⚡KLEOS FINAL DAY ON KICKSTARTER!⚡
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 10:11:49 AM

Hey everyone!  First off, thank you all for making this such an amazing ride.  I could not possibly ask for more out of my first Kickstarter.  Seeing the community grow and interacting with all of you over the course of this campaign has been an absolute blast.

⚡What is new to Kleos? So far, 2 additional dice, a marble design upgrade for all dice, 13 altered art card promos, and 8 new epic heroes/monsters have been added to each copy of Kleos during the campaign.⚡ 

Characters unlocked so far through the campaign and its lead-up;  Antiope, Morpheus, Prometheus, Circe, Cassandra, Eros, Laelaps, Cetus.  2 more to go!  More info on that to follow.

CONGRATS on unlocking the 11th achievement!  Wow, those project shares piled up quickly yesterday, great work!  As promised, here is a reveal of our next unlockable epic monster, ARACHNE!  I'll post her story in the Azure Horizon Games page later today as well.  

As a thank you for crushing 1,000 comments, I've counted that as an extra achievement and only 1 more is needed to unlock Arachne!  We only need 4 more fans on BoardGameGeek for that next achievement, which will add Arachne to Kleos!  Here is a link if you want to be one of those final four!  https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/310371/kleos

Our next stretch goal is also within sight!  Andromeda will join Kleos once we cross that $25,000 mark.  

This is our last day on Kickstarter.  If everyone can think of and share the project with one person they know that might be interested, we will reach that mark!  : )  Of course, the Cetus was unlocked yesterday as well!  Here is a side-by-side image of the Cetus and Andromeda.  Hey, who is that little guy in the background flying with Hermes' sandals?

Lastly, lets not forget that EVERY COPY of the Kickstarter print run will come with at least 13 altered art promo cards unique to the initial Kleos printing. Thanks to every backer, and a special call out to those higher tier backers that are giving us all some additional content. : ) 

2 more Divine Offering spots still remain for anyone interested to leave their mark on Kleos and be featured on a promo card!

Also, we have been testing the new characters in our community TTS games a couple of times each week.  Last night, Laelaps, the Cetus, and Andromeda all made an appearance...it was awesome!  Feel free to join us. We typically announce and schedule games through the Kleos Board Game Facebook group.    https://www.facebook.com/groups/kleosboardgame/

Any final thoughts on the campaign?  Thanks again and be sure to let me know in the comments!

-Jim ⚡⚡⚡

⚡ Final 5 Days! Solo Event & Art Reveal ⚡
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 11:14:54 AM

Hey everyone!   We're closing in on the finish line, but there is still plenty of fun on the way!  

⚡Today's update features the next round of the community solo scenario event, announces the 4 epic minions being added to Kleos by our Olympian Offering backers, and a full art reveal for our next stretch goal, the Cetus!  ⚡

Lets start off with the community created solo scenario!  Our first vote was soooooo very close until the end when Heracles wrestled his way into the lead  (30%)!  Jason came in second place (23%), thanks in no small part to Ghost's strong campaign. :)  Admittedly, I never realized how popular Jason would be. Maybe we need more Argonauts and a full campaign for Jason in an expansion?  

These votes have been a great learning exercise.  Even if your choice didn't win, they are likely to show up in the future!

In the next vote, we'll be choosing the myth and story for the solo scenario. Since Jason and Heracles led the vote, and being that they were contemporary heroes, lets make it interesting and include them both in one option!  

⚡ CLICK HERE to place your vote in Round 2!  Voting will continue through Sunday morning at 11am EST.⚡

We are almost half way to our first stretch goal!  To celebrate, here is the Cetus' full colored art and abilities in Kleos!  It just arrived this week, and I was blown away by how awesome it looks in color. What do you think? 

Let's spread the word in these final 5 days and "RELEASE THE CETUS!"  Please take the time to share this campaign on social media, and tell just one friend, family member, or coworker about Kleos to keep us moving through these stretch goals!

Also, I'm thrilled to announce the four cards being added to Kleos by our Olympian Offering backers!!

• Prometheus - Titan who stole fire from Olympus for mankind.
• Eros - More commonly known as Cupid in the Roman tradition.
• Cassandra - Prophetess and princess of Troy.
• Circe - Sorceress with the power to transform men into animals.

Lastly, we are so close to that 10th achievement!!!  We need just 17 fans on BoardGameGeek HERE or 8 favorite art shares.  Sharing your favorite art is easy, and there are tons of examples in the Mythic Monday posts on the Azure Horizon Games page HERE.  Sharing a Mythic Monday post counts!  Unlocking that next achievement will upgrade all dice to have a marble design, which will look so amazing and on theme with the gold engraved symbols.  Let's get there!  After that, we continue on our achievement quest to unlock another epic monster for each copy of Kleos.

Thanks again to each of you for being a part of this journey and making Kleos possible!   Shout out your solo vote in the comments!

-Jim ⚡⚡⚡

Stretch Goals, Meeples & 'Create-A-Character' Results!!!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 07, 2020 at 03:13:11 PM

Hey everyone! First off, CONGRATS!!!!  We reached our first stretch goal and our first add on is now unlocked!!  ⚡⚡⚡

Selected by the community, a custom set of manticore meeples is now a part of the campaign.  They will serve as an alternate option to the hoplite meeples already included in the base game.  Just like the hoplites, there will be 20 total, silk screen printed on both sides, individually numbered 1-4 in each of 5 colors.  

They are not in any way required for play, but many players are excited to have the option to place a monster or hero meeple on the board to represent their cards.   Here is a draft of the Manticore Shape - more details to follow regarding the printed design!

So, how do you add them to your pledge if you are interested?  The set of 20 custom Manticore Meeples will be $15 with shipping included.  All you have to do is click "Manage My Pledge," and add $15 to the total. If you prefer, you can also wait until after the campaign and add it to your cart through the pledge manager.  Very excited to see this come together, and of course, this will help us reach the next stretch goals!!!

⚡ Now of course, onto that next stretch goal, which is already so close!  Once we reach $22,000, Perseus' legendary enemy the Cetus will join Kleos!  ⚡

Now, a lot of you might know the Cetus by another name...in Clash of the Titans it was best known as "The Kraken!"  In mythology, the Cetus was an enormous sea monster sent by Poseidon to punish Queen Cassiopeia.  Of course, I won't go too deep into the story now...since there is more to come as part of this very campaign.  : ) Here is Enggar's initial sketch for the Cetus!  So, share this project with your friends, family, and coworkers to help us...."RELEASE THE CETUS!!!"  

Of course, lets not forget the results of our Create-a-Character event.  The community chose to add Morpheus, the god of dreams and leader of the Oneiroi to Kleos as a recruitable character.  Now, this means that you can recruit a lesser god to your service!  How cool is that?!  It will be the first recruitable god in Kleos!  

Well done and thank you to everyone who participated in this event. This card is very unique within the game, and completely inspired by your ideas and vision.  This is just a rough version for play-testing, and please forgive the old card frames (easiest to update at the moment), but here is a quick preview using Hermes art as a placeholder.  What do you think?  

As the god of Dreams, Morpheus will whisper in one of your Minions' dreams each night and greatly enhance their abilities the following day through premonition and divine influence. 🤩🤩🤩

So, we are about to enter the final week of the campaign. What else is in store for us?  First off, more stretch goals! There are still a lot of great additions to the game, so tell your friends, share on social media, and lets move through these next couple!  

Second, we still have a few achievements!  We need one more achievement to upgrade all the dice in the game to a marble design.  The dice are still acryllic but the marble pattern with the gold symbols will be beautiful!!  After that, the last few achievements lead us on a fun quest to unlock another fan favorite Epic Monster for the game (Who could it be?!).  

⚡ The easiest way to get us there is to become a fan of Kleos on BoardGameGeek by CLICKING HERE and clicking the "heart" icon.  We only need 31 more fans to unlock that next achievement!!! ⚡

Finally, tomorrow we will start creating the second Kleos solo scenario together.  It will be another community event that is open to everyone.  Tell your solo gaming friends and lets make this as much fun as possible!  Shout out in the comments, which character in the game would you like to see featured in their own solo scenario?!?!

Thanks again to each of you for being a part of this journey!   : )  Be sure to share this project and lets crush those stretch goals!

-Jim 

⚡⚡⚡

COMMUNITY EVENT! Let's Create A Character Together!!!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Aug 01, 2020 at 04:26:20 PM

Hey there gods and hoplites!  Congratulations on unlocking 9 achievements and starting the Community 'Create-A-Character' Event - I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!! : )  A link to the poll is available in the campaign comments now, go go go!!  

The campaign is at about the half-way point and the community has been absolutely crushing the social goals!  Also, we are less than $300 away from the first stretch goal, which will be the community selected campaign add on featuring a 'set of Manticore meeples' as an alternate to the hoplites included in the game. Tell your friends, share the project everywhere, lets get there this weekend!

Okay, onto the fun part!  Let's create a character together...but what does that mean exactly?  Well, we are going to create a new card as a community in Kleos from the top down!  We will start by selecting the character, then the community will have input on all aspects of the design - will they be attack-based, defensive, expert recruiter, a support character, etc. - and finally what will their ability text be.  

⚡To vote on your choice, find the poll link in the campaign comments.⚡  

A link to the poll is included at the top of the comments.  CLICK HERE for a quick link to the campaign page.  The first round is for backers and those interested in the campaign only, featuring a whopping 18 community suggested choices for round 1.  Please pick your top 3 choices only to make sure your highest picks have the best chance at advancing!  The top 3 or 4 as of 9am tomorrow morning will make it to the final round of voting.  Be sure to check the campaign comments or the Kleos Board Game Facebook group for further updates on the vote!

For the next round, we are going to open this one up to the whole internet!  Then I invite you all to share the vote and campaign across the internet to have your final selection win!!!  From there, we will vote on the finer aspects of that character.  A link to the vote can be found in the campaign comments, be sure to leave a reply with your pick while you are there!  Again, stay tuned to the campaign comments or FB group for updates tomorrow!  

Also, be sure to comment on the campaign, keep sharing, and visit our project through Kicktraq so we stay high on the rankings.  This is essential to getting more eyes on the project and crushing those stretch goals!  One more achievement and all dice will be upgraded to the marble acryllic design!  Achievement updates are pinned to the top of the Facebook Group.

Last but not least...solo content is live!!!  CLICK HERE to check out the first solo scenario, and it has been added to the Kickstarter campaign page as well.  The Hungry Gamer also made a solo playthrough video, which you can see HERE!  The solo content is very different from the multiplayer game, allowing a scenario based experience where you play through the stories of Greek mythology.  The first story features Perseus on his quest to slay Medusa.  BIGGER NEWS, next week we will create a solo scenario adventure together!  : )  The start date is tentative, but I am thinking Wednesday or Thursday, once the create-a-character event wraps up.

To me, Kleos is a system with lots of ways to create immersive experiences, and I want to offer as much content and ways to have fun within that system as possible.   Solo content will all be published free online as it becomes available and will use the components in the core game.  There will also be automated versions of the gods that you can play against solo using the standard Kleos mechanics.  I expect there to be 5-7 solo scenarios before the game is delivered along with 1-2 automated gods to play against.  We also have interest from guest designers and I encourage the community to get involved and create their own content!

Thanks again everyone!  This has been an amazing experience so far, and I can't wait to see where we go from here.

-Jim ⚡⚡⚡

Meeple Vote & Upcoming Create-A-Character Event!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 31, 2020 at 05:55:36 AM

Hey there gods and hoplites!!!  We crossed the $19,000 mark and placed #3 on Kicktraq yesterday!  Wow!  What a great place to be one week after launch, and we are getting close to that first stretch goal!  Now, onto the fun stuff.  First off, the results of the community vote are in!!

It was so close, but monster versions of the hoplite meeples won!  I will be reviewing details with manufacturers and hope to have enough information to launch the campaign add-on by early next week...as long as we reach that first stretch goal before then of course! 😉  Also, I am glad to see the interest in playmats!  Just because they did not win here, does not mean they will not come eventually!  

I’ll keep you updated as information becomes available.  Be sure to tell your friends and spread the word!  Let's cross the $20,000 mark, get those monster meeples in the campaign asap, and see the next set of stretch goals!  Now, the next question, what shape should the monster meeples be?

⚡ Well, since this is a community add on, you should decide! ⚡

HERE is a link to another poll to decide which monster should be featured.  It includes all of the basic monsters in the game to choose from!  Results will be tallied until Friday morning at 8am EST and then the winner will be announced in the comments and in the Facebook group.

Last but not least, we have an achievement update.  Congratulations on unlocking the 7th achievement and earning this new full color art reveal for Dionysus’ favorite manticore!  This is an image for a promo card as a thank you to the early community.  It stems from a community joke from our weekly play group, where Dionysus controlled a manticore that went on an absolute rampage!  I'll post the story in the update comments later today so everyone can join in the fun!  Be sure to check back!

We are just 2 achievements away from unlocking the “community create a character” event!  An achievement status update is pinned to the top of the Kleos Board Game Facebook group, and two are very close!  I’ll post them in the update comments as well for those interested.  Here is an update of the current achievement status and upcoming unlockables!

Thanks so much for your participation in this campaign!  The community has been amazing and I hope you are all having as much fun as I am.  : )  Can't wait to see where we go from here!

Jim ⚡⚡⚡