BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => General BattleTech Discussion => Topic started by: Kilderkin on 05 March 2019, 14:54:46
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I'm liking the idea of CGL going down the board game route. I know people want a Clan box set, but what 'mechs and scenarios would make up your ideal expansion?
For me the next expansion would be a revisit to the Tales of the Black Widow, possibly the Battle of Hoff, but could be a selection of scenarios from the Black Widow's history. Not only would you be able to play as one of the cooler merc forces, it also includes all the 'mechs we want. Like AGoAC there would be rules, mapsheets and a novella.
Battlemechs in the box:
Warhammer
Marauder
Crusader
Griffin
Archer
Archer
Stinger
Wasp
Stinger
Rifleman
Phoenix Hawk
Wasp << Added to bring it up to a company, this and the Griffin from the beginner box could be used for the super variants.
What would be in your box set?
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the short story was a good move, putting in-universe fiction where everyone can see it. they could probably use that tactic online to help encourage interest in the game as well, as a sort of advertising for the game line and books.
for mechs in a box, the bigger cost is in the molds. so they have to sell so many boxes to break even, before they can see a profit. the return of the unseen mechs is a big deal in itself, but there are a lot of options. for example, if they included a number of tanks (small, easily explodable tanks) alongside some mechs, say 1 or 2 lances of mechs and 2 or 4 lances of tanks, the smaller size of a tank would make it easier to fit in the box. two tank models, 4 of each, and you could probably do that with one mold (tank body A, tank body B, turret A, turret B). maybe some cardstock buildings, to give a more 3D sense to the map.
I love the marauder but its a pain to assemble. from a logistics viewpoint, the marauder is a bad choice. the last time they did a plastic marauder it had a massive gap down the middle. as much as i would love to see a good plastic marauder, now may not be the time.
it may be a good idea to consider the scorpion as an option. its a fast medium with PPC and SRM, and being a quad it can go hull down like a tank can. throw a couple of those into a box with some tanks, and you can get a very different sort of armored combat.
a boardgame with tanks and giant stompy robots, plus a couple buildings, would be very interesting. you could do a lot with that- attack/defend the building scenario, or just use them for urban cover. throw in a story with a mixed company maybe.
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The scorpion is redundant alongside the griffin and Wolverine, and as a box set is suppoused to introduce rules you don’t want to chuck quads and thier esoteric rules in just yet
I do like the idea of a “Remastered” Print on Demand of Tales and more Tales, with scenarios and rules updated for BMM and Chaos Campaign. Toss in Wolf and Blake for grins and cause I like Stacy Church.
Back to the box set issue though. I could see a 2.0 beginners box featuring a Stinger and Wasp (or Ostol and Ostroc) and a 2.0 GoAC with the Archer, Warhammer, Stinger, Wasp, two Phoenix Hawks, Marauder (II) and Stalker.
This lineup covers the same size boxes already in use so you can reprint most of the paper contents and get more NuSeens out in the market.
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I’ll have to think a bit more about the actual contents I’d like but the selection is important because you’re picking what gets new art and sculpts.
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Scenarios. Scenarios. Scenarios. Its nice to get a new box of something, but what do you do from there? How many times have we seen a new player show up and ask "now what?" or "How should I split these minis up into equal forces for us to use in a game?"
Fiction is nice, but not everyone gives half a damn about the fiction of a game until they get into it. Now using scenarios to bridge the game to the fiction and vice versa for those fluff lovers would help. They don't even need to print it out, just add a line or two about how to find more, which could be the online shop with all of the older scenario books, but also a few more that would be offered for free on the website.
As for the minis, those are the ones that You want. I don't really care for the 3025 unseens. The Unseen IICs and for Victor Musical Industries are the ones that I care about. That would push the game into the Clan Invasion, which is something I think needs to be pushed quickly so that players have a chance to go all grognard if they want, but also move into vast majority of the game without creating a fear of additional weapons.
A vehicle and infantry expansion would be nice to see. Getting people to go into TW instead of the mechmanual is what I would prefer to see. All mech games do nothing to show why anyone would give a damn about a mech beyond rule of cool. A mech in a purely mech game is nothing more then a tank that can kick or punch. The slight differences between the two helps to show why anyone would want a mech, and that is without making the tank designs absolute garbage with paper thin armor or rules designed to make them pop when hit with a single inferno srm.
I remember the ol CCG, where we got a little rulesbook in each starter box. We learned to play the game from that. GW used small rules book in their boxed sets and nobody seemed to complain. For an expansion box, small rules books might be the way to go to keep print costs down.
Everyone mentions the costs of new molds, but nobody ever connects new molds to player demands. If CGL ever wanted to put out new molds they could fund it by doing preorders with the minis tossed into a plain box. The established playerbase's early adopters would help reduce the investment cost of a new mold. That reduces the need to fund the mold and the boxed set that it is going into. These are effectively assured sales + potential sales= reduced risk = good for business. You basically recover the money that you would have invested by X% from the start with players investing in the molds instead of CGL investing 100% and then waiting to make enough sales to recover their investment before they can profit. This also reduces the demand for the boxed sets, meaning you reduce printing costs by satisfying the established player base's want of new minis. That leaves more boxes for the shelves so that new players can purchase them. Older players will still buy some, I'd likely buy 2 if I can as I would want one for full contents, while another for collection purposes. Beyond that, I would buy the minis on their own without the added costs of the redundant printed materials.
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The title of this thread has been changed to reflect that it is a conversation of a future, hypothetical product, not either of the current, in-print box sets. This room prevent confusion from anyone trying to find intention about the current product.
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While I don't disagree that moving people into the Clan Invasion era is the ideal, I think that new Warhammers and Marauders are going to be an important part of doing so. The simple fact is that the original Unseen are the Mechs that are consistently given new variants for each era advance. So if a player wants to play in the Succession Wars, the Star League, or the Dark Age, they can use a Warhammer. They can't use a Raijin.
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While I don't disagree that moving people into the Clan Invasion era is the ideal, I think that new Warhammers and Marauders are going to be an important part of doing so. The simple fact is that the original Unseen are the Mechs that are consistently given new variants for each era advance. So if a player wants to play in the Succession Wars, the Star League, or the Dark Age, they can use a Warhammer. They can't use a Raijin.
If they have the ability to include any unseen/classics they would be foolish not to. Doing so has not only close universal playability, but the broadest possible appeal to customers.
“We could have given you a Warhammer, but have this Thunder instead!”
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They’ve shown unseen prototypes, right? It’d be crazy if they didn’t get released.
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the warhammer prototype was at gencon a few years ago and appeared in Combat Manual: Mercenaries. the opaqueness of the legal settlement with HG makes it impossible to know exactly what, or combination of whats, is holding up the process. i assume tptb are aware that releasing the macross classics is akin to printing money and would like to release them at best possible speed.
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If they have the ability to include any unseen/classics they would be foolish not to. Doing so has not only close universal playability, but the broadest possible appeal to customers.
“We could have given you a Warhammer, but have this Thunder instead!”
Exactly. I was replying to StoneRhino's argument that the focus on Unseen is the wrong way to move the new player experience forward in the timeline.
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Exactly. I was replying to StoneRhino's argument that the focus on Unseen is the wrong way to move the new player experience forward in the timeline.
We just need the Unseen in the future.
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I just want to see Battletech play to it’s strengths, which is the lore rich universe. Plus it’s an opportunity to go back and update some old scenarios and stories. The pilot cards are an ace touch too and add some RP elements to games.
I know people would be happy with box sets of new mechs. But it doesn’t quite have the same punch as a fully formed expansion with new maps ect.
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I will add my +1 for a boxset containing vehicles. Vehicles add depth to BT and allow for a variety of tactics and scenarios that ordinary Mechs do not allow. Even with the additional weaknesses Vehicles can also have interesting strengths. They can slip through Height-1 tunnels and hide behind Level 1 terrain, Hovercraft can skim across a lake or river and launch surprise flank attacks as VTOL's play peak-a-boo and drop off infantry platoons in awkward locations. Massed tanks are cheap and can be deadly against a cocky Mechwarrior and LRM and SRM carriers are monsters in a field of their own.
A box of 4 Mechs and 2 - 8 vehicles/platoons of Infantry would be a good way to go. As for the Mechs they should be a good mix, none of this Assault madness we had in the Alpha Strike boxes. Maybe an average of 225 - 240 tons of Mechs per box, with some going above and others below? Something like:
>Centurion
>Wolverine
>Shadowhawk
>Dragon
with
>4 Patton/Rommel tanks
>4 Scimitar Hover tanks
>2 LRM carriers
or
>Warhammer
>Wolverine
>Griffon
>Hunchback
and
>6 APC's/Goblins
>3 platoons of Infantry (1 SRM/2 MG)
>2 Von Luckner Heavy Tanks
>2 Karnov gunships
Or something like that. A small mixed force in a box that will give a player a nice starting point for their own force or boost them on from the box sets.
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The point of the box sets is to get people excited to play Battletech, a game about Mechs fighting each other. Therefore exciting Mechs should be included to make people want to buy the sets. Whether having an Atlas in the box set for new players represents a reasonable distribution of assault Mechs in the universe or not is, in my opinion, irrelevant. The fact that the Atlas is big, intimidating, and looks cool is. Box sets should not be based on adhering to the standards of in universe rarity (which is only really true in one part of the timeline anyway) because the players unit is by definition special. Give players, particularly players who know little to nothing about the universe, Mechs they would be excited to play with.
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But at the same time should not the boxes be a good basis for a starting force? The old Skaven battalions had Ratogres in, two of them. Ratogres were cool and six or even ten would have been amazing but two was enough to be exciting and still leave room for the clanrats you needed as well.
Mechs are cool too, but what is cooler than Mech-on-Mech conflict? How about having some squishies for your mechs to stomp all over, some tanks for them to blow up? And then when you get into the game proper you find you have your Mechs and a core of combat vehicles and infantry to form a solid basis for your collection. You can expand and build outwards on the base you bought because you liked the idea of Mechs fighting tanks and winning.
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Except that isn't really how Battletech is presented. Until the HBS game came out last year, the only video game version of Battletech was MWO. Which is entirely Mech only. So for years the only way into Battletech was through a game that portrayed it as small unit skirmishes of Mechs. Which is also how the current in print rulebook, the BattleMech Manual, presents the game. And comparing Battletch to Warhammer is fallacious, because Battletech has no official army building mechanics. a list of all ratogres is illegal in WHFB, but I could go to a game with only Atlases and that would be just as valid of a force as your combined arms force. The boxes are a good basis for a starting force with what they include currently, and arguably are a better basis than if they added infantry because they teach the primary rules of the game most players spend the vast majority of their playtime using.
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VR is right, if you using a box to build on what was released you do it by advancing the time line and just adding a smaller portion of the rules- SL/Clan equipment.
Marauder
Warhammer
Phoenix Hawk
Wasp
Dire Wolf
Timberwolf
Summoner
Stormcrow
Elemental Point
Plus a new map, invasion fiction- either new or a BC story, and a trimmed down ER3052 (ER3052 Lite?).
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Clan mechs are expensive in terms of BPV. 'Adder costs more than an Atlas' levels of stupid expensive. If the clan box is going to be anything resembling balanced against IS boxes, it's not going to contain Dire Wolf. It might contain a Vulture or a Thor at most, and be mostly lights & mediums.
Dasher
Uller
Dragonfly
Ryoken
Thor
That's the kind of clan box I'd expect to see. It might not win against the current beginner box, but it certainly would leave a few dented.
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If your going to have a Clan Box, it's going to have a Timber Wolf. Can't really build a Clan box based on how the forces would pair against the IS box though that may be why we won't see one in the immediate future.
If the Beginners Box is successful enough, I can see it becoming sort of a 'vs' series of Box sets with 2X mechs and 2X Maps a box.
Marauder vs Orion, Warhammer vs Archer/Grasshopper, Rifleman vs Dragon, ect.
The Beginners Box would have to be selling crazy good though for that to be financially sound otherwise multiple boxes would bring us back to the Lance Pack problem of a bunch of great boxes sitting in a warehouse.
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What I would love to see is probably something akin 2vs1 (2 lances vs 1 star). Basically bigger AGoAC box with more miniatures. Of course, the price would go up too. But from I have seen 13 miniatures will have a problem to fit into the current box format. The only possible solution that I can think of is changing the position of AS&pilots cards or combining them into one position.
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CGL continues to push the BattleTech timeline forward, most recently with Shattered Fortress. In addition, the long awaited ilClan sourcebook should materialize this year and Jennifer Brozek is writing a new fictional work set in the "aftermath of the Age of Destruction." After a long hiatus during which CGL essentially fleshed out the Jihad in order to connect two disparate eras (Civil War and Dark Age), they appear ready to focus on the future.
While I certainly appreciate the new box set, it is essentially the same product as the one released in 1992, updated for the times, sure, but with fewer plastic miniatures. As for a "Clan Invasion" box set, that was essentially released two years later, in '94 as the second edition of the CityTech set, which contained the rules for the advanced equipment as well as a selection of both Inner Sphere and Clan plastic BattleMech miniatures. The '07 and '11 box sets were also essentially backwards looking, featuring a vast array of units from the original 1986 TRO: 3025.
The next box set should be set in, and introduce new and current players to, the *current* BattleTech era.
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I think that is a too big step to do after releasing 3025 boxes. Although I understand your feelings about this. But the difference between new boxes and this hypothetical 3150 box would be too big. There would be a missing product that would connect them. Clan invasion era is a much better continuation for boxes than an end of Dark Age era.
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Also the clan invasion doesn’t feature eight different medium lasers.
How would one propose a 3150 beginner box keeping in mind the clear perogotive to keep the box strictly introtech? There were combined arms elements and advanced tech in the previous box that were conspicuously removed from the most current release. How would one further propose to bridge that box into the reality of TRO 3145/50?
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I think they should reboot the Reinforcements concept and issue lance sized boxes of redesigned minis along with the AS cards and a small technical readout. We are probably not going to see the Macross unseens until HG loses the license, but there are plenty of other designs that could use a refresh in the style of the new plastics from the boxed sets.
Panther
Jenner
Assassin
Enforcer
Blackjack
Dragon
Hunchback
Dervish
Atlas
Cyclops
Zeus
And others, of course. Maybe do them by faction, or maybe move the timeline up to 3039 and throw in a Mauler or Cataphract. Maybe have a Scorpion to introduce new players to quads. I think part of the reason the AS plastic lance packs didn't sell that well was because the sculpts were essentially the exact same that were released in metal 30 years prior, which veteran players already owned. Speaking from experience, the player group in my shop had little to no history with BattleTech but after our AS campaign began the guys jumped all over those lance packs and bought everything the shop had, plus all the restocks, then scoured the internet re-sellers for more. And that was all without a starter set to get the ball rolling. The market is there and waiting, but it won't wait long.
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The next box set should be set in, and introduce new and current players to, the *current* BattleTech era.
I don't disagree that Battletech should look forwards, but other than the technology/complicated rules issue others have brought up, there is one other issue with setting the box set beyond early Clan Invasion. Backwards compatibility. I can use the Thunderbolt in the current box set in literally every era of battletech that currently exists, and probably will get to use a new upgraded version of it after the IlClan. A Shattered Fortress box set containing say, a Vulpes, only works in the Dark Age era and maybe beyond. The Classics, most other 3025 designs, and the original OmniMechs are probably always going to have modernized versions, so the box sets should foocus on them to allow for as broad of a usage as possible.
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Yup, as VR just said you are picking something with the broadest appeal and the broadest timeline application. Greatclub, your Adder Prime (2083 4/5) vs Atlas BV (7-K 2175) analogy would apply with a Clan regular pilot but the Clan Omni does not have to start at that BV. Personally I would include the sheet for the Adder D (1255 @ 4/5) rather than a Prime simply b/c of that BV nature and to be more forgiving on the heat- IF you went with a Adder.
In addition, the four Clan mechs I picked are all prominent in the video games. The Viper and Fire Moth are not in the video games (MW3, MW4, MC1/2, and afaik MWO) though while the Kit Fox is, its not looked at too fondly b/c its a 30t. Dire Wolf, Timberwolf, Summoner and Stormcrow are iconic for the Clan Invasion and were used by all of the Invaders to one degree or another.
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fwiw, anthony scroggins is currently in the process of remastering the clan invasion omni art on his patreon (shadow cat, summoner, dire wolf, and a teaser of a timber wolf that i think will be similar to the one on the cover of forever faithful). with TRO: Clan Invasion coming soon™, i don't think it's a coincidence. while skewed on the heavy side, it's only what he's showing and not necessarily all of what he and others are working on.
if they want to nudge people from the succession wars into the clan invasion, a TRO with at least some reimagined art and a clan box would go a long way in helping people along. i've long held that the reconfiguration of the line at the base level constitutes a soft reboot to focus on the late succession wars and clan invasion (that arguably started with the temporal positioning of the combat manuals). The timeline moves forward independently of the beginner products, not least of which because the people who want to see ilclan are really vocal about wanting to see ilclan.
i think we would be better-severed picking one or the other but it's not my money.
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I don't disagree that Battletech should look forwards, but other than the technology/complicated rules issue others have brought up, there is one other issue with setting the box set beyond early Clan Invasion. Backwards compatibility. I can use the Thunderbolt in the current box set in literally every era of battletech that currently exists, and probably will get to use a new upgraded version of it after the IlClan. A Shattered Fortress box set containing say, a Vulpes, only works in the Dark Age era and maybe beyond. The Classics, most other 3025 designs, and the original OmniMechs are probably always going to have modernized versions, so the box sets should foocus on them to allow for as broad of a usage as possible.
Agreed.
But I'd be comfortable with starter boxes including 3025 and 3150 record sheets for the minis provided. They might need to be different colors or something else that's pretty obvious.
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Also the clan invasion doesn’t feature eight different medium lasers.
How would one propose a 3150 beginner box keeping in mind the clear perogotive to keep the box strictly introtech? There were combined arms elements and advanced tech in the previous box that were conspicuously removed from the most current release. How would one further propose to bridge that box into the reality of TRO 3145/50?
A lot has been made of the complexity of the Dark Age. From my perspective, unless you customizing or designing entirely new units, all the information needed to play is on the provided record sheet. Even if there are "eight different medium lasers", if the heat, range and damage is on the record sheet, how does that make it more complex? When playing off the provided sheet, what do the behind the scenes mechanics of XL Gyros or Partial Wings matter? As an introduction, the focus is on the mechanics of movement, line-of-sight, attack and heat. So what if one 'Mech has a Medium Pulse Laser and another has an ER Medium Laser? I don't see it as an insurmountable issue.
For example, swap out the Shadow Hawk and Wolverine for a Ghost and a Shockwave. I promise, it won't be the end of the world.
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If another box set comes out, hopefully there will be more pilot cards. And not just for 'Mechs, but for tanks and other vehicles.
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Stealth Armor effects and heat are not on the sheet IIRC.
RS do not tell you that a RE Laser ignores whatever armors or has a -1 TH. Heck, they do not tell you that plain MPL get a -2 TH. And I have not seen one that handles the options on a Variable Speed PL either.
The main point, IMO, is that I cannot take a Shockwave or Ghost and play with those mechs as a Clan Invasion era battle unless they are proxies. They are also not as recognized.
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from my experience not everyone memorizes stat blocks and hates having to look at their record sheet all the time. Especially when you have eight and have to page through them. There’s also the issue of facing dozens of different weapons and keeping straight what hundreds of variants run. It’s challenging enough in the clan invasion but hundreds of chassis and a not insignificant percentage of the variants come in the jihad and after.
When pace of play is a major issue, these are not desirable conditions to have to overcome. I had some players jump in on my 3145 campaign a couple years ago. It was little wonder they never came back despite seeing them in the store on multiple occasions.
For example, swap out the Shadow Hawk and Wolverine for a Ghost and a Shockwave. I promise, it won't be the end of the world.
And I promise you won’t sell nearly as many boxes. If you ran a poll asking if people would rather have a classic Phoenix hawk or a ghost in the next box I don’t think it would be close.
A not insignificant portion of people coming in have cited the newest pc game and/or coming back from a long hiatus. They don’t want the dark age.
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A lot has been made of the complexity of the Dark Age. From my perspective, unless you customizing or designing entirely new units, all the information needed to play is on the provided record sheet. Even if there are "eight different medium lasers", if the heat, range and damage is on the record sheet, how does that make it more complex? When playing off the provided sheet, what do the behind the scenes mechanics of XL Gyros or Partial Wings matter? As an introduction, the focus is on the mechanics of movement, line-of-sight, attack and heat. So what if one 'Mech has a Medium Pulse Laser and another has an ER Medium Laser? I don't see it as an insurmountable issue.
For example, swap out the Shadow Hawk and Wolverine for a Ghost and a Shockwave. I promise, it won't be the end of the world.
RE-engineered lasers do full damage to special armors, and a -1 to hit (I believe)
Heavy lasers have +1 to hit
Improved heavy lasers don't have +1 to hit
Partial Wings dissipate 6 heat (in addition to boosting your jump distance) and don't generate more heat for that extra jump distance (from my understanding)
That is just some of the extra rules that are not on the sheet, from the example given. So while ER lasers are easy and on the page - pulse (-2), heavy (+1), RE (special damage), VSP (-3/-2/-1) are all not on the page.
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And imp HLs explode when crit- which is also not on the sheet.
Thought RE Lasers did not do that damage to reflective armor? Just Hardened, BallRef, and Ferro-Lam?
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Another sheet issue not highlighted, if accidentally ;)
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I thought the Starter Books did a great job bridging time gap between 'intro' era and more current era. As fans, we can always recommend the PDFs in the CGL store. Fiction wise, Legacy does a brilliant job following a Mech from era to era.
That said; the HBS Battletech game is set in 3025 era, the upcoming MW5 is also in the 3025 era so allot of new players will be comfortable in 3025 (MW2 is what got me to the table top and why I'm a fan of Clan Wolf)
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And imp HLs explode when crit- which is also not on the sheet.
Thought RE Lasers did not do that damage to reflective armor? Just Hardened, BallRef, and Ferro-Lam?
The fact even we have to ask these sort of questions shows the issues of making a box set for a wide market with some of these more esoteric equipment.
Personally as a newer player I would love an expansion set sort of thing that maybe had more terrain, a few mechs, but added vehicles and infantry. Tie it in to the first box sets, make sure the mechs chosen are really desirable, and then load it with cool vehicles. You get to make the previous box sets even better, you can get some more mechs, and you can add tanks, vtols, infantry, and maybe artillery. I think that could add a lot.
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Using Reflective Armor, or re-engineered lasers, as an example...
How many stock BattleMechs utilize these technologies? Sure, they are considered "standard" technology as of the Dark Age, but I was never suggesting the Templar III Alt D as an appropriate choice for the box set. There are viable Dark Age BattleMechs that *could* work, that was my point.
Of course, with 35 years of history behind the franchise, something like the Shockwave will never be as iconic as a Warhammer, but to be fair, it will likely never be given the opportunity to achieve that status either. The Tundra Wolf, maybe the Jupiter, may be as recognizable as a true Dark Age BattleMech gets. But, if CGL is committed to advancing the timeline, as it appears they are, they need to provide a pathway for both the existing and new player base to get there with them.
I'm not advocating this theoretical box set include rules for *all* of the technology theoretically available in the Dark Age, nor even the construction rules for that matter. Simply a selection of era-appropriate 'Mechs operating in the chaos of a collapsing Republic of the Sphere. Bannon's Raiders, Stormhammers, Swordsworn, Dragon's Fury are all fairly well-developed and interesting factions, not to mention Sea Foxes or the Steel Wolves.
Even I can only retread the Fourth Succession War so many times before it just becomes stale and, frankly, a bit boring and limited.
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I think you are missing something . . . we are not saying we eventually (as in 4 or 5 down the road) will not get a Dark Age expansion box BUT . . . you make expansion boxes that stack or are a pyramid. We got a Starter box that had a pair of mechs, a simple map and simple rules. We also got the GoAC box as the same time, with more mechs, more complicated maps, and full 3025 rules afaik. This ties in with the just released BattleMech Manual and TRO Succession Wars.
Next box should build on that . . . and we are getting a TRO Clan Invasion. So, next box should introduce the next layer of weapons- Star League & their Clan counterparts. So Clan mechs and maybe recognizable Invasion era mechs. Another map, rules for weapons that will be in TRO Clan Invasion. And Elementals IMO, since they are easily idenfitied with the Clans.
Then we have the following eras . . . Civil War (TRO for this hinted at?), Jihad, Early Republic, Late Republic and Dark Ages . . . all of which build on the foundations of what went before.
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I think you are missing something . . . we are not saying we eventually (as in 4 or 5 down the road) will not get a Dark Age expansion box BUT . . . you make expansion boxes that stack or are a pyramid. We got a Starter box that had a pair of mechs, a simple map and simple rules. We also got the GoAC box as the same time, with more mechs, more complicated maps, and full 3025 rules afaik. This ties in with the just released BattleMech Manual and TRO Succession Wars.
Next box should build on that . . . and we are getting a TRO Clan Invasion. So, next box should introduce the next layer of weapons- Star League & their Clan counterparts. So Clan mechs and maybe recognizable Invasion era mechs. Another map, rules for weapons that will be in TRO Clan Invasion. And Elementals IMO, since they are easily idenfitied with the Clans.
Then we have the following eras . . . Civil War (TRO for this hinted at?), Jihad, Early Republic, Late Republic and Dark Ages . . . all of which build on the foundations of what went before.
If that was the roadmap, I'd be in heaven :) Well said.
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I agree expansions should move the timeline forward. But I believe the next one should be intro tech still and add the rest of the nuseen classics. These mechs make up the bulk of forces for 3025-3049. Then introduce clan tech.
Catalyst were able to ship two box sets almost at the same time, we could see a clan box and merc box within a short time frame. Would be nice to avoid years between products.
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I think what they have in the 2 current boxed sets is fine. 2 Mechs in the "starter" and 8 in the "full rules" is great.
For everyone that says they don't need Tanks/PBI, I would simply say, we had this thing back in the day called "CITYTECH" and I think most people loved it.
My point is that I'm fine w/ adding in Tanks/PBI, but it should be as an Expansion, not as a next edition of AGoAC.
I could also see a clan boxed set too. Though clan unit sizes makes for a hard to match size issue.
For a new "Cititech" I would go with 4 or 8 mechs, and then add in 8 tanks & some Infantry counters. Allowing you to be the same size or a bit larger in scope as AGoAC is.
For the Clan pack.... I'm torn between 5 Mechs, 10 Mech, or 8 mechs+elementals.
I think make the ideal might be 5 Omnis, 3-5 Second Line mechs, and then 5 Elemental Points allowing you to form 2 "lances" (mixed stars) of Mechs & BA.
As for what mechs to choose from........
"Citytech" = Wasp, Stinger, Marauder, Warhammer for sure as base 4..... plus...... Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, ShadowHawk, & Rifleman if its an 8 mech set.
Then add in 2 each, Manticore, Patton, Pegasus, & Maxim + 4 infantry stands/platoons (2 foot, 1 jump, 1 motorized)
"Clan Box"..... MistLynx, Horned Owl, Viper, Conjurer, Stormcrow, Timberwolf, Galahad, Gargoyle + 5 Elemental Points.
IDK, I feel like those keep the boxes decent sized, a bit larger than AGoAC even, so the price point won't go up much.
I also really like the idea about adding in some scenarios. Even if its just a single page printed out.
Heck, you don't even have to make them new. Pull something from the old scenario books with the little sidebars of fluff & mechs/maps/rules in the middle of the page.
I think if the "CityTech" box as I'm calling it was based some historic battle in the 4th SW or Wo39 & you had a bit of fluff about that war in there w/ the scenario you'd be good to go.
Duplicate the same thing w/ the Clan Box & pull out some Twycross/Tukayid/Luthien battle fluff.
You wouldn't need quite as much "fluff" books as the last boxed sets but some maps & maybe a short story for that era that is already from battlecorps?
Small rulebook covering the new tech/units found inside.
Actually, if they don't have new versions of the Unseen for a full 8 mechs then possibly going with the extra 4 as units coming from the Sabers/FoxTeeth books & showcase 39 tech with the Austin/Daniel/Grace/etc etc variants might be nice.