Re: Field Marshal Games Pieces Project Discussion thread

@reloader-1:

I say do Black first.

Black… Grey… Pink… None of these colours will matter once my paintbrush gets a hold of these! ;) Even Warhammer freaks will bow in their presence.

Full pre-order option, PLEASE!!!

@inverted:

@reloader-1:

I say do Black first.

Black… Grey… Pink… None of these colours will matter once my paintbrush gets a hold of these! ;) Even Warhammer freaks will bow in their presence.

Full pre-order option, PLEASE!!!

Can’t do that.  As there will be 7+ Nations, and they will be coming out a different times, that means that there would be 7+ shipping fees.  We can not afford to charge once and ship 8 times.

@FieldMarshalGames:

We can not afford to charge once and ship 8 times.

Is it not the customer who pays the shipping? Why not charge once then ship once when the collection is complete? That’s another whole issue for me since I’m in Canada and would rather avoid shipping a small package 7+ times. Is it not less hassle for everyone this way anyway?

If the full collection were priced in the $150-$160 range, I could throw that down in a heartbeat. That’s $18.75-$20 per country if there’s 8 sets, a mere $5 discount over the ROMMEL code for investing early. Or, if you want to keep it at $25 keep including the dice for the AAA.org pre-order, just please give us the option of paying up front. I’m sorry if it comes off as rude or if it seems that I’m trying to haggle openly, I just feel this approach is better for everyone including FMG.

wher in canada?

I’m from the Ottawa area.

FACTORY UPDATE:  The Italian Mould will be complete on JAN 5th 2011.

We were ready to go back in OCT 2010, but we had to wait in a Que at the Foundry (Place where they make Metal Moulds) because we are a small company and they had bigger orders/customers.

Injections will begin after that and REAL product will start to be produced.

By then the German Mould will already be going to the Foundry for production and the Sculptor will be working on USA.

It was slow off the ground but they are picking up pace!

Jeremy

Great news!  When can we start helping you out and pre-ordering the Germans?

@inverted:

Or, if you want to keep it at $25 keep including the dice for the AAA.org pre-order, just please give us the option of paying up front. I’m sorry if it comes off as rude or if it seems that I’m trying to haggle openly, I just feel this approach is better for everyone including FMG.

I’ve been looking at your various posts on the subject of pre-ordering to try to make sure I understand the financial model you’re proposing.  I think I see what you’re suggesting, but it raises a number of questions.

At the moment, one national set is being offered on pre-order, before it’s in stock.  Once it’s in stock, it will be available by conventional order.  Presumably the same will happen as each subsequent set is produced, with each set becoming available for purchase and delivery individually.  (How long it will take to get to the completion of the last set is unclear at this point, but that’s a different issue.)

If I understand your posts correctly, the alternative model you’re proposing assumes that once all the sets are finished, FMG will offer an alternate option to purchase all the sets as a single package at a discounted price.  Where does that assumption come from?  Did Jeremy mention something along these lines at some point?  (I don’t recall his doing so, but I may have missed it.)

Let’s say for the moment, however, that Jeremy does plan to offer all the sets as a single discounted package once all the sets are available.  Your post which says “Why not charge once then ship once when the collection is complete?” seems to indicate that you don’t expect to receive the package until all the sets are complete.  In other words, regardless of whether you pre-order a whole package now or whether you wait until all the sets are ready (at which point, under your assumption, Jeremy will offer a package-deal purchase option), you’ll still have to wait until all the sets are complete before you receive anything.  So I don’t understand what difference it would make to pre-order a full package now as opposed to ordering it later.  The only possible advantage – and I think this is perhaps the real point of your model – would be if people who pre-ordered a full package now would be charged a lot less money than the people who waited until all the sets were completed before ordering a full package.  In other words: if we regard the current option of ordering the sets individually as the standard price, and if we assume that there will be an option to order a full package at the time of completion at a discounted price, what you seem to be proposing is that an additional discount (a discount on the already-discounted full package) should be offered to people who pre-order the full package right now.  Is that the case?

There are several reasons we don’t want to do this.

1. Process is expensive.  We need CASH FLOW from pre-orders to pay for the next set.
2. Taking that much money now, for a product with an extended ETA will lead to too many Customer Service issues… etc.

@inverted:

I’m from the Ottawa area.

Isn’t FMG in Canada as well?  They charge a flat rate of $9.95 to ship to USA/Canada.  So your complaint is having to pay this flat rate for each nation when they come out, is that it?  It seems to me that it would be up to you to simply wait until all are available so you could order them all at once and only pay one shipping charge.  As for myself, I want my pieces as soon as I can get them so I’m going to go ahead and pay for each set upon release.  Maybe you could say I’m a big dummy for paying what amounts to roughly an extra $60 over the span of time that it takes to get all seven nations.  On the other hand, and this is a big reason FMG can’t take such a big pre-order for all seven nations, there always remains the possibility, however slight, that something could come up to cause an end to this project before all nations are complete.  Then where would you be?  You paid for seven nations but only get 3 or 4 or 5.  What’s more, going by your idea of a special discounted price for pre-orders of the entire set, FMG would get short-changed because they gave you that special discount for buying all seven nations, not less.  That would create even more of a mess.

I might also point out that FMG charges that flat rate for shipping whether it be a small package, like combat pieces or combat dice, all the way up to whole games which I’m sure cost much more to ship.  Overall, I think it is a very good deal.

@FieldMarshalGames:

FACTORY UPDATE:  The Italian Mould will be complete on JAN 5th 2011.

We were ready to go back in OCT 2010, but we had to wait in a Que at the Foundry (Place where they make Metal Moulds) because we are a small company and they had bigger orders/customers.

Injections will begin after that and REAL product will start to be produced.

By then the German Mould will already be going to the Foundry for production and the Sculptor will be working on USA.

It was slow off the ground but they are picking up pace!

Jeremy

Once the injections start, the sets will come out pretty fast, right?  The longest part is actually getting the moulds made.  Once that is done and they start actually injecting the plastic, it goes pretty fast, right?
When they do get some sets made, they will ship to FMG and you will ship to all the customers, right?
So, between now and Jan. 5, we should see the rest of the German sculpts and then after Jan. 5 we could start seeing some American sculpts?  Man, that will be cool.  I’m already anxious to see them.
Is the Sculptor in China with the factory?

One more question.  Will you be taking orders for Germany when the mould is at the foundry?

@knp7765:

So your complaint is having to pay this flat rate for each nation when they come out, is that it?  It seems to me that it would be up to you to simply wait until all are available so you could order them all at once and only pay one shipping charge.

My complaint is that I want this project to survive, and the current business practice is not optimal. Any “slight chance” of project failure is and always will be 100% attributed to lack of funds! Yes, I could “simply wait until all are available” and “pay one shipping charge”, but what help is that to the manufacturer?

I think this poster is most fitting:

Then you will just have to suck it up and pay shipping for each nation as they become available like the rest of us.  I don’t think anybody LIKES to pay to ship each nation individually, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.  Besides, even if it is a little more costly, don’t you really like the idea of getting your pieces a little quicker, even one nation at a time?

@knp7765:

@FieldMarshalGames:

FACTORY UPDATE:  The Italian Mould will be complete on JAN 5th 2011.

We were ready to go back in OCT 2010, but we had to wait in a Que at the Foundry (Place where they make Metal Moulds) because we are a small company and they had bigger orders/customers.

Injections will begin after that and REAL product will start to be produced.

By then the German Mould will already be going to the Foundry for production and the Sculptor will be working on USA.

It was slow off the ground but they are picking up pace!

Jeremy

Once the injections start, the sets will come out pretty fast, right?  The longest part is actually getting the moulds made.  Once that is done and they start actually injecting the plastic, it goes pretty fast, right?
When they do get some sets made, they will ship to FMG and you will ship to all the customers, right?
So, between now and Jan. 5, we should see the rest of the German sculpts and then after Jan. 5 we could start seeing some American sculpts?  Man, that will be cool.  I’m already anxious to see them.
Is the Sculptor in China with the factory?

Once injections start we will get the factory to AIR SHIP all the Pre-orders to us.  The remainder will be shipped via Ocean Container with the Combat Dice etc…  So those who paid for Pre-order to support this project will get the product before it ever goes to IN STOCK status on our site.

The Sculptor is in Eastern Europe… that is all I can say.

Any manufacturer needs cash in advance in order to cover development and production costs, which is usually obtained through investors. I’m no financial expert but let’s go with some common sense: The pre-order “discount” I suggested (NOT demanded) would represent a fixed interest amount typical in an investment such as a bond. There is a reason such conventions exist, it’s called mutual benefit, and by the sounds of it this project needs all the funding it can get.

@CWO:

If I understand your posts correctly, the alternative model you’re proposing assumes that once all the sets are finished, FMG will offer an alternate option to purchase all the sets as a single package at a discounted price.  Where does that assumption come from?

As far as pricing for individual countries vs the complete collection goes, the only logical way to do this is to price the individual sets at a premium. That’s the standard in retail. Who in their right mind would pay more for the complete set unless it was a “deluxe version” which would include something the individual packages did not?

Yes, FMG can stick to its guns and it’ll be business as usual… and everything could work out just fine and all of the nerds in the land will rejoice! That’s assuming the hype lasts and that each successive pre-order will match the last; a risky endeavour, and a needless stress.

As far as customer service goes I think that’s the least of anyone’s concern.

My intents are purely for the better of the project. If anyone here believes it is greedy or selfish to want success so that I can eventually own an entire set then so be it. If I didn’t care I would just wait until it’s done and not waste my time posting here, in the Project Discussion thread.

This is the Field Marshal Games Pieces Project Discussion thread, right?

@cminke:

cough ITALYcough

:?  Italy isn’t in Eastern Europe

Do you think this level of detail is possible for the US M1 helmets? Of course it would have to be stylized a bit (larger mesh).

That would look so freakin good…

For the Soviet Union it would be nice to have some winter Siberians as infantry #2 on the Pacific front, mind you in a much lesser ratio than the European front units (OOB and current 1940 setup calls for 18 total, which get chipped anyway). Might be worth considering since the Siberian troops came back to save Moscow from imminent doom, they deserve their credit =P As for their weapons I noticed in a documentary that some are using M1928A1 Thompson’s and others some kind of rifle (Tokarev M1940?)

For the UK are you thinking Europe + Jungle type units as the split?

@inverted:

Do you think this level of detail is possible for the US M1 helmets? Of course it would have to be stylized a bit (larger mesh).

That would look so freakin good…

For the Soviet Union it would be nice to have some winter Siberians as infantry #2 on the Pacific front, mind you in a much lesser ratio than the European front units (OOB and current 1940 setup calls for 18 total, which get chipped anyway). Might be worth considering since the Siberian troops came back to save Moscow from imminent doom, they deserve their credit =P As for their weapons I noticed in a documentary that some are using M1928A1 Thompson’s and others some kind of rifle (Tokarev M1940?)

For the UK are you thinking Europe + Jungle type units as the split?

I think FMG is doing a great job on the scuplts!

I have seen the mesh on plastic soldiers’ helmets before, but not on as small a scale as A&A infantry pieces.  The ones I saw were on 1/35 scale or bigger.  Also, it’s usually cut into the helmet instead of sitting on the outside of the helmet.  Then again, those soldiers were usually intended as toys rather than game pieces.

I think Italy is usually regarded as Southern Europe.  Some countries that would be regarded as Eastern Europe would be Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and perhaps the Baltic States.  I imagine Byelarus, Moldavia and Ukraine could also be considered Eastern Europe too.