Author Topic: NEW RELEASE: BattleTech Beginner Box and BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat  (Read 104313 times)

Moonsword

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So, the question to me is, did you tell the store owner that you were disappointed not to find it on the shelves?  Did you ask when more boxes would be available in store?  Squeaky wheel getting greased and all but if you do not make your desire known- and likely often- then it will not happen.  Right now my group is having a similar problem since our store's distributor has quit carrying IWM.

Alright you two, the points both ways have been made.  Please quit derailing the thread over this one exchange  If you want to discuss it further between yourselves, take it to PMs.

BloodRose

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So, the question to me is, did you tell the store owner that you were disappointed not to find it on the shelves?  Did you ask when more boxes would be available in store?  Squeaky wheel getting greased and all but if you do not make your desire known- and likely often- then it will not happen.  Right now my group is having a similar problem since our store's distributor has quit carrying IWM.

I asked my FLGS owner and sadly he cant get BT. In fact no store I know can.
Sorry, let me explain the situation better. BattleTech availability in the UK is limited to a very small number of online stores, Amazon and, for the models, Ral Partha Europe. At least in my area and (as far as I know) the rest of the North there is no hard store retail stockist. Finding a game generally involves talking some people into trying the game or shoving oneself out there onto all kinds of groups and boards asking if anyone plays. Occasionally you get a hit and a game, usually its a miss.

What I want is to see the mass production of the new starter sets and there wide availability especially over here. That way the game is easier to get into, the community can grow healthily and I might actually get to field my units against another player more than twice a year.
>MOC - 3rd Canopian Fusiliers         >Capellan Confederation - Holdfast Guard
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Kit deSummersville

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Any word on mini replacement? My Locust is missing it's right arm.

My UrbanMech is missing two arms!  :D
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00Dawg

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What I want is to see the mass production of the new starter sets and there wide availability especially over here. That way the game is easier to get into, the community can grow healthily and I might actually get to field my units against another player more than twice a year.
Unfortunately, the likely magic bullet for you is a surge in popularity elsewhere so that your available distributors decide to invest in a steady stream of CGL products.  Short of that, the squeaky wheel example that someone else mentioned would be recommended.

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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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My UrbanMech is missing two arms!  :D

We've always known your UrbanMech was 'armless.
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Adrian Gideon

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BloodRose (and other UK customers): Catalyst Game Lab/BattleTech products can be ordered by your local stores from Esvedium/Asmodee. Thanks.
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Random question Ray/Cubby/people-who-know. Is the way the distribution system works that you the manufacturer sent product to select distributors and eventually other distributors get products from the select distributors on their own or does the product stay in the select distributors' warehouses and bought by stores?

Genuinely curious because this isn't a part of commerce I'm familiar with except for an acquaintance who is a middle-sized distributor of jet airplane parts.
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Colt Ward

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My peripheral experience from three different companies . . .

The Distributor is the middle man.  A producer gets their product in to their warehouse.  The distributor's purchasing agent (or whoever) makes the deal to get 10,000 units.  They do this over hundreds of producers getting various amounts shipped to their central warehouse facilities.  Stores then get included in a distributor's network, they order all their stock from that distributor (or two) and only rarely do they order straight from the producer.  You only order straight from a producer to a seller when you have the volume to meet their minimum order requirements- which is basically where they meet their minimum profit over the year to deal with your paperwork.  The place I worked ordered from one distributor and straight from two producers directly.

So the producer sells to the distributor when they buy X volume that meets a set of criteria.  The distributor then mixes products and sells a menu to stores though the stores have to meet X volume of sales to be in that network.  To the UK, there is probably another layer that deals with shipping products in the US to the UK.

Just as another bit, one of the reasons WalMart, Dollar General and other big box stores can offer things cheaper is they have their own distributor chain.  They get semi loads in and then divide it up between the stores for that region.  Usually their distribution centers are near transport nodes to keep costs down.  Amazon is a distributor that sells directly to you when its a actual 'Amazon' item and not a 3rd party.
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BloodRose (and other UK customers): Catalyst Game Lab/BattleTech products can be ordered by your local stores from Esvedium/Asmodee. Thanks.

My FLGS, Spirit Games, had no problems getting in both box sets. Picked up my order today; of the 6 boxes of each they ordered, they now only have 1 GoAC left.

Chris

BloodRose

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BloodRose (and other UK customers): Catalyst Game Lab/BattleTech products can be ordered by your local stores from Esvedium/Asmodee. Thanks.
Great, thanks!
>MOC - 3rd Canopian Fusiliers         >Capellan Confederation - Holdfast Guard
>Lyrians - 5th Donegal Guard          >Free Worlds League - 1st Oriente Hussars
>Federated Suns - 2nd NAIS           >Word of Blake/Comstar - undecided unit
>Draconis Combine - 1st Genyosha  >Clan Jade Falcon - Delta Galaxy
>Escorpion Imperio - Seeker Cluster >Pirates - Harlocks Marauders
>Mercs - Roses Heavy Lancers          >Mercs - Reinhold's Raiders
>Mercs/specops - Mausers Shreckenkorps >Mercs - Idol Squadron

Liam's Ghost

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Got mine in the mail today.

First thought was "It's bigger than I expect... oh, they. They are bigger than I expected." Turns out I'd ordered two copies of the beginner set and forgot all about it.

Still, the box is big in a way I find satisfying. I was actually expecting something the size of the old lance pack boxes and dreading the shear amount of folding that would require.

The box art is lovely. I especially liked the touch of "Kurita" spelled out in Katakana on the Griffin. It's totally nonsensical, in a way that calls back to battletech's nonsensical past.  :P

For some reason I was expecting two mapsheets per box, so I was momentarily disappointed, but when I thought about it I couldn't recall anybody actually promising two mapsheets, so I have nothing to complain about.

The minis and the cardboard standees are all very nice. I was hoping for a little bit more variety in the included terrain cards, but forests work.

Also, it had that new boxed set smell, which is great.
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Sartris

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Anyone else order from the cgl store? I haven’t gotten a shipping notification yet (ordered Jan 23)

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Mendrugo

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Anyone else order from the cgl store? I haven’t gotten a shipping notification yet (ordered Jan 23)

Same situation.
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Bosefius

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Anyone else order from the cgl store? I haven’t gotten a shipping notification yet (ordered Jan 23)

It seems to be a confirmation issue, not a shipping issue. I'm waiting for confirmation also. From discussions I've had my understanding is the warehouse (3rd party vendor) ships the items and then had to send a database over with order numbers and tracking numbers, at which point CGL matches the tracking number to the shipping number to update the accounts.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else, waiting for two separate shipments, both placed Wednesday.
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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I didn't order either of the box sets from Catalyst, but I did order a shirt when they went on sale last week and just got an email last night asking to confirm that my order was correct due to a high number of glitches resulting in people having orders that were the wrong size or quantity.

I'm guessing that the huge number of orders they've received combined with having to sort out the problems with orders is causing a massive holdup on order fulfillment.
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Sartris

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It seems to be a confirmation issue, not a shipping issue. I'm waiting for confirmation also. From discussions I've had my understanding is the warehouse (3rd party vendor) ships the items and then had to send a database over with order numbers and tracking numbers, at which point CGL matches the tracking number to the shipping number to update the accounts.

I'm in the same boat as everyone else, waiting for two separate shipments, both placed Wednesday.

Yeah, once I received a shipment notice an hour after the package arrived  ;D

I'm guessing that the huge number of orders they've received combined with having to sort out the problems with orders is causing a massive holdup on order fulfillment.

This was my assumption but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just me

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Interviewer: Since you’ve stopped making art, how do you spend your time?
Paul Chan Breathers: Oh, I’m a breather. I’m a respirateur. Isn’t that enough?

Sharpnel

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I got an e-mail that wanted to confirm the size hoodie I ordered. IT seems that they were issues in their click-through process that led to about 10% of orders having the wrong size attached. At least they are following through when errors are occuring.
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NeonKnight

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I got an e-mail that wanted to confirm the size hoodie I ordered. IT seems that they were issues in their click-through process that led to about 10% of orders having the wrong size attached. At least they are following through when errors are occuring.

Yep, I got one of those as well.
AGENT #575, Vancouver Canada

Elmoth

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Just ordered from Wayland, in the UK. Let's hope they get the big box and can ship it before brexit kicks in at the end of March.

Bosefius

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I got an e-mail that wanted to confirm the size hoodie I ordered. IT seems that they were issues in their click-through process that led to about 10% of orders having the wrong size attached. At least they are following through when errors are occuring.

Received that email also. Which I'm glad for, because it had me ordering a small Shadowrun shirt. Which is hilarious.
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Sartris

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Something tells me small is not a commonly worn size among forum regulars here

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Paul Chan Breathers: Oh, I’m a breather. I’m a respirateur. Isn’t that enough?

RoundTop

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Something tells me small is not a commonly worn size among forum regulars here

Of course not. It is the size of our kids. :)
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I ordered XL simply because while I find it too big in the girth department, most clothing producers seem to think all LARGE people have short body trunks, so while the Large fits comfortably, after a few washes the length tends to come to just below my navel  ???
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igycrctl

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I too ordered both from Catalyst on the 23rd with no notice of anything yet. Has anybody received their order?

Sharpnel

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I'll be happy if my hoodie gets here by fall of 2020  :D
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Sartris

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Of course not. It is the size of our kids. :)

they didn't offer one in 12-18 months  :'(

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Interviewer: Since you’ve stopped making art, how do you spend your time?
Paul Chan Breathers: Oh, I’m a breather. I’m a respirateur. Isn’t that enough?

carlisimo

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What should a new player buy along with the boxes, once they reach my store?  A bunch of small red, white, and blue dice?  Would I want more regular dice for weapon rolls?  What do you do with record sheets - laminate them?  Photocopy them? 

What’s in the Battlemech Manual that isn’t in the rules included in the big starter box?

What are we even calling the big box?  I went around saying, “A Game of Armored Combat” until a veteran player informed me that that’s the sub-heading of the name of the game itself, and is therefore doesn’t make it clear that you’re talking about the box. 

Sartris

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What should a new player buy along with the boxes, once they reach my store?

I tried my hand at breaking it down here https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=44730.msg1030134

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A bunch of small red, white, and blue dice?  Would I want more regular dice for weapon rolls?  What do you do with record sheets - laminate them?  Photocopy them? 

you really only need two dice, but what's the fun in that?  :D I carry around a Crown Royal bag full of dice - usually five or six pairs of dice that are different from the others will do the trick. For marking movement mods, I use the smaller 12mm chessex dice - [W]hite = Walk [R]ed = Run [J]ade = Jump [P]urple = Park (no movement)

Record sheets i just print and use pencil. if it gets too ratty i recycle it and print another. a lot of people like the sheet protectors with overhead / erasable markers

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What’s in the Battlemech Manual that isn’t in the rules included in the big starter box?

Lots! The fiction included in is set during the Third Succession War in the early 31st century. The BattleMech Manual is based almost 150 years later in 3145-50 and includes all of the weapon systems that have risen to prominence in the interim (including for the Clans). There are also rules for abstract battlefield support like air strikes and artillery. You can also find Quirks, which are optional characteristics that give machines more personality (for better and worse). You also get rules for fighting in cities and more exotic terrain. There's also a common misconceptions section at the end that clears up a lot of rules mistakes even people who have been around forever make.

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What are we even calling the big box?  I went around saying, “A Game of Armored Combat” until a veteran player informed me that that’s the sub-heading of the name of the game itself, and is therefore doesn’t make it clear that you’re talking about the box. 

The Box Set™? The previous boxes over the past decade were referred to as the intro box, but people may think you're talking about the Beginner Box... 

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Interviewer: Since you’ve stopped making art, how do you spend your time?
Paul Chan Breathers: Oh, I’m a breather. I’m a respirateur. Isn’t that enough?

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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I'd recommend just calling it the Game of Armored Combat Box Set, or something based on it, like the Armored Combat Box.
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carlisimo

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I tried my hand at breaking it down here https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=44730.msg1030134

That’s a tremendously helpful post, sorry I didn’t look there first.