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Frosthaven Preorders (Q1 2023)

Created by Isaac Childres

Euro-inspired dungeon crawling sequel to the 2017 smash-hit Gloomhaven

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Frosthaven play surface books (and more) on Backerkit
9 months ago – Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 11:53:35 AM

Hello! I am back with another Frosthaven update to give you some important news! In case you weren't aware, I wanted to let you know Cephalofair Games is currently live on Backerkit with the Gloomhaven Grand Festival. We're offering loads of different cool stuff like new games and miniatures, but I thought you might be particularly interested in one of our offered add-ons: the Frosthaven playsurface book

This is something that I promised we would offer at some point, and it has finally come to fruition: a way to play all 138 scenarios from Frosthaven directly on the books themselves (just like Jaws of the Lion) to minimize setup and components. This is four spiral-bound books of roughly 100 pages each, and each is sized to fit snugly in the Frosthaven box, so they are quite large. By employing four books, we've actually improved on the Jaws of the Lion design because each book only ever contributes one page to the scenario, so you never have to cross over a spiral bound during play.

We are very nearly finished with the design of these and are about ready to send them to the printer, along with the second printing of Frosthaven, with the intention of delivering to backers in the October-November time frame, so you won't even have to wait too long to get them. And if you want to know more about how these playsurface books work, I just wrote a Backerkit update about it!

The easiest way to pick the books up is to back the project at the $1 (slay a bug) level, and then select the playsurface books as an add-on.

OR! You could pledge for $15 and get our newest title, Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs

This is a (comparatively) tiny, 100-card Gloomhaven game that features streamlined versions of the starting 6 characters fighting their way through a brand-new 20-scenario campaign. It is a solo game that can be played in 20 minutes, so it really is the most convenient way to get a quick Gloomhaven fix no matter where you are. Here's the trailer we created for it, which I can't really prepare you for, so you should just watch it. 

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the plethora of miniatures we have available for all Gloomhaven and Frosthaven titles. If you want to spice up your copy of Frosthaven, this is another way to do it. Just be prepared: it is a lot of miniatures to replace all the monsters, bosses, and summons in the game! 

And there is lots of other cool stuff on offer over on Backerkit, like Gloomhaven: Second Edition and the Gloomhaven RPG, but I'll leave you to explore that on your own...

Oh no, wait. Sorry, I lied. I did want to point out one more thing to you: we released two new custom Frosthaven scenarios for the Backerkit campaign as well! We filmed a couple in-person Frosthaven playthroughs with Penny Arcade and Pixel Circus, and I created custom scenarios for them that were released along with the videos.

Here is the Penny Arcade scenario (which I am particularly proud of), and the video of the playthrough: 

 And here is the Pixel Circus scenario and accompanying video: 

 There are so many more videos and information about all sorts of cool stuff on the Backerkit page, so please go check it out at your leisure. (Though I'll also note we are nearing the end of the campaign!)

Okay, yeah, I hope to see you over on Backerkit, but either way, have a great weekend!

Roll Credits
10 months ago – Fri, Jun 09, 2023 at 05:26:18 PM

Hello! This is Isaac stepping in for the final golden update at the end of the rainbow, but before we get to all that, I want to throw it over to Chris to bring in a final sum-up of fulfillment. He just got back from UKGE, where he had a great time getting to meet backers and showing off some new cards and character art for the recently announced Gloomhaven: Second Edition! Here's Chris:

Thanks for your patience as our support team worked through all the support tickets we received. We’re still working on a few pending tickets, but have worked through the majority of them and are seeing faster response times as we continue to get closer to being fully caught up!

We’re just about done with every fulfillment region. For specific updates, please check your region below.

North America/Canada/Mexico: KS Fulfillment and 2022 Preorders 100% complete!

Europe/Rest of the world: KS Fulfillment and 2022 Preorders 100% complete! Support has been notified of some orders that have been returned due to them being unclaimed or having an address error. If your tracking number shows that your package was returned to Germany, please contact support at the email below.

United Kingdom: KS Fulfillment and 2022 Preorders 100% complete!

Australia/New Zealand: KS Fulfillment and 2022 Preorders 100% complete!

Asia: KS Fulfillment excluding FoldedSpace Map Archive, LaserOx organizers and Frosthaven Pin Sets 100% complete. These 4 items and 2022 Preorders have all been shipped to their regional hubs for delivery. If you haven’t received an email with tracking information by the end of next week, please contact support at the email below.

If you haven’t received your order or tracking for your order, please contact [email protected]. In order to help speed up the process, please provide either your Kickstarter backer number or BackerKit email address in the body of the email. Please do not send a Kickstarter message, as this is not a reliable enough communication tool, nor does it give us enough information to service your pledge or questions. Thank you!

---

Thank you Chris! Chris and the customer support team have done an amazing job tackling the monumental amount of support requests that have come in, and they have been able to cut response times down considerably. We will of course continue to be on top of any support requests that come in and will be diligent in getting those last few items to backers in Asia, but doing those things doesn't require updating the rest of you anymore, so I've decided it is finally time to close the book on this Kickstarter project and proclaim this update the last official update!

First off, I need to thank Price for the unbelievable amount of hard work he has put in on the back end handling manufacturing and shipping for the largest fulfillment project our industry has ever seen. Plus he wrote almost all of the updates for the past year to keep you informed on all the goings on. A truly Herculean effort.

Thinking back now, it has been over three years since this project launched, back at the beginning of the pandemic, and we certainly have gone through lots of ups and downs in that time! Sometimes we got things wrong, and sometimes we didn't communicate as well as we could have, but I'd like to think we got a lot of things right and tried to keep the lines of communication as open as we could, with updates at least every other week for the past three years.

I mean, this is update #136! That's a lot of updates! I hope you had a good time following this project, and of course, most of all, I hope you are enjoying your copy of Frosthaven. I think, in the end, the vision really did come together and we were able to create something truly incredible. Moreover, it was a creation that wouldn't have been possible without you. More than just the financial support, your contributions throughout this project, both in the design contests and in the comments, helped shape Frosthaven into what it has become, which is something that I and everyone here at Cephalofair Games is immensely proud of.

Thanks for coming on this journey with us! The last three years have been crazy for everyone, but I am grateful for this project and being able to spend that time creating and shipping this game out to you. I hope you will join us on our next adventure, which is launching on BackerKit in 11 days, but either way, thank you for your faith in this project, and may Frosthaven bring you much joy!

We're back from GAMA & Fulfillment Updates
11 months ago – Fri, Apr 28, 2023 at 12:40:12 PM

Happy Fulfillment Friday!

I hope everyone is doing well this Friday and heading into a weekend with some plans of rest, relaxation, and maybe - hopefully - some frosty Mercenary work!

As stated in the last fulfillment updates - General Fulfillment is completed for the following regions: United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

We have some brief updates on other regions below, but first we wanted to share what we’ve been up to this week as the Cephalofair Team is just returning home from GAMA Expo where we had the privilege of showing off Frosthaven to hundreds of retailers from across the country, and world.

-What is GAMA and GAMA EXPO?-

GAMA Expo isn’t probably a well known, or first to mind, convention for most hobbyists as it’s not a public or consumer facing show. But that doesn’t make it any less important! See GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) is the tabletop industry’s primary trade association and non-profit organization. It’s also the parent organization behind Origins Game Fair since 1977.

GAMA EXPO, Reno NV

With memberships for Publishers, Creators, Wholesalers, Retailers, Media, and Producers/Manufacturers, the goal of the organization these days is to help all of us collaborate better and, more importantly, keep expanding the hobby together for everyone. Why? Because board gaming is awesome and the whole world needs to know it!

GAMA’s vision is simple: “A game on every table, a table for everyone.” and their mission statement elaborates further:

“The essential nexus for new and experienced game industry professionals, GAMA serves to promote its members' common interest - increasing the adoption of and engagement with hobby games. GAMA fosters networking, sharing of best practices and innovations, and the pooling of resources toward common goals. GAMA achieves this through hosting trade and consumer shows, industry events, providing an information and resource hub, marketing activities, and interfacing with other trade organizations in adjoining industries.

Personally, this is one of my favorite shows of the year for planning and business development as it gives us an opportunity to meet with so many of our peers, partners, and associates that help make our games successful and company stronger as a whole.

Price & Ross share Cephalofair projects (known & unknown) to a room full of retail partners.

This year we had the honor of hosting Cephalofair’s FIRST Retailer Panel for upwards of 75+ brick and mortar stores across the country and world. Coordinated by Cephalofair’s Marketing Manager Ross Thompson. Ross and I had the opportunity to share the story and hurdles behind getting Frosthaven from Crowdfunding to their store shelves - as well as promote and tease our upcoming crowdfunding projects announced and unannounced. This was a lot of fun, and personally meant a lot to me to see and hear that every retailer in attendance not only carried Cephalofair and Gloomhaven products, but the vast majority were backers of this project as well.

I have very fond memories as a kid visiting the hobby store in my mall and ogling the big box fantasy miniature sets (Warhammer Fantasy) and roleplaying sets and accessories (Dungeons & Dragons) despite not having the required allowance or social group to engage in those hobbies. It means the world to not only be in this line of work now, but to have played a direct role in helping Cephalofair put one of the absolute largest (and heaviest!) gaming products on those same store shelves. A tremendous THANK YOU to all of our retail backers for having faith in Cephalofair and helping the world of Gloomhaven continue to grow!

Ross, Chris, & VR Distribution talk FROSTHAVEN & new GLOOMHAVEN RPG & MINIATURE LINES!

Also a big thank you to Cephalofair’s Sales Manager, Chris Kessler, who did a fantastic job running the Cephalofair booth - engaging with retailers old and new wishing to place Frosthaven restock orders and letting them know about our upcoming projects and retailer pledge levels. And also to Cephalofair’s Director of Art & Design, BJ Hensley, for holding down the creative fort back in “the office” (we all work remotely here at Cephalofair, heh) making sure tons of new and exciting high quality art, graphics, sculpts, and writing continued coming through from our talented creative contractors, allowing three-fifths of our team to go out and promote them in advance! (Really…..you all don’t even KNOW what you’re in for yet *insert maniacal laugh*)

Cephalofair's BJ Hensley & sculptor Sarah Dahlinger are up to electrifying shenanigans...

So yeah. We’re all tired, but feeling INCREDIBLY elated about the success & reception we received on Frosthaven at GAMA and the new projects we’re working on behind the scenes.

Thanks for letting me share! 🙂

And now back to your regularly scheduled…

-FULFILLMENT UPDATE-

Europe & Rest of the World:

While we’d expected to call a formal completion in today’s update, our German fulfillment partner, Fulfillment Europe, has unfortunately been dealing with some serious staff shortages due to unforeseen sickness & departures. That in combined with a couple of national holidays, they are doing their very best but have very understandably fallen behind and are doing their best to wrap up the last stretch of pledges in their warehouse. Currently, the expected completion date is May 11th. We apologize for this slow down but thank those remaining backers for their patience & understanding, and Fulfillment Europe for their continued attention, communication, and perseverance.

Break Glass In Case of Frosthaven

Asia & South Pacific:

Fulfillment in Asia & the South Pacific is largely completed at this time, though packages are still very likely making their way through courier services to several more distant regions. Additionally, it was brought to our attention that many of the Frosthaven Map Archives may have been overlooked in the fulfillment process, so our partner VFI - Asia is helping us rectify this ASAP for those still in need of that product. Thank you to those who reached out and notified us - we’ll get it to you as fast as we can!

Oceanic:

The long awaited Laserox Inserts have finally arrived! The Aetherworks have and are working quickly to get these last couple accessories to you ASAP. Thank you for your patience and we hope you’ve been enjoying your campaign in the meantime, and that these addons only elevate your gaming experience from here forward! Expect a formal “completion” announcement by our next update.

-FULFILLMENT END-

Just a friendly reminder, our team is still hard at work answering and resolving fulfillment tickets at [email protected]. This is the best way to reach us if you have a problem or question about your pledge, order, or shipment. Kickstarter Messages are not a valid way of contacting us, so please email us (if you haven’t already) at the address above.

And that’s it for this week. Have a fantastic weekend and be good to yourselves, and each other. We’ll catch you again in two weeks as this project continues winding down!

Almost there, & Customer Service Update
12 months ago – Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 04:14:16 PM

Happy Friday Mercenaries!

We're back on our regular Friday schedule with a quick, but rather uneventful update today.

Before we get started with Fulfillment Updates, we wanted to share that we've onboarded two new Customer Service team members over the last few weeks to assist with the many service tickets we've been continuing to get in regarding outstanding orders and order/part requests. 

A big shout out to Chris C. and Stephanie for "jumping in the queue" and helping champion support ticket requests. We're putting a much bigger dent in outstanding tickets and getting caught up quickly thanks to their help.  Also a big kudos to Ted for stepping in and getting replacement orders out the door with Cephalofair's Chris. Thank you gentlemen!

Also a big THANK YOU to everyone patiently awaiting replies and resolutions. We know fulfillment is a stressful time when something doesn't go exactly right, but Cephalofair as always is committed to making sure your needs are met. 

With that being said - here's our quick touch base on fulfillment:

-FULFILLMENT UDPATE-


United States:

Fulfillment Complete - pending order issues and/or reshipments. See last update for more details.

Canada:

Fulfillment Complete - pending order issues and/or reshipments. See last update for more details.

United Kingdom:

Fulfillment Complete - pending order issues and/or reshipments. See last update for more details.

EU + Rest of the World:

In our last update we'd shared that EU was projecting an April 15th date, which after the Easter break is sounding like a few more days will realistically be required - so thank you kindly for your patience as Fulfillment Europe continues wrapping up their end of the project. We see your comments and recognize there are still certain regions awaiting tracking numbers and will be sure to communicate once things are absolutely final. I think we can clearly say if you haven't received your tracking by the end of next week - please email us at [email protected] and we'll gladly verify your order status. 

Oceanic:

Unfortunately the Laserox Inserts have been taking their sweet time getting from port to Aetherworks, but the team has eyes on this shipment and it should be getting turned around very soon out the door to still awaiting backers. This is currently the only thing preventing us from calling Oceanic Fulfillment a wrap though. So if you weren't anticipating the Laserox insert and have any questions or concerns about  non-received pledges please give us an email at [email protected] and we'll be happy to assist!

Asia & South Pacific:

As communicated to us by VFI-Asia, all pledges have been shipped to their respective HUBS. Based on comments we're seeing on the project, you may still be waiting processing for receipt of your tracking information - but we're seeing many regions popping up this last week so hopefully you aren't waiting much longer. 

Also a reminder - that Laserox Inserts have/are shipping SEPARATELY. We've seen a little confusion on this so if you still haven't recieved a tracking number for this addon specifically, or see it missing from your order, that's as intended so as not to delay the rest of your order

Thank you for your extended patience, and to VFI-Asia for doing such a great job making sure cartons shipped extra reinforced!

 -FULFILLMENT END-

That's it for the moment. We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and will catch you again soon!

Happy Fulfillment Singapore!



More Regional Completions and Fulfillment Updates!
12 months ago – Mon, Apr 03, 2023 at 05:29:02 PM

Happy Monday Mercenaries!

Apologies for missing Friday’s update. We had a particularly busy week around the Cephaloffice tending to operations, and with Chris and Ross making their brave return from knocking out TWO conventions in a single weekend - Adepticon in Chicago, IL & PAX: East in Boston, MA!

PAX: East, Boston MA

This was a first for Cephalofair attending two events in a single weekend and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of these two gentlemen and our fantastic staff. Special shout outs to Cephalofair cosplayer Monica (and her husband Bill!), Rage Badger’s Alisandra & Stephanie, and our terrific demo runners: Josh, Dave, & Vann!

Excitement around Frosthaven and our upcoming miniatures & RPG lines were palpable and we had a great response from returning community members - and new! So thank you if you had a chance to stop by and say hello!

"WHO'S THAT BOSS MONSTER?" - Miniatures of Gloomhaven - Coming June 2023

As fulfillment continues coming to an end we have fewer and fewer updates to provide, but are still excited to be here and be sharing the latest news with you.

We hope everyone had a great weekend - let’s get into it….

-FULFILLMENT UPDATE-

United States

As communicated last update - USA FULFILLMENT IS A WRAP! That being said, if you have already emailed us inquiring about your order, for any reason, please know we’re still working on an abundance of support tickets and will be sure your outstanding tickets will be resolved as soon as possible.

USA Preorders: Preorder shipments are beginning this week and should be shipped within a week's time. If you haven’t received a tracking number by next update - please shoot us an email, but most locations should be within a 2-3 day window so we hope Frosthaven is in your hands sooner than later!

Canada

We know the delay between shipments from the USA and notifications from the CAN hub can have a bit of a delay - but we’ve been told that CANADIAN FULFILLMENT IS A WRAP! That being said, if you have already emailed us inquiring about your order, for any reason, please know we’re still working on an abundance of support tickets and will be sure your outstanding tickets will be resolved as soon as possible.

CAN Preorders: Preorder shipments are beginning this week and should be shipped within a week's time to our Canadian HUB, at which point you will receive your shipping notification. If you haven’t received a tracking number by next update - please shoot us an email at that time!

The "Great White North" keeps getting greater!

United Kingdom

As of Friday - UK FULFILLMENT IS A WRAP! Our partner Spiral Galaxy signaled that all awaiting addons were shipped and you should have received your shipping notifications over the weekend. That being said, if you have already emailed us inquiring about your order, for any reason, please know we’re still working on an abundance of support tickets and will be sure your outstanding tickets will be resolved as soon as possible.

Europe + Rest of the World

Fulfillment is still on target for an April 15th shipping completion date! Not much news here other than we’re incredibly pleased to see all our European friends excitedly posting pictures and confirmations of their games arriving on their doorsteps!

If you’ve already emailed support regarding your order (for any reason other than shipping inquiries) please know we’re still working our way through a significant number of tickets and will get to you as soon as possible.

We will be back in two weeks to confirm our status, and let those without tracking numbers know the best time to email support for assistance. Thank you!

Oceanic

As of a week ago, Aetherworks had completed one third of the outstanding accessory shipments on ledger (more since). As indicated - the Laserox inserts are the last straggling accessory hitting the warehouse and haven’t quite arrived just yet - but UPS has reached out with confirmation they are incoming shortly so good news there. Thank you very much for your patience and we look forward to signaling “Completion” very soon!

More accessories are "Down Under!"

Asia & South Pacific

VFI Asia has signaled that most of the HUB shipments have finally shipped, and that the recently arrived Laserox inserts are shipping out in the next HUB shipment this month.

We anticipate being able to share a completion status very soon and thank you all for your patience!

Retail Pledges: These have largely been scheduled and are in the process of being picked up/shipped if they haven’t already. If you are a retail backer and haven’t made arrangements yet please reach out to [email protected] to do so ASAP.

-FULFILLMENT END-

And that wraps up this/last week’s update! Again, we're beyond pleased and excited to see Frosthaven hitting so many game tables. It has been great to see photos from game nights and painted miniatures shared on social media and in our community forums. Please be sure to tag us on social media and if you are on BoardGameGeek.com, please share your reviews and photos!

Until next update - Happy Fulfillment!

Happy Fulfillment! - Team Cephalofair