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

Project: Earth Under Siege: Flashpoint (Relaunch)

Designer: Steve Kozlowski

Artist: Todd Ulrich

Publisher: Dark Horizon Games

Genre/Mechanisms: adventure, area movement, cooperative game, dice rolling, fighting, miniatures, modular board, science fiction, variable player powers

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A cooperative, sci-fi dungeon crawler where players complete covert missions against an invading alien force bent on subjugation of the entire Earth. Flashpoint missions are heavily focused on stealth, covert actions, and sabotage. Players are Operatives of AEGIS, and their missions are focused on infiltrating enemy facilities, using every method available, such as cutting the power, using the ventilation shafts, making use of silenced weapons, and hacking into the enemy database. Players develop their Operatives and HQ over the course of a 30+ mission campaign as they follow the story deeper and deeper until they uncover the true nature of the Enemy and where they came from. Each round, players perform actions with their Operatives by exhausting one of their six action tokens until they run out of available tokens, or choose to pass. But players must be judicious in their use of their action tokens, because they normally only recover three of them each Refresh Phase. Each Operative comes with a unique deck of Tactics cards which gives them access to powerful actions and effects. Each Player will develop these decks over the course of the campaign allowing them to tailor their gameplay to a particular style or focusing on specific combos.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $159

All-In (w/shipping): $219

Campaign Ends: 3/24

Game Ships: May 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 279% with 19 days to go.

Project: Small Samurai Empires + Expansion + Playmat

Designer: Milan Tasevski (Small Railroad Empires, Small Samurai Empires, Small Star Empires)

Artist: Milan Tasevski (Small Railroad Empires, Small Samurai Empires, Small Star Empires)

Publisher: Archona Games (Small Railroad Empires, Small Samurai Empires, Small Star Empires)

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, action queue, area majority / influence, expansion, medieval, programmed movement

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “Small Samurai Empires is an action-programming area-control game where players are fighting for control of Japan with their armies of Samurai. A game of Small Samurai Empires is played in 3 Eras, each consisting of 2 rounds. Each round, players will take turns placing order tokens facedown on one of the slots available in the 4 regions of Japan. When all players have placed their tokens and filled all the token slots, they will be revealed and resolved one by one by the owner of the token. These order tokens will enable the players to recruit mighty Samurai armies, move their armies to conquer provinces, build castles to defend and maintain control of their provinces and do other meaningful actions. At the end of each of the three Eras, players will score points depending on the regions they control and their value, which can change during as the game progresses.

Rise of Tokugawa is an expansion for Small Samurai Empires, including a 5th player, solo mode, training grounds, a playmat and more. As house Tokugawa rises to power, many of the daimyos prepare for the inevitable – an all-out war between the houses. No one is safe, not even within the great castle walls. Train your Samurai to be invincible warriors. Deploy archers, elite units and generals and use your unique tactics to bring an advantage to the battlefield. Prepare for siege and glorious battles.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $32

All-In (w/shipping): $100

Campaign Ends: 3/24

Game Ships: June 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 413% with 20 days to go.