I just checked the status of the Imperial Aces expansion pack and it now says that it is expected in Q1 2014 instead of Q4 2013 as it did before. Anyone have any insight as to why this happened?

Old news???, greettings.

I don't have any specific information on this situation, but I'm not surprised. I've had some experience with FFG and I've talked with several retailers about their experience with the company.

Fantasy Flight is very good at making games. They make good, high quality games. Not all of them are gems, but they do a fantastic job on average. However, because of this, they are often late on delivery. So much time and attention goes into making the games that they often push back projects instead of releasing something rushed or poorly made. In the long run, this is good, since we get better products, though frustrating the short run.

Here's a rule of thumb: Anytime you see a release date for a FFG product, add six months. If it does release on time, you will be pleasantly surprised. Don't wait with bated breath for these.

The red dye was too expensive in 2013

Thank God I didn't preorder them after all!

Indeed, not surprised, but once again disappointed. This isn't the first time this has happened and won't be the last.. like was said above.. add several months to their release dates and you should never have worries.. but it would be nice if they just printed more and realize they do make great games that will sell. When they have stagnated before it cost them a really good game..i.e. wings of war.. don't know why they chose to let it go, as it is very popular world wide.. but another company has it and are doing a bang up job with it..

Probably a small enough company that its hard for them to get things produced overseas. There are only so many factories available at times to produce things. Depending on costs and contracts. Christmas starts getting anywhere close and those factories get booked up with other products and small companies get lost in the shuffle and have to wait to produce their products. It all depends on how FFG is managed internally. It seems to me that they pump out a ton of product though. It may be a matter of what their focus is and how well said game is selling compared to others.

TL;DR FFG is the Blizzard of board games.

This isn't the first time and won't be the last but FFG is going to start losing momentum if they can't get product into the hands of their players. Still loads of people who can't field the 2 iconic lists: Tie swarm and 3/4 xwing because they can't get wave 1 products. That's a problem.

Also,

Announcing imperial aces just after shipping wave 3 late left a lot of interceptors on the shelves. They will now stay there even longer as people will just wait it out. That can't have made retailers happy.

I was hoping to get some xwing stuff for xmas... now I probably can't. That makes my xmas a little less bright.

It is disappointing that it will not be available. Sales wise this is really a blow, since Christmas time for this type of product is a major sales time. No matter how much they may sell later on, people set aside extra if possible for the holiday that is normally above normal

Indeed they do... FFG is typically missing on some games profits due lack of product. You would think someone would have cracked the whip and made sure the deadlines were met, and possibly exceeded as well. Admittedly I have no clue how their hierarchy works, so all I can do is speculate. It would be nice if someone from the company came here and made an announcement.. my LGS didn't even know Aces was pushed out.

Indeed they do... FFG is typically missing on some games profits due lack of product. You would think someone would have cracked the whip and made sure the deadlines were met, and possibly exceeded as well. Admittedly I have no clue how their hierarchy works, so all I can do is speculate. It would be nice if someone from the company came here and made an announcement.. my LGS didn't even know Aces was pushed out.

"China" ... I doubt anyone at FFG wants these delays. But if the factory isn't getting them out on time what do they do?

Indeed they do... FFG is typically missing on some games profits due lack of product. You would think someone would have cracked the whip and made sure the deadlines were met, and possibly exceeded as well. Admittedly I have no clue how their hierarchy works, so all I can do is speculate. It would be nice if someone from the company came here and made an announcement.. my LGS didn't even know Aces was pushed out.

"China" ... I doubt anyone at FFG wants these delays. But if the factory isn't getting them out on time what do they do?

True enough.. would just like to see them do what they say they will. The Aces would have been out in time for the holiday and so too would the Wave 1 reprints. This is what happened to Wings of War for them, a year + without anything new. As I said though, I don't know what the big wigs do so hard to really speculate on what happens with them.

You make a very good point though, I agree this is probably not want they want, but is what happens.

The blood stripes and the complete bloody interceptors must be colored with the blood of the purple dye murex. The harvest in 2013 was not enough to cover the complete production. We have to wait until enough dye murex have been grown up.

Indeed they do... FFG is typically missing on some games profits due lack of product. You would think someone would have cracked the whip and made sure the deadlines were met, and possibly exceeded as well. Admittedly I have no clue how their hierarchy works, so all I can do is speculate. It would be nice if someone from the company came here and made an announcement.. my LGS didn't even know Aces was pushed out.

"China" ... I doubt anyone at FFG wants these delays. But if the factory isn't getting them out on time what do they do?

You slap the manufacturer with financial penalties for delays or provide them incentives for on-time delivery. Additionally, if I were at FFG, I would be looking for another vendor. It's a win-win for FFG - the current vendor either gets it together or they find someone who already does. The game has clearly taken off and is showing further growth potential so it may behoove them to find a more competent manufacturer for the future anyway.

I just started playing a few months ago and have been frustrated myself by the inability to give them money for ships. They must be tearing their hair out trying to GET that money.

Indeed they do... FFG is typically missing on some games profits due lack of product. You would think someone would have cracked the whip and made sure the deadlines were met, and possibly exceeded as well. Admittedly I have no clue how their hierarchy works, so all I can do is speculate. It would be nice if someone from the company came here and made an announcement.. my LGS didn't even know Aces was pushed out.

"China" ... I doubt anyone at FFG wants these delays. But if the factory isn't getting them out on time what do they do?

You slap the manufacturer with financial penalties for delays or provide them incentives for on-time delivery. Additionally, if I were at FFG, I would be looking for another vendor. It's a win-win for FFG - the current vendor either gets it together or they find someone who already does. The game has clearly taken off and is showing further growth potential so it may behoove them to find a more competent manufacturer for the future anyway.

I just started playing a few months ago and have been frustrated myself by the inability to give them money for ships. They must be tearing their hair out trying to GET that money.

If this was 3 years ago I would agree with both statements, but after seeing what happened with Wings of War.. I don't know what they think..

Also finding a new vendor takes time and money, and then it takes more time to get the next run out as well.. I'm not even hinting that they are gonna do the samenwith this one, but it does make me question their motives and decision making.. they let a great game, that is and was very popular, go with out a look back.. and gave the impression they could care less about what we the players wanted or felt about it..

Yeah, I can see competition for Christmas production throwing things off.

As for the vendor stuff, I have no clue about that. I never played wings of war. I have worked in a plastics factory before and know how ridiculously fast these can be molded, but I suspect that isn't the issue. It's the assembly and painting that hold things up.

I kind of wish that they'd release some of the ships unpainted and unassembled so you can build it yourself. Not have the cards and other pieces, just the ship and the stand. I know people repaint, some strip the paint, other just paint over the top. It would be nice to start clean and be your own quality control.

It would be really nice if a representative from FFG would at least make an official statement or apology. I mean they are keeping their fans in the dark completely and we are left here scratching our heads, speculating and at times, getting frustrated. Wether it's completely out of their control or not, it seems just common sense and good business to address the issues to the customers and fans who are the entire reason the game is so successful in the first place. I know that wouldn't bring the product in any faster, but it sure would alleviate the waiting and speculating. No announcement was even made about Aces getting pushed back.

It would be really nice if a representative from FFG would at least make an official statement or apology. I mean they are keeping their fans in the dark completely and we are left here scratching our heads, speculating and at times, getting frustrated. Wether it's completely out of their control or not, it seems just common sense and good business to address the issues to the customers and fans who are the entire reason the game is so successful in the first place. I know that wouldn't bring the product in any faster, but it sure would alleviate the waiting and speculating. No announcement was even made about Aces getting pushed back.

Statement? Yes. Apology? No. Things happen in business. And this is just a game after all.

Lets be absolutely honest here.. NO DATE was given in their original announcement. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4357

The date was originally grepped from the list of projects and projected release dates. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_upcoming.asp . You can't really moan that a predicted release date on a list of current projects slips. I don't believe they ever gave an official announced date for them hitting the street.

Lets be absolutely honest here.. NO DATE was given in their original announcement. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4357

The date was originally grepped from the list of projects and projected release dates. http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_upcoming.asp . You can't really moan that a predicted release date on a list of current projects slips. I don't believe they ever gave an official announced date for them hitting the street.

The original announcement that you linked to from September 16th says 4th quarter 2013. That's Sept-Dec meaning the clearly intended for it to be available for the Holidays.

A switch to 1st quarter 2014 means it could be April before we see the Aces.

The original announcement that you linked to from September 16th says 4th quarter 2013. That's Sept-Dec meaning the clearly intended for it to be available for the Holidays.

A switch to 1st quarter 2014 means it could be April before we see the Aces.

Which was announced when the upcoming projects page was updated.

Do people really expect a full press conference for every incident when a game piece gets delayed? Did we not just get an entire wave of new ships a few short months ago?

I envy everyone who's biggest challenge in life is not having game companies cater to their every whim at all times.

No one is asking for a press conferences . And I'm sure no ones biggest challenge in life is is not getting a certain product, that's ridiculous. People are just fans of a game and like to speculate why a certain issue keeps re-occurring.

How about using a better manufacturer and upping the price? It's all well and good saying "meh, it's the manufactures" but you get what you pay for.

How about using a better manufacturer and upping the price? It's all well and good saying "meh, it's the manufactures" but you get what you pay for.

I'm not sure this is a viable solution. The initial investment in tooling and equipment would wipe out any profit you'd make on reprints. Not to mention burning good will with a manufacturer you have a close, working relationship with. Further, it takes months or even years to get a new factory up and running on a new product line, plus all the proofing you have to do on products. Then, there's the shipping time. Four weeks on the ocean, plus who knows how many months sitting in customs these days. Even if they could break their current contracts with the factories.

If FFG today pulled the contract from their current manufacturer and went with a 'better' one, it would be 2015 if not 2016 before you could hope to see rereleases of current miniatures, much less new product. That's not even mentioning the little things like differences in all the little bits, from card stock to print colors, from ship proportions to stand design. All of that would have had to be recreated from scratch.

Manufacturing a high quality product on this scale for worldwide distribution is an expensive and complicated task. I'm ok with delays from a company I know is going to have delays to get a good game into my hooves 3-6 months after the super optimistic initial release dates.