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"Vanguard of War (VoW) is a 1-4 player game focused on the defense of a small church deep inside the decaying ruins of a once great city now known only as “the Whispers.” Players will use their heroes to hold the line against seemingly endless waves of demons while their allies inside the church desperately attempt to learn how to use the fel army's own doomsday weapon against them."
Worth noting, this is by Archon Studios, who is also Prodos Games, or they are related in some way. Their LOAD campaign went well, I haven't received my copy yet but it's on the way at least. I've heard good things from those that have gotten theirs though. I really like the minis for this one.
Jarek has *still* not fulfilled orders from the Aliens vs. Predator KS when he was (and may still be) running Prodos.
Vanguard (and LOAD) obviously don't have the Fox IP issues AvP had, but LOAD has shown Jarek that, if he cannot or will not fulfill backer obligations, he can start a new company and start over with other people's money.
ced1106 wrote: Jarek has *still* not fulfilled orders from the Aliens vs. Predator KS when he was (and may still be) running Prodos.
Vanguard (and LOAD) obviously don't have the Fox IP issues AvP had, but LOAD has shown Jarek that, if he cannot or will not fulfill backer obligations, he can start a new company and still get money.
Also, haven't AvP been sold at retail now for over a year? So any IP issues must have been cleared out a long time ago. I don't think that excuse is valid anymore.
ced1106 wrote: Jarek has *still* not fulfilled orders from the Aliens vs. Predator KS when he was (and may still be) running Prodos.
Vanguard (and LOAD) obviously don't have the Fox IP issues AvP had, but LOAD has shown Jarek that, if he cannot or will not fulfill backer obligations, he can start a new company and still get money.
Also, haven't AvP been sold at retail now for over a year? So any IP issues must have been cleared out a long time ago. I don't think that excuse is valid anymore.
AVP has been in my FLGS since the end of 2014. I Got my pledge last week.
Apparently they are now sharing email lists, too. I used to play Warzone, but never took myself off Prodos' email list. Today I got an email from Archon announcing the Vanguard of War Kickstarter. I have NEVER visited their site nor asked to be on any mailing list for them. They had to have gotten my email from Prodos. Oh, but they are different companies with no association....riiiiggghhhtt.
No way their gettin any more money out of me until The AVP kickstarter is sorted.
Did Space Rusade ship in the end?
Space Rusade was never a KS. People have received retail purchases.
Archon was the manufacturing company of Prodos. Same crew, different name. When Prodos' reputation went down the toilet they moved everything over to Archon. They have supposedly had a recent change in management and have been minimizing Prodos, only seeming to keep it running as it has the AvP license associated with it.
Buyer beware. I wouldn't touch anything from Prodos/Archon with a 10' barge pole.
No way their gettin any more money out of me until The AVP kickstarter is sorted.
Did Space Rusade ship in the end?
Space Rusade was never a KS. People have received retail purchases.
Archon was the manufacturing company of Prodos. Same crew, different name. When Prodos' reputation went down the toilet they moved everything over to Archon. They have supposedly had a recent change in management and have been minimizing Prodos, only seeming to keep it running as it has the AvP license associated with it.
Buyer beware. I wouldn't touch anything from Prodos/Archon with a 10' barge pole.
Should have clarified I Know Space Rusade wasn't a KS
But if I remember correctly they were taking pre orders for the game, So did the game ship?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/01/10 19:25:10
Far as I'm aware, the game still has yet to appear. I certainly haven't seen it.
Even Prodos' fanboy #1 has gven up hope of recieving the actual game, so I think a fair assumption is that only the minis have shipped
Kriegspiel wrote: just forget to think or dream of Prodos Space Crusade as a game.
Just consider them as a miniature range to play a sexy version of GW games and play NOW.
highlord tamburlaine wrote: I'm going to take a look at this, I'll be honest. I like Tower Defense type games.
Check out Rum and Bones, then. During the KS, LOAD's writer *plagiarized* Rum and Bones rules. He was sacked, but that means Prodos / Archon had only a few months to develop a "new" rules set. Given their reputation (or lack thereof) of game rules for Warzone (nobody talks about it). Aliens vs. Predator (rules 2.0 released after retail release), and Space Crusade (no rules released), I wouldn't expect much. Only two reviews have been written (plus Undead Viking's video review in which he says he hasn't played a MOBA before), and one of them was from the PnP.
BigDaddio wrote: Apparently they are now sharing email lists, too. I used to play Warzone, but never took myself off Prodos' email list. Today I got an email from Archon announcing the Vanguard of War Kickstarter. I have NEVER visited their site nor asked to be on any mailing list for them. They had to have gotten my email from Prodos. Oh, but they are different companies with no association....riiiiggghhhtt.
Interesting... They appear to be registered in the UK, which means that passing details onto another company without your permissions amounts to a breach under Data Protection.
BigDaddio wrote: Apparently they are now sharing email lists, too. I used to play Warzone, but never took myself off Prodos' email list. Today I got an email from Archon announcing the Vanguard of War Kickstarter. I have NEVER visited their site nor asked to be on any mailing list for them. They had to have gotten my email from Prodos. Oh, but they are different companies with no association....riiiiggghhhtt.
I got that email despite signing myself off from Prodos email list long time ago. I wonder how many will believe them this time?
The models look really interesting. I'll probably wait til the end and see what all has been unlocked. Really, I'll want to see what the game looks like. If the game is genuinely fun and I get a ton of extras, I could see doing a base pledge. ~$120 can easily go towards a million other things in this hobby.
Check out my website. Editorials! Tutorials! Fun Times To Be Had! - kriswallminis.com
Well that's a bummer. The BGG forum-goers sure don't care for them much. I guess this gets a pass from me - no reason to chance that much money when the company has a history of not delivering for so many years.
Wow. Prodos / Archon put off Demigods Evolution -- and delivered LOAD on time. Sounds like Demigods backers were over, too.
nanotitan on December 14
@Daan If I am remembering correctly, Prodos went back on their promise to not let their own project effect the shipping of Demigods. After several excuses they finally came out and said their priority is shipping their own game LOAD. LOAD is in the middle of shipping now. You can read some of their updates. Based on the shipping updates for LOAD, it is going to be a while yet before we see any Demigods in the mail.
Nothing collapses when you're spending other people's money!
I might as well repost some comments about White Dragon's decision to no longer use Prodos for their KS. The actual update announcing this is "For Backers Only".
Andrew Park on November 30
Yeah - I still don't have anything from my AvP pledge almost 3 years later. Apparently Prodos were reliable for 3rd party fulfillment, but I'm really glad they're no longer part of the equation from a moral point of view.
Missing avatar
Shaun Allen Superbacker on November 29
Speaking personally I think it's a good move removing Prodos from the equation, as an AvP backer I am still waiting for certain KS elements from them and, if my information is correct and they are making them for Spartan, a couple of Halo dropships ordered back in August! Communication is a joke too. Keep it in house WDM, sounds like a cunning plan, I aint too bothered about slight delays, I know you will deliver a sound product and its not like I don't have 20 or 30 other KS boxes of stuff to keep me busy until then Free ship of existing sounds good, or maybe cake? I like cake!
This post was on the Quirkworthy blog, by Kyle, who was a client of Prodos. After reading what happened to WD and Demi, I wouldn't be surprised if his comments were still relevant.
Kyle says:
May 5, 2016 at 4:57 pm
I will speak on behalf of my experiences when trying to get them to both 3D print, and then cast up my first bust.
Communication only happened when I initiated it. If I was not pushing, then no follow up or actions were being taken. It felt more like they were on the approach of; he who screams loudest, gets highest priority. That or anything that is less than a few hundred copies ( mine was only 100 copies being requested ) is placed bottom of the pile.
Cost was interesting. I will admit that they are quite a bit cheaper than a lot of their competition out there, but that is changing. However I will also mention that the price changed a few times throughout the lifecycle of the project. Each time going up. To this I was not impressed, as it was only again happening when I reached out for updates on what was happening.
Quality was a mixed bag. I have to say that for a single cast bust, with some decent undercuts, many came out that were perfect replicas of the original. No mold lines or anything visible on them whatsoever. However, this was not the case for all of them. Out of 100, 18 were so badly miscast that they had to be redone. Where you could see where the mold itself had split off, and was still being used for several more afterwards. When they claimed that everything was going through quality control, you can tell this is definitely not the case. So instead of making another mould, they just kept on going regardless of the wear and tear on the 2 ( can tell depending on miscast which they came from ). When I did meet up with them last year at Spiel, I also had to bring a copy back with me as they had sent me everything they had and not kept a master for themselves on hand to make more copies in the future, had I wished that option to be used.
Timing.. from the start of the communication with them right till I received the final copies from them ( the replacements of the miscasts ) we are talking close to 8 months here. With a majority of that on their side due to it just being a 3D render file being sent to them to print and cast up. And with me having to chase them to get timelines back from them, and understand where in the process this was occurring or when I might begin to see copies being made, let along shipped out to me ( in UKbtw ).
Location. If you have checked online to see where they are based you will see something about UK, however that is just a site to allow them to have UK employees for conventions. If you dig deeper you know that they are from Poland, and there is nothing wrong with that. And they state that they are from Warsaw. I had the opportunity to go to Warsaw last year for Hussar, and had asked if I could come and chat with them since I would be in the city and have some spare time. It was then I found out that they are not actually in Warsaw either but several hours outside of the city ( though I cannot be sure of this anymore ) and thus it would be difficult to visit them without a car or personal transportation. End of that conversation, and instead would see them in person at Spiel.
So overall I was not impressed and have found alternatives to produce future pieces on my behalf. Even if it requires a bit more funds, the timing, communication and quality have been far better overall.
Oh and to top if off.. I was also a backer of the kickstarter, which is what drove me to work with them in the first place. However at no point during dealing with me on my bust did they make the effort to send me my pledge, and I have only just received it in person at Salute this past month.
I can appreciate what your trying to achieve with this blog post, and I can see what Prodos is trying to do to get them out of their hole they have dug for themselves, however I think the hole is far too deep for them to climb out at this point. And they really do require some professional assistance in either project management or business administration to get them back on track. Along with one heck of a good PR campaign to bring them back from the darkness. I think that if they can do that, and if they can treat the small contracts with as much respect as the high paying ones, then they will see that they will become the champion of such projects, and help many others grow ( am on my 6th model being produced now with a few more in the wings ) and they would see themselves has having repeat business instead of one shot wonders that learn from their mistake of working with them.
Sorry for the rant.. but you got a good subject here to discuss on.. be it from those that backed them or worked with them behind the scenes.
Nostromodamus wrote: They also said "up yours" to Necros in fulfilling Blackwater Gulch.
Well they weren't that mean about it they just couldn't get to it till at least the end of the year, and really who knows for sure when at that point, so I dumped em. I kinda expected something to go wrong so I always kept metal as my backup option and for the foreseeable future I'm gonna stick to what I know works best for me. I don't have any ill will or anything, they're a nice bunch of fellas.. I think they really need to finish AVP and then just stick to their own stuff if they want to turn their image around.
I think this game looks good. I backed it but I don't know if I'll stay, I spent way too much on kingdom death.
the figures are very much on the brittle side. my copy came with 6 broken figures, and zero box damage. thing is four of the figures had their broken bits missing, two had their loose arms sliding around the box. so most of my broken ones happened before they even got into the box.
Sadly while the figures and corresponding art for the hero are different and flavorful, in practice it results in : hero A throw some dice. Hero B throw more dice. Hero C throw slightly less dice but hits on a slightly lower number. Forgetful, and interchangeable. While each hero does have their own powers, most of them do not impact the game enough to be tactically better than using the basic attack.
On paper, different team composition should translate to different strategies or styles but the reality is heroes don’t feel unique enough to alter strategy or play style in meaningful ways.
over, too.
