Swords&Sails: Manufacturing & Shipping Update
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Apr 24, 2019 at 02:11:29 PM
Hi everyone,
Finally, all components issues have been corrected and all manufacturing is now being completed. I was told that the game would be completed by the end of April just 1 month ago, but the factory has now reported that completion date will be on May 10th. This is a full 2 months longer than the manufacturer's normal terms state, but this game has many more components than normal.
I was hoping to tell everyone that all Swords&Sails components were getting loaded into the ship by the end of this week but that now won't happen for another 16 days or so.
I am very much not happy with Boda for the schedule slips but the components are looking pretty good.
This revises the schedule as follows as I have been advised by Quartermaster Logistics. This is the estimate for US backers. International locations will vary from this and is still being estimated.
- Week of May 13th Load shipment on Ocean freight consignment.
- Week of June 17th / June 24th Ocean transport 5-6 weeks to Florida, USA
- Week of June 24th / July. 1st Average 1 week offload / Import inspection
- Week July. 1st / July. 8th Fulfillment Begins
- Week July. 15th through Aug. 12th Most backers should be receiving Swords & Sails
If anyone can't wait and would like to get their games much sooner, I could look into getting a small number of the games early through an air courier shipment, but this is normally pretty expensive (for example, it had cost up to $100 individually to courier the various prototype / proof components, including the Neoprene Map and the full Game Proof). Heavy components aren't cheap to ship internationally. I would expect that we could hit a sweet spot for size / weight for getting a handful of games and add on(s) and I would credit everyone who wanted to do this with their original shipping costs. Message me if you would like to do this and if I get enough people interested, I will let everyone know how much this would cost.
On another note, The last component I was negotiating with the manufacturer was about a storage tray or something like battle boxes to store each factions components. We did not over fund enough to add something to the game and the manufacturer's cost were to high to add individual cardboard boxes to the game, essentially adding almost $10 to the game costs for boxes which would not even include lids. The game will come with enough zip lock bags to store all components, adequately to separate each faction in a separate bag and common components in other bags by type.
For those that have played the prototype over the years, know I have used little plastic boxes to hold all the individual components that are around 2" x 3" x 2" ( 0.14 litre Really Useful Box brand ). These fit perfectly in the game box to store everything and allow the boxes to be handed out to the players and they are mostly color coded to the main factions. I have tried to get a wholesale price for these boxes, but the manufacturer only supplies a discount to large sourcing such as to corporate Walmart stores, Target, Michael's or Staples, which buy in huge bulk. You can look for them at these stores but it will be difficult to find them in all the colors and they seem to be stocked only seasonally such as during back to school week. I have always planned on giving links to the same ones I have purchased and they are available online at Really Useful Boxes 0.14 Litre.
I have purchased all the available transparent colors in the past to use and generally use transparent blue for Kingdom of France, transparent red for Kingdom of England, transparent purple for Byzantine Empire, transparent yellow for Holy Roman Empire, transparent green for Fatimid Caliphate, transparent Aqua for North Sea Empire, and transparent clear for the Kievan Rus Empire, Coins. I have also used the 1/2 height .07 Litre Boxes for other components such as the City disks and scoring / tracking tokens.
In looking for sources for battle boxes, I have found a China source for very similar plastic storage boxes as is made by Really Useful Boxes in the .014 litre size. I can get an order of a few 1000 of these alternative storage boxes for approximately 33% the price of the Really Useful Boxes brand (not including shipping). If enough people have interest in getting an order of 8 of these alternative storage boxes for $3.50 (Really Useful Boxes cost $1.17 each before shipping, so 8 would cost $9.36+shipping) I could manage to get the order combined with the Swords & Sails fulfillment and get you these storage boxes with no additional shipping costs, if you already ordered the full game. They aren't available in all the same colors as Really Useful Boxes, but I would work on getting as many colors as they have available. Let me know if you are interested in these cheaper storage boxes.
