Update 49: Shipping Update and Production Video! Locking Addresses!
almost 2 years ago
– Wed, Jul 03, 2024 at 01:30:12 PM
Hey everyone, time for another update! This will be a short one, but there’s good news to share, so let’s get started!
Shipping Update
To start off, most of the games are on the water! Here are the estimated departure and arrival dates for each region:
USA/Canada: Departed: 6/23. Estimated Delivery: 7/28
EU/UK: Estimated departure: 7/8. Estimated Delivery: 8/4
Australia/China/ROTW: Departure: 7/3. Estimated Delivery: 7/31
So, as you can see, as of today, most of the games have departed China, with EU/UK soon to follow! It’s finally happening! If all goes well, fulfillment should begin in August! Obviously, we will keep everyone updated on the shipping status as things progress, and hopefully there are no delays in customs (always a possibility). Exciting times!
Locking Addresses (for real this time)
With the games being on the water, our window to make changes to addresses is closing. As such, we will be locking address on August 1st, so if you need to update your information, please do so! If you have any issues or questions, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Production Video
LongPack put together this awesome video showing the production of the game at various stages. We shared the first part of this video previously, but this complete video just came in last week and it is great! After all these years of development, to see it all come together like that is pretty incredible. Check it out here:
Production Video
Pre-Sale
The pre-sale is still ongoing, so if you're a USA or Canadian backer, and there's anything you wanted to grab that you missed, now's the time! In addition, we've added the World Killer Expansion as a separate item, so if you originally backed at the Incursion level pledge and want to add the expansion, now you can! You can access the pre-sale below:
That’s all for now, we’ll be back with more info on shipping as things develop!
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 48: Shipping update and pre-sale extended to Canada!
almost 2 years ago
– Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 08:41:50 AM
Hey everyone, time for another update! This one will be pretty short but we will cover some important things, including shipping!
Shipping Status
The game assembly finished as planned in the first week of June, which is great! However, scheduling the container shipment has taken a bit longer than we had hoped. This is mostly due to the container shortage going on in China right now. Companies all over the world begin shipping their holiday merchandise in the beginning of summer which puts us into what they call 'peak season' for shipping. In addition, the ongoing issues in the Red Sea is causing container ships to sail around Africa which means the ships take longer to deliver their cargo and return the empty containers. These two things combined have created a container crunch which is making shipping out of China difficult, and very costly.
Currently, we are scheduled to ship out of China on the 23rd, so just a few days away! Hopefully there will be no further delays, but until the freight is actually picked up and loaded, it’s impossible to say for sure. The volatile shipping situation means things can change very quickly. We'll keep you posted as things develop.
Unfortunately, the costs of shipping went up yet again due to the container issues. Our quote from a little over a month ago went up another $6,500! Obviously, this hurts quite a bit considering shipping costs were already over $15,000 more than we had budgeted. Do not worry though, there is no danger of your games not delivering, we have secured a loan to pay for the additional expenses. As much as that hurts, we are doing what needs to be done to get this project finished. We will not be demanding any additional funds from backers, so no worries there either, but if you would like to contribute, it would be GREATLY appreciated (more on that below).
We will keep everyone posted on the shipping status and if there are any further delays, we will let everyone know. Once we have vessel information, we will share that as well!
Pre-Sale, now available in Canada!
The pre-sale is ongoing, but has sadly been slower than we had hoped and we aren’t generating the sales we need to help cover the shipping costs (hence the need for the loan as mentioned above). This is partly due to the huge crowdfunding campaigns that are going on right now which are definitely taking some attention away from older projects such as ours.
On a positive note, we have worked out some details with our fulfillment partner, Bridge, to extend the availability of the pre-sale to Canada! So if you are in Canada and wanted to grab an add-on you missed, you are now able to!
If you come across anyone on BGG or Facebook looking for recommendations for games to purchase, you can help us by sharing our info with them and spreading the word!
Contributions
Several backers contributed to our shipping costs by using the tip jar on our pre-sale site, which is very much appreciated! Any contributions like this help us, no matter how small. While contributions are note mandatory, they definitely help, so if you’re able to give even $5, we could be very grateful!
Below is link to the pre-sale:
That’s all for now, we will be back when we have more info, either about the vessel information, or if there are any further delays (hopefully not).
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 47b: Pre-sale is live!
about 2 years ago
– Mon, May 20, 2024 at 09:47:04 AM
Pre-Sale is live!
As we talked about last week, the pre-sale is now live! If you want to grab an add on you missed, or if you passed on the Kickstarter previously and still want a copy of the game, now is the time! Quantities are very limited, so we aren’t sure how long supplies will last. A few reminders about this pre-sale:
- The pre-sale is limited to the USA only. This is due to all of our overstock being sent to the USA.
- If you are an existing backer, any new items purchased cannot be combined with your existing pledge because pledges are locked. Anything purchased will be processed as a separate order, with a separate shipping charge.
- All purchased items will ship shortly after pledges are delivered.
If you’re interested in grabbing anything you missed, head to the link below while supplies last!
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 47: Production update, pre-sale info, and possible STL campaign!
about 2 years ago
– Thu, May 16, 2024 at 11:48:40 AM
Hello everyone, time for another update! Below we will cover the current state of production, the upcoming pre-sale, and a possible STL campaign. Read on!
Production Update
LongPack is still in the process of assembling and palletizing. We lost about a week and a half while they reprinted the German dashboards, but everything is still more or less on track to be shipping out of China by the end of this month, or the beginning of June. We will have info and pictures when the product is bundled up and heading to the port!
Pre-Sale
As mentioned in our previous update, we will be doing a pre-sale for our limited overstock to help cover the costs of shipping (which was over $15k more than we collected). We will be launching the pre-sale on Monday, May 20th at noon (CDT). All of the existing products will be available, but stock is very limited (less than 150 per item). If you wanted to grab any add ons that you missed during the campaign, this would be the time to do so. However, there are a few restrictions to keep in mind:
- This pre-sale is limited to the USA only. We’d love to sell all regions, but all of our overstock will be in the USA (it was originally going to be used for conventions). Shipping to other regions would be very expensive for the backer, so we decided to limit it to just USA sales. Hopefully that makes sense.
- These orders cannot be combined with your existing pledges because pledges are locked and unlocking them would cause many problems (BackerKit said we should absolutely not do this). What this means is that there will be a separate shipping charge for this order. That’s not ideal, but it’s the only way we can make it work.
Tip Jar
Several backers asked us in the comments and messages if they could contribute to help us cover the cost of shipping. First of all, that’s amazing, and we really appreciate those offers! For those that wish to do so, there will be a tip jar in the pre-sale store where you can contribute however much you would like. Obviously, this isn’t mandatory, but if you do choose to contribute, just know it will be greatly appreciated 😊
Potential STL Campaign
We are also thinking about running an STL campaign for the miniatures in the game. This would be another way to help us offset the increased cost of shipping, as well as give us more funds for other projects that are in the works. If we do this, it may happen in the next few months, but we aren’t sure yet since we are still debating on whether to do it or not. If we do, we will likely offer all the miniatures in the game at different scales so that people that wanted smaller miniatures could have them (provided you have a way to print them, of course). What are your thoughts on this? Would you be interested in acquiring the STL’s for the miniatures if the price was right? Let us know in the comments!
That’s all for now. We will post a quick notification on Monday that the pre-sale is live and provide a link (it will also be linked on the main Kickstarter page). You can also help out by spreading the word about the pre-sale anywhere you think it might help. The faster we sell through the overstock, the better!
Until next time, watch your six!
Update 46b: Quick update, production update and address lock extended!
about 2 years ago
– Tue, Apr 30, 2024 at 09:58:11 AM
Hey everyone, this is just a quick update to share some important info regarding production, address locking, and the pre-sale. Read on!
Production Update
After reviewing the mass production sample, only one significant thing was caught that needed to be fixed. The dashboards for the German Operative Expansion had some misprints that needed to be corrected. Luckily that was a quick fix and didn't take much time, so there was no real delay as a result.
With everything having been checked and approved, LongPack has moved to assembly and palletizing, which should be done in the next week or two. After that, the games will be heading to the port! We hope to have some images after their assembly as they get ready for their journey across the water to post in the next update!
Address Lock Extended
After discussing things with Bridge Distribution (our main fulfillment partner), we were advised to wait to lock addresses a little longer to make sure there weren't going to be any last minute changes. So, we will be extending the locking of addresses until at least the end of May, possibly a bit longer. We'll have a firm date once the games are on the water and a clear arrival date can be estimated. As always, we'll keep you posted.
Upcoming Pre-Sale
As mentioned in the last update, we will be having a pre-sale on our overstock to help us cover the increased shipping costs that we have incurred. This should be launching within the next two weeks. We will be announcing full details soon, but there are a few things to keep in mind:
First, remember that we were originally going to use the overstock for conventions here in the US, and we are only doing this pre-sale to help us cover the shipping rates. Due to our overstock being concentrated in the USA, we will likely have to limit our sales to North America because shipping would be very high to other parts of the world from the states. As an example, I checked with Bridge what it would cost to send an Extinction pledge to Germany and it was about $100 (plus VAT of course), which is just crazy. We know it's not ideal to limit the regions we can offer this in, but this isn't our ideal situation for selling our overstock. That being said, we're still working to see if there are any cost effective ways to sell to other parts of the world, but it's not looking likely.
The other thing to understand is that since pledges are locked, adding additional items for existing backers isn't easy or straightforward. We can't just unlock the pledges as that would create issues on the BackerKit backend that would be a nightmare. What this means is that if an existing backer wants to add something they missed, it will have to be done as a separate order, with a separate shipping charge. We spoke multiple times with BackerKit to see if there was any way to allow existing backers to add items to their pledges, but every solution just created different issues, so it just doesn't appear to be something we can do, although we are still checking into a few things.
On the upside, we are going to offer the same prices as we did during the campaign for all items. It would certainly be justified if we raised the prices considering it's been two years, but it didn't sit right with us because the games are already paid for under the rates from two years ago, so it didn't feel right to charge more when we don't have to.
That's it for now, we'll post more soon regarding when the games are shipping out of China and when the pre-sale will launch.
Until next time, watch your six!
