quality of cards in new blisters

[mathieut]

The Lemure packs is one of the things I was very excited to see Cipher release, and I finally got around to purchasing the first one a couple of weeks ago. The models are great, no complaint on that end. On the other hand, the 3 cards that came in the blister are cheap, laser-printed cards, the likes of which I could print at the office.

Did I end up with a bad batch? Did anybody get professionally printed cards with their HD blisters? What about the individual cards available on the CS store?

[Napar]

Nope, that is the way the cards are printed.

[varagon]

I don't have any problems with the way they are made or printed.  May not be at current Privateer Press standards, but they work nonetheless.

[tssfulk]

I don't have any problems with the way they are made or printed.  May not be at current Privateer Press standards, but they work nonetheless.

They work, but the quality issue really sticks out if you have them mixed in with Asmodée's cards. If I didn't have any of the original cards, I would never have really noticed a problem with Cipher's.

[mzi]

Haha. You mean if I buy individual cards from the online store, I will get cheap cards? 1$ for a cheap card I could print on my personal printer?

[bork da basher]

ive heard this from a couple of guys now...cheap bad quality cards are acceptable for 20 cents a pop. cheap bad quality cards for a $1 each however....no thanks.

come on at least aim for the same quality as before NOT WORSE and if you have to go worse quality for whatever reason at least drop the price. 

[Jens]

The quality of the cards is what you can get at any copy center judging from my blisters and starters - they can't compare to the ones made by Asmodée, Rackham or professional card games. But since they are mainly used as a reference I don't mind much and it's not like they are really bad (and the Privateer Press ones weren't any better 2 years ago either). Something I'm not too happy about is rather the readability - the richer colours and all the texture of the background artwork on the backside of the cards looks nice, but I'd prefer a plain black font on a more muted background.
And I don't get all worry about the price of these cards - you don't pay for the material costs here. Currently it is more or less a service offered by Cipher. If you want to save a bit of money print them at a local copy center and if you've bought a release by Cipher you have the cards anyway. If they should release a card pack at some stage I'm confident the price per card would be different and maybe due to a larger volume they could justify to print them at a more professional quality level.

[tssfulk]

I can understand going for a more eco-friendly and cheaper packaging (they already use the same packing for AT), especially if it helps them stay afloat. But skimping on the card quality? That I really don't understand. The Asmodée cards are just plain sweet. I also like my pile of boxes, even if I regret their waste. I still have them all (3 starters and 25+ reinforcements). The Cipher packaging gets tossed immediately.

[osore]

The comparisons to Asmodee's business practices, regarding Hell Dorado, may not be the best: their model obviously did not work financially. The cards are better quality than the original Privateer Press cards and like that company's games, work in card sleeves with a dry erase marker to track everything.

[Mahrdol]

I bought a batch of the cards at the store and I also bought augustinus raimond and the cards are the same. I put the cards in card sleeves so I don't have a problem with them being laser printed. They look fine. It is not like I am going to play poker with them. I guess more important thing is the models you say look good great. Coming from you I consider that really good news.



Jens

I will agree cards are hard to read on the back.

I am having a friend make me 4x6 cards on heavy stock at his print shop. I have post card protectors I plan on putting them in. They will cost me 50 cents each. I will let everyone know how they come out.

[mathieut]

But since they are mainly used as a reference I don't mind much and it's not like they are really bad (and the Privateer Press ones weren't any better 2 years ago either).

Yes it is, and yes they were. The files CS are using are much too low resolution for decent printing. The pictures, and some icons are heavily pixelated. On the other hand, I have PP cards from back when they were printed in B&W, and they already didn't look like just low resolution jpg files printed on some random printer. Nor was it the case 2 years ago, which I assume means back in mkI.

Note that I'm sure the use of higher resolution files would be a huge improvement already. Anima Tactics cards don't look nearly as bad as HD's, so it's not like CS doesn't know how to produce decent quality cards.

And I don't get all worry about the price of these cards - you don't pay for the material costs here. Currently it is more or less a service offered by Cipher.

It's amusing  that you would think whatever comes in a blister is not factored in the price of that blister. Reminds me of when some folks believed the rules booklet in Confrontation blisters was free...

[tssfulk]

The comparisons to Asmodee's business practices, regarding Hell Dorado, may not be the best: their model obviously did not work financially. The cards are better quality than the original Privateer Press cards and like that company's games, work in card sleeves with a dry erase marker to track everything.

I don't think the quality of the cards (and any "premium" cost for Asmodée) had anything to do with the failure of the French version of HD.

[JimBowen38]

This is not a problem I am just glad the game is coming back it deserves a second chance and who knows if it takes off better cards may become available. I laminate mine which makes them much more durable.

[SirAngry]

The comparisons to Asmodee's business practices, regarding Hell Dorado, may not be the best: their model obviously did not work financially. The cards are better quality than the original Privateer Press cards and like that company's games, work in card sleeves with a dry erase marker to track everything.

I don't think the quality of the cards (and any "premium" cost for Asmodée) had anything to do with the failure of the French version of HD.

I agree tssfulk. I think Asmodee's misguided belief they could get away for so long without an English language rulebook scuppered them. The cards aren't the best on the market but they're not awful either, they do the job. I won't however be paying $1 for them when they start releasing cards for mini's I've already got.

[Jens]

I don't get all the 'glass is half-empty mentality' here.

If I'm not completly mistaken at Asmodée there was a big change in menagement in 08/09. Hell Dorado wasn't as profitable as they hoped but I'm fairly certain having read that it wasn't that bad either (in an interview Geoff mentioned they sold around 1500-3500 of each blister) - the new menagement at Asmodée decided to focus on their core buisiness and Hell Dorado had no place in that and besides they had reservertations that Hell Dorado might have some negative reputation given some rather controversial subjects. The larger part of their products focuses on family board games.