Beyond the Gates of Antares

[me_in_japan]

That picture is at-43. I was digressing somewhat by talking about Adrian Smith's artwork, which is only relevant because of the somewhat SF nature of the topic.

[me_in_japan]

So, Beyond the Gates of Antares kickstarter has started. They've got until the end of February to raise £300,000. Can they do it?

Probably...

Do I care?

A bit. Kind of. I'm kinda pleased somebody has the balls to challenge warhammer 40k. GoA is described as "about 50 models per side with plenty of bigger things like tanks and vehicles." Sound familiar? I'm not sure about the whole raising funds before designs are in place idea, but to be fair it does sound like it will appeal to the game-designy crowd. I'm almost tempted to pledge 27quid for the hardback rulebook. Not cos I intend to play it so much as 27quid seems a very reasonable price for a 270page hardback rulebook, and it'll probably be an interesting read.

Anybody else got any thoughts on Rick's new venture?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/203 ... of-antares

[Primarch]

Having spent some time thinking about it, I am not going to buy in. This is mainly because I don't have enough time to play the games I already have. A replacement for 40K sounds good and all, but I already have multiple armies for 40K so a new game means buying more armies, which means more minis to paint and then one more game to try to find time to play. Plus, I already have enough trouble finding opponents for some of my current games. Buying into a system takes more than just one person.
My main negative for GoA is the human centric approach they seem to be taking. The only alien race reads like Orks crossed with Nids so far. With a clean slate to start from, I'd want to see more variety than just various types of Humans.
GoA sounds like a nice idea, but it remains to be seen if it can contend with other games on the market.

[Primarch]

Well, it looks like the kickstarter has been cancelled.
The reason given is because it looks like they weren't going to meet their target, let alone any stretch goals. This is probably down to the fact that they didn't actually have a product to sell (yet), and that kickstarter seems to be more and more about pushing products into production rather than developing products to be produced. I'm sure that if they had had a pile of greens ready to go they would have done better. As it is, concept sketches don't appear to have drawn in the investors. (It certainly didn't get me involved).

Rick et. al. have said that they will have a rethink and then try again, though maybe not with kickstarter.

Stay tuned folks.

[Primarch]

Well, it looks like things with BtGoA are underway back at Warlord HQ.
They have just posted up pictures of some minis from the range and have promised more details every month.

These guys are called Boromites apparently.

2013 was a busy year for the Warlord team. What with the astonishing success of our WWII-based Bolt Action game on top of our growing Black Powder and Hail Caesar ranges, we’ve had to run around like billy-ho just to keep up with all the mould making, casting, packing and despatching. So much so, in fact, that there are now considerably more of us than this time last year, and we’ve also had to invest in more premises, more equipment, and more stock just to satisfy the demand. That is – of course – all thanks to you our customers, and I for one would like to say thank you very much for supporting our efforts throughout the year. Thank you!
Now, you might think with all that running round, casting, packing and what-not we’d have enough to do, but – needless to say – we’ve also been doggedly pursuing a number of very exciting new projects behind the scenes. Foremost amongst these is the development of my new Science-Fiction wargame, called Beyond the Gates of Antares.
From now on, I’ll be including regular updates about the Antares game as part of the Warlord Newsletter. Over the next month or so we’ll be taking a look at the model ranges, both what we have completed and work in progress, and we’ll start to explore the game and the ideas behind it. But to kick off with, we present a sneak-peak selection of our new Boromite models – a panhuman race designed by our ace and entirely human designer Wojtek Flis. Bear in mind these new models aren’t quite ready for sale just yet (remember all that mould making, casting and so on?) but they will be amongst the first Antarean releases.

[Lovejoy]

They look like something you'd expect to see in a Tom Baker Doctor Who episode in the bubblewrap monster era. Not that that's a bad thing, a bit wackier than what I expected though.

[job]

Well I am glad Rick Priestly is trying to do something on the lighter side. I think grim and dark has been done to its utmost by GW. (I maybe wrong because it outdates my experience with 40k, but in the Rogue Trader days 40k was much lighter, right? More in the spirit of Foundation or something like Firefly, right?)

On the other hand I wasn't too impressed with the concept. It looks a bit like the Judge Dredd line. Furthermore the game looks like any other Sci fi game, 40k or Warmahordes. If Priestly is too really breakout with the game I think he'll need to do something like the way Malifuax or BA succeeded in creating a niche.

[Primarch]

Rogue Trader was always somewhat dystopian. More like Mad Max in space. The tone was a lot lighter than it is now, but the setting definitely gave the impression of being a bit bleak.
From what I have read of BtGoA, they are aiming for a hard SF setting. No magic/psykers/daemons etc. There probably is more of a Star Trek/Asimov style to it, with technology being key to most of the factions. E.g. those Boromites above are genetically modified humans, bred for working on asteroids and other harsh environments. No matter what they do, the game will always be compared to Warhammer. I don't know if they can make it niche enough to make a difference, or even if they would want to. There are certainly a lot of Warhammer players who would happily try out a new game by the creator of the original.
The system itself is being written by Priestley, but it is supposed to include the Bolt Action turn sequence mechanic, so if you like that, you will probably like this game too. I'm not sure who they have sculpting for them on this project since the kickstarter fell through, but the regulars at Warlord do a decent enough job. Wojtek isn't the Perrys by a long shot, but I quite like those Boromites. Give them a more brooding paint job and they will look pretty menacing, or keep it light and go for a more Star Trek style bright, clean future.

As more gets posted in the Warlord newsletter I will dump it here for those who don't subscribe to it.

[Spevna]

I'm keen to see the rules.

I hope that they also include the means to make your own units/forces rather than having to go for just factions that are mentioned in the fluff and background.

[Primarch]

I'm keen to see the rules.

I hope that they also include the means to make your own units/forces rather than having to go for just factions that are mentioned in the fluff and background.

No idea about that yet, but as most of the factions so far are humans/humanoid, you can probably use whatever figures you like.