Dust Tactics to be transferred to FFG

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**Hellfury**

There is big news this week coming from AEG. In keeping with our long-standing practice of informing our partners and players of the happenings at AEG, we’d like to make an announcement before the official press release later this week.

Dust Tactics along with a good portion of the Dust Games library is moving to a new home with Fantasy Flight Games. AEG initiated and engineered this new arrangement to all parties involved upon the realization of several factors. First and foremost, our commitment to our players to only take on games we can fully support and our commitment to our partners at Dust Games to make sure their games get the attention they deserve.

The combination of all the Dust Games releases, the scheduled AEG releases, and support for Legend of the Five Rings and Thunderstone had us growing faster than planned.

While not an easy choice to make it is the right one. This is a great deal for each company involved and while we cannot disclose the terms of the transfer, all parties feel they ended up with a winning hand.

AEG will remain as focused and committed as ever to our products and keeping our focus on L5R and upcoming new AEG games. We will continue to help our partners at Dust and Fantasy Flight who have become good friends, to successfully transition, produce and promote these games we love.

So what now? The Fantasy Flight game machine will take over where AEG left off. Fantasy Flight will handle the launch of Dust Tactics and City of Thieves at Gen Con and all games other than The Adventurers line will move to Fantasy Flight.
Questions will be addressed on our forums. http://www.alderac.com/forum/ This is an exciting time for everyone involved. For all players anxiously awaiting these games, Fantasy Flight will announce release plans in the next few days.
We will see you at Gen Con!

The AEG Team

source: http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=123&t=84886

This is seriously odd considering how FFG dropped AT-43 and are now distributing what is essentially a sister game of AT-43 for all intents and purposes...

Not bad just strange.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
For those curious, affected games will be 3 board games set in the Rackham licensed world of Cadwallon and one miniature wargame set in Paolo Parente's weird war II setting.

DUST Tactics

City of Thieves

Arcana

Mad Zeppelin

**His Master's Voice**

Good. The game may have a longer lifespan with FFG.

Well, unless it turns out to be another Mutant Chronicles debacle...

**frozenwastes**

AT-43 had Rackham baggage tied to it. It wasn't worth Alliance's time to carry it, and FFG figured that out too.

Dust doesn't seem to have that baggage. New game, first release as a boardgame type set. Should fit right into FFG's normal way of doing business.

Going with FFG also makes the game very widely available. Could be that there's just the best ones to publish it rather than AEG. AEG has it's handsfull with how much the L5R CCG took off.

**His Master's Voice**

Well, the fact MC had weird packaging, weird scale and was weird in general didn't help either.

A shame really since the MC franchise if one of the best out there in therms of background. I loved Warzone, played Doom Trooper before I switched to Magic full time and even had a large collection of Dark Eden, the best non-Magic card game I've ever played. FFG could pick it up as a LCG and make it an instant success without changing a single rule. Probably won't happen now...

**JohnHwangDD**

Perhaps FFG can merge the two games?

**frozenwastes**

I thought Mutant Chronicles was in a much bigger scale.

**12thRonin**

The original Warzone / MC was 28mm. The new "game" was 54mm (IIRC).

**Savnock**

Yeah. They also never got over the totally ridiculous vehicles in the original game. If the silliness had been dialed down a bit and unique figures had been emphasized, MC at 54mm could have been everything Inquisitor failed at.

Instead, it's in the discount bins. Oh well.

**Hellfury**

frozenwastes wrote:AT-43 had Rackham baggage tied to it. It wasn't worth Alliance's time to carry it, and FFG figured that out too.

Dust doesn't seem to have that baggage. New game, first release as a boardgame type set. Should fit right into FFG's normal way of doing business.

AT-43, with as much as rackham pissed of customers with confrontation, had little if any baggage associated with it. It was a game always in the prepainted spectrum so there was never a reason to compare it to anything else as confrontation was.

I am not sure why you say why it wasnt worth Alliances time to carry it. Care to give a source for this assertion? FFG figuring what out? FFG dropped AT-43 so that they could (paraphrase) "concentrate on their own miniature wargames". Since AEG was the people to distribute DUST, I really doubt it was DUST that FFG dropped AT-43 for.

DUST may not have the baggage, but FFG DOES have baggage from how they handled AT-43 (blame equally shared by rackham, in all fairness) for how they treated the AT-43 distribution. Its the sister game of AT-43...and many who did pay full retail for AT-43 do not fondly recall how FFG handled this and retailers who got a meager 30% markup for selling AT-43 only to have FFG drop AT-43 and sell it in firesales for 50+% off also recall this with less than ecstatic enthusiasm.

AT-43 is a boardgame just like DUST is. In actuality, there is little difference mechanically in how the games play if rumors are to be believed. AT-43 should have fit right in with the FFG business model as well. I love FFG and their boardgames and know many of their great employees personally, but their history in handling this sort of game leaves me feeling quite worried.

frozenwastes wrote:Going with FFG also makes the game very widely available. Could be that there's just the best ones to publish it rather than AEG. AEG has it's handsfull with how much the L5R CCG took off.

Despite the above, I agree with this though. They are likely the best way to get this game distributed.

**Kroothawk**

MC was an interesting miniature line with an interesting background, a nice alternative to 40k (I esp. liked the Blood Berets and Trenchers

).
And I would LOVE to get hold of some rare ridiculous vehicles like the resin Bauhaus tank! But you pay ridiculous prices on the rare occasions one hits ebay!

**His Master's Voice**

Kroothawk wrote:MC was an interesting miniature line with an interesting background, a nice alternative to 40k (I esp. liked the Blood Berets and Trenchers ).

I guess you mean Warzone rather than the FFG fiasco. If so, yeah, the visual ethos the whole setting had was very strong, mostly thanks to Paul Bonner's stunning illustrations. A bit daft at times (Capitol Heavy Marines looking like American football players

) but it's not like other setting weren't daft too.

Shame the quality of most of their minis was low and it got better only a moment before the whole thing tanked (again).

**skrulnik**

the jetbike/skimmers and walkers that looked like those coin operated childrens rides outside Walgreens were also really bad designs.

**frozenwastes**

Hellfury wrote:I am not sure why you say why it wasnt worth Alliances time to carry it. Care to give a source for this assertion? FFG figuring what out? FFG dropped AT-43 so that they could (paraphrase) "concentrate on their own miniature wargames". Since AEG was the people to distribute DUST, I really doubt it was DUST that FFG dropped AT-43 for.

The baggage that made Alliance stop distributing AT-43 was Rackham's trade terms. Unreasonably large minimum order levels that meant Alliance had to take on a lot of risk and allocate a lot of capital to have products sit in their warehouse. That's why Alliance dropped them.

FFG dropped them for the purposes you stated. They found it not worth their time. I'm also guessing Rackham tried to pull the same thing with FFG as they did with Alliance.

DUST may not have the baggage, but FFG DOES have baggage from how they handled AT-43 (blame equally shared by rackham, in all fairness)

I meant baggage from a logistics/distribution standpoint. I don't think there's that many people angry at FFG for stopping the sale of AT-43. If it was selling great and flying out the door, they wouldn't have dropped it.

AT-43 is a boardgame just like DUST is. In actuality, there is little difference mechanically in how the games play if rumors are to be believed.

I certainly hope not. Or if it is, I hope the added board game elements speed things up a bit. What part of AT-43 was a board game? Did it come with a board or tiles to play on? No "board" and yet still a board game?

AT-43 should have fit right in with the FFG business model as well. I love FFG and their boardgames and know many of their great employees personally, but their history in handling this sort of game leaves me feeling quite worried.

They don't do as well with any product line that has many, many SKUs, rulebooks and individually sold items. Their core business is board games that sell as single SKU units with maybe an expansion or five. I don't think any of their more individually packaged stuff does nearly as well as their board games. Alteast, that's the sense I get from talking with distributors.

**Hellfury**

frozenwastes wrote:The baggage that made Alliance stop distributing AT-43 was Rackham's trade terms. Unreasonably large minimum order levels that meant Alliance had to take on a lot of risk and allocate a lot of capital to have products sit in their warehouse. That's why Alliance dropped them.

Since it is hearsay I wont press further. Myself, I heard different. But in fairness I can see the logic behind it.

frozenwastes wrote:FFG dropped them for the purposes you stated. They found it not worth their time. I'm also guessing Rackham tried to pull the same thing with FFG as they did with Alliance.

Not interested in guesses.

frozenwastes wrote:I meant baggage from a logistics/distribution standpoint. I don't think there's that many people angry at FFG for stopping the sale of AT-43. If it was selling great and flying out the door, they wouldn't have dropped it.

Well, we cant know for sure if people are mad or not for no longer distributing AT-43 for north america as that is more supposition. All I know is that I cant find it anywhere unless I go online.
From what I understand Rackham itself could not keep up with the demand and was the primary cause for strife between the two companies. Which is odd because FFG dont have a lot of moral high ground in meeting their own deadlines that they give themselves and advertise to the public.

AT-43 is a boardgame just like DUST is. In actuality, there is little difference mechanically in how the games play if rumors are to be believed.

frozenwastes wrote:I certainly hope not. Or if it is, I hope the added board game elements speed things up a bit. What part of AT-43 was a board game? Did it come with a board or tiles to play on? No "board" and yet still a board game?

Like I said, AT-43 is a board game. It does come with tiles/maps and is meant to be played that way. Just like DUST. It comes with miniatures and CAN be played like the typical miniatures wargame we all know and play, but many factors (rules, distance measurement, scenarios) promote the smaller board and designated tile layouts AT-43 has. It just simply plays better on that scale as intended.

**Duncan_Idaho**

It does come with tiles/maps and is meant to be played that way.

Sorry to prrof you wrong, but if you check the first rules pages of the rulebook you will find out that it is intended for playing with 3d-terrain AND 2d-terrain. Playing with boards is optional, but not the solely intended way of playing.

**Hellfury**

Duncan_Idaho wrote:
It does come with tiles/maps and is meant to be played that way.

Sorry to prrof you wrong, but if you check the first rules pages of the rulebook you will find out that it is intended for playing with 3d-terrain AND 2d-terrain. Playing with boards is optional, but not the solely intended way of playing.

Yeah, you can play it on a 3d terrain board. I don't beleive I ever implied that a player couldn't and that maps/tiles the soleyintended way of playing. I simply asserted that it was meant to be played with the maps/tiles. The rulebook may say that you can play it on a 3d terrain board, but there are many liberties and house rules you will have to make for various bit of terrain that were never detailed in the rules.

Looking at the scenarios for example makes it pretty apparent that the intention was for it to be played that way, allowing a 3d terrain board notwithstanding.

**Alpharius**

I'm just hoping that this now means we'll actually see this game hit the shelves, as for the longest time, DUST TACTICS was looking like so much vaporware...

**Duncan_Idaho**

The rulebook may say that you can play it on a 3d terrain board, but there are many liberties and house rules you will have to make for various bit of terrain that were never detailed in the rules.

Definitely no, most of it is in the back of the book and what else is needed cann be easily deducted from this rules and from the newer rules in the Frostbite book. You need aproximately the same ammount of rules when you want to play 40K in a similar way (being able to destruct houses, climb ladders, etc.) and 40K is as far as I know no board game.

Please read the rules book before coming up with such bold claims.