Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms

[hepcat]

In other news, the new Duel of Ages (Worldspanner) is about to start shipping.

Folks started receiving their copies on the 20th, if BGG is to be believed. I'm hoping mine arrives soon. Apparently no shipping notice for many backers, so keep an eye out.

[Smoove_B]

Pretty rare to get a KS on time; even more noteworthy when it comes a bit early. I didn't realize people already had copies, so that's great news.

EDIT: And my Myth box was just delivered. It's ridiculously large.

[Anonymous Bosch]

In other news, the new Duel of Ages (Worldspanner) is about to start shipping.

Folks started receiving their copies on the 20th, if BGG is to be believed. I'm hoping mine arrives soon. Apparently no shipping notice for many backers, so keep an eye out.

Ditto. I've been on a spending diet in terms of crowdfunded projects over the past year or two, but this game? Fuggedaboutit, I didn't hesitate to go all-in. So I'm also eagerly anticipating its arrival.

[hepcat]

I'm trying to get rid of games right now, not acquire them. But I did go all in on this one. However, I gave my Duel of Ages II stuff to Seppe to make room for it all.

Edit: and i just got a big box from Worldspanner via USPS. All systems are go.

Edit 2: dang, that's a lot of game. And they're planning on 6 more expansions?

[Smoove_B]

Wow, my Worldspanner box just arrived today as well. I was figuring early July.

[hepcat]

Tip: You can combine the challenge decks for either side into one deck per side. They're the cards used for challenges and other deterministic stuff in the game, and there's a white backed deck for one side and a black backed deck for the other. At first I thought I just had two decks of 36 cards each per side, but I just discovered I can combine them without causing balance issues to make a 72 card deck per side.

Also, in box 3 there are a couple of small decks you don't want to open or combine until instructed to as they are part of the campaign story mode.

[baelthazar]

In other news, the new Duel of Ages (Worldspanner) is about to start shipping.

Folks started receiving their copies on the 20th, if BGG is to be believed. I'm hoping mine arrives soon. Apparently no shipping notice for many backers, so keep an eye out.

I got mine late last week (or maybe early this one) and no shipping notice. I'm pretty pleased so far but still going through the three boxes.

[baelthazar]

Edit 2: dang, that's a lot of game. And they're planning on 6 more expansions?

This freaked me out - I was like "I thought I was all in" then realized - they have some major future plans.

[Skinypupy]

Looks like the HOMM 3 board game is going to be doing another campaign with a few more factions available.

Been kicking myself for missing out on this the first time and may have to jump in on this one.

[Fardaza]

I just received my shipping notice for Cascadia: Rolling Rivers and Cascadia: Rolling Hills! These are a couple of flip and roll & writes based on the best selling main game. My wife and another couple love Cascadia!

[Isgrimnur]

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid, 2nd Printing - Status: Not there yet Orders To Date: 395
Enemy Coast Ahead: The Doolittle Raid, 2nd Printing - Status: Not there yet Orders To Date: 163
Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare - Status: Made the Cut Orders To Date: 540
Skies Above the Reich, 2nd Printing - Status: In Art and Final Development

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid, 2nd Printing - Status: Not there yet Orders To Date: 422
Enemy Coast Ahead: The Doolittle Raid, 2nd Printing - Status: Not there yet Orders To Date: 217
Infernal Machine: Dawn of Submarine Warfare - Status: In Art and Final Development
Skies Above the Reich, 2nd Printing - Status: Charging

[Isgrimnur]

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid, 2nd Printing - Status: Not there yet Orders To Date: 395

In a few more months, it will have been out of print for 10 years. They really are ridiculous.

All you need to do is place an order for 106 extra copies, then cancel them once they're at the printer.

78 extra copies.

[Isgrimnur]

Sigh...I'm two chapters into it. I swear, I should have learned my lesson by now: don't buy games until 2nd or even 3rd printing/edition.

For Existing Fans - The Upgrade Kit $8
For Original Backers - All the New Stuff $66
- Get the quality-of-life improvements plus the Stretch Goal Minis Pack and the metal tokens - a $72 value!

[hepcat]

Delivery date 2025. I don’t feel like waiting a year or so to finish what I’m already a third of the way through. But thanks.

[Smoove_B]

For that special GM friend, the Cocaine Owlbear Deluxe Edition mini adventure for 5E - coming soon.

[Ertic]

I ended up playing worldspanner last night and my group had mixed feelings about it. I have only opened box one so far, and we played with 9 characters as it was a 2v3. The combat was comprised of a slew of misses either in the hit phase or in the damage phase. I believe this is intentional as most characters are about even without equipment, and killing characters doesn't really score you a ton of points; though it does remove precious actions. However I would guess that we experienced over 70% misses, which led to feelings of meh. Is this the norm?

Another complaint was centered around characters being dismissed after any adventure attempt. Spend an action or two to move into position to attempt an adventure, fail and get sent away to basically rinse and repeat. I did explain that map creation is random, and that this map had all faction keys spread out on the edges, which also seems to be more normal than not. Team white failed a couple of their early adventure attempts while team black was able to secure a faction bonus in that same time.

I try to never judge a game by playing it one, and found myself feeling 'ok' about this one. I know there is a ton of variety in the characters and wonder if one could build a very combat heavy team to kill of the opposing team, or if your experiences this is mostly a 'capture the flag / king of the hill' experience.

[YellowKing]

I ordered the upgrade kit for Tales from the Red Dragon Inn just to have for the future, but I still plan on finishing the campaign before it arrives. Sounds like it's all really minor stuff.

[hepcat]

I try to never judge a game by playing it one, and found myself feeling 'ok' about this one. I know there is a ton of variety in the characters and wonder if one could build a very combat heavy team to kill of the opposing team, or if your experiences this is mostly a 'capture the flag / king of the hill' experience.

I think you need to adjust your expectations for the franchise. This is not a combat heavy game, this is a tactical game where the goal is to score more points than the other team through adventures, quests, etc.. That's always been the case. I've played DoA II quite a bit and we rarely lost more than a few characters per game. I'd like you to feel good about the game you dropped a pretty penny on, so I'm hoping this is taken as constructive.

The dismiss on adventures is essential to prevent someone from just hanging out in on keys picking up points. Without that, the game would be ridiculously unbalanced.

It's also a game of stories. Tense moments of hilarity with situations like Napoleon stealing a one man helicopter and flying across the entire map to get to Lilith's Lair for points while a survivalist chased him in a dune buggy and hurled pipe bombs at him....we still discuss that game and laugh to this day.

Check out the game designer's notes on this on BGG. He puts it more eloquently than I.

There was a good conversation on another thread about the nature of Factions and mistaking it for a bloodbath/carnage romp game.

In Factions, rarely does more than half of a team get defeated, and commonly it is only a third or less. If you are trying to wipe out the enemy team, you'll be missing the nature of the game. It's a game specifically designed for players who are in it for the tactical/strategy challenge and not for a body count carnage romp.

As the back of the box says: "Factions is a tricky tactical and resource management challenge - a game of efficient plans and clever maneuvers. Simple murder-lust won't cut it."

Hopefully this understanding helps going into your first game.

I will say I've never enjoyed the game with more than 2. But that's just me. I'm not a fan of "team games" where the team is a team WITHIN a team...if that makes sense.

[Isgrimnur]

There's just not enough gore in Stratego for me.

[hepcat]

Speak for yourself. I will mf'ing shove my pawn up an effers ass if I see them make a move I don't like.

By the way, if you're new to the game and have questions, or just have questions as a returning player, the designer (Brett Murrell) is practically living on BGG right now. I asked a question on reinforcement for solo games just a little bit ago and he answered within 10 freakin' minutes.

[Ertic]

I think you need to adjust your expectations for the franchise. This is not a combat heavy game, this is a tactical game where the goal is to score more points than the other team through adventures, quests, etc.. That's always been the case. I've played DoA II quite a bit and we rarely lost more than a few characters per game. I'd like you to feel good about the game you dropped a pretty penny on, so I'm hoping this is taken as constructive.

Thanks for the advice - It's why I posted
Hope to get it to the table again soon.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I ended up playing worldspanner last night and my group had mixed feelings about it. I have only opened box one so far, and we played with 9 characters as it was a 2v3. The combat was comprised of a slew of misses either in the hit phase or in the damage phase. I believe this is intentional as most characters are about even without equipment, and killing characters doesn't really score you a ton of points; though it does remove precious actions. However I would guess that we experienced over 70% misses, which led to feelings of meh. Is this the norm?

Another complaint was centered around characters being dismissed after any adventure attempt. Spend an action or two to move into position to attempt an adventure, fail and get sent away to basically rinse and repeat. I did explain that map creation is random, and that this map had all faction keys spread out on the edges, which also seems to be more normal than not. Team white failed a couple of their early adventure attempts while team black was able to secure a faction bonus in that same time.

I try to never judge a game by playing it one, and found myself feeling 'ok' about this one. I know there is a ton of variety in the characters and wonder if one could build a very combat heavy team to kill of the opposing team, or if your experiences this is mostly a 'capture the flag / king of the hill' experience.

I've only had time to play Worldspanner Factions briefly but like Hepcat, I also played Duel of Ages II extensively. In my experience, the most effective way to introduce these games to new players is to emphasize how they're best thought of and played out as a futuristic sporting event in a virtual arena and not just a wargame or brawl, with each team competing to outperform the other for a number of tug-of-war victory points, AKA glory in Worldspanner Factions. In terms of combat, they play more akin to a combat-chase game. Because these games blend mechanics from RPGs and light wargames to create memorable and often amusing emergent stories and narrative. You are fighting not for the sake of killing all the enemies, but to support your strategic objectives. Setting up a strong defence that scares away the enemy so that you can adventure unmolested is much more effective than just going on a killing spree. In fact, combat supremacy ultimately provides only ONE victory point at game end (represented in Worldspanner Factions by awarding 1 glory to the team that ends the game with no heroes in the Underpit). So the focus is on trying to win the various points for achievement, of which combat is just one.

Successful gameplay is more about trying to figure out how to best utilise the unique combination of characters and skills in your team, who to send where, which objectives to chase, clever resource management (remember, unrevealed equipment cards can also be a useful and important psychological resource against your opponent, too), how best to attack, evade, or bluff foes etc. Thematically, what always worked well for me in the past when teaching the game, was to reference The Hunger Games or that episode from the original series of Star Trek when Kirk and Spock teamed up with Abraham Lincoln to face off against a rival team of historical foes that included the likes of Genghis Khan (for those old enough to understand this reference).

Anyway, here are some helpful additional strategic pointers for Worldspanner Factions from the game's designer, Brett Murrell:

So what then is a successful strategy for Factions, in broad outlines?

'Broad outlines' is a good ask. I hesitate to get too detailed in strategy because that's the opportunity that Factions provides - a game where you don't just grok the strategy right away and you get rewarded with a good period of discovery. Here are a few broad items:

1. In most fighting/miniatures games, the combat is the point. Down the enemy, win. Not in Factions. Fighting is only a means to an end, and the end is that the different factions and the queen-mother are persuaded by you more than the opposing team.
2. Experienced players will develop an initial strategy based on their heroes, their starting cards, and the map layout. But they also know that no plan survives contact with the enemy. You must react to each turn's situation. Imagine a Hunger Games where you are thrown into the arena together. You will be making do with what you find and with the skills you have, not planning that out in comfort beforehand.
3. Equipment cards are very deliberately semi-random. Gold is not. However, cards have not one but three basic uses. A) Their normal use, like shooting with a gun, B) Payment to pass adventures, C) In their unrevealed state, they are what the opposing team worries they are.
4. Everything in the game is deliberately calibrated so that if you ask the question "Should I do this?" the answer is always "It depends." Should you attack this turn with your monster killer? It depends. Maybe you could instead secure a win by moving to a space that blocks the other team from a contested faction. Should you take the easy kill-shot? It depends. Maybe you don't want to lose that precious weapon yet. Should I do that easy nearby adventure? It depends. Maybe you should instead move past it toward a faction that is harder to reach but is in danger of being persuaded by the opponents.
5. You'll find that intuitive, real-world thinking works. This is not a puzzle-style "game the system" design.

Have fun! Factions brings a new experience to the table. Some might find that frustrating, but the frustration is often from the fact that you can't just say "This is like game X, only a tweak on Y."

That last line is key, and absolutely accurate. Because there really are no other games like it at all. So it's not immediately intuitive, and does take time and persistence to fully appreciate the rewarding experience it can provide. The first time I played DoA II, I remember feeling overwhelmed just keeping track of all of my character abilities, plodding through the various phases, and continually forgot to do things at the right time. But trust me, play it again and keep at it. Because once you get the procedures down, things start to smooth out considerably, and you and your opponent will get in the groove: "Attack 7", "Defend 4", "Better by 3… miss!" Once you begin to internalize the game mechanisms, you'll discover what makes it so compelling. You'll gain familiarity with the characters. More than that, you'll come to know them, and they will come alive in your mind's eye. I can still remember one time playing DoA II, when I was finally able to get a grenade into the hands of Ace Cannon, the Quarterback. His whole gig was that he’s terrific at throwing things, and now he had an exploding football. It was at last his moment to shine, and he was going to wreak havoc. He sighted his target, drew back his arm, released, and… FOPPed hard, chaotically sending the grenade who knows where. It was the ultimate choke, and it was completely unexpected, completely hilarious, and totally memorable. It's moments of amusing emergent narrative like these -- and Hepcat's escapade with Napoleon tea-leafing a helicopter, while being pursued by a bomb-chucking survivalist in a dune buggy -- that really help set these games apart from any other.

BTW, Hepcat's correct about just how friendly and helpful the designer (Brett Murrell) tends to be, so the Worldspanner Discord is another useful resource you can tap into.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I will say I've never enjoyed the game with more than 2. But that's just me. I'm not a fan of "team games" where the team is a team WITHIN a team...if that makes sense.

Different strokes for different folks. In my experience playing DoA II, I appreciated how the game changes when played with 4 - 6 players (2v2, 2v3 or 3v3). I always found it enjoyable when you had multiple players on a team, because one of the best parts of play was surreptitiously conspiring over the game plan, the excitement of treasure cards pulled, traded, and kept secret etc. It naturally caused a lot of in-game chatter and table talk, which tends to go missing when playing 1v1.

[hepcat]

As I said, it's just me, I'm sure. I don't usually like skirmish games with teams either.

I'm in the midst of a solo game now in advance of a two player game Thursday. My few observations so far:

1) It does feel streamlined. For example: I won't miss imprisoning enemy characters. That always felt like too much of a time waster to free them then for the enemy player. The new "pit/underpit" mechanic is more fun.

The other thing they dropped is "ages". Before you had bonuses or penalties if your character didn't come from an age that an item or quest was from. That always felt a bit tacked on, so I'm happy to see it go.

2) The iconography isn't any easier. I'm still referring to help cards and the rule book to figure out what all those adventure key icons mean.

3) The solo mechanic is not terribly good. I'm hoping the campaign mode is better. But the solo AI is VERY simplistic and is essentially just pushing you to not cheat when playing two sides. I'm a broken record, but a quick call to Turczi might have helped.

4) I kind of have to agree with Tom Vassal on something: he has told Brett that even though he has been quoted as saying DoA is one of his all time favorite games, he had hoped that Brett would trim some of the fat...primarily the excessive number of attributes. I balked at first, but when playing just a bit ago, I was reminded you rarely use all of them, or they just seem like fluff when you do. They could have cut out about 3 or 4 (maybe more) and it would have helped make things a bit easier, I feel.

5) It feels like DoA 2, which is what I wanted. So I'm happy. I'm enjoying the stories that are already unfolding (Geronimo just found chainmail and a riot shield, which seems like it could have happened. IT COULD, DAMN IT!).

[baelthazar]

Speak for yourself. I will mf'ing shove my pawn up an effers ass if I see them make a move I don't like.

Hey, how you spend your personal time is up to you. No judgement, no shame.

I'm not happy to hear solo is only "meh," that said, I think I can get some interest from my kiddo and a friend based on how silly the game is.

Currently, my next on deck is Tanares (I'm knee deep in stuff now, literally), then I hope to get Worldspanner on the table for some solo play. I'm also looking forward to Crossbows and Catapults coming soon, I can see my kiddo really going nuts with that one!

[YellowKing]

I'm not backing much these days, but I did cave and back Unstoppable!

It's a 1-2 player deckbuilder (I love deckbuilders), has a neat upgrade card mechanic, and the playthrough looked fun. I'm always down for new solo-focused games that don't break the bank so this fit the bill.

[hepcat]

I'm not happy to hear solo is only "meh," that said, I think I can get some interest from my kiddo and a friend based on how silly the game is.

The big caveat being that I haven’t tried the campaign mode which, although it uses the same skirmish solo rules for actual games, may introduce something that offsets my disappointment in the solo skirmish mode.

And do keep in mind that the primary reason I bought this was for playing with others, which it still excels in. I just need to get over my dislike of 3 or more player team games so I can broaden its appeal to my group.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I kind of have to agree with Tom Vassal on something: he has told Brett that even though he has been quoted as saying DoA is one of his all time favorite games, he had hoped that Brett would trim some of the fat...primarily the excessive number of attributes. I balked at first, but when playing just a bit ago, I was reminded you rarely use all of them, or they just seem like fluff when you do. They could have cut out about 3 or 4 (maybe more) and it would have helped make things a bit easier, I feel.

That's a fair observation. However, with six additional planned expansions on the horizon, there's certainly potential for the designer to introduce innovative ideas on leveraging those attributes, enhancing their utility and reducing their superficiality.

[hepcat]

I'm hoping that future expansions also add back in the mode that was all about loot. You could pepper the map with tokens and just send your team out in a free for all for loot that was found when overturning those tokens. It was fun for those times when you just wanted to cut loose and go for the chaos. Not sure why they dropped that mode, but I suppose I could just recreate it with some generic tokens on my own.

And I know I sound like I'm complaining a lot about the game, but I'm really not. It's just constructive criticism for a game I really do enjoy. Everything can be better. But then again, everyone has their own idea what "better" is and it's usually different for everyone.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I'm hoping that future expansions also add back in the mode that was all about loot. You could pepper the map with tokens and just send your team out in a free for all for loot that was found when overturning those tokens. It was fun for those times when you just wanted to cut loose and go for the chaos. Not sure why they dropped that mode, but I suppose I could just recreate it with some generic tokens on my own.

I was curious about this myself, as my gaming group also relished the rapid chaos of those 'Rush Encounter' missions. So I reached out to the designer for clarification. He explained they chose to feature a single play format in the initial set to maintain a more streamlined learning curve, aiming to avoid overwhelming new players with too much complexity. He did also confirm that short format play will be a design goal for future expansions, so they should be added back in future.

[hepcat]

Excellent, thanks for checking on that!

I got in my first two player game yesterday and I really loved it.

The smaller map means you get to the adventures (and enemy confrontations) much, much faster. Instead of 2 to 4 turns to get to one, now you can usually reach one in 1 or 2.

I'm not missing ages. That was a fiddly enough rule. I also don't miss the throw rating. Just having aim and point are enough. I do miss home bases though, but I believe they're planned for an upcoming expansion.

Speaking of other changes, I had no idea just how many things Brett dropped from Worldspanner that was in DoA2. I really didn't miss most of them while playing, but I need a few more games before I decide if he cut too much though. I really loved Duel of Ages II, so I probably have to get over the hurdle that is change.

Spoiler:

The icons for the adventures could be more intuitive. I was scratching my head over a few of them yesterday. I think the icons need a bit more finessing. A lot of Euros do a great job of boiling down actions into icons that tell you what you have to do/what you get from just glancing at the icons. I didn't have that same experience with Worldspanner. I do remember that being an issue in DoA II though, so it's not like there's a step backwards here.

I lost due to a tie. When there's a tie, you go with who has the most gold. My opponent had 1 more gold than I. We both had 3 glory. So you don't score a lot in this game. I have to wonder if that's going to be an issue going forward. I'm guessing probably not though, as they've put a lot of thought into the design and it's probably balanced for that.

Overall, a really fun time. Felt MUCH more focused than DoA2, I will say.

[Isgrimnur]

Tales from the Red Dragon Inn – Changelog

[AWS260]

Crowdfunding campaign for the Uganda Boardgame Convention:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/uvbgc2024

[hepcat]

I was going to make a joke about Idi Amin, but that's honestly a really worthy kickstarter and one I will back. So no jokes. Just a hope that they get it off the ground and that they post videos of the event.

[AWS260]

They've been going for a while:

[hepcat]

Nice, thanks.

[Isgrimnur]

Skies Above the Reich, 2nd Printing - Received

[Isgrimnur]

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid, 2nd Printing - Status: Not there yet Orders To Date: 395

In a few more months, it will have been out of print for 10 years. They really are ridiculous.

All you need to do is place an order for 106 extra copies, then cancel them once they're at the printer.

78 extra copies.

71 copies.

[hepcat]

New expansion and a huge storage crate option for fans of Dead Reckoning is now live.



Dead Reckoning is, without a doubt, one of my favorite games of all time. It's a solid pirate strategy/adventure game that beautifully combines both genres into one elegant and fun package.

I would love to have the storage solution, but I'm trying to avoid hundred dollar kickstarters these days considering I'm trying to get rid of a majority of my current collection....which is filling every closet and storage space I have right now. So I may just grab the expansion only material.

[Smoove_B]

71 copies.

I like your enthusiasm, but it's never going to be re-printed, imho. I did score a un-punched and barely touched used copy for retail prices so I'm happy. I will of course keep my preorder status with GMT for the 2nd printing but I've given up; a decade out of print is a bridge too far.