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If Games & Gears gets enough support on Facebook, they will be launching a line of modular, injection molded plastic boards that will retail for $100. So, if you're interested, check out their Facebook page for more info!

https://www.facebook.com/GamesNGears

Cheers!

~Tim?

KICKSTARTER LINK:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/554355176/games-and-gears-battle-boards

Didn't they fail to Kickstart this already? Sounds like they are freaking out that the market is about to be drained by a rival product.

Nah, they did a Kickstarter for a line of brushes.

~Tim?

If a Games & Gears 6 by 4 Battle Boards was 100.00USD would you purchase it instantly when the Kickstarter went live? (48" inches by 72" inches). 200 "hell yes." Needed to make that happen, you decide .

Interesting. They're currently at 197 "hell yes". I doubt that all 200 would actually pledge on the spot, though. It's essentially a facebook-like that hardly commits people to pledging.

They had a successful campaign for brushes:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/554355176/games-and-gears-pro-studio-brushes
But before that they had a bigger project with the boards that didn't get too far:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/554355176/gaming-boards-great-quality-great-price-and-great?ref=users

 Azazelx wrote:

If a Games & Gears 6 by 4 Battle Boards was 100.00USD would you purchase it instantly when the Kickstarter went live? (48" inches by 72" inches). 200 "hell yes." Needed to make that happen, you decide .

Interesting. They're currently at 197 "hell yes". I doubt that all 200 would actually pledge on the spot, though. It's essentially a facebook-like that hardly commits people to pledging.

AFAIK, this is not to start a Kickstarter.

~Tim?

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:
Nah, they did a Kickstarter for a line of brushes.

~Tim?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/554355176/gaming-boards-great-quality-great-price-and-great?ref=users

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:

If a Games & Gears 6 by 4 Battle Boards was 100.00USD would you purchase it instantly when the Kickstarter went live? (48" inches by 72" inches). 200 "hell yes." Needed to make that happen, you decide .

Interesting. They're currently at 197 "hell yes". I doubt that all 200 would actually pledge on the spot, though. It's essentially a facebook-like that hardly commits people to pledging.

AFAIK, this is not to start a Kickstarter.

~Tim?

I suspect that you may be incorrect, sir.

 Azazelx wrote:

 Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:

 Azazelx wrote:

If a Games & Gears 6 by 4 Battle Boards was 100.00USD would you purchase it instantly when the Kickstarter went live? (48" inches by 72" inches). 200 "hell yes." Needed to make that happen, you decide .

Interesting. They're currently at 197 "hell yes". I doubt that all 200 would actually pledge on the spot, though. It's essentially a facebook-like that hardly commits people to pledging.

AFAIK, this is not to start a Kickstarter.

~Tim?

I suspect that you may be incorrect, sir.

Ah, my bad, I didn't see that. Thanks for pointing that out!

~Tim?

Can someone run down the Games & Gears corporate history for me?

No problem. No harm in them trying again with a bit more publicity.

Those boards don't have any substantially raised detail that would really justify casting in plastic. For what they are offering, you should just buy a Zuzzy mat right now for $70 shipped.

If they're going to do plastic, they have to bring something unique to the table. Secret Weapon's proposed product does, this one does not seem to.

Yes, this is their second try but no harm in that (and they did do a brush kickstarter in the interim... I'd like to see that fulfilled before this launches).

Previous thread:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/490052.page

Direct link to previous kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/554355176/gaming-boards-great-quality-great-price-and-great

At the end of that they mentioned the possibility of their going forward with it anyway- I didn't realize they'd be trying kickstarter again, though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ouze wrote:
If they're going to do plastic, they have to bring something unique to the table. Secret Weapon's proposed product does, this one does not seem to.

What does Secret Weapon's bring that this doesn't, out of curiosity? I only just became aware of that one, although I realize it's already up on kickstarter (and doing really well so far).

Secret Weapon seem to be promising significant grading changes between tiles, multpile tiles within each theme and tile themed scenery and bases.

IMO Secret Weapon's actually makes good use of the fact they are cast in plastic by having raised surfaces in excess of, say, 1/8th of an inch. Tires, short walls, pits & depressions, etc etc. They're making use of the fact they have tooling instead of a simple mold,. and producing a truly 3D surface.

The G&G boards seem to be using very shallow repeating textures such as flagstones and cracked earth. I'm going to call these 2.5D - they have some elevation, but it's only somewhat better the raised texture that GWS did via embossing on the re-released cardboard Space Hulk files.

I'm not even sure why something like what I've seen so far needs to be modular - no matter how you arrange the tiles, the tabletop is still going to look more or less the same.

Perhaps they have something better in the works I haven't yet seen. But from what I have seen so far, I suspect their Kickstarter will again fail because it's simply not innovative enough. If you want raised detail, you have a ROBB or Secret Weapon. If you want flat detail, you can get a roll up mat. If you want somewhat raised detail, you have Zuzzy. These guys just aren't bringing anything new or innovative to the table, and that's a real shame because modular plastic tiles are a space that allows for a lot of really awesome things to happen.

The gaming trays from their first kickstarter area cool idea.

Who is selling roll-up mats these days? I've got a Geohex one that is excellent, but it appears that Geo-Hex no longer exist. They would have been my first choice, too!

Hotz Mats website hasn't updated since 2011 apparently, and I know they have a reputation of being less than timely. I picked up a GW green one just now.. what else is there? The Zuzzy ones have been hit very hard by the new USPS rates for those of us outside the US.

derp. can't spell today.

I liked the idea of the grid sheets over the fairly flat boards, and their generic textured boards. But it really felt like they rushed to fast trying to get a kickstarter ready.

Like they had no clear plans for stretch goals and future board ideas, until people started asking. Then they were scrambling to put something together dureing the kickstarter. The stretch goals were also realy underwhelming. Their was in theory a point in the kickstarter were one could end up with more free Dice Trays then they had sides on their tables to attach them to.

The free dice trays were also useless if you went for a RPG table that already have dice trays on all of it's sides....

As for add-ons? "MORE DICE TRAYS!!!11!11!11ONE!!!11!!!" untill they stumbled onto the grid sheet idea anyway.

=/

It was issues like above that killed that Kickstarter dead in the water sadly. They just couldn't get any momentum going, or incentives to get people to increase their pledges any higher as the kick-starter went on.

Basic difference is G&G makes one simple featureless tile that can be repeatedly used.
Secret Weapons makes 16 individual, professionally sculpted tiles per set.
So G&G will have a difficult time again with their 2nd try.

Games and Gears will have price and 2x2 tile sizes in their favour.

If they can make a basic, nicely sculpted generic fields board, and expand it with hill tiles and river tiles that look nice and have sculpted, rocky detail, that will be awesome and something that Secret Weapon will not be offering.

Competition is a good thing, and I hope it works out.

Right now there isn't anything better than RoB, despite the skullz.

The presentation was a major issue with their last kickstarter, all the presentation images looked a bit crap and there was no good photography of any of the products.

I mentioned this and got the usual "we paint our products like crap to show what real, normal gamers can achieve!" line.

There's little room for having a kickstarter that doesn't take presentation at least semi-seriously, which is one reason why the SW weapon will fund with ease whereas the G&G board did not, it is very well-presented.

I almost backed their board project when it first came out. Glad I waited in the end! I got really put off by their overly enthusiastic presentation. Normally this would be a good thing but they just took it to a completely unnecessary level, it felt like I was a little puppy getting petted for being such a good boy and backing their project. No thanks!

That being said, it looked like they had a good produt and hopefully they learnt from their mistakes this time.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Games and Gears will have price and 2x2 tile sizes in their favour.

Unless they've changed their designs significantly, their boards are also 1'x1'. Their designs were also incompatible with GW RoB, 20mm vs 10mm high.

 scarletsquig wrote:

The presentation was a major issue with their last kickstarter, all the presentation images looked a bit crap and there was no good photography of any of the products.

While I agree that it wasn't a great presentation. The 'problems' were also to be found in different corners. $150+ for the 4'x6' board and the designs were not that inspired.

What these guys seem to forget is that there are two audience groups that are interested in these kinds of boards. Folks that do not have the GW RoB (too expensive, hate GW, to many skulls, etc.) and the folks that already have the RoB boards and are looking for tiles to expand their collection. The advantage of targeting the GW crowd is that they have less issues with price. If the tiles are incompatible with their already owned RoB boards, chances are they are not going to buy them...

 scarletsquig wrote:
Right now there isn't anything better than RoB, despite the skullz.

Tastes differ. I wouldn't buy the ROB for half the official price, Extremely unmodular with the big hill and lack of even parts, hill slopes too slippery.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Extremely unmodular with the big hill and lack of even parts, hill slopes too slippery.

Seconded here. That hill slope- ugh! Models always slide down it...

Yeah, not a fan of the RoB board. good idea, poopy execution me. And I prefer 1x1 to 2x2 due to space conservation.

 Azazelx wrote:
Who is selling roll-up mats these days? I've got a Geohex one that is excellent, but it appears that Geo-Hex no longer exist. They would have been my first choice, too!

Hotz Mats website hasn't updated since 2011 apparently, and I know they have a reputation of being less than timely. I picked up a GW green one just now.. what else is there? The Zuzzy ones have been hit very hard by the new USPS rates for those of us outside the US.

derp. can't spell today.

GF9 just introduced a pair of space themed ones that just happen to be the 3'x3' size needed for the x-wing minis game.

Secret Weapons problem is that there Kickstarter has a very real chance of collapsing, they have currently shown one tile of one set which is what will be produced if the Kickstarter makes the minimum amount.

However going by comments in the Dakka thread and the kickstarter itself, over half of the pledges are from people who want boards that will only be made if the very high stretch goals are met.

If it becomes obvious not all of these are going to be met there going to start bleeding pledges pretty fast as people who are not interested in the ork board drop out.

Basically there entire kickstarter is set up in a very risky way, if games and gears can come in with urban boards that are half the price and still nice they should be fine.

$80K in two days?

I don't think SW is in much danger at all at this point.

Maybe if the Urban and or Trench boards that are eventually unlocked turn out to be pants - but I doubt that will happen too.

We'll see!

I wish Games and Gears best of luck though - and it will be interesting to see if they can overcome the stigma of a failed Kickstarter!

Americans call stuff pants? I though that was just something us Brits said...

And yeah, Secret Weapon is in no danger just yet!

We don't use it at all, but I picked it up from the British users here on Dakka Dakka - I admit that I love that use of the word!