OBT Forum

Catalyst was founded in 2007, so 2005 and 06 were the waning days of Fanpros absentee production and habit of "announce and never devote money to follow through." way of doing things.

2009 and 2010 were the years that one of Randall and Loren's employee's or partners stole craptons of stuff and money and caused that crippling cash crunch.  the PDF exclusives pretty much saved CGL and it shows.

Who was this third person?

you know for the life of me I can not remember his name, but a CGL staffer and I were talking about Catalysts history at Gencon and that was a part of it.  I do remember he was part of the shadow run team

wasn't it 2009 that Topps came in and replaced WizKids?

The lull in products probably came from CGL being unsure where the universe was going to end up considering WizKids had plenty still to come out.

When WizKids abandoned their game CGL was left carrying the bucket then I believe PDFs began to come out and Topps came in, at the moment it's very very steady with releases.  Something I won't gripe about at the moment, I'll pick them up later if I really really want them.

Topps purchased Wizkids, not replaced, and that was waaaaaaay back in 2003.  Madison Dearborn Partners and Torntnate Group (both owned by Michael Eisner) purchased Topps in 2007.  Wizkids was temporarily shut down in 2008 to evaluate the companies future, the Hero Clix and Mage knight Lines and all Clix related patents and tech were sold to NECA while Topps retained the Battletech and Shadow Run Licenses.

there is plenty of that, Total chaos was a seriously reworked version of the tracks campaign from the Jihad books, but a consolidated product was needed to bring those together (and get the tracks from Dawn, 3072 and the Blakist documents in line with Chaos Campaign).

Likewise the Year of the Star league would naturally have a lot of materiel recycling since we are beating the drum of the same force over and over.  at one point you do not want to hammer certain facts home, but you do need to, when appropriate, repeat information, such as how the SLDF organizes itself rather then rely on players to refer to books they may not wish to purchase.

History will show that the Year of the Star League was a success, but only just, and the Battletech Line Developers (Herb Randall and Ben) have already learned that player buzz on does NOT translate into sales.

The Year of the Star League would be a success for me if I could get the damned books!!

Been waiting for two of them for over a month I'm half tempted to buy the PDFs just to get it over and done with lol! Not sure if it's a supplier issue or just the shop being stupid - I have the money take it!!

I think PDF-exclusives are going to be a bigger and bigger part of BT's future.  It's very obvious that their low price appeals to the masses and they can be put together faster then a whole book which keeps Catalysts books in the black.  They also seem more accessible, its a lot easier going into your computer's library finding what you want than searching through 10 books.

I'll forever love my BattleTech books the PDF's don't have the same "feel" to them but PDF's are very very helpful if you need something quick.

funny, I have managed to purchase all of the SLDF books from my FLGS.  sounds like an issuer between your store and thier suppliers

Quote from: Dragon Cat on November 09, 2012, 11:06:30 AM

Been waiting for two of them for over a month I'm half tempted to buy the PDFs just to get it over and done with lol! Not sure if it's a supplier issue or just the shop being stupid - I have the money take it!!

You are not alone.
I can't get the books in France.
I have to get through Hessian and Germany if I want to buy books.

Which books are you talking about guys?
My guess would be you`re referring to FM:SLDF and Era Report:2750. Is that correct?

2009 and 2010 were the years that one of Randall and Loren's employee's or partners stole craptons of stuff and money and caused that crippling cash crunch.  the PDF exclusives pretty much saved CGL and it shows.

    Those two make their living creating fiction. What's a little more, right?