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 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I assume they're marketing this in Japan? If so the English language marketing may be an afterthought.

The English play through videos are very nicely done. If anything, they may have given these more focus.

I like the timeline system they use for both game balance and action economy.

Not so sure about all units having the same movement, but those might be the base rules.

There better be advanced rules. Based on what is available + the models from the card game....

I'll wait a couple months and see if it catches on locally. I've been burned by too many cool looking games that never catch on.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I'll wait a couple months and see if it catches on locally. I've been burned by too many cool looking games that never catch on.

The trick is to avoid going all in. Buy a small force to play and help build participation but don't but hold off on building a major collection until there's interest.

I think it depends how keen you are

If you want to see if it becomes anything then go in light and get kits you really like to own just for their own sake and if local games come up great get involved

The other angle is to get yourself two medium sized forces and run demo games and really push it locally. Organise events; run demos; get people involved etc...

The latter one can still fail and requires a lot more from you; but has a few up sides

1) You've got two armies (at least) so heck if it never comes of anything you can still run games in the future with someone.

2) You're pushing it locally and that has a higher chance of others getting involved. Esp if you've got two medium forces so enough to run demo games and a followup; and also enough to show off a broader range and some fancy stuff.
One failing of "I've only got two demo starter armies" is that they can look very limited and dull to those on the outside

3) It has a much higher chance of local success. You're not waiting or hoping others do the work for you; you're pushing the game and helping it grow.

The starters all being of the 2 player variety makes that more or less the only version of small investments in the game.

This seems actually far more effort than average for their international releases.

 Daba wrote:
This seems actually far more effort than average for their international releases.

Easier to do now that they have international divisions.

From what I can see this far, is not overly complex (perhaps not good for folks who want heavy crunch in their rules) but tactically interesting.

Fun for hobby though. I can see doing little bases of troops as Garrison markers, etc.

...and of course the mecha models...

Hatemonger wrote:

I'm not making any predictions, but I think the X-Wing comparison is a good one: a strong IP couple with mass-market distribution which did (briefly) unseat GW as the most popular miniatures game.

Im coming out of my hiatus because of this - you've picked at a personal bugbear.

No, it didn't.

ICV2 is junk data. It covers the north american (maybe actually just the US, think Canada may be excluded) market only and the data is pulled from a handful of distributors and major hobby retailers with arbitrary guess-work to try to fill in the knowledge gaps.

GW self-distributes the vast majority of its products (iirc they have a distribution deal with alliance which accounts for less than 10% of their sales volume) and its direct retail and online sales channels are a huge portion of their sales. A huge portion of GWs sales is missing from icv2s sales data.

To further illustrate the point, the year that X-Wing *supposedly* dethroned 40k as the bigget seller, Fantasy Flights total revenue across *all* their product lines (which we know courtesy of financial statements released by Asmodee at the time of FFGs acquisition) amounted to some $30-40 million bucks. GWs revenue that same year was like... $150+ million IIRC, and while GW has multiple product lines at the time 40k was probably the majority of that revenue (there was basically no drop in revenue as a result of discontinuing WHFB around that same timeframe, for example, and as fun as MESBG is Im not sure its a major revenue driver). There is no conceivable way that X-Wing was anywhere near 40k in scale.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Hatemonger wrote:

I'm not making any predictions, but I think the X-Wing comparison is a good one: a strong IP couple with mass-market distribution which did (briefly) unseat GW as the most popular miniatures game.

Im coming out of my hiatus because of this - you've picked at a personal bugbear.

Haha, sorry if I brought up some old trauma for you!

Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate having a more accurate perspective on that.

Adjusting my view a bit, I would say that it was still a notable event, although clearly not world-shattering. To think up a random example, if I read that "Warmachine outsold Warhammer in German hobby shops last year", I would think that is still newsworthy, because anything beating Warhammer in any metric is still surprising. You are correct, though, that a shift in one narrow area doesn't mean much on the level of global market share. So that goes back to my wondering about Bandai's intent and expectations - are they hoping their games become popular enough to compete with Warhammer? Will they be content to keep making games if they don't reach that level?

Not that it will make much difference in my purchases. The game looks good enough that I think I can get at least a few interesting plays out of it, and if not, the price is reasonable enough that I can justify it for the minis alone, and reuse them for something else. If their pricing stays at that level, I could see myself buying some expansions merely to get some Gundam figures at Battletech scale - and what's wrong with that?

- H8

Hatemonger wrote:
So that goes back to my wondering about Bandai's intent and expectations - are they hoping their games become popular enough to compete with Warhammer? Will they be content to keep making games if they don't reach that level?

I don't think Bandai much cares about whether they beat or even really compete with GW, this is about bringing their IP games under one umbrella and providing another avenue for revenue from a market that's becoming more mainstream. It's about seeing if there's a market where they're leaving money on the table. If it works, then they were, if not, they're diverse enough that this endeavor won't hurt as an experiment.

What a weird trailer, just..

I'm pretty sure they hit a good chunk of the geek market from your painting pro through to your 1950s historical re-enactment fans.

Next trailer will no doubt feature goths, furries and Roman re-enactors.

I think they’re looking to corner the market on gamers who routinely game in a 1920’s bicycle repair shop whilst wearing a bow-tie!

Valete,

JohnS

Maybe it's the current goings on that I'm dealing with right now, but damn it, I thought the trailer was AI for a good while due to these weird stylistic choices.

But now that they've been mentioned, I do hope we get the goth mommy and goth daddy gunpla builders next.

I showed it to my partner and her first reaction was "it's anime but with real people". And yeah, like the shot with the reflection off the glasses towards the start really does feel that way.

Not sure if this has been posted here already, but a gameplay breakdown:

So weaker units are killed more quickly, but respawn. The timeline initiative system is an interesting way to balance abilities with different power levels.

 Pariah Press wrote:
So weaker units are killed more quickly, but respawn. The timeline initiative system is an interesting way to balance abilities with different power levels.

Just to clarify any unit can respawn but weaker units respawn faster, act more often due to their weaker weapons costing less timeline and give less VP when killed.

I do quite like this wa to balance but we'll have to see how well they do it in the future

Trailer had a very Euro-style feel to it.

Game still seems solid (if a little basic) from the game play videos I've seen.

What did I just watch?

I was with them up to the sad dude sitting alone with his laptop, he spoke to me, but the Olde Timey dudes in the bicycle shop? The chicks trading their favorite Gundams?

Who is this game for?

Weebs. The game is for weebs. I dont know why that even needs to be asked.

I loved the people in that trailer!

When I saw the guy in black I thought, oh no...... this reminds me of this pictures from the store in old WDs.

But no, they pulled it off by getting to the oldster and his young rapscalians in the garage playing the game on an oil drum table.

Then, the transition to the girls trading and taking selfies with them..... chef's kiss.

I guess this game is for EVERYONE!

I have no idea why IGN just put up this trailer. It's been on the web for nearly a month. Glad more people are seeing what I can only assume is Japan's idea of what American miniature gaming looks like.

I just noticed there is even an SD Gundam in the trailer. Of course just CGI for now but just the fact they are even planning for that makes me confident this they really want to support this game for a long time

Not gonna lie, that looks like they put a Converge/Capsule figure on a base. Card/base packs for existing SD Capsules would be an interesting way for them to quickly expand what's available at launch.

That promo video truly shows us that we're living in a Mad World.
https://youtu.be/DHtcliIvnHI?si=sw9g3uvUAMlvhHCh

Like, listen to the first half again after listening to the song.

 LunarSol wrote:
I have no idea why IGN just put up this trailer. It's been on the web for nearly a month. Glad more people are seeing what I can only assume is Japan's idea of what American miniature gaming looks like.

It's wacky for sure but it screams Live Action Anime to me, especially Old Mate in the shirt and dickie bow

If it can look at itself with this sort of self awareness the game should be fun and accessible. Unless the ad is deadly serious in which case I am WAY off the mark.