Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Fri Jan 17, 2025 4:27 pm

I got the notice that the Hoplomachus: Victorum expansion is starting fulfillment on Monday. So along with Unstoppable coming Tuesday, I'll now have six games unplayed (Townsfolk Tussle, Vagrantsong, Freedom Five, and Pericle being the others).

Our Frosthaven group is finally getting towards the end, so I anticipate at some point in the next couple of months we'll be moving on to trying to knock out some of the backlog.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jan 17, 2025 4:31 pm

Unstoppable just randomly arrived for me today - no advanced tracking information was sent ahead of time. It's pretty rare to get a KS project on time - early is even rarer. I'm still not entirely sure if this game is for me, but the price point was low enough that I'll give it a go.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jan 23, 2025 12:10 pm

For those that enjoy Ashes Reborn (it's me, I enjoy it), there's a new expansion coming to KS soon that will expand options for both PvP and PvE solo play

Ashes Ascendancy

Ashes Ascendancy is the next era of Ashes; a new entry point for the series, and a continuation of Ashes Reborn. Fully compatible with all of Ashes Reborn, Ashes Ascendancy marks the introduction of two new magic types for Phoenixborn to use, the competitive card play you know and love, plus a new type of foe for players to take down in solo/co-op battles

I don't see too many people talking about Ashes Reborn, but it really fills a space in my collection - dice and cards. For solo play, it's quite enjoyable.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jan 23, 2025 5:24 pm

Interesting. I don't believe they've held a crowdfunding project for Ashes in any way before. The Chicago gang have played it quite a bit in the past. But with a new game coming out every 32 milliseconds, it's difficult to keep it on the table.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jan 23, 2025 5:25 pm

Good catch! They might be dabbling in the Gamefound/KS system as a pre-order engine like so many other indie publishers.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jan 23, 2025 6:02 pm

I was under the impression they were owned by Asmodee still, but Colby Dauch (the owner/creator) apparently bought back Plaid Hat Games and their licenses from Asmodee in 2020. Good on him. I've met him a few times at conventions and he's a nice guy who really loves games. He probably bristled under Asmodee's approach to games.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jan 23, 2025 6:08 pm

Yeah, I have a hazy memory of that happening in the early days of the bad times and thinking (then) that it was likely a good thing for all of their games to be out and free from Asmodee.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Thu Jan 23, 2025 8:21 pm

Colby got bought out when he had a hit and Asmodee looked like it would help game devs rather than just milk existing product lines.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Feb 01, 2025 5:15 pm

The expansion for the Monolith Conan game came in today. I'm still waiting for Tales from the Red Dragon Inn - after that, I won't have anything left pending for the first time in probably a decade.

hentzau · Post by **hentzau** » Mon Feb 03, 2025 5:38 pm

I thought I had broken my boardgame kickstarter habit, I haven't backed a boardgame in forever, just 3D print files, but then Word Forge Games just announced D-Day DIce : Pacific. Damn them.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 11:24 am

After months of waiting with bated breath, the new edition of Star Trek: Ascendancy is up on gamefound. They've revised the rules, added three new races (Tholians, baby!), included a storage solution (two...count 'em two kallax size cubes...I kid you not), and added a campaign mode.

Ascendancy is easily in my top 10 games of all time, so I'm in for the new stuff, the upgrade kit, and I splurged on starbase miniatures for all the races. 250 bucks for just that. But I've been pretty good at not doing crowdfunded games lately. And this is, as I stated earlier, in my top 10 list.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 2:27 pm

Check your emails if you were a backer for Blacklist Games Lasting Tales / Fantasy Series 2. I was just sent an email from the company that purchased the IP (Wildspire) and it was for a link to My Mini Factory. They just provided all the miniatures from Series 2 as STLs; it's a 4.4 GB file.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised. I've been using the hero sculpts fro Series 1 for League of Dungeoneers so this is just another pile of potential characters and monsters I can pull from.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 3:43 pm

There was some activity from Alex Lim and Blacklist Games last month. He released a couple of lengthy updates on their website announcing that he'd finally rid himself of some troublesome partners and that now Blacklist Games was basically his. Then he noted the names of companies where the various IPs were being held now.

I take whatever he says with a huge grain of salt though. He's apparently trying to get Dire Alliance into the hands of backers, and that's what I really want. But again, he's not shown us anything that makes me even begin to trust him.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 3:56 pm

Oh, I have zero faith in anything he says and no expectations that any of the KS projects under his direct control are ever going to be shipped. I suspect Dire Alliance is long gone - in a landfill or sold off for parts in China. I don't believe he's been paying to have it sit in a warehouse now for 3+ years, undelivered.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:05 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Jul 25, 2023 10:59 am Vampire: The Masquerade - Milan Uprising

Shipping soon...

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:18 pm

Oh..I didn't realize that used the Teburu system. I just saw that being mentioned for another game (can't remember now) and it looks interesting.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:24 pm

The Bad Karmas and the Curse of Cthulhu?

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:26 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2025 3:56 pm Oh, I have zero faith in anything he says and no expectations that any of the KS projects under his direct control are ever going to be shipped. I suspect Dire Alliance is long gone - in a landfill or sold off for parts in China. I don't believe he's been paying to have it sit in a warehouse now for 3+ years, undelivered.

This made me laugh though

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:39 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:24 pm The Bad Karmas and the Curse of Cthulhu?

A good guess, but no. I remembered - it was the announcement it would be coming to Swords and Sorcery.

This made me laugh though

Oof!

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:45 pm

I'm still waiting on The Elder Scrolls - no word, no nothing.

And I got these STL files for Fantasy Series 2 that, without a digital printer, is pretty damned useless.

I was looking at Star Trek, but its pretty expensive and I don't think that I would have much fun solo playing. Oh well... Not like I need more backed projects!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:54 pm

That's odd that Elder Scrolls hasn't shipped to you yet. Have you reached out to CTG? They're definitely not the kind of company that will ignore their customers.

As for Star Trek Ascendancy, sounds like they added a new solo AI that is going to be more than just coop with The Borg expansion, as it was before. They're touting a full AI for each race. That's going to make it even more likely I'll play it solo as well as with the Chicago gang.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:55 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:39 pm A good guess, but no. I remembered - it was the announcement it would be coming to Swords and Sorcery.

Gamefound campaign preview

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Wed Feb 19, 2025 9:45 am

hepcat wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:54 pm That's odd that Elder Scrolls hasn't shipped to you yet. Have you reached out to CTG? They're definitely not the kind of company that will ignore their customers.

Apparently they are still waiting on a few US containers that have some of the All-In pledges. I mean, I get that the larger pledges are more complicated to ship, but it is funny spending more to wait longer.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Fri Mar 07, 2025 4:30 pm

coopasonic wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2024 9:20 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Fri Oct 04, 2024 1:19 pm My 'incoming' list is getting shorter and shorter.
Lords of Vegas gets delivered Monday after that I have one game left on the list and I regret backing that already. A co-op legacy game (Flashpoint) I may never actually get to play based on how things have been going.

Flash Point: Legacy of flame just arrived. I have zero outstanding kickstarters for the first time since you guys introduced me to kickstarter.

I sent a pic to my son who is at college. He replied spring break is a week and we can play for a week. That’s a good kid I raised!

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Fri Mar 07, 2025 4:51 pm

I'm currently waiting only on:

- Earth expansion
- Tales From the Red Dragon Inn upgrade pack
- Hoplomachus: Victorum expansion
- The Cats of Mont Saint Michel

All of those are on time as far as I know and I think "Cats" is the latest to fulfill in September.

Honestly I don't see myself backing any more until the tariff situation becomes a little clearer. And even then my backlog is so deep right now it will probably take most of the year just to play what I've got.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Mar 07, 2025 10:04 pm

hepcat wrote: Tue Feb 18, 2025 4:54 pm
As for Star Trek Ascendancy, sounds like they added a new solo AI that is going to be more than just coop with The Borg expansion, as it was before. They're touting a full AI for each race. That's going to make it even more likely I'll play it solo as well as with the Chicago gang.

And a new update the other day noted that they’re adding campaign scenarios to the game based on iconic episodes of the franchise.

Spoiler:

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Mon Mar 10, 2025 10:51 am

I went largely all in after saying I would pass. I love the updates they are doing and the solo content looks solid. My wife and kiddo also like Star Trek, so I might be able to get them to play, although strategy games are a different concept for both of them.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Mar 10, 2025 11:12 am

If you're gonna own one Star Trek board game, this is that game.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Tue Mar 18, 2025 2:03 pm

I recently backed the Fight Deck Kickstarter after viewing a livestream showing how the game plays:

Essentially the game captures the essence of a 2D arcade fighting game using fighter decks, where there is a unique deck of moves, supers, and wake up moves for each fighter. The play moves through a series of phases: from the Neutral phase, where initial moves are drawn from the top of your action deck, and then players alternate to see if they can counter their opponents moves, then to a combo phase - which only happens if the winner of the neutral phase happens to have a "Combo" in the winning card, then to a "wake up" phase, if the last card in the combo phase results in a knockdown, and then back to the neutral phase again.

I like the mechanic of having life deck also consist of action cards, so when you take damage you move cards from your life deck to your action deck - meaning you get access to more moves, the fact that you can build your meter bar with cards you played in the neutral and combo phases, then burn cards from the meter bar to play super moves. Also, it looks like the 'wake up' and 'super' cards go back to the 'wake up' and 'super' areas so you could play them again and again in case you need to (as when you are in the wake up phase) or providing you can "pay" for the super move to come out by discarding cards from your meter bar.

MattBGH · Post by **MattBGH** » Wed Mar 19, 2025 12:23 pm

Looks good, but I have too many fighting games (Combo Fighter, Exceed, Battlecon). I'll be keeping an eye on it to see how it shapes up though.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Wed Mar 19, 2025 2:15 pm

MattBGH wrote: Wed Mar 19, 2025 12:23 pm Looks good, but I have too many fighting games (Combo Fighter, Exceed, Battlecon). I'll be keeping an eye on it to see how it shapes up though.

I looked up Combo Fighter and while the initial phase is similar (Combo Fighter has both players playing a card from their hand, while Fight Deck has them draw the top card from their draw deck), the Counter phase in Fight Deck seems more interesting in that each player has several decisions to make. In Fight Deck the player who loses the initial draw must decide whether or not to counter the other player's card. If he can, then the opposing player gets to 'counter' the counter, and it keeps going back and forth until one player ultimately wins the counter phase.

As part of the counter phase decision making process each player needs to decide whether or not to simply concede after playing one or more cards. I can see one conceeding the counter phase if the winning player's card doesn't have the word "combo" on it. If there's no 'combo' then play doesn't go into the combo phase where the winner can play combo cards; instead he simply does the effect listed on the card.

Usually that still results in some damage but that's still better than the potential to get walloped with a lot of combo damage. Also, each player has to decide whether to keep playing counter cards vs. saving cards for a potential combo phase (in case one wins the counter phase and does so with a 'combo' card), since the combo phase is limited by the cards you have in your hand + potential 'super move' cards that one can play via meter burn.

But as you say we'll see how it shapes up.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Sat Mar 29, 2025 8:58 pm

My copy of Street Masters: Tide of the Dragon delivered today

I backed this in 2020 and had it marked in my spreadsheet as a loss. I also received my copy of Blood Moon, which is the Steamforged version of Street Masters expansion, because sure why not double down on my potential losses. Anyway I have not gone through the entire order yet but at a glance everything appears to be present, including the compendium, which Steamforged said they would not be able to deliver. All in all I am pleasantly surprised. I may actually close out all of my KS by the end of 2025, looking at you Succubus Publishing.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 7:41 pm

Got my copy of Street Masters: Tide of the Dragon, Twin Dragons, and the 2 redemption packs I'd ordered back when Dwight D. Eisenhower was in office. Color me impressed. Just got done organizing those in the Aftershock box with the deluxe dividers that had been sitting there unused until I received those expansions. Feels good to realize I have about 27,930 fighters to try now in the game.

Also got the Lament of the Widow or whatever the new expansion is called. Haven't busted that open yet though.

Unfortunately, looks like they didn't toss in the Challenger pack I'd also ordered back in the halcyon days of yore. So I'll try putting in a missing item request. Sounds like quite a few folks have that one missing. But in all honesty, I'm just freakin' tickled pink I got all this stuff years after writing it off. I do love the game dearly, so I'm looking forward to playing again.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 7:50 pm

My Street Masters stuff arrived today too! Both Lament of the Blood Moon and Tide of the Dragon. I was also missing the Rumble Pack and the New Challengers, so I sent them a message as well.

I might be crazy, but I think the Steamforged Games version of this game looks better? The materials seem to be higher quality and the sculpts look much better - the details.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 8:02 pm

Check your Tide of the Dragon box from steamforged. Turns out they included the Challenger and Rumble pack in that.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 8:04 pm

Yeah, I hoped that was the case, but no dice. When I looked at the QML manifest neither are listed but it's in my Gamefound receipt. And lord knows I won't be complete unless I have ALL the content.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Mon Mar 31, 2025 8:28 pm

It looks like it's actually bundled with the Tide of the Dragon stuff. Check the decks that are in the Tide of the Dragon box. You'll most likely see a Mr. Apple deck and a Zane card in front of a couple of the wrapped decks. Those are in the challenger pack. I found mine after checking the comments and seeing someone else note that they just bundled it with Tide of the Dragon. Then I saw this on boardgamegeek for the 2025 steamforge version of Tide of the Dragon (which is what I, and most likely you, got):

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Apr 01, 2025 11:39 am

Huh. Was that communicated somewhere officially? I'm pretty good about keeping track of those things but I totally missed that.

I had the Blacklist Games from BGG in my collection; I had no idea there was a separate listing for the SFG version!

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Tue Apr 01, 2025 1:05 pm

Yeah, I think they overestimated how many of the Tide of the Dragon copies from Blacklist were actually in good condition/not missing in that warehouse they've been stored in since Indi liberated them from the Nazis alongside the Ark and had to do a run of their own.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Apr 02, 2025 9:03 pm

New Kickstarter!

If you read through the project, apparently they're also going to be doing a print-on-demand style model after this Kickstarter so it'll be the last time you can get these type of sets.

Decks must be complete and legal to be purchased.
Printed and shipped decks are $19.95 for up to 52 cards, or $24.95 for 53-70 cards (plus shipping).
Dice reference cards are automatically included if they fit within the card count.
Dice can be added to your cart in sets of 5.
Print-and-play PDF purchases are on the way soon. In the meantime, we've got 6 pre-constructed decks you can download for free.
Purchases are completed at the website of our partner, ForgeFire.
Purchase any deck you see, or create an account to build your own deck!