HeroScape is coming back!

[nyys]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I mean, I imagine (unless they are really misguided) that they'd include it as an option, not the default. If it's like $18/mini more to offer it precolored, that shouldn't be the base offering, IMO, just an option something has. In 2023 in what's likely initially going to be a direct-to-market sale, there's no reason not to offer targeted options like that.

100% It hurts nobody if it's simply an option you can take or leave. If you want gray, you can have gray. If you want to pay a bit more and have pre-color, you can have pre-color. My hope is it doesn't stop there.

Of course even if they do offer pre-painted, I'm preparing myself that I won't be able to afford it.

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by nyys

100% It hurts nobody if it's simply an option you can take or leave. If you want gray, you can have gray. If you want to pay a bit more and have pre-color, you can have pre-color. My hope is it doesn't stop there.

Of course even if they do offer pre-painted, I'm preparing myself that I won't be able to afford it.

Unlike the Source offering though, this is a straight to retail product that will be stocked in stores. So I don’t know that I could confidently say having a pre colored option has no downsides. It’s twice as much of the “same” product for stores to stock, and if they’re expensive or not attractive enough that product could clog shelves and lead to retailers not wanting to buy more product. Could they offer it only on their website maybe?

[nyys]

Originally Posted by boromir96

Could they offer it only on their website maybe?

That's the most likely scenario IMO. Anything outside the norm will likely only be available thru Renegade whether via pre-order or on their website.

That said. If any of it finds it's way into places like Target or Walmart, I can see that being pre-colored. Pre-paint will likely be too expensive and gray minis probably won't impress the casual shopper.

Though isn't the retail stuff only supposed to wind up in FLGSs?

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by boromir96

Unlike the Source offering though, this is a straight to retail product that will be stocked in stores. So I don’t know that I could confidently say having a pre colored option has no downsides. It’s twice as much of the “same” product for stores to stock, and if they’re expensive or not attractive enough that product could clog shelves and lead to retailers not wanting to buy more product. Could they offer it only on their website maybe?

I could definitely see precolored only being part of a preorder and direct-to-market part of the product.

That said, I'll believe Heroscape is going to frequently clog the shelves of retailers again when I see it. I just don't believe it's going to be the same mass market, big box type of thing it was in the past, and I'm not confident it'll have the sales rate needed to get stocked in a lot of botique game stores beyond maybe an initial set.

I'm guessing the future of Heroscape through Renegade is going to be mostly online sales, which is where the precolored option would work best. That's based on little more than my irresponsible guesswork, though, but it does match up with general economic trends, IMO.

[nyys]

For the most part I agree with all that @IAmBatman . There won't be a big boom, but it'll be big enough to keep the game alive. At least for a time. With online sales thru Renegade (where the different options can be offered) being the biggest driver.

That and I think organized play participation will play a role as well in how long the game is supported.

[IAmBatman]

Oh for sure. I definitely think it can be a viable product for a long time with lots of expansion legs. I just think it needs to evolve into being a pretty different beast than it was in the old days in order to do that (mostly in terms of marketing and distribution).

[wriggz]

Sadly it's about forecasting demand, and when it comes to painting you want the be sure it will sell for profit.

This isn't like Kickstarter where you know if you hit x% of orders you are going to make a profit. Renegade wants to sell exactly how much they make to satisfy enough people that they will buy more or spread the word.

The world has changed almost to a 100% just in time model where unsold supply is a liability not an asset. Companies want to minimize squ numbers not expand them.

[IAmBatman]

I'm going to officially predict that prepainted isn't going to be on the table ever. I don't think the economics or the politics make sense.

I think that precolored printing, as the technology improves, very well could be (at a premium). I imagine that Renegade would want to leverage a presales approach to selling precolored minis, though, or do very limited precolored (like huge figures) and keep everything else mono-colored in order to keep things at viable prices.

I imagine they're still internally exploring a lot of their options on all of this, though.

[Master Roshi]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I'm going to officially predict that prepainted isn't going to be on the table ever. I don't think the economics or the politics make sense.

I think that precolored printing, as the technology improves, very well could be (at a premium). I imagine that Renegade would want to leverage a presales approach to selling precolored minis, though, or do very limited precolored (like huge figures) and keep everything else mono-colored in order to keep things at viable prices.

I imagine they're still internally exploring a lot of their options on all of this, though.

This makes sense to me; it's just logistically more feasible to limit what they produce to one or the other

And at this point I'd prefer it to be unpainted, since painted would be more expensive for us to purchase

[Robotech Master]

I've been painting Warmachine, Firestorm Armada, Kings of War Armada, Anima Tactics, Deepwars/Shadowsea, Eldfall Chronicles, Uncharted Sea, Planetfall, and more over the last 13 - 14 years, I'm more than prepared for Heroscape to relaunch unpainted.

[Porkins]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I'm going to officially predict that prepainted isn't going to be on the table ever. I don't think the economics or the politics make sense.

I think that precolored printing, as the technology improves, very well could be (at a premium). I imagine that Renegade would want to leverage a presales approach to selling precolored minis, though, or do very limited precolored (like huge figures) and keep everything else mono-colored in order to keep things at viable prices.

I imagine they're still internally exploring a lot of their options on all of this, though.

I have difficulty believing that they can hit the necessary production rates with a printed offering. I believe they'll be injection molded, which means all gray or by faction colors (green for Ullar, red for Utgar, etc.), but not "choose if you want gray or faction color."

[nate the dawg]

Originally Posted by chas

This new environment may encourage group buying strategies of the new stuff. Here at The New York City Gang of Four, where I'm the physical host for our games, most of the five of us own almost all of the Classic product, and I've been gifted all of the VC cards on cardboard stock. Since we have minimal participation in the tournament scene, we also borrow figures from each other as necessary for our monthly custom scenarios.

Its a standard practice in nonScape game clubs for different individuals to collect different mini armies for the major nations in a particular conflict. In a like manner, now for both figures/cards and terrain, different people could buy different product, and make it all available to the group.

Recently one of us moved into a smaller apartment and got rid of his stuff, selling or gifting most of it to the rest of us or others. Some of us have large collections of nonScape figures from other games that we can use as proxies as needed. Examples include Star Wars figures and Heroclix. And some of the committee approved minis for VC cards. This has allowed me to come up with proxies for all of the unofficial versions of the new AOA designs for my Age of Annihilation Revival Project, which you can check out on our thread linked below in my signature line. This has allowed us to already be playing games with all the Hasbro Offering AOA stuff using cards by Anitar and/or myself. (Only recently did I see there is a group working on this also, which started out before the Renegade Revival announcement. See New Generation Customs here: https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...ad.php?t=62319. Since the Renegade announcement, they are now working on their own new AOA Customs only). Their stuff is in the Customs section (New Heroscape Cards and Figures) rather than the new AOA section. Although they are using Discord and also put up their own site, there are links to it all there.

It appears that the new types of product, finally including terrain packs and possibly faction card/mini packs, will make this strategy of coordinated buying of the new (and relatively expensive, whether painted or not) game equipment. Another possibility would be chipping in together for largers sets so the group can have access to them.

This is what my group has always done - With Heroscape, Pathfinder ACG, Vs System, Heroquest, etc.

All in all, we put about six grand into Scape across its lifetime, split between six people. We'd each chip in when a new wave came out, so we'd quickly get to our minimum 3x commons, and in some cases, many more!