Some CAV (sort of) related videos on YouTube I want to share...

[CAVBOSS]

Here is one that wasnt what I thought it was going to be...

 

[CAVBOSS]

Talking about ATM uses...

 

[CptSlowhand]

So I independently watched the first video about half a week ago after buying both the Battletech Alphastrike and Cav:SO books.  I played Battletech as a boardgame, one of my first wargames as a child after Risk and Stratego.  I came to CAV later as a miniature gamer after Epic and early 40K.  I liked CAV because it was easier to play than Battletech but also because it seemed more realistic militarily.  Having a Wizzo help fight the machine made more sense.  Actual military formations rather than a semi-feudal structure.  Comonality of equipment across units instead of a grab-bag of whatever machines your officers inherited.  I would lean into that as a marketing theme.

[CAVBOSS]

Thank you! I have always been a more hard sci-fi guy when it comes to wargaming. I always try to employ as much "real world" into something if I can.

[companycmd]

Ok so let me get this straight if I can. 

Has CAV actually failed and what does failure mean? 

Put another way, how many players are joining CAV and how many are joining BT. 

But still another way, how many people are joining Car Wars vs. Gaslight and

how many people are joining WW2 miniature games in 15mm as opposed to 10mm or joining 1/72?

If any of these questions are "I dont know" then here we have our problem: METRICS

Here's yet another way to put it: is there a message board in The Miniatures Page.com for CAV?  Is there one for Battletech?

Someone once told me Mechwarrior as a miniatures game is dead.  You know, the mech bases with the clicky thingies?

Why did it die?

 

And a while back, someone said to me "Star Wars Space Combat" is dead.  I guess that means the miniature game with the miniature fighters and such.

THEN if I may continue, yet another person said a few years back "Pirates of the Spanish Main" the game from was it Wizkids?  is dead.  Thats the game with the cardstock ships you put together.

 

If all these games are dead can I ask what the gamers are playing?  My god because of Covid not everyone can have shifted to board games, right?

[Syagrius]

Companycmd - I'm not involved with any of the companies, but I suspect the METRICS you reference are going to be "company secrets" for the companies that produce the games.

 

CAV probably has metrics on sales. downloads of errata from their website, etc.   That may not mean people are playing, but it's about as good a metric as they can get.

Talon Games won't have access to Battletech metrics - different company.

WW2 games are proprietary to whatever company produces them.

I can't comment on any games that are "dead" - except that "Pirates of the Spanish Main" is no longer supported by Wiz Kids.  They tend to change up their offerings every couple of years and anything 'older' is retired and gone.  Doesn't mean people don't play if they already have it, but it's unlikely to get new players.

[CAVBOSS]

Do we have the player base and player engagement that BT has? No.

Are we a successful game company? That is the harder question to define. Talon Games has been in business since 1996. We produced our first game Cry HAVIC back then and it was considered a "success" in the industry. We have had numerous projects since and released CAV SO in 2015 and did three successful KSs for it. Covid hit in 2020 and threw us and everyone else on our ass and it has been basically start over since.

I run Talon Games full time and employ two full time employees and several contract workers. There is a bunch of other "metrics" I could list but they are more industry gobbly gook and gets boring quick but the easy amswer is CAV is not BT and never will. There will never be another mech game at the level of BT and thats just the state of the game industry and how it works these days. Smaller companies cannot get in the distribution side of things these days and without that stores wont hardly touch you. We have things we need to do better and we are working on it but CAV is a long ways from being dead!