By this point I don't expect them to have any "business model" or a similar amount of forethough. It's as if "made cool designs, so now sales have to happen!" was the entirety of CB's "business model".
Core pledge is required for add-ons, but I think they planned on the core cast limited metal from the start. Ariesteia got one afterall. Obviously the campaign didn't take off as much as they'd like, but I think they already had the main plan and now are trying to refigure how to get the stuff they already planned on to come in. They're going retail with it, so the main boxes (core+expac+addons) are being made one way or the other. I'll most likely get it since some of the stuff looks good, but main drawbacks for me are the required app and the timeframe. Couple that with it probably being cheaper (after normal discounts) in retail than retail+shipping in the KS and it's pretty clear why it hasn't taken off.
I don't have any intention of getting the metal myself, they'd just stand out vs the rest of the models.
Received once again a message through the Defiance KS: “please come check Warcrow…” So I come to this forum, and I check, did Defiance finally get its FAQ? And the answer is no, still not, it’s still coming. I don’t think Corvus Belli understands how this works.
Excited to see CB do new stuff, but man... 120 euros for the core pledge! With no guarantee it'll be a good game, of course, despite the sexy minis. I've never backed a Kickstarter like this and I am remembered again why I don't. Looking forward to the skirmish game though.
I mean, its not "technically" a failure as it has exceeded its target goal for the KS. Now if it was supposed to generate huge profits to underwrite the wargame, then yes, I can see failure. I hope the people who get it find it to be fun regardless, its just not my beautiful cake.
New article with pictures of new characters painted: https://warcrow.com/blog/new-characters-unlocked And new stuff : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/corvusbelli/warcrow-adventures/posts/3647864
I like the goblins, I saw that they wanted to sell this box at 37.50e in the stores, it's more expensive than an ASOIF box which has the same meh PVC and more miniatures.
KS target goals are generally pure fantasy, it’s all about getting that “percentage funded” as high as possible. It’s of course difficult to say what would constitute a failure or a success for CB, but by comparison, Defiance got more than a million, Warcrow is at around 300k with 4 days to go. For a new heavily marketed IP, and for a dungeon crawler, a genre that usually sells well, that can’t be great. I’m not sure what it means. The Infinity crowd not buying in the new IP? I’d wait to see the actual wargame before saying that. The Defiance backers not showing up? That was a given, but then it’s possible CB is just oblivious in this respect. Certainly, it shows CB not getting any traction beyond their current fans. But then, who would take a second look at Warcrow Adventures when the second KS for Oathsworn is out there right now? But it does mean the game will have to compete on retail to actually be successful, and that’s a tall order. Is it really going to be a better app-driven crawler than Descent 3? Is the narrative and mechanics going to be better than Middara? Is it going to be as spectacular as Oathsworn? I doubt it. Maybe once the wargame comes out, that’s gonna be successful and drive sales for the crawler. But for now, it’s not looking great.
The reemergent dungeon crawler market is already oversaturated. It's poor timing, CB is simply late to the phenomenon. The marketing is weak, I've not seen WarCrow anywhere in the hobby space outside of CB-owned platforms. The demo game feedback from people who got to play it live is that it's nothing to write home about, more and more of same old. +1 buff this, -1 debuff that, nothing new or interesting system-wise. Minis are cool - but PVC, not even Siocast. The setting seems fairly generic fantasy, with few twists in-between if any real ones at all. Expectations are very, very low for the quality of rules writing and text editing. Expectations for further support are non-existent, seeing the fate of Defiance. There are barely any selling points.
It's kinda hard to justify paying 200-345 eur two years (i'm sure there will be delays again like in all KS) in advance these days. And then it will be another 100-200-ish eur for shipping. And to be honest, after two campains in Defiance I never want to touch a dungeon crawler from CB again.
That’s were I get confused. Does CB really not get how much trust they’ve lost with Defiance? Not getting the FAQ out before sending those KS reminders just made me more angry than anything else. Maybe they think it’s just the “usual grumbling”? Or maybe they genuinely believe people just wanted minis, not an actual game… But yeah, my own experience with Defiance was enough to make sure I wouldn’t give a second look at the Warcrow KS. Also, an app-driven game, really? When the app crashes, you can lose your whole campaign. When it bugs, you are stuck until a patch comes out. FFG had early issues with their Descent 3 app, but of course they sorted everything out quickly. Who would seriously trust CB to do the same after the Defiance mess? I did not know that, but that would be a big problem. I’m sure their minis are going to be better than anything else, but you don’t sell a crawler on the basis of good minis (for one thing, minis are only one piece: Middara for example has some very middling minis, but the rest of the material is superlative, their tiles are some of the best in the business, and it really shows when you lay down the game on the table). There are so many cool systems out there nowadays, I agree there’s no space for another generic game.
Yeah, a lot of the stuff is very cool and I want the goblins, but everything is so expensive, especially with adding shipping on top of it vs just waiting for retail and getting it for free shipping and a discount also, probably. And I'm not even sure how the goblins will be useful in the skirmish game, whether they're their own faction or whether there will be enough mini's between the two boxes to make a team or what. CB can't figure out how to market to the broader audience, and a lot of their core customers aren't interested in the kickstarter format, I think. (Especially with Defiance delays.)
Looks like the campaign is going up again... yesterday was their second best day after launch in terms of money, and they finally beat 200% mark. Probably thanks to an all-in pledge even more expensive than Defiance ones (I estimated they gained 40k€ alone just by releasing it). It's the second time by the way that they come back on their own words, an all-in being not a thing planned or wished for still one week ago, but at least this feels justified, as a platinum is far from containing anything, between the 3 additional expansions + sceneries + sleeves and dice tray...
We have lots of fun with defiance, but we're more than willing to solve the rules problems on the fly. That said our area was good for about 13 all in defiance, about 4 tag raid and only 2 angry birbs. Pvc is straight out for a lot of us, and a couple folks were more about a fantasy army game over the promised skirmish game. I hope it does well and they don't lose on it, but I dont see it getting traction with us. Then we've got frostgrave for fantasy skirmish which is a lot of fun.
Nope, they're either oblivious or have no idea how to do damage control and PR. Exactly, nobody aware of how Defiance KS went and how the support never materialized. And they're still supposed to deliver on TAG Raid. This is going to be such a "fun" time waiting for a WarCrow backer if TAG Raid suffers from the same issues as Defiance had.
