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2022/08/26 17:13:40
Subject: Re:CMON N & R - Next KS Dune, Zombicide Rio Ze Janeiro expansion, The Boys and Supernatural packs
Supernatural packs pre order is live - 3 packs for $49 estimated shipping June 2023. Preorder open until 9th September.
Packs 1 & 2 will go to retail later.
- Pack #1: Dean and Sean Winchester Survivors, Wendigo and Alpha Vampire Abominations, plus 2 ID Cards, 2 Equipment Cards, 2 Abomination Cards.
- Pack #2: Jack Kline, John Winchester, and Bobby Singer Survivors, Leviathan Abomination, plus 3 ID Cards, 2 Equipment Cards, 1 Abomination Card.
- Pre-order exclusive Pack #3: Castiel Survivor, Archangel Michael Abomination, and Crowley Survivor and Abomination, plus 2 ID Cards, 2 Equipment Cards, 2 Abomination Cards.
ASOIAF is awesome for the most part rn. I say for the most part because certain factions like Targaryens have had units out of stock since jan/feb, notably both units of Unsullied, and the Mother of Dragons box. Scalpers are having a field day with those, Ive seen a couple MOD boxes on ebay for $150 USD (retail is $35....)
Martels are coming out soon and have some very solid units/attachments/commanders. Almost all factions had some sort of release this year so far.
2022/09/14 23:03:28
Subject: CMON N & R - Next KS Dune, Zombicide Rio Ze Janeiro expansion, The Boys and Supernatural packs
I haven't touched Cmon because I've heard good and bad things, but if AsoIaF looks to be going strong, I may consider looking at trade terms.
ASOIAF is the best game I've ever played hands down. CMON does struggle keeping some popular units in stock (like Unsullied Swordmasters and Dragons).
Powerful new units can sell through a whole production run quickly, while subpar stuff usually has to be discounted a bit to move.
You could probably make money selling singles or packs of themed miniatures if you want to handle the inventory headache of 1000 more SKUs or whatever. They are very easy to convert and very useful for that purpose.
2022/09/14 23:45:50
Subject: Re:CMON N & R - Next KS Dune, Zombicide Supernatural packs preorder now live
I haven't touched Cmon because I've heard good and bad things, but if AsoIaF looks to be going strong, I may consider looking at trade terms.
Haven't played it in a few years, so a lot may have changed. However it holds the title of worst gaming experience in over 30 years for me. An alternative activations game where an opponent can dictate what you can and can not active, just robs you of your agency. The game is ruined by the tactics deck, think of how unfun the most egregious stratagem cards are to play against in 40k, now make a full deck of just those cards.
The game died off in my area, no one plays anymore, everyone sold their collections after an encounter with a total game controlling Lannister build, just killed it stone dead.
Hopefully they have ditched the tactics decks, as that would salvage the game.
I haven't touched Cmon because I've heard good and bad things, but if AsoIaF looks to be going strong, I may consider looking at trade terms.
Haven't played it in a few years, so a lot may have changed. However it holds the title of worst gaming experience in over 30 years for me. An alternative activations game where an opponent can dictate what you can and can not active, just robs you of your agency. The game is ruined by the tactics deck, think of how unfun the most egregious stratagem cards are to play against in 40k, now make a full deck of just those cards.
The game died off in my area, no one plays anymore, everyone sold their collections after an encounter with a total game controlling Lannister build, just killed it stone dead.
Hopefully they have ditched the tactics decks, as that would salvage the game.
The Tactics deck is still a core facet of the rules and one I suspect they'll never remove as it's arguably the only unique selling point of the game other than the IP itself. They do seem to have made a conscious effort to try and smooth out some of the more egregious imbalances between factions (such as the very unfun to play against Lannister control build you mentioned from the early days of the game) although they do have a tendency to make widespread, sweeping changes to a high proportion of the unit rules and then spend months tinkering to the point of redundancy before yet another round of substantial alterations.
I won't pretend to have kept up with the product too much of late, other than a general awareness of things like the Martells coming but I don't see much buzz around the game in the UK particularly. Persistent stock issues can't have helped.
2022/09/15 08:49:49
Subject: CMON N & R - Dune War for Arrakis KS now live
And the shipping cost have killed off any interest I had, Jesus wept... $48-62
This has become the case for most Kickstarters now. It often works out cheaper to just wait for the local release and grabbing it from a shop than Kickstarting it despite on-paper being cheaper (until the shipping hits).
I backed the last Iron Kingdoms KS and shipping for three books was half my pledge.
2022/09/15 14:43:39
Subject: CMON N & R - Next KS Dune, Zombicide Rio Ze Janeiro expansion, The Boys and Supernatural packs
I haven't touched Cmon because I've heard good and bad things, but if AsoIaF looks to be going strong, I may consider looking at trade terms.
Haven't played it in a few years, so a lot may have changed..
The Tactics deck is still a core facet of the rules and one I suspect they'll never remove as it's arguably the only unique selling point of the game other than the IP itself. They do seem to have made a conscious effort to try and smooth out some of the more egregious imbalances between factions (such as the very unfun to play against Lannister control build you mentioned from the early days of the game) although they do have a tendency to make widespread, sweeping changes to a high proportion of the unit rules and then spend months tinkering to the point of redundancy before yet another round of substantial alterations.
I won't pretend to have kept up with the product too much of late, other than a general awareness of things like the Martells coming but I don't see much buzz around the game in the UK particularly. Persistent stock issues can't have helped.
The game currently has a fantastic level of balance with the most Uber optimized faction sitting at a 55% win rate. ASOIAF is lucky to have a very sophisticated Elo system available to the community (https://asoiaf-stats.com/, run by a genius data scientist who does similar ranking work for a chemical company) that gives players insight into the relative importance of faction choice, commander choice, and player skill.
Stonehorse is the only person I've ever heard lament that the game has worse balance than 40k. Doesn't minimize his experience with some Lannister A-hole, but my gaming group who were all mega 40k dudes all constantly talk about how much better the game experience is than 40k. I see many similar positive comments in the Reddit community. Obviously some selection bias, but anecdata is all you are going to get here.
In my opinion the game is a near perfect blend of tactical rank and flank (the miniatures on the board), board game strategic worker placement (the tactics board), and a strategic card game (the tactics cards) all in one big affordable package with fun miniatures to paint. And a strong IP. I'm obviously a fan.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/09/15 14:47:15
2022/09/15 15:42:06
Subject: CMON N & R - Dune War for Arrakis KS now live
I think ASOIAF is in a nice spot right now, it may not have huge in-store gaming communities many places, but it does seem to have a decent number of players and collectors, at least in the US.
CMON has been very aggressive in constantly updating and rebalancing things, I would say perhaps in a purposefully meta-changing way. So that the community is dealing with a fresh game every year, with new OP units and new OP builds to find. They're not going to get rid of the cards, they're foundational to the game, kind of joining in with the NCU/tactics board, and actual fighting units, to form the three legs the stool stands on.
I will say though, there is a need with the game to recognize what level you're playing at. A group of friends making fun builds is no place for a tournament competitive WAAC list. A group of tournament players honing their builds in the weeks before a tournament is no place for a thematic fun list. While the numbers show top level tournament armies may be well balanced against each other, they're well balanced against EACH OTHER, it's important for groups to have a social contract on how they're going to approach things any given get together.
2022/09/15 16:06:53
Subject: CMON N & R - Next KS Dune, Zombicide Rio Ze Janeiro expansion, The Boys and Supernatural packs
The game currently has a fantastic level of balance with the most Uber optimized faction sitting at a 55% win rate. ASOIAF is lucky to have a very sophisticated Elo system available to the community (https://asoiaf-stats.com/, run by a genius data scientist who does similar ranking work for a chemical company) that gives players insight into the relative importance of faction choice, commander choice, and player skill.
Stonehorse is the only person I've ever heard lament that the game has worse balance than 40k. Doesn't minimize his experience with some Lannister A-hole, but my gaming group who were all mega 40k dudes all constantly talk about how much better the game experience is than 40k. I see many similar positive comments in the Reddit community. Obviously some selection bias, but anecdata is all you are going to get here.
In my opinion the game is a near perfect blend of tactical rank and flank (the miniatures on the board), board game strategic worker placement (the tactics board), and a strategic card game (the tactics cards) all in one big affordable package with fun miniatures to paint. And a strong IP. I'm obviously a fan.
I'm a fan too, don't get me wrong and I did get a general idea that the current iteration is fairly well balanced between factions (until all the Gold Company and Martell stuff no doubt throws a temporary spanner into those works) but it felt like it took an absolute age to get there, with a lot of 'fiddling' with even the core rules, not just the units themselves. Put me off a bit but if things are more settled I might come back to it (if there's actually a local scene left). The updated Stark/Lannister sculpts look infinitely better than that OG set; the early Starks were particularly rough.
2022/09/15 16:15:08
Subject: CMON N & R - Next KS Dune, Zombicide Rio Ze Janeiro expansion, The Boys and Supernatural packs
Stonehorse is the only person I've ever heard lament that the game has worse balance than 40k. Doesn't minimize his experience with some Lannister A-hole, but my gaming group who were all mega 40k dudes all constantly talk about how much better the game experience is than 40k. I see many similar positive comments in the Reddit community. Obviously some selection bias, but anecdata is all you are going to get here.
The Lannister player was not an Arse hole, they were playing within the confines of the game, nothing they brought to the table was illegal. If a game needs players to step in and put in place restrictions to what can and can not be taken from a full model range then it just shows that the game has issues.
Now, I gather that those may have been addressed. However, I do recall when I mentioned this experience a few years ago, I was met with the game is fine, the balance is fine, Lannister do politics as that is there thing, and don’t worry FF have powerful characters that is their strength. Fast forward and yeah, looks like those issues I had have been shown to be legitimate things.
I'll likely never get to experience the updated rules as that Lannister list killed the game in my area. I just hope that the Lannister's can not dictate what units their opponent can or can not activate on their turn, that was just such a basic thing to not include in an alternative activations game. How anyone allowed that one to slide is beyond me.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/09/15 16:18:23
The objective of the game is to win. The point of the game is to have fun. The two should never be confused.
2022/09/15 20:34:24
Subject: CMON N & R - Dune War for Arrakis KS now live
It's also linked in Ced1106 link but I found it a bit more helpful to understand what the game is as it's more then "This isn't War of the ring so it sucks" which you kind of get from the first review.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/09/15 20:59:39
2022/09/19 22:06:23
Subject: CMON N & R - Dune War for Arrakis KS now live
Wow the shipping on this makes Marvel Zombies look like good value.
For a ~£96 core box would cost me another £58 in shipping and £31Vat. That is far from worth it.
$110 pledge and $85 shipping.
So essentially $200 for the base box.
Hard pass.
Kickstarter games are effectively dead to me. I'll wait for retail. If it doesn't get a proper retail release that just means the game probably wasn't that great anyway.
2022/09/20 15:04:09
Subject: CMON N & R - Next KS Dune, Zombicide Supernatural packs preorder now live
4000+
