Munindk
Junior Strategist
Posts: 210
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Post by Munindk on May 27, 2019 6:39:42 GMT
I noticed today that a number of models have the tag Special Order Model on Warmachineuniversity. At first I thought "Its strange to see something like that on RET Halberdiers, they're not FA2 and they're in a popular theme". Then I clicked on the tag and its a shit ton of models. After getting really angry, I then read this and calmed down a bit. Apparently it happened in April 2018, but Warmachine University only recently created the tag. I'm not a retailer and I've never worked in retail, but I'm worried that this might be hard on smaller non US game stores? My local store has had running sale of 40-50% off on selected Warmachine and hordes models. It doesnt look like they're restocking things.
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Post by Gamingdevil on May 27, 2019 6:44:31 GMT
I noticed today that a number of models have the tag Special Order Model on Warmachineuniversity. At first I thought "Its strange to see something like that on RET Halberdiers, they're not FA2 and they're in a popular theme". Then I clicked on the tag and its a shit ton of models. After getting really angry, I then read this and calmed down a bit. Apparently it happened in April 2018, but Warmachine University only recently created the tag. I'm not a retailer and I've never worked in retail, but I'm worried that this might be hard on smaller non US game stores? My local store has had running sale of 40-50% off on selected Warmachine and hordes models. It doesnt look like they're restocking things. To be fair, it's been hard for non-US stores to restock in general. Though it should be noted that the direct order thing only affects stores in the US and the rest of the world operates as it always had. Unfortunately that doesn't mean that all is well, because suppliers often can't/won't stock a lot of Privateer Press products and wait a lot of time to order things, so we often have to wait months for something. Aside from that, I also think PP has a supply line problem outside the US as the suppliers often really can't get something either.
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Post by michael on May 27, 2019 13:46:20 GMT
Chillax, folks. privateerpress.com/press-releases/privateer-press-moves-portion-of-back-catalog-to-new-special-order-serviceAsking distributors and/or retailers to stock nearly 2,000 SKUs for a single game equals no worky. Privateer still produces this stuff, but it’s basically only on demand. It’s all stuff that people have loads of anyway. (Seriously: when was the last time you saw a player buy a new-in-box Journeyman warcaster?) In my opinion, this is much better than the GW practice of SKU management: “Well, that is discontinued, you can’t play with it anymore.”
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Ganso
Junior Strategist
Posts: 932
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Post by Ganso on May 27, 2019 16:58:27 GMT
Between the Special Order Service, Champions, Themes, and PP actually stating there are very very few legacy models that need the CID treatment, I think we have plenty of evidence to suggest that PP is flirting with the idea of some sort of soft-limited format. Considering that they need to keep up with operation costs, direct sales at low volume not actually having better margins, and that they're moving their whole freaking operation to a new building, it only makes sense. I think they should just go ahead and establish a Standard and Legacy formats
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smoth
Junior Strategist
Posts: 156
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Post by smoth on May 27, 2019 17:08:14 GMT
Distributors are not carrying a lot of warma, been waiting a month to get warma stuff in..
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shiver
Junior Strategist
Posts: 150
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Post by shiver on May 28, 2019 6:52:32 GMT
Distributors are not carrying a lot of warma, been waiting a month to get warma stuff in.. From what I understand, from an Alliance and an ACD rep, there is just no money in it, and they are constantly on the look out for what they can reduce and moving other stuff as fast as possible. I dont know how true that is, it could just be their interpretation, but I was at my best friends store, and was hanging out in the office when he placed some calls to see if he could get a few products for me. I was surprised, but but at least i got my 7 time chickens from them.
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Post by mydnight on May 28, 2019 7:53:42 GMT
I think they should just go ahead and establish a Standard and Legacy formats I hope this means they will CiD the legacy format models over time and never touch the standard format so tournament players can see Haley2 and Denny1 there for all eternity and not moan about changing metas.
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Ganso
Junior Strategist
Posts: 932
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Post by Ganso on May 28, 2019 19:44:58 GMT
Standard Formats are about rotating shit out.
Stuff that gets long in the tooth, or that limits design. And of course there's always room for rotating stuff back in after a time.
But that's the thing, it takes more than 6 months to establish a healthy Standard meta.
Magic The Gathering rotates stuff every year, practically every block. Fantasy Flights LCGs are in a slower 2 year rotation, and they even have ever green "Core" elements that never rotate out. They have even implemented a rotation for X-Wing with 2.0 release.
I think a 3 to 4 year rotation for a Miniatures game is a pretty good span of time.
If I were in charge I would do something like this:
Year 0: Publish Warmachine and Hordes Mk 4 with Prime units that never rotate out, things like Choir, Stones, Runebearers, etc. These are your faction defining models. Year 1: Release a classic style Anthology Book with new stuff for all factions. Year 2 - 4: Release more Anthology Books. Year 5: When the new Anthology Book release, stuff from Year 1 become Legacy and is droped from Standard. Maybe even consider droping a Mk5 here. Year 6: Same as 5 but for Year 2 models now.
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Post by beardmonk on May 29, 2019 7:59:27 GMT
Distributors are not carrying a lot of warma, been waiting a month to get warma stuff in.. I don't know where your based but From what I can make out (an I have 0 retail experience) in the UK it comes down to 1) what distributor you shop get your toys from and 2) how willing and/or interested your shop is in supporting local players. Getting WM/H in the UK is actually as easy as it’s ever been. However it is rather odd in terms of who is selling it. Some big retailers like Element Games (online and B&M) are still hosting major tournaments for WM/H, they seem to have very little physically in stock, probably doing direct order from PP as per their new system. Other big stores like Firestorm and Wayland (online and B&M) support tournaments and also have everything physically in stock. I shop at them and on ebay. When people in the UK say that they cant get stuff im always confused as I have never had an issues However stores like Dark Sphere have dropped PP products entirely, no longer willing to support WM/H events at their store. All this despite the fact that the largest WM/H meet in London is held a street over from them. In conversation with the staff, their main distributor dropped all of PP’s stuff and the store managers where not really keen on the game so they now just don’t stock it or help it out at all. Our small FLGS just dropped everything and refuses to order PP products. The owner no thinks that PP is a horrible company. Both shops had firesales to clear stock.
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marke
Junior Strategist
Posts: 187
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Post by marke on May 29, 2019 8:28:09 GMT
Ganso, would be also cool to have better models for (some of the) said Prime units. Anyway, I like your idea!
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Post by netdragon on May 29, 2019 8:28:47 GMT
Standard Formats are about rotating shit out. Stuff that gets long in the tooth, or that limits design. And of course there's always room for rotating stuff back in after a time. But that's the thing, it takes more than 6 months to establish a healthy Standard meta. Magic The Gathering rotates stuff every year, practically every block. Fantasy Flights LCGs are in a slower 2 year rotation, and they even have ever green "Core" elements that never rotate out. They have even implemented a rotation for X-Wing with 2.0 release. I think a 3 to 4 year rotation for a Miniatures game is a pretty good span of time. If I were in charge I would do something like this: Year 0: Publish Warmachine and Hordes Mk 4 with Prime units that never rotate out, things like Choir, Stones, Runebearers, etc. These are your faction defining models. Year 1: Release a classic style Anthology Book with new stuff for all factions. Year 2 - 4: Release more Anthology Books. Year 5: When the new Anthology Book release, stuff from Year 1 become Legacy and is droped from Standard. Maybe even consider droping a Mk5 here. Year 6: Same as 5 but for Year 2 models now.
This is not a bad idea, keeping a "everything goes" format as well.
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Post by Gamingdevil on May 29, 2019 8:50:49 GMT
This is not a bad idea, keeping a "everything goes" format as well.
Except, everyone would just play that, as they always have.
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Post by marxlives on Jun 24, 2019 15:26:41 GMT
Distributors are not carrying a lot of warma, been waiting a month to get warma stuff in.. From what I understand, from an Alliance and an ACD rep, there is just no money in it, and they are constantly on the look out for what they can reduce and moving other stuff as fast as possible. I dont know how true that is, it could just be their interpretation, but I was at my best friends store, and was hanging out in the office when he placed some calls to see if he could get a few products for me. I was surprised, but but at least i got my 7 time chickens from them. This is true, which is why it is better to just contact PP directly when asking about stock. Distributors will blow so much smoke up people's (blanks).
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smoth
Junior Strategist
Posts: 156
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Post by smoth on Jun 25, 2019 19:01:10 GMT
yep got my shit this past week. as did everyone else at my lgs, distributor wankers...
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Post by coolguyclay on Jun 27, 2019 16:02:43 GMT
This is not a bad idea, keeping a "everything goes" format as well.
Except, everyone would just play that, as they always have. I've found that when new versions are released for games, prior to and just after the release there is talk like "I'm not switching" or "rules for version X-1 are better, I will always play that", etc, . . . and yet after a short amount of time the new version is the standard for the majority. Maybe those people end up quitting as well, not willing to make the change. Just to say, in my experience, holdouts never last long for one reason or another. If "Standard" is the defacto event, most games will be in that format (with friendly games or special events sometimes using the open format)
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