GKR: Heavy Hitters, by Weta Workshop: Kickstarter - Funded $526,196

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**JohnHwangDD**

What I don't get is how this has raised $400k. Is it because they're prepainted? The whole thing looks very cheap, aside from the pre-assembly and painting.

**PsychoticStorm**

Looks nice, its weta workshop, has been shown on most channels that showcase kickstarter boardgames and Adam Savage has also showed it.

Also it is prepainted.

**Nostromodamus**

Mymearan wrote:
Strongly dislike the robot designs, they look like a jumble of geometric shapes without recognisable silhouettes. A big miss for me.

Yup, looks terrible to me and I'm usually a fan of big stompy robots.

The whole thing just seems cheap.

Maybe the game is good, but I couldn't tell you because the horrible aesthetic is a barrier to me investigating further.

**Ian Sturrock**

I have to admit that the disconnect between reading "Weta" and looking at the actual sculpts was enough to pretty much kill my interest, too.

They would have my money right away if they offered a prepainted modular dungeon in the style of their ace sculptor's Labyrinth model, though...

**PsychoticStorm**

I really don't know I like the mechs big and small, but they are spectacle robots, not combat robots, the big surfaces, non industrial production feel and non military design make sense, they are there for a spectacle sport not real armed conflict.

Now if you approach it with the belief that this is a military conflict then, I can understand why you would not like the models.

**Mymearan**

PsychoticStorm wrote:
I really don't know I like the mechs big and small, but they are spectacle robots, not combat robots, the big surfaces, non industrial production feel and non military design make sense, they are there for a spectacle sport not real armed conflict.

Now if you approach it with the belief that this is a military conflict then, I can understand why you would not like the models.

My objections really have nothing to do with the story of the game or the in-universe use of the mechs; I simply think they look bad and the design is bad.

**Vain**

Mymearan wrote:
My objections really have nothing to do with the story of the game or the in-universe use of the mechs; I simply think they look bad and the design is bad.

Yep, and that is what he is addressing.

Why are these these designs bad in your mind?
Looks are totally subjective so happy to leave that there but as for the design they are meant to "capture and audiences" attention rather than be the perfect combat droid.

In the context of the game it looks like the Robots want to be popular and gain more fans for their sponsors when you paint-blast a building, the gatling gun point defense seems secondary to the branding and "toyetic" design space these have been created for. I gotta say I am fully in Storm's camp here.

**Mymearan**

Vain wrote:
Mymearan wrote:
My objections really have nothing to do with the story of the game or the in-universe use of the mechs; I simply think they look bad and the design is bad.

Yep, and that is what he is addressing.

Why are these these designs bad in your mind?
Looks are totally subjective so happy to leave that there but as for the design they are meant to "capture and audiences" attention rather than be the perfect combat droid.

In the context of the game it looks like the Robots want to be popular and gain more fans for their sponsors when you paint-blast a building, the gatling gun point defense seems secondary to the branding and "toyetic" design space these have been created for. I gotta say I am fully in Storm's camp here.

Well, like I wrote earlier,

Mymearan wrote:
they look like a jumble of geometric shapes without recognisable silhouettes.

Basically, they are ugly as feth

Their in-universe role and whether the design makes sense or not is irrelevant unless you think it's impossible to design robots that are meant to "capture an audience" in any other way than what is on display here. There is always an infite number ways to design something, and small changes can make a big difference. That said, I don't like any of the graphic design for this game. The paint jobs certainly don't help the sculpts though, they might look better with a muted, dirty and weathered color scheme.

To your other point, yes it's completely subjective.

**Nostromodamus**

Seeing as they are designed for a role that includes captivating an audience, seems to me that the aesthetic should be more of an important thing than if they were military designs which usually favor function over form.

Still, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I just can't help but see dollar-store toys when I look at the designs.

**rabidaskal**

I actually like the sculpts, very different from the near-future walkers or mecha design I usually encounter. Someone mentioned Borderlands, and I do think it has that vibe.

What's putting me off is Cryptozoic, IME their rulesets aren't particularly good or engaging. As pretty as this game is (imho) mediocre rules means I'll never get to play it with my group anyway. Keeping an eye on it for now, hopefully the gameplay proves to be good.

**Dark Severance**

Someone not liking the designs is a valid opinion. They aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea especially considering they have a different look of them. They were made by Weta Workshop, if you look at some of the movies they've worked on: Mad Max: Fury Road, Chappie, District 9 mixed in with a Borderlands artstyle. It isn't for everyone. I didn't like the designs at first either. It wasn't until I actually held them in my hand that I could appreciate the designs, because at the heart they were actually functional. I don't mean in the sense that these are military grade weapons of war, more like these designs are what were created by average people with out of a bunch of John Deer tractors. Mix in some knowledge and influence from Boston Dynamics, mingle in some of Megabot Mark II (US Giant Robot) with some Kuratas (Japan Giant Robot), amp up the scale to 4x and it makes some sense in a way and add a bit of Fool Cooly for spice. Still they are different so not everyone will like the designs especially given what expectations people are used to in scifi.

I do recommend checking them out on art-station to see the 3d moving animated models.

Diamond Back
Hammerstrike
ThunderHappy
King Wolf

**Ronin_eX**

Just to chime in, but I personally love the designs. Live the work Weta have done on District 9 and the rest and these designs are very evocative of that.

More than that, they evoke a lot of design cues from actual modern robotics as well, which gives everything a very utilitarian look to it. These are mechs from a universe that bring your things like the Big Dog rather than Battletech, Gundam, or Appleseed. It is a very different aesthetic than we are used to, but one that is also very unique and evocative. These are robotics such that we would see from Boston Dynamics, they have this certain 21st Century zeitgeist going for them that I dig.

I'm digging the design aesthetics and I'm glad we're finally getting minis that evoke a lot of the hyper-modern robot designs we've been getting in media and reality over the last few years. These things reflect contemporary aesthetic that we are seeing these days and it is one I find fascinating.

If I get a bit of spare spending cash I'm definitely going in for the painter's set. Especially after getting a few good looks at these things over on Tested (especially the design prototypes, those things were dead sexy).

It's cool not to be on board with the designs. We've been fed a pretty set "mech" aesthetic for decades and anime has heavily shaped how we think of combat robots, but I personally like seeing things that actually reflect what actual robots we are building these days look like.

A little bit of DARPA and Boston Dynamics, a little bit of Robot Wars and Battlebots, and a hint of something a bit more zany like Mad Max, Borderlands, and even a hint of Tank Girl. I love the aesthetic they're going for and I'm glad it seems to be doing well so far.

**JohnHwangDD**

Looking at the funding on KickTraq, it looks like this will hit $1M or so.

That seems awfully low for a WETA project.

But I also think it awfully high when the basic premise and product just don't work for me. With the KD:M PM closing this month, WETA's GKR just doesn't cut it.

**Dark Severance**

It is at $526,196 with 4,123 backers and 22 days left to go. Movement has slowed down a bit though. We'll see what they pull out. I'd still rather see another large Heavy Hitter robot but looks like we're bringing in Mercs at the $535K Stretch Goal

Stretch Goals

Spoiler:

Update #7

BLISS CORP Bulletin: A Merc in Time Saves Nine

The competition is heating up and greedy corporations are looking to influence the results in their favour.

ENTER THE MERCS!

Need some help cracking robot skulls?

Just want more cool-looking stuff on your gameboard?

Coming up in Stretch Goals: A series of mean-lookin’ Mercenary miniatures from your frenemies at Bliss Corp.

Because we love to share the love, Mercenaries will belong to a shared pool of units, which all Players have access to. You can choose to recruit the help of an available Mercenary Support Unit on your turn in the Deploy Phase.

But just hold your mechs for a moment – because there’s a twist. You didn’t think we were gonna make it easy for you, did you? Oh you did? Don’t make me laugh into my Slim-fat™ shake.

To use the services of these smooth operators, you’ll have to discard a Sponsor Card from your hand. Once you’ve deployed your Merc to the board, you’ll control it just like any other Support Unit – but once it’s destroyed, it’ll return to the pool and become available to all other Players.

So that’s your Mercs, in a nutshell. Snipey’s unlocking soon. Splodey’s coming up. I’ll let you figure out where their talents lie.

THIS BULLETIN BROUGHT TO YOU BY BLISS CORP: CRY ‘HAVOC!’ AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF COMMERCE!

No new information on EU shipping as of yet other than what they original posted. I would guess that once the campaign slows down more which is probably in a couple days when we hit the real lull... that is when any new surprises or stops get pulled out. Usually at that point that is when they really have to finalize shipping to attract new people and possibly keep people who have jumped in.

For this reason, we can’t give definitive shipping costs just yet. But here’s what we estimate the core game will cost to ship: $34-$46 to ship to the USA; $50 to Australia; $25 to New Zealand; $50-$60 to Canada; $20-$45 to the EU; $65-$100 to EEC non-EU countries; $60 to Asia (excluding India); and $90-110 to ship to the rest of the world (including, but not limited to, Africa, South America, India, and the UAE). All prices have been quoted in USD.

If your wallet’s feeling the burn on those shipping costs, rest assured – we hear you (and your wallet). Here’s the deal, though: those shipping costs are pretty colossal because GKR: Heavy Hitters is a pretty colossal game! I mean, check out this size comparison…

**ced1106**

rabidaskal wrote:
What's putting me off is Cryptozoic, IME their rulesets aren't particularly good or engaging.

The game designer is the same guy who did the DC deckbuilding game and Ghostbusters. Pass!

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/774/matt-hyra

**Dark Severance**

rabidaskal wrote:
What's putting me off is Cryptozoic, IME their rulesets aren't particularly good or engaging.

ced1106 wrote:
What's putting me off is Cryptozoic, IME their rulesets aren't particularly good or engaging.
The game designer is the same guy who did the DC deckbuilding game and Ghostbusters. Pass!

That is fair since I consider Ghostbusters as meh but DC Deckbuilding is fairly solid. I will say that although he is listed as R&D Lead Designer, he isn't the main designer just was lead of the Research and Development part. It was my understanding that CZE was tapped basically for distribution, experience and advice in the US. Weta Workshop controlled almost everything in relation to the game with the team in New Zealand. At least in my interactions with doing conventions with Weta and CZE, decisions were made by Weta without CZE interaction often.

At the heart of the game, it is simple in terms of how it plays but the interaction isn't as simple. There are definitely layers within the game based on how you design your deck, your pilot, what you draw. In part there are aspects that share a bit to Magic the Gathering or World of Warcraft TCG in terms of knowing how to properly build your deck to suit your pilot, Heavy Hitter and your play style. Each faction has a different play style, add in the different cards which players customize their deck down to 25 cards. The pilots can change how the faction vary as well. Then the weapons as well as drones have different speeds which changes the weapon firing order, given that players play cards in a double blind fashion. The only simple part is the rolling which can seem like there is a lot of luck involved, but really ends up meaning nothing if you don't properly design your deck and strategize how to play to your strengths/weaknesses. You can roll great rolls but they don't mean anything if you are don't have a proper team (pilot, heavy hitter, deck). We haven't even touched leveling up and sponsors which add a whole new layer to it as well.

**JohnHwangDD**

Dark Severance wrote:
At the heart of the game, it is simple in terms of how it plays but the interaction isn't as simple. There are definitely layers within the game based on how you design your deck, your pilot, what you draw. In part there are aspects that share a bit to Magic the Gathering or World of Warcraft TCG in terms of knowing how to properly build your deck to suit your pilot, Heavy Hitter and your play style. Each faction has a different play style, add in the different cards which players customize their deck down to 25 cards. The pilots can change how the faction vary as well. Then the weapons as well as drones have different speeds which changes the weapon firing order, given that players play cards in a double blind fashion. The only simple part is the rolling which can seem like there is a lot of luck involved, but really ends up meaning nothing if you don't properly design your deck and strategize how to play to your strengths/weaknesses. You can roll great rolls but they don't mean anything if you are don't have a proper team (pilot, heavy hitter, deck). We haven't even touched leveling up and sponsors which add a whole new layer to it as well.

Thanks for this bit here. What I see is a disconnect between how I'd like it to play, and how it actually has to play.

As a game with large, brightly-colored Giant Robots that go stomping about, my sense is that the game should feature child-like simplicity and fun effects. The basic premise of robots fighting each other is a great one, and none of this really needs to be that much more involved than Rock'em Sock'em Robots. At the root, that's what the aesthetic and cuteseyness suggests.

OTOH, as a game with a strong deckbuiding (OMFG, how I hate this trend) component and pre-game strategy development requirement, there is a lot of prep work that prevents players from casually throwing the game on the tabletop and just playing effectively. You call this out pretty clearly above, where the player needs synergy between robot, pilot, support, etc. that needs to be designed in before the first model hits the table.

If the designer doesn't reconcile this (perhaps basic vs advanced play), it's going to be a mess when people just grab certain mixes of (because of aesthetic / style preferences) and get rolled simply due to not owing the game and knowing all of the elements involved.

**PsychoticStorm**

I quite like deck-building its a really interesting mechanic.

**Dark Severance**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
As a game with large, brightly-colored Giant Robots that go stomping about, my sense is that the game should feature child-like simplicity and fun effects. The basic premise of robots fighting each other is a great one, and none of this really needs to be that much more involved than Rock'em Sock'em Robots. At the root, that's what the aesthetic and cuteseyness suggests.

OTOH, as a game with a strong deckbuiding (OMFG, how I hate this trend) component and pre-game strategy development requirement, there is a lot of prep work that prevents players from casually throwing the game on the tabletop and just playing effectively. You call this out pretty clearly above, where the player needs synergy between robot, pilot, support, etc. that needs to be designed in before the first model hits the table.

It is simple in the design; Play cards, cards resolve based on weapon speed, do what card says, roll accumulate 5 or 7 to hit (this may have changed since I played), roll damage and then opponent rolls armor save. The game is goes fairly quick and through the motions in a decent format, providing someone doesn't throw a sponsor card into the mix. Those can cause a few quirks and shenanigans. But all in all, it has that simple and fun.

I wouldn't say it is a requires strong deckbuilding. I probably over-stressed a bit too much about properly building your deck. The game has multiple layers which doesn't put the full reliance on luck, dice or having the best card. There is a good mix that helps balance it out. It isn't as punishing as say MtG where if you don't put enough lands or properly layer your draw cards, you lose momentum. It is more like, pick 1 main weapon, pick 2 secondary weapons and sprinkle in some defense. You could build with 2 main weapons but it is more of a gamble (since you can only fire one main weapon a turn).

The part of deck building that gets underplayed, which doesn't really involve a "strong deckbuilding" skills is understanding how it works... if you build a range deck, don't try to keep getting in close to box. There were quite a few demo games, even after they played and knew what was in the deck players would do that and then wonder why they weren't as effective. Some weapons have a minimum range to be effective so playing Rock'em Sock'em doesn't work if you built it with those weapons. That just means if you like to close distance, use more close range weapons. Maybe you prefer tagging, getting sponsors (which is one the better ways to get momentum), then go pick 1 primary, 2 secondaries and focus more on defense cards. Then rely on rolling your armor saves, saving the defense for the big primary cards. (Some sponsor cards let you look at the players hand, what they play face down, etc so you can gain before hand knowledge).

Although simple at the heart of things, it doesn't require really "strong skills" in a particular area. At the same time it doesn't rely simply on dumb luck. If that is what you are relying on, then chances are you will lose. Now what is fun is taking some risks, which there are plenty of opportunities to run hot, take damage to dish out damage.... very much in a rock'em sock'em style.

**JohnHwangDD**

PsychoticStorm wrote:
I quite like deck-building its a really interesting mechanic.

Deckbuilding is a mechanic that requires intimate knowledge of ALL of the possible cards in the deck. Deckbuilding is not suitable for pick-up play, but GKRHH has all the visual aesthetics of a light party game, hence my specific objection in this game, on top of my general objection as a mechanic. IMO, it's kind of a lazy variety mechanic that allows the designer to eschew rigorous playtesting for balance. Which is why it pops up in a lot of Kickstarter games...
____

Dark Severance wrote:
JohnHwangDD wrote:
As a game with large, brightly-colored Giant Robots that go stomping about, my sense is that the game should feature child-like simplicity and fun effects. The basic premise of robots fighting each other is a great one, and none of this really needs to be that much more involved than Rock'em Sock'em Robots. At the root, that's what the aesthetic and cuteseyness suggests.

OTOH, as a game with a strong deckbuiding (OMFG, how I hate this trend) component and pre-game strategy development requirement, there is a lot of prep work that prevents players from casually throwing the game on the tabletop and just playing effectively. You call this out pretty clearly above, where the player needs synergy between robot, pilot, support, etc. that needs to be designed in before the first model hits the table.

It is simple in the design; Play cards, ... do what card says,

I wouldn't say it is a requires strong deckbuilding. I probably over-stressed a bit too much about properly building your deck.

There were quite a few demo games, even after they played and knew what was in the deck players would do that and then wonder why they weren't as effective.

I understand that the mechanics *on* the individual cards can be simple enough. That's not the problem. My issue is the player knowing which cards to select in order to create a synergistic effect for a competitive robot team.

If you say the game doesn't require strong deckbuilding, you are fooling yourself. The part I've bolded pretty strongly confirms that complete knowledge of ALL of the cards and how they would interact is a prerequisite to effective play. You need to pick a strategy, and go through each faction and all of its cards to understand which combination produces the best build. There's a meta strategy of determining which team and pilot to pick, based on what else got picked. The facts on actual play confirm that the deckbuilding requirement of this game is dramatically higher than what you believe, or what the visual look would suggest. Now, it's totally OK to like complex deckbuilding game. I used to play Magic, and I get that attraction. But to say this isn't one of them, and it's not a vitally important part of the gameplay, possibly a factor that predetermines the gameplay? That's not true, as you've related above. If those players had known what to play, and then selected and tweaked to match their preferred playstyle and strategy, they would have been much happier.

OTOH, maybe it's fine to have newbies blunder and get destroyed in their first few games. Assuming that those games are still fun enough to keep bringing them back to the table...

Could be hard to arrange the traditional "host loses / guest wins" thing, though.

**Dark Severance**

OTOH, maybe it's fine to have newbies blunder and get destroyed in their first few games. Assuming that those games are still fun enough to keep bringing them back to the table... Could be hard to arrange the traditional "host loses / guest wins" thing, though.

This is so true, even when I'm making really bad mistakes on purpose... which is how I know that some horrible moves can pan out, it isn't a complete loss because of a couple mistakes. It is forgiving in a bit because of that. On the other hand there were some times I thought I would win and lost instead.

However almost all my demos at GenCon and Pax Prime didn't involve me playing as host vs guest. Since we are usually packed from start to finish, we try to make sure all games are full with players. Then in a poker like fashion, be the dealer, directing players to play cards and running them through the motions. The majority of the hundreds of demos did involve players. In some cases we did change the deck, by swapping in some "easier to figure" out weapons (more direct fire). I usually built it, Orbital Laser, 1 primary, 2 secondaries with one of the them being indirect fire and the rest direct fire and one set of defense. The defense was usually already built to counter the other, so if they had mainly missiles then shield against it or if they were lasers shield for lasers. That gave both players enough to get a taste of all the abilities and overall fairly balanced.

In a real game though, a player could build completely lasers and direct fire. While the opponent is going indirect fire and built to defend against missiles but since the opponent is mostly lasers, those become dead cards. Dead cards aren't too bad, since when you take damage and run out of the deck, you can choose to discard from your hand for damage so it let's you choose to burn something you don't necessarily need.

Overall most players had a great time, often coming back to play again. Even losing was overall a fun game but kind of hard not to get excited in a Weta Workshop booth surrounded by a giant Orc and large Dwarf statues.

Spoiler:

I would expect that players would normally have completely knowledge of all the cards. A new player wouldn't but anyone who owns the game or plays regularly should have all knowledge. There are not a lot of them that it is overwhelming. Although there are roughly 40 cards a faction, it is really only 10-15 cards a faction. A few primary weapons, secondary weapons, 1 orbital laser, defenses... the rest are duplicates. Figuring out synergy isn't too difficult with this particular game in this aspect.

**JohnHwangDD**

OK.

Isn't Weta adding more cards to each of the decks as part of the KS?

Also, as a Magic player, I think the number of duplicates available matters.

**Matt.Kingsley**

Only a handful more. 4 Secondary Weapon Cards and 5 Primary Weapon Cards each, along with a foiled Orbital Strike.

Which given by the demos and the number of dumplicates for such systems I've seen is probably only 1 new Secondary and 1 new Primary for each faction with duplicates.

**Dark Severance**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
Isn't Weta adding more cards to each of the decks as part of the KS?

Also, as a Magic player, I think the number of duplicates available matters.

It is definitely much less than a single Magic release. The number of duplicates do matter but even then not too much. That is why it is a 25 card deck and not a 60 card deck, where duplicates matter much more. The 25 cards is an optimum amount that it gives enough hit points and doesn't require a deep knowledge unlike if you were playing with a 40 card deck where choices matter more. You could technically just throw one of each (except Orbital Strike which can only have one) and still be ok. It would be fun although not as consistent, as you'd have a few times multiple primary weapons in your hand at once. It does give you more burn cards and provides choices, but can work out.

Now to be fair there isn't a meta build for this yet so there might be some "extraordinary way to build" it to be super efficient. The earlier version a couple years ago did suffer from this but many things were modified and removed to fine tune it to the way it is now

It is usually 8 primary weapon cards (2 sets of 4-primary of different types (missile, ballistics, laser so you had choices)), 12 secondary weapon cards (4 sets of 3, usually two different types), 2 buff cards, 2 defense cards, and 1 orbital strike.

Now that said, you could easily just go laser weapons, take buff cards for lasers. The downside is if your opponent has defense cards vs lasers, then it ends up worse on your side. It is usually better to have a couple options, then just go all one type. Most new players have a tendency to want to pick multiple types than just simply loading up on one type. You just don't want to go one of each type because it becomes too situational, two is a fairly good number. Gives you lots of options. You can also go down a couple cards in the secondary weapons to get more buff or defense too. Both would work out still.

That was based on rules I played. I don't know if they have put other limitations other than limit of 4 cards and only 1 orbital strike. There might be other limits they put into it but I currently don't know about those.

**JohnHwangDD**

If I understand correctly, there are at least a dozen unique cards per faction x 4 factions, plus adds so that's at least 50 cards a prospective player should know. By the time the KS finishes, we'll be looking at 75 uniques? Maybe 100? That's not out of line compared to a non-base Magic set.

While there are many similar cards, as in Magic, it's significant to recognize ones are categorically "best", and which ones cluster efficiently. While the meta is not yet stable, one may assume that strategy will start to optimize within the first few months as more and more people become familiar with the card set and its composition.

I'm also somewhat troubled by the deck composition requirements, unless those are notional recommendations.

**Dark Severance**

Inside the Chop Shop Vol. 1: Customising your Heavy Hitter with Leonard Ellis!

Hey, Robot Rumblers!

I hope you brought your sticky tape and glitter, because today we're going to show what's in store for all you Painter's Edition pledgers - with a peek inside the Weta Workshop Chop Shop! And once you’ve mastered the ability to say that ten times fast, we’ll get started.

Now, anyone familiar with Weta Workshop may know that we got our start by pretty much bodging together a bunch of stuff until it resembled something cool. To this day, we remain a handsy kinda group. If it can be found on this earthly plain and we can get it to stick to things, then we want to know about it.

Our custom Heavy Hitters are no different. You’ll get four unpainted, unassembled versions in the Painter’s Edition, on which to go wild!

So what do you do when you have a few dozen lying around and a crew with itchy fingers? Rope them in to customise their own Heavy Hitters! First up: model maker Leonard Ellis.

This talented chap has had a hand in many of Weta Workshop’s collectibles and movie props, including amazing pieces from The Hobbit trilogy and Ghost in the Shell. He’s also helped us take our 2D Heavy Hitter designs into the land of the living, and is pretty much a model-making machine all round. Leonard grabbed himself an unpainted King Wolf and somehow, from the ashes, created this INCREDIBLE hot rod Heavy Hitter, which has the rest of the Workshop in fits of creative ecstasy. Roddy Loco, as he is known, is the result of some very clever kit-bashing, beautiful paintwork, a lot of attention to detail…and patience. All of the patience.

Slicing and dicing with reckless abandon!

So let’s take a closer look. To make his hot little hot rod, Leonard lopped off the missiles, knee pads and that big ole gun King Wolf likes to lug around. Knee pads were replaced with bits of plastic strip tubing that were cut to shape (no fancy equipment needed, scissors should do the job just fine).

The exhaust pipes you can see there are bent welding rod, and the silver lines that give him his snazzy Art Deco style are simply painted plastic strips. You can get those at hobby stores, as well as the static grass that Roddy’s standing on.

There’s a bit of kit-bashing involved here too. The guns that sit atop Roddy Loco are leftover bits from a Wingnut Wings model kit, as is the teddy hiding in his shin (if you look closely you can just make it out!).

Yes, robots have thighs .

To get the rounded angles of the top of the body and thighs (or ‘upper legs’ if that’s too weird), Leonard glued bits of cut styrene tube to get a rounded streamlined effect. Then he blocked the rest in with epoxy putty. That should be available in your neighbourhood model shop as well. Sensing a theme here?

A splash of paint and we’re done!

To finish, Leonard gave his newfangled Heavy Hitter a coat of silver spray paint. Over the top of that, he used an airbrush to apply a clear orange acrylic paint. That’s the bit that gives the model its candy effect.

And that’s how Roddy Loco came to be!

I really wish the game was designed like this instead. It gives me such a Last Exile feeling... I'd love Steam Punk robots

JohnHwangDD wrote:
If I understand correctly, there are at least a dozen unique cards per faction x 4 factions, plus adds so that's at least 50 cards a prospective player should know. By the time the KS finishes, we'll be looking at 75 uniques? Maybe 100? That's not out of line compared to a non-base Magic set.

While there are many similar cards, as in Magic, it's significant to recognize ones are categorically "best", and which ones cluster efficiently. While the meta is not yet stable, one may assume that strategy will start to optimize within the first few months as more and more people become familiar with the card set and its composition.

I'm also somewhat troubled by the deck composition requirements, unless those are notional recommendations.

Unlike Magic though there isn't a new set coming out or multiple sets in a year with a largely consistently, changing, growing environment of cards. About 12 unique cards per faction sounds about right, give or take a couple. There have only been Primary cards sets, 1 set of 5 cards for each faction (1 new card), foil oribtal strikes and the rest have been new sponsor cards which aren't part of the deckbuilding. So basically one new card added and given the direction of the SGs, I wouldn't think new cards are being added at this point. 50 cards a prospective player would know, less than quite a few board games.

I don't know if there are deck composition requirements or not. What I suggested was the base suggestion for a rounded deck. The only requirement (that I'm aware of, as it was the only requirement then) was 25 cards and no more than 1 orbital strike. You technically could put all primary weapons if you wanted or all secondary. We only played with 4x of any card, but given the new Primary Card was a set of 5x, that leads me to believe there isn't a limit of cards. So it probably is take your faction of 39 cards, remove cards until you are at 25 and go.

**JohnHwangDD**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
Looking at the funding on KickTraq, it looks like this will hit $1M or so.

That $1M guess looks to have been high. There's been basically zero interest on Dakka for the past 3 weeks, and it's now looking like it'll be lucky to go from $750k to break much past $800k. I bet Weta's pretty disappointed, but it's totally deserved for how ass the minis look and how meh the gameplay looks. Pre-painting the big models is just lipstick on a pig.

OTOH, Rising Sun has $3M in hand (because the minis are absolutely *gorgeous*, even if it's a Diplomacy game) and is tracking toward $5M on that basis.

Meanwhile, it looks like KD:M 1.5 is likely pulling in $Millions under the radar via pledge manager adds.

I wonder how Weta could have gotten this so wrong.

**PsychoticStorm**

To put it bluntly you simply not like it.

**Vertrucio**

TBH, what they likely got wrong was setting their asking price to a realistic number, and instead fudging it to be lower and hoping that they get enough to cover the base, while scrambling to finish that and all their extras.

And also not putting giant oversized breasts on all the mechs.

**Ronin_eX**

JohnHwangDD wrote:
*snip*

Folks are still doing that "oh, you didn't make over $1M on your KS? You must be so disappointed in you abject and complete failure." posts? In 2017?

After so many high profile multi-million dollar KS flops and disappointments I thought we had gotten over this kind of thing. I mean Robotech made nearly $1.5M? I wonder how they dealt with all of that success? Oh wait, no I remember how now...

But then surely the AvP KS... oh no, wait, never mind...

The only thing that matters at the end of the day is whether they deliver what they say they will. They have actual working prototypes and mock-ups, they had pre-release boxes assembled. Unlike most KS projects this thing is more than just a handful of renders and promises. Hell, it doesn't even look like scope ballooned much, so delays should hopefully be minimal. I'm not seeing anything wrong here, they have their

together more than most KS board games, even the big sellers.

I get that you don't like it, but grave dancing when it still pulled in a six figure sum and succeeded seems pretty bloody petty on the face of it. But hey, who am I to tell you how you spend your two minutes of hate?

Oh well, you were right, this successfully funded game was obviously a failure. Guess Weta's only recourse is to burn everything and go seek enlightenment on a mountaintop. Hopefully next time they remember to add tits, charge an arm and a leg for the basic bundle, and pad out stretch goals with no concern for scope creep! Then they can roll in those KS millions (and delays, and ballooning shipping costs beyond projections due to said delays... oh bother). I'm glad you set 'em straight with your project management expertise. They should pay you or something.