It's 3pm in Italy and the new Kickstarter isn't up yet. These people are slacking.
It's up, $50USD or $70USD apiece, preorder price. The set of four is $200. Free shipping.
There are smaller levels for new players. Anyone already owning models likely won't be on board since the models to be shipped aren't specified and likely dupes.
Whew! I was a bit off on my MSRP estimate. But a 12" wingspan on a mini, that's pretty huge.
I went ahead and backed to keep tabs on what's happening, but to be honest will likely pull towards the end. The stretch goals aren't that interesting as I already have mousepad mats so posters would be trashed and moving from cardstock to cardboard doesn't excite me.
Strange pledge levels though, they should just be the planes that are the focus of the campaign and then anything else should be add ons.
Yeah, I'll be honest, Wings of Glory is a game that could just leverage the living heck out of Kickstarter. The other stuff in this Kickstarter is more or less chaff for the people actually looking at the monsters planes. These things are white elephants that people want just for the beauty of them but they're selling just fine. The small plane goals appear to be there in case they attract new players, which they should have just started a second Kickstarter for. "New to the game? See our Starter Kit Kickstarter HERE"
I've suggested to Andrea that he should run new paint jobs via Kickstarter, sell squadron packs, and even if they don't do "exclusive" paint jobs they could do paint jobs that are blacked out for 2 years or something, which would put the scare up without locking anyone out long term. I'd buy those, $12 for bragging rights.
Seasoned players looking at these Kickstarters know exactly what they're getting, so it's a perfect fit for a subscription-service kind of release schedule. If they offered up the currently unavailable planes in a set with one more that's a new paint job they'd pop over $100k goals without even trying. The fact that these largely useless monsters are at $25k in a couple of hours attests to that.
What would remain would be to make some planes retailer exclusives, to make everyone happy.
They could do a lot of pretty awesome things by leveraging KS. Like you mention limited repaints, it'd be a great way to get some of the old WoW minis back in rotation. I'd love to see a campaign for modeled gun emplacements. Getting balloons back into market. And one I'd love to see is a line of prototype and test planes...Though fully impractical I think I'd back this beast:
VonTush wrote: They could do a lot of pretty awesome things by leveraging KS. Like you mention limited repaints, it'd be a great way to get some of the old WoW minis back in rotation. I'd love to see a campaign for modeled gun emplacements. Getting balloons back into market. And one I'd love to see is a line of prototype and test planes...Though fully impractical I think I'd back this beast:
That's actually the De Punte Lauro, a 17th century Spanish Man-O-War with its sails heaved-to. 104 guns. Note the native canoe pulled up alongside it for trading purposes.
Ok, so the kickstarter is doing great and they just added a new stretch goal. In the announcement they showed that photo again, this one --
. . . and it just dawned on me, the length and breadth of this beast is going to be more than a little difficult to play with, because you're going to have to weasel the fighters in and around it the whole time. It doesn't appear it will fit underneath.
You'll be using the cards instead of the models aplenty when you make your run at this thing, and getting your card in under and out from the base of this thing could require some pretty creative dexterity skills.
Seriously though, I don't see it as a huge obstacle. I'm guessing that you can add/remove flight stands as needed giving some better clearance. Also, if a plane is getting in that close, I can't imagine it lasting that long! You've got four cannons out the rear and one with a better than 180 degree arc on the front. So I think the best approach is to charge and strafe along the front and loop back around, you get behind this beast and that's a world of hurt.
Mr White - I know you've mentioned having a hard time hunting down pegs. CSI has them in stock now:
www.coolstuffinc.com/p/207011
I ended up bailing on the big bomber Kickstarter. Just thought the expense was too much for the use I'd get out of them. Lovely models, but the smaller bombers I do have, haven't seen enough table time.
The male ends are tapered, so they fit more snugly and don't want to spin. I purchased two bags and am replacing original pegs the minute they spin on me even once.
A little more expensive but there's no shipping cost.
I'm helping the local comic book guy open a full blown game store and I've been helping him work up an inventory of Wings of Glory stuff to pick up for the grand opening. My plan is to help him run an event or two for WofG WWI, but as I'm running the inventories and realizing how few paint jobs are available of each model plane (available new that is) it's become apparent that I have a LOT of the old Wings of War stuff that you can't get anymore. When I looked to see what of those are available, first from online retailers and then in the aftermarket on eBay and Amazon and in the BGG marketplace I'm seeing some pretty crazy prices. The bottom end of these things is $24,95 and some of them reach up to $75. These for packages I picked up for $8.
So I'm starting to get a little concerned about bringing my big box-o-planes to the store, in fear of planes disappearing when I'm not looking. What had been a box with about $200 of planes in it now appears to be more like $500 to $1000, and $75 fiits into someone's jacket pocket. I think I'm going to have to bring a subset of my planes, and that may be preferable to the owner as well so people have more incentive to pull one down off the shelf.
Am I overthinking this? People walk around with $800 phones in their pockets these days, but In know there are douchebags out there that will take something just for the sake of taking it. There's no sense in having them grab something I can't replace.
$800 phones that was "free" when they signed their contract...
I don't think you're overthinking. If you leave your set up there it's easy for a person to think "There are so many, they'll never notice" and likely it could be days or weeks before it is noticed one is gone. Where a house set of say four to try the game with is a lot easier to notice if 25% of them are missing. And like you said, a person doesn't even have to know their value to get lifted, some people see an opportunity and take it and a painted WW1 plane makes a neat little desk ornament.
You might not be underestimating the chances of something walking off. I was using a Warhammer Fantasy Skaven figure for my coach in Blood Bowl at our FLGS and by the end of the game someone decided they wanted it.
I would recommend using a subset. Another possibility is if your buddy has some display case space put the expensive ones in there where people can still see but hopefully not steal.
I'm thinking I'll bring six planes or so, enough to get things started and all still available ones to lower the risk. I have my monster-sized damage decks that are from the old version and likely won't walk. If somebody stole half a dozen measuring sticks it wouldn't matter as I think I have 20 of them now. It means I need to pull my box apart which is a bit of a hassle.
The problem with playing at public settings. I do so little of it now because of the crowd I've run into. Some people are great, but inevitably there's a loser that you need to deal with no matter how hard you try to avoid them.
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