45 replies to this topic

[ogryn]

So after several years of playtests, previews and teasers how dead is this game?
Release dates?
Anything?
After this amount of time most games are doomed to fail or never hit the market.
So whats the story.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I love all things WWW2. I play Secrets of the Third Reich, Dust(soon) and AE-WWII.
And I love the Warlord rules.

I just found this forum. Seems like a good community. Hope to spend some time here.

Bill

[sethohman]

I have played the demo rules a while ago, and honestly, I think Secrets is a better game. I'll buy the book if it comes out, but SOTR has my heart.

[armydillo978]

I just found this forum. Seems like a good community. Hope to spend some time here.

Bill

It's dead....like a kroid.

The game rules are good. Very cool....but the delays and the "in-crowd" just kill it. Last time I saw it, I thought it was ready to go, it was better than A LOT of other stuff out there and that was for the rules in progress, but, for whatever reason only the insiders know....it's still a dead game.

I hope Ed gets it up and running some day since his ideas and concepts are awesome...some of the more creative stuff I've seen in awhile. It's a fresh shot in the arm of the typical supernatural/spooky/occult WWII games. If he had pushed it back when he came out with it, I think he'd be rulling the market nowdays....sadly SotR and AEWWII fill that role. He snoozed and he lost it.

[joshuaslater]

It's easy to armchair quarterback for any business decision in the rough and tumble world of miniatures production and marketing.

How much would Reaper have invested in this versus how much would they return? If the niche market for this is so small, what would be the point in owning it?

I'd rather not see Reaper gamble on another game right now. Warlord is expanding, and CAV is back to the drawing board. I don't want their reach to exceed their grasp, so they can take their time on this one.

[armydillo978]

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. So it would be a waste of Reapers time to continue playtesting the game? They could have had a niche in that market years ago. Warlord will never be true competition with other well established systems, even though the Warlord rules and system are better. IMO. CAV is certainly better than Battletech, or other similar systems. Frankly, Reaper has better games that alot of companies, but they focus mainly on mini's which is always a good market. Perhaps they give the rules up for free, like Rackham, and just focus on selling the figures.

[joshuaslater]

Perhaps they give the rules up for free, like Rackham, and just focus on selling the figures

?


That sounds like a reasonable suggestion. The CAV game is in open beta right now, so maybe it's a sign of things to come.

[kristof65]

My understanding is that all the other games got put on hold while Warlord 2 was developed to use as a better baseline for the rest of the games. Whether or not we'll see any of those other games anytime soon remains to be seen. IMO, Reaper simply doesn't have the resources to support lots of games right now, and are probably better off focusing on just Warlord for the time being until they can procure the necessary resources (both people and money) they need to be able to dedicate to more games.

There definitely seems to have been a shift in Reaper's attitudes towards their games, which while frustrating for some of us, has been a good call on their part - they're being more tightlipped about what's going on and not announcing things prematurely anymore - FREX, the announcement of Warlord 2 caught a lot of us off guard, but once it was announced, suddenly made their prior silence and non-commital attitudes make sense. I get the feeling they've adopted the same attitude towards anything else they have in development as well. This, IMO, is a good plan on their part, save for the left over frustrations about things they announced before they adopted the new policies. But quite frankly, they can't do anything about that - what's done, is done.

[BlueWeasel]

So much work has been done for Warlord 2.0 I don't see how it could be that hard to finish 2 factions of Reich.

No sense in reinventing the RAGE wheel. Between archers and soul cannons it shouldn't be that hard to wrap up stats for these guys.

Then do the same with the super heroes/villians game and let all three easily flow/overlap cause yes, I DO want my
super heroes to have stats that are compatible/balancable for squaring off against zombie hoardes or my GI Reapers
to fight super villians.

[joshuaslater]

Dig. I just checked out frpgames.com to see the niche market. AE-WWII has 77 products, and Secrets of the Third Reich has 145 products in their respective lines, for sale on that website.

If Reaper puts out a dozen models a month, that looks to be a whole year of effort to do what SoTR did. That is an insane commitment for a company of Reaper's size. Considering they have Warlord to produce and promote, and CAV to reboot, as well as staying on top of the fantasy ranges that are their bread and butter, I don't see how they could have snoozed and lost on this.

It would have been too risky.

People seem to forget that Reaper employees have to eat and pay bills like the rest of us.

[EdPugh]

It's dead....like a kroid.

Like all things at Reaper it is in the queue and advancing along. When it happens, it happens... You guys will be the first to know.

I am not familiar with the other two games mentioned. If they really rule the niche as stated then they deserve the title and we will roll a doughnut. Wouldn't be the first doughnut I have rolled and definitely won't be the last one I roll.

[vejlin]

it's not dead, it's just.... sleeping.

[armydillo978]

It's never good when evil sleeps.....now someones going to go camping, probably in Big Bend national park. Find a copy of the playtest rules at an abandoned ranger station, open them, and awaken the evil within and unleash a horde of demonic kroids to ramage along the border area.

[Bruunwald]

Hmmm... I'm not sure I buy the notion that a company dedicated to making minis and games is too busy making minis and games to concentrate on making minis and games.

I have a full time job that has nothing to do with making minis and games. Yet, I still manage to work out tons of game rules and even make some of my own minis (but mostly terrains) in the tiniest fraction of spare time I have.

Granted, I've yet to complete any rule sets to my satisfaction for turning out to the public. But I've made it to the testing stage a few times. And I still get models done and occasionally sell one or two at the cons I go to.

If I actually had a full time job that had everything to do with making minis and games, I'd be hard to stop. And I'm just one guy. Reaper has a bunch of guys.

Speaking as a creative person, what is happening with RoTD looks to me more like what happens when we lose enthusiasm for an idea or concept, but are just not ready to let it go yet. There's no shame in that. It happens to the best of us. Sometimes we just can't follow through on an idea because we lose the juice for it.

Yes, I will be flamed. But that's just how I feel.

[joshuaslater]

Time to make the donuts.

[herzogbrian]

It's not dead, it's NOT DEAD....ummm...it's pining, pining for the fjords! Yeah, that's the ticket!