“That sounds wonderful.”
about 7 years ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 11:42:09 PM

Salve!  

Today is my Name-day. What's that, you'd say? Well, an old, presumably early Christian tradition, still alive in the part of the world where I have my roots. Instead of birthdays, we used to celebrate thea day of our patron Saint. According to the Name-day calendar, today the ones to celebrate are: Jaroslaw (Jaro) and Mark. Good omen? Definitely! I am thus taking this opportunity to write more of a personal note.  

As you remember, my Hannibal story was interrupted with Valley Games obtaining the license for Hannibal's publication.  

While I would love to work with you some day on another project, I can't do anything with Hannibal until 2016.  

I hope you understand.  

Take care, Mark  

Soon the game saw the light and I've got two copies, of which one is still in the shrink wrap. I finally got my own copy of my beloved game. Waldek, my friend and partner, translated the rules into Polish and his wife, Monika gave it the personal and loving touch.  

We've sold around 20-30 copies of the game through our shop. But the real business opportunity had disappeared and we had to work on something else. The project we have concentrated on was a Polish edition of Martin Wallace's God's Playground, which which we revised by changing the board to allow room for a fourth player. The game has had a great reception and was awarded 'Game of the Year' in Poland. We've learned a lot from that project. And so did our customers. One of the promises we've made was that the game is a limited run and will never be reprinted. Those who want to get rid of the game have no problem whatsoever to receive two or three times what they paid for it.  

Cooperation with Martin Wallace helped PHALANX to become a partner to an international publishing project: Discworld: Ankh Morpork. This in turn opened doors to further international projects. Phalanx has published Polish editions of Mare Nostrum and Scythe, among others. In the meantime, our in house design 1944. Race to the Rhine has been nominated for Best Wargame 2014 by BGG and received high praise in France too. Waldek was a lead designer in this project, and as we speak, his mind is busy with polishing another logistical puzzle, this time to portray the difficulties faced by OKH in the East Front in 1941. Race to Moscow is entering its final stages in design. And while I have your attention, Phalanx has not give up on the Ankh Morpork yet ;)

1944: Race to the Rhine was published in French and Spanish by our long standing partners, Asyncron and Mas Que Oca. Thank you guys for joining us in yet another journey! Also The Magnates, a rather simple renaissance political bidding game, was published by MQO in Spain too. It was a lot of fun to hear how our names were pronounced by Spanish game reviewers. ;)  

We have also created a mobile app for Martin Wallace's Brass, which was one of the best apps of 2015 and a great success for the Company. I was so busy at that time that I often overlook this event. The app is very well made, popular, and worth checking out. And it has received an update with a demanding AI too!  

 

The following words may not be relevant or interesting to those of you who don't have children, so you may skip to the next part of the story. But for those who have, it might be inspiring or uplifting. It also explains why we thought of minis in HANNIBAL and why we wanted to include them. First, some food for thought. 

What do you see in the picture? Well, yes, a game shelf. But what games? Wargames. With minis. But this part of the shelf has a special meaning to me. Those games are difficult to remove from the cupboard due to their size, yet those are exactly the ones I have to remove most often. For those are the most favourite games of my son.

My son, Ernest and his first Battle Cry. See the emergency car ready to evacuate casualties? Now, how could I explain to this fellow, that his dad was busy the last year, compromising on the time which could be spent with him playing football or boardgames to publish a game that is 'not for him'? I can find a million excuses and explanations to you, for you are a nice but still foreign crowd. But my son? 

Which brings me to my little one. Tytus (Titus, Tito) arrived in August (Augustus). He was born on the same day as Fidel Castro. And he was truly revolutionary to our lives as he was born with Down Syndrome. That was a devastating experience. I had no idea what DS is, what it means, or how to cope with it. Anyway.

A month ago, on the Ides of March (Beware…), which falls exactly on the same day as Down Syndrome Awareness Day (21st of March, as DS is basically a third chromosome in the 21st gene) we announced our Kickstarter campaign for Hannibal and Hamilcar. What an analogy! 

The reason I mention the arrival of Tytus, in what is a very personal entry, which I hope is not too disturbing, was that I needed something that could keep my mind busy while it was adapting to a new situation. Looking at my files, I find, to my surprise, that I wrote back to Mark two weeks after Tytus was born. This time I received the answer from Mark the very same day. The first sentence read: 

 ‘That sounds wonderful’

It meant a lot to me. And I made this very emotional statement at Essen that year at 6:35 in below video. Earlier, there is a word on mobile Brass too ;)

I was working for a software company at the time, the name of which you can probably find on LinkedIn if you search for my profile. Having an infant with a disability I’ve applied for flexible working time. It was granted for 3 months and then withdrawn by my boss at that time, and excuse my French, unscrupulous bastard. 

I faced a disaster, both in terms of continuing my career and finding a way to bring home some cash. At that time, most of my savings were already invested in Phalanx. Hannibal required taking further risks and time. And the only way for me to contribute that time was to quit my job. So I did. I followed many historical personalities I admire in taking a great risk, betting our future on this very project. I left my, excuise moi, ‘employer’ on May 20th last year. I’ve decided to pursue my dream and gave myself one year to find out if it may come true. Our campaign closing date is May 12th. Again, just another coincidence. 

Happy gaming! 

Jaro

Let’s make wargames great again!
about 7 years ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 11:42:06 PM

Hello Everyone!

We are not only making wargames great again. We are making them looking great and great in size!

OK, so this yet another quirky story. What you see below is a XXL Hannibal board, prepared solely for presentation purposes for Essen Spiel 2016. Now, we were sooooooo reluctant to even think about producing such an item. But since Essen, we have got such a number of requests, we had to make it an Add On.

So, here it is!

The mat is double printed, with HANNIBAL board on the one side and HAMILCAR board on the other. It is made of eco leather, so it has a leather like satin texture on the one side and dense woven material on the other. This gives you a real ancient feeling when you use it, free of plastic / silicone smell.

This is a best game mat ever. We love it. It’s great.

And you can fold it easily, with no harm to the surface!

How to order this add-on? You need to increase your pledged amount by £45, clicking on the Manage your pledge button. Example: your pledge for a base game is £65. If you want to get the Giant Playing Mat, you should add £45, so your total pledge is £110. You will mark the items you want to get in the pledge manager after the campaign ends. It works like a webshop - your pledge is your credit and you take items from the list to spend it.

This add-on is in English edition. You need to purchase at least one copy of the HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR game to be able to include this add-on to your pledge. The estimated shipping cost is an extra £7-£10 per mat, and this will be paid in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

A word of advice. Please measure your gaming space. This mat is huge. The game board is large already but this mat… oh man.

Thank you for your support!

Michał & PHALANX

You Silver Shields!
about 7 years ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 11:42:04 PM

Hello Everyone!

You are taking this campaign by storm. We’ve reached £120,000 a level which was our dream goal before the campaign. And we still grow. All thanks to you! THANK YOU! We are proud that we are responsible for a project, which is getting so much attention and support. And we believe, that with that support we can together, really make wargames great again! ;)

Let's quickly summarize what are the Stretch Goals that have been unlocked since last update.

The generals unlocked through stretch goals add a bit of variety to the base game. The variant published in The General introduced, correct me if I am wrong, 7 new generals to Hannibal, however two of them were ahistorical. Salinator and Gracchus were already unlocked, so you may guess how many are still there, waiting to see the daylight.

Gracchus Master of Horse after Cannae. Later commander of volunteer slave troops. Ambushed in Lucania. His displacement is costing Rome a PC or CU - his troops deserted when he was killed.

Caecilius A HAMILCAR general. Thanks to the tactics he has adopted the terrible war elephants were rendered useless and he won a great victory at Panormus during First Punic War, capturing in the process 120 of those ancient tanks.

Adherbal represents a Punic admiral in HAMILCAR. He was in fact a fringe leader, active only towards the end of the conflict but his addition will make the game a richer experience, so I welcome him with excitement.

Carthalo A competent naval commander during First Punic War. Was his raid on Italy properly reinforced, it might have changed the course of war.

The order to prepare a 3D representation of funded minis has been placed at the Hexy Studio already and we are now to show you Consul Marcus Livius Salinator. Voila!

There is also 6 new unlocked cards. These are optional cards for Hannibal and Hamilcar but add a lot of flavour to both games.

Celtic Mercenaries. Place 1CU with any Carthaginian general or Walled City. Carthage was employing Celtic warriors on quite a scale. This one CU may be a crucial garrison in Hamilcar, which rules allow cancelling a Siege Point with a removal of a CU.

Dictator. Place a 3-3 General and 3CUs in ROMA as a Dictator. With this card Roman player may bring in a Dictator and a reinforcement. This is one-time event. But it may backfire if your other Consuls are in Rome at the time of placement as Dictator is the highest ranking Roman general.

Sicilian Recruits. Place two CUs with any friendly General located in Sicilia. Self explanatory. Sicilian towns and cities provided both sides with troops.

Imperium. Sicily and Africa. ACTIVATE TWO GENERALS who must start or end their move in Africa or Sicilia. This is Mark’s idea from 2009 or so. The card works like a Minor Campaign but it is limited to the Romans and only in assigned Imperium. In this case: Africa and Sicilia.

Good Omen. Add or deduct 2 from any one die roll. Draw a card. Good omen may have a very uplifting effect on the troops. This is a very interesting card for HAMILCAR, where good leaders are less common.

Numidian Mercenaries. Place 2CU with any General in NUMIDIA. Similarly to the Celts and Sicilians - an incentive to be present in Numidia.

There is 3 new card in the next Stretch Goal and a couple of Generals. We hope to see them revealed soon!

Thank you again for today and let’s see what tomorrow brings.

Jaro & PHALANX

By popular demand
about 7 years ago – Sun, Apr 30, 2017 at 04:43:23 PM

Salve!

There were many requests for adding stand-up generals. As I wrote earlier, we have been agonizing over this issue from the start of the project. Should they be in the base game, an expansion, or a KS add-on? There were pros and cons for each of these solutions.

Please let me now hand this over to Michal, our Production Director, who has an answer to this question.

Jaro

Hello Everyone,

You have asked for them many times, so here they are - Classic Generals. But not from cardboard, with ugly plastic bases, which tear and crush the leader’s counter. We’ve made them in a Premium way!

In this new add-on expansion box you will find OVER 30 laser-cut MDF leader pawns with colorful stickers already placed on them. They are 3mm thick, with 20mm wide round bases with red and blue markings. Why over 30? This is because every leader in the expansions or unlocked through stretch goals will be included in this add-on box! So, the base game gives you 27 leader pawns, 2 more for the expansions, and 5 for already unlocked stretch goals!

To add Premium Classic Generals box to your pledge, just increase your pledged amount by £20, clicking on the Manage your pledge button. This add-on is language independent and does not affect the shipping cost!

Here are some photos of these beauties. Please note that the stickers show a prototype version of leader’s graphics.

And speaking of add-ons - we have prepared for you the possibility to buy other games from PHALANX. Please use this option if you can’t get our games in your friendly local game store.

To include Game add-ons to your pledge, please click on the Manage your pledge button. Increase your total pledged amount to include any items you would like to receive. You need to purchase at least one copy of the HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR game to be able to include add-ons to your pledge.

You will inform us in the Pledge Manager which items you have added in your order. The estimated shipping cost of each 1944: Race to the Rhine and The Magnates is +£7 per game; Germania Magna, Days of Honour, and HUNGER is +£5 per game.

These are the first, but not the last add-ons we have prepared for you in this campaign!

Thank you for your support! Happy gaming!

Michał & PHALANX