© claw for Other Wise, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments

John Bohrer has kindly consented to allow me to act as a broker for this year’s Winsome Games’ Essen Collection. The 2008 Essen Collection is only available as a set of 4 game titles. The games cannot be ordered individually. Quoting Winsome Game’s release materials:

1. Eddie Robin’s “Gulf, Mobile & Ohio” is an innovative new boardgame with no luck factor. This game takes place in the Southern US 1830-1850 where many small and large railroads sprang up, starting in 1830. Players charter railroads, build track, sell common stock and vie for connections in cities with other railroads. This game is for 3-5 players for about 1 hour.

2. Harry Wu’s “Preußische Ostbahn” introduces an innovative new Player Order mechanism. Preußische Ostbahn is set in old Germany, 1840-1870. Eight historic Railroads create the network that bound the Germanies together. Each has a special characteristic, based upon its history. This game is for 3-5 players for about 90 minutes.

3. The Age of Steam: Texas, Oklahoma & New Mexico Expansion happens in the Wild West. This expansion introduces two new Actions: Ranching and Cattle Drive and it also includes 32 Cattle cubes. The expansion is for 3-6 players, for about 2 hours.

4. Harry Wu’s Wabash Cannonball: Erie Railroad expansion adds another railroad to Harry’s original Wabash Cannonball game. The Erie Railroad had an important influence in the history of this period of American railroad expansion. The expansion uses the base Wabash Cannonball game and allows the same number of players; it takes about the same time as the base game, maybe a few minutes longer.

If you are local to San Jose California and can collect the game directly from me, please use the following payment button to order the 2008 Essen Collection (US$130 + $5 S&H):

If you are elsewhere in the continental USA or Canada, please select the following payment button to order the 2008 Essen Collection (US$130 + US$15 S&H):

For buyers in the rest of the world, please select the following payment button to order the 2008 Essen Collection (US$130 + US$25 S&H):

I only have access to 100 copies, total. It is likely they will sell out quickly. If you are going to order 3 or more copies and would like to save on S&H, please place multiple orders above and then contact me on BoardGameGeek (user: clearclaw) or via email at my PayPal account address so that I may calculate the correct S&H for you and refund the difference.

The games will be packed and shipped by the most economical methods available. Orders for foreign countries with known package/postal problems will be heavily taped. Customs forms will identify the contents as media. Please be aware that the clamshell polystyrene cases may be damaged in shipping. This is a risk of the economical shipping method used. I will be shipping the games in a padded envelope but some postal services can be surprisingly rough. Shipping in a more protective box would more than double the S&H costs and due to lack of interest in previous brokered orders, is not available for this collection. I will have a small number of replacement cases available for shipping damages. I will receive and ship the games some time after the Essen trade fair in October. Estimated shipping time from here to your door is 7-10 days within the continental USA and 2-3 weeks for international addresses. Progress and updates for the group order will be made as comments to this post. Please subscribe to the RSS feed linked in the bar to the right if you’d like to keep up to date.

THE ORDER LINE IS NOW CLOSED.

© claw for Other Wise, 2008. | Permalink | 12 comments

The P100 for Pampas Railroads P100 sold out and still the orders kept on coming in! Winsome Games has kindly agreed to do yet another reprint, this time for at least 50 more copies. Due to the smaller print run, the additional commission to the BoardgameGeek marketplace and (frankly) the larger than previously estimated effort level these pre-orders take from me, there’s been a small US$5 increase in the S&H fees over the previous P100. The game order will be placed with Winsome Games when we reach 45 fully paid orders. As before, if the orders are still coming in thick and fast, I’ll delay placing the other until the order rate subsides.

If you are local to San Jose California and can collect the game directly from me, please use the following payment button to order Pampas Railroads (US$40 + US$5 S&H):

If you are elsewhere in the continental USA or Canada, please select the following payment button to order Pampas Railroads (US$40 + US$15 S&H):

For buyers in the rest of the world, please select the following payment button to order Pampas Railroads (US$40 + US$20 S&H):

The S&H charges are sufficient to cover up to two (2) copies. If you’d like to order 3 or 4 copies, please make multiple purchases. If you would like to order more than 4 copies, please contact me on BoardGameGeek (user: clearclaw) for specific S&H costs for such a larger order.

Note: Like the P100 edition, this reprint will also come with a standard linear income track rather than the first edition’s clunky 0-10 track with x1 and x10 markers for each company. This reprint will not come with crayons. Winsome Games has run out of crayons. You will need to supply your own drawing implements. Do not use Crayola or similar children’s crayons or dry-erase/whiteboard pens as they will stain the board. I strongly recommend using wet-erase/overhead pens. They are readily available at most office supply stores. Most wet-erase pen clean up perfectly with a little water. Another choice is china pencils, usually available from cooking supply stores. TEST THE PENS YOU WILL USE ON THE BACK OF THE MAP FIRST!

I will report progress on the collected payments toward the required total in the Pampas Railroads forums on BoardGameGeek. As soon as enough orders are collected I’ll send them to John Bohrer at Winsome games, he’ll do the reprint and send the games to me and I’ll send them out to all you lucky players! Of course if progress is too slow and the money simply isn’t appearing fast enough I’ll cancel the order line and reverse all the transactions — which would be a real shame. Pampas Railroads is a great game and deserves to be far more widely known and played.

© claw for Other Wise, 2008. | Permalink | No comment

Given the amazingly fast response and surge of interest in the Pampas Railroads P100, John Bohrer at Winsome games has generously offered to print Pampas Railroads before we get to the full 100 orders! As of this posting we have 76 pre-orders. Now to get this great game printed!

If you are local to San Jose California and can collect the game directly from me, please use the following payment button to order Pampas Railroads (US$40):

If you are elsewhere in the continental USA or Canada, please select the following payment button to order Pampas Railroads (US$40 + US$10 S&H):

For buyers in the rest of the world, please select the following payment button to order Pampas Railroads (US$40 + US$15 S&H):

S&H charges are sufficient to cover up to two (2) copies. If you’d like to order more than two (2) copies at a time please contact me on BoardGameGeek (user: clearclaw) for specific S&H costs for larger orders.

Note: The reprint will not come with crayons. Winsome Games has run out of crayons. You will need to supply your own drawing implements. Do not use Crayola or similar children’s crayons or dry-erase/whiteboard pens as they will stain the board. I strongly recommend using wet-erase/overhead pens. They are readily available at most office supply stores. Wet-erase pen clean up perfectly with a little water. Another choice is china pencils, usually available from cooking supply stores. That said, TEST THE PENS YOU WILL USE ON THE BACK OF THE MAP FIRST!

I will report progress on the collected payments toward the required total in the Pampas Railroads forums on BoardGameGeek. As soon as enough money is collected I’ll send it to John Bohrer at Winsome games, he’ll do the reprint and send the games to me and I’ll send them out to all you lucky players! Of course if progress is too slow and the money simply isn’t appearing fast enough I’ll cancel the order line and reverse all the transactions — which would be a real shame. Pampas Railroads is a great game and deserves to be far more widely known and played — we played last night and had a wonderful time.

© claw for Other Wise, 2008. | Permalink | No comment

In order to help out I offered to collect foreign orders late last year, make a single large group order from Winsome Games and then ship them the individual games overseas when they arrived. Ultimately the thirteen (13) copies were purchased in that order set.

However interest in further copies overseas continued to mount, aided by my unending praise for the game on BoardGameGeek.. Finally I offered to run an other foreign group order — and the orders just poured in. Winsome Games ran out of stock copies. A reprint was scheduled. More orders poured in. Finally I had to call a halt at 40 copies of Wabash Cannonball. And orders and requests for copies are continuing to come in!

I’ve now sent a nice big US Post Office Money order to John Bohrer at Winsome games and am expecting a big box of 40 copies of Wabash Cannonball to arrive on my doorstep any day now. Then will come the tedious task of filling out 40 customs slips and packing them all up to ship out. I must be an idiot.

But then I read about the simple wonder and discovery that some of the foreign buyers are experiencing, and it is all worth it. Wabash Cannonball is a great game.

© claw for Other Wise, 2008. | Permalink | No comment