Hello, all fans, and welcome back to a new update for the new year! We thankfully had some fantastic news come our way that the paperwork has finally cleared! This means that now we are waiting to schedule the shipment to deliver to our European backers. All fulfillment has either been completed or has now started the process. What great news for the new year! 

If you have any questions, or are in need of changing your address, please be sure to email [email protected]. Do not update your address via BackerKit. For our European backers, we are keeping track of your addresses manually through a different system to be more hands-on so we can give them to our distributing partner when the shipment arrives.

Newsletter updates will go out as soon as we have a schedule for the container shipment. We hope you all had a happy holiday season and have a prosperous new year!

Hello, everyone. This will be our last BackerKit update for Nature Incarnate, since fulfillment is done, other than in the EU. All future communication with EU backers will be done via email, so as not to spam those outside the region. We have sent a newsletter for all backers who are affected by the current shipping situation. For EU backers, please be sure to check your spam folder and add @send.mailchimpapp.com or @mail.mailchimpapp.com to your contacts so that future emails are not missed.

Please email [email protected] if you have any further questions.

-FRG & GTG Team

Hello, everyone. We are continuing our regularly scheduled monthly update on the first Tuesday. This update only concerns those within Europe for their shipments.

We’re right on week 10 of 12 and pending an update from international agencies. We will keep you posted here and let you know as soon as any progress is made. If you would like to continue with a refund, please reach out to [email protected].

- GTG/FRG Team

Hello, everyone. We are continuing our regularly scheduled monthly updates on the first Tuesday. For everyone in the US and elsewhere (excluding UK/EU), you should have already received your product! Please email us at [email protected] if you haven’t.

For the UK/EU, you can find our most recent update about the shipping situation here. We will be back with another update and more information as soon as we get any word from the various international officials we’re waiting on for the process to progress.

If you have any other questions or concerns regarding your order, refunds, or anything else, please be sure to email us at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help.

- GTG/FRG Team

Hi, everyone. This update concerns UK/EU backers, so please disregard if you are outside of those regions.

Now that our team is back home and recovered from Gen Con, we are catching up on recent activity in the Community Tab of this campaign. While it’s already time for the latest monthly update, as promised, it has also been brought to our attention that there are several game stores across Europe that are selling the retail edition of Nature Incarnate. Our team looked into this situation and want to provide more insight.

We confirmed that in early July, we shipped retail copies of Nature Incarnate to some of our UK/EU distributors, who have since shipped them to their retailer customers. These shipments were scheduled in an effort to synchronize the expansion’s release date internationally. Shortly after these shipments left the warehouse, we discovered the issue with VAT hadn’t been resolved, but the ship had quite literally sailed.

You may be questioning how we were able to ship games to our UK/EU distributors, but not to backers. Simply put, because we ship games to a freight forwarder within the USA, we do not need a VAT number for those freight shipments. The distributor is forwarded the shipment and takes control of the inventory as the responsible importer. It isn’t possible for us to do that with the campaign fulfillment, since we would still be the responsible importer. The fulfillment company does not own the product, they are simply providing a service for us to ship out the games.

Since the retail version is already in distributor warehouses and on retailer shelves in the UK/EU, we are not able to hold sales on this product. In a previous update, we stated that we were relaying a postponed release date to UK/EU retailers, but that was said under the impression that games weren’t in-stock yet. This miscommunication is costing us now, but we cannot force our partners to hold products that they already paid for and are selling while our fulfillment timeline is still being resolved.

We understand this isn’t ideal and that some of you have already requested refunds so that you can purchase the retail edition instead. If you want to pursue getting Nature Incarnate from an alternate source and would like a full or partial refund from this campaign, don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected]. The window to request these refunds will not close until we are preparing for UK/EU fulfillment, which we’ll state explicitly once we have received work from the government entities that can assign us the VAT information we need and the products are in transit.

As for the timeline, it remains unchanged. We are still waiting for the government to approve all the documentation we submitted last month. Unfortunately there is no way for us to speed up this process, but we will continue updating you on a regular basis. As soon as we know anything, we will share it with you here.

We appreciate your continued patience and support as we do everything we can to fulfill this campaign to all of our backers around the world.

If you have any further questions about UK/EU fulfillment, please leave a comment here or email [email protected]. We’ll do our best to provide an answer as quickly as possible!

~FRG/GTG team

Hi again, everyone. This is another update for UK/EU backers, so please disregard if you are outside of those regions. We’ve brought in the whole Greater Than Games team for this update, as it’s important that you know we’re all working together to provide the best service possible to our community.

After our previous community updates regarding the revised timeline to UK/EU fulfillment, we spent time reading through all of your valuable feedback. It is clear that many of you are confused, concerned, and upset — and rightfully so. You participated in this campaign because the expectations we set at launch were worth committing your money and trust upfront. However, we have not been able to meet those expectations. Today, we’d like to share more context and background on the current situation, and also answer some of the common questions we’ve received in the comments. 

For our past campaigns, we shipped all pledges, including those by international backers, directly from our US-based warehouse. As you know, we outlined a different process for this campaign, with the understanding that shipping from within the EU itself would help backers in those regions receive their pledges faster and easier. That understanding is still true, but as we all know now, the process required more action and information on our side than we initially expected.

Some of you have also asked why we aren’t able to ship Nature Incarnate pledges from the US, since shipping from the EU is so delayed. Unfortunately, rerouting the shipment to the US, as some have suggested, is not a viable solution in this case. It would take longer to reach North America; our warehouses were not expecting to handle this fulfillment, so would need time to prepare; and some packages would likely be lost in transit on their way over the Atlantic, causing even more headache for you all. Maintaining our current course of fulfilling the games through Poland is still the fastest and most secure plan that allows us to provide the best customer service when shipping the games to you (the reason we partnered with them in the first place!).

Our UK/EU fulfillment partners are some of the best in the business and are ready to get your games out the door, but we first need to get the games to their door. And since we are the company who produced, printed, and sold the games, we learned that we cannot use our international partners’ VAT and EORI (similar to the VAT, but for the UK) numbers. This is where the misunderstanding occurred and why we didn’t realize the issue until very recently. 

Our team leapt into action as soon as we got the facts straight, but unfortunately our options are limited. Our only way forward to book the shipment to the Polish warehouse is to register for our own VAT. Fortunately the registration process is already in progress and we hope to have an update from our finance team soon. Our previous timeline of 12 weeks until fulfillment completion is still our best estimate, but we are limited in how much we can advance while the government processes the necessary paperwork.

For the immediate future, see below for the overview on how to request and receive a refund. If you are opting to wait for fulfillment, please know we are actively looking into solutions that arrive sooner than our current estimations. We will share an update as we gather more information so you can pick the best solution for you.

Suffice it to say, we have learned some important lessons with this fulfillment process that we will be carrying forward into future campaigns. Not having a registered VAT number ahead of the campaign was the biggest challenge here, so once the registration process is complete, we will have that in-hand for all future campaigns. We are confident partnering with European fulfillment partners is still the easiest option, and we plan to use this structure moving forward.

As of today, here is our best estimate on the timeline for all UK/EU backers to receive their pledge, and other important dates. We will continue to publish regular updates as we receive more information, so you remain informed every step of the way.

It will take up to 12 weeks to receive our VAT and EORI numbers. This is the piece of the puzzle we have the least amount of control over, but have completed everything on our side. The required paperwork is submitted and now it is in the hands of the government.

Once we have these numbers, we will be able to book the shipment of the games from the factory in China to the warehouse in Poland. This will take approximately 7 weeks to arrive and pass through customs. Then it will take 2-3 weeks for fulfillment to complete. We are still on track to finish UK/EU fulfillment by the end of the year, but we will update the timeline as soon as we have concrete updates on the process.

We will also send out another update with the exact deadline to submit requests for refunds and/or delivery address changes. Those deadlines will also be finalized once the shipment is on the move and we have a more precise timeline for fulfillment.

Please email [email protected] to request either a full or partial refund. Full refunds include 100% of what you paid. We will process the refund in two transactions: one for your pledge and a second for your shipping. Partial refunds include the cost of Nature Incarnate in a single transaction. The process may take up to 5-10 business days to reflect on your original payment method.

Please note that the entire Greater Than Games is exhibiting at Gen Con next week. While we will be checking our inbox, refund requests may be delayed between July 31 and August 7. Refunds will resume as normal once we are back in the office, in the order of time received. 

We acknowledge this situation isn’t ideal, for our community or our team, but we are working to our fullest extent to provide satisfactory solutions. We would have loved for all backers to receive their games around the same time, as we know it’s frustrating to see players in other regions begin enjoying the games you are so looking forward to. However, we are glad to see that, even with these delays, we aren’t too far off from our original fulfillment target of November 2023. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but fortunately we are able to take these lessons (and our VAT number) with us in future campaigns.

If you have any further questions about UK/EU fulfillment, please leave a comment here or email [email protected]. We’ll do our best to provide an answer!

~Greater Than Games team

Hello again, folks. We’ve got an update for the rest of the world outside of Europe. Europeans you’re free from another update. For everyone else, if you’re not yet caught up to the European situation here and here are our most recent updates on what’s happening. 

Some good news, though for the rest of the world, all of the fulfillment is now complete! If you somehow haven’t gotten a package (or all of your items), something has gone amiss and you should definitely email us at [email protected]  However, you should know we might be a little slow to reply next week because…

We’ll be at Gen Con! What’s Gen Con? Gen Con is the largest board game convention in North America and one of the coolest places to be. We’ll be in booth 1521, so drop by and say hello!

So, that’s all for this time around! We’ll be keeping our European backers updated as soon as we know more information, but the rest of you are all set to go. Again, if you need us, please reach out to [email protected] 

-Bailey

Hello, everyone. This update is for our European backers only, so our other backers, please enjoy the rest of your day.

Now, onto the update. Bailey here once again after having several meetings. I'd like to thank all of you for your patience, and a personal thank you for your kindness to me specifically.

Before answering these questions, we want to acknowledge that this is a less than ideal situation. It's pretty bad. We truly do apologize for any inconvenience created.

But, alright, what can we do about it. How are we going to move forward?

Unfortunately, the 12 week delay looks like a hard limit. There is not an alternative at this time. That 12 weeks should include delivery from the manufacturer to Board & Dice. If there are (fate forbid it) any other shipping delays outside of that, you'll obviously be the first to know.

Here is what we can offer right now: refunds and partial refunds. Anyone who would like their pledge cancelled is more than welcome to that. You are also welcome to partial refunds! If you would like to only refund NI itself but still receive tokens or sleeves from us, partial refunds are an option.

Some of you have noticed that there are retail outlets advertising a sooner date than our 12 week estimate here. Please be advised that this was a miscommunication to the retailers. The retail release will be delayed due to this situation. This was relayed to retailers today, so there should be updates coming on estimated delivery dates.

The fastest and most effective way to receive a refund or to contact us about anything else is to email [email protected]. Comments here can unfortunately get lost due to the upvote-algorithm nature, so please please please be sure to email.

I am at the inbox right now and working through emails as quickly as possible!

Thank you for your patience with us here. And, again, we do apologize for this unfortunate situation. The good news is that the game will still deliver before our original projected date on this campaign, but we understand that is only a slight silver lining.

-Bailey

Hey again, folks. We do, in fact, have a timeline for European shipping! Unfortunately, it’s not great news. The EU tax law changes are providing us with a particularly challenging situation that is going to take time to work out. We essentially have to register as a business within the EU in order to ship from there and make sure our taxes (and thus yours) are above board. We’ve been told from our corporate finance department that it will be another 12 weeks.

Yes, we know, that’s… not great. We truly wish that there were some other alternative way that would provide a quicker turnaround. There doesn’t seem to be one at this time. Again, we sincerely apologize for this delay and, if we could have, would have anticipated this much sooner to take action. Alas, here we are. We will keep you updated the moment that we find out more information, even outside of typical monthly updates like you see here.

If you need to change your addresses in the meantime or for around then, please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected]. Be sure to do this and no through BackerKit! We had addresses all set and ready to go with Board and Dice so now we’re in direct communication with them instead.

-Bailey

Alright, folks, welcome back! We’ve got some good news and some not so good news for our European backers. I know all of you are anticipating with bated breath, so I won’t keep you too long here in the intro!

The great news! Tokens are almost to us here in the US! Last I had confirmed, the container was in Chicago which is not too far from us here in St. Louis. It will be any day now, so please hold on just a little longer. I know everyone is so excited and ready to get their expansion. You’re ready to play! We’re ready for you to play! Let’s get hype! 

Now on to some meh-not-really-good-or-bad news. For our Australian (and New Zealand) friends, we’ll actually be fulfilling from our warehouse instead! This changes nothing for you except to warn you about the following: you might erroneously be charged customs fees. We’re planning on taking care of that from our end, but it’s been our experience that FedEx tends to mess this part up at least for a handful of people. And that’s okay! Please pay for these taxes yourself. Then, send your receipt to [email protected] and we’ll reimburse you. This is the easiest and fastest way to both get you your product and get you your money back! 

And finally the not-so-great news. Europeans, we are experiencing some delays with your shipments. I know, that’s very annoying and frustrating to hear. However, we’re currently making sure, through various bureaucrats and agencies, that Board and Dice (our fulfillment partner in Europe) are all set to receive Nature Incarnate without any tax problems due to recent EU law changes. This is being worked on and will be fixed as soon as possible. We’ll keep you posted if there are any more significant delays. So, yes, unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a little longer than some other parts of the world. We are sorry about that and working to get it taken care of quickly!

That might confuse quite a few of you as it’s marked as “shipped” in BackerKit right now. That’s to do with a quirk of BackerKit. It was marked as “shipped” when we handed the addresses over to Board and Dice. Your packages, obviously, have not shipped. You’ll know when they have when you receive your tracking number emails or when the tracking number is put into BackerKit.

That is all that we have for you this month! To summarize: tokens are almost in the US, Australia and New Zealand will be fulfilled from the US (let us know if you have tax problems), and there is a delay that we are working on in Europe. Phew! That covers everything.

If you have any questions, you can of course find me in the comments, but the fastest way to get an answer is to email [email protected] 

-Bailey

Yes, that's right! It's here much sooner than expected! We here in St. Louis are going to be shipping out the orders for those of you who ordered just Nature Incarnate and the foils starting next Monday, June the 19th. Thus, you have until that Monday morning to get your final addresses in and updated! That means that some of you who were anticipating July deliveries may have to update your address again. No worries, you know what to do: reach out to [email protected]

In fact, please don't hesitate to reach out to [email protected] for any address (or otherwise) related reasons!

What about our foreign friends? Same as above! Board and Dice already has your Nature Incarnate! You may have different shipment timelines from our US friends, but you won't be too far off now. We're still waiting on information on other distribution centers, but we're obviously getting close to the wire! Get those surveys finished and addresses in!

We're so excited to get this shipment underway! We'll see you next update!

-Bailey

Hello again, everyone! Some great news to share with you all this time around: Premium Token Pack #2 and the Nature Incarnate Foils are on a boat! They are headed this way and should reach the US by the beginning of July. This means we could be shipping your copy of Nature Incarnate to you as early as late July. How exciting is that! 

Of course, that’s if everything stays according to plan. Keep in mind that these products still have to cross an entire ocean. We’ll keep you posted if something happens to end up delaying this process, but we’re pretty confident that everything will be fine and dandy. And thus notably ahead of schedule!

I’m sure a significant portion of you have one thing on your mind hearing this news: address changes. Let’s talk getting those updated. This is not the final call for address changes, but it’s getting pretty close. That won’t come until the product arrives here next month and we begin processing. If you’re going to be changing addresses soon, please be sure to reach out to us with the new information!

Most of you seem to have done a fantastic job of reaching out to me to get your addresses up to date. Please keep up that great work. We want to make sure that we can get the product to you! But, there are some of you that are in a little bit of a limbo, especially considering the fact that we only have an estimate of late July. Some of you might be moving around then! Don’t worry; we’ll be able to help you. 

Whether you need to update your address or communicate your specific circumstance, please be sure to email [email protected]. Then, I’ll be able to guide you through on which address to use or be able to update it for you right then and there. Simple!

That’s all we have for now, folks. Great news of Nature Incarnate getting one step closer to your hands. Woo! See you next month where we’ll hopefully have a final call for address changes!

-Bailey

Let’s celebrate, folks, Nature Incarnate is shipping! That’s right, the expansion is on its way! To us, that is. It has to make its way to our warehouse before we can start sending it to you. So, we aren’t completely down to the wire on changing addresses. We’ve got about a month of it crossing the ocean, then a few weeks to get to here in St. Louis. 

And, of course, we still have the Nature Incarnate foils as well as Premium Token Pack 2 that are still wrapping up production! They should be finishing up by the end of this month and then they’ll be on the shipping path as well.

What does this mean for getting addresses updated? We’re not to the final call yet! We tend to allow address changes all the way until all products have arrived at our warehouses. But! You should be updating your address as soon as possible. Be sure to email [email protected] with your new address. Have a unique circumstance where you aren’t sure what address to use? That’s no problem! Let me know your circumstances via email and I’ll be glad to help!

Short, sweet, and great news this month! Can’t wait for what else is to come!

-Bailey

Good morning, everyone! Welcome back for a new update. We’ve got a short one for you this time around. We have some great news for you all: Nature Incarnate is getting ready to enter the pre-ship stage of the process! That’s right, production is wrapping up and soon will be put on the cargo containers for us. Then, it’s just a matter of time before it’s crossing the Pacific Ocean and heading right to us. Of course, there’s still the month that it takes for it to cross that ocean, but time will tell on exactly how long it takes. We’re on course and possibly even slightly ahead of schedule! Make sure we have your correct address!

The same goes for the foils and tokens! Those are still in production. Not quite to the wrap-up stage that Nature Incarnate is, but logic only follows that one thing is completed, then another. Things are going strong!

As always, if you have any questions or need to update your address, be sure to reach out to us at [email protected] 

That’s all for now! See you next month with (hopefully) some shipment updates!

-Bailey

Welcome back again, everyone! We’ve got some good news and a little bit of clarification for you. We’re also making sure to keep our project FAQ up to date with questions we see the most frequently, so be sure to check there as well! Alright, without further ado, let’s get going.

First, let’s talk about Nature Incarnate. We’ve got the pre-production copies for the foil panels and the token pack in! This means that every piece of Nature Incarnate is now in the production phase. What does that mean? The game is well into production and will soon (in about a month or so) be placed on a container and shipped out to us. Now, we’re allowing for a little wiggle room here when it comes to shipping. I think all of us have learned that even if you think everything is fine… Shipping proves to be the most unpredictable part of any of this. So, no definite ending yet. 

Alright with the pending project out of the way, let’s get to a status update for shipping!

Horizons of Spirit Island is shipping out! Yes, Horizons and the premium panels are now shipping out! You should be getting them over the course of the next month. We hope to have fixed the issue with taxes already. But! In case they haven’t, the process remains the same. Email us at [email protected] with proof of paid charges and your backer email. We’ll get the refund back to you as soon as possible!

That’s all for now! The production phase is always a little bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s a big piece of news. The game is one step closer to you! On the other, that’s about all there is to say. Yep, it sure is being produced! So, until next month when we have more updates, that’s all for now!

-Bailey