Avalanche and The Leonids Promo Cards Fixed

took off the etsy store info. added RGB colors to be darker.

effects and ID are the same, plays the same.

where same=awesome,goto=GAME ON!

Act of God rules update

added

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Each Card is Ultra Rare -

Remember, each Act of God card is an ultra rare. You may not want to have the same ones that your opponent has. If you draw an Act of God card that has already been played, it immediately goes into your discard pile and your draw is wasted.

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to the rules, just in case you were confused.

you can find it here.

Haboob A.O.G.

Sure, I could have put "Sandstorm". But this name is epic.

8/26/13 - Act of God Cards

Update to act of God cards!

Now you have nine to choose from!

go here to view the new ones!

Laughing in the face of history - Republic of Transylvania

I am a member of this land. Not a former slave, not a Native Aboriginal, but mostly white in skin. As a genetic descendant of England, France and Israel, it is rare that I would be a member of this land here in the North-West Continent of the Globe. But here it is. My extended family has roots in legitimate ownership of land in the United States.

It all happened when some of my ancestors decided to hang out with Daniel Boone and help form the Republic of Transylvania. We did it legally and without force, taking over no ones homes and displacing no one. The Iroquois helped sell the land to us for the Shawnee, who had given up on the area. The area was all the land lying between the Cumberland River, the Cumberland Mountains, and the Kentucky River, and situated south of the Ohio River which was around 20 million acres.

Daniel Boone and several others make a sovereign and legal country west of the existing United States. They purchase it legally from the owners contractors with their consent. The United States steals it and rips up the contract.

The United States at this time in its history - Exercised imminent domain strategies. Voided contracts when they saw fit. Ignored the wishes of the Native Aboriginals. Did whatever they wanted...

I am glad they changed their ways.     

You can read some more on the wikipedia article that is mostly accurate.

How do soldiers work? Reference Card

The the noobie in the room.

Turning pictures into game ideas

This is an ever evolving blog post.

I want to make cards from items such as these.

Please send submissions of groups of similar pictures to EmpiresAndGenerals@gmail.com

and I will put them up here.

Empires and Generals - Forever Free

In the spirit of the games true intentions, I have emptied the Etsy shop and am now only taking donations.

Empires and Generals cards are now all free, and will remain so forever.

Give me time to upload them, as I am fixing color issues as I go.

I am starting with Ancient Greece

game phase chart 2

This should help someone.

gencon 2013 8/16/13 - the experience is the trip

learned so much today about patents and trademarks and service marks and copyrights and how much legal issues kill games...

so i nipped a couple of things in the bud as soon as i got the chance.

celtic barbarian (with mel gibson from braveheart) is gone.
decimatio (from the starz series - sparticus) is gone.

and there might be a couple more if/when i find out that u.s.a. companies own the rights to them.

also, hung out with around twenty artists - (writers and inkers) and asked them question after question about how they did what they did and what mistakes to avoid. it was really cool for them to take that time.

i even got to meet brom!

nice!

so...

in other news.

i didn't get a contract offer for the game or anything, but i did come away with VALUABLE information as to how the "con" works that i did not know before.

i learned a lot, and i learned it the harsh way. i failed miserably at the goal that i set out to do, so instead of admitting defeat... i made new goals and decided that it was just a learning trip instead of a promotional trip.

and this is why i failed at gencon as a game company owner trying to promote my game: i did not already have my game published and did not have the capital to "buy in" at the demo area.

so, basically it is about the money.

IF

a) my box is shiny
b) i have great artwork on the box
c) my signs are big
d) i have a demo booth set up, staffed and running the whole time

AND

e) i have a publisher helping me
f) i have a distributor helping me

OR

e) i have a lot of money
f) have the tenacity of a honey-badger

THEN

i will succeed.

however i had none of those things.

no one knew what the game was and i couldn't get them to sign up except on the free night and doing a couple of illegal games (running it for free on a "paid" table).

pish posh.

so, the rules is really what got in the way. if i were able to have waived that $2 then i would have probably had ten people sign up per night. eh. what do you do?

so maybe i will look at http://boardgamegeek.com/bggcon instead?

gencons actions towards us beginners is rather harsh. they were nice enough people and the business model works rather well for them, but all in all i got the feeling that it was just a really really big store where you could also pay to play.

;o

so. had i known that i might have changed my strategy rather earlier instead of resorting to inferior tactics mid-stride.

BUT

there is hope.

we plan to attend next year and not follow any of the foolishness that we did this year. as a matter of fact since all we did pretty much is bring the game and nothing else, we might just bring swag and not the game at all... ok maybe just like one of each deck or something... but i have some really great ideas and i think i got next year licked.

of course, by next years time i will have the expanded edition done.

gencon 2013 8/16/13 - learning is fun!

the day was great! running around to different workshops getting mental pictures of how to do things in real life versus the life of my imaginations. attended a seminar on patenting, trademarking and copyrighting... attended another seminar on how to run a successful kickstarter campaign... had a fabulous lunch with jenn, showed several people my game and had a blast with aaron at 9 pm playing empires and generals.

 you never know what cool people that you will meet.

off to bed! time to talk tomorrow.

i have a busy day planned! the workshops i am attending tomorrow are:

Building Community from the Ground Up: Tips for Small Game Studios on Sat at 11:00 AM
Publishing 101: How to Publish Your Adventure, Bestiary, or Campaign on Sat at 10:00 AM
Kickstarters: Preparation and Communication on Sat at 12:00 PM
Game Design Business: Publishing (and Funding) on Sat at 01:00 PM
Kickstarter: More Than Meets The Eye on Sat at 2:00 PM or
Getting Your Games Published on Sat at 2:00 PM

 so i've definitely got my moneys worth just in information alone.

 then tomorrow is another game event.

 i sure wish i knew how to market.

gencon 2013 8/15/13 - photo recap

lots of things happened today.

scroll to the end. you will get a treat!

wait a minute!

wil wheaton playing star trek settlers of catan!

awesome!

gencon 2013 8/14/13 - player feedback

this morning i awoke to a text from my friend that his little girl was born safely. i feel good about that! congrats mom and dad!

so last night went incredibly well. after the mad dash to indianapolis, we found the room and introduced nine new people to the game. one fellow, his son and his friend stood out in particular. they are from tennessee and really enjoyed it. since i only brought a limited amount of cards and they wanted to take a deck with them, i told them to stop back by on friday or saturday and they could have one.

good deeds for good fans!

and it went pretty well. with nine players, we set them up 1v1 across the table from one another and jen got to play one as well to make up for the odd man out. several questions came up and as there were two people who had come in late they missed a little bit and got confused at the end and gave me some very helpful feedback.

here is the list of items that i believe everyone there contributed to and the solution in parenthesis that you will see soon or has already been fixed.

1. add subtext on turn phase chart to include your basic action underneath the phase (will do)
2. make sure that i send artwork owners an email if i am going to use their art (already do)
3. have the cards legible (printer error. ripped up erroneous cards this morning)
4. define the attack phase more properly. how many attacks per turn? (will do)
5. deck building was not covered (i had pre-built the decks. editing them this morning)
6.define how many cards can be in play at once like general and strategy (will do)

yes. a good list of things to cover. i really like the idea of subtext under the turn phase chart. turn dynamics are something that makes the game smooth and nice.

well... i hope to add some pictures and/or video soon. we were so hectic last night that i forgot to do so... even though we had pictures taken of us... heh.

GAME ON!
DAY TWO AT GENCON!

post script - today i hope will be a little more organized and wonderful. last night we were in a building that was two blocks away from registration (union station). today we are actually in the main convention hall itself. you should have seen us running from parking to the will call gate to the game room. :)

gencon 2013 8/14/13 - prep

so excited i could almost sing a rebecca black song.

almost.

but yes!

headed to indy for gencon tonight.

housesitter agreed to not download the internet.

my best friends wife is having her third little girl today named aaliyah.

sad i can't be there but happy for them all the same.

my manx cat pippen may have feline pink-eye...

and i thought he was just in a winking kinda mood.

i curse you pink eye!

whatevah.

i have a week off from both of my jobs so i can do this gencon thing.

as i would have said in 1992: it's gonna be off the hook.

i'm glad i don't say that anymore.

actually i may have never said that. i just heard it from a friend a lot.

ok it's 12:45.

uh...

oh yeah.

worked on the glossary today and cleaned it up a little.

see you later on this evening!

GAME ON!

-pauly

Michael the Baker fix

Changed from "gain" to "harvest" since "gain" is pretty ambiguous. 

Artsy Turn Phase Chart Card

Just for the heck of it.

And because pink is awesome.

But mostly because my name is Simon and I like to make Drarings.

What is Empires and Generals?

Laughing in the face of history - The Independent California Republic

In the spring of 1846, the American army officer and explorer John C. Fremont arrived at Sutter's Fort (near modern-day Sacramento) with a small corps of soldiers. Whether or not Fremont had been specifically ordered to encourage an American rebellion is unclear. Ostensibly, he and his men were in the area strictly for the purposes of making a scientific survey. However, the brash young officer began to persuade a motley mix of American settlers and adventurers to form militias and prepare for a rebellion against Mexico.

Emboldened by Fremont's encouragement, on June 14, 1846, a party of more than 30 Americans under the leadership of William Ide and Ezekiel Merritt invaded the largely defenseless Mexican outpost of Sonoma just north of San Francisco. Fremont and his soldiers did not participate, though he had given his tacit approval of the attack. Merritt and his men surrounded the home of the retired Mexican general Mariano Vallejo and informed him that he was a prisoner of war. Vallejo, who was actually a supporter of American annexation, was more puzzled than alarmed by the rebels. He invited Merritt and a few of the other men into his home to discuss the situation over drinks. After several hours passed, Ide went in and spoiled what had turned into pleasant chat by arresting Vallejo and his family.

Having won a bloodless victory at Sonoma, Ide and Merritt then proceeded to declare California an independent republic. With a cotton sheet and some red paint, they constructed a makeshift flag with a crude drawing of a grizzly bear, a lone red star (a reference to the earlier Lone Star Republic of Texas) and the words "California Republic" at the bottom. From then on, the independence movement was known as the Bear Flag Revolt.

After the rebels won a few minor skirmishes with Mexican forces, Fremont officially took command of the so-called Bear Flaggers and occupied the unguarded presidio of San Francisco on July 1. Six days later, Fremont learned that American forces under Commodore John D. Sloat had taken Monterey without a fight and officially raised the American flag over California. (The United States had declared war against Mexico on May 13, 1846. This news apparently had not reached the Bear Flaggers at the time of their revolt.) Since the ultimate goal of the Bear Flaggers was to make California part of the United States, they now saw little reason to preserve their "government." Three weeks after it had been proclaimed, the California Republic quietly faded away.

But the flag is STILL the flag of California.

Special and Unaffiliated General Icon Addition and Graphics Changes

Adding the General Icon to the other Generals that are in other areas and not specifically the main 4 Empires... Here they are.

Unaffiliated Generals

Special Generals