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Hear hear!

 agnosto wrote:
Mark, let me just go on record here for thanking you, from the bottom of my heart, for being such a stand-up guy. Delays and other small hiccups aside, you've been with all of us every step of the way as you gave virtual birth to you first plastic litter of pups and I'm proud to have been a part of it.

I said it in the Mantic thread and I'll say it here; you are the poster boy for how a kickstarter should be run. We've laughed, we've cried, now we've got piles of plastic crack to play with.

Thank you Mark. Thank you for not being a Mantic or a Defiance or any number of another possible combination scenarios of doom.

Quite a few things I wish went smoother and quite a few things I would do different. I thank you for the compliment, it really does mean ALLOT to me. I know that myself and WGF strive to do everything 100% and when we don't we take it pretty seriously.

I feel I must return the compliment, all the backers, even those that have vented or will vent have been very good to me, very understanding about the delays and the slips. My hat is off to all of you and to WGF for making these the best they could be and for helping me realize a great launch to a great line, and what I hope is just the beginning of a very fun career.

The reason we as backers have been good about things is that you have been providing superior customer support from the start. I have heard other horror stories about crowd funded stuff and so have stayed away from most other things, however your constant feedback from the day you started the project forward has made all of the difference.

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
I really need to figure out what I'm going to do with my guys.

You said there would eventually be a ruleset for these minis correct?

Yessss Sir!

I have a twelve step program to look forward to.

1) Complete website while completing any revisions for stage 3 items.
2) Pull together development team
3) Framework game
4) Submit framework to backers to pick apart, make suggestions and break
5) Work on Op Force while games goes Alpha
6) Work with artists while game goes Beta and some/all of the Op-force goes into pre-production
7) Pull together final project
8) KS? perhaps, perhaps not...
9) Worry, stress, chew nails
10) crack a bottle in celebration or to drowned out the disappointment...
11) Recover from all this
12) Get back to work

You've even planned for post-launch there Mark, awesome! ; ) Do love the idea of you letting us break it open for you.

Got an idea for any particular direction you were wanting to take the game?

Obviously you've been working your butt off on this Kickstarter but it would be interesting to hear if there's anything in particular you wanted to implement or if there were certain games you take inspiration from. I'm particularly interested in if it will be a more "traditional" game (move shoot assault I go you go like 40k, Flames of War, etc) or if you want to do something a bit different like Starship troopers or Infinity.

vhwolf wrote:
The reason we as backers have been good about things is that you have been providing superior customer support from the start. I have heard other horror stories about crowd funded stuff and so have stayed away from most other things, however your constant feedback from the day you started the project forward has made all of the difference.

This.

Now roll on June(?) 2014 for Wave 3?

 agnosto wrote:
Thank you Mark. Thank you for not being a Mantic or a Defiance or any number of another possible combination scenarios of doom.

QFT. I have been behind Mark all the way. It is brilliant that he has been pressing firmly on the "Quality" button at all times, despite the obvious temptation to switch to the "Quick" button at times along the way. The communication has been great, and I can easily put up with delays when I am informed of them in advance.

Unfortunately it seems that Karma has spoken and for the fact that I have backed such a superior KS as Mark's, I am also in for Palladium Games' Robotech KS - which seems to be going so far south that it is my firm belief that it will turn up in a solid block of ice that will take a month to thaw out properly.

At least I'll have my Crusader, arms, and APCs to work on in the mean time.

The 12-step program is great . An opposing force would certainly be sweet! I wasn't quite as vocal here lately since I have no wave 2 items to spur me on, they're all wave 3... but I am very happy that wave 2 is being finished so that my primary wave is all that much closer

I want to say that I'm about 90% through my first of the 15mm Crusader (because I'm working on adding LEDs to it), and I'm loving it.

The engineering required to get this kit right at the smaller scale had to be maddening, and yet it was done with great attention to all the detail that made the larger kit such a pleasure to work with.

Thanks again!

vhwolf wrote:
The reason we as backers have been good about things is that you have been providing superior customer support from the start. I have heard other horror stories about crowd funded stuff and so have stayed away from most other things, however your constant feedback from the day you started the project forward has made all of the difference.

I have little experience with other KS, so I cannot form an opinion about how I stack up (life in a bubble) My only knowledge about other KS comes from an occasional comment on Dakka and other forums. About the only one that seemed to go off without much of a hitch was the very first CMON, which was basically a pre-order with everything ready to go... so that was to be expected.

I am sure there have been other KS with little or no issues but it is sounding like the vast majority have some issues with fulfillment, product quality or communication. If my KS is stacking up favorable against the majority then that is good news, not that I won't worry about every issue but it is good to hear.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Valhallan42nd wrote:
I want to say that I'm about 90% through my first of the 15mm Crusader (because I'm working on adding LEDs to it), and I'm loving it.

The engineering required to get this kit right at the smaller scale had to be maddening, and yet it was done with great attention to all the detail that made the larger kit such a pleasure to work with.

Thanks again!

NICE!

Both I and WGF thought it would be a simple re-scale... it was not, the tolerances on EVERY part needed to be adjusted to get the kit to work, it was almost like starting a new kit with the only advantage being that you understood where some of the issues might be. A lot more work than I had anticipated to get the mini-me correct.

 NoseGoblin wrote:
Both I and WGF thought it would be a simple re-scale... it was not, the tolerances on EVERY part needed to be adjusted to get the kit to work, it was almost like starting a new kit with the only advantage being that you understood where some of the issues might be. A lot more work than I had anticipated to get the mini-me correct.

Does this mean the mini Mortis will be easier/faster, since it should have similar tolerances to the mini Crusader? I can only hope

 RiTides wrote:

 NoseGoblin wrote:
Both I and WGF thought it would be a simple re-scale... it was not, the tolerances on EVERY part needed to be adjusted to get the kit to work, it was almost like starting a new kit with the only advantage being that you understood where some of the issues might be. A lot more work than I had anticipated to get the mini-me correct.

Does this mean the mini Mortis will be easier/faster, since it should have similar tolerances to the mini Crusader? I can only hope

It will build the same as the Mini Crusader, not sure about faster or easier.

I meant will making the molds for it be faster or easier for WGF, since it will be similar to the one they just did

 RiTides wrote:

 NoseGoblin wrote:
Both I and WGF thought it would be a simple re-scale... it was not, the tolerances on EVERY part needed to be adjusted to get the kit to work, it was almost like starting a new kit with the only advantage being that you understood where some of the issues might be. A lot more work than I had anticipated to get the mini-me correct.

Does this mean the mini Mortis will be easier/faster, since it should have similar tolerances to the mini Crusader? I can only hope

I suspect that, if I went right now and looked at the sprues for my mini Crusader, I'd find that all the stuff that makes it a Crusader, rather than a Mortis, are on separate sprues from the common elements, similar to the way the full sized ones are. That would certainly make it easier, as most of the work would already be done.

Added: So, after looking at the sprues, I would seem to be correct apart from one pair of components. The shoulder armor, which both levis have, is on the sprue with the sword in the mini Crusader box.

Still, they'll have to cut the sprue for the scythe anyway, and will likely have the same empty space to put those shoulders into on that sprue, and all of the rest of the parts that the mini Mortis has in common with the mini Crusader won't even have to be cut, just the same sprue molds run. So when Mark and WGF have to go and reengineer the Mortis down to mini size, a lot of the work is already done.

Step 1 mentions only revisions of Wave 3 items... is the main design stage all done?

Makes sense, shade!

And sneaky question, Mathieu... I know where you're going with that

I thought Wave 3 was largely done already since we had renders of them during the KS.

/insert plug for Valkir accessory box

I will tweak files up to the time they tell me I cannot. I am reworking the command squad, making it more interesting but I will post pics in a KS update so as not to anger the backers who do not use this forum.

It's really the Valkir & Black Widows I'm worried about...

Yeah, I figured Mathieu was just fishing for pics of the Wave 3 stuff that hadn't yet been shown . But I totally understand that it will be posted first on KS, not here!

 NoseGoblin wrote:

I have little experience with other KS, so I cannot form an opinion about how I stack up (life in a bubble) My only knowledge about other KS comes from an occasional comment on Dakka and other forums. About the only one that seemed to go off without much of a hitch was the very first CMON, which was basically a pre-order with everything ready to go... so that was to be expected.

I am sure there have been other KS with little or no issues but it is sounding like the vast majority have some issues with fulfillment, product quality or communication. If my KS is stacking up favorable against the majority then that is good news, not that I won't worry about every issue but it is good to hear.

Honestly Mark, it's not stacking up favourably against "the majority". The communication is excellent, but the delays are pretty terrible at this stage. The reason we're not chasing you with flaming pitchforks and going for the throat is simply because of the level and quality of your communication here. Of course, this only speaks for Dakka that I know of, which is a location you're heavily interactive with. If I wasn't a Dakka forumite, I may well be quite angry and upset (I'm not sure where else you keep up this level of interaction with the backers, since I'm really only active here).

So I finally assembled my first HEL cannon. I love it! Only down side is it is really easy to install the cannon upside down in it's mount bracket. Still looks fine, but a possible revision for the second run would be making one tab a bit longer then the other.

Mortis and mini crusaders are up on the wargamesfactory.com website to order.

Mini crusader $59.00
Mortis $110.00

Didn't see weapon arms on there though.

I'd be interested in how well these have been selling for Mark/WGF after the KS. A lot of retailers carry them at least which is great and we've seen comments in this thread about people picking them up at retail. Dreadball a while ago supposedly had 3/4 of it's sales through retail so it must be more by now, but people comment how kickstarters in general get all their sales during the KS and die afterwards so I hope that hasn't happened for DFG. I expect it hasn't given the praise heaped upon it, that must be pushing some sales.

That would be interesting to know as well. I've been trying o find a camo scheme for my troopers, I've never tried desert patterns before, what do you guys think about this? Does it need a little white in the pattern also?


And maybe ome one else can tell me, WGF used to have buy three and get 15% off, I couldn't find that on their site anymore. Honestly didn't look too hard, but it wasn't in the usual spot.

Oh well. Got my grasping card from the Royal Mail today. £12.02 in customs charges and a further £8 in "Handling fee" despite the fact that they don't have to do any extra work than if it'd been posted in the UK with insufficient postage. If that had been the case, I'd have had to pay the remaining postage and a single £1 handling fee! Moneygrabbing gits the RM!

So although I am now excited that I'll get my H.E.Ls and cannon on Monday, I would like to ask Mark if it's possible that for future KS projects, can he get the EU consignments delivered in bulk to somewhere within the EU and charge a higher postage to the pledgers. I would not mind that as it probably works out cheaper in the long run and saves me a load of hassle and grief dealing with the RM and UK customs.

I believe that CMoN did that with their season 2 Zombicide release.

Same with Deutsche Post / Zoll, all in all I had to pay 21,00 EUR.

BUT - thie minis are worth it!

I can't believe the shenanigans you guys put up with with customs and shipping. Its stopped me from making several orders from British companies because the shipping prices just destroyed any discount or value I would have gotten.

Ordering from the UK is pretty straightforward. Much easier than getting stuff sent in. And the postage is miles cheaper than US postage these days, too!