If you’re like me, your eyes aren’t getting any better. I know. I hate it too! :/
We are testing out a new style of dice stickers. It is a cleaner and sleeker design: more graphical, fewer numbers, bigger easier to read font.
Big Print Edition Dice
I’ve been testing them out. I like them better. I guess the downside is that they look a little modern. They don’t have that old world, period look to them.
Standard Dice Now
We’re not sure yet if we want to make them available. What do you guys think? Do you like them better? Would you rather have these?
They are easy to change. The trick is to soak the dice in hot water for awhile. Then you just peel off the old stickers and wipe clean with a towel.
We got our stuff!! We’ve
been unpacking and getting things setup this week. All our main equipment made it in one piece
and seems to be working now! We are
getting close. It is looking like we
will be ready to start rolling again on Monday!
We have a ton of back orders to go through now. We’ll start cranking through them in the
order we received them. We still see
some delays in shipping but it looks like it is getting better.
Thanks again for your patience and support. It won’t be too much longer now!
Hey everybody! Just a quick update on the progress of our move. +
First off, no we are not out of business!! Sales for us have been very strong this year. We are growing and doing well. Looking forward to getting up and running again once we get all of our stuff.
The contractors got everything done in time but our closing got bumped back a couple of weeks by the banks. That should have been the easy part. Go figure.
The movers loaded up all our gear and put it into storage temporarily. They loaded it all up and moved it to our new location a few weeks ago. Fine but there it still sits. :/
They are having trouble finding enough movers in this area to unload it right now. I’m not sure why. The virus may have some impact. So they bumped back our unload date to September 16th. I know!! We’ve been raising a ruckus over it but there doesn’t seem to be anything they can do.
Very sorry for the delay everybody. We certainly aren’t happy about it either. They have all our personal furniture and belongings too. So we’ve been camping out in our new house with air mattresses, camp chairs and cardboard boxes for furniture!! lol… Moving is always an adventure huh?
Well, it gives us a little extra time to clean and paint before the gear rolls in. We can be glad of that. We have been trying to anticipate the supplies we’ll need in advance so we’ll be ready once it arrives. We just got a shipment of paper, canvas and printer parts today.
Great example of how logistics can easily grind a whole operation to a halt. No worries. We’ll be up and on the offensive again soon. Hopefully within a couple of weeks now.
I know it’s frustrating when you ordered something new and it gets delayed. I want it right now!!! I can’t wait anymore. =) Thank you all for your support and patience.
We are going to consolidate Brandywine, Monmouth and the new Germantown into one Campaign set.
Brandywine will be the main game that includes the blocks for all the battles. Monmouth and the new Germantown scenarios will be like the Waterloo expansions: Ligny, Quatre Bras and Wavre. They will just be maps and scenarios. No blocks. This will make them much cheaper and lower the average cost of the battles!
If you have the old Brandywine, no worries. We will send you an update kit for FREE with another order. We will list these on our products page when ready.
We are working on Scenario Updates to better fit the 3.0 rules. A couple of the scenarios will need new stickers and a few extra blocks. We are putting together Scenario Update kits for this. You will be able to add these on to orders for FREE!! We’ll post these on our Products page as they are ready.
The new rules are out! All the new games are shipping with them. You can get an updated copy by emailing the company and asking for a pdf. What’s new?
There are a few little tweaks and refinements to the main rules. Nothing big. The basic game is essentially the same.
Fog-of-War
The Fog-of-War has gotten a huge upgrade. The Hidden Reserve rules are now standard. They are also much easier to use. The HQ marks the exact location of the hidden troops. The old way was confusing and open to all kinds of abuse. This is clear and it works.
There are new units: 1 step Detachments. These vastly increase the deception. What are those 2 blocks sitting back there? Elite Guards, waiting to pounce at the right time? Or just a couple of Detachments faking me out? Hmmmm…..
These two rules together raise the uncertainty bar. How close is the enemy to breaking? How many reserves do they have left? Will one more good assault do it? You can only wonder. Perfect!!
This is what it looks like to the enemy but what is there?
Victory
The biggest change is Victory. The Baggage Trains are key. As your troops fight, they become spent. Only Baggage Trains can Rally them back to
fresh. Here’s the catch: Baggage Trains can’t Rally until they
Unpack. What’s the big deal about
that? Unpacked Baggage Trains can’t move. Even worse:
if they get sacked, it’s battle over.
You lose. Yeah, it just got
real.
Basically, they are like mobile VP locations, except you
lock them into place. We need to take
that hill. Why? Because the game designer says we have
to. It’s worth a lot of points. No!
Because we think the enemy has unpacked their baggage behind it. If we can take that, we win!
YOU decide when and where to set these ‘VPs’ down. In order for your troops to fight effectively, they need unpacked baggage. As soon as you do this, it becomes a target. It is a double edged sword.
The ramifications are immense. Where do you make a stand? What line do you think you can hold? Where do you need the baggage trains to
support that? If you unpack too far
forward, you won’t be able to protect them.
On the other hand, the sooner you unpack, the sooner you can start
rallying your troops and the better you will be able to protect them.
I find myself thinking like a real commander with these new
rules. Where is the enemy? What are they doing? Can we beat them? Do we even want to fight a battle here? Where do we form a line? Where can we hold? How can we shatter their line to win? Where is their baggage? When do we throw in the towel and give
up? You’ll be asking yourself all these
questions over and over again because the battlefield results will be
constantly changing the answers. What
now?! What does this mean? How does it impact our plan? Do we continue to press forward or is it time
to reassess?
These very simple rules turn Pub Battles into a very deep,
strategic game of position, maneuver and planning. The results are astounding.
Mercenaries and Legionaries. Do you have any plans to put this back out?
Howdy:
Boy, am I glad to see this game back on the market!!!
Thank you, guys!
Say, I used to have an expansion deck-box called: Mercenaries and Legionares. Do you have any plans to put this back out?
Thanks!
Sincerely,
JM
Thank you! Glad you found us.
We have gone through all the old expansion material, things covered by mercenaries, warlords, pirates, merchant marine, etc. and completely revamped them. We’ve taken the best parts and reorganized them into a new line of expansions. What we have now works incredibly well.
I highly recommend the Minors with the new Fortuna. The Minors gives all the neutral areas forces. Fortuna brings them to life with their own actions. The result is absolutely amazing!! Minors will build and get aggressive on their own. They will seize companies in their country and even invade their neighbors to seize their companies. This makes the game feel like the real world.
Rising Crescent adds a Terrorist player that can build terror forces anywhere on the globe. They can launch suicide, pirate attacks and even steal nuclear weapons.
The expansion with Subs accounts for the merchant marines and allows players to target resource transportation at sea.
We have 1 more expansion planned that will allow players to influence, control and manipulate minors. Also covering unconventional forces. Things like Coups, Civil Wars, assassinations, etc.
By now, Austerlitz was supposed to be out. Ancient Pub Battles was supposed to be out. Germantown should be on the cusp of being released and 1st & 2nd Manassas should be ready for summer. What’s the hold up? Rules!!!
Before all of these new releases, we wanted to clarify and adjust a few things in the rules. We figured this would be a 1-2 week process. Wow were we off. Instead it developed into a raging and fierce debate among the design team and play testers. Months later, we are still at an impasse.
A play tester proposed a new approach to combat. This new method seemed to resolve many issues we were wrestling with, while simplifying and clarifying the rules to boot. Devout factions have now formed for and against this new proposal. Some love it. Some hate it. What should we do?
We would greatly appreciate input on this. Would you like to help us resolve this? We need more eyes on it.
I don’t want to lay out the details here in advance as that can bias and color your reception of the idea. Here’s how you can help:
Download the new proposed rules here. This is only a proposal. This is NOT the official Pub Battles 3.0 update. This is also a first rough draft. Expect formatting errors.
Print them out and play at least 3 complete Pub Battles games with the new rules. Try to keep an open mind. We all naturally resist any and all change at first. We are hard wired that way. You won’t like these at first just because they are different than what you are used to. It will seem strange and awkward. From my experience, it gets easier once your mind adjusts. It is not bad, just different.
Give us some feedback by answering the following questions in comments below. You can send us a direct email if you prefer and feel free to add any other comments you may have.
Questions
Do you like this approach better than the previous edition?
Do you like this approach better than the original edition? (no FoE restrictions)
Is this proposal consistent with the original Pub Battles concept? Simple, quick and realistic.
Does this approach add more or less complexity?
Does this approach make the game less fun, intense, or enjoyable?
Does this approach make the game take longer to play? (once you are used to it)
