DM website update report #3: The CH Conundrum

hongkongwargamer

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Mark, don’t waste your time on CH. By now most ASLers are aware of all their shady practices; not playtested, stolen scenarios, renamed scenarios and modules, etc.

Under each new CH product I’d put,

BUYER BEWARE!!!
I thought that, until I see chat rooms (in more than one Asian country) where there are a majority of newbie players. Especially during periods when there is a dearth of real ASL products, people get an urge to look at CH (something vs nothing). The danger is that they will blow chunks of their budget on substandard stuff, gets disappointed about ASL in general and go back to whatever else they were playing before.
 
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Danno

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That's a vast majority of the Hollywood business model with all the remakes/reboots. ;) Which is why I don't go to that many movies anymore.
I just saw the latest Star Wars movie. The whole time I was thinking how much it was like Return of the Jedi. For the ninth movie in the series...there was nothing new.
 

Danno

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I thought that, until I see chats room (in more than one Asian country) where there are a majority of newbie players. Especially during periods when there is a dearth of real ASL products, people get an urge to look at CH (something vs nothing). The danger is that they will blow chunks of their budget on substandard stuff, gets disappointed about ASL in general and go back to whatever else they were playing before.
I agree. New players are the number one reason we need a site like DM and the World of ASL.
 

william.stoppel

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I do buy some CH stuff. Usually something like Guerra Civil/Condor Legion that isn’t produced by another ASL producer. I used Mark’s write ups to buy Condor Legion (better counters and scenario graphics) and also to pass on the next version which was the same module split into two pieces. I also bought the new Spanish Civil War Nationality Sets because I liked the looks of the new counters. Again I would happily buy a Spanish Civil War product from MMP, BFP, LFT etc but those don’t yet exist. Same goes for the Arab-Israeli War stuff. If you don’t want to read Mark’s write ups of CH products then just walk on by. As for me, I will read them and make a decision.
 

'Ol Fezziwig

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So in other words,

CH is trying to rip me off. I know they are trying to rip me off. But, for some reason I’ll still buy from them so, I need someone to tell me which products to buy so I don’t get ripped off.

I wish I could build a company based off that business model. Are there any other companies that have survived this long using this model? Unbelievable.

Iron Mountain
 
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djohannsen

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I do buy some CH stuff. Usually something like Guerra Civil/Condor Legion that isn’t produced by another ASL producer. I used Mark’s write ups to buy Condor Legion (better counters and scenario graphics) and also to pass on the next version which was the same module split into two pieces.
This is exactly how I used DM, always buying older CH products and always on the secondary market. As I learn more and more about CH practices, I feel like I might have a moral obligation to stop buying any CH products.
 

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Just a brief message to let you all know where I am with the update of the Desperation Morale "World of ASL" compendium.

With the exception of Critical Hit, discussed below, I have finished, and posted, the write-ups of all the ASL products released since April 2017 except for LFT's Fight for Seoul module and BFP's Corregidor. (if you notice something else missing, let me know!) Of course, the new Croix De Guerre, the new combined edition of Sof/HH (DASL) from MMP, a new Bonus Pack, and Koenigsberg 1945 are all due to come out soon, so I will have more work on my hands with those write-ups as well.

Still, the bulk of the write-ups are finished.

These write-ups are all without photos, except for a couple where people kindly sent me photos, who are duly credited in those entries. I can't thank them enough, nor emphasize how much I encourage you to send me photos. I suspect I will be taking some photos of my own this coming month, but not as many as I had been, because the whole process of taking and processing those photos is a real paint point for me.

That leaves Critical Hit. I have about 11-12 Critical Hit products from the first months of 2017 that I will be doing write-ups for.

How many other Critical Hit items have come out in the past 2 1/2 years? I requested a list of releases from RT but he just sent me a smarmy response, which I expected. So I began laboriously going through the CH website, looking at every release or announced release (it gets complicated because RT, possibly deliberately, often doesn't distinguish between upcoming and already-produced products on his site). I began incorporating these into a spreadsheet.

As of this morning, this CH spreadsheet has 242 rows to it. Does that mean 242 new items in the past 2.5 years? I wish. Because of variant maps, etc., many of those rows actually contain links to as many as 5 different CH items (but typically 3). This means that, to update the website, I will have to make somewhere between 240 and 1200 new entries or changes to existing entries (I think it may be around 700). These range from what would be an entire write-up for a new product to a small update to an existing entry, so the amount of work would vary. But it's a lot.

One of the reasons there are so many entries is, I believe, that RT has acquired a printing press capable of print on demand, at least for his map panels, scenario cards and rules and charts if not necessarily for die-cut counters. With print on demand he need not worry about warehouse/storage costs, nor put overhead into printing items that may or may not sell well. He can print exactly as needed, without the great loss in time and effort that would be required to do that on old non-POD presses. As a result, it is very easy for him to make many variations of a single HASL map--larger hex or even larger hex or winterized terrain or rubbled, etc.--and offer them as standalone releases or upgrades to the main product. If someone is actually stupid enough to pay him $100 for an extra extra large version of a HASL map that nobody would have space for, great, he's made some money. If they don't, well, all he lost was an afternoon, or less, working on Illustrator.

It is clear that this will be standard operating practice for CH going forward. I noticed several other apparent newish practices, too.

So, am I going to purchase all of these things? No. That would cost me thousands and thousands of dollars. Even if I didn't purchase any of the map variants, etc., he now prices his products so very high that I would be giving him an exorbitant amount of money--still thousands--just buying "baseline" products.

What I plan to do, then, is to document all these items, with the information I can find (which is difficult, because CH provides extremely little information about its individual products, what it does say about them is filtered through RT's bizarre stream of consciousness ramblings, and the few facts that it does offer (such as contents) are often incomplete or inaccurate. And of course, since he renames and repackages old content constantly, there's also the matter of figuring out pedigree.

I will also purchase, through a retailer, not directly, to limit the amount of $$, CH would get, a small number of these CH products that might be good to examine personally, and do a full write-up for those few.

There are ways you can help me with this. I am not asking anybody to donate to the site for the purpose of obtaining CH products, nor am I asking people to purchase CH products to send to em. BUT, if you ALREADY HAVE purchased a CH product that came out in the past 2.5 years, I WOULD APPRECIATE it if you could send me a detailed list/description of the contents of said products. I can give you credit for that in the entry for those products, or--if you prefer--keep you anonymous. I can understand why some might prefer confidentiality. And I will not judge your purchase habits. :)

Anyway, you kind of have in a nutshell why I stopped updating my site for 2.5 years--the frustration of taking photos and especially of documenting Critical Hit (for consumer awareness/protection reasons). I wish RT would retire and move to Hawaii and disappear from my ASL consciousness.

So that's where things stand now. Just thought some might be interested.
looking forward to the Corrigidor writeup.. I've been on the fence with that one and suspect your review will push me either way.

I'd be willing to help as much as I can. You can PM me if there are specific products you are looking for information on. I tend to stay away from certain types of products they do (scenario packs) but until recently tended to snap up most all of their new HASL releases.

On that note, one thing you might make note of since I've seen it brought up here. You have mentioned 'phases' of CH and how they have rolled out their material. Reprints. They have been in a sort of 3rd phase since 2016. The lack of reprints and releases of new (HASL) product. The only one repacked in the last several years and that one was well overdue (Blood and Iron circa last century IIRC updated to Item Pocket.. Shuri which is the last of the old CH HASL to have not had a revision is getting an update.. presumably this year).

And again for unwanted advice which I'm good at giving.. I'd stick more to the product and less the 'customer warning'. CH is divisive...you don't discuss it at family togethers man... it is the Trump of politics. the Kid A of music. If you dont' have an opinion on CH you don't know ASL. And those opinions.. for and against are pretty much set in stone and ain't going to change man. I'd stick to presented the product in a review..and your opinions of it.. the true benefit of your site otherwise why bother reviewing them.. just do a blanket 'Ray Tapio sleeps with your dog and runs over your wife' warning to newbies that their souls will be corrupted if they have interest in anything other than generic scenarios
 

xenovin

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The splitting of old modules into two new reprint modules seems to be the new trend doubling the profits.

I would just add to the mix of why people buy CH are the compulsive ASL players who always want “new things” and buy as they need that new rush. I know someone who is basically a collector as he doesn’t really play but has to get everything the second it is released or the guy saying when will that be released. It’s there money so whatever makes them happy.


I do buy some CH stuff. Usually something like Guerra Civil/Condor Legion that isn’t produced by another ASL producer. I used Mark’s write ups to buy Condor Legion (better counters and scenario graphics) and also to pass on the next version which was the same module split into two pieces.
 

holdit

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This is exactly how I used DM, always buying older CH products and always on the secondary market. As I learn more and more about CH practices, I feel like I might have a moral obligation to stop buying any CH products.
This thread is like deja vu. There is a purveyor of flight sim aircraft add-ons that is known for its high output, releasing gorgeous-looking aircraft that have shallow systems modelling and the same old bugs showing up again and again that often go unfixed, while the developers concentrate on cranking the next sausage from the machine. The English phrase "All fur coat and no knickers" describes it well, I think. Some simmers have stopped buying their products but enough continue to do so to make it a business model worth persevering with.
 

Michael Dorosh

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The English phrase "All fur coat and no knickers" describes it well, I think.
In Alberta, the relative phrase (probably germane here too) is "all hat, and no cattle." Probably stolen from a Texan, but that only means we like it even more.
 

Alan Hume

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Gordon

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If "Great Britain" is England, Scotland, and Wales, what's "So-so Britain"?
 
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