Boys and girls, the day has finally arrived for The Momentous Issue of War. After months and hard and thorough work, discussing, writing, researching, crafting, playtesting, photographing, designing, formatting, reviewing, and redoing it all again, our work is finally complete and prepared and available on Kickstarter.

Click the picture below to go to the campaign! 

​We thank everyone who has waited patiently and are excited to now bring you the finished product.

The last week has been a flurry of video editing, writing, photo editing and lot's of other bits that go into preparing a really interesting and striking kickstarter story. 

We're excited to report that after a year long process of working on different projects we are finally ready to launch one at the end of this month. It's been a long road and we're so ready to get something out to the public now. 

The Momentous Issue of War will be launching for a 30 day kickstarter at the end of the month. People will be able to get hold of a PDF before the book goes to print (meaning they can give direct feedback and suggestions for the book if they have any) and also a copy of the book if they wish. Previous kickstarters have taught us that people always have a say, and they always want to be heard. This is the value of kickstarter, your name in a book isn't just a word, it's a legitimate demonstration of your having been involved in the direct production of a product. In our case we will be hosting threads for feedback on the kickstarter itself so that people can let us know their thoughts and feelings on the game before it goes to the final print. We can make ammendments to any overwhelming factors (though we predict few as the game is extremely ironed out) and people can have that nice feeling of being heard by the community. 

Keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks, i am sure we will have mroe to report including the uploads of our playtest videos that we are so excited to show you! 

​Peace and love - Wicked Wargames 

It's almost the exact birthday of the business becoming a partnership this time last year.

We've had a long and sometimes stressful journey, but we've also had so much fun. The moments of trial, confusion and overcoming obstacles have always been outweighed by the joy, strengthening of our friendship and working together to create something beautiful.

Today we received our first big "win": a test print of our first game, soon to be released.

"The Momentous Issue of War" is an American Civil War block game based on an 8X8 grid with the traditional Kriegsspiel aesthetic.

The first print is gorgeous and we don't want to overshare because soon we're going to bring you a whole load of information (not to mention we've shared a lot already and want to keep some secrets for a bit!).

However, here are some images of the print that arrived in the office today:

Never judge a book by its cover... unless it's a war game, in which case totally do, because you're going to get a strong flavour of the game.

In our case we're going for traditional, old-school and a little fun. The colours are bold, and the new company logo adorns the bottom of the front page with a professionalism that the old logo didn't quite have.

Our commissioned game title is striking and exciting, really grabbing the eye. We may alter some of the colouring slightly, but this is the cover you're gonna get! 

Abe welcomes you to the book with an awesome quote that inspired the title of the book. The layout is two columns a page, and the book includes tables, images and bullet point to break down information to be both easy and visually interesting.

You'll be able to play game by going through the book page by page and learning as you go.

​Much of the layout (we call it the "final format") is meticulously finalised by now. 

Our chosen art style is a collection of beautiful photography to explain rules, and mottled and faded watercolour images inspired by the Civil War. We chose images that inspire us and bring out a feel of humanity.

We also like to include quotes from Civil War era from the presidents and selected generals of the war.

The back cover is simple and exciting, with a dramatic image of the game in play. Smoke rises from a settlement that is the central focus of this dramatic image. 

Our blurb reads: 
The Momentous Issue of War is loosely based on the US Civil War. Easy to learn and play while providing a great amount of tactical depth, high-stakes decisions and dramatic narrative beats.

Visually inspired by the style of traditional Kriegsspiel games, players use block units, abilities and terrain to plan their strategy. A unique activation system that changes throughout the game enables players to feel the tide of battle as it ebbs and flows.

Experience cinematic moments during the give-and-take of capturing and losing ground, and the dramatic tension of regimental combat in a game that leaves you wanting more.

At just 20 pages, the book's cost will be modest. We haven't fully decided (we need to talk to our printer about that cost), but will be start with a run of two or three hundred copies, with more ordered as we need them.

We will keep you in the loop and we guarantee it will not break the bank. We're probably talking the cost of a few cups of coffee at most! And the PDF will of course be even more affordable.

​Keep your eyes peeled for more soon! 

In the lead up to the release of the Momentous Issue of War, we've made some executive decisions regarding the company.

The main one of note is that we've redesigned the logo, going for something more simplistic and sharp. We will still have our tag line "The Devil's in the Dice" in our hearts but we need something cleaner and more professional looking to present on the front of our publications.

Henceforth we will use the above logo and will be implementing it on the site from this week. The home page will be amended soon! 

We also have commissioned an awesome title logo for the front cover of "The momentous Issue of war".

Above you can see the working pages for the front and back of the book. Currently we're waiting on the final piece as the one we've received has one coloration issue. Soon though we will be ready to send this for test print which allows us to do a few things:

1. Finish the trailers!
2. Check colouring, photo resolutions, font scale and readability. 
   
3. The final format. 

Once we have the test print and these tasks completed we will be confident sending this to the crowd funding platform for people to help us get it off the ground and hopefully raise a little funding to support the hundreds of hours we've worked on WW products this last year and a bit. 

Keep your eyes peeled for more, coming very soon. 

~ Arthur

Hey, it's Arthur. Co-founder of Wicked Wargames. We have been busy bees and pushing forward on all the games in the business. We both work multiple other job, but we are making time to get these projects done by setting regular, dedicated working hours.

Since our last updates in October we have pivoted slighty and we have taken a new approach to our current targets. 

Here is a summary of the new goals:

1. The Momentous Issue of War
We aim to finish this first. The reasons for this are basic but sensible: it's a smaller project and is simple to playtest. (Quick, simple and snappy games of which we can bash out many in a day) . This means we can develop the game at a much faster pace. We have now gotten this rule set to a fairly complete position and are sending it to printers for test prints very soon. 

2. Cretacea
We are still working on Cretacea (believe it or not) and we have realigned to a larger project (again) with a broader scope. We are creating around twenty dinosaurs (where the original had just twelve) and we aim to provide at least fifteen of them in the core book with stretch goals on the planned kickstarter for more. It's all very exciting. UPDATES COMING TOMORROW

3. Kingdom & Command
We're powering through playtests for Kingdom and Command, our correspondence roleplaying game. It's a low-key favourite of ours due to its communicative nature being that we work remotely so communication is our forte. UPDATES COMING FRIDAY 

​Let's start in this post by talking about: 

We've been dedicating a lot of our time to the creation and playtesting of The Momentous Issue of War, our US Civil War "block game", which uses basic blocks of units and an 8x8 square grid.

​About the game
It's a riveting game, it plays like a well-thought-out and traditional board game, and when you play it you can almost feel like this game has existed forever which is such a nice feeling. The game is very tactical and also very quick (on average one hour per game), and one can really feel the magic and momentum of the battle as it ebbs and flows back and forth during the game. 

What's the status?
The game mechanics are done, and we're awaiting feedback from fresh-eyes friends with overall thoughts on book formatting. Test prints will follow that. We have playtested this game to a T and are very happy with the state of play.

We have also recently created a live playtest video. As we want our games at a professional standard, we decided to hire a videographer, and have no regrets. The video edit will be out soon so we can show you the fun and tactical nature of the game more personally.

Here's a snip from the editing program:

What does the book look like?
As seen from the images below, we've gone for a contemporary paper like background and a newspaper font for the titles, splattered with quotes from generals of war.

It features some awesome acrylic paint-style images of Civil War troops in action to supplement the methodical imagery of the gameplay examples.

Lastly, it's a short book, which is how we want it. We may release more parts for it in the future but it's currently very streamlined and quick to skim, which is great when you're at the table.

These previews are fairly small, but you'll have the book in time. For now, we're just showcasing look of it. Soon we'll have test copies in our hands (so excited!), and we'll be able to release better previews.

Come back tomorrow for updates on Cretacea and then later this week for updates on our writing game, Kingdom and Command.

​

It is set in the American civil war (ACW), plays on an 8x8 grid,  uses wooden blocks to represent units, and plays in an I go, you go format. In keeping with our company creed of our games being fun and easy we have boiled down unit types to four varieties: infantry, cavalry, artillery, and command.

Our aims and ideas for this game are to give players:

• Enough variance across your force to scratch that itch for some tactical fun.
• Rules that are simplistic and enjoyable.
• A game playable in just half an hour or so.
• For it to all fit in a pretty and practical sized box. 

The idea came from a forum post on the Wargames Website here:

www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/slow-mind-small-games/page/2/

Wherein the writer, a man who beautifully expresses his difficulties with gaming and how he prefers simple and small games, approaches the gaming style in his own way.

​Arthur immediately began thinking on the topic and went delving in the free Wargames Rules site for inspiration. He struck gold with a rule set written and released for free in 2014 called "See the Elephant".

Although its core was a fun rule set, it was dated, riddled with confusing passages and writing faux pas, and we just couldn't get it to work. Inspired by Andrew on The Wargames Website and this rule set on on the Wargames Rules site, we started working on our own game.

Ultimately, we kept little of the original rules other than the unit types (infantry, cavalry, artillery) and the grid, since 8X8 is very accessible. We've both learned in building Wicked Wargames that the inspiration for any idea need not be its end. It can serve its purpose by merely being a catalyst for something more.

The simple game blocks are easy to make, theraputic and enjoyable in apearence. Something about building a complete army in an hour is extremely satisfying.  

The book is currently speeding along as it's an extremely small rule set with few rules. The idea is to present it as a small pamphlet, likely A5, and the cover is designed to look like an old book with a scaly leather effect. Very exciting. Combined with the mottled pages, old imagery and few necessary images, it really pops and is invigorating to read.

It's a small project and likely will be out soon, and we'll keep you updated as we continue our playtests and iron out the kinks.

Keep your eyes peeled for more information soon. We'll have lots of exciting updates on this in the coming weeks.