Warcradle releases the Ice Maiden - Goddam the b*stards!

A little while ago, an email popped into my inbox...

I was a bit surprised, but popped onto Facebook and the Dystopian Wars group was already alight with...wait...anger?

Two things seemed to have triggered people - the price tag of £75 for the model, and a £40 (or $40) shipping charge. Some also questioned the "reworking" of the model and how this was also bad, but that was a much smaller reaction than the first two points.

Now given the vagaries around exchange rates etc, and the fact I'm used to seeing high shipping charges with transatlantic shipping, $40 for transporting a foot of resin across the globe seemed high, but not something to quit a game over. People also seem to be confusion the release from Warcradle and the shipping from the retailer Wayland Games. Shipping is one of those things you either accept or don't, depending on your desire for the produuct, and there is NO standard for how it's handled either within or without the gaming industry.

It then shortly transpired that the shipping calculator was incorrect, and the charge should have been £5 instead...problem (if ever there was one) solved. There's a phrase in the UK - it's a "Storm in a Teacup"...especially valid in this case, I feel.

Then there's the question of price. Spartan had put an add-on cost of £45 for the Kickstarter-exclusive model, £75 for a retail release sounds eminently in-line with what I'd expect. After all, despite the way many of us treat it, Kickstarter is NOT A STORE. You back projects with the promise of getting some rewards for that, and you get big discounts from retail prices, offset by the risk that these projects don't happen, and you don't get anything. Let us not forget that many people did NOT get their promised models from Spartan....but that isn't Warcradle's fault! It's literally got nothing to do with them, Kickstarter fulfilment is purely the responsibility of the project creator, so Warcradle releasing the Ice Maiden is not them rubbing anything in people's faces - it's them giving you a chance to own something you otherwise never would.

So an extra £30 for a general release 230mm resin ship seems...about right. 

Just to put it into context - this will get you a couple of Predators from GW, which aren't directly comparable, but you get the idea. Someone also commented that it would buy the boxed game of Necromunda too, but that's a whole different genre (being one of many "game in a box with minis" type releases from GW), never mind about game. DW is a miniatures game, and within that resin space we all know prices are higher. For instance, this guy is £75.99

http://mierce-miniatures.com/index.php?act=pro&pre=mrm_blg_bnb_mon_047_000

So comparison with niche resin models I think is ok, comparison to board games by big manufacturers really is a bit sus. I mean, how much does Monopoly cost these days? I don't know, because it's irrelevant to this topic. Let's move on.

Now I mentioned Warcradle have remodelled the ship too...interesting. Again, there were some "I don't like the new version" type comments, but let's look at them side by side, shall we (well, top and bottom, to be completely accurate!)?

Ok...so I'm not seeing ground-breaking changes in the Warcradle (top picture) version. They've changed the doors and the front...erm...yeah. Now I'm not a personal fan of this ship to start with, but from what I can see Warcradle have made some minor changes to allow you to have the doors open or closed...which is cool, right? It also makes sense, because let's face it, going anywhere with a prow like that is going to SOAK those forward weapons!

Maybe the changes are elsewhere?

Well, the engine seems to have been lowered into the water, but again, not seeing groundbreaking alterations. I think I like the remodelled version better, but it's a 52 vs 48 Brexit-type thing...too close to call for me.

Now I'm not trying to be a Warcradle fanboy here - after all I've yet to see them produce a finished product for these franchises yet - but once again the evidence I'm seeing is that they seem to be doing the right things. Fans called for the Ice Maiden, they've got it...not only that, but Warcradle haven't just done the obvious "make a load of castings of this as an easy, cheap route", but have invested time and effort here to make a model that's more flexible than the Spartan original. If this is a path that Warcradle are going to follow for all of the Dystopian Age and for Firestorm, then I'm in!

I don't know whether the displeasure at this (from what I see is a positive move) is just because WC are tinkering with SGs old stuff, or it's just some weird emotional attachment thing, but I'm failing to understand the hate. Some people's emotional attachment to Spartan is a bit like a rose-coloured glasses look back into an old girlfriend you broke up with years before but she was beautiful, lovely ect, and nothing your current (smart, attractive, loving) current gf does seems to be as good. 

Then you meet her at a university reunion party and realise that you left her because she was an obnoxious cheating cow who was stealing your money out of your wallet. Come on guys, wake up and smell the coffee. We have things good, Christmas is just around the corner and these games (which we had all feared were gone for good) have a new lease of life. Stop being the grinch!!!

The Hub Systems Episode 16 - Firestorm stats for Taskforce ships

A very belated episode, recorded on time but issues with editing, quitting my job, work on the new house etc have all added to the delays here. Apologies to co-hosts Matt, Josh & Fred who joined Oscar and I to talk for a long time about a lot of things!

A closer look at Battlecruisers....

So once again I spent my Saturday over with the boys at SG, plus 6 Dystopian legions players (hi guys!) to throw some dice and unleash various mayhem (more on that in another post!). Whilst I was there, I took the opportunity to get some more shots of some of the battlecruisers for you. Remember these are just painted for playtest, though I still think they look pretty good!

So, here's the Marshall;

The Cataphract;

The Deterrent;

and the Raptor

I also took some shots of some of the other new Directorate ships too, as I've not got a starter set as yet. Here's the Battleship;

The fantastic Liquidator;

And the new escorts - I love the way they draw elements of the old Punisher, the Liquidator and the Hostility into the design...I now also know which Patrol fleet I'm getting next!

Ryushi Support Fleet Unboxing

Following hot on the heels of the unboxing of the Ryushi Battlecarrier, here is the Alliance Fleet. Once more the Carrier and other ships are contained within the sturdy cardboard box wrapped in a glossy card sleeve, showing Spartan's studio fleet painted up very nicely. They look great.

On the back is a plan view of the three ship types, and a bit of fluff/spiel about the Ryushi.

Inside you might think you've been short-changed, as the contents don't seem all that much in the bags;

Get into the bags, however, and this impression quickly disappears as you realise one of the bag contains four cruisers alone! The initial thoughts of "is something missing?" go away when you realise that it's because the Ryushi ships are so elegant (and in the case of the frigate, small!), they pack very well....in stark contrast to the Kedorians.

The Onnisha is much simpler than the Battle Carrier, consisting of just two resin pieces - a hull and an engine block. Nevertheless, she's still a fair size, about as long as a Manta (the engine block being identical to that on the Shautrai).

Unlike the BattleCarrier, the Onnisha hull is a solid affair, with some great detail. As I mentioned in the other Ryushi unboxing, the cruisers are single-piece resin castings, and are elegant looking ships. Here they are - the same shot I showed previously;

The Akkarai corvettes are single-piece metal castings, and are diddy! 

Taking a closer look at the Carrier, the ship has some lovely detail, and marries with the large engine block in the same way as the Shautrai, covering both pouring vents.

I won't go over the cruisers again (have a look at the blog before last if you missed them), but move straight on to the corvettes;

Nice little ships, trailing long streamers...none of these presents a particular problem, and are easily snipped off and tidied up. They're an interesting design and carry through the theme of the fleet very well.

The Alliance box set is a set of really lovely ships, and although I was initially slightly worried about having 6 cruisers in total with this and the Shautrai box, having them as accompaniments to the carriers allieviates any fears I migh have had of potentially not fielding them. All I can say is, good job Spartan!

Reading Warfare 2013

So this weekend Oscar and I attended Warfare 2013 at Reading, with the principle purpose of running a few demo games of FSA v2.0 (with SG's permission), and having a bit of fun. We ran a 1200 point game on Saturday after a slightly tardy star due to delays setting off, but Sunday we went for a couple of side-by-side 800 point games - Flamebeast's Relthoza vs Kaptain Krys' Dindrenzi, and Oscar's Aquans vs my Directorate (I should say KK's Dindrenzi weren't played by him, but his brother, as he was whizzing about checking tournament games of BM37k). Here's set up of the forces in progress...

Our game was pretty brutal, Oscar eradicating my Executioners before they'd really done anything, whilst I hosed biohazardous plasma liberally over his fishies. We were playing a "Recover Resources" mission, and Oscar was pretty unlucky with his rolls, lots of Aquans dying to radiation leaks (reducing a Barracuda and a Snapper to 0CP). We both managed to snake-eyes crit a Destroyer each, and Oscar managed a box-car crit on my other destroyer immediately afterwards! However, as it's my blog, here's Oscar's Stingray exploding and critting it's neighbour fo good measure (taking out its weapon systems as it did so....);

We did manage to get a look around the tournaments, other demo games and the trade show, where a few things caught our eye. The first of these were the 15mm figures by Ground Zero Games, which looked quite nice and are pretty reasonably priced - a starter set weighing in at £36 at containing between 60-80 figures plus support stuff - I bought a set of "crusties", some District-9 inspired aliens wich contained 66 figures plus 4 armoured suits very similar to that in the movie - you can see them in the centre of the first picture below. Here's some shots of their stand (I'll do a separate blog entry on the figures I bought another time I think).

As well as the figures are various vehicles at varying tech levels...

Some of the models are not the most refined, but in general they look pretty good, and there are some nice designs in there. They're pretty reasonable, so might be an option in the future - we'll have to see what Spartan come up with for the 15mm Planetfall line to see if there's any mileage here - I imagine some of the stuff will be good as scenary etc even if not for general play use....time will tell!

GZG also do some ships - most of these I've seen online before and not been terribly inspired by, but there are a couple of designs that are quite nice, especially in the civilian line...again, for scenarios and campaigns these could well find a way into our systems....

For me, most of these designs are OK - these being some of the better ones from my POV, but don't really stack up to the FSA ships I'm used to. Of course, having said that, most of the fighters/bombers/interceptors we have are already from these lines!

The civilian lines, however, I quite like - they're what I imagine civvy ships of the future would be like - very functional, no frills where unnecessary. Look at modern day cargo ships, fishermen etc - none of them is going to win the "pretty design" or "cool ship" of the year award!

These ships I do like, however...they look mean!

I also really liked the way GZG had the free figure box (as you can see above) - 15mm figures that failed QC for one reason or another (though no by much, judging by the ones I got), help yourself to try the range. It's a nice departure fom the likes of GW, and shows how business in our industry (IMO) should be done - working WITH your customers, not seeing them as something to be raped of money and left for dead.

Another stand that caught our eye was that of Dark Realm Miniatures - particularly this rather gorgeous drop ship (which is about FSA cruiser size...). Turns out to be from their 6mm Seeds of War game, and it has some interesting minis and scenary.

Some interesting litle ships here, and at reasonable prices - certainly something to bear in mind to add some variety if needed into some future campaigns...

We were hoping to see some demo games of Dropzone Commander, but sadl there didn't seem to be anyone playing it there, but we did find a stand in the trade are selling 2-player starter sets at a discount...that's one Christmas present sorted!

After this, we did a last round of the trade show to finally find some FSA minis...sadly there were only a few at one stand, residing in the "Now half price" bucket, which was a bit sad. On the other hand, it meant Oscar and I both got new Heavy cruisers for less than a fiver each :-).

Overall, had a good weekend, was a great opportunity to meet some of the FSA community in the flesh, and introduce (in many cases, re-introduce) FSA to the gaming community. Now, when's the next show???