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Critical Hit: How Coyote & Ware2Go Executed a Historic End-to-End Freight Project for Cephalofair Games

“This is really going to provide us the ability to flex our muscles on the next project and not have to worry about what our logistical infrastructure looks like. This is going to really open up doors for us as a publisher.” - Price Johnson, COO, Cephalofair Games

Who Is Cephalofair Games?

Cephalofair Games is an internationally respected board game design and publishing company with a reputation for crafting for complex, strategic tabletop games. Their small global team is best known for their breakout hit Gloomhaven and its various expansions including Jaws of the Lion and Forgotten Circles.

Coyote Services They Rely On:

Challenges and Results

Cephalofair Games’ Challenge:

Executing a fulfillment project to deliver more than 62,000 copies of their new tabletop role-playing game, Frosthaven, to customers who participated in a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Results With Coyote & Ware2Go:

By pooling the resources and expertise of Coyote, Ware2Go and UPS, Cephalofair Games was able to get Frosthaven in the hands of their most dedicated fans with a near-instantaneous rollout across North America.

Stat Sheet for a Successful Project Freight Campaign - 259 LTL shipments - 32 full truckload shipments - 17 LTL carriers used - 7 Ware2Go facilities served - 84 days from first shipment to project completion

Leveling Up to Meet Momentous Customer Demand

Cephalofair Games has been at the forefront of the tabletop gaming world since the 2017 release of Gloomhaven, which has sold more than 400,000 copies and garnered praise and awards across the industry.

To follow up this groundbreaking success, Cephalofair Games announced a sequel, Frosthaven, with a Kickstarter campaign in 2020. This would go on to be the highest-ever funded campaign for a game in Kickstarter’s history with more than 83,000 backers contributing over $13 million.

By the time Frosthaven was ready to ship in fall 2022, Cephalofair was committed to delivering 62,000 individual game packages to customers across North America, each weighing more than 30 pounds. This created a unique shipping and fulfillment challenge – just the type that calls out for a project freight solution.

Meeting All Objectives With an End-to-End Solution

The challenge involved in this undertaking was not lost on Cephalofair Games’ C-suite. “I’ve been told at just about every turn that this is the largest fulfillment project our industry has seen to date,” said COO Price Johnson.

To get the ball rolling, they first reached out to Ware2Go, their warehousing and fulfillment partner. They laid out a wish list of services for their desired end-to-end solution which would include:

  • Ocean freight to move containers of games from China (where they are produced) to the U.S.
  • Drayage and transloading upon arrival at a U.S. port.
  • Ware2Go warehousing capacity in strategic locations across North America.
  • Inbound and outbound freight capacity.
  • Small pack delivery of Frosthaven game sets to paying customers.

As the primary provider of truckload and LTL freight support for Ware2Go shipments, we were brought into the conversation at this point to help fill out this complex solution. In light of the size and scope of the operation at hand, we opted to further involve UPS Global Freight Forwarding for their expertise and resources they could bring to the ocean freight and drayage components, as well as UPS small pack delivery for the final mile.

Ware2Go took the lead as the single point of contact for Cephalofair Games throughout the project and managed it expertly. All told, between July 25 and October 17, 2022, our teams worked together to move:

  • 100+ ocean containers.
  • 259 LTL shipments.
  • 62,000 package deliveries.

The success of this project doesn’t just mean thousands of happy Cephalofair customers. It was a proof of concept for the growing business that Ware2Go, Coyote and UPS could support bigger, more ambitious product rollouts down the road.

“This is really going to provide us the ability to flex our muscles on the next project and not have to worry about what our logistical infrastructure looks like,” Johnson said. “This is going to really open up doors for us as a publisher.”

Custom Solutions Are the Name of the Game for Our Project Freight Team

We’ve built a team of creative, proactive shipping experts through our support for Peak Season, and they are eager to step in year-round with a custom solution to your most unique freight challenge.

Find out how we approach freight projects with primary and backup transportation capacity, route planning, management, on-site personnel support and more.

Learn About Freight Projects With Coyote

About Ware2Go

Ware2Go (a UPS Company) is changing the traditional 3PL model to make 1-2-day delivery easy and affordable for all merchants. Ware2Go offers a nationwide network of certified warehouses and technology to streamline fulfillment across sales channels for a fully scalable and truly on-demand solution.