News and Commentary

There has been a lot, and I mean a lot of news for Classic Battletech in the last 72 hours, I was waiting for all of it to shake out a little before I posted this, but then Sunday's bombshell required I get to a computer and write.

So, first the good news. 2nd Succession War is out in PDF! The word is that limited copies will hit the street for Gencon, but hey, I can wait...that is assuming the other news I will talk about in a bit doesn't screw everything up.

I have been waiting for this for a while. I like fluff, fluff gives me ideas to write about, to write scenarios for, and to inspire painted units. I can take a throw away sentence or two in a given sourcebook and turn it into a 12 turn scenario, and I have done it many, many times.

Naturally, I already have a copy, (author's credits for Red Star, White Lights have been doing well of late) and on first blush, I liked what I saw. I cannot wait for the dead tree version, but it looks as if we are going to have another quality product on our hands to reenact some great CBT history.

The *meh* is the PDF releases of the Battletech Manual and the Technical Readout: Succession Wars. This is not to knock the effort that went into the former product, which was a lot, but honestly? This was a product that should have been released a long, long time ago in my opinion. The fact that it was not, seems a bit of a silly decision. Battletech, for all of the talk about combined arms (and such an idea is important, make no mistake) is primarily about the 'Mechs. It's why people play. It's what attracted me to the game in the 1980s. So, yeah, a 'Mech oriented rule book should have been one of the first projects to hit the street in the 2000s back when they were doing the Total Warfare series.

As for the latter product. It's the TRO version of a clip show. I hate clip shows. Yes, I know, it's got the reseen artwork. Cool. But I am not going to plunk down money for a product that I already have most, if not all the information for. If this is different, please let me know, as I am a person who is not above eating humble pie when required.

Now, the ugly. As we all know, Harmony Gold, the creators of Robotech (which is partly responsible for me *being* a Battletech player) alleges that the images created for the upcoming computer game by Harebrained Schemes and the images being used by Piranha Games for Mechwarrior Online are a threats to the Robotech copyright as those images resemble images in Robotech, or at least that's what their recently filed legal action says. They also named In Media Res Productions, the parent company of Catalyst Games Labs in the suit.

Now, I am not a legal scholar. but, my understanding is that if an image differs more than 15% from the original, than it is not an infringement on said copyright. Now, Harmony Gold has been kind enough to show their images, versus the images of the reseen and how they allege the similarities are actionable. Personally, I do not see it, but, hey, I will let you the reader decide. And if there are any IP experts or legal scholars out there, I welcome their comments on the case, and would love for them to set us straight.

Ok, let's take a look at the video tape, so to speak:

Found here is the comparison taken from the legal filings of the Warhammer and Archer (left) and the Destroid Spartan and Destroid Tomahawk (right). Image taken from Case 2:17-cv-00327

Found here is the comparison taken from the legal filings of the Atlas and Shadow Hawk (left) and the Armored Valkyrie and Destroid Spartan (right), note lack of captioning on the left. Image taken from Case 2:17-cv-00327

Found here is the comparison taken from the legal filings of the Marauder (left) and the Officer's Pod Glaug (right), again, note lack of captioning on the left. Image taken from  Case 2:17-cv-00327

Found here is the comparison taken from the legal filings of the Marauder/Marauder IIC and Phoenix Hawk (left) and the Officer's Pod Glaug and Super Valkyrie on the right. Image taken from  Case 2:17-cv-00327

Found here is the comparison taken from the legal filings of the Rifleman (left) and the Destroid Defender (right). Image taken from  Case 2:17-cv-00327

I am not at all convinced that Harmony Gold has much of a leg to stand on. The Atlas has similarities to the Armored Valkyrie? You have got to be kidding. I'd get it if they were up in arms if the Crusader was being reissued, which I have not seen a reseen for it yet. Could be wrong, and the Shadow Hawk? Who in their right mind says it looks like a Spartan? Sorry, but this smells to high heaven to me. And I might have good reason to think so, as Sony Pictures has announced they are going forward with a Robotech movie.

Now, that said, the suit was filed in March of this year, and the directorial announcement was made last week..but one might think all sorts of uncharitable things about Harmony Gold and seeking to destroy any potential competitors to any marketing of oh, say, toys and games ahead of a movie release? No, we wouldn't think that, would we?

Lets ignore the fact that Harmony Gold has done little with the IP in the last ten years. Yes, they released Shadow Chronicles (poorly received), and Love, Live, Alive (which was little more than a clip show!). Not to mention the remasters of the original episodes which while the sound and picture clarity was good, some of the questionable fan service was not (endless scenes of Dana showering in the Robotech Masters series, for example).

I won't even bring up the fiasco of the Robotech Miniatures Game and how kickstarter participants STILL have not gotten all they paid for. In fact, things got so bad there, one of the designers was almost driven to suicide. Where was Harmony Gold there? Filing dubious lawsuits it seems.

In short, this smacks of what is called "IP trolling" and while legally. Harmony Gold might be in the right, they are alienating a lot of fans...and those fans aren't probably going to take this lying down. I have already heard rumors of letter writing campaigns and defense funds. I would not be surprised if both go forward.

I will let you, dear reader, decide what you think of it all, but I am pretty convinced this is little more than "lawfare" and I hope it doesn't bleed dry some really good attempts to bring the game back from the brink. But, considering the nature of what the players are, I will quote Han Solo, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Part 3 of My Awesome Historicon Adventure

As mentioned in Part 2, there was a lot to see and do at Historicon. Of interest to Classic Battletech heads, there was the usual Grinder and Grand Melee events, as well as some other games in the program I didn't see and there was quite a few items for sale in the Iron Winds booth (Now run by the guys from B&V Traders!) I spoke to the guys at some length and picked up some things from them namely a nicely painted Huron Warrior and an unpainted Pheonix Hawk LAM....and some decals. Now if I could just get a 2nd Sword of Light Sheet, as I now have the Kentares flags...

I did see a lot of painted CBT for sale also at the Stan Johansen booth, and in the flea market, but I didn't think their prices were as competitive as B & V Traders, and of interest, and I almost forgot, I picked up a pair of laser levels from Army Painter, and Dwin Craig thoughtfully got me a ziploc bag FILLED with D12s. No more worrying about enough D12s for Alpha Strike!

This blog always seems to have the short end of the convention reports, and that is a shame, I will endeavor to have more to report here.

But, I want to take the time to give a shout out to a lot of folks. First, Mike Byrne. Thank you for the ride, the company, and a little insight into life in the artillery. Very insightful stuff indeed, and when you're stuck in traffic for two hours...

I want to thank Mike Pierce, Mike Demana, Miles (I wish I remembered your last name), Dennis Wang, Pete Panzeri, and anyone else I have not mentioned for running games at Historicon 2017. Without you, there is no con, and thanks for giving me and my fiancé a weekend of fun!

I want to thank my fiance, Anne. She puts up with me, my hobby, and more importantly, my eccentric friends. We're getting married in October, and again, she makes me proud she chose me. I just hope she feels the same way.

Some parting comments about the con, I again found the venue to be well lit, clean, and easy to get around. There were plenty of games, and most of them were well-attended, as this photo attests from Friday:

I am of two minds on the move to the Host next year, on the one hand, perhaps it's what we need to do to deal with the falling numbers, on the other hand? This venue, except for the noise issues, a darn sight better than the Host. I have my opinions...I am sure you have yours.

So, that's it for Historicon for this year...on to FALL IN!!!

My Birthday Game - Or, Alpha Strike, To the Bitter End!

Well, my birthday game has come and gone, and it was quite the game. I ran a small event for four people and had a blast doing it...literally. There was carnage to be had, and a friend got to run some 'Mechs for the first time ever (he'd bought them on eBay years ago, and they just hadn't had a chance to come out and play).

Not to mention, the Geo-Hex came out to play too! It was nine kinds of gaming awesome last Saturday! And Dwin brought his base...which has figured in more than a few of our games...and it's always seemed to become a focal point of any fighting.

So, with myself, Dwin, Glen, and Dave (Glen and Dave both being beginners) we set out to run Alpha Strike

So, the scenario was simple, capture the base by Turn 12 (Yeah, we lost track of what turn it was rather quickly), didn't matter, neither the Lyrans, painted by yours truly, backed up by some of my Robinson Rangers, nor Dwin's Kuritans were backing off.

A few notes, we do some house rules for our games:

• We use D12, we find it's a flatter probability curve, and it makes for a faster game, and we have one die per each point of damage dealt out by the unit. In other words, if your unit does 2 points of damage at medium range, then you roll 2 D12 to hit.

• We also have morale rolls for a unit having suffered internal damage. If a unit manages to survive to the end of the turn, then said unit rolls a D6 against it's skill, if it rolls higher than it's skill rating, the unit sticks around, if not, it must withdraw off of it's home board edge.

All pretty simple enough, and thus, on to the game!

The faster Combine units got into the base first, and I had decided on a three pronged advance...poor Dave marched his first set of units right into the guns of Glen's assault lance...this did not end well for Dave's Axeman, who promptly died under the Kuritan guns right away. After that, his Warhammer got chewed up and he made for cover as fast as he could.

My Assault lance was next, losing a Banshee within two turns, and a Battlemaster not long after that, but the Hauptmann hung in there for long enough to reach the base. I then had my scout lance try to distract the balance of the Combine lights..which did something..as we killed a Black Hawk-KU and shot the hell out of a Pheonix Hawk (who would later die under the guns of an Atlas). 

The fighting soon devolved around the base, and soon 'Mechs on both sides began to fall left and right, but the last Robinson Rangers Zeus failed it's morale roll, and withdrew, leaving the two surviving 'Mechs of the Combine force (out of 12) to "celebrate" their victory..not that it was probably much to celebrate.

I want to thank everyone for coming, and for my fiance Anne, who put out quite the spread for us, it was amazing and yes, Dwin, more cover for everyone next time!

As for the Geo-Hex, which is back and in it's first game? I think it did well, it's a bit fragile at times, but most of the damage incurred is nothing a little white glue, flock, and paint won't fix. I did see a lot of loose flock in the box, and I suspect I will have to send away to the manufacturer for more rescue flock at some point...no biggie.

The last of the Lyrans and the Combine duke it out for the base, by the end, only the Highlander and the Black Hawk-KU, along with the Zeus will survive.

A closeup of the fighting around the base.

The Warhammer, who probably had no business surviving as long as it did.

Another shot of the fighting around the base, with the remains of the Banshee and the Battlemaster burning in the background.

The Black Hawk-KU meets its end at the hands of the Wasp, who proved to be quite the survivor, until it died taking on the Highlander

Death of the Phoenix Hawk, as the Atlas pours fire into it

First blood for the Lyrans, as the Lynx from their Assault Lance dies under the guns of two FedCom lances. The Hatamoto-Suna is playing a light 'Mech, the Kubo or something like that..memory does not serve to remember the exact name,

The remains of the Lyran Assault lance breach the base.

KABOOM! There goes the Banshee!

Elements of the Lyran Scout Lance advance into the woods on the FedCom right

The rogue's gallery of Kuritan light 'Mechs, Only one, the red Black Hawk-KU, would survive to the game's end

Two of the Lyran lances (The Assault and Scout Lances) advance on Turn 1

Writing Battletech Fanfiction - A View From the Trenches!

As some of you know, I am a budding professional writer. Partly, it's my day job, (I am a technical writer), and partly? It's my passion. Battletech is well, great fodder for fanfiction. The veritable "what ifs" alone make for some great story material.

I wanted to use a story I am currently writing, Clover Spear - The Story of the War of '56 as a way of showing both the joys and the pitfalls of fanfic writing, especially for Battletech. There's a lot of good here, and some bad. But am I enjoying myself? You bet.

So, first the good. Fanfic is a great way to keep your writing talons sharp, as well as your imagination. Your chosen subject matter is your canvas, and you're not limited by canon, but by whatever your mind can conceive,

Let's use my story, I wanted to see what the result of the following premise would be? "What might have happened had Hanse Davion had survived his heart attack back in 3052?" Well, for starters, I do not think he would have let the Clans just set up shop on his borders. And with Hanse Davion, when he is unhappy, he is rarely unhappy alone for long. But I didn't want this to be "Hanse Davion saves the universe again!!" No, I wanted Victor to shine, and I wanted Katherine not to be a "ponytail twirling villain" like she was reduced to in the canon universe. And yeah, I wanted Omi to live....

So, what to do, what to do? Well, you're seeing the results.

But some points as I continue to write.

1. Have a plan: Having a plan to guide your writing is always a good thing, especially for a stream-of-consciousness writer like me. That doesn't mean you let the plan straight-jacket you. If you think of something good (especially if it makes you cackle with glee), and/or a reader has a great suggestion? Use it. Give credit where credit is due, but use it. But always have an idea where you are going with this. I have two spreadsheets, soon to be four, tracking the troop movements for this thing. Combat resolution is, if it sounds about right, do it. Some may not like that, but this is a story, not a wargame. Just don't be munchy about it.

2. Deal out the Pain as Even as You Can: Battletech is war, and war is a risky, risky enterprise. Battles are lost and won based on the slimmest of margins, and so are wars. You can do a lot, even kill factions, but the fact is..make sure there is enough around to keep it an interesting universe, so more often than not, make sure everyone gets their fair share of loss.

3. Keep Writing: I admit it, every review, every site visit, and discussion thread on Spacebattles and battletech.com is a fix for the writing drug. We fanfic guys don't get paid to do what we do, we do it for the love of what we do, so reviews are our payday. Many of us do it to see "Are we really that good, or are we kidding ourselves." I have had the question answered, and yes Virginia, I am a pretty damn good writer. But don't abandon your readers, even if you have to take time off, make sure when you come back, you come back with a vengeance.

4. Start Small, and Do Your Homework: Make your beginning micro, and build out macro. Make sure the steps you are about to take are ones you can build a good writing foundation for. If it's on a shaky foundation, it will be reflected in your prose. Moreover, do your homework. There is plenty of material out there for Battletech, even on the internet. If you have to make something up? Make sure it's at least plausible vis a vis your research. This leads into a related point....

5. Respect Your Readers Suspension of Disbelief: Your readers come to be entertained and have fun with your writing. They aren't asking you to be Hemmingway or Ringo, just good enough they can have fun reading it for a while. So respect the use of their time. Don't write a plot bunny you know sounds weak or just plain bad to you just because "it's in the plan" or "you have to, the story won't flow." If you think it sucks, then the reader will too, I promise you. Like on Broadway, give the audience what they want...but leave them wanting more. Do that and you will have them coming back for more of your work.

So, that's the best advice I have out there. I will keep writing my stuff, because it's fun and keeps the writing muscles sharp. I do hope you keep reading it.

It's tough finding active Battletech blogs out there!

It just is.

I don't know why this is, but it seems that as games go, Battletech isn't one that inspires people to blog about it for very long. Scrapyard Armory being the singular exception, and it hasn't been updated since the beginning of this year?

So why the heck is this?

I have my theories:

1. The game's release schedule isn't very active, or very stable right now. I know what the upcoming pages on the CBT site say, but then we see a beta for the Battletech Master Rules, part deux, a cover painting for ilClan, but has Alpha Strike been forsaken? Depends on whom you talk to.

2. The feeling that many at CGL don't have as much love for Battletech as they do Shadowrun. I had one person in the know (whose identity I will never reveal, so do not even ask) tell me that Battletech was seen as a loss leader, as compared to Shadowrun and that there was some enmity between the two teams.

3. Do we the fans bear some responsibility? I am an old grognard whom at 11 years old was eagerly leafing through his copies of the 4th Succession War atlas and just going "wow". We got spoiled under FASA in the 3025 years. We did. The Clan years were good too. But something happened around the mid to late 90s as the game moved into the 3057-8 era. The quality of the writing declined on the sourcebook side, this continued for a while, until Fanpro came along. Was the Jihad the best executed idea? No. But Battletech is a game that must evolve, and Fanpro, for better or worse was stuck with the Jihad and the changes Clicky-Tech wrought. They did the best with what they had.

And how did a lot of fans react? "If you don't love 3025, hippie, then get the hell out of CBT." A lot of fans, I hate to say it, did just that. Can we blame them?

So, we are left with a game in limbo. A game that like a shark, must keep swimming forward to survive. If we do not swim forward, we will die.

I for one, do not want Battletech to die again. I don't want us to just be some new hot property for a computer game (which does look good by the way). I want us to live and breathe again. We must do this, for the sake of the game.

How do we do that? I have my opinions, which I plan to keep to myself. This isn't the place for that. This is food for thought put out to you, the reader. So, tell me readers. How do we move forward, how do we get our game back on top again?

Because I am damn tired of looking up from the bottom.

New Leadership for Battletech Line, and what we'd like to see!

As some are aware, Classic Battletech has some new people at the helm. This is good as the game has been, for better or worse, stalled creatively for some time. There has been few new releases (The first two books of the Combat Manual series, and Campaign Operations, as well as 1st Succession War come to mind), it has been dribs and drabs when it comes to new printed product.

Then there is the issue of certain newseen sculpts being pulled from the marketplace for reasons unknown. This is, of course, leading to rumors of everything from "HG's lawyers are suing" to "Someone at CGL Legal thought they needed to have further work done to make sure we don't get sued."

All of this has combined to leave a big communication gap between us the players, and CGL. Yes, there are the forums, and the facebook pages, but when I can't get a simple email about getting a replacement part for a Uziel filled from Iron Wind Metals filled in a timely fashion (Going on two weeks guys, and no response.), then there is a humongous problem.

So what would we like to see out of the new leadership?

• We'd like the new products to get some forward motion, or at least, if there is forward motion, tell us that? Us Alpha Strike players are especially keen as we have seen the plastic lance box sets cut from $20 to $10  and then raised to $15? We'd like some honest talk about the future of Alpha Strike. And, some honest talk about the future of CBT in general.

• We'd love to see this wishlist filled?
• A introductory set with plastic Newseens, or Clan 'Mechs?
• An Alpha Strike boxset?
• A new design suite, perhaps app compatible and able to do conversions across all levels of CBT (Alpha Strike, Classic Battletech, Battleforce, ISIF, etc.)?

• I know that the policy is "we don't do release schedules" because it is hard to meet them in the industry, but some idea as to when we can expect a product, approximately, at least in PDF would be awesome?

• Better customer service from both Iron Wind (which I am aware is an independent company) and the CGL web store. I have personally heard too many horror stories first hand about waiting for product, waiting for response to emails, etc.

I don't think my ideas are too wacked out, and I'd like to hear from you, the audience? What would you like to see from our new overlords? Let's see what the fanbase needs, wants, and desires?

UPDATE: Brent Evans got back to the fans on the Customer Service front:

Hello everyone - I've been able to get a handle on all the cases from my original announcement, so I'm expanding my call out to everyone to make sure no one falls through the cracks.  

As the new Line Developer for BattleTech I'm taking the lead on helping anyone with outstanding Customer Service issues in need of getting their orders fulfilled through the Catalyst web store.  This includes any outstanding orders placed through the old web store as well.  I don't want anyone left behind.  

It was no secret that our old webstore was faltering pretty hard by the time we were able to get the new one built from the ground up, and despite the web-team's best efforts - we've been correcting gremlins every since it went live in November.  We've got a massive product list so there were bound to be glitches, but we are committed to making sure no one falls through the cracks.

And I'm willing to put products where my mouth is to prove it.

So if you have an old issue or product that you ordered, paid for, and for some reason are still waiting for delivery after 60 days or more - please email me directly so I can get it resolved for you.  If you placed an order for a PDF product that never arrived, the link didn't work, or it downloaded the wrong product - please email me directly.  If you've been emailing to the Customer Service address for months and not getting a resolution - just email me directly.  I will send a PDF product of your choice free of charge for every order like these that you send me.  

Thank you for helping us make sure every fan gets their gaming needs fulfilled.  I appreciate your collective assistance.

Part 3 of the Williamsburg Muster Report

This will be the shortest piece, as there wasn't a whole lot of Battletech going on, I managed to make some purchases, some unseen Wasps and Stingers, as well as a Fire Lance plastic Mech pack from BV Traders and a Kurita House Book as well as a pack of Saladins from The Dragon's Hoard. I talked with Mike Varney from BV about what we thought the future of Classic Battletech was..and found out that he will be the new official Iron Wind agent at cons! Congrats to Mike and the crew!

My opinion on CBT is simple. Brent Evans and Ray Arrista needs to get new product moving, not just PDFs and they need to come clean on what is going on with the Wasp and Valkyrie sculpts. I know, I know, there might be some proprietary issues. I get it. But at least make some sort of statement. Mike told me there was at least one major distributor that told him "Battletech is dead". This isn't good for the future of the game, and I for one, am not happy to be hearing things like this.

Finally, it was Memorial Day - and in memory of all of America's fallen, I wore this the entire con. I encourage more of us wargamers to do so. We game for recreation what may be one of the worst days in someone's life. It would do us well to remember that.

So, all in all, it was a good con, and I will keep the blogging coming. Here is hoping you guys keep reading!

UPDATE: I just realized this was our 10th post! I will keep on writing as you keep on reading!