Hi everyone,
It looks like the State of the Mongoose this year will be delayed until January, because reasons, so I wanted to update you all on where we are with Victory at Sea.
First off, no way round this... we promised it would be ready before the end of the year, and it won't (sorry, Brass!). Having now seen the December update in the playtest pack, I hope you will all agree that we have come a long, long way, but we really believe the game will benefit from a bit more work.
Mechanically, things are in an advanced state. Point costs are mostly there and continue to be refined, and the core mechanics are solid and just need a bit more polish on a handful of rough edges. The main outstanding items are a bit more work on Coastal Invasions and Submersibles (and, yes, ASW are coming!), and the historical scenarios. The latter are where we are focussed right now (you can see WIP on the Pearl Harbour mission on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/mongoosepublishinguk), and we are in the process of adding about 20 new missions to the book, mostly in the Pacific theatre. To follow them, another 30-odd ships are also going in (plenty of US destroyers, and the odd Dutch vessel too!), with some more aircraft (yes, yes, ASW are coming!!!).
We are now firmly in the realm where we are constantly saying 'wouldn't it be whizz-o-whizz if we added...', which is where our projects usually balloon in size, and we are trying hard to resist going too far. So, we have already scratched the idea of adding a DVD with more material to the core books, as that would add another year or two onto the project, and we are going to resist the proposal of producing 6 x 4 printed vinyl sheets of Pearl Harbour, Taranto, Wake Island and Savo Island. However seriously cool that would have been...
We are expecting to finish all layout around the end of January - that is the Rulebook (fairly short), the Naval Battles of WWII book (massive) and the Fleet Lists book (not much smaller), all within a nice slipcase.
At that point, it will be a case of releasing it when we (and you!) think it is ready. I think it will take a little time for the playtesters to properly digest all the historical scenarios but, in the very least, Victory at Sea will be in a downloadable, playable state (and for free while it remains in playtest!) so... we kinda, sorta, maybe half-fulfilled our original promise in the last State of the Mongoose?
Maybe not. However, I hope you will all agree that a) Victory at Sea is looking seriously good at the moment and is moving in the right direction and b) another month or two (or three, whatever is needed) for final polish is going to be time well spent.
As always, all comments and concerns welcomed.
It looks like the State of the Mongoose this year will be delayed until January, because reasons, so I wanted to update you all on where we are with Victory at Sea.
First off, no way round this... we promised it would be ready before the end of the year, and it won't (sorry, Brass!). Having now seen the December update in the playtest pack, I hope you will all agree that we have come a long, long way, but we really believe the game will benefit from a bit more work.
Mechanically, things are in an advanced state. Point costs are mostly there and continue to be refined, and the core mechanics are solid and just need a bit more polish on a handful of rough edges. The main outstanding items are a bit more work on Coastal Invasions and Submersibles (and, yes, ASW are coming!), and the historical scenarios. The latter are where we are focussed right now (you can see WIP on the Pearl Harbour mission on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/mongoosepublishinguk), and we are in the process of adding about 20 new missions to the book, mostly in the Pacific theatre. To follow them, another 30-odd ships are also going in (plenty of US destroyers, and the odd Dutch vessel too!), with some more aircraft (yes, yes, ASW are coming!!!).
We are now firmly in the realm where we are constantly saying 'wouldn't it be whizz-o-whizz if we added...', which is where our projects usually balloon in size, and we are trying hard to resist going too far. So, we have already scratched the idea of adding a DVD with more material to the core books, as that would add another year or two onto the project, and we are going to resist the proposal of producing 6 x 4 printed vinyl sheets of Pearl Harbour, Taranto, Wake Island and Savo Island. However seriously cool that would have been...
We are expecting to finish all layout around the end of January - that is the Rulebook (fairly short), the Naval Battles of WWII book (massive) and the Fleet Lists book (not much smaller), all within a nice slipcase.
At that point, it will be a case of releasing it when we (and you!) think it is ready. I think it will take a little time for the playtesters to properly digest all the historical scenarios but, in the very least, Victory at Sea will be in a downloadable, playable state (and for free while it remains in playtest!) so... we kinda, sorta, maybe half-fulfilled our original promise in the last State of the Mongoose?
Maybe not. However, I hope you will all agree that a) Victory at Sea is looking seriously good at the moment and is moving in the right direction and b) another month or two (or three, whatever is needed) for final polish is going to be time well spent.
As always, all comments and concerns welcomed.
However, I hope you can see everything is in a nicely advanced state and it will not be long now.
