Heroscape: Age of Annihilation is here! Back it on Haslab!

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by ChaosCron

Shouldn't the Haslab crowdfund be on the frontpage?

Yes. Only @Xorlof @Xotli and @truth have the ability to put it there, though.

Originally Posted by Yodaking

More foot shooting going on here....

The e-mail Hasbro Pulse sent me yesterday with today's line-up never mentions Heroscape once. Just Avalon Hill at 2:15 PM ET. If I hadn't already known about the Heroscape re-launch, I never would have known from the marketing.

I'm rooting for CVN and the War Council. I'm beginning to honestly suspect that Hasbro set this up for failure, though. Maybe I've just been watching to much Ted Lasso lately.

[Nukatha]

One more bit that I don't understand: Is it 8,000 sets that need to be ordererd, or is it 8000 backers, where each backer counts as 1 even if ordering the 5 set maximum?

[brak88]

I don't really know why people are so riled up about the cards. I can almost guarantee they'll look exactly the same on the master side, but with the 3D image instead of the physical mini.

The one real thing I'm disappointed about is the lack of stretch goals. Only five extra minis at four million dollars is not much, especially compared to the heroquest campaign's extras at four million, which is kind of low compared to regular Kickstarters.

There should be ads on eBay after searching heroscape and dare I say allthingsheroscape. Make people that are dropping closer to $250 to get four squads aware of this and what's available in return. But maybe those people are already on here and have backed?

[chas]

Nukatha,

Its 8,000 backers, but someone recently said that each set counts as a separate "backer." Go figure.

A poster here said he'd be happy if we got 1,000 on the first day, and we're up to 959!

[wriggz]

I dinno Hasbro doesn't just throw money around. Proto types, design labor, marketing, etc all cost either time or money or both.

I believe all the choices made were in good faith, but they may have missread the mass market appeal of the offer and the boardgame public knowledge of haslab. KS is a giant. I routinely check to see what's interesting even though I'm happy with my collection.

This is going to be a slow burn.

[brak88]

Originally Posted by Nukatha

One more bit that I don't understand: Is it 8,000 sets that need to be ordererd, or is it 8000 backers, where each backer counts as 1 even if ordering the 5 set maximum?

Sets. Just need 8,000 regardless of if it the same person. Bless the people willing to purchase multiples of an all unique set when they probably have loads of tiles, but there needs to be focus on getting new people interested if we want new "seasons" to come out regularly.

"Units can gain bonuses or penalties based on differences in terrain height, and the types of terrain may influence unit movement and more."

The only rule change tiles shown so far is water, unless they are adding sand/rock rules. If there's terrain tiles not revealed yet, new and/or reprints of old tiles, that are considered to be unrevealed stretch goals for past 16,000 backers, it might be wise to show them now or to have them as reached goals for every 1,000 backers point reached after 8,000.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by brak88

I don't really know why people are so riled up about the cards. I can almost guarantee they'll look exactly the same on the master side, but with the 3D image instead of the physical mini.

The one real thing I'm disappointed about is the lack of stretch goals. Only five extra minis at four million is not much, especially compared to the heroquest campaign, which is kind of low compared to regular Kickstarters.

There should be ads on eBay after searching heroscape and dare I say allthingsheroscape. Make people that are dropping closer to $250 to get four squads aware of this and what's available in return. But maybe those people are already on here and have backed?

People are always going to have a knee-jerk reaction against change, especially if those people are mostly drawn to something based on nostalgia. Marketing primarily on nostalgia and then making what will scan for a lot of folks as unnecessary aesthetic changes is walking a dangerous line, IMO.

(I have no issues with the card shape changes or anything, btw. I think it's kind of interesting. Just not hard to see why some folks are bucking at it).

[Nukatha]

I'm indifferent about the army card shape as well. I do far prefer it to the long army cards of AoTP. Have we only seen a 'basic' side this far?

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

People are always going to have a knee-jerk reaction against change, especially if those people are mostly drawn to something based on nostalgia. Marketing primarily on nostalgia and then making what will scan for a lot of folks as unnecessary aesthetic changes is walking a dangerous line, IMO.

(I have no issues with the card shape changes or anything, btw. I think it's kind of interesting. Just not hard to see why some folks are bucking at it).

I totally agree with this. From all of the previews we've seen and knowing the people who've been working on this there has been a ton of work going into the design of AoA, and there's just a lot of content there that I believe will be high quality. HoweverI think there's a lot of justifiable concern that the strategy for rolling it out isn't great.

All the aesthetic changes while marketing one big $250 box and expecting people to remember all the great things about HeroScape when the game's been out of print for over a decade seems like a poor combination. That's also a lot to spend for any new gamers who aren't familiar with the game. It would be great to see some gameplay videos and some more discussion of what the unit abilities are. They did this a little bit with the hellforge but I think the powers give that cool factor that can draw folks in.

I don't want to overreact early, but I can't help but think of what it would have looked like if the offering had a $1.5M target (slightly higher than the OG Heroquest one), a basic tier of two factions plus basic terrain (no TJ/ruins) at $100, the current vanguard tier offering at $250, and shifting 10% of the units into stretch goals so the end point of $4M for full unlock was the same.

[IAmBatman]

A basic tier and a terrain only tier as options would significantly widen the pool of backers, IMO. All-or-nothing cuts people out. Will it be enough people to swing this one way or another? We'll see.

But in my experience, crowdfunding is all about momentum, and the way this is set up and with stretch goals being so limited and at such a high level, it really doesn't seem designed to build that momentum well from a marketing perspective.

[Son of Arathorn]

We got what we got. And what we got looks like a pretty sweet deal, dollar for dollar. If I could have spent this amount of money on this amount of ‘Scape in a year back in the day, I would’ve pulled that trigger without blinking.

I know I’ll back it before 45 days are up. I’d do it right now, but end of the month bills (and one very stupid cat’s trip to the ER-she’s fine now) wiped me out for a couple weeks.

Time will tell whether all the wailing and teeth-gnashing over crowdfunding platform and backer goals is warranted. With what’s on offer, I’m confident all the complaints about unpainted minis are artifacts from a bygone age of gaming, and unhelpful ones at that.

[Shurrig]

Originally Posted by MegaSilver

Cancel your pledge and resubmit it. You'll get free shipping. There was an error early on with the shipping charge.

It worked, thank you!

And I'm personally done doomscrolling here. If you think this project isn't worth your money, that is absolutely fine. If you're not feeling the unpainted miniatures (even though they are literally the highest quality figures on the market) that is your choice! I've come back around to see the quality of this offering, as I'm sure many others will. The ticalla pieces nearly alone make it worth it for me considering how much they go for on ebay. As someone who started their collection long after HS went out of print, I see this as the only way to not have to pay exorbitant amounts of cash just to get a few units here and there. That is my justification, because otherwise I'll be stuck with the collection I have for years to come only to find paltry selections being sold by third hand scalpers, or even worse, 3D printed models (kidding! sorta...)