Now then
Hey Game Fans, long time readers will know we’ve been huge fans of Battletech since the jump, and it’s one of our gaming cultural touchstones. It and Dungeons and Dragons, (and to a lesser extent, Deadlands), are the games we always seem to find our way back to. It may take a month, or six months, but somehow, someway, we always find our way back to Battletech. So the new Kickstarter for the Clan Invasion boxed set was met with cheers from the two current Star Colonel level backers in our office (I’m considering upgrading to Galaxy Commander, with recent updates). The Kickstarter is as of the writing of this article at 688K with over 3500 backers on Day 2 of the Campaign, with a stated goal of 30K to funding. We’re crushing stretch goals to the left and to the right as we cruise towards the finish line, but we as fans and supporters of Battletech need to realize a couple of things.
First, the initial box set and what sounds like the first couple of stretch goal packs are basically ready to hit production, but the campaign is funding the initial order for those and paying for the design and tooling for the later star and lance packs. That means we may have concept art and other things for some of those designs, but they are by no means ready to hit the factory and get shipped to us. So we have a stated delivery date of March 2020, which is about 8 months out from now. Now, they did amazing work to get the new starter set and the new A Game of Armored Combat boxed sets in time for Gencon last year. It’s a safe inference that Catalyst is working with the same partner and we are into the production cycle on those first three products (the Clan Invasion Box, the Clan Command star, and the Inner Sphere Command Lance).
After that, things get sort of interesting. I don’t know the lead time it takes to go from redesign to getting computer models ready for manufacturing, plus the packaging and box art. Catalyst is offering a month each for each additional pack, and i would like to trust them at that being a hard number, but we’ve been burned by kickstarters from other producers in the past about deadlines and numbers.
That’s the logistical side of the equation, and that’s something that I hope some very clever, very talented people are working on, because it’s honestly not something that I know too much about. I can talk a little bit about a couple of the other aspects of the campaign that appeal to me as a Battletech Fan, and a couple of concerns that I have. The Faction pack options have expanded to all of the existing clans at the time and the five major houses, leaving the Free Rasalhague Republic, Comstar, and the Periphery nations in the cold for getting their own shirts, patches and lapel pins, and dice. I do hope that the next wave of stretch goals catches these missing pieces, because both Comstar and the FRR are integral to the story of the Clan Invasion, and should be represented as options.
Don’t get me wrong, I am pleased that 17 of the clans are getting their own dice and accessories, but I understand completely when your faction doesn’t get this treatment. I was a little sad at Gencon last year when i tried to buy Goliath Scorpion dice and they had dice for pretty much everybody else. I was told that they “Didn’t have a large enough presence or impact in-universe to have their own dice.” That’s like being told that Insert your favorite franchise isn’t good enough to have merchandise. I was not pleased with that answer and bought a pile of Star League Dice (and here’s hoping we get a Star League Era box set at some time) instead.
Battletech has always lived and died by the support of its fans, and these faction packs are an amazing way to reward that loyalty and give the fans a way to show off their support in tangible, monetizable ways. You can track the number of Kickstarter backers who selected House Davion, or Clan Wolf, or Comstar and see who plays what/who with real numbers. That could lead to merchandise and data to help drive sales and products in the future. I just hope everyone gets to show off their favorite faction.
The other concern that I have are the Mechs selected for some of the packs. There’s another point that needs to be raised for Battletech fans, that is critical. The Clan Invasion era (on the Master Unit List) is between 3050 and 3061, which opens up Technical ReadOuts 3050, 3055, 3058, and 3060 to pull units from. Now I like the idea that we are seeing clan units from later TROs as deeper stretch goals, but there are some noticeably interesting units that are omitted, The Naga, the Pouncer, The Phantom are just a few. The Inner Sphere side is a little trickier.
This is the first real chance that the Battletech universe has had to get Plastic minis for their fans in this range. The newer boxed sets had plastic mechs, but this is a real chance to take Battletech back to its roots with the original designs from the early editions of the game. We even have a brand new Technical Readout (Succession Wars) to work with for brand new fans of the game to dig into. Now a lot of the new plastic mechs in the new packs, (plus the 10 from the new starter and new version of AGOAC) are from this book, but the latest inner sphere pack has just one of those, and there are still pretty sizable gaps in the Succession Wars TRO lineup.
I understand wanting to balance fan desires and production goals and create packs that will draw retail sales. However, with the existing Succession Wars TRO, I think that an opportunity exists to cater to the existing fan base and support the product line that exists before pushing into a space where we don’t have commonly accessible rules for units that are being presented to the market. You’d need the TROs 3055 and 3058 (or the record sheet packs for both) in order to make full use of the Inner Sphere Berserker Lance pack for example.
The Clan side is a little fuzzier, because we keep hearing that we’re getting a unified TRO for the Clan Invasion era, and my assumption is that that book will be released around the time of the Clan Invasion Boxed Set to tie in with that release for players interested in more details for the machines in that box and the successive releases. If that book features all of the new units that are teased in the Kickstarter Campaign (plus some extras of course), then i think it will be a good tie in for the release window.
Now, I am a fan of the pledge levels and the stretch goals, but I have some critical concerns about a few things. The Double Forces reward sounded good when there were only a few choices, but as we get longer and deeper into this campaign, we’re going to see potentially upwards of 20+ packs that are available to choose from (we’re at 13 now, closing in on 14), and only having 5 picks doubled at the Star Colonel level is very limiting. It may force people to spend considerably more on add ons, or make the hard choice not to kickstart and just wait for them to show up at retail venues. However, if the campaign just doubled the number of selections, it might entice more people to raise their pledge levels for more choices in the campaign. I don’t know, but it seems like a thing that would make sense, though it does require more logistics and support to figure out.
There are a few stretch goals that makes me a little suspicious about their placement in the campaign. Specifically, the proof of concept for an app to track record sheets, and the Initiative Deck. I’m all for the laminated record sheets, but that’s a lot of sheets to store and house if they end up producing them for everything in the product line. The Initiative Deck as a concept doesn’t necessarily make sense given the way Battletech has worked for the last thirty some odd years, and i’m not sure what/how it conceptually fits into this specific project. The App is something that probably should exist, but i’m not sure about putting it into existence here, as a part of this campaign. I’d love an App with an integrated dice roller because then you could rapidly speed up a game of Battletech and that would appeal to a lot of gamers.
Overall, I am supporting this campaign and I love the fact that there are a legion of fans who were willing to give a brick of cash to Catalyst Game Labs to produce these revenue streams for us to dip our toes into. I am cautiously optimistic that they will be able to meet these goals, and I hope that they continue to provide stretch goals that entice more and more fans to buy into this era. I’m not sure what I would want out of the later stretch goals, but Catalyst has been doing a good job of making me curious about what’s coming next. We’re contributing, Game Fans, how about you?
Kickstarter is here, for all you fans
No comments:
Post a Comment