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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on November 15, 2011.
Pledge $20 or more Pledge $20 or more
Lieutenant: You'll receive a copy of Imperial Crusade Armada and an exclusive promo ship card shipped anywhere in the United States. The promo card will only be available to people that support Imperial Crusade Armada through Kickstarter. It will never be printed again.
Pledge $30 or more Pledge $30 or more
Commander: You'll receive a copy of Imperial Crusade Armada, another set of the 40 plastic cards from the game, and two copies of the exclusive promo ship card shipped anywhere in the United States. Great for people that want to play larger battles.
Pledge $35 or more Pledge $35 or more
Captain: You'll receive two copies of Imperial Crusade Armada and two copies of the exclusive promo ship card shipped anywhere in the United States. One set for you and one for your friend.
Pledge $60 or more Pledge $60 or more
Admiral: You'll receive two copies of Imperial Crusade Armada, two extra sets of the 40 plastic cards from the game, and four copies of the exclusive promo ship card shipped anywhere in the United States. Great for people that want to play large battles with their friends.
Pledge $130 or more Pledge $130 or more
Grand Supporter: You'll be named as one of the main characters in a piece of short fiction set in the Imperial Crusade Armada universe. You'll also receive a copy of Imperial Crusade Armada, another set of the 40 plastic cards from the game, and two copies of the exclusive promo ship card shipped anywhere in the world. At this level, you're saying that you really like this game and want to help me work on future game projects. You will receive a personal letter from me thanking you for your incredible support.
Pledge $130 or more Pledge $130 or more
Master Supporter: You'll design a Fleet Tactic that will go in the future supplement Imperial Crusade Freedom and be listed as one of that game's developers. You'll also receive a copy of Imperial Crusade Armada, another set of the 40 plastic cards from the game, and two copies of the exclusive promo ship card shipped anywhere in the world. At this level, you are saying that you really like this game and want to help me work on future projects. You will receive a personal note from me thanking you for your incredible support.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
Ultimate Supporter: You will design a ship that will be one of the promo cards for the new faction expansion titled Imperial Crusade Freedom. You decide what faction it will be, design its stats, and decide what it looks like. We will work together to make the card but you get to make all the decisions. For your work you will be listed as one of the game's developers. You'll also receive two copies of Imperial Crusade Armada, two extra sets of the 40 plastic cards from the game, and four copies of the exclusive promo ship card shipped anywhere in the world.
Project By
Connected as Kato James (0 friends)
I have been a chemistry teacher for fifteen years and have been playing games my entire life. I have recently released a few games to the public through my company JEN Games.
well...since I never got my copy (though he did give me my money back) i have no idea how that game plays. or how it looks, etc. i just noticed that his other project is cancelled. I hope he's ok
Played my first game today and here are my initial impressions. The box is a little flimsy, mine is already started to get banged up from just being moved around, so different container for storage is a must. Some of the cards have slight blemishes but not anything that makes them unplayable. Number edges on red weapon icons are a little blurry which can make them a little hard to read. Its really apparent on cards with more than 2 weapon icons on a side. I posted some pictures from the game on photobucket. http://s978.photobucket.com/albums/ae263/H4v0k_2009/Imperial%20Crusade%20Armada/
I got mine today, very excited. The boxes need a bit of tape on them as both of mine were open in the package and all the guts strewn about. I think the box is a bit big as well. Redesign the rulebook and you can make it half the size.
I'll take it up to my FLGS to get some games in.
Just got my copy today, and I have to give some props, the cards are are of very high quality, and I am very impressed.
Got it today and it looks great! Good job. Very excited to play.
Thanks for the update. Good to know people are looking at proofs and such and making sure things are done right.
I've hit a slight bump in the road. I received physical proofs for the cards and they were made of the wrong material. I found another printer and when I get their physical proofs I'm going to send out an update with a picture with all the proofs. Sorry for any inconvenience but I'm trying to make the game the best it can be. Everything else is in and the boxes are being printed right now.
How is production coming along?
Don't worry about the rewards. I can see the pledge amount so if its different than the pledge level, I'll email you.
I am a little nervous. When I submitted my information awhile back I wondered if I submitted the right information for the reward. Will I just receive the default for my level as a result?
Congrats!! This is the first project I backed... kickstarter is addicting.
Yay. Congrats on the funding... Now where's my game??? :P
Eight thousand! Congratulations!
Yes, you are correct. I wanted the higher pledges to get more of these extra cards. $30 pledges receive 2 copies of the promo, battleship, and base cards. $60 pledge receive 4 copies of the promo, battleship, and base cards.
Sorry, I am still confused Does that mean that at the at $30 you receive 2 copies of the battleship card, and 2 bases and that at 60 you receive 4 of each of these cards.
To help answer a question that people have been asking recently. The extra set of 40 cards at the $30 and $60 pledge level come with the 40 cards, an extra bag of tokens, an extra promo card, an extra battleship card, and an extra base card.
Every game is a boxed set. The extra set of cards in not a box set. The missions are going to be a normal part of the original game not a supplement. I'm just going to make the rule book longer.
Can I get a clarifcation? The talk about increasing the pledge for the 6k promo and your mention of the "box set" of the game has me a little confused. If I pledged $20, do I get everything that you've added so far? Do I need to increase my pledge (which I would certainly do anyway if you were just a few dollars short of the $10,000 goal, but it looks like it may be tough to get there)?
Once the Kickstarter project ends, people can send me a message or email me at jtkoso@gmail.com to tell me that they want an extra base or battleship card instead of an extra promo card for the extra $1 pledge.
When the project inevitably hits 6k can I increase my pledge by 1$/promo for the 6k promo as well as the kickstarter promo?
With 21 days left I'm sure you'll hit $6000. The question is, will you hit $10,000? I want fleet tactic cards. =)
Woot $5k mark hit!!! Can't wait to see the new rule set!
Typo, it is the FIRST project I have backed....
This is the fist project I have done on Kickstarter. For those of you who are unsure, print out the demo and try it, you'll be hooked. I can't wait until mine shows up!
I hope the new rules that will come out tomorrow will make the current game more tactical but still streamlined. My hope is that someday Imperial Crusade Armada can become a tournament game where people can go to Origins and Gen Con to play. I will also release a simpler rule set on my website for casual gamers or people that want to play with their children.
Looks like a pretty fun game so you got my backing! In response to the movement system and the like. I can see great things if there is a basic and advance game included in the rules.
In that respects, one could add a with the movement system having a nod to vector movement in the advance game. Nothing fancy, but something that forces player to at least think about movement in space. Perhaps for each power spent for movement in the previous turn, the ship moves one inch forward in the maintenance phase (you could mark the ship with a "m" or something. Also adding that it takes one power to rotate the ship (the angle of rotation could be based on ship size or it could be 1 power equals any amount of rotation) could give a lot of tactial options without making it overly complicated. Otherwise, I can't wait to try this out.
Thanks for the nice comment, Jorge. I hope you enjoy the game.
Hey! Yours is the first project I back on Kickstarter. I'm completely new to this kind of game, but it really caught my attention. Looks awesome! Hope you keep getting backers for it, Keep up the good work.
The new updated rulebook will be ready soon but Dan made me think of another change that will make smaller ships more maneuverable. I'm going to add a new ship Agility called Agile that will let smaller ships perform two rotations when activated.
I made more changes to rules that I hope make the game better.
When a ship moves its movement line starts from its center rotation line. This greatly limits movement.
Red icon weapons can only be fired from the front edge directly from the center rotation line.
The End Phase will be when all book keeping things are done and fighter deployment occurs. This makes the Carrier ability very useful because Carrier ships can deploy fighters anytime during the Combat Phase.
Fighters always activate first because of their high Agility. I've been working on a ground combat game for the Imperial Crusade universe and Agility does not determine when a unit is activated so I thought it would work in this game but it doesn't. In ground combat their is line of sight and blocking so units can hide from each other. In space, the lack of line of sight and blocking means that a dreadnought going first could destroy a bunch of destroyers before they even got off a shot.
I also have a question: the rules say activations start with highest initiative and then proceeding in descending order. Does this mean that since Fighters have the highest initiative (8), they will always activate first?
(this is the type of thing I should probably post on BGG instead. Sorry!) :-)
I hope you reach $5000+!
James,
I like the changes to movement you describe here. I have had some concerns about 3 game mechanics with ICA: inertia, turning rates & fire arcs. I'm glad to see you are willing to make changes at this point.
I have played the following ship-combat games at this point: Battlefleet Gothic, Firestorm: Armada, Full Thrust (light), Man O' War, Uncharted Seas & Trafalgar. Inertia, turning rates & fire arcs are all key elements of gameplay across the board with these games.
In contemplating your game for the last couple days, I've definitely gotten the impression that it is more Star Wars/Star Trek inspired, quick-play system, rather than a more detailed, crunchy wargame. That's totally fine by me, just to be clear up-front. I'd still like to make some suggestions that I think are worth your time, but if they don't fit your vision for the game, I understand completely.
There is a simple fix that can add additional detail to both turning rates and fire arcs: add to each card a small "x" in the exact center, dividing the ship into four 90-degree quadrants. This will give your ships fore, aft, port and starboard sections. (Alternatively, each tip of the "x" could point directly at a card corner)
Shields:
As an option, Forward shields could protect the fore, port & starboard sections while Rear shields would protect the aft section. This isn't necessary; you could continue using the current 180-degree system you have in place, but it's a possibility.
Weapon Fire Arcs:
Weapons can now be assigned to individual or multiple fire arcs. Since you still have the horizontal center-line, you can also include a 180-degree fire arc. You could still use color-coding of the weapons systems to indicate which fire arcs each system can fire from.
For example:
Blue = port & starboard fire arcs
Red = forward fire arc
Black = 360-degree fire arc
Purple = 180-degree forward arc (purple is red+blue, get it?)
Specialized weapons like the Reflex & Hyperwave cannons already have their firing procedures detailed in the rulebook; there would be no need to modify those weapons when introducing quadrant-based fire arcs to the game.
Turning Rates:
Using these same fore/aft/port/starboard quadrants, you can also add a (only slightly) more detailed turning rate mechanic to the game. I would suggest that ship turning rates are limited based on size categories.
For Example:
One turn within the forward arc per activation: Dreadnoughts, Heavy Carriers, Cathedral Ships, Gun Ships.
Two turns within the forward arc per activation: Cruisers & Light Carrier.
Three turns within the forward arc per activation: Destroyers, Shrine Ship and anything else similarly-sized.
Fighters would be able to change direction 360 degrees before moving.
Inertia:
I heard on the most recent D6Generation podcast a little relevant factoid: It takes an aircraft carrier, moving at full speed, upwards of 15 MILES to come to a full stop. Larger objects have greater inertia; this is why Star Destroyers look so ponderous compared to the Millenium Falcon, which keep in mind, is a sooped-up delivery-van. ;-)
I feel pretty strongly that, in order to give a nod to inertia, ships *must* move directly forward a certain distance before being allowed to make the first of any of their turns. Grabbing a number out of a hat: "A ship must move 2 inches directly forward before and between each turn is made. Example: an Imperium War Destroyer must move 2 inches directly forward before it's first turn, another 2 inches before it's second turn and a further 2 inches before it's third turn."
Fleet Tactics:
You could add/modify one of the Fleet Tactics to give a ship an additional turn on their activation.
(btw, if you find using the word "turn" causes confusion, you could substitute "rotation" or something)
I know that you want to keep the game simple, but these suggestions would add sooo much more depth, imho. Putting limitations on the players' abilities to control their ships actually enhances gameplay. The decisions players have about Power usage is brilliant stuff. They'll have decisions to agonize over every time they activate a ship. Taking some ship control away is just the flip-side of that coin.
All that from adding a simple 'x' to the center of each card and minor rules revision.
That's my 2 cents. Thanks for reading!
Dan
The new movement system will work by drawing an imaginary movement line from the front of a ship card that cannot pass the center line of a ship card. This means a ship can only go forward. All ships can then rotate. Rotation will work with a line on the middle of the front edge of the ship card. Ships can be rotated in either direction but the front line cannot pass where the original center line of the ship card was. I track this by putting my finger where the center line is and rotating the card until I reach that point. This limits rotation to 45 degrees per turn. Many people have said that faster ships should turn more but I always think about the scene in Return of the Jedi where Admiral Akbar says "Its a trap!" and the entire fleet peels off together. I like the cinematic appeal of this kind of movement.
I have made many changes to rules that will hopefully streamline gameplay.
1) Ships no longer have to pay a Power to activate Shields.
2) Imperium ships carry less fighters. Fighters move 18" and attack.
3) Combat turns have three phases instead of four. The End Phase has been removed and added to the Maintenance Phase.
4) Ships cannot use Power to restore Shields.
The revised rulebook will be out soon. I just have to proof read it a few more times.
Just did a bit play testing with the two styles of movement and it would seem that if you rotate before move will lead to the ability to get up close battle much more often as you will have the opportunity to see where the other player is and then point and move your ship towards them. With the other model of move then rotate you must plan ahead as you will be able to see what direction each ship will move but you wont know how far if at all the will move the next turn which would lead to more planing in the prior turn. I could see the turn then move would lead to faster paced battles and the move then turn would be a bit slower with more of a cat and mouse chase feel.
After this discussion I'm thinking that a ship should have to rotate first and then move in a straight line that cannot cross pass its center line. I think this is a simple way to make the game more tactical but not over complicate it. I also think that having different rotations for ships is may be too complicated.
I like the idea of it being based on Agility one that makes sens and it is already on the card. I could see this as a vary important factor especially now with position being more important with what weapons you want to use I worry that unlimited rotation would make it to easy to always have the prime shot that you need.
I like the idea of rotation based on the Agility of a specific ship. It has also been suggested that ship cards should only be able to move the direction that they are pointing but would still be able to rotate any amount after they have moved. I'm always afraid of over complicating the rules. I have clarified the shooting arc diagram in the current rulebook so the position of each ship card limits how certain weapons fire so position makes a big difference.
Hi James, love the game and am happy to be a backer. I had a question about ship rotation, and i'm wondering if you had or would consider a maximum rotation per turn depending on ship class or even per ship as a rotation max angle on the card, maybe even with an option to spend more power to rotate more in that turn. I think it would add another level of strategic planing.
Don't be concerned, all printer issues have been resolved. Sorry for being so quiet lately but I'm running around like crazy on my other Kickstarter project, Strike Legion. I'm trying to finish the open beta and quick start and I'm trying to round up more artists.
Glad to see that you're almost funded already. Hopefully things go better this time with your printer.