Does anyone know if Defiance and the expansions will be available after the Kickstarter? I'd love to pick up Outcast, but I can't afford it right now, and I need to see if my gaming group will even like the game before dropping the extra cash on it. I checked the retail KS page, and it says that Defiance will not be available through traditional sales channels. I'm hoping that the expansions (Outcast, Scenery Pack, Reinforcement Packs) will be available at least on the CB webstore, but I can't see anywhere which says if this will be the case. If anyone has any information one way or the other, that would be much appreciated.
According to the comments on the KS page, CB doesn't intend to make a retail release outside of the store-pledge levels, which would provide LGSs with a few copies to sell on their own. That being said, you can't buy expansions without first pledging for at least the Core level of the game. Even after the fact, if you only pledged one Euro, you'd still have to up your pledge to at least the Core level to be able to get access to Outcast. Now, maybe an LGS backed the Platinum level at enough to be able to sell the expansions outside of the main game, but I'd find that highly unlikely. CB will not sell any of these (as of right now, maybe this will change) on their website after the Kickstarter has concluded. Only way, to my knowledge, to get the game is to back it or buy it from an LGS that backed it.
They've said repeatedly that everything is KS-exclusive. That includes the Outcast expansion. But reinforcement packs are just repackaging of models that exist elsewhere in CB's Infinity range, so you'll be able to get most if not all of those models later through regular retail channels (though not at the discount offered on the KS). The good news for you is that the Pledge Manager won't go live until a month or two after the KS finishes, and it'll stay open for about one month after that date. So, if you decide you want to pick up Outcast, you still have time to get the money together.
You certainly won't be getting the Reinforcement Packs outside of the Kickstarter. They can only be that price direct from CB and with margin already baked in via the core game.
That is not a big issue. If CB plans to support the game online in terms of trying to bring more people in, there's a big chance that enemy cards will be available online to print, while new players can be brought with something akin to a season change. Imagine in a year a new box with a different title, different heroes, with new tiles and missions - but same engine is released. BAM! Defiance still KS exclusive, but now you have new people coming in. Or better - new title, but Defiance available in the KS as an add-on. Still KS Exclusive - still keeping up to their word. Also "support online" can mean anything like player made missions published once in three months. All that being said, I hardly recommend to treat this product as a strict one-off Kickstarter exclusive deal and not count on it ever coming back.
I think the fair thing to say is that Corvus Belli isn't making any promises at the moment; and they're probably still trying to determine whether it's actually a viable long term product. Suppose in a year that Corvus Belli released PDFs for all of the materials, pointed out that there's a dice roller app if you don't want to buy the dice, and pointed out all of the models that they sold in the store. That's not as nice as having a box of pre-printed 3mm cardboard tiles, and a few other boxes to contain the thousand or so cards, but that's the level of "some assembly required" that wargamers deal with all the time. :)
Maybe we will see a new release with plastic minis like Aristeia! in the future. That would keep the KS version unique with metal miniatures and extras like the dice tray but will offer a cheaper way for Boardgamers or others being late to the Kickstarter. But for that they may have to solve some production issues. Multipart models in plastic to assemble or pre assempled like Song of Ice and Fire miniatures game. Personly would be nice to have a plastic version in german to lure in more people into Infinity.
Wait, what? They are not even planning to support the game with general release expansions??? The quality and material of Aristeia miniatures is just awful. Might as well just put cardboard tokens to represent minis.
The quality of the Aristeia! plastics is on the same level as those of normal board games with miniatures or above like those of Starship Samurai for example Personly i like to have the plastics cause i can play with children, people no caring for miniatures or people with 2 left hands full of thumbs. My idea would be to release Defiance and expansions with plastic miniatures and do some metal hero boxes like Outrage Box so people who dont want to buy into Defiance can have the minis for their armies and if you wnat metal enemies, there is the normal range.
...and I would expect to see quite a bit of fan-generated content for Defiance once it's out. It seems relatively easy, with a bit of creativity, to cross profiles over.