrote:Hmm, I wonder what this could be ...

Kanluwen wrote:WAIT, IS THAT A LOKI MARK II?!?!

H.B.M.C. wrote:Why would they bother redesigning a Loki Mk.II when there are other 'Mechs with far older/worse line art to update?

 Charistoph wrote:
Why are they putting the Regent and Sagittaire in when they haven't even finished with all the ones missing from every TRO before them?

Heck, if anything, I think the Inner Sphere's first gen Omnimechs deserve a shot before a few of these. My Avatar gets confused for being a Medium Mech and my poor Hauptmann looks like a dwarf. Does make it easier to fit in to the tackle boxes I use for storing and carrying my 'Mechs, though.

 Ghaz wrote:
You must remember that the Mercenary Force Packs will initially be exclusives. The Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance and Grey Death Legion Heavy Battle Lance will initially be exclusive to Barnes & Noble, the Hansen's Roughriders Battle Lance will initially be exclusive to Alliance Game Distributors, the Northwind Highlanders Command Lance will initially be exclusive to ACD Distribution and the Kell Hounds Striker Lance will initially be exclusive to the Catalyst Game Labs web store.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
None of that really addresses the question as to why they're doing these latter designs first.

Cubby wrote:The second KS Mercs preview will be out tomorrow at some point. But that’s all that’s planned.

 Ghaz wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
None of that really addresses the question as to why they're doing these latter designs first.

Maybe because they're more popular than any other earlier designs? The only one that's really 'new' is the Regent, with the Penetrator, Gunslinger and Nightsky all being from TRO: 3055 and the Sagittaire from TRO: 3067.

 Charistoph wrote:
Of course that doesn't include other decisions like why the Mongrel was in the Clan Invasion box instead of the Ice Ferret.

 Ghaz wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
WAIT, IS THAT A LOKI MARK II?!?!

Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have a winner!

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:
You must remember that the Mercenary Force Packs will initially be exclusives. The Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance and Grey Death Legion Heavy Battle Lance will initially be exclusive to Barnes & Noble, the Hansen's Roughriders Battle Lance will initially be exclusive to Alliance Game Distributors, the Northwind Highlanders Command Lance will initially be exclusive to ACD Distribution and the Kell Hounds Striker Lance will initially be exclusive to the Catalyst Game Labs web store.

None of that really addresses the question as to why they're doing these latter designs first.

Hey Backers,

As many of you already know, we’ve begun rolling out preview PDFs of the coming Mercenaries Kickstarter; Preview 02 went live yesterday. However, we are aware there are still some outstanding digital items from the Clan Invasion campaign.

Here’s a rundown on those items and their current status:

• Scenario #4: Grand Melee, Scenario #5: Batchall, Expanded Military Briefing: The Clans: These are all in process and will be released to backers before the end of February.
  
• Camospecs: A Guide to Faction Paint Schemes: The first six issues are done, and they will start to release before the end of February as well.
  
• Camospecs: A unit Art Manual: This project ended up far larger than anything we expected. It was always a call between this or getting other books and miniatures out the door. And new items for your tables are the priority. As such, we are officially canceling this release.
  
• New chapter-serial to showcase new canon characters: The author is finalizing this as we speak, and the first part will release by the end of January.
  
• Senior backer as main character in a new novella: This will begin work in January with a projected release of March to backers.
  
• Den of Wolves: Half of the novel is written. Principle writing will be finished by mid year 2023, with a release to backers by the end of 2023.

The final three items all required us working with personnel and companies outside of our control. And the world shutting down obviously made this impossible. We do not yet have specific plans for how to address these final three, but will have updates before the launch of the Mercenaries Kickstarter.

• Video of authors playing tabletop RPG as various BattleTech characters
  
• Randall and Brent play Russ and team from PGI at MechWarrior 5
  
• Randall, Brent, Loren face Jordan, Mitch and Mike from HBS in livestream charity event playing BattleTech

We appreciate your patience as we work to wrap up these last items, while preparing the massive launch of the next Kickstarter.

Team Catalyst

 Shrapnelsmile wrote:
How do all of you feel about Alpha Strike? I'm considering giving the new box set a try.

 Shrapnelsmile wrote:
How do all of you feel about Alpha Strike? I'm considering giving the new box set a try.

As the calendar turns to 2023, and we prepare another exciting year of BattleTech for customers and fans, we thought it appropriate to pause, and look back at the unbelievable success of the line over the past few years.

January 2023 will mark four years since the release of the A Game of Armored Combat and Beginner Box sets, the match which set off the current explosion of the game we all love so much. It’s the perfect time to journey back to see the arc that brought us here, reveal some data about that success, and talk a little about the shape of things to come.

In 2015, Catalyst embarked on a radical plan to redesign all of the unseen ’Mechs that, for legal reasons, had been removed from the universe. Our publication of those first redone images–in the Warhammer and Marauder–spurred other BattleTech licenses to embark on their own redesign efforts, resulting in all of the fan-loved classics appearing in Piranha Games’ amazing MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, along with Harebrained Schemes’ award-winning BattleTech.

But we wanted to take it further. That meant all-new, ready-to-play, high-quality plastics–and completely redesigning the core products to match that quality, including a brand-new, never-before-seen item for BattleTech: the Beginner Box. These were a success from the moment they became available in January 2018; advance order sales were so high that we began second printings before the first even got to market. The seventh printing of A Game of Armored Combat and the eighth printing of the Beginner Box were being loaded on ships at the end of 2022, and once they go on sale there will have been 160,000 copies between these two boxes moved into the market in four years.

But this was just the foundation. While it was brilliant to see the core products in the market again, they offered redesigns of just nine ’Mechs. What we really wanted was a massive redesign of a huge swath of ’Mechs, with corresponding plastics. So, in July 2018, we ran what became one of the Top 100 Kickstarters of all time, unlocking nearly a hundred additional BattleMechs. It was amazing, stunning, and fantastic!

Yet, the question remained of whether those 15,000 backers–awesome, brilliant backers!–were the ceiling of this new resurgence? Or was this success only a taste of what was possible? Once the nearly two dozen different ForcePacks from the Kickstarter hit the market, once again, they exploded. More than 600,000 ForcePacks have been printed, with more than 500,000 selling within the last two years.

Coming out of the Kickstarter, the Clan Invasion boxed set has absolutely kept up with the first two boxes, despite releasing two years later: the fourth printing is being put on a ship at the end of 2022, and will bring the total number of copies of that box in the market to 55,000.

Four new mercenary ForcePacks–Eridani Light Horse, Kell Hounds, Northwind Highlanders, and Hansen’s Roughriders–will reach Catalyst’s warehouse in January, and four more ForcePacks will finish printing by March, including theGray Death Legion and Snord’s Irregulars ForcePacks, along with an UrbanMech Lance–four different variants of that iconic ’Mech–and a surprise pack. All told, this will total another 160,000 ForcePacks.

Of course, we can’t discuss the success of those ForcePacks without talking about our new Alpha Strike box set, showcasing the BattleTech game designed for the modern tabletop player. The initial run of this box set was the largest amount we’ve ever printed before: 25,000 copies. We retained 5,000 of those for shipping to Australia and Europe (they’re on ships now). The rest, we brought to the U.S. We sold through two thirds of that printing in mere days, and worked with our fantastic printer to quickly get a second printing of 20,000 copies done ASAP; that will get loaded on a ship in mid-January.

Once all that material moves through game stores by mid-summer 2023, we’re looking at more than nine million plastic miniatures put into the market in four-and-a-half years!

But it’s not just the miniatures. Sales of our rulebooks and sourcebooks have exploded as well.. Every single rule, campaign, and plot book we’ve published has immediately gone back to reprint. This includes the brand new ilClan Era campaign books. One of the best sellers is Total Warfare, whose tenth printing hits the warehouse in January. All told, we’ve sold more than 100,000 books in that same time frame. Supporting these products are our numerous digital-only items as well, such as the long-running Recognition Guides, arguably the best-selling digital-only series in our history. Not to mention all the ancillary products: for example, in the last four years we’ve published nearly fifty new BattleTech maps via paper and our deluxe neoprene, and we’ve got many more to come.

The BattleTech fiction line has also grown to match the game’s current lofty heights. We republished the entire Dark Age Era novel line–all 30 volumes–with all-new covers. Eleven issues of the official BattleTech magazine, Shrapnel, have seen print, as well as twenty-two new novels, eight short novels, eleven novellas, and fifty-seven short stories. All told, we’ve published more than 6.2 million words of new and re-issued fiction in the last four years!

And we’re just getting started! We’ve paired up with AdeptiCon, “The World’s Premier Tabletop Miniatures Convention,” to live-stream the launch of the Mercenaries Kickstarter on March 23, 2023.

Our upcoming Kickstarter will unlock more than fifty new plastic designs, including a slew of long-desired, fan-favorite ’Mechs, such as the “Ost” series; the Goliath and Scorpion, the first four-legged ’Mechs; as well as the original Technical Readout: 3055 Clan IIC ’Mechs. Plus, we’re beyond excited to bring more than a dozen vehicles to game tables, all molded in the same high-quality plastics and ready to play straight out of the box–including working turrets! The Kickstarter will also deliver a new Mercenaries box, a dozen new ForcePacks, new challenge coins, patches, pins, and all of the paraphernalia needed to celebrate mercenary life!

We’ve started releasing behind-the-scenes PDF previews of those coming designs; Preview 02 is available right now! That preview also teases the launch of The Mercenary Tales in January, a monthly installment of mercenary action all throughout next year!

Dominions Divided, the third ilClan Era campaign book, releases in January, along with a new series of Recognition Guide PDFs. New premium miniatures, fiction, t-shirts, plushies, and always more epic tabletop play, both at conventions and at your local friendly game stores….

By any metric, BattleTech is now more successful and more popular than ever before. With the coming Mercenaries Kickstarter and the lead-up to BattleTech’s 40th anniversary, there’s an excellent chance our current staggering success will be eclipsed as BattleTech reaches even more fans.

Thank you. To all the fans that have stuck with us through all these years. To the returning fans, and to the new fans finding us now. Welcome to all of you. This explosion of popularity–where we watch actual-play videos, painting photos, lore videos, excited discussions and more, happening every day on social media channels–is because of all of you! We could not do what we do without you by our sides.

We hope you love what’s happened with BattleTech over the last four years, and will join us as we charge onto even larger battlefields in our desire to ensure that everyone, everywhere knows how amazing BattleTech is, and have them give it a try.

Team Catalyst

As the calendar turns to 2023, and we prepare another exciting year of BattleTech for customers and fans, we thought it appropriate to pause, and look back at the unbelievable success of the line over the past few years.

January 2023 will mark four years since the release of the A Game of Armored Combat and Beginner Box sets, the match which set off the current explosion of the game we all love so much. It’s the perfect time to journey back to see the arc that brought us here, reveal some data about that success, and talk a little about the shape of things to come.

In 2015, Catalyst embarked on a radical plan to redesign all of the unseen ’Mechs that, for legal reasons, had been removed from the universe. Our publication of those first redone images–in the Warhammer and Marauder–spurred other BattleTech licenses to embark on their own redesign efforts, resulting in all of the fan-loved classics appearing in Piranha Games’ amazing MechWarrior Online and MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, along with Harebrained Schemes’ award-winning BattleTech.

But we wanted to take it further. That meant all-new, ready-to-play, high-quality plastics–and completely redesigning the core products to match that quality, including a brand-new, never-before-seen item for BattleTech: the Beginner Box. These were a success from the moment they became available in January 2018; advance order sales were so high that we began second printings before the first even got to market. The seventh printing of A Game of Armored Combat and the eighth printing of the Beginner Box were being loaded on ships at the end of 2022, and once they go on sale there will have been 160,000 copies between these two boxes moved into the market in four years.

But this was just the foundation. While it was brilliant to see the core products in the market again, they offered redesigns of just nine ’Mechs. What we really wanted was a massive redesign of a huge swath of ’Mechs, with corresponding plastics. So, in July 2018, we ran what became one of the Top 100 Kickstarters of all time, unlocking nearly a hundred additional BattleMechs. It was amazing, stunning, and fantastic!

Yet, the question remained of whether those 15,000 backers–awesome, brilliant backers!–were the ceiling of this new resurgence? Or was this success only a taste of what was possible? Once the nearly two dozen different ForcePacks from the Kickstarter hit the market, once again, they exploded. More than 600,000 ForcePacks have been printed, with more than 500,000 selling within the last two years.

Coming out of the Kickstarter, the Clan Invasion boxed set has absolutely kept up with the first two boxes, despite releasing two years later: the fourth printing is being put on a ship at the end of 2022, and will bring the total number of copies of that box in the market to 55,000.

Four new mercenary ForcePacks–Eridani Light Horse, Kell Hounds, Northwind Highlanders, and Hansen’s Roughriders–will reach Catalyst’s warehouse in January, and four more ForcePacks will finish printing by March, including the Gray Death Legion and Snord’s Irregulars ForcePacks, along with an UrbanMech Lance–four different variants of that iconic ’Mech–and a surprise pack. All told, this will total another 160,000 ForcePacks.

Of course, we can’t discuss the success of those ForcePacks without talking about our new Alpha Strike box set, showcasing the BattleTech game designed for the modern tabletop player. The initial run of this box set was the largest amount we’ve ever printed before: 25,000 copies. We retained 5,000 of those for shipping to Australia and Europe (they’re on ships now). The rest, we brought to the U.S. We sold through two thirds of that printing in mere days, and worked with our fantastic printer to quickly get a second printing of 20,000 copies done ASAP; that will get loaded on a ship in mid-January.

Once all that material moves through game stores by mid-summer 2023, we’re looking at more than nine million plastic miniatures put into the market in four-and-a-half years!

But it’s not just the miniatures. Sales of our rulebooks and sourcebooks have exploded as well.. Every single rule, campaign, and plot book we’ve published has immediately gone back to reprint. This includes the brand new ilClan Era campaign books. One of the best sellers is Total Warfare, whose tenth printing hits the warehouse in January. All told, we’ve sold more than 100,000 books in that same time frame. Supporting these products are our numerous digital-only items as well, such as the long-running Recognition Guides, arguably the best-selling digital-only series in our history. Not to mention all the ancillary products: for example, in the last four years we’ve published nearly fifty new BattleTech maps via paper and our deluxe neoprene, and we’ve got many more to come.

The BattleTech fiction line has also grown to match the game’s current lofty heights. We republished the entire Dark Age Era novel line–all 30 volumes–with all-new covers. Eleven issues of the official BattleTech magazine, Shrapnel, have seen print, as well as twenty-two new novels, eight short novels, eleven novellas, and fifty-seven short stories. All told, we’ve published more than 6.2 million words of new and re-issued fiction in the last four years!

And we’re just getting started! We’ve paired up with AdeptiCon, “The World’s Premier Tabletop Miniatures Convention,” to live-stream the launch of the Mercenaries Kickstarter on March 23, 2023.

Our upcoming Kickstarter will unlock more than fifty new plastic designs, including a slew of long-desired, fan-favorite ’Mechs, such as the “Ost” series; the Goliath and Scorpion, the first four-legged ’Mechs; as well as the original Technical Readout: 3055 Clan IIC ’Mechs. Plus, we’re beyond excited to bring more than a dozen vehicles to game tables, all molded in the same high-quality plastics and ready to play straight out of the box–including working turrets! The Kickstarter will also deliver a new Mercenaries box, a dozen new ForcePacks, new challenge coins, patches, pins, and all of the paraphernalia needed to celebrate mercenary life!

We’ve started releasing behind-the-scenes PDF previews of those coming designs; Preview 02 is available right now! That preview also teases the launch of The Mercenary Tales in January, a monthly installment of mercenary action all throughout next year!

Dominions Divided, the third ilClan Era campaign book, releases in January, along with a new series of Recognition Guide PDFs. New premium miniatures, fiction, t-shirts, plushies, and always more epic tabletop play, both at conventions and at your local friendly game stores….

By any metric, BattleTech is now more successful and more popular than ever before. With the coming Mercenaries Kickstarter and the lead-up to BattleTech’s 40th anniversary, there’s an excellent chance our current staggering success will be eclipsed as BattleTech reaches even more fans.

Thank you. To all the fans that have stuck with us through all these years. To the returning fans, and to the new fans finding us now. Welcome to all of you. This explosion of popularity–where we watch actual-play videos, painting photos, lore videos, excited discussions and more, happening every day on social media channels–is because of all of you! We could not do what we do without you by our sides.

We hope you love what’s happened with BattleTech over the last four years, and will join us as we charge onto even larger battlefields in our desire to ensure that everyone, everywhere knows how amazing BattleTech is, and have them give it a try.

Team Catalyst

 Ghaz wrote:

A Snord's Irregulars Force Pack! I think I know where that Spartan is going to show up...

Death_from_above wrote:Overview taking into consideration all Mechs/vees shown/mentioned/hinted at so far
(ACS Patreon, KS announcements/updates, KerenskyCon, WolfNet Ep. 50, GenCon).

Items in italics have yet to be confirmed as being part of below mentioned packs.

Comments in italics are assumptions/personal opinion.

Mercenaries Box Set (GenCon)
1 - 2x Maxim (Size 2, Striker, 16"h)
2 - 2x Galleon (Size 1, Scout, 12"t)
3 - Firefly (Size 1, Striker, 10"/8"j)
4 - Starslayer (Size 2, Skirmisher, 10"j)
5 - Caesar (Size 3, Brawler, 8")
6 - Devastator (Size 4, Juggernaut, 6")
7 - Flea (Size 1, Scout, 18")
8 - Chameleon (Size 2, Scout, 12"j)
9 - Quickdraw (Size 3, Skirmisher, 10"j)
10 - Ostsol (Size 3, Skirmisher, 10")
2x Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor (Ambusher, 6"j) - WolfNet Ep. 50 confirmed

Taking a cue from the Retaliation Pack from the Clan Invasion KS, we might also
see the Mechs from the Box Set as a standalone pack (or possibly a pair of Lances).

No official confirmation that Battle Armor will also be included in the Mercenaries Box.

The number of ForcePacks already shown + the conjectured 4th "Battlefield Support"
Pack would add up to a dozen (as mentioned in Cubby's latest announcement).

Inner Sphere Battle Armor Lance (KerenskyCon)
11 - 4x Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor (Ambusher, 6"j)

Clan Direct Fire Star (GenCon)
12 - Grizzly (Size 3, Skirmisher, 8"j)
13 - Rifleman IIC (Size 3, Sniper, 6"j)
14 - Highlander IIC (Size 4, Missile Boat, 6"j)
15 - Bane (Size 4, Sniper, 6")
16 - Phoenix Hawk IIC (Size 4, Sniper, 10"j)

Clan Cavalry Star (GenCon)
17 - Locust IIC (Size 1, Striker, 16")
18 - Jenner IIC (Size 1, Striker, 18"/14"j)
19 - Griffin IIC (Size 2, Missile Boat, 12"j)
20 - Shadowhawk IIC (Size 2, Striker, 12"j)
21 - Black Python (Size 3, Skirmisher, 10"j)

Battlefield Support : Recon & Hunter (GenCon)
22 - 2x Warrior VTOL (Size 1,Scout, 18"v)
23 - 2x Skulker (Size 1, Scout, 14"w)
24 - 2x Ontos (Size 4, Juggernaut, 6"t)
25 - 2x Behemoth (Size 4, Juggernaut, 4"t)

Battlefield Support : Assault & Cavalry (GenCon)
26 - 2x Pegasus (Size 1, Striker, 16"h)
27 - 2x Condor (Size 2, Striker, 16"h)
28 - 2x Schrek (Size 4, Sniper, 6"t)
29 - 2x Demolisher (Size 4, Juggernaut, 6"t)

Battlefield Support : Objectives (GenCon)
30 - Mobile HQ (Size 1, None, 12"w)
31 - 2x Mobile Long Tom (Size 2, Missile Boat, 4"t) & trailer - WolfNet Ep. 50 confirmed
32 - 2x MASH (Size 1, None, 10"w) - WolfNet Ep. 50 confirmed

Battlefield Support 4 (conjecture)
33 - 2x Vedette (Size 2, Brawler, 10"t)
34 - 2x Manticore (Size 3, Brawler, 8"t)
35 - 2x SRM Carrier (Size 3, Ambusher, 6"t) - KS announcement confirmed
36 - 2x LRM Carrier (Size 3, Missile Boat, 6"t) - KS announcement confirmed

Inner Sphere Recon Lance (GenCon)
37 - Javelin (Size 1, Striker, 12"j)
38 - Spector (Size 1, Striker, 14"j)
39 - Firestarter (Size 1, Scout, 12"j)
40 - Ostscout (Size 1, Scout, 16"j)

Inner Sphere Pursuit Lance (GenCon)
41 - Dervish (Size 2, Missile Boat, 10"j)
42 - Clint (Size 2, Striker, 12"j)
43 - Hermes II (Size 2, Scout, 12")
44 - Cicada (Size 2, Scout, 16")

Inner Sphere Security Lance (GenCon)
45 - Scorpion (Size 2, Skirmisher, 12")
46 - JagerMech (Size 3, Sniper, 8")
47 - Whitworth (Size 2, Missile Boat, 8"j)
48 - Charger (Size 4, Scout, 10") - since Vulcan in Heavy Recon Lance

Inner Sphere Assault Lance (GenCon)
49 - Goliath (Size 4, Sniper, 8")
50 - Hoplite (Size 2, Sniper, 8")
51 - Pillager (Size 4, Juggernaut, 6"/4"j) - Patreon confirmed
52 -

Shogun ticks all the boxes (AS requirements).

Inner Sphere Heavy Recon Lance (GenCon)
53 - Assassin (Size 2, Scout, 14"j)
54 - Ostroc (Size 3, Skirmisher, 10")
55 - Vulcan (Size 2, Scout, 12"j) - based on ForcePack box side art in KS preview 1
56 -

Taking into account all of the above, that would leave the Merlin.

Currently unallocated Mechs
Shogun (Size 4, Missile Boat, 6"j)
Merlin (Size 3, Brawler, 8"j) - Patreon confirmed

57 - Aerospace Fighter - Mercenaries on the Move update confirmed

Not an IS design as per Adrian Gideon, so possibly an OmniFighter
Not Inner Sphere could also refer to the Tech Base, so maybe a Star League design ?


Redesigned, but no indication of being included in the KS
Glass Spider (confirmed by Anthony not to be part of the KS)
Raijin
Fujin
Grand Crusader
Bulldog
Patton
SturmFeur
Hetzer
Phantom
Icarus II
Spartan (high probability of being part of Snord's Irregulars ForcePack)
Loki MkII (possibly part of the "surprise" pack from Cubby's latest announcement)

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
All that "Size 1, striker" nonsense just clutters everything up.