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any word on wave 2 for the US?

Nope.

The most recent Weekly Newsletter spends about half a page talking about how there will be news... some day.

But as it stands the best recent news we have are the renders/piece breakdowns for 4 figures in the RRT update 2 weeks ago.

Forar wrote:Nope.

The most recent Weekly Newsletter spends about half a page talking about how there will be news... some day.

But as it stands the best recent news we have are the renders/piece breakdowns for 4 figures in the RRT update 2 weeks ago.

Its been 2 weeks already? Why is it taking the China company so long to do this? I'm not blaming Palladium or even ND, because they can only do so much, they have to wait to get news and info from China, but they really need to light a fire under them. I understand wanting to get things right, but this might be taking a little to long.

Forar wrote:Nope.

The most recent Weekly Newsletter spends about half a page talking about how there will be news... some day.

But as it stands the best recent news we have are the renders/piece breakdowns for 4 figures in the RRT update 2 weeks ago.

Well... renders for 3 figures. Cause the Jotun render was "done" as of September 26th, 2013, Update 113. It's just taken them a little while to show it off.

I have no inside knowledge as to what the exact breakdown of work is, but I know that in some cases (Wyrd, for example), the factory has someone on hand that takes digital models and converts them to sprues. Whether they're being given finalized sprues or simply the digital models to work with, that's stuff that has to come from ND and/or PB (and/or including finalized go-ahead from HG), so I find it doubtful that the factory is the hold up at this point.

If they were, surely there'd be a lot more to show off on PB's end. If they're not, then it comes down to how many models need final approval and what else has to start punching plastic.

Be it for all of wave 2, or an acceptable starting point thereof.

But we're half way through March. At this point last year, they not only had sprue piece breakdowns for a bunch of figures, they also had pre-production prototypes made up and assembled (and in some cases disassembled and reassembled again). There was "Spartangate", and production began in late June/early July.

Now, there's less than half as many figures to punch out for Battle Cry bags this time (27 figures worth versus 70 between the core box and bonus bag), but a lot more variety (11 different sprues for wave one, 14-16 different sprues for wave 2 for BC's, plus another 10-12 for add ons). Changing out molds is (again, from what I've read) a time consuming process, so having literally twice as many mold types to work with means they probably aren't saving a lot of time with the reduced count, especially if they're pushing production in bulk for Backers, Pre-orders, conventions and Retail all at once.

I have no idea what the 'point of no return is', but if they want to have something new on store shelves in 2015, they're gonna have to start soon.

Worryingly, in an interview carried by "Bell of lost Souls" Kevin himself says that they are looking at a date around November for Wave 2.
Okay this time round it might be that PB are being extra cautious over over optimistic timelines, but it would be nice to get confirmation.

Of course this puts it in line for another Black Friday push, which caused a lot of bad feeling over the overseas pledge fulfillment - would be nice to think some lessons were learnt.

Hopefully this long wait means that the correction to things like the Lancer they previewed will all be made pre prod.

wilycoyote wrote:Of course this puts it in line for another Black Friday push.

This seems pretty likely to me.

Now, the difference would be if they managed to have the bags on hand in September and started putting cargo containers on ships, meaning Australia/Europe/ROW folks started getting theirs not too long after North American delivery happened and NA retail was getting lined up.

I really hope its Nov. or earlier, and not next year.

As a US resident, that seems reasonably likely.

Australia/Europe/RoW however, are probably not seeing anything until 2016 even if they do make Black Friday, unless PB ships out to them first.

wilycoyote wrote:Worryingly, in an interview carried by "Bell of lost Souls" Kevin himself says that they are looking at a date around November for Wave 2.
Okay this time round it might be that PB are being extra cautious over over optimistic timelines, but it would be nice to get confirmation.

Of course this puts it in line for another Black Friday push, which caused a lot of bad feeling over the overseas pledge fulfillment - would be nice to think some lessons were learnt.

Hopefully this long wait means that the correction to things like the Lancer they previewed will all be made pre prod.

i say 1/1/2016 now give them time
i will now give them ANOTHER year that find with me getting my armies ready here

Okay, Feeling a liitle good about RTT at the moment, my first painted models are done and even with my mediocre painting skills I am happy with them. At least I can try out the introductory scenarios now - personal rule, nothing hits the table till its painted.

I now wonder if PB want to grab this as a new opportunity to realy push the boat out for RTT and really go for the hard sell on the game in remainer of 2015, afterall Wave One is alredy available out there. This could give the game a much needed boost by the end of the year and if they can get back a level of anticipation (and sales) by Gencon, then the arrival of Wave 2 at the end of the year could be a real bonus - albeit us patient backers have suffered.

Done right, at least for me, the Female Armour and Super Valks could be real eye catchers and the sort of candy that might get new blood into the game.

However, the time is now and PB MUST get support out there and try to ensure demos at every mini-con they can. How about demo packs - possibly downloadable -with force rosters for small games, reference cards? Sit down and get some game videos up - you have friends at Beasts of Wa, don't you. If they leave it to the end of the year the game will be stale and very, very niche.

Asking for players to push the game is one thing, but PB have to be seen - I mean very visible - to be helping out if Wave 2 when it arrives is going to be big, WAve 2 if it is big, could help fuel interest in more RT projects - Invids? you know it makes sense?

wilycoyote wrote:However, the time is now and PB MUST get support out there and try to ensure demos at every mini-con they can. How about demo packs - possibly downloadable -with force rosters for small games, reference cards? Sit down and get some game videos up - you have friends at Beasts of Wa, don't you. If they leave it to the end of the year the game will be stale and very, very niche.

Asking for players to push the game is one thing, but PB have to be seen - I mean very visible - to be helping out if Wave 2 when it arrives is going to be big, WAve 2 if it is big, could help fuel interest in more RT projects - Invids? you know it makes sense?

I think a big problem is it doesn't look like anyone AT Palladium is really that passionate about the project. In the sense of "Does anyone at Palladium play the game, outside of demos?". Obviously, they want the game to succeed for financial and promotional reasons. But does Kevin or Wayne or Jeff have an army of their own? One they assembled and painted themselves? It's possible, but the lack of photos, or game videos with the game being available to them for at least 8 months, would be easily explained then. And if THEY are not passionate about the game, why should anyone else be?

It appears that not only is RRT a niche game, it appears to be a niche game FOR Palladium. That they appear to be leaving pretty much all of the boots-on-the-ground push to MA's and volunteers, acting only in the basest support role, doesn't inspire confidence that things will change. I'm sure there'll be some advertising for Wave 2, and all the other "secret stuff" Kevin keeps mentioning, but when push comes to shove, will they act, or just talk?

Jeff and PB have the demo and painted armies from Gencon and such.. I have used this army and they have at least 300 pts for each faction..They have also the high priced painted army but im positive they do not put that one on the table. They have a table in the office for pick up games and going through rules discussion stuff. Not sure how many games they have played...

morgan, it seems pb is relying WAY too much on word of mouth and the volunteers. sooner or later that well will dry up.

WRRD, if as you say Jeff and PB have a high price painted army then why not use it "in house" to get some real nice photos - and possibly gameplay/tutorial videos - out there. One thing that GW have never been shy of is showing off their beautifully painted models and it has never hurt them and their sales.

It does seem that all the hype of the KS has dwindled and needs a new fire under it. It does need a push from somewhere and I would have thought that as it is in their best interest to see this as a sucess that PB would be doing that?

Last I heard from credible sources is Kevin doesn't even role play anymore, except the odd one off event he may be at (like the open house). And considering how he always goes out of his way to tell everyone in the updates how hard they work and how long the hours they keep are, I highly doubt they are playing pick up games at any given time. If they are, why no pics? It is bad enough it took a WEEK to get anything about what went on a Adepticon, but to not post up images of them actually playing, IF they are playing, is asinine.

wilycoyote wrote:WRRD, if as you say Jeff and PB have a high price painted army then why not use it "in house" to get some real nice photos - and possibly gameplay/tutorial videos - out there. One thing that GW have never been shy of is showing off their beautifully painted models and it has never hurt them and their sales.

It does seem that all the hype of the KS has dwindled and needs a new fire under it. It does need a push from somewhere and I would have thought that as it is in their best interest to see this as a sucess that PB would be doing that?

Critical as I have been, even as a miniatures novice of sorts, I don't think it's unreasonable to have Display Only pieces. Even if Blue Table cut them a deal on their work, nicely done up figures for showcases generally aren't a great idea to have on the table. A little jostling or an unfortunate slip of the hand could damage or ruin an otherwise pristine paint job, not to mention natural wear and tear from being picked up and maneuvered.

Not to mention that unlike GW, which presumably has a significant number of war gamers and painters on hand, the PB crew seems to be heavily author and drawing-based artist focused. GW probably has a small warehouse filled with display pieces, or at least some large shelving units. That couple dozen (or less) figures from BTP might be the only ones they have, and getting more done likely isn't an expense they'd want to eat.

As for buzz, hype, and enthusiasm, I imagine showing off the work happening on wave two might help a little, but if "November" (ie: black friday) is the current target, the next 8 months could be a bit of a test of some people's resolve.

WilhelmRochRedDuke wrote:Jeff and PB have the demo and painted armies from Gencon and such.. I have used this army and they have at least 300 pts for each faction..They have also the high priced painted army but im positive they do not put that one on the table. They have a table in the office for pick up games and going through rules discussion stuff. Not sure how many games they have played...

That's good to hear. But then given the resources are in place, why is it that we're almost a year from Update 137, April 11 2014, where Q8 is...

Can more videos of actual game play be provided? We would like to see videos of games played by experienced testers and players who have only been given the rules with no guidance.
That sounds like a good idea. I’ll see what we can do.

It shouldn't be that hard, should it? I chalked it up in the prior post to not having the resources in place. But if it's all there, and with video not being that hard nowadays, it doesn't make sense why this question hasn't been addressed.

I agree with Forar that the high price painted army shouldn't be put on the table. But surely they could have high quality pictures of these that's satisfy Q11 of the above Update. Just seems weird that there's no easily accessible "professional look" shots from the company selling it, to show a prospective buyer what they look like. Wyrd, Privateer, GW, all have extensive galleries of their product lines, to show what's achievable.