War at Sea: Flank Speed, the third set to War at Sea, has been delayed again. A moderator on the official Wizards of the Coast message boards has announced that Flank Speed is officially delayed until September 2009. This marks the second time in as many months that the second expansion has been delayed. We reported the first delay in War at Sea: Flank Speed Update Set Delayed Until August 2009.
Mr. Richard Baker, lead game designer for War at Sea, blamed the sales and marketing people at Wizards for its initial delay to August 25, 2009. We can only assume this is the case for this new delay.
Of the first delay Mr. Baker said:
We designed the set on time, and we were ready to launch on the original schedule, but the folks on the sales and marketing end had to make some changes to the company’s release schedule. I’m only looking at one release at a time, but in a typical month Wizards of the Coast might have four or five different products releasing in various categories, and sometimes the “master schedule” requires individual products to move back in line a bit or hurry up to the front.
Although War at Sea is not the money maker for Wizards that Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Star Wars Miniatures are it is important for Wizards to maintain some semblance of order to Axis & Allies Minis and War at Sea minis releases. Gamers will only put up with so much tinkering of release schedules before they get fed up.
This delay allows more time for all of us to be comfortable with the February 2009 Rules Update and a new style of play…50 pt games. More on 50 pt games and Litko Aerosystems War at Sea tokens soon.
