Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms

[AWS260]

Pending Kickstarters check-in. I am giving myself a pat on the back for only backing two games this year. So far.

Winter Rabbit - Supposedly being manufactured in December-January so that it's ships before Chinese New Year. I am skeptical. Prediction: June 2025.
Cross Bronx Expressway (GMT P500) - Still in development. Prediction: June 2025.
Shadow Moon Syndicates - This one just wrapped. Estimated delivery is December 2025, and I think they might actually make it.
Zheng He: Admiral of the Ming Voyages (GMT P500) - Still in development. Prediction: January 2026.
Glorantha: The Gods War - At least I've gotten some entertainment following the twists and turns over the past year. Petersen Games cut a deal with a new company to fulfill their outstanding kickstarters. The good news is that the new company appears to actually exist and is not run by Sandy Petersen's idiot son. The bad news is that they have no experience and didn't realize what a mess they were taking on. Prediction: never.

Non-games:
LAAB #3 - Weirdo art newspaper. Estimated March 2025, which seems reasonable since it's printed in the U.S.

[Blackhawk]

~Conan by Monolith: Red Nails Expansion and Versus Mode
~Tales from the Red Dragon Inn

That's it, and I don't plan on adding any new ones to the list.

[EzeKieL]

Eugh, I was going to stop (and it's a lot better now) but it's still a long list

The ones I expect to get eventually:

Spoiler:

2024 November Planet Unknown
2024 November Night Market
2024 November Isofarian Guard Second Edition
2024 November Thunder Road
2024 November Playmats Storage
2024 December Darkest Doom
2024 December Xia + Arydia
2024 December Formula GP
2024 December Critter Kitchen
2024 December Panda Spin
2024 December Crokinole
2024 December Santorini
2025 January The Gilded Realms
2025 January Dragon Eclipse
2025 January The Elder Scrolls
2025 January Merchant Cove Exp
2025 January Clank!
2025 January The Hunters
2025 February Malhya, Lands of Legends
2025 February The Dark Quarter
2025 February Stars of Akarios
2025 February Street Masters: Champions Edition
2025 February Galactic Cruise
2025 February Europa Universalis
2025 February Micro Moonshine
2025 February The Secret Cabal
2025 February Fractured Sky Exp
2025 March Children of Morta
2025 April Dceased
2025 April Nemesis: Retaliation
2025 April Emerald Skulls
2025 May Middara Act 2 + 3
2025 May The Witcher
2025 May Stellaris
2025 May Ruins, Oddland, Vegas Strip, and Money!
2025 June Onoda
2025 June Terraria
2025 July ICE
2025 July Citizens of the Spark
2025 September Dungeon Universalis
2025 September Speakeasy
2025 September Ultimate Voyage
2025 November Euthia Cruel Frost
2025 December Rumble Planet
2025 December Harakiri: Souls of Yomi
2025 December Lands of Evershade
2025 December BLOOD
2026 February HEXplore it

The ones that are dead in the water or have been for a very long time:

Spoiler:

Anastyr
Street Masters Expansions
Manchukuo
Onimaru
Warehouse 13
Chai: Tea for 2
HK: Summer 2019
USS Freedom
Adventures in Neverland

[YellowKing]

The ones I have left are all pretty safe bets:

Earth expansion - I loved Earth and the expansion appears to have fixed a few minor issues with the base game
Tales from the Red Dragon Inn - This is just the upgrade pack since I already own the core game
The Cats of Mont Saint Michel - Cat themed dungeon crawler from the Escape from Stalingrad Z creator. I liked the cat theme more than zombies
Unstoppable - This just looked like a neat deck builder with some unique twists on how the cards are crafted
Victorum expansion - I absolutely love Victorum so more was a good thing. I did pass on the additional content for Hoplomachus: Remastered, however, as I find it didn't get much play once Victorum was on the table.

[Tao]

Received this year:
Middara Act 1
Primal the Awakening
Mind Bug Expansion
Firefly 10th Anniversary
Skytear Horde: Monoliths
Harakiri: Blades of Honor
Isofarian Guard 2nd ed
Freedom Five: Sentinels
Tidal Blades 2
Maladum: Dungeons of Enveron
Adventure Time: Card Wars

Still waiting to receive:
Anastyr (hahaha...luckily my spider sense went off at the time of the KS and I backed at a fairly low level, Mythic Games LLC finally evaporated in the last few days)
Street Masters Tide of the Dragon (50/50 on whether I get something from this KS)
Judgement: Eternal Champion (got seriously screwed on this KS, received about 20% doubt I will ever see the rest)
Arydia (high confidence level)
Middara Act 2+3 (received Act 1 back in January, give this 70/30 I get the rest in Q12025)
Ascension Tactics Inferno (they say it's on the way)
Shards of Infinity (reportedly on the way)
Dragon Eclipse (supposedly Q1 2025)
Dice Throne: Marvel X-Men (late but 100% confident I will receive this but upset I won't have it for the holiday's)

Backed in 2024:
Street Masters: Lament of the Blood Moon
Skytear Horde Campaign
Lightspeed
Tales of the Red Dragon Inn
Kinfire Delves Deluxe
Harakiri: Blades of Honor Souls of Yomi

Doubt I will back more than one or two games a year going forward.

[hepcat]

Eugh, I was going to stop (and it's a lot better now) but it's still a long list

The ones I expect to get eventually:

Spoiler:

2024 November Planet Unknown
2024 November Night Market
2024 November Isofarian Guard Second Edition
2024 November Thunder Road
2024 November Playmats Storage
2024 December Darkest Doom
2024 December Xia + Arydia
2024 December Formula GP
2024 December Critter Kitchen
2024 December Panda Spin
2024 December Crokinole
2024 December Santorini
2025 January The Gilded Realms
2025 January Dragon Eclipse
2025 January The Elder Scrolls
2025 January Merchant Cove Exp
2025 January Clank!
2025 January The Hunters
2025 February Malhya, Lands of Legends
2025 February The Dark Quarter
2025 February Stars of Akarios
2025 February Street Masters: Champions Edition
2025 February Galactic Cruise
2025 February Europa Universalis
2025 February Micro Moonshine
2025 February The Secret Cabal
2025 February Fractured Sky Exp
2025 March Children of Morta
2025 April Dceased
2025 April Nemesis: Retaliation
2025 April Emerald Skulls
2025 May Middara Act 2 + 3
2025 May The Witcher
2025 May Stellaris
2025 May Ruins, Oddland, Vegas Strip, and Money!
2025 June Onoda
2025 June Terraria
2025 July ICE
2025 July Citizens of the Spark
2025 September Dungeon Universalis
2025 September Speakeasy
2025 September Ultimate Voyage
2025 November Euthia Cruel Frost
2025 December Rumble Planet
2025 December Harakiri: Souls of Yomi
2025 December Lands of Evershade
2025 December BLOOD
2026 February HEXplore it

The ones that are dead in the water or have been for a very long time:

Spoiler:

Anastyr
Street Masters Expansions
Manchukuo
Onimaru
Warehouse 13
Chai: Tea for 2
HK: Summer 2019
USS Freedom
Adventures in Neverland

Steamforge has promised that the street master expansions are coming, so I wouldn’t write them off just yet.

[baelthazar]

Here are some notable KS/Gamefound/Backerkit board games I am waiting on for this year (Confidence Level for 2025 in Parenthesis):

• Horror on the Orient Express (High)

• Deliverance: Council of the Fallen Expansion (High)

• Cthulhu Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown (Yes but )

• Ardyia (High)

• Lasting Tales (Never)

• Hyperspace (See AWS260's note - also not thrilled they are making a "mini-less" version that will go out to people before backers)

• Shadows of Brimstone: Hell Train/Lost Tombs (I think they even said 2026)

• Final Girl: Series 3 (High)

• Spirit Fire (High)

• Mayday ELITE Crokinole Board (This was SUPPOSED to be shipped to me in October but I was one of the unlucky few who got nothing and was pushed to a 2025 ship date - not at all happy with this one, particularly with some reports of bad quality)

• Dungeon Degenerates - The Expansioning (High)

• Nemesis: Retaliation (High, but in waves)

• The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Age (High)

• Wroth (High)

I also have quite a few RPG books, but not going to list them here. They tend to come mostly on time.

[Zarathud]

Outstanding Projects
* Reaper Bones 6 - delivered (and I now officially have too much to paint)
* Townsfolk Tussle - delivered (and painted)
* Last Light Alien Pack - 2024 (shipping, will hopefully fix some issues with the original)
* Arydia - 2025 (late from 2022 but it's on the boat and looks great)
* Stars of Akarios 1.5 - early 2025 (close to on time, will hopefully also fix some issues with the original)
* Earth Expansion - 2024 (late)
* Earthborne Rangers Reprint - 2024 (late)
* Rogue Angels - November 2024 (late but expected, and I have faith in Emil who busted his ass getting Burning Suns delivered)
* Spirit Fire - December 2024 (will be late, interesting solo play concept)
* Lairs & Legends 2 - May 2025 (on track, RPG fundraiser for DM Lair)
* Dungeons + Lasers IV Caves - 2025 (prepainted)
* Twisted Cryptids - June 2025 (for my daughter)
* Vestige - August 2025 (+ 2 planets for Unsettled, as I really enjoy Orange Nebula)
* Oath New Foundations - November 2025 (will hopefully fix some issues with the original)
* Cloudspire - December 2025 (I'll need the time to clear out a Kallax cube for the beautiful big box storage)

Failures:
* That Which Sleeps (failure)
* Delver's Drop (abandoned)
* The Mandate (scam)
* Pebble 3 (refunded)

I keep signing onto big projects after regretting holding myself back on ARCS. I finally received the regular edition.

[YellowKing]

I just got my Vagrantsong expansion Kickstarter in and wow am I super-impressed. I mean, I knew what I was getting, but wasn't expecting the quality level.

The big box with double insert trays is HUGE, and the inserts are super-customized. I'm definitely going to need some sort of guide to tell me how everything fits, but it's impressive.

The acrylic tokens to replace the cardboard chits in the original game are incredibly well done. Really thick, glossy, the artwork is great, they are just chunky tactile goodness.

Those also came with a really nice drawbag, that unlike most drawbags is plenty roomy enough to get my big hands in.

It also came with some sweet custom dice, a collapsible dice tray, an extra bonus scenario, and some premium foil cards to replace the originals.

Bravo to Wyrd, this is a really premium KS package. Definitely makes me more eager to get this one back on the table.

[Edit} I spent over an hour organizing everything from the core box and expansions into the big box. Fortunately Wyrd provides detailed instructions on where everything goes. What's really nice is not only did they include space for everything, they also included space for all the KS stuff. So there are slots for not only the acrylic token upgrades, but all of your old cardboard tokens as well. I'm not one to throw out replaced components, so that was a huge plus from me. They even included plenty of extra space, which I used to throw in stuff that didn't have a dedicated slot like my KS exclusive coin and mini, the old character coins, old in-between scenario cards, etc. that had been replaced by KS upgrades.

[Lordnine]

Failures:
* Delver's Drop (abandoned)

Not sure if you are aware but this might be back from the dead. It started posting updates again a couple months ago. At this point I expect nothing but I do find it interesting.

[Zarathud]

I backed Delver's Drop to play with my daughters. It's too late for that 11 years later.

I expect someone picked up the IP very cheaply, as the concept was great.

[YellowKing]

Freedom Five arrived today. Now I have a pile of Freedom Five, Townsfolk Tussle, Vagrantsong, and Pericle staring me in the face. Thank God I have two weeks off for the holidays. I know, I know, first world problems.

[MCQueen2]

Freedom Five arrived today. Now I have a pile of Freedom Five, Townsfolk Tussle, Vagrantsong, and Pericle staring me in the face. Thank God I have two weeks off for the holidays. I know, I know, first world problems.

It sure is a dream holiday haul! To be honest those are the best kinds of problems a person can ever have and that’s getting so many good games to have to throw themselves into without the time to do them all justice. But I would say if you’re split between them, go with which sounds most fun even if it means hopping between them.

[hepcat]

Freedom Five arrived today. Now I have a pile of Freedom Five, Townsfolk Tussle, Vagrantsong, and Pericle staring me in the face.

Can you just place them on tables that aren’t eye level?

[TheMix]

Freedom Five arrived today. Now I have a pile of Freedom Five, Townsfolk Tussle, Vagrantsong, and Pericle staring me in the face.

Can you just place them on tables that aren’t eye level?

[Punisher]

Has anyone played Freedom Five yet?
If so, how is it?
I have an opportunity to buy the KS version of everything either painted or unpainted.
Do I need any expansions or is the base KS game good enough?

[hepcat]

It’s good, but it’s REALLY long. Probably because a game is actually 3 or 4 games set up as chapters in a comic book. Be prepared for a full day of it if you play.

I also think if you own Defenders of the Last Stand and/or Hour of Need, there’s really nothing in this game that sets it apart from those two, and it will feel like you’re just playing those games. But it’s probably pretty rare that that is the case for many.

[Punisher]

I think i did all in with hour of need so sounds like it's can save a couple hundred dollars!
Thanks!

[hepcat]

It really feels like a combination of Hour of Need (which makes sense since the Sadler brothers worked on that and Freedom Five) and Defenders of the Last Stand (the "sequel" to Defenders of the Realm with a Mad Max feel...and which I absolutely adore). But if you have Hour of Need, I suspect you'll end up thinking you bought it twice after your first game of Freedom Five.

In other news, I'm still hooked on Isofarian Guard. The grinding may turn off some, but I friggin' love it so far. There's a real sense of accomplishment as you level up, gear up, etc..

[AWS260]

Edit: I posted this in the wrong thread. Moving it into a spoiler to take up less space.

Spoiler:

Impressions from some of the games I played at PAX Unplugged this year:

Spring Cleaning is a card game in the "shedding" genre; i.e., you want to get rid of your entire hand before everyone else. Two gimmicks: First, like Scout, you cannot rearrange the cards in your hand. Second, you will be putting cards face-up in front of you for anyone to use. It comes together wonderfully and is a ton of fun.

Around the World in 80 Days (not the 2016 game of the same name, or the 2004 one, or the 1986 one, or the 1957 one). You are drawing your route on a world map, using cards that show how far you can travel. Kind of boring.

Bauernschlau is an old game about fencing in sheep farms. You want to put the black sheep (negative points) in your opponents' farms and secure the white sheep (positive points) for your own. Lots of bluffing, highly interactive, super fun.

Valley of the Kings. A deck building game from the mid-2010s, following in the footsteps of Dominion. Not groundbreaking, but a very clean and engaging design.

Uptown. Abstract game about laying tiles on a grid and building the largest group of contiguous tiles. Somehow both super-interactive and kind of dry.

Australis. An upcoming game from prolific designer Leo Colovini, about exploring the Great Barrier Reef to, uh, score victory points. It's a nice medium-light eurogame with a bit of direct competition.

In Mutation, you are assembling a big, 3d pile of dice, trying to put together contiguous groups while breaking up the groups of your opponents. The designer has been working on it for more than a decade and finally released it at PAX in a very small print run. It's a nifty abstract game.

Time Trouble. I probably did not give this one a fair shake, since I just played the intro scenario. But we did not enjoy it at all. Fiddly and lacking in interaction, despite being a cooperative game.

Bable (aka Babel). A much better and more innovative cooperative game than Time Trouble. You are working cooperatively to build buildings, but you can only act when you are given an order by another player. The problem is that you speak different languages and have to figure out what commands to use for each player. A very impressive design, but we played with five players which seems like Extreme Difficulty mode. Probably an amazing experience with 3 players.

Operation Barclay, a 1v1 game about the Allies' effort to deceive the Axis about their invasion plans for southern Europe. A nice cat-and-mouse contest, but the mediocre rulebook meant that it took a long time to get rolling.

As always, the real highlight was spending time with people who love games as much as I do.