The Epic Board Game of Strategy, Conquest and Domination

Featured

Posted on December 4, 2012 by empirescolliding

Welcome one and all to a world where myth and reality are one and the same. A world where the Great Empires of old have decayed, dissolved into anarchy and become all but forgotten, with only a handful of isolated city states left of once proud peoples. It is down to you to lead your people back to greatness by rebuilding what was lost….and destroying all that stand in your way.

Empires Collide is a turn based strategy board game by Weaver. Blending time honoured concepts of conquest and expansion with a card based battling system – which has been developed to allow the game to be played using existing card games such as Magic: The Gathering – Empires Collide is a unique addition to the world of strategy boardgames. Along with wars and conquest, economy is also at the heart of what makes Empires Collide unique, with the size of your empire and the upgrades you have built helping to determine your military might, allowing you to put knights, centaurs and countless other creatures – both human and mythical – into play. Using either the decks provided in the game, or decks of a compatible card game, the fates of your armies will be decided by your strategies and actions.

So please, take a gander at the ‘About The Game’ page to be further enticed into our world, and check the below updates and developments to see how this epic developed from a mere idea, into what it is today.

If we wet your tastebuds, in due course a merchant facility will be available for pre-orders, but if you want to get in there first, feel free to contact our sales team at info@weaverproject.co.uk.

Battle Board Completion

Posted on April 2, 2013 by empirescolliding

Well my Emperors and Empressess to be - you may have note our Kickstarter and facebook update, which now finds its way onto our blog also. The Battle Board design has now been completed, and I show it to you now in all its glory.

Allow me to divulge further. Until now, the battling side of Empires Collide occurred off the map and off the board in a card game format. However, people who are unfamiliar with battling card games took longer to grasp the game, and would find themselves confused owing to the lack of layout – all it takes is a card or two to be knocked askew or positioned wrong and a new player would be left with a question mark over his head.

So, we have brought the battle board stretch goal forward into the original design (consider it as adding more where we have had to sacrifice the 3D building for now).

The consequence of this is that the battle board will sit alongside the map (or maps if you want to play a larger game) and, when a duel takes place, the players position themselves either side of the battle board and places their cards in the slots provided.

A few interesting things to indicate how game play is affected:-

1. The defenses

These are determined by structure present i.e. if an army is invading a city hew has to battle through the city walls to attack the opponents general.

2. Province Type

This is is determined by which province is being battled for. If a province has two types i.e. mountains and forests, then the attacker choses his preferred type, and the defender gets the other. The province type provides a bonus to the player, or a detriment to the opponent.

3. The General

This slot is where the player places his general (sorry to state the obvious) which is chosen at the commencement of the game. The general cards are both a battling cue card, and provide a specific bonus to the player. This bonus may be economy based or battle based, so may prove handy on the field.

4. Attack line

This is where ther action starts – being where the player places his creature to combat and, on his turn, a player decides which creatures to hold back and which to attack with (indicated by pushing the card forward and exposing red as the indicator of an active attack).

5. Counter Line

Used by both players, this is where the player whose turn it is not, indicates how he will defend/block the attack.

In depth battles will be shown using the battle board in the gameplay videos now being prepared.

Stay tuned for the next update. more design work is expected in shortly.

Chris

Playtesting Updates

Posted on March 21, 2013 by empirescolliding

So, a further playtest was recently concluded as we await the battle board artwork and new map to polish off the prototypes for submitting to various review sites and game testers to increase our audience.

Well, the long and the short of it was that it worked brilliantly – the two player game lasted for one and a half hours to conclusion, included 9 battles (3 of which were skirmishes), and resulted in a domination victory (i.e. player two had no hope of a comeback).

So, why did it work so well for us, and why do I sound so confident. Allow, indulge me if you will:-

1. By utilising 20 sided die in recording the health of the cards and general in combat, the battles flowed far more smoothly.

2. The rebalancing of the creature cards resulted in much fairer battles (in fact only one card out of 58 was too powerful, and the formula for assessing the card’s stats is being altered to counter this).

3. The event cards work in a much fairer manner now that the majority of them provide two options.

4. The skirmish rule continues to encourage early small scale battles to get players used to them before using amassed armies in the later game. It also means that battles occur throughout the game and now just when the empires are large enough to clash.

Whilst we await the final art, we are going to shortly do a small playtest run of ‘short games’ whereby each player starts with a predefined empire size, to assess how this affects playability, length of play and, of course, fun factor. By creating a balanced short game we continue to open the game to a wider audience who do not have the time to set aside as much time to play, but desire to conquer nonetheless.

The buildings as tiles rather than the full 3D pieces we originally aimed for has gone down well. We will of course strive to achieve the 3D buildings as a stretch goal on the Kickstarter campaign – it is you, our fans who will make that happen.

Remember, once the battle board art is complete, we’ll be looking to conduct numerous game tests and get reviews on the game. If you are at all interested in playing Empires Collide early and getting in on the test run, let us know through the contact forms.

Chris Roberts

How the gears of Progress grind on

Posted on March 4, 2013 by empirescolliding

It has been a tad too long since I dropped an update on our followers, so allow me to furnish you with all our goings on.

A new round of play testing is soon to begin following additional tweaks that have been made to the game since Kickstarter ended which have both a cost saving implication, and creates interesting new playability.

Developments include:

1. Design for the building tiles are presently underway, and the first prototype set has been painstakingly cut out and is ready for testing, as soon as….

2. …the Battle board has been designed for implementation into the original game, rather than as a stretch goal. The battle board is designed for those who are unfamiliar with trading card games and is ideal to play skirmishes on, even for experienced players. The point of skirmishes (which occur on the spinner) is to cause battles to occur throughout the game rather than just at the end when Empires are bordering each other. This will enable new players to have a few smaller battles before building up to the larger battles later on. The battle board (which will be quad fold to open up to 50cmX60cm) will be included in the original boxed product. Artwork has been commissioned and should be finished by 10th March – whereafter it will be introduced to the world via this blog and a facebook update.

3. We have taken this additional time to further revise events to provide choices to a player – this is to be tested during the next round of play tests, but should prove very interesting.

4. Final artwork for the spinner has been commissioned.

Next, regarding the videos – as we have time on our side we want to get it done properly. This includes having game components created in 3D to allow panning effects and a small amount of visual effects on the intro video. In respect of the play video, this is going to be released later than planned as we make sure it is fit for the Kickstarter campaign. Perfection takes time, and this gives us more opportunity to play test, get reviews and engage further with the community.

Already we are more on target to have a campaign in which the initial target is £15K-£20K rather than £40k. Whilst it is obviously our intent to reach far beyond £40k as we bring multiple stretch goals to life, it does appear to be the case that projects see more momentum on being funded, so the more items that form stretch goals, the better.

Keep checking back for the next update

Chris Roberts

Pushing the Pause Button

Posted on February 12, 2013 by empirescolliding

Dearest Followers,

Many of you will already have seen this update by now, as it has been posed on Kickstarter, and to many persons personally. There is only so many ways that I can write the message however, so this is a bit of a cut n paste job.

Right, well, as you will all see from Kickstarter, our project has sadly lost momentum. Over the past week or so we have been simultaneously losing backers who think our target is too high to reach, whilst gaining backers who like our product. As a consequence we have seen over £3,000 of pledges disappear and reappear. The funny thing of course is that if the backers stayed, we’d be at almost £10k now which would only be a tad off target…but thats life!

Whilst we have a number of initiatives to bring in new backers, most of these initiatives would only have one shot at being really successful. We would not want to use these on a campaign that may not hit target. Accordingly, we are planning on withdrawing our Kickstarter project and preparing for a new campaign in a few months time. I hope that you will agree that we have a fantastic looking game with a sound premise, but until now we have lacked the required exposure to make the big impact that we hoped for.

Now, you may be wondering what it is we feel we can do to make the campaign more successful. I therefore set out information below to show what it is we intend to do.

So, to prepare for a future campaign, we intend to:-

1.CREATE A SPECIAL/REDUCED PRICE REWARD FOR PREVIOUS BACKERS – It cannot be stated enough how grateful we are to those that showed faith in Empires Collide. So, for every backer that comes back to us on the re-launch, we will have a special reward waiting for them in addition to what is on the revised reward structure.

2.Continue to make ourselves known in the board game community, specifically on Boardgamegeek.com and twitter. This will be achieved through continuous interactions, and also reviewing other board games, so as to become well respected in this field before promoting our product once again. So, if you know of a board game in need of a review, now’s the time to let us know

3.Submit prototypes to review sites such as The Dice Tower, to enable reviews of our game to go live at the commencement of our next campaign.

4.Approach gaming groups throughout the UK, allowing them to test Empires Collide and express an interest.

5.Prepare Empires Collide in a scaled down Print and Play form, so people can experience a scaled down version of the game before committing to a higher pledge (PnP would of course be available as a low kickstarter reward in due course, and those who obtain a PnP version would have discounted rewards on Kickstarter)

6.Remove the 3d buildings as an original goal and making them a stretch goal instead. Empires Collide is a large game, especially for a new Company. So, if we remove the 3d buildings initially (replaced with alternative components that are less costly to source) we can reduce our primary target by over £15,000.00. The 3D buildings would then form one of the stretch goals at the £40,000 mark.

As you can see, we have identified how best to move forward, and will continue to do so. However, if any of you wish to receive personal updates on our progress, or get involved with bringing Empires Collide to the market in the future, then please message us as http://empires-collide.com/contact-the-team/ and we will add you to our mailing list.

Chris Roberts

A Further Update on Progress

Posted on February 1, 2013 by empirescolliding

As you can see, progress is coming along nicely on Kickstarter. We find ourselves with 86 backers by day 6, and next week will be a busy one as we put out the name of Empires Collide to the world. Newspaper articles, flyers, you name it, we’re doing it.

If any of our fans believe they know someone who is a blogging guru interested in products similar to Empires Collide, please give us a holla – Everyone knows that every blogger talking about us = 200,000 people reached (they wish :-p ).

Have a good weekend all.

Chris

So – here’s how we’re progressing

Posted on January 30, 2013 by empirescolliding

This post is a little update on our progress on Kickstarter. Sadly, we are not far enough along yet to start unveiling our stretch goals – though we do have itchy fingers, and I do have to stop Trev from posting surprises for you guys (so if we play Good Cop, Bad Cop….then I guess I’m the Bad Cop).

However, I’m not that bad a guy, so a few little surprises will be coming your way shortly – perhaps an example of how one of our pledgees will look as a creature card (that’s right, we’re going to do one of them early – just to show you how it looks )

But, here’s the clincher of the matter. We have been on Kickstarter for 3 days now….that’s 6% of the way through our time…and yet we have raised almost £4,100 – over 10% of the way to our target. This means we are ahead of schedule.

But that does not mean that we will be complacent! No, we have much work to do – we have to truly earn the respect of those that have put faith in us, and those that will do so – the way I see it, we are not 10% to our goal – we are not even 1% yet! Because if we want to see every stretch goal unlocked and every reward given to our backers we have much more to do…So we will be seeking out retailers who would be willing to stock our product with pride, seeking out companies that want to develop team spirit and have their staff shown on our cards, seeking our people who are as like minded as us and who would love a game like Empires Collide, but don’t know of its existence. We have a fantastic amount of backers now – but we want to give them the extra rewards that will come with our stretch goals to make their pledge not just worthwhile, but enviable!

For Kickstarter…we are 10%….for us, we have barely scratched the surface. I hope you will all shares Empires Collide with your friends, as I want nothing more than to share this game with all of you, and to put a face to each of your names as we turn you into Event Cards, Knowledge Cards, and Creature Cards to make you all a part of this game. It is not just our game – every person that pledges will shape it into what the world will see.

Thank you all for pledging so far and thank you all to those that will.

Chris

p.s. A number of our pledgees have requested that a video is posted showing Empires Collide being played so as to get a feel for the game. Rest assured that a video will be uploaded of this over the next couple of weeks.

Kickstarter is…

Posted on January 25, 2013 by empirescolliding

…Now upon us. Within 24 hours our Kickstarter Campaign will commence, having received the final approval from the administrators, and made a few last tweaks to make the Kickstarter page look as good as possible.

As soon as the campaign commences, the Kickstarter pages of this, our blog, will be updated to reflect the contents of our campaign.

We are already getting very excited over the final building designs – the sky can be the limit with what we achieve. I set out below a 3D Rendering of what the Archery Range will most likely look like.

We have achieved a lot in the last six months, and the next 45 will determine the direction of Empires Collide. Thank you to all those who have liked us on Facebook, provided your feedback and comments, and have generally taken an interest in this game. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we have enjoyed creating it…now all that is left is to get it to you folks.

Watch out Kickstarter, Empires Collide is coming!

Chris

Kickstarter Update

Posted on January 20, 2013 by empirescolliding

Good Evening ladies and gents (I say ladies and gents for once as you’ll have to wait a little longer to be Emperors)

We put our kickstarter Campaign to the administrators on Tuesday. Approval takes (according to Kickstarter) two days, meaning our campaign should have been approved Thursday to go live on Friday. Unfortunately, this anticipated chain of events did not occur. Kickstarter did not acknowledge our campaign until Friday night, and is only now going through the motions of approving it. Whilst incredibly frustrating, there is nothing we can do at this stage but wait (actually, that’s a lie – we’re using the time to plan media campaigns and test the game further – you can never have enough testing). We are of the impression that the approval of our campaign will be complete in a couple of days, so at some point this coming week we will be in a position to shout from the rooftops that our campaign is live.

We will of course keep you updates as we hear further from Kickstarter. I hope you can bear with us whilst we get this sorted.

In the meantime – everyone enjoy the snow (in the UK that is – in the US it depends more on where you are)

Chris

Its the Final Countdown…Da da da daaaa

Posted on January 16, 2013 by empirescolliding

Good Evening you Emperors in Waiting, You knights of….well enough of the banter.

Our Kickstarter campaign was yesterday put to the administrators of Kickstarter for their approval and blessings. The final piece in the jigsaw that has been our preparation for kickstarter is now hovering over the space, waiting to be placed.

So, if you want to pop on over to http://www.facebook.com/weaverproject you can answer a question on what type of creature you would like to see more of in Empires Collide. Or you can have a gander at the Rules of Empires Collide and begin thinking about your tactics.

If you are a fan of Magic: The Gathering, and have been wondering how you can play Empires Collide with your Magic Cards, look no further for HERE is all you need to know.

I now sign off with a piece of art that was shared last night on facebook, but which some of you may have missed. The Leviathan!

Have a great evening!

Chris

8 Days till Kickstarter

Posted on January 10, 2013 by empirescolliding

Good evening Emperors in the making

We are now a mere 8 days away from Kickstarter. The videos are almost complete, the artwork is breathtaking, and interest in Weaver Entertainment is increasing. We’re still a little off the 125 likes on facebook to give away a free copy of Empires Collide – but a week is a long time, so a week plus a day is almost a lifetime. Well, its 8 weeks in dog terms.

But, we don’t intend to be the underdogs. No, Empires Collide will a game of beauty that anyone would be proud to own. So keep watching – as the path of Empires Collide enters the final uphill struggle to get the shelves.

Follow “Empires Collide”