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 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
He's also, now Ankh is a done deal finished his 'trilogy'

?? Think you left a few words out.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:

I wonder if he's got some ideas for games that don't involve minis? A lot harder for that sort of thing to get made by CMON, and even if they did a lot of the 'fans' just wouldn't get it as they're in it for the bling

I'm sure. Always doing big minis games or cardgames has to be tiring especially since none of them are long term supported with new releases so it's always onto the next thing.

The press release says he's got like a dozen games in some stage of development with CMoN so he's still heavily involved with them for the foreseeable future.

It also says activism and mentions promoting the hobby as part of why he's leaving. Wonder if he's going to be starting some type of trade organization as well or non-profit?

OrlandotheTechnicoloured 756746 109136309cf6e5f0ee8b4620f7444 fcbe6aa3efa.jpg wrote:I wonder if he's got some ideas for games that don't involve minis?

Most of Eric Lang's game designs look to be hybrid games without miniatures. https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1533/eric-m-lang

Eric has some posts on his twitter feed including: https://twitter.com/eric_lang



*****

fyi, Dungeons and Lasers 2 is releasing a free generic stone bridge SG for backers of its dungeon terrain and dragon miniatures KS. MD2 has a hellscape bridge and door pack for $15. Some backers wanted a generic bridge (which would suit the MD2 Prologue campaign better). However the D&L2 bridge is 2x4 so is larger than the MD bridges. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/archonstudio/dungeons-and-lasers-second-edition/posts/2938450

Oh man, the shipping on CMON comics KS is HEAVY. I'm getting quoted at $20 shipping for two books plus KS minis and I'm in the states.

From what others are saying that is a similar price for a single comic.

As someone getting this for the Death May Die characters (and Zombicide Invader), it is pretty hard to swallow .. But I really love Death May Die...

$36 for 2 comics here I'll probably pass on this only put $1 in as I knew shipping would be an issue. At least they fixed the address issues so MD2 should be smoother at least there I know I'm facing $50 to $60 in shipping. I like their new pledge manager pleg.it but it's had teething problems.

The problem is mailing the books with the models. At least in the States if it was just the books they could use media mail and cut it drastically.

Oh how I wish board games would fall under media mail. Alas...

 ced1106 wrote:

OrlandotheTechnicoloured 756746 109136309cf6e5f0ee8b4620f7444 fcbe6aa3efa.jpg wrote:I wonder if he's got some ideas for games that don't involve minis?

Most of Eric Lang's game designs look to be hybrid games without miniatures. https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/1533/eric-m-lang

Eric has some posts on his twitter feed including: https://twitter.com/eric_lang

I've always been very pleased with his work. Honestly, I always use Zombicide as a perfect example of a good board game: It's easy to learn, enough so a small child can figure it out- and it's still challenging. It's 'simple' enough that it can be modified and tweaked to add in house rules and whatever else a group of players might want to do.

That man should be pleased: Zombicide has a special place in my heart. I bought the game, tinkered with it.. but on Halloween there were all these teengers and younger people that were sort of 'doing nothing' because they weren't old enough to drink... and the normal 'Halloween' stuff, they were a bit too old for. So I offered to host a board game night, talked to some of their parents (most already knew me), and some other adults- we worked out a 'Zombicide night' at a local 'Conference Center' (which was basically just one room). We arranged transportation for all the younger people to get everyone home, and everyone had a blast. In this area, it's now a local tradition.

I don't think Eric Lang had much (anything?) to do with Zombicide?

I did like Chaos in the Old World though!

Just got word that Trudvang will be delayed an additional year due to the fact that the game as designed is currently just that terrible. On one hand this is no surprise coming from that cursed campaign, on the other hand I feel oddly suspicious that CMON suddenly cares that their game isn't very well designed. I've not been worried about their financial issues, but it's strange they announce this right before it was supposedly supposed to go to the factory, and not say 6 months ago when it was also this poorly designed.

Perhaps I should not have gone all in on Ankh recently....

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Perhaps I should not have gone all in on Ankh recently....

You can always ask for a refund.

Basically Eric Lang left and the new people they brought in didn't like the game play and narrative side of things and want to basically redo half the game. Hard to say if that's a good or bad thing but the new people have a pedegree for sure. Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi (War of the Ring, Age of Conan, The One Ring). They also brought in Umberto Pignatelli who is apparently a big choose your own adventure style writer to help re-write the narrative flow of the game.

Also they promoted Jordy Adan to lead developer. His game Cartographers has garnered some award nominations.

So it's not like like CMoN is just trying to pretend other issues are the cause of delay or try and use this as an excuse for other problems. They wouldn't have gone into as much of an effort explaining what the problems of the game are and what they're going to do to fix them and who's going to fix them if this was smoke and mirrors for other problems in the company.

I've heard the "Eric Lang left" narrative, I just haven't seen any evidence to back it up. To me it seemed Lang was only marginally involved in the game design from the first place, they had him rep it and put his name on it, like they have for many things, but he certainly didn't act like it was his baby.

It strains my credulity to think a new head designer came in and went, "First thing's first, that game over there about to go into production, is it actually good, or have you all been lying to management for a solid year... be honest..."

Like a great politician, did CMON's heads recognize they had a meh game on their hands that no one really wanted to make in the first place, and use that as a handy excuse to not pay to make it when their cash flow might be a little weak after a few years of unchecked corporate bloat, mediocre KS returns, and now COVID strangling their in-store sales and production pipeline?

Sounds a lot more likely than anything to do with Lang, not that I actually know.

Whatever. I don't know what you have against the game. But it's clear you think no one ever wanted it and that it shouldn't exist. Who knows why this is happening but it's not a bad thing they've said "the game isn't working out, we tried to fix it with minimal rules changes but can't so we're delaying to rework it". Yet it seams unless I join in to some CMoN hating and tinfoil hat conspiracies it's clear there's no discussion to have here.

They sold me on the concept of the game, but even during the campaign I thought it sounded a bit out of sync with Lang's style and thought it sounded more like an elevator pitch more than a manifesto on how the game was to be designed.

I often wonder why CMON don't try and do like Blacklist Games did, just run a campaign for a box of thematic minis. Save money on cardboard and designers and just give the people what they want for roughly the same price.

Boardgamers are a larger market than miniature purchases. Despite BlackList nearly giving away 200+ generic fantasy miniatures, it still made less money than a CMON boardgame of a niche subject.

I agree they make more selling the idea of a game to play with your small mountain of minis, but don't forget about Reaper Bones. They have CMON sized successes with just miniatures, and I bet CMON could deliver a package of just minis a lot faster than they do.

Per KS, that's true ($3.5M), but Reaper has to offer far more different sculpts. I suspect CMON designs their boardgames to use multiples of a sculpt, though only to some extent.

Also, of course, CMON cranks out more KS per year than Reaper does, making a total of more money, although I'd like to see how the numbers turn out if Reaper could do more projects. They did have Base Boss and CAV, but I wouldn't count these.

And CMON did do a miniatures-only KS, sort of, with their base inserts, but it didn't make as much money as one of their boardgame KS. Never said why they didn't do it again, so could be anything from money to it being a pet project of someone in the company.

Seems like the whole story here is a rather slender reed to lean upon.

We'll see I suppose, but yeah, this isn't exactly a confidence booster...

 Alpharius wrote:
Seems like the whole story here is a rather slender reed to lean upon.

We'll see I suppose, but yeah, this isn't exactly a confidence booster...

Yeah, I agree.

A one year delay is substantial for a company of CMON's size.

That being said, Mythic Games delayed Solomon Kane by longer than a year after apparently redoing huge chunks of the game and it still looks like they will deliver (finally showing physical product etc.).

Closeout at The Best Puzzles for ASOIAF boxes. Thanks to Micah on BGG! Also, P3 paints spotted!

https://www.thebestpuzzles.com/close-out-games-toys/

CMON working on a The Last of US board game

https://cmon.com/press/the-last-of-us-is-coming-to-tabletop

Meh, another cash grab using a video game as bait.

I can't wait. Maybe they'll incorporate a mechanic where you pick a starting force and then automatically kill your most expensive figure at the top of turn 2 and then make you switch sides with your opponent!

> CMON working on a The Last of US board game

I find "The Last of Us" kinda ironic, considering CMON's audit, Eric Lang leaving, CMON's backlog of KS, Trudvang's delay...

> Meh, another cash grab using a video game as bait.

Actually, this sorta reminds me of last days of the CCG glut, where you needed a license to get anyone to notice your CCG.

Not exactly happening with miniatures boardgames, but even with non-licensed games, you're seeing sequels?

Sarouan wrote:
Meh, another cash grab using a video game as bait.

Well, hopefully it will fund completion of the kickstarters before it.

Truly, this KS cements CMON as the most prolific KSer to ever KS a KS.

 warboss wrote:
I can't wait. Maybe they'll incorporate a mechanic where you pick a starting force and then automatically kill your most expensive figure at the top of turn 2 and then make you switch sides with your opponent!

I bet Joel will have the rule "Weakness: golf club".

It's just another zombie game with video game characters. It's not like there are really a lot of diversity with enemies in the video game. I bet the zombies will be managed by the game as dangerous "fauna", and each player will take control of a faction of survivors who are in competition for ressources / want to kill each other. A bit like Mantic Games' "the Walking Dead". Thing is, I believe either it will be repetitive or there will be a linear campaign that you'll only really play once. And of course, you'll have the miniatures, but the characters are just modern human survivors and zombies that sometimes grow a lot of mushrooms out of their flesh - it's not like there aren't miniatures who fit the design already on the market (like Father in Denial Survivor and Surrogate Daughter Survivor). I mean, there is nothing really distinctive in the design of Joel and Ellie - one is a bearded mature man and the other is an adolescent girl with ponytail.



CMON already has Zombicide, anyway.

I bet the only thing that will be interesting will be the kickstarter campaign itself. CMON Kickstarters hype them the hell up, so it's always a good ride to follow - once it's ended, it's just back to the reality of "meh".

I wouldn't be surprised if they will also do something for backers already having Zombicide - maybe a "rule extension" so that you can play the Zombicide survivors as a faction in the Last of Us boardgame, or vice-versa. They will certainly appeal to their Zombicide fanbase with this game, in addition to the fans of the video game series.

I'm fine with it as long as it means all the other games they've already kickstarted are more financially secure.

Still waiting patiently for Night of the Living Dead Zombicide.

Not even going to look at Last of Us. It's a dead property.

Personally, I’ve never heard of The Last of Us. CMON would have to come up with something very special to get me to give them more money before I’ve got Trudvang in my hands.

So, the whole point of The Last of Us is its character and story driven. There is nothing interesing about the world to explore it in different ways.ITs a generic zombie set up with a twist on how zombies where made.
Why a board game? Its not like im gonna gonna hear Ellie make quips or anything during the game.