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While I've lately been blown away by the success of the new BattleTech Kickstarter, with over $500K USD, someone in a Kickstarter Advice group on Facebook alerted me to another boardgame Kickstarer called Etherfields that's over $2.5M USD. Part of that discussion of what accounts for the latter's success. The answers are something pretty conventional: it's got enthralling art, the creations deliver high quality & on time (which is pretty amazing for KS), and that it's a euro-game with fantastic production values. By comparison BattleTech is, well, BattleTech with improved, modernized plastic miniatures and the same old under the hood. Still, both are accruing thousands of supporters. Which one will be the next Kingdom Death, and which one will be the next Robotech: RPG Tactics? Hopefully both will be the former rather than the latter, but I worry about this pre-order model meaning that once all the fans have their at-cost KS rewards there won't be anyone left to buy it at retail.

There's nothing special about a $2.5M KS, though I think the boardgame record is still "only" around $3.5M?

A boxed game/board game will always outsell a tabletop miniature game, particularly on Kickstarter which is a kind of haven for exclusive ultra-deluxe board games. If they're from a reputable company, they're almost guaranteed to succeed into the $2-3M range. As you said, Battletech is by a pretty mediocre/small company, and it's simply a reskinning of the ancient chassis. There's less to get excited over beyond some nicer miniatures.

It's not a new gaming experience, a new "thing". As mentioned over in the rather large Battletech thread on the News & Rumors section, there is a valid concern about Catalyst and their inability to keep products in stock, a huge turn off for some people.

Didn't Kingdom Death turn something like $12M for their second KS?

That wouldn't surprise me. I don't keep track, so I'm just going off the last number I remember. Of course people start splitting hairs and trying to divide the board game genre into a bunch of different types so they can claim best boardgame KS.

Also, if you're in Canadabucks....you're cheating.

Just checked, and yep: Kingdom Death $12M+...followed by Exploding Kittens (a card game) at $8M+....

I think the one I was thinking of was Zombicide, but that's another four or five games down now, around $5M. So yeah things have moved on plenty.

Keep in mind, Etherfields is being made by Awaken Realms, which has already produced several other very successful games on Kickstarter, allowing them to leverage a large, and (compared to Battletech) recently acquired fanbase.

Battletech has a shady past but the IP is still strong. There is a huge community buying old ironwind metals junk and old sculpts at conventions still. Battletech is a strong scifi IP

Awaken Realms on the other hand is a modern successful company with producing games

Battletech is also one of the last bastions of rules that I enjoy that have not gone 100% streamlined and dumbed down for the masses. I like the crunchy rules and it will be a sad day when that last bastion is tore down in the name of a micro rulebook and ultra abstraction.

 auticus wrote:
Battletech is also one of the last bastions of rules that I enjoy that have not gone 100% streamlined and dumbed down for the masses. I like the crunchy rules and it will be a sad day when that last bastion is tore down in the name of a micro rulebook and ultra abstraction.

I salute you with a sea of LRMs

Absolutely! The fluff + rules/options are massive (in a good way)

I have some lovely Awaken Realms stuff - this one just didn;t grab me.

Battletech is a nightmare to get over here in the Uk so this seemed an good way to get a pile of the stuff.

I had literally never seen a BTech miniature in the flesh until I went to Singapore in 2006. As far as I could tell they just didn't exist in Oz.

Nurglitch wrote:
Which one will be the next Kingdom Death, and which one will be the next Robotech: RPG Tactics?

Why do they have to be either?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I had literally never seen a BTech miniature in the flesh until I went to Singapore in 2006. As far as I could tell they just didn't exist in Oz.

Nurglitch wrote:
Which one will be the next Kingdom Death, and which one will be the next Robotech: RPG Tactics?

Why do they have to be either?

Because those are two successful Kickstarter campaigns I'm familiar, where both managed their fulfillment to some degree or other?

Nurglitch wrote:

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I had literally never seen a BTech miniature in the flesh until I went to Singapore in 2006. As far as I could tell they just didn't exist in Oz.

Nurglitch wrote:
Which one will be the next Kingdom Death, and which one will be the next Robotech: RPG Tactics?

Why do they have to be either?

Because those are two successful Kickstarter campaigns I'm familiar, where both managed their fulfillment to some degree or other?

I strongly protest the use of "successful" and Robotech Kickstarter in the same sentence.

They both successfully funded. One delivered, if eventually, and another kind of delivered, but not really.

BattleTech. Period.

They already have the stuff, they are pretty much done with it. it just needed the funding to get it out there.

It's kind of neat to see them both much bigger. Etherfields is $4.8M and The Clan Invasion is $2.6M. It'll be interesting to see how they both deal with the betwittered 15% tariff that's supposedly being enforced on September 1st. I'm not sure either producer is in a position to absorb a tariff of that relative size on stuff ordered by US backers. Plus, as I understand it, it works out to much more passed onto consumers.

Nurglitch wrote:
It's kind of neat to see them both much bigger. Etherfields is $4.8M and The Clan Invasion is $2.6M. It'll be interesting to see how they both deal with the betwittered 15% tariff that's supposedly being enforced on September 1st. I'm not sure either producer is in a position to absorb a tariff of that relative size on stuff ordered by US backers. Plus, as I understand it, it works out to much more passed onto consumers.

CGL has stated the funds for this Kickstarter are primarily going towards the Mold costs. So hopefully the tariff doesn't mess with the shipping budget too much. The shipping costs we were told to expect are already pretty high.

Have they made any statement about the tariffs?

Not yet no