G’day guys,
Just wanted to share the link to the Kickstarter to my first game Dawn – Rise of the Occulites.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2002188924/dawn-rise-of-the-occulites
Please check it out and share it with your friends so we can smash through the the stretch goals!
Cheers,
Ben.
G’day guys,
I am proud to announce that in partnership with Eagle Games, we are ready to launch the Dawn – Rise of the Occulites Kickstarter this Wednesday 19th June at 9pm US EST
I will post the link to the KS here when it launches, but until then, please spread the word!
The full base rulebook will be available to download on launch, so you will be able to properly evaluate whether or not this is the game for you. It is a huge box, with lots of components. You will have the option to purchase the game with coloured plastic figures or with pre-paints if you so choose.
We also have some very cool stretch goals and add ons to help immerse you in the Occulite world. We are very excited to finally share the game with you all.
This has been in development for almost 7 years and it is exciting that after all the tweaks, modifications, additions, subtractions rewrites, blood, sweat and tears I’ve put into it, it finally comes to fruition. A very rewarding experience.
If you have any questions at all, please ask away!
Cheers,
Ben.
The Rise of the Occulites Saga is a series of games that I have designed under my company Darwin Games that explore both the natural and social evolution of a species of creatures called “Occulites”.
These creatures are discovered by a small boy living with his Pa in the Australian Bush, but they are not of our world. This boy, Darwin, can observe and learn about them through “windows in space” which appear to occur naturally throughout his Pa’s property. The Occulites’ world has been named Crepusculum and is a world that evolves and changes very quickly. In the space of several generations, the Occulites evolve from a small Tribal existence, through to full civilizations, with trade, war and diplomacy.
The first game in the Saga has been picked up by Eagle Games (www.eaglegames.net) and will go on Kickstarter in early 2013. This game is called “Dawn – Rise of the Occulites” and is based around small skirmish actions of family Tribes consisting of four members and a Chief. The game utilises something called the “Natural Selection Deck” which helps to determine everything from movement, combat, terrain outcomes and other things within the game. The careful use of these multi-purpose cards is vital in achieving your goals and objectives within the game and introduces many important choices that do matter. To give you an idea of some of the gameplay concepts I have included some video links below:
Gameplay concepts – Episode One
Full Game playthrough of Basic Rules – Video quality a bit off, but you get the idea.
To find out more about these games, check out the links below:
Rise of the Occulites Blog – http://www.riseoftheocculites.wordpress.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Darwin-Games/199925236725742
Darwin Games Website: http://www.darwin-games.com.au
The first game in the Saga – small Skirmish with scenario objectives, one off gameplay and full campaign options.
Board Game Geek Game Page: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/90274/dawn-rise-of-the-occulites
Eagle Games: http://www.eaglegames.net
G’day guys,
I have added a new page to my blog that will detail the current state and all the files for the Battlelore with Blocks Project. You will be able to download block stickers for the existing units and creatures (as I get them done) as well as new races and block stickers for them. The first new race being testing is still the Lizardmen.
The idea is to make the new races more accessible for everyone by using blocks instead of figures (like in C&C:A and C&C:N) Not everyone paints their figures (as its a boardgame), so this way it makes it easier to introduce the new races.
Cheers,
Ben.
So check it out and let me know what you think! 🙂
G’day guys,
Just a really quick update today – the first Specialist Card for my custom Lizardmen army for Battlelore.
I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Cheers,
Ben.
G’day guys,
Just letting you all know that based on playtesting and feedback I have made some changes to the document, which are listed below:
* Marsh Dweller ability replaced with At One With Nature to help balance out the entire army in CTA play
* Rarity designations given to each unit to help form a composition of the army.
I am currently working on a set of CTA cards to help you field a Lizardmen army in CTA play. Once this is all balanced, I will bring in the racial heroes.
Feedback and comments really help this project move forward, so I’m very eager to hear your thoughts.
The file is available here: LIZARDMEN ARMY FOR BATTLELORE VERSION 0.8
Cheers,
Ben.
G’day guys,
Just a quick post here to release the playtest rules for a new Nuthin’ But Net team – the Botanicals.
Please download it below and please pass on any feedback or suggestions you may have.
THE BOTANICALS PLAYTEST TEAM RULES
Children knew of the walking trees, the Botanicals. Everyone did, for they were part of a bedtime story told to every child across the land. In this story, when the water dried up in the great forest, the trees lifted their roots from the ground and marched – for hours, days and weeks to find more water. Upon coming to a village that had dammed the river’s flow, they quickly and effectively levelled the town and destroyed the dam, before marching back to the forest. This story told of how the people of the world had to live with nature and not deny it – for it would always find a way.
But the Botanicals were fiction. No one had ever actually seen this happen. It was merely a fairy tale… wasn’t it?
For many years, the trees and plants that adorned the stadium gardens across world, watched in silence. They sheltered the fans… waiting… learning, until one day when a stray basketball (kicked away by an overzealous beastmen player) landed in the canopy of a great tree. Before the players or fans knew what was happening, there was a great rumbling and the tree pulled its roots from the ground and strode onto the court, demanding a match.
In disbelief, the beastmen team accepted, only to be beaten soundly by the tree and his fellow plantmen. They had found a way. So began the Botanicals Nuthin’ But Net tournament campaign.
Cheers,
Ben.
G’day guys,
I must admit I’ve let this blog lapse a bit since all the really exciting movement on my Rise of the Occulites games. You may have seen the photos of the greens over here: http://www.riseoftheocculites.wordpress.com – The figures are actually winging their way over from the UK to Australia now, so hopefully we’ll see them cast up shortly.
But I thought that the first post back here needed to be something special and so I thought I’d kick it off with some custom rules for using Lizardmen in one of my favourite boardgames – Battlelore. The rules have seen some playtesting and are version 0.7, but I am looking for some feedback to bring these up to a more uniformly balanced version before adding in the custom heroes rules. Yes that’s right, hero rules that are thematic and specific to the Lizardmen faction, but more on them later. There is no copyright infringement intented. These are simply fan rules.
So please, download them and give them a look and a play. Please let me know what you think. 🙂
Cheers,
Ben.
Rise of the Occulites is a setting that I have been developing for several years now.
The setting is the source of three unique games that I have been writing.
Dawn – Rise of the Occulites is the first and is a miniatures skirmish game that uses a unique card action resolution system.
Dusk – Rise of the Occulites is the second and is an abstract strategy boardgame featuring a fog of war and the card action resolution system that is optimised for the style of game.
The Time of the Occulites is the third game in the series. It is a large boardgame that depicts the struggle for power between the different factions and will feature whole armies marching to war.
The first two games are in advanced development, with miniatures being sculpted to support Dawn – Rise of the Occulites.
All Rise of the Occulites information will be posted to that blog, while the rest of my hobby activities will continue to be posted here.
Along with the games that I am developing, I am writing a full background story for the setting which will leak out through the blog, narrated by the main character Darwin who spends his time secretly learning about the Occulites and classifying them.
Please feel free to check out the blog to follow the story and get more information as its released at:
http://riseoftheocculites.wordpress.com/
If you would like to know more, or if you have any questions, please feel free to email me: ben.boersma@gmail.com
Cheers,
Ben.
I was very happily surprised to see Splintered Light Miniatures recently release not one, but two amphibians in 15mm – the Frog Hero and the Villager Personality Toad. Imagine my excitement when I heard from David that he was releasing more frogs!
The first pack has just been released and comprises 6 figures total (2 of each of 3 different sculpts).
These figures are the Frogs with Tridents… and they are awesome!
These figures are very nicely sculpted by Bob Olley and cast. In fact there was nothing to clean up on two of the three sculpts above and the third was cleaned up in under a minute.
The frog on the left is an outstanding sculpt, was a pleasure to paint and just looks fantastic! With the nice Crocodile Dundee necklace around his neck and menacing size, this guy would be a great secondary Hero or Captain figure. he stands around 18mm tall, but is very bulky. A perfect Bullfrog! He is my equal favourite, along with the one on the far right. This guy is ducking down low, moving forward, avoiding the Fox warband’s deadly arrows, shield at the ready. He stands 15mm tall and has a slimmer build, fitting in really nicely with the Frog Hero. The frog in the middle is a very nice figure too. Standing around 17mm tall, he is quite bulky and bulbous, having a more flatter face than his brethren. He is very cute and was the easiest to paint.
As you can see, I’ve kept the paint scheme the same as my Frog Hero, but would really like to paint these up as several different tribes, exploring darker greens, browns and maybe even some exotic Poison Arrow Frog species. I will most certainly post those results when I’ve done them. The board that you can see them on is a work in progress, a 2’x3′ set table for Song of Blades and Heroes/Splintered Lands/Fur and Buttons games that I will post more of later.
Below you will see a nice comparison of all the different frog miniatures released by Splintered Light so far.
As you can see, these frogs really are suited to be the brutes of your warband, but what wonderful brutes you could not find! Figures like these and the Splintered Lands line really make me want to create some HOTT or SAH armies with them, but I have to be strong and stick with 10mm for those… don’t I? …Oh, who am I kidding, it’ll happen soon. Just have to be able to paint faster. It takes me long enough to get a skirmish force to the table!
I eagerly await the arrival of any more frogs that David decides to get done, but whether you are collecting the Splintered Lands figures or not, I must recommend that you get yourselves a set or two of these guys. They are the best 15-20mm frogs on the market by far and are excellent figures in their own right.
Cheers,
Ben.
nb. I do not work for SLM, I did not receive these for free and was not asked to write a review. I just really LOVE these figures!
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