Well I will start the thread. This is disappointing news. 2017 feels like a long way away. I know this must have been hard decision and I can only guess that Tactics itself has not done very well so they are going to do a major overhaul. This does raise a number of questions for me, but I will only ask a couple of the more obvious ones. Is the new system being built so that we can still use the beloved characters we got from the original Sentinels Tactics? I know we can always play the original set as we have it with the current rules. Just wondering how they will be effected moving forward. Second I would ask how this effects the timelines for other projects that we were expecting to be launched this year. Probably at the head of the list is the final expansion for the card game. As loathed as I am to see it wind up, I would still really like to have the vision of the multiverse complete.
Broken City and For Profit are 100% compatible with the first set of Tactics.
They use all the same combat rules and play together great.
In fact a lot of the characters that were under-represented in tournaments are looking more viable as team mates of some of the newer characters.
As good as The Flame of Freedom and Uprising were, I think the added characters are really going to take the game to a new level.
Playtesters are working on some things now (obviously from my comments above you can tell new characters are a part of that) but a lot more is coming. There is a ton of content being worked on, and I think they are doing the right thing here, because it is much better to take the extra time and get this one right, and avoid some of the problems we didn't think of with the first release. (largely because all of us were learning the game while we were playtesting it, and the scope of playtesting included ironing out the basic rules and play of the game)
Link for those who don't look at the front page https://greaterthangames.com/content/battle-for-broken-city-status
Wow. I expected maybe a delay until mid year but next year is more than I was thinking. I hope the extra time and effort makes this more polished.
I have to note that every time that there has been a bump in the road with product delivery I always love the product when I get it. Villains is the latest example. It came later than everyone would have liked, but it is such a good expansion. It has taken a format that I never really played and made it into one that I am reaching for first. I really had fun playing Tactics and if they can make it even better than I am sure it will be worth the wait.
My only question is when did they decide to delay another year? A year after the preorder is a hard pill to swallow after keep telling us it is slighty delayed. I know i would of taken the news better if they had told us back in thd late summer or fall when they were working on the game according to their updates
To be fair, they were working on the game during that time period and playtesters saw material. I think they feel it just needed and still needs more dramatic iterations and changes than have been made to this point
My only question is why someone (or somepeople) apparently felt the need to complain about the box art.
Glad to hear that. The average customer has no clue on it just by reading the status updates. So glad some people wont be waiting 2 years to play ir.
You'd be surprised. Marketing is a funny thing. For sales beyond a company's fan base, things like this make a huge difference, especially for the stores trying to move product in today’s over-saturated markets. To get someone to try a game, cold buy it, the packaging needs to get across a lot of information and do it in a way that will attract attention. It's sitting on the shelf with all those other games, and it has to scream at the consumer to pick it up…
The box art comment also seemed odd but then I looked at SotM box art versus Sentinel Tactics. The box art on Sentinel Tactics is lacking on the sides where it's pretty plain compared to what SotM does.
2017? Ok, I can live with that. What about those of us who mistakenly bundled other products with our Broken City pre-orders...like the maps. Are we going to have to wait another year to receive a product which is already out and we've already payed for?
Paul mentioned they're going to decouple those bundles.
Looking at the old artwork, I can see where people are coming from. It's very orange.
Seeing Pinion on the cover makes me really wish she had her own mini-expansion.
Playtesting her in Tactics and imagining how she would work as a hero when she was starting that path I agree, she would be a lot of fun in the card game.
And the Dark Watch needs a fifth!
Is Nightmist still in DW or is she taking a haitus while figuring out how to return from Mist Form?
(Sorry for deraliling this thread a bit!)
We have no idea where Nightmist is! The most information came from one of the preorder updates. In any case, she's not being released in the Tactics game with this set.
I’m glad they’re taking the time and effort to get everything right. Still, I wonder, if the base game wasn’t as well-received as they hoped, what would the expansion do to change that? Won’t they still need people to buy both? Or are the new editions playable on their own as well as being backward compatible?
It will be playable on its own.
@NinjaMonkey
Your maps are on their way to you! Everything that anyone ordered bundled with Broken City, For Profit, or the associated minis has been split off into a separate order and has already been shipped your way. You should get it in the next week or so!
@Everyone
Thank you so much for your understanding and support in this. To answer a few of the questions that were raised:
The new characters will be 100% compatible with everything from Flame of Freedom; if you like playing the current Tactics stuff, you will love the new stuff when it comes out. Over the course of 2015, we learned that the vast majority of people who sit down and learn Sentinel Tactics from us personally, or who experience it via the televised tournaments, love the game. At the big conventions that we attended last year, we had sales of Flame of Freedom nearly equal sales of Sentinels of the Multiverse, which is still our best-selling product at most shows. The big issue that we have run into is that, unlike with Sentinels of the Multiverse, the excitement people have for the game when we make a big deal about it at a convention and teach them in person does not translate into excitement when they walk into a gaming store, so our sales in distribution (where we sell the vast majority of our products) are fairly low.
We've talked to a number of retailers and others in the industry about the game, both people who like it and people who do not, and identified several potential issues. Based on these conversations, and given the disconnect between the success at shows and the relatively lower success in distribution, we believe that a complete overhaul of how the game is presented (both visually, and in the text of the rulebook and on the box, and in advertizing, and how it is taught, etc.) has a decent chance of helping it reach the proper audience. Because Battle for Broken City was designed from the beginning as a stand-alone "core game", we have a great opportunity to reinvent and refocus the brand of the game around this product.
Anyhow, I hope that helps answer some questions on the matter!
Would these lessons get applied to future printings (if any) of Flame of Freedom and the expansion that came out at the same time?