El Alamein is a deck building card game set in a fictional WWII universe where cute German military girls fight the British for Africa! Read more
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El Alamein is a deck building card game set in a fictional WWII universe where cute German military girls fight the British for Africa!
About this project
Welcome to the El Alamein Kickstarter! Loved Barbarossa and can't wait to continue your battle? Just entering this fictional WWII Anime Universe for the first time? Welcome aboard! We are not only bringing you an awesome fully translated game from Japan, we are also commissioning new art by the incredible artists of El Alamein and Barbarossa. With your help we will be able to produce loads of new art for this already beautiful game!
El Alamein takes the established rules of Barbarossa and expands them to include new game mechanics such as the British Counterattack; Right after taking a city when you think it’s safe to rest, beware! The British may launch a counterattack against you!
If you are unfamiliar with Barbarossa or El Alamein, El Alamein is a deck building card game for 2-5 players (loosely) based on the battles of the German Afrika Korps during World War II. While it is an extension of the game Barbarossa and picks up where Barbarossa left off, El Alamein is a stand alone game. Each player takes on the role of one of General Rommel's subordinates and will start with very basic cards representing the main forces you command. During the game, players will add reinforcements to their initial 8-card decks, fight battles, and attempt to complete military objectives such as defeating enemies and capturing cities.
Big Thanks to Board To Death for doing an excellent preview of how to play El Alamein!
The game uses an in-game deck building mechanic, similar to other deck building games of this style, where each player starts with a small deck of resource cards. During the course of the game players buy more powerful cards from an open card pool to build their decks.
Your ultimate objective is to conquer the British army's main stronghold in El Alamein and then their final bastion in Alexandria! When the game ends, the player with the most Victory Points is the winner! Can you withstand the British army's onslaught under harsh desert conditions, turn the tide of battle, and push into the Suez?
What makes El Alamein (and Barbarossa) an awesome Deck Building Card Game?
- You get to keep one card at the end of each turn to bring with you to the next turn.
- Many cards can stay on the table in your Front Line and stay there until an effect removes them. Most Deck Builders just have everything you played go into your discard pile.
- The game features a unique and interesting combat system.
- There are many card types that all operate differently, some of which can't ever go into your deck.
Similarities
El Alamein includes the same Basic Cards and Currencies as Barbarossa, with the exception of the Victory Cards. In El Alamein you start the game with 8 cards in your deck; 2 Italian Infantry Regiments and 6 Motorized Transports to bring your troops to battle. Throughout the game you will use these basic cards to recruit better and more powerful cards to your deck. Your goal is to acquire more powerful resources and troops to help your army conquer cities and earn victory points, just like in Barbarossa.
Differences
While the rules of El Alamein are mostly the same as Barbarossa, this game has additional rules for the British Counterattack with some accompanying changes to the combat rules and sequence.
Players who are already familiar with Barbarossa will notice these notable changes and additions.
- When you engage in combat to conquer a city it can sometimes trigger a British Counterattack Turn.
- If a player loses a City Card to a British Counterattack, it gets returned to the top of the deck.
- Combat Sequence is slightly different and more involved.
- Strategy Cards now have abilities which are able to be activated.
- Cities now have a City Number - at the start of the game City Cards will be sorted in order of their number. Unlike Barbarossa, they will not be put in the deck randomly but instead they will be sorted with the high numbers closer to the British stronghold in Alexandria (the last card of the city deck.)
- Victory Cards will be in their own deck and are received when players take cities. They are the main way of scoring in the game. Once the Victory Card is acquired it is immediately deployed and some of them also have effects that are activated when you receive them.
- If the Victory Card deck is exhausted at the end of the player's Tactics Phase the game is over.
Combining Barbarossa and El Alamein
With the exception of the rules about the British Counterattack, cities and Victory Cards, Barbarossa and El Alemain are very similar games. If you want to combine them, you can put together Supply Cards, Army Cards, Strategy Cards, and Support Cards from both games.
But the BIGGEST and BEST thing about El Alamein will be... the NEW ART!
There are about 60 more cards in El Alamein than Barbarossa and there are many cards in El Alamein which have repetitive art. Our goal is to reach enough stretch levels to replace all repeat art with NEW art! This is why we need your help. The more stretch levels we reach the more new art will be commissioned - So assemble the troops and lets begin the march towards Victory! All of the new art that we are comissioning will be done by the same artists who originally did the art for El Alamein and Barbarossa!
Kosuke Fukumoto - CEO of Arclight, Inc.
Fukumoto is the CEO of Arclight, Inc., whose Arclight Games brand has published numerous board games, and which organizes Game Market, the largest board game event in Japan. He lives in Tokyo with his wife and two daughters. He was born on October 3rd. In his spare time he enjoys reading and wine. As a student he was a member of the judo team.
Atsuo Yoshizawa - Game Designer of Barbarossa and El Alamein
Yoshizawa is a member of the Arclight, Inc. staff. In 2003 he moved from editing magazines and comics to editing board games. He hails from Tokyo and currently lives in Saitama. He was born on December 29th, and his hobbies include board games and wine. His interest in board games has grown over time, and he has designed several board games, mostly military-themed. Below is a list of his works:
Hobby Japan: Tank Hunter (1988), Tank Buster (1988), Dynamite Nurse (1990), Dynamite Nurse 2 (1990)
JIVE: World Tank Division (2003), World Tank Division II (2004),
Arclight Games: Barbarossa (2010), El Alamein (2010), Dynamite Nurse Returns (2011), Tank Hunter 2nd Edition (2014), Tank Hunter 2nd Edition: Jaeger (2015), Tank Hunter 2nd Edition: Commander (2015)
Kamikaze Games brings you cutting edge, over the top, awesome tabletop games from Japan! Our products feature amazing art, edgy themes, excellent quality components and exciting game play. Kamikaze Games is a subsidiary of Global Games Distribution, parent company of Japanime Games and Player's Choice Game Accessories. El Alamein is the second publication from Kamikaze Games and we are striving to bring you even more top of the line games from Japan in the near future!
We have gone to great lengths to improve our production process for the El Alamein Campaign. This graphic is a living Production Schedule and will be regularly updated during and after the campaign so you can see exactly what is in progress!
Last But Not Least... Our favorite subject! Your rewards for pledging to this awesome campaign! We have worked hard to bring you bigger, better, newer and more exclusive Pledge Level content than ever before! Without future ado ....
HEAVY TANK BATTALION PLEDGE LEVEL A
Identical to B with the exception of the "Motorized Artillery Battalion" Limited Edition Playmat and the "Armored Recon Battalion" Limited Edition Propaganda Art Print.
HEAVY TANK BATTALION PLEDGE LEVEL B
Identical to A with the exception of the "Royal Air Force" Limited Edition Playmat and the "Light Tank Brigade" Limited Edition Propaganda Art Print.
Want to get even MORE El Alamein Kickstarter goodies!?! Add these awesome accessories to your order and complete your collection!
Just can't get enough of El Alamein? Need more than one copy? You got it! Add-on an extra copy of El Alamein and get another set of all Kickstarter Rewards! **Add $10 for shipping to Canada and $20 shipping to the Rest of the World per game.
Don't have a copy of Barbarossa yet? Well add it to your swag bag! For only $50 you can get a copy of Barbarossa plus 7 Promos: Kleist (regular), Strategic Planning, Air Support, Strategic River Crossing, Sabotage, AND we are including Lil Fuhrer, Lil Rundstedt who are NOT available anywhere else! **Add $10 for shipping to Canada and $20 shipping to the Rest of the World per game.
These high quality Japanese card sleeves protect your deck from dusty tables! Get 7 packs of Players Choice Japanese Quality Card Sleeves for only $30! 1 pack of Red sleeves for your Victory Points, and 6 packs of Black sleeves for your other cards! OR get 7 packs of Clear Sleeves!
This awesome Oversized Playmat featuring the Motorcycle Battalion art is 36"x24", it's made out of standard playmat material similar to a mousepad, and its only $35 (plus $10 for shipping outside of the US).
This awesome El Alamein Map Oversized Playmat features new and unique art in the El Alamein Collection that is not found in the game. The playmat is 36"x24", it's made out of standard playmat material similar to a mousepad, and its only $35 (plus $10 for shipping outside of the US).
- You can add them on as a set or individually. They are $5 each or $30 for the set of 7.
- FREE SHIPPING!
- They are limited to 500 each
- Pins will be about 1.5 inches in diameter. The design is silk-screened directly onto the metal and covered with an epoxy dome to protect the image. The images are 'full bleed' meaning the colors run to the edge of the pin. The back of the pin is a plastic butterfly clasp.
- The pins will be mostly square but several will have a part of the image pop outside of the boarder (like the hat in Das Boat).
As we said before, our main goal in this campaign is to bring you as much NEW ART as possible! So for each stretch goal we have some new art in mind for city cards, promo cards and regular cards that originally had repeat art!
Risks and challenges
We have learned a great deal from our Barbarossa Kickstarter. The biggest issues we faced were:
- Pre-production and production delays: The game was fully translated however we had another translator come in at the last minute. He found some errors which restarted the approval process and because of this there were massive production delays.
- Not enough updates.
- Other projects got in the way.
- Ping pong approval matches with Arclight took forever because of time zone differences and the language barrier.
We have already started improving our process:
- The game is 100% translated and approved. For reals this time. Our pre-press production team has been working tirelessly to get everything translated and approved before the launch of the Kickstarter.
- Since everything is pre-approved, we will engage in fewer and less time consuming approval ping-pong matches.
- The living Production Schedule graphic will be available regularly and will facilitate more updates with more details about exactly what we are working on.
- We have significantly increased our transparency as a company, so you know exactly who is doing what, when and where.
- We have gone to great lengths to improve upon our Kickstarter management processes. One person is managing the Kickstarter the entire way through, so no other projects will take precedence or slow down the production of El Alamein.
- We have thoroughly researched and tested all of our printers and manufacturers to deliver the best quality products on an attainable time schedule.
All of that being said we do not expect delays. However we will notify you immediately if any delays do occur. We will explain in detail the source of the delay and offer a new estimated time frame to the best of our ability. AND we added 2 extra months to the expected timeframe for this campaign, just to be safe.
One other thing to mention: While we are always open to your input and suggestions regarding both our Kickstarter management and the game itself please keep in mind: We are publishers, not the game developers or designers. This means that we do not control the game content. We can commission new art and promos, but basic game play is finalized. Everything we do must be approved by Arclight, which means new art, new promos, even basic avatars and graphics must be approved by Arclight before we are allowed to finalize and post anything. This approval process takes time. Please keep that in mind when suggesting new promotional items and ideas.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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To add an Add-On to your pledge, you simply pledge the total amount you plan on spending (Pledge Level +Add-ons) and then at the end of the campaign we send you a survey where you tell us how you would like those funds applied.
Thank you for your support!
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We have too many add-ons and promos to feasibly find a relable and willing EU fulfilment service at this time.
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Worcester Massachusetts USA
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Yes, please read more about that in the similarities and differences section of the Campaign Homepage.
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Kamikaze-Games.com, Facebook.com/kamikazegamesofficial, twitter.com/@Kamikaze_Games
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