Crowdfunding Round-up: Manhattan Re-Projected, Shadowfist Replayed & Locomotive Works Reworked

Crowdfunding Round-up: Manhattan Re-Projected, Shadowfist Replayed & Locomotive Works Reworked
Board Game: The Manhattan Project
• U.S. publisher Minion Games isn't satisfied with letting atom bomb research remain a thing of the past, so it plans to publish The Manhattan Project: Mega Expansion from designers Eric Jome and Brandon Tibbetts before the end of 2012. (KS link) Here's a summary of what's included:

Quote:
The Manhattan Project: Mega Expansion consists of three small expansions that can be added to the base game individually or together.

-----Nations 2 works like the previous Nations expansion, with each player getting one card to represent a country and gain a special power. Seven new countries and powers are represented.
-----Rocket Technology allows you to build a rocket factory when taking the "Design Bomb" action. Rockets can replace Bombers for an additional cost or they can destroy an opponent's building.

-----H-Bomb Technology upgrades the "Design Bomb" action, allowing a player to return two available bombs to the bottom of the deck in order to acquire an H-Bomb card. To build an H-Bomb, however, the player needs Lithium Deuteride, which comes from new cards that work similar to Mines.
Board Game Publisher: Soda Pop Miniatures
Board Game Publisher: Cool Mini Or Not
Soda Pop Miniatures and Cool Mini Or Not have teamed up for yet another miniatures-laded game that is tearing up the charts on Kickstarter. Relic Knights: Darkspace Calamity hit its $20k funding target in four hours, and in just over a day it had pushed through $70,000 and two stretch goals, which added two more factions to choose from when choosing rewards. (KS link) What's the game? Haven't a clue – here's the description on the KS page:

Quote:
Relic Knights: Darkspace Calamity is a fast-paced strategy battle game for two or more players, pitting the heroic forces of the Relic Knights against each other in a battle for survival and the fate of the galaxy

Take control of one of six factions with wonderfully detailed miniatures, as you use a unique card draw mechanic to power your special abilities and defenses!

Each game lasts about an hour for the Faction Starter size, and how you manage your abilities and resources (represented by the Esper Cards) will determine the fate of the universe! Bluff your way to victory, or hide your strength till the critical moment – it's fast-paced strategy and anime action!
Ah, I see. (I don't really see.)

Board Game: Locomotive Werks
Queen Games has launched another KS project, this time for Dieter Danziger's Locomotive Works, which Winsome Games first published in 2002. (KS link) As has been the case with Chicago Express, Paris Connection, and other such Winsome-born titles, Queen Games has gussied up the artwork and graphic design to give the game shelf appeal while leaving the design mostly as is. Here's a short description:

Quote:
During the 19th century, the German railway network expanded rapidly. However, technical progress was due not only to the ever-growing traffic network, but was accelerated by the construction of more and more powerful locomotives.

Locomotive Works is an economic game in which players purchase the ability to produce engines, pay workers to produce them, and sell to the volatile, dice-driven market. The game is best known for its unique market mechanism in which the demand for older train models dries up, often at a rapid pace as new technology is implemented.
Note that the cover shown above right differs from what will appear on the finished product.

Board Game: Shadowfist
• Publisher Inner Kingdom Games is trying to bring back the collectible card game Shadowfist, with four preconstructed decks – "one each for the Dragons, the Guiding Hand, the Ascended and the Eaters of the Lotus" – making up the "Combat in Kowloon" series. Two additional preconstructed decks are in the "Back for Seconds" expansion, and the project listing has many more details that will probably make more sense to someone who's experienced the game previously. (KS link)

Board Game: Conquest Tactics: Inferno
• U.S. publisher Zeitgeyser LLC is looking for funds for Conquest Tactics: Inferno (KS link), an expansion for the base game described as follows:

Quote:
Conquest Tactics: Inferno includes forty new cards, encompassing all of the different card types in the Conquest Tactics base game, with five copies of every Troop, three of every Spell and Skill, two of every Base, and so on.

These cards give certain factions access to spell and skill types that they've never been able to use before, gives other factions new mechanisms that reinforce their existing strategies, and expands on each factions' existing upgrade trees for troops, in addition to including victory conditions and bases that allow for new strategies and new cross-faction deck combinations.
From gallery of W Eric Martin
• In late July 2012, Tasty Minstrel Games launched a Kickstarter project for a second edition of Stacket – under the less offensive name Stack It! – then pulled the plug on the project in early August after concerns were raised that the game design was too similar to one of the official variations for the decades old Bausack by designer Klaus Zoch. In announcing the decision, TMG's Michael Mindes wrote:

Quote:
I think that Stack It is sufficiently different from Bausack that there is no intellectual property problems, but questions of legitimacy have come up and I would like to get this dealt with before proceeding with Stack It!

So, I have sent initial communications over to Zoch Spiele in Germany to figure this out. If it can be worked out, then I will be glad to proceed with them as a friend and supporter.

Thank you for your support, and I will let you know if this comes back up in the future.
• Curious about the success rate of projects on Kickstarter? The site has a basic stats page on funds raised, what percent of projects succeeded, how much unsuccessful projects raised, and more.

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