To Those Who Ordered DARK VENTURE 2E - LOCKING DOWN
about 1 year ago
– Sat, Aug 23, 2025 at 09:43:48 AM
Hello!
This is a short note to all those who ordered the Dark Venture: Adventure Card Game 2E (DV2E All-IN) add-on during the Battle of the Ancients campaign. If you didn't order this add-on during the campaign, you can safely stop reading and delete this ;)
If you did order DV2E All-IN or the DV2E Core Game, we will be locking your pledge/order on Backerkit soon. Once we do, you will have about 48 hours (I believe) to make changes. When your order has been locked, we will process it, then we will begin shipping out your copies of DV2E. You will receive the other items in your pledge/order (from the "Battle of the Ancients Second Printing" campaign) at the same time as everyone else, if everything goes smoothly, early next year.
Your address will remain open so that if you need to make changes between now and when BOTA 2E is shipped, you can.
Please message me if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Rob
P.S. If you didn't order these add-ons during the campaign and kept reading anyway, I have a small piece of info for you: We plan to lock ALL "Battle of the Ancients Second Printing" pledges/orders on Backerkit on OCTOBER 31st 2025 as we need to get final numbers for manufacturing! If you need to make changes to your order, you'll need to do it before then. This is a bit of an early warning, we will send out a specific reminder closer to Oct. 31st. Thank you!
August 2025 Update: BACKERKIT Pledge Manager Surveys Start TODAY!
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 10:15:38 AM
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. Behind the scenes I've been working hard on Battle of the Ancients, I have a lot to talk about, I'll try to keep it short! Firstly, our pledge manager surveys are starting to go out today (5% of backers to start, then everybody else soon after). Next, I have been writing NEW content and we have been testing NEW expansion components! Read on!
FIRSTLY, the PLEDGE MANAGER (BACKERKIT): We have built the PLEDGE MANAGER, it has been reviewed and approved, so we are running a SMOKE TEST, sending survey emails to a small number of backers (5%) LATER TODAY! Once we know everything is working as planned, we will send out survey emails to everyone who pledged (likely later this week)!
WHAT IS A PLEDGE MANAGER? The pledge manager helps us manage your order and fulfillment (shipping), and can help you to manage your pledge (to review your order, add items, etc.). We are using BACKERKIT as our post-campaign pledge manager. You will receive an email from BACKERKIT with a link that will lead to your pledge, your shipping costs (based on the EXACT WEIGHT of your order) and any taxes on your order (based on your location*).
Also of note, if you know anyone who might be interested in the game who missed the KICKSTARTER, send them a link to our PRE-ORDER STORE on BACKERKIT, will open TODAY (August 12th 2025), CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!
NEXT, MAKING & TESTING NEW CONTENT: Over the past month, I have been heavily focused on writing and testing all the new SETUPS and MAP RULES in various combinations, and things are looking (and playing) great!
The new VICTORY GAME SETUPS add a lot of variety to the game: There are setups for single maps (including a HERO "battle-royal", and a mid-game "Ancient + Faction" setup), 2 maps, and the EPIC setup with 3 maps.
The new optional MAP RULE CARDS, if you choose to add them to your game, also add variety: events to activate, items to discover, and extra enemies to fight on every map. Choose a new VICTORY GAME setup, pick a RULE CARD for your map, and start playing!
Speaking of which, I have to get back to writing and testing so we can get things finished (and edited) as soon as possible, so that's it for now! Keep an eye out for your BACKERKIT SURVEY EMAIL this week and early next week. Stay safe!
Thank you,
Rob
P.S. If you don't get a BACKERKIT SURVEY EMAIL in the next week or so, check to make sure your email filter hasn't stopped it from getting to you. If that's not the case, MESSAGE ME THROUGH KICKSTARTER and we'll sort it out.
* A NOTE ON TAXES: I probably don't need to tell you, but: We estimated taxes during the campaign, so any taxes you see added to your pledge are based on your specific location (state and/or country). We are not profiting on your taxes(!!), our tax agent in the UK/EU and our accountant in the US makes sure that all the taxes that you pay go right back to your government!
WE DID IT, THANK YOU!
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 08:08:01 PM
Hello!
We did it! I’d like to personally thank YOU. Without your input and backing, this printing of Battle of the Ancients would not be happening. Thanks for helping us to exceed our funding and add some great new things to the game!
We’ve decided to leave late pledges on Kickstarter open for a couple more weeks so that anyone who missed the campaign (or didn’t know about it!) can still pledge. You got the best deal, for sure, but we didn’t want to close the door on anyone who found out about the game late.
Soon, we will open the PLEDGE MANAGER where we’ve been working to add a few special extras, more on that later!
Hope you have a great weekend, the world outside our bunkers can be a dangerous place. There are sarkags and orpal wanderers skulking around behind every crumbling castle and dilapidated factory. I hope you stay safe.
Thanks again!
Rob
12 HOURS TO GO!
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 08:03:45 AM
Hello!
We're close to the end, THERE ARE 12 HOURS LEFT IN THE CAMPAIGN! A reminder: If you pledge today you’ll get the absolute lowest "campaign price".
Please, tell friends about this campaign. We don’t have the huge marketing budgets that the big game companies have, so it can be difficult for us to get the word out to the board gamers (and content creators!) out there who might want to play something a little different!
After a bit of looking around, I’m sure you'd discover for yourself: THERE IS SO MUCH IN JUST THE CORE BOX OF THIS GAME! Three ways to play, all with SOLO modes (side note: a lot of time and energy was put into making the solo game a lot of fun)! AND there are quite a few cool (and premium) components in the game:
- Now all faction units are premium printed WOOD TOKENS!!
- Includes PLASTIC walls, fences, and a cool FALLEN STAR model!
- Includes BUILDING CLIPS that make your maps 3D!
- Includes a double-sided CORE MAP BOARD, heavy durable FACTION DASHBOARDS, custom etched Action, Attack, and Defense DICE!
Not to mention what you get in the expansions: Adventures, new factions, a Merchant, new maps!
This game took years of work: Drawing, painting, writing (I had a lot of help from several editors along the way), designing the game, testing it (also, with a lot of help), making the graphics, logos, packaging, sculpting 3D items, typesetting the books, putting it on Tabletopia digitally, answering questions and gathering feedback online every day, making this Kickstarter: I did that! This game is, by far, the largest and most complicated project I have ever worked on in my life. I'm very proud of it (if you can't tell, ha!).
Okay, enough “hard sell” let’s get to the fun stuff.
Since the last update, we've added some cool things to the game. We also have something completely OUT OF THE BLUE: A cross-over with the amazing dark fantasy, eye melting, solo-able, old-school-RPG-flavored game from GOBLINKO, DUNGEON DEGENERATES! More on that below!
Firstly, we have a new ADD-ON: NEOPRENE CORE GAME and EXPANSIONS MAPS - 3x LARGE (16” x 16”) and 2x SMALLER (8” x 8”) maps. The MAIN MAP from the core game is double sided with the UNDERGROUND MAP on the underside. These maps will be SWEET 2mm neoprene with clean, stitched edges. They'll all be shipped in a tube so there are no creases!
As far as new STRETCH GOALS, we hit several big ones: First off, THE BUILDING CLIPS! I designed these "clips" in 2021, tested them thoroughly, then offered them as a 3D model in 2023 (HERE) now they will be molded in plastic and included in the game (and the 2nd Printing Update Kit).
WHAT ARE BUILDING CLIPS? THE CLIPS MAKE THE BUILDINGS 3D! Some scenarios in the core game (and several new Victory game setups in Ghosts & Robots) include building "punch-outs", the second and third floors of buildings and towers. Before now, they'd be placed near the map, if your unit entered a stairwell and "went up," you'd move them to the punch-out.
Now, you can slide several clips onto the building punch-outs, then place them onto the map to make the boards three dimensional! Explore, hide, and conduct nefarious business IN 3D!
NEW MAP RULE CARDS: You unlocked a set of these for Ghosts & Robots earlier, now there will be 2 for each map! These cards, when used in a game, add specific rules to map spaces (and variety to games).
A DEGENERATE INVASION! Lastly, somehow, weird and horrific creatures have besieged the DARKGRANGE from the WÜRSTREICH! We’re collaborating with GOBLINKO and Sean Äaberg on this small crossover: TWO characters from the GOBLINKO game DUNGEON DEGENERATES will appear in the Ghosts & Robots expansion, a GHOST and a CONSTRUCT (almost a robot)! They can be shuffled into the ITEM DECK and will appear when drawn as (1) a new faction unit and (2) an enemy that players can move around to kill things!
You can check out "Dungeon Degenerates: Hand of Doom" (the base game is in it's 6th PRINTING!) and expansions on the GOBLINKO Backerkit preorder shop, here: https://dungeon-degenerates-hand-of-doom-sixth-printing.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
That’s it for now, only 12 hours to go! As I said at the beginning: let your friends know about us, I’m sure they’ll be happy you did!
Thank you for your support.
Stay safe!
Rob
FINAL STRETCH and EXCEEDING GOALS!
about 1 year ago
– Mon, Jul 07, 2025 at 10:16:55 AM
Hello!
I can’t believe we are here already. It’s been a fun ride, but we are getting very close to the end, only 3 DAYS TO GO!! This KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN ends on Thursday, July 10 2025 at 11:00 PM (Eastern).
After the campaign, based on your pledges, we will decide how many games are being manufactured. As I’ve said before, we are a small company and we only print what we need (and a few more, ONLY IF WE CAN). Pledging now is the best way to get the items you want at the absolute lowest pledge price…because you are literally making it happen!
If we offer late pledges, the pricing will be higher. Any extra copies that we manufacture will be available in our store, at “retail price” which is significantly more.
That said, since the last update, we’ve met some great stretch goals that will assuredly make the GAME AND EXPANSIONS THAT MUCH BETTER (and there may still be a few more)!
Firstly, there is a NEW C4Labs Hex Dice Tray Design: The GHOST ANCIENT NAWEH! Now you can choose your favorite design from two available: Either the MIGHTY ROBOT ANCIENT #GIGABOT or the GHOST ANCIENT #NAWEH. Which Battle of the Ancients new expansion team are YOU on?! (ha!)
Next, Expansion Victory Game Setups were added: There will be new Victory Game setups for the Forgone Castle (Kings & Heroes) and Egg Kings Castle (Beasts & Eggmen) maps. In an earlier stretch goal, we added new Victory Game setups to the Core Game. All of these new setups will be included in an EXPANDED section of NEW VICTORY GAME SETUPS in the Ghosts & Robots Expansion.
Ghosts & Robots will be the go-to place for new VICTORY GAME SETUPS: Want to play on the Forgone King’s Castle Map attached to the Ghosts and Robots map? There’ll be a setup for that. What about the Egg Kings Castle, the Main Map, and Ghosts & Robots? There’ll be a setup for that too! What about a mini-battle in only the cramped quarters of the Egg King’s Castle (2 Floors and the towers)? There’ll be a setup for that!
The plan is to have a variety of Victory Game setups in various map combinations (utilizing the new Map Rule cards and Random Map Space decks that were unlocked in this campaign too. IT’S ALL COMING TOGETHER!) All we need now is some way to lift the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building up, to make the map buildings 3D…hmmm…
(HINT: Check out the newest stretch goal!)
Also, an Epic Adventure will be added to Ghosts & Robots: The Core Game, Kings & Heroes, and Beasts & Eggmen expansions all have an ADVENTURE GAME mode: choose a faction, place your units and EVENT TOKENS around the map. Then, move your units onto the EVENTS to activate them: read an entry from the book. Continue your adventure by placing more EVENT TOKENS, and the narrative grows!
In an EPIC ADVENTURE, the GHOSTS & ROBOTS map allows us to link everything together: Explore ALL THE MAPS using the setups from ALL THE ADVENTURE BOOKS (and new events in Ghosts & Robots) in a table-filling EPIC ADVENTURE!
Lastly, a new Hero, BRUKE, was added to the Core game and Upgrade Kit: As mentioned in the last update (with the unlocking of the Hero Erstos), heroes are powerful single-unit-factions (meaning that a player can choose to play as a Hero, a single unit, as their Faction in a game).
This hero, BRUKE, is known as a “DYRETRENER” or “dyre-trener” roughly translated as “beast trainer” or “beast speaker,” but more commonly known as WEREWOLF! There are rumors (in the Kings & Heroes expansion Adventure...) of a soldier who can transform into an animal. These stories likely lead back to Bruke or one of his "tribe". He usually travels with a Sarkag Wolf companion, and his unearthly howl terrifies even the bravest of warriors! He will be added to the CORE GAME and the 2ND PRINTING UPGRADE KIT.
That's it for now and, as I said, the campaign is only running until THURSDAY EVENING July 10 2025 at 11:00 PM (Eastern)!
Stay Safe!
Thank you,
Rob
PS: As a BONUS, I’d like to bring your attention to WYRD SCIENCE! From their site: “Wyrd Science covers tabletop games, their culture and how they influence and are influenced by the world around us.” It’s a great read! Check it out HERE, https://wyrd.science/
There’s a piece by John Power Jr. in the WYRD SCIENCE NEWSLETTER about this BATTLE OF THE ANCIENTS campaign (how meta!), take a look! https://wyrd.science/email/71523623-1b5f-4502-9c81-b750cd7b38cf/
