Now Available: Mercenaries Kickstarter Preview #1; Shrapnel #11; Arcade Operations: UrbanFest

On December 16, 2022

BattleTech: Mercenaries Kickstarter Preview #1

PDF Only: Free!

In 2018, Catalyst Game Labs built upon the thirty-five-year legacy of BattleTech with the release of the A Game of Armored Combat and Beginner Box sets. Those boxed sets included re-imagined miniatures which retained the core of each ’Mech’s identity, updated with modern aesthetics. Upon that foundation, our Clan Invasion Kickstarter unleashed nearly one hundred additional miniatures and finished among the top 100 Kickstarter campaigns ever.

In the last four years, the avalanche of high-quality, affordable, ready-to-play plastics–coinciding with

exciting original fiction and campaign play set in the new ilClan Era–has unleashed a massive wave of BattleTech interest, with more gamers of every age and type playing than ever before. By the end of this year, more than four million high-quality, affordable, ready-to-play plastic ’Mech miniatures will have hit gaming tables in just four years.

And soon we’ll be leaping back into that action: the Mercenaries Kickstarter launches on March 23, 2023, live from AdeptiCon!

We found during the Clan Invasion Kickstarter that the community loved behind-the-scenes looks at how we transitioned fan-favorite BattleMechs into our modern plastics. And we want to offer that again. This time, well before the Mercenaries Kickstarter launches, as we are so much further along on the project!

Today we’re launching the first of a series of preview PDFs that will roll out over the coming weeks. Each PDF walks you through that re-imagining process: basing each, of course, off of Duane Loose’s amazing original illustrations (as well as other artists). And then, starting with sketches (often several), through the renders, into the final plastic samples, and finally gloriously painted miniatures by the Camos Specs team.

We hope you love this journey as much as we have, and look forward to joining you on launch day!

Team Catalyst

Catalyst Game Labs web store: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/mercenaries-kickstarter-preview-01

Shrapnel #11

E-Pub: $6.99
Print-on-Demand (via Amazon): Coming Soon!

RECRUITS WANTED!

Shrapnel: The Official BattleTech Magazine transports you to the blistering, hard-hitting BattleMech conflicts that ravage the war-torn future of the 31st century and beyond!

A young Jade Falcon cadet must prove her mettle in a Trial of Position against a cunning opponent if she is going to become part of her struggling Clan’s future. Elite aerospace pilots from the Outworlds Alliance and the Snow Ravens meet in a clash for the ages, and a veteran wielding only an implement of peace stands up to defend his home against unusual invaders.

In this issue, you’ll sign up for a notorious mercenary unit and fight through your first day on the job. You’ll jockey to be first across the finish line in a hovertank race fraught with danger. You’ll chase the glory days of a once-noted BattleMech manufacturer in a quest to reinvigorate a declining enterprise and secure your birthright. Will you defeat your demons from the Battle of Tukayyid during battle with would-be conquerors? Will you escape from murderous cartel members, or succumb to the elements in the unrelenting, sun-beaten desert?

Load your chamber with technical articles, a Northwind Highlanders unit digest, a MechWarrior’s catalog of cockpit must-haves, a snow-filled RPG adventure, a BattleForce scenario, and more—all by BattleTech veterans and new enlistees:

Tom Leveen
Bryan Young
Russell Zimmerman
D. G. P. Rector
W. T. Brown
James Hauser
Chris G. Lane
R. J. Thomas
Phillip Johnston
Alayna M. Weathers
James Bixby
Étienne Charron-Willard
Matthew Cross
Wunji Lau
Eric Salzman
Tom Stanley
Stephen Toropov

E-publication: https://books2read.com/BattleTechShrapnelIssue11
Print-On-Demand (via Amazon): Coming Soon!

Arcade Operations: UrbanFest

PDF Only: $1.99

Please Wait.

Installing Update…

Thank you for purchasing our latest expansion pack for the award-winning Arcade Operations system: UrbanFest! As you wait for your system to install this new, exciting, downloadable content, please take a few moments to review our updated Terms of Service… [Click!] Are you sure you want to skip the ToS? [Click!] Are you really sure you want to skip— [Click!Click!Click!] Okay, if you insist…but don’t say we didn’t give you a chance…

Welcome back to the combat-enhancing extravaganza of madness that is PseudoTech: Arcade Operations! And prepare yourselves for a real treat with this, our first (and only?) expansion to the game catalog meant to spice up your BattleTech games in a variety of new (and, frankly, ridiculous) ways: UrbanFest! Feel the power and excitement that can only come from thirty tons of slow-moving metal, and limited firepower! Thrill to the tales of heroism and adventure that only the most unassuming of BattleMechs can deliver. Anyone can be a champion in a Marauder or a Turkina! But if you really want to know the meaning of challenge, try to forge a glorious career from the cockpit of the infamous UrbanMech!

UrbanFest! expands on the playability of the sim-game rules first introduced in PseudoTech: Arcade Operations, with new features ranging from the amazing Urbify! power-up, to all new medal-worthy achievements, and a host of new scenario types with which to earn them! Even better yet, this expansion introduces new UrbanMech variants and never-before-seen technologies bound to raise an eyebrow or two both on and off the arena circuit! So, park your favorite standby in the garage, don your neurohelmet, and climb into the giant trashcan-’Mech of your choice; it’s time to show the Inner Sphere that size (and speed, and firepower, and armor, and fully actuated arms) isn’t everything!

Catalyst Game Labs web store: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/pseudotech-arcade-operations-urbanfest
DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/418563/PseudoTech-Arcade-Operations-UrbanFest

Recognition Guide: ilClan Update

We’ve been thrilled with the response to the first volumes in our final cycle of the BattleMech Recognition Guide: ilClan series, and we want to make sure we can close out the series on time! To accomplish that, the Rec Guides will be taking a brief holiday break, returning Friday, Jan. 6 with Vol. 29. The remaining schedule will be:

Friday, Jan. 6 – Volume 29
Friday, Jan. 20 – Volume 30

Friday, Feb. 3 – Volume 31
Friday, Feb. 17 – Volume 32

Thank you for your continued support of this series, and patience as we ensure the final volumes (and the forthcoming collected print editions!) stay on track.