The Dreadfleet rulebook is section stitched and perfect bound, which is an entirely reasonable way to produce it. Stitching the sections is much better than not and is normal for GW (which is a good thing).
Unfortunately my copy of the DF rulebook was starting to come apart after a quick skim through the rules (which is about half the book). Not good. It’s hard to really see on the photo, but the first section has cracked away from the rest. I thought, if this is what happens after an hour or less reading, how many bits would it be in after a couple of games flicking back and forth to find stuff?
I hope that the rest of you don’t have this issue. However, if you do then do what I did and just take it back in to your nearest GW store. They were almost as unhappy as I was about it and immediately opened another box and swapped mine for a new one. I’m hoping this was a fluke as it doesn’t reflect well on a £70 product.
So, a fair result in the end. Well, let’s hope it’s the end.
Quirkworthy 
Would GW really be cutting corners in a Limited Edition cash cow… I mean box ?
Perish the thought…
I don’t think GW were cutting corners here. The type of binding is what anyone would do so I may have just got an unlucky copy. It was a bit of a surprise though…
i had my Dwarf armybook do the same thing not long after I got it.
Did you take it back? Gaming kit still comes under normal consumer laws, and if it’s going to fall apart when you get it home then you should be entitled to a replacement at the very least. If everyone gets a replacement when they sell duff books then maybe it’ll encourage them to find a better printer. If mine starts to fall apart again when I read it I’ll be taking that back too, and will keep doing so until I get one that doesn’t fall apart when I read it.
As I’ve posted on other of your threads my book is doing the same. The front section is coming away from the cover and other sections I have also discovered that my Heldenhammer has a bit of a problem one of the two pins that connect the ship to the base was broken. It wasn’t damage I did as when I got the sea, cards and book out I found the pin in the box. It was rolling around at the bottom of the box but it wasn’t till I started construction that I found out what it belonged to!
I have to say I’ve been a little disappointed with the overall quality of this product, SH3 was much tighter in product value and at £60 was cheaper than DF!
If the pin was the one that holds it to the base then you can probably manage fine without it. The sea on the base is heavily modelled and so leave a “hole” the shape of the ship in the middle that will hold it in the right position. Not great, but far from the worst bit that could have broken off. You’ll be fine putting that together.
With the book, I’d just take it back the same as I would with any other book that started falling apart after 5 minutes, gaming related or otherwise.
So far mine looks just fine, and I have been bending it open all the way and weighting it down to keep it that way. Hopefully what happened to you was an aberration!
Sounds like you’re meaner to your rules than I was to mine!
Oh, and this is an Aberration ;P
http://homepage.mac.com/michaton/confsden/profiles/scorpions/aberration.html
My book also has began to do the same thing… This also happened with another army box kit book. So not really happy with the way they bind these books considering the massive flip through in order to play the game…
I havn’t played the game yet and have been careful with the pieces and already have noticed some of the boats teeth like edges have bent (and broke off) from being in the box….
As for the painting the details in the ships are gr8 but this means the best way to paint them is unassembled. Hence the delay to play the game. Also noticed that if they are going to all the trouble to emboss the ships then why leave out some embossing… eg :The dragons or strips on the auxillaries, and the name of the bloody reaver. Would have been happy with the old style transfers for these things so that those excellent freehand painters can still have there own name….
Just some initial thoughts
I’ve never liked sticky labels for details as I find they tend to peel back and look scruffy and toy-like. Water-slide transfers are better, and these details are OK. Better than they used to be because they’re more delicately done. I don’t care for many of the designs themselves, but I could always try to scrape/sand them off, I suppose.
With books, what is the acceptable fail rate? It’s a mechanical process so some will inevitably go wrong. I am just wondering whether this isn’t a result of the internet. let’s say 1 book in a hundred is poorly bound, just as part of the nature of that binding process (a common and widely used norm, so entirely reasonable that it be used). Pre-internet, if I was one of the unlucky ones who had a bad one, the chances of me ever meeting someone else who had another bad one were pretty slim. Now, I can meet people from all over the world with the same problem, and quickly find half a dozen folk to agree that the whole run is bad. This doesn’t make the actual fail rate any worse, but it could be perceived to be worse. Is this a real issue, or is this just virtual smoke?
As you know Jake, I’m not a huge fan of this Dreadfleet launch and I still feel its not really a product I would have chosen to buy myself. Some people seem to think I’m waiting for any opportunity to stick the boot in, and this would be a great opportunity to do that if I was. But I’m not. I’ve read through my rulebook twice now and skimmed it a few times and so far my copy is fine. So hopefully its not a common occurrence as you say.
I’m thinking that it’s just random bad luck. If it was endemic then I think we’d have heard a lot more of it by now. And as I said, all fixed with good grace by the chaps at Lenton.
The game was ok but, i can see it will need lots of management to play with all 10 ships. And your spot on the wind direction moves far to much. If any one does pick the game up i hope they have room for an 8 x 4 table. Because your going to need it to play all 10 ships. The ability to be able to controll sea monsters, but not move them out the way was very odd.
In case you haven’t guessed, it was pancake I played against 🙂
My book did exactly the same on my first quick glance through. Such a shame, I’m loving the rest of it so far. And now I have to make the effort to return it.
If you don’t live close you could always ring and see whether they’ll cover your postage.
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if you havnt noticed already but you have to be carful… most of their older franchise had a problem with the rule books infact the rulebooks for fantacy warhammer still acording to some of the players “fall apart.” its better to just get the rulebook and instantly scan it into the computer. then print out what u need at any given time
I have to say that I haven’t had a lot of problems with GW book quality in the past. Perhaps I’ve been lucky, I don’t know. This was a surprise, and was resolved quickly, so I was happy.
and about them cutting corners… look at the fincast models… you have the models from forgeworld.. then games workshop.. i havnt had a single buy that hasnt either had something missing or is damaged in some way… and they are also hard to paint on aswel… the moulding isnt smooth 😦
I’m not currently playing any of GW’s core games, so I’m not feeling the need to buy Finecast. That said, from all the examples I’ve seen in the stores and in the shops, and the people I know who still work for GW, I don’t think I’ll ever be buying any Finecast models. As a model material it seems to have way more downsides than ups when compared to metal, plastic, traditional resin and even the resin-plastic that some other companies use. That is, for the end user. From the POV of production and manufacturing the story seems different…
All feedback added together I got from quite a lot of people in the business the fail-rate is somewhere around 60%, which is quite appaling. They still seem to have problems getting bubbles out of the stuff. You can simply bend it in shape with your hands when it is bent , but only to a degree and then it starts to break and some stuff is extremly bent in several directions. Also it seems to get brittle over time and starts to develop microgaps. Also more often than not the halves are offset. I never encountered that much offset with the mteal counterparts. If they still do make a profit from it the stuff must be dirt-cheap, else I consider Finecast only a transitional product.
Like I said, it’s not a material I would ever buy a model in.
Yep, got me some finecast and they went right back cause it was a nightmare to get them straight (2xDE repeater bolt thrower and 1x DE Mandrake). FW stuf is quite fine you only have the usual piece that needs some bending back into shape, but that´s dine easily.
FW resin seems quite nice. Certainly picks up detail brilliantly, bends back with a little heat, can’t recall when I last saw a bubble…