Gimgamgoo wrote:


As I posted on the BT forums...

I really don't get this idea at all. Either have all of them pre-painted for people that hate or can't paint, but just one?
That leaves the non-painters still with 3/4 of a box unpainted and for those of us that do paint, it means the effort and equipment to strip a model down.

 Thargrim wrote:
I doubt they cleaned up the mold lines before painting them either. Having just one model in the box being pre painted is a bizarre choice.

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:

 Gimgamgoo wrote:


As I posted on the BT forums...

I really don't get this idea at all. Either have all of them pre-painted for people that hate or can't paint, but just one?
That leaves the non-painters still with 3/4 of a box unpainted and for those of us that do paint, it means the effort and equipment to strip a model down.

Agreed. It's the worst of both worlds.

BTW, as some one who has played 3055 IS tech with some Clan tech of the Clan Invasion, how does Star League tech compare to that? The Star League and possible Civil War forcepacks are of some interest to me lorewise, but I've never played at that level.

 Vulcan wrote:
Star League Tech largely is 3055 IS Tech. Most 3055 IS Tech is recovered Star League Tech. Only the C3 computers and triple-strength myomers are genuinely new in 3055.

 Overread wrote:
Even if they hope that pre-painted might open up even more casual gamers, they need to be careful. Wasn't prepainted models one of the nails that contributed (not on its own of course) to the downfall of Rackheim years ago?

Cubby wrote:Clarifying:

The Star League Command Lance will include four Mechs:

ON1-Kb Orion (Kerensky) - new pose, pre-painted
PXH-1b Phoenix Hawk "Special" - new pose
AS7-D-H Atlas II - unpainted
TDK-7X Thunder Hawk - unpainted

We actually had these to show on stream yesterday, but Randall was extremely ill and could not join. In heat of the moment, it was not clear what I could and could not show (or even say in some cases), so we did the best we could. I realize they showed the image of the Thunder Hawk painted by Savage Coyote on stream as I was talking about pre-painted miniatures, so things got a little conflated. We should all be so lucky as to get a SC-painted Thunder Hawk, no such luck unfortunately.

Randall says he's going to try to a) rally and be on stream today and b) show off these minis and anything else we missed.

Second Star League Assault Pack: Daishi Prometheus (prepainted), Emperor, Argus, Helios, Coolant Truck

Third Star League Striker Pack: Lament, Jackalope, Kintaro, Hammerhead II, Havoc, J-27 Ordnance Transport

Third Star League Battle Pack: Savage Wolf, Wendigo, Excalibur, Peacekeeper, Malice, Savior Repair Vehicle

 Ghaz wrote:
Going by the list I posted HERE, unless there's more ForcePacks that they haven't been able to tell us about yet, that works out to just four prepainted 'Mechs. So far, the feedback on the official BattleTech forums on the prepainted 'Mechs has been overwhelmingly negative so hopefully CGL will take this feedback into consideration on any new ForcePacks.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Maybe to give new players a "sample" they can follow?

 Albertorius wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
Maybe to give new players a "sample" they can follow?

There's a better way to do that: in the introductory box that has two mechs, plus the introductory rules.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I mean, you're not wrong...but their push is for "themed" sets, so why not go that route instead?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
"MechCommander's Handbook" Do we have any idea yet what this is?

Xotl wrote:Planned for late next year, the MechCommander's Handbook is intended to be one part small-scale campaign book (rooted in Chaos Campaign), one part overview of warfare and tactics (i.e. both in-universe and pure gameplay), and one part a guide to the product line and world of force building. It's a standalone book, not meant to replace or require any other book (besides a rulebook). This is all still tentative as it is a work in progress, but that's the plan anyways.

The part I want to discuss with you all is the era overviews. Planned at the moment are five or six chapters of this type:

* Early Succession Wars (tentative: a more obscure era playwise, and we'll see if there's enough mech selection available to make this interesting)
* Late Succession Wars
* Clan Invasion
* Jihad
* Republic
* IlClan

Chapter Goals
I have multiple aims for these chapters.

1) Provide a quick overview of the era in question. The focus is high-level, light on lore, looking primarily at military developments. As you'll see when you check the preview, any dedicated era sourcebook does a far better job. The idea here is simplicity--enough to place the rest of the material in the chapter in some sort of context. This is aimed at new players.

2) Provide a quick guide to the products available for that era. BT's product line is deep, and there's a lot of questions as to what is relevant to when, especially for the many new players we've picked up in the past five years. This will guide readers to the books and PDFs available, for those who want more depth for that era.

3) Provide a guide to mech-based force building for that era. This will give players a way to create Battlemech Formations applicable to the tabletop that are simultaneously faction-, role-, and era-appropriate. The focus is low-level, aiming at gameplay you can finish in a single session: 8 mechs on a side maximum (and even then, that's only if you want to fight an IS vs Clan battle; otherwise the focus is 4-6 mechs per side). The idea is that this is for helping set up pick-up games. As with the era overview, a dedicated faction or era book will tend to do a better job than this. For example, this will let you make a DCMS force, but it won't guide you to making, say, a Sword of Light force. And as the Clan Invasion chapter is a snapshot of the year 3050, it won't do 3057's Operation Bulldog anywhere near as well as a book on that conflict. So things like the Force Manuals will be far better at their specific job than this comparatively broad and high-level approach, but this covers a lot more ground.

Forcebuilding

The forcebuilding is the most complex part of these chapters, so I'll spend a bit more time on it. Forcebuilding is broken into three methods, in order from least to greatest complexity.

1) RATs. Generally works as normal, except I've scaled them like I have my fan RATs by making them ordered from low to high BV. Beyond that there's no rhyme or reason, other than an attempt to create faction distinctiveness whenever possible. The idea is if you're rolling on a random table, you're not after accuracy but speed. The BV beside each mech lets you get the quickest idea of balance, and instead of rolling a flat 3D6 you can roll 2D6 and apply unit quality modifiers if you're vaguely aiming at a dirtbag militia force or something top of the line. If you're looking for granularity beyond that (especially with the Clan RATs, which freely mix first- and second-line mechs), you want one of the next two methods.

2) Standard Formations. These are pre-built lances, Stars, and Level IIs, appropriate to the faction, era, and formation type. What units belong in a Formation is largely determined via roles (Ambusher, Brawler, Juggernaut etc, as seen on the MUL). All Formations of a given era are balanced by BV against all other Formations of that era and type (to within 2%). So, for example, all assault lances in the preview chapter aim for 6,000 BV. While Clan and IS Formations are slightly different in category as well as composition, this has been also scaled against Clan equivalents: all Clan Assault Stars aim for 12,000 BV, so that two IS Assault lances equal out to one Clan Assault Star, two IS Cavalry lances equal out to one Clan Cavalry Star, etc. Many Formation types use the same point totals, so that you can be more free in mixing and matching opponents. For example, all lances of the Heavy Battle, Heavy Fire, and Cavalry types aim for 5,000 BV, and all lances of the Medium Battle, Medium Fire, and Support types aim for 4,000 BV. This means that you don't have to limit yourself to the same Formation types if you're aiming for balanced matches: my Heavy Fire lance can fight your Cavalry lance.

A bonus for most Inner Sphere lists are the faction lances: upgraded lances meant to reflect a faction's preferred style. These also are designed to match up with enemies, in this case with the BVs from taking standard lances but with Gunnery 3. For example, a Gunnery 3 Marik Assault lance is the equivalent in BV to an upgraded (but still G4) Lyran Assault faction lance; again, quick mixing and matching was the goal. The Clans don't have these special Formations, and instead of giving Gunnery 3 BVs, they have values for Gunnery 3/Piloting 4. Those only mix and match amongst other Clan forces, as the BV multiplier for G3/P4 is too different to make it swappable with IS forces.

Formation types are something you may have seen in Campaign Operations, but while those are broadly used here, the Formation building criteria for this book (found in the Introduction) are much simpler than the rather granular requirements of CO. This is to make it easier to use method 3.

3) Availability. Okay, you're tired of the Standard Formations. Or you have certain minis and you want to swap those in for others you don't have. Or you want to make your own Formations from scratch. Or you're just plain curious as to what's common and what's not in a given faction. This section is for you. The most specific and time-consuming, it provides four categories for chassis: Iconic, Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Each chassis generally available to a faction in that era is listed and put into one of those four categories. If you're building your own Formation, you choose from the number of slots for a given rarity level given to each Availability category, written besides each category. For example, if building a lance, and assuming the faction has one Iconic unit for that era (not a given: most faction/weight categories don't have one):

1-2 slots can be Iconic (min 1, max 2)
2-3 can be Common (min 2, max 3)
1-2 can be Uncommon (min 1, max 2)
0-1 can be Rare (min 0, max 1)
Not every Each Iconic pick takes the place of a Common pick (so if I take one Iconic, my Common picks are now 1-2 instead of 2-3). Salvage lets you take any other faction's Iconic or Common units (but as it's a Rare choice, you can only take one, and that means giving up your own faction's Rare).

The Availability method requires the MUL to use properly, as while it gives the mech chassis, it doesn't give the specific variants/configurations, and doesn't list the roles for all those chassis, which you need to use to keep a given Formation type legal (no slow Juggernauts in the Pursuit lances, sorry). This method also works a little different from the MUL, in that the aim is more of a faction feel than what the MUL provides. The Availabilities are thus more restrictive, in the interest of flavour. The Introduction explains all of this at length, so the only thing I want to add is that this isn't a rival/alternate MUL: it's doing a different thing. The MUL remains the one true determinant of canon for BT unit access. So when you see, say, the Lyran Availability section single out the Centurion -AL as a faction unit, that's just a suggestion that if you're going to take any of the available Centurions at that time, you should focus on the -AL if you're particularly interested in being fluffy; it's not trying to override the MUL which says everyone has the -AL (since "focus on" and "available in general" are different metrics).

Of course, you don't have to use this method strictly as intended. You can just take a quick look at the rarity listings it provides, go "hey, the Dracs apparently like Jenners", and start partitioning your pile of minis if you feel like it. It can be as simple as an off-the-cuff guide.

What's It All Mean?

The most important part here is that this book does not in any way signify a change on the part of CGL towards how the game is "supposed" to be played. As anyone who has been part of BT for any meaningful amount of time knows, this is a game filled with choices: choices of scale, choices of rulesets, choices of rules within rulesets, choices of unit types, choices of era. The MCH simply gives you a few more. In particular, people have been asking for this sort of list-building advice for a good 20 years (if not more). So here it is. But in the same way that the release of Interstellar Operations did not signify a shift on the part of BT to an all-mass combat game, the MCH's listbuilding element is meant simply to give BT fans one more tool in the chest. Even after the release of this book, you can continue to ignore all faction, era, and role requirements and just thrown down whatever you want at the table. But if you did wish for guidance on how to play the game in a more lore-accurate way, or simply wished that there was a readily available source of pre-made fluffy, BV-balanced table-scale formations available, now you'll have that. The tl;dr is that this gives list-based support, but does not mandate list-based play.


The Introduction chapter, not included in the preview, spends most of its time explaining the core concepts, so the preview will be somewhat unclear in a lot of the finer details. Feel free to ask questions if something is vague, but otherwise if I didn't cover it here it's probably outside the scope of what I want to talk about and so I may just say "you'll have to wait and see". Feedback, errors spotted, ease of use suggestions, ways to make it better (within scope/practicality): it's all welcome. Previews like this are as close of a beta as the book is liable to get. Final content may differ strongly from what you see here.

Lorcan Nagle wrote:OK, collating statements:

Force Manuals
-A rewriting and completion of the Combat Manual series, these are up to date with current Alpha Strike - not just a reissue for Kurita and Mercs. -- As per Joshua Franklin in the chat, they are also completely BattleTech compatible, including record sheets and Alpha Strike stats for unique units.
-Publication order is Davion in Q1, then Kurita Q2, and Mercs in Q3
-The Combat Manuals were the first of what Aaron calls the new layout, the books that didn't look like the traditional BattleTech books.
-Geoff "Doc" Smith had a draft for Combat Manual Davion submitted in 2017
-books are set in the Clan Invasion era.
-Each of the three books will have a PDF companion for the ilClan era.
-Davion is "done", Kurita is "almost done"

Hot Spots: Hinterlands
-Due out in Q3-ish
-Harkens back to the FASA-era Hot Spots book in terms of being a collection game hooks
-Set in the Hinterlands (of course)
-Has an expanded version of the Chaos Campaign rules, designed to be a step-up from the campaign rules in the Mercs box set.

MechCommander's Handbook
-Currently expected for Q4
-the campaign play book
-[Aaron] "we had campaign ops which was sort of an all in one campaign book, but it didn't have an all in one system but this does"
-Keith Hahn, who developed the BattleMech Manual is developing it
-There will be some previews dropped on the forum, a sort of "stealth playtest"

RecGuide Volume 2: ilClan
-due out "middle of 2024"
-all the "new new" stuff
-there will be a volume 33 PDF to fill it out, due out in "the next few months"
-Johannes Hiedler convinced Cubby we need "a few more pieces".
-some of the units in volume 33 will be from the Mercs Kickstarter.

ilKhan's Eyes Only
-still in development
-they're working closer with fiction so the sourcebook and related novels come out close together and don't contradict each other.
-currently hoping to be out for Q3
-story is broken, they just need to make the book
-story details have been shared with contributors for more fiction ideas
-plan is in place now for the next 3-4 years
-no time jumps!

40th Anniversary Reprints of Beginner box and GoAC
-Star League branded
-Of all the factions for Swag in the mercs Kickstarter, Star League was the most popular. Aaron's exact quote was "Of course in the ilClan era there will be a new Star League, and I think that's a sign that people are buying into the ilClan era... the new stuff. They're excited for the chance to see a third Star League in the setting. So we're playing into that"
-contents of the boxes are the same.
-Beginner's box retains the Vindicator.
-when the boxes came out originally, there was a mindset of "don't buy them, leave them on the shelf for new players", but this kills sales velocity and they were hard to restock anyway, but it's far better now to buy them and create desire for restocks now that they can do reprints relatively quickly.
-Hopefully be out in the first half of the year
-Covers are by Anthony Scroggins

SLDF forcepacks
-One per quarter
-separate from the Kickstarter
-will be on the CGL store for sure, unsure about distribution
-image of painted Thunder Hawk shown
-Star League Command Lance out Q1. Contains Atlas II, Thunder Hawk, Phoenix Hawk Special, Orion.
-Other packs themed along other lines
-Second Star League pack will have Civil War designs
-One mini per forcepack will be pre-painted
-The Pre-paint will be a notable unit in each case
-Victor Davion's Daishi will be a pre-paint.
-They showed the Thunder Hawk photo again at this point, but this seems to be an error
-The minis will be easily repaintable, either by prime over or repaint.
-the pre-paints will all be minis that have variants available elsewhere
Randall added the following on Sunday:
-he showed the prototypes of the Command Lance, including a painted Orion. Orion is a hand-painted sample by a friend of Randall's named Jared. Randall said it's 90% of what you'll get from the factory.
-Randall reiterated the prepaints will be easy to paint over or strip.
-they will put out the pantone colours for the prepaint minis online if you want to match the colours on the rest of the lance packs.
-confirmed the prepaints will all be variants or reposes of existing mechs
-Second Star League Assault Lance: Daishi Prometheus (pre-paint), Emperor, Argus, Helios, Coolant Truck
-Third Star league Striker Forcepack: Lament, Jackalope, Kintaro, Hammerhead 2( or II), Havoc. J-27 Ammo Transport
-Third Star League Battle Star Forcepack: Savage Wolf Prime (Randall said basically Alaric's Mech so presumably this will be the pre-paint, which means a plastic Savage Wolf elsewhere as well?), Wendigo, Excalibur, Peacekeeper, Malice, Saviour Repair Vehicle
-They were signed off a few weeks ago, sketches and renders will be shared soon.

Faction forcepacks
-not part of the Kickstarter
-"we have many coming"
-Not just the Star league
-Will publish in 2024
-specifics will be forthcoming, Ray didn't let Randall give more detail.
-are being worked on in between the SLDF packs.

Mercs box set
-Unboxed on stream
-fiction by Michael Ciaravella
-Battlefield support deck
-Alpha Strike cards
-Support Vehicle cards
-Pilot Cards for the 'mechs
-minis
-Rulebook contains chaos campaign
-primer book is mercs themed and includes 3151 map
-record sheet book, will also be downloadable from the website
-2 token sheets of vehicles, infantry, BattleArmour and support units
-laminated Merc Contract worksheets
-Mapsheets look to all be reworkings of classic maps - Scattered Woods, River Valley, Lake Area (all MS2) and Woodland (MS6)
-2-sided poster map of the Inner Sphere, one side is 3151, the other is 3058
-box is heaver than Alpha Strike and Aaron thinks there's more in there
-LE box's only difference is the lid. Which is very nice, Rem says it feels really nice.


Mercs forcepacks
-They unboxed Assault & Cavalry (Condor, Pegasus, Schrek, Demolisher) and Recon & Hunter lances (Skulker, Warrior VTOL, Ontos and Behemoth) boxes
-Warriors come attached to the bases but the box includes clear plastic stalks to mount them above the base as well.
-Randall showed the 5 Inner Sphere and one Clan forcepack on-screen, did not open them
-The Viper/Black Python is probably Randall's favourite redesign, he thinks the original is terrible (I disagree!)

Official Terrain
-They're still working on how to offer the 3D terrain based on the map assets

updates to other units
-There's thoughts towards collating the Shrapnel designs in another product, not as a RecGuide
-This was said in answer to "any updates for the Proliferation Cycle units, maybe in Recguide 33?"

Mercs Kickstarter swag
-Will be available after the Kickstarter

reprints of old books
-Asked about the historicals specifically, they have some POD capability, they're talking about doing Brush Wars and Wars of the Republic Era. The first few new Brush Wars PDFs were originally going to be Brush Wars II. Layout remains a bottleneck, they wanted to have Liberation of Terra out in POD to coincide with the last Founding of the Clans novel and that didn't happen at all.

Kickstarter posters
-McCarron's Armoured Cavalry poster has the deep space scene from the cover of the most recent Strat Ops cover (among other places) on the back.
-Eridani Light Horse one has the recognition chart on the back

Map Packs
-Savannah is RRP $30, City is $35. This is because City comes with three punchboard sheets of building/rubble counters of various sizes
-Randall showed off one mapsheet from City where one side is half of a HPG station.

Premium Record sheets
-combination of half-page and full-page sheets
-all mechs in the Kickstarter have full-page sheets, not all get Beginner box half-size ones though.

BattleTech universe
-a massive labour of love for many people, but "especially Ray"
-a book they've always wanted to have for people who want to know about the background
-Randall thinks it's one of the best-looking books and feels it can stand with the best of the industry
-initial print run of 10,000 which is one of the highest they've ever done, and Randall expects they'll be ordering a reprint before the end of the year.
-they showed off a lovely 2-page spread of the exodus fleet

They also showed off a hand-built preview copy of the Precentor Martial edition
-"This is what happens when Randall is not really given a budget and Randall decides to make the most gorgeous thing he can get away with"
-Randall had to cut a few things from the set for time
-Has a sound chip in the box lid that plays the MechWarrior 2 startup sequence
-Metallic ink print of the GDL Marauder art which homages the 4th Succession War Atlas cover.
-2-sided blueprint with a Warhammer on one side and Mad Cat on the other
-The version of the main book has cutaway diagrams of clear acetate pages showing interior layers of the different unit types
-the most detailed interior of a DropShip (Randall keeps saying JumpShip here, but he's showing the pages for an Overlord-class Dropship at the time). Anthony Scroggins rendered the ship out to ensire it matched the published dimensions correctly.
-Randall teased a piece of art he described as a "Dak present to you guys". I couldn't make out much detail but there seemed to be a lot of mechs
-3-page gatefold art pieces, the one shown was the ELH tryptich. the other side is clean copies of some of the best BattleTech art.
-Remembrance book. Randall can't remember if it was his or Ray's idea
-The book contains short essays by various contributors to BattleTech down through the years.
-Randall and Ray both got quite emotional reading the stories.
-There's a lot of Unseen art in the book. This does not mean the art will appear elsewhere, it's a special self-contained thing.
-the front endpaper is the MechWarrior 1st edition cover
-the cover to the 4th Succession War Atlas is the frontispiece
-contents page has the BattleDroids/BattleTech 2nd&3rd edition cover
-David Deitrick did a new piece of art for the book as well as an essay. He's in his 80s now and offered to do some new art but he has issues with his hands so asked for extra time to complete it, and it made the book.

Fiction
-In the Shadow of the Dragon by Craig Reed. Due out before the end of the year, about Yori Kurita consolidating her power
-Letter of the Law by Phil Lee. Late December/Early January release. A follow-up to Hunting Season
-Without Question by Bryan Young. Q1 2024, a sequel to A Question of Survival, focused on the Ghost Bear sibkin who were taken by the Falcons. "There is action on Sudeten"
-Trial by Birthright by Michael Ciaravella. Q2 2024. Set on Terra, catching up with the Wolves while everything's been going on in the rest of the Sphere. "What if you had a Star League and nobody came?"
-Voidbreaker by Bryan Young. Q3 2024. "Whatever happened to Tucker Harwell?" A different take on a BattleTech novel, more of a spy story.
-Tom Leveen is doing a House Liao-centric novel to be set simultaneously with Trial by Birthright. Should be out in Q3
-A Skulk of Foxes by Jason Hansa. Sea Foxes up to their usual tricks.
-War of Reaving Trilogy is progressing now.
-Shrapnel 15 is on schedule. New Kell Hounds cover and Stackpole story, Jason Schmetzer story, some new authors, two parts of Bryan young's Fox Patrol serial will be in it.
-Tales of the Bounty Hunter. Most stories are in, a few are outstanding.
-Cookbook is about to enter layout.
-Art of War is in progress as well.
-Will there be Jihad fiction? Tentatively yes. More info in the coming year.
-There are multiple Audiobooks in production. John is hoping that he can start putting out at least one per month from 2024 onwards. Lots in the pipeline, had to iron out issues with the production timeline. Close Quarters is done, should be with Kickstarter backers in December or January. Hoping to get Hour of the Wolf out in Q1
-Michael Ciaravella is working on a a Snow Raven book called A Treachery of Ravens.
-Den of Wolves has had some progress. First draft unlikely to be complete before the end of year though, John wanted him to prioritise Art of War and now that's done he's cracking his editorial whip. Once he's got the manuscript he said we'd know because his yell will be audible across the entire US
-They've "got to hit a bunch of things to hit" before doing a follow-up to Damocles Sanction. Mike Ciaravella's plate is loaded up for the next 12-18 months
-One of Daniel Isberner's German novels will be translated and hopefully released in 2024.
-John is looking into getting books translated into German as well.
-The Twilight of the Clans novels should be getting the Legends treatment next year, John liked the suggestion from Chat that there could be a Task Force Serpent anthology.
-If the War of Reaving books do well John is considering doing more event-specific trilogies
-If Jason Schemetzer had the time, John would love for him to do a 5-book series about each of the original Dragoons contracts.
-3rd GDL novella is actually a short novel, waiting on cover art. There will be a PoD Omnibus when it's out.
-There will be Shadowrun and Leviathans fiction (including a Mike Richie one about Ireland, woo, a Michael Ciaravella one about Italy and a Mike Stackpole one too. And possibly ones by people not named Mike)!

 Kanluwen wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
Maybe to give new players a "sample" they can follow?

There's a better way to do that: in the introductory box that has two mechs, plus the introductory rules.

I mean, you're not wrong...but their push is for "themed" sets, so why not go that route instead?

Lorcan Nagle wrote:OK, collating statements:

Force Manuals
-A rewriting and completion of the Combat Manual series, these are up to date with current Alpha Strike - not just a reissue for Kurita and Mercs. -- As per Joshua Franklin in the chat, they are also completely BattleTech compatible, including record sheets and Alpha Strike stats for unique units.
-Publication order is Davion in Q1, then Kurita Q2, and Mercs in Q3
-The Combat Manuals were the first of what Aaron calls the new layout, the books that didn't look like the traditional BattleTech books.
-Geoff "Doc" Smith had a draft for Combat Manual Davion submitted in 2017
-books are set in the Clan Invasion era.
-Each of the three books will have a PDF companion for the ilClan era.
-Davion is "done", Kurita is "almost done"

Hot Spots: Hinterlands
-Due out in Q3-ish
-Harkens back to the FASA-era Hot Spots book in terms of being a collection game hooks
-Set in the Hinterlands (of course)
-Has an expanded version of the Chaos Campaign rules, designed to be a step-up from the campaign rules in the Mercs box set.

MechCommander's Handbook
-Currently expected for Q4
-the campaign play book
-[Aaron] "we had campaign ops which was sort of an all in one campaign book, but it didn't have an all in one system but this does"
-Keith Hahn, who developed the BattleMech Manual is developing it
-There will be some previews dropped on the forum, a sort of "stealth playtest"

RecGuide Volume 2: ilClan
-due out "middle of 2024"
-all the "new new" stuff
-there will be a volume 33 PDF to fill it out, due out in "the next few months"
-Johannes Hiedler convinced Cubby we need "a few more pieces".
-some of the units in volume 33 will be from the Mercs Kickstarter.

ilKhan's Eyes Only
-still in development
-they're working closer with fiction so the sourcebook and related novels come out close together and don't contradict each other.
-currently hoping to be out for Q3
-story is broken, they just need to make the book
-story details have been shared with contributors for more fiction ideas
-plan is in place now for the next 3-4 years
-no time jumps!

40th Anniversary Reprints of Beginner box and GoAC
-Star League branded
-Of all the factions for Swag in the mercs Kickstarter, Star League was the most popular. Aaron's exact quote was "Of course in the ilClan era there will be a new Star League, and I think that's a sign that people are buying into the ilClan era... the new stuff. They're excited for the chance to see a third Star League in the setting. So we're playing into that"
-contents of the boxes are the same.
-Beginner's box retains the Vindicator.
-when the boxes came out originally, there was a mindset of "don't buy them, leave them on the shelf for new players", but this kills sales velocity and they were hard to restock anyway, but it's far better now to buy them and create desire for restocks now that they can do reprints relatively quickly.
-Hopefully be out in the first half of the year
-Covers are by Anthony Scroggins

SLDF forcepacks
-One per quarter
-separate from the Kickstarter
-will be on the CGL store for sure, unsure about distribution
-image of painted Thunder Hawk shown
-Star League Command Lance out Q1. Contains Atlas II, Thunder Hawk, Phoenix Hawk Special, Orion.
-Other packs themed along other lines
-Second Star League pack will have Civil War designs
-One mini per forcepack will be pre-painted
-The Pre-paint will be a notable unit in each case
-Victor Davion's Daishi will be a pre-paint.
-They showed the Thunder Hawk photo again at this point, but this seems to be an error
-The minis will be easily repaintable, either by prime over or repaint.
-the pre-paints will all be minis that have variants available elsewhere
Randall added the following on Sunday:
-he showed the prototypes of the Command Lance, including a painted Orion. Orion is a hand-painted sample by a friend of Randall's named Jared. Randall said it's 90% of what you'll get from the factory.
-Randall reiterated the prepaints will be easy to paint over or strip.
-they will put out the pantone colours for the prepaint minis online if you want to match the colours on the rest of the lance packs.
-confirmed the prepaints will all be variants or reposes of existing mechs
-Second Star League Assault Lance: Daishi Prometheus (pre-paint), Emperor, Argus, Helios, Coolant Truck
-Third Star league Striker Forcepack: Lament, Jackalope, Kintaro, Hammerhead 2( or II), Havoc. J-27 Ammo Transport
-Third Star League Battle Star Forcepack: Savage Wolf Prime (Randall said basically Alaric's Mech so presumably this will be the pre-paint, which means a plastic Savage Wolf elsewhere as well?), Wendigo, Excalibur, Peacekeeper, Malice, Saviour Repair Vehicle
-They were signed off a few weeks ago, sketches and renders will be shared soon.

Faction forcepacks
-not part of the Kickstarter
-"we have many coming"
-Not just the Star league
-Will publish in 2024
-specifics will be forthcoming, Ray didn't let Randall give more detail.
-are being worked on in between the SLDF packs.

Mercs box set
-Unboxed on stream
-fiction by Michael Ciaravella
-Battlefield support deck
-Alpha Strike cards
-Support Vehicle cards
-Pilot Cards for the 'mechs
-minis
-Rulebook contains chaos campaign
-primer book is mercs themed and includes 3151 map
-record sheet book, will also be downloadable from the website
-2 token sheets of vehicles, infantry, BattleArmour and support units
-laminated Merc Contract worksheets
-Mapsheets look to all be reworkings of classic maps - Scattered Woods, River Valley, Lake Area (all MS2) and Woodland (MS6)
-2-sided poster map of the Inner Sphere, one side is 3151, the other is 3058
-box is heaver than Alpha Strike and Aaron thinks there's more in there
-LE box's only difference is the lid. Which is very nice, Rem says it feels really nice.


Mercs forcepacks
-They unboxed Assault & Cavalry (Condor, Pegasus, Schrek, Demolisher) and Recon & Hunter lances (Skulker, Warrior VTOL, Ontos and Behemoth) boxes
-Warriors come attached to the bases but the box includes clear plastic stalks to mount them above the base as well.
-Randall showed the 5 Inner Sphere and one Clan forcepack on-screen, did not open them
-The Viper/Black Python is probably Randall's favourite redesign, he thinks the original is terrible (I disagree!)

Official Terrain
-They're still working on how to offer the 3D terrain based on the map assets

updates to other units
-There's thoughts towards collating the Shrapnel designs in another product, not as a RecGuide
-This was said in answer to "any updates for the Proliferation Cycle units, maybe in Recguide 33?"

Mercs Kickstarter swag
-Will be available after the Kickstarter

reprints of old books
-Asked about the historicals specifically, they have some POD capability, they're talking about doing Brush Wars and Wars of the Republic Era. The first few new Brush Wars PDFs were originally going to be Brush Wars II. Layout remains a bottleneck, they wanted to have Liberation of Terra out in POD to coincide with the last Founding of the Clans novel and that didn't happen at all.

Kickstarter posters
-McCarron's Armoured Cavalry poster has the deep space scene from the cover of the most recent Strat Ops cover (among other places) on the back.
-Eridani Light Horse one has the recognition chart on the back

Map Packs
-Savannah is RRP $30, City is $35. This is because City comes with three punchboard sheets of building/rubble counters of various sizes
-Randall showed off one mapsheet from City where one side is half of a HPG station.

Premium Record sheets
-combination of half-page and full-page sheets
-all mechs in the Kickstarter have full-page sheets, not all get Beginner box half-size ones though.

BattleTech universe
-a massive labour of love for many people, but "especially Ray"
-a book they've always wanted to have for people who want to know about the background
-Randall thinks it's one of the best-looking books and feels it can stand with the best of the industry
-initial print run of 10,000 which is one of the highest they've ever done, and Randall expects they'll be ordering a reprint before the end of the year.
-they showed off a lovely 2-page spread of the exodus fleet

They also showed off a hand-built preview copy of the Precentor Martial edition
-"This is what happens when Randall is not really given a budget and Randall decides to make the most gorgeous thing he can get away with"
-Randall had to cut a few things from the set for time
-Has a sound chip in the box lid that plays the MechWarrior 2 startup sequence
-Metallic ink print of the GDL Marauder art which homages the 4th Succession War Atlas cover.
-2-sided blueprint with a Warhammer on one side and Mad Cat on the other
-The version of the main book has cutaway diagrams of clear acetate pages showing interior layers of the different unit types
-the most detailed interior of a DropShip (Randall keeps saying JumpShip here, but he's showing the pages for an Overlord-class Dropship at the time). Anthony Scroggins rendered the ship out to ensire it matched the published dimensions correctly.
-Randall teased a piece of art he described as a "Dak present to you guys". I couldn't make out much detail but there seemed to be a lot of mechs
-3-page gatefold art pieces, the one shown was the ELH tryptich. the other side is clean copies of some of the best BattleTech art.
-Remembrance book. Randall can't remember if it was his or Ray's idea
-The book contains short essays by various contributors to BattleTech down through the years.
-Randall and Ray both got quite emotional reading the stories.
-There's a lot of Unseen art in the book. This does not mean the art will appear elsewhere, it's a special self-contained thing.
-the front endpaper is the MechWarrior 1st edition cover
-the cover to the 4th Succession War Atlas is the frontispiece
-contents page has the BattleDroids/BattleTech 2nd&3rd edition cover
-David Deitrick did a new piece of art for the book as well as an essay. He's in his 80s now and offered to do some new art but he has issues with his hands so asked for extra time to complete it, and it made the book.

Fiction
-In the Shadow of the Dragon by Craig Reed. Due out before the end of the year, about Yori Kurita consolidating her power
-Letter of the Law by Phil Lee. Late December/Early January release. A follow-up to Hunting Season
-Without Question by Bryan Young. Q1 2024, a sequel to A Question of Survival, focused on the Ghost Bear sibkin who were taken by the Falcons. "There is action on Sudeten"
-Trial by Birthright by Michael Ciaravella. Q2 2024. Set on Terra, catching up with the Wolves while everything's been going on in the rest of the Sphere. "What if you had a Star League and nobody came?"
-Voidbreaker by Bryan Young. Q3 2024. "Whatever happened to Tucker Harwell?" A different take on a BattleTech novel, more of a spy story.
-Tom Leveen is doing a House Liao-centric novel to be set simultaneously with Trial by Birthright. Should be out in Q3
-A Skulk of Foxes by Jason Hansa. Sea Foxes up to their usual tricks.
-War of Reaving Trilogy is progressing now.
-Shrapnel 15 is on schedule. New Kell Hounds cover and Stackpole story, Jason Schmetzer story, some new authors, two parts of Bryan young's Fox Patrol serial will be in it.
-Tales of the Bounty Hunter. Most stories are in, a few are outstanding.
-Cookbook is about to enter layout.
-Art of War is in progress as well.
-Will there be Jihad fiction? Tentatively yes. More info in the coming year.
-There are multiple Audiobooks in production. John is hoping that he can start putting out at least one per month from 2024 onwards. Lots in the pipeline, had to iron out issues with the production timeline. Close Quarters is done, should be with Kickstarter backers in December or January. Hoping to get Hour of the Wolf out in Q1
-Michael Ciaravella is working on a a Snow Raven book called A Treachery of Ravens.
-Den of Wolves has had some progress. First draft unlikely to be complete before the end of year though, John wanted him to prioritise Art of War and now that's done he's cracking his editorial whip. Once he's got the manuscript he said we'd know because his yell will be audible across the entire US
-They've "got to hit a bunch of things to hit" before doing a follow-up to Damocles Sanction. Mike Ciaravella's plate is loaded up for the next 12-18 months
-One of Daniel Isberner's German novels will be translated and hopefully released in 2024.
-John is looking into getting books translated into German as well.
-The Twilight of the Clans novels should be getting the Legends treatment next year, John liked the suggestion from Chat that there could be a Task Force Serpent anthology.
-If the War of Reaving books do well John is considering doing more event-specific trilogies
-If Jason Schemetzer had the time, John would love for him to do a 5-book series about each of the original Dragoons contracts.
-3rd GDL novella is actually a short novel, waiting on cover art. There will be a PoD Omnibus when it's out.
-There will be Shadowrun and Leviathans fiction (including a Mike Richie one about Ireland, woo, a Michael Ciaravella one about Italy and a Mike Stackpole one too. And possibly ones by people not named Mike)!