Dear FFG,

Why is it that the 'Winter Tournament Kits' have been delayed until February for us Australians? There has literally been an event every week since November 2015 til today, with CanCon / SpaceCon also this weekend seeing probably the 2nd largest Armada tournament attendance since Nationals with sadly the Summer Kit still being used.

Most FLGS will be running their Store Championships in February/March which sort of make the Winter Kits redundant before the season ends...

On top of that local distributors have told us that there are rules in place for overseas stores & distributors preventing them to sending us their surplus kits to use. Whats the go with that? There doesn't seem to be a logical reason to block Australia from having the Winter Kits before February.

I don't understand why these kits couldn't have been sent out with the release of wave 2 which was also delayed until mid December 2015.

If there is some sort of business strategy or a shortage of stock we'd like to know please.

Sincerely
The Sydney & NSW Armada Community

Obviously, they know it's not winter over there yet, and are waiting until it is.

In all seriousness, though, I feel for you guys--it really does seem like you keep getting the short end of the sick. It's not your distributor there, is it?

Seconded. Armada appears to be pretty big in Aus, at least in NSW/East Coast. There are mutilple events per month, averaging 1 tourment a week since last Novemeber, in a realativey close area. There are 3 tournments in the next 5 days. One has twenty people expected. So far there are 3 Store Champs next month alone, on top of a house rules doubles (two headed dragon style event).

Active players are recruiting people from every other table top be it 40k, XWing, on the strength of demo games and the amazing aesthetic of Armada ...Stock is sold out in most stores besides large warehouses.

Slow shipping, prize pack delays. The active tournment community isn't feeling the love!

Irokenics question I'm down Shoalhaven (Nowra/Ulladulla) area is there anyone in my area Playing or am I looking at heading up to Illawarra or Sydney to find somewhere??

And lets not even start of our lack of inclusion in the so called "global" Masssing at Sullust event. That is false advertising considering FFG left out an entire Hemisphere

Irokenics question I'm down Shoalhaven (Nowra/Ulladulla) area is there anyone in my area Playing or am I looking at heading up to Illawarra or Sydney to find somewhere??

I know there is a small group in Wollongong but they're not in contact with us. We do have members from the Hurstville area though who probably travel that way for a game!

Find us here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/913091872060824/

We'll keep you up to date on events happening all over Sydney NSW and even the ACT now.

Obviously, they know it's not winter over there yet, and are waiting until it is.

In all seriousness, though, I feel for you guys--it really does seem like you keep getting the short end of the sick. It's not your distributor there, is it?

Hahaha we've had the Summer Kit through our Spring and Summer (your winter) now.

Our distributors have told our FLGS that the kits won't be released to us until Feb. In terms of retail, i get it. Australia has a smaller global market share so it make sense for international product to be jacked up on prices and shipments to get here later (even though China is closer to us....). But for tournament kits, because there's not so much profit value in them and i believe they exist to promote and support the FFG product at the FLGS level, why block/delay a particular country from having them?

Thanks for the FB link Irokenics I've been accepted into the group now I just need to find a cheap and easy way to get up there with my fleets. Maybe the train if I can find an easy way to transport them??

I love Australia. I went there about 10 years ago - first time I had travelled by myself. I landed in the country and had no idea where to go when I landed in a youth hostel in Melbourne. A couple in the hostel bar decided I needed to see more of Australia, as a sad and lonely pommie, and took me out to a Collingwood / Carlton AFL match. Afterwards we got ridiculously drunk and went gambling.

You have a great country, it makes me sad to see FFG stiff you one.

They havrn't been able to get through your Shield Barrier Reef.

Not asking for FFG to fix the problem, a valid response with reasoning will do.

While im here Happy Australia Day everyone!

I might chime in just with a reflection on the recent (for us) release of Wave 2.

It didn't get to any of our local FLGS until around 1.5 weeks after the people that had internet ordered it had started receiving it.

(Of course, Australian Customs played their part in this).

Considering the belting the local guys get via exchange rates and local costs, it would be great if FFG could do something with the distributors to get the releases better supported locally.

Happy Australia Day to you as well Irokenics my your fleets sail in victory

Just to add further insult to the injury our distributor has just announced that the Store Championship kits have been delayed. This is right after most of our stores have locked in dates for their events to make sure they don't clash with other stores and game systems with their own championships!

Are the store championship kits delayed for the US FLGS too?

How is the winter kit rolling for you guys?

We were slightly delayed in Canada with our Store Champs Kit for Armada from Lion Rampant. This was partly because they took the whole New-Years Week off from contacting those in Western Canada.

As it is, our Store Champs weren't able to be confirmed and set for a date until the 28th of February at the Sentry Box

As far as I know, no other store has stated they're holding Store Champs, either.

I guess the rest of the world is off to a later start since store champs in the US gave taken off since January 9th.

Right now our stores will still be running their store champs from 28th of Feb but without the kits. They'll just hand out the prizes when they come.

I did hear a rumour that some of the earlier kits didn't actually contain the Challenge Coins, only a card to redeem for them later.

As a fellow Aussie I am com completely behind Iro on this. An answer would be good. It is clear that we love our Armada and FFG here in Aus with our community quickly expanding. However some communication back to the community letting us know why things have been delayed would certainly calm some angst.

This is likely ignorance, but I'm sure that even though Australia's armada player base is quite large, the region is proportionally small in comparison to Europe and the US. As such, it may just be a business decision on the cost vs benefit for events like Sullust etc.

For what it's worth when I asked FFG OP why Aus was getting the kits so late (after they told me they would love to help me with Kits for Space-Con, but couldn't) they told me it was nothing to do with them and the fault lay with Australian Distributors.

For what it's worth when I asked FFG OP why Aus was getting the kits so late (after they told me they would love to help me with Kits for Space-Con, but couldn't) they told me it was nothing to do with them and the fault lay with Australian Distributors.

Its great that ThreeD6 went out of their way to make the prize support awesome and the Space Con event was one of the best events we've been to especially with a 23 player turn out!

Its just a shame there are blocks in place preventing you and other FLGS sourcing kits outside the normal distribution network.

Adding to that our Store Championships Kits have been delayed so following the trend things aren't looking good for the Regionals and the Spring Season kit.

No sullust, delayed Wave 2, delayed winter kit, delayed wave 2 restock and delayed Store Championships. Its a wonder at all how we've still been running events on a weekly basis.

The player community here have been keeping it strong despite this, having those problems stated before does make it a lot harder to recruit new people because they can't access stock and the veteran base play events more for FLGS supported prizes and pass old kit prizes to others.