Taking the TRO a bit further...

Federated Commonwealth Machete MCT-3

Welcome to another blog update.

We’ve been making progress on the art front with several different pieces in the works.

- Jeffrey Aggusoekarno has finished the Federated Commonwealth’s Machete. There’s going to be some background added, but you can see from the image at the top of this blog post that it’s a very good piece. Dorian and Helen “BattleQueen” Sherratt have thoroughly playtested this machine and are quite pleased with it. Several lances of the Machete formed the ‘escort’ for the Sounders that wreaked such havoc on a pair of Blakist Vincent Mk42 corvettes. I don’t believe I have posted the post-game report for that, and with good reason – the game ran some twenty turns and the report is very long!

- The Draconis Combine has a tank, the BARS (Bulldog Autocannon Remote System), that has been sitting idle art-wise for a long time. Lee Madison finally came up for air and agreed to take another commission – as you can see, his rough sketch is quite promising, especially when you compare it to the original art.

Old BARS art....

Lee Madison's preliminary sketch

- We have a new artist (Chris) working on an interior plate featuring the Sounder aerospace fighter. It will be a snapshot of the encounter with the WoB WarShips. This is a piece to replace ‘The Game’, as that art is more suited for the Infantry Primer (our next project). As you can see from the sample below, Chris knows his stuff:

- Karl Olsen is currently plugging away on backgrounds. I think he may be tinkering with a redesign for the Diomedes as well. He wanted to redo the Hammerhead, but I think that one, while it probably could use a re-draw, is fine as a visual design. I want a tank that looks like a locomotive!

- Stephen Huda has begun the commission on the Leopard VTOL for the Outworlds Alliance. The rough draft is below:

Stephen Huda's Draft of the Leopard VTOL

- I received a wonderful gift from my brother Jay last week – a new laptop computer, a very powerful Toshiba with a dual-core processor and lots of memory. After loading all the software and updating my essential BT data, I am now using it to produce and modify the TRO work. My son thinks I am crazy, though. I purchased a used Dell keyboard and a new mouse to plug into the fancy computer!

There is a method to my madness – you probably know by now that I smoke a cigar and drink coffee while working out in the garage. The old laptop was equipped with a floppy drive (yes, that old) and after four years, shows dirt and wear from the exposure to my twin habits.

However, the Dell keyboard, in addition to having the tactile feedback I depend on, is separate from the computer itself and thus gets all the ashes and accidental spills which would spell disaster were they to fall on the computer itself. The mouse is there for much the same reason – I am accustomed to it and it keeps my activity away from the like-new surface of the laptop.

Thanks, Jay!

- Dorian has completed work on the Werefox line of miniatures. As you can see from the recognition chart, the Charlemagne has the most imposing Small Laser of Doom you’ll ever see:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Just kidding. It is an ER Large Laser of Doom. Still honking big, but hey, maybe it will make a good club for some desperate MechWarrior!

Here are the price quotes for the Werefox line. Don’t be put off by the initial cost – it’s actually a deal because you are getting two tankies!

AAV-I - $15.50

AAV-II - $14.50

Charlemagne - $17.00

D'Artagnan - $16.50

Martel - $16.00

Petain - $15.50

Here is the cover for the instruction PDF, which you can download as needed when making a Werefox purchase:

- I am currently working on the writeups – no, nothing has been changed, but I am cutting out the stats on the second page of each and putting it on its own page. The reason behind this is so that, after I have finished editing the stats for TRO format, we can just cut and drop them into the PDF. A bit of work with that (bold face and italics, mostly) in CS3 and we’re set to drop in the art. I have finished all the BattleMechs and am into the second House on the vehicles.

The really cool thing about this new computer? I can now run CS3 on it! Instead of saddling Bill with all the drudge work of formatting, I can just gather up the files with the text dropped in and transfer them to my computer, where I can make the changes as needed. Then I gather them up again and give them back to Bill for art and layout tweaks. The text portion has been the time-consuming part, and as stated earlier, I am front-loading as much of it as possible so Bill won’t have to hunt and peck to get it to look right. Bonus! I get to make last-second changes directly to the CS3 master files, rather then bugging Bill over changing a single word here or there.

- Bill has now got all the Draconis Combine writeups, ready to drop in. A piece of art here and there is still ‘under construction’, but we have placeholders. Bill will be down at Silverdale’s Avalon Games to conduct gaming sessions on Friday, the 24th of June. I will not be able to make it at 6pm due to work commitments, but will probably drop in at 9pm after I get off. Sorry, Bill.

PLAYTEST SECTION- STINGRAY

Dorian and Helen, in addition to making up all these wonderful miniatures, have been steadily playtesting some of the designs. One tank they used was the Stingray.

(Yes, this is the miniature for the Stingray)

The game went as follows:

The Stingray Playtest

Okay. The game. Helen controlled the Stingrays for the majority of the game so the way they were used was a little different from my style of playing, but they did, as I said before, perform well. I can't give you a blow by blow with them as we didn't really take notes today.

For the sake of comparison I'll make my remarks based on the 3058 upgrade version of the LRM carrier.

Our deployment for the Stingrays was determined to allow strategic movement to an area behind a Level 3 hill where they remained without moving after turn 2. Their ERMLs were never fired through the course of the game, though that is no reason to sacrifice them as it is a vital short range defense measure should they become engaged by any form of stealth or flanking unit. However, a possible option would be to replace them with SPLs (Helen's opinion). Tactically speaking, there is no reason to replace them with MLs as they don't require additional heatsinks to be installed.

Our designated spotters consisted of a pair of OW-3X and a pair of VRB-38-O (see attached) both fast flankers with good mid to short range punch. While we had a couple of TAG equipped vehicles, these four 'Mechs were the heavy lifters for spotting. These guys have a proven track record as spotters for Arrow IV units so they're a natural choice for us to use. (if this bit goes on the blog, please let folks know they can buy the OW-3X in the store and the VRB-38-O is going to be available soon)

Our main tactic in using them was to let my RAC equipped units breach armour then have the Stingrays use their critical seeking LRMs inflict the knockout blow on assault class 'Mechs such as the Archangel (there's a trend here - can you see it? We don't like Archangels) or the Seraph and take Battle Armour down before they could swarm attack our Assault 'Mechs. The tactic worked well, eliminating most of the Djinn Pete and Neil deployed before they could close in on our Assaults. By concentrating our fire on them as we closed on the complex we managed to eliminate 4 squads by turn 5 leaving just 1 squad left but at half strength. They proved no threat and were easily dispatched in a barrage of ERML fire from our three Precentors.

Raining on the WoB Parade

With the immediate Battle Armour threat eliminated Helen turned her attention towards dealing with those bloody Celestials. My uncanny luck with RACs from our Typhoons, Mastodons and Precentors, which were working together, shredded the armour on a Seraph and an Archangel. This left gaping holes in various locations, most notably the centre torso of the Archangel. The Archangel decided it wanted to blow up after the Stingrays hammered it with 8 flights of LRMs on turn 6 causing no less than 4 critical engine hits - which would have breached the reactor had it not passed the emergency shut down roll! (Do you use that rule? It's a lesson on not keeping your XL engine units grouped tight, let me tell you!)

With a Archangel down on turn 6 the Seraph followed suit on turn 7 along with a Preta that had taken heavy damage from the pair of VRB-38-Os that same turn.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

Turn 8 saw us complete our objective and uncover the location where the WoB were holding Devlin Stone. This turned the game from an attack to a rapid retreat so Neil and Pete started to throw everything at us (including the kitchen sink). Our OW-3Xs bravely held back to give the Stingrays targeting data to cover our retreat and both fell by the end of the game. Turn 8 had the two Stingrays cripple a second Archangel by blowing its left leg clear away at the hip, leaving it easy pickings and a swift foot to the face from Helen's Highlander II-C.

With our retreat underway the Stingrays unleashed fire on the pursuing units marked out by our OW-3Xs while our forces took opportunity fire where permitted. Our pair of Mastodons proved how dangerous a pair of RAC-5s and SRM4s in the turret can be. A Malak suffered a missile death thanks to the Stingrays on turn 9.

While the Stingrays proved effective on turn 10 they didn't kill any units. But it's worth noting as Helen rolled a wonderful series of 6s against a practically undamaged Gregori and executed a perfect Highlander Burial taking it out and leaving a pair of stunned WoB players :D

Turn 11 saw our units reach our table edge and end the game. The firing phase saw our last OW-3X fall under the weapons of the toaster huggers - but not before allowing the Stingrays to finish off a Legacy and a Lightray, thanks once again in part to the Mastodons and Typhoons.

The Aftermath

Okay, there's a rundown and the kill tally is as follows-

4 squads of Djinn BattleArmour

1 Archangel

1 Legacy

1 Lightray

1 Malak

1 Preta

1 Seraph

Judgment Rendered

A pretty good showing all told, they're good for taking units out but lack the punch for destroying units on their own like the Sounder and Machete. Are they better than a LRM carrier? Honestly, we think ‘yes’. Sure, they cost a tad more, (118 BV I think) but statistically, four LRM 10s will hit more often than 3 LRM 20s and the lasers give you more peace of mind than an iC3 will when you're facing fast flankers.

Of course the downside to Artemis is the fact it can't be used with special munitions such as swarm and incendiary, so it'd be considered wasted tonnage if a player used those options, but that's for the individual player to choose based upon scenario and mission objectives. There are a couple of scenarios I can envision where that trade-off could be worth the wasted tonnage. It's no real issue to deploy a Stingray with 36 rounds of standard LRM ammo and 1 ton of Swarm or Incendiary if a player feels it would be of benefit.

Over all I think about 60-70 percent of the missile flights hit their mark with roughly 7 missiles per launcher hitting, So on average you're looking at about 50-70% effective firing. The Artemis IV really helps with its +2 to the cluster hits table. Had we used more Stingrays the tactics we used would have been different - we'd have had the punch to tackle undamaged units and take them out and would have used them as such. Think a medieval rain of arrows, only with LRMs.

Is it better than a Quiang Ton? Honestly no idea, as we've never used that machine, but running the numbers I'd say yes for the same reason I listed as it being better than a LRM carrier, simple law of averages. You've more chance of hitting with 4 launchers than 3 launchers regardless of the number of missiles they fire. Of course it becomes a different game if they do hit, a 15 flight will hit with more missiles than a 10 flight most of the time. But regardless, you've got to actually make the hit roll first and more launchers give a player the edge.

The Quiang Ton’s AMS is a nice touch. Its secondary Streaks are a tricky one, though - you know my thoughts on them already. Frankly, I'd rather take lasers for defense weapons, as they won't blow up in your face.

Dorian (with input from Helen)

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

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

More Art, Changes in the Layout... and No Autoplay!

Welcome!

It has been a while since our last update. As you can see, the art for the new aerospace fighter, the Sounder, has gone through some changes. Our new artist is Jeffrey Agussoekarno and he is quite good at this.

There are several advances on the production of the TRO:

- We have almost finished paying off Stephen Huda for his efforts on the Werefox line.

- We are currently down to about $86 owed to Paul Skowronek for his editing duties.

- Karl Olsen is still hard at work filling in backgrounds for various vehicles – at this point I owe him a lot, about $180, counting the pieces he still has to finish. As you can see from the Sounder, he is doing well. Another vehicle, the Stingray support tank, was completely redone in order to bring it into line with the look of most other vehicles in BattleTech.

- Eric Ou has finished the work on the Nemera and the Sher Khan using vehicles already sitting in his portfolio. Unfortunately, he was not able to work in a special feature of the Sher Khan, so I will be tweaking the writeup to reflect the current warload. Nevertheless, this work was done pro bono and I am very grateful for Eric’s effort. It is quite appealing.

Nemera (above)

Sher Khan

- Jeffrey is also working on a mystery ship for the 109th slot – the Machete.

- The Outworlds Alliance Uragan has gone through a change – it is no longer an atmospheric fighter but a true aerospace machine and as such has been tweaked and trimmed to reflect the changes. The art remains the same, however. Given its previous stats, I believe this is a solid step up. The atmospheric fighter version with turbines was too slow, poorly armed and very lightly armored to be a worthwhile addition to the TRO.

- We are still going over the images for the Werefox miniatures (sorry, Dorian!) and should have any issues nailed down in a week or so.

- Bill is working on the TRO layout – his knee is on the mend. He has already begun new projects in addition to our TRO – taking up several painting commissions is a good start.

TRO Layout Changes

- Bill and I have done quite a bit of talking in the past few weeks. Much of it has been on other topics, but we decided to change the layout of the information presented in the TRO. We don’t want an exact copy of the company’s own books – it will be hard enough for folks to establish this as a fan project by looks alone We don’t want this to rise to the level of confusion. Catalyst Games might not appreciate it.

Here is the new proposed Table of Contents:


- Another issue Bill and I discussed was the idea of adding a page or two of information in the Master Unit List format. That is, listing the TRO entries in terms of their faction availability, BV1 and so on circa 3063. We decided it was a good idea and will insert it in the back of the TRO. Of course this is going to extend the page count a bit, but we felt it would aid players and GMs alike in determining selections for their game.

It will take us a little time to collate the data – I will have to go through every single writeup to get it – but we still have four months to go before we publish. And it is a needful thing, if my own experience with HMP is any indication.

The Music Player...

The Music Player…. thanks to all of you who voted on the issue of the Music Player. I have already disabled AutoPlay. From now on, blessed silence is the default setting for those of you not into dubstep, power pop or occasional flashbacks to earlier decades.

However... if you want to hear what is on the playlist, just click on the button at the bottom of the screen.

An Actual BattleTech Game!
Yes! Someone played one of these over the past weekend! With me!

- I played a game with the regular guys up in Everett this weekend. I was running OpFor with the GM. We sent a lot of Draconis Combine 3025-era ‘Mechs across a fairly rough area trying to get to a rallying point three mapsheets away. We fielded two Panthers, two Griffins, two Shadow Hawks and a Grasshopper. All had about 20% existing damage when they stepped on the map. The Grasshopper made it through the shallow lake to the waiting reinforcements on the other side – the rest were destroyed or captured in a valiant (and successful) attempt to soften up the enemy and buy time for their leader to get away.

The Clanners pursued us with five ‘Mechs. Unfortunately, they jumped as well as we did and hit harder, but we did manage to take down a Kit Fox and beat the stuffing out of a Clan Grizzly. I lost all but one Shadow Hawk, who did his best to stomp that Kit Fox into the dirt before finally surrendering.

I decided the Shadow Hawk pilot would relent and call out an honor duel - despite it being very late in the game, it worked. The prospect of getting another Zell point seemed to please the Clan player immensely. In fact, instead of staying at range and pasting me, he ran right up and slugged it out toe to toe. Of course, this meant I could punch and kick him.

The declaration also kept all his buddies off my back - all I had left was a LRM-5 of Doom! And my fists and feet. Things went well for our Clanner- two Clan Large Pulse lasers will do that for you - until I kicked him in the head after knocking him down.

At that he called to one of the other players to help - apparently, my shot at the Grizzly on Turn 2 had made me fair game for that guy under Zell, so the fellow came over to beat on me.

The game ended with my surviving both 'Mech's fire but unfortunately unable to squash the invader thoroughly enough. Cockroaches! What're ya gonna do?

Cowards!
The Clanners were curiously reluctant to enter the water and pursue the waiting Combine warriors – the GM called it a minor victory for the Clanners due to the five machines they trashed, but the game ended with the Grasshopper and most of its fellow DCMS warriors slipping off the map. The Clanners were supposed to destroy them all. They might have, if they’d braved the water, but by that time they were so beat up, OpFor would have taken another couple of them out on the way over.

Which was the plan all along. We OpFor knew we could not win, but were determined to make the players pay a heavy price for total victory. They declined the offer.

The place we played was a Gamer’s Tavern, the AFK up in Everett. Interesting place – if you are in the area, check it out sometime. I recommend the +2 Tater Tots with chili and cheese.

The Ultrasonic Cleaner - a Wash.

Unfortunately, while the ultrasonic bath works well, it does not work well on plastics, which includes the Shapeways minis. So that idea is a bust. But on the bright side, my wife's jewelry is sparkling and I am currently attempting to make a super stripping bath out of it (acrylic floor stripper + water + ultrasonic mojo = stripped metal miniature).

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - TRO Art and Minis

Thank you for your patience, everyone.

The Miniatures Arrive!

We have received the three miniatures of the JR7-X from Shapeways. They were done in white detail. Bill has two and I have one; we have been futzing with them for several days and have some information we’d like to pass on to the rest of you who might be considering a purchase of this mini or others like it from Shapeways.

- The minis are made from a process neither Bill or I know of, but which gives good detail. The sculptor (in this case, Dorian Sherratt) did a good job not only with the detail but also with adding large, deep sockets and long pins for ease of assembly.

- There are step lines on each model which speak of a machine or process which uses a coordinate system (X-Y-Z axis) to control the laser or whatever is doing the sculpting. These will have to be smoothed. We don’t know yet whether a second coat of primer will do the job of ‘smoothing’, but the first seems to bring these step marks out and dry-brushing will certainly accentuate the appearance. That said, the marks can only be seen if you are closer than four or five inches to the model.

- Each model had to be gone over with a dry toothbrush to remove the excess gunk. I cannot think of a better way to describe this material – it is almost dry but not quite, like gel. Or snot. You have to brush it out of the crevices and crannies and holes in order to assemble the mini and get the detail that was designed into the model.

- This gunk is on every surface. It is on the pins and in the holes that receive them – I spent several minutes with a paper clip and my fingernail removing it well enough just to fit the parts together. I don’t know if it is water-based or not.

- Bill has complained that the ankle joints are the weakest. He says it is the material which is flexing, but I suspect from my own experience that this is not so – if you do not clean the gunk away from the joint area, you will essentially be supergluing gunk to gunk, and that will flex and fail very quickly.

- Gunk aside, the hip to body joint and the leg to foot joint should be drilled out with a pin vise and then pinned together with copper or brass rod. These are the weak points in any case. I am going to ask Dorian to revise the design so that the hip-body joint has a larger pin and a deeper socket to mate more securely. These parts will still be able to rotate in the X-Y axis.

The ankle joint I will leave strictly alone – it is necessary to leave it as-is in order to permit reposing as needed. That said, I do not recommend posing this miniature standing on one leg. The joint, even pinned, is weaker than if it was made of pewter and will not stand any sort of stress (such as when packing and moving the miniatures to a game).

I am going to spend about $30 on an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner to see if that will remove the crappola which seems to coat the entire mini. Of course, not knowing what the mini is actually made of (Bill thinks it might be cornstarch!), there is a chance I will end up with a puddle of crud where my mini parts used to be. I will experiment first with the launchers – which I will be replacing in any case with the more slender versions Dorian has posted on his Shapeways site.

Replacement Art

Some time ago – about four years, to be precise – I decided it was worthwhile to begin replacing a few of the pieces Vlad did for the original version of the TRO. As the art piled up and the writeups began to take on some polish, this need for better illustrations grew and grew. I made a few mistakes in choosing and paying artists, so some of the work we did over – has to be done over again. And paid for – again. As it is coming out of my pocket, this is the price I pay for being hasty.

There are some pieces I commissioned which were intended for the TRO interior plates, but they will not appear because the mood they evoke is not appropriate for a TRO. I am saving them for the next project, an Infantry Primer to be used in playing infantry in BattleTech. No sense wasting money more than I have to!

Some of you may have noted that Eric Ou offered sketches as the basis for replacing art that clashes with the copyright laws. I have not taken him up on these for that reason, but in order to replace sub-standard pieces that are on hand but no longer meet the quality standards of the bulk of our art. This will take some time, but then so will Bill getting back to the drawing board and finishing his layout duties.

Current Progress

- I am in the process of paying Stephen Huda, Karl Olsen and Matt Plog for their artwork. I am also trying to catch up on the last of the money I owe to Paul Skowronek, who did an outstanding job editing the entries for this Technical Readout.

- Dorian Sherratt is waiting on my cuts for the Werefox line of miniatures. We have been in a bit of disarray here; I am currently shifting hours at work and Bill is going under the knife for knee surgery. Dorian has nearly finished the entire line while I have been skylarking – take a look at what we have so far.

- Karl Olsen is still working on the backgrounds. He has also been commissioned to create a new Stingray and a new Bengal. These two ‘tanks’ Vlad did were inspired by the work of ShamanX over on deviantArt and while they might make great subjects for the cover of a sci-fi novel, they ain’t BattleTech.

Even so, we might have used them if we’d been able to find a way to clean up the art. We did, finally, thanks to David White, but could not get the required software and decided the best course was just to re-do both pieces.

- Matthew Plog has presumably finished inking our piece for the Quiang-ton and is currently awaiting payment. When he gets his dough, we will get the art.


Entry #108

I swore over a year ago this would not happen, but there is going to be a new machine added to the TRO. We saw some of the pieces Eric Ou had laying about and decided to make use of one. It just looked really good. Darn you, Eric! Your stuff is so tempting!

The machine we designed was too heavy for the art, and Eric obliged by sketching something new. We are still talking it over, but the design itself is a definite ‘go’. It is a really solid addition to the game, looks like it will be fun to play and actually performs its intended role. We’ll get art for it one way or another. I have already sketched out the basic writeup and sent it off to Geoffrey for fill-in. When we have beaten it into shape, we’ll send it to Paul.

This new addition is something we do not yet have in the TRO – a genuine aerospace fighter. (The Urugan does not count, as it is conventionally powered and is atmospheric only). The reason we have insisted on keeping this new design is because it looks to be very effective but does not duplicate the mission or warload of any other fighter in its weight class. It is quite unique, and unless I have missed something, should be popular with the folks who would like to add a little aero to their game but have not found a solid reason to do so.

[Update: Dorian and his sweetie took just two of these fighters to a game yesterday. I believe on the first pass, they nailed a nearly fresh WoB Grigori. To borrow a phrase from that funny BattleTech/Hitler video, it went down faster than a Clanner on the third date.

Needs more ammo, check. Some AMS, check. Change the SSRMs to SRMs to widen the ground attack profile, check.]

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

Welllll.. maybe not all of them :(

{ This space for rent!}
We'll have a new header up soon!

I had an epiphany over to visit last night.

This one had a name: Bill Burt, the fellow doing our layouts.

Bill came by (bum leg and all) to visit and shoot the breeze. And he talked with me about some alarm bells that went off when he saw the Battlemaster as one of the proposed TRO ‘Mechs to be sculpted in the near future. Some of you may be familiar with him as Sounguru on the forums and elsewhere as the Fat Guy. You've seen his sig:

"When all else fails, call out the Fat Guy."

Well, my common sense was obviously failing, so this was Good Advice. And Bill gave me some additional advice during the four hours we smoked and talked.

As a result, I have decided not to support making miniatures of what I call the Named BattleMechs based on the art found in the TRO: 3063.

What does this mean? It means anyone who decides on their own to sculpt a so-called “Named ‘Mech’” does *not* have my permission to base it on my commissioned artwork, nor do they have permission to associate such a miniature with TRO:3063 - or me.

Before you get totally bummed, let me explain our position.

A Tricky Position

The Named 'Mechs are machines which have names belonging to Catalyst Game Labs - Jenner, Champion, Battlemaster, Bandersnatch, etc. Some of our own TRO art has much of the look and feel of existing company images and, by extension, the Iron Wind Metals miniatures. That was intended. In the past, the company has turned a benign eye on such efforts by its fanbase. But those efforts almost universally consist of art and text accompanied by a carefully worded disclaimer. Here is mine, well in advance:

The TRO:3063 is NOT an official CGL publication. It has the look and feel of one, but it is not. It is not for sale. No one will profit from its release. In fact, I will be in the hole for five grand by the time it is done.

If we publish and are not slapped with an immediate Cease and Desist letter, that is because the folks in charge have been gracious enough to permit us the use of their names and ideas as part of fan-produced material. Not for sale, but to be given away freely to all fans of the game.

Not Crossing The Line

Producing the art of the Named ‘Mechs in our fan TRO as miniatures for sale anywhere would cross a line I very much do not want to cross either before the release of the TRO - or after. The folks making the miniatures would almost certainly get a Cease and Desist letter, as they're essentially using intellectual property which is not theirs to make a profit for someone besides CGL or IWM. And the connection would be the TRO: 3063. We would get dragged into it and I do not want that to happen. Not now, not ever.

It is not just an issue of names, either. Some have suggested we play cute and list the mini as something else and so perhaps get away with it. Not so. The look and feel of a fan-produced miniature sold for profit that is based on fan-commissioned art that is based on the look and feel of official company art is still infringing. It takes money from the pockets of the companies producing the originals and food from the tables of the folks making those products.

My son’s design – the Nimravus – is based on the company’s own Lynx. It won’t become a miniature with my permission or knowledge because the art is very close in appearance to the parent design. This should not be a problem for most of you. Little John played for two years with a kit-bashed Lynx and he was content. I encourage the rest of you to do the same. It doesn’t matter how much I’d like to see the new Champion as a miniature. I would – a lot. But I won’t do it. I won’t assist those who do.

The Exceptions...

If a particular piece of art from the TRO:3063 using the name of a Named 'Mech looks little or nothing like the original company art (and there are several of those), artists are free to make a miniature based on that art. (This is why I changed the header piece, by the way... Shane got permission from me several months back to use the art of our Champion II.)

Please do NOT use the company name.

Please do NOT associate it with the TRO: 3063.

Otherwise, *I* have no objections. (Of course, others may. LTBB and YMMV.)


Re-establishing My Position

As I have stated many times over the course of four years on this blog, I do not want to violate Topps or CGL intellectual property rights. I do not want to take any business away from them, nor be associated with anyone who does so in an illegal manner. It only makes sense - if these companies can't make a dollar selling BT minis, they go under and that is bad for everyone. This is their livelihood. They are not going to let anyone infringe in a way that affects their bottom line, and I for one do not intend to try.

Machines abound in the TRO which are our own design. There is no shortage of 'Mechs and vehicles to model, so they will go ahead as scheduled. The Privateer is one of those. The Churchill Mk XX is another.

My Sincerest Apology

I am sorry, but the production of a Centurion or Catapult miniature based on the art in the TRO: 3063 is not legally possible at this time. I will not permit it unless I get permission from the owners of the license, and that is not likely to happen for reasons already mentioned. I am sorry for those of you who are disappointed – hell, I’m disappointed. But not very disappointed. And I should have realized this was the situation before I posted the last blog entry. You will notice the changes I made to that post already.

This business with the miniatures was not a stunt to get new donations. Believe me. If I had wanted to get more money from the PayPal button, I would have been one shilling SOB for the past four years: this project has at times put me in tough financial straits. However, I can understand if some of the more recent donors feel rooked. It will be hard, but if those of you who donated via the PayPal button in order to see a particular Named ‘Mech produced feel cheated, I will refund your donation. It will take time, as I am still in the process of paying for new art. But I will do it if you ask.

Meanwhile, we have been making progress on the Privateer minis. Here are the prototypes.

A Capellan PV-2L. We'll spruce up the pose - or you can make one of your own!

The current PV-1K - the Dragon's choice for outfitting Dispossessed mercenaries.

Current Progress

Aside from the splash the miniatures made, we have been busy here.

- Stephen Huda finished the Werefox line of AFVs. The last two, the Martel and the Charlemagne, are done. Excellent work, Stephen! I believe our sculptor, Dorian Sherratt, is taking a stab at making miniatures of the entire series.


- Karl Olsen is busy at work on the backgrounds of several machines that sorely need it. What you see here is a prototype only – we plan to clean up the art a bit before presenting it.

- Matthew Plog has been kind enough to work a commission for our TRO. The Quiang-ton will be ready in a couple of weeks.

- Paul Skowronek has finished up the last of the editing, bar one – the Mastodon. I sent it off to him yesterday. I am combing through, reading and deciding which need more Notables or Deployment information, as well as addressing the issues Paul found with the Periphery Vehicles.

Well, that is all for now. Have to get going, pay some bills, wash the clothes, vacuum and like that.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

They're coming.... from the pages of the TRO!

JR7-X

From the Mercenaries section of the TRO:3063

Yes, indeed. They are coming soon. One at a time, but they are definitely on their way.

But which ones?

Good question!

Someone out there asked for miniatures based on the art from this project. Several someones. I chuckled at the time. Silly fans, don't they know how expensive a miniature is to commission and produce?

Well, things have changed over the past two years. Some people have done a bit of 3D work, but it's been expensive.

Serendipity strikes and suddenly we have a new source, and he works fast.

And is reasonably cheap.

So.... wouldja do poor old Steve a favor?

Go back into the archives of this blog and tell me - what do you want to see as a tabletop miniature when September rolls around? I am not pageview whoring here, I am serious - dig back. Everything that will go into this TRO has appeared at one point or another on this blog over a period of nearly four years. You can find it.

When you do, let me know right here in the comments. We'll do what we did with the prototype - file it and use it to determine priorities.

More later!

http://www.shapeways.com/model/234569/3063___jr7_x_jay_x.html?gid=ug66038

Stay tuned!

Candidates So Far:

Privateer PV1-K

Privateer PV-2L

Klat, I turned your donation right over to the sculptor in England, who has agreed to put the Privateers both on the short list. Thank you for the donation!


And in case folks are worried this is only for 'Mechs....






You want to get that with fries?

Get a pair of these - along with parts for all the variants:

http://www.shapeways.com/model/237377/tro3063___churchill_mk__xx.html?gid=ug66038


Steve

Things moving along... with big guns!

Werefox AAV II by Stephen Huda

Hey there!

It has been a long wait but we have some new stuff to show you as things slowly get done.

There are five pieces left to do.

Here is the latest:

- Paul Skowronek (Skiltao) – has been steadily working on editing the writeups. He has finished the House ‘Mechs and is now busy with the units from the Periphery and the Mercenary section. Thanks for the hard work, Paul!

- We have been upgrading things ever so slightly as the playtest results come in. After a recent game where OpFor played all tanks against Clan ‘Mechs, I decided that anything armed with a Class 20 autocannon should probably be able to move fast – it’s not enough to just sit there hidden and wait for someone to roll into range. The range for that big gun is quite short. Our forces put paid to the Clan scum with two Shrek PPC carriers, but even with their reach, they were too slow to catch a Summoner and the bastich got away. 3/5 is fine for having it out with big guys and other tanks, but not so good at catching heavies.

Therefore, the Federated Commonwealth’s Churchill Mk XX has been modified – it is smaller now, carries the same warload and armor, but moves a healthy 5/8 on tracks. Unfortunately, it almost tripled in cost, but is still quite a contender for the C-bill. We updated the HMP and PDF files and I altered the writeup to reflect the new design, but still have to enter the data in the HMP file.

- Our Layout Man, Bill Burt, encountered a distinct setback while running across a field playing airsoft. He stepped into a four-foot deep hole and nuked his knee. The bad news is that he will be OOC for the next six to eight months. The good news is that he has plenty of time now for the layout duties!

[As with all the images,
click on this to enlarge]

- Stephen Huda plugs away on the Werefox line. As you can see, he did a fine job on the Werefox AAV II.

- Eric Ou has been paid up to date, but is still too busy to take on a commisson.

- We have commissioned Matt Plog to do a piece. It will have to wait until I can pony up the cash, however. This should happen in late March.

- Anthony has completed the first of two commissioned pieces, as seen below:

Churchill Mk XX by Anthony Scroggins

- Karl Olsen has been brought back to redo an armored car for the Outworlds Alliance – the Diatryma. I am still tinkering with it to straighten out some strange angles but it looks good, otherwise.

Diatryma Armored Car by Karl Olsen

I declared the income from your donations on my taxes this year – the total comes to just under $900! Thank you all for giving so generously. I am sorry for the infrequent updates – once a month at this point while we slowly pay for the quality work we are getting.

For those of you who enjoyed the music over the past year, I apologize. Hypster ran into trouble about seven months back with copyright issues. Now they are only permitting people to play YouTube videos on their embedded player. I don't know how much of the BR experience this was for you, but I could not change the music around midsummer of last year and so, I am afraid, the music list got a little stale.

There are not a lot of embedded music players out there anymore, at least not the kind to which you can upload tunes and have them run on your blog. And this just doesn't seem like the place for videos. I will try, but no promises.

Okay, got it in. Go to the bottom of the page and open the playlist to play something different. There is no shuffle on this player.

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

The Progress Report....

Howdy.

Here is the latest:

- Paul Skowronek – dropped off the edited stuff on schedule. The last of the Werefox line is edited, and Paul is now working on the ‘Mech writeups for the Draconis Combine.

- Dave 'BurningChrome' Hindelang is working on the corrections he’s spotted via the Prototype PDF. So far we have two pieces done. Trouble is, they are in the DC, on which Paul is currently working. Another problem is that the pieces are as seen in the prototype PDF, which I think adds certain errors that are less a writing issue and more of a data entry bug. Don’t get me wrong – I want those corrected too, but first things first.

- The HMV and HMAero PDF files are done. That is, the data for each machine and all its variants has been entered as an HMP, HMV or HMA file.

- We have begun Phase Two of the Heavy Metal experience – I am entering the finalized writeups into each HM file. We are coming along nicely with that – as a matter of fact, it so happens I have spotted some issues with the writeups (mostly stuff added to fill in gaps in word count left by Paul’s editing) and corrected them.

- Dave is also providing me with files of a sort I had not considered – MegaMek. Apparently the couple of designs he has tested so far have been solid performers, so Dave is now attempting to get artwork for them. Apparently there is an avatar for each machine – he is going to work with an artist to create the images required for MegaMek.

I don’t know – I suppose anything that lets you play BattleTech in your underwear is probably worth that kind of effort. Hell, it’s a hobby, right? This is just another facet.

- Stephen Huda is continuing his work on the Werefox line. There are some issues he has to resolve at home, but he has been working hard nonetheless and the Werefox D'Artagnan infantry combat vehicle is at the top of today's entry. Stephen has been paid up to date.

- Eric Ou is up to his neck in classwork and as I have stated before, I think that comes first. He has done some preliminary sketches on the Outworlds Alliance Leopard Gunship and the Draconis Combine’s Sher Khan. He might get to them in the next couple of weeks – depends on his school workload, of course. Eric is paid up to date as of this evening.

- Please give a hearty welcome to a new artist, Anthony Scroggins. I have commissioned him to do a couple of black and white pieces and perhaps a color plate. Yes, we have made room for one more. The prices are at the upper limit of my affordability and I will take a couple of paydays to cover them, but if you visit his deviantArt site [http://shimmering-sword.deviantart.com/] you should come away feeling much as I do - the man is worth every penny.

Here is an example of his work, colorized by our layout man Bill Burt:

[Please note: this piece was originally done for Strider's Strikers
(www.stridersstrikers.com) and is used with their permission]

The Current State of Technical Readout:3063

As I mentioned in the last post, your feedback has been vital to my project. So I have decided that it is time for me to outline some feedback of my own to you, the BattleTech reader. Many of you have been following this blog for years now and for that, I thank you. Here are some quick summaries to show where we are:

[CLICK ON THIS IMAGE FOR A LARGER VERSION]

So far that is where we stand. I estimate from the number of pieces left to do that I will need to set aside at least $350 for the art and $300 for the editing. A total of $650 and we should be done. It will come to about $3700 for everything.

We’re getting there. The best part is that our artists, writers and editors don’t have to wait until we get published so they can get paid!

Thanks for stopping by.

Steve

Odyssey of the White Knight...

Welcome! It has been about two weeks since our last update.

Here is the latest:

- Paul Skowronek – I have decided to bump the pay per piece up a bit and reduce the number of pieces due per week. Paul has a life and other responsibilities, and I think scheduling seven writeups per week is unrealistic. So I am going to go with doing five per week. That means I am going to pay the same for five as I would for seven – putting more money in Paul’s pocket while creating a production schedule which works out for everyone.

This schedule, if kept, will give us 107 fully-edited entries by mid-May. As the layout and remaining art will be complete by then and as we will have been editing in accordance with the Table of Contents, we should be able to assemble the entries as their text is finished. I just shipped the Lyran Alliance vehicles, but with Paul’s approval I am going to begin shipping the BattleMech writeups instead.




- The HMV and HMAero PDF files are nearly done. I am working on the last half of the Periphery (about 12 machines) and then the fourteen or so variants. Then we will be done. For now…

The idea is to get all the Heavy Metal files created to match their respective PDF. I know – they should be in the machine already. However, the designs were genned up, tweaked and turned out over three years. Some of the designs are on other computers and some have been tweaked even after they were set in PDF format – so I have to call up the PDF, check it against the current list of Vees or ‘Mechs, and create it if it is not there.

That is just Stage One, however.

Stage Two is where I cut and past the completed writeups into each HM file, make sure the appropriate Availability block is checked and otherwise final-check the design. I cannot do that until the editing is done, but I can do the rest for now.


- Stephen Huda has completed the reworking of the White Knight. This piece has gone through a long gestation period and at least four artists. See below:

CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A FULL-SIZE VERSION

- Eric Ou is quite busy but has agreed to re-do the Leopard gunship and the Draconis Combine’s Sher Khan. No telling when they will be ready, but I still owe him $50.

Speaking of money, I have paid for Kurbound Seth’s work.

- Your feedback has been vital to my project – many errors caught, some corrected on the spot. Below is the Check Sheet I generated to use with each entry. Please let me know if you can think of a check I missed:




Thanks for stopping by!!

Steve