D&D Miniatures really take off

[MerricB]

I'm curious - is anyone playing the skirmish game?

Yes.

I'm doing so, and greatly enjoying it. There are a heap of scenarios in the Miniatures Handbook as well as rules for a Skirmish campaign (very nice rules, too). You want a certain number of miniatures so that the variety is there. Once Dragoneye comes out it should be very interesting indeed.

If the minis are doing so good, then what is the "business-related" part of WotC killing off the Orc War Party and Outlaw War Party nonrandomized packs?

Because they weren't getting ordered as strongly as they hoped. They were really coming out too late - by the time they arrive, the secondary market will make most of the figures in those packs available CHEAPER than for what WotC could sell them for. Sure, not everyone could take available of that secondary market; but each person who could was another sale lost.

One of the reasons for the canning of the war party sets was almost undoubtedly the poor selection of figures in them. The Orc War Party wasn't that bad, but the Outlaw War Party was nearly useless.

Mike Donais has posted on the WotC boards saying that the canning of these products allows them to work on different ones; he's also asked what sort of theme packs people would like to see... perhaps a replacement?

There's a link on my webpage to his comments. (see my sig)

Cheers!

 

[spacecrime.com]

If the minis are doing so good, then what is the "business-related" part of WotC killing off the Orc War Party and Outlaw War Party nonrandomized packs? And I'd love to hear how player input helped get those canned (I am of the opinion that WotC said that so that they wouldn't look so bad, and that no such input was used).

I'll bet you an owlbear that mass-market retailers said, "No thanks, the random packs are selling just fine on their own." (It wouldn't be independent retailers -- we're not organized enough to give that kind of feedback.)

The reason you want to skip doing fixed packs is that it represents extra packaging and production cost. If sales are slow, then a fixed pack might be useful to get people to try out the figures -- but if the figures are already selling well, there's little gain to be had from pushing an introductory set.

cheers,

 

[MerricB]

It wasn't even an introductory set. The War Parties had pretty much NO value to those playing the skirmish game... a problem.

Cheers!

 

[Simplicity]

These things are clearly selling like hotcakes... Not that I've really seen hotcakes sell quickly, but you know what I mean. Stores in SD have had a seriously hard time keeping the minis in stock.

I've played the skirmish rules once, and it seems really fun... Plus the minis will
be really useful for D&D. D&D Miniatures = plastic crack.

As for what warbands I'd like to see, that's easy: Gimme some freakin' gnoll warbands! No one can even find one of these pesky little guys, much less
a whole warband of them. Having one gnoll miniature isn't all that useful.

It may be that WotC doesn't want to skew their random distributions (which
are tilted against the collector like some evil keno in gambler's hell). If
that's the case, perhaps they intend to come out with warbands composed
of miniatures that are not in the random packs. The miniatures might be "orcs"
but they might be different orcs than the ones in the packs. They'd get
the collectors and the people who just want a group of minis to play D&D with
to buy the non-random packs that way.

 

[Eternalknight]

I'm curious - is anyone playing the skirmish game?

I tried it out, but wasn't too impressed (though I only have 1 entry pack and so not a great figure selection)

It makes a great beer and pretzels game.

I'm looking forward to the day I have enough minis to play a mass battles game.

 

[Krug]

Could i ask the blatantly obvious and what's to prevent any manufacturer out there from making it's own 'collectible' sets, with different odds?

 

[Krug]

damn double posts!

 

[Krug]

Dang triple posts!
(is this how crothian does it?)

 

[Darrin Drader]

Could i ask the blatantly obvious and what's to prevent any manufacturer out there from making it's own 'collectible' sets, with different odds?

Of course you could.

Of course you could.

Of course you could.

 

[Li Shenron]

Most of the packs at my FLGS were bought by four guys

No one seems to be playing the game locally, but there are a few rabid collectors...

I haven't bought any miniatures, but I think that buying only a bunch of them would not be useful. If I used them, I would like to have a lot of them so that I can actually use the appropriate ones for different encounters.