Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

Gents,

Would you consider assisting me in a campaign of sorts? What I would like to do is try and expand our hobby...get more exposure for the games, and hopefully bring more people in.

What I had in mind is asking everyone to contact the History Channel On-Line (part of the A&E networks) and ask them to carry the HPS games. Currently they only carry 2 games on their entire web store. If you are interested in helping out in this endeavor go to this page: http://store.aetv.com/html/custservice/cs01.jhtml Contact them via the web form or phone, which ever works for you.

What's in it for you? Well, increased sales of games means more titles and support for existing games. And hopefully more opponents to choose from...

Any comments are welcome...and if I can get a good turn out from this club, I'll ask the other clubs to do the same...

Thanks,
Rich

Rich,

For what it's worth, I sent in some comments. I've always thought a great place to sell HPS' products would be National Military Parks. For instance, 1776 could be sold in places like Saratoga, Valley Forge, and Yorktown. FIW could be sold at Ticonderoga, 1812 at Ft. McHenry, etc.... This would also work especially well for the Civil War. I think Drew Wagenhoffer made some sort of arrangement with the Pea Ridge battlefield to sellOzark there. That might be worth a shot.

Rich,

Had you thought about persuading schools to include the games as an interactive part of history classes? The level of detail is impressive so the games could easily be used as a useful teaching aid. It might even be worthwhile sending free copies to history departments as this might increase sales considerably.

Thanks for the comments guys. I have begun talking to various historic parks. For example Pamplin Park is now carrying all of our Civil War titles. I've also talked to Yorktown and a couple of others. It's incredibly difficult to get into these places though as the local shop's don't make the decisions. The games are sent off to a central "evalutaion" location where you can't interact with the people, and they give you a response in 6 to 8 weeks. Very inpersonal, and for the most part, fruitless.

We are in some schools, but primarily military schools. Most public education centers don't have the funds for something like this. It's what they call "frivolus", from what I've heard.

Basically what I am aiming at here is letting a big history related company hear from "customers"...as money talks. If they get requests from potential customers that they want to see a particular product, then there's a much better chance they would carry it compared to a vendor just asking them to. And I really think this would open some doors...as the people that watch the history channel are exactly the type that would enjoy these games, IMO...

Regards,
Rich

So, I know Brett sent some comments in...anyone else? Is this worth me trying to rally all the clubs are y'all not interested? Please let me know...either here, or via e-mail.

Thanks,
Rich

Have you seen any of the Time Commanders series for the forthcoming Rome: Total War? (BBC2, Mondays 6.45pm - maybe they're also being shown in the US as well)

Perhaps because HPS games tend to be turn based (apart from the naval series) rather than "real time" it might not be practical to try to get on a TV show, however it may be possible to do it using the hot seat option (or two computers and a connected big screen for viewers) and some relatively short scenarios. Each game could be covered in a different programme, starting with a short FIW scenario and then 1776, etc. Alternatively, a whole campaign - say Saratoga - might be covered in a series of programmes.

Perhaps some sort of tournament or "beat the expert" challenge might be a possibility, with successful contestants moving into the next round and eventually encountering Al Amos in the final?

This is Time Commanders what Rich is on about if you haven't been able to see it.[:)]

http://www.totalwar.com/timea.htm