The player boards are finally taking their final shape. After a lot of beta-testing, we decided to lower the maximum diplomacy to 13, preventing people from just saving and saving until end-game. Although we are not making any radical changes at this point, beta testing have indeed resulted in some minor adjustments that will make the game ever better!

So this is Poseidon – the corporation with the most questionable reputation among the 4 main players in the Pleiades. Poseidon is basically a weapons manufactorer that has used it’s riches to simply buy what technology and other resources they need to compete with the other corporations in all areas. As the competition slowly escalates into open warfare, Poseidon stands ready to unleash the deadliest weapons humanity possesses…

FryxGames has launched a Twitter account. Follow us to show your support and get news!

Our Kickstarter campaign is slowly coming to its end, with only 11 days left. Help us reach our goal by supporting us on Kickstarter!

It’s been 12 days since we launched our Kickstarter Campaign for Fleets. So far, 25 backers have helped us reach 1627 USD of our 6000 USD goal. A big “Thank You!” to all of you! However, if this campaign is to succeed we need to accelerate the number of backers per day. This is where we need you! You can still help by promoting our campaign to your friends, sharing it on facebook, twittering about it, or backing it. In fact, we want to share a few of the things our supporters have done to help us out, as a way of saying thank you.

• 172 people have shared the Kickstarter page on Facebook! A big like!
• A brother rated the game on BoardGameGeek and wrote his opinion of the game; “Finally! My favorite game ever! Always want to play, no matter what other game is available 🙂 I’ve seen this baby grow from great to outstanding over the years, from a handmade version to, at last, the upcoming printed version. My highest dose of adrenaline in any board game ever. A must play!!“
• A Swedish boardgame-blogger kindly told his audience about our project. He received a prototype version of the game to make a review. Even though the review is not yet done, he slipped the news about our game to his readers on his blog Horizonten.
• 4 supporters backed the project with $100 to show their support. They will be rewarded a “Gold Backer” title on the back of the rulebook.

If you haven’t seen our introduction video to Fleets, have a look at it on Kickstarter! Have a great week!

First off, here is our introduction video to the Kickstarter Campaign.

It is time! You can now pre-order “Fleets – The Pleiad Conflict” board game on Kickstarter at a discounted price! Get it shipped to your home or pick it up from us before everyone else! Even if you don’t want the game, you can help us by:

1. Sharing the news! On our campaign page, you can share it on facebook and twitter, and every share promotes the campaign!

2. Liking us on facebook. This helps us reach many more people.

3. Donating from 1$. Every donation gives status to the campaign and puts us higher up on the popularity lists.

4. Commenting on the campaign. It may sound silly, but every comment adds to our popularity and promotes the campaign. A simple “Good Luck” would suffice!

5. Visit the campaign, the most obvious way to help make it popular. A well visited page will be promoted on search engines and on Kickstarter browse pages.

Please help us achieve our goal, to make Fleets a reality. We need your help!
//FryxGames brothers (Jacob, Enoch, Daniel, and Jonathan)

At last we are ready to release the rule book for Fleets – The Pleiad Conflict. Some minor changes are still to be made, but the result will look something like this;

Fleets – The Pleiad Conflict (PDF, 1,7MB)

What will you get from reading the rulebook? Of course, you will mainly get to know the game and all it’s mechanisms, but you will also get lots of background stories and some previously unreleased graphics.

LinCon

Last weekend, FryxGames was present at LinCon, one of Sweden’s largest game conventions. We had a large room to show our games, including play-testing of Fleets. The event was very successful, most of the time all our games were being played simultanuasly. We also got some valuable feedback on Fleets, as we are doing the last fine-tuning before it goes to print…

Maybe you’ve been curious about how the game will look when preparing for the gaming session? Although it is not yet printed, this is an approximation of the result.

1. Star Systems are shuffled and placed in the middle of the table. The number of systems equals the number of players +1.

2. Event cards are shuffled and placed in a drawpile.

3. There are only three available fleets on the market at a time. When one is bought, another one will replace it on the market. The same applies to the upgrade cards.

4. Escort ships, dice, and markers are placed in separate piles where everyone can reach them. The ships can be bought and applied to your fleet to specialize it in different ways.

5. Each player has a player board and may own several fleets. On each turn, all fleets must be deployed to the board, thus putting them at risk. Perhaps it is best to wait until you can both buy the fleet and fully upgrade it on the same turn before acting.

Within a week or two, we’ll release some major game content. We almost can’t wait! Stay tuned!

Let’s delve a little deeper into the corporations in Fleets – the Pleiad Conflict. Four giant corporations struggle for power, and each one of them has their own list of merits from previous accomplishments. Today, we give you the background of the two first;

Teractor-Olympiac
After the terraforming of Mars, several Mars-based corporations joined to form Olympiac. Trying to become the number one corporation in the solar system, Olympiac made a bid for Inventrix and Ecoline as well, but failed. Instead, an unlikely match was made when Teractor, a ruthless but mighty corporation even owning a few countries on Earth, suggested a merger. Being formed from so many different corporations, Teractor-Olympiac is perhaps the most versatile of the corporations. They spread their influence throughout the solar system and founded several interstellar colonies. When the race to the Pleiades began, they failed to fully commit to it, letting their advantage slip to other competitors. 

ThorGate Alliance
Energy specialist ThorGate has a Nordic origin but grew far beyond that during the settlement of the solar system, their expertise being requested everywhere. They even invented and had the monopoly on the warp drive for a short while. With the Pleiades now open for the taking, ThorGate arrived and formed an alliance with a host of smaller corporations in order to stand up to Teractor-Olympiac and the other giant corporations.

Which one would you prefer to play? Please give us feedback on our facebook page!

In Fleets, 2-4 corporations struggle for supremacy in the Pleiades. Two of the resources in the game are megacredits (money), and diplomatic points (influence). Money is used for building your military force, while influence is used either for playing cards with diplomatic effects, or use generic effects like withdrawing a fleet or forcing an opponent’s fleet to withdraw. You also collect your Victory Points on the corporation board – first to reach 7 VPs win the game!

Teractor-Olympiac and the other corporations in Fleets each have their own background story. Stay tuned for more flavour…

One of our more resource-oriented fleets looks like this:

Besides having place for some escort ships it can also use energy to produce… eh, consumables… to sell at a good price. Now, what should this fleet be called? We thought we’d leave that up to you guys! Comment your suggestion on our facebook page (here), or by e-mail (info@fryxgames.se)! We’ll pick the coolest one and use it in the game.

What are we fighting for in the upcoming boardgame Fleets – The Pleaid Conflict? The combat rages over the colonized star systems of the Pleaid star cluster. From the desolate Merope asteroid fields to the lush paradise planet Eden, and why not take the dangerous route to Tartarus in the midst of the Maia nebula, where previous battles have left tons of debris floating in space? Or perhaps Corpas, oldest and largest of the colonies, now a diplomatic center struggling with dwindling resources?

No matter what system you choose to occupy with your fleet, you can be sure to get competition. Maybe we’ll delve deeper into the game mechanics surrounding the battle system next week.

Although Fleets offers violence for all interested, that is still only one part of the game. One of the reasons for mankind to populate the Pleiad star cluster is the abundance of helium-3 encased in asteroids. This scarce resource is what makes warp-drive technology and interplanetary travel possible. As such, it’s an important economic factor in the Pleiads. The new escort ship, the Refinery, is specialized in obtaining this resource, represented in the game by spending energy to get money. The refinery is big and has a decent strength as well.