Pre-orders... How do you decide what to buy?

I've been spending a lot of time on the websites of MMP, GMT, Worthington and Columbia; I've been interested in a few games but I have never been able to pull the trigger. My overall fears are not knowing what the hell I'd be buying and would it be a piece of shit that sounds better on paper than in reality.

A few games that have sparked my interest:


A Most Dangerous Time
Rome VS Rome
Chandragupta
Unhappy King Charles
Pursuit of Glory

On the whole I know nothing about the events that these games are based on, but they all sound compelling.

When it comes down to plunking down your hard earned cash, what criteria do you use in deciding what to buy?

Boy, tough call.

For me, it's theme interest. Specifically, my interests in theme are very outside of the norm. Right now I have 2 wargames, All Things Zombie and Angola preordered. I feel that these are games I desperately genuinely want and *also* would struggle to get preorder numbers. So for me, both of those things are prerequisites for early preorder. I preordered clash of monarchs as well, but only last month when I knew it was being printed so that doesn't really count. As another example of something I would preorder, Adam Starkweather has been talking quite a bit about a really large medium complexity NATO-Warsaw Pact game, Doomsday, on CSW. That is something I would also preorder if it was even moderately reasonably priced because it's something I really want to see and I don't think a lot of people would get behind on preorder.

I'd love to say I preorder games, because the game's theme or system interest me, but that's not the case. The most interesting war to me is still the Second World War, but four of six games I preordered are about it and only two exclusively so. I only know from two games what its game system will be like. Here are are the games I preordered any my reasons to do so:

Angola (MMP)
No idea why I preordered this one.

Breakthrough: Cambrai (MMP)

The Area Impulse Series is my favorite game system and I think it will reflect the first blitzkrieg battle in history just well.


Fields of Fire (GMT)

The few solitaire games which come out over the years are a must have.


No Question Of Surrender (MMP)

THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON system finally reverts back to a one mapper, which in my eyes is where it belongs. It's also about one of the more obscure battles in North Africa, namely Free French forces against the Afrika Corps. I own and played TDC's predecessor PANZER COMMAND and know that it's pretty tough to fuck this decent system up, so I don't think I'll be disappointed.


Real Weapons (COA)

The second expansion to the excellent LANDSHIPS! will widen the system's range from the the First to the Second World War and will cover plenty conflicts which erupted in between, e.g. the Spanish Civil War.


The Caucasus Campaign: The German-Russian War in the Caucasus, 1942 (GMT)

This is a game from the designer of HANNIBAL: RVC and the game uses a similar system to the excellent Ardennes '44. Mark Simonitch has yet to create a dud.

EDIT: I missed the gist of the first post initially. My most important criteria for preorders would be a new game using series rules that I like. World at War, Standard Combat Series, whatever. Second would be a war/battle that I'm interested in. There's not too many conflicts that I'm interested in that haven't been covered though, so that doesn't come up too often. Plenty of games already available (lately I've obtained GBoH, Musket & Pike stuff) for what I haven't gamed yet that I can buy directly. The games that the wargamers in my area place on preorder might influence my decisions though I'm slow to jump on the bandwagon. What the other guys order influences maybe half of my decisions though more often than not I'll hold off on those games until they're available to the general public and even then I'm hesitant to buy any game because of popularity. Last would be who publishes it, any company that has a really hard time hitting target release dates for a large portion of their preorders is one I'll avoid.

Way too much on preorder. Good thing I don't use MMPs online store for placing preorders or else there would be even more games I would be pledged to buy. If all of these charged in one month that might be a tough month financially.

Non-wargames (through Thought Hammer):

Battlestar Galactica
Hurry up and get here, October.

Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm

Wargames (all through the publisher):

GMT:

Elusive Victory
Air combat in the Suez conflict using the Downtown system.

The Storm Breaks
A 1939 WWII game from the designer of Manouevre.

MMP:

Bastogne
SCS Bulge game.

Breakthrough Cambrai
WWI area-impulse game.

Rock of the Marne
SCS WWI game. Should be shipping in a few weeks.

LNLP:

WaW: Blood and Bridges
Should be out next month!

WaW: Operation Garbo
Swedes enter WWIII.

Nations at War: White Star Rising:
Platoon-level WWII combat with rules similar to WaW. Looks pretty cool.

LnL: Noville
LnL goes to the Bulge.

Corps Command: Dawn's Early Light
The Corps Command system goes to WWIII in West Germany

Schweig! wrote:

Angola (MMP)
No idea why I preordered this one.

Maybe because it looks like a cool 4 player Cold War game? If MMP could get it's shit together and have secure online ordering (I don't care what anyone says, I'm not taking the chance) I would have this on my list too.

Breakthrough: Cambrai (MMP)

The Area Impulse Series is my favorite game system and I think it will reflect the first blitzkrieg battle in history just well.

Yes, this does look cool. I like the area impulse stuff. Cambrai is a very interesting battle.

Fields of Fire (GMT)

The few solitaire games which come out over the years are a must have.

I don't know much about it. I avoid solitaire games because I'll solo almost every new wargame I get at least once so that takes up my solo play time.

No Question Of Surrender (MMP)

THE DEVIL'S CAULDRON system finally reverts back to a one mapper, which in my eyes is where it belongs. It's also about one of the more obscure battles in North Africa, namely Free French forces against the Afrika Corps. I own and played TDC's predecessor PANZER COMMAND and know that it's pretty tough to fuck this decent system up, so I don't think I'll be disappointed.

I will get this though I'll probably wait until I can get it through Wargame Depot. I have TDC, played it solo, it's a good system.

Real Weapons (COA)

The second expansion to the excellent LANDSHIPS! will widen the system's range from the the First to the Second World War and will cover plenty conflicts which erupted in between, e.g. the Spanish Civil War.

hmmm...I just put my copy of Landships up on the wargame math trade on BGG. Couldn't find players.

The Caucasus Campaign: The German-Russian War in the Caucasus, 1942 (GMT)

This is a game from the designer of HANNIBAL: RVC and the game uses a similar system to the excellent Ardennes '44. Mark Simonitch has yet to create a dud.

[/quote]

I've heard very little about this but it might be worth checking out. Simonitch lives around here but I've never met him.

Gary Sax

Adam Starkweather has been talking quite a bit about a really large medium complexity NATO-Warsaw Pact game, Doomsday, on CSW. That is something I would also preorder if it was even moderately reasonably priced because it's something I really want to see and I don't think a lot of people would get behind on preorder.

I would like to see that. It got some negative responses on CSW because fat old guys in stained polo shirts will do stuff like that. I would buy it in a heartbeat.

I had a huge amount of games on pre-order until a couple of weeks ago, then decided I didn't need them all and really trimmed back to:

Stalin's War (CDG from Raicer on the Eastern Front, oh yes, oh yes)
Bastogne (next up in MMPs Standard Combat Series)
Blood and Sand (North Africa stuff on GMT)

Basically I am looking for simple to moderate complexity, fairly fast playing WWII stuff.

I would pre-order Nations at War from LnL as it's my most anticipated game, but their games retail at a decent price in the UK, making the pre-order mostly irrelevant. I quite fancy Dawn's Early Light too, but await more info. The Doomsday game described above sounds rather neat.

Harkonnen13 wrote:

If MMP could get it's shit together and have secure online ordering (I don't care what anyone says, I'm not taking the chance) I would have this on my list too.

I preordered these games through a German game store. This one is at least the official distribution channel for GMT, maybe a few other companies, too, because they also stock the most war games (pretty much all of them) when compared to other stores in Germany. I don't have a credit card.