Hegemonic Kickstarter Update #14

With 5 days to go, the Hegemonic Kickstarter has reached its $55k stretch goal.

If you enjoy 4x Space Board Games and want to be one of the first to play this game, head over to their Kickstarter page and make a pledge.

Hegemonic Kickstarter Update #12

With nine days to go, Hegemonic Kickstarter has hit the $50k+ mark. This means that the Arbiter button will now be included. This is the first of the exclusive goals.

For me, the most important stretch goal was the $45k one, which is the layered board that prevents the movement of tokens on the player board. This is a big pain in Eclipse, so that goal is appreciated.

The next goal I am eager to see met is the Fringe Houses goal. this should add additional character to the game. This goal is met at $55k, and should be met quite easily.

The next goal I want to see is the locking hexes (you can tell, I don't like pieces to move). This is the $100k and the final goal. I don't think this is likely to be met in 9 days.

If you like 4x space board games, go give the Hegemonic Kickstarter a look. Except if you are in my game group. I am hoping for this to be another one of my "great finds".

Next Gen XBox and PS4 Spec Rumours

Here are the latest rumours about the specs for next gen Microsoft and Sony. Theses are supposedly coming out of  CES, so perhaps they have more wieght.

Next Playstation: 1.84 teraflops run time capability, 4 GB ram (1 GB for system OS, 3 GB for games).

Next XBox: 1.23 tereflops run time capability, 8 GB ram (3 GB for system, 5 GB for games).

Link to original article.

Mental Illness and Violent Video Games

This topic has been in the media a lot lately.

This article is by someone who suffers from bipolar disorder and has played video games since the beginning.

Great article. Read the whole thing.

Hegemonic Kickstarter Update #7

Here is the latest update from one of the games I am supporting on Kickstarter.

Yippy! We've made our next stretch goal of player aids added to the game! Thanks for the support. Now we need to push for the VERY important double-layered player boards to keep those damn tokens from sliding all over the place by mistake.

We're still waiting on the review videos but that should give this campaign a kick.

We are still projecting meeting at least 50K and maybe hitting plastic at 80K if everyone helps with the push.

While player aids are nice, I really hope they meet the $45K goal. I think the layered board is going to be the most handy stretch goal (although the plastic pieces and the locking board are also pretty neat).

If you are interested in Kickstarting Hegemonic there are only 18 days left.

Another Kickstarter - Battle for Souls

Here is another Kickstarter project I have been considering throwing my support behind: Battle for Souls.

It looks interesting and there are some game mechanics that I find interesting for my own projects.

Using Kickstarter

Lately I have been looking into Kickstarter. I am thinking about using it for a project I am working on, so I thought I would check it out first. 

I decided to support a few projects, both of which are board games. Games are one of my areas of interest and the subject of this blog, so it would be natural for me to look in that area. I did not find anything in the area of video games I was willing to support. 

The two boardgames I am supporting both look very complete and are, I think, a  safe bet to be published. I am a little more cautious about video games. Even a well known video game studio, at the peak of its popularity and with all the money in the world, can screw up a great franchise at the last minute (I am looking at you Bioware and Mass Effect 3). So I will be very cautious about supporting video games.

I will update the projects I am supporting on an irregular basis.

One is already completed but there is still time to support the other:

Tomorrow: an apocalyptic nightmare

Hegemonic

Check them out.

Session Report - Eclipse: Rise of the Ancients - First Play with Expansion

This 7 player game of Eclipse: Rise of the Ancients was played on 12 January 2013 and was our first play with the expansion, although every player had at least one game with the original. We used the simultaneous turn order and added a house rule of extending the game by one turn, making a total of ten turns. The players were:

Planta – Green

Orion – Black
Mech – White
Rho Indi Syndicate – Gray
Yellow – Draco
Eridani – Red
Exiles – Purple (Me)

The guy who bought the expansion originally put it on layaway last week because his wife said their budget could not afford it so soon after Christmas. As I predicted, he couldn't wait and took the hit with his wife, probably taking the money out of the kid's college fund or some other equally unimportant area, in order that we could enjoy this game. Needless to say, most of us were keen to give it a try.

We set up the board using the 9 player third ring, placing 2 of the new ancients to fill in the gaps of the two missing players. Starting with Planta and going clockwise around the board, the player order was as follows: Planta, Orion, Mech, Rho Indi, Exiles, Draco, Eridani.

Thunderstone Impressions – After one play

I had the opportunity to give Thunderstone a try the other day. Thunderstone is a deck building game similar in play to the most well known deck building game, Dominion. There is the similar game mechanic of buying cards and building your deck. Thunderstone is difference in that it has a fantasy theme, where players use their cards and heroes to go down into the dungeon and kill various monsters. Each monster is worth a certain number of points and the player with the most points when the Thunderstone is revealed is the winner. The artwork is good and the components of suitable quality, similar to Dominion.