Crisis of Robotreachery! Palladium Abandons Robotech

Apologies for the tongue in cheek title but it seemed appropriate given the penchant for the dramatic displayed by Palladium Books in the pastcompany in question (see below for an explanation).  Palladium Books has finally thrown in the towel on their Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter with less than 30 days left in their license for the property.  After raising over $1.4 million USD in 2013 and claiming for years that the game was fine despite delays, they now claim that after producing only roughly half the rewards (more by model count, less by individual sculpt count) that they ran out of money years ago and can't produce the remaining rewards nor refund customers.  

Robotech Tactics Kickstarter Failure Update 

As a backer, I've covered this project and even come out with my VERMILION SQUADRON house rules for it (link here).  I've avoided criticizing it too harshly here in the past as the project was by the barest definition "ongoing" but Palladium has officially abdicated their substantial remaining contractual obligations after 5 years (four of which had *ZERO* rewards fulfilled).  The initial wave of miniatures were unfortuantely very poorly designed with upwards of 20 parts of a 40mm scale figure with seemingly unnecessary splits including 3 part heads and 4 part legs that somehow still result in a lack of real poseability. There was a little hope mid 2017 with the announcement that a "project manager" was hired for the company and specifically for the project but his biweekly updates soon turned into useless filler that ignored the real issues of the campaign in favor of answering questions no one asked as well as posting a single typo ridden minor rules supplement using uncredited pilfered creative commons art. 

It's long been speculated that the company used backer funds that were supposed to be reserved for the production of wave 2 to instead purchase most if not all of the thousands of retail copies of the game.  Prior to the crowdfunding, Palladium was in dire financial straights after a years earlier embezzlement by an employee (which they named the "Crisis of Treachery" and which was the inspiration for this blog post title parody) and were frequently unable to reprint books from their catalog for years at a time.  One of the stated goals of the crowdfunding in interviews was to allow Palladium to be on stable financial footing and they magically were able to suddenly reprint titles after the crowdfunding as well as finish their prior crowdfunded RPG books that were a year overdue.  Now they claim that they also have no money yet they're sitting on thousands of retail boxes that they seemingly couldn't afford either.  Their pricing breakdown for the production and development costs certainly do nothing to dissuade that theory either as the per unit cost to produce the boxes would put them at a loss if the funds only account for the backer copies they were supposed to pay for.

While Palladium is offering a trade program of sorts for your remaining credit, the relative values are increadibly skewed in their favor.  The remaining outstanding Wave 2 rewards in the base pledge according to their add on math come to over $200 yet they're offering roughly $30 in trade for existing items.  Additionally, backers must pay for shipping depite it being included in the original crowdfunding as well (and Palladium apparently having a reputation for charging exhorbitant shipping costs as well traditionally).  To say that many backers are disappointed would be an understatement.  After years of misleading backers, Palladium waited until just a few weeks before their license expired to finally come clean as to the supposed real state of the project and to offer a pittance of credit for product backers already have that they themselves would contractually be required to destroy in a few weeks.  Other than cases of outright fraud, I can't think of a gaming related crowdfunding project that started out so promising and was mismanaged so badly.  Palladium truly deserves the permanent hit to their already lackluster reputation that they'll inevitably get for how they've treated their most loyal customers since 2013.

2015 and Beyond... Part I

I had initially planned on doing a detailed review of the year 2015 but something derailed my plans... netflix!  I had gotten a membership to the service for Christmas and ,instead of working on the final hobby project of the year and the year in review post, I've been watching things like Knights of Sidonia and Jessica Jones!  It's a bit late for a proper year in review but I'd still like to share a couple of some thoughts on 2015 and 2016 in a sort of State of the Blog address.

First, we'll start with 2015.  While it didn't feel like a particularly productive year, I did mostly accomplish several projects that I set out to do.  The first is my Farsight Tau ally army.

I actually completely finished this project around the summer but then ran into a bit of a snag as credible rumors started coming out about a new set of rules for the army.  When they did a few short weeks later, I realized I'd probably want to add another model to my small group to make it a functional force with the new rules.  I built, primed, and washed that final model (my Broadside conversion) but failed my will save vs Netflix and binged on some shows instead of finishing the model.  I do hope though to get it done this month though.

The next project that I worked on this year was my set of house rules for the Robotech Tactics minis game that I dubbed "Vermilion Squadron".

I got in early on the game's kickstarter in large part because of a promised set of small model count skirmish rules.  When half the rewards were finally released a year late (with the remaining half still pending and approaching three years late...grumble... grumble), the skirmish rules were unfortunately not included and got lost along the wayside.  I decided to try and make a relatively quick set of house rules to retrofit back into the game that functionality.  It wasn't as large in scope of a house rule product as my Heavy Gear houserules but I'm happy with the results.

The final main project that I worked on was two fleets for the newly released Halo Fleet Battles game.  I initially thought that I'd do only a single fleet that was easily divisible in half for demos; after finishing that first fleet, I decided to just make a proper OpFor for the game.

With a few non-modelled options like Spartans and Zealots onboard ships, I'm at around 900-1000pts for each fleet with regard to what I can carry in my foam case.  Not pictured above is the extra base of small UNSC frigates that replace the second large carrier for that faction.

Of course, not everything is rosy as I did have a pair of projects that I had planned to complete in 2015 that I didn't.  I'll be discussing them along with some initial thoughts on 2016 in the next post that I'll hopefully put out today as well.

Have the Zentraedi joined the Covenant?

Just a quick update... I've decided to continue painting some of my Halo Fleet Battles ships to give myself a fleet to fight against with my UNSPACY fleet.  I had already dipped my toe in the Macross pool with my decals on the human fleet and my previous Covenant paint scheme (the "Tron Legacy" look) didn't work out as well as I had hope so I just went full in on the Macross crossover theme.  I'll be painting up my Covenant ships in the typical Zentraedi paint scheme from the anime shown below:

Zentraedi Fleet Paint Scheme

Sorry for the bad cell phone pic in a dimly lit basement but I just finished the work for today.  So far, I've done the base coat, a wash, and a drybrush of the base color again to highlight the raised parts.  I just have to pick out which parts I'll be detailing in black, grey, and yellow next.

I took out my x-wing miniatures from my carrying case so I have a little bit more room to play with.  Initially, I planned on just dividing up my human fleet down the middle for demos but the extra room gives me enough space to instead put in a roughly equal Covenant fleet along with an RDF/UEDF force for the Robotech minis game as well (my zentraedi were to be split down the middle for demos as well previously).  Now I'll have the rules, dice, counters, and minis for two separate Heavy Gear, Robotech, and Halo factions if I find someone interested in playing them.  On another side note, I finally got my Tau model over the weekend as well so I hope to finish off the year with that quick project to complete my mini-tau Farsight force.

Robotech and VOTOM Reinforcements Inbound?

Just a quick update.  Over the past week, when not tweaking the Vermilion Squadron skirmish rules, I restarted work on my 28mm VOTOM project due to a resurgence in interest on my part in the N3 Infinity rules that would allow me to use them in a game.  Previously, I had tested out some various paint schemes to no good effect.  I couldn't base coat the PVC plastic as it got sticky, painting with acyrlic directly onto the model looked odd and chipped off with storage, and just applying a wash then flat coat wasn't pretty either.  I stripped the two full votoms that I was working on and tried a new method.  The Testors flat varnish dries well on the plastic and seems to prevent the stickyness of the primer/base coat applied second.  I'll hopefully be posting some pics later this week of my guinea pig VOTOM as I need to buy some more supplies first (ran out of the flat varnish).

I also went to a not-so-local but very friendly game store flea market this weekend and picked up a nice Robotech minis force at a very good price (and best of all paid for almost completely with the store credit for what I myself sold!).  There are enough decent tabletop quality painted minis for both factions to run a 300pt game plus a few extra to spare.  Since I'm more interested in the "skirmish" side of the game, that is definitely more than enough minis for my needs!  In testing out my rules, I was basically solo'ing games using labelled bases but I'll now have some painted minis to use instead.  I'll still keep likely a squad of each type for both sides and likely sell or trade the rest.  And I didn't even have to assemble a 24 piece 1" tall destroid!  Woohoo!  :)

Vermilion Feedback and Sample Forces

It's been a few days which is probably enough for the relatively small amount of changes in my Vermilion Squadron skirmish house rules to sink in for any readers.  I've gotten two questions and wanted to respond to the feedback.  The first was from a reader on dakka who asked why I opted to go with model within a squadron activation instead of allowing any model to be activated in any order.  My answer was threefold: backward compatibility, close formation, and ease of tracking.  I found with my Heavy Gear Blitz house rules (the FLASH! link to the right) that if you change more than just a token amount that folks who are familiar with the system simply won't try it.  It's unofficial so not worth the effort if it involves relearning what they're used to as opposed to just tweaking it a little.  By keeping the model activation "nested" within the squadron first (you must resolve all activations within a squadron before moving to the next model in the next squadron), players have some familiarity from the main game but still get the utility of activating individual models.  This is admittedly a very soft reason and I admit that keeping the squadron limitation was actually a late addition to the house rules.

edit:  In the meantime, I have tweaked the rules above in response to feedback and another trial (but only solo) game so the activation rules are no longer as described above.

The other two reasons are in reality equally soft.  It really isn't hard to remember which models have activated but it is a bit easier if you do it by squadron (I moved a valkyrie last turn so I'll have to move another this turn).  In order to utilize the close formation rule, you pretty much have to activate by squadron as the models all fire simulataneously when using the rule.  With my new reserve fire rule, you could theoretically get around that restriction but I wanted to minimize the counters on the tabletop since the main game doesn't use them.

The second bit of feedback was much broader in the form of a question about why the skirmish rules need to exist at all with the introductory scenario rules in the book.  The introductory scenarios are very rigid without any structure to expanding beyond what is written.  In the first scenario, one side gets 2x VF-1A (40pts) versus 6x Regults (35pts).  There is no room for tweaking with the rules as written and the forces aren't even technically equal.  They're perfectly adequate for learning the rules which is their primary purpose but not for playing a fuller game at a smaller points total.  You could always just say "take whatever you want for the same points total" instead of using my Vermilion rules and that would be perfectly acceptable.  I'd like to think that my house rules offer (in 40k terms) a "kill team" set of organized rules as opposed to just playing unbound at 200pts instead (which is what that alternate "take whatever" option would be akin to).

For instance, in the above scenario, a pair of players who picked up a copy of the rulebook at gencon for $10 as well as the two model packs above could either play:

2xVF-1A (40pts) + Long Range missiles (10pts) versus 6x Regults (35pts) + Veteran Warriors (10pts) + Grel (5pts)

Instead of just the two vanilla unequal forces in the intro scenario.  My goal was to come up with some skirmish scale rules that would allow folks to pretty much pick up almost any box and be able to play a customizable full feeling game with it versus another.  The only exception to this would be if someone bought only a "special" card only box like a Glaug Eldare or Mac II Monster box as specials need to be attached to a support card still due to their intended rarity in game.  Another sample force straight from the anime unplayable in the main game:

Sweet Sixteen Attack

Vermilion Squadron (2x VF-1A 40pts, 1x VF-1J 25pts, Ben 5pts, Max 10pts, Rick 10pts) 90pts

versus

Botoru Squadron  (6x Regult 35pts, 1x Glaug 20pts, 2x Light Artillery Pods 25pts, Khyron 10pts) 90pts


You could expand the above forces with the models that come in their boxes to add in a VF-1S with Roy Fokker for the UEDF and add a second squadron of another 2 artillery pods plus recon and recovery pods (along with veteran warriors) to bump up the skirmish game to the max 150pts.  

Which brings me to the final point for this post which is why I set up a limit of 150pts.  The first and foremost is that I intended these house rules to be at a specifically different model count than the normal game that starts at 300pts.  At 150pts, you could still spam two dozen units on the zentraedi side using stock regults or infantry which is already stretching the goal of a "skirmish" game to the limits.  Using the custom RPG character conversion rules, I could easily see the more expensive RPG character models going right up to the minimum 300pt main game limit without increasing the model count.  That could be useful for players who want to enact combat scenarios from their RPG campaign with a bit less lethality than the normal game would have.

As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave feedback in the comments.

Combat Changes

  Part 3: COMBAT CHANGES

Unless specifically noted as changed below, use the rules as written in the Robotech RPG Tactics rulebook.  All house rules presented below are 100% unofficial fan creations and not endorsed by anyone except maybe me.  :)

Line of Sight (pg. 11-12):  Replace references to the "center" of the torso with "any part" of the torso (or hull for non-humanoid models).

THE TURN  

STEP 1: The Activation Step (pg. 14):  Choose a single model in your army and activate that model.  Complete the action phase steps with that model (movement, combat, resolution) before passing the activation to your opponent who activates a single model as well or passes the activation.  When determining if a player can pass a model's activation, count the individual remaining models on the table instead of squadrons to determine if which player is outnumbered.

     Stealing the Activation (pg. 14): If you have a model with the Leadership ability, roll a number of dice equal to the highest Leadership value in your force currently deployed on the table when attempting to steal or to prevent the stealing of the Activation instead of 3d6.

RANGED COMBAT

Attempt to Dodge (pg. 16): If you are hit by multiple simultaneous attacks like a missile volley or reserved attacks from a close formation (see below), you may attempt to dodge by rolling 1d6 for EACH missile or individual reserved attack instead of rolling one die for all of them.  You MAY dodge missile attacks of any volley size.  For instance, if you are hit by a volley of 6 missiles, spend a single command point to attempt to dodge and roll 6 dice using the normal rules to resolve the attack.

Close Formation (pg. 18): Because of the changes to activation above, it is now much more difficult to gain the close formation bonus.  To make up for this, you may declare after moving a model that you are reserving its ranged attack instead of firing.  Place some sort of marker next to that model.  Any models from that same squadron that subsequently ends their movement in close formation range (2") with reserved fire model or close formation must EITHER reserve their attack also OR the player must simultaneously fire with all the reserved models in that close formation including the just moved model.  If the original model with the reserved fire marker is destroyed prior to firing, simply move the marker to another model in that same close formation; if none are present, remove the marker.  Any unused reserved fire markers should be removed from the table in the next command phase.

Anti-Missile (pg. 27):  Roll 1d6 per incoming missile in a volley to see how many you shoot down instead of a single die.  For example, if you are hit by a volley of 6 missiles, you roll 6 dice to see how many individual missiles you shoot down before moving on to the next step.  

Army Creation and Scenarios

Part 2: Army Creation and Scenarios

Unless specifically noted as changed below, use the rules as written in the Robotech RPG Tactics rulebook.  All house rules presented below are 100% unofficial fan creations and not endorsed by anyone except maybe me.  :)

INTRODUCTORY SCENARIOS (pg. 73)

Ignore this section when using the Vermilion Squadron skirmish rules.  While these scenarios may be helpful for learning the core rules, the skirmish rules presented here are intended to provide a more varied experience for smaller games.

BUILDING AN ARMY (pg. 75)

Factions: Please note that the "Life is Cheap" rule is still in effect in these skirmish house rules unlike in the official introductory scenarios.

Force Cards:  Vermilion Squadron does NOT use Core cards.  Ignore any references to them in the rules and replace "core card" with "primary support card" instead.

Support Cards: Choose one support card to create each squadron; this card is referred to as the primary support card.  Subsequent support cards may either be used as primary cards to start their own squadron OR used as a secondary support card to add to an existing squadron.  You may only add a single support card of the same type to each primary support card.  For example, you could designate a Spartan Destroid support card as a primary thereby making a squadron and then add a Phalanx Destroid Support card as a secondary to the squadron (but not a valkyrie support option as it is a different type).  Please note the additional minimum and maximum model and card count restrictions for game size listed below .  Additionally, due to the smaller format of the Vermilion Squadron rules, you shoud add the option of a support card to the UEDF faction support card list that allows the taking of a single VF-1J for 25pts.  The VF-1J has the same stats as the normal version included in a full size Veritech Squadron core card.

Special Cards:  You may choose a SINGLE special card to add to one squadron in your army.  This special card may be a RPG Character conversion if you and your opponent both agree to their use.  You may use the official special characters as normal as they do not count toward that limit unless used on a special card mecha per the normal rules.

Minimum and Maximum Requirements:  You must field a minimum of one support card per 50pts up to a maximum of two support cards per 50pts of your army (up to 150pts).  Additionally, there is a minimum of 2 models in the army to a maximum of 24 for skirmish games. 
 
STANDARD SCENARIOS (pg. 78-80)

DEMOLITION: Additional Rules: Always use the 25 MDC per card Bunker value for Vermilion Squadron skirmish games.

CONVOY DEFENSE:
      Forces: The defender gets a single squadron of 1 Convoy Vehicle per 50pts or fraction thereof.  For example, a 100pt game would have a single squadron of two convoy vehicles.
      Additional Rules: Convoy Vehicle MDC: 4

COMMON SCENARIO SPECIAL RULES (pg. 80-83)

BATTLE GROUPS: Ignore this entry as it is intended for much larger games.

SKIRMISH GAMES: The Vermilion Squadron rules presented here on this blog replace this entry.

STRATEGIC DEPLOYMENT: You may only use this rule if you have more than 4 models per 50pts of your army as well as at least two squadrons.  If you do not meet both of those criteria, you may not use this rule or any that depend on it (such as airborne assault).  Instead deploy all your models on the table as outlined on the chosen individual mission's deployment subheading.

Max, Rick, and Ben... ATTACK!

 UNOFFICIAL SKIRMISH RULES

Part 1: Introduction (below)

Part 2: Army Creation and Scenario Changes

Part 3: Activation, Movement, and Shooting Changes

Part 1: Introduction

After discussing Robotech a bit more on various online forums, my interest in assembling some of the models that I received with my Kickstarter Wave 1 shipment was rekindled.  While planning out how I would build my models, my old ideas about expanding on the skirmish scale rules for Palladium's new Robotech RPG Tactics game were reignited as well.  For the TL;DR version, check out the paragraph below :)  If I'm feeling particularly verbose, I write the important part of house rule blog entries in italics prefaced by bold titles and the rest of the rather long paragraphs in the blog articles are the reasons for the rules that I came up with.  For example:

TL;DR: My goal with this house rule project is to come up with a set of variant house rules that provide a relatively complete and more granular gameplay experience at point values of 50-150pts (two to 24 models) building upon Palladium's Robotech RPG Tactics (RRPGT) rules.  I want brand new players to get a proper feel for the full game after buying any retail box of RRPGT models and for existing players (both tabletop and RPG) who have yet to complete modelling their full collections to get a more detailed game yet finish in a reasonable time (<1 hour) using what they have already built.

Initially, my interest in making the skirmish rules was two fold.  The first is that I could not via the normal rules ever play the iconic Vermilion Squadron (Rick, Max, and Ben) from the TV show and I found that to be both odd and unacceptable.  The second is that I backed the kickstarter at the "sweet spot" pledge level and would therefore have trouble fielding a full army of 300pts or more without using all of my figs, leading to little variety at the normal level of play for we with my anticipated wave 1 shipment.   Once I got the core box and read the rules, I was moderately disappointed that the previously advertised skirmish rules had apparently been left on the cutting room floor sometime over the past year and replaced with very simple introductory scenarios with premade forces instead.  While those scenarios accomplish their goal of introducing new players to the full rules and army sizes of the standard 300pt and up games, they leave alot to be desired for smaller "skirmish" level games.

With my Heavy Gear Flash! skirmish house rules (link on the right), I was attempting to "fix" the issue of Dream Pod 9 trying to force a square peg (detailed RPG derived rules) into a round hole (mass battle game) in order to get games that flowed well and were finished in a reasonable time with a reasonable model count.  With Robotoch RPG Tactics, that isn't an issue.  The rules are both streamlined and easy to learn and work well (with some notable exceptions) with the mass battle game that they're to be used for.  Instead, I'm the one trying to force the square peg (streamlined mass battle rules) into the round hole (more detailed skirmish rules)!  For instance, there are lots of all or nothing tests/rolls in the full game like dodging (you either dodge all the incoming missiles or none of them with your single roll) that I intend to "complicate" by making the results more nuanced instead of binary.  These types of changes would NOT be appropriate in full sized games as they'd slow down the action too much but I believe they will improve the feel of games at the models counts that I intend them to be used with.

I plan to post one main section of the Vermilion Squadron house rules (starting with the above Introduction) each day for the next three days.  If anyone is interested in trying them, feel free to post feedback from any games or thoughts from reading in the comment sections below posts.  In the meantime, thanks for reading!

Upcoming Unofficial Robotech RPG Tactics Skirmish House Rules and Tau Update

Just a quick update on my Riptide as well as a few ideas on what is to come for the blog.  I've had no luck getting the shoulder bits that I need for my Tau Riptide/Y'Vahra conversion but I have at least tested the plastic and primed the model.  I was initially afraid that the plastic wouldn't react well to the spray primer/base coat like with my Heavy Gear Votom Gashapon models but luckily that wasn't the case either with the test pieces nor the actual model.  I'm still planning on getting back to it as soon as I get the parts that I (hopefully if they fit!) need.  I'm a bit hesitant to fully start painting it though so I've moved onto other things on my waiting list.

I've had a bit of a resurgence of interest in my Robotech RPG Tactics models (or RRPGT or Tactics for short!) and have been planning out how to assemble them.  I downloaded the much improved construction guides that Palladium put out on drivethrurpg and they're a big help.  With only a single Battlecry pledge to my name, I don't have the luxury of experimenting too much with the models via conversions but I do plan on assembling a veritech squadron and some battlepods to fight it out on my cityscape terrain.  The rules as written are very streamlined and fast being meant for larger scale battles than my planned collection will be able to do justice.  After I get wave 2, I'll likely only have aobut 450pts per side with the minimum the rules recommend being 300pts for a standard game.  Without wave 2 (my current situation), I have to depend on special characters to get to the minimum game size of 300pts.

There was supposed to be a set of full skirmish rules in the game but they apparently ended up on the cutting room floor and were replaced with a page of introductory scenarios instead for new players.  My idea is to create my own skirmish rules like I did with the Heavy Gear Flash! set that I started this blog with.  Unlike with HG, the Robotech rules (with some caveats) do generally work with the scale of battle that they were developed for so my goal is to expand on them within the existing framework to work better at a model count smaller than intended.  I hope to have the update post for these houserules that details the both the goals and changes more concretely ready by the end of the week.  As stated earlier, I'm not rewriting large portions of the rules so I hopefully will be able to detail the house rules in just a couple of posts.  I encourage folks to leave comments on the future posts as I do plan on editing the house rules depending on how the reception is.

It's been a while...

Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been slowly working my way through a bunch of different projects over the past couple of months after some initial delays.

Starting with the last topic I covered, I managed to get a full squad of VOTOMs to use as Gears in a 28mm Heavy Gear game.  It took me a few weeks but I finally got them from overseas.  Because the plastic felt different, I decided to test my planned green base coat on one of the rifles I wouldn't be using (due to the bazooka conversions) and the plastic in the figure reacted strangely to the spray paint.  I suspect that the figs are vinyl due to their feel which should (according to the label) work with the paint I chose but unfortunately it remains "sticky" for weeks.  The only slapdash solution I found was to coat the spray with normal acrylic paint but I'm not sure if whatever the chemical reaction is will eventually leech through the second layer of paint.  I've tried instead hand painting with acrylic over the VOTOMs and, while not visually as good, serves the purpose of dulling the sheen on the figs.  I'll post pics of the results (I tested washes on the figs as well as repainting) in the future when I finish all five.

In the meantime, I finally got my wave 1 box from the very delayed Robotech kickstarter. Due to the unfortunate backtracking and intentional misleading of pledgers by Palladium in the intervening 18 or so months, I frankly don't have too much interest in putting together the dozens of minis at this point.  Another local gamer at my FLGS got in on the KS as well and we'll be trying out a game in a few weeks hopefully.  I'll try putting together my resin Miriya QRaus and he's planning on putting together his battlecry pledge so we should have enough figs.  The KS, even with just wave 1, gives you an impressive amount of figs for the price.  Unfortunately, the sprues for the figs seem badly designed with tons of very tiny and easy to break parts seemingly unnecessarily broken down into multiple parts.  When the other gamer was assembling his command pack models, he lost a part and broke off two more when cutting them from the sprue.  I suspect most Robotech models will be modelled with "battle damage" after only a few games regardless of how much care you take in storing them.

Also in Kickstarter news, Heavy Gear is currently running a KS for plastic minis to accompany their new edition.

Heavy Gear KS Link

The KS went through some serious rejigging during its multiple previews on the official DP9 forums and is probably now at a good point.  The initial ideas were frequently downright bad but it has improved significantly since then.  It funded (admittedly to my surprise) in less than a day and is fast approaching what I consider to be a good value in the realm of plastic starter sets.  Once it reaches around $105k, you'll have a color starter rulebook along with four armies to play with (Caprice, CEF, North, and South).   While you'll need to combine them into two armies to play the optimal sized game of HG with the new beta rules, the KS gives you four average sized forces using the Blitz rules.  At $130 CAD (including shipping), that's a pretty good deal compared with current metals and even other plastic starters.

Finally, this isn't mech related but I did start working on some 40k models.  I picked up my first GW kits in a few years and decided to make a small ally force of Space Wolves.  I had gotten some primarchs a while back in a trade and figured I'd try to make them into "true scale" Space Wolves characters.  Horus has become my Logan Grimnar whereas Ferrus Manus is now an Iron Priest.  I picked up the Logan Grimnar boxed set despite my dislike for the stupid Santa sleigh idea for the wolves to accompany Horus.  I plan on turning the sled into an Iron Priest land speeder and to turn the Logan model within into another Iron Priest.  I've got some work to do on that but within a week or so I should be able to post some pics of that.

Once again, sorry for the delay and the above wall of text but I should have some visual indications of progress on a few different fronts to post in the near future.

State of the Blog Address (Part 2)

Thanks for bearing with the last post and I promise this one will be a bit more upbeat since I plan to focus on the hobby progress I've made over the past year.  While honestly it didn't seem like I accomplished much due to months long stretches of not working on any minis (and having paint dry up unexpectedly during that time!), I was pleasantly surprised by what I accomplished in the meantime. 


I pretty much finished up (except for less than a half dozen figs) my entire 40k collection and mostly sold off the stuff that I never planned on finishing.  My 6000pt Blood Angel, 2500pt Deathwing, 2500pt IG, 3000pt Eldar, and 2500pt Tau armies are officially done except for two figures.  The only other 40k related things I have left are 5 "truescale" marines that I kitbashed back when I was attempting to run a regularly scheduled Deathwatch 40k RPG campaign that has since sputtered out.  Mainly due to a lack of HG playerbase and the Robotech KS delay, 40k has actually been my second most frequently played game after X-wing. 


Over in HG land, I've made some significant progress.  I sold off my unwanted southern minis and actually finished the ones that I picked up post Forged in Fire.  My Heavy Assault King Cobra squad is done as is my platoon of Visigoth Khan tanks.  My support options models (airstrikes and turrets) were also completed along with a cityscape set from Dropzone Commander to use as terrain.  My Nucoal army went from completely in the blister due 2/3 done with two squads of hovertanks along with two sections of hoverbike GREL infantry.  The only Nucoal models left are my Chasseur MK2's that will make up a veteran GP squad.  I picked up a painted northern army as well and then spent a lot of time dealing with the dozens of breaks (and even a few missing parts) due to very, very poor packing for shipping.  I've picked up more northern minis (likely too many for blitz!) that are still unfortunately in the package though.  With the delay of Robotech, I had expected to instead work on my Northern minis but the 3 month delay and counting since the advertised Jan delivery date has put a damper on that.  Despite being a playtester, I don't know how much the product changes after it leaves our hands so I'm avoiding putting together the models until I see what the final pdf looks like.


X-wing is a pre-assembled and prepainted game so there isn't too much of a hobby aspect in that sense but I managed to get into some trouble with it anyways.  After reading some interesting reports over on Board Game Geek, I decided to make my own version of the Corellian Corvette model and rules.  I picked up an old 1990's toy in roughly the same scale and made a custom base to place it on along with some datacards and scenario rules.  Additionally, I made some 3D asteroids out of lava rocks to use during games.  At some point, I'd like to convert my TIE Advanced into Avengers but I'll likely leave that one till after the TIE Defender model comes out as that will be their squadron commander.  At that point, all my favorite LucasArts XvT models will be out and I'll be a happy starfighter pilot.


All in all, I'd say that the past year (or technically about 16 months) has been quite productive despite the relatively large gaps.  Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to finish my 40k figs and might post them here.  I'm going back and forth whether I should buy any more as I think GW has officially gone bonkers with their recent pricing but the new tau commander crisis suit looks pretty darn incredible.  As a grimdark mech, I'll post about that one if I end up acquiring and working on it.  Additionally, I hope to finish my truescale Deathwatch marines along with a kitbashed Aegis defense line and turret.  After that, assuming the Northern book doesn't come out, I'll work on my TIE Avengers and possibly the Nucoal GP squad. 


In any case, thanks again for reading and I promise the next update won't be a solid wall of text but rather filled with pretty pictures of mediocre painted minis like usual!  :)

State of the Blog Address (Part 1)

I was checking out my blog links to see what new stuff other bloggers added and I realized that I completely missed the first anniversary of my blog earlier this year.  To celebrate the passing of that first year, I decided to follow the US government tradition of posting a "State of the Blog Address" going over the past year and my hopes for the coming year.


When I started the blog last February, my goal was to focus on my house rules for improving the Heavy Gear Blitz game under my catchy little "Flash" title.  At the time, I had some ideas that I wanted to publish before getting involved in some official playtesting which would possibly limit what I could post due to the likely NDA.  I've been burned before in the past by Heavy Gear and DP9 making bad decisions (like flipflopping through rules editions and dropping the old RAFM scale gears unceremoniously) so I figured I'd try to get more involved and hopefully prevent another debacle especially given the relatively poor (and deserved) reception the Forged in Fire Southern Field Guide got.


I'd say that I definitely met my goals for improving the blitz game.  Though the rules went  a bit further than I initially had planned and still need some more testing, I'm happy with the overall final results.  In the end, it doesn't seem like anything will be incorporated into the next HG edition due to the vastly different rules in open alpha right now.  I actually joined the alpha in the spring of last year (right around the time I stopped posting large updates to the FLASH! rules and switched to modeling!) so the scope of the changes were not a shock to me this past January.  I think that the core rules have a lot of promise but obviously still need work.  Unfortunately, as demonstrated by the army lists, there still exists plenty of room to screw up the whole endeavor.  As for Blitz, I got involved in the Northern playtesting as well and anxiously await the release of that final product for the venerable Silhouette system.  Just don't expect it to be as broken, unfair, and overpowered as the Paxton release for several reasons.  The most important is that the lead playtester's primary faction is Paxton so they naturally got the best stuff (and paid nothing for it frequently) but also because cooler heads were involved in the development of the Northern book.  The north was originally my faction back in the old RAFM 1st edition days and I worked on a northern army over the past year as well... but the difference is that I view army guides that I play no differently than ones I don't so I tried to keep that in mind while still trying to give it a unique feel.  I have no idea when the North guide will finally come out (the January release has slowly crept into April now and counting) and I'm not entirely happy with the results (especially one very key aspect) but I would like to see HGB given its last hurrah before the release of the Beta files this summer. 


The other big game that I expected to cover frequently this year was Robotech Tactics.  Unfortunately, absolutely nothing has gone right since the end of the kickstarter for that game.  Only a few days after taking pledger money, Palladium announced that they were releasing convention only minis that people had been clamoring for but excluding backers from getting them via the upcoming pledge manager.  A contest run during the KS to design ace veritech paint schemes ended up running 6 months late and only had a single winner instead of multiple.  Everything was just fine and dandy with empty platitudes about how things were progressing for months until just 4 weeks before the October delivery estimate (revised just days after the end of the KS) at which point it was delayed till January/February. 


Since then, the project feels like its just treading water with the delivery date now at June/July and counting and frankly that date looks incredibly unlikely given that no moulds have even been started on.  The rules have not and apparently won't be previewed so they're another big question given Palladium's very poor (to put it mildly) history of RPG rules.  We're finally seeing prototype minis but the part count is ridiculous (30+ pieces for 40k terminator sized figures) and the seams between the parts almost exclusively run RIGHT ACROSS THE FRONT OF THE MODEL WITH BIG GAPS.  The TL;DR version is cheap looking overly complicated models that will come out at best 8 months late.  I've avoided talking too much about Robotech because I don't want the blog to turn into my private whine fest but it deserves mention in this end of the year post as I had expected to cover the game significantly over the past year but haven't been able to. 


That's it for part one of the State of the Blog address where I cover things overall.   Part 2 will deal with what I've done hobbywise during the past year.  Thanks for reading and bearing with me in the meantime.  :)

NuCoal ready for action! UNSPACY on the way?

Well, the Christmas sales are long over and I've spent the month working on getting my NuCoal tank regiment painted up.  I've finished the two hovertank squads as well as the two sections of GREL hoverbikers in the paint scheme I borrowed from my first 40k army.  I was going for some sharp differences in the colors and I accomplished that but I'd be lying if I said I was completely happy with the results.  On top of that, the overcoat seems to have gone on unevenly on the tanks (less so on the bikes) likely due to the unseasonably cold weather delaying the drying (and allowing more of it to drip).  I didn't use any thicker coats or longer sprays than previously so I suspect the ambient temperature where I spray (60F roughly) had something to do with it.  In the end, it's not exactly what I hoped but it also isn't bad enough that I'd consider stripping it and starting over like I had to do with my southern army after a primer cake-on mishap.

The finished force

Primed

Some initial paint coats

The black on the primed picture definitely came out very washed out in the picture but not on the model; the primer coat you see in that picture is the same black in the initial paint coat picture (although I did cover up mistakes with a second brush coat of black on the finished models).

For NuCoal, I've still got a GP/Strike squad of Chasseur MKIIs to work on.  I'm debating whether I should start prepping some northern models in anticipation of the pdf release later this month or finish of the NuCoal.  I'll likely go with the later just to get the force completed (like my southerners) and leave myself with only one paint scheme and army to worry about.  

While the paint was drying on the NuCoal models, I also put together my broken 1/200 Battletech/Macross models you see in the background of the finished pic.  The Robotech minis kickstarter delivery date has unfortunately started backsliding (a month passes and the delivery date is pushed back MORE than a month) so I'll have to get my Robotech fix via other methods.  I dug up my Battletech Unseen minis and put together a preliminary force idea of how to use them in Heavy Gear.  Basically, I plan to use the Veritechs as Fusilier hovertanks with a ground mode added to them and the destroids as striders (Mammoths seem to be the best fit statwise with all the recent buffs to strider defense stats and the unloved expansion of gearstriders).  The hovertank mode gives the transforming fighters the mobility they should have along with relatively appropriate weapons (lasers, missiles, autocannon) and they just need a walker mode to finish off the "counts as".   I initially thought the gearstriders would be a good match for the destroids but the idea of the veritechs having the same maneuverability seemed odd so I'll be looking instead at the Mammoth variants... more armor but easier to hit feels right for that counts as.  

Heavy Gear Kickstarter Musings and Robotech Update

The Robotech Kickstarter I posted about last time is still going strong and likely to reach $500,000 tonight with a free Khyron in an Officer's Pod to celebrate.  If you haven't checked it out or only checked it out in the first few days, feel free to click the link below and take a peek as they have added plenty of designs in the meantime.

Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter Link

Since I've been following the Robotech Kickstarter, I've also been thinking about the kickstart that I believe Heavy Gear needs.  Most gaming kickstarters tend to be glorified preorders that simply cut out the middlemen (stores, distributors) and pass on some of the savings to consumers but the core original idea of the platform is to fund things that otherwise wouldn't get funded.  Almost every time a discussion about increasing the output of Heavy Gear products or revamping the game completely comes up on the DP9 forums, some fanboy brings up the fact that DP9 has only a small core of full time employees that can't handle the added workload and the company can't afford the increased pace anyways.  A kickstarter for a truly new edition (and not just a minimal Locked and Loaded revision every 2-3 years for full $$ price) would help both of those problems as the earned funds could pay the salary of another full time employee.  That is a change and effort that I would indeed support assuming that the scope of the project was broad enough and re-examined everything about the game from the ground up.  No turning the whole herd into sacred cows though!

The proposed change that I suspect would be the most controversial would be simply rebooting the entire universe ala Battlestar Galactica.  The Scifi channel didn't just take the Richard Hatch BSG proposal that simply continued the 1970's show into the new millenium but rather revamped the original into a modern show that still kept the core feel and ideals of that original but updated everything else.  Heavy Gear needs that type of change if it wants to be a more successful wargame.  Right now, every possible change for an existing army (especially the North and South) is buried under literally thousands of pages of fluff and history for an RPG that has effectively been abandoned by its maker for almost a decade.  When the RPG first came out around 1994, it had the unique "hook" of a real time advancing storyline for the world that aged with us.  Despite how good that was in the RPG, the wargame doesn't need that and instead suffers from it.  Take a page from the comic book industry and reboot the Heavy Gear wargame as an alternate universe set at the end of or right after the first Earth Invasion.  Mold the universe and the fluff around what the wargame needs instead of  continuing to shoehorn the wargame into a decades old RPG universe.  If the RPG is no longer weighed down by it's own rules and fluff, why the heck is the spin off wargame that didn't need 90% of it in the first place?

Take the time to re-examine the rules and pick either a skirmish game or a full scale wargame... you can't have both if you want to do a good job!  Right now, Heavy Gear is a skirmish game effectively as the complexity of the rules leads most players to play games of less than 15 models per side (infantry not included of course) in order to finish a game in one evening... but it pretends to be a wargame in its army building portion with 5 gear squads as the core unit.  That dichotomy is the main reason this blog exists as I couldn't finish a full wargame sized battle in a single evening and wasn't satisfied with what I was given in the size game I could finish.

Finally, update the production and materials to the current millenial standards of plastic sets.  Take the opportunity that the release of the upcoming video game gives you to revamp the look of the models to modern robot aesthetics.  People who will be crossing over from the video game will be expecting modern scifi robots and not early 1980's VOTOMs.  As much as I personally like the classic look (and I really do), they don't sell the game as effectively as they did when they were first released.  The Xacto update from the frequently goofy looking Tactical minis was a great move but that was almost a decade ago and the game needs another makeover.  Keep the older minis as officially "legal" in the rules but revamp the design to better match the aesthetics shown in the video game concept art. (I'm not a fan personally of what they're showing for the south but the concept art for the Hunter is kick ass.)  New startups are using kickstarter to raise funds and coming out with plastic lines from the get go.  Take the time and effort and redesign the core minis in the North and South for the rebooted universe/timeline in plastic for an upcoming big starter set of 40+ minis.  Include revised Hunters/Jaegers, Iguanas/Cheetahs, Mambas/Jaguars, and Grizzlies/Cobras in plastic along with the new rules in a wargame style big boxed set like the upcoming Robotech game or like GW has been doing for almost two decades.

I want Heavy Gear to grow and I think the kickstarter platform gives DP9 the opportunity to create the changes needed with less financial risk.  You can't please everyone and you'll inevitably lose some core fans with the scope of the changes above but you'll likely bring in newer fans as well.  I've frequently criticized DP9 for pointless changes that decimated player collections (minimally revised rulebooks that invalidated editions after 2-3 years released for over a decade, tactical minis making the old RAFM ones obsolete and out of scale, etc) but I'd support financially a truly new edition that was worked from the ground up as a wargame.

Robotech Kickstarter in progress!

While I'm not a fan of Palladium and some of the rather dubious choices they've made over the past 15 years, I am an unabashed fan of Robotech and Palladium is running a Kickstarter for the upcoming Robotech minis game.  The first era covered will be Macross and the kickstarter runs to May 20th and the initial rush funded the first goal in less than three hours.  Long live the 80's childhood nostalgia!   :)

FUNDED!