I thought the peices were fine - I had no problems with mine.
I fear, however, that NOT buying the game will make more of an impact than buying every single version that is released and then complaining. It sends a mixed message to Avalon Hill - and at teh end of the day it’s sales figures that matter.
The company wants to sell games, we all bought them… we bought the last ones, and they know we are going to buy the next ones.
If you are that unhappy send it back - that will get their attention!
If you the fans want peices - you the fans will need to come up with a way to solve it - and I suggest the method used by the other wargame companies.
I present the so called p500 system.
Invented by GMT games - www.gmtgames.com.
How does it work - they design a game, and then rather than produce it at great cost, they work out how much it will cost to get made and then put information up about the game and invite people to pre-order.
Once it gets 500 orders they advance to a more detailed design stage, knowing that they already have 500 orders. Once they have 750 orders they push the game into production. Those who pre-order get the game at a discount price. The number of pre-orders needed for something to go into design varies - and they always do a run of a few thousand and sell to games shops and what not, which then sell at full price.
The advantage is the game is EXACTLY what gamers want. If it’s not, then they gon’t get enough pre-orders and the game is not made. Prior to release, all sorts of rules, graphics and play test kits are handed out so that it is heavily refined and play tested prior to launch. These are games companies run by games for gamers…they are not ‘commercial’ in that sense, and many of those working in the companies do so on a part-time basis - it’s a profesional approach to a hobby.
So, since at the end of the day Avalon Hill staff work for Avlon Hill shareholders, and the MD will answer to his board and NOT you the customer, I suggest that the more enterprising amoungst you and go and get a quote for a line of plastic mins. You can have whatever you want… Panzer 4’s, Me262’s whatever.
Once you have a price for a run of how ever many is reasonable - you can put out a pre-order page. People pay whatever is a reasonale cost to cover production, shipping and the time of whoever did the initial work. Say 500 people cough up $50 in advance you have the money to buy the peices. If you want to run commerically - you make sure your initial pre-orders cover the costs of a double size run so that you have packs made that you can sell at a higher price (an incentive to pre-order) - and either bank the money from extra sales (hell, you did all the work why not) - OR buy lines of minatures that you want, but that didn’t get enough pre-orders perhaps… in effect the things everyone wants like B-29s cover the cost of the more diverse units that only a limited number want.
Only 10 people want B-29’s - not a problem, if after a certain amount of time you to fail to reach a minimum number of orders you refund them.
If, however, you can’t find enough interest in minatures - then perhaps that is the story here. There simply isn’t enough demand to justify making such a niche product… and I must admit, the 4 people in the UK with Axis and Allies that I know, are quite content with the product as it is and see it is a lite WW2 themed game for a fun evening and wouldn’t want to pay more for plastic minatures.
I would happily pay for more plastic minatures - I want jets, and heavy tanks for starters…
But back to the P500 system - most of the wargames I buy take 2-3 years to reach me… not all charge in advance, most only charge at the moment of placing the production order. So you order the game, 12 months later you get charged, 3 months later the game arrives. I assume it would be the same, you collect pledges to buy - and then the week before placing the order you ask people to cough up the cash… then you place the order. Bingo…
To be honest, complaining to a share-holder run company is going to achieve very little - especailly if you keep buying their products!!! It sends a mixed message - and besides, they want you to buy the game at the end of the day. Letters of complaint will achieve very little to be honest - unless we pay Larry Harris directly ourselves, he works for Avalon Hill and their shareholders - and if didn’t, then he wouldn’t be doing his job properly.
So the game is a compromise between three competing interests, gamers who want a customised luxery product, shareholders who want a profitable game - and poor Mr Harris who has to strike a balance between both groups. :-D
There is good community spirit here - Imperious Leader clearly has dedicated a lot of time and effort to his HHRHE and many of you have spent hours making modified figures, house rules, etc etc.
There are no copy right issues if you make some miniatures in the same colours and scale as the AA peices as long as they are not direct copies and you do not attempt to make commercial sales using their brand.
But I think you would be amazed at what you can get done if you organise yourselves
and you don’t have to argue about what minatures should be produced… if people want KV1s instead of JSIII’s - let’s see which gets the most pre-orders!
All we need to do now is find a sculptor, get quotes - hell, maybe even the person who made the latest A&A peices can leave a note on this board and give us his fee rate.
I regulary pre-order stuff at between $50 and $60 - so if someone was to come up with a bunch of AA mins to expand the AA50 version, I’d be there with my credit card.
