Victory & Constitution reverse ship cards?

[Nightmoss]

I hope Ares doesn't forget the corrected wooden combat rulers with the V&C ships to those that didn't order wave 2 direct from Ares (they owe me 3).

I don't think they will, Ed. That very question has shown up on their SoG Kickstarter comments and they reaffirmed that the rulers will go out.

Combat rulers were sent with Wave 2 ships (to people who ordered them) and will be sent with V&C to everybody else.
V&C release: the problem with Wave 2 productions pushed back the entire schedule, as work could not proceed on the new releases until the issue was fully clarified. We will soon provide an update on the new expected release date and the rest of the development of this line.

@Nate, please see our latest update (and its comments) on the subject of replacement rulers. For those that did not order either Wave 2 or V&C, they will get them at the same time as the V/C people do.

[Tommy Z]

Ares just posted on facebook pictures for the packages of constitution and victory:

https://www.facebook.com/AresGames/p...14573845256620

So they are finally give as some food.

Sails on the Horizon?

[Coog]

Sails on the Horizon?

Sounds like we are still a few months off before we have them in hand. I wonder if there is any significance to the pictures of the Captains on back. Bainbridge and Stewart for Constitution, both from the War of 1812.

[Popsical]

It does say captain cards for your two US caps on the box.
And crew cards?

Nelson should be freekin awesome!

[Gunner]

Poor Captain Hardy. It seems the only thing he got out of Trafalgar was a kiss from Nelson (no disrespect intended).

[7eat51]

Ares should consider a business student intern to handle social-media marketing. It need not be a paid position given the experience gained. Internships could be very beneficial for all parties - including us via more consistent and timely info.

[Diamondback]

True... or like I said, if they in-housed me as Onshore Rep at the Fort Wayne warehouse it could be added to my portfolio of responsibilities alongside warehouse oversight and ongoing research to develop the line--or maybe have me do oversight on the interns. :)

[Popsical]

I have to say, Ares web site is very good and they seem quite thorough in most things.
I dont know anything about their staffing or company over heads or expenses tho.
Yeah they arent pumping out stuff like old granny, heck im kind of glad about that, but maybe we are so used to product saturation that we can be unreasonable in our expectations?

As long as they continue to support SoG i will be happy.

[Diamondback]

Steve, for better or worse Gamer ADD IS a fact of the industry that has to be dealt with, and the hard reality is if you don't keep the crowd's attention even with simple little dangles of information every few weeks, theyir attention will be drawn to the Next Shiny Thing...

[fredmiracle]

Yeah they arent pumping out stuff like old granny, heck im kind of glad about that, but maybe we are so used to product saturation that we can be unreasonable in our expectations?

As long as they continue to support SoG i will be happy.

I pretty much agree. It's a shame the broken-mast thing happened, and I think the pace will pick up some at they move past it. But even if it doesn't ramp back, I can live without getting new ships every couple of months. I'm no expert on the gaming scene, but I've been pretty surprised how quickly Star Wars stuff keeps getting cranked out--I don't think I (or my wallet) could keep up with it. And one result is that (to my untrained eyes) the Star Wars line seems to already be getting off into some ships of pretty marginal interest...

I do agree that Ares would be well advised to keep up the constant communications. Obviously they are working to do this, but it could probably be improved. A steady stream of content, contests, trade-show-reports, planning updates, sneak peeks and developer commentary will (a) keep people engaged, and (b) demonstrate that Ares remains committed to the line.

In other words, I'm not looking for new releases every quarter (although I'd take it ). Rather I want evidence that the company is fully behind the product, that there will be steady releases of new stuff (even if slow) and that a lot of the things I want will be coming over the next few years.

[Diamondback]

Well, I might have said this before, but...

My ideal SGN annual release schedule would be something like one or two new waves, one reprint wave, one Special Pack wave of 1-2 premium sculpts--maybe set up the SP's and reprint wave to release at the same time. Set WGF and WGS up the same way, and for a completist shopping around on e-tail that's like $100 a month with new product 9 months out of the year with three months off for wallets to recover.

Something like:
Jan WGF Special Packs
Feb WGS Special Packs
Mar SGN Special Packs
Apr - Month off (taxes)
May - WGF New Series
Jun - WGS New Series
Jul - SGN New Wave
Aug - Month off (travel, cons, back-to-school etc)
Sep - WGF Reprint Series
Oct - WGS Reprint Series
Nov - SGN Reprint Wave
Dec - Month off (holidays)

Admittedly, this is a VERY rough version, and I'd really prefer to mix it up by having one new, one reprint and one special each trimester, but there are some times of year when the cash flows aren't as good for consumers, and I was thinking putting the "completists need to buy less of these" waves first trimester would allow that time to recover from the holidays and prepare for tax season, and similarly putting the reprints in third would mean less hit than a full new wave during the holiday season.

[Gunner]

Right you are DB. My current "shiny things" are the good looking X-WING products. But in all honesty, I think that my game money would be used on SGN products if I knew for sure when they'd be available. Yes, I know I'm impatient, but at my age the only thing patients gets me (or anyone else) is closer to the end.

[Diamondback]

That and, I think even if it were a year in coming the idea of a Fan Created Wave could build excitement beyond a standard, because we'd have to debate which nations to include, which types we want sculpts of, which sculpts for those types, which ships on those sculpts... just the polling on that could keep people talking for a year or more easy, if people knew Ares would listen and actually follow community input rather than just "hmm, that's interesting, but it's our product and we're gonna make what we want" like so many other companies.

Question... if my unofficial little polls actually had Ares's blessing and backing as "Official Market Research," think they'd get more responses?

[Popsical]

DB, i know exactly where your coming from. Gamer addiction does exist. For some its good, for me, its not.
Im presently in the throws of fighting my gaming addiction, and i feel im winning.
Getting away from granny was the biggest hurdle, and i now (after only 3 months away from her) i know absolutely nothing about anything shes doing. Luckily as i decided to cut back, grannies rules went utterly to rats and the figs started down the comical route.
Whilst im happy to buy the odd ship here and there, i never want to buy another army ever again
I want to wargame and games like SoG fill that niche.

In short im happy for a slow and steady flow of lovely models with good rules.
Information flow is probably where Ares could improve.

[Diamondback]

Especially since information is cheaper than pushing new waves out the door. Maybe even just have the art department create a featured Scenario Of The Month every month, like the scenario cards for the old Axis & Allies Miniatures "Combat Zone" organized-play program... paper is cheap, and things that can be digitally distributed even more so.

This would also be a case where "variant logs" with new names and stats for existing ships could be helpful in keeping interest up... let's face it, there are more Slade Common 74s than Ares will ever do just for one, so filling out some of the higher populations with Variant Cards gives them a cheap way to keep interest, and those who already have 2 of everything to look for deadstock on the shelves to buy a 3rd or 4th.

[Popsical]

Your right there. That sounds a great way of keeping the pot simmering whilst keeping the costs down.

[Diamondback]

AND driving sales, which mean more demand from the retailers, thus from the distros, thus... more revenue for Ares. :D

[Gunner]

Question... if my unofficial little polls actually had Ares's blessing and backing as "Official Market Research," think they'd get more responses?

If not, I can understand why Ares doesn't seem to worry too much about keeping us in the dark. It looks like Ol' judge Andrew is right, we are, a nation(nations) of Sheep.

[fredmiracle]

if my unofficial little polls actually had Ares's blessing and backing as "Official Market Research," think they'd get more responses?

I think it's really hard to get a read on this size and composition of this (or any) player base.

It seems that the group of SGN enthusiasts who are active online is surprisingly balkanized--there is a good deal of non-overlapping activity spread across the Anchorage, BGG, the KS site, and the Facebook site. To a much lesser extent TMP. Probably others I'm not aware of.

Plus, it seems that only a very small portion of people buying the game or interested in it are actively engaged with it online. At least that it how I see it, and appears to be pretty typical.

So from one perspective, you could say: "sure, why should Ares care about a few people on the Anchorage?" They probably shouldn't.

The inverse way of looking at it, however, is that perhaps there is a missed opportunity to consolidate the existing online fanbase, as well as grow it. Conceivably a fan-feedback mechanism might be one way to jumpstart such a process, hopefully resulting in a more engaged, informed and excited customer base. This would presumably take more than a mere blessing. But if Ares touted a survey process through all the marketing channels available to it (KS update, Facebook, Ares.com posting, game-designer postings & interviews, handouts at conventions and stores, package inserts, messaging to distributor/retail channel) over an extended period of time, then it could probably drive a lot of traffic to a survey here or anywhere else.

[Diamondback]

If not, I can understand why Ares doesn't seem to worry too much about keeping us in the dark. It looks like Ol' judge Andrew is right, we are, a nation(nations) of Sheep.

Well, between sheep on one side and on the other folks who want so much structural change made that the only things they'd have Ares keep are the miniature ships and the rules, completely starting everything else over from scratch...

And yes, as Fred notes we're probably the most radical "activists" of the community.