BattleTech’s 35th anniversary thunders onward with the upcoming release of several new map products, a lightning-fast restock of the BattleTech: Beginner Box, and much more.

There’s been a lot going on across the Inner Sphere during this anniversary year. To help you keep all this news straight, we’re compiling announcements in this series of dispatches from The Watch. Expect to see more official announcements from The Watch over the next few months, through the end of the anniversary year.

Here’s what’s new for BattleTech:

–The first all-new map set in nearly twenty years, BattleTech Map Pack: Grasslands ($29.99) is now available in the Catalyst Game Labs store, with a street date of April 17 to retail outlets. The perfect expansion to either the Beginner Box or BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat boxed set, these six two-sided paper maps include 12 battlefields of the same high-quality, modern art of those box sets, offering new tactical challenges and opportunities.

–The next all-new, 35th Anniversary celebratory item is here. Four BattleMats (29.99 each) are available exclusively in the Catalyst Game Labs store. These high-quality 36″ x 22″ neoprene maps are durable and highly-detailed, and will make an eye-catching addition to your gaming table. Each map is twice the width of a standard BattleTech map sheet, and features a new, special terrain type on one side, and two maps from Map Pack: Grasslands on the reverse. They’re only available exclusively through the Catalyst online store, and they’ll go fast! A future release of these products to retail outlets is possible depending on customer response. The mats available include:

Desert & Grassland 1

Alpine & Grassland 2

Savannah & Grassland 3

Lunar & Grassland 4

–Another commemorative product is also available: lapel pins! Wear your BattleTech love proudly with these enamel pins bearing the 35th Anniversary logo and Warhammer.

–The first volume in the long-awaited trilogy of Kell Hounds short stories by legendary BattleTech author Michael Stackpole, Not the Way the Smart Money Bets ($3.99) will release tomorrow, Tuesday, March 19 in ebook format. The next two volumes are close behind: A Tiny Spot of Rebellion ($3.99) will be available this Friday, March 22, while A Clever Bit of Fiction ($3.99) will follow on Wednesday, March 27. Please note that these are all digital e-book format; future print format availability has not been determined.

—The BattleTech: Beginner Box ($19.99) is back in stock through the Catalyst store, and through distribution channels to your local game store. The first print run sold out very quickly, and demand remains high for this outstanding introduction to our game of heavy metal mayhem!

–Thanks to the high demand generated by the new boxed sets, stock of the reprinted version of Total Warfare ($39.99) released last summer has sold out in print for the moment, but is still available in PDF format. We anticipated this increase in demand, and a reprint is already underway. (Remember, this edition of Total Warfare bore the classic Atlas artwork on the cover; the copies being printed now will have the same cover. It’s more of the same book, not a new book.)

–Production on TechManual, the second volume in the line of core rulebook reprints bearing vintage covers is now underway. We’ll bring you further updates on when they’re expected in stock as soon as possible, but the PDF is available now!

–Is that all? Nope! The first installment in the second wave of Winter 2019 PDF products is now available: Operational Turning Points: Fronc Reaches ($7.99). Recreate a young nation’s desperate struggle for survival with this scenario pack.