Assigned a dangerous quarry by the Hunter’s Lodge, players choose a tribe and class for their hunter and embark on an adventure through the wilds. A variety of machines and unexpected events lurk along the way, and awaiting them at the end of the trail is a lethal boss fight.
Combining innovative and dynamic game mechanics with strategic deck building, Horizon Zero Dawn™: The Board Game offers players a unique experience on each playthrough. Hunters can develop along several skill paths and purchase a wide variety of ammunition and equipment from merchants, as well as facing entirely different encounters each time.
Have Steam Forged even delivered any of their other kickstarters? This is their fifth one. I don't even think they're done with their first, Dark Souls.
I'm tempted, I like the designs, but I need to see a bit more from them before I commit...
highlord tamburlaine wrote: Have Steam Forged even delivered any of their other kickstarters? This is their fifth one. I don't even think they're done with their first, Dark Souls.
None of the others is due yet. Resident Evil 2 is due this month, but I'm not a backer so I've no idea how close to target they're running.
With that said, and as a big fan of Guild Ball and SFG games in general, there hasn't been a release since the Spring, for GB at least which is what I'm mostly paying attention to, that hasn't had issues, either in resin, metal or PVC/plastic.
There've been casting issues, IT issues, logistical delays and quality issues resulting in them returning initial production runs to the factory and scrapping release dates altogether in favour of "eventually" for some products. Now, none of these issues has gone unaddressed, and they're small company who appear to be growing explosively while still apparently maintaining a healthy attitude towards the community and with regard to the quality of product they want to offer, but all that growth is either straining SFG or their partners.
I wouldn't advise anyone against backing if they were interested, but I feel people should be aware if they're not already a fan of one of their games that there's apparently some growing pains that may directly or indirectly the fulfillment of the project. Likely no more than delays, or perhaps the odd replacement model, but forewarned is forearmed.
Looks like they're a month or two behind on Resident Evil 2. Production is supposed to be finished this month with the container ships also supposed to leave this month. So probably November for completion unless there are move waves (not a backer so not sure there).
I would also add the warning that Dark Souls has zero gameplay value and it remains to be seen if any of their other licenses are anything but a cash grab with no effort on the rules side of things. Miniatures are as good as advertised, however.
Dark Souls rule's really seam to be a love or hate it thing. Seen lots of reviews gushing praises and about an equal number talking how trash it is.
I haven't played it, just bought for the minis so I don't care if the purpose of the game is to just get a line of minis out (as cash grab seams kind of harsh since the minis are quality for PVC).
Dark Souls minis are average for PVC. "Quality" is a term I woud reserve for Mythic Battles, Conan or the latest CMON offerings.
As always renders look cool, but I'm still waiting on most of my Dark Souls stuff and what I have received, minis-wise, doesn't urge me to acquire more.
In our group, judgedoug backed their RE2 KS and we are all super stoked to play ASAP. The quality of their post-funding updates for RE2 is what made me jump on an early bird for this project despite my ambivalent feelings about H0D the vidya game.
Monkeysloth wrote: Dark Souls rule's really seam to be a love or hate it thing. Seen lots of reviews gushing praises and about an equal number talking how trash it is.
It's got the same problem as most of its genre. Players want a dungeon crawler with substantial exploration and combat with significant character progression and a playtime of about an hour. It's just not terribly practical.
Now, the game's big fault is that it depends a bit on grinding. You are expected to fight through the dungeon, get to a boss, learn its pattern, die once, fight to it again for better gear, beat it the second time. The problem is, the actual encounter rooms are all fairly mechanical and playing through them again doesn't feel particularly rewarding, particularly since the rewards for doing so are pretty hard coded and the consequences reset after the encounter so there's little in the way of attrition. They're quite fun initially, but once you've spent hours fighting through the dungeon the first time, spending hours resolving the puzzles you got right the first time isn't particularly rewarding. Also, it turns out that while trying, failing, and trying again is exciting for a single player, its not the most engaging group dynamic.
Personally though, I find the boss encounters pretty spectacular and deep and time consuming enough to be a worthwhile game on their own. I enjoyed the dungeon runs initially, but over time I've been quite happy just skipping them and handing out their static rewards to skip straight to the boss. Lose, get another stack of resources to try again stronger. Yeah, I guess I'm saying the game is good if you houserule it, and that's probably the biggest reason to say its bad, but I see no reason to throw out the good parts of the game when there's really no consequences for skipping the repetitive bit.
LunarSol wrote: Now, the game's big fault is that it depends a bit on grinding. You are expected to fight through the dungeon, get to a boss, learn its pattern, die once, fight to it again for better gear, beat it the second time. The problem is, the actual encounter rooms are all fairly mechanical and playing through them again doesn't feel particularly rewarding, particularly since the rewards for doing so are pretty hard coded and the consequences reset after the encounter so there's little in the way of attrition. They're quite fun initially, but once you've spent hours fighting through the dungeon the first time, spending hours resolving the puzzles you got right the first time isn't particularly rewarding. Also, it turns out that while trying, failing, and trying again is exciting for a single player, its not the most engaging group dynamic.
That does sound dreadful as a group game, especially if you can only get one or two games in during your weekly/monthly/quarterly meet up. Having them end in failure, or succeeding on the second run while being bored throughout the grinding just sounds like work and not leisure.
Personally though, I find the boss encounters pretty spectacular and deep and time consuming enough to be a worthwhile game on their own.
The behaviour decks are a good idea. But my group felt the combat is really held back by the tiny tiny rooms - perhaps the equivalent of a 4x4 tile room, but in some weird nodal system - and the boss just keeps bouncing off walls while half his gigantic base clips through the wall and sticks out from the play area and the other half physically covers all the adjacent nodes in the room so you can't even physically place heroes in legal positions. Which leads me to believe that at no point in time during development did anyone physically put any miniatures on the game board to see how it looked or played.
I adore Horizon Zero Dawn. Despite the awkward title it was one of the best gaming experiences I've had with a rich post apocalyptic world and a picture of an Earth so close to greatness before it all went wrong. I found it truly moving at points with stunning vistas.
I never found the game all that lootwhorey. There's plenty of crafting options to keep you occupied but at some point you will max that out beyond continually crafting cool ammo and traps. The robots are great. Especially as they get bigger. Each has their own unique behaviour, strengths and weaknesses that you learn and exploit. You can play like an efficient stealthy hunter and exploit weaknesses and disable various machine parts or you can go in with the biggest baddest boom and hope for peace through overwhelming firepower. Or somewhere inbetween. The human combat is a bit underwhelming but when you can fight roboprehistoric creatures who cares about the cultists?
The game shines in the details though. The visuals are stunning, the characters, for the most part, are well realised. You get to explore this post apocalyptic lush world of tribes, nations and shamans with limited understanding of their world, plus all the customs that have developed. If you put in the time to do the side quests and pick up collectibles it's very engaging. Plus you get this fantastic detective/revelatory story as you discover what Earth used to be like and how we ended up in this situation.
I'm a big Monster Hunter fan too. I'd say the bigger monsters are on par with what Monster Hunter can offer but there's not as many. There's only really 5 of the same comparable scale. The rest are more mid and small tier sized, however If argue they're more interesting than what Monster Hunter offers at that size category. It trades diversity for tight world building and a very engaging plot. I would highly recommend.
Back to the minis though... All the new Guild Ball releases are PVC right? So how are Steamforged in that department? We talking dark Warmahordes days or CMoN A Song of Ice and Fire?
I backed this to get the early bird, but dropped it, not over any concern about steamforged, but over one big glaring problem that isn't mentioned anywhere on the main page:
- The minis are 20mm scale. /:
A horde of nicely sculpted post apoc survivor minis could have been so useful to have, as well.
scarletsquig wrote: I backed this to get the early bird, but am probably going to drop out, not over any concern about steamforged, but over one big glaring problem that isn't mentioned anywhere on the main page:
- The minis are 20mm scale. /:
A horde of nicely sculpted post apoc survivor minis could have been so useful to have, as well.
That's a bit disappointing.
Assuming that scale difference doesn't make it an impossibility, how practical would it be to field these minis as a counts-as Tyranid? Would the Kickstarter models be enough to field a valid army?
I kind of want to get into this one just for the larger models and mounts because they look fantastic and because I've not got playstation to play the game on.
Loved the designs since seeing them in the game so this KS is very interesting to my eye!
Looks like one of the staff screwed up and told everyone it was 20mm, leading to lots of people (myself included) dropping out... I'm back on board now, scale looks absolutely fine, but that was one huge communication screwup.
After the Dark Souls debacle I won't be supporting any Steamforged products. The sculpts look great though, for the backers sake I hope they learned to write rules and solve production issues...
Personally though, I find the boss encounters pretty spectacular and deep and time consuming enough to be a worthwhile game on their own.
The behaviour decks are a good idea. But my group felt the combat is really held back by the tiny tiny rooms - perhaps the equivalent of a 4x4 tile room, but in some weird nodal system - and the boss just keeps bouncing off walls while half his gigantic base clips through the wall and sticks out from the play area and the other half physically covers all the adjacent nodes in the room so you can't even physically place heroes in legal positions. Which leads me to believe that at no point in time during development did anyone physically put any miniatures on the game board to see how it looked or played.
I've never had a problem with the boss base size. At least, I don't recall it overlapping at all with adjacent nodes. Not that it matters all that much since most characters have to move on the same node as the boss anyway. The nodes themselves just function as an octagonal grid. Unusual but it works. I'm not really sure what there would be to gain from larger boss rooms either (though final bosses are played in a double sized room). You really are rarely working with more than the bosses node, and maybe two away from that node. It's cramped, but that seems to kind of be the point.
That does sound dreadful as a group game, especially if you can only get one or two games in during your weekly/monthly/quarterly meet up. Having them end in failure, or succeeding on the second run while being bored throughout the grinding just sounds like work and not leisure.
It's pretty clear that most of the development time was spent designing the boss encounters and not the overall gameplay "session". Even then, the dungeon encounters are fine; worth running initially as its a good way to get a sense of how the combat engine and turn structure works, its just repetitive and kind of tacked on. With 6 bosses to fight, each of which makes for a pretty decent length gameplay session on its own though, I think its worth it as a game as long as you're willing to skip the tutorial once you've got an idea how it works.
I'd agree with that assessment- once you know how to gear up (or house rule it start with some gear to speed things up) it's the boss fights where things really shine.
I expect this to be similar in that regard, but I wouldn't mind a more fleshed out adventure phase.
The Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter project is one of the, if not the, best run Kickstarters I've backed, out of, gosh, 93 projects. Tons of communication, weekly updates, they interact with the Facebook community, and have demo'ed the game all over the place for the last year, which the massively positive feedback from has only helped stoke the happiness and excitement of all of the backers.
I personally have no interest in this property so won't be backing it, but I am overwhelmingly positive about this company.
judgedoug wrote: The Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter project is one of the, if not the, best run Kickstarters I've backed, out of, gosh, 93 projects. Tons of communication, weekly updates, they interact with the Facebook community, and have demo'ed the game all over the place for the last year, which the massively positive feedback from has only helped stoke the happiness and excitement of all of the backers.
I personally have no interest in this property so won't be backing it, but I am overwhelmingly positive about this company.
I think that's not how you spell Dark Souls....
But yeah. They handled them both. They handled Godtear. Soon as I saw the gear on the package, I know Zero Dawn's in good hands. I just wish they show more support for Guildball in the states though....
judgedoug wrote: The Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter project is one of the, if not the, best run Kickstarters I've backed, out of, gosh, 93 projects. Tons of communication, weekly updates, they interact with the Facebook community, and have demo'ed the game all over the place for the last year, which the massively positive feedback from has only helped stoke the happiness and excitement of all of the backers.
I personally have no interest in this property so won't be backing it, but I am overwhelmingly positive about this company.
I think that's not how you spell Dark Souls....
But yeah. They handled them both. They handled Godtear. Soon as I saw the gear on the package, I know Zero Dawn's in good hands. I just wish they show more support for Guildball in the states though....
Lol. I have no experience with them for any other KS or product. Just RE2 and I am very happy I am a backer for that project.
The human minis are 25mm scale, and their bases are 20mm across. Please note that doesn't mean they're 25mm tall, they're actually a bit taller than that depending on the individual model. Getting monster heights etc shown is something we may look into since it does seem to be a recurring question.
I actually welcome that - lots of companies are stretching things out to 32-35mm scale these days, and things are just too big! For the monsters to work, they've got to keep this at a reasonable scale. So far everything looks awesome
I'm thinking the minis should be okay to paint with this (the monsters at least), lots of them, but they could be done quite simply with metal spray, black wash, then paint plates white and finish with some glowy blue eyes and a few orange accents.
Always have to keep in mind the potential to add to the unpainted pile when backing "bucket o' minis" projects like this.
The human minis are 25mm scale, and their bases are 20mm across. Please note that doesn't mean they're 25mm tall, they're actually a bit taller than that depending on the individual model. Getting monster heights etc shown is something we may look into since it does seem to be a recurring question.
Yeah, but SFG was kind of responsible for muddying the waters a bit.
Good thing the early bird was 'only' a £5 difference, I guess.
Ya, really sounds like they didn't have a concise answer for this witch is really odd as this is one of the questions everyone asks every kickstarter ever and SFG knows people care.
judgedoug wrote: The Resident Evil 2 Kickstarter project is one of the, if not the, best run Kickstarters I've backed, out of, gosh, 93 projects. Tons of communication, weekly updates, they interact with the Facebook community, and have demo'ed the game all over the place for the last year, which the massively positive feedback from has only helped stoke the happiness and excitement of all of the backers.
Have they actually delivered, though?
I was happy with the first Kingdom Death KS, delays and all, because the quality was better than I had expected. That got me to pledge $$$ in the follow-up KS.
OTOH, Super Dungeon Explore: Legends started with loads of communication, weekly updates, etc. Years later, the project is dead in the water, and everybody hates them for basically taking the $1M+ with ZERO delivery years later.
Always have to keep in mind the potential to add to the unpainted pile when backing "bucket o' minis" projects like this.
Imho not as big as a deal as the unassembled pile. You can play with them and when you really want them painted or feel inspired you can paint a couple without issue.
I've seen people painting just a couple of heroes in games like Zombicide (BP) or Descent because the players constantly play them. Or just a couple of monsters because the players keep playing different heroes...
Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my all time favourite games. It sold me on an entire console (as a native PC gamer), so this has definitely been on my radar.
I haven't even dug into how it plays, but I like the renders I'm seeing so far.
I did get to demo the Resident Evil 2 game at Gencon 2017, before the Kickstarter had even launched, and while it was okay, for a rapid fire showcasing of what they were doing, I enjoyed it. Not my kind of thing, but the quality and care of what they were doing came through, to me at least.
Unless I hit some hard showstopper as I dig into this campaign, I think I'm onboard for the core tier at least. Adding in all of the other figures would start getting a bit rich for my blood, and while a discount may be likely over retail, I can just accept that and take the delay/price increase if necessary.
I do see that the delivery estimate is March 2020, however, and while I applaud an up front 1.5 year timeline, and expect delays (as is Kickstarter's way), that also seems like a reason not to throw them a couple hundred extra for minis when the more invested I am (financially) can increase the impatience and frustrations substantially.
And I should probably remind the comments section regularly about this. We've already had some vocal complaints about their other campaigns seeing delays or not being finished off in full yet. While some might even mean well, as someone who has been... part of some truly disastrous or massively (multiple years) delayed KS's, if some of their works are only a few months behind schedule, that'd be a massive feather in their cap, at least personally.
Forar wrote: And I should probably remind the comments section regularly about this. We've already had some vocal complaints about their other campaigns seeing delays or not being finished off in full yet. While some might even mean well, as someone who has been... part of some truly disastrous or massively (multiple years) delayed KS's, if some of their works are only a few months behind schedule, that'd be a massive feather in their cap, at least personally.
I do think they should've gotten DS wave 2 fully out of the door before launching this.
Having gotten that out of the way, RE2 was listed as a Sep 2018 delivery. As of the last update (from 2 days ago), product should ship from China in the last week of September. This means they're on track to be shipping product to backers in November, so people should (all things being well) be getting their stuff ~2 months late, which is generally seen as pretty good for a KS project.
Yeah. I'd be overjoyed to get a substantial board game KS to deliver *only* two months or so late. Hell, at this point anything less than a year is basically 'on time', compared to many.
As was said earlier in the thread, ~2 months "late" is basically "half a year early" by standard Board Game KS standards.
Like, if this is set for March 2020 and delivers in May or June 2020, that's a massive win in my books.
Haven't seen much mention of this Kickstarter here, but it's still going on. To confirm what people have already said here, the miniatures are roughly 28mm scale, not 20mm, which means the larger machines are absolutely massive. Funding has stalled in the last few days, but a bunch of stretch goals have been unlocked. The core pledge is up to over 100 miniatures now, and there are more stretch goals to go. A recent update has a list of social stretch goals to unlock another miniature and some other game content, so if you or anyone you know are interested in the game or wouldn't mind helping the campaign out a little bit, it would be appreciated.
Actually just dropped my EB as I really don't think I'd ever use the minis and the board game itself looks meh.
Also went back and looked at my Darksouls stuff since there was a discussion here on the quality of them and ya, the casts are great though many of the sculpts are really lacking, like the generic hollows, so those figures look bad but it's not because of the plastic used or quality of the casts. The same figures looked bad as a 3d sculpt so I suspect it's a combo of what Namco was OK with and Dark Souls being right when SGF was getting into 3d sculpting.
I'm really tempted but at the same time its just not the right time for me to buy into this - I'll check it on the last day and see if I can resist if not I'll be on the front of the line when this launches in a few years.
JohnHwangDD wrote: The minis look great, but I just don't need it for $130 + S&H = $150.
That was my reasoning. If I had a use for the content outside of the boardgame I would be more willing to spend that but since it would just be paint for fun, which I already have way too much of, or play a game that doesn't interest me I can't justify it.
That was my reasoning. If I had a use for the content outside of the boardgame I would be more willing to spend that but since it would just be paint for fun, which I already have way too much of, or play a game that doesn't interest me I can't justify it.
I plan on using the minis for RPG's and wargaming, so it's a no-brainer for me. Basically the first thing I said when I saw the first Horizon trailer was "I need minis of these", so I've been waiting on this for a while.
It's also worth mentioning that the core pledge (the only pledge level) started with the core game and two expansions, plus KS exclusives, and SFG has confirmed that a bunch of the stretch goals comprise an entirely new expansion, so that will have additional content beyond just the models and their game material.
JohnHwangDD wrote: The minis look great, but I just don't need it for $130 + S&H = $150.
That was my reasoning. If I had a use for the content outside of the boardgame I would be more willing to spend that but since it would just be paint for fun, which I already have way too much of, or play a game that doesn't interest me I can't justify it.
It's a very fine toolbox if you intend to write a post-apocalypse game. The thing is, having gone through the exercise with KOG light (for Heavy Gear), and stalled (heh) on not-Car Wars, I'm not sure I'm inspired to buy it to write a game to play a year+ down the line.
Mysterio wrote: Those machine beasts though...so cool...so tempting...
This - esp since I don't own a current gen console and have wanted to play this game for AGES as I really love the style and world they've built and designed.
Mysterio wrote: Those machine beasts though...so cool...so tempting...
This - esp since I don't own a current gen console and have wanted to play this game for AGES as I really love the style and world they've built and designed.
Ditto.
still debating if i want to jump in with that mechaTrex
JohnHwangDD wrote: The minis look great, but I just don't need it for $130 + S&H = $150.
That was my reasoning. If I had a use for the content outside of the boardgame I would be more willing to spend that but since it would just be paint for fun, which I already have way too much of, or play a game that doesn't interest me I can't justify it.
It's a very fine toolbox if you intend to write a post-apocalypse game. The thing is, having gone through the exercise with KOG light (for Heavy Gear), and stalled (heh) on not-Car Wars, I'm not sure I'm inspired to buy it to write a game to play a year+ down the line.
yep, great selection of stuff but my gaming group is mostly RPGers and I don't ever really see us doing a post apocalyptic game mostly as I GM most stuff and don't care for those type of settings from an RPG stand point. If I thought I could use them for a miniature game I'd still be backing.
Hell, I'm thinking of just using the minis as stand-ins for existing figures in my usual board game; Shadows of Brimstone.
Either as reskins of existing comparable figures (so no extra work for me, maybe a few minor adaptations) or with a bit of design effort to create my own enemy sheets in line with existing content.
Most of my usual players have played HZD, so one day (in a few years) dropping a bunch of Watchers on the table would probably get a big response.
I watched the 45 min'ish gameplay video, and it seems intriguing. Not sure if it'll be a huge hit with my usual crew, but I wouldn't be opposed to trying it out a few times either.
I will say there's a little growing concern that the deal feels... too good. Over 100 minis, some of them quite substantial, for ~$200 Canadian, plus the cards and tiles and dice and whatnot? It both feels like I'd be crazy to skip it, while also "um, we are actively courting delays and snags", but that might just me being gunshy from some of the other KS debacles I've been a part of, not that it has stopped me yet.
Hadn't even thought of using this stuff in Brimstone. Maybe on the derelict ship tiles? Something techy... reactivated guardians in Targa? War machines of Trederra? Mechanical antibodies in the Belly of the Beast? Have them spill out into the canyons and mines while we're at it? Hmm...
At least the hunters from HZD will be a bit more sturdy than the resin Jargono natives we've got.
Forar wrote: I will say there's a little growing concern that the deal feels... too good. Over 100 minis, some of them quite substantial, for ~$200 Canadian, plus the cards and tiles and dice and whatnot?
It's priced like a CMoN game: 100 minis for $100 (shipped), which became 120 minis for $120 (+S&H). The deal is fine, as they're also going to retail afterwards. It's not like this is their first rodeo.
If one of you SoCal guys wants to do some sort of split, I might be up for that.
Forar wrote: I will say there's a little growing concern that the deal feels... too good. Over 100 minis, some of them quite substantial, for ~$200 Canadian, plus the cards and tiles and dice and whatnot?
It's priced like a CMoN game: 100 minis for $100 (shipped), which became 120 minis for $120 (+S&H). The deal is fine, as they're also going to retail afterwards. It's not like this is their first rodeo.
Except SFG isn't CMoN, just having a similar pricing structure doesn't mean they have everything else sorted out like a well oiled machine.
I've done some of the background research, glanced over Dark Souls, hell I even playtested Resident Evil at Gencon a couple of years ago. I get that this isn't some fly by night crew that's new in town, but I don't think it's unreasonable to see them adding dozens of figures (many of them sizable or complex or both) and figure this might be getting away from them, especially with the final stretch/burst yet to come.
Call it an abundance of caution. I'm still in (and yeah, $10 off for an Early Bird will keep me in until the very end when the 'go/no go' call has to be made), but I'm trying to keep my expectations realistic.
The old adage is 'good, fast, cheap, pick two'. I'm happy with good and cheap, and ~1.5 years for their delivery time frame doesn't seem terribly rushed by my amateur backer assessment, but I'd also hate to see later updates about how they're hitting snags/running out of funding/etc/etc/etc. There is a line here, 120 for $120, fine, but what if we get to 150, 180, 200+?
There is such a thing as 'too good a deal', and even if we're not there yet, I don't think a healthy sense of skepticism is a bad thing.
Overzealous eagerness and enthusiasm is how we both ended up spending half a decade in various RRT threads, after all. If they can continue to reassure us that things are great and that GG/Sony are actively beneficial, that's awesome.
When I have concerns, I cap my spend and only back the core. Or, I look for a split, which I'm looking at here: $60 minis for $60 is not so unreasonable.
WRTRRT, I piggybacked for a split there, adding the Monster. No way was I backing a full pledge plus Monster.
Though seeing how my last few splits have gone, maybe I should wait for retail. Hm.
Forar wrote: I will say there's a little growing concern that the deal feels... too good. Over 100 minis, some of them quite substantial, for ~$200 Canadian, plus the cards and tiles and dice and whatnot?
It's priced like a CMoN game: 100 minis for $100 (shipped), which became 120 minis for $120 (+S&H). The deal is fine, as they're also going to retail afterwards. It's not like this is their first rodeo.
If one of you SoCal guys wants to do some sort of split, I might be up for that.
Looking for a split is great if you just want the figures. Splitting a game with someone is a bit more challenging if I plan to actually play the game as is. :-P
But for those just seeking a cut of the minis, yeah, that seems like a good way to minimize the risk, for sure. Other than a lot of the character models, the KS exclusives, and the Bellowback, so far everything else seems to come in groups of 2/4/6/tons. Depending on what people wanted, splitting it 2+ ways evenly or with some tweaking based on desires, that'd work out quite well.
Definitely not going all-in for this one, no matter my love of the setting/game. Currently just in for a core set, and maaaaaybe a Thunderjaw. It's too iconic to pass up, even if it adds another $60+ Canadian to the order (probably a bit more assuming it increases shipping as well).
But now that I think about it, it is pretty tempting to carve this deal up as a way to get fairly cheap figures for other games... hrm indeed...
Yeah, I also ended up not staying in after panic-grabbing an EB...
Their posting that they might not deliver the KS before selling these at retail, combined with the really far out delivery date and number of other huge projects they've not yet fully delivered, just makes me not want to invest this far out.
To me, the deal isn't good enough to merit it... I've noticed in previous campaigns that that has been their push, that you're getting such a good deal it doesn't matter if it's delayed till after the retail release, etc. But it does to me... I'd rather pay a little more at retail (and honestly, maybe not that much more after discounts) and not be stuck waiting, and also relegated to after folks who didn't invest early...
Just my personal preference, and they're very straightforward in that if you feel that way, you shouldn't back. So that makes it an easier choice for me to wait, at least.
JohnHwangDD wrote: Though seeing how my last few splits have gone, maybe I should wait for retail. Hm.
What happened with your last few splits ? Just thinking of doing my first but don't want headaches.
* Robotech RPG Tactics, got maybe 1/4 of what I was supposed to before Palladium decided they weren't going to deliver or refund.
* Relic Knigths was delayed by a year, and not a good game; we were lucky to sell off before the game crashed.
* Journey: Wrath of Demons, got the core game, played it, but we're still waiting on the expansions and SGs years later. Good for the creators that they're still trying to make a miracle happen and haven't pulled the plug.
* Super Dungeon Explore: Legends, waited and waited, saw it was all lies and going south, and grabbed a refund. Lucky, as a couple months later, Soda Pop Miniatures / Ninja Division decided they weren't going to accept or pay refunds.
* World of Smog: Rise of Moloch, which arrived as a co-op *after* we had started playing the vastly superior Kingdom Death: Monster, so WoS:RoM went on the block.
* Ogre Miniatures Set 2 arrived late, but I would have been willing to buy a full set and sell off the extras; splitting meant I just pre-sold the minis I didn't want.
My Spidey-sense of whether a game will fully deliver appears to be spot on, but my FOMO for pretty things caused me to waste a fair bit of time and money.
If I split on HZD with Bob & Tamburlane, that would be pretty cool. It looks like they raised $1.4M so far, with 3 days to go.
Gotta love how it takes 2 hands to maneuver the Thunderjaw onto the board.
Sucker is massive. If it's that detailed it would be a nice standalone piece for fans of the video game regardless of the board game's quality (which obviously the hope is that it's good).
That looks great and I hope they can deliver on all the promises. It looks like they have experience with megaprojects that far exceeded their original funding goal (the Dark Souls Board Game) and are at least in the process of shipping that. As a customer/dupe of Palladium's Robotech kickstarter, I'm too hesitant to back something that big that far off even if the company seems to be able to handle it. I look forward to seeing it in person though.
warboss wrote: That looks great and I hope they can deliver on all the promises. It looks like they have experience with megaprojects that far exceeded their original funding goal (the Dark Souls Board Game) and are at least in the process of shipping that. As a customer/dupe of Palladium's Robotech kickstarter, I'm too hesitant to back something that big that far off even if the company seems to be able to handle it. I look forward to seeing it in person though.
Well, that experience consists of severely screwing up megaprojects that far exceeded their original funding goal. So I wouldn't really consider it a merit...
That's my take, too... they make nice minis and decent wargame (not board game) rules, but KS backers seem to be their last priority among many (which they justify because backers are "getting a good deal").
I feel confident in their product when it is available, but honestly don't think I'll ever back one of their Kickstarters from what I've seen after looking into this...
warboss wrote: That looks great and I hope they can deliver on all the promises. It looks like they have experience with megaprojects that far exceeded their original funding goal (the Dark Souls Board Game) and are at least in the process of shipping that. As a customer/dupe of Palladium's Robotech kickstarter, I'm too hesitant to back something that big that far off even if the company seems to be able to handle it. I look forward to seeing it in person though.
Well, that experience consists of severely screwing up megaprojects that far exceeded their original funding goal. So I wouldn't really consider it a merit...
Thanks for the clarification. I skimmed their update titles for the Dark Souls project but admittedly didn't go any deeper. I just wanted to see if they were at least delivering in some way so far. Can you go into more detail?
Mymerean is probably referencing the issues with the stretch goal content for Dark Souls - I honestly can't remember if the core set was on time, but the stretch goal stuff has been split into two additional waves.
I know the first of these is shipping in the UK, at least, as I got my stuff earlier this week. Can't recall the last update referencing Wave 3 timescale - as you say, there have been many updates, and may of them recently have been around wave 2 shipping.
Resident Evil 2, their second big license KS, is currently looking like being two months late on delivering - I think all the stretch goals are due to come through at the same time as the core game for RE2, but we'll see.
Yeah basically they massively delayed the expansions and stretch goals, making wave shipping necessary, and doubled/tripled shipping from the KS estimates, presumably to cover the extra expense. This while telling backers that wave shipping would be at no extra cost. At this point fulfillment is 1,5 years late (shipping date in the KS was april 2017 and they even thought they would be able to ship in time for christmas 2016). And even now they are only shipping the expansions in wave 2, none of the stretch goals (which have been split into an additional wave) are anywhere in sight. On top of all this the rules for the game were very poorly received.
If this were a wargame where I could drop half a grand or more kitting out a half dozen factions, I'd probably balk.
If the models are half as good as the renders, for ~$130 US plus shipping, I can withstand a delay or two.
Comparing it to clusterfeths like Robotech is a bit like saying air travel is doomed because of the Hindenburg. Now, the delays and wave shipping and whatnot with their other campaigns? Totally fair.
Honestly, having done the dance in a half dozen campaigns now, I'm kind of tired of the "why don't we get it FIRST?!" stuff.
Their page even says as much.
"Whilst we will strive to deliver your rewards in a timely manner, you may not receive your reward before the product is available for purchase at retail, or other promotional opportunities such as conventions. We have ensured that the pledge reward offered is packed with fantastic value and Kickstarter exclusives to compensate for any potential delays. However, if this unacceptable to you, please do not back this project and instead wait for the retail release. Thank you for your understanding."
It's certainly not a 'get out jail free' card for mismanagement or shenanigans, but I appreciate the reality of what they're saying here. If the choice is between missing an important holiday sales period or some distributor deal/arrangement, and my stuff arriving a few weeks earlier, whatever, it's a business and this thing is crammed full of exclusives (to the point I think there may be a few too many).
I get people being a bit gunshy. It's a good deal, maybe even a great one, but we all miss dozens of 'omg wtf' deals on Kickstarter every year, possibly every month.
If this arrives before 2021, I'll call that 'within the margin of error', personally.
Yeah, Dark Souls is waaaay late on completion, but it seems Resident Evil is only a few months behind (maybe some further Act of God snags if the hurricane interfered?). The other two aren't supposed to deliver for half a year or more.
One way late and one basically on time (by board game Kickstarter standards) isn't exactly knocking their release schedule out of the park, but it does seem that they're at least making an effort to learn, and hopefully the latter campaigns deliver on time'ish, to show that they have learned from whatever snags held up DS.
It sucks for the DS backers, and I hope that things are finally sorted out in a reasonable fashion. I guess with a few major debacles under my belt, perhaps the idea of putting down just enough for a tier and walking away would suffice. Even if it's late, even if I lose interest in the setting (unlikely), recouping my costs and then some selling off the games and the exclusives seems like it wouldn't be difficult. Or working out an arrangement to split things down the middle if I instead decide I just want some of the figures.
The Dark Souls stuff really never surprised me. Those stretch goals always felt like a well.... stretch. They seemed to be as large of a project as the core games and got dropped in at the end of the campaign with pretty nebulous ideas for implementation. A big part of why I ended up not backing is how that stuff felt very similar to other bloated projects that have struggled to be released in a timely manner.
Generally speaking, I get the feeling Steamforge really doesn't need or even really want hugely successful kickstarters. They need the capital influx to order the print run, but if they just barely make the goal, that's all they're really after. Their stuff has always been fine to wait for retail for. It's not a great deal, its not early, really, there's no great advantage to being a backer outside of some ability to follow the development process and voting with your wallet to see something you're interested in get made.
It's probably not "wise" to invest in their kickstarters. It's generally safer to wait and pick it up at retail. It's really just a campaign for people who want to put money up front to help something get made and in a lot of ways, might be closer to what KS should be.
I was leaning towards maybe getting a Thunderjaw, but in a sober bit of reflection, if anything I'll just stay at the base tier, so there's that.
We all have ~20 hours to decide, and I definitely haven't ruled out dropping to a $1 pledge for updates/comments and just accepting I'll wait for retail, pay a markup, and miss out on the exclusives. And if so, that's fine too.
For my support and handwaving, I do appreciate getting alternative views. It's easy to get swept up in a KS campaign, even knowing what some previous burns have been like, there's an attraction to try touching that stove again all the same...
I finally got around to watching the playthrough video. Somehow, the game seems"flat", like there isn't enough going on, not enough choices. The mini-campaign seems straightforward, but the battles seem like they're missing something, and I can't quite say what's wrong. It's obviously been concepted as something very clean, with a focus on speed, but maybe too much?
The minis look great, and the core has a LOT of them. The gameplay is tight. Campaign is short, doable in a maximum 4 or 5 sessions.
Forar wrote: Comparing it to clusterfeths like Robotech is a bit like saying air travel is doomed because of the Hindenburg. Now, the delays and wave shipping and whatnot with their other campaigns? Totally fair.
Right or wrong it still represents my first and subsequent only foray into big crowdfunding projects and is bound to color my future decisions. Fwiw, I initially backed Prodos' AVP at a large amount but chickened out last minute (literally)...that wouldn't have helped the situation either. To use your aviation analogy, I doubt you would find many people whose first experience with air travel was a dirigible disaster in line to try out that new fangled DC-1 monoplane just because they're told it's different.
Yes, interested mostly if only for the biomech minis, the IP has no interest to me, neither I am wowed by gameplay, but looks good to cannibalise for other home projects.
I'm willing to pay a third of the cost for a third of the minis. Or a fourth for a fourth. I just care about getting a variety of cool technomonsters. If it happens, great! If not, I'll either pick up the game or expansions at deep discount or trade minis for minis to get some of the good ones. If that never comes to pass, I won't grieve. This campaign just isn't worth that kind of (emotional) investment.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I'm willing to pay a third of the cost for a third of the minis. Or a fourth for a fourth. I just care about getting a variety of cool technomonsters.
Same! $50 for 50 or $40 for 40, or $30 for 30. Of course the "game" might not quite work but that might not be a big deal
Otherwise, I'll hit up CSI or MM when the stuff goes retail.
With the exclusives being what they are, I'd really say that the draw would be found in;
- Major fans of the game/setting/IP in particular.
- Resellers who want to turn their time waiting into some cash moving the exclusives on eBay.
Parceling out the figures and dice alone from retail is probably more sensible than paying now for something in 2 years, especially since shipping probably eats a good chunk of whatever savings might be found.
I guess some of the KS exclusive cultists might overcome some of that, but if the dino-mechs are the big draw, might as well just buy a box off CSI (likely before backers have theirs) and chop it up from there.
Especially folks who are so gunshy about being burned again. Is saving $10 or $20 really worth adding another story of how fethed you got by Kickstarter *insert reason here*?
Forar wrote: Is saving $10 or $20 really worth adding another story of how fethed you got by Kickstarter *insert reason here*?
According to the KS pitch, you're spending $150 ($130 + $20 S&H) to get $295 worth of stuff, for a 50% savings.
OTOH, if it were a la carte, I doubt I'd have gotten any off enemy humans, despite them being half of the content: 42 Bandits, 14 Cultists & 9 Mercenaries.
I think if this were $90 for the monsters with the giant pile of humans as another $50 mega expansion, I'd have backed the monster core.
Waiting for retail is looking even more sensible, as Bob and Tam are probably going to want the same cool minis that I'd have wanted. ____
Yeah, even my son who is super keen on it is really only interested in the mechs. No desire for the humans AT ALL.
You guys give me crap about going all highlord over reptiles and what not, that kid takes it to a whole new level, especially if it's based on prehistoric life... He had a crazy idea of using the mechs in conjunction with lizard men and doing a Tau auxiliary army with a bunch of converted Saurus Knights.
I'm starting to see I don't really have much interest in all the human models.
The Kickstarter ends in an hour with the current base pledge giving (by my count) 135 miniatures, 28 of them KS exclusive. There is also a current stretch goal that is almost a slam dunk to add another bellowback miniature, by community request, so that will bring the total to 136. I feel like the KS exclusives do add quite a bit of value, since there are a large number of additional hunter miniatures, with each having different abilities and card decks than the base ones. Since those are the characters player's use, I think that will help improve replayability a lot.
As for the value, I fell in love with the Horizon IP as soon as I saw the first trailer, even though I have not yet played it. The wife and I have promised ourselves a PS4 for Christmas, so I am waiting for that to get hunting robo-dinosaurs. I also think the board game in itself looks good, with a somewhat similar feel to a pared-down Kingdom Death but without the multi-session commitment, which means I can get my KD fix in a single evening. I have also wanted minis for Horizon since the aforementioned game trailer, and I like the "techno-savage" aesthetic. Post-apoc is one of my favourite genres for wargames and RPG's, so this whole thing is a no-brainer for me.
Nearish. We often see each other at local gaming events. And then we gossip about Dakka members who aren't present. Oh, the things we say about Dakka members!
Nearish. We often see each other at local gaming events. And then we gossip about Dakka members who aren't present. Oh, the things we say about Dakka members!
Nearish. We often see each other at local gaming events. And then we gossip about Dakka members who aren't present. Oh, the things we say about Dakka members!
I guess we'd be surprised if you didn't?
Anyway, I'm with many others here - I wish there as a 'monsters' only pledge - I'd be in for that!
If it goes to retail, if anybody in you country brings it and if your country has a custom of doing deep discounts, otherwise why not back?
I'm in the United States, so I'd start with ForEx as an issue, on top of the long delay, for which half of the minis have nearly zero value to me.
Someone asked the question, whether I would drop $150 if this were a package at my local hobby store. If I knew I could sell off the humans to recover their cost, I probably would. But as there's no demand for the humans, probably not.
The humans are "less interesting" but I'd wager the physical models will be more interesting when seen in the flesh.
In the end I didn't join in again, the long wait time* and cost kind of made me rethink. It's a fantastic deal, but I think picking up a few when they hit the market will be better for me than getting a truck load of which only a couple will ever likely get built.
Plus in two years time or so I'd be more happy having my DoK army built up than a big load of suddenly appearing models.
*and I totally understand why its a long wait and don't think its an unreasonable time frame. It's just not the KS for me at this stage even though if it works and comes to market I know I will be getting several of those big machines!
Sorry to bump a relatively old thread, but maybe it saves someone from burning more money in the Pledge Manager.
Steamforged is now accused by several people in Brasil, Italy, Spain and the UK of just straight up not honoring Dark Souls pledges because of bogus "delivery issues".
with their shippers saying we've tried to deliver and it doesn't exist/nobody's in to take delivery
but even if this is the case the appropriate response would be a full refund of whatever the backer spent not a coupon (especially in the EU where it is flat out illegal, a company has to either deliver however many attempts it takes or refund in full)
First up they say they've got the product, but the only issue is shipping price, yet they are able to give store discount and void a large chunk of profits and income, per customer, rather than pay for shipping again. So clearly they have money (or potential to burn money) yet don't want to ship?
They also make no attempt to confirm address for re-delivery, plus every delivery service I know of pretty much attempts at least two or three times and then houses the product at the local depo long before sending it back undelivered.
Plus not even accepting to cover the entire product cost is very scammy. It does not speak well of the company if they are trying this kind of tactic. :(
And yeah as said its pretty much illegal to just cancel an order and not make a full refund. The most they might be able to withhold on a refund is the postage charge; however all the product should be refundable.
If it were just to Italy or Russia, countries with some known postal problems, it might be linked to that, but if its to the UK and other generally safe shipping locations then it should be working as normal (and my understanding is some things like Russia and the like its more that customs holds package for AGES before processing
Update - they've reopened their pledge manager following delays to launch (normal big KS delays plus Corona related delays). They've also added details on their shipping including an opt-in split shipping for some tiers (which comes with an increased cost).
So as they now appear to be shipping and arriving who was able to take part and who got stuff and what's it like - photos - details - sneak peaks the lot.
I honestly don't need boardgame pieces to look stellar, so I may pickup the core if gameplay reviews are good. But that won't happen until after the pandemic.
, especially not from MODS 
