Tag Archives: Kickstarter

games

Release! A game about building software

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I got my kickstarter reward from funding Release! The game arrived the other day, I’ve not yet had a chance to play it but I thought I’d share these photos with you of the box and it’s contents.

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Game Blurb

RELEASE! is a light card game about software and the people who make it.

It takes modern development methodologies and crams them into a trick taking card game that is fast paced, easy to pick up, and has a lot of room for strategy.

The Kickstarter edition contains the base game and 14 new plug-ins and expansions.

What’s in the box?

Lots of stuff, mainly game cards, some notepads for recording your score and bits to keep the expansions etc separate. Here are some pictures.

The contents of the Release! box spread out
The contents of the Release! box spread out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Close up of a handful of cards from Release!

Close up of a handful of cards from Release!

 

 

I funded the kickstarter because not only do I like to play games, but I get involved in developing software at work. Some of the example cards above are ones that I’d like to play on people at work when they get out of hand…

How to Play

The guys that produced the game have put together a video of how to play the game.

As well as the lovely pre-done box you can also download a PDF of the game for free. You can then print and cut your own cards. Useful if you just want to expand the game or you would like to see the details before you buy. Worth a look.

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games, History, Naval, WW1

Book Review – Fatal Choices by Seth Owen

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Fatal Choices: Wargames, Decisions and Destiny in the 1914 Battles of Coronel and FalklandsFatal Choices: Wargames, Decisions and Destiny in the 1914 Battles of Coronel and Falklands by Seth Owen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I backed the Kickstarter campaign and got both the ebook and the paperback version of this as well as some pre-cut counters for playing the scenarios.

The book is a fascinating tour of the what if as well as the real history. It takes us through the technical and political backgrounds of both sides, the vessels and the commanders. Owen explains why the situation was what it was, why the protagonist navies had chosen their strategy and how they had got their ships on station when the first world war started.

Map showing British and German ships and movem...
Map showing British and German ships and movements at the Battle of Coronel, 1 November 1914. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Each of the battles is presented as a playable scenario, with basic rules in the annex and some counters (I got the pre-cut set as part of the Kickstarter, but the book has a copyable annex). In addition to the house rules in the book there are also suggestions for how to play the game with a couple of other popular sets of naval wargame rules.

Doing this allows readers to understand how much leeway the real result had, what was inevitable, what was plausible and what was bad luck or poor judgement. The factors affecting this are also explained in the text. For example British gunnery was poor, most of the sailors were reservists recalled at the outbreak of war, so they were out of practice and many unfamiliar with the kit installed on the ships. They were also scratch crews and hadn’t had much time to practice together.

This is so much more than a history, it offers an insight into how and why the events in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean turned out the way they did.

View all my reviews

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