As aggressive as Jade Falcon is I would imagine that a lot of their units would either have pulse, armor piercing, or targeting computers as a faction thing. I would expect the 1st Daishi to be in the expansion and the Loki wouldn't be a huge surprise.

Steel Wolves will not be left out of the expansion, but I expect just about any other one *could* get left out.

What would be nice for the expansion would be the clans having some of the clan mechs like the Vulture, Jupiter, and the Thor.

wow... i've never seen this much speculation and wishful thinking since well the gold rush in california...

has it ever realy occured to anyone that the new design team might have ideas we players have not even dreampt up or of yet?

I'm sorry, who exactly deemed THIS to be fact? Have you playtested the rule at all? The point wasn't to rid the game of charge -- it's a key mechanic. The point was to raise the risk of the move, which they did. Trust me, with this new rule, you definitely think twice about that charge when you wouldn't have given it a second thought before.

Judging from a few pictures in the BT Miniatures rules, I'd say neon green is a likely choice...ugh.
No, seriously, I think JF colors are hideous. Some of their designs feature a huge falcon head right in the middle of the chest like a big 'Shoot Me' sign. Lots of shades of green basically. Maybe they could be green and white? Green and gray? Just what we need, another faction with green...maybe yellow and green? Ugh, too much like HL and Liao. Argh. They could always give them a camo scheme, which would be neat.
Oh well, I'm babbling.

I've seen dark bluish greens with aqua on some JF designs.

Okay, one question: when people say there will only be two expansions this year, does that count CA or not? 'Cause technically it DID come out in 2004.

I'd like to see a set where every faction gets a 'leader' MechWarrior as a unique in the set. Steel Wolves would get Anastasia Kerensky's Ryoken II, Fury would get Katana's, er, whatever she's driving, Highlanders get Campbell's Hatchetman, etc. If the faction leader isn't a MechWarrior, then they'd get a second in command type. Uprising did this for Mage Knight, bringing in a lot of faction leaders as unique Heroes, and it was a great idea.

Beyond that, I'd like to see more heavy to assault class non-uniques. I'd like to see a Daishi, Templar or Battlemaster. Also maybe another hover-type infantry unit.

@Jakal

Sportsclix releases in a lil over a month. If for some reason it falls flat (or at least doesn't do anywhere near as well as the folks at WK hope for/expect then chances are they will speed up production of expansions on the other lines in order to cut down on the loss they take. Which is understandable. So it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see the 'only 2 expansions this year' go out the window. But that's a 'wait and see' thing. I for one wouldn't mind a slowdown in the expansion release-rate.

Nobody. The guesses I mentioned were exactly that. Guesses. It was my guess that that once CA is legal, when the horde of ultra cheap 11 attack musta-been-designed-specifically-to-charge mechs hits the table people will continue to voice up over charge still having too much influence over the game in general and WK may see that the change ... however good it might be ... wasn't quite enough. I just worded the speculation badly. Sorry. It is NOT fact. Just an opinion from realmer.

From what I gather, two MechWarrior expansions will be released in 2004, including CounterAssault. Which means that there should only be one more set this year.

At least, that's the implication I've gotten from reading Draddog's Q&A thread, but that doesn't mean that's accurate, nor does it mean that they might not change their minds ;)

The CJF set is going to be at least the size of CA, and I can only assume is going to come with the re-packaged rulesets. The falcon scheme isn't so bad if you consider that the Falcons have no need for such freebirth notions as hiding in AMBUSH! you filthy savashri.

While I think that they may increase the number of units in the upcoming set, I don't think it will be the 156-172 that thahappyguy suggested (personally I think it might get increased to 130). I also wouldn't be suprised to see 2 green, 2 veteran and 1 elite for each of the non-uniques (fewer molds means less overhead). I think we will see a large amount of Jade Falcons (if they are released in this set), ROTS, Wolves and either SH or Highlanders. In the 12-18 range I think we will get the other one of the SH/Highlanders, and DF; and the 10 and under will be the rest except for either the SC or BR which will get none (or maybe just a unique). I think we will get more 16" range units for everybody (except DF they will get some 14"). I also suspect our first AA infantry (AA flak battery or something like that). A slow but steady increase in power for all. This is all just conjecture on my part though.

NO!!!

Well, okay, I like this idea, but to give the leader of the highlanders a hatchetman, even if that was what Delrio had her driving, is just asking for the highlander community to complain, scream, yell, etc (me included)

It would be a perfect opportunity to right some percieved wrongs and give the highlanders a real HIGHLANDER mech... or maybe a Blackwatch...

And everyone else should get "totem" or signature mechs for their faction... hmm... problem being that we already have a zeus for SH, and an atlas for SS... well, they could go with SS Victor, SH Banshee, ROTS Battlemaster, HL Highlander, Liao ???, SW Daishi, Merc Marauder II or Imp (Wolf's Dragoons) or Merc Archer/wolfhound (Kell Hounds)

Well, okay, I'm undecided on DF, part of me says a grand dragon, but on the other hand, a nice assault mech for them as well... hmm... a gunslinger? Hamato-Chi?

That would be Hatamoto-Chi. ;) I think DF should get a Mauler.

SH could get an overheatable Awesome.
Maybe this next expansion will bring older designs back.
RyokenII for SC maybe (KotS would be nice)
Abrys for SH, House Lio and Jade Falcon
And maybe PackHunters (SW & SSw)
:) !

I want a spirt cat nova cat! :)

If packhunters are nons, then I want to see one for either/or Tharkan Strikers or Kell Hounds, maybe both...

And a DF Mauler... now that was one I forgot about, but it has the appeal of being one from the computer/video games and the cartoon, so thats a good idea...