First copies arrived - Small Assembly Issue
over 5 years ago
– Sun, Dec 02, 2018 at 01:13:20 AM
Got our first box of 3 copies of Defense Grid: The Board Game right before I left on business trip.
The great news is that the quality is all there. It is what I wanted to deliver through and through. Even the point tracking sheet, a simple piece of linen cardstock, feels amazingly high quality and that is the cheapest component in the entire box.
I brought a copy over to Jeff and Michael at Hidden Path Entertainment and they were impressed as well with the quality. They will be playing the final game internal next week during one of their board gaming nights. They may even post some pictures on their social media accounts.
There were 2 assembly related issues that need to be addressed, but as these are the only 3 copies they have fully assembled so far, this is already being addressed and according to Panda should not cause any further delays.
1) The chipboard was not pre-punched.
2) Because of #1, the chipboard took up the space in the box for the 2nd Alien Standee insert.
Needless to say, pre-punching the chipboard and putting it appropriately in its places in the box will free up the space so they can put in the extra insert. So both these issues get easily resolved with just 1 change.
Gamerati is already on top of things as well. I just need to get them full access to our BackerKit information so they can continuing their planning and execution. That will be done tonight.
Thanks as always and I cannot wait to hear what people think of the product.
Anthony Hanses
Shipping Estimates
over 5 years ago
– Tue, Oct 23, 2018 at 11:00:39 PM
With production wrapping up on November 16th, we are now working to finalize shipping for backers.
All backers should expect to receive requests in the coming weeks to verify their shipping addresses with BackerKit. If you have any issues doing so, please let me know.
We have already started to lock down orders. If you wish to add any additional copies to your order and it is already locked, please message me on Kickstarter or email directly at [email protected] to modify the order.
As mentioned many times, our goal is to ship copies to all backers first.
What this means is that we will not sell or give away any copies, including at any conventions, until all copies that are designated to backers or pre-orders that occured before manufacturing have been mailed out from our distributors.
The other roughly 900 copies will be held in warehousing until all 4 distribution centers have completed processing the initial orders. We will take fresh pre-orders for those copies, but they will be held for delivery until after the last copies designated for backers and early pre-orders have been processed.
ALIEN MINIATURES
Assuming everything completes as planned, we will begin the work that needs to occur for manufacturing of the full sculpted Alien Miniatures and the Display Sets on November 19th.
US DELIVERY - Roughly 1225 copies
Our freight partner OTX is planning to pickup the pallets from Panda the day after completion and deliver them to their ships for the long Ocean voyage.
Assuming this occurs on November 17th, it usually takes 4 weeks to clear Chinese customs, reach the US, clear customs in the US, and deliver to the warehouse.
If everything goes well, this would mean delivery to our Warehouse and distribution partner for the US, Gamerati, by December 15th.
From there, it takes a couple of days for Gamerati to break down the 3 copies per box, re-package them, and ship them to our US-based backers.
If any typhoons, political, or other events happen, this can easily delay shipments. We will keep backers posted on progress as best as we can.
CANADA DELIVERY - Roughly 150 copies
We are partnering with Starlit Citadel for Canadian warehouse and distribution.
After receipt of copies in the US at Gamerati, they will bundle our shipment with other games on a truck for delivery to Starlit Citadel. Expected end-to-end turnaround is 1 week on the safe side. This means Starlit Citadel should have copies by December 23rd for delivery to backers in Canada.
AUSTRALIA DELIVERY - Roughly 75 copies
We have partnered with Unicorn Games for Australian and New Zealand warehousing and distribution.
Our freight partner OTX is planning to pickup the pallets from Panda the day after completion and deliver them to their ships for the long Ocean voyage.
Assuming this occurs on November 17th, it usually takes 3 weeks to clear Chinese customs, reach the Australia, clear customs in the Australia, and deliver to the warehouse.
If everything goes well, this would mean delivery to our Warehouse and distribution partner for the Australia, Unicorn Games, by December 8th.
From there, it takes a couple of days for Unicorn Games to break down the 3 copies per box, re-package them, and ship them to our Australian and New Zealand-based backers.
If any typhoons, political, or other events happen, this can easily delay shipments. We will keep backers posted on progress as best as we can.
EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Asia) - roughly 550 copies
Our original plan was to partner with GamesQuest in Germany, but due to the holidays, our freight provider recommended we switch to a partner in the UK to ensure prompt delivery.
As a result, we are in the process of picking a new warehousing and distribution partner and hope to have that locked within 2 weeks.
Our freight partner OTX is planning to pickup the pallets from Panda the day after completion and deliver them to their ships for the long Ocean voyage.
Assuming this occurs on November 17th, it usually takes 6 weeks to clear Chinese customs, reach the UK, clear customs in the UK, and deliver to the warehouse.
If everything goes well, this would mean delivery to our Warehouse and distribution partner for the UK by December 29th.
From there, it takes a couple of days for the warehouse to break down the 3 copies per box, re-package them, and ship them to our EMEA-based backers.
If any typhoons, political, or other events happen, this can easily delay shipments. We will keep backers posted on progress as best as we can.
SOUTH AMERICA - Roughly 10 Copies
Due to the low volume of copies shipping to South America, we are special casing distribution to the country.
We currently expect that packages will ship by air to the few backers there directly from Gamerati, our US-based distribution and warehousing partner.
AFRICA
Last time I checked, I didn't see any copies destined for Africa. If I missed any and we need to delivery to Africa, they will be shipped from Unicorn Games in Australia or from our UK-based distributor.
