Mantic Games now has a Kickstarter live for LOKA: The World of Fantasy Chess, a variation of chess designed by Alessio Cavatore which introduces wargaming mechanics, such as army list building, scenery and dice-based combat (using polyhedral dice, supporting attacks and other wargame-based game mechanics).

The game will also feature terrain tiles, elemental special rules and other things to expand upon the core chess rules (which are used for movement only!).

All of the miniatures for this are already sculpted, the Kickstarter exists purely to raise funds for them to be tooled in plastic, and to allow for the components in the box (rulebook, dice, board etc) to be upgraded.

Link to the Kickstarter page

Link to a Sample Loka Rules .pdf

The forces in the game are based on the elements, two of which have already been funded (Fire and Earth). The other two (Air and Ice) will be funded at $75k.

There will be optional rules so that each of the elemental forces can have a different playstyle, and the combat system is based on polyhedral dice (d4, d8, d10, d12, d20).

Air King and Earth Pawn miniatures:




Stretch Goals

$37.5k - Core Box upgraded with improved softcover rulebook. Achieved!

$50k - Core Box upgraded with Earth Chess Set, replacing the duplicate Fire Set. Achieved!
Bonus minis added to *all* pledge levels, free of charge:
Rook pledge level ($25): +1 Fire King,+1 Earth King +4 Pawns (any faction of your choice).
Bishop pledge level ($50): +1 Fire King,+1 Earth King +4 Pawns (any faction of your choice).
Knight pledge level($100): +1 Fire King, +1 Earth King +4 Pawns +1 Queen, +1 Rook, +1 Knight, +1 Bishop (any faction of your choice).

$55k - Loka Terrain Tiles added to all pledge of $25+. Achieved!

$60k - Air Chess Set created. Knight pledge level ($100) receives +1 Air King. Achieved!

$65k - Ice Chess Set created. Knight pledge level ($100) receives +1 Ice King. Achieved!

$70k - Loka Dice and Rulebook Upgrade
- All pledges of $25+ receive a deck of faction cards.
- All pledges of $50+ receive:
- Rulebook upgrade: Elemental combat and faction powers.
- A set of polyhedral dice.

$75k - Upgraded Game Board - All pledges of Bishop ($50) and up receive an upgraded game board with new art.

$75k - Bonus minis - 4 extra minis added to Rook and Bishop, 8 extra minis added to Knight.

$80k - Loka Campaigns - All $50+ pledges receive a digital download of a campaign map, all $100+ pledges receive a printed copy.

$85k - Extra Terrain - New terrain tiles, included in all $50+ pledges.

$90k - Extra Terrain -LOKApocalypse rules added, for games played using 4 boards.


Pledge Levels and Rewards guide.

Listed below are the most common pledge levels with a full list of everything that they contain. $100 is the sweet spot pledge that gives you the stretch goal freebies.

Pawn - $10

- Digital Download of the Loka Rulebook with your name on!

Rook - $25 - 27 miniatures total.

- One Loka Chess Set of your choice - 17 Pieces, including Bonus Queen!
- Kickstarter Bonus: Upgraded Softcover Rulebook.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Pack of Terrain Tiles.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Fire King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Earth King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Queen (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: Rook (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: Knight (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: Bishop (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: 4 Pawns (faction of your choice)


Bishop- $50 - 45 miniatures total.

- The Complete Loka Game
- KS Exclusive Alessio Chess Player Model
- Your Name in The Rulebook
- Signed Art Print
- Kickstarter Bonus: Upgraded Softcover Rulebook.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Upgraded Game Board.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Pack of Terrain Tiles.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Fire King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Earth King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Queen (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: Rook (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: Knight (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: Bishop (faction of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: 4 Pawns (faction of your choice)



Knight - $100 - 89 Miniatures total.

- The Complete Loka Game
- KS Exclusive Alessio Chess Player Model
- two additional Chess Sets of your choice
- Your Name in the Rulebook
- Signed Art Print
- Kickstarter Bonus: Upgraded Softcover Rulebook.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Upgraded Game Board.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Pack of Terrain Tiles.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Fire King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Earth King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Air King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: Ice King.
- Kickstarter Bonus: 2 Queens (factions of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: 2 Rooks (factions of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: 2 Knights (factions of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: 2 Bishops (factions of your choice)
- Kickstarter Bonus: 8 Pawns (factions of your choice)

Kicktraq page:

Backed!!!!

Me too. I needed a new chess set anyhow.

Looks really nice, think they've done a good job with the presentation and style.

(On a separate note, and I have to ask - when will they make 3D-projection chess sets with monsters fighting each other, like the ones from Star Wars? Or some kind of multi-platform, incomprehensible game like the ones played in Star Trek? )

 Pacific wrote:
Looks really nice, think they've done a good job with the presentation and style.

(On a separate note, and I have to ask - when will they make 3D-projection chess sets with monsters fighting each other, like the ones from Star Wars? Or some kind of multi-platform, incomprehensible game like the ones played in Star Trek? )

Give them time, it'll happen.

So it seems right now they only have the fire set. Does it seem pretty obvious to everyone else that the other 3 sets are ready and will just be used as stretch goals as this thong goes on. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying that it would almost defeat the purpose if you only got the fire pieces. I would be willing to bet a large sum that all 4 will be included by the end of this.

^ It's got $5k of funding in the first half hour.. give it a few days and the basics will be sorted.

I see a lot of broad appeal for this, even if you don't want to bother playing the game, just using the pieces as a regular chess set is a pretty cool end result. No major pressure to paint anything either.

It could be a really good entry point to wargaming for a lot of people too.

The $100 level seems like a great deal from the start, you get 68 miniatures + the board, rulebook, KS-exclusive mini and all the other stuff.

While I agree its a good deal, the fact that they are having people add 15$ for shipping is gonna cause a lot of whining. I know shipping costs, but I would have just added it into the price instead of making it separate. People have gotten spoiled to "free" shipping.

Edit- The shipping complaining has ALREADY started on the KS comments. I understand shipping costs a ton, but I know from dealing with people where I work that most people don't.

With Dreadball, they used second-class Royal Mail for the deliveries, and rather a lot of packages turned up mangled.

So, they're going with tracked, insured courier delivery this time.

$15 still seems a bit much for UK delivery, but I managed to get an early bird Knight, so that makes up for it.

$50 for the basic game is a pretty good price, same amount as dwarf king's hold, with even more minis (and larger ones, too) included.

With the "list building" element, it seems like people will get good use out of multiple sets, since you can build a set with 3 queens if you like, or flood the board with pawns.

I'm looking forward to alternate sculpts and terrain and custom boards and things. There's a lot of stuff that can be done with this, the stretch goals should be really fun once we get past $100k (at this rate, we'll be there by tomorrow!)

The main appeal for me is a miniatures game that I can play with non-wargamers. *Everyone* knows how to play chess.

Yeah. I have Shuuro and it's great fun. I am sure I'll pick up Loka.

However,with those shipping-costs and the DreadBall experience, I'll likely have Loka both faster and cheaper from WaylandGames than I'll do through Kickstarter

 scarletsquig wrote:

The main appeal for me is a miniatures game that I can play with non-wargamers. *Everyone* knows how to play chess.

Seconded. Even if no one else wants to play or collect Loka, I'll have a really attractive chess set.

Thirded.

Am a sucker for Shuuro.

 Pacific wrote:
(On a separate note, and I have to ask - when will they make 3D-projection chess sets with monsters fighting each other, like the ones from Star Wars? Or some kind of multi-platform, incomprehensible game like the ones played in Star Trek? )

If this is something that interests you, you might want to take a look at Dragonchess - a chess variant with three boards representing the sky, the ground and underground.

Okay, if anyone wants a KS signature, I've made a couple.

Fire Queen Sig:

Earth Queen Sig:


BBcode:

Earth Queen Signature:
[url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/loka-the-world-of-fantasy-chess][img]http://i.imgur.com/LQG9MIP.png[/img][/url]
Fire Queen Signature:
[url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/loka-the-world-of-fantasy-chess][img]http://i.imgur.com/vvFtHkp.png[/img][/url]

This is an interesting turn-out, only a few days ago we got previewed this and Mantic have already got the green-light to create the KS, good on them. The Fire Earth guys both look pretty good and the idea as a whole could be fun to play, a game like this could be fun for hobbyist creating custom/converted chess characters, boards and all.

All in all great looking so far, seems like this KS needs to hit the 50k mark before it becomes a "proper" game, of course I can't imagine that's going to take very long.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
(On a separate note, and I have to ask - when will they make 3D-projection chess sets with monsters fighting each other, like the ones from Star Wars? Or some kind of multi-platform, incomprehensible game like the ones played in Star Trek? )

If this is something that interests you, you might want to take a look at Dragonchess - a chess variant with three boards representing the sky, the ground and underground.

Ooh interesting thanks for that mate, will have to check that out.

Dammit again Mantic....
*opens wallet*

$15 is approximately £10, which is not expensive for shipping given you will have a largish box delivered by courier. People need to catch themselves on (or actually get a decent job) if they think this is expensive.

Saxon wrote:
$15 is approximately £10, which is not expensive for shipping given you will have a largish box delivered by courier. People need to catch themselves on (or actually get a decent job) if they think this is expensive.

Or stick with the more affordable "blue-collar" companies that ship free... such as Games Workshop or Apple

.. and it's funded, in 5 hours flat.

Next stretch goals are $37.5k for the expanded rulebook and $50k for the Earth set (resulting in the core box being upgraded from 2 fire sets to one fire and one earth).

Well, it's funded already. This one's not for me, but good luck Mantic.

So I woke up this morning with a terrible champagne hangover from my fiancee's birthday party last night, saw my phone blinking, it was an email from Mantic, saw it was a KS, clicked the link, fumbled my way through the pledging process on my Droid, got confirmation, fell back asleep.

Congrats Mantic, even with an awful hangover haze I know to pledge immediately on one of your KS in an early-bird pledge level.

A look at the concept art for the terrain, going to be interesting to see how they manage to work terrain within the confines of a tiled chess board:

Not too bad looking art, it will be intresting to see if these become 3D tiles & terrain pieces at some point. maybe as a stretch goal.

The art work for terrain reminds me a lot of the artwork for Small World, I wonder who the artist is

Heath Foley is the artist.

Hm, I haven't played any of Alessio's chess variants, but I'm thinking that this is probably not for me. The figures don't look nice enough to make the product worthwhile as a figure purchase - either for an army or just nice figures for painting, and if I were inclined to spend $100+ on a chess set, I'd be looking at something a lot nicer than a card game board and a bunch of (probably warped) plastic pieces.

Nonetheless, it's probably a good move for Mantic, especially if they can get their product into more mainstream game shops, or High Street retailers. So I wish them the best of luck.

 Azazelx wrote:
Hm, I haven't played any of Alessio's chess variants, but I'm thinking that this is probably not for me. The figures don't look nice enough to make the product worthwhile as a figure purchase - either for an army or just nice figures for painting, and if I were inclined to spend $100+ on a chess set, I'd be looking at something a lot nicer than a card game board and a bunch of (probably warped) plastic pieces.

Nonetheless, it's probably a good move for Mantic, especially if they can get their product into more mainstream game shops, or High Street retailers. So I wish them the best of luck.

I am in the same boat here. I am sure there are plenty of chess sets out there for $100 that far surpass what these miniatures look like. On that note, when Mantic say plastic do they mean hard plastic or the restic, same as the dreadball set?

Was going to say, the artwork (and actually, overall design aesthetic) is one of the nicest things about this. It seems perhaps an odd thing to say (as this is no doubt a relatively small release compared to some stuff Mantic are doing) but this definitely gives the impression that they are making a step forward in terms of professionalism.

$15 ain't bad for courier shipping and you need to remember that they actually need to make money to be able to fund this stuff... when you take the cost of the components out of that $100 including shipping and i can't imagine there's much left... $15 seems reasonable.

you jsut know if that they'd included it people would have complained the reward level was too highly priced for the contents.

I am sure there are plenty of chess sets out there for $100 that far surpass what these miniatures look like

Probably, but with Mantic you just know they'll keep adding stuff to the level, so you'd get much better value!

^ Also,to be fair, the actual chess set is $50, not $100.

$100 gets you the game + 2 extra sets.

You'd struggle to find a premium chess set for under $50.

Typically, they sell for $90 in polystone (which is primary for display, not gameplay), without the board or any of the other stuff:
http://www.chessusa.com/category/FANTASY_CHESS_SETS.html

Oh yes, my mistake there! Still, even if I wanted it I would have no one to play it with on this remote little island in the Atlantic!

Finally got all my Season 1 Dreadball ready for painting. Dammit Mantic..... Well, at least I'll have till Christmas before this this gets to me. (Also, I really hope with that much lead time it will ship on schedule. Mantic I have faith in, but the other Kickstarters I've done tend to be 2 months late minimum).

Also very curious to see how the terrain aspect will work.

I dropped my pledge for early bird at 90 bucks. Jump in and get it!

-$668 so far today? People dropping out or just down from Knight to Bishop level? Looks like sparkywtf's early bird is still up for grabs.

one of the painted sets ($650) dropped out, hence the drop. these things happen...

sparkywtf, why did you drop you pledge?

Sigh, now -$773. (I know, I know, part of the usual up and down. I just want my completed elements!)

For those interested, Cavatore was on The Weekender on BoW talking about Loka. They get to it about 20 min in.

http://www.beastsofwar.com/the-weekender/weekender-alessio-cthulhu-cavatore/

 Black Nexus wrote:
sparkywtf, why did you drop you pledge?

The biggest reason is I ended up buying a big ticket item yesterday for another hobby, so the money I had for this is gone. Also I don't play chess ever pretty much so it didn't make a lot of sense to buy the game. I have plenty of other games to finish up (like dreadball!)

It is still a great looking game, just not for me.

Looks like a nice game that will be quite successfull. However, my question is "will this delay the rumored Warpath kickstarter?"

All the minis are already sculpted externally, not by Mantic. All printing of the board and rules and box is being handled externally by River Horse.

Tooling is something for China to deal with. Mantic is simply on board for organization, distribution and dispatch.

Similar to what CMoN provides for its kickstarters. Small fish partner up with a bigger fish because they can't stand out or get into FLGS stores worldwide without them.

Anyway, the upgraded rulebook stretch goal has been hit, only another 12.5k to go for the Earth set to upgrade the core game box.

Backed with a Bishop. Though I don't like the mandatory shipping. Make it a part of the payment, if it's the same for every one!

They didnt make shipping part of the plege level as those who pick up in person from the Mantic head office don't have to pay postage (see the FAQ).

yeah... And everyone would have whinged the $100 level wasn't worth it if it had been $115...

still, onwards to the Earth set

Alessio's Developer Diary: 1- The Rules


With funding secured yesterday for the LOKA Rulebook, Alessio has put together the start of a developer's diary - a mix of great blog posts and cool videos showing you the ins-and-outs of LOKA.

We kickstart this morning off with Part 1 of Alessio's focus on the Rules...

I was reading quite a few comments about the rules for Loka, and fear not, videos focussing on each of the main points of difference between Loka and chess are coming!

In the meantime, I will use this update to take you through my thinking on the rules design of Loka, which is about modularity. You see, when I was learning to play chess as a kid, I remember going through a beautiful illustrated book that taught you the moves of each piece and then had a little exercise mini-game that used only the pieces you already had learnt to use to that point.

The core rules

The core system of Loka is chess, which is why the rules for chess will be included in the rulebook. If you know the rules of chess, you know a good 80% of the rules of Loka. More importantly, you can play just that, normal chess, using the cool elementals of Loka as normal chess pieces. And I expect quite a few people are going to do just that. Alternatively, you can continue your journey and learn the next step, which I’m gonna call a ‘bolt-on’ rule. You can learn the bolt-ons one at a time, and, even more importantly, once you have learned them all, you can choose which ones to use in your games, IN ANY COMBINATION!

If you use all three bolt-ons, you are playing Loka as I envisaged it – a full fledged hybrid chess-wargame. If not, you are playing something that is more or less like chess… the choice is yours.

Bolt-on 1 – Build your army

Instead of having the fixed pieces of a chess set, you start with just the King, representing yourself, the player, and a number of points, representing the elemental energy available to the King to summon his warriors.

Each piece has a point value, based on traditional chess theory, and you can decide how to spend your points and build a different set. For example, I’m thinking 10 pts for a pawn, 90 for a queen, and so on… You can have as many p[ieces of a certain type as you want, within the limit of the points values. The only pieces I have to limit (because they are too cheap and they could fill the board!) are pawns, of which you can only have up to 12).

By using different amount of points you can have bigger or smaller games, and by having an unbalance of points between the two players, you can offset differences in skill (say I give you 1000 points and I give a chess Master 300 points… can you beat him?)

Check back tomorrow for Part 2!

Chess with a points system? Hmm, my interest is piqued once more!

Chess already has a well known points system.

I'm interested and I jumped in... Not sure though if I'm going to keep my pledge or back out.

Why aren't you sure?

 AlexHolker wrote:
Chess already has a well known points system.

Oh I know about the relative value of each piece, I was in a chess club way back when! The thing that intrigued me was being able to mix and match the pieces to your own liking.

Alessio posted a new update...

seems like everyone gets a free Earth and Fire King at $50K when the Earth set is unlocked, and an additional king when Air and Ice get done.

Also put a new stretch goal for scenery expanding the value once again:

$55,000 – LOKA Scenery

War rages across the world of LOKA as mighty elemental armies invade the lands of their enemies. Whether it’s through the dark mountain passes that lead to Tushaara Castle or battling over the Great Lake of Tears, the landscape is often as dangerous and unpredictable as the warriors stood before them…


Examples of Scenery Tiles. Concept Art by Heath Foley - Design TBC.

We will be able to design and produce the LOKA Scenery and include a sheet in every pledge of Bishop ($50) and up! This card sheet will feature 8 different types of Scenery in glorious full colour artwork!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/loka-the-world-of-fantasy-chess/posts

 Catyrpelius wrote:
I'm interested and I jumped in... Not sure though if I'm going to keep my pledge or back out.

The models are nice but I'm not sure I'll actually play it.

Earth concept art from the new developer's diary...



alessio talks about the design philosophy...
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/loka-the-world-of-fantasy-chess/posts/416102

Mentioned Loka to my gaming group over the weekend. Have at least 4 other people interested in playing chess, and giving the Loka variant at least a try.

----

As for the cost, I've been toying with the idea of using Reaper Miniatures to make a great chess set for the last decade, but kept putting it off due to the expense. Loka is 36 figures for $50, or $1.38 each for figures that are themed and styled together. That seems a pretty reasonable cost to me per figure considering how much alternatives cost. These also come based, so that is an additional issue, expense Iworked out as well.

Update: Concept art for the "River Horse" KS exclusive mini:



Wonderfully ridiculous.

Closing in on the $50k stretch now, shouldn't take long.

I might go in for the joke figure of Alessio on Hippo. Hopefully they have a WIP of the sculpt at some stage before the KS ends.

yeah, you don't even need to select a reward level, you can just pledge $15 (10 for the model and 5 for the shipping) and pick the model up...

sorry for the double post by just got an update through...

extra models being added to Rook and Bishop, even more being added to Knight. Turning into pretty good value for the price/model ratio.

new add-ons include a funky looking chess clock, t-Shirt and upgrade set.

There's also a new preview of the AIr queen and Ice King, as well as indication that the ice and air sets will be sooner rather than later, and that stretch goals will be listed soon...

Knight ($100): we’ll add in 8 additional models from one faction of your choice! 1 Queen, 1 Rook, 1 Knight, 1 Bishop and 4 Pawns, raising the total model count to an incredible 78 figures for passing this level!

So for $100 I get
4 complete sets,each with an extra queen
1 extra fire king
1 extra earth king
1 Queen, 1 Rook, 1 Knight, 1 Bishop and 4 Pawns of one faction, my choice.

I'm willing to bet once the air and water kingdoms make it in that they'll throw in kings for them as well.

The water Kingdom, is more ice and undead, and currently my favorite.

Are there pics up for the water kingdom now? I only see earth/fire...

Ice King


Air Queen

This just got a massive, huge boost.

They're giving away +10 free minis as soon as $50k is hit, so there's a lot of added value incoming really soon.

The extra minis are useful because Loka features an army-building system, so the extra minis help you to "max out" your options.

 RiTides wrote:
Are there pics up for the water kingdom now? I only see earth/fire...

There are more more Loka model images on their facebook page than there are on the Kickstarter page. I've mentioned that on both sites to them, but they are still being stingy with the Water Kingdom pics. So far I belive they have previewed the King and Pawn, both undead.

Looks like it made it to 50K...

I can't tell what's going on with that Ice King (although I have a similarly hard time telling with the Earth King). Would've been nice to see a painted version to know what that detail is meant to be.

Edit: Thanks, Mr. Souza

New update, with new stretch goals:



Also, some clarification about RRPs:

P.S. we have been asked about the MSRP/RRPs on these lines when they hit retail. We have not quite finalised these yet, but if they are released as singles I believe that the Bishop, Rook and Knight will retail for about $3.50 each and $5 for the King, Queen or 4 Pawns - that means the miniatures in Bishop ($50) alone are worth over $100 and Knight ($100) over $180!

Come on 75K

They've got some proper pro-paints of the kings for the 4 factions sorted now:



Notice how the silhouettes of the thrones match the silhouette of the traditional chess King piece.

Hmm... sculpts look rather crude. That ice king looks particularly poor- odd skull geometry, giant hands, etc. Looks like 80s era fantasy minis.

None of the kings have beards. I expected the Earth king, at least, to have one

The hands on the Ice King are gauntlets, since he's skeletal.

I always wonder why the lich kings never have anyone forge new armor for them that fits snugly onto their limbs and fingers. I imagine that armor designed to fit over flesh would tend to slide around and slip off at the most embarrassing moments.

They're held on rather snugly through the power of magic, I assume.

I imagine since they lack a sense of touch that they actually care how comfortably their clothes fit, and only wear them out a sense of pride/custom/habit.

Umm, those pieces are chess pieces and are normally are moved by touching the top part, so highly detailed miniatures would be rather contraproductive.

Nice pics squiggy... looks like come from the Bell of Lost souls interview, just noticed there's some new links at the top of the kickstarter page to interviews...

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/03/interview-alessio-cavatores-newest.html?spref=fb

http://meeples.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/meeples-miniatures-episode-102-loka-interview-with-alessio-cavatore/

http://www.critshappen.net/2013/03/05/critical-interview-alessio-cavatore-loka-designer/

http://www.beastsofwar.com/search-results/?q=loka

http://www.facebook.com/LokaFantasyChess

also saw in the comments that they're currently uploading the YouTube Video for the gameplay video...

little excited to know about the comabt system.

 Duncan_Idaho wrote:
Umm, those pieces are chess pieces and are normally are moved by touching the top part, so highly detailed miniatures would be rather contraproductive.

Indeed. I'm wondering how well any paint's going to be sticking onto them, to be honest.

A few layers of spray varnish will do wonders for that. Really, PVC holds paint pretty well to begin with (it's nothing like metal) and when varnished, I'm sure these things will stand up to quite a bit of abuse.
A bigger problem could be the pieces getting dirty (hard to wash compared to 'traditional' pieces) but really that's, more of an 'annoying opponent' issue.

new Gameplay video is up in the latest update

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/loka-the-world-of-fantasy-chess/posts/421253

Well, if you varnish them, most finger oils wipe right off.

Fair 'nuff. still, I've heard some horror stories

 jmurph wrote:
Hmm... sculpts look rather crude. That ice king looks particularly poor- odd skull geometry, giant hands, etc. Looks like 80s era fantasy minis.

Yeah, that's my take, too.

Just the watched the video. The rules system is pretty simple, but effecient.

Alessio Cavatore was kind enough to grant me an interview as well.

http://pinsofwar.com/loka-interview/


Includes a preview of the Vayu Rook (Air Chess Set)!

Many thanks to Alessio!

I'm in for the Bishop level. I like the look of the Fire and Earth sets very much, and I really like the idea of a combat system and terrain. Watching Alessio explain it all on the video definitely has me itching for the other sets to get tooled. If we start getting close to all four sets being tooled up I think I might just up my pledge to the $100 level and get one of each set just for regular chess purposes, buying some addition pieces for Loka games later on.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nice interview Zweischneid! I've enjoyed watching/listening Alessio speak on Beasts of War and Mantic videos and podcasts. He seems like a very nice and down to earth guy who is easy to speak to.

At the $100 dollar mark you get an extra half set for free.

I figure one of each set, for Chess purposes and I'll use the free half set to bolster my favorite faction for LOKA play.

Yes, the sculpts could be better, but look ok in my opinion for a chess set, I am puzzled with the extra king though, why would I or anybody else want a model that is useless in the game (you can have only 1).

It's free.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Yes, the sculpts could be better, but look ok in my opinion for a chess set, I am puzzled with the extra king though, why would I or anybody else want a model that is useless in the game (you can have only 1).

It's not useless. There will be some extra rules that detail how to use extra kings.

And do it what?

I have no idea. The rules are in development, but Alessio has stated that there will be an in-game use for the extra King.

Anyway, welcome aboard.

 scarletsquig wrote:

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Yes, the sculpts could be better, but look ok in my opinion for a chess set, I am puzzled with the extra king though, why would I or anybody else want a model that is useless in the game (you can have only 1).

It's not useless. There will be some extra rules that detail how to use extra kings.

I missed any mention of that, thanks.

LOKA uses a point build army system. So use two kings, they need to kill two kings.

I think the minis look excellent myself, they're the main appeal for me, especially the Earth and Air sets. Fire set is really good too.

Here's some new pics from the update, really nice minis!



Only the ice set seems to have maybe missed the mark a little in terms of the large gauntlets that the pieces have, but it's still pretty good and we haven't seen the whole set yet, only the king, queen and pawn (and the pawn looks great!), so it's too early to judge it.

Remember, these have to be one-piece non-dynamic miniatures that fit on very small diameter bases without falling over to properly fulfill their role as chess pieces so there are certain restrictions in place that they have to conform to.

You can't have big jabby horizontal spears getting in the way of other models or top-heavy models leaping off their bases and falling over while you play.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Yes, the sculpts could be better, but look ok in my opinion for a chess set, I am puzzled with the extra king though, why would I or anybody else want a model that is useless in the game (you can have only 1).

Terrain.

Or maybe even a strategic objective.

Or place 2 kings facing each other to recreate that scene from Never Ending Story where the sphinxes shoot pew-pews at Atreyu.

 Zweischneid wrote:
Alessio Cavatore was kind enough to grant me an interview as well.

http://pinsofwar.com/loka-interview/


Includes a preview of the Vayu Rook (Air Chess Set)!

Many thanks to Alessio!

While this looks cool... I just keep expecting there to be more detail / for the detail to be sharper. I understand that people are saying these are game pieces, but you can't have it both ways... either they're just board game pieces, and the quality is lower, or they're models and you should feel fine paying model prices.

Not that I think the prices here are too high, I just think the commentary on the pieces makes them out to be more than they are. They are certainly very cool as board game pieces, and the reason I'm keeping an eye on it is that they are tempting...

Keep in mind that what you're seeing in these photos is a picture of the mini that is blown up to 4-6x actual size depending on your monitor.

These are all 28mm minis with the King and queen naturally being a fair bit taller.

 Pox Apostle wrote:



Nice interview Zweischneid! I've enjoyed watching/listening Alessio speak on Beasts of War and Mantic videos and podcasts. He seems like a very nice and down to earth guy who is easy to speak to.

Yup. He's definitely an awesome guy to chat with. In fact, we strayed of the "loka-topic" quite a few times, more often than is seen in the write-up (cause it would've just burst the limits of what's reasonably i a blog interview). He's clearly a great guy to just chat with endlessly about all things gaming, miniatures, history, and more or less everything else.

 scarletsquig wrote:
Keep in mind that what you're seeing in these photos is a picture of the mini that is blown up to 4-6x actual size depending on your monitor.

These are all 28mm minis with the King and queen naturally being a fair bit taller.

Yes, but that's true of any models shown on here. In fact that's how we're used to looking at previews; they're not getting an unfair shake with the pics (if anything the pics have been a bit small).

Well, here's the whole set painted by Paul Scott Miniatures





http://www.paulscottminiatures.co.uk/

Off of the facebook page today

The Air set looks lovely, definitely my favourite out of all of them.

The only model I really do not like is the earth queen and her is just the branches.

Do want

Terrain tiles stretch goal has been reached, next up is the Air set at $60k:



Also, a sample rules .pdf has been posted:

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/e62f0c35454fa3ba687404d69/files/LOKA_rules_WIP.pdf

nice looking set that, like the king and queen

One big question I have, why is the water queen and king in the wrong position?

She wears the pants in that family.

Hopped on over to the KS and saw that an early bird knight had opened: I popped in and grabbed that sucker quickly. I'm officially in, and I agree with Squiggy: air looks awesome, but I love the fire queen, earth elemental, undead queen and bishops and there are a few others I enjoy too. I'll enjoy painting up my own chess set too.

^^ you can grab individual models now if you want those extra models you talked about...

The more I see pics, the more I appreciate the FIre and Air forces, and dislike the Earth Kingdom.



KING - I really liked the concept art. The sculpt just looks like an Elf in a chair.
QUEEN - I want to like her, but she's too human like for tree hands, or not enough tree to pull them off.
BISHOP - I actually think this is the best model in the group.
KNIGHT - I like the Centaur concept, but his head is huge, bestial, and ugly. It makes me think of Chaos instead of nature.
ROOK - It looks wimpy as a Rook, and an Earth Elemental.
PAWN - Not Generic enough. It also bothers me that Dwarfs would be subject to an Elf King. In fantasy those races usually clash, even if allies. Maybe just too much LOTR for me growing up.

could always ask to swap the earth set with the air?

also, they've just announced a new contest on Board Game geek...

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/contests/loka

Hi and welcome to the River Horse Loka: The World Of Fantasy Chess Contest in association with Board Game Geek!

We’re going to be releasing a new chess-inspired board game later in the year called LOKA: The World of Fantasy Chess, and we wanted to give you the opportunity to win a copy of the game!

LOKA is currently being funded on Kickstarter with the ultimate goal of funding four elemental themed armies,with a game building on the simple rules of Chess with innovative “bolt-on” rules for Dice Driven Combat, Fantasy Scenery and army selection, to offer you a brand new experience! Then of course we’re looking at a multiplayer version…

On offer we have some fantastic prizes with 5 Bishop Pledge levels up for grabs and one main prize of a Knight Pledge ($100) – that’s currently 79 miniatures worth over $180. Check out the Kickstarter Page for the full list of contents.

To win, all you have to do is answer these 9 simple multiple-choice questions!

Enter Now!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
new update for when the $60K goal is hit...

$65,000 – Dice and Faction Powers!

First up, those of you who have watched our gameplay video will know that Alessio favours an elemental dice combat system which makes use of a series of polyhedral dice – a system that starts with a four-sided die and moves its way up to 6-sides, 8-sides, 12-sides and even a 20-sided die the more support the model has.

If we hit $65,000, we can upgrade the rulebook to this shiny new system from the D8s we started with, and upgrade all pledges of Bishop ($50) with a set of 5 Polyhedral Dice.

Of course, we think some Faction-specific dice would be pretty sexy, so we’ll be adding these as extras that you can add-on to your pledge .

BUT! That’s not all…

Lots of you have been asking for faction powers – a way to differentiate between the elements rather than purely through army selection and aesthetics. Well, Alessio will add an optional Bolt-On to the rules that details how you can add faction powers to your games!

You'll be able to bring the power of the elements to the tabletop in new and exciting ways.

This will use a Card Deck system that, if we hit this goal, Alessio will start writing – and we’ll include a free 54 card deck to any pledge of Bishop ($50) and up to say thank you!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on what elemental powers we could have so please leave us your ideas in the comments!

To recap, that's polyhedral dice and faction power cards, plus 2 rulebook upgrades as well, all added to Bishop ($50) and up! We're really excited to be this close to being able to tool all four sets, thank you so much for supporting Alessio and LOKA!

And don't you go anywhere, this journey isn't over yet and we've still got plenty of things to show you!

Some new pics of the Ice King and Pawn:

Kicktraq has LOKA trending toward $92,889.

I'll be happy just to see it hit 75K.

I would be terribly disappointed if all 4 factions didn't make it into the Kickstarter.

I dont even play chess and I almost pledgeD. Gotta control myself. Kickstarter can addictive!!!

Earth Dragon wrote:
I don't even play chess and I've almost pledged. Got to control myself. Kickstarter can be addictive!!!

Just do it.

All the cool kids pledge Kickstarter these days.

 adamsouza wrote:
Kicktraq has LOKA trending toward $92,889.

I'll be happy just to see it hit 75K.

I would be terribly disappointed if all 4 factions didn't make it into the Kickstarter.

Well, they're about to change the $65k goal to be the 4th faction (Ice) so there's no question that all 4 sets won't get funded now.

They still need $75k in terms of actual cash to get the tooling done, but if the KS doesn't reach that amount, then Mantic will cover the gap themselves.

They want to give backers the confidence that everyone with a Knight pledge will have all 4 different factions available to them since a lot of people were waiting to see if that would happen before backing.

Edit: And new update, with some pics of the Ice faction, the new $65k goal:

EXCELLENT !!!

The forces of darkness will soon be at my bidding.....er..umm.. yeah... that's great news...

I was afraid I was going to have to double up on set I didn't really want another of there for a little bit.

anyone else going to be involved with the Alessio live chat?

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/945810/ask-alessio-live-chat

Its amazing how a simple swap in the order of streachgoals invigorated it instantly.

Good Stretch goals make or break a Kickstarter I say !!

Tangible items trump intangible.

Extra Rules for stretch goals is kinda meh. They should have always been there, but written in the middle of the kickstarter. Extra models, or improved game board, extra dice, are a physical increase to the contents of the game. They are a better goal, and draw extra attention.

The extra rules make me cringe just little bit. They should havbe been written and play tested a long time ago.

that's only true if you're thinking of it as if the game is already done which is obviously isn't. suspect if they released this through retail without KS it would be with 2 sets and the 3 bolt-ons, because what use are the extra rules without the extra components i.e. Faction powers, polyhedral dice.

My point was it should have been a finished game before the Kickstarter.

They started with 2 sets of Fire in a box with regular chess rules. That would have not sold well at retail.

He already has 3 Chess Like games under his belt. I'm of the opinion that much, if not all of what we are getting was planned and pondered on before the Kickstarter Began, and is being used as stretch goals,, even though they were pretty much required for this project to be a commercial success.

If they'd included a fire and earth set at $25k, they'd have either had to start funding at $50k, or produce a weird "earth set is already included in the box but we're funding the earth set at $50k" goal. No-one would have liked what you're suggesting.

Look at the eight pages of complaining in the dreadball thread about "the ref isn't a real stretch goal". That's what would have happened.

This approach was crystal clear.

The alternative of having the opening goal at $50k.. well, who knows how that would have gone?* It would have taken 2 weeks to fund for starters and might have killed early enthusiasm since most backers will not pledge unless a project is already funded (one of the wonderful quirks of kickstarter!), it's why early birds exist and are so crucial, they get the campaign out of the "boring first bit" really quickly and generate some initial momentum.

As for the rules, a lot of stuff like different rules for different elements are in fact being added in at the request of backers and did not exist before the campaign started, so you can't just claim that those "should have already been done" when it wasn't something that was on the cards a month ago.

*Technically speaking, in the event of "providing everything at the start", the initial goal would have been $75k for all 4 different sets so that Knight backers can all get one of each.

High initial goal = no stretch goals = no excitement = dead project. You all saw what happened with gates of antares being entirely realistic with what it needed to launch the complete package at once. The kickstarter hype machine is a fickle beast, get it wrong and the project is dead.

Loka could easily have gone that way since it is a artsitic and cerebral product at its core rather than being about guns/explosions/zombies/ sports. Harder sell, especially when targeting the US market.

Whatever you say about this project, it certainly isn't poorly run, they knew they had a niche product, they knew the concerns about not getting all 4 sets and made an excellent move to address that.

I think with Mantic's other projects there is an expectation on their part that they will front a lot of the cash themselves to allow for lower initial stretch goals and also to allow for a lot of important stuff to be ready for visual media (e.g. 4 dreadball teams already sculpted and pro-painted, rulebook complete and playtested, board completed).

It's not just Mantic that do this to get Kickstarters going, Dreamforge took out traditional finance to supplement the KS money.

Loka is one of those rare kickstarters where the funding is basically paying for everything with no room for manoeuvre if it fails. The minis were sculpted in advance and rules dev/art was done in advance, but that's pretty much it.

I think Kroot is right. Sure they didn't need to make to other sets a stretch goal but it would lead to one dull, slow project!

 scarletsquig wrote:


High initial goal = no stretch goals = no excitement = dead project. You all saw what happened with gates of antares being entirely realistic with what it needed to launch the complete package at once. The kickstarter hype machine is a fickle beast, get it wrong and the project is dead.

This.

I think that's the least we've learned from GoA.

There should be a business-plan somewhere in Mantic's/Alessio's drawer on what the "real" end-product should be and what it'll cost to get there. And there should be a slow escalation of goals, stretch-goals and add-ons that'll make for a good, "entertaining" Kickstarter-campaign for the backers.

The two don't need to be - and in most cases shouldn't be - the same.

If you're looking for more "transparent" crowd-funding, one would likely be better off with sites that return equity (e.g. fundable,com; microventures.com; crowdcube.com, startupvalley.com, etc.. ), rather than consumer products to the "backers". Kickstarter.com just doesn't work that way.

I don't mind them stringing along extras and adding bolt on rules as they go.
I do mind them writing the bolt on rules as they go.

It's a creative verses practical mindset issue.

In any case, I've been in for an Early Bird since day 1.

More Models!

Update #18 · Mar. 20, 2013 ·
It seems we appear to be caught around the $75,000 – quite a yo-yo day!

Well, never fear – because we need to go past it again we’re introducing a new stretch goal full of sweet delicious freebies for you to sink your teeth into!

$77,500 – Pledge Level Upgrades!

You asked for it, you’ve got it – we’re going to be filling the Pledge Levels with more models!


If we hit $77,500 we’re going to be adding:

- All pledges of Rook ($25) and Bishop ($50): 4 Additional Pieces (Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight) to accompany the 4 Free Pawns already included as part of your pledge!

- All pledges of King ($100) and above: 8 Additional Pieces including Queen, Rook, Bishop, Knight and 4 Pawns from the faction of your choice!

Calculator time – that makes Bishop ($50) 45 miniatures, and Knight ($100) worth over $220 with over 87 miniatures, dice, scenery and Power Cards!!

We think that’s a whole chunk of value - and even then we've got the campaign and new scenery coming as well!

They started with 2 sets of Fire in a box with regular chess rules. That would have not sold well at retail.

He already has 3 Chess Like games under his belt. I'm of the opinion that much, if not all of what we are getting was planned and pondered on before the Kickstarter Began, and is being used as stretch goals,, even though they were pretty much required for this project to be a commercial success.

i expect db was as well - there's always a trade-off between what we can do and what we'd like to do. the initial offering was what they could do - KS allows you to get to the point where you can everything you'd like to do, if you get enough funding.

 Black Nexus wrote:


i expect db was as well - there's always a trade-off between what we can do and what we'd like to do. the initial offering was what they could do - KS allows you to get to the point where you can everything you'd like to do, if you get enough funding.

True enough.

I wish they could raise another 10 Million or so and add a holographic Alessio-Chess-Computer-Opponent to play against to every copy of the game

I know mantic isn't exactly producing this, but when I'm still waiting on product from two kickstarters ago, it is a little frustrating to see them running yet another one.

Imagine how those doing CMON kickstarters are feeling...

I think Mantic know people are waiting, i think they're going as fast as they can. Ultimately tooling is a thread party thing, check out the Torment kickstarter video for instance... the video starts with "but hey, you only did a kickstarter recently and haven't delivered it yet - why another one?" The response? "The design team are done on the other game and it's with the development team now so we wanted to get them started on another project so they're not twiddling their thumbs."

Video is here if you want a look: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/torment-tides-of-numenera

As far as we've been told, everythings pretty much sculpted for KIngs of War and with the toolmaker, so the team worked on DreadBall, which is waiting on the tooling as well (though broken down into smaller chunks so it can be released quicker). The design team haven't even touched LOKA (With the exception of a concept artist that's done some KS support) so they're probably working on something else. maybe Deadzone.

Hmm, guess double post...

new add-ons:


Also stretch goal has been hit... 8 new models in king, 4 in the Lower pledges.

Lovely Queen.

But are the 8 pieces for king or knight? the update says knight.

Knight and up I think, so king gets them too,

Queen is lovely, you're right.

Just broken another stretch goal as well, campaign system is funded. Now looking at new scenery:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/loka-the-world-of-fantasy-chess/posts/435240

Not long left now!

First post is all updated, check it out, lots of extra value has been added with 8 extra minis added with the last stretch goal.

Knight pledge level ($100) is pretty much $1/model at this point, once you factor in all the other stuff that comes with it. Very good deal!

Wow – today has been the second best day of the campaign so far – and with less than 24 hours left to go it’s showing no sign of slowing down.

We’re so close to hunting down the LOKApocalypse Bolt-on we’d thought we’d go ahead and announce the next stretch goal…

$100,000 – Elemental Dragon

LOKA is the world of Fantasy Chess – and no fantasy world is complete without a Dragon!

If we hit $100,000, we’ll be able to sculpt and produce the Elemental Dragon and Tower - this model will be available exclusively for our Kickstarter Backers to mark what has been a fantastic campaign, and of course you’ll get playable rules (or simply sub it in a replacement Rook!) for him as well included with your pledge!

Have at it guys - looking forwards to a great final run!

How much is the dragon?

I think it's a freebie if we make 100K

I would be delighted if we reached the dragon and could buy multiples.

it's an add-on... i reckon it'll be about 10-15 bucks given the price of the other exclusives.

$90k stretch has been hit, onwards to $100k for the dragon!

Nice, I hope it breaks 100K. Actually quite tempting at the end, like always . Now that all 4 sets are fully revealed, I like it a lot better. The piece designs make more sense- i.e., every piece of the same type has almost the exact same silhouette. I didn't get that before

You basically get everything with a $100 + $15 shipping pledge, right? With the only exception being this dragon, if it gets unlocked? Is the board that comes with it really large enough for a 4-player game, seems like it would need to be much bigger to go above 2 players?

Yep, you get everything at $100 pledge level.

Only exceptions are the dragon and the fifth element queen, which are KS exclusives, and $12 each.

The board it comes with is large enough for 4 players, you turn it over and the board has the 4-player board printed on the reverse (still large enough to work with the minis).

If you want an even larger game there is the LOKApocalypse rules which uses 4 boards placed edge-to-edge for massive games with loads of minis.

Is there a pic of the 5th element queen in this thread? I must've missed it...

^ There's a pic of it on this page!

Multipass. :p

Oh, I didn't realize that's what that was! Despite the title...

Only 2K needed with 3 hours left to go, so the dragon should be a slam dunk!

Next stretch goal will be the Loka Compedium at $105k - an art book, model gallery and developer diary for the game.. this one was a request from backers.

Some new pics of the bishops up too, they look awesome!

Dragon is a $12 Add-on

800$ and 120 minutes left for that dragon.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
100k streachgoal reached!

And that's a wrap!

$104,172 total, not bad at all, it got the job done in terms of funding a really solid product and a few "for fun" extras.

Congratulations to everyone who backed it! I will pick mine up when they go to retailers. Now on to Deadzone the reason why I did not back this lol!

As a final thank you I have just spoken with Ronnie and we’re sure the Paypal money and post pledges will carry us over the $105,000 – so we are pleased to say that every backer will get the digital copy of the compendium!!

That's nice!

We’re into the last 10 mins and we want to end on a high so we’ve made a brand new add-on available to finish with!

The Ronnie Mantis Warrior figure is now available to add-on to your pledge for $12!

We want to know what you think this character should be – a knight or a bishop? Let us know in the comments and have your say!

p.s. – anyone that missed the Mantis sculpt will be able to add it on in the survey, sorry it hit so late – but time flies when you are having fun

I didn't see any art, just the text, but that sounds interesting

I watched this one. Didn't pledge (don't really enjoy chess) but I liked the concept.

I'm glad it did well. I'm surprised how much Mantic is delving in to smaller projects right now. This is it's 3rd kickstarter. I wonder if they are just trying to secure multiple revenue streams and are lurking to try to topple GW or something when they are fully established with multiple product lines.

If they are going to stave off/dethrone GW, they really need to develop Warpath and get their model pricing on par with GW fot that game.

Earth Dragon wrote:

If they are going to stave off/dethrone GW, they really need to develop Warpath and get their model pricing on par with GW fot that game.

But seriously, I don't know anything firm (Other than Heath has done a bunch of art for it).. But I'd have to guess we'll get Warpath announcements at Adepticon.

It's not too late if you missed the Kickstarter to get in on the action

Q: My friend wants to pledge, but missed out on the Kickstarter. Is it too late?
A: Not at all, just get them to email stewart.gibbs@manticgames.com and we'll sort it out from there.

Apologies about Necromancing this thread but Im alittle concerned about the lack of response.

After I did the survey and put down for a few extras I didnt recieve a Paypal request for money or a invioce from Mantic. I see others have had the same issue.

Over a week ago I contacted James Hewitt (it was mentioned that any questions regarding the Loka kickstarter to send him a email - unfortantly Ive had no response.

Since then I've messaged Mantic through the Kickstarter page, logged a comment on the kickstarter and even emailed Mantic direct with no reply.

I know they are busy with the Deadzone kickstarter and other things; however its been a while and Im getting alittle worried at the lack of response :/

Any ideas what I should do next? Call them in the UK?

Try emailing Stewart via the address in the post above yours.

Just tried that, Cheers (why is it that you post something only to find that the answer could be in the post just above yours :$)

They still haven't hit me up for the $$ for shipping. I expect it'll be along at some point.

I just received a PayPal invoice from Mantic from Loka; anyone else?

Yep

I did as well. I guess it's almost time to get our goodies.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
I did as well. I guess it's almost time to get our goodies.

Checks Kickstarter

Estimated delivery: Dec 2013

Checks Calender

Ah, Innego, thou dost torment me. Prepare to die!





So I was off...Psh.