October Newletter and Workbench update (1 Viewer)
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King's Man
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I am one of the unfortunates still in the Dark Ages due to no fault of my own. Can you please post the text of the newletter as well. Matt has been known to place hints about future plans within the text.
Thank you for posting the pictures it is nice to hav eall the new one in one place. Some great stuff coming.
King's Man
Thank you for posting the pictures it is nice to hav eall the new one in one place. Some great stuff coming.
King's Man
Spitfrnd
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The newsletter is rather long but I would be more than happy to send it email it to you if you PM me your address.I am one of the unfortunates still in the Dark Ages due to no fault of my own. Can you please post the text of the newletter as well. Matt has been known to place hints about future plans within the text.
Thank you for posting the pictures it is nice to hav eall the new one in one place. Some great stuff coming.
King's Man
Gebhard
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Hi Kings man
thought you may find this more interesting some of Matt's comments which were posted on another Forum . I'm sure Matt won't mind as its already out there and some of their fans don't frequent other forums .
When a new company like ours first start making products, honestly we have no idea what will sell well, what won't etc... It's a pretty safe bet, for example, with Napoleonics that anything British or French will sell better than Russian or Prussian and that Russian or Prussian will sell better than Wurttemberg or Westphalian. Other than that, who knows what you guys will spend your money on! That being said, we've chosen to do everything related to the battles we've selected, not just the blue guys and the red guys, hence why we've done so many minor nations. The same will eventually apply to the Stalingrad range. We've always said we want to do complete ranges where everything you need for a given battle you can get from us without supplementing from other makers and that goal still very much stands. Things just take time.
With our WWII range, we put a lot of thought into what we wanted to do and started with Stalingrad and have slowly started to expand to the desert (more desert coming soon, including infantry!). For the most part, the vehicles at Stalingrad were the basic arsenal of the early to mid-war Germans, so really there isn't too much surprising there. We do have one vehicle that we're going to produce that is pretty unique to Stalingrad, but for the most part Stalingrad is pretty much meat and potatoes as far as the vehicles go. I personally like Panzer Grey, so that works out pretty well too. However, I think the main focus of the range has been and will remain the infantry. Many of the sets we've done on the infantry side of the battle are pretty interesting and unique. Pioneer Demolitons Team, Pioneer Assault Group, and even the regular infantry have a very "Stalingrad" look about them and we're quite happy with how they've come out. So as far as our Stalingrad range goes, i would dare to say that really it's an infantry range with some armor support and will probably continue to be as such. As for other areas of WWII, well, we're dabbling in the desert and will eventually get around to late war western front at some point. US Paras, Brit Paras (i'm a HUGE arnhem fan), SS Germans, etc.... Though other companies all do this stuff, I'm quite confident that our rendition of things like various Camos will pretty well separate our figures from everything else out there. To date we've only done one camo set and it's Russian of all things, RUSSTAL009 Russian Scouts, and I think it shows quite well the possibilities.
Anyway, as for what's next in the Stalingrad range for vehicles...really, it's not to difficult to figure out. Think "basic cable" and you'll probably guess correctly. From the perspective of our customers, and perhaps you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, it's not what we do so much as how we do it that excites our customers. After all, grey heer infantry, a grey panzer III, or a DAK 232 aren't big news. However, I feel our renditions of them really show off what can be done on a figure or vehicle, even the "plain" ones.
Then when he was ask about why not starting in Arnhem and about possible future Waffen SS releases .
First, as for Arnhem (or other Western front battle), I honestly can't remember why we didn't start there. Remember, my partner is Russian, so he supports anything to do with the Russian army of any era! I think if he had his way, we'd do Great Northern War, Crimean War, Eastern Front WWII, etc. etc. etc. But really, I have always had a huge interest in Stalingrad and when it comes to WWII, I really enjoy the early-mid war stuff in panzer grey with the basic uniforms. Plus, when we looked at the market, none of the other companies were doing it. Arnhem is probably my second favorite battle and one that I definitely want to cover as well so we'll get there eventually.
As for Waffen SS, we have a policy here and I've stated it before elsewhere: First Legion will never (ever) release Nazi's on parade or any of that other stuff no matter how well it sells. We find it in very poor taste. We even hesitate when it comes to releasing swastika aerial recongition flags and though our customers really like them, we've decided not to do anymore of them. However, in order to do a battle like Arhem, you have to do the 9th and 10th SS Divisons, so should we cover Arnhem at some point, we'll do the combat units of the SS because it would be difficult to give accurate coverage of the battle without them. Graebner's dash across the bridge would simply have to be overlooked and it's too iconic to pass up! All this being said, what producers make is their business and what customers collect is also their business, I only say that we won't get involved with that stuff. We decided this pretty early on and if we can't be successful making other things then we shouldn't exist as a company. 'nuff said on that.
Almost forgot - mounted Samurai are coming but probably not until Q2 2011, maybe May or so. We hope to do two Samurai releases next year both focused on the Takeda - one Cavalry, and one infantry/daimyo command release
thought you may find this more interesting some of Matt's comments which were posted on another Forum . I'm sure Matt won't mind as its already out there and some of their fans don't frequent other forums .
When a new company like ours first start making products, honestly we have no idea what will sell well, what won't etc... It's a pretty safe bet, for example, with Napoleonics that anything British or French will sell better than Russian or Prussian and that Russian or Prussian will sell better than Wurttemberg or Westphalian. Other than that, who knows what you guys will spend your money on! That being said, we've chosen to do everything related to the battles we've selected, not just the blue guys and the red guys, hence why we've done so many minor nations. The same will eventually apply to the Stalingrad range. We've always said we want to do complete ranges where everything you need for a given battle you can get from us without supplementing from other makers and that goal still very much stands. Things just take time.
With our WWII range, we put a lot of thought into what we wanted to do and started with Stalingrad and have slowly started to expand to the desert (more desert coming soon, including infantry!). For the most part, the vehicles at Stalingrad were the basic arsenal of the early to mid-war Germans, so really there isn't too much surprising there. We do have one vehicle that we're going to produce that is pretty unique to Stalingrad, but for the most part Stalingrad is pretty much meat and potatoes as far as the vehicles go. I personally like Panzer Grey, so that works out pretty well too. However, I think the main focus of the range has been and will remain the infantry. Many of the sets we've done on the infantry side of the battle are pretty interesting and unique. Pioneer Demolitons Team, Pioneer Assault Group, and even the regular infantry have a very "Stalingrad" look about them and we're quite happy with how they've come out. So as far as our Stalingrad range goes, i would dare to say that really it's an infantry range with some armor support and will probably continue to be as such. As for other areas of WWII, well, we're dabbling in the desert and will eventually get around to late war western front at some point. US Paras, Brit Paras (i'm a HUGE arnhem fan), SS Germans, etc.... Though other companies all do this stuff, I'm quite confident that our rendition of things like various Camos will pretty well separate our figures from everything else out there. To date we've only done one camo set and it's Russian of all things, RUSSTAL009 Russian Scouts, and I think it shows quite well the possibilities.
Anyway, as for what's next in the Stalingrad range for vehicles...really, it's not to difficult to figure out. Think "basic cable" and you'll probably guess correctly. From the perspective of our customers, and perhaps you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, it's not what we do so much as how we do it that excites our customers. After all, grey heer infantry, a grey panzer III, or a DAK 232 aren't big news. However, I feel our renditions of them really show off what can be done on a figure or vehicle, even the "plain" ones.
Then when he was ask about why not starting in Arnhem and about possible future Waffen SS releases .
First, as for Arnhem (or other Western front battle), I honestly can't remember why we didn't start there. Remember, my partner is Russian, so he supports anything to do with the Russian army of any era! I think if he had his way, we'd do Great Northern War, Crimean War, Eastern Front WWII, etc. etc. etc.
But really, I have always had a huge interest in Stalingrad and when it comes to WWII, I really enjoy the early-mid war stuff in panzer grey with the basic uniforms. Plus, when we looked at the market, none of the other companies were doing it. Arnhem is probably my second favorite battle and one that I definitely want to cover as well so we'll get there eventually.As for Waffen SS, we have a policy here and I've stated it before elsewhere: First Legion will never (ever) release Nazi's on parade or any of that other stuff no matter how well it sells. We find it in very poor taste. We even hesitate when it comes to releasing swastika aerial recongition flags and though our customers really like them, we've decided not to do anymore of them. However, in order to do a battle like Arhem, you have to do the 9th and 10th SS Divisons, so should we cover Arnhem at some point, we'll do the combat units of the SS because it would be difficult to give accurate coverage of the battle without them. Graebner's dash across the bridge would simply have to be overlooked and it's too iconic to pass up! All this being said, what producers make is their business and what customers collect is also their business, I only say that we won't get involved with that stuff. We decided this pretty early on and if we can't be successful making other things then we shouldn't exist as a company. 'nuff said on that.
Almost forgot - mounted Samurai are coming but probably not until Q2 2011, maybe May or so. We hope to do two Samurai releases next year both focused on the Takeda - one Cavalry, and one infantry/daimyo command release
Spitfrnd
Banned
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- Mar 8, 2008
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Re: October Newsletter and Workbench update
[Excerpt from First Legion Newsletter]
......When a new company like ours first start making products, honestly we have no idea what will sell well, what won't etc... It's a pretty safe bet, for example, with Napoleonics that anything British or French will sell better than Russian or Prussian and that Russian or Prussian will sell better than Wurttemberg or Westphalian. Other than that, who knows what you guys will spend your money on!......
Just to be respond to that open (or rhetorical) question, one thing would be British Lads in Green with short, grooved barreled flintlocks; and you can take that to the bank.
[Excerpt from First Legion Newsletter]
......When a new company like ours first start making products, honestly we have no idea what will sell well, what won't etc... It's a pretty safe bet, for example, with Napoleonics that anything British or French will sell better than Russian or Prussian and that Russian or Prussian will sell better than Wurttemberg or Westphalian. Other than that, who knows what you guys will spend your money on!......
Just to be respond to that open (or rhetorical) question, one thing would be British Lads in Green with short, grooved barreled flintlocks; and you can take that to the bank.
Mitch
Major General
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- May 1, 2010
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Arnhem would be a winner for all the WWII addicts and a proper representation of Grabners assault on the bridge would be welcome as there are little sets available which one can use correctly for the battle.
Don't think its too hard to see where the Stalingrad range is going with clues like that
Mitch
Don't think its too hard to see where the Stalingrad range is going with clues like that
Mitch
DCN1898
Sergeant
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Re: October Newsletter and Workbench update
Matt would have at least two customers!
[Excerpt from First Legion Newsletter]
......When a new company like ours first start making products, honestly we have no idea what will sell well, what won't etc... It's a pretty safe bet, for example, with Napoleonics that anything British or French will sell better than Russian or Prussian and that Russian or Prussian will sell better than Wurttemberg or Westphalian. Other than that, who knows what you guys will spend your money on!......
Just to be respond to that open (or rhetorical) question, one thing would be British Lads in Green with short, grooved barreled flintlocks; and you can take that to the bank.
Matt would have at least two customers!
aujj65
Colonel
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- Sep 30, 2005
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- 9,151
Re: October Newsletter and Workbench update
Bill, you will eventually wear Matt down I’m sure!
Jeff
[Excerpt from First Legion Newsletter]
......When a new company like ours first start making products, honestly we have no idea what will sell well, what won't etc... It's a pretty safe bet, for example, with Napoleonics that anything British or French will sell better than Russian or Prussian and that Russian or Prussian will sell better than Wurttemberg or Westphalian. Other than that, who knows what you guys will spend your money on!......
Just to be respond to that open (or rhetorical) question, one thing would be British Lads in Green with short, grooved barreled flintlocks; and you can take that to the bank.
Bill, you will eventually wear Matt down I’m sure!
Jeff
Gebhard
2nd Lieutenant
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Matt would have at least two customers!
Make that three and I'm sure we would not be alone . I think they would have a large following and would be a money maker for sure . Which would allow FL to produce a Mounted Blücher , some Prussian Cav and Artillery oh and some Landwehr units .
Bill, you will eventually wear Matt down I’m sure!
Jeff
Bill , you just may be able to get him to crack , just ask the man who's persistence has just landed us the Braunschweigers whomever he is
..Gebhard
Spitfrnd
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I am not worried mates; I feel certain they will come and when they do I have a feeling that we will all be blown away. Over the hills and far away anyone?Make that three and I'm sure we would not be alone . I think they would have a large following and would be a money maker for sure . Which would allow FL to produce a Mounted Blücher , some Prussian Cav and Artillery oh and some Landwehr units .
Bill , you just may be able to get him to crack , just ask the man who's persistence has just landed us the Braunschweigers whomever he is
Spitfrnd
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No question the Prussians are a vital part of Waterloo, even though they are of little interest to me. Of course Waterloo is not one of my favorite Napoleonic battles although it has the benefit of involving most of the units (albeit with slight uniform differences) that were in my favorite battles.
I think it is more accurate to say that the Prussians made their contemplated contribution to the outcome at Waterloo since Wellington made it clear to Blucher that he was offering battle on the promise that the Prussians would commit at least two Corps by late afternoon. Frankly though, Napoleon himself made so many mistakes at Waterloo, perhaps due to his poor health and physical condition or his absence from the game, that he almost made their presence unnecessary; cue Matt Napoleon defense.
Gebhard
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No question the Prussians are a vital part of Waterloo, even though they are of little interest to me. Of course Waterloo is not one of my favorite Napoleonic battles although it has the benefit of involving most of the units (albeit with slight uniform differences) that were in my favorite battles.
I think it is more accurate to say that the Prussians made their contemplated contribution to the outcome at Waterloo since Wellington made it clear to Blucher that he was offering battle on the promise that the Prussians would commit at least two Corps by late afternoon. Frankly though, Napoleon himself made so many mistakes at Waterloo, perhaps due to his poor health and physical condition or his absence from the game, that he almost made their presence unnecessary; cue Matt Napoleon defense.
Spoken like a true Brit
but aren't you from NE Mate
Gebhard
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I'm with ya
I have been bugging Mr M for Prussians since there were only Bavarians as my main focus is the Befreiungskreige I can only hope that First legion will over time produce all the above and much much more , but until then they are keeping me pretty happy and distracted with ton's of Napoleonic masterpieces I just love the period and keep waiting for them to make something I don't have to have so I can buy some more multiples of some of the older releases ..What a ride so far All the best Gebhard
Spitfrnd
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Actually for this life, I am from the 4th Colony but I reside in the 3rd (2nd Royal) but home is where the heart is.Spoken like a true Brit
None of that changes history of course.
Gebhard
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Actually for this life, I am from the 4th Colony but I reside in the 3rd (2nd Royal) but home is where the heart is.
No Mate it doesn't ....but it does change how one chooses to interpret it
British historians present Wellington's army as "British",except when it comes to imparting blame then parts of it become "foreign". "According to the British newspaper "The Independent" (November 2004) Waterloo was largely won by Prussians, Hanoverians, Saxons, Dutch and Belgians. Although the British prefer not to dwell on it, these nations supplied around three-quarters of the 120,000 soldiers who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Of the 26 infantry brigades in Wellington's army of 70,000, only nine were British; of the 12 cavalry brigades, only 7 were British. Half the 29 batteries of guns were Hanoverian, Dutch or Belgian. None of these included the 53,000 Prussians who turned up eventually for the battle and swung it Wellington's way when the French were pushing for a late victory.All three of Wellington's strongpoints at Waterloo (Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte and Papelotte) were defended by German troops. Papelotte was defended by Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar's brigade made up of Germans in the Orange-Nassau and the 2nd Nassau Regiments. La Haye Sainte was defended by one battalion of King's German Legion. Hougoumont was defended not only by the British Guard but also by various German troops including battalion of 2nd Nassau under Mjr. Busgen, several companies of Hannoverian jagers and in the end by light companies of Du Plat's brigade, light companies of Brunswick corps and part of Halkett's Hannoverian landwehr brigade."
So in fact without the Germans Old Nosey would have been sent packing
To bad Matt's still on "moderated Status" I always liked your debates when you took a shot at The Little Corporal. Sorry Bill I know you only have an Interest in the Peninsula All the best Gebhard