Play as the greatest gladiators in history! Fight deadly duels and lead your gladiator school to victory in this 2-5 player card game
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Hello Senators, Editors, Lanistae and Gladiator heroes (and heroines of course)
We are super excited to say that the Gladiatores project is very nearly complete! The game is looking even more awesome than we thought it could and you amazing gamers have helped make it so! So lets dive in to the news...
After a few typical production hiccups which we will go into below, we can confirm that the game is now in the process of being compiled into 1 box (all components being brought together)and after quality control checks by both us and the factory will be cello-wrapped ready for packaging into the shipping crates. After that we have a shipper company ready to pick up your games from the warehouse in China ready for shipping to the fulfillment centres.
Here is the updated timeline...
So the latest production has been the Deluxe box sleeves which we hope you will agree look pretty stunning. We decided not to put the game logo on this front cover as it just detracts from that awesome rose.
We had to send them back for a re-cut as there was too much overhang compared with the size of the game box so we were concerned the edges of the sleeve would get bent out of shape (or worse) eventually rip. These should be strong enough now for repeated removal.
We also had to send some of the printed art back for a re-print since (as you can see from the image below) some of the colour rendering and contrast was not exactly what we wanted. The final colours of the cards and box should really pop under different (artificial and daylight) light conditions.
Thanks to your opinion feedback we are also removing all the extra tabs on the 3 miniatures so you should be ready to paint them up (if that is your flavour) or just glue on heads and get playing!
A few of you have been understandably asking about whether we can guarantee delivery to you by Christmas. The answer is that we are still on schedule for the game to arrive at fulfillment centres by beginning of December which should give us a couple of weeks to get all the games out to each of you in time. Of course this depends on how fast Gladiatores gets through shipping and then customs in various countries, how the games get slotted into the fulfillment schedules and then the actual delivery to your front door. We have everything in place ready but cannot predict what will happen when other companies get involved in the process. We will do our best!
For some reason there has been quite a bit of news and media attention on gladiators and gladiatorial combat recently so we thought you might be interested in some of it.
First of all a fresco of two fighting gladiators has been uncovered in a taverna in Pompeii. The two warriors are apparently likely to be a Murmillo and a Thracian, based on the different greaves worn over the legs, but it's hard to be certain without seeing the helmet of the loser more clearly. Interestingly (apart from the enthusiastic depiction of blood splashes), the vanquished gladiator is clearly 'lifting the finger' which shows that he is surrendering the fight and acknowledging the other fighter as the victor. This is where our modern phrase probably comes from - as in "Failing to lift a finger". The article can be found HERE.
Also, the rather excellently eccentric englishman Mr Lloyd (Lindybeige on Youtube) has just done a 1 man explanatory documentary on the many myths surrounding gladiators that is as long as a feature film! We don't suggest you watch it all (no, actually we do because it is fascinating and resonates a lot with what we decided/assumed for this game) including:
These most interesting explanations can be found here.
So, why vindication you say? We got a fair bit of flak during development for the idea that gladiators didn't die a lot and that professional gladiators could make a career out of (uh) gladiatoring! So we are happy to hear that some others agree with us and put forward some good arguments to support the case.
Well we will report back once the games are all packaged up and ready to ship. For now, happy stabbing gladiators...
Leandros out.
Two updates in a week? What the heck?
Yes indeed because look...
and
and of course,
So this is the mass production of the miniature active player markers which means that very soon, some of them will be marching in tightly formed ranks towards the studio paintbrushs ready to have that final layer of awesomeness added.
Which gives us another question for you all.
Normally we would remove the flashing (the extra bits of plastic that came from the moulds) before packaging these models but in fact the plastic tabs can be very useful for holding a miniature when painting. So our question is: How many of you who have ordered 1 or more of these intend to paint them?
Hello all you Gladiators!
This has been slow in arriving but we wanted to make sure we had some concrete information for you instead of sending out a vague 'things are happening' update.
The production is moving ahead swiftly. As you can see in the pictures we have test samples of all components except the gamebox sleeve. Below in the images following (and the quick sample video) you can see how the components fit in the box within the 2 plastic trays.
The tokens have 'pockets' (4 small pockets) so they can be drawn directly from the tray if you wish during the game. A larger pocket holds the VP wedges, tarot size gladiator cards and gladiator name scrolls. The second tray shows the 3 card decks - the right one has sleeved cards and you can see it fits pretty well.
The image above shows the gladiator size cards (in centre) fitting in the middle section of the tray. Plus also the upper tray that holds the 3 card decks (attack, defense and effect). These decks dont take up ALL the space in the tray so there is still space for expansion cards to go in.
This is a rather boring shot but useful to show the size of the box itself and how neatly the rulebook and reference sheet fits.
OK so this shot above shows the one problem we have had that has unfortunately put a slight delay on production (we expect about 10days). The original sample mould for the trays have meant that the small pockets have very thin bases. This might be acceptable for mass produced retail games but not for us and not for kickstarter! After a few uses we reckon they would split or crack as have other retail games we have here in the office. So we've sent the tray mould back for a redesign to thicken these bases. As you will see in the quick video below the card tray is a different design and much more solid so its only this 1 part that needs changing.
Here is a quick video showing the various game parts
So our current production timeline looks like this:
The changes to the plastic tray comes under the green Mnftr Design Elements section and the factory estimate is to have everything produced by the end of October. Which means we should still be able to get the games onto ships by beginning of November for arrival towards end of that month. But again we must stress that this is an estimate - who knows what on earth might happen with the lunacy of Brexit in the UK and how that will affect the UK, EU and ROW fulfillment part. All we can say for now is we will keep you informed of timing updates whenever we have news.
EXPANSIONS:
Many of you voted for your favourite animals to be included in the 1st expansion for Gladiatores coming next year. Very interesting results but the lions share definitely goes to the err.. Lion! ;-)
Or looking at the numbers....
Personally we love the idea of having Hyenas in there (could make for some tricky but interesting rules since they would be complete wimps on their own but as a Pack card, could be a nightmare for a wounded gladiator?
Those of you who are mathematically astute will notice that we have a tie for the 6th place (the basic expansion will have 6 animals). So we need more of you who have not voted yet to get involved and give us your ideas (Only 1 vote for a Panther? Aww come on...!)
And since the Tiger is in 4th place, lets see what Anja has planned...
ok so that is all the news we have for you for now, not long to go now!
Lanista Leandros signing off.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.