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Age of Annihilation - Backer Trend and Discussion

Inflating the number of copies you’re pledging because you know it won’t fund, is sending the wrong message. It’s sending a false signal to Hasbro. I’m not saying it’s wrong in a moral sense, or that the spirit behind it is misplaced, but if you think you’re sending the right message, I want you to know that you aren’t. Stick to your typical purchasing sensibilities and let them see the real numbers so they can more accurately analyze their failure and course correct if they choose.

This is partly why I still haven't raised my own pledge, just to be fair. I want to know how many people are actually backing this project, though I doubt they'd ever reveal that information to us.
 
Yeah, don't make fake pledges. Each pledge I've made I've moved money around as if the money is actually spent.
 
Yeah, don't make fake pledges. Each pledge I've made I've moved money around as if the money is actually spent.
Caps, please know I wasn’t singling you out. My statement was a general one. I’m encouraging everybody to stick to their typical spending sensibilities. This of course can wildly differ between individuals.

It does no good to send false signals to Hasbro. We want them to know our true spending intentions, and the actual limits of our gaming budgets.

If you think $250 is too much, don’t just back it to help bump numbers.

If you typically buy 3 of everything, don’t bump this up to 5 to inflate the numbers, just be real with it.
 
Indeed. I'd honestly feel worse if this was falsely inflated to 7,000+ sales at the end, just to still not pass it. I'm just happy we made it to a million. I'm hoping they can see the real numbers and come up with something else based off that. Showing the bare number needed to find Heroquest at a mich higher pricing option should show a sizeable chunk of support exists for this.
 
Yeah, don't make fake pledges. Each pledge I've made I've moved money around as if the money is actually spent.
Caps, please know I wasn’t singling you out. My statement was a general one. I’m encouraging everybody to stick to their typical spending sensibilities. This of course can wildly differ between individuals.

It does no good to send false signals to Hasbro. We want them to know our true spending intentions, and the actual limits of our gaming budgets.

If you think $250 is too much, don’t just back it to help bump numbers.

If you typically buy 3 of everything, don’t bump this up to 5 to inflate the numbers, just be real with it.
What you're saying is indeed wise. Say no to inflation! Lol.

But I think the info value of the campaign's $$ result is going to be poor at best. It might tell Hasbro something regarding if they do something like this again, but I don't think it gives a true picture of the potential Heroscape market at all. I'm convinced the real market is much larger than this. Better campaign, different platform, different company, etc etc. Maybe not going to happen, but if it did...
 
It would have been a lot nicer if the set were the size of ROTV or SOTM and even only like 80-100 bucks cheaper.
I backed for one set because that's the most of what I can afford. Backing 5 feels closer to paying off my remaining student loans, which apparently I need to start worrying about again.
 
It would have been a lot nicer if the set were the size of ROTV or SOTM and even only like 80-100 bucks cheaper.
I backed for one set because that's the most of what I can afford. Backing 5 feels closer to paying off my remaining student loans, which apparently I need to start worrying about again.

Don't worry we'll start a haslab to pay off your student loans
 
It would have been a lot nicer if the set were the size of ROTV or SOTM and even only like 80-100 bucks cheaper.
I backed for one set because that's the most of what I can afford. Backing 5 feels closer to paying off my remaining student loans, which apparently I need to start worrying about again.

Don't worry we'll start a haslab to pay off your student loans

Based on recent Haslab performance that statement is not as reassuring as you intended it.
 
Yeah, don't make fake pledges. Each pledge I've made I've moved money around as if the money is actually spent.
Caps, please know I wasn’t singling you out. My statement was a general one. I’m encouraging everybody to stick to their typical spending sensibilities. This of course can wildly differ between individuals.

It does no good to send false signals to Hasbro. We want them to know our true spending intentions, and the actual limits of our gaming budgets.

If you think $250 is too much, don’t just back it to help bump numbers.

If you typically buy 3 of everything, don’t bump this up to 5 to inflate the numbers, just be real with it.
What you're saying is indeed wise. Say no to inflation! Lol.

But I think the info value of the campaign's $$ result is going to be poor at best. It might tell Hasbro something regarding if they do something like this again, but I don't think it gives a true picture of the potential Heroscape market at all. I'm convinced the real market is much larger than this. Better campaign, different platform, different company, etc etc. Maybe not going to happen, but if it did...
Hasbro will have the number of backers and the average pledge per backer, which will be higher than $250 because of all the people adding extra sets. People who falsely inflate their pledge give Hasbro the impression that people who backed were willing to spend more than just $250. I personally think that’s not good, especially when so many people already think the price is too high.
 
As the campaign enters its final hours, I just want to thank everyone here for engaging in such a positive way, during a time that has been so stressful for us as a community.

I know there's been a lot of ink spilled, here and in other places, about "negativity" about the Haslab, but I haven't seen much at all. I really haven't, even though I know the opportunity has been there. I've seen people enduring stress in their different ways, but I'm not one to judge that. Just don't be nasty to each other, and - thankfully - I haven't seen nastiness.

As a guy who actually worked on the inside of the campaign, I've always felt supported by this community, despite the troubles. And I appreciate it.
 
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This is going to be the hard part for them to figure out because I generally think many would spend more than $250 if given the ability to add what they want. I do think the numbers for this campaign will be inflated because many of the people buying 3+ sets wouldn’t if they had the option to add just more terrain, or faction X, or another wall pack for example.

Add commons to the mix and the landscape really changes.
 
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I really wish we had gotten to see all the cards before today. By faction my current faves are the Frostclaws (Tuck Harrigan is a must when drafting these guys), Admiral EJ-1M, Marachott, the Hellforge, and of course Queen Maladrix.
 
pretty much the reason the display tables from TotalCon2010 and TotalCon2011 existed
Bruh, seeing that 2011 castle made me weep.

:) I *almost* want to build one of these behemoths again. They take hours to construct, eating into convention gaming time, but man, it was quite a presence. No matter why folks were at the convention, they came over and checked it out.

Or did Hasbro do it themselves? This possibility for AOA was mentioned some time ago by another poster.

It came from the Board Game Insiders podcast. Stephen Buonocore suggested that Hasbro could be 'shady' (when they were talking about Scape happening regardless of this campaign) and uptick the backer count themselves... how would we know? :)

I think it’d be pretty clear if it surged considerably at this stage with no final push to speak of.

Oh for sure, but I can't say I'd be upset if it happened. :)

I'd travel quite a ways to play a game on a map like that
 
As the campaign enters its final hours, I just want to thank everyone here for engaging in such a positive way, during a time that has been so stressful for us as a community.

I know there's been a lot of ink spilled, here and in other places, about "negativity" about the Haslab, but I haven't seen much at all. I really haven't, even though I know the opportunity has been there. I've seen people enduring stress in their different ways, but I'm not one to judge that. Just don't be nasty to each other, and - thankfully - I haven't seen nastiness.

As a guy who actually worked on the inside of the campaign, I've always felt supported by this community, despite the troubles. And I appreciate it.

FX1-Jh-FEUEAEl30v-jpg-large.jpg


It's been fun despite the stress along the way, thanks for everything!
 
Inflating the number of copies you’re pledging because you know it won’t fund, is sending the wrong message. It’s sending a false signal to Hasbro. I’m not saying it’s wrong in a moral sense, or that the spirit behind it is misplaced, but if you think you’re sending the right message, I want you to know that you aren’t. Stick to your typical purchasing sensibilities and let them see the real numbers so they can more accurately analyze their failure and course correct if they choose.

They can parse the data if they want to.

Crank it to 11, guys!
 
It would have been a lot nicer if the set were the size of ROTV or SOTM and even only like 80-100 bucks cheaper.
I backed for one set because that's the most of what I can afford. Backing 5 feels closer to paying off my remaining student loans, which apparently I need to start worrying about again.

It would be interesting to see if a 100-150 range product would have done better. Even with a cap of 5 units and no addons. My suspicion is it would have done as good if not better in total dollars.
 
It would be interesting to see if a 100-150 range product would have done better. Even with a cap of 5 units and no addons. My suspicion is it would have done as good if not better in total dollars.
Heroquest got to almost $4mil with that price range. I have to agree with you.
 
Well I can't say I'm not disappointed we will not reach our goal. I'm hopeful for the future of Heroscape. Potentially we have reawakened many former players and maybe a few new players regardless of our failure to reach to set goals. I'm thankful foe the efforts of those involve in the design and development of this new campaign. Maybe if nothing else Avalon Hill or Hasbro themselves could sell stl. files and the card artwork for printing on a private level, much like other studios do with their own designs. I know there were many reasons this did not go through. I know the frustration we all feel. However, the thing I have always loved most about Heroscape, is the community within itself that has kept this game alive. I know without a doubt there are way more people who play this game, that for whatever reason chose not to back this project. Each reason is valid by their own convictions. Lets not allow this to kill the momentum that has been generated throughout our group. God Bless you all. We live to fight another battle. ;)
 
It would be interesting to see if a 100-150 range product would have done better. Even with a cap of 5 units and no addons. My suspicion is it would have done as good if not better in total dollars.
Heroquest got to almost $4mil with that price range. I have to agree with you.

I'm all for the lower tiers and seeing what may have happened. But I'm still not convinced that enough would have been in a 100-150 offering to make people happy. I just don't see it being much more than a BftU sized set for that price (maybe smaller). Which then would have brought the screams of "cash grab!" to the front.
 
I'm all for the lower tiers and seeing what may have happened. But I'm still not convinced that enough would have been in a 100-150 offering to make people happy. I just don't see it being much more than a BftU sized set for that price (maybe smaller). Which then would have brought the screams of "cash grab!" to the front.
It probably would be slightly larger than BftU. Maybe they could get creative and also offer less terrain in that set but use cardboard basemats like they did with AotP. Those things are really great value; I've been using them lately to build some maps and they really help you stretch your terrain.
 
They would have had to do the campaign similarly to Heroquest where they actually sold and produced retail sets and not a one off mega product only available once through the campaign. So instead of producing 8,000 Vanguard Editions, you can print retail print runs and fulfill your campaign and supply retail at the same time. This is what big kickstarters like CMON do as well and they can scale in lots of exclusives by hitting stretch goals that make the project viable.

Things have definitely gotten more expensive, but if they can’t produce playable starter sets for $150 or less, it doesn’t really make sense to proceed.
 
They would have had to do the campaign similarly to Heroquest where they actually sold and produced retail sets and not a one off mega product only available once through the campaign. So instead of producing 8,000 Vanguard Editions, you can print retail print runs and fulfill your campaign and supply retail at the same time. This is what big kickstarters like CMON do as well and they can scale in lots of exclusives by hitting stretch goals that make the project viable.

Things have definitely gotten more expensive, but if they can’t produce playable starter sets for $150 or less, it doesn’t really make sense to proceed.

That's not what they did for HeroQuest. There were different print runs for the Haslab and retail releases. A few things were changed and you can tell the difference between them.
 
I'm all for the lower tiers and seeing what may have happened. But I'm still not convinced that enough would have been in a 100-150 offering to make people happy. I just don't see it being much more than a BftU sized set for that price (maybe smaller). Which then would have brought the screams of "cash grab!" to the front.
It probably would be slightly larger than BftU. Maybe they could get creative and also offer less terrain in that set but use cardboard basemats like they did with AotP. Those things are really great value; I've been using them lately to build some maps and they really help you stretch your terrain.

They would have had to do the campaign similarly to Heroquest where they actually sold and produced retail sets and not a one off mega product only available once through the campaign. So instead of producing 8,000 Vanguard Editions, you can print retail print runs and fulfill your campaign and supply retail at the same time. This is what big kickstarters like CMON do as well and they can scale in lots of exclusives by hitting stretch goals that make the project viable.

Things have definitely gotten more expensive, but if they can’t produce playable starter sets for $150 or less, it doesn’t really make sense to proceed.

Don't get me wrong, I hope I'm 100% wrong and look like a fool if they come back with another campaign and offer exactly what folks are asking for... willing to take that bullet! :)

Those mats are awesome @caps and if they're too expensive maybe something like those Lexan mats @Cavalier used to offer is something that could be explored. A floor level mat opens a ton space to stretch those tiles out.
 
They included some extra promos in the base offering, but the product is the same as what went to retail. Same with the first two expansions included with the Mythic Tier. I’m not saying the boxes were identical, I’m saying the haslab base offering was the retail version without extras.

The difference here is they went with an entirely exclusive set that would only be produced in limited quantity one time because it would never be offered at retail in the same form.

I don’t believe this was AH’s wish, but I think this campaign was structured to expose Hasbro to as little risk as possible. They don’t have to front any of the costs because they weren’t going to send anything to retail until they had the vanguard edition printed and fulfilled and then they could decide what to do next.
 
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