Catalyst had these two promotional handouts that made the rounds during Gencon.
The first is a simple Jihad teaser that was passed out by Word of Blake representatives Thursday and Friday as a leadup to the big reveal on Saturday. Watch out, these are rather large files.
The second, was available at the CGL booth all convention long. It is a short but sweet mini catalog to get people interested in the game. Great artwork to show off the Battletech world.
Tabletop Gaming News made several videos with Catalyst Game Labs front and center. Here are all of the links in one place for easy reference.
Randall and David Talk About Battletech Releases
Randall and David Talk About Battletech Novels
Randall and David Talk About the Word of Blake Jihad
Battletech received some particular notice and praise in at least two articles.
The BattleTech range continues to expand and the latest set of releases continue to make BattleTech probably the widest game on the market in terms of rules and possible interactions and settings covered by them. Happily the development team continues to follow the “plug and play” mentality that informed earlier rule releases and so gamers don’t need to read and memorize an encyclopedia of rules to use particular technologies or settings in their games.
Second Article. Note that your’s truly provided the fodder for the in article link in the second paragraph!
When I was talking to David at Catalyst Game Labs on Friday he made mention of there being an important product announcement at their booth on Saturday at 10am. I was going there in any case since they were putting up a new BattleTech diorama but sadly I missed the announcement as they made the announcement the previous evening. The announcement was for their new Blake Documents book which provides specifics about the events in the two previous BattleTech Jihad sourcebooks.
This book was a total stealth release. Catalyst didn’t pre-announce it and effectively sprung it on their fans. Kudos really have to be provided to Catalyst for the way in which they provided teasers to gamers at GenCon. At midnight a poster on their forum started posting PDF previews and a figure dressed in Blake robes walked into the BattleTech gaming area in Wasbash 3 tearing pages from the book and screaming about Inner Sphere lies. His bloody robe was later attached to the game cage in the room with a cover of the book attached to it.
It was no surprise that BattleTech fans were lined up at the booth once the show doors opened. I continue to be impressed with the management team at Catalyst but especially with David Stansel-Garner and Randall Bills who have brought a level of professionalism and talent to the BattleTech and Shadowrun lines that fans of these products really deserve.
David and Randall also mentioned a new miniature game they have coming soon that will be a VSF game with giant levitating battleships. I have an interview with them tomorrow and I will be sure to get as much information about it as I can.
Kudos to CGL for putting on an excellent show. The best part of it all is that everyone who attended and even those that did not were all left wanting more. GenCon 2009 promises to be an event to remember. Go ahead and start saving your pennies now.
If you play Battletech there is one place to be in August 2009!
Posted under NewsThe Camo Specs diarama was updated. Here are a few shots. Once again, I’ll be updating this post in the future after I get back from GenCon. I would have gotten this up sooner if the hotel internet did not go down again.
New Artwork from the Q and A
More on this later, but I just have to share.
The Battle for Gabriel
The Ruins of Gabriel, a long-sought ‘holy grail’ of Chandrasekhar Kurita, has been located. Can it be claimed? Join Chandy’s coalition aerospace forces in assaulting the fabled space yard or the side of the Blakist defenders as they fight desperately to keep the Heretics away!
On Saturday, twelve CBT players put their Battlemechs aside and took control of fighter squadrons, dropships, and warships.
As a special treat, Wierdo and Joel had an advance copy of the Strategic Operations advanced aerospace rules. There is a lot of great stuff in the new rules. In particular, fighters get rebalanced and capital ships get a few new options to play with.
Due to a few delays in setting up, the game started late. The players took extra time at the end of the night but were not able to finish the game completely. Here are the pictures.
In the end, neither side had enough time to make their objectives. Each side had achieved one each, the one involving certain units surviving. The coalition held the egde in total damage delivered with one warship kill and a few dropships.
Altogether a very good game. It was a pleasure to be able to play the advanced rules well before Strategic Ops sees the light of day.
Posted under NewsThis post will be updated mid day with additional pictures, however, I could not resist posting about a few things right away…
Word of Blake Propaganda
During the CBT events on Friday night, some rather peculiar men in robes walked through the hall screaming about the lies of the Inner Sphere and the truth of the Word. Normally, this would not have made for an unussual happening, especially since we are at GenCon. However, one of the robed figures was holding a rather curious document in his hand.
I leave you all to speculate. (I assume there will be a proper announcement anyways in an hour or so…)
Day 1 is in the books. Due to an internet outage at my hotel, I couldn’t get this post completed until this morning. Here are a few pics from the first day of gaming.
And now some quick photos from the CSO diaroma.
CBT Open
The first round of the CBT Open was Clan Mechs. My choice was a Griffin IIC 4 and a Kingfisher H. I faced off against a Night Gyr Prime and a Fire Falcon H. The battle started very slowly as both my opponent and I had horrible luck unable to hit any 8s at all.
We took turns trying to bait each other with our lighter ‘Mechs and he was the first to eventually accept the offer. At the end of that round of combat, his Fire Falcon was barely killed by torso destruction and one additional center torso engine hit. My light ‘Mech survived.
From there we danced around the board avoiding direct combat until I was able to trap him into a corner and force the issue. I was initially afraid that the Night Gyr would be able to outpace me for damage, but heat issues prevented him from unleashing all the damage he could. I lost the Griffin in the same turn I cored out his torso for the win. Good game.
Something is Coming?
I have a very unsubtantiated rumor that something will be announced today in the Classic Battletech line that may or may not cost around $30. What could it be? I’ll keep an eye on the CGL booth today to see if there is anything to this rumor or not.
Posted under NewsNot much to report on the first day. The plane ride was adequate. Registration almost uneventful. At least I didn’t have any trouble.
My friend who came with me from Jersey had a bit of a hiccup. GenCon sent his badge in the mail. At least that is what they say. He never got anything in the mail and instead of simply printing him out a new copy, they demanded hat he pay for his badge again.
So the friend just said ‘Ok’ and plans to contest the charge.
GenCon worries that people will get multiple badges by ‘losing’ it over and over. Ok, sure there are probably some people out there who may try this. However I don’t think that the cost of alienating honest customers is worth catching the tiny minority of people out to play the system.
Anyways, here are a few uninteresting pictures from the day. Tomorrow should be much more exciting.
Wednesday morning I will be on a plane heading to Indianapolis for GenCon. I am very excited. It will be my first GenCon and the biggest convention I have ever or possibly will ever be at in my life.
I’ll be playing in a few Classic Battletech games over the course of the day but will also devote a good chunk of time to the exhibition room.
Pictures Uploaded Each Night!
I plan on uploading pictures at the end of every night. For those of you out there who can’t make it to GenCon this year, please leave a comment if you want me to grab a specific picture for you. I will do everything reasonable within my power to answer as many requests as possible.
So let me know! Leave a comment to this post or any of the GenCon posts to come. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Posted under NewsI saw this website and just couldn’t resist.
In a nutshell, there is this web artist who will draw anything you want for a paltry $2. It is only a five min or so sketch but I figured, what the hell, why not? Here is my request in all it’s glory.
Posted under Misc
I am back from Historicon and I had a blast. I only attended on Saturday to take in a few games I was interested in as well as to go shopping in the massive dealer room. In fact, I spent pretty much the entire morning working my way through trying very hard to keep my wallet in my pocket. By the time I got to the Iron Wind Metals booth, I could last no longer.
Here are a few quick pictures of the Battletech miniature display. As always, Iron Wind Metals brought with them some amazingly painted miniatures. Makes my 2nd Freemen (keep reading for more on that…) look like crap on a hex.
Please bear with me for the rest this post as I will be talking about a few game systems that have little to do with Classic Battletech. (You mean their are games out there besides CBT? GASP!)
Painting Contest
Historicon has a bring in painting contest each year to go along with their epic Iron Paintbrush challenge (paint a given mini in one hour using tools on hand!). I decided to toss my hat in the ring in the Single Figure Other category. Other simply means non-historical. Therefore, I was pitted against all the other fantasy and sci-fi minis.
Here is my entry, a Flashman in Second Freemen colors. I am proud to say that I got second place. Keep in mind that there were only five or so entries in my category.
CBT Grinder and Benjamin Take 1
The morning session of games had a Grinder and a big game featuring the Draconis Combine versus the Word of Blake.
I sat down for the Grinder before heading off to lunch. I randomly selected a Cougar A to start off with and I made the most of it. I ended up getting four kills before prematurely ejecting because I was hungry.
Combat!
The crying shame of the convention was that I forgot to take any pictures of this gaming session. I was having so much fun actually playing that I just forgot.
Combat! is a lightweight WWII skirmish game that cares more about the individual soldiers, like Vinny who wants to run a car wash after it’s all over, than the exact specifications of weapons, grenades, and the like.
The system is fast and easy to learn and works using a deck of cards, a system I found very clever. The game itself is being developed and tested and may be available commercially sometime next year. If it does go to print I will be sure to pick up a copy. It is a fun system that you can play with your friends when you need a break from Classic Battletech.
Iron Winds of War - The Peasants are Revolting!
Iron Winds of War is a light weight fantasy and medieval ruleset sponsored by Iron Wind Metals. The rules are based on Rules According to Ral, ala Ral Partha.
The game itself plays very fast while providing a good amount of strategy. In about two and a half hours, we fought a huge battle to an acceptable conclusion.
The scenario we played involved a peasant uprising. Seems the ‘Man’ has been drunk on power and has been spending all his free time oppressing the poor serfs. The ‘Man’, represented by a Bishop looking character is out and about when the peasants, helped by a group of rebel warriors and a mysterious group of black clad knights, finally have enough and decide to do in the Bishop.
The stage is set. The Bishop is caught away from his castle with an imposing group of rebels in his way looking to slit his throat. The battle commenced and casualties started to pile up. Through most of the game, the Bishop was heavily protected by a group of four foot knight units. Near the end of the game, after a series of disastrous personal challenges, the Bishop was forced out of hiding to rally routed units.
In the end, the peasants did not have the lasting power to close in on the Bishop and they fled only to be oppressed some more.
I played on the side of the Bishop’s forces in the scenario. I apologize to my opponents for rolling so damn well. Seriously, I wish I could roll as well during my Battletech games. I’d be getting headshots every other hit. And then there was the single mounted knight that just… wouldn’t… die… It fought off a full strength group of warriors three times!
Good game. Good enough for me to go out and buy a few clamshells from the Iron Wind Metals booth. I am not going to be giving up CBT for anything but this is a fast game that would be easy to buy into once and be able to play with friends for those Battletech breaks.
More CBT, Grand Melee and Benjamin Take 2
My hat goes off to Commando ‘Speck‘ again for a great con. His games are always well attended and he does a fantastic job bringing CBT to the masses. There had to be almost twenty people participating in the two evening events, maybe more. I didn’t end up staying till the wee hours. I had to get back home before it got too unreasonable an hour. All together a great Con. I am looking forward to many more!
No convention is complete in my opinion without a good old fashioned Classic Battletech Grinder!
NJCon08 was no different. My good friend and I were on hand to dish out ‘Mech blasting goodness to the masses. We had two takers on Friday evening. Not a stellar turnout but those that did were very enthusiastic about the game.
The terrain used included a game mat from Hotz ArtWorks with 2 inch hexes. The woods and water were made out of stiff felt available at any arts and craft store. The trees included a mix of pre-made woodland scenics and custom made ones. The hills were made out of pink insulation foam that was cut, shaped, painted, and flocked. Quite a bit of work but worth the effort for terrain that will last several years (hopefully!).
While it wouldn’t make sense to give a play by play like the other CBT events, there are more than a few highlights to mention.
Early on in the game, the new players began to feel out the game and get a sense of movement and how not to open yourself up to back shots.
Once a few of the light ‘Mechs went down, the mediums and an early heavy came out to play. In a two turn sequence, a Thunderbolt sought out partial cover by dipping into the level 1 water in the middle of the board. A Griffin positioned himself carefully and got ready for a bull rush if the Thunderbolt stayed in the water.
Sure enough the Thunderbolt remained stubborn and took his chances in the water. The Griffin ran into position and promptly kicked off the Thunderbolt’s head in the physical attack phase.
A few turns later that feisty Griffin was still on the board when the first Assault ‘Mech started play. It took no more than three or so turns for the Battlemaster to take two head hits. The second one was from a LRM volley by the Griffin for the kill. It was the only time in the game that the Griffin ever hit with the LRM20.
Here are a few pictures from the event. Thanks to all the players for giving it a go. Each walked away with the complete lineup of introductory PDFs on CD.
