ScrapYard Armory

GenCon 2011 is in the rear-view mirror.  I was not able to go myself this year but the tales of games and news from my roving reporters fired me up.  The excitement of GenCon is infectious even if you are not personally there.  As news, pictures and rumors made their way through the assortment of blogs and message boards, you could feel the excitement build.  This final GenCon post will cover all of the areas I missed earlier to wrap up coverage for 2011.

Catalyst always does a great job with the major conventions.  I hope to be there again next year.  Time will tell though if that wish will make it to reality.

Boot Camp and Grinders

The boot camp games ran all the way to the end of the convention.  Even with a slow start on Sunday (proof that you have to sleep sometime at GenCon) business picked right up.  Both the Grinder and the Boot Camps had full tables most of the convention as eager gamers had a blast tearing ‘Mechs apart.

Lance Tactics

The lance tactics games were held on a beautiful assortment of terrain from Wild Child Gaming.  Those who managed to get to GenCon last year will remember their terrain being used for the QuickStrike games.  This year’s setup was brilliant as well.  Rumor has it that there will be new items going live on their website soon.

Not Covered…

Unfortunately there is no way to be everywhere at once and so reporting is sketchy when it comes to the following events:

• Flight School
• A Time of War, held in a different building, boo urns GenCon…
• Daily Canon Events
• Grand Melee, a damn near full event…

This is a testament to the epic scale that is GenCon.  Catalyst puts on a great show and has just about every kind of BattleTech available to be played and enjoyed!

Battle the Masters

The capstone event of Saturday featured the Masters of the BattleTech brand going up against the fanatic fans that make this community possible.  The Masters divided into teams of two to take on opposing teams of fans.  Each player brought two ‘Mechs to the party and a lance on lance battle beatdown ensued.  Here is one battle of many…

The Masters

• Hellstar
• MAD-2R Marauder
• YMN-10-OR Yeoman
• NGS-6S Nightsky

The Fans

• Hellstar
• Marauder IIC
• MAD-6L Marauder
• BLR-1G BattleMaster

The Masters jumped to an early lead by putting crippling damage on the fan’s Marauder leaving it with a single Plasma Rifle.  The rally was on shortly thereafter though.  At first the fan’s Clan units tried to stay at range to bait the Masters into the open.  High to-hit numbers forced an advance.

The Nightsky fell first over three rounds from the BattleMaster and 7 CLan ERPPCs.  The fans then split fire using the Clan units against the opposing Hellstar while the BattleMaster and 6L Marauder took on the 2R Marauder.  The Yeoman tried to support his lancemates but just could not output enough damage to make a difference before the Master’s Marauder fell.

The Marauder IIC was destroyed after shutting down from overheating but the rout was already in progress.  The BattleMaster tore through the Yeoman while the fan Hellstar dealt a deathblow to the Master’s Hellstar.

In another heated battle the Masters (which included the line developer Herb) had two Celestials, a Pariah and one other ‘Mech against the fans who brought a Thunderhawk and others (sorry for the sketchy details, the evening ran very late!).  By the time the end of the game came around the Thunderhawk had devoured the Celestials leaving the lone Pariah on the field.  Unfortunately the fans lost initiative over and over again which allowed the Pariah to jump for back shots with impunity.

That game was the ONLY game that the Masters ended up winning that evening.

Thanks to the Fans

From the perspective of gamers and demo agents I have reports that spoke highly of the conduct of all fans who partook of the BattleTech festivities at GenCon.  The level of trust between players was notable.  Events seemed to run themselves which made the job of hosting events a pleasure.  Demo agents are a great bunch and work their tails off to make these games available.  Great fans just make the entire package better.

Also bravo to Catalyst for moving to a staggered Demo agent schedule which gave every game a sense of continuity.  There was never a cold shift from one team to another. A decided improvement from previous GenCons.

Thanks to My Reporters

A great many thanks go to JPArbiter and nckestrel who have provided the reports and pictures for this year’s GenCon.  I could not have been able to have any coverage this year if not for their love of the game and willingness to help out.

Till next year!

News and pictures are flooding in from GenCon and there is a lot to talk about.  GenCon is living up to it’s reputation as the best four days in gaming.  As always the companion podcast to the ScrapYardArmory GenCon experience is being provided by Arbitration Studios.

Canon Event: The Wars of Reaving

This year’s canon event is centered around the Wars of Reaving, further promoting the recently released sourcebook courtesy of Ben Rome.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Clan Steel Viper is on the defense protecting their genetic repository from an onslaught of Clan Blood Spirit.

Blood Spirit gains victory points by destroying buildings that make up the Steel Viper repository and lose points whenver they call in reinforcements.

The Steel Vipers gain victory points by destroying attacking units.  The regular bounty is actually quite small but Star Commanders are worth much much more.  Star Commanders on the Blood Spirit side are assigned in secret before each gaming slot.

The early game had the Vipers bottled up inside the canyon holding the repository.  The Blood Spirit players split their way through the defenders or climbed over the canyon walls to get at the repository.  With few options to repulse the attackers, the buildings kept falling resulting in a sizable lead for Clan Blood Spirit.

The final score as of last night was about 70VP to 35VP with Clan Blood Spirit in control.

***END SPOILER***

Late Night Quick Strike

The CamoSpecs crew are at it again with several off the schedule battles of epic proportion.  When you absolutely positively have to destroy a regiment/galaxy of units in a single evening, only the Quick Strike rules from Strategic Operations will do.

The game featured the Word of Blake versus Coalition forces in a massive game hosted by Demo Agent Incridibl. As in previous years most of the players ended up being either Demo Agents or CSO artists but there was always a slot or two available for the adventurous convention goer ready to command a few lances/level II.

Coalition forces were a mixed crew featuring several Clans alongside Inner Sphere regulars as well as off-board artillery.  The Word of Blake also brought artillery but also included several aerospace fighter wings.

The first two turns were fairly standard with some long range shots but little damage as a result. The third turn is when it all hit the fan.  An initial flight of Word of Blake artillery (8 Arrow IVs) slammed into the Coalition front line. Weapons fire, now at medium range was dropping ‘Mechs.  The Word of Blake aerospace assets came out in force and dive bombed the coalition armor assets.  Anti-aircraft fire brought down a third of the fighters but the bombs did their work, damaging almost half of the Coalition force to some degree.

The Coalition forces took a beating but pushed forward bravely to claim the forward objectives.  At the end of the evening the consensus from the field was that despite higher losses, the Coalition forces won the event due to the early objective grab.  Thanks to the CamoSpecs Online crew and Incidibl for hosting the event!

The Painting Competition

The Machines of War category is again well represented by BattleTech minis.  Is another sweep in store for the fans of the Inner Sphere this year?  There are some stunning minis in the field and I wish the very best for any BattleTech mini!

Eye Candy for All

Ben Rome, assistant line developer and photography enthusiast was gracious enough to post a link to his flicker album.  There are some great shots in the collection and are definitely worth a click.

Ghost Bear’s GenCon Flicker Album

Keeping it Interesting

Here are a few more pictures from around the convention!

ScrapYard Armory Photography provided by JPArbiter and nckestrel.

What’s Up with BattleTech and Catalyst

A big part of Day 2 is the BattleTech seminars where the loyal fans of the game get to hear about the state of the game from The Powers that Be in person.

At the front of the house for this year’s convention was Herb, Jason S, and Ben Rome.  Loren Coleman and Randall Bill managed to visit towards the end.

New Product in the Pipeline

Closing out the end of this year we should be expecting the A Time of War Companion (previous edition conversions, advanced cybernetics, archaic weapons, creature creation), Jihad Reckoning (featuring an early Republic/Liao conflict), and Field Manual 3085.  Moving into 2012 we should be looking for Handbook Kurita and Historical Liberation of Terra.

The Clan Introductory Box set is still in the works but is facing some serious difficulties.  The hope is for all of the miniatures to be made in High Impact Plastic similar to the Loki and Thor from the regular box set (and also to fantastic looking Leviathans minis).  Topps remains a jealous guard of plastic minis.  They are not in the mood for anyone to make an attempt to redo the Click-Tech plastic miniatures even though that is absolutely not what Catalyst is doing.  At one point Catalyst had permission to go forward but then Topps somehow forgot they gave them permission.  The whole situation is frustrating but Catalyst remains cautious.

High detail plastic is in the future for the Clan Box Set AND the normal Intro Box Set.  Not this reprint but the one after that, Catalyst hopes to at least partially do away with the soft plastic miniatures in favor of high impact plastic.  The current reprint in progress is around 7,500 boxes.  At MSRP of $49.99 that is $374,925 of product.  Start bugging your friends to buy one this Christmas season!

Keep in mind that this is a hope and not a promise.  Catalyst can’t confirm anything until it is a done deal so the future of plastic miniatures is very much in flux.

The PDF Turning Points series will be going strong with several titles in various stages of work.  Titles that were mentioned include the following in no particular order;

• Vega
• Lurzerne
• Chesterton

A few other titles were also noted.  These would be in the very early stages of work and few details were available surrounding their scope.

• Solaris 7
• Clan Widowmaker Absorption
• York

Interstellar Operations is the Duke Nukem Forever of BattleTech (a title previously held by Operation Klondike).  Randall is the one to bug about this monster.  I highly suspect that baby seals everywhere will be on guard until it’s release.

Randall has a lot of big ideas and would love to do a large scale high production value “Twilight Imperium” style game in the same color as the old Succession Wars board game.  Interstellar Operations is taking priority though.

Novels are going to happen.  “If we don’t get them out … I’m going to hurt somebody.” – Herb.  This is a big issue for the Catalyst guys and they are working several angles to get it done.  Unfortunately the collapse of Borders has tightened everyone’s grip on their purse strings.  A major brick and mortar like Barnes and Noble pays on a delayed schedule which makes things challenging to say the least.  Catalyst is actively talking with several other vendors that may be able to bring novels into reality quicker and with less risk (think epub or print on demand, btw the Cosmic Patrol rulebook was done via print on demand).

A BattleCorps Anthology was not available this year due to work load issues with the Leviathans launch.  Ultimately, they would like to have one available each year.  There is at least a chance for one before the year is out if not early next.  Regardless the series will continue to be produced and will highlight the best fiction available on BattleCorps.

The Plot Line Moves (and shakes!)

There is going to be a concerted effort to remove the white hat worn by the Republic of the Sphere.  Nothing in BattleTech is completely white hat anyways.  Davions are crooks.  Steiner, which is Herb’s favorite, are also crooks.  Liao have been the punching bag of the Inner Sphere for what seems like forever and have come by their black hats honestly.  The Republic will be more of a stepping stone for the plot.  No much happens over the course of 60 or so years so a jump is called for.  3150 will be the beginning of whatever era is next for the BattleTech line.

All the Rest

BattleCorps has been a bit slow since Jason has been tapped to review several products all at once.  A new update is in the works that will provide additional functionality including ePub capability.  This is still in early development so don’t hold your breath.

Rumor has it that the MechWarrior game had been sidelined lately but shows signs of movement once again.  However, there is very little contact between Catalyst and the game developer so take this rumor with a Tharkad sized grain of NaCl.

There has been a recent shake up in the status of the unseen.  Art previously thought to be back on the OK list is again off limits.  The licensing issue and confusion at Topps have muddied the waters significantly.

Photography provided by JPArbiter and nckestrel.

While I may not be there in person this year, my gaming heart is in Indianapolis.  The ScrapYardArmory has two roving reporters snapping photos and taking notes to make sure BattleTech fans from near and far are kept in the loop.

The Line Starts Where?!

The lines for Will Call were very long.  The GenCon staff seemed overwhelmed as it took attendees several hours to pick up their badges.  This got so bad that some stalwart fans were forced to miss their first games.  Other sources have suggested that the GenCon powers that be are hoping for/expecting a record attendance this year.  They may very well be getting their wish.

For those of you lucky enough to be at Indy for the festivities remember to keep your badge near and dear.  The GenCon staff are rather draconian when it comes to enforcing their badge policies.  If you lose your badge, you need to buy a whole new entry.

Catalyst Game Labs

Several major product releases made the trip to Indy and were available for purchase at the Catalyst booth.

• Wars of Reaving
• Historical Reunification War
• Era Report 3062
• HexPack Cities and Roads
• BattleTech Dice

The BattleTech Dice are available in several colors and feature a BattleMaster profile on the 6.  These are a prototype run that may be expanded to feature faction logos.  There are no promises as always.

Of particular note is the heft of the Wars of Reaving sourcebook.  This item is Randall worthy in it’s size and ability to do physical harm when thrown.  I can’t wait for the print product to make it to store shelves!

Iron Wind Metals

The team representing Iron Wind Metals brought their “A” game to GenCon this year.  There was a wealth of new product on display including the Bounty Hunter packs.  The “A Time of War” scale Nighthawk BattleArmor will be a welcome addition to many tabletops.  Finally there is something reasonable to go up against the 28mm Clan Elemental!

BattleTech Games

BattleTech games were packed in the early sessions and into the night.  From the arenas of Solaris 7 to the training sessions in the Boot Camp there were plenty of ‘Mechs getting bashed together to the delight of convention goers.

In Solaris 7 there was a fantastic shake-up when a janitor suited up in a BlackHawk to stir the pot!   After a few frightening volleys, the players at the table wised up and began to team up to put an end to the wayward janitor.  No mop-jockey was going to steal the show in this arena!

Leviathans

The rumors are confirmed, the Leviathans Box set missed GenCon due to failed promise from a foreign printer.  Randall Bills had tweeted about a printer snafu prior to GenCon and now we know what product was the victim.  That said, there was plenty of Leviathans goodness to be seen.  Demos were running full tilt and the big ships were drawing quite a crowd.  Too bad the box set missed, it would have been an epic unveiling.

The Camo Spec Diorama

The diorama this year features a pivotal moment in the Wars of Reaving.  The Kerensky Blood Chapel stands protected by Clan Wolf as a horde of attackers advance to claim the founder’s legacy.  More pictures cause I know you love em…

Other News

Outrider Hobbies has unveiled a custom BattleTech themed miniature bag.  The final product will be available this fall.  The bag will have the following trays:

• Three 1 inch trays for vehicles
• Three 1.5 inch trays for large vehicles
• Four 2 inch trays for ‘Mechs
• Logo Patch, one of the following
• Clan Wolf
• Clan Jade Falcon
• Davion
• Kurita
• Comstar

Bryan Wade from Outrider Hobbies contacted the ScrapYard shortly after this post went live and graciously provided the following images.  Thank you Bryan and Outrider Hobbies!

 BattleTech PodCasting GenCon

Keep your eye on Arbitration Studios for podcasts as the convention continues!

Photography provided by JPArbiter and nckestrel.

The Wars of Reaving are Upon Us

Photography by JPArbiter

Historicon 2011 is in the rear view mirror and it was a great one!  Demo Agent “Speck” was on hand with several car loads of new miniatures, new terrain and a fine crew of volunteers to aid in the heavy metal mayhem.

There were multiple BattleTech games available throughout the four days of gaming.  I hosted two of them with the help of SaxyWolf on Thursday.

Iron Wind Metals and the Dealer Room

I love shopping at conventions for a lot of reasons.  Chief among them is the ability to grab online exclusive units, limited editions, ala carte battle armor, no shipping, and the convenience of seeing exactly what you are buying.  I’m not afraid to say I’ve more than once put a mini back on the shelf after seeing just how complicated the assembly will be.  I’m not afraid of a challenge, but I try not to go out of my way to invite complexity.

Jim from Iron Wind Metals was graciously ringing up customers and holding the fort as convention goers browsed the many BattleTech, fantasy, and space miniatures available.

The rest of the dealer room held the usual suspects with a few notable absences.  The number of dealers at the convention was definitely smaller than years prior.  Certainly some of that is due to the uncertainty caused by various inner workings within the HMGS.  Regardless, there was plenty to see and plenty to buy.  There were also multiple demos available for those willing to spend the time.

I ended up buying a bunch of the new BattleTech infantry, some battle armor, a squad of fantasy elf archers, and a load of MERCS minis for use in A Time of War.  I’ll hopefully have more pictures of the infantry with size comparisons in a future post.

Breaking and Entering

With a brand new load of terrain, SaxyWolf and I hosted an A Time of War mission to disable a Castle Brian Space Defense Station from the inside.  Two squads of elite assault troopers infiltrated the facility and raced to find the command and control systems and take it over by any means necessary.  Expect a more in depth after action report on this event.  It was a lot of fun to run.  We had two brand new players playing and they picked up the rules quickly.  I also debuted a second iteration of my revised A Time of War tactical record sheet which helped lower the learning curve.

Dusting for Scraps

In the second event of a ScrapYard double header, the forces of the Free Worlds League faced off against the Word of Blake on Atreus.  This game is a repeat of a game featured in an after action report here at the ScrapYard.  See The Fall of Atreus for a full run down of the units involved.  We ended up not using the artillery or the mines this time to help balance things for the Word of Blake.

The Free Worlds League forces fared better than the Word of Blake defenders but did not make ample progress towards their goal of escaping the battle.  In the end it was probably a draw.  We had two new players on each side who needed a bit of help to move things along but did a great job commanding their troops.

Devil’s Tower BattleForce

This event was an all day affair with regiments of units in action alongside artillery, minefields, and gun emplacements.

Between the three time slots (the players had to eat sometime…) forces were shifted to represent the relative progress of the coalition forces invading the Castle Brian.  This was an amazing game using the new miniature BattleMechs to represent lances or Level IIs.  As the end drew near the coalition forces breached the walls and made significant progress against the defending Word of Blake.

Kudos to Mark for pulling off such a massive game.

East Coast Commandothon

For the first time, a HMGS event was host to the East Coast Commandothon.  Demo agents from near and far converged at the table for some ‘Mech stomping goodness.  There were lots of familiar faces among the crowd.  A full recount of the event is available on the Classic BattleTech forums.

Grand Melee

The traditional last event of the convention is the Grand Melee.  This year’s event used the Castle Brian terrain as the center piece for the combatants to fight over.  It was a fantastic battle ending with a final head cap.

2012 Location in the Works

There is a lot of speculation as to where Historicon will land next year.  The Valley Forge convention center is going to be putting in slots and gaming tables in some of the spaces that would be required for games.  Other prospective locations are in Virginia and possibly York Pa.

A move to Virginia would be the most disruptive but I’m sure that the Demo team is up to the challenge.  The Pennsylvania based HMGS conventions are always so convenient for me in New Jersey.  The longer trip will force me to do more to save costs to make the trip doable.

All the Rest

There is always more to Historicon than BattleTech alone.  I spent a good bit of time playing other game systems from historicals to fantasy.  I had a great time at Historicon and would encourage anyone who hasn’t had the privilege to make the leap next year.

NJ Con 2011 is in the books and it was a great con.  NJ Con is a small New Jersey based convention that packs a lot of gaming into a small frame.

The convention site this year was the La Quinta in Somerset NJ.  The lighting was good and the on site facilities were better than I expected.  More importantly there was a wide range of games for con-goers to try out.  The small venue works to NJ Con’s advantage.  If you are in the NJ area you have no excuse not to miss this budget priced convention.

A Scheduling Controversy?

I had reports from the field that some of the afternoon games started earlier than their posted 2PM times.  At least one potential con goer was upset at missing the start of a few games and left disgruntled.  For the record all BattleTech games started at their prescribed times.  Not an issue for most but something the convention staff should seek to nail down.  I’ve heard countless stories of games starting late in my day but early starts are a rarer beast.

BattleTech Gaming

Jim “RatBoy” Williamson was on hand from Time Warp Comics and Games to host two QuickStrike games based on the Fall of Terra scenario book.  Both games were great and made use of a custom generated record sheets which may be seeing a more formal release in the near future.  They certainly helped the game along and proved super easy to use.  Expect two after action reports in the future here at the ScrapYard!

ScrapYard contributor SaxyWolf hosted a Grinder Saturday evening that was well attended and a lot of fun.  By the end of the night the players had only gotten up to Heavy ‘Mechs but they made sure to blast apart almost all of the Medium units before they got there.  Copious tons of armor were reduced to slagged over the 4+ hours of Grinder mayhem.  We used our usual setup of MechWarrior figures and 2 inch hex terrain with homemade hills and trees.  New this year is heavy duty laminated record sheets which worked quite well.  Players used dry erase markers to mark damage making the whole set reusable.

After a day of sitting in the car after the con, the record sheets were a tad stubborn to get super clean.  A little bit of baking soda on a damp paper towel was enough to scrub them new as the day we made them.

Operation Mallard Freedom

Between games while getting a breath of fresh air outside, SaxyWolf came across just the cutest duck family you ever did see.  Momma duck was carefully leading her brood of twelve ducklings around the parking lot.  After snapping a few pictures it was back to gaming.  What could possibly go wrong?

A little while later, on another break from the games SaxyWolf heard a duck in distress.  When he found the mother duck she was frantically quacking and flapping her little wings back and forth over top a storm drain with only a single duckling left beside her.  Disaster had struck.  The ducklings were in danger.

SaxyWolf sprang into action and called up the local animal shelter who told him to call the local police who then transferred him to another police department who said they would call the shelter.  Would the ducklings be saved after being given the run around?  Does hope yet exist in the Inner Sphere?

Well it appears that someone heard the call for help because after about 30 minutes the hotel parking lot was filled with Animal Control, Police, Fire Department, Ambulance and Search and Rescue.

After a concentrated rescue effort the ducklings were saved and returned to their mother who led them away from the dangerous storm drains.

Other Gaming

NJ Con boasts a wide array of games from several eras.  Here are a few pictures from the convention games being played.