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November 12, 1998 - Company Update
1999 Game Release Schedule |
as released on Tuesday, 10 Nov 1998
Dean-o-Gram, November 1998, The GamersAGE OF RIFLES Gets the Nod
It has been an interesting year. Beyond the aircraft crash in February, the resulting rehabilitation and concern for my passengers and their well being (thanks to all who helped with the assorted drives to help Chris Volny, especially those who auctioned off their old games or ran such auctions...Chris was as greatly helped by the display of support as the cash raised), I've been amazingly busy since Origins doing the artwork for the first production batch--six months to do a year's worth of work! Now that this job is all-but finished (a few loose ends remain to be finished), I can finally start assigning release dates to those games as well as start allocating production slots to the second batch. See below for details.I had our discussion list take an informal poll to see which project I should turn my attention to first (given that this has no effect on other ongoing projects): AGE OF RIFLES Series Rules or an Standard Combat Series (SCS) game covering the entire European Theater of Operations (huge, to be published in several linkable modules). AGE OF RIFLES won that vote by a limited margin, so I will work on it first and work on the SCS War in Europe project second.
AGE OF RIFLES needs to be elaborated on since there is a computer game of the same name (I think) which has confused numerous players as to what our series is and intends to do. Our AGE OF RIFLES is an operational look at warfare in the many years prior to the general introduction of the Machine Gun and open order tactics. While the name implies only looking at the mid-1850's on (when real rifles were more generally used), I am looking at the period from around 1914 back to the later stages of the Thirty Years War (when the extensive use of mass Pike formations came to a slow end). There are many, many campaigns that can be examined in this period. Some of these are quite small, so many games in the series will box multiple campaigns together. This system will be something akin to the Operational Combat Series (OCS) for this time period.
The SCS WAR IN EUROPE project will do the entire European war 1939-45. It will be released in several modules (probably East, West, and Med) and its final map area will be quite large (the Eastern Front will be 4 maps). The game will use the basic SCS rules with additions for this scale to include production and unit building and rebuilding. The goal would be to make a game that covers this entire theater with as few special rules as possible.
In both these major projects for me, I cannot say when the first games will be ready for release...it will take time to do both right, and they will not be released until they are.
Games Nearly Out of Stock
Some games are really close to being completely out of print. Here they are with the totals still on hand as of 1 Nov 98, no reprints are planned.100 to 200 remaining
Hube's Pocket
Austerlitz Ziplock
Less than 100 remaining
DAKReplacement & Variant Countersheets
Hopefully everyone has gotten their 98 Repl Countersheets by now (mailed out this past summer) as well as their Map F (for Seven Pines) as appropriate. The next countersheet will be the 1999 one and that will go back to the Christmas schedule at the end of next year. For those who have ideas of what they'd like to see, please let me know (keep it simple...too many suggestions involve either lots OF counters devoted to one use (not fair), or a huge amount of effort on my part (also not fair!)). Lastly, the definition of "participating customers" has been expanded to include those who send in Reply Cards as well. As we have been out of main-line distribution for several years now, I can safely assume that copies guys pick up are generally from the new system (one way or another). Most Reply Cards will be coming from that system and not from the old one (if, indeed, it even exists anymore), so drop your cards in the mail to get credit as well.The 1999 Gamers Retreat (HomerCon XI)
Mark your calendars for 16-19 Sept 99 and I hope to see you there! Let the girls in the office know if you want a Retreat Packet...but no registration requirements exist. Walk-ins welcome!First Batch Production
As of this writing, the first parts of the first Production Batch have gone off to the printer. Because of that event, I can now select dates for the batch's releases. My apologies for the lack of definite information in the last few months on this. That was needed to avoid giving dates we could not meet without placing the cart before the horse. Now, this is no longer the case as Batch 1 is in the can.Feb 99: GAZALA (SCS)
April 99: MALVERN HILL (CWB)
Origins 99: BURMA (OCS)
Nov 99: ASPERN-ESSLING (NBS)Many will note that DRIVE ON PARIS is absent from this list. This is not a slight against this fine game, rather my own inability to count countersheets. ASPERN-ESSLING took half a countersheet more than I expected...so only a portion of Drive on Paris could be done in this batch. The rest will be done in the 2nd Batch. No need to worry.
THIS TERRIBLE SOUND (the second RSS game on Chickamauga) will make up a whole batch (well, almost) of its own. This will be layered on top of the 2nd Batch for and additional year 2000 release.
The Second Batch will include (but is not limited to) the following:
A FROZEN HELL (TCS)
DRIVE ON PARIS (SCS)
SICILY (OCS)With THIS TERRIBLE SOUND (RSS) layered on top as a bonus. Dates will be assigned toward the end of next year when the batch is finalized and in the can.
Ship As Separate Orders Or As A Unit
Your prepub and back-stock order can be shipped all-together or with the backorder first and prepub later as two separate orders. The choice is yours, but to ship them as two orders will require two "first game" shipping amounts. The extra handling will cost us a little more, I'm sure you'll understand. If you select to have the games shipped as one order (by not checking the box), it will be a little cheaper but will force the order to be shipped at the later date (when the pre-pub is shipped).Finally, we have also announced our 1998 Christmas Sale. Please be sure to check out the attractive pricing we are now offering on select game titles.
Related Links 1. The Gamers Talk
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Copyright © 1999-2002. ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com
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Copyright © 1999-2002. ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com
Headline News | Archives | New Products
Game Ratings | Clubs | Events | Discussion Board
Copyright © 1999, 2000 ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com