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They weren't cancelled, as I have a few boxes of them at the house and the WarStore purports to be able to send them (i.e. - not marked as out of stock). Anything I could say past that is just speculation though.

While I have scads of Eisenkern, I do hope there's more to come from Dreamforge.

 inqscott wrote:
I hope Mark makes it I love his work. I have a Dreamforge army has a alternate guard army. Also has stuff has forced a lot of manufacturers to step their game up.

If I was wealthy, I would personally underwrite Mark and DreamForge becoming a real full-time venture. Hell, I'd do it even if the "investment" lost money. I want to see them Shadokesh too!

-C6

 BrookM wrote:
I think some of the crappier kits were on-line for a bit, not too sure.

edited out a word that got past the censor filter by accident

Nope. The only WGF kits that Warlord have released have been the:

American War of Independence - Continental Army Starter Set http://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/american-war-of-independence-1776-1783/products/american-war-of-independence-continental-army-starter-set
American War of Independence - British Army Starter Set http://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/american-war-of-independence-1776-1783/products/american-war-of-independence-british-army-starter-set
American War of Independence - Liberty or Death Battle Set http://us-store.warlordgames.com/collections/american-war-of-independence-1776-1783/products/liberty-or-death-american-war-of-independence-battle-set

So only the AWI plastics from WGF have been released - including the unreleased (until now) Hessians and Artillery/Command set, but as of right now, only available in these sets.

Wait...so Warlord becomes the distributor of WGF and the first thing they do is destroy WGF's strengths?

I love WGF's $20-$25 kits for their variety and impulse buyability. If they move to massive boxed bundles only they lose all their utility to me.

I saw the female troops on the shelf at my local, along with the transport vehicle.

 Krinsath wrote:
They weren't cancelled, as I have a few boxes of them at the house and the WarStore purports to be able to send them (i.e. - not marked as out of stock). Anything I could say past that is just speculation though.

While I have scads of Eisenkern, I do hope there's more to come from Dreamforge.

I got a box from the Warstore about a month ago.

I remember the good old days when mark wanted everyones money and actually used to post here.
ahh good times good times...

He posted here for a loooooong time after getting "everyones money" and was cranking out some things. My hope is that he's in a modeling cave and going to come out with some great developments.

Tanks. We need tanks. I want that hover Stüg!

He'll be back.

I mean he started with his resin not-titans in 2005 or so, and came back after GW's C&D.

That's not someone who gives up easily.

Well his site blog was updated in November with the news that they'd now be self distributing so he's certainly still around

and I've just seen on site he's also distributing some WGF WWII stuff (presumably the lines Warlord didn't want)

WGF-15mm-W2001 WWII German Infantry Company (15mm)

WGF-15mm-W2002 WWII American Rifle Company (15mm)

WGF-W2001 WWII German Infantry Platoon (28mm)

WGF-W2002 WWII American Infantry (28mm)

WGF-W2003 WWII Russian Infantry (28mm)

I'd want to buy from him and support him, but the Eisenkern women are what I am most interested in and he doesn't seem to have any.

I'd really like to know why.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I love those WGF kits, too. Great prices for great plastics.

If he now has to pay for production runs (with a significant minimum order) out of his own funds he may well have run out and be waiting for cashflow to allow him to get more made,

or even just a production slot (it's not as if WGF has plenty of spare capacity from all the projects we've seen delayed)

That's good, then, right? It means they were successful?

DFG is a small company, so they're challenged with logistics and production.

It would be nice if Mark could set up preorders. I bet a limited-focus KS for the hover StuG would do very well.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
DFG is a small company, so they're challenged with logistics and production.

It would be nice if Mark could set up preorders. I bet a limited-focus KS for the hover StuG would do very well.

I agree - if he did a KS for just the StuG, and didn't tack a bunch of stretch goals on to it (like he did with the original one) I am certain that it'd get funded several times over.

To be clear, I'm not criticizing his original KS and how he ran it, adding on all kinds of units in addition to the Leviathans. I'm just echoing John's idea, that a limited KS would not only certainly be successful, but if he kept it to one unit, it hopefully would be much easier to deal with logistically, even under whatever (perhaps restricted) circumstances he is working under these days.

In short: WE LOVE YOUR STUFF MARK AND WANT TO BUY MORE PLEASE TELL US HOW

-C6

I think the issue is that he really wants to make the Shadokesh happen where the obvious customer demand is for the FlugStuG.

If the FlugStuG is ready to go, I don't see why a KS for that (only) wouldn't be successful. One product, price + actual shipping, and he'd be golden. And as it'd be one thing, you'd think it'd happen like the Leviathan Crusader - quicker and cleaner.

How are the rules for the supposed game coming along? Or is that dead in the water now?

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
I think the issue is that he really wants to make the Shadokesh happen where the obvious customer demand is for the FlugStuG.

If the FlugStuG is ready to go, I don't see why a KS for that (only) wouldn't be successful. One product, price + actual shipping, and he'd be golden. And as it'd be one thing, you'd think it'd happen like the Leviathan Crusader - quicker and cleaner.

I dunno. The thing is that getting the Shadokesh out is qualitatively different then adding the Stug (sp?);

With the Shadokesh DFG has an actual game (albeit a somewhat abbreviated one in terms of factions).

The Stug, by contrast, continues the existing condition of the line in a state of... 'counts-as', I suppose?

What I mean to say is that Mark is at a point where what he chooses to put out next doesn't just add to the product line, but has the potential to change the nature of his company for some time. Tooling Shadokesh could mean that a 2-player starter could be part of a crowdfunding effort (or simply a retail release). But at the same time he also probably needs to have at least a semblance of rules before he can release a second faction (and certainly before he can start releasing mixed unit boxes like starters).

I really would like to hear from Mark (if only to be sure that nothing untoward has happened), but my guess is that he's got a huge amount of work on his plate. If, after all, he intents to expand DFG into a real game company, he needs a great deal more capitol then he has previously marshaled. Art assets, writing, printing and bookbinding, playtesting and rules balancing... not only is there a huge amount to do, but almost all of it exists outside of Mark's own core competency.

I'm sure he has a ton of work. Picking off one well-defined item and selling it might be a good way to keep interest up while he works on the difficulty of getting an alien race spec'd up and designed, along with the sheer difficulty of rules development and print.

That said, I would love it if he could share his plans for 2016.

Mark said he planned to make the space STuG with hover or tracks as a next Eisenkern thing. That lower hull design has to be able to attach to the upper hull for either to work.

(Update posted on FB and Blog)


Hello all,


Just wanted to drop in and give an update. The transition from WGF is complete, we have our warehouse and have been shipping from that location for about two months. We have worked out the software issues for the wholesale orders and have been filling them.


We have about a year’s supply of product on hand and OOS items such as the Panzerjäger are on the water heading here now.


I have been working on the day to day business aspects, cost analysis, product restocks back end implementation issues, etc. so not a lot of glamorous items to give an updated on for that front.


We have two restock orders incoming from China, the cost of the restock has been educational. The cost of shipping is not just crazy expensive for my customers but for us as well. In some cases, it costs more to ship a product than it does to produce it, in other cases the cost to produce a kit was not in line with what it is being sold at into distribution. Some kits were being sold at a net loss once shipping was factored in. Unfortunately, this will mean a price increase, some kits will see a marginal increase, other will be a bit more drastic.

I will give a detailed SKU by SKU run down and explanation later this week.


We have two new SKU’s that will be offered once they arrive. The 15mm scale Capacitor cooler and a 60mm tall display model of one of our Assault Troopers. We should have these in hand sometime next month. We are putting the final touches on the files for the Shadokesh main trooper box set. No eta on a release date yet for the Shadokesh, until they are on the water and heading here it is simply impractical to give an estimate.


That’s it for now.

All the best!

Mark

Nice update, Mark - glad to hear it.

BTW, it might be nice to sending a KS Update to Backers.

As to some of the other questions batted around. These are the same questions I have been asking myself, where to next? What faction? Do I leap at a game or continue to make counts as?

I am not sure I have a solidified answer quite yet. Part of this comes down to cost and long term returns. A kit like the StuG is one I would really love to jump at but I am not sure it is cost effective to do in HIPS, at least in the volumes I currently sell at. I have been batting around a resin kit but I am not sure if that is the right direction for that kit atm.

We have a boxed set for the Shadokesh nearly completed but that requires a game on its heels and the game needs playtesting, refinement and illustration work. I truly am at a fork in the path not only in materials but in the direction to take things.

I am undecided, your input would be great!

Disappointing to hear. One of the great draws to eisenkern was the price. Guess we'll see what happens.

My suggestion is get the game going. Don't worry about the printing aspect, make the rulebook free online and have it be a living rulebook till you're comfortable with where it's at to start printing. Heck, don't even worry about printing at this point, just get people playing it. You could always use Wargame Vault for decent enough books, and customers can order the books direct from them.

Then at least it will be like you have a reason bring out the Shadowkesh models other than them just looking cool. Then you can slowly build up them and other factions over time with new models and new fluff. Maybe have less of an emphasis on plastic and go for more resin/metal figures.. like for special characters? Save the plastics for basic troops and vehicles.

Thanks for the update, Mark!

I'm not sure what to suggest on direction - will think about it a bit more thoroughly. In my dream scenario, you team up with the Maelstrom's Edge team and make awesome models . But if going it alone, there is a lot more to think about...

As a consumer, there is somewhat of an issue of "so many SciFi games" now - Mantic's offerings (Deadzone, Warpath), Gates of Antares, Anvil Industries' game, Maelstrom's Edge...

Does adding one more to that list have value? Is there a way to have more of you team up and make something awesome?? Again, that's my dream, even if it wasn't with Maelstrom's Edge... Anvil Industries is another one that would be great. They make the resins, you make the plastics, everyone wins!

The problem with that dream, I am guessing, is both logistics and rate of return - for small minis businesses, you just can't divide up the pie too many ways... there's just not enough margin to support it. But as consumers, I know lots of us really desire an alternative to 40K, but it's hard for any company to offer more than a few factions slowly being built up over time.

Will think on it some more...

----------

Edit: Okay, another quick thought that hit me with Necros' post - a stripped down game that really just focuses on your Leviathans! They would need something to face off against from the Shadokesh... but I think a game focusing on what is in effect Titan battles, with just a little bit of supporting infantry for claiming objectives / etc, could have a lot of value and not be covered by the list above

Making a game is easy. Making a good game is very hard. Ask Mike McVey how that went...

I am working to create a good little game, and it has consumed vastly more time than I would have imagined, for relatively little output.

For your game, you will need to have a multiple Shadokesh units for tactical variety. Shadokesh are very different from Eisenkern, and that will create balance challenges, as you can't fall back to basic Black vs White balance. This will take even longer.

So my advice to you is to continue to further develop the Shadokesh, to get that critical core force together, with an initial "counts as" (Orks? Tau? Eldar?) concept. Once you have that in place, you can start on publishing some sort of skirmish game.

In the mean time, if you can assemble a business case for the FlugStuG in HIPS, that would be nice. Personally, I would not buy a resin FlugStug, but I would definitely consider HIPS. A micro KS for the 28mm StuG (only!) might be a good way to get it tooled and produced.

Please keep us informed.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 RiTides wrote:
I think a game focusing on what is in effect Titan battles, with just a little bit of supporting infantry for claiming objectives / etc, could have a lot of value and not be covered by the list above

Isn't that 40k 7E? Or have I missed something?

I think a quick way to have a game and faction ready may be to release rules that cover an Eisenkern civil war.

The Eisenkern are formed into households which can and do have disputes. It’s not very glitzy but it would provide for a fast and efficient way for my customers to actually play with the kits they own.

I say make what you want to make and worry about a game later. I personally am more interested in having cool models than a game that uses them. If you really want to have a game for them, I would suggest trying to possibly partner up with one of the rule companies out there, like Ganesha Games or Two Hour Wargames. Zombiesmith, which is also a fairly small company had partnered with Ganesha Games to make This Quar's War, for example. I say let someone more experienced in making games figure out the mechanics of the game system while you focus on making cool stuff.