An Early Post: MUL is Now Complete!

Stingray

Greetings.

Our last update was a few weeks ago. Normally I would wait another two weeks, as the art gets paid off and there’s some actual progress to report. Things have been moving along, however.

- Jeffrey Agussoekarno has been assigned the new aerospace fighter for the Federated Commonwealth. He is back to work on it – below is the third draft of the new design:

Machete

- The ‘Mechs are all finally finished. Whew!

- We are currently down to about $66 owed to Paul Skowronek for his editing duties. He is working on the Sounder and will be digging into that new aerospace fighter as soon as I get the second draft back from Geoffrey.

- Karl Olson has finished the Stingray support tank and it is at the top of this blog post. He has reworked the Bengal and here is the inked version:

Bengal

- I am also going to ask Karl to work on the background for the following: Diomedes, Roland and Hammerhead II. His work on the Bu-20a Ammunition Carrier speaks for itself:

Bu-20a Ammunition Carrier

- Eric Ou has finished modifying his pro bono work. I don’t think he has the time to accept any further commissions, but he has earned the rest! I modified the writeup for the Sher Khan to better reflect the image’s apparent warload. I think it actually makes more sense now – especially as I have taken an interest in using infantry in the game.

- I am asking Stephen Huda to take another commission – the Leopard VTOL for the Outworlds Alliance. I need to pay him that final $35, though.

- Pursuant to the new organization of the material in the TRO, I have gone through and redone the Page Count, which specifies what goes where and on which page. The final page count is 254. There is a good reason for this sudden inflation of the TRO….

- … we have added an eight-page Master Unit List for the TRO itself! This consumed several evenings of work and covers every machine featured in the TRO, as well as any variants mentioned in the writeups (‘fluff’). The format is similar to the company works as regards the abbreviations for political factions and vehicle types. We also note where other factions have access to the machine in question.

Master Unit List Introduction

Sample Master Unit List (click to enlarge)

- Bill is looking at the images for the Werefox miniatures as of today. He can find no issues with them, so I will pass on them and Dorian can get to work.

- Dorian is about to resume work on the Sound miniature – can’t wait to see what he comes up with!

Local Game Group Begins....

Bill is working on the TRO layout – no, really! He is also starting another gaming group in the Bremerton/Silverdale area, to be held at local shops like Discordia and Avalon Comics and Games. If you are in the area and are interested in playing BattleTech, Axis and Allies, Risk and any other ‘wargame’, please get in touch with me. We would like to pull eight steady players together to have a good time in a structured environment (hey, mission tracks… who knew?).

One of the interesting features of the BattleTech game is that while everyone will start with 10,000 BV of units, what you will play depends on who shows up. For example, if five players show up, four will take their mercenary forces into battle while the fifth plays OpFor with the GameMaster (Bill). In a 15,000 BV scenario, each merc player would contribute 3500 BV of his forces, while the GM and his OpFor will field 15,000 points of whatever is called for by the track.

If only three players show up in this example, each would contribute 5000 points of merc forces against Bill’s troops. You would earn points for your performance as OpFor the same as if you were performing as a member of the mercs. No one loses opportunities for advancement, and everyone gets to play in a balanced game progressing along a story arc.

It’s an interesting proposition and I am eager to give it a try.


Thanks for stopping by.

Steve