So it has been a few months since my last update. Progress has not stopped, actually quite the opposite! Lets dive into what has happened since the last update!
Art
There is a ton of awesome new art in the book now. In fact, other than a few straggling sections, there are only 2 chapters out of 10 that need art and one of those chapters is already in progress. The way I commission art is by providing the size of the area that needs to be filled, my rough ideas for that area and some inspiration pictures to help the artist visualize what I have in mind. I have the final round of art already planned out so when I get the current round its just a matter of dropping those pieces into place, providing the new doc and then away we go on the next round! Until then, I’ve peppered a few of my favorite recent bits of art all through this post! I tend to share these in the Anthems of War discord as they come in so that is an excellent reason to go and click the little discord icon at the bottom of the page!
Book Contents
I’ve been constantly tweaking little things in the book. Removing double periods, fixing punctuation and copy paste errors from my move into the final layout from my original draft layout. I feel like there are only a few changes left to discover and then the wording is all done. I’ve added a few more resources to the back of the book after some pretty nice conversations with companies. I’ll talk about those in a future update!
Addons and Accessories
I have been looking at addons and accessories pretty heavily lately. Not everyone can afford minis and not everyone can afford acrylic engraved templates and rulers. I have been looking into card standees, rulers, templates and maybe even terrain to provide as an easy way for folks to get started on a budget. Some of it may be things to craft at home but I really want to have a solid list of accessories that people can buy and use right away.
Character Builder
The character builder is still in the works and is looking great so far even just in its basic form. You don’t NEED to use it and can build anything you want in chapter 5 of the book BUT it will be there for launch allowing you to make any characters you like, add them to an army list and then export that list to be printed or displayed on a screen… or really whatever you like!
This will make creating your forces about as easy as it can get.
Digital Assets
I’ve been messing with Tabletop Simulator a lot lately, and in fact had an interview while playing it with one of my favorite youtubers and good friend BeardClipper. In a world where the words pandemic and lockdown are so common I do plan to do some sort of a release of digital assets so folks can play Anthems of War when it is released even if they are under lockdown at home. As mentioned in the last update, The Hordes of Northreach, the first story campaign book will also be singleplayer and I’d love to be able to provide that as a pure digital experience as well.
Release Planning
So, this is the big one. I have been working through how release will work. I’d love to be able to partner with a few distributors, especially in the UK and Europe to get my book into as many hands as possible but right now I am not in a position to shop that idea around. Closer to release I’ll be reaching out to a few companies to see what I can do in that regard.
Until then I’ve been looking at how to ship everything from my condo in Nova Scotia, Canada. I have cardboard book shipping sleeves priced out and a rough price for tracked and untracked packages to Canada, the US, Europe and the UK. These are initial estimates and I expect to spend much more time on the logistics of sending out hundreds of books in the near future. I am still planning on releasing this year and the more I get done in these first few months of the year the better I feel about a release in Q4 of this year.
This Blog
It’s back, baby! I am going to continue updating this blog when I can, with at least a few posts a month but I think I am going to ditch the every Friday schedule. This will allow me to focus on bigger posts, like a terrain building tutorial I have in the works. It will also mean I avoid the ‘posting just because I have to’ mentality making the blog a much more enjoyable experience for everyone! When the game is officially out I’d love to start doing showcases of different armies to explore different tactical approaches to the game.
That’s it for now! See you all next time! As always, links to all of my socials, including the discord in the footer of this page!
