A newbie wants to bring up merchant ships again

[fredmiracle]

I have seen several threads on the question of when merchant ships might come out, mostly from a while back. As far as I can tell, Ares has provided no guidance that something like this is in the pipeline? Or did I miss something?

D-back or someone else, I hope you have let Ares know that the Liberty Ships and tramp steamers were among the most coveted, expensive and hard-to-get pieces in A&A naval minis for years. I hope Ares doesn't make the same mistake of neglecting this demand. One doesn't need a lot of *different* models--produce a couple of representative types, and dedicated gamers will buy several of each (maybe you could switch out the flags or something). Economy of scale!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm rehashing old ground. So what are people doing to fill in in the meantime? I know there are 1:1200 metal miniatures available, which is great if you have them; but since I don't, I can't see investing the money, time and effort in them just as gap-filler. Anyone know of any toy boats that might fill the bill in a pinch? Any good/easy/cheap paper models that would work?

Has anyone mocked up stat and maneuver cards for them yet?

[7eat51]

We used Pirates of the Spanish Main ships at Rock-Con. They worked really well. One can easily add burden, guns, etc. - basically making up stats as needed. Though we didn't have bases, we simply placed the maneuver card from an SoL deck at the front point of the ship, and moved the ship along the arrows.

[fredmiracle]

We used Pirates of the Spanish Main ships at Rock-Con. They worked really well. One can easily add burden, guns, etc. - basically making up stats as needed. Though we didn't have bases, we simply placed the maneuver card from an SoL deck at the front point of the ship, and moved the ship along the arrows.

good idea. I had heard of that line in the past, but clean forgot about it. Quick check on ebay suggests ships can be had for a buck. Thanks!

[The Royal Hajj]

Official Merch ships are in the pipeline.

[Gunner]

Hope there are not too many elbows in that pipeline.

[fredmiracle]

Official Merch ships are in the pipeline.

That's great! I always expect significant delays from any announced release schedule, but it would be really encouraging to get some "official" specifics about the upcoming release schedule, along with periodic updates that show some work is happening...

In the meantime an assortment of Pirates boats has been dispatched on temporary assignment

[The Royal Hajj]

I made no mention of a schedule. lol

[fredmiracle]

I made no mention of a schedule. lol

I was not unaware of that fact :)

I'm not sure what the WoG track record is with Ares, but I'm hoping that with the SoG released and the kickstarter out of the way, the information spigot will loosen a bit.

Personally I think high visibility into the process is almost always in the game company's favor (as long as they clearly communicate the unknowns and potential gotchas, and don't make excessive promises).

I'd much rather hear "well, we haven't worked on Victory and Constitution since June, but here is where these projects were at when we left off. We don't yet have an ETA for when they will be out, but they will definitely be delayed by at least a few months. We are still thinking about them and planning for them to come out though," rather than hearing silence...

[Naharaht]

Will the Merchant ships be given double sided stats cards like the warships, so that each model can represent more than one ship? Perhaps each model could have multiple stats cards including one to enable the ship to act as a pirate vessel.