View Full Version : Kickstarter update #83
Some good news.:thumbsup:
Kickstarter 83
Four Origin Awards to Sails of Glory
Posted by Ares Games
Dear friends,
The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design has announced Saturday the winners of the 2015 Origins Awards, presented at the ceremony at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. The nominees and winners were selected by the Academy.
Sails of Glory won as "Best Historical Miniature Rules" and "Best Historical Miniature Line", receiving in both categories both the Critics' Choice and Fan Favorite Award. Our Wings of Glory also won, in the "Best Gaming Accessory" category.
We shall never forget that this game owes to you, our backers, its successful launch and even more successful development, and we really want to thank you, once again, for your amazing support.
Nightmoss
06-08-2015, 09:17
Congratulations to Ares!!! :hatsoff: :salute:
Now the obvious and logical follow up (from my point of view) is to get Wave 3 out asap, along with merchants, pirates (historical or not) and some additional nations (notice I did not say "factions"). :wink:
Ares needs to capitalize on this in as many ways as possible!
:thumbsup: Yes they do. :beer:
Naharaht
06-08-2015, 21:56
Congratulations to Ares!!! :hatsoff: :salute:
Now the obvious and logical follow up (from my point of view) is to get Wave 3 out asap, along with merchants, pirates (historical or not) and some additional nations (notice I did not say "factions"). :wink:
Ares needs to capitalize on this in as many ways as possible!
I agree. I hope that the award will encourage Ares to develop the game more quickly.
I agree. I hope that the award will encourage Ares to develop the game more quickly.
And if Ares reads this, I hope they take David's suggestion to heart:beer:
John Paul
06-09-2015, 00:56
Dear Ares,
Our support was very easy as you designed and produced a game, or should I say games, that we enjoy playing very much!!! So we would like to not only congratulate you on the awards, but we would also like to thank you for producing games that are fun to play!
Don't stop now! It's time to kick the production line into a higher gear! You'll find us all complaining less, and playing a whole lot more, so keep up the excellent work!!! We're all part of the team in our own way!! :salute:
Comte de Brueys
06-09-2015, 08:47
Good news.
Ships and WoG mats are simply beautiful. :wink:
I volunteered at the Ares booth for a bit; the attendees with whom I spoke liked what they saw. Similarly, the newbies at the games I ran liked SoG, and many went directly to the booth to buy.
Diamondback
06-09-2015, 10:22
@Jim: What are we calling Non-State Actors like Caribbean/East Asian pirates, then? (The Barbary raiders were technically a state navy of sorts.)
Terrorists?
Entrepreneurs?
fredmiracle
06-09-2015, 11:42
... You'll find us all complaining less ...
Oh you know we'll still find things to complain about :happy: That's all part of the love--if we didn't care, we wouldn't carp :smack: :fixit: :minis:
@Jim: What are we calling Non-State Actors like Caribbean/East Asian pirates, then? (The Barbary raiders were technically a state navy of sorts.)
Now there's a way to justify sneaking them into the SGN line:beer:
Nightmoss
06-09-2015, 12:13
@Jim: What are we calling Non-State Actors like Caribbean/East Asian pirates, then? (The Barbary raiders were technically a state navy of sorts.)
I'd probably go with "Brethren of the Coast". There is some historical precedence I believe, but I'm far from an authority on historical pirates?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brethren_of_the_Coast
If you don't like that I'm sure there are other options for the Caribbean association of pirates. :wink:
P.S. Now you've gone and given me a great idea for a new signature.
I like the old timey "corsairs".
Nightmoss
06-09-2015, 12:22
I like the old timey "corsairs".
Corsairs or Buccaneers works too. :wink:
There's plenty of synonyms; marauders, raiders, freebooters, privateers, brigands, bandits, the list is endless.
“It's better to swim in the sea below
Than to swing in the air and feed the crow,
Says jolly Ned Teach of Bristol.”
― Benjamin Franklin
@Jim: What are we calling Non-State Actors like Caribbean/East Asian pirates, then? (The Barbary raiders were technically a state navy of sorts.)
"The Good Guys". >;)
John Paul
06-10-2015, 00:14
Oh you know we'll still find things to complain about :happy: That's all part of the love--if we didn't care, we wouldn't carp :smack: :fixit: :minis:
Fred,
I kept that part as a kind of secret in case the folks at Ares think we're just a bunch of pushovers!!! :happy::wink::thumbsup:
John Paul
06-10-2015, 00:15
"The Good Guys". >;)
Darn, Chris you beat me to that one!!! :salute:
Darn, Chris you beat me to that one!!! :salute:
Well, given pirate ships were about the only functioning meritocracies in the period.... (Someone proved incompetent at his job, he got deep-sixed, in the literal sense.)
They'd never let me do it, but: I want to see the last _Pirates of the Caribbean_ movie be about "the creation of a nation with the Pirate Ethos -- that it doesn't matter who one 's parents are, or anything else; what matters is performance". The movie would be set in 1775.... >:)
Comte de Brueys
06-11-2015, 05:11
Like a Disney film with a happy end...
:sly:
Like a Disney film with a happy end...
Actually, I even have the final shots set up: Sparrow is sitting atop a pile of gold maundering about his life as a pirate; as the camera circles him, it suddenly becomes the Jack Sparrow in the _PotC_ ride at Disneyland. The camera then, in one continuous shot, follows a boatload of tourists up the ramp to the loading area, pans down the line of people for the ride, flies over the outdoor loading area for _PotC_, pauses under a tree near the entrance to the ride, swings around to show the facade of the ride, then pulls back a little further to reveal a figure standing with his back to the camera watching the ride; he turns, and it's Johnny Depp. He smiles. Roll credits. >:)
Naharaht
06-11-2015, 14:55
Were pirate ships "functioning meritocracies", Chris, or did the captain have to be constantly on guard against ambitious subordinates planning a mutiny?
Were pirate ships "functioning meritocracies", Chris, or did the captain have to be constantly on guard against ambitious subordinates planning a mutiny?
Chris is generalizing. Every pirate ship operated differently. Some were democratic, some were totalitarian, a lot were somewhere in between, depending mainly on circumstances of the moment. None lasted very long. Except for the "Dread Pirate Roberts" franchise. Every kind of vessel was used, too. Most were schooners or less, the largest being converted merchantmen. In modern times, you literally have metal rowboats the size of the old jolly boats with an Evenrude motor, six guys with AK 47's, and one guy (owner of the boat?) nominally in charge for that specific raid. Even the Barbary Corsairs were generally ad hoc crews made of slaves and "officers" who would cut each other's throats if the payoff was decent. Modern Somali pirates perfectly capture the type of pirates operating in the age of sail (without the technology).
David Manley
06-11-2015, 22:48
To date Somali pirates haven't engaged in the orrendous atrocities meted out on victims which were a routine part of the pirate's way of doing business in the 17th and 18th century. Hollywood romanticism and calling them the "good guys" amuses me. Makes me wonder if we'll be seeing thigh slapping jolly SS heroes getting one up on the evil Allies in some Hollywierd productions in the future
To date Somali pirates haven't engaged in the orrendous atrocities meted out on victims which were a routine part of the pirate's way of doing business in the 17th and 18th century. Hollywood romanticism and calling them the "good guys" amuses me.
I have to admit, as much as I desire to use pirate ships as a means to attract players, these sentiments have not escaped me. Similarly, when I run RPGs, I require folks to play good-alignment. I think most folks would shudder if they had to play evil as evil actually is.
Makes me wonder if we'll be seeing thigh slapping jolly SS heroes getting one up on the evil Allies in some Hollywierd productions in the future
Have you ever seen the film, The Producers? It's a wonderful comedy. With the revisionist history prevalent in our culture today, though, comedy could soon turn into "historical" drama.
With the revisionist history prevalent in our culture today, though, comedy could soon turn into "historical" drama.
The scary part is that the kids will think, that's the way it really was.:sad:
The scary part is that the kids will think, that's the way it really was.:sad:
College students already do. I am amazed, at times, what they believe about history, the economy, etc. For all our talk about critical thinking skills in education, those skills are rare - same with information literacy.
Nightmoss
06-12-2015, 01:17
Yes pirates were bad. Might as well attribute it to man's inhumanity to his fellow man. How many "witches" were burned alive, hung or drown? How about the Spanish Inquisition, French Revolution or the African Slave Trade? I'm sure we could go on. . .
My uncle hated Hogan's Heroes because of how it represented life in a German prisoner of war camp as some comical social club. He spent some time in one and knew exactly what it was like.
Comte de Brueys
06-12-2015, 05:11
Guess why Hogan's Heros didn't play in a Japanese prison camp...
In general pirates are not able to fight versus our frigates and SoLs.
So if you want to sink sloops, plunder undefended settlements & terrorize merchantmen, you have to wait for the trading vessels.
...and yes Coog, the best place for a pirate is to dance on air. :thumbsup:
Nightmoss
06-12-2015, 09:28
Steering back towards the original post I do wonder if Ares will avoid doing 'historical' pirates as part of their ship line as something that's not necessarily family friendly? The Origin's award for historical miniatures is great incentive to continue along those lines, but it might not be expedient to do so when fantasy pirates likely have a broader appeal?
Given the number of pirate-themed games on the market, the disconnect between historical fact and romanticized fantasy, and the actual historical occurrence of pirates, I doubt it will be an issue for Ares, not unlike other wargames or family games that interact with evil. It is one thing to have evil present; it is another thing to glorify or justify it.
Demonizing "krauts" and "Japs" when WWII was actually being fought in order to dehumanize the enemy so that they were easier to kill wasn't "the truth" either. The Wehrmacht wasn't evil incarnate on earth. Neither was the imperial Japanese army. A steady diet of movies about WWII proves Churchill was right when he said, "History is written by the victors".
14708
This doesn't look like the tomb of a bad guy.
14708
This doesn't look like the tomb of a bad guy.
It's not.:beer:
I can't say as much for the first paragraph.
When Napoleon surrendered aboard the Bellerophon in 1815, boatloads of fans (British as well as French) would sail by and wave and cheer as he strode the deck. He was considered a hero of the revolution and was generally thought to be a really great guy. He wasn't entombed in Paris until 1840, about 14 years after he died. But it was a grand affair. Peoples idea of Napoleon changed during WWII, where he was compared to Hitler and Stalin as an evil war mongering dictator. To this day, you won't find anything named after him in Paris. His statue high atop the column in the place vendome was torn down and put back up a couple of times. The French still keep their distance from him, but it wasn't always that way.
The British had a real problem on their hands when he actually surrendered. They didn't know what to do with him. I think that he may have been the first known example of an extraordinary rendition.
fredmiracle
06-12-2015, 14:12
I think that Napoleon was a war-mongering dictator, just like many monarchs of his day. He was simply better at it than most of them. Unlike a Stalin or Hitler, he wasn't motivated by an abstract ideology that he put far above things like human decency. His ideology was himself (again like the kings of Europe), and that's something the world is pretty used to dealing with. What made him dangerous was that he was such a good politician and soldier. Other than that, as despots go, he was far from the worst. Obviously a charismatic guy, and with some sincere investment in Enlightenment ideas we would consider as "liberal" for his day--as long as they didn't get in his way...
He didn't start out wanting to be a dictator, read the Napoleonic Code. So many great ideas that were in large part copied by many governments.
But as the old saying goes, " Absolute power, corrupts absolutely ".:beer:
My point is that what was true then isn't true now. Napoleon was a great hero then. He isn't now. There's no such thing as non-revisionist history. It's all tainted by years of studying original source material and trying write an unbiased history in hindsight. Napoleon fired his cannons against his own countrymen in Paris on orders of the government. He slaughtered them and never felt an ounce of guilt. But during his reign as emperor, he was France's great hero, even after his Russian winter. He squandered an entire army in Russia. Most of them dying of disease and starvation. Here is what he said after he returned from Elba:
"Soldiers! In my exile I have heard your voice," Napoleon said upon his return to France in 1815. "Your general, called to the throne by the voice of the people and raised by your shields, is back among you. Put on the tricolor cockade; you wore it in our great days. Rally around the standard of your chief! Then will you be able to claim the credit for your deeds, as the liberators of your country."
Hot Damn! Where do I sign?
fredmiracle
06-12-2015, 18:00
I recently heard a talk by Stephen Kotkin about his Stalin biography, and an audience member asked him why Stalin remains quite popular in Russia despite the fact that his atrocities have been well publicized for decades and are not really even debated. Kotkin said "Look, he's the guy who won World War II. People love a winner. He will always be popular." Hard to argue with that logic...
Exactly. Here in America, everybody thinks that the US won WWII. But really, it was Russia. Before Stalingrad, Germany never lost a battle. After Stalingrad, they never won one. Russia lost a staggering 8 million military troops and still got to Berlin before us. You know those stars on that wall in Washington DC that represent the almost half a million soldiers who lost their lives? I've been there and I've bowed my head to them, knowing the price they paid. Imagine a ring going around that monument 16 times, showing the Russian military deaths alone. Total Russian casualties? 20 million! Russia paid the price. They own the victory. We were merely side players in that war. Is that revisionist? Not with those numbers!
After this statement I'll comment on the subject no further or we'll be arguing until they throw us off the site.
I'm not knocking Russian valor, but If the west stayed out of Africa, Italy, Normandy etc. the Russians that were left would be speaking German.
Eisenhower estimated 100,000 casualties taking berlin and LET the Russians do it on their own.
To quote Russian casualties just shows how inept the Russian Officer corps and Commissars were. :drinks:
All the numbers from WWII are staggering. Same with WWI. It's hard to fathom the breadth and depth of destruction - something as wargamers we should never forget.
I was typing as you were posting, Ed. As you say, it's probably time to return to the OP. Sobering thoughts, though.
fredmiracle
06-12-2015, 21:22
I'm not knocking Russian valor, but If the west stayed out of Africa, Italy, Normandy etc. the Russians that were left would be speaking German.
Counterfactuals are really hard, but I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. USSR saved themselves in '41 and '42 with very little outside help. Tip of the cap to the Greeks for delaying Barbarossa, and maybe the Brits in Crete for using up the German airborne corps. North Africa shouldn't be overestimated too much, Rommel's two+ divisions in North Africa would have been chewed up in like 15 minutes on the Eastern Front.
On the other hand, the Russians would not have had the mobility for their blitzkreig counterattack without hundreds of thousands of trucks. Other supplies and weapons were a smaller but still significant deal. And the Western Front eventually did help distract. Would Russia alone been able to stomach the losses and long war needed to win on their own? Probably, because reaching some kind of stalemate with Hitler would have been unthinkable. But the suffering would have been much worse, if that's possible to imagine...
And as you say, Russian tactics were certainly not efficient in terms of conserving manpower, and the sheer brutality and slaughter on the Eastern Front, largely initiated by the Nazis, is simply staggering.
Back to the original post, if, and I quote Ares, "We shall never forget that this game owes to you, our backers, its successful launch and even more successful development, and we really want to thank you, once again, for your amazing support. " then why doesn't Ares keep us in the loop with more timely information on current and future waves:question:
Surely they could give information such as both ship names on wave 3 sculps, & hints on specials or wave 4.:beer:
I find it hard to believe that they don't have this information until they are ready to ship.
I don't know if Ares understands the mindset of their customer base with respect to this, and information in general. With two websites of dedicated fans, I would think there would be more interaction. This past year, I started collecting M44 stuff. I was amazed to see the support on the company's website with customer-based scenarios, etc. It was quite impressive.
The battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in the history of the world, set the Germans on the run back to Berlin. They were defeated by Russia nine months before D-Day. But you only see one side of the story, Gunner, your side. You truly believe that D-Day won the war. It was already won by the Russians in August of the previous year. Get it right. Stalin won WWII. D-Day was a skirmish compared to the battle of Kursk. On D-Day, the Germans suffered around 9,000 casualties. During the battle of Kursk, the Germans suffered almost 200,000 casualties. Which do you think had a greater impact ending the war?.
I don't know if Ares understands the mindset of their customer base with respect to this, and information in general. With two websites of dedicated fans, I would think there would be more interaction. This past year, I started collecting M44 stuff. I was amazed to see the support on the company's website with customer-based scenarios, etc. It was quite impressive.
Speaking of mindsets, I wish I understood Ares. There must be a reason that they hold information back. Do they think that it builds interest? I think it turns many more people off than it builds interest. If someone knows the reason for their secrecy I wish they would share.:beer:.
fredmiracle
06-13-2015, 00:33
Speaking of mindsets, I wish I understood Ares. There must be a reason that they hold information back. Do they think that it builds interest? I think it turns many more people off than it builds interest. If someone knows the reason for their secrecy I wish they would share.:beer:.
I agree with you, but in fairness to Ares there are a lot of reasons they might feel differently. E.g.:
1) The reason you suggested--belief that giving away too much early reduces the excitement later
2) Belief that customers would be more annoyed than happy if they had to experience "how the sausage is made"
3) Trying to maintain flexibility to change product strategy or implementation
4) Trying to maintain flexibility as to how many resources to deploy to SGN vs. other products by avoiding commitments
5) Limited bandwidth of "customer-facing" people--time spent communicating reduces design & marketing efforts
6) Not worth the cost--the "hanging on Ares' every word" crowd buys a lot of ships each, but there are too few of us to matter
etc.
There are companies that do this very well, but my sense is that Ares is far from alone in the gaming industry in this regard
Berthier
06-13-2015, 02:41
My point is that what was true then isn't true now. Napoleon was a great hero then. He isn't now. There's no such thing as non-revisionist history. It's all tainted by years of studying original source material and trying write an unbiased history in hindsight. Napoleon fired his cannons against his own countrymen in Paris on orders of the government. He slaughtered them and never felt an ounce of guilt.
The context does make a big difference, but I take your point that todays mobs maybe tomorrows freedom fighters. Napoleon had witnessed the massacre of the Swiss Guard on the palace steps of the Tuileries (as well as the reign of Terror) and the lesson of unrestrained mob violence stayed with him, his fear of such actions against "legitimate" government, whatever that may mean, is documented and was essential to understanding his thoughts on stability being the first need for a nation's survival. I have not read anything on Napoleon and I have read widely, to suggest he felt no guilt when he fired on the mob. Maybe he did, how can we know? Certainly he could detach from the slaughter on the battlefield as many commanders could. He could rationalise that the losses were all for the greater good of France even if that was because he felt HE was for the greater good of France and knew best (which he didnt).
Relating to the current French attitude to Napoleon it is one that is decidely ambivalent. On the one hand they acknowledge his administrative and social, educational and legal changes that grew out of the Revolution and he enacted and spread across much of Europe. The discomfort arises from his position as Emperor, when they are now a Republic, the loss of individual freedoms an Empire creates versus the ability to enact change quickly and without fetters and the "glory" he achieved on the battlefield and in being an agent of change but under the auspices of personal ambition as opposed to republican ideals. He is both a betrayer of the revolution and a saviour of many of its' ideals, his impact on France and western europe is indisputible but the greatness being concentrated in the man and by osmosis only then to the French people doesn't sit well with the modern beliefs. To illustrate the point even more brightly, the French government recently officially complained to the Belgian government over its' plan to release a commerative victory coin (1euro I think) for the bicentenary of the battle of Waterloo. So there is the dichotomy of the attitude laid bare, we dont like the whole emperor and empire stuff but dont you go and celebrate our brave French soldiers defeat, the same soldiers who entered many of your capitals spreading the code Napoleon, the metric system, ideas of female and minority rights to the doorsteps of the absolute monarchs of europe (whilst doing a fair amount of pillaging I might add) and annexing half of Europe! In a perfect world, Napoleon could have been consul for life, conquered away, spread the revolutionary concepts of meritocracy (for was not he the greatest example?), ruled half of europe and if he had retired peacefully or died in office with no intention of passing power to his offspring and never having raised his siblings to power he might have had statues on every corner of Paris. Perhaps in a hundred years as attitudes change in France he will have a statue on every corner or just as possibly every last trace of him may have been erased.
Comte de Brueys
06-13-2015, 05:09
That's what I call a statement. :salute:
You speak my heart.
...and this explains exactly why I'm a big fan of Napoleon and French revolutinary ideas.
Popsical
06-13-2015, 06:34
The battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in the history of the world, set the Germans on the run back to Berlin. They were defeated by Russia nine months before D-Day. But you only see one side of the story, Gunner, your side. You truly believe that D-Day won the war. It was already won by the Russians in August of the previous year. Get it right. Stalin won WWII. D-Day was a skirmish compared to the battle of Kursk. On D-Day, the Germans suffered around 9,000 casualties. During the battle of Kursk, the Germans suffered almost 200,000 casualties. Which do you think had a greater impact ending the war?.
No single event won WW2, there were turning points in each theatre.
It is regarded by almost every well versed authority that had the allies not landed in Normandy the Russians would have run out of manpower before reaching the centre of the Reich.
The different methods of waging war by each of the allied nations determined casualties in battle and the scope of the theatres involved.
The Royal navies blockade of Germany, the allied massed bomber offensive, the manpower attrition of the eastern front and the garrisoning of the vast area of the greater Reich all contributed to the victory.
The biggest contributor of ultimate victory could very well have been Hitler himself.
Had Manstein been allowed to perform his mobile defence against the Russians it is very likely the Soviet army would have been bled dry before reaching Poland let alone Berlin.
Soviet casualties were close to breaking point after Berlin, a reason Churchill and Patton were of the opinion of a contravertial continuation.
Ares is pretty inscrutable. Sometimes I wonder if the heads of different departments are talking to each other at all. It doesn't seem like they are. If they did, you might see a more coherent operation.
I'm a big fan of Napoleon, too. You can see his influence everywhere you go in Europe. Even though nothing is named after him, Paris itself is practically a monument to him. Even the wide boulevards were his idea. It was too easy to barricade the old narrow medieval streets of Paris, making it very hard for troops to clear out troublemakers. So he tore down the old buildings and made sure the boulevards were wide enough to take an army. This kind of backfired because it made Paris undefendable when the German tanks started rolling in.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.2 Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.