The inevitable, but predictable failure of Palladium's Robotech Tactics Kickstarter...

o/

FIVE years ago...

I had just met this girl, and she was into gaming, and anime, and I told her about this new Robotech Kickstarter I went in on, and she thought it sounded really cool and...

FIVE years later...

As my Beloved Wolfy (that amazing girl described above) and I quickly close in on our 2nd wedding anniversary, that same Robotech kickstarter is finally spiraling thru it's sad, pathetic demise.

If you're a gaming geek, than you've no doubt heard about this uber-clusterfuck of a Kickstarter. If not...well, you can read a good synopsis here, or for the TLDR crowd, just go to 1D4chan's 'Kickstarter and controversy' section here. Better yet, just go to the comments on the actual KS page. Yup, 102,000+ comments of outrage and vitriol...YEARS of it! Hell for truly disgruntled backers, there's a private FB group pooling their rage for legal action!

Anyways, skipping to the present, ol' Kevin Siembieda, the thief...uh,so-called man in charge of  Palladium, posted the inevitable *update* explaining how 'due to forces beyond his control' (i.e.: his arrogance and complete mismanagement of this whole debacle in which he assigns blame to everyone but himself), indeed all that was missing was the violins playing as a sullen backdrop. BUT there was an option to get something else (from wave 1 which is being liquidated as the game is officially D.E.A.D.) in exchange for the (now confirmed) mythical wave 2.

Worth the wait? No.

Yeah, the KS's Rick Hunter's custom VT was unattainable, but Max & Miriya Sterling's custom VTs were for those attending adepticon. 4chan described most backers as just wanting unseen Battletech minis (yes, I am part of that supposed 98%) and as such ordered a box of Spartan/Phalanx Destroids (aka: Longbows/Archers).  Of course they were $5 more than my pledge and I'd have to pay the additional shipping. Whilst, it felt like throwing more good money after bad, I wanted to get something after 5 years of frustration. Thus, I paid the extra $12 and got the above boxed set.

The 4chan link above says these are some awful models to build and when finished, have some dreadful gaps, but...as I haven't opened the box yet, I'll save that rant for a future post.

Apparently its long-overdue Kickstarter season...

For the 2nd time now inside a month, yet a long overdue kickstarter has delivered. Previously I got my Green Alliance WWII Orcs, and this time our Dynamic colored X-Wing templates arrived! The movement and range templates look just fantastic!

Our only complaint (aside from being so late) is the line and number 2 on the range ruler is hard to read due to the background image being so light in color.

As for the various other tokens, eh. they look alright, not sure if we'll use them or not. Though the binayre pirate insert will allow us to run all three of our Z-95s with the Scum and Villainy faction now.

The nightmarish variety of colors for the tokens on the right are largely responsible for the long delay in delivery. Some have the symbols cut out, and other just etched and printed in white. The latter no doubt to speed up production...

The dial is held together via magnets. Its pretty nice for a freebee!

We couldn't resist using these in a game, and left em in place to give a good view of how they look on the table top (which is to say: better than the game mat!).

This was likely the Violet's final battle. Neither one of us have had much luck with this ship and it has since made its way onto ebay. 

The empire won the day just in case anyone was wondering. 

This just leaves Rick Hunter's custom VT as the only thing left in the woefully overdue Kickstarter department. However the only thing fucking Palladium has managed to do on that since the laughably optimistic release date of 'December 2013' is to show a single CAD rendering. Hate, vitirol, threats of legal action and general disgust continue daily on that KS's comment page (which is dangerously close to the 100K comments mark). Like most backers, I personally I have written that last mini off entirely.

A little bit of Battletech

o/

I had a bit of time this week, and some of the last and used it to paint 3 battlemechs. They paint up quickly which makes me feel like I'm accomplishing more than I really am, lol. I haven't played CBT in a few months, but I do enjoy it and these mechs were a nice departure from the norm (and after 3, these became the 'norm' and the rest were put back in the case, primed but not painted...).

The Robotech mini in the middle is a bit off in scale, but compared to some CBT's notoriously incorrectly-scaled minis issues, its really not noticeable. Left to right they are: a Hoplite, Rifleman & Exterminator.

These are painted as the 15th Dracon Regiment. Originating as an independent regiment in the original SLDF, the 15th opted to not join Kerensky's exodus out of the Inner Sphere. At that point they set themselves up as Mercenaries, spending the majority of their career in Capellan service. So much so that they eventually joined the CCAF as a line unit only to be wiped out less than a decade later (no, not a good career move...).

The 15th holds pretty true to its SLDF roots, preferring mechs that originated during the Star League, going so far as to field a fair number of original SLDF era (and now ancient) mechs. They also maintain their original color scheme of gray with O.D. green trim. Not wanting them to look like my 2nd. Legion of Vega mechs (just trimmed in green rather than red) I reversed those colors which worked out nicely I think.

In the 15th's painting queue, I still have another Rifleman and a Warhammer (yes, both are also Robotech Tactics KS minis) and a pair of Goblin tanks for the option of a Capellan augmented lance if I want a bit of variety.