Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Obligatory 2016 Kickstarter Post Part II: Top 10 List (Games 6-10)

Alright, one honorable mention post down and now we move on to the bottom half of my top 10 anticipated Kickstarter boardgame projects.  These five games are all incredible looking and honestly any of them could be in my top 5 and it would completely make sense.  This has been quite a good year for Kickstarter games as there are so many good ones.  I hear/see people complaining about Kickstarter but I still don’t think people take it for what it is…a system where we (as backers) are helping to fund a project that most of the time wouldn’t be able to happen otherwise.  This means that there is often a long wait till we get our games but I feel that most of the time it’s worth it.  I still have never been burned by a Kickstarter project.  Nothing I’ve backed has taken longer than 6 months to deliver which is pretty good in the grand scheme of things.  Feel free to check out my BoardGameGeek GeekList at this link and check out what I’ve backed so far.  If you haven’t had a chance, feel free to read my honorable mentions list at the link given below.


Now let’s move on to games 6-10 on my top 10 anticipated Kickstarter games.  I am really looking forward to these games so this should be fun!




Near & Far is a worker placement, storytelling, route building game designed by Ryan Laukat and will be released by his company, Red Raven Games.  This game was funded by 7,245 backers and made $520,177 during its run on Kickstarter this year.  As of this point the game is expected to come out in late spring of 2017 and looks to be really cool.  This game continues Laukat’s love of his world which also includes the games City of Iron, Above & Below, and Islebound.  My wife and I really enjoy Above & Below and I am really looking forward to this one.  This one finds players taking on the role of an adventurer who is looking for the Last Ruin which supposedly holds an artifact that grants the desires of the user’s heart.  They will go along different maps and gain different treasures, collect food, gain the help of other adventurers, and obtain weapons to fend off the dangers of the world.  This theme is all wrapped around an interesting looking route building game that looks like a lot of fun.  To really pump up the theme we get the beautiful artwork of Ryan Laukat who is one of my current favorite boardgame artists in the business!  The price held me back at the time but we will definitely pick it up at some point when it hits retail.




Feudum is an economic, hand management game with some area control mechanisms designed by Mark K. Swanson and released by Odd Bird Games.  This game is still currently on Kickstarter and has over 1,800 backers and has made over $150,000 and still has 18 days left.  The game is slated to release at some point next year around October but we all know how these things work!  Regardless of when it comes out the game looks quite amazing.  The art is honestly what first drew me in and then I started to look at the mechanisms that the game is formed around.  The hand management and resource management that are involved in game look really interesting and well formed into the theme.  I love how so many different Euro-style games are really attempting to weave their mechanisms into the theme of the game.  This game finds players stripped of everything and thus making a journey in a new land to reinvent themselves and gain honor.  I love the look of this game and I will definitely take a closer look when it comes out.




Chronicles 1: Origins is a new civilization game with storytelling and Legacy elements designed by Dirk Knemeyer and Rob Daviau and released by Artana.  This game will feature a new system called the Echo System which will create “ripples” throughout each subsequent game played.  The players start as a leader in a tribe during the Stone Age.  They will help make decisions and collaborate with their fellow players in order to build their tribe into a position of stability.  The next game played will find the players taking on the roles of each tribe that they have created in the previous games and attempting to make their tribe into a powerful city-state.  The world will evolve and wrap around these games to create a different experience for each game group.  I love the idea of this game and with Daviau and Knemeyer attached to it this game has the opportunity to be amazing.  The only reason it has slipped this low on the list is because it was supposed to have its Kickstarter debut already and has been seriously delayed because they don’t think it’s quite right.  This does make me have some hesitations but knowing the pedigree of these two I know that the game will be amazing if/when it comes out!




Lisboa is an economic, hand-management, tile-placement and area control game designed by Vital Lacerda and will be released by Eagle-Gryphon Games.  This game is still on Kickstarter and currently has over 2,100 backers and has made over $215,000 and that is all with about 17 days left at the time of this post.  This game continues in Lacerda’s tradition of medium-to-heavy weight Euro-games with simple one stage movements that create heavy and complex combos that are amazing.  My wife and I have The Gallerist and it is an absolutely amazingly designed game with so many different things to think about.  Lacerda’s previous games have all been “brain-burners” and this game appears to be no different in that regard.  Eagle-Gryphon have paired up with Vital once again and Ian O’Toole is on board at the artist and graphic designer.  They have once again created a game that looks amazing and the gameplay appears to be just as good as his previous works.  I haven’t backed this one due to a lack of funds before the holidays but when it comes out in retail it will definitely be on my list to pick up.




Founders of Gloomhaven is a city-building game with tile-laying, worker-placement and auctioning that is designed by Isaac Childres and will be released by Cephalofair Games.  This game is slated to start it’s Kickstarter campaign in February if everything goes well.  Isaac has stated that he wants Gloomhaven, his game currently being produced, done and shipped before he starts the new campaign.  This game will take place in the same, rich world that he’s created for Gloomhaven but hundreds of years prior to the events.  In it each player will take controls of a fantastical race who is banding together with other races in order to build the city of Gloomhaven.  They are using their workers to place specific resources that they control on different hexes.  Since they only import a specific type of resource, they will need the help of the other players in order to complete their project.  I love the idea of working together to build this city but with the specific goal of gaining the best reputation and influence to win the game.  I can’t wait to see how this one works!

Well, there you have it, my games 6-10 of my anticipated Kickstarter list.  Come on back soon and I’ll have up my top 5 games in the list.  So what games are you looking forward to or have you already have backed…I’d love to know!  Thanks so much for reading and we’ll catch ya next time.  Until next time, game on!

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