Warriors of Japan -- WifWendell's Push

Why YOU Should Pre-Order Warriors of Japan

If you haven't played Nakajima's Warriors of God or Taiheiki this is definitely worth a look, especially at a mere $33. Mahaffey is doing the art on this one too and the prototypes are gorgeous, with a definite Eastern feel to them. Seriously, a game you could hang on your wall.

Wif sells it way better than I do, and the preorders are about 150 away from where they need to be. If you're looking for a different kind of wargame this is definitely an interesting choice in the tradition of Japanese designers. And awfully pretty for just $33.

I put #WarriorsOfJapan into the Twittersphere to see if anyone is noticing. I'm not exactly bristling with followers though.

S.

Ha. Comments one and two amuse me. First poster condemns Warriors of God as a luck fest and the second says he hated how the leaders kept dying.

I thought the leader death rules were one of the best parts of the game. But then I'm not a perfect information, anally retentive, control freak,

Anyway, I'd be interested in it if I thought I'd ever get it played...which I won't. So, while I admire it. I won't preorder it.

PS. almost forgot...fuck MMP's preorder process. Even after making the numbers it could be years before its published.

repoman wrote: PS. almost forgot...fuck MMP's preorder process. Even after making the numbers it could be years before its published.

They've been quicker recently, and this is largely a reprint with it's art complete. I'm not saying it's going to be out the week it clears, but it ain't Where Eagles Dare either.

What's interesting is that Wif has single-handedly moved the numbers 20 slots in two days with some decent promotional effort on a web site not really in Warriors of Japan's wheelhouse. I appreciate MMP is a small company, but I swear to God they could get someone like Wifwendell to work for store credit (and write it off as promotional spending) and get some interest going on many of their titles. It could be a one hour a week job.

S.

I'll buy it if it ever exists. I've been saying that since I bought Warriors of God, something like four years ago.

I still just don't have any faith in MMP's production process. I've watched it drag on for years and years on everything. I know how their P500 works, I know I'm not out any money until it ships, but if they can't be serious about committing to things and following through I'm not going to pre-order and keep it in the back of my head for years. When it exists, I'll buy it.

Good on Wif for moving the needle, though. I agree with Sag, even a little bit of promotion could do wonders for them.

(and getting on the wrong side of the leader death thing can be pretty frustrating...)

Sagrilarus wrote: if has single-handedly moved the numbers 20 slots in two days with some decent promotional effort on a web site not really in Warriors of Japan's wheelhouse. I appreciate MMP is a small company, but I swear to God they could get someone like Wifwendell to work for store credit (and write it off as promotional spending) and get some interest going on many of their titles. It could be a one hour a week job.

S.

Exactly. I can't take any more of this "We don't have the manpower!" shit. No, you just don't have the people with the right skills on your team, IMHO. You need a marketing person.

repoman wrote:
PS. almost forgot...fuck MMP's preorder process. Even after making the numbers it could be years before its published.

I think you'd have been correct in this a year or two ago. But in the last year and a half they finally put out the poster children for the delays you're raging against - Kingdom of Heaven, Angola, War of the Suns, and Where Eagles Dare. The long awaited Rising Sun ( PTO ASL module ) is finally shipping . And in that same time they've slowed the pace at which they are putting up new projects.

When I look at their preorder page, there are a lot less projects that have exceeded their prepub threshold, and most of them have production slots in the near future.

Gary Sax wrote:

Sagrilarus wrote:
Exactly. I can't take any more of this "We don't have the manpower!" shit. No, you just don't have the people with the right skills on your team, IMHO. You need a marketing person.

This I would agree with. They appointed a guy to oversee commuication a while back but that has been a fail from my perspective.

I'm glad you're keeping an eye on this, Msample. Not sarcastic.

I don't buy a ton of wargames, so I don't track everything that goes on. I buy the games that interest me, which are not usually hex-and-thousand-chits affairs. GMT has done a good job in recent years of keeping people aware of what's going on, and I've used their P500 for stuff I want.

If MMP is fixing their processes and actually hitting targets in a reasonable way, then maybe I'll look through the projects again. Based on past experience, I wasn't going to go out of my way to do so.

Seems an opportune moment to point out - again - that I would pre-order lots of stuff were it not for the tyranny of transatlantic postage. You'd have thought wargame companies didn't have wholesalers in Europe they could ship from, or something. I'd put up with the longer wait involved in exchange for the discounted price and the feeling I helped get something into production.

i second this, and the min £8 handling charge customs give us for applying VAT.

MattDP wrote: Seems an opportune moment to point out - again - that I would pre-order lots of stuff were it not for the tyranny of transatlantic postage. You'd have thought wargame companies didn't have wholesalers in Europe they could ship from, or something. I'd put up with the longer wait involved in exchange for the discounted price and the feeling I helped get something into production.

Trust me, they know about the overseas issue . At a GMT Games seminar earlier this summer, Gene Billingsley spoke about this at length. They've seen a noticeable drop off in sales/prepubs. And at one point, they DID have a company overseas ( UGG I think ) that basically operated as a distributor . But for various reasons ( some financial , some service issues, them not being able to control the customer service and having a bad experience reflect on GMT ) , it didn't pan out for either side so they dropped the idea.

Its been an issue long enough that I don't think there is a real easy solution, if any exists, or it would have been figured out by now.

Msample wrote: Its been an issue long enough that I don't think there is a real easy solution, if any exists, or it would have been figured out by now.

I find it hard to believe it's that hard. One US publisher having tried one European distributor is hardly comprehensive - there are plenty of other publishers and wholesales this side of the pond.

I suspect it's more an issue of a smaller audience and it's fragmentary distribution with varied postage rates making it not worth their while to bother.

MattDP wrote:

Msample wrote: Its been an issue long enough that I don't think there is a real easy solution, if any exists, or it would have been figured out by now.

I find it hard to believe it's that hard. One US publisher having tried one European distributor is hardly comprehensive - there are plenty of other publishers and wholesales this side of the pond.

I suspect it's more an issue of a smaller audience and it's fragmentary distribution with varied postage rates making it not worth their while to bother.

IIRC, non US sales are about 20% of GMT's business, although it has been ticking upward a skosh the last couple years. But that's world wide - IIRC he said while Europe is dropping, the Far East is increasing. Which means that on a per country basis, it is very small - and a PITA to figure out from their end. Someone suggested printing IN Europe, but given the relatively small print runs of wargames, 20% of a typical wargame print run is just not feasible on a cost per unit basis.

While I agree that one instance is not a comprehensive data point, if it was so easy ( and presumably profitable ) someone from your side of the pond would have set something up to be some sort of European distributor, no ? I've seen it enough from a variety of souces - Kickstarter venting threads on BGG for instance - that the whole European/import/VAT whatever bullshit is very complex issue that won't be going away anytime soon.

for it to be economic i suspect several war game publishers would have to club together for a number of global regional distributors.

Are there any European equivalents of CoolStuff Inc or some other mega mail order outlet ? If so, I'd think they might have the volume leverage to make something happen . I don't recall ever seeing such a thing though. There might be a reason...

So presumably the P500 is to judge interest, and American interest should be a relatively accurate reflection of non-American interest, and the publisher should have some level of sales data indicating how many boxes went overseas and how many stayed local. That is, 500 American pre-sales should indicate 600 pre-sales worth of interest worldwide. So in theory the need to offer P500 overseas isn't as important as it appears. I don't know if publishers think this way, but they certainly could.

S.