Pocket Rulebook - Please Make Available Separately

[Jeff Cope]

I can't afford a Fleet Box, nor do I really, when it comes down to it, need a Fleet Box. But, I (and I'm sure other players) would love to have a copy of the Pocket Rulebook.

Are they any plans to make this book available separately? I know this is a potentially tricky issue as you wouldn't want that to cut into sales of the full-size rulebook. But, you have produced pocket sized books in the past for other games...

I am absolutely planning on getting the rulebook, but sure would be nice to have a pocket sized one to take along to games.

 

[Builder]

I would say to Mongoose to not produce the pocket rule separately. The availibilty of that would really hurt sales of the main rulebook among those who feel they already know the fluff of the Star Fleet universe and so wouldn't buy it.

 

[Poi]

It's my understanding that it's not the full rulebook, and doesn't feature all the fleets. Useful to get started, but you'll need the full book.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

You could always check around for a second hand sale of the pocket rulebook. There are probably quite a few people getting multiple fleet boxes who don't need a handful of them, and they might just decide to sell or pass them on to others via forums or whatever.

 

[BFalcon]

You could always check around for a second hand sale of the pocket rulebook. There are probably quite a few people getting multiple fleet boxes who don't need a handful of them, and they might just decide to sell or pass them on to others via forums or whatever.

More like to find them on ebay, to be honest, when word gets around.

I'd be very surprised not to see broken-up fleet boxes appear on there... it's what normally seems to happen.

 

[starbreaker]

You could always check around for a second hand sale of the pocket rulebook. There are probably quite a few people getting multiple fleet boxes who don't need a handful of them, and they might just decide to sell or pass them on to others via forums or whatever.

More like to find them on ebay, to be honest, when word gets around.

I'd be very surprised not to see broken-up fleet boxes appear on there... it's what normally seems to happen.

Looking at the (insanely high) cost of individual blisters (or boxes, or however they'll be packed) you can bet on broken-up fleet boxes on ebay if the game catches on at all. A fleet box is less than half the cost of buying its components seperately - stores and e-dealers will be underselling Mongoose with ease just by marking individual ships down to $10 or so and peddling the micro-rules and shuttles, and still make a profit.

Not quite clear on why Mongoose doesn't want to sell single ships (something to do with mold layout, maybe?) but that's what their packaging is going to cause.

 

[Ben2]

I imagine it's because

a) people then buy the fleet boxes
b) distributors don't want to deal with blisters/bags
c) less product codes for distributors to deal with
d) less time required for packing at the factory.

There's no discount for the smaller ships, and a substantial discount for the larger ones. This means picking up blisters of frigates makes no difference to you, but if you want light cruisers you sort of get steered towards squadron boxes.

I anticipate people coming up with interesting conversions to use all the spare dreadnoughts, as if you want a heavy cruiser, light cruiser and frigate for whatever race you are immediately buying the squadron box.

 

[Lincolnlog]

Yes and unfortunately the Ortega's didn't come in the fleet or squadron boxes, so I purchased 1 pack of those. The website doesn't indicate whther there is one or two in the pack. I'm hoping two.

I know this would never happen, but I would love to get one of the pocket rule books PDF. I know, then they could be sent to everyone.

I ordered both minis and rules, but gotta tell you they could ship the minis in may and I would be okay with that, but expected the ruls to ship by Nov 30th, then Dec 5th, no this week which could mean anytime up till Saturday which means won't get them until next week..... :? Sorry, pacing like expectant father, guess you know I'm really excited about this.

 

[Ben2]

Where did you order them from? I know if you are in the UK we've got to wait for them to get here from the States. I don't know how distribution is handled in the US, but people in the UK will hopefully start getting parcels end of this week, early next week.

 

[Lincolnlog]

Order from the US and as I understand it, shipped from the US. So shouldn't take more than a few days once it's in the mail or UPS or whatever.

 

[JMPayneJ]

I imagine it's because

a) people then buy the fleet boxes
b) distributors don't want to deal with blisters/bags
c) less product codes for distributors to deal with
d) less time required for packing at the factory.

There's no discount for the smaller ships, and a substantial discount for the larger ones. This means picking up blisters of frigates makes no difference to you, but if you want light cruisers you sort of get steered towards squadron boxes.

And I can't figure out what the business decision is that makes parting the Fleet box so much more economical then buying the few ships I need. I bought my $150.00 preorder, but there's a few more ships I need. But I can't justify dropping $45.00 for three ships.

 

[andypalmer]

The pocket rulebooks will be available on eBay soon enough as players buy multiple fleet boxes and sell their spares. I suspect some stores may do the same if they choose to break up fleet boxes to sell the ships individually. See Warhammer and A&A: War at Sea games for similar models.

I agree that it doesn't make sense for Mongoose to sell the pocket rulebook separately, and natural market factors will limit pocket rulebooks sales to just that subset of people.

 

[Jean]

Pricing in some ways comes down to the difference in packaging and assembling, from what I have been told.

Blister packs or clamshells are some of the most expensive packaging materials. Boxes are pretty cheap.

When a box of ships is assembled, then (at ADB) we pull the ships and plunk them in the box, assembly style. Six ships isn't that much and it's sort of mechanical in some ways.

When a person orders a single ship, then the blister pack and the correct "stuff" have to be matched to the correct ship. It isn't a case of plunk (x 6) in a box. It's a case of gathering stuff up and finding the right box of ships on the shelves.

Before I visited Amarillo, I had an entirely different thought pattern about how things worked in the warehouse. Actually seeing what happened back there made a real difference in my understanding of the business end of things.

Jean

 

[Da Boss]

As noted its unlikey - the mini rulebook was one of the many good things about the most recent GW editions of WFB and W40K and has never been released seperatly for reasons noted above......

ebay or similar looks your best bet

however MGP may see things differently