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Yeah, the aerospace thing is getting a little confusing and I'm not sure I'll trust any numbers until I see the inevitable Liya boxing vids. Thank the stars for those boxing vids.

Also confusing why they can't reveal what sets were discontinued. If this was GW, I'd think it was because they were trying to drive panic-buys of all boxes. As is, I really think no one knows and maybe it's still something that's up in the air, like they've made the decision to discontinue but not exactly what yet.
With so many sets being unavailable for so long, that would skew sales numbers and with the restock they might be having to reassess which sets are the poor performers. Or they don't want to declare what's discontinued until they're ready to reveal the replacements since they said those mechs will still be available in other products and those aren't ready yet. Heck, depending on which force packs are going away, they might make a decent direct swap for a new Alpha Strike box, which they're still unsure about.
I think I'd be okay with that, or if they started bundling up slow-movers into company/trinary sets. Sure, it'd make getting any one particular mech more expensive, but it'd reduce sku bloat and hopefully cost-per-mech.

But overall I like the reveals, particularly the Solitaire and Hollander finally coming to plastic. That'll make my still unnamed Big-Right-Shoulder-Gun merc company happy. Just need a Helepolis and Garm (preferably the RAC/5 variant) to round things out.

I'm sure they're just asking around and checking up on that, like with all those other things like the EU hub haha! I mean, that's what they keep telling us for months on end now, I'm sure the same will happen with the Vindicator, which is a starter exclusive, they say it'll make a return, but when? They'll have to ask about that probably.

chaos0xomega wrote:
Cant believe they *still* havent told us whats been discontinued.

 cole1114 wrote:

 Ghaz wrote:
From the Helm Memory Core Facebook page:

Helm Memory Core wrote:From the Randall Leakverse: (Who Knows, Randall's KerenskyCon List still in the air lol)
- House Steiner Air Force pack coming later this year
- 3 minis per pack, 1 per weight class
- Two packs needed for whole IS squadron
- Each House gets a pack"

The three aerospace fighters pictured above are all Steiner ASFs so should be the contents of the Air ForcePack.

Since been confirmed it's 2 of each asf, so 6 total per box.

Errr... the bit you quoted literally says that its 3 minis per box and you need 2 boxes for a full squadron.

I know, I'm saying that's during one of his q&a's Randalls confirmed it's 2 of each, for 6 total in a box.

The hush-hush around the discontinued boxes is indeed rather vexing. My LGS said there's some boxes they can't order anymore, but it's not clear whether that's because they are getting remastered or discontinued, or discontinued and the minis broken up into new boxes, or what. It's all rather confusing. I don't know if I should buy or not buy older boxes in case sculpts I want get remastered or discontinued.

It looks like something is going on with the Clan Heavy Striker Star at least, since pics of a remastered Hellbringer in a new pose showed up on reddit.

Catoblepas wrote:
The hush-hush around the discontinued boxes is indeed rather vexing. My LGS said there's some boxes they can't order anymore, but it's not clear whether that's because they are getting remastered or discontinued, or discontinued and the minis broken up into new boxes, or what. It's all rather confusing. I don't know if I should buy or not buy older boxes in case sculpts I want get remastered or discontinued.

It looks like something is going on with the Clan Heavy Striker Star at least, since pics of a remastered Hellbringer in a new pose showed up on reddit.

Interesting! Would you mind posting the link please?

Old-Four-Arms wrote:

Catoblepas wrote:
The hush-hush around the discontinued boxes is indeed rather vexing. My LGS said there's some boxes they can't order anymore, but it's not clear whether that's because they are getting remastered or discontinued, or discontinued and the minis broken up into new boxes, or what. It's all rather confusing. I don't know if I should buy or not buy older boxes in case sculpts I want get remastered or discontinued.

It looks like something is going on with the Clan Heavy Striker Star at least, since pics of a remastered Hellbringer in a new pose showed up on reddit.

Interesting! Would you mind posting the link please?

Think it's this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/1s4jd14/pics_of_the_new_loki_with_the_weird_production/

 cole1114 wrote:

Old-Four-Arms wrote:

Catoblepas wrote:
The hush-hush around the discontinued boxes is indeed rather vexing. My LGS said there's some boxes they can't order anymore, but it's not clear whether that's because they are getting remastered or discontinued, or discontinued and the minis broken up into new boxes, or what. It's all rather confusing. I don't know if I should buy or not buy older boxes in case sculpts I want get remastered or discontinued.

It looks like something is going on with the Clan Heavy Striker Star at least, since pics of a remastered Hellbringer in a new pose showed up on reddit.

Interesting! Would you mind posting the link please?

Think it's this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/1s4jd14/pics_of_the_new_loki_with_the_weird_production/

Appreciated, thank you! If that's a remastered version, I'm not too impressed with the mini quality (whereas the latest versions of the Enforcer and Panther from the Davion & Kurita ForcePacks were excellent).

Old-Four-Arms wrote:

 cole1114 wrote:

Old-Four-Arms wrote:

Catoblepas wrote:
The hush-hush around the discontinued boxes is indeed rather vexing. My LGS said there's some boxes they can't order anymore, but it's not clear whether that's because they are getting remastered or discontinued, or discontinued and the minis broken up into new boxes, or what. It's all rather confusing. I don't know if I should buy or not buy older boxes in case sculpts I want get remastered or discontinued.

It looks like something is going on with the Clan Heavy Striker Star at least, since pics of a remastered Hellbringer in a new pose showed up on reddit.

Interesting! Would you mind posting the link please?

Think it's this: https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/1s4jd14/pics_of_the_new_loki_with_the_weird_production/

Appreciated, thank you! If that's a remastered version, I'm not too impressed with the mini quality (whereas the latest versions of the Enforcer and Panther from the Davion & Kurita ForcePacks were excellent).

That's not actually what's going on in that thread - the poster was asking if a more recently-purchased example of the same Loki miniature would be of better quality (short answer: no, it's the same sculpt from the same mold) because the first one he got looked a bit wonky to him. I believe it turned out that the torso hadn't been glued on quite right at the factory.

Got my Force Manual: Mercenaries track and trace earlier this night, should have it in hand sometime this week at long last, pre-ordered it almost a year ago now. Also had the chance to order the Centauri Lancers set, feels like I'm finally catching up to the rest of the world.

I just wanna say I found the Illician Lancer box in Barnes and Noble and the Ostwar looks awesome! I know people were vexed by it not containing an Ostscout, but the Ostscout was in the IS Recon Lance and any true fan has already bought six of those, so I'm not too bothered by swapping in the Scarabus.

I don't think there will be enough enthusiasm for remaining unreleased Battletech stuff/goodwill toward Catalyst for them to do another Kickstarter worth doing. But milking this thing for the rest of the decade with bi-monthly force packs, B&N subsidization, and big box releases like the Aces boxes seems very viable.

From the Helm Memory Core Facebook page:

Helm Memory Core wrote:

Battletech News:
- Salvage Box Legends 4/29
- C-Scale Timberwolf 4/29
- BFM Volcanic Glacier 4/29
- Hot Spots Draconis Reach 5/13
- Map Pack Volcanic and Glacier pushed to 5/27
- Unknown Item 6/1 (Possible Clan Battle Star)
- Map Pack Magma Fjords 6/24
- Ace Snowblind still on track
- New Dropships (Union and Leopard) 6/24
- Map Pack Umber Station 7/22
- Battletech Core Box and Core Book 8/5
- Aerospace Force Packs (8/5) <---maybe
- Map Pack Caldera Lake 8/19
- Map Pack #5 September
- Some stuff definitely got delayed because of Snowblind and New Core Sets
- Map Pack Burning Station 10/28
- Map Pack #7 11/11
- Map Pack #8 11/28

'Salvage Box: Legends' will each contain one of the following units:

Legendary Force Pack I -
♦ ARC-2R Archer / Morgan Kell
♦ Dire Wolf Widowmaker / Natasha Kerensky
♦ MAD-3R Marauder / Grayson Death Carlyle
♦ Timber Wolf / Aidan Pryde
Legendary Force Pack II -
♦ SM5 Field Commander (SM Tank Destroyer) / Callandre Kell
♦ DVS-2 Devastator / Marcus Barton
♦ CGR-3K Charger / Jeremiah Rose
♦ Marauder (Red Hunter 3146) / Abdoun Ricol
♦ CES-3R Caesar "Archangel" / Marcus GioAvanti
Legendary Force Pack III -
♦ Marauder Bounty Hunter 3015 / Marauder Bounty Hunter 3138
♦ WHM-9K Warhammer / WHM-6R Warhammer
♦ GRF-2N Griffin / Griffin C
♦ Mad Cat Bounty Hunter / Mad Cat S
♦ Loki Mk II Prime / Loki Mk II A
♦ Marauder II Bounty Hunter / MAD-8K Marauder II

In case you were wondering what Catalyst was doing for April Fool's Day this year, it's a free short story...

BattleTech: Ace Darwin and the Flying Pig (A Short Story) by James Bixby

WHEN PIGS FLY
Ace Darwin, mercenary commander of the WhipIts, is hired to protect a retrieval team attempting to steal experimental UrbanMech prototypes from Phoenix Heavy Industries. But what he and his iconic pink Panther discover might be far more trouble than he ever could’ve imagined…

Note: This free short story download is available between April 1–30, 2026, and contains an eBook file compatible with most ereaders, including Kindle.

Like I said, can't go wrong with more Ace Darwin stuff.

so on that new Core Book - is there some place where I can see what's included?

Like, which products are replaced by it - e.g. Total Warfare, or will we have to wait for a new TW and pay for that just to get vehicle combat again, for example?

Not a perfectly knowledgeable answer, but I know the new Core Rulebook is to replace Total Warfare, and whatever rules it doesn't cover they said they planned to cover in future supplements. It doesn't replace the other manuals, say for building custom vehicles and that sort of thing.

nekooni wrote:
so on that new Core Book - is there some place where I can see what's included?

Like, which products are replaced by it - e.g. Total Warfare, or will we have to wait for a new TW and pay for that just to get vehicle combat again, for example?

There's real nice pics of everything new back on page 82 of this thread. CGL has said the new rulebook replaces both Total Warfare and also Battlmech Manual. Starter Box replaces old Beginner Box and Core Box replaces A Game of Armored Combat. Mechs from the replaced boxes will be remastered since the molds are old and put into new forcepacks (same digital sculpts, same poses, fresh molds)

Latest Mechbay podcast is an interview with CGL game designers Aaron Cahall and Keith Hann. It's mostly reasons for the changes and design philosophy behind them rather than a point-by-point breakdown

https://themechbay.buzzsprout.com/1550074/episodes/18918472-ep-102-a-new-era-of-battletech

And the changes PDF is up on the CGL website that does have the point-by-point breakdown

https://battletech.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/BattleTech-Playtest-Results-Developers-Notes-3-19a.pdf

So Draconis Reach has hit the hands of a few people, and it sounds incredible. Like, to the point that it's frustrating it wasn't being advertised better. It fixes so much of the stuff hinterlands didn't do perfect, and adds a ton of stuff. A customizable argo-style dropship, gladiator contracts on game worlds, sponsorships with arms manufacturers, the ability to just straight up play a house unit (and the ability to change sides or become a merc!).

There's also a full strategic campaign with a hexmap and logistics/landing sites/etc to deal with. And oh yeah, it has rules for Aces so you can use the book solo. The whole thing rules, and the only thing we knew about it before now was "it's hot spots, but in the draconis reach."

Was about to post the Goonhammer preview link, have only been able to read the patch notes on what they're improving over the Hinterlands rules, but I am really looking forward to Draconis Reach myself, especially the limitations and improvements regarding your own crew of pilots.

---

Also, having read the Flying Pig short story, it deals with the canonicity of the Urbie LAM in a typical Ace Darwin sort of way: our boy Ace is such a chronic boaster, embelisher and liar when telling his tall tales, nobody would believe him if it were true.

 cole1114 wrote:
A customizable argo-style dropship

if the goonhammer review is correct, it's a manatee class, which while notable for being the oldest dedicated mech transport class, is roughly equivalent to a Leopard or Confederate class in terms of size and transport capacity. which makes it an odd choice to fill an Argo style role.

i can only assume that it's inclusion and the bonuses to transport it offers works on the assumption that your unit doing contracts does not normally have their own transport, and are having to rent dropships for each mission. (though the option for combat drop is odd, given the manatee class does not actually have that capability in the fluff. though perhaps the ship is meant to have been refit to more 'modern' standards)

Having read the whole article now, I quite like how some of the things we've got going on for our campaign or what I had sketched out before kicking things off are in there, like one player making a quick app that let's us roll up an assortment of 'mechs in various states of repair on offer at the local market, and the dropship becoming a good investment as well (Ours was a decomissioned and stripped Union that had been pressed into service as an unarmed cargo variant at the start, plus I've written up a list of dramatis personae for it, along with a flight crew for battlefield support), along with hard caps on how many 'mechs you can bring along, no infinite cold storage like with the MW5 mercenary campaign here.

Again, very excited for this.