(or here’s a list of what launched yesterday that might deserve a closer look)

Project:  Shogun & Wallenstein Deluxe Upgrade Kits

Designer:  Dirk Henn (Alhambra, Shogun, Wallenstein, Wallenstein Second Edition)

Artists:  Marko Fiedler (Edo, Escape: Zombie City, In the Year of the Dragon, Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age, Shogun Big Box, Michael Menzel (Agra, Arkadia, Bruges, Catan, Chicago Express, Cuba, Dominion, Dominion: Intrigue, Firenze, First Class: All Aboard the Orient Express!, Forum Trajanum, Hacienda, Jambo, The Pillars of the Earth, Rivals for Catan, Rococo, Royals, Santiago de Cuba, Shogun, The Speicherstadt, Stone Age, Thebes, Thurn and Taxis, Torres, Ulm, World Without End), Oliver Schlemmer (Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Fresco, Kingdom Builder, Wallenstein Second Edition)

Publisher:  Queen Games (Alhambra, Amerigo, Chicago Express, Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Fresco, Kingdom Builder, Lancaster, Legends of Andor, Luxor, Merlin, Shogun, Thebes, Vikings, Wallenstein)

Genre/Mechanisms:  action queue, area majority/influence, area movement, auction/bidding, economic, simultaneous action selection, variable phase order, territory building (Shogun); action points, action queue, area majority/influence, area movement, economic, simultaneous action selection, variable phase order, territory building (Wallenstein)

Player Count:  3-5

Solo Mode:  no

Complexity:  medium-heavy

Risk:  medium-low

Summary:  Shogun is based on the Wallenstein game system. The game is set in the Sengoku period (approx 1467-1573) which ends with the inception of the well-known Tokugawa Shogunate. Shogun Big Box includes the base game of Shogun, Tenno’s Court Expansion 1, Samurai Expansion Module 2, Military Leaders Expansion Module 3 and Chambers Expansion Module 4, with the latter three items being unique to this release.

Wallenstein is set during the Thirty Years’ War, when military leaders roamed the country, fighting for dominance while building palaces and churches. Collect victory points by controlling countries and developing them, but don’t forget the peasants. Battles are fought using the dice tower, but rather than randomizing the faces, this tower keeps some of the cubes. The winner of the battle is determined by the number of the attacker’s and defender’s armies that emerge from the tower. Wallenstein Big Box includes the base game of Wallenstein Second Edition, and Expansion Modules 1-4, which are Emperor’s Court, Landsknechte, Military Leaders, and Office.

Base Pledge (w/shipping):  $83, one Upgrade Kit for either of the 2 games

All-In (w/shipping):  $285, both Big Box Games, both Upgrade kits, and a copy of Immortals

Campaign Ends:  5/7

Game Ships:  Apr. 2021

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 141%, with 14 days to go.