Crown of Ash - Late pledge store

Crown of Ash - July Update
26 days ago – Mon, Jul 01, 2024 at 07:23:43 AM

Hello again backers!

July should be a very exciting month as (fingers crossed) many of you should finally start to receive your pledges!

Things haven't been completely smooth sailing though, our ship heading to the US has had to stop for emergency repairs meaning it is delayed by a couple of weeks. But this does at least mean fulfilment should be roughly at the same time for most backers.

Here are the expected timelines for each region:

US/Canada

I'm not sure what happened to cause damage to the ship but I assume a Kraken was involved! Emergency repairs are being made  and the new date to land into the US is the 18th of July.

Fulfilment will begin soon after meaning games will begin to arrive by late July.

I'm very sorry for this further delay and I really appreciate your ongoing patience.

UK/EU/Europe

The ship is still on route as planned and no further delays since the last update.

Games are due to arrive into the UK by mid-July and fulfilment will start shortly after.

Rest of the world via VFI

Addresses have been locked and pledges have been shipped already, timings on ROW pledges will vary greatly with China and Asia due to arrive over the next few weeks but pledges for South America and the middle east taking potentially up to 6 weeks longer.

Backers can really help out by leaving a comment once their pledge has arrived to let me and other backers have an idea of when they can expect their pledges too.

Thank you all once again. If there is any significant news I will as before post a mid-month update to let you know.

Cheers,
Richard

Crown of Ash - Fulfilment Update
about 2 months ago – Mon, Jun 10, 2024 at 04:53:45 AM

As promised here's a quick update to let you know when you can expect to receive your pledge.

USA Mainland

The ship is expected into port very soon and fulfilment should begin in early July.

Once the games arrive into the warehouse addresses will be locked. Estimated mid/late June.

UK/EU/Europe

Although the plan was to fulfil all regions at the same time, the UK and EU freight is delayed, I'm very sorry about this. Shipping through the middle-east is still quite temperamental. It's expected to arrive into port in early July and fulfilment should begin mid-July.

Games will be shipped from the UK so games to Europe will take a few days longer than the UK.

Once the games arrive into the warehouse addresses will be locked.
Estimated early/mid July.

REST OF THE WORLD

Shipments to the rest of the world with a few exceptions will be shipped directly from the China via VFI.

These have already arrived into the warehouse and will be shipped imminently. These can take as long as 6-8 weeks depending on your location in the world.

ROW ADDRESSES WILL BE LOCKED IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS!

This is posting a comment once you have received your pledge is very helpful to other backers. And will be very much appreciated.

As with every campaign there will be a small percentage of backers who need some additional support post campaign.

If you need help, please send me a direct message via Kickstarter and I will try to get back to you asap. I will try my absolute best to sort your issues as quickly as possible, but do please bear with me it might take a day or so to reply.

There will be a few issues that cannot be resolved such as cosmetic damage to the game box. This is quite standard for publishers not to cover this. The reason is because factories don't supply game boxes as spares parts, like they do with other parts of the game. Also the cost to ship boxes is too high to be a viable option.

The Rising and Deluxe expansion boxes are to be considered throwaway packaging, so any damage to these unfortunately can't be covered.

I'm incredibly excited for everyone to get their games. It'l be a bit of a dream come true getting to see the game out there in the wild. So please tag me on instagram and facebook. I wanna see your pictures!

facebook.com/CardNoirGames/
instagram.com/card_noir

Thank you!

Richard

Crown of Ash - June Update
about 2 months ago – Sat, Jun 01, 2024 at 05:56:46 AM

It's June! This will be quite a short update as the games are still in freight so there's not a lot new to show unfortunately.

UKGE is this weekend, which is the UK's biggest tabletop gaming Expo, I had to cancel the stand this year due to personal commitments and I'm incredible sad to be missing it for the first time in 4 years. To everyone who is there, have an amazing time!

Although instead I'm spending the weekend with my cats, I'm working on some exciting things behind the scenes that I'm looking forward to announcing to backers in future.

We're getting pretty close to backers receiving their games although the specific timings are still a little unclear.

Freight and customs are not as predicable as you may think. I didn't know until starting this process that ships aren't like trains with set departure and arrival times. They turn up and set off whenever they can, kinda crazy considering how much the world relies on them. 

Our main ship heading to the USA was off the coast of Japan on the 22nd of May but since then the location has not updated. My best guess is it's in the pacific ocean on the way to the Panama Canal. It takes between 15 and 30 days to cross the Pacific so hopefully we'll have another update once it makes it across and pings a new satellite. 

If I find out any specific details I will try post an update sooner than usual to let backers know. So keep an eye out for that.

Once you receive your game, if you are able to post a comment on the Kickstarter page with your location it really helps others know when they can expect their's.

If you are interested in being a part of the design process for future games I would love to have your help playtesting some upcoming creations.

The sneak peek of the game above is in early alpha testing. So it is rough and some time away from release, but I will be arranging regular playtesting soon via Tabletop Simulator. If this is something you are interested in drop a comment or send me a message on social channels and we can arrange a test.

As always I appreciate your patience, I cannot wait for games to start arriving, fingers crossed it's not too far away now.

Thank you,
Richard

 

Crown of Ash - May Update
3 months ago – Wed, May 01, 2024 at 06:03:55 AM

It's merry May and there are some important updates on production and shipping of the game.

I'm extremely pleased to say production has now completed and the games are in the process of being freighted from the factory in China to fulfilment centres around the world.

As shipping and logistics can be a tricky business I'm working with Naylor Games to get you your game as quickly and painlessly as possible. They're very experienced in this process so we're in very capable hands.
 

Address Changes

Addresses will be locked very soon, just before fulfilment begins. BUT you can still currently update your shipping info through the pledge manager.

Please note that if you have moved country or state, annoyingly it will not let you change this info. So please reach out to me and I can amend it for you. Any additional shipping costs from moving to a new region will need to be covered before fulfilment can take place.

And finally

I hope to have more specifics on shipping in the next update.
In the meantime I have some additional photos and videos of the production process over the last few months, worth checking out if you are interested to see the behind the scenes of board game assembly.

Thank you all for your patience, I do very much appreciate all the support and that you all have given over the last year, especially as we approach the finish line a bit behind schedule. I can't tell you how much it helps when things don't go quite to plan.

Cheers,
Richard

Crown of Ash - April Update
4 months ago – Mon, Apr 01, 2024 at 09:26:01 AM

It's April! Marking a year since the Kickstarter campaign finished. Crazy how time has flown by!

Since the last update I'm pleased to say I signed off the mass-production copy of the game and after making a few last tweaks the game is finished printing and about to be assembled. This should only take a few days and it can start the freight process.

The blue minions have been adjusted for clarity and the insert tweaked to better fit the components. 

The most significant issue on the production copy was the colour of the backs of the Fighter cards. They printed too "yellow" making them a burgundy rather than the striking purple colour I wanted. It's pretty minor but I opted to reprint these.

Here's a video from the manufacturer of the amended colours now corrected.

WARNING, VIDEO IS LOUD, TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME!

Here's a look at the finished Deluxe Upgrade, with the rather beautiful screenprinted bags. I'm incredibly happy with how these came out, so much more crisp than the digitally printed versions previously made.

Finally we attended Airecon in Harrogate UK which was a lot of fun! It was Natalie (my wife's) first convention, hopefully not her last...

Big thanks you to all those who stopped by, always a highlight to meet backers in person.

That's it for another month, in the next update I should hopefully have some news on shipping. Freight is quite unpredictable at the moment but I'll do my best to keep you all as informed as possible as always.

Thank you all!