ENDLESS WINTER - Paleoamericans

The Era of Fulfilment
over 3 years ago – Sun, Aug 21, 2022 at 02:31:56 AM

Vessels, Fulfillment Status, Essen Spiel 2022, and a new collaborator.

Greetings tribe members.

As promised, this update will focus on the vessels' whereabouts and fulfillment status. But apart from that, we have some exciting news to share with you regarding a new licensing collaboration and Essen Spiel 2022.

Vessels

The US, Canada, EU, UK, AU, and NZ shipments are all loaded on the vessels and on their way to the ports.

We will now share the details for each shipment so you may track the shipments yourself. A trusty and user-friendly tracking site we use is:

 https://app.shipup.net/  

(simple registration is needed)

Disclaimer: On each vessel, there are multiple containers; but for simplicity reasons, we are sharing the details of one container per vessel as the Bill of Lading No. seems to not track the shipments properly.

Here we go:

USA & Canada

Both shipments are loaded on the same vessel in multiple containers and they are very close to arriving at the port of Tacoma.

ETA: 22nd of August

Vessel Name: NAVIOS UNISON / 011E

Tracking Details:

Container No:TCLU8289351

Shipping Line: ONE

EU & UK
Both shipments are loaded on the same vessel in multiple containers. The vessel is very close to Greece and is heading to the port of Hamburg.
ETA: 23rd of September

Vessel Name: EVER APEX / 1201-001W

Tracking Details:

Container No:TRHU5764593

Shipping Line: EVERGREEN

AU/NZ

Both shipments are loaded in one vessel in one container. The vessel is very close to Hong Kong and is heading to the port of Adelaide.

ETA: 6th of September

Vessel Name: ONE COMPETENCE

Tracking Details:

Container No:TEMU7473232

Shipping Line: ONE

Fulfillment Status

South Korea:
The fulfillment for the Korean copies in South Korea is being handled by the good folks of Mandoo Games, our Korean licensing partner. All the games have left the fulfillment center and they are delivered to the backers as we speak.

Rest of ASIA & ROTW:

The games have arrived at VFI’s fulfillment center. They have been sorted by pledges and the packing has commenced. Shortly they will be shipped out to ASIA and the rest of the world.

A new and exciting collaborator

We have a nice surprise for our Italian friends. For reasons of personal matters, Little Rocket Games will not be our partner for the Italian retail edition.
We are thrilled to announce that Lucky Duck Games Italy will carry the licensed edition of Endless Winter.

This was a last-minute development and happened right before all the Italian pledges were printed and loaded into the vessels. This will not affect the Italian fulfillment by any means. The Italian KS pledges will be fulfilled at the same time as the rest of the EU. This just means that the Italian backers will have a version of Endless Winter with the logo of Little Rocket Games and the retail owners will have the one with the Lucky Duck Games logo.

Many of you are asking us if we are going to have a booth at Essen Spiel 2022.

We can now announce with joy that we will be present at this year’s Spiel.

Booth No: Hall 4, booth 4F110

Make sure to pass by our booth. We will be glad to meet you in person and talk about board games.
Demos for Endless Winter, Sweet Mess, and the upcoming Unconscious Mind will be held all day by our staff.

From Thursday to Sunday (at scheduled times) the designer of Endless Winter Stan Kordonskiy and our Lead Developer Jonny Pac will be at our booth, demoing Endless Winter. Timetable to be announced soon.

Check the official BGG Geek Preview list of our games catalog for SPIEL 22’ and click a ‘like’ if you wish :)

https://boardgamegeek.com/geekpreview/55/spiel-22-preview?parentitem=8792

Will Endless Winter be available at Essen?

The real answer here is “we don’t know”, and let us explain what we mean by that. :) We honestly have no intention to describe this as a problem; but as always, we are totally transparent and will explain the current tricky situation.

As you know, the game was supposed to be delivered by the end of last year. Due to several delays, the production finished early this year, and then due to the massive volume of production, the big production halt of the factory caused by Covid - and the global freight situation - we ended up delivering the game during August, September, and early October. On top of that, we are unlucky that Essen Spiel happens quite earlier this year, and not by the end of October as usual.

So this brings us to the current situation where we need to handle 2 things.

1. Firstly, we don’t even know if we will manage to have the games available at the convention, since our cargo is estimated to arrive at its destination on the 23rd of September, and Essen Spiel begins on the 6th of October. This timeframe is quite tight, so we honestly don’t know if we can do it at the moment.
    
2. Secondly, we obviously don’t like the fact that some backers from Europe might not have received their games before Essen begins; and since this game and company have become a reality because of you, we are obliged to take your approval on this. Participating in Essen is a pricey task, and a good amount of funds is needed to prepare a cool presentation for you with a large and well-organized booth. Just the rental of the space for our booth and its construction will be 12K. On top of that, we estimate another 5K for promotional material, hotels, air tickets, transportation and storage of the game, etc.
    

So here’s what we plan to do.

In our next update, we will prepare a poll asking you if we can offer a small number of games at the convention (if the games make it in time), just to cover these costs. We are not aiming for profit. If a significant amount of you agrees with it (80%), if possible, we are going to do it. If the poll is not successful, then we will still have an Essen presence; but obviously, we will downgrade our booth and services a lot. Either way, though it will be totally fine with any of the results, as long as it pleases you. You are a top priority for us, and we are happy to follow either option.

Playthrough videos from Gaming Rules!

We are excited to share with you the first 3 videos of a series of videos created for each of the expansions from Gaming Rules! For the first 3, we have a detailed “How to Play” video and playthroughs for the core game and the Ancestors expansion. Have a look, we really enjoyed them. :)

Although Fantasia games has sponsored these videos, Paul also relies on the support of his own Patreon campaign to keep his channel going. If you want to support Paul directly, head on over to www.patreon.com/gamingrules

Freight, shipping, and VAT cost

Lately, there is a lot of talk regarding the increase in the cost of these 3 factors. We would like to let you know that the rumors are true :) We had first-hand experience with huge cost increases in all of our freight and shipping quotes. In the meantime, European VAT instead of an optional thing in crowdfunding campaigns has become mandatory.

Nevertheless, our priority at all times was that we should never ask for more funds from you. For that reason, we kept searching for the best deals out there, and we are now more than happy that our dedication to this goal has become a reality. Yes, you won’t be charged anything for all those costs, since we managed to absorb all of them, and that means a lot to us.  So the only thing that we would kindly ask from you, is to sit back, relax for the rest of the summer, and wait for your games to arrive at your doorstep soon :)

What’s next

In the next months, we will work hard in order to complete our new website. This will help quite a lot for our customer service concerning any replacement parts of the game. At the same time, we will make sure that the fulfillment process rolls smoothly.

Regarding Essen’s poll, expect a new update coming soon about it. We will dedicate an exclusive update for it, in order to gather all information as clearly as possible in one place for you.

And that’s all for now! In the meantime…

Stay calm, enjoy the rest of the summer, and play board games! :)

—Fantasia

The Era of Shipping!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 02:58:06 AM

The shipping process has commenced!!!

Greetings dear tribe members!

We are excited to inform you that we are entering the era of shipping.

Containers are picked up from the factory.

The US, Canada, Europe, and UK shipments have already been picked up from the factory, cleared customs, and are waiting at the port of Shenzhen to be loaded on the vessels in the next few days.

The AU/NZ shipment will follow shortly.

The ASIA shipment has already been picked up from the factory and is getting trucked to VFI’s fulfillment center. This means that ASIA’s fulfillment will start very soon.

Once the vessels depart we will provide you with the details of the ships and the estimated time of arrival to each port so you may track the shipments yourself.

Lock Addresses.

You will soon get an email notification from Backerkit to make any last-minute changes to your shipping address. Keep in mind that after 48 hours, all addresses will be automatically locked.

If you still need to update your address at a later time, just send an email to: [email protected] with your new details.

Refunds.

At this point, we cannot offer any more refunds as the games are ready to be shipped and the fulfillment process is closer than ever.

As times are harsh for all of us though, we will examine each case individually, and if there is a serious reason we will do our best to do a refund excluding any KS and processing fees.

What’s next

There will be a follow-up update soon, giving extensive details for every region.

Until next time…

Stay calm and play board games :)

—Fantasia

The Era of Assembly!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Jul 09, 2022 at 05:38:07 AM

Greetings dear tribe members!

During June:

We have received all master production copies of the game and took our time to approve them. We fixed a couple of small things and now everything looks great! Partners approved their copies too and assembly has begun.

Assembly has started!

After the last eclipse phase of June, we have entered the era of Assembly. :)

The factory just sent us some photos, and as you can see for yourself, assembly is in full swing! What you see is the preparation of the boxes; and tomorrow, the factory will start the assembly of the components!

How-to-play and unboxing videos

Stella from Meeple University and a member of Guf (Endless Winter partner from Australia), used one of the master copies we sent them in order to prepare an awesome how-to-play video for the game. Thank you Stella! Have a look here:

Moreover, for those of you that missed them, we have some unboxing videos coming from Gaming Rules!, BoardgameCo, and the designer of the game, Stan Kordonskiy.

Shipment and USA-Canada date locked

We are excited to announce to you that all of the games will be ready to ship by the end of the month. The container for the USA and Canada will be the first to depart and for that reason, we already have a date for it: the 22nd of July! In our next update we plan to focus heavily on the shipping of every region.

Soundtrack

There were some questions lately regarding the soundtrack of the game, so let us share some information about it. One of the co-owners of Fantasia (Thanos) is a professional musician too. We are happy to let you know that all this time he was working on the side for the soundtrack of Endless Winter and he will be able to share some samples of his work soon. Once ready (close to the date of the game’s delivery), the backers that pledged for the soundtrack will receive a link in order to download it. The soundtrack will contain some songs and also some background music that will make your playing experience even more “prehistoric” :) To get an idea of Thanos's work, you can listen again to the soundtrack of Endless Winter’s KS video.

What’s next

Let’s set our next meeting for the beginning of August. At that time most likely all containers will be departed to their destinations and we will be able to share with you a breakdown of them.

Until next time…

Stay calm and play board games :)

—Fantasia

LAST small production update #4 (PUBLIC)
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 08, 2022 at 11:53:34 PM

Dear backers, 

Since there was a mistake and our last update was only available for backers, we have decided to post it again as public, so our late backers can also enjoy it. Sorry for this :)

Greetings dear tribe members!

Although this will be a short update, it will be full of photos :)

We are excited to inform you that:

1. Mass production is now finished
2. Master production copies are sent to all partners for approval. They will arrive at their destination by the end of next week.
3. Once they are approved (hopefully this will take 2-3 days since we don’t expect any surprises), the assembly of all copies can begin.

All in all, we are still on track based on our schedule’s timeline.

We are sharing with you some random photos from the mass production and the preparation of the master copies. Enjoy!

Mass Production

Master Production Copies

In order to make the assembly process easier, we are going to add all modules (except Ceremonial Grounds) and promo cards inside the Ancestors expansion.

What’s next

Let’s have our next update in a month, so we can have some more news to share. By that time we will be one step before the first games start to be shipped. Exciting moments are ahead of us!

Until next time…

Stay calm and play board games :)

—Fantasia

P.S. For our german backers you might find this video interesting. Endless Winter was included in the Top 10 Best Board Games of All Time list of Brettgeschichten. Once you check it, let us know what he says since we don't speak german :)

LAST small production update #4
almost 4 years ago – Sun, Jun 05, 2022 at 02:47:42 AM

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