"Mechadrome- New Kickstarter Coming Soon" Topic

The new and improved Mechadrome campaign will be launching in about a week! The expected launch date will be Wednesday, June 4th, pending Kickstarter approval.

The previous campaign had a few issues, and after we got a better idea of what our customers really wanted we decided to cancel & reboot it. So we've streamlined this new campaign and shifted the focus of the game to only be for 28mm scale models, which will be produced in resin. The 15mm light mechs will still be offered as add-on items for backers that want them, since the molds were already made, but Mechadrome is a 28mm scale game now.

The focus of this campaign will primarily be to get the rulebook & cards printed and the Terran mechs made, along with a few unique Free Agents. Other races will come later, possibly getting small mini-campaigns for each race after all of the rewards from this campaign are sent out. We would rather focus on smaller goals we know we can achieve in a reasonable amount of time, rather than having a huge list and dragging things out, making backers wait years rather than months. We think running several smaller & focused campaigns over the next couple of years will make things go much smoother.

Here is a link to the Kickstarter preview page, if you would like to check it out:
kickstarter.com/projects/gangfightgames/1745794300?token=84223861

We still have a lot of images to finish up for the add-on items and stretch goals, but they're all listed on the page now. We'll make a new post about the campaign when it launches. We're still working out shipping info, but we expect to offer free US shipping for pledges over $100 USD, and a $10 USD shipping credit for international backers. Shipping will be calculated in the pledge manager after the campaign, so you won't need to add it to your pledge. The pledge manager will basically be an online store, and your pledge amount will work like store credit, so you'll be able to easily select the models and other things you want.

I'll have some more info to share as we get closer to the launch. Feel free to leave any feedback here or on the preview page :)

So if this 28 mm how tall are the mechs? I will be curios to see where this goes.

They're pretty big :) I haven't had a chance to add the scale pics to the page yet. A light mech will be a good match for a 40k space marine dreadnought, and a medium mech could be close to a dreadknight, but I don't own one to compare. Here are the pics of the 3D prints

Light Mech

Medium Mech

I'm very interested, how did they do on delivery of their first kickstarter?

Steve

The fist one died. :-(

No delivery since we canceled the campaign early. We started out with 15mm scale models and rules, then everyone wanted 28mm instead, so we started offering 28mm models too and the campaign turned into a jumbled mess. So we decided to shut down the old campaign and restructure things and now we're about to reboot and just focus on the bigger models.

The campaigns for my first game Blackwater Gulch went well, but were a bit delayed. So this time around I'm learning from previous mistakes and planning a lot farther in advance on purpose. I'd rather have a later date posted and get orders out early instead of the other way around. We already have the molds made for the light and medium mechs, so i'm hoping for delivery to be around October, but I'm posting December as the date just to be safe.

Other items and stretch goals will get a later date, probably february or march, again just to be safe. My stretch goals are going to pretty much stop at $20,000 USD because I want to focus on getting the game released rather than 50 models on the list that take 2 years to finish. I may add in a few extra models if we're doing really well, but I'd like to keep things focused and not get ahead of myself.

That medium mech is HUGE! OK I will be interested to see how this goes. Let us know here when you are about to launch. Having some early bird perks might be a good idea.

Now is this just mechs, or is there a larger idea here?

Yep it's just mechs. It's a not war themed game, it's a like a team sport, only the sport is all about blowing up other mechs. There will eventually be different mechs from all kinds of different alien races and special unique free agent mechs, but I'm starting off with the human teams for now.

What I'm hoping to do eventually is also have a 15mm scale game that's got the war theme with squads of mechs rather than squads of men, and that'll have big tanks and flyers too… but, 1 game at a time :)

Guess I will hold off until you get the mechagladiators game welded down and launched, then.

That medium mech is HUGE!!!! I'm a little afraid to see a heavy…

Looks promising and 28mm really needs this sort of thing. 15mm has no shortage of mechs, power armour, battlesuits, etc but for 28mm we're actually losing those lately. A couple just went out of production and some just never made it to production. Infinity offers plenty of nice ones, but they're cost prohibitive and single pose. Not a winning combination if someone wants a team, squad or platoon even.

Great looking models, that medium mech is pretty big. I'm very imtrested and will plegde at the $150 USD dollar level.

I'm looking forward to the launch :)

Looks like the campaign page was accepted already :) I'm going to hold off on launching it till tomorrow (Sunday) night. I have all of the menus done now, just have to finish the payload images then we'll be all set :)

This looks FANTASTIC. I will be getting a team at least… and magnetizing the arms

Thanks and yeah these mechs are perfect for magnets, that's why I decided to offer the weapon packs too.

Gonna launch later tonight I'll be posting everywhere as soon as it's live :)

Normally I would shy away from this sort of project because you don't have any details about shipping from within the EU to help us avoid a serious tax hit, (Over 30% on a $100 USD pledge), but for this I'll pledge now and decide near the end whether I can afford it.

Good luck

Any chance at you offering and setting 15mm versions of the models later?

Couldn't be less interested in 28mm if I tried.

Unfortunately I can't do much better for European shipping right now. I don't have any way to ship from the UK and setting something like that up at this point and with the amount of orders I'll have would cost more in the long run. I'm a small 1-man opperation, everyone's rewards are going to be packed up and shipped from my house :) In the future I'll be using Game Salute's distribution services but that will be more for retail.

As far as scale goes, the game started at 15mm but the vast majority of fans wanted 28mm models, so I made the switch. However I still plan to do 15mm later. Eventually I hope to have 2 games, Mechadrome will be the 28mm scale small-model-count skirmish game, and then I'll have a more squad based 15mm scale game with a war theme rather than sports theme, so it will be more like armies vs armies with mechs and big tanks and stuff like that. I have to get Mechadrome up and running first, so I have no idea when I'll be able to start on the next game. Probably next year sometime.

The prints for the arena hazards and alt light mech poses have arrived, and here they are! Sorry if the details are tough to see, the material was transparent this time, so it doesn't all show up as well as the blue color the other prints had. I stuck the medium mech bodies in there just for scale.

Some backers have been asking for photos of the weapon pieces, so here they are! We have the light weapons followed by the mediums. The mediums have less pieces overall since most weapons are just the forearm while the light mechs have whole left & right arms.

From left to right we have Railguns, Chainguns, Blasters & Plasmaguns. Then Jackhammers, Crusherfists, Siege Drills & Buzzsaws. On the bottom there's booster jets, shoulder armor plates and a missile pod.

Here we have Left & Right Chainguns, a Plasmagun and Railgun (for either arm). Next is the Jackhammer, Left & Right Crusherfists, Wrecking Ball and Siege Drill. On the bottom there's a Blaster turret, booster jets and missile pod.

That's all for now. I'm going to start painting up the first medium mech sample now and should have him done in a few days. We're about halfway through the campaign now and things are going well :)

Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to be posting individual pilot bios along with a sample of their pilot card art, one each day or so. At first I was going to do one large update with each team, but I thought 1 pilot a day would be more fun :) So, here is Buzzkill, and you can find more on the campaign page. The next one will go up tomorrow :)

Buzzkill's famous career began in the dark period when Mechadrome was more violent than the wars it was designed to replace. Discovered in one of the many thousands of scrap-settlements, foraging off discarded military hardware and selling what she found for food, Buzzkill was quickly signed by the Terran talent scout Hamazdian Cole. Impressed by her natural tactical presence of mind that allowed her to evade capture for several days, Cole immediately started her on a rough regime of Mech combat drills, arena awareness and team tactics.

Kitted out with both close and ranged weaponry, Buzzkill delights in distract and hold tactics, keeping opponents either hunkered down under a deluge of missile strikes while other team mates flank them, or grappling up close with her buzzsaw, before falling back for more powerfully armed Mechs to finish them off.

Some folks were requesting an "everything" pledge level, so I just added that in. $300 USD for both teams, all hazards and objective markers, rules and objective cards :)

Next up, here is Tsuragowa of Team Bushido!

Raking the ground with blaster fire, Tsuragowa roars from the sky riding twin contrails of booster jet flame right into the heart of the opposing team. Landing amongst them, shrouded by the dirt and debris kicked up by his weapons fire, ‘Rag grabs hold of the nearest enemy Mech, gripping tight and laying in with some close quarters fire. If he can, he uses his boosters to keep them off-balance, jinking one way then the next, long enough for their systems to start to power down due to overload. And then he's off to the next engagement, just another prime example of Team Bushido's infamous hit/run tactics.

Havoc joined the Titan's mid season '16, replacing StrikeZone who fell to a vicious Jackhammer and siege drill assault by Bushido members Makuzo and Kessen. Taken from the training pool of would be Titans, Havoc quickly became known for using his missile pod as a distraction and then nimbly shifting positions to spray the area with twin chainguns.

And he's no shrinking violet either. Despite receiving warnings from Titans management, Havoc can always be found on a vid-cast both before and after a match, holding interviews and flirting with the audience. He's also the only Titan to actively encourage sponsorship – his Mech is often decorated with advertising holoscreens or simple posters – yet another thorn in Titan owners sides. But the crowd love him, and pay to see him and so, for now, he stays.

(Final card will have a model photo when it's done :) )

The baby of the team, Kodachi has still to prove himself in the arenas. Taking over the coveted spot from Jakumota "The Flying Devil" Cannut following their violent retirement when his Mech imploded thanks to a faulty experimental grenade. In the six games Kodachi has taken part, his performance has been "variable" as Team Ace Yari commented in the post match interview with Station 27.

"He's young but needs to learn respect for those that came before him. He has 2 attributed kills but they were lucky, almost fluke take-downs. And he doesn't stick to the match plans, plans we have spent years perfecting. But he is eager and I too remember those first days. He will learn. He will grow. Or he will die."

There is no separation of this psychotic pair of aeronautical experts. In their former lives they were cargo-pilots for Sienko Industries, flying freighter ships between the planets of the Galactic Council. Some held supplies – food, medical and much needed tech – while others were nameless containers and sealed orders. A destination and a timelog were all they were given, but the financial rewards they received for these type of assignments more than made up for the hazardous conditions they flew in.

However their luck ran out when transporting a sealed container to the Mankali Research Planetoid. A sudden meteor shower tore through their guidance systems forcing them away from their destination to the nearer moon of Salin IV. A pleasure colony for the super rich, the moon was a resort that catered to every desire. With engines on fire and bleeding atmosphere, the duo somehow managed to pilot the freighter away from the habited zone, crashing into the surface and spilling the contents across a vast area of dense forest. In horror, the two discovered their cargo was not medical instruments or supplies but instead twenty-seven humans infected with bionic-tech.

What happened next became known on Tri-Vids across the Galactic Council worlds as the "Massacre Of Salin IV". Thunderstrike and Lightfoot became wanted men and had to flee into the shadows, pursued by agents of the Council. MechaDrome became their new home and the anonymity their Mechs provide, a new uniform. Kitted out with booster jets, the pair swoop around the arenas, letting loose a torrent of destruction from above, earning their crowd pleasing tactic the nickname: "Death from the skies".

Another fast attack expert, Soto stands waiting for the signal to attack. Shadows are his friend and he barely registers on the heat-tracker systems used by Arena cameras to stream vid of the match. Heaven knows how opponents are supposed to keep a bead on this formidable close quarter specialist. Once a target has been established, usually by being knocked out into the open by heavy fire from a teammate, Soto powers up the twin siege drills affixed at the end of each arm. Once the target corridor has been established, a quick flick of a button and the booster jets are fired up, launching Soto straight at the unfortunate Mech.

Seeing the debris clouds of metal and poly-heated plastic explode around the doomed opponent and you know there are only moments left before another Kill is knocked up for Soto whose attack/kill ratio is riding high at the top of every league.

(Tomorrow I'll finally have one of the medium mechs painted up, so Disorder will be up next!)

"…and here she comes again! There's no stopping the fury of Disorder tonight. Look at that – her buzzsaw just sliced right through Rampage's plasmagun, releasing the energy in an expansive plasma cloud that took out three utility buildings! You're listening to it first here on KLMD-2.4, the only registered radioband for Mechadrome games way-out here in the Galactic South Sector!"

To say Disorder has issues is an extreme understatement. Even the Team psychologist has given up on getting to the root of her issues, having way too many broken bones and bruises from their therapy sessions. Whatever the cause may be, that Disorder is armed to the teeth with a dangerous buzzsaw/railgun combo backed up with twin missile pods is welcomed by the crowds that pack the arena viewing hubs every time she strides out.

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And, there's some bigger photos on the campaign page :)

kickstarter.com/projects/gangfightgames/mechadrome/posts/891559

Working alongside Soto is Yari, another close combat specialist. While Soto likes to rip the opponent apart, Yari instead prefers to pound them into the ground with one of the powerful jackhammers liberated from one of the construction mechs. Coupled with Pounder HE missiles this style of attack is known as "pounding dirt".

During the final of MD'89 when Yari was caught in an hab-construct surrounded by Thunderstrike and Lightfoot, and with no obvious way out before they began their attack, Yari used the jackhammer to pound into the floor. As they Terran pair obliterated the building with blaster fire, missiles and plasma, Yari jackhammered an escape tunnel, appearing 200 feet away behind them. A few well aimed missile strikes crippled the Terrans, giving Yari enough time to make it back to a friendly zone in the arena.