Battletech of the Past

Battletech is a futuristic sci-fi universe that has been around since the mid-1980s. It is beloved by many fans since day 1, fans since childhood and their first video game, and fans from recent years. Thanks to these dedicated fans, who were playing decades old video games and Ironwind Metals, Battletech has survived some rough times. The Harmony Gold lawsuits vs FASA, FASA going out of business, and Battletech taking a backseat to Mechwarrior: Dark Age/Age of Destruction, before that went out of production; was a period where only the most dedicated fans kept Battletech alive.

Then, a number of the original authors and core Battletech staff appeared as Catalyst Game Labs (CGL) in the 2010s and began to revitalize Battletech. A small business, it had a number of issues with distribution and keeping product for Battletech on shelves. It was further plagued by embezzling and contractors not being paid. As the years passed, sourcebooks, hexpacks, record sheet books, and technical readouts began to appear, even though they had short lifecycles and quickly went out of print. Something was happening in a positive direction. We saw the Alpha Strike lance packs and miniatures being released that weren’t in box sets.

July 2019 was when Battletech exploded. The Clan Invasion Kickstarter went nuts in both value for participants, global IP recognition, and value for the Kickstarter. Many of us went as all in as we could, getting huge quantities of minis. To this day I still have some sitting with primer waiting to be painted! Battletech was moving past surviving and into thriving. Even with past issues -from the embezzling to dealing with the Wizkids/CGL Battletech timeline of the Dark Age- Catalyst Game Labs had huge amounts of good will from the fanbase.

Battletech was a huge success at this point and all of us were proud to be participating in this new era. Some of us were Catalyst Demo Agents. Some of us were just playing with friends at our houses. Some of us were guiding large groups of fans and organizing weekly games. Every time we would play at the local gaming store when we packed up, we would all cycle by the Battletech display and salivate at pushing our wallets just a little bit further for a random mini or splitting a lance pack.

Then, in 2021, something changed. One of the longest writing authors for the franchise was told that their work would no longer be accepted and anything new he had written at that point was put on the shelf indefinitely. That author’s name was Blaine Lee Pardoe. He was subject to defamatory harassment and a seemingly organizing campaign to get him “cancelled” from being an author for Battletech led by a criminal, someone that a court issued a restraining order against on behalf of Blaine. Topps was blamed by Catalyst Game Labs but, Catalyst Game Labs “cancelled” Blaine from producing Battletech novels. To add insult to injury, the criminal that was behind the slander campaign was a man, pretending to be a woman through his online alias, who was published by Catalyst Game Labs.

Rest assured, Blaine Pardoe’s “cancelling” failed dramatically as he went on to write multiple new series that are incredibly popular and consistently hitting best selling charts, such as Land and Sea. The Battletech into the Future umbrella of groups that will never be at risk to an activist takeover has a fan group as well for this series.

However, what this did was show Catalyst Game Labs’ hand and their intent going forward. This caused a major rift in the wider fanbase and welcomed in the people I will address from here on as “activists”. These are toxic, hostile, hate filled people that fester in Battletech social media groups slinging all sorts of buzzwords for anything and everything that might offend them, which led to them targeting me, Minis & Dumbbells, when I initially said “real world politics have no place in Battletech hobby spaces”.

However, this was not the last of this political activism. A tank exists in the Battletech universe called the “Rommel”. A fan asked about new variants of it and was told “no” and this CGL employee/contractor informed fans that continued discussion would violate the “no politics” rule, thereby making the topic politically charged, which echoed across all of Battletech social media. Of which, these same activists that pushed for the [failed] “cancelling” of Blaine Pardoe were instigating conflict and calling everyone “Nazis” for wanting new variants of a tank.

After this, the Mercenaries Kickstarter went live. People were frustrated, no doubt. Many had already decided to drop CGL and Battletech due to the rising political activism toxicity. Some of us were looking past some bad, yet avoidable PR issues and solely wanted Battletech to continue to thrive with new sculpts for minis. Then we found out the Mercenaries Kickstarter wasn’t quite a Kickstarter. The value was dramatically less than the Clan Invasion Kickstarter and when people fully ran the numbers, it was definitely more of a pre-order. In truth, I only stayed committed to this Kickstarter because of the final reward that was reached that added in additional lance packs.

But, then came June 2023. A full on assault of political activism swept through Battletech social media. A “fanzine” covered in political/social movement flags/color schemes/slogans was produced by a group of activists, with support from two activist authors. This was blasted all over social media in violation of “no politics” rules in multiple social media spaces. When we fans began to say this should not be here and was a violation of the rules, the buzzwords came a-flying. The -phobes and -ists were coming out of the woodwork!

Successfully, another seemingly organized brigade took place against the long time Battletech subreddit. This subreddit had a rule that directly said this type of politically charged content was not allowed and this wave of activists hit that subreddit relentlessly, intentionally violating the rules of the subreddit, feigning outrage over this proper application of a “no politics” rule. Since then the “community manager” of CGL has spun a story about the sequence of events, which really looks like what we all suspected. That day, she approved a group of activists/contractors to set up a new reddit that would be “official”, a full moderator team was already ready to go. Suddenly, out of the blue a contracted activist author was available for an AMA that very day. Soon after, the admin of the original subreddit brought on all these activist moderators and kicked all the old ones for the “wrongthink” of properly applying the “no politics” rule to an explicitly political/social movement charged “fanzine”.

This wasn’t the end of it, of course. Similar brigading was attempted elsewhere, such as Facebook but, it fell flat. We already know a similar thing will be attempted this year, in June 2024. Maybe we should start placing bets where the activists and their sock accounts will be targeting? Where they won’t have any power to even try to brigade their way into control? Battletech into the Future.

Since then the activists, even some being Catalyst Demo Agents, have been caught bullying, doxing, stalking, and making threats of violence against people they label as -phobes/-ists/bigots/nazis/etc.etc.etc. and others just for guilt by association.

The Catalyst Demo Team was the next place to fall. After one of the activists that was spewing the most violent rhetoric and openly admitted to stalking was appropriately removed from the Demo Team due to concerns from numerous Demo Agents, the Demo Team Lead was fired. Then in comes rolling the “community manager” and a wave of new “agents”, with the activist that was appropriately kicked out in tow. Satisfaction and relief came again when this activist was removed for the second time, to be less of a threat to Demo Team members who “wrongthink”.

At this point the new Catalyst Game Labs Discord Server was established under a list of rules on social media CGL released about participation in their social media, basically boiler plate, extremely vague and easily used for biased mods to remove who I call “wrongthinkers” – basically people that won’t bend to the ideological demands of the activists. Just like the taken over subreddit, many of the mods are the same biased activists. They have admitted to keeping lists of these supposed “nazis” in the walls.

Then, came the bans and blocks of 2024. The Catalyst Demo Team experienced a witch hunt where multiple Agents were kicked out at the behest of the activists. On both Twitter/X and Facebook Catalyst Game Labs mass blocked long time and very vocal fans of Battletech, many of which didn’t even comment on Catalyst Game Labs social media. This week starting April 14th, a new wave of blocks took place on social media, again, hitting people who weren’t even commenting on what CGL was posting, Minis & Dumbbells included.

So now, where are we? Fans are calling for CGL boycotts. Fans are spreading 3D print STLs across Battletech social media. Fans are creating storylines so that other fans can enjoy Battletech without dealing with the activists.

Fans are recognizing that Battletech belongs to the fans and WE are taking Battletech into the Future.

Battletech into the Future

Battletech into the Future, also known as ‘The Refuge’ was started by Minis & Dumbbells June 7, 2023 on Facebook during the worst of the year’s wave of political activism. He also set up a Discord server, with the “Refuge” category title. The purpose of this fan-led shift in the Battletech fanbase was to make a home for people who wanted to enjoy Battletech and Battletech ONLY. A place where no politics and political activism were welcome and people participated for their love of Battletech.

This was also the launch of the Resurgence Era of Battletech. This is a fan-led and written storyline that is considered canon post 3152 in the Battletech Universe for Battletech into the Future. It is clear based on both the conduct of CGL and their activist authors that love for the universe comes secondary to political activism.

Act 1 of the Resurgence Era was released in 2023. Act 2 will be live in 2024. And there will be much, much more to come.

Since Battletech into the Future became a reality a number of other groups have emerged from it.

Battletech Fandom Leaders is a newer group for people who want to discuss organizing games, building a local group, and interacting with local gaming stores. Since the compromise and loss of the Catalyst Demo Team to the activists, a new place is needed for people to sincerely discuss good faith promotion of Battletech and leadership in the Battletech fanbase.

Battletech for Conservatives and Christians is a team effort with Adolpho Fernandez of Battletech 3028 to give a place to Battletech fans who are often labelled as “wrongthinkers”. Where the CGL and activist controlled social media near exclusively allows only left, anti-right, and anti-faith speech, this is a place where those center and right on the political spectrum and/or Christian can discuss topics freely that may involve discussion outside of Battletech.

There are other focuses as well. As part of the name – “Dumbbells” suggests, there is a focus on health and exercise, in the Discord server a category called “Health” exists. A category exists for Resurgence Updates as well. Another category exists for discussion on Blaine Pardoe’s wildly successful Land and Sea novels. Finally, a category exists for off topic discuss, appropriately called “Battlefield”. This is where players can express their personal opinions and frustrations with the political activism. A place for fans to speak who would otherwise be suppressed, silenced, and censored on Catalyst Game Labs social media.

As of April 2024, we fans of Battletech now have this website, thanks to Professor HeyTeeEn. This is a place for fans by fans. You will find additional timelines, rulesets, links to Battletech related videos, showcases of collections, characters of Battletech made by fans, and o so much more. All with the basic understanding that political activism is unwelcome here, that in Battletech into the Future, the activists never have and never will have power here. You will be able to enjoy Battletech for Battletech and Battletech ONLY.

“Welcome to Battletech into the Future, home of the Battletech fanbase.“

Minis & Dumbbells, Keeper of the Refuge