"Mecha Front Mecha Combat Game" Topic

2013 is shaping up to be a pretty big year for Paulson Games.

Several months back I announced that I had taken on a pretty large project, many of my blog & facebook followers have been asking what I was doing and I said I'd let everyone know when the time is right.

Now that things are running at full steam I figured I'd give everyone a small peek behind the curtain at what's coming up.

I'd like to introduce you guys to Mecha Front © which will be a tactical miniatures game centered around mecha combat. (15mm scaled) It will be a fast paced skirmish type game for two or more players. It takes all the things you love about western style mecha and boils it down to their raw essence. No singing ladies, no culture shocked giant aliens, no psychic powered high school kids. This game is for gear heads who love raw gritty robot combat, smoking autocannon shells and the crack of deadly partical cannons.

The miniatures are shaping up to blow away all of my previous work. Renders will be posted soon and I'll be launching a Kickstarter to get things rolling. (details to come)

Next month is going to mark 5 years that I've been open, it's had it's ups and downs but through it all the members of the miniatures community have been awesome and I wouldn't change any of it. I appreciate all my past customers, it has been your support and encouragement that has helped me get to this point. I look forward to putting out a new line of miniatures that I'm sure you will enjoy.

Enough of my blabber, onto the pics!

Neo-Bloc Mecha

NorAm Mecha

Like the modular designs! How tall (in inches or mm) will the figures be?

Al | ravenfeastsmeadhall.blogspot.com

I'm interested. I like the Mech designs, especially, picture 6 & pic 7. 15mm seems like a great scale for a Mech combat game.

They are in the 50-70mm range depending on weight class. They'll be on 60mm bases. The Quads are massive and will be much larger and fill either a 90mm or 120mm base.

Planning on having 12 mechs in the inital release and will expand on that with more units and factions as I'm able.

Awesome Mechs :)

Great looking concepts AND 15mm? I'm in. :)

-Will

I'm in.

15mm mecha? we wantsssss it, my precioussssssss. And I'm enough of a rules collector that I will have a copy of the rules, too.

Love the concept art, and the game idea… really looking forward to this, what a great idea!

Love the fact that they look like "hard SF" mecha instead of giant robots with human arms. Reminds me of the now defunct, but outstanding, xbox game called "Chrome Hounds". Would definitely buy these.

Pics s aren't showing up for me, but sounds exciting. You should post this in the 15mm sf board, often people only check that for 15mm sf news and chatter

Now THOSE are my idea of "mechs." Far cooler than Battletech's which have been getting more and more outlandish with each passing year.

Hey, those are sweet looking!

Sure remind me of the customizable mecha in the old Battledrome PC game, which in my opinion is a good thing!

This looks awesome! Count me in!

YEA! New mechs. Coolbeans, thanks. Looking forward to them.

i'm in

Great looking mecha drawings looking forward to seeing the models.

Nice,

Folks looking for "realistic" mecha for the their scifi forces will be in heaven.

-Eli

These look good. I will participate in the kickstarter.

Rich

"No singing ladies, no culture shocked giant aliens, no psychic powered high school kids." You know that only describes Macross and Gundam. AT Votoms is nothing like those two, of which Heavy Gear already fills this. So really you're making a scaled down Battletech on Earth is what I'm taking from this. Am I right?

Hey Mech Dude,

Some of those look awesome, and I am very interested.

Is there any way, other than watching here on TMP to get a notice about when you open the KS?

Thanks,

HostileContact

link

For those like me who do not see those directly.

I have to say I LOVE third and last one. Others seem a bit too fragile, but those blocky ones are excellent, must buy.

I like 2, 3 and 4. Heavy armour on a platform designed for dense terrain (and thus close quarter battle) never made sense for me, especially given the usual suspension of disbelief concerning weight distribution and the like. Four legs help but I find it easier to imagine a bipedal mecha as being more badass (like the Colonel in Avatar). Spider-tanks tend to make me think of moustache-twirling steampunk villains or adorable Japanese AI bots.

Very nice. Welcome to the Realm of 15! Make sure you keep us updated on the 15mm Sci-Fi sub-board.

Best,
JBR

Would love those in 6mm :)

Count me in! Can't get enough mecha in 15mm. Make sure you post updates on the 15mm Sci-Fi board!

I don't even game 15mm but I will buy these!

DEFINITELY want to see the kickstarter when it starts!

(also love the "chromehounds look, wondered if anyone would point it out too!)

I'm a huge fan of hard scifi mecha. I love the combat and designs in the original Macross/Robotech as there's a very serious military vibe to it, the problem is that it becomes painful at times to watch because of the soap opera drama and odd culture clash concepts. Love being a weapon ugh.

While I love elements of many anime films too many of them try to connect to poorly conveyed cerebral conceps. (Akira for instance and next gen kids in gundam) As much as I can enjoy that stuff I've always felt those things tend to draw away from the settings being grounded in reality.

It's why wanted to design a game and setting that deals with a western view of mecha and them being used simply as an extension of a near future military force. Like real world tank commanders and airforce pilots they are highly trained professionals, not high school kids that somehow found a mecha they magically know how to opperate.

I've always found myself drawn to stuff like votoms, dougrams, and armored core which have that heavy military feel to it. Because I didn't have the game systems I haven't actually played Chrome Hounds or Steel Battalions, but I'm a huge fan of their designs. So there's a large mix of stuff in the inspiration pool and I hoping it apeals to fans of multiple differant mecha genres as a result.

I'll definately keep posts updated on here, and rules will be made avalable for free in a text form once I can manage to get everything down on paper. I also maintain a page on face book facebook.com/paulsongames where I update with all my storestuff and will also announce the kickstarter info once things are ready.

Very cool! Any idea what the price point will be of the Mecha?

Very awesome! 2013 is looking good for me and bad for my bank account!

Do you plan on having any sort of Combined Arms rules in the game, such as tanks and infantry?

Will you have any "Build your own" construction rules by chance?

Ditto and a Plus One to Kealios' question.

The price is likely going to be around $30. USD I realize it's higher than a lot of other 15mm scale stuff but these are also going to be about twice as tall. (60-70mm) Also a typical game will only need 4-5 models at most. If players want bigger games they're always able to increase the number of force points.

There will be combined arms rules, infantry will be present but they are more of a support option and not particuarly effective as the game will focus on mechanized combat. It's hard for basic foot troops to keep pace with vehciles and mecha moving at 30+mph. So a pure infantry force likely won't be viable.

Tanks, helicopters and vtols will all have roles but each type has it's own strengths and weaknesses. Mechs have mobility and size on their side so they are going to be the prime focus but armies will definately want to mix with some ground or air units.

There's plenty of models currently available for those so I'll be focusing just on making the mecha for now. (but there will be rules for combined forces)

Mech customization will be included, weapons and equipment mount on hard ponts. It won't be quite as extensive as battletechs custom building, but one of my favorite things about stuff like armored core and front mission is switching up mech designs so it's in there.

Another plea for 6mm! :)

Ditto on 6mm versions.

So, 6mm?
Having said that I'll buy both scales :P

Originally I had planned for 12 mechs in the inital release, currently I have artwork done for 8 out of the 12.

I had been thinking that I'd do 6 mechs for each side, however I'm currently debating if I want to keep to that plan or introduce a third faction which would also have 4 mech designs as that'd also keep it at the original 12 mech target.

2 factions with 6 mecha each

or

3 factions with 4 mecha each

Any thoughts?

Depends on their artwork, but if theyre separate-enough looking, 3 factions of 4 Mechs each would be good…

These are theoretically real-military, not Gundam where all the Ace pilots get Custom stuff (read the interviews on the Gasaraki disks, Bandai was not happy that there were really only 3 models of the bots used in the entire series!)

I think you'd be OK with 4 units per faction at launch.

One light recon type, one artillery type. In theory you'd have either a medium and a heavy or a 'main battle tank' and one 'whatever' type. I am kinda partial to the Macross/Robotech Destroids, where 3 mechs share the same lower legs. One main battle type, one AAA type, and one missile artillery type, but all basically on the same chassis.

What we haven't asked is if/how ordinary infantry play in this battlefield. There's a good case for an infantry transport built on the same chassis and similar armor to the main battle mechs.

I mentioned on your blog about how cool the designs were and also that they would make great walkers for 28mm with the addition of a scaled top cover for the bodies.

There are a lot of 15mm mecha that are pretty much scaleless aparf from the windscreens/hatches so a simple cover for the top of the mecha would convert them to the larger scale… broadening the appeal and possibly increasing the monetary returns.

I have converted Critical Mass walkers by just adding a new cockpit and it works as a small walker for 28mm use.

It makes me sad to see such awesome mechs when I know that there is potential for use in my 28mm armies but I would need to convert each and every one :(

I think four mechs per faction should be sufficient with a little imagination. For example: a light, medium and heavy bipedal body and a four-legged model acting as the base with several potential weapon mounts (a lot of mecha games are big on customisation).

If you do three factions, you can get quite a bit mileage out of a single chassis. Another example: one of the factions might be based loosly on WarPac style tech. The most basic mech design represents export versions sold to third world dictators or mass produced to fill out reserve units while a simple upgrade pack consisting of a handful of exterior gizmos, scarier weapons and maybe some ERA-style armour addons designates a mech as part of one of that faction's professional army which may be a very different kettle of fish indeed.

So long as the factions have a good motif going for them without straying over the top, I am very interested. There is a potential niche for western-style mechs for an Asian inspired force – no-one really wants to have their near-future PLA troops backed up by Gundams.

Concept art for the Neo-Bloc Quad mech.

These look great too! Cannot wait to see 3D prints…

I spent a good part of yesterday wearing my fingers down to little numbs hammering out ideas and mechanics.

Hopefully a peek at some of the setting concepts can help hold you over. :)

The setting write up is currently about three pages and I didn't want to gum up the thread with it so I've posted it both on my website and also my facebook page.

Paulson Games: link

Facebook: facebook.com/paulsongames

It's still a rough draft so apologies in advance for typos and errors, I make minis and I don't tend to wear a writers hat very often. ;)

While I always find it hard to imagine Russia and China being good friends, the range of potential factions and the nature of the setting as near-future scifi have really broughr me on board. I was only going to by a single light/medium mech for my EUROFORCE Panzergrenadier Company but now I think I may go in for the long haul. The best of luck!

I would py into a kickstarter for 6mm…

Red Dawn+Mecha=Win!

#1) I quit 15mm sci-fi last year, but I would defbbuy these, especially if rules are included!

#2) I like Lions idea of a Scout Mech !

#3) Definitely go with 2 armies and as many models as you can release for both sides

Id rather have 2 armies with 6 (or 8!) models than 3 armies with only 4 models each. I wouldn't try to expand the factions you have until you have fleshed out the first two armies for people to test the game with!

Any idea what the lowest Kick starter amount will be to get a free Mech?

U.K.

#1) I quit 15mm sci-fi last year, but I would definitely buy these, especially if rules are included!

#2) I like Lions idea of a Scout Mech !

#3) Definitely go with 2 armies and as many models as you can release for both sides

Id rather have 2 armies with 6 (or 8!) models than 3 armies with only 4 models each. I wouldn't try to expand the factions you have until you have fleshed out the first two armies for people to test the game with!

PS. I noticed on the Mecha Front blog on your home page you dont mention the state of Afria in the current wars. It would be cool if you could work battles over African resources into the game somehow. Also, some lower tech Mechs representing out-dated styles for the African nations would be cool at some point (think the "Technical" of Mechs ;-).

From your storyline I will definitely be intersted in gaming the Indo-Chinese conflict. Sounds like lots of fun. Cant wait to hear more!

No one really quits 15mm. Just when you think you're out, it drags you back in. ;)

Best,
JBR