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Catalyst Game Labs wrote:
The Endless War sweeps the Human Sphere and you are mustered to fight. But you need to know the horrors you'll face on the battlefield, be they BattleMechs, Abominations, or the great powers of humanity.
This is the universe primer to learn all about BattleTech: Gothic!
Catalyst Game Labs wrote:Gothic is the first themed-box release in the BattleTech Continuum, which explores alternate settings.
This makes me think we could see an anime themed series should Gothic actually take off. The term anime pretty much means Robotech/Macross themed, so either they somehow get a deal with Big West, they make comepletely original designs, or it blows up in their faces(again).
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/03/25 20:07:11
Given how much mecha anime designs changed since the 80s, I can only assume they mean more moder anime-styled designs, rather than just rehashing the Unseen which they did already after all.
Catalyst Game Labs wrote:Gothic is the first themed-box release in the BattleTech Continuum, which explores alternate settings.
This makes me think we could see an anime themed series should Gothic actually take off. The term anime pretty much means Robotech/Macross themed, so either they somehow get a deal with Big West, they make comepletely original designs, or it blows up in their faces(again).
As noted in this post, these are going to be one-offs, with each basically being a reskin of A Game of Armored Combat.
Also, all designs will be made in-house. They're not going to be making deals to use anyone else's IP.
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
Those were designed by Studio Nue, same team that did Macross. Some real great designs, and there's a guy doing STLs for some of them. Looking forward to an even more updated take in proper CGL PVC plastic when they get around to it
I like this weirdo Gothic take on the visuals. And, if nothing else, the Gothic minis are fantastic models for your adventures fighting wacko pirates out in the Periphery!
If you take a read through the primer, I know it will feel like a HUGE departure for the lorehounds. But it’s actually pretty superficial from a more casual or high-level perspective . I think the idea here is to use this AU to funnel new players into mainstream BattleTech. In this case, there’s an obvious appeal to potential players who like grimdark aesthetics.
The other teased AUs feel a lot more experimental. Atomic Age BattleTech is a truly original concept. I’d like to think the background for that one cannot simply be “it’s just standard BT but with tail fins” in the same way that Gothic seems to be “it’s just standard BT but with gothic arches” … Something more than “and so they genetically engineered some stuff after the Star League fell apart” is needed to explain the Buck Rogers aesthetic (not that anything in the primer for Gothic actually explains the Gothic aesthetic).
As for “anime” being the inspiration for an AU. Well, Gothic feels a bit like an in-universe comic book or cartoon. I hope BattleTech “Anime” has the same feel but focuses exclusively on the Clans. The pre-invasion Clans are so anime, it would be a pretty great joke to have an AU where the Wardens won and the Clans did not invade the IS and just kept doing all their weird anime battles.
Come on, guys, seriously? Am I the only one here old enough to remember how BattleTech got started?
Stinger, Wasp, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman, Archer, Warhammer, Ostsol, Marauder, all straight out of MACROSS?
BattleTech's whole POINT was to play out Anime giant robot battles on the tabletop, with (what turned out not to be) just enough changed to avoid getting sued.
CHAOS! PANIC! DISORDER!
My job here is done.
2025/03/27 16:46:25
Subject: BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Vulcan wrote: Come on, guys, seriously? Am I the only one here old enough to remember how BattleTech got started?
Stinger, Wasp, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman, Archer, Warhammer, Ostsol, Marauder, all straight out of MACROSS?
BattleTech's whole POINT was to play out Anime giant robot battles on the tabletop, with (what turned out not to be) just enough changed to avoid getting sued.
Not exactly. They licensed the 'Mechs from Twentieth Century Imports, who might not have been in a position to provide these rights to FASA.
25th March 2025
Guest: Picty Szczesniak, new business development lead, 11-bit Studios
News
-BattleTech Gothic
--A “Dark Fantasy” alt-setting
--The first of multiple alternate setting box sets
--More info coming via Adepticon, the newsletter and social media
-New release
--March 5th
---Battlefield Support: Assault and Cavalry
---Inner Sphere BattleArmour Platoon
--March 19th
---Map Pack: City
---Legends II
---Somerset Strikers
---Davion Cavalry Lance
---Battlemat City HPG engineering
---Salvage box: visigoth
--Some new premium mechs are up too
-Adepticon stream schedule:
--Thursday
---Introduction
---Lunchtable Secrets: BattleTech Gothic with Loren, Randall and Mike Ciaravella
---Actual Play
---Interview with Randall Bills
---Interview with Mike Ciaravella
---Shrapnel roundtable with Phil Lee and guests
---Actual Play
---Submissions Q&A fireside chat
---overflow/gaming hall stream
--Friday
---In the Beginning with Loren, Randall and Mike Stackpole
---Lunchtable secrets: Aces with Mike Ciaravella and Josh Derrickson
---Aces actual play
---Interview with Marco Mazzoni
---Interview with Bryan young
---Art roundtable with Marco Mazzoni and guests
---Actual Play
---Fireside chat/gaming hall stream
--Saturday
---Interview with Tommy Rice, Partha Wars minis game creator
---Lunchtable secrets: The Lok/Partha Wars with Tommy Rice and Randall Bills
---Actual Play
---Interview with Jon Helfers
---Interview with Mike Stackpole
---Fiction Roundtable with John Helfers and Guests
---Actual Play
---Q&A/fireside chat
---Tentative: Painting competition and Urbie Derby
--Sunday
---Secret Announcement with Mike Ciaravella and Tommy Gotfon
---Lunchtable Secrets BattleTech with Mike Ciaravella and Ray Arrastia
---Interview with Phil Lee
---Livestream wrapup with Talon and friends
-New fiction
--Fortunes of War 1 and 2
--A Night at the Lake
Q&A
-Any Aces news? Rem was only at Kerenskykon at the very end, but there’ll be an update at Adepticon, probably Friday
-When will the Kurita forcepacks be released? Ranger lance is set for July right now
-When is The Art of Food hitting retail? Currently set for April 16th
-Will CGL be at DragonCon? They don’t think so, they have to pull back on their con presence this year.
-Have the Premium Stormcrow B/TC swapped arms been fixed? They should have been, email store@catalystgamelabs.com if you have an issue
-Any update on Australian Kickstarter shipping? Rem has been travelling and doesn’t have anything yet. She’ll chase with QML and get an update ASAP.
-Any word on restocks, especially Hinterlands? Rem has chased with Talon, update next week.
-When will the 3rd Star League forcepacks go on sale? Strike Team is set for June 15th, Battlegroup is set for August
And on with the live feed from Adepticon 2025:
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Intro/Q&A with Randall, Loren and Mike Ciaravella
Gothic? Yes.
Loren has been watching the news with an amount of glee, he’s glad that people are passionate either way about it
It’s not an April Fool’s joke, it’s real
They’ve been working on it for about two and a half years
They love where their plastic minis manufacturing is at, and they want to push things further in that regards
Loren came up with the idea of doing a product with a different aesthetic, to see what they could do while keeping the main line going.
They kept it a secret because they didn’t know when it would launch
They missed the deadline to have it ready for Adepticon by a few weeks
It should be out before Gencon, hopefully sooner, pending shipping out of China
It did not push any other product downstream or off the table
Any forcepack delays were due to Aces rather than Gothic
Randall ran the project to keep Ray and Aaron’s desks clear
Was Gothic picked to be the first continuum product to capitalise on 40K refugees? Partially, but also the gothic aesthetic is popular in games like 40K and Malifaux and they wanted to play with it.
The three guaranteed Continuum projects are Gothic, a 50s style Rocket and Rayguns one, and an anime inspired one.
They wanna do other genres, like steampunk and solarpunk
Loren talked about how he didn’t like the original king Crab art and model, but it seems he was thinking about the metal mini rather than the new plastic, he forgot it had been done already.
He’s really looking forward to seeing players painting up the minis
Why kickstart mercs and not Gothic? When they kickstarted Clan Invasion, they literally couldn’t do it without the support of the players.They had the capital to do mercs, but kickstarter is a great marketing tool and it catapulted the game into more fame and took in a huge amount of money. They decided to just bring Gothic to market, having the kind of internet discourse we’ve seen for the last few days go on for 18 months would have been a lot though, and might have harmed the game.
The minis are bigger than the standard BattleTech plastics. The hex bases are the same, the scale is the same, they’re just beefier and sometimes taller. This is in part to support the increased detail
Will they do an Abomination forcepack? Maybe. One of the demo team printed out an Abomination large scale so they’re thinking about doing a forcepack
There are two Gothic products planned: The box and then salvage boxes. The salvage boxes will have the 7 regular mechs and each of the 5 atlas options pre-assembled.
If sales are good they might do the Abominations, maybe one other product.
The Rockets and Rayguns box is in development.
Why didn’t they put an Abomination in the box? The game is always about the mechs, so the box comes with cardboard counters for the Abominations.
Will it be easy to mix Gothic with regular BattleTech? Yes, there are special rules for the Abominations but the mechs are mechs. You could play Gothic vs Rockets and Rayguns, or against Regular BattleTech.
Will Abominations have BSP cards and regular record sheets? Yes
Will there be abomination construction rules? No
How about a world War II continuum set? It’s one they’re considering.
Will there be new weapons? A couple, plus some TacOps weapons will be in the core book
Some of the Abominations are effectively elementals. The biggest are mech-sized
Why alt universes instead of new minis? They’re doing both. Aces pushed the forcepacks downstream in part because they have new minis themselves. CGL’s business with Liya is a small chunk of Liya’s total work in a year, and they always make time for CGL so it didn’t replace another production run or anything.
Any word on Aces for BattleTech? They’re hoping to have an open Beta live by the time Scouring Sands comes out.
Why not an Annihilator in Gothic? A lot of designs were discussed, and were eliminated for various reasons
Status of the AS:CE reprint? The leftover kickstarter stock has arrived back with the distributor so it’ll be available soon?
Will LAMs be in the anime set? They didn’t answer, but they mentioned they’re testing new AeroTech rulesets
They’ll be reprinting TRO 3025 with new art soon.
Will there be a Transhuman continuum set, a la Eclipse Phase? Possibly, they’re looking at doing a Solarpunk set which would cover similar ground. This would be a few years into the line.
How about a Scythe crossover? Randall loves Scythe, he might look into that
Updated TRO: 3057? It’s possible, but they’ll have to get the new AeroTech done first. He loves capital ship games and his five-year plan is to have McKennas and Camerons clashing.
How about an alternate universe where the humans are replaced with human-sized birds? There might be something hitting the internet soon
Any timeline for MUL 2.0? Not right now, due to real-world issues. Randall is hoping for the next two months
Any word on international stores? The webstore has had a major overhaul which makes it easier to integrate with multiple warehouses. They’ve signed a contract with an Australian partner and are working on UK and EU ones right now. They’re planning a smoke test of the retail integration soon too.
They’re planning to do minis of the outstanding 3025 and 2750 mechs, they don’t have a set product yet.
CGL won’t make it to UK Games Expo this year, but the Demo Team will be there and CGL are hoping to be back next year,
They hope the local shipping hubs will have better support for Kickstarters too.
Any changes to the new printing of AS:CE?. Just errata, but they’re looking to do a bigger revision in the next few years.
Den of Wolves is “about half done”
Any more fiction like Hungry like the Wolf on the way? If it sells well enough
Will there be more ways to get the hardback rulebooks? They seem to always be out of print. CGL are selling out of print runs as soon as they come in, so they’re working to increase the print orders. The last year has been very bad as reprints were tapped for Kickstarter fulfillment first.
How about a forcepack of every mini released in a year? They could do it but it wouldn’t necessarily be profitable, the price point might be too high and it might not be viable at retail. A category on the webstore might be a thing.
Any word on fixing the layout of total Warfare? The Battlemech manual was specifically designed to be accessible, they’re taking lessons from it to rework Total Warfare
Randall still has some 40th anniversary patches if you meet him at a con
How about an all hunchback forcepack? They could, but Randall’s not saying he will.
The Bug company box is likely to come but production pressures from aces mean it’ll be next year at the earliest
Didn’t they say they were half done with Den of Wolves last year? Yes, but work slowed down for various reasons, Loren alluded to his son’s death. He figures he has four chapters left to do and Stackpole six, and then they need to work together on revisions.
When will there be more ilClan forcepacks? One of each of the two faction packs coming out now is kinda Clan Invasion-Civil War, and the other more Jihad-Dark Age.
The Kurita forcepacks are heading to the printer now
Why is Aces slowing production? Because it’s a giant development with lots of new rules, lots of new minis. They strongly believe Aves will bring in a lot of new players who are into co-op play. The rulebook in Scouring Sands will be tabled, the campaign book is spiral bound
Will there be Marik, Liao and Fox Patrol forcepacks? Absolutely
Any word on the new RPG? Not yet, they’re very early in development. They’re talking with a very well-regarded veteran designer about bringing them onboard for the project.
Mercs Force Manual is about to go to print, Invading Clans is in development
MechCommander’s Handbook is still being worked on. Loren joked it’d be done in the next 12 months because Ray wasn’t there to stop him.
Will the AS:CE rework make major changes? No, it’ll be closer to the BattleMech manual in terms of reorganising and streamlining
How about working with Cubicle 7 on the new RPG? They love Cubicle 7 but one of their licensors forbids them from working with CGL.
Top five mechs? Randall limited to 2: Banshee and Phoenix Hawk. Loren did 3: Saggitaire, Warhammer and Wraith.
Update on Brush Wars? It got caught up in the work on Mercs, they’re working on getting them out.
Any chance of more swag on the webstore? They’re working on it, the new webstore should make it easier.
Any chance of a Solaris Forcepack? Solaris is a conundrum for them. Randall feels BattleTech isn’t a good dueling game and they need a new rule set. He really wants to take it to the next level for when they do a set, especially for the arena maps.
Are there mugs for sale at Adepticon?
Will there be more support for Destiny? Part of what makes Destiny great is how light it is, but that makes it hard to expand it. They’ll continue to include RPG material in sourcebooks and Loren will ask Ray about publishing a few PDF products like adventures.
Any chance of new BattleTroops? There’s a possibility but it’s further downstream.
Update on Randall’s Spirit Cat/Nova Cat novel? He’s looking forward to getting back to it now he’s back from travelling the world.
Update on BV 3? They’ve looked at revising it a few times, they’re working on it slowly at present but the complexity of BattleTech means it’s hard going.
Any chance of Destiny scale minis? Loren would love to
Any word on audiobooks? John is doing a big push for audiobooks. He’s got 20 in some stage of completion.
Is there a BV or era they like to play? Randall is equal opportunity. Loren likes Clan Invasion. In terms of BV, he likes the setup for Masters and Minions where there’s a decent weight on the table, usually 10-15,000 points.
Was Gothic more influenced by 40K or Doom? All of the above. They’re gonna do an AMA about gothic with Ray and Marco in the near future to talk about influences.
Any word on a new German publisher for BattleTech? Still being worked on.
Any new stuff for sale? The brand-new stuff vanished in a half an hour.
Any chance of fiction for Gothic? Herb has a short story in the box, after that, let’s see. Loren suggested to Mike Stackpole that he rewrite the key scenes in the Warrior trilogy to Gothic and he liked that idea. Shrapnel is a more likely place to see Gothic fiction.
Will we see more customizable mech minis. Absolutely, the Atlas is part of the ongoing experiment in giving variants and option parts
I chose BattleTech because it’s not 40K: That’s fine, and it’s fine to not buy Gothic. The main game will continue to be heavily supported.
Reprint of Campaign Operations? It’s at the con, should be at distributors in a few weeks.
How about a fully-customisable plastic OmniMech? Randall would love to be able to do that
Any change of releasing a forcepack of PGI mechs? It’s possible but no plans.
When will the new AeroTech be released? They’re nowhere near announcing a date, they’re still comparing pitches they’ve gotten for new rulesets.
I wish we could see the Clans in the Gothic universe: They had to put the line somewhere. By comparison all the mechs in the anime inspired box will likely be Clan.
Aces release date? They hope to have it launch at Gencon and in stores in the autumn
What’s in the emplacements box? There are six turrets that are cross-compatible with the towers and mounts and about 70% of the turrets from the vehicles
The baseline AeroTech game will be fighter-specific
The gothic box was what Kerensky was afraid of: Aleksandr and Andrey sure, but Nicholas?
Any update on retailer support form the new Webshop? Talon might talk about it on-stream but he’s working on it
Any chance of getting the Haneastic Crusade mechs? Maybe but it’ll be far out. Loren likes the idea of doing a deep periphery box
Plastic Protomechs? Coming in the Wars of Reaving Forcepack
Succesion Wars boardgame update? It’s made a lot of progress in the last month, they did playtesting in-person at KerenskyKon, and hope to have open beta via Tabletop sim in May.
Santa-hat Atlas for Christmas and Pumpkin head for Hallow’een? Loren likes the idea (and a bunny-ears one for Easter) but do you really want him doing crazy ideas that slow down the schedule?]
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Fiction Panel with John Helfers, Mike Ciaravella and Mike Stackpole
For sale at the con:
The Art of Food
The Art of War translated and annotated by Jamie Wolf
Hardbacks of:
Close Quarters
Double Blind
Main Event
Mike Stackpole is working on more Death Kangaroos
The writers, developers and editors at Adepticon have been working out the plot and where it’s going to be presented
The first pass of the script for the first graphic novel is with Phil for comments. The art will have a number of big name guest artists
Upcoming fiction:
Blood Will Rise by Tom Lveen
The Long Road by Jason Hansa, about Tara Campbell. It’s seen as a conclusion for Tara for now, but she’ll be in a position for another writer to take up later if they want
The translation of Daniel Isberner’s Silent Reapers novel
Shrapnel 25 will be another double-sized issue
Recent releases:
Voidbreaker by Bryan young
Trial of Birthright by Michael Ciaravella
Mike Stackpole is working on a Red Corsair origin novel right now.
They mentioned CGL are publishing Stackpole’s HBS tie-in stories. Each of the four will get an ebook followed by a PoD compilation
Mike Ciaravella is working on A Treachery of Ravens, a Snow Raven-centric story with lots of Aerospace
He’s also halfway through two unnamed projects and planning his next thing
A Nelson Geist short story is mentioned at the start of Natural Selection, can that be republished? It’s in BattleCorps Anthology 1: the Corps.
Hour of the Wolf was added to Audible at the start of the year, and Fall from Glory is live now with the rest of the Founding of the Clans novels coming soon.
Can we get an Audiobook of Hungry Like the Wolf? Yeah
Can we get more Leatherbound novels? Maybe, they’re printed overseas and recent events make that harder. Costs and Scheduling are issues and John needs to get approval to get them printed.
Will there be any Terran Falcon fiction soon? Bryan Young has a pitch in, John is open to the right pitch for more.
Will the Big Kappas be getting copies of the novels and Shrapnel? Yes. The Kappas who made it to Kerenskykon got a big pile of stuff last week.
When will there be a sequel to Damocles Sanction? It’s on the docket, more a question of when.
Will there be more BattleCorps Anthologies? They want to reissue the old anthologies, they want to clean up and join up the serial novels, and they can probably do another couple of annual anthologies. It’s a lot of work
Will there be more Kell Hounds in the ilClan? Probably
When will we get more Rasalhague Dominion fiction? There’ll be a quartet of Novellas with an Omnibus later by Bryan Young picking up after A Question of Survival and going through the civil war.
When will the Wars of Reaving novels be out? No earlier than 2026
When will the Bounty Hunter anthology be out? Soon. They’re waiting on the last couple of stories
Can we get a Critter-Tek reissue? They’ll have to see who has the license, and if so they’d add it to the pile of sourcebooks for the PoD project.
Will the Scorpion Empire feature in more stories? If the right story comes along.
Any chance of a 21st Centauri Lancers novel? Or the Crescent Hawks? Again, if the right pitch comes in.
They’re jumpstarting the Jihad fiction line. John was stopped from giving more detail
I miss Spine novels! Some of the novels could be considered spine like Trial of Brithright, Damocles Sanction and Hunting Season. Stackpole said that because of things like Shrapnel, there’s a lot of options to have writers delve into major events in short fiction, allowing the major novels to focus more on core events.
Will we ever see the German fiction translated? Karma and one other novel have been translated and need to be put in the production pipeline
Will the Sea Foxes take a loss? Things that the Sea Foxes couldn’t possibly see coming are on the way.
Will there be a list of all the fiction? There’s an exhaustive list in the back of the books, and John has ideas for landing pages on the webstore
Any chance of Aerospace and BattleArmour stories? They’re open to good pitches.
Far country sequel when? There will not be one any time soon
Will the Jihad series give the Blakists a theology? It’ll be discussed, but to what detail is to be determined.
Any chance of getting revised copies of the legends if you got them through the Humble Bundle? John is working on errata for them now, when that’s done he might be able to get Humble Bundle to update them. Otherwise mail him and he’ll help you out.
What are you most excited about? Stackpole: Gothic: Mike C: Aces and Gothic. John: the graphic novels
Who’d win in a statecraft off? Albert Marik, Sun-Tzu Liao, or Siriwan McCallister-Kurita? Stackpole: sun-tzu, he's the only one alive
What are the seminal Dark Age novels? Ghost War, A Call to Arms, Blood of the Isle, Scorpion Jar and Sword of Sedition were all mentioned.
Any chance for a Sword and the Dagger reprint? Never say never, John’s been working with Ardath Meyhar’s estate but they’re resistant.
Will there be a novel on Anton Marik’s rebellion, maybe in Den of Wolves? It was in the BlackThorne comics/The Spider and the Wolf. Loren and Shackpole have agreed it won’t be covered in Den and its planned sequels
Any Steel Viper writing planned? Nothing planned but John’s open to the pitch
Any chance of reprints of Star Lord and Far Country? Like Sword and the Dagger, the author’s estates are reluctant to authorise them.
When will the next romance novel come out? Maybe Valentines day next year?
Will the next romance novel be Danai and Nikol? Probably not
Any plans for a tie-in with the MechWarrior 5 Ghost Bear DLC? Probably not, Mercenary Life didn’t do as well as they hoped.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2025/03/28 15:40:42
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/03/28 14:45:26
Subject: BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Vulcan wrote: Come on, guys, seriously? Am I the only one here old enough to remember how BattleTech got started?
Stinger, Wasp, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman, Archer, Warhammer, Ostsol, Marauder, all straight out of MACROSS?
BattleTech's whole POINT was to play out Anime giant robot battles on the tabletop, with (what turned out not to be) just enough changed to avoid getting sued.
Not exactly. They licensed the 'Mechs from Twentieth Century Imports, who might not have been in a position to provide these rights to FASA.
Yes, and then Harmony Gold sued and FASA caved, and MUCH later it was discovered that Harmony Gold never owned the rights to the designs anyway, and now we're allowed to have them as the Reseen.
The point remains, the core BT universe IS an Anime universe.
CHAOS! PANIC! DISORDER!
My job here is done.
2025/03/28 16:03:00
Subject: Re:BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Anime covers any of a number of genres. For example, the recent Uzumaki miniseries that played on Adult Swim is anime. The only point I was making in my previous post was your claims that FASA changed the 'Mechs so they wouldn't be sued when in fact it was so that they had consistent artwork in TRO: 3025 (several of which were not Unseen 'Mechs).
Back on topic. Lots of news added to the previous post from the Q&A with Randall, Loren and Mike Ciaravella on BattleTech Gothic, Aces and that they're (finally) starting to work on updated aerospace rules
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/03/28 16:37:42
Subject: Re:BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Introduction with Michael Ciaravella, Marco Mazzoni and Randall Bills
Will Aces be compatible with vehicles? Absolutely
Marco is the new BattleTech art director following Brent Evans’ stepping down as CGL art director.
Any plans for more mechs? Yes
Randall showed off a Shiro render on his phone
Marco did a lot of art for Gothic
Gothic prototype box was shown on-stream.
Box is much deeper than the standard BattleTech box - three quarters of an inch taller than GoAC
8 minis - Atlas with customisable head, cape and bas-relief. The heads are friction fit
Full-colour, laminated record sheets for mechs and abominations.
Alpha Strike cards
Pilot cards
BSP cards for the abominations
Short story
Two counter sheets. The reverse side of the Abomination counters are generic so you don’t know what the Abomination is until it’s right on you.
A double-wide mapsheet
72-page Primer. The full-page front and back art of the atlases was added last minute, elements were at print when Randall saw the first one, asked Marco for more and made more space in the book at the last moment.
128-page Rulebook. It’s twice the size of GoAC’s rulebook partially for the abomination rules,it also has a TRO section for the Abominations and the Mechs
They didn’t go into gothic wanting to make a 40K ripoff. It was more a case asking what they’d do working in that sort of space.
Marco’s artistic influences on the project were 40K artists like Adrian Smith. Doom, Quake 1 and 2 were influences as well. They started with the Atlas redesign. The mechs have spikes and covered joints to protect them from being swarmed by Abominations, which synergised with gothic architecture.
They had a 3D printed large-scale Abomination which was painted by one of the CSO guys.
Will Gothic be Aces compatible? Gothic is 100% Classic BattleTech with Abominations (described as a combination of battlearmour and protomechs) plugged in. Aces is currently Alpha Strike so it’s not properly compatible but they’re hoping to run an open beta for BattleTech aces in the autumn.
Who is the POV character for Gothic? A lot of the writing is done from the POV of a Terra Noir character (Gothic’s equivalent of ComStar)
Do the Abominations have hit locations? Not really, they’re closer to BattleArmour. They held the record sheets up to the camera, they’re basically variations on BattleArmour.
Any chance of a Gothic Great Turtle? Randall designed it, he’d love to see it get more love. A lot of people have asked Randall if it was named for the character of that name and he confirmed it’s the case.
Will we get more gothic fiction? It’s up in the air. Maybe a novel.
How are the factions different in Gothic? They’re mostly the same through the Star League, the change point is in the early Star League when scientists develop the Abomination gene-splicing effect. The Great houses gain access to the tech around the fall of the Star League.
Will the Black Marauder be in Gothic? The Gothic Marauder mini does have the air of the Black Marauder around it
How about a western-themed box? Randall took the question as a segue into talking about the plan for the Continuum products, that they’re hoping to do many different setting boxes, and noted the upcoming 50s SF and anime-themed boxes and other genres they might do like Weird War II and Solarpunk.
Thoughts on box sets around classic campaigns like Luthien on Twycross? They’re doing a Hesperus II box that will cover all the battles for the world, possibly including a new one in the ilClan era. It might be where BattleTech Aces makes its debut
People asked about Solaris: Randall talked about how he wants to go next-level with the box, maybe get a 3D version of the Factory or the walls in Steiner Stadium in there. Aces is helping them work out in-box terrain. He also reiterated what he said yesterday about not being happy with BattleTech as a duelling game and wants to figure out how to do it better
Gothic’s RRP is $99.99
The mentioned again that TRO: 3025 publishes 1,000 years in the future. So they’re going to reprint OG TRO 3025, errors and all with new art including LAMs, and an afterword from 3125 or so that talks about why there are all these errors from an in-universe perspective.
Randall got a render for the Lobo just today
They showed off painted copies of the Rifleman and King Crab from Gothic, they were painted overnight by Amy Ciaravella and Josh Derksen
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Aces discussion with Michael Ciaravella, Tommy Gofton and Joshua Derksen
Aces will hopefully be out at Gencon.
They had a set on display, 99% the same as the one at PAX
They had a completed Campaign book and Rulebook
The playtesters have had another run through with the almost complete rulebook and campaign book and that feedback fed into these versions
The campaign book remains spiral bound, which has been very popular. It begins with tutorial games that bring you through setting up the table, drawing cards and how to apply the results on the table.
They confirmed Scouring Sands is the first of four boxes, each one based on one of the ilClan sourcebooks. No confirmation on the minis, the enemies, and the biomes. Most of that has been decided yet.
The minis in Scouring Sands are:
Kraken 3
Thunderbolt IIc - the personal mech of the Falcon commander in the story
Two Fulcrum hovertanks - the Wolfnet guys thanked Josh for it being in the box as it’s a fantastic Alpha Strike unit
Rifleman C 2
Thor H
Locust IIc 4
Baboon 6
Marauder IIc 6
Responding to a comment from someone who mentioned they had a special needs kid and didn’t have much time to game so Aces suits them very well, Tommy talked about how as we get old, we lose friends, we have different responsibilities or can take it badly when they lose and it can get harder to game. Aces drastically reduces the barrier to entry by adding solo and co-op play.
For competitive play, the system is malleable enough to let you run test games, to train to win in your local meta, to test against specific lances and the like.
It helps teach the basics as well, like positioning, activation order, target priority. In the Thursday Aces game the cards had most of the AI units decide the Marauder had to die, for example.
When asked if Aces uses the Hot Spots: Hinterlands campaign system. They were asked to make it as compatible as possible. Hot Spots: Hinterlands has conversion guidelines to use the campaign in Alpha Strike, but they don’t cover every element. It uses a lot of details from Chaos Campaign but some elements are put aside to optimise for Alpha Strike.
The rulebook contains infantry and vehicle rules so you can run Aces without just the Alpha Strike box set.
There’s a campaign record sheet to track your unit and work out expenses between missions. These let you bring your force over to another campaign set. Skill level and other factors will reduce support point earnings and limit the number of units you can bring
There are 21-22 missions with 4 possible endings and a campaign is 7 missions, so you could play this 4 times with totally different missions.
Russel Zimmerman wrote short pieces for each mission to help immerse the players in the story
Each Aces box set will have 2 new sculpts and the rest new variants/reposes. Total mini count in the box will be 7-9, and they’ll be the campaign’s opposition.
Players will create a named character will a pilot card with skill, edge points, and progression. If their unit is destroyed you roll a D6. on a 1 or 2 they die, 3-4 they’re wounded and have to skip a game.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2025/03/29 01:40:14
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/03/28 19:19:10
Subject: Re:BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Battletech Gothic is interesting as a design standpoint, but I am really starting to get tired of every Facebook page being clogged with everyone creating a new thread stating their opinion on the matter. It's drowning everything else out with it's noise and I'm starting to wish BT fans could take a chill pill.
The mechs look cool, and I could see them being fodder for some really crazy Blakist forces. I'm kind of worried about the time it will take to remove all the mould lines from all the detail, though. It's been my least favorite thing abut Restic since the material's inception about 15 years ago.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/03/29 00:17:21
"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."
2025/03/29 00:54:31
Subject: Re:BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
AegisGrimm wrote: The mechs look cool, and I could see them being fodder for some really crazy Blakist forces. I'm kind of worried about the time it will take to remove all the mould lines from all the detail, though. It's been my least favorite thing abut Restic since the material's inception about 15 years ago.
The BattleTech Gothic 'Mechs are being produced by Liya, so they should be PVC like the majority of the line (only the premium 'Mechs may be resin).
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/03/29 17:25:01
Subject: Re:BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
AegisGrimm wrote: The mechs look cool, and I could see them being fodder for some really crazy Blakist forces. I'm kind of worried about the time it will take to remove all the mould lines from all the detail, though. It's been my least favorite thing abut Restic since the material's inception about 15 years ago.
The BattleTech Gothic 'Mechs are being produced by Liya, so they should be PVC like the majority of the line (only the premium 'Mechs may be resin).
The models are at Adepticon and they're PVC. They're also slightly upscaled.
You know you're really doing something when you can make strangers hate you over the Internet. - Mauleed
Just remember folks. Panic. Panic all the time. It's the only way to survive, other than just being mindful, of course-but geez, that's so friggin' boring. - Aegis Grimm
Hallowed is the All Pie The Before Times: A Place That Celebrates The World That Was
2025/03/29 18:41:25
Subject: Re:BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
AegisGrimm wrote: The mechs look cool, and I could see them being fodder for some really crazy Blakist forces. I'm kind of worried about the time it will take to remove all the mould lines from all the detail, though. It's been my least favorite thing abut Restic since the material's inception about 15 years ago.
The BattleTech Gothic 'Mechs are being produced by Liya, so they should be PVC like the majority of the line (only the premium 'Mechs may be resin).
The models are at Adepticon and they're PVC. They're also slightly upscaled.
You can see the size comparisons of the Marauder and King Crab in the link in my previous post
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/03/29 18:43:24
Subject: BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Aces playthrough with Tommy and Joshua from Lynnvander, Paul from Focht’s Network, Bryan Young and Jason Hansa
The campaign sees the players hired by the Alyina Mercantile League to remove Star Captain Conrad Sender of the 18th Falcon Regulars and his skeleton crew of Jade Falcons from Appolaika so the world can join the League
The first mission takes place after an uncontested landing when the Falcons recon your landing zone.
After the mission description you might have recon options, and then waypoint setup. The waypoints are the “cutscene mechanic”, tokens that give narrative events triggered by various actions
The players are given a PV for each mission, with the PV being alterable The players went for Veteran difficulty, max 160 PV
The player team for the playthrough was a Highlander with the Jumping Jack SPA (Tommy), Raven (Paul), Wolfhound (Bryan) and Catapult (Jason). Total was 157 PV
The Jade Falcon force was the Rifleman C 2, Locust IIc 4 (Tommy was shocked at it doing 5 damage at short), Baboon 6, 2 Fulcrums
The players deployed into a courtyard space near one end of the table.
Objectives: to identify the enemy units, to reveal their waypoints, to destroy or immobilise three units.
The Falcons are under forced withdrawal and they can withdraw on three sides
Players can choose to attack with fewer dice for this scenario (Multiple attack rolls are default in Aces)
If they haven’t sprinted they can scan a unit in 6” and line of sight to reveal their waypoint. A unit with PRB has a longer range.
If they kill an enemy without revealing their waypoint, they lose the mission.
The Aces box contains Edge ability cards, each player has one at the start and can gain more via advancement between missions
The characters have a supply of edge tokens they can use to increase an attack roll by 1, to reroll a critical hit against them, or to activate their edge abilities. Paul had 3 edge, the other players had 2.
Initiative is front-loaded
The side that loses initiative gets a +2 bonus to the roll next turn.
Each Aces deck has six cards, you put the deck under the unit it controls, with the top peeking out to see the priority number.
Each aces card has a priority number, lowest priority goes front.The card has three behaviors on it, a decision matrix determines which behavior is used, and then you use the set of conditions on the card to determine movement. You then flip the card over and put it back on top of the deck. The flipped side of the deck determines the attack target.
Could you run the campaign with regular BattleTech rules? With a little work, yes.
MSRP is going to be $88, the same as Alpha Strike. They reduced the model count to be able to add more cardboard and books
What big lessons did they learn from the automation in Star Trek Alliance? In Alliance you had very limited move options because you use the move templates, while Aces has much wider movement options. They always look to keep the info simple and try and keep the AI unpredictable.
There are two news steps in the end phase for Aces. The commander card has a decision matrix to determine their behaviour matrix for the next turn. You also increment the turn track. In the mission they played there was a narrative event in turn 4.
Any hints for terrain in the later boxes? They’ll be different biomes and meant to be used with the buildings from the Alpha Strike box. No further details given.
The way the behaviour matrices work, it should help the game scale in difficulty with players as they improve by making decisions that become harder to counter and react to.
The Commander cards can be designed to match the behaviour patterns of different characters or faction tactics.
How many Aces decks are in the game? One per role, but you might need to split them between multiple units of the same role. Or you can mix and match role cards if you like to mix things up.
When the players scanned the targets, waypoints are flipped over, which reveal events to read out from the campaign book. Two of the waypoints in this case caused critical hits on the player mechs due to them being distracted scanning the units during the fight, another gave them a +1 initiative bonus.
Some events place a move last token on a unit, this overrides the priority on the cards for the turn and the unit moves last regardless.
They’re looking to see if they can make the turret on the Baboon turnable
The event at turn 4 in this particular scenario has the the Falcons decide to fall back and you switch to a specific commander card, which puts all units into forced withdrawal.
Following the scenario you get a narrative description of the aftermath, giving branching options on what mission comes next, rewarding support points for resupply, repair and upgrade, and possibly adding keywords to later missions.
You start with a roster of 400PV worth of units and can buy more with support points
Lorcan Nagle wrote:Interview with Marco Mazzoni
As an art director, Marco’s doing a lot of work on fiction covers and the 3025 anniversary book right now
Will there be more BattleArmour in art? Marco loves doing BattleArmour as it helps keep the mechs feeling big. He’d love to do some art from the BattleArmour’s point of view
Any Hornet art? Not that he’s worked on
They’re not addressing new LAM rules or anything like that in the 3025 anniversary book, just doing new art
Any chance of an art book? Marco would love to do one
Any chance of facelifts for the Initiate, Gurkha and Blood Kite? Marco saw the Blood kite in a list but not the other two
Will there be sequel map packs like Grasslands 2? More map packs are on the way, Brent is still working on them.
Can we get a blog on the redesign process? Marco would love to do something like that, they don’t know exactly where yet. He’d like to do a semi-regular update on new art.
Any chance of snow maps? One of the aces boxes covers snow
How about an Osiris in plastic? No plans right now
Will there be a champion redesign? Marco hopes so
Will we ever get coherent art on Warship deck arrangements? They’re going to look into it when and if Warship art gets redesigned
More RAC minis? Marco loves Dakka
Huron Warrior? Another one Marco loves but it’s not in the queue.
Will there be a box of card buildings/terrain after Aces is all out? No plans at present.
Plastic Raijn? Probably not soon.
Will there be more customization options like the Gothic Atlas? Yes.
Favourite Gothic design? It was the Atlas for a long time, but the Rifleman won out as the renders came out.
Are Celestials on the way? Yes
What’s the facelift art project Marco is looking forward to next? The Celestials. They’re still working on them right now
Any chance of cross-promotion with the MechWarrior 5 DLC? Nothing planned right now
Hollander coming out soon? Marco doesn’t know about that one
Are there renders and 3D designs for the Abominations? Yes. if Gothic goes well they’ll consider an Abomination forcepack Any word on the new BattleTech RPG? It’s in development
Plastic Titan or Grand Titan? Not on the list right now
Can we get a release list for the coming year? It’s more of a Loren or Randall question.
Will CGL be at origins? Yes, a similar booth and Demo Team presence to last year
Conventional infantry minis? They’re looking into it. There are questions about making them readable at that scale.
Will the different eras be supported evenly or will ilClan be primary? They’re pushing forward with ilClan but other eras will get support.
When will the Savage Wolf be out? It’s coming in the 4th Star League pack
Any plans for the Po tank? No idea
Any word on unabridged audiobooks? John Helfers is working on it.
Will CGL be at Dragoncon? Not this year
Will we see a Vulture Mk. IV? It’s not in the schedule right now.
There is no Bellonna mini at all. Marco will make a note
Protomechs? They’re in progress, not ready to be shown off
How about new variants of 3025 mechs? Marco thinks so. Some of the art being done for the new TRO 3025 will feed back into the design process
What are you looking forward to aside from Aces? The novel synopses so he can work on the covers
Can Mike C do the audiobook of Hungry like the Wolf? He was ready to record a passage at KerenskyKon but was told it’d be too steamy.
Will the Protomechs still be mythical monsters? They’re going to tone it down a bit. Think along the lines of Alex Iglesias’ proto art What do you think of the reaction to Gothic so far? It’s been very positive overall. They're OK with it not being everyone’s cup of tea
Any fun non-mechs to talk about in the next Continuum box? They’re going to give each box a unique hook. So Abominations were the thing with Gothic, Randall’s figured out the one for Rockets and Rayguns, anime is up in the air
Who’s doing the Romance novel covers? Probably Eldon.
Map-scale vehicles like the Rattler? Marco likes the idea of Objective vehicles but it depends on sales.
How would you rate the maps in Gothic? They’re gonna be a lot of fun and work well in BattleTech. One side has trenches, the other an ornate urban environment
Any plans to release the STLs for the city mapsheets? They’re always talking about it.
Will we see the Maelstrom as a plastic model? Probably, but don’t know when
How about a Wyrm as an objective? If there’s demand
Why is the objectives box so big? They use standard box sizes
Favourite novels? Blood of Kerensky and Wolves on Border
How does it feel working with and taking over from Brent? Marco’s been working with Brent for about 8 years. He didn’t realise it but Brent was basically training him to take over for the last 18 months. It was as a shock when he learned but the transition was smooth
What’s he looking forward to the most? Celestials
What is Marco’s favourite 3025 mech? The Warhammer and Hatchetman
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/03/30 15:18:08
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/03/29 19:12:29
Subject: BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Have preorderd the Aces box around here, still yonks out, but looks fun. For those in the KS who tested this, how well does the AI system port over to regular BT?
Fatum Iustum Stultorum
Fiat justitia ruat caelum
2025/03/30 00:36:30
Subject: BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
I wonder what the Kurita Ranger lance composition is. Jump capable mechs with mainly energy weapons?
M.
Jenkins: You don't have jurisdiction here!
Smith Jamison: We aren't here, which means when we open up on you and shred your bodies with automatic fire then this will never have happened.
About the Clans: "Those brief outbursts of sense can't hold back the wave of sibko bred, over hormoned sociopaths that they crank out though."
2025/03/30 00:52:17
Subject: BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/03/30 07:06:30
Subject: Re:BattleTech 'Mercenaries' Kickstarter - General News & Rumors (Adepticon 2025 live feed, pg. 67)
Probably withe the upcoming price raises AGoAC will end up around there too.
M.
Jenkins: You don't have jurisdiction here!
Smith Jamison: We aren't here, which means when we open up on you and shred your bodies with automatic fire then this will never have happened.
About the Clans: "Those brief outbursts of sense can't hold back the wave of sibko bred, over hormoned sociopaths that they crank out though."
