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The game is not a bust where I live(Grand Master sets all sold), but it requires a kick in the arse to get moving.

I also think it is a bit hampered by the fact that it is aiming for loyalists to the franchise who are already knee-deep(or chin) in plastic crack for the main series. Hell, I bought myself the Grand Master box on release and I still haven't managed to get around gluing it together because the core 40k releases have been coming fast along with 2.0 of AoS. Add Kill Team on top of that and you got a stew going.

I agree with some of the posters a good starter set would do wonders. Those things could entice new players to the franchise and branch the game out to a wider audience.

Picking up the new Titan Battlegroup bundle with a rules box makes for a pretty good starter set. Most discounters will do that for around £100 and you get a better mix of models than in the GME box.

If thread about a bust is still going...it is a bust...If it is producing a good game? Their would have been a thread made about it, being good?

Around here, i've been having problems finding opponents.

I've played 10 games so far, ran 4 demos to show people how to play, and show them how fun the game is. Everyone seems to like it, but I have yet to get new players to jump in.

Most games I play are against the local store owner. He loves the game, claims it's currently his favorite GW game.

Why doenst he try to push it more? The battlebox isn't available to him. It wasnt on his order form, he asked 3 times so far why he couldnt order it, and he hasnt received any anwser. I have to lend him my reaver so he can make a legal list. He already has 2 warlords, 2 warhounds, 3 knights, but wants the battlebox to expand his army. It's a good deal, so I understand why he wants to wait.

I'm still waiting for my cerastus knight command terminals, they are somewhere in transit apparently. Shipping here in Canada sucks right now, the postal service going on strikes on and off again for the past 2 months.

I'm not discouraged yet, i'm sure people will play in time, I just have to be patient. More units have been coming out at a nice pace. Evey month since it's release the game has been supported. The new supplement will be out soon, and I'll use it to promot the gamee even more, but until then, I'm finding it really hard to find players.

I've painted more in the last 3 months than I have in the past 10 years, the models are great, the rules are great, I'm having a lot of fun playing the game. I don't think I've ever had a full paint army in any system before, but I do now!

It's not a bust, but like necromunda and bloodbowl before it, the slow release is really making people wait before investing in these games, but bloodbowl and necromunda have really picked up in the last few months, I expect titanicus to do the same soon enough.

The lack of groups is quite annoying...

I live in Suffolk(UK), and I'm always coming back to the thought of setting up a Titanicus group here. There are GW stores in the local towns; Bury, Ipswich and Cambridge, but I haven't visited one of them in a while to see if they are selling AT yet.

Perhaps an independent group could have a 2-10mm scale focus, with AT being played alongside games of Dropzone Commander, old Epic or Horizon Wars - or whatever games are popular in that scale.

These games are also quite similar to classic wargames based on Waterloo and the world wars, so there might be a shared interest?

Spectral Ceramite wrote:
If thread about a bust is still going...it is a bust...If it is producing a good game? Their would have been a thread made about it, being good?

lol. Can't come up with more ridiculous theory?

tneva82 wrote:

Spectral Ceramite wrote:
If thread about a bust is still going...it is a bust...If it is producing a good game? Their would have been a thread made about it, being good?

lol. Can't come up with more ridiculous theory?

The most active threads on AT18 and 30k forums are whether the games are dead or not, with the people defending it saying "well it's played in my area" and everyone else saying "well I haven't been able to get a game at all". If you have to live in certain towns in England or Poland to get a game, but can't find a game in any city in 3/4 of the states in the US, or most of the rest of the world even where 40k and AoS are played daily, there's a problem. My parents live in Ohio, I regularly travel to Alabama for both work and football games, and I live in South Florida. If I can't find a game of something in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Orlando, Tampa, or Miami, there's a problem with the popularity of that game. I can find a game of 40k, AoS, Kill Team, Xwing or Warmahordes in any of those places. I cannot find a single person playing AT18 (or 30k) in those areas. I have tried the local gaming forum here, reddit, Facebook groups, calling the owners of FLGS, and calling the managers of GW/Warhammer stores. Maybe if the stores stocked anything for these games, rulebooks, models, etc, or GW ran an event for these games like their recent Kill Team campaign, that would change. However, their current marketing strategy seems to be releasing specialist games and hoping they sell on nostalgia alone. I'm not sure about the UK or the rest of Europe, but outside of small communities in the most populated areas here in the states, it isn't working.

The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

 Toofast wrote:

The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

From what I've seen, the problem isn't the marketing. It's the supply. My local game store can't get the product. When a new item is released, a few of them arrive and then fly off the shelves. And they're never seen again.

 Toofast wrote:


The most active threads on AT18 and 30k forums are whether the games are dead or not, with the people defending it saying "well it's played in my area" and everyone else saying "well I haven't been able to get a game at all". If you have to live in certain towns in England or Poland to get a game, but can't find a game in any city in 3/4 of the states in the US, or most of the rest of the world even where 40k and AoS are played daily, there's a problem. My parents live in Ohio, I regularly travel to Alabama for both work and football games, and I live in South Florida. If I can't find a game of something in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Orlando, Tampa, or Miami, there's a problem with the popularity of that game. I can find a game of 40k, AoS, Kill Team, Xwing or Warmahordes in any of those places. I cannot find a single person playing AT18 (or 30k) in those areas. I have tried the local gaming forum here, reddit, Facebook groups, calling the owners of FLGS, and calling the managers of GW/Warhammer stores. Maybe if the stores stocked anything for these games, rulebooks, models, etc, or GW ran an event for these games like their recent Kill Team campaign, that would change. However, their current marketing strategy seems to be releasing specialist games and hoping they sell on nostalgia alone. I'm not sure about the UK or the rest of Europe, but outside of small communities in the most populated areas here in the states, it isn't working.

The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

It might be that they are getting the range of products up to speed this side of christmas and then in the new year perhaps use Titandeath to promote a more international audience with that background story - especially as its the big titan battle of the HH era.

The Black Library book has just been released and the AT expansion is probably going to drop in either January or Febuary...maybe thats when GW will push the game.

How long did the original AT or Epic take to get going?

Eumerin wrote:

 Toofast wrote:

The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

From what I've seen, the problem isn't the marketing. It's the supply. My local game store can't get the product. When a new item is released, a few of them arrive and then fly off the shelves. And they're never seen again.

I spoke to the owner of my FLGS tonight about the topic. I was told that typically their distributor sends them at least 1 box of each new product. When AT came out, the distributor told them not to order any and to make it a special order only line because they had such low demand from all of their customers. So basically GW announced it, nobody called their FLGS to order it, so no FLGS ordered it from their distributor. This store I frequent has the new delaque on the shelf as well as several other gangs, some blood bowl teams, WMH, Infinity, Xwing, SW legions, the new Fallout miniatures game, etc. AT18 is literally the only GW product or even the only decently popular wargame they don't stock at all on the shelf. The owner talked to the regulars that play in all the 40k events and there was just no interest in ordering the stuff or playing the game. Cost of the starter set and scale being completely incompatible to use the minis for anything else (lots of people buy necro minis to proxy as 40k units, or for D&D) prevented anyone from being even remotely interested in starting the game.

If it had been properly marketed, supply wouldn't be an issue. If several people at each FLGS were special ordering this stuff and then showing up to play games after they received and built it, the stores would be ordering it and stocking it on the shelf. Instead, it was poorly marketed, the starter set was uninspiring and overpriced, and as a result nobody ordered it, nobody plays it, so the stores aren't stocking it. My FLGS could put 3 boxes of each AT product on the shelf tomorrow and it would just sit there unless I bought it to play with my gf on our table at home. Supply is driven by demand, especially in this industry. If there's demand for a certain game and the store has to special order the same thing multiple times, they will just add it to their weekly order sheet. As long as the demand isn't there, the supply won't be, either.

GW could help the demand by having their own stores stock it where it doesn't cost them anything to do so. If my FLGS stocks a product and it doesn't sell, they're out the money for that product. If a Warhammer store stocks a product and it doesn't sell, it can be transferred to a different store or back to the warehouse in Tennessee and shipped out to an online customer. GW could also run a campaign event like they did for Kill Team. The demand for Kill Team shot through the roof at my FLGS once the campaign was announced. 15 people signed up and nearly all of them bought stuff at the store for a new team. Why not do a campaign like that with medals, acrylic tokens, maybe some special terminals, for AT? Do a 1k point escalation league going up to 2k to make the buy in cheap but get people to spend more down the road if they like it. That is how you get people playing your new game. Not announcing it and then pretending it doesn't exist by not encouraging FLGS to stock it, not allowing your own stores to stock it, and not running any events for it.

 Toofast wrote:

Eumerin wrote:

 Toofast wrote:

The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

From what I've seen, the problem isn't the marketing. It's the supply. My local game store can't get the product. When a new item is released, a few of them arrive and then fly off the shelves. And they're never seen again.

I spoke to the owner of my FLGS tonight about the topic. I was told that typically their distributor sends them at least 1 box of each new product. When AT came out, the distributor told them not to order any and to make it a special order only line because they had such low demand from all of their customers. So basically GW announced it, nobody called their FLGS to order it, so no FLGS ordered it from their distributor. This store I frequent has the new delaque on the shelf as well as several other gangs, some blood bowl teams, WMH, Infinity, Xwing, SW legions, the new Fallout miniatures game, etc. AT18 is literally the only GW product or even the only decently popular wargame they don't stock at all on the shelf. The owner talked to the regulars that play in all the 40k events and there was just no interest in ordering the stuff or playing the game. Cost of the starter set and scale being completely incompatible to use the minis for anything else (lots of people buy necro minis to proxy as 40k units, or for D&D) prevented anyone from being even remotely interested in starting the game.

If it had been properly marketed, supply wouldn't be an issue. If several people at each FLGS were special ordering this stuff and then showing up to play games after they received and built it, the stores would be ordering it and stocking it on the shelf. Instead, it was poorly marketed, the starter set was uninspiring and overpriced, and as a result nobody ordered it, nobody plays it, so the stores aren't stocking it. My FLGS could put 3 boxes of each AT product on the shelf tomorrow and it would just sit there unless I bought it to play with my gf on our table at home. Supply is driven by demand, especially in this industry. If there's demand for a certain game and the store has to special order the same thing multiple times, they will just add it to their weekly order sheet. As long as the demand isn't there, the supply won't be, either.

Your local store and my local store apparently exist in two separate universes. As I said above, my store CANNOT GET THE PRODUCT past the initial roll-out wave. It's not a matter of marketing. It's a matter of THERE IS NO PRODUCT. So once the store's initial three Reavers sold out (and they sold out quickly), no more showed up. When the new Warlord was released, it showed up in the store and sold out almost immediately. The same happened with the new knights. The latter two are products that were released just within the last few weeks. There's zero difficulty selling the product. Again, it is FLYING OFF THE SHELVES. The problem is that my local store can't get it back in stock once the initial allotment has sold out. The only thing that they've been able to keep in stock is the rules set.

This is a serious issue given that new players need product. And if the store can't keep the product in stock, then it's difficult to get a group up and running. A potential player walks by, sees the game being played (and it was being played in the store last Monday night), and goes over to the GW section (which at my local store has quite a lot of GW stuff) to check out the game. But there aren't any figures for sale. And that means that player can't buy in because they can't get the figures.

No amount of marketing is going to resolve a supply chain problem.

Eumerin wrote:

 Toofast wrote:

Eumerin wrote:

 Toofast wrote:

The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

From what I've seen, the problem isn't the marketing. It's the supply. My local game store can't get the product. When a new item is released, a few of them arrive and then fly off the shelves. And they're never seen again.

I spoke to the owner of my FLGS tonight about the topic. I was told that typically their distributor sends them at least 1 box of each new product. When AT came out, the distributor told them not to order any and to make it a special order only line because they had such low demand from all of their customers. So basically GW announced it, nobody called their FLGS to order it, so no FLGS ordered it from their distributor. This store I frequent has the new delaque on the shelf as well as several other gangs, some blood bowl teams, WMH, Infinity, Xwing, SW legions, the new Fallout miniatures game, etc. AT18 is literally the only GW product or even the only decently popular wargame they don't stock at all on the shelf. The owner talked to the regulars that play in all the 40k events and there was just no interest in ordering the stuff or playing the game. Cost of the starter set and scale being completely incompatible to use the minis for anything else (lots of people buy necro minis to proxy as 40k units, or for D&D) prevented anyone from being even remotely interested in starting the game.

If it had been properly marketed, supply wouldn't be an issue. If several people at each FLGS were special ordering this stuff and then showing up to play games after they received and built it, the stores would be ordering it and stocking it on the shelf. Instead, it was poorly marketed, the starter set was uninspiring and overpriced, and as a result nobody ordered it, nobody plays it, so the stores aren't stocking it. My FLGS could put 3 boxes of each AT product on the shelf tomorrow and it would just sit there unless I bought it to play with my gf on our table at home. Supply is driven by demand, especially in this industry. If there's demand for a certain game and the store has to special order the same thing multiple times, they will just add it to their weekly order sheet. As long as the demand isn't there, the supply won't be, either.

Your local store and my local store apparently exist in two separate universes. As I said above, my store CANNOT GET THE PRODUCT past the initial roll-out wave. It's not a matter of marketing. It's a matter of THERE IS NO PRODUCT. So once the store's initial three Reavers sold out (and they sold out quickly), no more showed up. When the new Warlord was released, it showed up in the store and sold out almost immediately. The same happened with the new knights. The latter two are products that were released just within the last few weeks. There's zero difficulty selling the product. Again, it is FLYING OFF THE SHELVES. The problem is that my local store can't get it back in stock once the initial allotment has sold out. The only thing that they've been able to keep in stock is the rules set.

This is a serious issue given that new players need product. And if the store can't keep the product in stock, then it's difficult to get a group up and running. A potential player walks by, sees the game being played (and it was being played in the store last Monday night), and goes over to the GW section (which at my local store has quite a lot of GW stuff) to check out the game. But there aren't any figures for sale. And that means that player can't buy in because they can't get the figures.

No amount of marketing is going to resolve a supply chain problem.

Then it's an issue with the distributor your store is using. I haven't seen anything for AT go out of stock on the GW site. GW has no problem producing enough to meet demand. My FLGS is able to order as much as they want, whenever they want if someone wants to buy it. I'm not in a different universe, just a different country. I see a lot of people posting about playing the game in Canada, UK, Poland, etc. I'm still trying to find anyone that plays or stocks the game in the 3 states I actually spend time in, or really anywhere in the US outside of the DC area or Bay Area in CA. It seems there's 2 isolated pockets of people playing it and 40 something states where it isn't played at all either at FLGS or GW/Warhammer stores.

 Toofast wrote:
[
Then it's an issue with the distributor your store is using. I haven't seen anything for AT go out of stock on the GW site. GW has no problem producing enough to meet demand. My FLGS is able to order as much as they want, whenever they want if someone wants to buy it. I'm not in a different universe, just a different country. I see a lot of people posting about playing the game in Canada, UK, Poland, etc. I'm still trying to find anyone that plays or stocks the game in the 3 states I actually spend time in, or really anywhere in the US outside of the DC area or Bay Area in CA. It seems there's 2 isolated pockets of people playing it and 40 something states where it isn't played at all either at FLGS or GW/Warhammer stores.

It's not the distributor. It's stock. GW makes sure that its mail order store has enough to cover projected demands, and then everyone else gets the left overs. Usually, this is fine as there are typically more than enough "left overs". That doesn't appear to be the case in this instance. You've already stated that your FLGS isn't ordering AT product, as it believes that the product won't sell. So your store's typical practices have nothing to do with the ability of stores to get product for AT, since your local store apparently isn't even trying to do so. And as I stated above, my local store has no problem keeping every single other GW product in stock. It's only AT that they can't get replenishment on.

And as an added data point - I saw it mentioned just recently in one of the threads on this forum (though unfortunately I don't remember which one) that the Warlord and the Reaver are two of GW's best selling miniatures this year. If true, then a *lot* of AT miniatures are selling.

In short, the information that's getting back to me supports the idea that GW and SG completely underestimated the interest that this new game would engender. That indicates that the problem isn't marketing. The problem is logistics and manufacturing.

Riddle me this - if AT is such a bust, then why has Specialist Games already released a variant Warlord Titan, announced a variant Warlord Reaver, and released a completely new kit of knights? Does that sound like a game that's not moving product?

We also know from designers that since the SG, especially AT, have sold exceptionally well, they are getting a larger studio with more members and what not. It's as far from a bust as games can be, which doesn't mean it's still readily available everywhere or easy to get a large local group on board with.

Eumerin wrote:

 Toofast wrote:
[
Then it's an issue with the distributor your store is using. I haven't seen anything for AT go out of stock on the GW site. GW has no problem producing enough to meet demand. My FLGS is able to order as much as they want, whenever they want if someone wants to buy it. I'm not in a different universe, just a different country. I see a lot of people posting about playing the game in Canada, UK, Poland, etc. I'm still trying to find anyone that plays or stocks the game in the 3 states I actually spend time in, or really anywhere in the US outside of the DC area or Bay Area in CA. It seems there's 2 isolated pockets of people playing it and 40 something states where it isn't played at all either at FLGS or GW/Warhammer stores.

It's not the distributor. It's stock. GW makes sure that its mail order store has enough to cover projected demands, and then everyone else gets the left overs. Usually, this is fine as there are typically more than enough "left overs". That doesn't appear to be the case in this instance. You've already stated that your FLGS isn't ordering AT product, as it believes that the product won't sell. So your store's typical practices have nothing to do with the ability of stores to get product for AT, since your local store apparently isn't even trying to do so. And as I stated above, my local store has no problem keeping every single other GW product in stock. It's only AT that they can't get replenishment on.

And as an added data point - I saw it mentioned just recently in one of the threads on this forum (though unfortunately I don't remember which one) that the Warlord and the Reaver are two of GW's best selling miniatures this year. If true, then a *lot* of AT miniatures are selling.

In short, the information that's getting back to me supports the idea that GW and SG completely underestimated the interest that this new game would engender. That indicates that the problem isn't marketing. The problem is logistics and manufacturing.

Riddle me this - if AT is such a bust, then why has Specialist Games already released a variant Warlord Titan, announced a variant Warlord Reaver, and released a completely new kit of knights? Does that sound like a game that's not moving product?

My store had 1 person order it just to paint, but he hasn't been back. I inquired about ordering it because my gf and I can play it at home even if nobody else in our area plays and was told their distributor has no issue getting the stock. Maybe it's different in Canada. I have to wonder how those kits are selling so well if they aren't selling in any of the states I frequent, and everything else is selling there. Believe me, I wish it wasn't the case as I love the models and the rules for the game look like tons of fun. I just wish I could find a community for it, or even generate any interest at all in starting a community myself.

Just want to ask the people who actual played this game: How hard is it to score an engine kill? Im watching a battle report where an entire army is pretty much shooting at one reaver and yet since the damage have to be randomly generated it seems it takes so much to kill a single titan that it's less titanic firepower and more spitballs...

 Toofast wrote:


The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

no one is denying that the marketing was and is completely fubar, that is the only flaw about the game.
so little models yet they drip feed it over several months when everything should have been released whitin 6 weeks including the upgrade sprues, and they make the huge error of releasing the moust expensive model first just cuz some egg head whitin GW thinks that warlords looks cooler then warhounds.
(my local 3rd part dealer ((web shop)) stock the entire model range, the warhounds and reavers sells out faster then he can order a new shipment from GW, while the old warlord still havent sold out its first wave)

this is the problem of having the game whitin GW, they, dont understand how to release the game cuz they haven done anythign like it for over 20 years, and their release plan simply dont have time or space for it, it would have been better if the game was placed exlusivly under FW.

 Toofast wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

Spectral Ceramite wrote:
If thread about a bust is still going...it is a bust...If it is producing a good game? Their would have been a thread made about it, being good?

lol. Can't come up with more ridiculous theory?

The most active threads on AT18 and 30k forums are whether the games are dead or not, with the people defending it saying "well it's played in my area" and everyone else saying "well I haven't been able to get a game at all". If you have to live in certain towns in England or Poland to get a game, but can't find a game in any city in 3/4 of the states in the US, or most of the rest of the world even where 40k and AoS are played daily, there's a problem. My parents live in Ohio, I regularly travel to Alabama for both work and football games, and I live in South Florida. If I can't find a game of something in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Orlando, Tampa, or Miami, there's a problem with the popularity of that game. I can find a game of 40k, AoS, Kill Team, Xwing or Warmahordes in any of those places. I cannot find a single person playing AT18 (or 30k) in those areas. I have tried the local gaming forum here, reddit, Facebook groups, calling the owners of FLGS, and calling the managers of GW/Warhammer stores. Maybe if the stores stocked anything for these games, rulebooks, models, etc, or GW ran an event for these games like their recent Kill Team campaign, that would change. However, their current marketing strategy seems to be releasing specialist games and hoping they sell on nostalgia alone. I'm not sure about the UK or the rest of Europe, but outside of small communities in the most populated areas here in the states, it isn't working.

The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

Dakkadakka is more of 40k forum so less activity is hardly evidence. Howabout check activity on you know actual at community? Are you claiming historical games are dead because 40k crowd isn't talking about it? Lol. Howabout reports of sale success. My flgs couldn't get reavers for a while as they had ran out. Warlord and reaver are among gw top releases for year.

Just because you choose to ignore evidence to contrary doesn't mean game is bust


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
Just want to ask the people who actual played this game: How hard is it to score an engine kill? Im watching a battle report where an entire army is pretty much shooting at one reaver and yet since the damage have to be randomly generated it seems it takes so much to kill a single titan that it's less titanic firepower and more spitballs...

Titans are described as having powerfull weapons but also powerful defences. Void shields are, as long as they are up, 100% impenetrable to guns. Throw up 10000 mega ton nuke over titan and it doesn't care. If titans were destroyed easily there wouldn't be much left anymore ;-) And titans being tough also helps avoiding 40k syndrome where first two turns are most crucial and wiping more important than scenarios.

As for BR without seeing what titans, what weapons and what dice rolls hard to say. Could be bad luck, could be bad play by forgetting you can actually take aimed shots. Take example from my last game. Reaver had taken some pot shots previous turn knocking some shields. Then warlord fired up(after quake cannon had turned it to point at the reaver) fired. First carapace laser blasters knocked down shields(crucial). Then sunfury plasma fired max power and got couple hits to legs as it turned out causing huge damage there. With this another sunfury powered to max and took _aimed shots_. Hit little bit more to legs immobilizing the reaver and near dead. Another reaver then took aimed shots with turbo laser destructor(had still laser blaster and gatling blaster(which was -2 to hit though due to LOS issues so couldn't take aimed shot. Specifically the plasma warlord was partially in way!) left in case first weapon fails) fired again aimed shots and got the 1 hit needed. Dead reaver.

Some light fire on previous turn, warlord+part of reaver to take down one reaver. Can't expect much faster if you don't want game end in like turn 3 because everything's dead.

Found a store that supports the game with a community of ten or twelve people once we unite them.



I also managed to snag myself this. The battlegroup was the last one in the store.

tneva82 wrote:
Dakkadakka is more of 40k forum so less activity is hardly evidence. How about check activity on you know actual at community? Are you claiming historical games are dead because 40k crowd isn't talking about it? Lol. Howabout reports of sale success. My flgs couldn't get reavers for a while as they had ran out. Warlord and reaver are among gw top releases for year.

Just because you choose to ignore evidence to contrary doesn't mean game is bust

The game overall might not be a bust. Locally it very much is a bust. I got the battlegroup and have offered to provide 2 maniples and teach people how to play, I still can't generate any interest. I see it's doing very well in the UK, other parts of Europe, as well as the DC metro area and Bay area here in the US. However, trying to get a game in anytown USA (even places where you can easily find games of 30k, 40k, AoS, WMH, Infinity, Xwing, Blood Bowl, and Necromunda) is downright impossible. Finding a store that even stocks the game on their shelves, whether FLGS or GW/Warhammer, is equally impossible. If a game is the most popular game ever in China but you can't find anyone playing it within 1000 miles of where you live, is it a bust? Well, to people in China it isn't. That doesn't make it seem like a popular game to someone in Florida.

tneva82 wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:
Just want to ask the people who actual played this game: How hard is it to score an engine kill? Im watching a battle report where an entire army is pretty much shooting at one reaver and yet since the damage have to be randomly generated it seems it takes so much to kill a single titan that it's less titanic firepower and more spitballs...

Titans are described as having powerfull weapons but also powerful defences. Void shields are, as long as they are up, 100% impenetrable to guns. Throw up 10000 mega ton nuke over titan and it doesn't care. If titans were destroyed easily there wouldn't be much left anymore ;-) And titans being tough also helps avoiding 40k syndrome where first two turns are most crucial and wiping more important than scenarios.

As for BR without seeing what titans, what weapons and what dice rolls hard to say. Could be bad luck, could be bad play by forgetting you can actually take aimed shots. Take example from my last game. Reaver had taken some pot shots previous turn knocking some shields. Then warlord fired up(after quake cannon had turned it to point at the reaver) fired. First carapace laser blasters knocked down shields(crucial). Then sunfury plasma fired max power and got couple hits to legs as it turned out causing huge damage there. With this another sunfury powered to max and took _aimed shots_. Hit little bit more to legs immobilizing the reaver and near dead. Another reaver then took aimed shots with turbo laser destructor(had still laser blaster and gatling blaster(which was -2 to hit though due to LOS issues so couldn't take aimed shot. Specifically the plasma warlord was partially in way!) left in case first weapon fails) fired again aimed shots and got the 1 hit needed. Dead reaver.

Some light fire on previous turn, warlord+part of reaver to take down one reaver. Can't expect much faster if you don't want game end in like turn 3 because everything's dead.

here's the battle report I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPH3mnrhGzI

I never see anyone take call shots in those games either, so I guess that could be a problem. And, I made the post before there was the first true kill I have seen in a battle report, but it felt like the reaver took a whole lot of fire before It went down in the game. I guess I would have to play to really see how it is. Thanks for explaining some aspects though!

 Tiger9gamer wrote:


here's the battle report I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPH3mnrhGzI

I never see anyone take call shots in those games either, so I guess that could be a problem. And, I made the post before there was the first true kill I have seen in a battle report, but it felt like the reaver took a whole lot of fire before It went down in the game. I guess I would have to play to really see how it is. Thanks for explaining some aspects though!

Well, it's Winters, so you should go in expecting some funny banter and pretty figures, not proper tactics

But yes, the game is intentionally more slow going and requires you to commit if you want to have engines go boom. It takes a lesson from BFG, which James cited as a major influence, where singular ships can exchange fire all day long without doing anything but pinging each others' shields. Pack tactics, coordinated maneuvers and concentration of force are the keys to victory in this game, as you have to push hard to make something break, but when the plan comes together...

 Sherrypie wrote:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:


here's the battle report I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPH3mnrhGzI

I never see anyone take call shots in those games either, so I guess that could be a problem. And, I made the post before there was the first true kill I have seen in a battle report, but it felt like the reaver took a whole lot of fire before It went down in the game. I guess I would have to play to really see how it is. Thanks for explaining some aspects though!

Well, it's Winters, so you should go in expecting some funny banter and pretty figures, not proper tactics

But yes, the game is intentionally more slow going and requires you to commit if you want to have engines go boom. It takes a lesson from BFG, which James cited as a major influence, where singular ships can exchange fire all day long without doing anything but pinging each others' shields. Pack tactics, coordinated maneuvers and concentration of force are the keys to victory in this game, as you have to push hard to make something break, but when the plan comes together...

Oh god that's basically unwatchable. He starts off giving a warlord -1 to hit for long range with his missile launchers, when it should have +1. When a reaver thinks its missile launcher can only fire straight, and that its laser blaster is S10 instead of 8. And like basically everyone who has done a batrep on youtube, they don't realise you get two hits with a blast that lands fully on a titan's base.

It may genuinely be affecting the perception of the game that "influencers" are doing such an awful job of demonstrating it. Obviously nothing dies if your guns are so much less effective than they are supposed to be.

I do wish they'd given us different guns for warlords instead of pairs. They easily could have done sprues with one of each main gun on. It would also have really helped in the game. If you fire two bellicosas all day long for half effect (because you haven't read the rules) then you're about as likely to blow yourself up as you are the enemy.

Hi!

I'd like to offer an alternate scenario to the boom or bust discussions on AT, which I did not see mentioned on this thread.

There are many long time epic scale players that are investing heavily in this game.

The actual rules for us is totally irrelevant. I doubt I will ever use them. However I am buying tons of models for my massive epic forces. Since these are closer to the scale they should have been (the original ones are small and out of scale) a lot of epic player are investing in AT18 to fill out their epic armies with these "truescale" titans.

I would agree that purely based on playing this game by the rules the models are sold for might be more of a "bust", since I doubt they will stand the test of time.

However on the model front I would definitely catagorize it as a "boom", becuase there is a significant amount of epic players like me that look at this game purely as reinforcements for our standing epic armies.

Once weapon sprues and the rest of the knight variants are made available (which looks highly likely at this point), for me at least, I would decleare this games release a success. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

So I think this game's "boom or bust" analysis needs to be a little more deeper than being based how much its being "played" since there are those like me buying a lot of it to play with in an epic system of choice.

That doesnt do much for building a community of AT18 players, but it does contribute to sales that may push the life of the system further along and increase the chance for more models and variants.

Primarch1

 FrozenDwarf wrote:

 Toofast wrote:


The fact that these threads not only exist, but are more popular than any other thread in their respective forum, is fairly strong evidence that something about the marketing strategy for these games isn't working. It's far from the only evidence, but it is evidence. Hand waving it away because you don't like the conclusions drawn from it doesn't make it any less valid.

no one is denying that the marketing was and is completely fubar, that is the only flaw about the game.
so little models yet they drip feed it over several months when everything should have been released whitin 6 weeks including the upgrade sprues, and they make the huge error of releasing the moust expensive model first just cuz some egg head whitin GW thinks that warlords looks cooler then warhounds.
(my local 3rd part dealer ((web shop)) stock the entire model range, the warhounds and reavers sells out faster then he can order a new shipment from GW, while the old warlord still havent sold out its first wave)

this is the problem of having the game whitin GW, they, dont understand how to release the game cuz they haven done anythign like it for over 20 years, and their release plan simply dont have time or space for it, it would have been better if the game was placed exlusivly under FW.

I've seen a few games of the Grandmaster edition where the Warlord wipes out all the enemy Knights in one shot, and then the rest of the game is a few rounds where the Warlords just blow each other to kingdom come. In one of those battle reports, not even the cover of rock made any difference for the poor Knights, which seems silly as they are supposed to use cover to flank enemy titans. Somehow a Warhound / Knight combo seems a better fit...

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

I never see anyone take call shots in those games either, so I guess that could be a problem. And, I made the post before there was the first true kill I have seen in a battle report, but it felt like the reaver took a whole lot of fire before It went down in the game. I guess I would have to play to really see how it is. Thanks for explaining some aspects though!

Well if you don't use aimed shots of course you are at the mercy of location dice and it's going to take more time to bring titan down. When titan has seriously damaged location you should be looking at aimed shots. That's going to take down titan lot faster.

PS. AT group in FB broke 5k member limit. Biggest 40k group I have seen so far is 30k. Not too bad for busted game.

"AT group in FB broke 5k member limit. Biggest 40k group I have seen so far is 30k. Not too bad for busted game."

People are more interested in the models and painting aspects than the actual game play. It costs a lot to get into this game and I doubt very much that it will stand with time.

wildger wrote:
"AT group in FB broke 5k member limit. Biggest 40k group I have seen so far is 30k. Not too bad for busted game."

People are more interested in the models and painting aspects than the actual game play. It costs a lot to get into this game and I doubt very much that it will stand with time.

It actually doesn't cost that much. I got the battlegroup box set today for £75 from dark sphere. That's something around 1200 points of titans. If you got the rules, a second reaver and a box of 3 knights you'd have an axiom maniple and a 1750 point list for maybe £150. Under £200 even at RRP.

As others have said many times, this was a marketing fail by GW but the underlying game is good. The GME was too big and too expensive. It made people think this was a game that would cost you a grand to play properly, but it really isn't. I got the GME off ebay for £165 and a plasma/fist warlord. My total spend so far has been under £300 and I've got something like 3000 points worth of stuff. I've probably got one more warlord than I'll ever need, so I might sell one after I've seen the maniples in titandeath. I have to admit I'm tempted to build a maniple of 5 warlords but so far I've only basecoated my first!

wildger wrote:
"AT group in FB broke 5k member limit. Biggest 40k group I have seen so far is 30k. Not too bad for busted game."

People are more interested in the models and painting aspects than the actual game play. It costs a lot to get into this game and I doubt very much that it will stand with time.

It's only just hitting it's stride though. And whether people are into it for painting or playing - it's still selling.

Biggest drawback at launch was a paucity of weapon options for the Warlord. Given that's the traditional powerhouse, having just one kit out meant the other Titan Classes had less choice from their own dakka. After all, the Twin Volcano Cannons are for your killshots. So everyone else is more geared toward rapid shield stripping.

Now? Now we're starting to see that change up a bit. And as others come out, so the game widens. As I've said since the get go, I really want to play with Concussive Weapons - because spinning an enemy Titan out of an otherwise carefully selected LoF is potentially game winning.

I too ordered a Battle Group from Darksphere for £75 just yesterday. Should be turning up today...in fact, hold on.....*checks Royal Mail*, nads. Need to go pick it up from the Post Office tomorrow or Sunday. Well, that's a PITA I could do without!

Previously, I had but the core rules, A Warlord and a Knight Banner. Was too pricey for me, and found finding stuff in stock was tricksy.

Now? Now I've got a decent Maniple - and certainly enough to be able to vary my maniple with just another couple of purchases.