At least I am busy training for the french SWM championship in 2 weeks .

But it is really disappointing that we have absolutely nothing but a picture with some shadows on it to discuss.

It is actually 7 weeks. I predict a preview this week. And I foresee it on a... Wednsday.

I'd be happier with it on Wednesday. I'm out of the house on Thursday evenings so when they do Thursday previews I don't get to see them until I get home that night. Wednesdays are open for me so I can get them as soon as they're up.

I thought the Wednesday update last week was only because Erik was leaving on vacation so he finished it up before he left. I'd guess next weeks would be missing or late (rather than early) depending on how long he's on vacation.

When did he say he was going on vacation?

I saw his post. Not sure where, though.

I agree it seems like all the momentum has drained over the past few weeks. Previews would jump start things again.

Yet again we have lack of communication from WOTC. A simple, "Previews will be up on xxxx date," surely wouldn't go amiss? We are the customers after all and I doubt I'm the only one who has spent thousands of pounds with their company.

But the whole of gaming seems to be in a lull despite all the new games coming out. Maybe I'm just out of the loop at the moment? Or maybe folks are just waiting to see what happens with D&D 4th?

Our venue is completely dead right now. No one is showing up for tourneys because the older people have all the pieces they need and the younger kids have parents glued to TVs and radios for Husker football.

Saturday i brought my two girls and we ended up playing a practice game between them and got a SSB booster for prizes ($15 instead of $22).

Yeah I am hoping this set pulls me out of the funk I have been in with the game for teh last few weeks. Tournies at the LGS have grown boring. What is the point of seeing the same 150 point squads week after week.

In fact I have been thinking about starting playing Axis and Allies miniatures till the new Star Wars set comes out.

Like Sithdragon said people here are also have everythign they need so there is very little trading going on.

Play 200 point squads instead?

Seriously, we do something different every single week. We do Proxy Sealed, we do faction pure, we do dream team (no faction restrictions). We change points between 100, 120, 150, and 200. Just gotta do different stuff from week to week. Now that GenCon has passed, there's really no need to play straight up 150 for the foreseeable future. I'd be happy not playing regular 150 at all for the next year, or at least until they announce the events for GenCon '08.

Part of the problem was that the LGS set up the tournies with not really talking with anyone that plays about it. I think in November they are going to change some things around a bit.

We were, or I was, having a good time playing different point squads. Since the week after GenCon we have been rolling 150 squads though.

One version of Dynamic Dou that we would close the night with was to run 6-8 players on Nar Shaddaa. Each person rolls a d20 and the player with the highest get to choose the rooms he starts in. It is a good time even if yuo get shot up early.

We had 10 people in our tourney this past Saturday. I think that is a record. We did 200 pts. only 1 Unique. It was fun, even though I got pummeled by Sidious and droids. I finished 4th, but only because I did well in my other games.

So, I don't think gaming is in a lull...at least not in my area.

I am a big fan of monthly campaigns if you are playing each week.

That is one thing (and probably the ONLY thing) Wizkids did well.

Each week there is a specific plot thread and objective. The results of each week build upon one another.

I have a custom scenario in this section (the tech war) that is in-line with that.

I actually have had trouble getting traction with SWM at my LGS lately as well... we had regularly gotten 8-10 for weeks... now we can't even get 4. I even tried to get folks interested in a GVL style league... nada.

FU can't come fast enough...

I would highly recommend having a talk with the owner of the LGS, or whichever employee sets things up. At both the LGS that I play at, we the players set the schedule and decide what we want to do. At one of the stores, for the most part, it is one guy who always makes the schedule. But this was because that guy went up to the store owner and basically just started chatting, giving some ideas and showing interest in helping organize things. Eventually, the store owner pretty much just let him discuss future events with the rest of us, and then we write it on the calendar. The store owner usually checks it over, but I don't think he's ever had a problem with how we set things up.

Part of it is paying attention to your play group though too. One of the LGS I play at we do strictly DCI type events, with perhaps once a month we do a more special build. However, even when we do special builds (like no factions or something) we still typically play pretty competitively. The other LGS, is MUCH more laid back, and we usually only do one DCI event per month (mostly to help keep the store rated as a DCI venue). The people who regularly play at this other store are much less competitive and usually just want to play around. Half the time I show up at that store we all end up deciding to play something different than we had planned (nobody feels like playing 100, so we play 200 instead....or HaloClix as one guy and I did this past weekend ).

It can be really tricky keeping people interested in the lull between the sets. I know we had some similar problems at the 'fun' LGS leading up to Alliance and Empire. Honestly, probably about 50% of the play group at that store is different from before A&E. It's just how it goes. I think though with the new game, and the TV show next year, plus the new RPG stuff, most places shouldn't have too much trouble drawing in new people.

I never really understood what all the secrecy was about anyway. Why can't we get 20 previews for all the weeks between sets? Why only 7? I understand some down time right after a set is released, but posting a picture goes a long way to enticing new players and encouraging current players to save money. We'll know all the stats the day of release, so what's wrong with knowing earlier? I know this won't get seen by anyone that can do anything, but I share the frustration of nothing new to get excited over. Fingers crossed for Thursday preview and another Bothan Transmission soon.

I can honestly say I wouldn't mind one bit if another wholesaler in Spain or wherever were to accidentally release the set early again

I want to know something, but not everything. The Spain thing was nice for discussion when it happened, but it left a big lull until the set was released. It also killed any real interest in the Wizards previews. All they meant was you could talk about an actual piece instead of a hypothectial one with the same stats.

Well just the Huges then. Forget the stats, I want to know what the Huge minis are so at least I can decide how many boosters to order.

When they had the leak with A&E I said at the time that I must be getting old because I don't have the excitement in me anymore. The waiting to know just bugs me. I've studied marketing which actually doesn't help as it means I instantly look at any marketing ploy as just that, a marketing ploy. I know pretty much what I want to buy, so forget the song & dance and just give me the product, in a plain paper bag if necessary.

*hmph* re-reading what I've just typed makes me even less excited. I swear, if WOTC don't give us something this week I could just lose interest altogether.