Catalyst’s BattleTech Mercenaries Stomps Onto Kickstarter
March 24, 2023 by brennon
Catalyst Game Labs have taken to Kickstarter to expand their BattleTech range with a new set of miniatures and more. BattleTech: Mercenaries comes packed with lots of content for those wanting to dive deeper into this Sci-Fi wargame.
BattleTech: Mercenaries Kickstarter // Catalyst Games
At the heart of this campaign is the new BattleTech: Mercenaries boxed set. This is a supplement to the BattleTech: A Game Of Armoured Combat box which is needed to use this set and comes with twelve new miniatures, paper maps, counters, a rulebook, a primer on the Mercenaries and a lot more. You get Alpha Strike Cards, a whole darn novella and much more!
As well as the new Mercenaries set, you can also get your hands on a whole bunch of additional packs and more. This means that across the board, there are around fifty or so reimagined mech miniatures, support vehicles and VTOL elements.
BattleTech - Force Packs // Catalyst Games
All of these miniatures have been designed to allow you to dive into the game nice and quickly. Pop them out of the box and get going. I sense that John might find himself doing a lot of painting before that happens though.
As well as being able to get some of the new expansion content for BattleTech, there are also plenty of ways to get yourself started in the game too. You could get some neat Add-Ons like Alpha Strike, the BattleTech Techmanual and more.
BattleTech - Add-Ons // Catalyst Games
The world of BattleTech is much more than just its miniatures games. There is SO much lore and background for BattleTech that it most likely dwarfs that of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battles combined! The Black Library has nothing on the novels, stories and more that you have to dive into with BattleTech.
BattleTech Pledge Options
There are quite a lot of options for those seeking to pick up a pledge and get stuck into BattleTech. I've picked out just a few that might be worth looking at.
Recruit Pledge Level // BattleTech
At the Recruit level, you can get your hands on a Beginner Box and the Double Blind digital novel which is a good entry point into the game. You also get one of those neat Mercenary sets which could give you some extra firepower.
The Veteran level gets you the Mercenaries box and would be a good way to start if you've already been playing for a bit.
Veteran Pledge Level // BattleTech
If you want to go all in then you can get your hands on the Big Kappa set. This is pretty wild and comes with a LOT of BattleTech content.
Big Kappa Pledge Level // Catalyst Games
You'd be playing games for a long time before you ran out of things to do with this set. I don't know if this is going to be the pledge level that many folks will go for but it's worth showing off! Could you be tempted to dive into BattleTech with some of these new sets from Catalyst?
Drop your thoughts below!
"Could you be tempted to dive into BattleTech with some of these new sets from Catalyst?"
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Veteran level and Kickstarter goes BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 3.5 million USD.
Already 1 million more than Clan Invasion had.
It is a bit nuts. Kinda funny/disheartening seeing how many folks are claiming it’s not as good a deal as Clan Invasion and yet it’s blown past the total amount that CI raised in less than a day.
I will confess though, I am REALLY hoping they do Retaliation Packs like they did for the last campaign to let you get just the minis from the AGOAC & Clan Invasion boxes as extras, maybe offering the Alpha Strike and Mercenaries boxes contents as well.
Already suspecting that I’ll be jumping from Battalion up to Regiment in the pledge manager though….
Think of going in joint with friend on this, neither of us want the jump from one to other on are own but together with extra starter set, will probably cover it
Sound way to approach it. Should give you both a solid foundation.
Veteran level for me but I am eying battalion pledge.
At last plastic vehicles are coming. Soon it’s time to go combined arms.
Battalion level pledge locked in but that’s only because there are two of us sharing the pledge. A couple add-ons as well but this ks has been on our radar for quite a while so we have had the chance to save a little before hand.
After what Catalyst did to Blaine Pardoe, I’m done with them. Siding with a criminal, and stabbing one of your best authors and creators in the back, is beyond the pale.
I don’t care if I’m alone.
It appears that for UK backers add 20% when you get hit for VAT and no disclosure of the shipping costs. As this is all retail prices i’m not sure I see the value in giving them my money for 15 months when I can just wait and pay less.
You are correct and if any bothers to read the FAQ they say they have made the prices close to MSRP on purpose because they want you to support LGS instead.
At the same time, they are making a a whole bunch of items Kickstarter exclusive and will never be available at retail in any form in their own words.
So outside of exclusives, just wait for retail 18 months from now.
Fabulous looking new figures for the games table’s.
They’re getting some of my money, but they say they don’t want to undercut stores by offering good value, yet it’s their fans who they have their hand out to asking for a free two year loan… I just don’t think they threaded the needle on that one. It’s very popular this time, I’m sure people will point to that as all the sign they need that this is a good strategy. Loot boxes are very popular too, and people point to that as a good strategy too. Until after people have enough of it and the game developer goes… Read more »
You do know that they only created the loot boxes on strong requests of the community?
I have heard that it is not their strategy to keep doing KS, that there might be 1 and even less change for one more after as they want to go through the retail system.
I like how I looked that up and one of the first webpages was a news article titled “It’s Not Just Loot Boxes: Predatory Monetization Is Everywhere”. Yeah, people do clamor for weird things, drugs, gambling, authoritarian regimes, then they don’t really work to burnish the reputation of those things afterward. Maybe it’s the same for loot boxes and the companies who used “predatory” microtransactions until their player base left them. I’d say Catalyst should consider going full-retail, because a third campaign will not look so impressive now that people know it’s a two-year in advance preorder at nearly MSRP,… Read more »
It is strange, I heard from a retailer that he sells more of the BT salvage boxes than the normal force boxes and he also doesn’t understand it as the salvage box doesn’t contain anything unique you can’t get in a normal box.
Where have you seen it is two years as I see that the estimated date is for June 2024.
As in 15 months plus the usual delays which are between 6 months and 24 months. If you want to consider it a five quarter loan, that’d be fair if very optimistic, but I’m not going to expect it and they certainly can’t claim a perfect track record to suggest that we all should. I won’t hold the last BT campaign fully against them either. I’m going to expect neither the best case or worst case. I think salvage boxes represent the last thing you can buy that you don’t already have, because you never know what you’re going to… Read more »
Dang. Up to near enough $4.5m. And you know what? I’m glad that CGL are being more restrained with the “freebies”. They did offer some exceptional bang for your buck with the Clan Invasion but that came with some not inconsiderable delays as well. It does look like they had a clear plan in mind for how they expected this campaign to go, and they want to keep within reasonable limits to ensure a more timely fulfillment. And honestly? I’ll more than happily pick up an extra of the Mercs box at retail, likely most of the new force packs… Read more »