About bloody time!
about 10 years ago – Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 03:54:51 PM

Apologies for the lack of updates and communication but in our defence we have been busy making all your lovely stuff and I always think it's better to be cracking on with stuff rather than twaddle on in updates wasting valuable workshop time!

Rob's going to bore you now with the up to date facts on how much we have got done, what we have shipped and things like that...then we will get to some pretty pictures, battle reports and a little new stuff!....see you in a minute!

Ok, so far we have shipped 8 orders and we have two more on the table being prepped. So that puts us over the half way line getting your lovely stuff out to you. Each order takes up a massive amount of space during the prep so we are having to make each order one at a time. However, there are still a couple of people out there who haven't completed their Backerkit survey yet. If this is you please can you get it done before Christmas so we can move your rewards on to the final phase.

The PDF is part written and we keep adding and amending the rules for your scenery as we playtest them. We are keeping them simple (just like us) so they are easy to remember and add flavour to your game rather than pages of extra rules you need to remember.

One boring fact before I finish my bit is so far we have used 400 metres of bubble wrap on this project and I think by the end we should be close to the 1 kilometre mark. 

Back to you Shaun

Managed to shoehorn a little time to get a few games under our belts and our range of scenery really didn't disappoint, even though I have been looking at it for nearly a year now I still always remain impressed by just how easy it is to build battlefields and how damn shiny it all looks when set up!

Onto the battle report! We are constantly trying out new house rules btw so, as promised, these will all be collated and slapped into a PDF so you can give them a try yourself :)

Battle 1..

The Guns of Nava-Vorne The Allies had gotten wind of a secret doomsday weapon hidden in the depths of the Ardenne forest. Moving quickly, the Allies launched a surprise attack that caught the Blight napping. Using a range of dirty tricks the Allies quickly advanced forward. Firstly they used Edwina Brasseldun’s tunneler to drop off Atomic-robo right outside our closest objective that he quickly jumped in to and control. Next, the Wolverine parachuted in to the aerodrome capturing it. We used the special rules that if you had control of the aerodrome you could use it as a deployment point for aircraft instead of your baseline. Now aircraft began filling the skies from the aerodrome with Buccaneer fighters and gyrocopters strafing the poor Blight troops on the ground. The Blight responded bringing their own fighters to the skies. The victory point were racking up quickly for the Allies something had to be done. Calling up the might of the Gryphons Hammer tank it quickly rumbled up to the bunker laying waste to the Allies around it. Swarms of troops rushed forward as rocket bikes and mono wheels danced around each other. The Blight became more desperate as they fought to remove Atomic-robo from his ruins. Then Edwina’s tunneller was back, this time dropping of the Veteran who quickly dispatched 3 hapless troops before himself being crushed by the giant robotic fists of a Landkrieger. Ominously the Allies moved a unit into each of control bunkers rooms the Allies activated the Doomsday cannon. Flashing orange lights and the sirens began to wail as the huge cannon rotated to face its own side. The special rules we used were: unlimited range, no line of sight but scattered, blast and 3 dice for each armour value. We found this was simple and work really well. The huge shell detonated in the middle of the Blight troops sending their broken bodies flying. This was not looking good… Then a flash of red zoomed by as the Red Baron took to the skies to fight off the Allied air menace. He quickly dispatched the buccaneers but in response to the Red Baron, Reme Le Funck took to the air and began chasing him across the skies. But it was too late the Allies had captured the bunker and so the Blight retreated to lick their wounds and plan how they were going to explain to Dr Vorne that they had lost his Cannon of Doom.

Battle 2..

Rivet Factory..We used the ruined factory and a few other elements to create a slightly industrial area, a couple of 1pt objectives and, if you could hold all 4 sections of the factory a 2pts objective. We allowed the roads to give tanks and cavalry units the 'runner' ability and it was beautifully simple and worked a treat!

Also, having got a few games in now I have been inspired to tinker around and come up with a few new elements to add fun and options to the battlefields

First is a river ford, now those heavy vehicles can get across the river....better beware!

Also, I figured it would be nice to have specific objective squares rather than using the rather flat ones from the core box or indeed our existing scenery elements so I created an Ammo/equipment objective and a forward observation point, both fit 4 infantry stands on and have a little hole to plant your flag!

 OK, talk soon now I have to go...things to make!

Never bored with Boards!
over 10 years ago – Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 03:44:07 PM

Rob and me finally found a little time to put together some 'one-click' battlefield bundles as requested by some backers.

We actually only considered doing 2 or 3 but it was so much fun we couldn't stop taking them to bits and rebuilding, it's a game in itself and so much fun!!!

We are currently working out prices but they should work out slightly cheaper than buying all the components separately however, of course, you are slightly limited to building battlefields from the set components, albeit in many different combinations so you may still wish to add a few of the other scenery elements to compliment the sets and keep your options well and truly open when designing those Rivet battlefields!

Below are a few examples, we have tried to theme them around a central main element and included useful smaller elements where possible, trenches have been included with all the examples and remember the boards shown are the deluxe versions mounted on foam board, the sets will actually be STANDARD UNMOUNTED tiles which you have the option to either mount yourselves, take advantage of our board mounting offer or of course use them in their simplest form and just place them on your tabletop!

What follows is a rough description of contents. A full list will be included with the appropriate pledge manager item

 I have been busy btw, huge piles of rivet scenery starting to build up so hopefully as soon as the pledge manager goes live and we start receiving orders we can dispatch as orders are completed, this way we wont be buried under a mountain of scenery. In short the quicker your orders drop into our inbox the sooner you will get your stuff!

 So what about the pledge manager? When does it go live I hear you cry? Well we are just putting the finishing touches to it. All that's left is the deluxe board prices and details/proof reading to go on and then you should receive your email asking you to log in. Once you log in you can choose a 'one click' battlefield  plus any extra items or choose all your items individually, Its up to you.

Post campaign stuff and a few new widgets!
over 10 years ago – Sat, Oct 03, 2015 at 04:36:00 PM

Well hello again! Funds have finally cleared and I can make a start on casting the preliminary order list that some of you were kind enough to send us. This should hopefully put us out a little in front when we get round to releasing the Backerkit pledge manager and speed the whole process of getting your battlefields out to you and getting my life back to relative normality sooner rather than later!

Rob and me have had a pow-pow over the boards to see what sort of battlefield deals we can put together as a few of you have been requesting a '1 button option' for putting together your little Chibi-fied bundles of joy. More on this later

I haven't been idle on the sculpting front either and even though I have a bazillion other projects on the go I have managed to put together a few little widgets to add to the fun of our range of scenery

First up are.....

To tidy up the battlefield a little came up with these funky little bridge sides, they simply slot down the sides into the trenches where the road/river/rail crosses over and make things look prettier!

 Here is how they work...

 Simply insert the sides and voila...

 The other thing I have created are these..

Rubble tokens. With the introduction of our buildings it would be nice of course with a method to destroy them! Here we go..

 It's a simple house rule mechanic, any tank/artillery piece (to simplify matters) that can concentrate its fire on a building, if it successfully damages then just place a token within the building. each building section can take 4 hits, if there happens to be no room then remove a figure and count it as a casualty, the more infantry in there the more chance the poor little fellas have of getting crushed by falling masonry! Maybe give them or just hero figures a chance to jump out of a window in a heroic manner? Also make hardened targets such as bunkers a little more difficult to destroy maybe only taking damage on the roll of a 6

 Of course the rubble and rules for destroying buildings will really come into their own when I get stuck into creating some full multi-story town houses and we get into the nitty gritty of Urban fighting! Let's not also forget that there are potential units out there on both sides that could also repair buildings so it's going to be a real tug of war fighting for those strongholds and objectives ;)

Backerkit 

 We will be sending you an email soon with a special link to BackerKit surveys. It is important that when you receive the survey, you get it back to us as quickly as you can. Our ability to make an order depends on receiving this information. Filling out your BackerKit survey is not required, but will help out our project move forward tremendously, and help us get your rewards out to you quicker. You do not need to make a login and password to fill out your survey, just fill it out and you’re all good to go! In the BackerKit survey, please answer any questions we may have regarding your pledge, provide shipping information and if you want you can even order more items or “add-ons”. You do not have access to this link yet, but it will be available soon via email! If you’ve decided later that you filled out something wrong in the survey, you can actually go back and change it any time before I announce the cut off date for changes. 

If you use your Facebook login for your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit invite will be sent to the email you used for your Facebook account. If you have another email you prefer it to be sent to, please click on this support link (.backerkit.com/contacts/new).

  FAQ about BackerKit: 

 1. I didn’t get my BackerKit email invite. Where is it? You can resend your invite to yourself! Just go to the project BackerKit URL: .backerkit.com, enter your email address, and your invite will be sent to your email inbox.

 2. I want to sign back into https://.backerkit.com, but I don’t remember the email I used for my account. How do I get it? Please click on this support link (.backerkit.com/contacts/new) and we will help you. If you have any more questions about BackerKit: Please check out https://www.backerkit.com/faq_backer, or email the team directly by clicking on this support link (.backerkit.com/contacts/new). They’re happy to help! 

 Postage 

 As we explained in the campaign, Shipping will be charged based on the actual cost to ship your pledge including any additional rewards you select. Final shipping costs will be sent out as a Paypal invoice once your shipping cost has been calculated. Once completed we will then move onto getting your rewards out to you. We are doing this so we can be fair to all our backers as shipping is rarely a one size fits all and this is the best way to meet each of your individual needs. Please bear in mind that some these are large and heavy items so we are really held to ransom by what the postal services can offer us but we try to get the best prices we can for you guys so I hope this info helps! 

The Backerkit pledge manager is almost finalized so watch out for the invitation in the next couple of weeks, it will include the battlefield deals (which we will keep you up to date on in future updates) as well as the rubble tokens and bridge sides!

Talk soon!

Chimneys & Choo choos!
over 10 years ago – Sun, Sep 13, 2015 at 01:12:08 PM

Rightio, bish bash bosh and a yippety yap,  let's take a look at some more scenery from our KS!

First up, Dibnah's Factory, yes, named in homage to the great man Fred Dibnah, those who have never heard of him, try and catch up on some of his series and documentaries, bloody legend and a compliment like that coming from a Yorkshireman about a Lancashire man says everything that needs to be said :)

Anyhoo, back on topic, yes, the factory. If an army marches on it's stomach then a war definitely marches on the production of it's weapons and ammunition and to produce those you need factories!!

 The factory is currently one of our largest scenery elements covering a whopping 4 tile spaces! Imagine that, up to 16 little infantry chaps slugging it out in there for control of a major objective!

The factory like all other buildings has interior detail and room in each section to house 4 infantry

 As with the trees I would recommend magnetising or pinning the chimney, don't want it tumbling down mid game crushing some little guys!

 Why not combine the road sections and run them out of the factory doors right onto the frontline!

 And why stop there? We can provide just the rear sections and a roof (we'll add it to the pledge manager as an option) so you can create MEGA FACTORIES!

 Of course, factories being prime targets for enemy fire they sometimes come a cropper and with our destroyed factory kit by simply swapping the chimney, roof and a couple of sections you can convert the factory into a bombed out ruin, would be fun to start this way or maybe as an in game switch out as a result of deadly accurate artillery fire?!

 Talking about death and destruction. If you are like me it just doesn't sit right to simply remove a large unit such as a tank from play when it is destroyed, we want wreckage for Rivets sake..and plenty of it!

So I created these to represent both allied and Blight wrecked vehicles, remember as a backer you get one of each totally FREE, as a thank you :) 

However, nothing stopping you purchasing more and littering that battlefield with ghostly wrecks...oooh, who knows, while exploring the tank graveyard you could disturb the undead who still walk the earth hungry for Rivety brains! 

 Of course, why waste ammunition and time trying to destroy the enemies big stuff when you could just deny it ever reaching you...that's what Dragon's Teeth are for!

 These can be used in a variety of ways and positioning them at key points on the battlefield can funnel the enemy armour into a killing zone or drive your scenario into a specific direction

 Finally for this update, let's take a look at our rivet train!

It's available as separate carriages or as a set complete with tracks so you are free to build it as you like, it make an excellent centre piece to any battle and can also be an exceptional scenario objective of course!

 The engine is the workhorse of the set of course, the little roof lifts off and is able to house two little rivet guys as crew, hmmmm, I wonder if that sniper situated in the old Church can take the shot, disable the crew and stop the train in its tracks before it delivers vital ammunition to the front line!

 The carriages come in a variety of shapes and sizes of course, lets take a look..

 A train is nothing without it's tracks of course and just like the river and road sets the tracks come in packs of 4 x straights and 2 x corners allowing you to build a rail road to your required destination...rail road tycoon style!

 All the carriages include a bogey and buffers and require minimal assembly, the bogey neatly slots into the tracks and then the carriage simply sits on top, easy!

 Build it into your battlefield any way you wish...maybe the train is delivering vital supplies so the factory can churn out a few more Allied walkers to fight on the front line, all the while the Blight forces are trying to destroy both the train and the factory!

 OK, only a few hours to go now, I will try and slip another update in before then (we still have Dr Vorne and his CANNON OF DOOM to take a  closer look at) but I have plenty on today so if I don't see you before I will be sharing plenty more stuff over the coming weeks with you, my mind is swimming with many more ideas to make our RW games look the danglers....armoured engines for the tracks, full multi story town houses and building for urban fighting, sewers even! Let's not forget new tiles for beach landings and hells bells, whatever ideas Ted's season 2 RW kickstarter throws up...looks like I may be busy for a long time, I may even be able to fit a few of the less complicated items into my schedule before the pledge manager comes out, who knows! I certainly haven't got a clue! 

Talk soon, stay safe and keep having fun :)

OH & THANKS FOR CHOO CHOO CHOOSING US!

Dr Vorne's SECRET Laboratory & his CANNON OF DOOOOOM! (but keep it quiet...it's a secret)
over 10 years ago – Sun, Sep 13, 2015 at 01:08:09 PM

I loved the Dr Vorne miniature from the RW collection from the moment I saw his shiny bald head and even as I was painting him what seemed like ages ago I knew he would require a secret lair all of his own to conduct his nefarious experiments from. And so was born this!

 You wouldn't take a second glance really, indeed being what looks like a heavily defended bunker you would probably make a point of staying well clear...probably a good idea as if we were to step inside you would be confronted by a laboratory full of dastardly equipment where Dr Vorne performs his most despicable experiments!

 Like the factory the lab is a large building consisting of 4 sections, the main lab/entrance, a cell where Dr Vorne holds people/things awaiting 'questioning' a guard house section and the winding equipment that helps reveal even more of his despicable inventions (we will come to that later)!

 The set also includes all his equipment, you can spend ages just having fun playing around organising the furniture in his lab, and let's face it who doesn't like playing with doll's houses...there...I said it!

 And also like the other buildings, roofs, interior detail and doors can all be removed if required so you can really go to town and make things your own!

But wait, it doesn't stop there, ooooh noooo sireee, what's that whirring sound? oh look, the roof seems to be moving and, and what's that appearing from the bunker....YES, It's DR VORNE'S CANNON OF DOOOOOM...ruuuun!

Those 6 little rollers on the winding equipment? there are 6 for a reason you know. I always like to implement game mechanics into  my sculpts, absolutely hate scrabbling about for counters mid game, slows the fun down so it could work like this...

You have some time in hand to assault the lab before the roof opens, simply roll a D6 and move the roof that many rollers, when it hits the 6th Roller...DEPLOY THE CANNON OF DOOOOM!

Feel like you don't have enough time then simply make the roll a D6-1, D6-2...you get that hang of it right? simple!

Knock yourself out with your own house rules to the COD but I have included, shells, ammo type counters a target marker. There is minimal assembly required and seriously, it's dead easy and not rocket science...although that is planned for a future expansion ;)

 Here are my musings of how I envisaged things while I was creating it. The shells for instance could be used as an indication of limited ammo per game, which of course is scalable, you don't want to have a big impact on the game, give the player a couple of shells, use them wisely! Or maybe use them as a count-up mechanic, each turn you gain one, when you have 3 in hand the cannon is ready to fire...blast away!

Of course with a monstrous weapon of mass destruction like this a simple BANG just will not cut it so I created some ammo type markers too, timed fuse, bio-hazard and poison gas. Maybe use the timed fuse to create a huge explosion, but allowing troops a turn to run like hell before it goes off, great for clearing an area before a main charge? Poison gas can easily use the existing rules within the game and bio-hazard, well, how about seeing a shell land close-by..'phew, it's a dud' you think then BANG, the lid is kicked off and zombies stumble out and head right for you...arrrggh! But maybe zombies are not the only 'living' weapon Dr Vorne has created, yes he could have other things up his sleeve (and don't worry...I have, muhahahahaha)

The target marker looks like a partially buried shell and not only looks cool but can be placed on your target square and then the fuse type simply bobbed on top to remind you what terrible fate is about to befall the poor rivets close by! The ammo counters can also be placed in the end of the cannon to represent what the next shell type is, a simple mechanic that forces the owner of the cannon to think a little more forward and tactically

 The CANNON OF DOOOM can be purchased separately with its own land tile or as part of a larger deal with the Lab but there is no doubt both sets can be use to inject some amazing scenarios and objectives into your RW games.

Just off the top of my head while I was sat here typing how about this. The cannon is all primed and ready to fire on the advancing troop train but the allies have managed to disable it and hide the firing pin in one of the 4 ruins on the board (secretly chosen by the allied player). The Blight player must search the ruins in order to find the pin, return it to the cannon and then knock out the train, all before the train advances from one side of the board to the other and all the time with the allied forces snapping at there heels...there...it's that easy!

OK OK let's calm down a little and take a look at a few interesting little widgets to compliment the look of your RW battlefield and scenery

In this KS we have 2 sets of accessories available which are brilliant at giving those buildings that 'lived in look'

 Here are some quick example of how they can bling out those buildings..

 Right, that's definitely it until we see you the other side of the finishing line ladies and gents, once again thanks for joining us on the ride, remember, don't panic if you haven't finalised your pledge or decided what you want yet, there will still be a few weeks before funds clear and you receive our pledge manager in which you can tell us exactly what you want and add extras if need be. There may even be some new stuff by then, those that know me by now also know that I simply can't put those damn sculpting tools down once they are out in fact, there are already a couple of new little widgets sat on my table that I will be revealing in another update! 

Talk soon, stay safe and have fun :)

Now, I really have to go, we have a SECRET lab to storm!