A quick update. …

Sorry it’s been a quiet month on Tales From The Mancave….the girls have been excitedly preparing for Christmas and I’ve been kept busy with shopping, wrapping, chopping, cooking and playing games that sadly aren’t the kind I’d usually post about. So I’m going to give a quick update to keep your all advised of what’s been going down.  Let’s keep this simple. ….

I managed to grab three Star Trek Attack Wing Reinforcement Blind Booster Bricks for the forthcoming Temporal Cold War OP Series. I’ll be trying to post about each vessel and stick some pictures up as soon as I can.

Sticking with a space theme I’ll move next onto Star Wars.  I managed to grab a viewing of The Force Awakens on opening day and was like a child in a sweetshop with Daddy’s credit card!  Lol. Gaming wise I managed to pick up the last remaining ship I required to complete my Star Wars X-Wing collection. …the Tantive 4. Now onto Wave 8.  Being a massive Imperial fan I also wanted to get my dirty hands on the impressive Gozanti class Imperial Assault Carrier to swell the ranks of my Imperial Fleet.  I grabbed one for a very good deal of £39.67 (including P&P) from boardgameprices.co.uk which I was very happy about!

Sticking with Star Wars Christmas was very kind to me and I managed to get a whole heap of Star Wars Imperial Assault goodies from my girls.  I received Dengar to add to my wretched hive of scum in IG-88 & Boba Fett. I’m aiming to put together the whole line up of Bounty Hunters from The Empire Strikes Back. …so I need 4-Lom, Zuckuss and Bossk.  Then I’ll have then go toe to toe with my other games worth of hunters….the Predators from Prodos’ AvP.  I also got a copy of the latest expansion for SW:IA Return to Hoth. Finally I was given a load of Villain and Ally packs to build my SW:IA forces; – a Royal Guard Champion,  Kayn Samos, Chewbacca, Han Solo, R2-D2 & C-3PO and Princess Leia. So I can now assemble the whole gang from the films.  Happy gamer!

I did post a while ago about me returning to the Judge Dredd fold at NAGA to have some games with Brent Jay and Co. Well I was watching some very good deals on EBay and add luck would have it I did manage to scoop up the whole lot for a very decent price of £37 (including P&P). I ended up winning auctions for gangs for Judge Cals Personal Retinue, Justice Dept. Mega City Judges and Specialist Judges. So they’ll go onto the gaming table for use at some point in January against Brent.

The Hairy Gamers (me and Tris) took a little road trip to Dragonmeet in London during December to collect our AvP Wave 2 pledges and boy was there a whole load to struggle through a busy convention with.  I now have 3x Alien Warriors, 2x Alien Queens, 2x Royal Guards, 2x Alien Crushers, 2x Predaliens, 2x Alien Eggs, 2x Berserker Predators, 2x Predator HellHounds, 2x USCM Powerloaders and 1x each set of Dice (USCM, Aliens & Predators). I also bought an extra two boxes of Alien Warriors from Asylum Wargames Online Shop for a great price of £10 each. You can grab some too by visiting them on http://asylumwargaming.tictail.com/ . These guys have great deals on all sorts of goodies residual if you’re interested in Macrocosm or AvP.

This takes me neatly onto Macrocosm. Despite the awesome Chris Nicholls being very busy with his adventure into fatherhood for the second time he managed to go above and beyond to send out my Macrocosm Malignancy pledge.  Once the chaos of Christmas has subdued I’ll try to take some pictures and post more about this! Thanks Chris.  If you too are interested in Macrocosm then you can find more details on the website at http://www.macrocosm.co.uk/

Whilst we were on our road trip I managed to teach Tris the rules for The Devils Run and we even managed to grab a couple of demo games on the stand the Word Forge Games team were using.  Both of us are mad keen for this game and with any luck I’ll be able to help Mark Rapson with some more play testing and reviewing of the game in the build up to shipping.  With so many ideas for this game, with me posting regular bat-reps and reviews and with Mad Max Fury Road available on Blu-Ray and DVD it was inevitable that others would be drawn into the TDR:R666 game. Recently Tris and I expanded the Hairy Gamers family by inviting Gareth Mosley and James Hall to join our ranks. Both have the R666 bug and are busy trash-bashing and scheming for when R666 drops.  James has been busy using any and all HotWheels and Matchbox cars he can get his busy hands on to bash together some cars to use.  I myself am waiting until my pledge drops to see what gaps I have in my collection before getting too busy with trash-bashing. My ideas are mainly for scenery and game tiles based on British Roads rather than the American ones in the game.

Guildball now. ….as some of my regular readers will recall I play in a local Guildhall league at Black Dragon Games in Hinckley. Sadlt this has not been going to we’ll for my Fishermen who have lost their opening two encounters against Craigs Mort-Union team (12-8) & Andy T’s murderous Butchers (12-4). This week I have a double header of games planned against David Mustin and Mark Southerd in store on Tuesday so watch this space for that.  I’ve gone in half’s on a Union Starter with David to get me a copy of Avarisse and Greede to add to my Union Starter of Blackheath, Decimate and Gutter. I also added a Harry “The Hat” Hallahan to my Union line-up this month as well as hopefully getting the miniatures I’m owed by Jay Finnegan in the form of Fangtooth and Hemlocke. At some point I’ll have to grab me a copy of Coin,  the Union Mascot, so I can play Union too. I’ll do a “Gaming on a Budget” post later to cover my Guildball activities.  Having seen a couple of demo’s at Dragonmeet and spoken to one of the brains behind Guildball, Rich, Hairy Gamer Tris had also picked up a great deal on a Masons team for Guildball so we’ll probably throw down at some point even if it’s just to teach him the rules.

Lastly im going to talk about Frostgrave. Not the game or any bat-reps or warband stuff but mostly terrain.  I managed to grab myself two of the old Games Workshop Mighty Fortress plastic kits from EBay as a starter for my planned scenery. I wanted to build the walls of Felstadt. I also picked up 84 Lemax Snow Covered Wintery Pine Trees, a Garden of Morr kit from GW and some rather large Amera plastic moulded kits for their F204 Large Hill Top Ruin (Fantasy Realms page) & Z236 Corner Ruined Building  (Future Zone page). You can take a closer look at thier range on the link below;-

http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=f

Once I get the chance to do anything with any of the above I’ll post something.

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all!

Crowdfunding – why gamble with your money?

As some of you may know I have backed the odd Kickstarter project in the past and even an Indiegogo project.  These are crowdfunded projects which rely on backers to take an estimated gamble to make them happen.  But what exactly is crowdfunding and most importantly how does it work?

Kickstarter and Indiegogo Logos

Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet.  Crowdfunding is a form of alternative finance, which has emerged outside of the traditional financial system.

The crowdfunding model is based on three types of actors: the project creator who proposes an idea and/or project to be funded; backers, individuals or groups who support the idea; and a moderating organization (the “platform”) that brings the parties together to launch the idea.  Moderating organizations include Kickstarter, FundAnything, ICrowdFund and Indiegogo.

In 2013, the crowdfunding industry raised over $5.1 billion worldwide.

Kickstarter is one of a number of crowdfunding platforms for gathering money from the public, which circumvents traditional avenues of investment.  Project creators choose a deadline and a minimum funding goal. If the goal is not met by the deadline, no funds are collected, a kind of assurance contract. Money pledged by donors is collected using Amazon Payments. The platform is open to backers from anywhere in the world and to creators from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

There is no guarantee that people who post projects on Kickstarter will deliver on their projects, use the money to implement their projects, or that the completed projects will meet backers’ expectations. Kickstarter advises backers to use their own judgment on supporting a project. They also warn project leaders that they could be liable for legal damages from backers for failure to deliver on promises. Projects might also fail even after a successful fundraising campaign when creators underestimate the total costs required or technical difficulties to be overcome.

Indiegogo users/project creators can create a page for their funding campaign, set up an account with PayPal, make a list of “perks” for different levels of investment, then create a social media–based publicity effort. Users publicize the projects themselves—through Facebook, Twitter and similar platforms. The site levies a 4% fee for successful campaigns. For campaigns that fail to raise their target amount, users have the option of either refunding all money to their contributors at no charge or keeping all money raised minus a 9% fee. Unlike similar sites such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo disburses the funds immediately, when the contributions are collected through the user’s PayPal accounts. Indiegogo also offers direct credit card payment acceptance through their own portal. Those funds are disbursed up to two weeks after the conclusion of a campaign.

So why would anyone in their right mind risk their money to use a crowdfunding website to back a project?  Well there are perks to be had.   Backers usually buy into a project using a “pledge”.  A pledge can grant access to restricted or limited edition products and more usually reduced prices on the final product being backed.  As money is raised “stretch goals” are achieved and more options are made available and more freebies on each pledge awarded.  Occasionally early backers can get favourable treatment by getting access to things even later backers cannot receive.

My experience of Crowdfunding is mainly in the gaming and terrain spheres.  Some of the big games companies such as Corvus Belli (Infinity), Mophidius (Mutant Chronicles), Mantic Games (Warpath), Battlesystems (Sci-Fi, Dungeon and Post-APoc Cardboard Terrain) and PRODOS (Warzone Resurrection and AvP:The Hunt Begins) have all used Kickstarter to generate funds to get a project going.  Some of these could have run projects without Kickstarter and use the service as a glorified pre-order service.  I’ll be honest….I’ve had a mixed bag when it comes to the results of Kickstarters Ive backed.  Some have been unmitigated successes and others have been a little questionable or badly managed, leading to delays and negativity.

Recently I’ve backed two Kickstarters run by friends of friends with good reputable backgrounds based off thier times in other companies…..The Devils Run:Route 666 by Mark Rapson (ex-PRODOS Games Ltd) of Word Forge Games and Macrocosm:The Next Races by Chris Nicholls (ex-Tor Gaming) of Macrocosm.

The Devils Run:Route 666

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wordforgegames/the-devils-run-route-666/description

http://www.wordforgegames.com/

The Devil’s Run: Route 666 is a fast-moving and hard-hitting vehicular combat board game (for 2-6 players) set in a post-apocalyptic America.  Each player runs a gang of cars, trikes, trucks and characters racing on post-apocalyptic Americas highways to beat each other to resources and objectives.  Its very much a boardgame/wargame version of Mad Max

Macrocosm:The Next Races

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2076383099/macrocosm-the-next-races/description

http://www.macrocosm.co.uk/

Macrocosm is a 28mm Sci-Fi Skirmish game set in a future galaxy of excitement, rayguns, weird aliens and wonder.
Players take on the role of a group of adventurers and explorers, represented by a group of miniatures, where they play out scenarios and campaigns to determine the fate of the colonies and to further the glory of their chosen faction… and of course… to have fun!

I’m very happy that both projects have met their funding limits and are now fully funded so I can look forward to the goodies arriving through the door soon.  I need to select the extras my pledge credit bought in TDR:R666.  I’m due about £125 worth of goodies and think I’m going to buy into the Brit Attack Gang and maybe The Hunters.

I also really need to get my sh*t together and sort out my Macrocosm pledge and any extras I want to buy.  I backed the Malignancy and really really like the models offered in that range.  I think I will increase my pledge and buy more stuff.

In truth not a single project I’ve backed has failed to become funded and despite the negativity surrounding one of the projects I backed I’ve actually been treat very well by PRODOS and have had things delivered exactly as originally indicated,  Sure Im still waiting for Wave 2 but so are the vast majority of backers regardless of location or Backer number.  Im happy enough that AvP will fulfil as promised and I’ll receive what I pledged for.

So….what do I think about crowdfunding?  Well its a gamble, you could lose your money but for some truly awesome products I’m willing to take that risk.  Ive had mixed luck and you could argue I should quit whilst Im ahead but as an entry into a new game its always worth pledging £1 to become a backer.  I can always increase my pledge at a later date.  All I ask from Project Creators is that you talk to us, the Backers.  Yes its your vision but you haven’t spent the money to make it happen.  We are Customers and without us you have a failed crowdfunded project.  I can absorb a delay or even a change but you MUST MUST MUST give us the information we need to back and continue to back your projects.  If you expect a leap of faith you have to give us something to believe in.  Talk to us and keep us engaged and involved.  Your future in directly linked to the success of your games………it is a symbiotic relationship between Backer and Project Creator.  We are no bottomless pocketed cash cows to be milked as and when it suits you….we deserve better.

My final piece of advice is as follows and directed to Backers….if you cannot afford to lose the money do not Back the project.  No matter the success of a project your money can dissappear off into the sunset and I would advise checking out the company or people involved before you commit.  Worst case is pledge £1 to get involved and then upgrade the pledge later if necessary.