Newsletter (20th December 2019)

Welcome back everyone and we hope you enjoy this update on our next products and projects!

 

LA BELLE EPOQUE

Our next production will be this exciting title from Paolo Carraro, which will be set between the end of 1800s and the beginning of 1900s, just before the First World War

This game, for 2-4 players and with a duration of about 3 hours, will be also our first project on Kickstarter.

In La Belle Epoque players will take on the role of one of the 4 Great Powers of that period (France, Russia, Great Britain and the Central Empires) to form alliances, conquer the last Colonies and trying not to stay behind in the race for new technologies and armaments. Only one thing will stop you: the break of World War 1!

 

WARS ACROSS THE WORLD

Finally, also these titles produced in co-operation with Stephan Parrin’s Strategiae and the help of Philippe Thibault (Europa Universalis, La Grande Guerre) are going to be produced and distributed.

We are finishing the new graphics and the rulebook full of examples.

For our Italian customers we will provide, included in their pre-order, a copy in Italian language of the following items with no additional charges:

  • Base Rules
  • Specific Rules
  • Cards (printed on an A4 cut out sheet)

 

18XX

Turning now to 18XX titles, we have some news coming down the pike!

 

1947

Set in India, from 1836 to 1947, this vast title introduces some new features which will be pervading in the next titles from Sergio Spaggiari and his 19XX games. We hope to get on Kickstarter by the end of 2020.

 

1883

Taken into account the production problems and the mistakes we have made; we are currently working on an update kit that will be included with the production of our new 1947 title. This kit will not need any kind of sticker to be attached on the items already produced, but there will be new replacement items instead.

Furthermore, this upgrade kit will not have any additional costs for those who have already purchased the original game, in fact there will be the possibility to be shipped together with 1947 or separately with minimal shipping expenses even for those who live outside the EU.

 

18ZOO

Paolo Russo has created this little gemstone: a fully railroad title for 2-5 players with a duration of 1-2 hours, suitable for everyone, especially for those who want to try these types of games for the first time.

Location: a zoo and the acorns trafficking lead by squirrels!

 

1843 & 1841 Plus

After the satisfactory outcome of “1883” Manlio Manzini has come quickly back to work on a new project:

  • 1843 is set in Central Italy and in this game, we will see features present in the old title 1841, from Manlio himself, updated and modernized.
  • 1841 Plus reprises its set of the previous edition in Northern Italy, but with its updated and modernized features.

The great news about these two titles is the possibility to merge them in one big game!

 

RICHARD H. BERG

As you may know, we managed to subscribe with Richard H. Berg some contracts to publish 5 of his titles. The first of these games, Baroque, have been published on April 2019. We are in touch with Mark Herman as we are discussing on how to go on.

For sure we would like to work on Conquistador 2nd Edition and we are on a new improved edition of Baroque, with better materials (and related upgrade kits for those who had purchased the first edition).

The title The Glory that was Greece at the moment has been abandoned, but it could come back again in the future together with the 2nd Edition of Baroque maybe.

Risorgimento is under a whole re-writing process for a long time, we are still working hard on its system, mainly in implementing and improving many parts of the game.

1813 Glory’s End sadly will not be published: the base material had serious problems starting from a wrong Order of Battle and a defective scale map. About this game we are evaluating its realization, but with a new system.

What is sure at the moment is that Aleph will publish a game about Leipzig.

 

ACCESSORI

We are currently working in the realization of two new plastic containers for card decks to insert inside the games boxes.

Their dimensions will allow to easily keeping pouched cards.

These boxes will be also suitable to use as organizers for the wooden and plastic counters of your board games!

 

PLAYTEST

At the same time, we are also starting to play testing several games from Italian authors who got our interest.

However, for the moment we are keeping a “ludic” secrecy!

 

And with this last “secret”, this is all we have for you now and for this 2019! We will come back to you with further updates on our production after the Christmas holidays. See you in 2020!!!!!

We whish you and all your beloved ones Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!!

Counter trays….Crazy about! (Part 2)

Welcome again with another little update on our counter trays.
As promised in our previous report, this time we will see also a couple of recently published eurogames so you can judge our counters’ adaptability with this group.

Empire of the Sun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the large amount of components and cards, you may see how only 1 Aleph counter-tray can keep well separated and organized the entire warfare of the Pacific, so the box can be closed. Furthermore, the dimensions allow the tray to be kept on a side of the board to keep the components separated and organized, ready to be used.

Illusions of Glory

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We thought to have seen already all the limit-situations, but this recently published title by GMT caused a little bit of a crisis. With only 1 Aleph counter-tray we were able to put all the units away, but all the information counters had no space at all and we put them in a zip-lock bag.  It is possible to do the opposite: keep the information counter in the counter tray (then put them on a side of the board for an easy use) and the units counters in separated zip-lock bags, so they will be more handy during the setting up.

FAB – Golan ’73

With this title, equipped with wooden blocks, 1 Camelot counter-tray is the perfect choice to organize all the components.

Time Crisis

Another recently published title with cards, mounted map and many big size counters. With 1 Aleph counter-tray we organized the majority of the components, with the exception of some counters that have been kept in zip-lock bags.

Pendragon

For the CoIn titles it is now clearly a fact the perfect symbiosis between 1 Camelot counter-tray for the game parts and 1 Aleph counter-tray for the generic counters, to be kept on the side of the board.  Also with this title full of components we were able to keep everything organized.

La Guerra di Gradisca

Let’s finish our little excursion about wargames (and similar) with this very nice Italian title, which with 1 Aleph counter-tray you can organize everything well.

Let’s move now to a couple of eurogames that we recently had the chance to play, and we very much enjoyed playing, that made us willing to see how our counter trays would work with the components of this group of games.

Kepler 3042

 

 

 

 

 

With only 1 Camelot counter-tray, space exploration has never been so well organized!

 

 

 

 

 

Wendake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly the tiles dimensions of this game do not allow them to be put inside our counter trays, but 1 Camelot counter-tray for the components and 1 Aleph counter-tray for the resources to be kept on the side of the play area were particularly useful!

 

 

 

And that concludes this tour about our counter-trays.

Thank you for your attention and…. Keep calm and play games folks!

Counter trays….Crazy about! (Part 1)

Welcome again with our usual updates on our products!
Today we’ll take a look to our counter trays, paying special attention to the models Aleph and Camelot and how they can be used to keep the contents of some titles organized and divided.
In particular, of all the boxes “tested” by us, you will see how every box (with a very little exception) stays perfectly closed saving as much space as possible.

Twilight Struggle

For this test we used only 1 Aleph counter tray.
As you may notice, the width of the tray is shorter than the height of the box and on the side there is plenty of space to place up to 4 decks of cards. Furthermore in the picture you may see that there is even the Turn Zero limited expansion published by GMT.

 

 

 

Labyrinth

Only 1 Aleph counter tray was used also for this test.
Although with Labyrinth the quantity of cards (for this test we used the basic box and the recently published expansion) stops the box completely closing (by almost 2 mm), you may see how all the parts are perfectly placed and in order.

 

 

 

1989 – Dawn of Freedom

“Twin” game of Twilight Struggle, it has similar game contents, but a larger number of cards.
For this test only 1 Aleph counter tray has been used.
In the picture you can see how everything is perfectly placed inside the box (there is even a little space left!).

 

 

 

 

 

Falling Sky

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s see how it goes with the CoIn games, in particular with one of the last titles published: Falling Sky.
This time we used 1 Aleph counter tray e 1 Camelot counter tray.
As you may notice in the two pictures, both the wooden pieces and the counters are very well placed, furthermore there is still space… so in the next few days you will also see the result with the box of Pendragon.

 

Successors III

This is a Legendary title which I particularly love. As usual we used 1 Aleph counter tray.
Excellent results!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sword of Rome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here we are (finally!) with our first stress test for our Aleph counter tray: Sword of Rome with its 5 decks of cards, thick counters and, above all, its mounted map.
Surprisingly only 1 Aleph counter tray was enough!
The fifth deck of cards was divided in 4 parts and the box closes perfectly, placing dice and control markers to one side in the space between the mounted map and the box! (see picture..)

Paths of Glory

Happy with the previous test (Sword of Rome), we did another stress test, again with only 1 Aleph counter tray: Paths of Glory with its mounted map, thick counters and 3 decks of cards.
As you can see, it’s another well-organized box, with dice and trenches [markers] placed between the folded map and the box.

 

 

Virgin Queen

Finally, to test a 3“-Deep Box with lots of counters, playing aids, decks of cards and mounted map, we chose Virgin Queen, using 1 Aleph counter tray e 1 Camelot counter tray.

 

Another excellent result!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s all for now. We’ll be waiting for you for other tests of our counter trays, especially with some eurogames titles!