About three weeks back I lamented about the nearly two dozen preorders and crowdfunding campaign pledges I carried as outstanding. My, how much things can change in three weeks! Not all of my new acquisitions are campaign fulfillment or (finally) delivery of preorders but enough of them are. That and the adoption of a new strategy to cut my crowdfunding exposure turned the summer of 2025 hot for my gaming.
Summer gains
Admiralty Trilogy Group. The latest rule set from ATG to get an update is Command at Sea 5th Edition: War at Sea 1926-1955. I purchased digital copies of the 5th edition rulebook and the Player’s Handbook. Call it my guilty pleasure.
Flea Market. A wonderful benefit of dealing with a local gaming flea market is that “delivery” is usually pretty quick; i.e. as fast as a meeting can be arranged. Thus, three new game entered Casa de Rocky in the past few weeks:
Gamecrafter. As mentioned in my last preorder update, the wargame practitioner in me took over on my birthday and I ordered the Air Force Wargame: Indo-Pacific by the Air Force Wargaming Institute. The (quality) print-on-demand product delivered on time as promised when placing the order.
Kickstarter Plus. SURPRISE! In my last preorder update I was a bit very negative about the Kickstarter production and delivery timeline for Emergency Operations Center Board Game – Wildfire Mayhem by Arthur Simental (funded Dec 2024; projected delivery Dec 2024). Recall that I expressed extreme doubts about ever getting the product. Well, guess what? IT’S HERE!
Multi-Man Publishing. Although I had forgotten all about preordering the game I am happy to see Inflection Point (Battalion Combat Series) arrive. This is my first BCS title and I look forward to digging into the system.
Paper Forge. I recently have been on a bit of a modern space combat binge. Frankly speaking there are very few wargames out there that address, much less cover is any sort of serious manner, orbital space warfare of today. As a matter of fact, to find a game I had to go back in the archives of WargameVault and purchase ASAT: Orbital Combat and the expansion ASAT: Fighter Expansion both from 2014. While the game may feature more “realistic” orbital maneuvering, both are still flights of fancy when it comes to the platforms and weapons. Well, it could be a building block to something else…
Summer losses
When I last looked at my crowdfunding and direct order backlog of boardgames and wargames—just a mere three weeks ago—I listed 24 titles. As of 12 July, I now carry just 14 games on preorder or crowdfunded awaiting fulfillment. What happened to the other ten games? As noted above several were delivered but, regretfully, I also pulled the plug on others.
Kickstarter (and Gamefound) Minus. For what may the first time ever for myself I canceled several crowdfunding pledges. Three in total; two wargames and a boardgame. I waited a long time and agonized over pulling the trigger. I really want to support creators and see them succeed. While I could gripe about extended design and production timelines and how different publishers are handling tariffs those are not the ultimate reason for my cancellation. At the end of the day, frankly, my decision to cancel came down to how badly I really wanted the title. My deeply considered answer for how badly I wanted these three was, “not enough.”
For the games I have in hand, however, my interest is high. Now to work the rest of the summer—and likely into the fall—to get all those games to the table!
Feature image courtesy RMN
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