The Escalation kickstarter is almost over. I got some finished card art from the artist and thought I'd share it with you here in case any of you are still wondering what to expect in the expansion...

There are 6 Double Time cards, 2 in each tech stack. They have an unusual planet requirement: 1 specific planet, and 1 planet of any other type. Note that Utopian planets (from the Bonus Planets mini-expansion), with their ability to count as any planet type you already have, never help with this requirement.

In the upper left corner, along with that Trade icon, there's also a Silicon icon. What does that mean? Well, it means this card can be discarded from hand just as if you were discarding a Silicon resource from a resource slot in your empire!

In the lower left you can see a new cost icon. All tech cards in Escalation can be purchased the usual way, or they can be paid for with ships. Level 1 (3-cost) tech can be paid for with 3 Fighters as an alternate cost.

There are 3 cards in Escalation which provide direct player interaction. Annex is the first of those, allowing you to attack planets that other player's have Surveyed up.

Each directly interactive card comes with a new thing called Reparations, which is a consolation for having your planet attacked. In Escalation all of the Reparations are 2vp from the supply. In future sets there may be other cards with different types of Reparations, such as drawing cards for example. 

In the upper left you can see that Annex can be discarded as any resource, OR as a Fighter, for example when paying a Warfare cost!

In the Planet Requirement section of the card you can see that it requires 3 planets - one each of Advanced, Fertile, and Metallic. This is referred to as Diverse technology. You can see as well that level L (5-cost) tech can be paid for with 2 Destroyers as an alternate cost.

Military Campaign is the next directly interactive card. This permanent tech allows you to attack planets other players have already flipped! You still have to use a regular "Attack a Planet" action, this card simply allows you to choose target planets that would otherwise be unavailable. If you do so, the Warfare cost is 1 Battlecruiser plus Fighters equal to the Influence (vp) value of the target planet. Of course, your opponent gets Reparations: 2vp from the supply.

Natural Order is the third and final directly interactive card. It allows you to remove a pesky permanent technology from the game. Did an opponent with a jump on research get Adaptability or Productivity into play? Now you might be able to cancel that out with Natural Order. Of course, the opponent will receive Reparations of 2vp. You can even use Natural Order on your own Level 1 permanent techs in the late game to score a few additional points!

Natural Order is a Level 3 (7-cost) tech, and you can see the alternate ship cost is 1 Battlecruiser. In addition, Natural Order can be discarded from hand as a Battlecruiser as well. Handy, because you're only allowed 1 Battlecruiser mini in play at a time, and those are fairly pricey to replace.

Eminent Domain: Escalation Going Strong

Last week, we launched a Kickstarter project for Eminent Domain: Escalation, which continues to go strong and has already funded over $55,000. This means that all of the scenarios are unlocked, and it looks like the promo pack and fancy foil stamped boxes are within our sights!

If you haven't done so already, check it out. If for no other reason, then for the video alone...

Here's a piece of art from the expansion, from the Peace Treaty card... a card that gives you points when you dissent a Warfare role!

I hope everyone has been enjoying Eminent Domain this last year. I've read a lot of great things about it, and in most of the reviews online there are a couple of common themes...

* Why are the ships different shapes and sizes, but they're each just "1 Fighter"?
* Why can't I attack my opponent's planets?
* Why can't I play with 5 players?

There are others, but I'm happy to announce that each of those things has been addressed in the first major expansion (second total, including Eminent Domain: Bonus Planets)...

Eminent Domain: Escalation

Escalation answers the questions above with extra cards to support a 5th palyer, Fleet tiles and rules differentiating the different ships, a wealth of new technology cards (including a few that allow you to directly affect your opponents), and more!

It's been over a year since Eminent Domain was among the first successful Kickstarter projects, and much has been learned by TMG as well as the community. Kickstarter is now a huge part of the hobby boardgame industry, and TMG has run a handful of successful game projects, most recently for Dungeon Roll. Each time more is learned, and each project has been better than the last. As of today, Escalation has become the next TMG offering on Kickstarter. You should check out the project if for no other reason to watch the video and see some of the awesome sci-fi artwork that our artists have made. Eric Carter and Ryan Johnson are back, and I think they've outdone themselves this time. Gavan Brown's cover art looks even more epic than the base game box:

If you'd like to support the project financially then that's great - but you can also help by just spreading the word. We're trying a new "quickstarter" format this time, the project is only up for 12 days. So if you could, get out those tweets and FB status updates! if you'd like to wear your support as an avatar, check out this bad boy:

And another thing...

In addition to the Escalation kickstarter, Michael's got another project he's working on:

From Michael: "This second project is a result of a long time of research and delaying action followed by how well received my analysis was for the Dungeon Roll project. I have started a "Business of Play" podcast, and I have released 3 episodes thus far. The format is that I do a no-edit live thought process and analysis of different business ideas, many of which (but not all) pertain to the publishing of physical games.

I am doing a month long test where I post M-F a new episode which is 5-10 minutes long.

You can get the podcast at Sound Cloud. Right now, there is no iTunes RSS links, but I have applied for them to open one up. If you would like me to continue with the podcast after the first month, then it would be great if you can follow me on SoundCloud and share with friends."

Check out his podcast here: https://soundcloud.com/bizofplay

Again, I hope you're enjoying Eminent Domain, and if so then I hope you'll check out Escalation on Kickstarter. Thanks!

- Seth

I hope by now you've all had a chance to familiarize yourselves with Eminent Domain, and I hope you're enjoying it! Thanks again for all of your support bringing the game to market.

I've been hard at work on the first expansion for Eminent Domain, which will be called Eminent Domain: Escalation. Here's a short description of what the expansion is all about:

Eminent Domain: Escalation amps up the action (and interaction) in Eminent Domain with new planets, new technologies, and a whole new meaning for the various different shaped Fighter tokens.

New planets: There are Hostile planets, which provide a Fighter to use every turn, Civilized planets, which confer victory points when you Dissent a Warfare role, new Start planets, and even planets with actions you can take instead of playing a card during your Action phase!

New technologies: There are new cards in each technology stack, which can be purchased with either Research symbols or Fighters! There's also a new stack of "Diverse" technology which requires 1 of each planet type to purchase. The new technologies allow you to do a lot of fun stuff, even attack another player's planets!

Fleet upgrades: In addition to Fighters, there are now Destroyers (the medium sized ships) and Dreadnaughts (the large ships). Players will have a Fleet tile, which provides actions to upgrade Fighters into Destroyers and Destroyers into Dreadnaughts. Each fighter type has it's own uses!

I've been playing an awful lot of Escalation, and I'm really happy with it! Pretty soon it'll be ready for a Kickstarter project of its own. Speaking of Kickstarter, Tasty Minstrel Games currently has a project up for another game which I did a lot of development work on: Ground Floor. I wrote a blog post about the game which you might find interesting. The project is going on for 5 days and has already hit it's first overfunding goal!

Finally, I'll leave you with the first illustration I've received from Eric Carter for Eminent Domain: Escalation - it's for a card called Peace Treaty, and I think it's awesome!

First off, I hope that by now just about everybody has received their copy (or copies) of Eminent Domain! I know there are some international supporters that are still waiting... I'm sorry about that, and I hope that in the future we can find a better logistical solution for international shipping.

I also hope that you've had a chance to try the game, and that you are enjoying it as much as I do :)

Tasty Minstrel Games has launched another Kickstarter project for a game called Kings of Air and Steam. It's an economic route planning and pickup/deliver game with a Steampunk theme. You'll program your Airship movement each round, and you'll take actions to improve your operation and deliver goods. You see, the airship picks up goods at factories and drops them off at your Depots, then your train network delivers those goods along rail lines to the cities that want them. Make money and expand your rail network in an effort to be crowned the new King of Air and Steam!

So take a look at the new project - it'll be going for another 40 days. In the next couple of weeks there will be reviews of the prototype popping up, and we'll have prototype copies with us at BGGcon, which is 2 weeks from today! If you are going to Dallas, please introduce yourself to Mike and I, we'd love to play a game with you.

- Seth