Hogs Of War The Miniatures Game

Hogs Shipping Update #7 UK Fulfilment begins! Fulfilment FAQ, International Shipping Information.
over 2 years ago – Tue, Jun 28, 2022 at 05:32:11 AM

Greetings Pig Peeps!

We have great news to share with you today regarding UK backers!

Zatu has started fulfilling the UK based orders, and we are over the moon to see the game arriving with people! When you start playing please tag us on socials, we can’t wait to see what you think of the game!

Find our Instagram here!  Or Find our Facebook here! 

FAQ: 

1) I'm missing my Neoprene Mat?

Neoprene Mats are being sent out separately! (Due to the parcel weights and sizes). Mats should follow on shortly after the main sets have been shipped.

2) I'm missing the Swill Dice?

4 Green D12's (The Swill Dice) were missed during production so we opted to send these outside of the box rather than risking damage by removing the shrink wrapping. These unfortunately were missed by Zatu but this mistake has been picked up on and the dice will be sent out to you as soon as possible!   

If you are like us you can’t wait to play the game the second you receive it, any dice will do! You can start with 2 standard D6 Dice (just remove one dice when you are under 6 Swill income per Round), a D12 Dice or any D20 “roleplay dice” will work as well!

3) How many Flight Indicators? 

The rulebook says that you should have 28 indicators for your Aerial Units. This is a small mistake, there should be 24 in the Core Box (6 for each Faction's Aerial Units) meaning that you will have enough indicators even if every single Plane and Airship Unit in the game is in play is in play at the same time!

Spare indicators may be used to mark your Swill Total on the Base Grid, we also recommend using Faction Capture Tokens (of which there are spares). 

4) How many Airship Parts Cards?

Regarding the Airship Parts Cards, some eagle eyed Backers have spotted that the Rulebook says you should have 34 cards and are being supplied with 39. This is as we added some extra cards (The Klaw for example!) and didn't change the rulebook number, so don’t worry, you have the right amount of cards to terrorise the skies with!

5) Where are the Lord Flashhog, Red Bacon and Pigeon Cards?

If you have ordered the Team Lard Solo Expansion, these cards will be in with the Team Lard Card Deck. 

If you don't have Team Lard in your order, you will receive the relevant cards in a separate sleeved pack. This should be in your parcel. 

International shipping updates:

EU: The ship is arriving in Rotterdam tomorrow are then being driven to the fulfilment company (Surfin’ Meeple) once its unloaded.

North America: The US ship was severely delayed, it is still in transit and we are awaiting confirmation for docking dates. Good news though is that the unloading bill has been forwarded to us- so we know things are happening post the nightmarish Shanghai lockdown the boat was caught in. 

Asia: VFI have the items and we are awaiting final fulfilment date. Some copies have already been dispatched whilst others are being worked on in order to avoid many delays occurring in the fulfilment areas at this moment in time. 

Hogs of War How to Play Video!

We have filmed the 'How To Play' video for Hogs of War. It is currently being edited and we are expecting it to be live on the first of July (this Friday!), so keep those eyes peeled!

See you soon piggies! Much love,

Max! (And James and Paul!)

Mini Update - Hogs of War UK Shipping
over 2 years ago – Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 01:55:53 PM

Greetings all.

Just a quick update on the UK fulfilment times.

Zatu, who are handling the final packing and shipping of the project, were supposed to receive the main bulk of items this Monday the 20th. Unfortunately the shipping company was holding the shipment awaiting customs duties which we were only made aware of today.

The Duty has now been paid and the product is scheduled to arrive with Zatu this Thursday (the 23rd June). In light of this we anticipate UK orders getting into peoples hands early next week.

Thank you all for your patience and have a great day!

Kind regards,

Max

Mini Update: We can do Better!
over 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 01:14:52 PM

Good morning everybody,

We’re keen to address some backer feedback following our update yesterday. We want to do our best for you and for the project, and there are some things we can be better at going forward.

Time Between Updates

We like to group information together so we don’t overload backers, and sometimes there isn’t anything new to report, but we understand that backers might like more updates despite the lack of new information, just so they know that things are on track. Moving forward, we will put out mini-updates every fortnight; they might not contain ‘news’ per se, but will be a way of us actively letting you know if things are on track, rather than leaving you to assume that this is the case.

Social Media posts vs KS Updates

We regularly post photos about our games on social media (Facebook and Instagram), including Hogs of War. For example, we recently shared a photo of us playing a game of Hogs at a local board game café. We’re keen to share our excitement with fans, but understandably, some backers are not on social media and feel that they are missing out on this engagement, which isn’t fair. We’re sorry about this; from now on we will schedule our social media posts about HOW for the same day as our updates/ mini-updates and will include the same information in the KS update to ensure that backers don’t miss any HOW-related content.

Ship Information

A few people have asked for ship information. James addressed this point when it was posed in a comment on update #40, but it wasn’t in the body of an update and therefore isn’t easy to find. James’ answer is quoted below for reference (please note that he is currently away and won’t have access to emails until next week):

"I've had a long think about releasing the boat names/ serials. My opinion on it is that it's a very complicated part of the journey, and that I'm afraid Backers might be overly encouraged when the boat makes good progress- only to be downtrodden if there's a delay at the port unloading stock or if there's a delay with the fulfilment company. Likewise if a boat gets stuck- as we've seen with the US boat- Backers might become downtrodden without realising the fulfilment company is super ready to receive the games and set an internal record for sending out copies within their territory. I think as policy SSG will never release the boat serials / names en masse via an Update for these reasons ... but I'm happy to make them available for any Backers who care enough to email me directly for them ([email protected])."

Answers to Comments on Updates

We can improve our answering of questions when they are posed on updates. Over the next few days we will be going back over any unanswered questions and either (1) pointing backers to a more recent update which has answered their question, or (2) answering the question directly.

Thanks for your support and feedback as always,

Team SSG

Hogs Shipping Update #6 Ships and unloading update and UKGE roundup!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 17, 2022 at 07:08:17 AM

Hello Everyone!

Firstly, sorry that there has been a bit of a gap between updates; until recently there hasn’t been much new information to report as all ships were in transit.

We have now received some more concrete details from our freight and logistics partners, most notably those handling our UK and Asia distribution:

UK:

The UK-bound ship has docked and is being unloaded; games will arrive at Zatu’s warehouse on Monday 20th June and games will be sent to UK backers shortly afterwards.

Asia and Rest of the World:

VFI Asia has received their shipment; we are waiting for an update from them on fulfilment progress but we expect delivery from VFI to backers to begin imminently.

EU:

The EU-bound ship is on the water but has been delayed. We have received an updated docking estimate of Sunday 26th June.

North America:

The North America-bound ship is on the water but has been delayed. We are awaiting an updated docking estimate and will let you know when we receive this.

UKGE

UKGE was fantastic, we really enjoyed meeting those of you who we able to swing by the stand! Setting up was a lot of work, but we were very pleased with how the stand looked in the end. To anyone who ordered a copy of Hogs of War at UKGE, your order will be fulfilled by Zatu as detailed above in the ‘UK’ section.

Thanks as always for your patience; we appreciate that delays in shipping are frustrating (we want the games to arrive ASAP too!); we’ll let you know about any new information as soon as we can.

I hope this helps and have a great week everyone!

- Max

Hogs Shipping Update #5: Final Production Copy Arrives! + Boat Updates + Digital Rulebook
over 2 years ago – Sun, May 15, 2022 at 05:05:00 AM

Good morning, afternoon and evening Hog fans!

First of all, apologies about the slow update. It's been a chaotic month at Stone Sword Games and we simply haven't had the staff capabilities to make sure every job was done on time as we would like it. 

We've had some great developments however- an airmailed copy of Hogs has arrived and it is glorious!

This Update is full of pics of the game- and busy as we are- the team at Stone Sword Games even managed to get a game in. A fantastic 4-player, everyone Vs everyone Hogfest!

Please find more photos and the boat update below.

Highlights of our game were:

• Paul's Orderly jetpacking twice in a turn to the objective and surviving.
• James' Biplane tearing up a storm - using its tail gunner upgrade decimating Hog infantry.
• Chris building his economy around the Guided Missiles Mega Building, losing his Swill Pumps and bankrupting his forces after the missiles decided to whiff twice!
• Maxes' tank resolutely blasting everything out of its path- even with 6 Flame Tokens!

Miniature Photos: 

We are blown away by the level of quality Eastar has managed to provide our little Hogs project with. 

Boat Updates:

VFI Asia Boat: 

Boat left the port on time. 

Has arrived at destination port and been unloaded. 

VFI have received allocated copies.

VFI are coordinating final details for dispatch.   

Updated estimate of fulfilment start: 0-1 weeks. 

UK Boat:

Boat is loaded and in transit.

Boat left the port with a small delay from carrier's expectations.

Will arrive at destination port in 1 - 2 weeks. 

Fulfilment will begin as soon as the games are received by our fulfilment agency. 

Updated estimate of fulfilment start: 2 - 4 weeks. 

(Highly dependent on unload and customs clearance times.)

EU and Europe Boat: 

Boat is loaded and in transit.

Boat left the port with a small delay from carrier's expectations.

Will arrive at destination port in 2 - 3 weeks. 

Fulfilment will begin as soon as the games are received by our fulfilment agency. 

Updated estimate of fulfilment start: 3 - 5 weeks. 

(Highly dependent on unload and customs clearance times.)

USA Boat: 

Boat is loaded / on the water. 

Received an update from the carrier stating clearance to leave port was delayed. This was new information for the team at SSG. Clearance has now been granted but the scale of the delay isn't crystal clear at the moment. 

Carrier has been contacted and we're (eagerly) awaiting a newly updated arrival date. 

Fulfilment will begin as soon as the games are received by our fulfilment agency. 

(Again, this will be highly dependent on unload and customs clearance times.)

I'll be back as soon as I can be with an update on the USA Boat- expecting a direct answer from our carrier next week. 

Rulebook Link: 

The Rulebook is a victim to its own beauty- being a series of gigantic files- but I promised a couple of keen backers a digital version - so check out the Hogs Rulebook here! 

(It's taken 3 hours+ just to compress, merge and then behave!)

Update Final Thoughts:

It's been great to see a labour of love finally arrive and look as good as it does. 

Hogs has been a disaster profit-wise. Shipping cost increases and the fact we've decided not to charge Backers more than they were charged pre-coronavirus has firmly caused us a £40,000-60,000 loss- but it doesn't dampen our spirits because;

•  Hogs represents a huge plethora of lessons learned. Good and bad lessons maybe, but ultimately invaluable lessons. 
• Hogs is the culmination of Paul and myself becoming business partners, then friends and then best friends (and now bosses! Scary times!). 
• Hogs is still our love letter to the PS1 game that kept us entertained for many years- and because of the blood, sweat and tears the Hogs Of War Miniatures Games project has received, Paul and I firmly believe its the best adaption Hogs Of War (PS1) could have ever hoped for - and we hope the fans will feel this too.

It's all become very real and the wait is going to be oh so worth it. 

Much love,

James (and Paul!)