"Kingmaker II - new YouTube film" Topic

Publication will be May 23 this year, apparently.
The new Gibsons game plays three or four ways and can be one-person, two-person, multi-player or vastly extended. There is also a side-bar battlefield area where vanguard, main guard and rearguard can now fight each other. The previous versions of the game made the battle a strict numbers game.

The original UK game could be a nightmare as the cards often referred to geographical areas which were not marked on the board. How many of us even knew where The Cheviots were? The map was fixed by the time that Avalon Hill redesigned the game in the 1980s. I am pleased to see in the first film that the map is now even clearer. Whoopee! :)

Another new point, De Vere Earl of Oxford has now been added to the game. Also added are Irish Kerns, Knights of St John and Bretons. Interesting!

One of the designers already has a pre-production version and unboxes it here:

YouTube link

The above link is very detailed and well worth a watch!
Meanwhile Gibsons have a net page here which includes their own YouTube film:

link

Barry

As a footnote I could mention how rough and ready the old version was. Apart from not marking many geographical boundaries the old plague rules were rather lethal. Friends of mine had a first version and were on their second move of the game. They held a Parliament in London and then turned 'Plague London' and everyone died! They packed the game away and played Scrabble instead.
I am pleased to say that the Avalon Hill version introduced a 50/50 saving role for anyone caught in a plague town and eliminated this problem as well as improving the map.

I should point out the obvious, it is a great map for a Wars of the Roses campaign with Kingmaker game points simply transferring into points value for any table top rule system you choose to use.

Barry

The game is already shipping and quite a few gamers in Europe and England already have their copies. Gamers in the U.S. who ordered through Kickstarter had their copies shipped this weekend. I think the May 23rd date is for when copies will be shipped to game stores and distributors.

Kickstarter backer, got my copies yesterday. The reprint is awesome! 3 rules sets included – the original "classic", including Optional and Advanced (now called "Extended") rules, a quicker-finishing variant called "Kingmaker II" (basically, if you have a crowned heir and have accumulated enough prestige through offices, bishoprics, towns and cities, and victories in major battles, you can claim victory without having to go through the long slog of eliminating all the other heirs), and a solo version.

The components are lovely and include some nice historical touches (e.g. the Earl of Oxford is included now). Also, all of the old Avalon Hill "General" optional Event cards are included if you want to add them. If you loved the old game I think you'll want to get this new edition.

@above:
Thank you for these updates. Nice to know it is well advanced.

Last year I had pondered a short Bosworth campaign with Graham using my Avalon Hill version + extended set (AH brought out extra cards and rules after their initial publication) but with a time limit to encourage play. This would reduce the number of cards in play and eliminate all the royal cards except Richard and 'Beaufort' as a proxy for Henry Tudor as his mother was a Beaufort. No Parliaments, no killed nobles coming back and with Henry starting from South Wales while Richard could start from London or the north. Finish in 20 moves or both armies lay up for the winter and go home, something like that.

One factor in the real WOTR (a term I hate BTW) is that campaigns were very short and – oddly – were often fought in the cold months. One possibility for the choice of the time of year may have been a desire to avoid the sowing and harvesting seasons. We also know that Henry VII later paid compensation for crops damaged during the Bosworth campaign.
The short campaigning duration may be accounted for by the need to pay and feed the men. It has been calculated that during the 1455 to 1485 period there were fewer than 300 actual campaigning days. Unlike the English campaigns in France food and supplies could not be stolen on the march as there was (mostly) a desire to avoid alienating the population. The one time that looting did occur in a big way was the sack of Ludlow after the rout of Ludford Bridge and later Queen Margaret's foray from the north up to the gates of London. Her Borderers and French troops may not have viewed the Midlands and Home Counties as charitably as an English army might have done.

Barry

Fancy not knowing where the Cheviots are…

@Cerdic:
None of us knew! I finally drove through them only last year. They are the English/Scots border hills.

@Schwabian Grenadier:
To be fair I think this is 3rd or even 4th edition. The Avalon Hill cards which came out after their version added a lot to the game.

B

That's very tempting, Barry. I bout a replacement AH edition just a few years ago, and have a laminated A3 map that you can actually read, so that will do for now.

I've been working on a campaign marrying up Kingmaker and Never Mind the Billhooks. Equating the troop point totals to NMTBH units was easier than I expected- but we'll see how it goes if we ever get around to actually starting the campaign.

I still have my copy of the first edition and have fond memories of playing it back in the day. So when I learned about the Kickstarter for a new edition, I immediately jumped right in. I am eagerly awaiting my copy.

For several years there was a fellow who always ran a miniatures version at Illinois conventions. He had supersized map, WOTR figures on bases to represent the various units, and even small ships.

Funny, I just offered to bring my old edition to a gaming meet!

Maybe I'll look into the new one now.

Warspite – to be fair, the Cheviots are one of those ranges of hills that most people have heard of but don't really know where they are!

Schwabian – don't worry, it was just a bit of a pisstake! Maybe it doesn't work so well in print, as it were. Or maybe it doesn't translate well across the pond? Good news is I do know the Blue Ridge Mountains! Thank you Laurel and Hardy!

Backed the Kickstarter as well and eagerly awaiting my copy in the US.

@Cerdic:

Ahhh… Laurel and Hardy… The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia!

YouTube link

Barry

DHL says my copy will be delivered on April 3!
:) :) :) :)

Our group played Kingmaker just about every Saturday for 10 years.

DHL delivered 2 days early :)

For those not yet aware, this two-year old discussion by the re-designer explains more about the new version including the prestige points system in the advanced game:

YouTube link

Barry

Do we have feed-back from those in possession of a copy of the new game?
What do you think of it?

Barry

The Classic version remains pretty much the same, although with a slightly larger board. The game I suspect that most gamers will focus on is what is called KII, which is a streamlined version of the classic game. They've added a "prestige" victory where if you have so many titles, possessions, victories, etc., that you basically are acknowledged as the ruling faction. No more taking a royal and hiding out for 3-4 extra game hours! They've also included all of the events and optional rules from The General, so it's a pretty complete package.