But instead of us guessing dates maybe someone from CB could give us a brief update if the vessels have left the shore?!? Would be really appreciated
They're repacks that require new boxes though, I think. They were said to come with Wave 2 if I recall correctly.
Last update or two they mentioned they'd just started producing the minis for the reinforcement packs, they're Wave 2.
And we're delayed again. Ships from China supposed to arrive to Spain by end of November, one still didn't leave. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/corvusbelli/infinity-defiance/posts/2987109
*Sigh* Safe to assume the worst and not expect anything until the end of January. Shipping in December is bollocks, they get messed all the time. And now I wonder when Wave 2 should be expected? By now they should have most of the nessesary stuff and It would be just laughable to get delayed in holiday mess shipping in january and then everyone get the whole release in the end of February - mid March.
I can't recall if they are they using a US assembly & distribution center? If so, the first sentence quoted reads like the US boat has shipped, but not the home office bound boat.
Yeah, but the "end of November" date is "on CB doorstep", in Europe. Which checks out, one month of sea travel and sent in two weeks, end of October.
And from CB doorstep to the rest of Europe. And while that ship arrives, the one heading to the US will have arrived and they will be able to start shipping to America and Oceania.
From what I recall, they made the minis, sent them to China, who made the boards & plastic, packaged the complete thing, then sent them out to distribution centers. One in USA, and CB doing Europe. I don't recall if there are more than that for Asia or Australia or anything else. I also half-remember the USA center for distribution being Quartermaster, but that might be completely wrong since they are doing several of the kickstarters I'm backing at this point. I'm honestly disappointed that the final assembly was done in China, let alone having to ship minis from Spain to China to then ship final stuff back to Spain, but maybe this is more common with CB's stuff than I know? I think Aristeia might be? Ah well, hopefully SOMETHING shows up soon, waiting on multiple kickstarters, DHL lost the N4 shipment to MOE, so I STILL don't have my N4 book or Starmada or anything. At least Codex Necrons showed up, that'll give me a few days worth of fighting off boredom.
Final assembly and packaging was outsourced to China instead of being done in CB HQ?! Great, now I expect and incomplete product. Yay.
I doubt it'll be a major issue, but either way CB is your customer service and responsible for it, so wouldn't worry too much. Unless there's a "everything is screwed" issue, of course, but I'd hope CB is dealing with a company they know for quality of work, if not any hint of adherence to schedules or shipping promises... Battletech had a post talking about missed deadlines and failed promises, and how the company they dealt with was the same on the previous run, but they like the quality so they stick with them. It just makes me wonder why they bother telling people "March" when there was no way that would ever happen, COVID or no. That's not CB though, so who knows.
Well, if the game boxes were assembled and packaged in-house, they have a good and effective system that can be held accountable. It seems to have been used for each particular "baggie" from the pics, as well. However, if something is missing from the box, it's not like the dude in China left a white slip for the box. Unless CB are re-checking every single box for completeness and adding their own white slip in there - if so, then that's absolutely fine. It should've been communicated better though, I think.
While I can understand that CB is busy with N4 and getting the releases out for that, their handling of information and lack of communication is very disappointing. I also understand that there is a world pandemic and it's not their fault that there are delays. I just wish they would be a bit more transparent with the information/news.
While I know posts like this never end well, I still have to ask you the following: Do you really expect CB to communicate every single business decision they make and communicate where every single part of a product is produced, packaged, quality-checked? Ever bought a car? Do you know where every single part of your car is produced? Did the manufacturer communicate to you, what materials they used for sound dampening? Where they produced the seats? And every other of the hundreds of parts? You can be lucky if you know where the engine is put together. Strange expectations if you ask me.
We know that there were a Chinese subcontractor, but we could reasonably have assumed the product would have final assembly in Spain at Corvus Belli much like how most Volvo cars bought in Europe has final assembly in Sweden at Volvo Cars or how Dell Computers have final assembly of the components from their 50-ish sub-contractors at a Dell factory in (I think) Taiwan. What we're having here is a drop shipment where production and assembly as well as packaging are all done by subcontractors. That can work quite well, absolutely, but this is an apples and oranges to compare drop shipment to products with known in-house final assembly locations. That said, I find it to be a small over-reaction to assume this will naturally lead to quality flaws. It's still CB's job to make sure that the product is shipped well enough and that they have a reasonable level of replacement parts for those who have short-comings in delivery. If this wasn't a Kickstarter and an ordinary purchase as a customer I'd go so far as say it's ridiculous to be so paranoid about who does the final packaging, but this is a Kickstarter so we're carrying a bit more of the risks than we would've as a customer.
