News – New Shiny Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice Arrive for UK Games Expo demos!

News – New Shiny Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice Arrive for UK Games Expo demos!

News – Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice gets ready for UK Games Expo with new art

News – Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice gets ready for UK Games Expo with new art 

As Backspindle Games gets ready to demo Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice at UK Games Expo, they’ve produced to new artwork  and dice to whet the appetite.

 

 

 

Stonemeier Games Press Release – Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia is coming to Kickstarter on May 15

It’s Time to Build a Better Dystopia

New game from the creators of Viticulture launching on Kickstarter on May 15

Jamey Stegmaier and Alan Stone, creators of the Kickstarter hit Viticulture: The Strategic Game of Winemaking, are returning to Kickstarter to seek funding for their new game, Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia. Game lovers familiar with the dice in Alien Frontiers and the worker-placement/removal mechanics in The Manhattan Project and Tzolk’in will feel right at home in Euphoria.

Euphoria has been blind playtested by over 60 people across the world, and it will launch on Kickstarter with the full art and design complete. The Kickstarter campaign will feature free shipping to individuals in the US, Canada, and the European Union, as well as free bulk shipping to a limited number of backers in Asia and Australia. Just like with Viticulture (which has already been delivered to many backers early, with all other backers due to receive their games as promised in May), Euphoria comes with a money-back guarantee to all Kickstarter backers.

About the game:

The world as we know it has ended, and in its place the city of Euphoria has risen. Believing that a new world order is necessary to prevent another apocalypse, the Euphorian elite not only erect physical walls around the city, but also metaphysical walls around the minds of the citizens. Gone are personal freedoms; gone is knowledge of the past. All that matters is the future.

In Euphoria, you lead a team of workers (dice) and recruits (cards) to claim ownership of the dystopian world. You will generate commodities, dig tunnels to infiltrate opposing areas, construct markets, collect artifacts, strengthen allegiances, and fulfill secret agendas, all while trying to keep your morale high and your knowledge (represented by the numbers on the dice) as low as possible so your workers don’t discover they’re in a dystopia.

What are you willing to sacrifice in the present to make the future better than the past? Find out in Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia.

Euphoria Board layout

Number of players: 2-5 (adding a 6^th player is one of the many Kickstarter stretch goals)

Time required: 60 min

Recommended ages: 13+

Stonemaier Games website: www.stonemaiergames.com

Euphoria art gallery: http://www.stonemaiergames.com/gallery/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StonemaierGames

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jameystegmaier

 

Victory Point Games PRESS RELEASE – Fuentes de Onoro 20 has been released!

Victory Point Games PRESS RELEASE – Fuentes de Onoro 20 has been released!

Following his failed invasion of Portugal in 1810, French Marshal Andre Massena fell back into Spain with Wellington’s Anglo-Portuguese Army in cautious pursuit. Assuming the wretched state of the French would allow him time to capture the key border fortress of Almeida, Wellington settled in for a leisurely siege  But Massena quickly reorganised his forces and advanced on the British positions in an effort to resupply the beleaguered fortress.

Fuentes de Oñoro 20, by designers R. Nicasio Garcia and Jack Gill, allows players to examine this tension-filled battle of the Peninsular Campaign, fought along the Spanish-Portuguese Border. Featuring the same system as GMT’s popular “Fading Glory“ game, Fuentes de Oñoro 20 has low unit density (20 pieces or less on the game map) and modest complexity. The game focuses on dramatic, fast-playing turns and creates a strong historical narrative through the use of random event cards and the tracking of army morale providing a great feel for the parry-and-thrust of Napoleonic grand battle.

 

Fuentes de Oñoro 20, by designers R. Nicasio Garcia and Jack Gill, allows players to examine this tension-filled battle of the Peninsular Campaign, fought along the Spanish-Portuguese Border. Featuring the same system as GMT’s popular “Fading Glory“ game, Fuentes de Oñoro 20 has low unit density (20 pieces or less on the game map) and modest complexity. The game focuses on dramatic, fast-playing turns and creates a strong historical narrative through the use of random event cards and the tracking of army morale providing a great feel for the parry-and-thrust of Napoleonic grand battle.

Lead your troops forward into action to see if you can break your opponent’s morale at bayonet-point before he puts your army to flight.

 

Click here for all the details and to order Fuentes de Oñoro 20.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE LUCHA RUMBLE? Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice has launched a Facebook Page

ARE YOU READY FOR THE LUCHA RUMBLE? Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice has launched a Facebook Page

I am delighted that Backspindle Games are going to be taking my game, Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice to Kickstarter to raise funds for publication. Please spread the word so that we can get a huge amount of followers on our Luchador facebook page who can follow our journey and back our project.

https://www.facebook.com/LuchadorMexicanWrestlingDice

Next stop will be UK Games Expo where we will be demoing and running a Luchador Tag Team contest.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE LUCHA RUMBLE?

Following Expo, we hope to start organising the Kickstarter campaign.

 

Victory Point Games Press Release – Rules Lawyer is now on sale!

Victory Point Games Press Release – Rules Lawyer is now on sale!

Ever wanted to make your friend bark like a dog three times, while rubbing their belly and slapping their knee? Then we have the perfect game for you!

Rules Lawyer, by designer Nathan Hansen, is a hilarious, fast-paced, family-fun card game for 3 or more players with ever-changing rules (“Laws”). Each player takes turns placing, altering and then obeying the current Laws of the game.

Great for parties, family, and friends, see what Laws you can come up with in Rules Lawyer!

Click here for all the details and to order Rules Lawyer.

Made in Britain Designer’s Diary Part 6 – Ragnar Brothers are working on Promised Land for a Kickstarter project

Made in Britain Designer’s Diary Part 6 – Ragnar Brothers are working on Promised Land for a Kickstarter project

Promised Land

Designer Diary (part 6)

Phil joined us for the week-end. He had meant to bring down costumes so that we could start videoing for a Kickstarter presentation. True to form, he forgot the hats. Never-the-less the three Ragnars (i.e. the three of us who run Ragnar Brothers) sat down for a morning of trialling.

The three player version hasn’t been played too many times (not even in solo plays), so this was a good opportunity. We decided to play with dice as this would be new to Phil (remarkably, Phil hasn’t played the game at all since summer 2012). Explaining the rules didn’t take too long and away we went.

Ragnar Brothers trial games quite often and with quite a wide range of folks who are prepared to help. However, there can be no doubt that nothing compares to trialling with just the three of us (or throw in a few of the other Ragnars). Any such game gets a ‘damned good Ragnaring’ – and some don’t survive. I’m glad to say that on this occasion  Promised Land held up very well under the strain. There were however some moments of contention:

1.  Gary disliked the terrain restriction that occurred in the 2 dice over-run rules.

2. Siege-craft and Treachery seemed too strong when coupled with the 3 dice over-run.

3. Having to collect weaker cards from one of two colours sets, seemed un-necessarily complicated. I don’t think I have actually explained this part of the mechanics – for precisely the same reason!

Otherwise the game played to a close finish with Phil (Heathen 1) beating Steve (Hebrews) into second place. Gary (Heathen 2) was some way back having failed to negotiate chits on the Kingdom track.

Initially the ‘contentions’ above were quietly forgotten. But a follow up solo trial (aimed at checking play balance in the 3-player game) high-lighted the same disquiet. ‘Over-run’ as a term also didn’t feel to sit well. The up-shot was to change the terminology to ‘Force Victory’ and to introduce the ‘Half unit’ mechanism. Basically, instead of paying one extra unit to conquer two lands of the same terrain, a player now pays half a unit for each land. One unit is paid and placed on the Half unit space on the Combat Modifier chart; if a second half unit is spent then the unit on the space is removed to the supply. This allows the lands to be conquered non-consecutively and they can be different terrain types.

A quick fix for the weaker card contention, was to make each such card worth 3 pts – simple, can’t think why it was anything other.

And so to the Ragnar Bash. This annual event is held in a converted farmhouse, high on the hills of Staffordshire. Twelve Ragnars and associates turn up from North, South, East – but not West – and a good variety of games, quizzes, meals, banter and boozing takes place. Promised land was brought along on the off-chance that some might be prepared to trial it. If this sounds a little negative, please bear in mind that different versions of Promised Land have been turning up at the Bash for something like…. twenty years! As it happened three volunteers were happy to be rounded up. Jason and Nick had certainly played in the dim and distant past and Charlie had played about a year earlier. So this Promised Land would be relatively new to all. It was agreed to play with dice.

From the start it was clear that some things weren’t clear! Jason in particular found it hard to comprehend the differing roles of units and Patriarchs, particular because of the close colour-coding in the mock-up. Playing red, he naturally associated with the Southern Hebrew kingdom and only gradually realised that his interests also lay with the yellow Northern kingdom. Even the pawns on the Kingdom and Royal tracks caused him confusion – perhaps he’d drunk a little too much on the Saturday.

None-the-less the game progressed well. When Nick announced he had to leave at 12.00 noon, the pace was successfully increased and the game played through to a close (and un-expected) conclusion.

Charlie had some helpful comments:

1. Much better than when he last played.

2. Liked using the dice.

3. Progress along the Kingdom track was a little predictable.

4. The Royal track could be developed.

And that led to the following changes:

1.  The Kingdom track chits to be placed totally randomly (not 1pts first, then 2pts then 3pts)

2.  Three chits added to the Royal track and each chit to be individually valued.

When trialling these changes solo, a couple of other rules were further developed.

1.  If two Heathen nations become adjacent then they become united as one kingdom. This may make a significant difference to achieving a Kingdom track chit.

2. When moving on the Royal track, the benefit of a chit can be immediately used i.e. in that turn.

Such is the nature of designing a game; one change leads to another. And a key thing to look out for (as in this case) is that the rules overall actually reduce in complexity and length.

Finally, we have just received some initial sketches from artist Vicki Paul. Looking good!