low Saipan sales numbers...

[campsawyer]

Not a curveball, just the date of the official US involvement in the war.

Alan,

I can't remember the exact wording above on a plaque, but it was something like World War 2 1941-45. So, to somebody used to hearing 39 to 45, it left out the fact that the US's involvement was 41-45. Not that should be the Americans concern of course. So my initial reaction is "Uh, that date's wrong" until ........ and staying with baseball references here, the foreigner (me) remembered that the US came in as a pinch-hitter, albeit earlier than the 8th or 9th inning .

I understand what you are saying and it is interesting as you are viewing from a historical and non-US point of view.

As for your analogy of baseball, I would see it as a relief pitcher in about the 4th or 5th inning and heavily behind in the game. This pitcher is just come up from the minor leagues and is still a bit green, but he is young. strong and has a sustaining fastball. So he can strikeout the opposition and this gives a morale boost to his hitters to rally and get the runs.

Lol, nice one, though I think he still conceded a few runs himself on the road to the pennant !

Yes, that is why I said, young. Just out of the minor leagues.

[campsawyer]

Even the rich new owner (Kurt Schilling) had to establish limits on how much he was going to sink into the new MMP tactical wargame publishing consortium.

I remember laughing out loud when I bicycled home from work and found the first half of Imperial Grenadier, Infantry Attacks, on my porch. I had given up all hope for Avalanche at that point.

In these parts he has gone from king to bum, playing two state governments against each other, then burning through a bunch of public subsidy for his video game company.

[Hugmenot]

Are you suggesting, however, that APL's level of product quality control and customer service is within the "norm" or even within a reasonable range of adequate (despite Larry's repeated apologia)?

Yes, I do.

Customer Service
I placed several orders in the Avalanche Press webstore and everything that was marked available now was always shipped within 48 hours. Things which I ordered early was also shipped at most a few days after they were available. I do accept some products became available a few weeks later than expected as manufacturing is not a perfect process.

I added a note on an order that my copy of the Fall of France scenario included several faded pages and received a fresh copy with my order.

I did not receive replies to a couple of emails. Although a bit disappointing, I understand what triage means in a small business environment. "The Customer is always our no 1 priority" is not something I expect because frankly, I have rarely seen such level of service from any company, even Fortune 14 companies making billions in profits.

Quality Control
I assume you are talking about counters here.

The QC for the early laser-cut counters was poor in my opinion. Not having access to the contract between AVP and the manufacturer (another small business), I would not venture to say who was primarily at fault.

Actually, I don't care whose fault it was. The problem was reported and steps were certainly put in to address the problems because the latest counters are of much better quality than the earlier efforts.

The laser-cut technology was new to both AVP and the manufacturer, and it took a while for them to figure out how to produce better components. That new technology requires a learning curve should surprise no one.

I am hoping they next work to improve the counter printing process as I think the counters are coming out darker than intended (based upon the corresponding images on the AP website).

Does this answer your question?

[J6A]

The early laser cut counters suffered from a poorly functioning laser head. It took us months for the manufacturer to get the machine functioning right. There were some other logistical issues, and we're constantly working to get rid of all the flaws.

[Hugmenot]

Are you telling it took months for the manufacturer to resolve a problem a client had with a very expensive piece of equipment they purchased? That would be truly unusually awful customer service!

/SARCASM=OFF

I will continue to support AVP, VPG, and other small publishers which games I enjoy. Maybe it's just self-serving but I want them to stay in business.

[Poor Yorek]

Does this answer your question?

Hugmenot,

My experience with Avalanche Press does not coincide with yours. And, whilst quality control on the laser counters is (or was) a recent issue, it certainly does not exhaust quality-control issues spanning over years. A learning curve on printing a release-ready product? Sorry, but I don't think the customer should expect to be the practice dummy (imagine if calculators were sold this way - "gosh, sorry the 'times' button doesn't work, but, hey, its a work in progress"). Work out the bugs then release the product (or sell off-copies at a discount). Did they offer to replace bad print runs? If so, great, but I don't recall reading about it here. When I recently purchased a fine chess set, the (online) retailer actually noticed a slightly blemished piece and ordered a replacement for it before even sending them on. Yes, that is what I appreciate and expect from a company that operates in a competitive environment.

You and others appear satisfied with what APL produces. Fine, you back up that with your money. I am not satisfied with APL's product nor its Customer Service delivery and attitude (e.g. referring to those seeking the same as requiring "hand holding" see post 2278; exercising censorship on Consimworld; and having to threaten legal action to obtain a refund). I will exercise that dissatisfaction by boycotting their products. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

I do not believe anyone can find a post wherein I have criticized anyone for patronizing APL (unlike my being criticized for failing to do so). I do not believe anyone can find a thread here that I started whose purpose was to criticize APL. I do, however, voice my opinion regarding APL when threads are opened regarding the company; its products; and its future.

As the OP of this thread asked for why sales of a PG game might be low and explicitly inquired regarding (1) APL's history and (2) Operational Theatre, both of which were reasons why I have not purchased Saipan, I so stated in post #8 of this thread (and added that #1 also has lead to my not ordering two other recent PG games). That so doing could have caused any controversy is baffling.

[Texagony]

Today, on a lark, I emailed Mike and offered to make him a lovely VASSAL module for Saipan in 7 days or less if only he sent me the printing proofs. Wouldn't that be nice? Realtime online play with hidden unit functionality right out of the gate! One can dream... I hope he sees the wisdom in the offer...

Although I have 31 PG games or modules, I have pretty much given up on any new purchase from APL because of their attitude on Vassal. If they allow a decent Vassal module to be distributed for Saipan I will order a copy of the game the next day!

[Shad]

Agreed! Still waiting on this.

[larry marak]

I find it curious that the Saipan expansion book is coming out, as there just aren't that many copies of the required Game out there. It may and hopefully will drum up more sales of Saipan, but AVP's ability to produce bread and butter products right now is so limited in quantity. Lets say Jay were to design and AVP to produce PG Kanto Plain (battles of the assault on Tokyo, March 47 (I'd dure buy it by the way). If 1200 of us all ordered it with the limited quantities of countersheets produceable per month and the restrictions of black silk box campacity in the new office/warehouse suite, I would probably take 7 months to manufacure and ship every copy and nothing else could be released or reprinted during that time.

[Dean_P]

And larry, therein lies a potential problem...

it's not clear that the laser cutting is sustainable in the long run. VPG gets away with it because (from what i've seen) their laser cut games have one sheet of counters, which is roughly half the size of a standard AP game. So if AP needs 3 laser cut sheets for a single game, that's the equivalent of 6 VPG games.