The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
One of my favorite western movies of all times. Doesn’t get much better than that (well, Silverado wasn’t bad either). It ran on TV a few nights back and it always makes for a good title. Now i just have to find topics to fill the title.
The Good
That’s pretty easy. I was already very proud of the Warlord 4E base set, which turned out quite well in my opinion. To produce an expansion was much more a challenge. With the base set I knew the cards, it was more or less putting them together right and adding a few new ones as spice.
The first expansion, though, is something like our calling card. How can we walk the fine line between delivering the ‘good ole Warlord experience’ yet keep it fresh and exciting? Will our new elements convince players to take up Warlord (again) in the long run? Will the Elemental traits, Poison or Tactics make the game better, or just more complicated?
Given the constraints in time and resources that we experienced Oliver Schaaf and his Player Design Time have done a great job. Period. And I really look forward to playing the new Warlords. Here’s the first tease for today.
The Bad
We are a very small operation. Except for the card design, pretty much everything else is up to me (at this point: Thanks to all Warlord friends in the US, TOs, playtesters, Don, Rich - without your help I’d probably have had a heart attack by now).
Unfortunately that means I have to take all the blame, too. When my son was born, for about two months my life was turned upside down - my wife and I traded illnesses due to stress and in between I was trying to keep up with clients (I still have a few), tax and company reporting, and the development of the new set while monitoring the cash flow to see whether Warlord has a future.
This all meant some things weren’t done as early as I would have liked. When it was time to order art, I learned that many of our regular artists simply were full (it looks like every company tries to put out something before christmas - who would have surmised that 
). This meant finding new artists (and we did find a few really great ones that add a lot to Warlord, in my opinion) who were willing to produce acceptable art at a relatively low price. You might know this triangle of competing factors in a project:
The cost has to be kept below a certain standard, for the Quality we have a minimum (in game design as well as art) that we strive for. With that set, the big variable is time.
To make it short: Despite contacting the printers early, due to late art (ordered as well as turned in), the production window we got at the printer wasn’t what I wanted (the files were ready early enough for a theoretical Nov. 30th release).
The files are at the printer now. They are approved, and they are working on them as fast as they can. But the earliest date they can be delivered for sure is December 19th.
Would you like some eye candy, perhaps? May I introduce my lovely assistant - please direct all questions to her.
The Ugly
Now for the worst. The printer is in Eastern Europe. At the numbers we print, splitting the print runs for the US and Europe doesn’t make sense (yet). That means shipping. Cards are made of paper, which weighs an awful lot, hence it is literally shipped. By ship, that is. The ship to the US goes all around to L.A. port (through the Panama Canal). Imagine what? It takes time.
The bulk shipment will take until late January to arrive in the US! Obviously I take the full blame and we are going to get better at this (having things produced earlier/reserving our printing slots), but this is the situation at hand.
I will send some boxes to the US via air freight, but this will be a limited number designed to serve the pre-orders and the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis members.
So if you order after the pre-order phase ends, it will take a little while to deliver.
As I said, I have to take the full blame. So now you can bull rush me. Improved Bull Rush actually:
November 30th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Um die richtigen Worte zu finden schreibe ich doch zuerst mal auf Deutsch:
Ich habe auch zwei kleine Kinder (und wir sind auch ständig krank ;-)) und habe mich schon länger gewundert, wie Arne es schafft, trotz dem ganzen Stress, so eine wahnsinnig vielfältige Aufgabe so genial zu schaukeln!!! Ich kann nur sagen: lieber ein paar Tage später, dafür aber so SUPER, so gut durchdacht, balanced, schön anzusehen (Art), tolle Promotions usw.usw. Mach weiter so Arne, ich kann Dir gar nicht genug dafür (und immer wieder) danken, dass Du Warlord gerettet hast und es sogar noch verbessert hast! Also falls es jemand wagen sollte, Dich zu “bullrushen”, dann trete ich gerne als Shield Wall Knight vor dich! Mach weiter so, auch Kudos ans Design Team, und lasst euch nichts Anderes einreden!
Mario
PS: for our english speaking friends: I think Arne makes a great job. We can`t imagine the stress he is under and you should pat his back and not bullrush him for the little delay. Merry Christmas!
PPS: I love the improved bullrush!
November 30th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Sure, we are disappointed that the “Shattered Empires” will be “late”. But please think about why we are disappointed.
I’m disappointed because I’m Warlord addicted again. The guys who made this possible is Arne Reuter and his team.
Please be patient even if you are really disappointed because you expected to play with “Shattered Empires” within the next days.
Without Arne Reuter there would be no Warlord 4E and please recognize that he is concerning the resources a community project that managed to produce a base set that is better than the last 4-6 AEG (big company) expansions.
@Arne: I believe I’ll play with a great “Shattered Empires”-Set and I want more expansion. Take the time you need, finish the annoying organisation works and the “Berlin Community” will thank you and your team for the well-done job.
November 30th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Take your time arne.
And let us just hope that the ship won’t be captured by pirates =)
November 30th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Arne keep cool and relax *G* you do a great job and it is ok
November 30th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Italy is at your side, Arne!
CYA
G.
November 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Demanding more after the things you’ve been through Arne would be an ungrateful thing. On the contrary, we truly thank you for reviving our hobby and passion.
November 30th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Thanks for the explanation! The set looks great, and we can wait. Now, if we only had something we could still put in stockings, to show that we really did order the sets, you know, kind of like the first wave of Star Wars action figures back in Christmas 1977. Ooh, I know, a PDF of the entire set. That would work. (just joking of course)
November 30th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
things happen, but getting a explanation for any delay is VERY much appreciated. i think you are doing a wonderful job and would title Arne’s movie:
the good, the better, and the best! keep up the good job, and things will get easier and become more clear.
November 30th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
My only complaint is that the new set will not be around for the Winter Campaign event in New Jersey (Blatant plug, be there *thumbs up*). I will have to organize something where proxies will be allowed, assuming the entire set is spoiled by then.
Otherwise, noone should hold anything against you considering this is your first try and printing and running a card game, and you havent even been doing it a full year! There is a certain grace period where we really SHOULDNT hold it against you. Though, the only flaw I’ve seen so far is in the international shipping department. So, we take this situation with a grain of salt, learn from it, and look to improve this aspect of the business — no big deal. I’m confident this won’t be a trend.
Happy Holiday!
November 30th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Delays happen for various reasons. All of yours are completely understandable and forgiveable. Keep up the good lines of communication. Where possible learn to delegate to ease the burden you’re shouldering to makes things less stressful, or at least easier to deal with the stresses you can’t remove. Keep up the overall good work and never make the mistake of sacrificing the quality for quantity. Last but not least an early wish of enjoying a great holiday season.
November 30th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Don´t worry about it we understand. As long as we keep an open comunications chanel open then is all good. I´m looking forward for next news.
November 30th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Imho you should have announced it earlier… You should have known for some time allready that the set couldn’t make it to shops “in time” (with shipping time to the US you’re more then a month off) and should have told the community earlier that they wont see the product they are buying for another month (at least).
I’ve no problem at all with the fact that the product will be late, all more or less reasonable. But many people didn’t know that the product will be late and hoped to have the new cards in hand in a short time, or planned pre-release tournaments.
Don’t get me wrong here, I don’t want to attack you or the way you handle the game. I know you may have wanted to wait till you have a more accurate date for the actual release, but imho it was the wrong way this time…
P.S.: Und Arne, ich weiß das du nen Job machst der alleine so gut wie nicht, oder sogar fast unmöglich ist. Das schützt dich aber nicht vor Kritik… Besonders nicht bei Kommentaren. Diese zu löschen ist finde ich nicht der richtige weg…
November 30th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Take your time arne.
It is more important to have a good set rather than a quick one.
Greek Gaming Club of CCG is with you.
December 1st, 2008 at 1:00 am
Go on…
I ‘m sure EVERYBODY understands difficulties.
December 1st, 2008 at 5:51 am
I’m going to order you a pizza, Arne.
Stuff happens. We’ll live. You’re doing an outstanding job!