DDM SKirmish has ended

[avin]

A friend of mine got an answer...

Hi there XXXXXXX,

Thank you for contacting Wizards of the Coast game support!

Wizards of the Coast has chosen to concentrate its D&D miniatures-creation efforts on an accessory line optimized for D&D Roleplaying Game use. November’s release of Demonweb will be the last new set that includes skirmish statistics. We will continue to update all miniatures stats from previous sets to the current D&D Miniatures ruleset as promised, with the conclusion of that process scheduled for mid-2009.

In addition, official sanctioning of D&D Miniatures skirmish events will cease right after D&D Experience in February. We hope to see skirmish play continue at the grassroots level, using the hundreds of miniatures produced for the game over the past six years and encouraged by the passionate fan sites that exist for the D&D Miniatures skirmish game.

The skirmish game has many dedicated fans, and we appreciate the years of enthusiastic support that these players have shown to the line. Unfortunately, despite this enthusiasm, the number of skirmish players has been dropping steadily over the past couple of years. We had hoped that improvements implemented during 2007 and 2008 would change that trend, but they have not accomplished enough toward that end. At this point, we can no longer justify the design, development, and production resources required to support the skirmish game.

This also means that the Feywild set that was announced for next year will not be released. We needed to make room for this new approach, and early 2009 is the best time for that to begin. However, many of the sculpts that were in the process of being created for Feywild will find homes in the new D&D Miniatures products, as appropriate, and with the increased quality levels we’ve established for the new line.


Take Care and Good Gaming!

 

[justanobody]

Wizards of the Coast has chosen to concentrate its D&D miniatures-creation efforts on an accessory line optimized for D&D Roleplaying Game use. November’s release of Demonweb will be the last new set that includes skirmish statistics. We will continue to update all miniatures stats from previous sets to the current D&D Miniatures ruleset as promised, with the conclusion of that process scheduled for mid-2009.

In addition, official sanctioning of D&D Miniatures skirmish events will cease right after D&D Experience in February. We hope to see skirmish play continue at the grassroots level, using the hundreds of miniatures produced for the game over the past six years and encouraged by the passionate fan sites that exist for the D&D Miniatures skirmish game.

D&D Miniatures Changes Explained

It is true.

 

[Fifth Element]

Some interesting tidbits there. The visible figure in the monster pack will be Large, and will be "rare-quality". Spoiler pics of a goliath PC (which looks very nice) and a troll king.

Edit: We also have confirmation that the power cards are not random.

 

[justanobody]

Some interesting tidbits there. The visible figure in the monster pack will be Large, and will be "rare-quality". Spoiler pics of a goliath PC (which looks very nice) and a troll king.

"we’re providing miniatures of rare or better quality in visible, fixed packaging"

So they will be common unique minis?

EDIT: And the power cards will not always be from a published product and may never appear in a book, but will appear on DDI sometime.

 

[Fifth Element]

So they will be common unique minis?

Not sure what you mean by "common unique"?

 

[ExploderWizard]

EDIT: And the power cards will not always be from a published product and may never appear in a book, but will appear on DDI sometime.

Hurry up and collect all the kewl powerz for your characters kids. Some of them may only be available for a limited time!!!

 

[justanobody]

Not sure what you mean by "common unique"?

"rare or better"

Are they implying that rare minis have been purposefully painted better than all other before now?

Are they saying there will be a rarity level that is more rare than a rare. In many games including MK, SWM, etc the next step up from a rare is a unique.

Since this "unique" would not exist in random distribution but as completely visible and purchasable as a fixed mini in the Heroes packagin, it means that this mini will be more common than a random distribution common as you can always buy it without risk of not getting it in the package you purchase.

So they would be a common unique.

Unique coming both from Mage Knight where that was the rarity of a mini that did not have stages of power (weak, strong, tough), but only had one stage and made it unique to the design scheme and outside of rare common and uncommon, and also in the sense that MAhe Knight and DDM uses in that a unique mini is unique to the army/world, and you can only have one in play on your side at a time.

So a unique being more "rare" than rare, but easy to acquire in the collectible aspect making it common, ergo a common unique.

 

[Fifth Element]

So a unique being more "rare" than rare, but easy to acquire in the collectible aspect making it common, ergo a common unique.

You mean they're rare in terms of quality, but common in terms of distribution? Or something like that. Seems that's the case.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

I'm not wild about including the special power cards in the new RPG focused mini sets. This is starting to feel like a CCG...

 

[Fifth Element]

Hurry up and collect all the kewl powerz for your characters kids. Some of them may only be available for a limited time!!!

Please. What's the difference between this and buying a splatbook with new powers, other than the price per power and the fact you might not be interested in the minis?

They're not pushing the limited-edition nature of the powers. They're a little bonus untended to increase the mini sales a bit. Probably a tiny bit, if at all, since as was pointed out in the other thread, you don't need the card to use the power.