Grumpy Gnome

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I suspect Joe was going for streamlined play. The same with reload times. For me the game does not “feel” like Napoleonic combat because of the firearm combat rules.

Our pledge arrived. Everything was painted but not to the standard of previous retail products. Mrs GG and I agree with you Ksbsnowowl.

Not enough diversity in the pieces, too much repetition with the damaged looking pieces. Despite selling floors/roofs they only have one aesthetic so for example they do nothing for Kazumi really. Buildings look… half done. As if the pieces are more for limited dioramas scatter terrain that hints at a theme rather than for actually immersive game play. It is as if there were some brilliant ideas but across a broad range of ideas rather than a focused, cohesive grand design for world building. The pieces are often neat alone but do not work so well together and certainly do not come across as ideal for easy conversion work or repetition for big builds. We found this to a certain degree with each of their kickstarters but this one had the least impressive stretchgoals and did not deliver the floors that were supposed to be a core feature of this Kickstarter well enough for all the previous Rampart designs.

Disappointing to hear about the painting problems but good to hear MFC taking the problem so seriously and trying to address it personally. The retail MFC stuff Mrs. GG and I have has all been pretty good so we expected more of the same. Now we anxiously wait to see what we get. Being in Germany we still do not know when ours will arrive.

Mrs. GG and I got ours… of all the Archon products we have gotten this set has been the most underwhelming so far unfortunately. We feel like it was a real missed opportunity. Some clever ideas in the beginning that were not actualized as well as they could have been. Nor do we feel the value for money is as strong as other sets have been.

I have used one and liked having him, although more for RP than actually getting things done so far. I tried to convince Mrs. GG to take one but she has so far proven uninterested in the extra book keeping.

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I can relate to that.

With Wildlands now finally reaching retail. I have been surprised by how quickly things have been going out of stock. I have heard talk of over 500 customers in the first 10 minutes of Wildlands hitting retail. Part of that first 10 minute rush was me and Mrs. GG as we had not been able to afford everything we wanted during the Kickstarter campaign. We were not able to get everything we wanted but we got some key sets we were after, most importantly the new ruins.

If you are curious about our review of Wildlands, check out our new unboxing blog post. https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2022/08/08/unboxing-of-our-dwarven-forge-wildlands-kickstarter-pledge/ What are your thoughts on Dwarven Forge terrain? Has the new forest, swamp and mountain terrain in Wildlands changed your opinion?

Our Wildlands pledge has finally arrived… sort of… https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/2022/08/02/the-waiting-is-the-hardest-part/

I feel your pain mate. I am one of, if not THE last Dwarven Forge Wildlands backers still waiting. Wildlands arrived this morning (Monday 1st of Aug)… seems we were among the last 10 backers to receive our pledge. I hope you get your D&L 3 soon!

Sorry, no malice was intended. I appreciate the way you have dealt with this.

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WGA has released some design images of their upcoming alien bugs set and are doing a contest for a name and species background. I like the design and hope to see them developed even further… ie a queen and variation between worker and soldier caste. Perfect for some Starship Troopers gaming.

Me too. But Mrs. GG backed anyway… and now our D&L 3 Woodhaven has finally arrived, which we are satisfied with. I do worry that the buildings in D&L 4 Encounters will be too small.

Mrs. GG and I backed this one although Mrs. GG took some convincing. We have had good value for money from Archon in the past but the margin keeps getting slimmer. Also, between Rampart and Dungeons & Lasers it feels like Archon often has great ideas that it never quite finishes (Kazumi Temple and Woodhaven in particular). It feels to me like the artists doing the concept art and the engineers designing the pieces do not actually game with these sets so much as just make some incomplete dioramas. Still, I remain optimistic and will put to work the bits from this latest Rampart that suit our gaming projects. I like that the big mech walker appears to now be customizable for 2 or 4 legs, which is great. https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270/799563.page#11405010

Still “finalizing international distribution”? I have to admit I am disappointed that has not already been sewn up with all the other delays.

Our D&L 3 finally arrived. First impressions are good. The minis look nice… but also look to be on the small side. I will have a better idea once I cut them from the sprue and put some together but so far they look like they are about the size of Perry 28mm figures.

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No need to be rude. Another point I failed to add before is that Mrs. GG and I did not get an email about a problem with Germany which was mentioned prior to my post. Also, Dwarven Forge is currently having a problem importing their Wildlands Kickstarter pledges into Germany. We have D&L 1&2 as well as Rampart 1&2 sets. We are confident Archon will deliver but we would still feel better about pledging if our D&L 3 was already here. And we feel D&L could do with a longer backer consultation period to better plan the campaign. As it stands we like what we see and will likely do the 4 set pledge and hope the scaling comes out ok.

Ahead of schedule or not Mrs. GG and I would have liked to have gotten our D&L 3 before D&L 4 started. We just think it is common business courtesy. It would also help us make a more informed decision on our D&L 4 pledge.

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