» Miniatures Games
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
A tricorn of news items about Pirates
1) Vikings in February. I now have serious concerns about the number of factions in the game, but still: Vikings. 2) The announcement of the Quest for Davy Jones’ Gold board game completely went by me. This either means I am thick-headed or that their marketing plan for this product is not exactly Butt-Kicker Prime. It hits next month. 3) They extended that promotion where you can get the ten-masted junk Guichuan (pronounced gooey chewin’ if I have anything to say about it), and made it so you can use wrappers from any Pirates set. Nice if you like ten-masted junk, and any joke I could end on here seems kind of unnecessary.
Friday, September 8, 2006
WizKids shuffles product releases
Though some circles still report the Battlestar Galactica CCG simply hasn’t taken off, WizKids is still planning Betrayal, the game’s first expansion set. A popular TV show tie-in, autographed cards (Crewman Cally cards, signed by actress Nicki Clyne), will be adding to the expansion’s lure. However, the 165-card set’s release date has shifted from October 11 to November 8 “due to unforeseen production issues.”
Meanwhile, WizKids says it has sold out of the initial print run of HorrorClix (see the full press release below) - just in time for Halloween. Actually, the company plans to have a reprint in hand by the end of September, which should be plenty of time, and distributors still have stock available. So this could be a sign of success, one that WizKids needs. We’ll have more to say about this in next week’s Audio Report, but for now, let’s just say this is an interesting time to be a retailer stocking WizKids products.
Read More…
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
WizKids forced to reorganize
Times are tough all over. If you’ve been online today, you probably heard: WizKids has undergone another reorganization. According to the press release, this “brought about a tough decision to have a reduction in force.” No details are released yet about who will be leaving the company, or what specifically brought on the reorganization. The company stated that “These steps are necessary for the long term health of WizKids, and will allow us to focus on our core Brands of Battlestar Galactica, HeroClix, HorrorClix, MechWarrior and Pirates.” Perhaps all this unfortunate activity is why WizKids CEO Jordan Weisman seemed a bit subdued in his (unrelated) cable television appearance earlier today on G4’s Attack of the Show. Or maybe he’s just generally a calm sort. In any case, the staff of OgreCave hopes everyone affected by the reorg lands on their feet.
Monday, June 5, 2006
D&D Miniatures promo dragon at Paizo
Though it somehow wasn’t mentioned in the company’s weekly newsletter, Paizo is now taking preorders for a Sorceror on Black Dragon limited edition repaint from next month’s Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures Game expansion, War of the Dragon Queen. The figure is only available to Dragon subscribers, and only 5,000 are available at $9.95 apiece. So, if you’re down for D&D Minis, or need all those promo versions even if the repainted Black Dragon is bright orange, check it out before they’re gone. The promo figures should ship to the loving arms of gamers by late June.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Pirates gets all Nemo on your ass
WizKids announces the Pirates of the Mysterious Islands expansion for PotSM, set for release in October. So what have we got here… new faction of submariney guys who hate everybody, new Mysterious Islands in every pack that have a bunch of game text to mess with you. And more monsters. I really am starting to worry about how many factions they’ve got going, but darned if they don’t keep making cool stuff. It’ll be interesting if they can make the transition from a collectible model to some other model eventually, once they run out of things to shoehorn into the game.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Aliens vs. Predator confirmed for HorrorClix
What was rumored is now confirmed: HorrorClix is licensing Alien vs. Predator. Since it was the lead choice in a WizKids consumer poll asking which licenses to go after, this shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Now, do gamers dare hope for an Alien Queen figure to compliment the Great Cthulhu figure? In any case, a HorrorClix preview is scheduled for Origins this summer, and a limited presale is set for GenCon Indy, though with the Aliens Collector’s Set due in December, it’s not clear whether the sci-fi favorites will be set loose early or still trying to get through the bulkheads.
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Star Wars Starship Battles announced for November
I guess we should go ahead and post about this, as it’ll likely be one of the few recognizable bits of flotsam in the coming CMG flood. “[S]pace vehicles of all sizes, from star fighters to capital ships, all represented in relative scale.” How will they do that and still bring out a Star Destroyer eventually, without making the TIE fighters resemble no-see-ums? They won’t, that’s how, but who cares - it’s not as if starship-minis fans can be sticklers for historical accuracy. Wait… yes it is. Oh crap.
Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Goodman releases more Battle Tiles
Goodman Games released its third Battle Tiles set over the weekend, bringing the total of miniatures- and RPG-compatible scenery tiles to over thirty. The PDF tiles sets provide key areas of interest to spice up combats or adventure sessions, letting GMs concentrate on story and tactics rather than props. Each Battle Tiles set is available for download at a price of $6.99, and was designed by yours truly. All of which makes this a shameless, self-serving plug, yes.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Dennis Mize passes at 49
Famed miniatures sculptor Dennis Mize, one of the first employed by a fledgling Ral Partha way back when, has died of a heart attack slightly more than a week ago. If you own fantasy miniatures, you probably own more than a few that were samples of Mize’s outstanding work (in fact, more of his figures were recently nominated for 2006 Origins Awards, of which he had won many before). While every fan won’t be able to attend his March 25 service in Cincinnati, Dark Sword Miniatures has set up a great memorium page for the industry legend. Stop by, learn a bit more about the man who gave your RPG sessions such gorgeous accessories, and give thanks for the life of Mr Dennis Mize.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Rumored WizKids Clix announcement tonight at GTS
So another source tells us that the mysterious extra product WizKids will announce tonight after their BSG shpiel is Toon Clix. This would give them the trifecta of stuff that people buy action figures of in comic book shops, scaled down to clicky size. Which is not a bad strategy for business, actually. Allegedly they have licensed hundreds of characters, to be sold two figures per pack (because that worked so well last time) and the goal of the game is to find your toons’ “happy place.” All the best toons don’t have anything even resembling a happy place, so I guess I’m not the target market (although old school toons like Hong Kong Phooey are in the mix, suggesting a nostalgia angle). I don’t know, I guess there’s no reason to get upset about WizKids using Clix non-games for collectors as cash cows to support more experimental games. If this is even true.
UPDATE: There was also an announcement of Great Cthulhu being the big promo figure for HorrorClix.
Monday, March 13, 2006
The Dreamblade dinner, or: when retailers attack!
Chris’ own title for his report on WotC’s Dreamblade reveal at GTS is subtitled “How not to make a presentation at a trade show.” So there’s your roaring start.
On a happier note, he’s hearing unconfirmed reports that a new hardcover edition 2.0 of Flames of War will be announced at the show, featuring a plan for free rules updates for those who own the old rulebooks. Not sure how that will look, but presumably we’ll be hearing more soon.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
D&D Minis ‘06: Hugeness confirmed
For those that missed the catalog mention, impending hugeness was reiterated last week. Wizards made a D&D Miniatures news announcement on its website that mostly repeated known plans for 2006. Perhaps most important, it brought more attention to the War of the Dragon Queen set, coming in July. Adding more punch to the “Year of the Dragon”, the set will contain “12 Huge figures in this 60-figure set”, as well as some epic-level figures with the characteristic second stat cards. The rarity distribution of the huge figures in Dragon Queen will be at least slightly different than that of the Giants of Legend big boys, which were 12 of a 72-figure set.
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Classic BattleTech relaunches for Gen Con
Full details here, but the view from 1000 feet up is this: new core rulebooks that integrate, oh, twenty years’ worth of rules into a new, allegedly simple whole, plus some somewhat confusingly-named Starterbooks for the factions (I think), and - coolest part - an introductory box set with plastic figures. All sounds good, and Lord knows FanPro’s recent track record shows that the launch will go smoothly *cough*hack*wheeze*. I’ll be strongly tempted to pick up one of those boxes, though.
Friday, February 3, 2006
WizKids announces HorrorClix for Gen Con
Here ya go. I’d wager that both the theme and the presence of “Clix” in the name are meant to appeal to collectors of plastic things, rather than gamers. Collectors are the sole remaining audience for Clix games as far as I can tell. I mean, maybe they don’t not appeal to gamers, but they don’t do much for me. And I am a representative sample. Yes I am. Quit looking at me like that.
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
“Great” news about Colossal Red Dragon
Dear whoever’s in charge of writing press releases for Wizards these days: okay, seriously, I know there’s no good way to deliver bad news, but we’re not retards, alright? It’s bad enough that the D&D Minis Colossal Red Dragon will cost $75 and miss Indy by a month; that makes you look a little clumsy. This just makes your corporate voice literally sound like that of someone who’s about to have a nervous breakdown. Note that I do not ascribe fault for this to Bill Slavicsek, whose name is on the linked note. And they may just be hamfistedly trying to tell us that they decided to upgrade the paint job, which is cool if true. But man, to leave out any acknowledgement that some gamers might be unhappy with a price hike and delay… this should have been caught by the first marketing person who looked at it. (Someone in marketing did look at it, right??)
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Finally, something that Dwarven Forge compares favorably with on price
BrickQuest: Master Maze with LEGOs.
Thursday, November 3, 2005
There’s no need to fear, Underdark is almost here
In preparation for tomorrow’s release, Wizards has posted the Underdark figure gallery. This new set for D&D Miniatures introduces rules for Epic level figures, such as Balor, Artemis Entreri, and Elminster. It also gives those who picked up the Fane of the Drow adventure the rest of the figures needed to properly run it.
Monday, October 17, 2005
WizKids takes another crack at CMGs for the kids
Zypods are basically Russian nested dolls with Clix-oid rules and game features instead of little babushka faces. The press release says it’s launching in a test market now… but the product page indicates that the test market is essentially half the major cities in the center of the country. (Plus Boston.) This looks decently thought out - the price point is certainly right - but it remains to be seen what it will take to make a hit with the kids’ market these days. At least this is not completely wild-assed, or a CCG. For more details, here’s the playmat PDF.
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