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)!
