Good news from the East
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Jul 29, 2021 at 12:57:53 AM
Hello Everyone!
The much-anticipated shipment of plastic components has just arrived at the port in Poland!
The reloading will take up to 10 working days and the rest of the process is pretty straightforward. The components will be taken to the warehouse, where they’ll stay until the printing of the paper elements of 1941: Race to Moscow is completed. After these are printed and dried, the assembly process will take place, plastic components added, and shipments can begin.
The schedule therefore remains the same as in the previous update – the first backers will receive their copies of the game in October.
And since October is a little more than two months away, if you’ve changed your address, now is the perfect time to give us a heads up at [email protected]. Don’t wait until the last moment.
Stay safe!
Srdjan, Adrian & PHALANX Team
Auspicious winds
almost 3 years ago
– Fri, Jun 18, 2021 at 01:09:25 PM
Hello Everyone,
We hope you are keeping well and you are ready for the auspicious news.
We finally managed to deal with a logistical conundrum and get space on a container ship. What's more, our shipment set sail last night and is heading to us in Poland (Central Europe). If you are curious where our transport is at the moment, you will find a link below with its location - from now on you can follow its journey.
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:4910459/mmsi:477333500/imo:9776171/vessel:OOCL_HONG_KONG
As you can see, the plastic components are due to reach us at the end of July. We hope that this is when the components will actually reach us, that the ship will not have any perturbations on the way, and that Somali pirates will be kind to our container ship 😊 This also means that after clearance and reloading, which should take 5-10 working days, our parts will be able to be transported to the warehouse, where they will be waiting for our production window at the printing house (please remember that we use an external printing house, so we are dependent on their deadlines).
If our components arrive on time, the printing process will begin somewhere in mid-August and then we will just have to wait for them to dry, to start packing them. This whole process should take between 30-40 working days, which makes it very feasible for us to start shipping in October.
We know you've been waiting for the game for a long time, but the last year and a half has been affected by delays related to the side-effects of the pandemic, which really could not have been predicted and have affected many industries.
Our development team has made every effort to ensure that the game you receive meets all the requirements of an excellent and challenging game, and as compensation for the extended waiting time we have prepared for you an updated map prepared specifically for the new solo mode. Now only the production and logistics department will be involved in the final stage of the project.
What does this mean for our developers? At the moment they are developing our new game, which is now live on Kickstarter. Coalitions is a game for 1-6 players, focusing on diplomacy and control of the lands of Europe in the Napoleonic era. It's a game where each of the six asymmetric factions is always involved, and all players perform their actions simultaneously - zero downtime!
If this has already piqued your interest, please take a look at the campaign page and find out more! We promise that a visit there will not disappoint you, and the prepared freebies (Kickstarter Exclusive Diplomacy Miniatures and Ancien Regime Expansion) for backers as gratitude for their support will only increase the pleasure that the game brings.
Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phalanxgames/coalitions?ref=cf94p1
Stay safe!
Adrian & PHALANX Team
Cold news from the East
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 03:20:49 PM
Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all well and staying healthy.
We have received updates from our Chinese shipper and they are not very optimistic. The congestion on the railway still hasn't been resolved and the Khorgas loading station has its hands full, while we still haven't been able to get on a container and send components on their way. We have informed you that shipments to backers will take place in October 2021 and we hope that this date will not change. In the meantime, we are looking for alternative transport routes - in case of any changes or new information, we will keep you informed.
The shipper has informed us that they have sent us a shipment of plastic components and mouldings by courier. For now we have only received photos, but when we receive the product we will try to show you in more detail.
Stay safe!
Adrian & PHALANX Team
A logistical puzzle on a hard level
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 11:01:32 PM
Hello Everyone!
I hope you are all keeping safe and remain in good health.
Finally we managed to get detailed information from the forwarder. It turns out that the shipment of our components has moved back even further and still has not left, which is not very good information either for us or for you. We thought that packing would take place soon and that shipments to backers would be made at the end of May/beginning of June. Apparently, these were overly optimistic expectations.
Due to the lack of metals, manufacturers still do not have the material to build new containers, so the few that are present are being used for transportation. In addition, Chinese New Year caused another delay, which also affected our transport. With too many things being postponed from one day to the next and the queues on the railways still very long, it is difficult for us to predict whether we will still be able to start transporting components this month, or when next month's transport could start - our freight forwarder is also having trouble with this. So much is happening and so much is changing from day to day.
This is what has forced us into an uneasy decision. We have to postpone shipping to backers until October 2021. It may be possible to start shipments sooner. This time we don't want to repeat the situation where we have to postpone shipping from month to month for external reasons. We know that hope deceives, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that this will be the final postponement of the shipment date to backers. Should anything change, we will keep you updated.
We are currently testing a new solo variant (with a revised map that will be on the other side of the board).
Stay safe!
Adrian & PHALANX Team
Ice covered railroads
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Feb 11, 2021 at 12:02:42 PM
Hello Everyone!
The game has been produced. All the components have been manufactured, and most of them are already waiting in the warehouse of the company that will complete the games. What is holding us up is the delivery of the components made in China. This is very unfortunate.
In recent updates we have reported that the logistics industry is experiencing huge queues, delays and shortages of equipment that prevent transportation from functioning properly. Last week we were informed that there have been some issues with the shipping of the components. We have been investigating the situation over the last few days and have been in contact with our forwarding agent - it appears that the situation is now very serious.
There is a shortage of transport space at loading and unloading stations and the queues are enormous. All companies - including electronics and clothing giants - want to be in time for the Chinese New Year. There is also a shortage of people to carry out the work while maintaining health and safety. And, more importantly, there is a shortage of containers for transporting goods. There is serious congestion on the route from China to Europe, with waiting times for transport having increased by 50-90%, and this is not helped by the fact that loading stations have reduced capacity, further delaying the process. The city of Khorgas, which lies on the route of our transport, is also facing such circumstances, which may affect the date of our delivery.
The freight forwarder has informed us that, although everything has been ready for a long time, our shipment has again been moved backwards in the shipping queue. We now know that the shipment will not leave China before Chinese New Year. This means that our planned and agreed packing will not take place at the end of February or even in March. Optimistically, we can expect the game to be completed in April, with the first shipments starting to reach backers in late April/early May.
Link: https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/kazakhstan-china-border-delays-as-rail-freight-hedge-wobbles/
We are very sorry about that. We are unfortunately hit but is happening at the moment in the world, in the logistics and transport industry. We can only hope that everything will soon be back to normal and that we can return to our working as we used to.
Link: https://www.pymnts.com/news/international/2021/eu-supply-chain-bottleneck-raises-prices-hurts-retailers/
We have managed to get information about shipping to the United Kingdom. The good news is that our product is mostly made in Europe, with only a few components coming from China. We won’t bore you with all the details here - the important thing is that shipping to the United Kingdom will run just as it would have before Brexit, with no additional costs for the backers. Some good news at least.
We know that the additional months of waiting are far from ideal for all of us. The game should have hit backers some time ago, but the global situation, which is negatively impacting many industries, has scuppered our original plans. But we would like to reward you for your patience during the months of waiting, so as soon as we received the message from the shipper we decided to prepare something special for backers - the game board will now be double-sided and on the other side there will be a new layout enabling players to play the game in an improved solo mode. This will require the creation of the board from scratch, but as it will be developed locally we will be able to do it in time for the arrival of the components from China.
The game will be sent out to backers in June 2021.
Stay safe!
Adrian & PHALANX Team
