Comments by P L

Lucky You :) I ordered mine online since the only decent Gamestore in my
area closed down a couple of months ago... there's a comicbookstore, but
it's all YuGiOh cards :p

I was thinking about starting a Yahoo Group, since there doesn't seem to
be one yet, and it's free too... Of course a website would be more
flexible, if you can host it & build it.

Speaking of online presence, the Bandai marketeers are keeping a VERY low
profile, aren't they? Companies like Wizkids drum up interest for months
with sneak peeks, forums, downloadable rules etc, but Bandai's website:
'Coming soon'? They must be very sure of their success or, on the
contrary, not care that much (since it's not a big property/brand
anyway)?

That is the funny thing though, usually an internet presence is the glue
that holds a community of gamers together between conventions and special
in-store events, as all the smaller and larger game companies catering to
the 'Hobby market' know well.

Unlike major companies like Hasbro, or Bandai, which cater to the
mainstream market with palette-loads of games shipped to the local
Toys'R'Us, mainly big 'properties' and family classics like Monopoly,
Pictionary, Stratego etc., smaller companies like Wizkids, Decipher etc.
need to foster a community, especially online(!), organize tournaments
etc.,which obviously a large corporation like Bandai isn't used to doing
(even though they talk the talk, as per the interview you mention) I also
remember reading an interview (maybe the same) about them opening a
specific website like that, but one would think that by the time a product
is released, it should be up and running... I guess we'll see on
Saturday.

I just finished reading a book on (non-computer) Game Design and the
rather peculiar american games industry responsible for manufacturing and
distributing these games, and it was full of anecdotes of mismanagement
and odd decisions that make you wonder what were they thinking? It's just
funny to see it ongoing.

Perhaps, because it is aimed at such a 'small' market they don't know
well, Bandai has barely been able to meet the demand with more pre-orders
than expected, and not wanting to overstock, and thus have no interest in
pushing it at this time...

Another example would be Wizkids, who previously ran into major problems
producing _too much_ product, and not finding any buyers, and just
recently largely miscalculated the interest in their latest product,
Pirates of the Spanish Main, after fanning the interest of gamers for
months _online_ (irregardless of wether it's actually a good game), and
ended up well short of the demand. Now some people make quite a bit of
money on eBay while Wizkids looses sales, scrambling to get more product
manufactured.

Anyway, just some idle musings...

Matt,
Hope it will be enjoyable, and give us your impressions afterwards!

Even if my order ships in time, I don't think it'll make it for the
weekend, so I guess I can focus on the Vassalengine adaptation in the
meantime...

At some point it would be interesting to discuss strategy, since you seem
to have quite some experience in chess-style games. Personally, I have a
much better (yet still not very good) understanding of Go strategy than
Shogi, or even western chess, since it was never a game popular in my
circle of friends/gamers.

Hi Jeremy,

I'm already working on a full-fledged online/play-by-email adaptation for
Navia Drapt, using the Vassal engine (www.vassalengine.org, also
vassalengine at Yahoo Groups), as previously announced on this group.
Thanks to the work that went into designing and building my Tori Shogi
adaptation (the japanese chess variant ND seems to be most closely related
to, and available in the file section of the vassalengine group), it's
coming along nicely, and should be available soon.

One concern is obviously whether or not Bandai would tolerate any such
adaptation. Generally the guidelines at the vassalengine group (which has
been used to adapt a number of miniature/board/wargames for quite a while
now) is that as long as there is no official online version, and you make
it clear that it is only for existing owners of the 'real' game, and
non-profit, it may sneak by.

Also they also generally only include the materials strictly necessary for
actual play, and not any reference material, which you are supposed to own
in physical form anyway. Which leads to my question regarding the cards:
as I understand it (my set should arrive any day now, thanks to the *$#%&
online store I unfortunately ordered it from): the Cards are only used for
reference (about the special powers), but not as actual in-Game play
element? Is that correct?

Of course anybody is welcome to chime in on the above matters.

(P.S.: I'm aware that in order to access the Beta vassalengine modules at
the Yahoo group requires registration as member, and I will try to find a
less cumbersome solution when the ND module is ready)

From what I've gathered (esp. if it's true that the manual distinguishes
between painted and unpainted Maseitais), they probably include some
'(ultra)rare' painted Maseitais in the booster packs? I wouldn't be
suprised, since this IS a _Collectible_ Miniatures Game, after all.

I would certainly love to see a picture posted, if anyone here has gotten
one in their packs!? Maybe though those are in league with the Yeti and
the Monster of Loch Ness ;)

As for custom painting doubles, I'm definetely looking forward to that, I
used to enjoy it, but have never been able to keep up with huge number of
paintjobs needed for a certain company's game... at least that won't be
a problem in the foreseeable future with ND :)

P.

Much appreciated, Robert!
As announced in my other post, I finally started my first Yahoo group, in
a surge of, erm, enthusiasm (bad pun, you'll see). Like all groups, it
includes also a gallery, and I already created an album for people to put
pictures of their rare captures in ;) 
If you're up to it, you can upload them there (it's easy to register,
for now I have left membership open)

P.

Announcement: Creation of a Yahoo group for people interested in Navia
Dratp
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/navia_dratp_enthusiasts/

I guess I have too much time on my hands ;) One thing I want to be clear
about is that I don't mean that group to be in some sort of competition
with this one, and I think this one will perhaps remain a little more
mature, especially if ND should ever really catch on.

However, the _free_ benefits of the NDE Yahoo group are, as with every
group there: the searchable archive, the free file storage area (which I
set up to include a folder for peoples' tradelists), picture gallery
(for, among others, their own custom paintjobs people have talked about
here) etc. It should be a nice complement to this one.

I also uploaded my Tori Shogi adaptation, which is more easily accessible
since membership is open for now (unlike the Vassalengine group) If
nothing else, it will allow you to test the Vassalengine/Java setup on
your machine if you are interested in trying out the ND adaptation I plan
on releasing in the future.

P.

Hi Jeremy,
I managed to get the main structure of the game finished, but the most
time-consuming part will be a couple of board element scans and especially
taking digipics of the pieces, since I will finally receive my own set
tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'll have a couple of really busy days ahead of
me, but depending how things go, I might get around to it by Sunday, so
perhaps in the evening, otherwise it'll be maybe a couple of days later
at most.

As far as trading goes, you might try the Yahoo group I set up, maybe the
few members so far will be interested in trading directly too, and
hopefully trustworthy enough. I admit that personally I have little
experience in the matter, but would think that trading one for one any
piece of the same rarity as per Bandai's list (?) should be fairly
straightforward...

P.

Robert, Thanks for the pics. The paintjobs leave room for improvement, like
the Navias, but they are certainly pretty good for (sort of) mass-produced
minis.
It will be interesting to see to what extent they can be improved upon by
painting spares of the 'regular' version myself (and others who have
announced interest in doing so) A folder for pictures of those has already
been set up at the Yahoo group...

As for easy to collect, at one per box (of 12), that would _still_ be a
rather expensive endeavour :| , not counting the chances of getting a
double  in the minimum of 29 boxes required ;) I think I'll forget about
getting a complete set of those...

P.

(I may post a summary of this discussion at the Yahoo group, since at
least one new member has shown up asking about a figure list and such)

Jeremy, thanks for the offer! Since mine are due very soon, and I won't be
able to do anything until then (turning in for the night), it may not be
worth the time and trouble to e-mail back and forth. Should there be
another delay though (over the weekend grrrr) I'll certainly take you up
on your offer. 

I'm looking forward to playing myself, due to the absence of any local
gamers (at the only local gamestore they still think ND is something new
shown for the first time at the GenCon...)

Reminder: there is now a Yahoo group to discuss this game, and much more:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/navia_dratp_enthusiasts/