"Mutant Chronicles CMG" Topic

I haven't seen anything recently, but has there been any new info released on the CMG being worked on by Fantasy Flight Games (I believe) based on the Mutant Chronicles universe? I was hoping that something would have shown up, or at least been mentioned, at Gencon.

Kevin

Apparantly it's been delayed until April 2007.

link

Didn't the newsbit posted here clearly stated it was going to be available in early '07? Or is my mind failing me?

The thing is, it was virtually IMPOSSIBLE to come up with a game and an initial miniatures range if they were building from scracth… If the really announced it for October, this year, I'd say they were over-optimistic and caught in the thrill of the newly-made deal.

I just hope it can compete with what Mongoose announced, but knowing it is going to be "collectible"—randomized—contents is a better phrase—, I really doubt it.

I just hope the basic minis are nice and available in the usual ebay venues.

P.S.: If they still hope to ride the promised movie's inexistent wave, I seriously doubt it will help the game one bit, I do.

Didn't I read somewhere early on (like on the sinking Excelsior forum) that the MC:CMG is going to be much larger than the original SotC and Warzone figures? Something in the range of 36mm?? If that is the case, I won't even think twice about not buying it, aside from the fact that the collectible in CMG makes me apoplectic.

But I will be buying those Mongoose figures next April, since they should scale up well enough with my tons of oop Warzone, 40K, Shockforce, existing SST, Spugs, and other figures. And they won't be random selections as Javier B aka DoktorZ mentions.

At "36mm" (or whatever) these become "eBay singles" for me. The big guys get bigger, which is fine. It's the hordes of "humans" that become annoyingly out of scale…

Would you people stop whining about the 36mm!!!!! Get a ruler and measure ANY current SciFi miniature. If it ain't from Ground Zero Games, it is probably MUCH closer to 36mm than 25mm!

~Mike

The specific number in this case doesn't matter. They had stated early on that these would be "bigger" than the preceding metals. The Warzone stuff was pretty large before, with only a handful of minis at the time (like Steel Legion) being bigger. The new SST line gets pretty beefy as well, but those are much more recent.

The key for the old fans is that a Bauhaus trooper from the CMG could well tower over the metal version of the same trooper. THAT is the show stopper.

I have here an 'old school' Bauhaus Hussar. His stace is 'braced', so he is not standing full upright, but his height is even then 33mm (to the top of his head, not this 'eye level' crap. Why would anyone ever measure anything to eye-level?). If they REALLY are 36mm soles-to-crown, that is a paltry distinction. If they are extra-chunky 'super heroic-scale', or 'realistically (read: thin) proportioned, or if they change the scale alltogether (and, at this stage, what's to stop them?), THEN it's an issue.

~Mike

well since tehy announced that tehy would not be compatable with hte Warzone range, you can bet ther msut be a size difference.

Like Mike says, I've got no problem with 36mm as long as it really is a nice sculpt, otherwise it is just oversized cow's droppings.

I think it could be said that any miniatures game of any kind has two markets:

#1 – the original intent, and
#2 – everything else

I'm sure Games Workshop and Mongoose and EM4 and WotC (to name but four) are all delighted that people like their minis, and use them to play 40K, Starship Trooper, Combat Zone and D&D respectively. That fuels more purchases from those companies, to buy their rules, and to keep up on whatever supplements get released. And who knows, perhaps while playing, say SST, you discover Gangs of MegaCity One, and they sell even more game systems and minis to an existing customer.

That's all well and good, and why they are in business.

The second market is, however, often many times larger than the primary objective. 40K is but one rule system where GW minis can be used. But anyone who happens to like Defiance: Vital Ground, or No Limits, or Shockforce, or StarGrunt may decide to buy GW minis for those games.

Given all of this, it therefore does make one wonder why a company would WANT to DELIBERATELY exclude their minis from other uses and thus limit their potential market share, by avoiding some of the common scales.

At the upper end, 25mm and 28mm are well established. This certainly doesn't mean somebody can't come along and decide to make 36mm or 38mm or 42mm minis. But it does mean they will be of little use outside their original intended purpose.

I don't know why somebody woudl go into business and expend loads of money to develop a game and manufacture minis and do so in such a way that I've deliberatly cut my possible market by 75% or more.

This isn't whining, just puzzlement.

"I don't know why somebody woudl go into business and expend loads of money to develop a game and manufacture minis and do so in such a way that I've deliberatly cut my possible market by 75% or more."

While I agree that a lot of people will buy minis for use outside of their "home" rulesets, you have to keep in mind that very few of those secondary buyers are willing to actually pay the MSRP on such a purchase. (E.g.: How many people who use HeroClix minis in their modern games actually bought them in a booster pack?)

I may be wrong, but I think that most companies realize that this secondary market exists, but they also realize that the secondary market isn't paying their asking price for their products. More importantly, if their products are being used outside their home rulesets, their probably not seLling as much product to these secondary buyers as they would to a "rabid fanboy."

Take GW's marketing monstrosity for example: Why would a company price single personality minis at $12-15 and rank-and-file minis at half that (per miniature)? Easy: the company knows that their legions of hard-core addicts will slap down their ridiculous asking prices just to have that model. Given that business strategy, who cares about the secondary market? The real object is to generate fanboy mentality buying patterns among the largest group possible (as a primary market).

Not only does this guarantee that players will pay whatever you want to charge (within limits, of course), but that they will also buy supplemental products in the line. This, in turn, creates a greater desire for the minis.

Example: A player buys a GW starter set. (These tend to be fairly cheap, relatively speaking. Wonder why…) He likes the game, but the starter set's just not flexible enough. He wants to try another "faction," so he buys a few different minis; problem is, the really cool minis aren't in the basic rules, so he has to buy a codex. Of course, once he does that he sees even more cool minis in the codex, so he goes an buys those. Voila! Another convert! This sort of need/fulfillment pattern is basic human nature, and GW has a guaranteed revenue stream for as long as that player sticks with the hobby. (Which, by the way, is until the day that player suddenly stops, takes a long good look at what he's been spending or how he's been obsessively/compulsively buying, and feels his guts twist with nausea… Oh, how I remember that day.)

This is the buyer every company wants to cultivate – not some on-again-off-again buyer, but a true addict. This is also the company's target market – there is no other. To make sure this buyer stays loyal to their product line, they'll do things that seem contradictory to logic, such as making their rules such that their models can't be proxied, or making their scale out of the norm. This way, their fanboys can't find cheap subs for their product – they *have to* buy from the company.

So, short answer: Companies make their stuff proprietary because they're not interested in the "I picked this Game A mini up from the discount bin at my FLGS to use with Game B" buyer. No, they're focused on the "I just spent my whole paycheck on this new army and rules supplement for Game A. Next month the revised supplement comes out; thank [insert name of divine power here] for credit cards…" buyer.

Of course, I could be wrong. It could just be a bad idea, plain and simple. :P

Christopher
Game Werks

Well.. if you need GW figs to fit the 'bigger' Warzone..
you can get them Inquisitor figs.. and pretty cheap, too,
for some reason..:-)

"I just hope it can compete with what Mongoose announced"

Uh.. what did Mongoose announce..?

Unless I'm mistaken, he was referring to their announcement to introduce a new game in January (Battlefield Evolution – modern day or slightly more advanced warfare), and a revamp to their Starship Troopers game.

The most interesting thing about both is their introduction of NON collectible prepainted minis, supposedly done to a standard better than 90% of current hobbiests can paint. At a price comperable to bare metal and plastic kits.

You will find ample info and links to official news in the Scifi Discussions thread.

Along these same lines is a new game from Rakham doing the same thing (NON-C games featuring pre-painted plastics). Their game (AK-43 – sci-fi era) may hit the shelves this November I believe.

So two companies offering three NON-C mini games within 6 months time, with supposedly well painted yet cheap plastic models.

We'll see what happens. They have announced though, that there will be actual faction packs, with predetermined contents, so you can buy a good basis, before throwing yourself into the random stuff. A superior approach to other collectible stuff, IMO

Faction packs? I had heard there would just be a 'fixed' assortment starter (a la Horrorclix, of MW: Age of Destruction), but hey, that is pretty old info.

~Mike

A new update at FFG, as of today. Apparently, it's hex-based.

link

~Mike

I like, and collect the now OOP Warzone minis, and I think it'd be fantastic to make a squad of 'huge' Bauhaus troops, in particular, Wolfhead Dragoons would be neat, but I don't plan on buying into the game… I'll buy singles, instead.