Crowdfunding Round-up: Dragon Whisperer, Sails of Glory, Hearts and Minds, Napoleon, The Guns of Gettysburg, Expedition: Famous Explorers & The Battle of Red Cliffs

Dragon Whisperer is a family card game that explores a rich and vibrant world where you take on the role of Dragon Whisperer. Send your heirs to journey into the world as they complete quests and collect treasure vying for your favor.

Up to six players take turns playing suited cards as they attempt to collect the most Quest tokens by traveling to various locations on the game board. Some cards allow you to amass Monster or Treasure tokens to cash in at the end of the game for additional points. Other cards have game-changing effects like changing the turn order or even canceling an entire round of play with the powerful Dragon Rage card.

Sails of Glory is a series of games that recreates naval combat in the Age of Sails (1650-1815). Based on the game system used in Wings of Glory (formerly Wings of War), Sails of Glory uses miniatures, cards and board game mechanisms, with a special deck of maneuver cards representing the different movement capabilities of each vessel. The game will be supported by a range of painted and assembled 1/1200 miniatures.

Players will choose their maneuver cards in secret, then reveal them all at the same moment. The card features arrows to be put in front of the miniature, then the latter is moved on top of the arrowhead. Several options on the same card are available depending on the wind and, with advanced rules, the sails used. After all ships moved, guns are fired from the sides of the miniature to targets in range.

The Wings of Glory game system has been modified and expanded to accurately represent battles at sea between the large sailing ships of the past centuries. The first series of Sails of Glory will be set in the Napoleonic Age. If the game is successful, in the future Sails of Glory will be extended to cover other historical periods, such as the Age of Discovery, the Middle Ages and ancient times.

Hearts and Minds: Vietnam 1965-1975 is a card-driven game covering the American buildup of troops and arms in Southeast Asia as to our decision to begin troop withdrawal: 1965-1975. The game is quick (3-6 hours) and clean (map using area movement). Hearts and Minds uses most major events of the period, including proposed events such as the Macnamara Line which was never actually built. Although nominally a combat game, the mechanisms actually revolve around both sides occupying South Vietnamese provinces for propaganda purposes. The heart of the game is political influence. There is little doubt that the Allied player will eventually withdraw his American boys from the quagmire, but the question is, how quickly and in what numbers?

Hearts and Minds contains 80 cards, tokens to represent the American army, the ARVN army, the NVA army, VC units of varying hidden strength, the Cambodian army, the Laotian army and a small contingent of international allies. Turn tokens, withdrawal tokens, reduced movement tokens as well CAS (Close Air Support), communist Air Suppression and artillery are also included. More rules cover Air Cavalry, naval support, Riverine interdiction, and bombers. Untried troops are a liability in the game; Veteran troops are a necessity. Ultimately, the Communist player must deal the American such a crushing public relations disaster that he will abandon his Southeast Asian allies before the momentum of those allies stalemates the irreversible infiltration of South Vietnam.

The Guns of Gettysburg is a simulation of the largest battle of the American Civil War. The game is derived from the system used in Bowen Simmons's previous games: Bonaparte at Marengo and Napoleon's Triumph. Units in the game are represented by linear blocks rather than the traditional hex and counters.

The Guns of Gettysburg is designed to have simple rules and fast play, while at the same time reflecting the historical limitations of the actual conflict. The game's rules are refined somewhat from its predecessors but overall reflect the same fast play as its predecessors.

Players are able to play single day scenarios or the full three day battle.

Expedition: Famous Explorers is an updated version of two award-winning Wolfgang Kramer games – Wildlife Adventure and Expedition – with a new theme: discovery and exploration. Players lead three expeditions to various locations by placing arrows on a map. When an expedition arrives at a location that matches either a location card held by that player or a public location, that player scores that card by placing it in front of him.

Expedition: Famous Explorers retains all the core rules of earlier versions of the game, but adds optional advanced rules that allow players to score additional points based upon purchasable Explorer and Assistant cards. Another game mechanism introduces Secret Locations.