More News on the Harmony Gold Lawsuit

"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts."

Londo Mollari, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark" Babylon 5

Yep, it seems as if Harmony Gold (hereafter referred to as HG) must have a ton of money for copyright attorneys, as they are suing someone else in a copyright infringement lawsuit. This time, they're suing Tatsunoko Productions, the guys that sold Harmony Gold the rights to the images for Macross that made Robotech possible. 

According the to the referenced article, it seems the rights to those images were not Tastunoko's to sell in the first place, but instead with another outfit, Studio Nue, and that HG's rights were distribution of the Robotech/Macross cartoons in North America. 

Court documents have been filed as of last week, and according to Sarna.net, it seems that this is more of an arbitration case, but there are no details as of yet. How this turns out, noone knows. Anything could happen at this point.

But, if I may give my three cents? It's pretty clear HG has gotten quite lawsuit happy, and is clearing the legal decks for something, the live action Robotech movie we hear so much about seems to be the leading possibility in my opinion, but it could be other projects? Whatever happens, the fact that the are willing to arbitrate rather than go before a jury suggests even HG knows that their case might be weaker, or that they are looking towards a long fight with the Piranha Games/IMR/HBS suit.

Either way, it does seem like it's pretty silly to pick two or three lawsuits at the same time. I suspect this may not play overly well with a jury, assuming the judge allows this into evidence.

So, to be continued folks.  

More news from GENCON!!!

Well, it seems that there is more news from CGL about the box sets, and what's in em. I will let the official Battletech FB group speak for itself:

You've seen the sneak peek photos from Gen Con below, now here are the details we can share so far about the two new box sets for BattleTech that are on their way in 2018.

The Beginner Box Set will include two miniatures, the Griffin and the Wolverine. The Game of Armored Combat box set will include eight miniatures: a Locust, Commando, Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, Catapult, Thunderbolt, Awesome, and BattleMaster. All minis will have entirely new sculpts!

(We're aware the Wolverine was misprinted. These are prototypes, and this is why--it will be fixed for full release. Those responsible have been invited to enjoy a stay at their local Word of Blake facility.)

The boxes are mock-ups only, and the details shown on them are *not* final. The contents list on the back of the box remains in development; as a result, the price point of each box has not been finalized.

The maps shown in the photos are likewise not final, and will receive further development. The rules presented are based on those in the recently-released BattleMech Manual in both form and function.

At the moment, the best release date we can offer is 2018--that's broad, but there's a lot of work going into these products, and we hope to share more of it soon!

Ok, so at least my wallet can take a breather for the rest of 2017!

The components at this stage look great, especially the 'Mechs. I so want to see these for sale in separate box sets like the current box sets. I think they would sell very well, perhaps with some Alpha Strike Cards???

Wide angle shot of Battletech Box Set, taken from Battletech Facebook site.

Thunderbolt and Batltemaster, taken from Battletech Facebook site

Locust, taken from Battletech Facebook site

Shadow Hawk and Griffin, taken from Battletech Facebook site

I like the looks of all the Newseen as they are being called. They are beefier than the Reseen, they have some "heft" to them, and they look like they move like the walking tanks they are. The Reseen looked a lot like scarecrows to me, and honestly, lost something in the translation (now the Clan IICs had that heft I was talking about, to be fair). But these models? Oh yeah, Papa likee.

While we are only getting 8 in a box, they are going to be a nice addition to anyone's collection of minis. Like I said, I really hope we get some lance sets for the miniatures as well as the box set. It's also nice to see the beginner set as well, we have needed an "intro" set for Battletech for some time, and the responses to my commentaries have often borne that out.

All in all, 2018 looks like it will be a good year for Battletech, now if we can just get the PTB to give us something more for Alpha Strike? I would be a happy, happy man. 

UPDATE: We have some news on the Combat Manuals among other things from the "What's Up With CGL" panel at GenCon, we also have a Youtube video!

Watch and enjoy folks!

GENCON, What's coming down the pipe!

 There is a lot of releases coming to the fore for Classic Battletech coming as a part of Gen Con, and we are going to take a look at all of them.

  First, there's the release of the books mentioned in a previous blog post, the books are out in hardcopy, at least on a limited basis.

  Here are some images of the actual books:

Taken from bg.battletech.com

Taken from bg.battletech.com

Taken from bg.battletech.com

 The Legacy anthology looks interesting, and the description sounds quite compelling, to say the least. I am a bit excited by the idea, and I will probably pick it up as a PDF or a Kindle book when I get the chance.

  As for miniatures, there is quite a bit being released by Iron Wind Metals. Here are some pictures for everyone to have a look at:

 

New Anubis Sculpt, taken from IWM website

Avalanche Sculpt, taken from IWM website

New Cuirass sculpt, taken from IWM website.

New Uziel sculpt, taken from IWM website.

I am pleased to see the new sculpt quality, and the Uziel looks particularly good, but a lot of the sculpts, naturally, are more for 3250 era games, which I must confess, isn't much for me. But hey, different strokes for different folks.

But the big news is this:

Taken from bg.battletech.com

I am pretty excited about this news most of all, as there is not going to just be a new box set, but a new introductory box set. Both will come with miniatures, but word is that both will have less than previous box sets. One can hope this will lead to more plastic box sets as well, as these have been a boon to miniature players.

There hasn't been much in the way of news for anything specific to Alpha Strike, but one hopes CGL has some surprises for us.

Anyhow, that's it for now, but we'll stay tuned as the trickle of news comes from Gen Con.