My FLGS (
Greenfield Games) has asked me to be in charge of Tanks for them, in terms of running events, updating them on incoming products, and teaching the game to those interested, but we are almost entirely unable to run OPS events
Why?
Because although all currently orderable (according to our distributor) kits were ordered months ago, we have only received
kit #3.
With kit #3 came a sheet listing the contents, but it actually listed the contents for month #1. We did NOT, for example, receive a map of Normandy.
That might have been alright (if not great) if we had also received the challenge coins mentioned
here. We didn't.
What actually came in the kit:
- Several sheets of punch-out terrain, featuring new bocage and mine fields, hurray!
- The sheet explaining the OPS kits that lists the contents of month 1, not month 3 as though they were in the package.
- A good-sized pack of promo oversize tank cards. All Panzer IVs.
- A pile of beautiful acrylic movement tread tokens. All 1s.
- Platoon sheets for organized play (blank army lists)
- A league records sheet for organized play (is this supposed to also be a signup sheet? Unclear)
- A rules sheet detailing the mechanics for mine fields, bocage, and the team-based Encounter game type. These rules are, frankly, missing a lot of information. They're certainly not robust enough for me to be comfortable running events with prizes on the line using them.
- The Hit the Beach Poster that shows the OPS month 1 terrain and implies strongly that the store has it. "Play for the oversized Tank Cards and acrylic movement arrows."
We were very happy to receive the kit, as it vastly expands the basic game and gave us some great prizes to give out if we do end up running something more formal, but we're lacking the full prizes that the poster promises we have, as well as the challenge coins that the website promises we have.
SO. Some questions:
Did the challenge coins actually come in month 1 or even month 2, and we were expected to hold onto them to award in month 3?
Are OPS kits 1 and 2 completely unavailable? If so, will they, or any of their contents become available in the future?
I ordered the terrain pack from CoolStuffInc, which seems to just be the OPS terrain available to actual customers (as it should be, let's be real). It's becoming clear at this point that that product never really existed. Does this mean that GF9 won't be releasing that terrain again in any form other than print and play?
The guidelines that come with kit #3 talk about loose ways that challenge coins and other prizes can be awarded. Does this mean that the structure for organized play can be loose, without worrying about censure from GF9? Could, for instance, a group play with house rules? Unpainted tanks? Print and play terrain? etc.
Was it a mistake that we received kit #3 at all, without having #1 or #2? Is it designed to be run alone?
Is anyone else having similar problems?
Thanks for any feedback, guys! We really love Tanks and want to support it as best we can, but this whole OPS structure seems backwards. Seems like it would be much more sensible to release terrain packs available to the public and then just have the store kits be the promo items and tournament sheets. We'd have more product to sell, people could play with the new terrain outside of stores as soon as it came out, and we wouldn't be scrambling to find nonexistent store-only kits to run organized games.