I've been dying to play Mechaton, and nearly got to play this weekend but some friends punked out on me. This leads to a few points:
1. Vincent, I'm not sure if Mechaton is still in development, or finished, or what--but the two friends I tried to persuade, both read the rules you had on the Lumpley site and decided it looked too complicated. I don't think Mechaton is complicated at all--it's a lot simpler than the ridiculous mod of Risk that we played--but it might come across that way. I've noticed that a lot of Mechaton rules development has been a little "fiddly" lately ("in this special circumstance, you can do this little thing here"), but two non-gamers think it's on the complex side already.
2. To simplify talking about Mechaton strategy, maybe a shorthand?
* M for Movement
* A for Armor
* S for Spotting
* W for Weapon (R for Artillery, D for Direct, H for Hand-to-Hand)
* I for Initiative (i.e., no attachment) -- but you can also use fewer letters.
* X for a placeholder
Thus, J's tachikoma things would be MAHI.
3. Has anyone figured out optimal army builds? It looks like AARH might be a good defense unit; MASD would be pretty well rounded (and would benefit from traveling in close formation); and a big army may need an ASS.
4. Pawing through an enormous cardboard box full of Lego's you haven't touched in 20 years is still fun, but it's also a lot harder on my back. But damn, Blacktron was awesome.
I believe he sold a "for real" version at Gen Con. I haven't seen it up at IPR yet, but I'm guessing (hoping) that it's coming.
I sold out of Mechaton books at GenCon. I'm going to make a few changes to the book and then, yes, sell it through IPR. It'll be there a few weeks from now, probably.
-Vincent