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Pash posted:Does launching fighters count as using a weapon system? Or can a carrier say, fire its guns and launch fighters without getting a spike? Launching stuff doesn't count as a weapon system but you do get a minor spike I believe. Going 'weapons free' is one of the orders you can do, that's covered in the Beast of War videos so I can go over that a bit. Weapons Free gives you a major spike because you're firing all your weapons (adding 12" to your signature), you can move between half and full thrust, you can't turn and you can target one ship or any ships in your threat range that are in the firing arc of your weapons. If you want to turn up to 45 degrees or do a hard turn up to 90 degrees, you can only fire one weapon and you get a minor spike (adding 6" to your signature). There are a couple of other orders you can do that let you fire one weapon only. Just to talk about shooting/detection/signature/scan and how they're all intertwined for a sec...the guns are considered to have infinite range basically but it's the detection that's important. It's kind of hard to explain without playing the game and sounds more complicated than it really is, but think of each ship kind of like a Cold War submarine. The Signature is the amount of noise you put out and the higher it is the easier it is for enemies to detect you. Spikes from movement, firing, launching and whatnot add 6" or 12" to your Signature. The Scan rating is how good your systems are at detecting other ships. If you ever get close enough to an enemy ship the distance in inches is equal to or greater than your Scan plus their Signature, you can see it and fire at it. But...if your Signature is low and/or their Scan is low, THEY may not be able to fire at YOU. At least for now. Your signature will be going up and down for each ship during a battle. Your scan range usually stays at a certain number for each ship but can go way down with a critical hit effect (this is mentioned in one of the BoW videos also) so you have this sort of bubble that expands and retracts around each ship as the battle goes on. It sounds crazy hard to keep track of, but again the BoW videos show the bases that each ship will have, you'll be able to track the spikes of each ship and you'll know the scan range of your ship so you should be able to figure things out from there. You might not know the scan range of your opponent's ships, though, so I will probably end up writing that on my ship bases somewhere so my opponent doesn't have to ask for each ship. I hope that makes sense and doesn't confuse anything. It really is a simple and brilliant system. I think Andy was totally right in the BoW video he was in, there will probably be other games stealing the Signature + Scan = Range idea.
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Mar 8, 2016 15:37
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Do bombers ignore the signature+scan=range stuff?
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Mar 8, 2016 16:13
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Pash posted:Do bombers ignore the signature+scan=range stuff? Yeah, they have a certain range they can go out to do their attacks. Same with fighters. Ranges vary depending on the faction.
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Mar 8, 2016 16:36
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krushgroove posted:Yeah, they have a certain range they can go out to do their attacks. Same with fighters. Ranges vary depending on the faction. Awesome, I'm guessing that will be the big reason to use bombers if they can get at stealthy ships. I really look forward to this and June can't come soon enough.
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Mar 8, 2016 16:45
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Rewatching the most recent video, Hawk Dave mentions using a BC as a flagship for your fleet. Is there a rules significance to "Flagships" like the Command models in DZC?
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Mar 8, 2016 19:46
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Have they said anywhere how long they expect full sized games to take once you have learned the rules?
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Mar 8, 2016 20:37
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wdarkk posted:Rewatching the most recent video, Hawk Dave mentions using a BC as a flagship for your fleet. Is there a rules significance to "Flagships" like the Command models in DZC? There's a section about making fleet selections but it's noted that it's generic for the purposes of beta testing and each faction will have different ways to make their fleet. One of the battlegroups is a flag battlegroup, so it looks like there may be functions for flagships. Pash posted:Have they said anywhere how long they expect full sized games to take once you have learned the rules? Not that I can see so far but judging from the games so far a battle between starter fleets will be maybe an hour? Our very first game with never looking through the rules took about an hour and a half. Also, look like my review of the day (with questions from this thread) is on Bell of Lost Souls, top of the page right now 
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Mar 8, 2016 20:59
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Ugleb posted:I think your wallet secretly approves of your life choices. It really helps that shipping is so cheap and that customs are not going to drop a 30% gently caress you bomb on me  Also added an avalon BC because why not.
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Mar 8, 2016 21:50
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Getting in some beta games tonight, so I made my own ship markers and tokens for spikes, damage, etc. - and Hawk just sent out a PDF with their beta errata! I could get used to these quick & good updates. Had to brush off a few Illustrator skills to make these: 
krushgroove fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 17:29
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Nice, what are you going to try out?
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Mar 9, 2016 17:37
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PHR mainly, because that'll be my friend's fleet - they updated the broken statline that Simon mentioned on Saturday, but we'll also try ground combat and torpedoes and beyond that try the game on its proper 4x4 size with spread out objectives. Just having a bigger map and objectives that aren't huddled together should spread out the fighting and change game play a LOT, just like you see in DZC. There's a few major updates in the beta errata, including one that significantly changes the Standard and Max Thrust orders.
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Mar 9, 2016 17:46
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Nice, let us know how it goes! I picked up basically everything, since I knew to get friends into this I was going to have to get the stuff, but PHR and UCM are the factions that interest me the most, so I'm excited to hear any info about them. Pash fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 17:58
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Right, well we played on the starter map (4x3) with a single central cluster and a cluster on each of our sides. This was supposed to stop the middle turning into a scrum but that only sorta worked. My friend played PHR because that's his main army, I played UCM with the same fleet makeup that we had on Saturday and the PHR was 500 pts on the dot of basically the same sort of ships: a pair of strike ships with a cruiser escort, a gunboat group with 2 small ships and a cruiser, then a heavy ship on its own. We started cautiously, rather than steaming forward guns blazing, so it took a little while to get firing solutions. With no spikes to increase your enemy's threat range, always having to move forward in some way and no way to fire at the enemy the game turns into a slow burn cat and mouse game. The 4' table gets shorter pretty quick. As I predicted on the drive back from London, one PHR ship went down the side, blasting away, but some of the ships only have useful guns to the front. The Berlin's burnthrough gun worked amazingly and took out one of the big PHR ships but later on a kill on one of my ships resulted in a huge explosion that took the last hull points off two of my small frigates! I did get some good hits in though, and we experimented with using bombers at long range and using fighters as protective cover. Bombers are really nasty against strike cruisers and choosing where to use your allocation of fighters and/or bombers adds another layer to the chess match. Deciding to let the other player place their launch assets first can be done in a big thing too. We did a little ground combat and orbital bombardment too, it's very abstracted but quick, which is good because if you're fighting in several sectors on different clusters it would get pretty tedious otherwise. I took a few pictures but it's just different tokens on the same maps we used Saturday - I'll post them tomorrow but they're on the Facebook page I linked over the weekend. BTW my friend tells me that dreadnought rules are not in the beta pack but are coming. There are two more beta days where they'll probably have extra rules done.
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Mar 10, 2016 01:21
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I hope to get the beta rules soon. They sent the US ones last friday, and will probably email them out tonight to people (like me) who haven't gotten it in the mail. Which means I will have to print them out of lug my laptop around. There is no minute like the last minute!
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Mar 10, 2016 02:46
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How did he like how the PHR played?
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Mar 10, 2016 16:07
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In one word, 'well.' He WhatsApp'd me a response after I showed her mother your question: Enjoyed the strength of the phr ships, there's an interesting split between broadside based batteries and front facing burn through lasers that means you have to be careful how you position your ships. They certainly seem to have strong aircraft, so that's my current preferred strategy I think. Not really felt the downside of the slower speed, in some ways it's an advantage because it gives you a little more control over your fleet.
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Mar 10, 2016 22:56
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Finally got my first game in with my Seraphim, Not gonna lie bringing it in and then immediately missing is fairly disheartening. Got plasma poop all over the board and none of the enemy mans. 
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Mar 11, 2016 11:22
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Had my first 1500 game last night, also including the first time i used hazard suits and my eagle. The game started out amazing with both of my archangels coming out of reserve on turn one and exploding a fully loaded despoiler in turn 2. Afterwards things went south though, i lost most of my hazard suits to razorbirds and i couldnt stop eviscerators in time to carve up my praetorians. Even with the main tank force gone all my AT took way too long to kill the enemy crab and i think the kodiak got a single strike on the table with all other rolls being 1s. In the end i lost by objective points but i still had a great time. I definitely want to give the hazards and the eagle another go to see if i can get more use out of them.
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Mar 11, 2016 12:16
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How did you use the Hazards? I want to pick up some more of the new infantry for my UCM but I'm unsure how to go about using them compared to Legionnaires and Praetorians.
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Mar 11, 2016 13:07
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Barely I put them in a large objective building on my side together with some legionaires. I hoped to be flexible between shooting and helping to search but a razorbirds command card killed four out of six before they could do anything and with just two shots left i opted to use them for searching the rest of the game. That said, in retrospect does razorbirds hit squads or bases and is it global? Neither of us was super firm on all the command cards and i didnt look at it.
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Mar 11, 2016 13:21
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krushgroove posted:In one word, 'well.' Awesome. The next few months of waiting might be hard...
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Mar 11, 2016 17:04
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Drop Fleet Beta Day It's Good Game
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Mar 13, 2016 09:11
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I think LordAba was going, too, did you guys meet up?
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Mar 13, 2016 10:21
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krushgroove posted:
Played a game with one of the races each. Won with UCM, lost in a punching match with the scourge. Need a 2+ to hit with a burnthrough laser? Rolled that one! Still bitter. Still fun! It seemed like scourge had the upper hand in other peoples matches, as they couldn't quite deal with the Silent Running. Also, discovered the Ifrit shouldn't have stealth! Pretty fun event (if a bit short for the amount of traveling I had to do) and it was great fun chatting with the Hawk Wargame guys over booze.
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Mar 13, 2016 14:03
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Lord Aba is a gentlemanly goon with excellent taste in beer. He's fun to throw dice with too. He's right to be bitter about that burnthrough roll. His dice were actively screwing him that game. I got a bunch of photos that I'll get into imgur and post later today. Hawk Simon and Dave were some of the most genuine and personable game reps I've ever met. Had a great time with them talking shop at the event, and a hilariously entertaining dinner and drinks with them afterwards.
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Mar 13, 2016 18:52
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Haven't met Dave, but the Hawk team where down here last weekend, and Simon and the others are all very approachable and personable - obv. a games day doesn't tell you that much about someone, but I'd be happy to spend an evening in the pub with any of them !
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Mar 13, 2016 19:42
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Sweet - who else was there from Hawk? I know I met Andy but if you had drinks and dinner with the other guys I'm pretty jealous! Dave had to leave partway through the day so he's the only one I didn't get to have a chat with. I sent Louis an email last week showing my picture of the cardboard ship counters and game counters, I'm kind of waiting to get the OK to share the files, I have to say they're pretty good once they're glued onto thick card, my friend and I used the version 1 markers just glued on cereal box cardstock, but doubled-up cereal box card or thick card is ideal.
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Mar 13, 2016 20:28
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I've talked to Sean and James and i think i got a demo game from Dave way back when they were starting out. Every interaction with Hawk has been pleasant on a personal level though it is difficult to get ahold of them via email. I also tweaked my Vanadian Advance Legion logo a bit and couldn't resist making some activation markers with the new version:   I'm also currently working on status counters, so far i have Reaction Fire and Articulated and an idea for Concussive Barrage. That's about all i can think of for UCM at the moment since i want to try and make some smoke could out of insulation foam instead of tokens.
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Mar 14, 2016 21:42
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krushgroove posted:Sweet - who else was there from Hawk? I know I met Andy but if you had drinks and dinner with the other guys I'm pretty jealous! Dave had to leave partway through the day so he's the only one I didn't get to have a chat with. It was just Simon and Dave, but they were there all day. Dinner and drinks was a real treat. Our table with Simon sat down and had a great conversation that started with the proper way to order and serve a gin and tonic (cucumber), and went into hilarious/horrific con stories, food snobbery, international stalking techniques, 40k tournaments (Simon is apparently a top 16 tournament placement player with Elysian guardsmen), and of course, Portland trivia. The other table that Dave was at apparently talked rules and stats the entire time. Every time we calmed down from laughing enough to hear them we all sort of nodded and went "yup, this is the cool table." That said, Dave was amazingly personable. I could tell he was exhausted, but he was polite and friendly, he answered everyone's questions and went into fantastic detail about his painting technique for some of the studio models that he did. quote:I sent Louis an email last week showing my picture of the cardboard ship counters and game counters, I'm kind of waiting to get the OK to share the files, I have to say they're pretty good once they're glued onto thick card, my friend and I used the version 1 markers just glued on cereal box cardstock, but doubled-up cereal box card or thick card is ideal. There was an (unfortunately) local grog that was going around all day talking about some guy in the UK that was making MDF cutouts in the shape of all of the ships to use as proxies. Dave and Simon said that they were okay with it, so i can't imagine that they would have an issue with tokens. edit: I still owe the thread pictures of the events day, but I haven't slowed down enough to download them off of my phone and clean them up for imgur upload. I will try to get to it this evening. koreban fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Mar 14, 2016 |
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Mar 14, 2016 22:09
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koreban posted:he answered everyone's questions and went into fantastic detail about his painting technique for some of the studio models that he did. Huh, I'm kind of interested in hearing about that. I assume the Scourge scheme relies on airbrushing?
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Mar 14, 2016 22:13
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wdarkk posted:Huh, I'm kind of interested in hearing about that. I assume the Scourge scheme relies on airbrushing? For some of the basecoating, yes. A lot of it is brush blending and masking transitions with highlights. It's super-apparent when you dial way in on the Shaltari models. The biggest takeaway I got from it was that primer > all. None of the studio dropfleet models are sealed, and we went hands on all day. I didn't find out about the not being sealed part until Dave was putting them away in a chopped up KR Multicase tray. The paint wasn't wearing at edges, which was a miracle considering what those shaltari and scourge models have by ways of pointy bits. His recommendation was using Tamiya white rattlecan primer, but you put the can in a bowl of warm water first to raise the temperature of the contents. Then, he said that he (definitely does not recommend this, no sir, don't do this at home kids) spray inside the house in a properly vented space with overspray protection. The tamiya white primer apparently just loved the resin and metal that they use. From there, most of their paints are vallejo, but they have lots of GW, Tamiya and P3 too. The primer is what makes it for them though. He's also big on layering colors to create effects. It's apparent when you get way down on the model, but much less so when you're 4 feet away from it. He doesn't blend as much as layer 4 or 5 times from basecoat to spot highlight, and it looks fantastic. I have photos that show this effect. I will endeavor to get them up tonight.
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Mar 14, 2016 22:24
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koreban posted:It was just Simon and Dave, but they were there all day. Dinner and drinks was a real treat. Our table with Simon sat down and had a great conversation that started with the proper way to order and serve a gin and tonic (cucumber), and went into hilarious/horrific con stories, food snobbery, international stalking techniques, 40k tournaments (Simon is apparently a top 16 tournament placement player with Elysian guardsmen), and of course, Portland trivia. You did miss the hotel after; we sat down with them for a few more drinks before I had to get some sleep. All in all great fun.
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Mar 14, 2016 22:26
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koreban posted:you put the can in a bowl of warm water first to raise the temperature of the contents I've been doing this with RC body paint for years and have recommended it for rattlecan sprayers in the wargaming community as well - it's a well-known 'secret' to increase the pressure of the can and makes the paint flow better. That's really cool you guys got to hang out with the guys that were there though! I should be getting in another game this week, the game we had last week was really interesting, dealing with active scans, widely space objectives, and other stuff that we didn't get to go over on the beta day. We'll be slowly ramping up the points totals we'll be working with, unfortunately my PHR-playing Admiral friend is basically a gaming savant and is way ahead of me when it comes to fleet/army selection, and I'm tripping over myself trying to catch up. Definitely try out bigger maps and spaced-out clusters, it makes a big change in how the game goes!
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Mar 14, 2016 22:37
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koreban posted:For some of the basecoating, yes. A lot of it is brush blending and masking transitions with highlights. It's super-apparent when you dial way in on the Shaltari models. That's kind of reassuring, in a way. I wonder if I could use rattlecan basecoat as a poor man's substitute for airbrush basecoating.
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Mar 14, 2016 23:16
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wdarkk posted:That's kind of reassuring, in a way. You absolutely can, however I suspect you'll get better results with a thinned brush-on basecolor. At least, according to what I gleaned from Dave.
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Mar 14, 2016 23:24
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koreban posted:You absolutely can, however I suspect you'll get better results with a thinned brush-on basecolor. At least, according to what I gleaned from Dave. I've been going crazy with paint that seemingly will never spread evenly, although it might be that I'm thinning a little TOO much. The dropper I'm using for the water is completely different than the dropper bottles the paint comes in.
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Mar 14, 2016 23:27
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wdarkk posted:I've been going crazy with paint that seemingly will never spread evenly, although it might be that I'm thinning a little TOO much. The dropper I'm using for the water is completely different than the dropper bottles the paint comes in. Dip the brush in the water, use a pallet.. A whole drop of water might just be too much.
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Mar 14, 2016 23:35
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koreban posted:Dip the brush in the water, use a pallet.. A whole drop of water might just be too much. But then I have no idea what the actual ratio is, and will worry about it for no good reason. Anyway it's definitely a thing I'll be experimenting with once I grab some simple green to reset after each trial.
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Mar 15, 2016 00:09
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I'm filling out the Dropfleet PM right now - does anyone know the likelihood of bolt ons like the resin ground assets and posters appearing in the Hawk store later on? I assume the space station will, since they say it's plastic.
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Mar 17, 2016 15:00
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I think the ground assets will be sold at retail. I know the cluster pack and space station will.
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Mar 17, 2016 15:22
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