The Current Standings - P350 Pre-orders

[kzucker]

Pre-order standings as of 11/1/04:

Swords Around a Throne 335
Four Lost Battles 240
Bonaparte in It Expansion 237
Smolensk Battle 217
Marengo Battle 204
Combined Fleet 190
Eastern Shore, 1812 187
Hwy to Madrid 184
Dark December II 172
War on the Loire 171
Hwy to Leipzig 168
All is Lost Save Honor 157
Hwy to Berlin 151
Struggle of Nations 151

[kzucker]

Swords Around a Throne 339
Four Lost Battles 242
Bonaparte in Italy Expansion 240
Smolensk Battle 219
Marengo Battle 207
Combined Fleet 191
Eastern Shore (1812) 190
Highway to Madrid 189
All is Lost Save Honour 178
Dark December II 173
War on the Loire 172
Highway to Leipzig 172
Highway to Berlin 155
Struggle of Nations 155

[kzucker]

As of 1/5/05

Swords Around a Throne 342
Four Lost Battles 245
Bonaparte in Italy Expansion 242
Smolensk Battle 223
Marengo Battle 209
Combined Fleet 192
Highway to Madrid 191
Eastern Shore (1812) 190
All is Lost Save Honour 185
Highway to Leipzig 176
Dark December II 175
War on the Loire 173
Highway to Berlin 159
Struggle of Nations 158

Note: Tallies above include only "1s" and "2s." Pledges from our Contributors page are also not included and may bump some titles up in the standings.

[kzucker]

Swords Around a Throne 345
Four Lost Battles 267
Bonaparte Expansion 255
Smolensk Battle 230
Marengo Battle 218
Hwy to Madrid 204
All is Lost Save Hon 200
Combined Fleet 199
1812 Eastern Shore 196
Hwy to Leipzig 186
War on the Loire 183
Dark December II 179
Hwy to Berlin 171
Struggle of Nations 170

Note: Tallies above include only "1s" and "2s." Pledges from our Contributors page are also not included and may bump some titles up in the standings.

[kzucker]

Current standings compared to net increase in pre-orders since 6/14/03

Games with strong interest (increase of 100+)
All is Lost 200 / 200
Highway to Madrid 204 / 114
Four Lost Battles 267 /110
Swords Around a Throne 345 / 102
Bonaparte Expansion 255 / 100
Highway to Leipzig 186 /100
Hwy to Berlin 171 / 97
Struggle of Nations 170 / 97

Games with less interest (around 50)
Smolensk 230 / 53
Marengo 218 / 47
Combined Fleet 198 / 47

Very Close to Cancellation (around 35)

Eastern Shore 196 / 36
War on the Loire 183 /37
Dark December 178 / 33

-----------------------------------------

Before we cancel any titles we want to have an opportunity for discussion. Let us hear your views.

Just to state the obvious, the three titles nearing cancellation are none of them Napoleonic. Many folks have pre-ordered all Napoleonic titles, and so excluded these. Obviously, the audience for these topics are under-represented among our grognards, so that has to be considered.

On the other hand, there has been such a spate of Bulge games lately, that I suspect the market for Dark December has been completely saturated.

[tbarnett]

I agree that Dark December II has a very tough road. I hate to see the other two go without more aggressive marketing, at least pushing them on ConSimWorld. These are terribly infrequently gamed topics.

Perhaps you could get John Kranz to put a news item about them in the CSW news header. I suspect there are people out there who would go for these games who never look in the OSG folder because they think it is all Napoleon.

Just a thought,
Ted

[Kevin Z.]

Hi Ted,

I appreciate your thoughts on this. It's true, that with aggressive marketing, graphic examples, talking them up, we could get the numbers to 250 or more. However, that would be undermining the idea of using the responses as a true gauge of the interest in these topics in the marketplace.

[Nicola]

Yes, Kevin, but it's also true that you cannot appreciate what you do not know ...

Nicola

[kzucker]

Hi Nicola,

We cannot by its nature make allowances for what we do not know.

We are going to cancel three titles for now. Each of these three titles garnered fewer than two (2) new orders per month for the last 20 months.

EASTERN SHORE
DARK DECEMBER
WAR ON THE LOIRE

[Nicola]

WAR ON THE LOIRE,
I will remember you ...
:)

Nicola

[kzucker]

I am sorry about that too. I have a long interest in this campaign. I got the idea for this game from a great Atlas of that portion of the war which I found in the University Library here. It was a very big format with huge situation maps for every few days.

After I wrote the original proposal for this game I went back to the library to copy the maps. Then I found that the University had sold the book due to a lack of use.

Anyway, then I found out about the game "War on the Loire," published in Vae Victis, and I met the designer of that game, Jean-Philippe Imbach. He was kind enough to provide copies of his research materials.

Actually when I was a teenager I stumbled across a book filled with orders of battle from this war. So my interest in 1870 goes back a long time!

[Nicola]

Kevin,

I share your interest.
I hope that OSG may cover this topic in its entirety one day in the future ...

[kzucker]

Swords Around a Throne 351
Four Lost Battles 280
Bonaparte Expansion 256
Smolensk Battle 238
Marengo Battle 222
All is Lost Save Hon 214
Hwy to Madrid 213
1812 Eastern Shore 202
Combined Fleet 200
Hwy to Leipzig 194
War on the Loire 186
Struggle of Nations 179
Dark December II 179
Hwy to Berlin 174

"Four Lost Battles" 30% discount price will expire at the end of this month...

[kzucker]

Four Lost Battles 35
All is Lost Save Hon 29
Highway to Madrid 22
Struggle of Nations 21
Highway to Leipzig 18
Highway to Berlin 15
Smolensk Battle 15
Bonaparte Expansion 14
Marengo Battle 13
War on the Loire 13
1812 Eastern Shore 12
Swords Around Thr 9
Combined Fleet 8
Dark December 4

Average increase in pre-orders: 16.28 (6.35 orders per 30 days)

[storkels]

Kevin,

Are there any plans in the future to update the Waterloo battles utilizing the latest rules and innovations for the NAL system? I realize that there might be a conflict with DG's "Napoleon's Last Battles.

Thanks, Kevin.

Steve

[kzucker]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for asking. DG has the rights to that game and they have chosen to keep their version pretty close to the original, which is fine. I suppose we could do some kind of expansion kit (they might give permission) including counters and rules.

[kzucker]

Here are the updated pre-order tallies.

Swords Around a Throne: 394
Bonaparte in Italy Expansion: 298
Smolensk Battle: 278
All is Lost Save Honour: 268
Highway to Madrid: 262
Marengo Battle: 261
Highway to Leipzig: 237
Struggle of Nations II: 226
Combined Fleet: 221
Highway to Berlin: 205

[kzucker]

Increase in Pre-Orders since 3/25/05
Absolute number (Orders per 30 days)

All is Lost Save Honour: 54 (7.3)
Highway to Madrid: 49 (6.6)
Struggle of Nations II: 47 (6.3)
Swords Around a Throne: 43 (5.8)
Highway to Leipzig: 43 (5.8)
Bonaparte in Italy Expansion: 42 (5.6)
Smolensk Battle: 40 (5.4)
Marengo Battle: 39 (5.2)
Highway to Berlin: 31 (4.2)
Combined Fleet: 21 (2.8)

[Nicola]

Seem that "All is lost ..." is beating the Ferrari with its speed in this competition ! :)

[kzucker]

It is certainly beating the Yamato and the Musashi...

[Nicola]

Seeing Combined Fleet at the bottom of the list hurts me a lot...

[kzucker]

Title and Current Pre-Orders
New Tallies 3/29/06 (Prior Tallies on 11/4/05)

Swords Around a Throne 406 (394)
Bonaparte in Italy Expansion 317 (298)
Smolensk Battle 297 (278)
All is Lost Save Honour 294 (268)
Marengo Battle 276 (261)
Highway to Madrid 276 (262)
Napoleon at the Crossroads 253 (237)
Struggle of Nations 244 (226)
Combined Fleet 235 (221)
Highway to Berlin 212 (205)
Special Study #1 16 (0)
Wargame Design Companion 15 (0)
1806 Upgrade Kit 13 (0)
Special Study #2 11 (0)
WDM Issue Nr 10 8 (0)