BattleTech: Mercenaries – CGL does a shipping booboo? Internet rages!

[limburger 21697xp 0]

@jamescutts but how many is thanks to CGL and how much is thanks to the community as it currently exists and modern tech like 3D printing ?

While Battletech may survive … that doesn’t mean it can escape this unharmed.
Even D&D has ‘survived’ through multiple owners/iterations, but that doesn’t mean one stupid mistake may be one too many.

I currently don’t know Battletech outside of the kickstarter and the videogames.
I do hope it survives and it gets owners that know what they’re doing as opposed to these clowns, because it would be sad to see one of those big franchises die due to incompetent management.

I don’t what the ratio of ‘old’ vs ‘new’ fans is in this kickstarter, but there is a definite vocal group that is not getting a good experience out of this and it will affect how they promote the game within their region. That will hurt the game long term if CGL doesn’t fix things.

[grantinvanman 2175xp 0]

Hasbro owns D&D now; if you think they’re going to fail, then you should short the stock… although it’s up 23% this year, and around $30 year low to year high.

I don’t think D&D have anything to worry about. Maybe pick another example.

CGL will probably come out of this ok, to be honest. KS is a gamble, no matter who’s doing it, as the Mythic example is a good example of failure. But CGL as others have pointed out continue to put product out without the KS needed; fundamentally, that’s a good sign for a company.

Do I think they should avoid quick cash infusions by KS in the future? Of course. It does not help the company to look good to many.

I’d be curious to know how many people (headcount) put into the KS?

[dawfydd 11926xp 2]

CGL have stated that this will be their last Kickstarter of this scale. And if I remember it’s about 30,000 backers all in all, Roughly 20,000 of those in the States & Canada, about 2000 in the UK & EU, and the rest in other territories.

[jamescutts 6923xp 1]

One of the big aim’s of this Kickstarter was to get product already in the pipeline into production faster than they currently can with their standard release schedule. It might be different in cheeseland @limburger but over here in the UK and i’d assume in the US Battletech has worked its wait quite well into retail channels, be it the big box US store deals or FLGS over here in the UK, its pretty common to find now. Admittedly certain things are not always stocked very well but on the whole there’s a pretty consistent retail presence along with several products released to retail throughout the year.

I don’t think this KS will have  lasting impact on Battletech, yes its not been the best run and its certainly delayed (as to be expected with KS) but the game isn’t going to tank or anything because of it, its a pretty stable product for the most part. I don’t think the short term picture painted has been good but longer term the projects been successful in getting  a huge range of new force packs to market much faster than the standard pipeline would allow.

While theres some worryingly similar aspects to CGL to Mythic there not really at the same point or level, Battletech is a well established retail product now, in part due to past Kickstarters.

[sundancer 42954xp 1]

The KS page says:

You and 23,653 people are supporting Catalyst Games

United States 15,827 backers
Canada 1,694 backers
United Kingdom 1,489 backers
Germany 1,129 backers
Australia 1,039 backers
Spain 214 backers
Finland 142 backers
New Zealand 135 backers
Sweden 130 backers
Singapore 126 backers

So 17,521 for the US and Canada (not 20k) and over 3,100 for UK/EU which roughly equals to 88% of all backers. And still they flocked it up.

[dawfydd 11926xp 1]

I think they had a sizeable influx of late backers on BackerKit as well

[sundancer 42954xp 1]

I think they had a sizeable influx of late backers on BackerKit as well

that may be but for me that is like saying “people buying the clan invasion box in stores count as backers” 😉

[grantinvanman 2175xp 0]

Interesting; by no means was this small, then. I’m curious how it scales to other KS, that are from ones that actually delivered and haven’t gone under.

It’s good that CGL have acknowledged this will be their last on this scale – clearly they underestimated how big it would get, and how woefully underprepared they were for their success.

Battletech is definitely easily available – my local hobby shop (one of the largest in the world by square footage! Yes, right here in Canada – who knew?!?) has quite a bit in stock; that shop is about a 30 minute drive for me, and I don’t go there that often.  They also rarely have sales.

The main Canadian online/brick hybrid shops that I know of all seem to have a fair amount of Battletech in stock as well. I don’t buy from the mail-order only stores as many have poor reviews online. My favourite one is in Quebec – they rarely sell out if there is a French/English co-release – handy for GW!

Finally, Amazon has it here in Canada, and that’s where I found my boxed set. Should get it today. Not bad – next day delivery! Amazon pricing is something to watch, especially when some shops are involved; they tend to inflate prices through Amazon. This applies to my other hobby, guitar as well. My box is out for delivery as I write this.

 

 

[dawfydd 11926xp 1]

Honestly I’ve never known Battletech to be not just this easy to buy either at your FLGS or online here in the UK, but the range is so much easier to understand.

[limburger 21697xp 0]

@jamescutts like many things it’s GW or nothing …

I’m soo glad that webshops are a thing now.

I do remeember seeing Battletech tech manuals (or whatever they were called) in the one gaming store I used to know before 2000 .. (almost 25 years ago). This was of course at the time that Rogue Trader was not yet known as 40k.

I don’t know if Battletech ever gained a foothold in these parts to be honest. I have the distinct impression that tabletop gaming is mostly boardgames in these parts.

The collectible gaming craze caused a lot of long lasting damage for anyone not into that sort of stuff, but it made perfect sense for shops for obvious reasons. Magic:The Gathering is probably the only one that survived when that trend started.

@grantinvanman Hasbro itself may be big and unlikely to fail, but D&D isn’t their biggest product. For now D&D still is the big boy in rpg market, but pathfinder was made possible because they alienated their customer base once already. Recent shenanigans with their attempt at changing the licensing for their game may have cost them as well.

Battletech is unique as there hasn’t been a successful offshoot of the concept. And that’s probably because it is its own IP as well as a game. D&D and RPG’s in general are easier to exploit whenever the primary owner fails to meet fan demands (having gone ‘open license’ before they got too greedy/stupid also helped a lot).

(is there an open source like game for Battletech inspired games ? )

 

[grantinvanman 2175xp 0]

You’d have to go back to pre-1993 for Rogue Trader! I started with the 2nd edition box around 94, although I was lucky enough to pick up all the Rogue Trader stuff before prices went bonkers on the collector’s market.

There is a Gundam show or movie coming to Netflix shortly; Gundam robots and Robotech robots are all robot-y for people to cross them up. I know I do!

Dungeons & Dragons even had its big movie a couple (?) of years ago; it was fun, mostly.

[sundancer 42954xp 1]

Newest update from the Kickstarter:

Hey there backers,

Here’s the news for this week.

Manufacturing is largely on track with almost all items finishing production this week. One or two items may finish production next week and will then immediately ship. We are shipping shortages directly to the international hubs from the manufacturers, rather than sending all of them to QML for separation and shipment, so we’ll save some time there.
We do not yet have estimates for arrivals, as items are coming from all over the world to hubs all over the world. Expect this process to take a few weeks and we’ll update as things start to ship and arrive. We are getting closer!

Shipments from Wave 1 are largely complete, with fulfillment for Wave 2 ongoing for remaining orders and ongoing efforts to complete the remaining missing items as quickly as possible.

There has been a brief hold during the storm and operations will resume as soon as it’s safe. Book-only shipments are also ready to be processed and will start going out shortly. The EU and AU hub shipments from QML are ready to go and will be booked to depart once the storm has passed.

Remember that Wave 1 were orders paid by May 17th, and Wave 2 orders were paid by August 12th. Wave 1 and 2 include orders in the queue for EU, UK, Australia and China hubs. There are less than 1,000 orders since August 12th where the backer has completed their survey and are awaiting shipping costs to be applied. We are mindful of the holidays approaching and want to get retailers fulfilled as soon as packages are done for regular backers. To keep to that time table and the honored exclusivity, we will be fulfilling retailers at the end of Wave 2.

Wave 3 will still be fulfilled, but given the due date was originally May, we feel it important to honor our commitments to the backers who submitted their pledges on time. There are always late pledges that roll in on Kickstarters, and will be for years to come. We plan to fulfill all of them as they come in.

Have a great week, everyone! We are getting there!

Not sure what to make of this. Are the EU hubs ready to go? Why wait because of a storm in the US when the items are in the EU? And no actual dates (which I understand toa degree)

If I was a gambling man: CGL will have all vendors start selling Mercenaries stuff from December 1st because of Christmas sales profit regardless of how many Backers have been served. And EU/RoW will get their stuff “early 2025”

[tankkommanderParticipant 6420xp 1]

The hurricane ate my homework excuse.

How predictable.

Do the EU/UK hubs even exist? Has any stock been shipped? What is missing? The updates lack any real detail whilst given the pretence of progress.

[grantinvanman 2175xp 0]

To be fair, the storm is the largest hurricane to hit Tampa since 1888. It’s a big one, and deaths are already being reported.

Where is CGL though?

[lonkelo 3195xp 2]

Right. Since I don’t know how long it will take before the minis come in, I’ve decided to just pretend that I have them. I’ve just joined a Battletech game organised through Kriegsspiel, using the Alpha Strike ruleset adapted for double blind play.

Nasew Militia 12th Cavalry Lance is go! 🏇🤖

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