Hey folks, has anyone outside the USA managed to buy Hotshots & Aces from their LGS?

Here in New Zealand, the supplier isn't even offering the pack with the rest of Wave 6.

My LGS can order the order card packs, and the Wave 6 models, but Hotshots & Aces isn't even listed as existing.

This strikes me as weird, because when Barnes & Noble broke the street date in the USA, Hotshots & Aces was available alongside the rest of Wave 6, so it was made and shipped at the same time.

I'm aware that folk outside the USA can have ordered Hotshots & Aces from online stores, but have any been able to buy it from a regular local-supplier-supplied LGS?

I bought mine from Element Games in the UK. It's a bricks and mortar FLGS with an online shop. It arrived yesterday.

Stock has been popping up in the UK, my local store (Eclectic Games, Reading) had them in on Tuesday.

I've just picked up my Hotshots and Aces, along with my Fireball and Vonreg's Tie from Travelling Man in Leeds (UK)

Thanks to Alex Watkins and all his minions busting a gut getting them into stores on the date promised.

1 hour ago, Gilarius said:

I've just picked up my Hotshots and Aces, along with my Fireball and Vonreg's Tie from Travelling Man in Leeds (UK)

Thanks to Alex Watkins and all his minions busting a gut getting them into stores on the date promised.

They did indeed bust a gut, but we will see if today brings more stock. My UK pre-order hasn't been sent out yet.

It was certainly in Harlequins (UK, Lancashire) on Tuesday. Whether they've any still in stock I don't know.

Thanks folks. OK, glad to hear the UK has it. How about Oz? My folk over the Tasman managed to buy H&A from brick&mortar yet?

I have picked mine up from our lgs in the Netherlands.

Have also seen them listed as in stock at Dutch websites

Here in the US, my Barnes & Noble only had 2 of the Fireball and Vonreg's. Also 2 each of NTMTO's and Fully Loaded. And that was 2 weeks ago. Last night at midnight, my LGS had everything out for sale. Picked up my Hotshots them.

Here in Norway, a couple of retailers have got a small, seemingly random amount of the Huge Ship Conversion Kit, Epic Battles, Fully Loaded and Never Tell Me The Odds. As far as I'm aware, none of them have received Hotshots & Aces, Vonreg's TIE or the Fireball.

It's very strange. Less than a year ago, FFG would typically deliver boxes of the stuff, the entire wave at the same time with plenty of copies for each retailer. No it seems like they spread two or three copies of each expansion across a bunch of random shops at random intervals, with neither the shops nor the customers having any idea of when to expect stock.

Not sure if London has any, Dark Sphere don’t even have it listed on their website. Vonreg is sold out, presume Fireball is as well.

The confusion around releases is by far the worst thing about the game. I don’t know why every other industry can forecast demand and print products on time, but FFG can’t.

On 1/31/2020 at 9:33 PM, dingo with a joint said:

Thanks folks. OK, glad to hear the UK has it. How about Oz? My folk over the Tasman managed to buy H&A from brick&mortar yet?

My LGS in Oz has not been given a date when the second part of wave 6 is coming. No idea when I can get a TIE/ba or the aces pack. It's great that X Wing is a global game, but the ability to supply it is beyond sub par.

I am 50 K's west og Melbourne btw.

Greater Toronto area here. I worked with the local store to make the order for card packs knowing they would be high demand. They received only an email this week letting them know about the back ordered products they requested. No new stock, no stock of the epic & huge ship boxes ordered earlier, no nothing.

Local players scouted out the stores and the story is similar.

Now, the high volume stores do seem to have received their product. Again. I’m angry. No, scratch that, I’m just frustrated and disappointed.

Australia here. My local store has received the Fully Loaded pack, but nothing else. It's definitely a bit frustrating.

Ottawa, Canada are here. Stores were sprinkled with releases.

Without a preorder I managed to get a BA and Fireball at my preferred FLGS, but that was it for them 3 hours after opening. No non reserved hot shots left.

Got hot shot from 401 games in Toronto as they actually had a punisher in stock when I was musing about the stock situation and my 7 year old doesn't want to loan me his easily.

Not a great split for my spending for the local store

8 hours ago, drjkel said:

Ottawa, Canada are here. Stores were sprinkled with releases.

Without a preorder I managed to get a BA and Fireball at my preferred FLGS, but that was it for them 3 hours after opening. No non reserved hot shots left.

Got hot shot from 401 games in Toronto as they actually had a punisher in stock when I was musing about the stock situation and my 7 year old doesn't want to loan me his easily.

Not a great split for my spending for the local store

I think that's the rub that a lot of us, well me, are feeling with all this BS going on with this wave. We want to spend our monies at the LGS, we want to support them. But with FFG not giving us one iota of information what do we do? How long do we wait?

If someone watches the stream in Feb, can you ask why street dates are so random for wave releases?

Bethesda were known as the kings of buggy releases, even before Fallout 76, FFG are known for Quarter/release dates not worth the pixels they are written with to actually mean anything.

On 1/31/2020 at 9:33 PM, dingo with a joint said:

Thanks folks. OK, glad to hear the UK has it. How about Oz? My folk over the Tasman managed to buy H&A from brick&mortar yet?

My FLGS in Melbourne had all three card packs, plus the new wave of ships, when I was there last Friday.

On 1/31/2020 at 9:03 PM, dingo with a joint said:

Thanks folks. OK, glad to hear the UK has it. How about Oz? My folk over the Tasman managed to buy H&A from brick&mortar yet?

Adelaide. No stock in any stores I've seen. My LGS sent us all a message today saying the supplier has given him a date of the 11th Feb for Wave 6 stock though. Whether that is the full wave is yet to be seen.

Good discussion about releases and uncertainty on the latest Team Covenant podcast.

I really don't want to spend money on any of the new stuff, because it's going to be so difficult to actually find them. I don't feel I should reward a company that are so bad at serving their customers.

Not to mention things being legal for a massive tournament this weekend which I've never even physically seen.

2 hours ago, ayedubbleyoo said:

I don't feel I should reward a company that are so bad at serving their customers

• How much is FFG?
• How much is Asmodee and their new owners?
• How much is it the distribution network? (also largely Asmodee, admittedly)

I'm not pointing a finger at FFG at this time, and it's certainly not the game designers at fault here. Also not saying you're wrong, because it is indeed frustrating and a lot of uncertainty when you pre-order something through the store and it doesn't show.

2 hours ago, LagJanson said:

• How much is FFG?
• How much is Asmodee and their new owners?
• How much is it the distribution network? (also largely Asmodee, admittedly)

I'm not pointing a finger at FFG at this time, and it's certainly not the game designers at fault here. Also not saying you're wrong, because it is indeed frustrating and a lot of uncertainty when you pre-order something through the store and it doesn't show.

I guess very little is FFG, they basically just do design now. It'll be publishing and logistics I would guess.

It's way beyond just not getting preorders though. I don't really preorder because I don't know much about the product, I don't know what I need (points) and I don't know when it will be released.

Then if I don't preorder for some unknown future release date, nearer the time (which I didn't know) I basically don't stand a chance of getting stuff. Every store gets less than they want, everything is sold out to preorders and almost no product actually appears on the shelves.

For any other industry to be so bad at predicting demand, producing product on a specific date and telling customers would mean the end. "Go see Rise of Skywalker, maybe coming to a cinema near-ish you on an unknown future date". It just feels like they don't value the customer experience.

As you can tell this is my pet hate

1 minute ago, ayedubbleyoo said:

It's way beyond just not getting preorders though. I don't really preorder because I don't know much about the product, I don't know what I need (points) and I don't know when it will be released.

In a way I think this is the correct move. Considering the way distribution is I'm probably going to recommend several of our locals don't pre-order any more. Either they lose, by either waiting months for the product to come in or the store loses because the person buys the product from another location and they're stuck with the ship on the shelf long after everybody else has bought what they wanted.

3 minutes ago, ayedubbleyoo said:

As you can tell this is my pet hate

It's rapidly becoming mine. There's no way to win this game.

I seriously hope they manage to sort this out before it starts affecting player interest. People are already getting impatient and frustrated, and if FFG keeps treating its customers like this, there's a chance some might just quit altogether.

On January 17 (two weeks prior to release date), I submitted online pre-orders for Vonreg's Tie, the Fireball, and Hotshots and Aces with a store in the Toronto area. It seems the pre-orders have come and gone (all sold out), and I must have been too far down the list... so nothing for me. Other stores in my area (Calgary), also appear to have sold out of the limited stock they received.

Still waiting on Hotshots & Aces down here in New Zealand. Anywhere else still waiting on theirs?

The other two card-packs have turned up here, along with the reprinted ships, but no sign of Hotshots.

I wonder if FFG were silly enough to print fewer copies of H&A than of the other two packs? I figure more likely though that far more folk pre-ordered H&A than the other two, and the bigger markets just got given priority as a reality of commerce.

Just spitballing here though, as for all I know the NZ distributors just made a mixup on their order (only one distributor for the whole country, so things like this can happen).