We have some great news from Warcradle Studios!

We are proud to announce that we have acquired all rights and materials relating to the Dystopian Wars, Firestorm Armada and Uncharted Seas settings.

Dystopian Wars, Dystopian Legions, Armoured Clash, Firestorm Armada, Firestorm Planetfall and Uncharted Seas were created by the team at Spartan Games and we are excited to now be able to explore these settings further. We will also be developing and expanding on a large number of exciting scenic products to support these ranges.

We are actively working to bring the games to a wide audience from next year. Through Warcradle Studios, Wayland Games will be investing in all aspects of the design, development and supply of these worlds.

We are committed to producing an exciting range of new plastic and resin miniatures to support the growth of our games. These will build on the established releases as well as introduce new narrative and competitive gaming opportunities.

We are planning in-store organised play support for our games as well as a range of exciting events planned throughout 2018 and beyond.

Look out for our announcements of new products and show attendance in the coming weeks!

Take a look at our announcement on Beasts of War:
http://www.beastsofwar.com/warcradle-studios/warcradle-studios-acquires-dystopian-firestorm-settings/

That's wonderful news. I liked Firestorm and it's goodto see it won't die out.

Hmmm with warcradle also buying up the Wild west exodus IP and developing that on top of this I do think they may be taking on too much. Thats alot of systems they now manage.

Is Warcradle the company that had that weird hex-based skirmish game on KS a while back?

 Nostromodamus wrote:
Is Warcradle the company that had that weird hex-based skirmish game on KS a while back?

Its Wayland games studio

 Mothman wrote:
Hmmm with warcradle also buying up the Wild west exodus IP and developing that on top of this I do think they may be taking on too much. Thats alot of systems they now manage.

Well, that's conditional on the resources they have to hand surely? It's only "too much" if they've got insufficient staff etc to manage. I've no idea what their current set up is or their plans for the future, but one assumes anybody with half a brain would have considered this before they committed funds to buying it.

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Mothman wrote:
Hmmm with warcradle also buying up the Wild west exodus IP and developing that on top of this I do think they may be taking on too much. Thats alot of systems they now manage.

Well, that's conditional on the resources they have to hand surely? It's only "too much" if they've got insufficient staff etc to manage. I've no idea what their current set up is or their plans for the future, but one assumes anybody with half a brain would have considered this before they committed funds to buying it.

Didn't consider it at all, haven't spent any time expanding resources and capacity in any way at all whatsoever

I did say anyone with half a brain...

I'd love for these games to get consistent and solid support. Fingers crossed this is a way for the games to get out there again.

Cautiously hopeful

Neat

though dang, bone zoned with the kickstarter then. didnt really expect much but still sucks.

This is certainly interesting, and the best possible outcome given the circumstances, I think!

Great to hear that these games aren't disappearing into the annals of wargaming history !

Good news: The games are not dead

Neutral news: Its Wayland, so if its in stock it only might be. Can you wait 6 months mate? Its really in stock honest. OK its not.
I'll see how this pans out before I buy anything.

Bad news: The guys that backed the KS on this. I feel for you man, I really do.

Really great to see all the products kept under one rood as it were; and great to see a big name picking them up and able to put serious investment and have support behind a relaunch. I greatly look forward to next year!

Any word on if you'll be able to contract any of the former Rebel staff such as designers? Also will you keep the range resin or shift toward plastics (or is it way too early to be maing such choices)

Congrats to Warcradle! Looking forward to seeing them develop things...

Definitely pleased and cautiously optimistic.

I mean, sure, was I working on a set of Orbats for my group to get us by and now that work feels pointless? Yes. But overall, this is good news.

 Hulksmash wrote:
I'd love for these games to get consistent and solid support. Fingers crossed this is a way for the games to get out there again.

And hopefully a solid ruleset as well. There was a lot of neat conceptual stuff in Dystopian Wars especially, but in hindsight there was some bad special rules bloat, poor rules presentation and combat tended to boil down to "how many sixes can you roll?".

I'm very glad to hear all these great lines are going to continue, Best of luck Warcradle!

I think that's good news indeed. I'm particularly pleased to hear that Uncharted Seas is still in the mix. It was always my favourite game and I was disappointed when it got dropped. I still play it, and while I did invest in DW and to a lesser extent FA and Planetfall, I preferred the simpler gameplay and pseudo-medieval fantasy background of US to the more complex steampunk and sci-fi of the other games.

The biggest thing I hope to see from this is Warcradle really getting to grips with the rules and rationalising their exposition. The rulebooks as they stand are laid out in a way that is very offputting for new gamers (or old gamers like me who play lots of different systems, and have to get our heads around it afresh each time after playing other games). Warcradle do seem to have a good studio which cracks on and really thinks about playability and such things (at least from what I have heard about the new WWE ruleset), so I am very optimistic on this front.

Another thing is that Wayland as a whole is keyed into the wider gaming world, and has a much less insular company ethos than Spartan had. Neil was great, but I very much got the impression that he didn't look far beyond his own ideas and the more "traditional" wargaming background he came from. I may be doing the gentleman a disservice, but that was my impression. Wayland however have a lot of experience of pretty much everything that is out there, whether good, bad or indifferent, so are well placed to take advantage of some of the recent advances in materials (for instance), so again I am optimistic that we may see some new models in hard plastic or even some of the new "miracle" resins that some of the more innovative companies are using. Something I personally would love to see would be the smaller Planetfall models made out of something more appropriate than big blocks of resin which resulted in huge infills between the legs - a major aesthetic issue for me.

All good stuff. Looking forward to seeing developments which may end up in my buying new models from these ranges for the first time in a few years!

Great news. First job is to get the models back into production, they have the benefit of having loads of unreleased models from the DW kickstarter that they can bring out as new releases without all the development costs. Not sure how far the firestorm stuff got, not sure it went further than renders.

Haven't managed to get my money back from the kickstarter, so paying for stuff twice will hurt, but I'm sure I'll end up buying most of it again.

I'm saddened by the loss of the Halo games, but maybe somebody will pick up a new license from 343 and make the 28mm scale game we all want.

They claim they didn't get any miniatures from the kickstarter.

IIRC there were 3 auctions, their casting machinery, their existing stock and the intellectual property.

It's possible Warcradle only got the IP

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
IIRC there were 3 auctions, their casting machinery, their existing stock and the intellectual property.

It's possible Warcradle only got the IP

It's possible, but not what has happened. Talking about machinery etc just isn't as exciting as talking about the games

Very glad to hear this, I honestly really enjoy both FireStorm Armada and Dystopian Wars. I am hoping that both games get a new good set of rules and consistent attention.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
IIRC there were 3 auctions, their casting machinery, their existing stock and the intellectual property.

It's possible Warcradle only got the IP

There was also the auction for the customer list/data.
Based on a few comments at the end of the Spartan thread it appears Warcradle picked that up as well

I believe they have the customer list as I and others have reported emails from Wayland to the effect that they have our details and we can opt out or continue to get messages from them. Since Wayland already have my email its not an issue for me.

It sounds like Wayland took the opportunity to walk in and pretty much buy Spartan Games out-right.

With the exception of the halo stuff, that was tied up by the licensing it does look like wayland have brought out Spartan lock, stock and barrel.

But then what happened to the Kickstarter stuff? I got the idea it was already produced and ready to ship when they turned off the lights?

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
But then what happened to the Kickstarter stuff? I got the idea it was already produced and ready to ship when they turned off the lights?

From what i recall seeing a good part of them were ready molds done and stuff.

i think egypt was not ready yet nor leauge crimson.

Oh waylaid games. Well thats done then. Unfortunate

Never had any problems with Wayland, and they're definitely making an effort push with Wild West Exodus - you definitely hear about it a hell of a lot more than before, which makes me hopeful for the games they have picked up now.

 Elemental wrote:

 Hulksmash wrote:
I'd love for these games to get consistent and solid support. Fingers crossed this is a way for the games to get out there again.

And hopefully a solid ruleset as well. There was a lot of neat conceptual stuff in Dystopian Wars especially, but in hindsight there was some bad special rules bloat, poor rules presentation and combat tended to boil down to "how many sixes can you roll?".

I certainly agree with all of this. Spartans exploding dice model just didn't make for interesting games, IMO of course, and their tendency to simply give up on older games made me very wary of buying into their newer games. I also found it quite hard to actually find people interested in their games.

Perhaps Wayland can remedy these issues now?

As for Wayland's retail branch all I can say is that my experience over the last few years suggests that it has gotten significantly better. My last 2 orders both arrived within 2 working days.

 Pete Melvin wrote:
Neutral news: Its Wayland, so if its in stock it only might be. Can you wait 6 months mate? Its really in stock honest. OK its not.
I'll see how this pans out before I buy anything.

I feel bad for Wayland that this 2012 era perception continues to exist, despite the fact they've had live inventory on their site for about four years now.

Wayland can still be slow at times; but yes their live inventory is now far more up-to date. And I've never had issues ordering from them with stuff coming through barring one or two paints when GW was changing their paints around. And in that case they refunded without being asked for inventory not sent.

They've improved communication for inventory stock and have never held back when asked about order status.

Maybe not the fastest; but generally cheap, reliable and good - they don't get to being as big as they are being bad all round.

 judgedoug wrote:

 Pete Melvin wrote:
Neutral news: Its Wayland, so if its in stock it only might be. Can you wait 6 months mate? Its really in stock honest. OK its not.
I'll see how this pans out before I buy anything.

I feel bad for Wayland that this 2012 era perception continues to exist, despite the fact they've had live inventory on their site for about four years now.

Have they finally got rid of that traffic light system where Green meant "we don't have it in stock but we might be able to order it this millennium" ?

Wouldn't know as once i moved my business to Element games i never looked back

Max that's been gone for ages; its now direct stock displays. If its in stock its got the number they've got in stock. They do appear to not be holding everything in stock, but when you consider how many game systems they do support and how large some can be its honestly no surprise that they can't tie their money up entirely with holding stock in everything. I've noticed a good few other online stores are not holding huge amounts in stock either these days - simply a sign of the times that retail market can't afford holding too much in unsold stock at any one point in time.

Wait times are about normal so you always know when there's going to be a wait.

There much better than they used to be though they still do have their moments. I've ordered four times this year I think. Most were here within a few days. But I know one took the best part of 6 weeks despite being in stock when ordered.

So when can we buy??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Does anyone know if they got the old stock too?

Great news! Even though I lack the time to invest further in it, I still like Dystopian Wars a whole lot and it is good to see it won't die out.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
So when can we buy??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Does anyone know if they got the old stock too?

Word was there wasn't much old stock, but what there was went to them

they've not said when things will go on sale again,

they probably need time to plan what to do with things since they had to put the bid together on pretty short notice and a re-release with lots of stuff missing isn't going to work as well as one with everything ready to sell (except perhaps a new version of the rules)

Yeah there wasn't a lot of old stock. You have to understand that everything also has to be rebranded, even if there was old stock. That means packaging, at least time to print new inserts/labels if they are just doing blisters, etc. They also have to pallet everything up, ship it to their place, and take inventory. It will probably be a few months at least.

 judgedoug wrote:

 Pete Melvin wrote:
Neutral news: Its Wayland, so if its in stock it only might be. Can you wait 6 months mate? Its really in stock honest. OK its not.
I'll see how this pans out before I buy anything.

I feel bad for Wayland that this 2012 era perception continues to exist, despite the fact they've had live inventory on their site for about four years now.

I had this problem when I triet to buy from them the past November.
After doing an order and waiting a week without it being sent.
Wayland: "We don't have it in stock, but we'll receive it this Friday"
Me: "Ok thats totally fine"
The Tuesday of the next week
Me: "Ey, it isn't listed as send yet, what happened?"
Wayland: "Sorry, we are gonna receive it and send it to you this Friday"
Me: "Ok, I'll wait"
2 Weeks later
Me: "Ey, please, what happened why my order?"
Wayland: "Sorry, we will receive it this Friday and send it to you"
Me: "Ok, sorry, I want to cancel the order"
Wayland: "Ok, we'll cancell it"
Wayland cancells the order the same day. 13 days after that I haven't receive my money. I call for a paypal refund. They refund me in 2 hours.

But 5-6 months ago I bought a box that they had in stock and they send it the next day.

Yeah, there are enough stories like that still happening that I think saying they've totally reformed is a bit of an overstatement.

That said, I'm excited to see what they do with these new lines

 RiTides wrote:
Yeah, there are enough stories like that still happening that I think saying they've totally reformed is a bit of an overstatement.

That said, I'm excited to see what they do with these new lines

This issue isn't restricted to Wayland or online retailers. Brick and Mortar stores do the same thing when you order stuff that isn't in stock. That is why I refuse to pay up front for special orders, if a store requires that, I don't shop there, I just find a place that has it in stock.
Could be worse, at my local store, I have to go into their computer and place my own orders with their distributor because owner claims he believes in a community run store (Basically he wants customers to do the work for him)

 Digclaw wrote:

 RiTides wrote:
Yeah, there are enough stories like that still happening that I think saying they've totally reformed is a bit of an overstatement.

That said, I'm excited to see what they do with these new lines

This issue isn't restricted to Wayland or online retailers. Brick and Mortar stores do the same thing when you order stuff that isn't in stock. That is why I refuse to pay up front for special orders, if a store requires that, I don't shop there, I just find a place that has it in stock.
Could be worse, at my local store, I have to go into their computer and place my own orders with their distributor because owner claims he believes in a community run store (Basically he wants customers to do the work for him)

Hey, it could be worse. At least you know that the order has been placed, and you know when to expect it. It beats the old "made a special order, wasn't notified when it came in, and when I did go in to check, it was on the shelf for just anyone to buy"

 Dark Severance wrote:
Yeah there wasn't a lot of old stock. You have to understand that everything also has to be rebranded, even if there was old stock. That means packaging, at least time to print new inserts/labels if they are just doing blisters, etc. They also have to pallet everything up, ship it to their place, and take inventory. It will probably be a few months at least.

It also looks like they are going to streamline the rules by the questions they are asking on their facebook page. The only timeline they gave was 2018, so we are probably a long ways off before we see anything besides maybe a new website. These guys attend Adepticon/Gencon/Salute so I wouldn't be surprised to see the re-release timed around these conventions too.

D6 got a link for that - I've not yet found mention of things beyond the original news-post when they made the purchase

Hey good luck with this! I loved Dystopian Wars, but after almost 3 editions of rules, I finally had to give up. That game had one of the most poorly written rulesets I've even encountered.

Hope y'all put together something awesome

I'm going to have to agree that streamlined versions of the rules would be welcome...

 schoon wrote:
I'm going to have to agree that streamlined versions of the rules would be welcome...

I agree... the FSA rules were way too fiddly for my taste. But simplified FSA rules is really just Full Thrust (which is a great set of rules!)

Valete,

JohnS

I think the reason the rules had issues is because Spartan could never focus on all their games at once; so a game might wait ages for a new rules edition (and sometimes those editions never came).

They had a very messy approach to it so I think a company putting a bigger investment in and able to support all lines at once could make huge strides on the rules system.

The bigger question is how much of each range they are aiming to release in one go; and if they'll hold any specific things back for later release. One the one hand releasing a huge amount of stuff at once is a huge workload; on the other they've already got resin moulds for most of the range; then you've got existing fans who have already got extensive collections who are going to be kick-starting the relaunch of the game at the local level so new players will want those same shiny big toys and ranges of models.

 Overread wrote:
Really great to see all the products kept under one rood as it were; and great to see a big name picking them up and able to put serious investment and have support behind a relaunch. I greatly look forward to next year!

Any word on if you'll be able to contract any of the former Rebel staff such as designers? Also will you keep the range resin or shift toward plastics (or is it way too early to be maing such choices)

We are always on the look out for new experienced professionals to work within the studio, currently its very early days regarding production materials. Both resin and plastic have their merits, watch this space

Thanks for the reply Warcradle!

I look forward to next year and seeing what comes!

 Desubot wrote:

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
But then what happened to the Kickstarter stuff? I got the idea it was already produced and ready to ship when they turned off the lights?

From what i recall seeing a good part of them were ready molds done and stuff.

i think egypt was not ready yet nor leauge crimson.

To Kid_Kyoto and others looking for updates, you'll find most (and more) answers to your questions here - http://www.beastsofwar.com/warcradle-studios/warcradle-studios-acquires-dystopian-firestorm-settings/. We'll be keeping everyone updated with any new developments over the coming weeks and months.

Always wanted to try Dystopian Wars, Uncharted Seas, and Firestorm, (was not interested in Dystopian Legions) but never got around to any of them. Was ready to can the idea for good when Spartan went under, so this is good news. Looks like they will stay on the docket of things to try for now.

Stuart of Warcradle discusses their plans for The Dystopian, Firestorm, and Uncharted Seas settings on The Exploding Dice Podcast Episode 7.

http://www.freebootersnetwork.com/category/podcasts/exploding-dice-radio/

Things I picked out

Warcradle is bigger than Spartan with each game being done by a different internal team

They also have licence for Spartan Scenics

They want to have a "press ganger" style system of their own, but no firm plans on how they are going to do it just yet

Reaffirms that they are not responsible for KS and that they can't really do anything for backers - they didn't get any big stock or money from the KS.
They are looking at potentially performing a good will gesture, but nothing on the table as yet and it might never happen.

Dystopian Wars - they are expecting to put most of the newest sculpts into production (inc those developed under KS). Ergo showing the best and newest of the range

And that's as far as I've got before having to do other things.

I still feel for those stiffed on the Kickstarter.

It's hardly Warcradle's fault. Just sucks to have had your money taken and get nowt in return.

Ugh, what a bummer. Sounds like they've shipped out some of the KS rewards, but yea, that sucks to get the short end of the stick like that.

And also perhaps a bit rough for the new owners, Warcradle. I hope the potential for resentment of KS backers was taken into account in the purchase price...!

Good luck, DW is a fun game, and I'm glad to hear it may yet live again!

Well miniaturemarket.com is clearance going out all their spartan stuff at 20-80% off now, so grab what you still need before the gouging.

Sale here:

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/deals/clearance/table-top-miniatures.html#/?_=1&filter.manufacturer=Spartan%20Games&page=1

Darn I missed out on the Windsor again



I have no use for it but it is so pretty!

Arg missed the Ottomans too!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I still feel for those stiffed on the Kickstarter.

It's hardly Warcradle's fault. Just sucks to have had your money taken and get nowt in return.

Unfortunately this is still the potential risk for KS's (although admittedly not usually ones which were run at the scale of Spartans)

I've been fairly lucky and only had one that didn't deliver at all, and won't do now, as well as what has become the running joke of AvP delivering everything that it promised.

Having said that it would be nice if Warcradle could put together something as a good will gesture for those that lost out.

Some analysis of the crumbling of Spartan on this bloc by former "Spartan Alex"

https://mannmomo.blogspot.co.uk/

As Warcradle have already demonstrated competence in turning an unplayable mess of a game that fell foul of its creator's ego and lack of focus, in the form of WWX, I am very hopeful that they can do the same for the Spartan games they have acquired.

Spartan Games had a healthy underlying product - good models and a basically good game engine. The problem was always Neil, who couldn't set his ego aside long enough to determine what would be truly good for the business, instead of just running with the latest pipedream. It was the classic example of a game company set up as a hobby project by the founder, which then floundered as soon as it started to make money because the owner didn't really know what to do beyond continuing to indulge his own hobby. Add in what seems to have been gamer-ADHD and a ridiculous inability to finish anything, and they ended up where they did.

Wayland/Warcradle have the business chops needed to turn the game around and make the difficult decisions required to "kill their darlings" as and when necessary, so I am very optimistic that a truly great game will come out of this, that will stand the test for the long term.

Could we dispense with calling out and blaming individuals for the demise of Spartan Games?

Interesting blog.

I didn't realize all that about the personalities behind Spartan Games, but reading that does provide some background to explain how staggeringly bad their rules were. Dystopian Wars still holds the honor of being the worst rule book for any pf the 100s of games I've ever played (well, OK, tied with Magic Realm)

Good luck Warcradle, I'm pullin' for ya

It would be interesting to hear where miniatures market suddenly got loads for stock from to put on sale. A bunch of the stuff wasn't available a couple of weeks ago when I placed an order with them.

 Tamereth wrote:
It would be interesting to hear where miniatures market suddenly got loads for stock from to put on sale. A bunch of the stuff wasn't available a couple of weeks ago when I placed an order with them.

They might have temporarily removed items from stock until they knew what was happening with the company. They also could have received stock from distributors warehouses. Some warehouses could still have stock, that stores aren't really ordering and given the news could have reached out to 'known customers' to give them a deal. My LGS has gotten calls from their distributors to say give them a good price on product, they know is 'dead' usually because a store has folded or they have decided to stop carrying it or doing business with that publisher.

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/#

Warcradle appear to have control over the website now! So no need to update your bookmarks for the moment, though I'll assume that they'll rename it and the address and setup a redirect (since its no longer spartan games)


Also I've no idea if distributors will ever take back dead-stock from retailers for a refund or not so that might have been another source of product for distributors to redistribute.

 Tamereth wrote:
It would be interesting to hear where miniatures market suddenly got loads for stock from to put on sale. A bunch of the stuff wasn't available a couple of weeks ago when I placed an order with them.

They buy pallets of dead and damaged stock from distributors. Most likely these were sitting in a distributors warehouse and finally was marked down enough for MM to buy it and sell it cheap.

Yeah, it's not surprising. They know they can sell most of it off realitively easily for 50-60% off so they can turn a quick profit on it if they got it cheap enough.

Heck depending on how Warcradle handles things the value could go up by next year. Miniature people tend to favour metal/resins over standard plastics. If Warcradle redoes models in plastic those resin classics could go up in value for collectors. Of course that means sitting on the stock for a long while and who knows Warcradle could decide its not worth their investment (their other game could suddenly start selling like crazy and sap all investment); or could go belly up (it happens!); or might take even longer than a year to come to market. etc..

From the Dystopian Wars FB group

I've read the Adminstrator's Report and Statement of Proposals.

Key takeaways.

No one is getting any money.

There might be as much as £8k available for unsecured creditors (including all 1,000 of the Kickstarter backers and pre-order customers). Unsecured creditors are owed about £610k. From this £8k the cost of making any payments to those creditors has to be deducted. The Administrator thinks this will leave pretty much nothing for unsecured creditors. The best possible potential repayment is about 1 penny for every pound you paid the Kickstarter, less fees.

The Adminstrator thinks it will cost more to send these small sums to the unsecured creditors than is available and is proposing to apply to the court to not have to spend the time and money telling people that they are not getting anything.

(NB, if you email the Administrator to complain or enquire about this the cost of answering your email comes right off the amounts available for unsecured creditors at a charge out rate of between £32 and £285 per hour.)

So, unless the Administrator concludes that the Directors committed fraud, none of the Kickstarter backers are getting any money.

Paragraph 2.4 of the Administrator's Report also makes interesting reading

"In October 2016 the directors, in the face of a considerable reduction in trade sales, sought advice from Tim Close of Milsted Langdon LLP. At the time of this meeting the Company was in the process of launching a Kickstarter campaign that it believed, if successful, would enable trading to continue. It was concluded at this meeting that if the Kickstarter was unsuccessful then an insolvency procedure would most likely be required."

That is the owners of Spartan Games talking to an insolvency practitioner *before* they launched the Kickstarter.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dystopian.wars.and.legions

Make sense - most resolutions to companies bleeding money and steadily falling further into debt often require investment in order to provide capital to allow them to enact change that isn't just related to cutting services/staff.

Sometimes that's reached through taking on new investors; sometimes its about liquidating assets that the company holds to provide that lump sum; sometimes they do cut staff to safe on wages. In Spartans case they went with a KS - which is the least damaging to the company in terms of assets held at the time; and the nature of KS investment means that they don't them have to make a return on that investment.


Sadly it seems that it didn't work. It does seem that Spartan tried the second KS in a hope that it would limp them over for another period of time; but it was launched badly and at the wrong time and was only very slowly gaining ground. It wasn't a run-away KS that could have secured enough funds to let them get over the hump they were in.



The lack of money to repay all debts also makes sense; very few companies that go into administration are able to clear all debt; its about clearing what can be cleared as best as possible to lessen the hit to other companies; whilst also ending the company life so that it no longer continues to bleed/drain money.

It looks like the old spartan forums are up again. I don't see any posts since August, but I was able to go in and poke around.

http://community.spartangames.co.uk/

Also a big update video 0 Dystopian Age

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iVueg6W674


Summary from my listen - its a little waffly at the start so I might have missed a few things; but this is (in their own words) the tip of the iceberg of news!

Wild West Exodus being blended in with Dystopian Wars

Sounds like they are focusing Dystopian Wars on the Sea and Air aspects; land battles "might" be at a latter point or expanded later (purely going on how they focus on talking about the battles being on the high seas).


Armourd Clas 10mm scale set in Africa - essentially it sounds like they've story scripted a land war in Africa - over which the major powers will be fighting for. Basically factions fighting ove the colonies.

New miniatures to come and a few are shown.
Reassurance that they are going to try and keep within the themes of original models; plus they are going to produce a PDF for how to use existing land units in the new game (so existing owners will be able to use all old models)


It sounds like they are fully splitting sea/air and the land games into two distinct entities rather than mixing the two. This sounds sensible as it lets both be their own thing without trying to squeeze sea and land together (which I think did throw up some odd probablems with balance as things like ships typically have VERY powerful weapons compared to most land units).


Overall sounds really exciting and that they are really throwing a lot into this in fully reworking the land and likely reworking the sea/air as well potentially.



I didn't hear anything about materials during the video (might have missed it).


WW Exodus are losing two armies (Crown and Celestial) which will be moved to other games as a result of this change. This is likely because they crossed over with Dystopian factions being brought in (and since Dystopain had models and fans it made more sense to keep them). That's the only major change for WWE being made that they've mentioned.

There's also a live-stream coming up - theyasked for questions before the steams so that they can prepare answers.

Probably a smart move to merge the two steam punk games into one universe.

I don't know WWX well enough to tell how well they'll blend, both had aliens IIRC but didn't WWX have magic too?
Renaming is also coming.
I see Britannia becoming Crown, China Celestials. Perfectly fine. Sounds like Dystopan Legions is dead unless the models would work with WWX, there's some nice models there but no great loss.

I think its a good move too. Dystopian Legions never really got itself off the ground in a huge way before it hit the "spartan moves to something else" problem. So it got a niche market and then held onto it but never really pushed itself forwrad as much as it could.

Merging their two systems into one means the Dystopian can piggyback off the success of WWE.

As for magic chances are they can write that in fairly easily; the fuel sources for Dystopian were already kinda nearly magical in their output and high-technology could also be used to explain some magics away. Almost like how in the film Laputa the castle with its swirling vortex and robots was almost akin to magic to the peoples of the film.



I also like how they are splitting the sea and land battles; I think that will let them have more powerful ships and airships without the land battles feeling like they are just trying to build land-ships for every faction to get the land balanced to sea.


I think they've got a good grasp on the overall themes and strong points so I'm really hopeful at this stage for a good launch.

I'm also impressed how much they are investing into this. I'd have thought they'd just relaunch with what was made already; but making not only a few new sculpts but full re-designs into new scales and such is a big investment for them and shows how serious they are with making Dystopian Wa..Age a thing.


Automatically Appended Next Post:


Look at that!

More details from https://blog.wildwestexodus.com/blog/2017/12/1/unveiling-the-dystopian-age

Also check this daka thread
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/708649.page

Wow, that new battleship is beautiful!

In general I feel like the DW community is not thrilled about this. I agree: It feels like DW is being forced into the WWX setting and losing a lot of it's interesting ideas, even if those ideas were'nt always amazing.

There's also a concern that 'Celestial" is apparently considered an ancient racial slur by some, and generally that the Warcradle staff have been a bit tone-deaf in handling US Civil War issues (compared to Spartan, even).

It'll be interesting, but I'd say my interest in the game has definitely cooled.

Existing Players can upgrade to 3rd edition for free (social media & current book required)

https://blog.warcradle.com/dw-free-rule-book

So, you want to know how to get a copy of Dystopian Wars Third Edition rules for free? Great, let's get you registered!

You will need a copy of the Dystopian Wars rules in order to register for Third Edition.

How do you get the Third Edition and what will you be getting?

What you get

The current plan is for us to send a beautiful colour softback rulebook to your local FLGS for you to collect or to your home address. It will contain all of the rules for Third Edition, along with some background and hundreds of photos/artwork.

Registering for this promotion also registers you for the New Edition of Armoured Clash. This rulebook will be released at a later date and you will receive more information about this addition at a later date.

How you get it

1) Share a photo of yourself with a Dystopian Wars Rulebook (at least one, but more is great).

2) Post your photo publicly on social media and tag us in the photo with @warcradlestudios and @dystopianwars, make sure to use the #dystopianrules.

3) Tag in your local gaming store where you would like to collect your book from (if you have one). No FLGS? No problem, we will send it directly to you.

4) Fill in the form below with links to your social accounts where you have posted your images.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
they did this apparently successfully with Wild West Exodus,

and the social media requirement is clearly intended as advertising to offset the cost of the exercise (for those who will complain they don't do social media but do want the free book why not make a 'junk' account, you don't have to give much real info and certainly don't have to keep using it)

Sounds like a great idea!

Free book for you; marketing for Dystopian Wars and local retailers as well as getting Warcradle in contact with more local stores to supply them.

Plus going this way chances are most of the local games stores did stock Dystopian Wars at least once so even more outreach chances to existing/former fans.

Unfortunately the only copy of the rules I have is the 2.5 PDF that squeaked out of the Kickstarter just before Spartan went defunct. Already tried looking for a copy in the discount bin, no dice. Retail it is, eventually.

That is kind of cool.

Wonder if I can find my old DW 1st edition book.

 NTRabbit wrote:
Unfortunately the only copy of the rules I have is the 2.5 PDF that squeaked out of the Kickstarter just before Spartan went defunct. Already tried looking for a copy in the discount bin, no dice. Retail it is, eventually.

A picture of your fleet or your digital rules is an excellent replacement for an *in-hand* rulebook

~ Samantha


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:
Sounds like a great idea!

Free book for you; marketing for Dystopian Wars and local retailers as well as getting Warcradle in contact with more local stores to supply them.

Plus going this way chances are most of the local games stores did stock Dystopian Wars at least once so even more outreach chances to existing/former fans.

^ Hole in one, my friend!

~ Samantha

Did anyone ever receive their free copy of the WWX 2nd edition rules? My mate and I never got anything through.

Looks like Dystopian stuff is already starting to sail!
http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/dystopian-wars/50063-prussian-imperium-ice-maiden-super-carrier

The massive Ice Maiden is coming! Well next year but already up for preorder!


Also Warcradle - any news on when you'll start using the Spartan Website for news/updates again or will you close it down and move it over to another site?

Wayland games is taking preorders for the Prussian Iceberg Super Carrier 75UKP

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/dystopian-wars/50063-prussian-imperium-ice-maiden-super-carrier

I'm stunned... Is that price correct? 75 GBP (about $100 US)??


For one ship? It is big, 260mm or about 10 inches... But... I ...

Wow.

It's a very big ship!
I forget the dimensions but it was about the biggest resin model Spartan made. So yeah its a huge warship - er iceberg!

It's akin to picking up a knight or a warmachine colossal/gargantuan

Casting in resin is pricey don't forget, compared to metal the material is more expensive, and the labor is higher skilled.

warcradle wrote:
A picture of your fleet or your digital rules is an excellent replacement for an *in-hand* rulebook

~ Samantha

Thanks Samantha, I'll line my fleet up in front of my screen with the PDF open and do it that way

YouKnowsIt wrote:
Did anyone ever receive their free copy of the WWX 2nd edition rules? My mate and I never got anything through.

Hundreds of people have theirs. They have all been sent out. If you suggested a store in the forms you needed to complete they would have been sent to the store. In any case email support@warcradle.com and someone will update you.

 Overread wrote:
Looks like Dystopian stuff is already starting to sail!
http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/dystopian-wars/50063-prussian-imperium-ice-maiden-super-carrier

The massive Ice Maiden is coming! Well next year but already up for preorder!


Also Warcradle - any news on when you'll start using the Spartan Website for news/updates again or will you close it down and move it over to another site?

News and updates for all games in the Dystopian Age are shared first to the following channels:-

Blog page: https://blog.warcradle.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcradlestudios/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/warcradlestudio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/warcradlestudios/

For specific news and updates, the official channels are as follows:-

Wild West Exodus
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildWestExodus
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WildWestExodus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/WildWestExodus/

Dystopian Wars
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DystopianWars/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dystopianwars

Armoured Clash
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArmouredClash/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/armouredclash

~Tarnya

Our forum is a place to find other like-minded members of the community to share your hobby, start conversations and discuss everything relating to the games from Warcradle Studios!

We want the Warcradle Studios Forum to be a positive and safe space for all members of the community to contribute to and feel happy to take part in, free from negativity. If you would like to support the growth of the Forum and help maintain the atmosphere we are creating, we are currently looking for more Forum Moderators! Email forum@warcradle.com for more information.

You may notice that some sections on the forums are locked, we have archived these so the community can continue accessing this content but they are not the focus of our settings currently. The forum structure has also been streamlined for a better viewing experience and to bring it up-to-date with the latest developments.

Visit the forum: https://buff.ly/2B4345z

See you there,

The Warcradle Studios Team