Dakka's Game - Maelstrom's Edge - First teaser from the Broken faction - pg 91

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**Mymearan**

Alistair Reynolds? Damn son, that's a big get.

**Pacific**

Kilkrazy wrote:
Alastair Reynolds is one of my favourite SF authors. He is a big talent and a major asset to the game universe, IMO.

Me too! He's a fantastic author, real feather in the cap of this project as far as I'm concerned.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Slarg232 wrote:
Never heard of him before, what else has he written of note?

much excellent stuff including 11 novels

http://voxish.tripod.com/novels.html

**pretre**

Slarg232 wrote:
Never heard of him before, what else has he written of note?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Novels

**Slarg232**

pretre wrote:
Slarg232 wrote:
Never heard of him before, what else has he written of note?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Novels

What I got out of that was that Mass Effect Reapers were inspired by this guy.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Slarg232 wrote:
pretre wrote:
Slarg232 wrote:
Never heard of him before, what else has he written of note?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Novels

What I got out of that was that Mass Effect Reapers were inspired by this guy.

That's pretty much the popular consensus.

I failed to make it through his Revelation Space books even though they were well written, but I really enjoy his short stories.

**Grey Templar**

So when are we gonna see the Angel

**Yodhrin**

Kilkrazy wrote:
Alastair Reynolds is one of my favourite SF authors. He is a big talent and a major asset to the game universe, IMO.

Yurp. I can't spare cash to go in on the KS, but Reynolds is one of my favourite sci-fi authors so knowing he'll be involved with the fiction has bumped me up from maybe remembering to check it out again in a few months to active interest.

**Slarg232**

This has probably been answered before, but does MODCube support the tokens for this (Or do the tokens fit in MODCube)?

**Tibbsy**

Well that card game extra was entirely unexpected.

What else are SAS hiding un-revealed up their sleeves, I wonder!

**Grey Templar**

Well we have yet to see the Angel. Or the Kadder Nova, the Shadowwalkers, or the Drone Handlers. Much sadface

**Spiral Arm Studios**

Tibbsy wrote:
Well that card game extra was entirely unexpected.

What else are SAS hiding un-revealed up their sleeves, I wonder!

We like to reward our supporters!

As Tibbsy said, today we've added an extra bonus to the $90 pledge - a whole addiional game! This is a fast space-based card game set in the Maelstrom's Edge universe, where players compete to get resources and refugees off planets before they are destroyed by the Maelstrom.

Check out more on today's update:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/medge/maelstroms-edge-a-next-gen-sci-fi-miniatures-warga/posts/1238954

The Maelstrom's Edge Card Game - Included in every box!

It is with great pleasure we can reveal our main secret gift for our backers which we've had up our sleeves for the past year. The Maelstrom's Edge card game! As of today, every $90 and up pledge will receive a copy of the card game for free!

The Maelstrom's Edge Card Game (note, tokens are not included, they are from the board game 'eons' by Gamer Nation)

Although the tabletop game is our focus for creating tactical, squad-based skirmish battles, the universe of Maelstrom's Edge is much bigger. We wanted to represent the larger scale conflict going on across planets and star systems, as factions compete for resources to build fleets so they can evacuate people from planets doomed by the Maelstrom. We've designed the Maelstrom's Edge card game to be a quick, complementary game to the miniatures game, giving context on an interstellar level to the battles being fought on the tabletop.

In the Maelstrom's Edge card game, you control a fleet in space which is in close proximity to a planetary system doomed by the Maelstrom. The planets are full of people desperately trying to flee, and are loaded with useful resources for long term space travel from water to ore to organics. Unfortunately for you, a rival faction controlled by your opponent is in the same system and wants the same resources that you do. You only have a finite number of ships to harvest resources, so some resources and people will inevitably need to be left behind. While you are busy harvesting resources, there is a constant flow of spacecraft coming from the planets, and they are ready to pledge their allegiance to whoever they reach first.

Manage your fleet, counter your opponent, stockpile resources and save a population, but beware the Maelstrom can strike randomly and at any time in the Maelstrom's Edge card game.

The Maelstrom's Edge tabletop game uses cards for missions and unit profiles. At the same time, we've spent a lot of time and money developing a large amount of high quality artwork, including a broad collection of spaceships for our universe. As card production gets notably cheaper per unit the more you make, it did not take much of a leap for us to realise that for very little extra cost, we could add an entire additional game to the Maelstrom's Edge boxed set in the form of a Maelstrom's Edge card game.

It is no secret when you go into a gaming store that large numbers of people are usually playing collectable card games, and with limited gaming space available in many places, a full on wargame is not always possible. The Maelstrom's Edge card game is designed to be a solution to that problem, allowing you to get your Maelstrom's Edge fix and bring in a wider number of gamers to play against, hopefully getting them interested in the tabletop game as well. Each game takes around 20 minutes to play, so when you don’t have time for a full game of Maelstrom's Edge, the card game can fill the gap. We've also been able to enjoy the Maelstrom's Edge card game in pubs, waiting rooms and similar locations where a full tabletop game would not be possible.

We started development on the supplementary card game about two years ago, and have been tinkering and tweaking it ever since. We are pretty happy with it now, but it still needs some more playtesting before we put the rules to the final print, and we'll be happy to share the rules with you soon. Our long term goal is to make this into a standalone gaming product, but in the short term, we'll be focused on getting the cards into as many people's hands as possible and developing a card game which, like everything else in the Maelstrom's Edge suite of products, stands the test of time. The card game's development is independent of the rest of Maelstrom's Edge, so has no impact on the schedule or quality of the tabletop game.

We'll be providing one set of cards per boxed set for free right now, including in the no-models boxed set option! The final card count is not yet fixed, but it should be around 35 or so. All text shown is placeholder content, so please allow for its simplicity. There are five types of card, so lets look at them now...

Planet Cards

The four planet cards

These are the heart of the game and four are provided and needed. Each planet generates a number of resources each turn, indicated by the number in the lower centre of the card. This can be modified by events such as a plague or rebellion. When resources cant be removed from a planet, they are stockpiled on the planet's card, building up ready for harvesting or destruction.

Syphon Cards

Example Syphon Cards

Your syphon cards allow you to extract resources (including people) from a world. Planets are large enough that you and your opponent can syphon at the same time, but you only get three syphons in the entire game for mining, physical resources and population evacuation. If you dont defend your syphon ships, you are going to end up in a very difficult spot.

Military Cards

An example military card

Defense and offense are carried out by your military, which can consist of everything from small scout ships to full mobile starbases.

Modifier Cards

An example modifier card
Ships and planets can be buffed with modifier cards, altering their strength or other attributes, but every card comes with a cost and needs to be purchased with your precious resources.

Event Cards

The Maelstrom event card

Events can occur at any time in the game, and can decimate or multiply your plans. The most dangerous event of all is the arrival of the Maelstrom, which can happen twice per game. When the Maelstrom arrives, a random planet is permanantly destroyed along with all cards attached to it. The planet is chosen in a high stakes bidding war in which you and your opponent must each decide privately on a random number between 0 and 10, and then those numbers are added together. You then count along the planets, going back to the first after the last, and the planet you end on gets destroyed, leading to some very entertaining second-guessing and bluffing, and some very delicate resource and placement management. Do you put all eggs in one basket and hope for the best, or risk spreading yourself too thin to protect your syphons from assault?

The game ends when a player is left with three or fewer cards, and no more cards are left in the draw deck. The winner is the player with the most resources in their stockpile at the moment the game ends. You can usually only play two cards per turn, but certain events can allow you to change the timing of the end game to your advantage and catch your opponent short, from playing an extra card to depleting their resource stockpile.

We've had a lot of fun developing the Maelstrom's Edge card game, and have had instances of playtesters immediately wanting to play again after their first test game which bodes well for the quality of our rules. We are very excited to share this game with you and polish the development of it with our Kickstarter backers. Thank you for your support and we look forward to sharing more information about this game with you in the future! Please feel free to ask any questions you might have from this teaser and we'll answer them promptly.

Some of the cards included in the Maelstrom's Edge card game

Grey Templar wrote:
Well we have yet to see the Angel. Or the Kadder Nova, the Shadowwalkers, or the Drone Handlers. Much sadface

The Angel is on its way in a future update! The models for the Kaddar Nova, Shadow Walkers and Drone Handlers are still in production so we won't be showing the sprues in the Kickstarter, but they are nearly finished.

**Grey Templar**

Bravo bravo

We need a clap orkmoticon.

**Alpharius**

Slarg232 wrote:
This has probably been answered before, but does MODCube support the tokens for this (Or do the tokens fit in MODCube)?

Ha!

RiTides wrote:

Slarg232 wrote:
Does this work with Maelstrom's Edge tokens?

The Maelstrom's Edge team have sent me their art and I'm hoping to reveal a set of ModCubes for MEdge in the final week!

Reading between the lines - that looks like a 'no', but maybe the ModCuber will have a solution to this problem soon...

**Slarg232**

Alpharius wrote:
Slarg232 wrote:
This has probably been answered before, but does MODCube support the tokens for this (Or do the tokens fit in MODCube)?

Ha!

RiTides wrote:

Slarg232 wrote:
Does this work with Maelstrom's Edge tokens?

The Maelstrom's Edge team have sent me their art and I'm hoping to reveal a set of ModCubes for MEdge in the final week!

Reading between the lines - that looks like a 'no', but maybe the ModCuber will have a solution to this problem soon...

Alright, Giggity

Is the card game a one shot thing, or are you guys planning on expanding on that?

**Ian Sturrock**

Getting Reynolds involved just turned this from a "maybe" to an "almost certainly" for me. Great going folks.

**Spiral Arm Studios**

Slarg232 wrote:

Is the card game a one shot thing, or are you guys planning on expanding on that?

As with everything, it depends on the reception. We're only a small fledgling company, so the Kickstarter and initial retail launch are important to pay back our initial investment so we can start making expansions to our starter content. We have lots of plans for the future!

The card game is a standalone game that doesn't require any other components (and one set is enough for two players). If people enjoy it, we are certainly open to expand it in the future.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Ian Sturrock wrote:
Getting Reynolds involved just turned this from a "maybe" to an "almost certainly" for me. Great going folks.

Between him (and the rest of the writers!) and the card game, this project is suddenly looking much more ambitious. Look at the new stories, the new art update and the paintings on the cards. Where was all of that on Day One??

Is anyone posting about this to SF literary sites or Boardgame Geek? I ask because "Alastair Reynolds and team of award winning writers and artists write stories for card game, tabletop game" seems like it would bring fresh eyes to the campaign. At least to me.

Has anyone talked to Brandon Sanderson? I understand he is a big fan of tabletop miniatures. He even had a line for the Mistborn series at one point. Maybe he'd be interested.

**highlord tamburlaine**

How many players does a single card game support? I can't read as I was blinded by purrdee pikshurs.

1 deck for each player? 2 players with 1 deck?

**Spiral Arm Studios**

highlord tamburlaine wrote:
How many players does a single card game support? I can't read as I was blinded by purrdee pikshurs.

1 deck for each player? 2 players with 1 deck?

2 players can play with a single deck. It's a complete deck in itself rather than a CCG. Both players share the same draw pile.

**Emperors_Champion**

Not really my sort of thing but most definitely a welcome surprise so thanks guys!

Let's hope it brings in a few more backers and we get to those lovely large bases!

**Mathieu Raymond**

All I read from his list of novels was this: HOUSE OF SUNS (2008) Clarke shortlist. Six million years in the future, starfaring clones, tensions between human and robot metacivilisations, King Crimson jokes.

That last comment sold me.

**Pacific**

That card game is an immensely cool idea !

Love some of the originality and ideas coming out of this project, it's almost like it's being made by gamers, for gamers!

**liquidjoshi**

Right, guys, I can only throw my money at you so hard, y'know? All this stuff seems too good for £60. And it just keeps getting better, too.

**Cyporiean**

Pacific wrote:
it's almost like it's being made by gamers, for gamers!

As opposed to what? Do you really think Game Designers outside of SAS aren't Gamers?

**Vanguard-13**

Cyporiean wrote:
Pacific wrote:
it's almost like it's being made by gamers, for gamers!

As opposed to what? Do you really think Game Designers outside of SAS aren't Gamers?

Yes.

**RiTides**

I got to play an early version of this card game and really liked it! Had no idea it'd be included for free, that is absolutely awesome

**insaniak**

Cyporiean wrote:
Pacific wrote:
it's almost like it's being made by gamers, for gamers!

As opposed to what?

As opposed to game design as dictated by corporate policy to emphasise profit over quality?

**Cyporiean**

insaniak wrote:
Cyporiean wrote:
Pacific wrote:
it's almost like it's being made by gamers, for gamers!

As opposed to what?

As opposed to game design as dictated by corporate policy to emphasise profit over quality?

And if thats all you've experienced, you won't be able to do anything with MEdge anyway... since you won't be able to do anything with your models in a GW Store.

And even they started as a Game made by Gamers for Gamers, and I'd imagine that the designers on staff are still gamers as well.

**Mathieu Raymond**

Cyp... aren't we May 22nd?