Getting extra pieces?

[Mino1124]

@Variable:

It very recently is no longer part of the forums.

Thanks for clarifying. Okay on the topic of the thread here’s the e-mail I sent to WotC.

To whom it may concern,

First of all let me say I’ve been a long time fan of Wizards of the Coast. I’ve spent a few hundred dollars, on Magic cards, and spent countless hours playing in the past, I own about 50 Forgotten Realms books, and I’ve read through a few of the manuals for Dungeons and Dragons. I also bought Axis and Allies Spring 1942 edition and loved it. I loved it so much that I went and bought the 1940 Pacific edition since I read it could be combined with the 1940 Europe edition when released. I was wary about paying such a high price but had faith in the product having read such great stuff on previous titles, and having such a great experience with one myself. When I opened the box I thought the board looked great, and that the seperate boxes were a welcome edition. I was a bit disappointed with how flimsy the battle board was but was able to accept that fully. When I discovered that the battle strip was the same as the 1942 edition and not for this one I was glad to find that those could be replaced and am already on the list to get a correct one. Some of the rules didn’t make sense to me, and I was baffled at how many errors were already found in the rules. I understand that some things are going to be wrong and accept that but the sheer number of things is just crazy to me. http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=16070 There is the website which shows the still unfinished errata. I don’t have access to a printer, nor do I want to pay the library per page or write down all of this by pen and paper. Is there any way those of us that already bought the game can get an updated version of the rulebook. I also understand that the setup has a few minor errors for the US, and ANZAC. How likely would it be to get replacement box tops, or at the very least two stickers with the correct set up for us to put on our boxes. Then I went to set up the game based on the correct set up and noticed that there only only 6 Tac Bombers and Mech Infantry units per power. UK and ANZAC I can kind of understand that for, and even maybe US, but Japan? You need to use almost all of the Tac Bombers in setup. I understand that you’re not going to give 1 unit type per territory per power, but 6 just seems a little short to me. The rules do say to write the unit on a piece of paper, but I don’t feel I should have to do that just because I want 7 or 8 territories with Mech, or Tac Bombers in them. I understand there’s production costs to consider, but there’s also the $90 price tag that those of us also have to consider. For that kind of money, I don’t think it’s too much to request the correct information. Once again I understand mistakes WILL happen, but I just don’t understand how this many mistakes could happen so soon. I originally planned on buying 1940 Europe, but first I need to know what the folks of WotC are doing for those of us fans who’ve supported your products through the years, and even those who are new to your products to keep us wanting to buy from you. Thank you for taking your time to read this and I anxiously await your resonse.        -Mike-

[Mino1124]

I got my response. I can tell it’s a cut and paste answer because it tells me how to get a new battle strip in Feb, (which I said I already am getting in the e-mail) and said nothing about the other concerns about the massive errata. It says they have no new Tac Bombers to send much like they did to most other people.

[MaherC]

when they send you a cut and paste reply, and obviously don’t pay attention to anything in your email, call them and say you have a problem w/a reply.  They will ask for a ref #.  Give it to them.  Let them read it.  Then say, So do was my message even read?  Worked for me.

[Mino1124]

@MaherC:

when they send you a cut and paste reply, and obviously don’t pay attention to anything in your email, call them and say you have a problem w/a reply.  They will ask for a ref #.  Give it to them.   Let them read it.  Then say, So do was my message even read?  Worked for me.

What’d they end up doing for you?

[MaherC]

let you know when I actually see the items promised in the mail :)

[Mino1124]

So I called, and the guy read my e-mail. The guy on the phone said he was sorry and that it’s right it didn’t seem that my e-mail wasn’t read and he understood why I would be upset about my response. He didn’t do much pretty much put a note on my account and told me to send a reply e-mail bringing up how the concerns in my e-mail weren’t actually addressed. He said that they stand by the amount of pieces in the set, and that behind his desk he’s pretty much powerless to do anything.

[Variable]

He must have lost the last game of Magic…

[Guest]

@Mino1124:

So I called, and the guy read my e-mail. The guy on the phone said he was sorry and that it’s right it didn’t seem that my e-mail wasn’t read and he understood why I would be upset about my response. He didn’t do much pretty much put a note on my account and told me to send a reply e-mail bringing up how the concerns in my e-mail weren’t actually addressed. He said that they stand by the amount of pieces in the set, and that behind his desk he’s pretty much powerless to do anything.

Tell him you want to talk to the person who has the power.

[MaherC]

agree, should have said “get up from your desk then tubby”

[bcguitars]

@Variable:

He must have lost the last game of Magic…

Silly Planeswalkers….

[Krieghund]

@Craig:

MaherC on January 25, 2010, 12:45:18 pm

Krieghund on January 22, 2010, 12:24:13 pm
Playtesters never test the final product.  Once it’s final, it’s a little too late for testing.  Once the game design is finalized, it’s up to the editors to make sure that nothing changes during the translation from prototype to final product.  There are many steps in which mistakes can be made.

Kreig you seem to be a decent guy, but I declare shenanigans on what you say here regarding the map itself.   Are you saying the map you played on had the lines for the sea zones correct?  That the names on the board were spelled correctly?   That the setup didn’t have misspellings?     How about the rule regarding IPC values for Maj ICs?  No one caught the issue in Australia?   Or the rule about IC’s on an island?  No one caught NZ?

I will let Krieghund answer these specific questions himself, but I will say that in working on AA50 and then AAE 40/AA40 Global, he is right in saying these issues (or the vast majority) are coming from the WotC side of the equation.

I am not saying that at all.  I cannot and will not comment on where in the process any particular error occurred.  My point was simply that there are many points in the process in which they may occur, and certain parts of the process may be beyond the control of any specific individual.  That being said, game design and production is a team effort, and we are all collectively responsible for the final product.  Anyone outside the process cannot possibly know which individual or individuals are to blame for any given error, and I’m not about to point fingers.

[Richter von Manthofen]

My I add my 2Cents:

Without Krieghund we would NOT have consistend errata and answers to rule questions. But we still would have faulty product.

Thanks to “Dog of War”

[MaherC]

since apparently my post was copied to another thread, I’ll reply in both…

Again, to clarify.  Not attacking anyone, except WOTC.  Someone had said all the threads eventually reach the point where we bash WOTC.

I said that more eyes were needed on the game before it was released.  I asked if the map was “correct” in regards to sea zones before it went gold, because if you guys saw the same typos and map lines on your beta copies, then…you missed errors.

If you didn’t have these issues, If Palau was spelled correctly etc, and Sea Zone 5/6 touched the proper land borders and WOTC changed lines on the map for some reason, then they are deserving of our contempt.

I don’t want to drop another $90 on Europe without trying at the least to get WOTC to take a look at the way they do things.

Look at the forum thread on getting extra pieces.  How many people have posted that they are getting cut and paste replies with no sign of people actually reading their email?  I had this, I called them (literally) on it, and boom.  I’m supposedly getting more Tac Bombers.  We’ll see.

Calling them chimps on the forum does nothing, actually take the 6 minutes and CALL THEM.    Even if you think you aren’t getting anything across, I’m sure they have to log calls, and when they see the complaints about insufficient pieces they might do the math and see that including more plastic is more cost efficient than paying 10 people $10.60 and hour to answer complaint calls.  Ever have a problem with a cell phone company?  Keep calling in.  They think like this.  I get a new phone from Verizon YEARLY because I call and complain when mine breaks 3 weeks after the warranty runs out.  Keep calling.  They see you are tying up a Rep. multiple times a week, they write off a new phone for you.  Just to make you go away.

[Variable]

Since I’m the one that pointed out a lot of threads were ending in WOTC bashing with no real plan of action, I feel I should comment.

I support what MaherC is saying here. I didn’t have to resort to calling to get my tacs, but apparently the rest of us do. I’ve had multiple cases of having to ask for defective or missing pieces to be replaced by WOTC so maybe that’s why I was treated differently, I don’t know. I’m glad to see we are starting to take a united stand on what we believe in:

1. The game did not live up to previous PRODUCTION standards.
2. We don’t blame Krieg or Larry for PRODUCTION problems.
3. We need to continue to support each other to help maintain the standard we expect from WOTC in the games we buy and play.

Kreig, Larry, and the others are hard at work sorting this out. We must have faith in them that we will get the game back to what Larry wanted it to be. Remember, this isn’t some video game you’ll be bored with next week. We all bought this as an intellectual investment to enjoy for years. And we will if we just give them the time to work out the details of the new problems that have come up. In the meantime, I too believe the focus should be on the tangible quality problems that WOTC has caused in production and leave the rules stuff to sorted out correctly, not quickly.

[shaffer22]

My Tac Bombers were really short. I only received 4 for Japan and 4 for the US, as well as the bad battle strip, and I also got shorted on chips. Needless to say I wasn’t happy, so after reading through this thread I sent them an email a few hours ago and have since had two responses. I’ll detail them here:

Message #1 from me:

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Jason Shaffer, and I am an Axis & Allies loyalist. I love the games, and recently purchased Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940. The game seems great, but upon initial inspection I’ve noticed that there are some issues with certain game components that I’ve received.

• The first issue is with the “Battle Strip”. It appears that not all of the units are listed, and some of the units do not have the correct numerical information on the strip. This makes battles more inconvenient to do. Is there anything to be done about this? Replacements? It seems like this is something that shouldn’t be overlooked.

• The second issue is regarding actual units. I’ve received only four (4) Tactical Bombers for both Japan, and the United States. This isn’t enough for setup, let alone regular game play.

• The third issue is regarding the chips. The manual says I should have 50 grey chips, and 10 red chips. I count 43 grey, and 9 red. This also makes gameplay quite difficult when coupled with the lack of regular units.

Overall the game seems to be well designed and of good quality. It is also fun to play, but very annoying when I have to use makeshift pieces to even set the game up, and then when the game gets going, it’s not hard to run out.

So if there is anything that could be done about the battle strip, Japan & US units, and chips, that would be wonderful. I love Axis & Allies and hate to feel let down after paying for such a premium for this game. I expect a better quality control than this, and I’m sure you can resolve the issue. I want to be able to feel confident when Europe 1940 comes out, so hopefully you can help.

Thanks,
Jason S

This was their response:

Hi Jason,

The Axis & Allies: Pacific 1940 game has a known issue where the Battle Strip is misprinted. Some of numbers are wrong or missing. While we don’t have any correct Battle Strips available for replacement at this time, we do expect to receive them by February. Please reply with the following information so we can make sure to send you a correct Battle Strip when we get them in:

First Name:
Last Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Phone Number (with area code):

In the mean time, the correct information is the provided in both the rulebook and the game board itself. The information provided above will also be used to order replacement pieces for your missing units. To clarify, you received 4 tactical bombers each for Japan and the US, for a total of 8 tactical bombers between the countries. If this is incorrect, please let us know in your reply.

We very much appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.
We would appreciate your feedback on the service we are providing you. Please click here to fill out a short questionnaire.

To login to your account, or update your question please click here.

Jason W

My response to them:

Thanks for your quick response.

My Contact info is as follows:

First Name: Jason
Last Name: Shaffer
Address: **
City: **
State: **
Zip Code: **
Phone: **

To clarify: I only received 4 Tactical Bombers for Japan, and 4 Tactical Bombers for the US. I also only received 4 Mechanized Infantry for Japan.

Also, the correct amount of grey chips was not included (short by 7 chips), nor the correct amount of red chips (short by 1).

So if the units, battle board, and chips could be fixed, that would remedy the situation.

Thanks again,
Jason S

Their second response:

Hi Jason,

This email is to inform you that we have received your incident and have escalated it for further review. A representative should be contacting you concerning your incident in 24-48 hours or less. We apologize for this delay and appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this.

We would appreciate your feedback on the service we are providing you. Please click here to fill out a short questionnaire.

To login to your account, or update your question please click here.

Jason W

So who knows where this will go. I don’t like the sound of “further review”. But we’ll see.

-Jason

[Variable]

That’s a stock reply from them as I have seen it many times. It means they will be sending you 2 Jap tacs, 2 US tacs, and your missing chips.

[shaffer22]

Ok, I guess I’ll have to wait and see if I get any packages…

[MaherC]

that was the quick and dirty fix for this game.  call them, say you got it and only got 4 Tacs.  they send you 2 more in the mail (supposedly) and you’re a little better off.  problem is, if everyone does this, then anyone who actually WAS shorted pieces will not get them as they will curtail this policy.

Of course, if you need ANZAC heavy bombers and carriers you should be ok, as i’m sure no one will abuse getting those.

[shaffer22]

This is in no way ill-intended whatsoever.

(I know how internet posting can be misinterpreted, especially from a new member like myself  :-)).

To clarify, are you saying I’m being dishonest about the pieces I received? I just want to say that those are exactly the number of pieces I received – I just counted them an hour ago. I am not a dishonest or deceitful person and in no way would want to take pieces away from anyone, I just want to have 6 tac bombers like everyone else. I’m not trying to get more than 6.

I don’t want to get started off on a bad foot in this forum so please don’t take this in any shape or form as me being upset. I’m aj jovial happy person  :lol: I just don’t want people to misunderstand and think that I’m trying to “cheat” the system.

-Jason

[MaherC]

nope, not saying that at all.  I’m saying that people have been doing what you did to get extra pieces, when they got the 6 they were supposed to get.

YOU are well within your right to get more pieces if you only got 4 Tacs in your set.  That BLOWS!

Some people have been getting extra pieces and some haven’t in this thread, leaving many people wondering if they just weren’t lucky or if they weren’t saying the right thing.