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The post Dreadquarters, a New Supervillain Tabletop Game from Headlock Games launches in April appeared first on Graphic Policy.

Dreadquarters, a 1-4 player strategy game of villainous cooperation and tactical defense, launching on Kickstarter April 7, 2026.

Board game, TCG and comics distribution major Universal Distribution has agreed an exclusive deal with Dice Throne to become the sole distributor of the company’s products in the US and Canada.

Dice Throne games and add-on packs have previously been distributed by companies including Universal and ACD Distribution, as well as Alliance Game Distributors, which Universal acquired in May last year.

The dice and card-focused combat game has become a crowdfunding heavyweight following its original $180,000 Kickstarter project from Mind Bottling Games in 2018, going on to raise almost $13m across a string of subsequent campaigns.

Those crowdfunds have included lucrative Marvel tie-ins, with the company raising $2.1m for its first Marvel Dice Throne campaign in 2021 and almost $4.3m for an X-Men, Deadpool and co-op experience Kickstarter in 2023.

Universal said the exclusive distribution deal “marks a significant step in supporting Dice Throne’s expanding presence in retail stores, especially as the brand continues to grow its Organized Play program and introduce new product formats designed to increase accessibility and drive community engagement”.

Dice Throne’s Organized Play program is designed to help stores build consistent communities and host recurring events, with kits on offer including promo items, prize support and products needed to run casual or competitive play.

The publisher has also recently introduced a new single hero pack format, with the aim of offering a lower entry point for new players and flexibility for collectors and Organized Play participants.

Dice Throne CEO Casey Sershon, who took on the top role at the company at the start of last year, said, “We are excited to partner with Universal Distribution as our exclusive distributor in the US and Canada.

“Their expertise and strong retail network will help bring Dice Throne to even more players across North America.”

The post Universal Distribution signs exclusive distribution deal with long-time crowdfunding success Dice Throne first appeared on .

Cardboard Alchemy has taken the next step in its rapid expansion by shifting to distribute its own games into retail, powered by the evergreen success of its dragon-themed design Flamecraft.

More than 400,000 copies of the worker placement game have now been sold, company co-founder Peter Vaughan told BoardGameWire, creating an early smash hit which has underpinned Cardboard Alchemy’s growth since the game’s $2m Kickstarter campaign five years ago.

Vaughan said Flamecraft “and the fans that love it” had been a “game changer” for the company, allowing it to quickly expand from its original two-person team of Vaughan and fellow co-founder Brad Brooks, and paving the way for subsequent successful releases such as Andromeda’s Edge and Critter Kitchen.

He said, “We knew soon after the first crowdfunding campaign that this game would be an evergreen game in our line. At that point, we committed to making more promos, an expansion, merchandise that our fans wanted, and have started work on a standalone sequel game, FlameBound.”

Cardboard Alchemy raised another $1.1m on Kickstarter for sister title Flamecraft Duals in May last year – a follow-up collaboration between Flamecraft designer Manny Vega and the creator of its striking, cozy artisanal dragon artwork Sandara Tang.

The publisher has decided to make the two-player travel-friendly title its first to be self-released and distributed into retail, ending a five-year partnership with Lucky Duck Games and its worldwide localization and licensing division GPN.

The new system sees it enter a partner programme with publisher Allplay, in which Cardboard Alchemy will handle and manage its own retail sales, distribution, conventions and localization, with the latter providing global warehouses, pledge management and e-commerce services.

Vaughan said, “We are excited that retailers can get access to our games and other publishers’ games in one hub, for optimum savings”, adding: “The biggest challenges so far are the ramp up of logistics, operations and sales responsibilities.

“This can be a tough task for a mostly creative team, but we have the players in place and have taken our time to implement this stage.

“We know there will be many things to learn along the way for our small company, but we feel our great games will continue to thrive in retail environments.”

Part of Cardboard Alchemy’s expansion to direct retail has included the recent hire of Patrick Fitzgibbon as hobby retail manager, following seven years of sales at companies including Genius Games, Elf Creek Games, Greater than Games and, most recently, Quartermaster Logistics.

The team also includes Nicole Cutler, who joined the business as director of operations at the end of 2024 after several years working on production and logistics at Arcane Wonders and Pandasaurus Games.

Cutler said that demand for Flamecraft Duals had “far exceeded even our expectations” ahead of its official January 28 release date, with the company moving forward with a third print run of the game before it was even available in wider retail.

That confidence was partly inspired by Cardboard Alchemy’s picking up a big early win in the mass market, with the company agreeing a deal with retail giant Barnes & Noble to get the game on its shelves from early last month.

Vaughan told BoardGameWire, “It is a thrill to see our third title in Barnes & Noble. There has been such a growing diversity of games carried by this strong player in the mass market space.

“Flamecraft and Critter Kitchen are on the shelves at B&N and it seemed a natural fit to add Flamecraft Duals to the party.

“We are honored that Barnes & Noble would commit so early to Flamecraft Duals, and place it prominently in their stores to start the year.”

For global distribution, Vaughan said, “Cardboard Alchemy localized our games previously via the Global Publishing Network, a part of Lucky Duck Games.

“We are thankful for that network, as it has placed Flamecraft in 25-plus languages, Critter Kitchen in a ‘baker’s dozen’ of regions and Andromeda’s Edge in 11 languages so far.

“We now look to work with these publishers directly and invite more partnerships worldwide to distribute our titles.”

Those partners will include existing Cardboard Alchemy collaborator CrowD Games, which previously localised Flamecraft into Russian via GPN, and will now do so for Andromeda’s Edge, Critter Kitchen and Flamecraft Duals.

Like many overnight successes, Cardboard Alchemy’s was actually multiple years in the making. The company was launched by Vaughan and Brooks in 2020 after years of collaboration between the pair across Vaughan’s indie design and development studio Squirmy Beast and Dwellings of Eldervale publisher Breaking Games.

Squirmy Beast partnered with Breaking Games to publish Letter Tycoon in 2015 – with Vaughan providing some of the artwork – and a year later Vaughan joined Breaking as director of development, overseeing games including Brooks’ Rise of Tribes.

Cardboard Alchemy’s first Kickstarter, for Mission Catastrophe in 2020, raised just over $100,000, before the success of the Flamecraft campaign a year later catapulted the company into ongoing success.

The publisher’s next planned Kickstarter will see it crank up the complexity compared to its Flamecraft titles, with the launch of a campaign for Brooks’ co-design Whisperwood, a bag-building heavy strategy game, later this spring.

That game has been co-designed by Asking for Trobils designers Erin McDonald and Cardboard Alchemy developer Christian Strain, the latter of whom also co-designed the solo mode for Critter Kitchen.

Vaughan said, “We’ll be planning over-the-top production (as usual), bringing everything we know about game production to date to the forefront of crowdfunding.”

The post Cardboard Alchemy spreads its wings as ‘game-changer’ Flamecraft sells over 400,000 copies first appeared on .

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Flatout Games loves their unique themes: quilts for cats, turning playing cards into salad, wizard foxes, bee kingdoms, and of course the Pacific Northwest. Now they’re back with a crunchy roll and write that will have you traipsing around the countryside looking for good eats.

Take a walk with me through the woods as we play Forage.

The Bounty of Nature

Many years ago I read a book by famed author Barbara Kingsolver called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, a memoir about how she and her family relocated to Virginia and committed to living off only what they could grow, forage, or trade for in the local community. It was fascinating because it introduced me to so many plants that I’d never heard of before. Fiddlehead ferns…you could eat them? Morel mushrooms that some people call “miracles” because it’s a miracle if you find them?

While I never did anything with that knowledge, it really captivated me, and led me to even more books on the same topic like The Mushroom Hunters: On the Trail of an Underground America, about people who can make tens of thousands of dollars taking a single trip into Canada to forage for mushrooms.

…

The post Forage Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

What a charmer, this Honeypot. It has a great hook. It’s hard to have a bad time when you’re tucking cards into tiny manila folders. Also, there are bear costumes. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Honeypot isn’t quite I Split, You Choose, but it’s close. I Arrange, You Decide, maybe. I Slice, You Bite? I’ll work on it. As secret agent bears across five brisk ursine rounds, players draw six cards from the massive deck, arrange them however they see fit, place them in the aforementioned manila folders, and hand said folders to the next player in the direction of play. On your turn, you open your little gift and look at the first two cards. Now you have to make decisions.

[caption id="attachment_328210" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Photo by Ilya Ushakov[/caption]

If you want the two cards you revealed, great. You keep them and that’s your turn. But what are the odds your opponent, this rival secret agent bear with a grin on their face, would put the best cards at the top? The honey only gets sweeter the further down you go, right? If you think there’s something better deeper in the dossier,…

The post Honeypot Game Review appeared first on Meeple Mountain.

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Martin Melbardis began his design career with Campaign: Fall Blau from Catastrophe Games. This was a very interesting little dice chucking solitaire game on Operation Barbarossa during WWII. Since that time, he has started his own independent wargame company called Solo Wargame and has designed 13 different and very interesting roll and write wargames on a plethora of subjects including World War I (Trench Tactics), World War II (Operation Barbarossa, Lone Wolf: U-Boat Command and War in the Pacific), Napoleonic Wars (Siege Works), the Crusades (Crusade: Road to Jerusalem) and Ancient Rome (Rome Must Fall). His newest game called Fliegerkorps is focused on the airwar during WWII and looks really interesting and I reached out to Martin to get a bit more information about the game.

At the time of the posting of this interview, the campaign for the Kickstarter is active but time is running out and you can back the project at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/105281170/fliegerkorps

Grant: Welcome back to the blog. What is your new game Fliegerkorps about?

Martin: Hello everyone, great to be back! Fliegerkorps, my newest game, is a solo operational air war game where you command a German Fliegerkorps (air corps) across one of three historical campaigns, The Battle of Britain, Barbarossa, or the Mediterranean. At the very beginning of the game you build your Fliegerkorps by choosing a commander to lead them and choose four aircraft cards to make up your air corps. During each of the fixed 12-turn campaigns, you manage your aircraft, fuel, and squadrons under mounting enemy pressure from air, land, and sea. You must complete enough missions to rack up Victory Points (VP) to influence the campaign before attrition grinds you down.

Grant: Why was this a subject that drew your interest?

Martin: I’ve always been in love with military aircraft for as long as I can remember, but honestly, it started with late-night YouTube rabbit holes on the Battle of Britain with those grainy clips of Spitfires vs. 109’s which got me hooked on the subject recently. After a few days, I came to the realization that I’ve never seen a wargame about managing an entire air corps. I’ve seen plenty of games about dogfighting or perhaps controlling a squadron of aircraft…but never at the corps level where you must deal with logistics, maintenance and planning sorties. I soon came to the realization that I wanted to design something that felt like you were commanding from a smoky ops room in 1940, watching your force slowly bleed out through attrition and sorties while high command demands more. One night I sketched a rough game design document on the idea and couldn’t sleep until I had the basics down.

Grant: What is your design goal with the game?

Martin: My goal was to create a light-to-medium operational solitaire air game that feels tense but stays streamlined and abstracted. I wanted players rolling dice, making meaningful decisions, and constantly weighing risk versus sustainability. Most importantly, I wanted to capture that operational rhythm of launching, suffering losses, refitting, and launching again.

Grant: What sources did you consult to get the historical details correct?

Martin: Core was the Rand McNally encyclopedia of World War II for consulting on general WWII aircraft histories, campaign overviews of the Battle of Britain, Barbarossa, and the Mediterranean Theater, as well as aircraft production and deployment timelines. 

I’ll admit that I’m a total visual guy, and that shapes everything I design. YouTube documentary dives into Battle of Britain dogfights, early air war chaos, and Luftwaffe ops kept me fired up, motivated and increasingly informed on the subject throughout the entire Fliegerkorps development. 

Grant: What battles are included in the game?

Martin: Battles in Fliegerkorps are more or less abstracted into missions rather than recreated tactically. For example, something like the potential invasion of Malta is represented through a Campaign Mission rather than a detailed operational scenario.

The game includes three campaigns: the Battle of Britain (1940), which focuses on an air supremacy grind, Barbarossa (1941), which blends air and land operations on the Eastern Front and the Mediterranean (1942), centered around convoy strikes, the siege of Malta and desert support. Each campaign has its own mission structure and pressure profile, so while the core system remains the same, the overall challenges change depending on the theater.

Grant: What elements from the early air battles of WWII did you need to model in the design?

Martin; I wanted this game to lean heavily into the simulation aspects of controlling an air corps in WWII and leave out much of the unit tactics involved in battles. Several key elements needed to be represented in the design were aircraft rotation between the Operational and Refit rows, logistical limitations, and escalating enemy pressure tracked through the Air, Land, and Sea Campaign Dice. I also wanted the game to reflect the reality that these campaigns were multi-domain efforts. Air operations rarely existed in isolation, they influenced and were influenced by events on land and at sea. It was important for me that the player could meaningfully affect the larger campaign across all three theaters: Air, Land, and Sea.

Grant: How does the player have to balance their missions, fuel, aircraft losses and worsening strategic conditions?

Martin: In the Mission Phase, all existing mission timers are reduced by one (if they reach zero, you fail the mission) and so missions can’t be ignored for long. If you allow timers to expire, penalties escalate with VP losses, Campaign Dice increases, or additional enemy cubes entering play. If you choose to engage those missions, it will cost fuel and you risk aircraft losses. Launching aircraft costs fuel and after attacking, you move the squadrons to the Refit Row on the aircraft card for maintenance. Larger aircraft like bombers take longer to recover than lighter fighters. So every turn becomes a balancing act. The tension builds steadily over the 12 turns, and that operational pressure is really what the game is about.

Meanwhile, Campaign Dice track strategic pressure in the Air, Land, and Sea sections. As missions and events accumulate, those values can possibly creep up. If a Campaign Die ever reaches 5+, Saturation penalties will apply and certain section-specific restrictions will come into play. This will reduce your options and make future attacks on that section even tougher.

Grant: How does campaign pressure from air, land and sea campaigns affect the player?

Martin: All Campaigns have on their gamesheet containing three Campaign Sections…Air (red for enemy fighters), Land (green for ground forces, AA, and infrastructure), and Sea (blue for convoys, naval logistics, and supply lines). Each one has its own Campaign Die that tracks how bad things are getting in that section. The higher the number, the worse conditions are getting for the Germans. Things such as more enemy pressure, tougher challenges, and nastier effects kick in. If a section becomes Saturated, it seriously lowers your effectiveness when dealing with that Campaign section. In addition, that sections’ specific penalty applies (like in the Battle of Britain, where the Land die at 5+ blocks any chance of rerolls.) Ignore any section too long, and the pressure snowballs across turns.

There is also the chance of a Campaign Collapse which happens if any two of those dice ever hit 6 at the same time (Air + Land, Sea + Air, whatever), the whole campaign falls apart and you lose immediately. No VP tally…it’s game over. It’s a tipping point where one front collapses and drags everything down with it.

Grant: What is the dynamic mission system? How does it work?

Martin: Missions are the central heartbeat of Fliegerkorps, popping up fresh each turn right in the Mission Phase. Each Mission has a die as a timer that you tick down by -1 each turn and meaning no mission lasts forever, and can expire if not completed in time. This does really well to reflect history by adding a sense of urgency to each mission.  

Usually Missions are generated by rolling a 1D6 on the Standard Mission table for routine ops like fighter sweeps or convoy strikes and deploy enemy cubes in the section. However, if you land on a green spot on the Timeline? You Skip the roll and generate a Campaign Mission with bigger risks, but juicier rewards. Campaign Missions are unique, historical operations like the London Blitz or the Encirclement of Kiev.

Grant: What choices does the player have for building their Fliegerkorps?

Martin: I absolutaly wanted to include some sort of customization or army building mechanic in the game to allow players to build their own Fliegerkorps using a tight 25 Victory Point (VP) budget.

Before each game you start by choosing a Commander card and pay its VP cost. Commanders simply provide a single, but powerful, special ability.  An aggressive option like Richthofen boosts offensive output, while others may reward efficiency or control. Always choose one that matches your style.

Next, choose exactly four Aircraft cards, keeping in mind theater and year restrictions. A mix of fighters, bombers and some Recon aircraft is usually best.

If you have unspent VP, you can always buy extra black Fuel cubes or white Iron Cross cubes (for clutch rerolls.) In Campaign-mode, after each Campaign, you get a chance to further upgrade your Fliegerkorps by buying upgrade cards, or exchanging aircraft cards as new aircraft become available in later campaigns.

Grant: What does an aircraft card look like?

Martin: Aircraft cards are the real stars of Fliegerkorps, they include fighter, dive-bomber, recon, bomber, or even heavy fighter wings, with 2-4 grey cubes each to track the strength of the squadrons that make them up. I honestly think one of my best design decisions for the game was to have an airfield diaroma on the top half of each of the aircraft cards which is further divided into the Operational Row for launch-ready aircraft cubes and the Refit Row, just below, for beat-up aircraft nursing wounds, maintenance and parts.

Each card also has attack ratings vs. Air, Land, or Sea, plus a special ability that will help you during the Campaign. In addition, each card also lists if it’s a Large or Small aircraft type (which affects some actions, the reasoning behind this is that bombers are much more “hangar queens” than small fighters.) Finally, all cards have a VP cost to buy them in your 25 VP build, a year availability and sometimes icons for Recon. 

Grant: What is the ultimate player goal for the game?

Martin: The goal is all about how well you balanced your aircraft sorties to complete as many important missions as possible before time runs out. At the end of an intense 12-turn campaign it really boils down to pushing aggressive launches and attack tempo, against refit, recovery and the logistical limitations of WWII Germany. At the end of the game, you tally up those hard-earned VP’s from mission completions and lowering Campaign dice enough and check them against the Victory threshold table on your game sheet. 

Grant: What is the layout of the Game Sheet?

Martin: The Game Sheet in Fliegerkorps is laid out so everything’s visible at a glance. I always try to make it as easy as possible for solo play without over-complicated charts or even flipping pages. The top left has the Timeline with 12 slots or turns. Green spots on the Timeline for triggering those rare high-stakes Campaign Missions and with the VP thresholds just above the Timeline.

The center is dominated by the three Campaign Sections (Air: red fighters, Land: green AA/ground, Sea: blue convoys and naval forces) while the top right lays out the Standard Mission and the Campaign mission tables. Finally, the Bottom right has the all-important Action Boxes.

Grant: How are Action Cubes used by the player?

Martin: In the Luftwaffe Phase each turn, you grab four Action Cubes (think of  them as your command orders), and allocate them one by one into any empty slot inside any of the Action Boxes at the bottom-right of the game sheet. Slots are limited on certain actions and some slots cost more Fuel or gives less options than others.  For example, the Logistic action allows you to pick three options such as recover a loss aircraft or gain fuel. However, using the same action a second time limits you to picking only two options. I felt that adding diminishing returns for repeated use of the same action would help prevent players from spamming certain actions.

Grant: How is the number of Action Cubes available determined each round?

Martin: Action Cubes are fixed at four Action Cubes every Luftwaffe Phase. Campaign effects, Commander abilities or upgrade cards can sometimes alter the available actions in a turn, but for the most part you will always be given four Action Cubes per turn. 

Grant: What different orders does the player have access to? How do they affect the game?

Martin: Orders, or Actions, are where the player get’s a chance to react to the evolving Campaign.  Some actions require Fuel and each action resolves immediately once placed. The available actions are:

Launch/Attack: Launch aircraft from the Operational Row of one Aircraft card to target a Campaign Section. Successful rolls remove enemy cubes, which may be placed on Mission objectives if possible. After resolving the attack, those squadrons move to the Refit Row.

Recon: Use Recon-capable aircraft to gain Recon points, which can be spent to re-roll dice, ignore Saturation, gain an extra action, or adjust missions and events.

Refit: Moves squadrons from the Refit Row back to Operational status. Larger aircraft recover more slowly than smaller fighters.

Logistics: helps manage fuel and/or aircraft losses.

Grant: How is “victory” achieved?

Martin: At the end of the 12-turn campaign in Fliegerkorps, you simply total your VPs from completed Missions and any Campaign Die bonuses earned for keeping pressure under control. You then compare that total to the Victory threshold. Each campaign has its own required totals. The difference between Victory and Brilliant Victory is simply a matter of having a few extra VP’s to upgrade your Fliegerkorps at the end of the campaign (not to mention bragging rights) 

In Campaign Mode (or Linked-Campaigns), any VP earned carries forward and can be spent on upgrades for your Fliegerkorps, such as additional Fuel or Iron crosses as starting resources, upgrade cards or exchanging aircraft cards .

Grant: What are the loss conditions?

Martin: You lose in one of two ways…First, if at the end of the 12-turn campaign your total VPs fall below the required threshold of Victory listed on the Game Sheet. For example, in the Battle of Britain you need at least 11 VP to achieve Victory. Anything below that is a loss.

Second, you lose immediately if a Campaign Collapse occurs. This happens if any two Campaign Dice reach 6 at the same time. For example, the Air and Land Campaign sections both maxing out. When that tipping point is reached, the campaign ends instantly. This reflects the idea that sustained pressure across multiple fronts can overwhelm theoverall campaign of your Fliegerkorps. Ignore one theater too long, and the consequences will cascade quickly. 

Grant: What type of experience does the game create for the player?

Martin: I’ve always enjoyed fast-playing management-style games where you’re juggling resources and trying to prevent systems from spiraling out of control. That feeling was something I really wanted to reflect with Fliegerkorps. At its core, the game is a compact operational simulation themed around running a WWII Luftwaffe air corps. Each playthrough runs about 30 to 40 minutes. I also added options for different force builds and campaign theaters to try and create strong replay value. 

Grant: What other topics are you planning to create games for in the future?

Martin: Firstly, some big news… Catastrophe Games will soon be launching a boxed edition of my game, Campaign: Bagration on Kickstarter. It’s the direct sequel to Campaign: Fall Blau, but this time you’re on the Soviet side in 1944. 

I’ve also begun designing a new game called Shock & Awe, centered on the 1991 Coalition air campaign against Iraq’s integrated air defense network. I’ve also been exploring something completely different, a fast, arcade-style air combat experience centered on piloting a single Cold War-era fighter such as an F-15, MiG-29, or F-16. It’s still in the conceptual stage but the idea will evolve.

Beyond that…my solo print-and-play pipeline always remains active where I’m planning to continue my epic WWII Roll & Write series, focusing next on a North African campaign or possibly D-Day. Smaller games like this allow me to finish them relatively quickly while keeping the designs accessible and portable. I may also put out a voting poll to backers soon to help shape ideas for a future project. There are simply so many wars and time periods still worth exploring, and to me, community input is always valuable. As you can probably tell, I have far more game ideas than time to fully develop them all!

As mentioned above, the Kickstarter campaign has just a few days remaining so if you act quickly you can still back the project at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/105281170/fliegerkorps

-Grant

British board game publisher Alley Cat Games has triumphed in this year’s Diamant d’Or – a prize focused on championing heavier eurogames – after pivoting its strategy several years ago to experiment with crowdfunding more complex designs.

The Toni López-designed dice manipulation game fought off big name titles including Galactic Cruise and Luthier to win the 2026 Diamant d’Or, which was created more than a decade ago to celebrate complex euros the organisers felt were being overlooked by more mainstream board game awards.

Richard Breese’s latest design in his Key series, Keyside, took second place in this year award, while Ants, an ant colony expansion title from frequent Diamant d’Or finalist Cranio Creations, came third.

Speaking to BoardGameWire, Alley Cat Games director Caezar Al-Jassar said the team was “ecstatic” with the win, adding, “we have worked hard for three years to bring Ada’s Dream to gamers and have been blown away by the positive response from our backers and supporters”.

He said, “Ada’s Dream is the most complex game we’ve ever produced. A few years ago we noticed that the trend for Kickstarter games was leaning to heavier and more complex games than we were producing, and so we pivoted to explore creating more games like this.

“This meant a lot of extra work to produce the final game and we are incredibly pleased to see that work has paid off, and that Ada is being celebrated by the Diamant d’Or committee.”

Ada’s Dream was Alley Cat’s most successful crowdfunding campaign in terms of the total raised, having picked up almost £200,000 from more than 3,300 backers.

Its heavier titles in recent years have included Autobahn, Arborea and Baghdad: The City of Peace, while the company continues to put out lighter weight designs such as Timber Town and small-box offerings like Barbecubes, Tic Tac Trek and 2026 release Bookshelf, which Al-Jassar designed.

The Diamant d’Or win comes just under a year after Alley Cat announced during its Kickstarter campaign for Baghdad that it would cease producing retail editions of its crowdfunded titles “for the foreseeable future”, amid rising competition on shop shelves and uncertainty around US tariffs.

A statement from the company at the time said,” It is getting harder for Kickstarter games to succeed, both on Kickstarter and in particular at retail stores after the campaign.

“This, coupled with rising costs and the uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, has led us to look at ways of streamlining the business to ensure that we don’t have so much money tied up in stock. We’d much rather invest this money in making more great games!”

Al-Jassar told BoardGameWire, “Considering that these titles are more expensive to produce, ship, and store than smaller more retail friendly games, we kept the decision to move away from retail distribution of our Kickstarter games.”

A small number of copies of Ada’s Dream were briefly available through the Alley Cat website from February 5, but those available to US and European customers have already sold out.

Al-Jassar said, “The initial webstore sales were some stock not needed for fulfilment. However, as there are still backers that did not complete their Pledge Managers, we will be keeping a supply in storage until a set number of months after the end of fulfilment to ensure all backers have the opportunity to receive their copy.

“Regarding future plans for Ada’s Dream, we won’t be producing a print run for retail distribution but may have some more copies available once enough time has passed after fulfilment, and are exploring a future Kickstarter campaign with an expansion and reprint that we hope to launch in early 2027.”

The 2026 Diamant d’Or

WINNER: Ada’s Dream, designed by Toni López (Published by Alley Cat Games)

Second place: Keyside, by Richard Breese and David Turczi (HUCH!, R&D Games)

Third place: Ants, by Renato Ciervo and Andrea Robbiani (Cranio Creations)

Other finalists:

Galactic Cruise, by TK King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin Thompson (Kinson Key Games)

Luthier, by Dave Beck and Abe Burson (Paverson Games)

Philarmonix, by Faris Suhaimi (Archona Games)

Recall, by Helge Meissner, Kristian Amundsen Østby, Kjetil Svendsen and Anna Wermlund (Alion – by Dr Ø)

Sweet Lands, by Totsuca Chuo (Uchibacoya)

The post Alley Cat Games’ pivot to producing more high-complexity designs rewarded with Diamant d’Or win for Ada’s Dream first appeared on .

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Dice Throne Digital bekommt einen konkreten Starttermin: Am 14. April 2026 soll die Kickstarter-Kampagne live gehen. Ziel ist eine digitale Umsetzung, die das bekannte Duellgefühl auf moderne Plattformen bringt. Wer Dice Throne bisher nur am Tisch gespielt hat, bekommt damit eine neue Möglichkeit, die Helden auch unterwegs oder online gegeneinander antreten zu lassen.

Kickstarter-Start und Plattformen

Die Kampagne läuft über Kickstarter und ist hier zu finden:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dicethrone/dice-throne-digital

Zum Release soll Dice Throne Digital auf Apple, Android, Steam und Meta verfügbar sein. Dazu ist Full Crossplay angekündigt. Du kannst also gegen Freunde spielen, auch wenn ihr auf unterschiedlichen Plattformen unterwegs seid.

Wenn du es früh vormerken willst, gibt es bereits Wunschlisten-Seiten:

• Steam Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3855060/Dice_Throne_Digital/
• Meta Wishlist: https://www.meta.com/de-de/experiences/dice-throne-digital/9896895897045415/

Was Dice Throne als Analogspiel ausmacht

Dice Throne ist als Brett- und Würfelspiel ein schnelles Kampfspiel für 2–6 Personen. Möglich sind klassische 1-gegen-1-Duelle, Team-Varianten und freie Runden mit mehreren Parteien. Du wählst einen Helden, würfelst mit dessen fünf eigenen Würfeln und aktivierst damit Angriffe und Fähigkeiten. Dazu kommen Karten, die du über Combat Points bezahlst und die Effekte wie Upgrades, Statuszustände oder direkte Würfelmanipulation ermöglichen.

Ein wichtiger Punkt für Sammler und Vielspieler: Jede Person braucht einen eigenen Helden, und die Helden sind untereinander kompatibel. Über verschiedene Boxen und Sets ist daraus eine Reihe geworden, die sich gut erweitern lässt und in vielen Gruppen dauerhaft auf den Tisch kommt.

Mit Dice Throne Digital soll dieses Grundgefühl auf mehrere Plattformen übertragen werden. Wer das Projekt unterstützen oder einfach im Blick behalten will, findet alle relevanten Einstiegsseiten schon jetzt über Kickstarter sowie die Wunschlisten bei Steam und Meta.

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Take the role of a general (United States, Russia or Germany) in Aces & Armor, which is a complex (but easy to learn) strategy game. In addition to attack strength and armor of your troops, their tactical setup, combat experience, damage and terrain have a decisive influence on the outcome of the battle. Since each unit brings its own strengths, you must cleverly assemble your army to win the victory over your opponents.

• Cooperative or competitive
• Solo mode
• Detailed miniatures with many different unit types
• High re-playability due to the variable start setup
• Complex combat system that depends on type of unit, combat damage, experience, strategic formation, terrain and armor (known from highly rated game Trench Club)

-Grant

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Board game crowdfunding major CMON says it is exploring further IP sales and licensing opportunities in its ongoing push to fulfil over $14m of undelivered campaigns, as it continues its attempt to recover from massive losses racked up over the past two years.

The publisher – one of the most successful board game crowdfunders of all time with over $110m raised – posted losses of nearly $7m for the first half of last year and another $3m across 2024, figures which dwarf the overall $4.2m profit it had managed to make over the previous nine years combined.

The company has been scrambling to stem the losses since the start of last year, laying off staff and halting new game development and campaign launches in March, and selling off a string of its IPs -including Blood Rage, Rising Sun and its most famous and profitable title, Zombicide – in the summer.

It followed that by selling the IP for former Mythic Games titles Anastyr and Hel: The Last Saga to Don’t Panic Games in September, and parting with the lucrative Cthulhu: Death May Die IP to Asmodee a month later – the latter a series which has raised almost $10m from backers to date.

CMON has now announced more IP sales could be on the way alongside making an apology for the delays to its outstanding crowdfunds – some of which are now running almost two years beyond initial delivery estimates.

The company’s remaining significant IP includes the Massive Darkness series, with the most recent instalment, Massive Darkness: Dungeons of Shadowreach, completing a $2.85m crowdfund on Gamefound early last year – a figure which rose to more than $3.7m including late pledges.

That was CMON’s final crowdfunding campaign before it put all future game development and crowdfunding plans on hold a month later, citing the rising unpredictability of the US tariffs situation.

CMON’s new announcement said its priority remains to deliver all of its unfulfilled crowdfunding campaigns, saying that it is also undertaking ‘batch delivery’ of games to allow retail sales to help fund the manufacturing of remaining products in the line.

The eight undelivered campaigns include DC Super Heroes United, which raised more than $4.4m, and DCeased, which brought in over $2.5m. Both campaigns were initially due to be delivered last year.

CMON said, “We want to be absolutely clear: we are not asking backers for additional money for manufacturing. The responsibility to fulfill these campaigns rests entirely with us.”

The status of one outstanding crowdfunding campaign – Degenesis: Clan Wars – remains in limbo after CMON cancelled the project last July, claiming German design studio SixMoreVodka had terminated its contract with the publisher.

SMV founder Marko Djurdjevic told BoardGameWire at the time that his company disagreed with CMON’s account “in the strongest possible terms”, adding that it was not informed about the publisher’s announcement in advance and “certainly did not expect this attempt to shift the blame for the project’s failure onto our plate”.

The latest CMON announcement does not mention whether the publisher will ask any of its campaign backers for extra contributions to cover shipping costs or further volatility in US tariffs.

Last October the publisher added extra charges for backers of its Marvel United: Witching Hour and Cthulhu: Dark Providence pre-orders, asking them to pay an extra $0.69 and $2.30 respectively to cover tariff costs it said it “cannot absorb given our current financial position”.

CMON also has five undelivered pre-order campaigns on its books, including Dune Desert War and the Assassin’s Creed Role Playing Game.

Communication Frustration

The company’s new announcement its first significant update for its campaign backers since the start of October last year, and only its third since summer 2025 – a situation which has drawn ire from many backers frustrated with what they see as poor communication from the publisher.

CMON acknowledged in its October 2025 update that “rumors and panic” had been spreading given its lack of communication to crowdfunding backers, which it said had “resulted in us experiencing the highest number of refund requests in CMON’s history”.

It said, “This has created a vicious cycle: The slower fulfillment is, the more refund requests we receive. The more refunds we process, the fewer resources we have to accelerate fulfillment.

“With more resources funnelled into refunds over fulfillment, fulfillment slows down even further. This cycle has snowballed and grown into one of the toughest challenges we have ever faced.”

CMON added last October that the staffing cuts it made earlier in the year had pushed its remaining team “to its limits”.

It said, “With a fraction of employees remaining, every day has been a balancing act between managing production, logistics, customer service, and financial obligations. We have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of day-to-day tasks.”

CMON’s other attempts to bolster its bottom line over the past year have included selling off the global headquarters it bought in Singapore in 2017 to claw back about $2.4m – although that total is still a drop in the ocean for a business which saw its revenue slump by more than $12m in the first half of this year.

The company has also suffered two failed attempts to bring in new shareholders to provide much-needed working capital.

It began 2025 with two new shareholders due to invest about $1.39m into the business by picking up a combined 16.66% stake in the company – but those shareholders ultimately failed to hand over the money for their stakes, and the arrangement was scrapped.

Two months ago a push to bring in at least six new shareholders also fell through, with CMON only saying that the conditions for the share sale had “not been fully satisfied”.

The Hong Kong-listed company had hoped to sell more than 360 million newly-created shares in a process which would have valued the company at just over $5m, with the money raised going towards developing new games, marketing and events, and general working capital.

CMON said at the time that it believed the lapsed agreement would have “no material adverse impact on the business” and added that it would continue to seek fundraising opportunities, although it did not provide specific details.

More details about CMON’s current financial situation are set to be unveiled by the end of March, with the publisher required by Hong Kong stock exchange rules to submit its annual results by that date.

Last year CMON missed the stock exchange deadline for publishing its financial results, blaming an understaffed finance department – a situation which saw its shares suspended from trading for several weeks.

The company announced last July that rather than focusing on large scale, miniatures heavy crowdfunding campaigns, it had pivoted to releasing several small-box games direct to retail, which it showed off at the Spiel Essen game fair last October.

Those titles include Collect!, Peanuts Talent Show, Fairy Perfume, Rocket Punch and Yokai Carnival.

The post CMON exploring more IP sales after heavy losses, as it pushes to get $14m of undelivered crowdfunding campaigns to backers first appeared on .

A trio of comings and goings from the board game industry for the year so far – if you have news of a new role, hire or job change within the industry that you’d like mentioned on BoardGameWire, please send an email with the details to the editor, Mike Didymus-True, on:

Ross Thompson, Director of Marketing, Atomic Mass Games (Asmodee)

Ross Thompson, the director of marketing for Asmodee miniatures games studio Atomic Mass Games, has announced he is leaving the company after more than two years in the role.

Thompson joined Atomic Mass as senior marketing manager in November 2023, following almost a year as crowdfunding and marketing manager at Gloomhaven publisher Cephalofair Games. He was promoted to director of marketing in March 2024.

The move comes three months after Thompson won a special election to be named a media and events director on the board of directors at tabletop gaming trade organisation GAMA.

Thompson has also spent the past nine years running the Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook group he launched alongside Jessica Fisher, which has grown in that time to almost 26,000 members.

Writing on BlueSky about his decision to move on from Atomic Mass, Thompson said, “With a new year, comes new changes. I’ve enjoyed my time with Atomic Mass Games over the past two years, but I’ve made the decision to start on the next chapter.

“We have accomplished so much, with the relaunch of Star Wars: Legion and all the releases for Marvel: Crisis Protocol and Star Wars: Shatterpoint. The team here at Atomic Mass Games is filled with incredibly passionate people working to bring the power of play & hobby to tabletop miniatures wargaming.

“Getting to work with all of our partners across the Asmodee space, from group, distribution and studio has been an incredible experience. I am very thankful to have been able to work with so many fantastic people around the world and grateful for those relationships.

“Looking forward to seeing where this takes me. Thank you to everyone at Atomic Mass Games and Asmodee and Ill see you around!”

Thompson kicked off his career in the tabletop industry 17 years ago as the founder and organiser of San Diego-based gaming convention Kingdom Con, which operated for a decade before its last event in 2019.

He began working in retail support and development at Privateer Press in 2010, before becoming a marketing manager at CMON in 2011 and switching to a community manager role at Soda Pop Miniatures in 2012.

Thomson’s other previous jobs in the industry have included head of trade marketing at UK-based Steamforged Games and marketing manager at The Op.

Ilya Ushakov, Director Of Marketing, Druid City Games

Former Incredible Dream marketing director Ilya Ushakov has been named director of marketing at Wonderland’s War publisher Druid City Games.

The hire comes five months after Ushakov left Kinfire Chronicles publisher Incredible Dream amid heavy downsizing at the venture capital-backed studio due to volatile US tariff changes.

Ushakov also runs the board games-focused Kovray YouTube channel, Instagram account and Twitter feed with partner Tylor Murray.

A statement from Druid City confirming Ushakov’s hire said, “We’re incredibly excited to welcome Ilya Ushakov as our new director of marketing.

“From the moment we started talking, it was clear that Ilya brings not only a strong strategic vision, but also a genuine enthusiasm for board gaming and connecting with people in meaningful ways.

“We’re already grateful for his insight, energy, and collaborative spirit!”

Ushakov joined Incredible Dream in 2023 as social media and community manager, before being promoted to marketing manager in early 2024 and marketing director in the summer of that year.

The role was his first in the tabletop gaming industry, following a career which included project management at the Canadian Mental Health Association and project and co-ordination work at the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations.

Druid City’s 2026 releases are set to include Wonderland’s War Duel, roll-and-write inspired Wonderland’s War-adjacent title Off With Their Heads! and Wonderland’s War expansion Caterpillar & White Queen.

Ross Connell, Head of Crowdfunding at Mantic Games

Board game marketing and communications specialist Ross Connell has left North Star Games after almost five years to become head of crowdfunding at UK fantasy and sci-fi board game and miniatures maker Mantic Games.

Connell joined North Star as marketing manager in 2021, and worked on projects including Nature, the redesign of the publisher’s 2014 hit Evolution, which raised about $850,000 through a Kickstarter campaign in late 2024.

He previously spent almost two years as communications manager at Dice Hospital and Tinderblox publisher Alley Cat Games, and also works as a freelance photographer within the board game industry.

Connell has also spent almost a decade interviewing dozens of board game artists about their work on his blog More Games Please.

Writing on BlueSky about his time at North Star, Connell said, “Looking back, what I want to shout most is how many AMAZING humans I’ve met.

“Creative, funny, intelligent, and kind humans. People make games. Thanks to those who make this a space worth being in.”

Recent Kickstarter campaigns from Mantic include Assassin’s Creed Animus, Worms: The Board Game and mass-battle sci-fi wargame Epic Warpath.

The post People moves: Ross Thompson leaves Asmodee’s Atomic Mass Games; Druid City Games brings in ex-Incredible Dream marketing director Ilya Ushakov; Ross Connell joins Mantic from North Star Games first appeared on .

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Several years ago, we posted an interview with Matt White, who is a very talented graphic artist and budding game designer, that focused on his artistic talents and love of tanks. He has since designed several very interesting small scale wargames, with his most recent series being a World War II tactical wargame series for 1-2 players pitting the British Airborne versus the German Wehrmacht called Until the Bitter End. He then designed the next entry in that series called Until the Bitter End – US Airborne followed by Until the Bitter End – Tanks. He has also done a few others including Would Be Aces, Operation Biting and Today Another Battle that have done very well. Recently, a new game appeared on Kickstarter from Matt called Saving Angels WWII Solitaire Wargame Print and Play, which is a wargame based on the American and guerrilla raid of the Japanese held Los Baños prison camp in World War II. We reached out to Matt and he was more than willing to share on the project.

If you are interested in Saving Angels WWII Solitaire Wargame Print and Play, you can back the project on the Kickstarter website at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1564988876/saving-angels-ww2-solitaire-wargame?

Grant: What is your new project on Kickstarter?

Matt: My new Solitaire game is called Saving Angels and it covers the bold US Airborne and allies, raid of the Japanese held Los Baños prison camp during WWII.

Grant: What was your inspiration for the name? What do you want it to convey about the design?

Matt: I came across the history of this subject, whilst researching the Operation Biting game (which is also an Airborne raid, only British) and the name refers to the US 11th Airborne Division, as they were described by the prisoners, who they rescued.

The main element of the design is that you command the paratroopers and guerrillas on this daring rescue mission. With most wargames, the mission is often defeat the enemy or hold a point, etc., but with this design the rescuing of the prisoners is your objective.

Grant: What about this historical event made you want to create this game?

Matt: The main inspiration really was the story, but from the prisoners point of view. They had been treated terribly, for the most part, from their captors. The prisoners were from all walks of life, civilians rather than soldiers who had been captured. I felt it was important to cover this story from WWII, which has not really been covered before. 

Grant: What research did you do on the subject?

Matt: I read a lot of history subject books so naturally I read as much as I could on the subject. There are also a few really good videos on YouTube that are also well worth watching.

Grant: Is this the start of a new series of games?

Matt: This is my third game in my Raid Series – the other games covering the British paratroopers, with this one being the first game in that series featuring US forces and where the main objective is the rescue.

Grant: What games have inspired your design?

Matt: To be honest, the biggest inspiration really is the history side rather than other wargames. I think also the first two games in the series was a natural source.

Grant: I know the design is a Print and Play offering. Why do you feel this model is best suited for your designs?

Matt: I like making print and play games as it forces you, as the designer, to make every component count and making the most of the physical space on a sheet of paper. I find that challenge one of the most interesting parts of the creative process.

Grant: I know you are not only the designer but you do the art as well. Please show us a few examples of your great art.

Matt: Here are several different pieces from the game.

Grant: How do you create your art? What is the process and what graphics tools do you use?

Matt: I use a variety of tools such as Sketchbook and Photoshop. I pretty much draw in a traditional method, just using a Wacom pen and laptop.

Grant: What difficult decisions do players have to make in the game?

Matt: The player must try and maximize their units to the best of the counter’s abilities. Each unit will have strengths and weaknesses so coordinating your units is crucial for success.

Grant: What dangers and threats meet the players with their airborne and amphibious landings?

Matt: As the player pushes towards the prison they may encounter Japanese enemy threat but also the risks associated with such landings.

Grant: What objectives does the player have to accomplish?

Matt: The player’s goal is to get to the camp, free the prisoners and then escort them back to the pick-up zone to make good their escape. This was a daring mission as the Japanese defended the area and the player will have to fend off Japanese reinforcements as the player makes good on their escape.

Grant: What is the purpose of the 2 different maps?

Matt: The game comes complete with 2 maps. The first map is for the approach to the Prison Camp and features both Airborne and amphibious landings. The second map is the Prison Camp itself where the player must locate and rescue the prisoners before escaping back across the first map.

Grant: How do players control these units and give commands?

Matt: During the game’s turn the player controls movement of their Units whilst the game’s AI will control the enemy Japanese.

Grant: What is the goal of the game?  How is victory obtained?

Matt: Get to the camp, rescue the prisoners and escape, whilst fending off the Japanese enemy. It will take co-ordination of the player’s units, using them to the best of their abilities and a bit of luck!

Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?

Matt: I really wanted to create the strong narrative experience, that’s quite tense, of having multiple objectives (with rescuing all the prisoners) whilst dealing with an unrelenting enemy.

Grant: What kind of an experience does the game create?

Matt: For me, the game creates the idea that sometimes you have to be bold, push your luck and try and achieve success by utilizing the resources you have to the best of their abilities.

Grant: What other designs are you currently working on?

Matt: I have a plate of other games I am working on, mostly WWII! I’d like to cover more of these historical daring raids whether they are land, sea or air. 

Thanks to Matt for his time in answering our questions and for his great little print and play games. I love it when one of these new games is brought to light as I get to oodle over the art and see what new things he has created!

If you are interested in Saving Angels WWII Solitaire Wargame Print and Play, you can back the project on the Kickstarter website at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1564988876/saving-angels-ww2-solitaire-wargame?

-Grant