In the recent interview with Christian T. Petersen, one of the most pertinent things he mentioned was the cost to produce the original base game. I think Days of Wonder did a great job of producing a high quality product at an affordable price, which I think was ultimately its downfall. I would guess that Battlelore didn't make much money for DoW.

I appreciate the complexity of the figures and don't mind if I have to place them on their bases (as with Battle of Westeros). I'll even cut them off of sprues if I have to. It was nice not to have to punch out all off the hexes and tokens. However, with the quality of games that FFG is making, punching out all of the cardboard shouldn't be too much trouble. Having banners with stickers already on them was great. But, I don't mind having to do it myself. I can do the labor. However, I wouldn't expect a reprint to offer any less figures. Having 210 figures seems to be on par with FFGs other big box games.

So, when CTP says, "Reprinting the core game “as is,” would essentially result in a near $150 retail price point, which is obviously unacceptable.", I would guess that he is speaking of costs associated with the labor, not with the components.

I don't see why a reprint of this game cannot be made, this seems to be just an excuse. After all FFG has produced Runewars and a quick comparison show very similar game components between it and Battlore. Will they never reprint Runewars?

and then

I was horrified to learn this new game Westeros is being sold as a battlore game, but is infact a stand alone game which does not share the Battle lore engine. I have been playing these type of games for many years now and I have never seen such misleading marketing before. I won't buy this for two reasons, first I have a table top battle game (battlelore), I like the rules, they are not over complicated and new players can get to grips after a few minutes of playing, why change something that isn't broke and secondly I won't buy this on the principle of the terrible marketing tactics.

Maybe the purchase of battlelore by FFG was to make a quick profit selling overpriced expansions, reprint a few of the older ones for some more profit, launch its own games, which have nothing to do with battlelore but will use the strength of the battlelore name to promote and sell and also to remove the battlelore competition from the market place.

Terrible marketing tactics? Word of the game comes out over the weekend and on Tuesday we have a good solid interview with FFG's head cheese explaining the new game and its link to the BL brand this long before the game will see the light of day, so I can't see where people are feeling deceived by how the game is being marketed.

I hope, Martin, you're just venting a little steam here cuz all your other stuff I read here is quite good stuff.

I can see where a BL reprint would cost a lot more than what I paid for the first run version. If both DOW and its manufacturer undercut their own profit margins for the sake of getting the game out at the pricepoint they wanted, we should be lucky to have gotten it for $89 full retail.

The biggest downside right now for me is the fact that apparently it will be quite a while before we see anything new or old come out for BL.

And getting people to see the BattleLore name mean something besides a Commands And Colors game could be quite the challenge for FFG.

I was thinking of all the people that will be in the shops and who don't study the FFG website, who will see the game and see the line under the game title saying "a battlelore game". I would like to know how much effort will be placed in the description and how clearly it will announce that this game is actually not a battlelore game and is in fact a entirely new game engine. If I was in a shop and hadn't read the interview, I'm sure I would first be estatic to see a new battlelore product on the shelf and then depending on whats on the back of the box be utterly confused as to what this game is, thanks to the line that says "A Battlelore Game".

I don't know when you bought your copy of battlelore Torbal, however I bought mine a few years ago and I can accept that a reprint would have to cost more, after all things do go up. But I cannot agree that a reprint is out of the question, even if, as biomage said, we have to punch a few counters ourselves, remove some miniatures from spruces etc. and as I said before I cannot see anything in the contents list of battlelore that differs to much from the runewars game. So if producing runwars is a viable option then please tell me why a reprint or reproduction of battlelore should be any different?

My hope would be that FFG would make C&C system rules that could translate the new BOW game into an expansion for Battlelore for its fans. I can dream, like I have dreamed of elves and undead for Battlelore since day one......................

biomage said:

No, he's specifically talking about the size of the (re)print run , as in, numbers of copies produced. Look at small scale publishers and their print run, e.g. GMT games, and you can exactly see what he's talking about.

From the interview:

"There’s a particular trap in manufacturing games, and it’s one that applies here. The initial printing of a game is typically printed in large volumes, which means that certain efficiencies of this volume are not able to be replicated in a smaller (i.e. reprint level) production. This is a trap that FFG works hard to avoid in its own manufacturing, but the original BattleLore printing was of course not in our production control."

Windjammer said:

I think we're talking about two different things, both of which I believe could be correct.

I'm talking about WHAT is expensive. Labor, not parts.

Your talking about WHY it's expensive. Costs associated with volume.

So how can other games be reprinted? because they are reprinted in larger quantities? Will a game like runewars be reprinted?

The future of battlelore looks very bleak, if a reprint of the original game is unlikely, then its hardly going to attract new players and will probably just disappear?