The BOX!

We’ve jumped in our old red automobile and rushed with 20 miles per hour speed to the closest village. It was a sunny morning but then, as always in Belgium (always for the past year), the rain has come and the small wheels of the red old cranky automobile started to make slow slippery movements in the mud. We knew we got stuck. Did I say we were in the wildest mountains and the forest around was even wilder now when the rain got heavier? And did I say that this wilder and wilder with every minute forest and mountains were famous for their hungry bears and poisons snakes? Yes, and we were lost, stuck and …

Good that this is not a real story. Some times I’ve noticed, it’s easier to tell the story straight from your imagination than to actually be honest and write about the truth. I will try really hard this time to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.

So… it was like this.

In the morning, the weather was really great. It was almost sunny and you could even see a little bit of the blue sky!! “What a day!” I said to myself. But after we've jumped to our not-so-old and not-so-new black automobile it really started to rain. We rushed to L., a town which is real and where our friend who we’ve never met face-to-face lives. Did I say why we were rushing to the mysterious L. town? Oooh, I see - I did not. Let me explain to you what was the reason to rush through the rain on the great highways of Belgium! We went to see the BOX, but not any box; this was an actual handmade wooden and beautifully self-designed BOX. One day after buying a wild Warriors & Traders game box, our friend Tassos got so angry with the magically flying components of the game that he decided to do something. He did not want to lose any of the Barbarian units, Army units or - God forbid! - Princesses! He is a wise man, he is an engineer and he has an artistic soul, so he sat down and thought for a few days. And then he made the BOX.

And here is the BOX, handmade, wooden, with burnt out names and logo of Warriors & Traders

Ok, I do not know how he actually got the idea and if what I wrote is in any way related to the truth – but I like this story, so just follow my words for few more sentences and then enjoy the pictures.

Just keep reading… good! : )

We met Tassos in L. and then he showed us the BOX. I’ve seen the pictures a few days back, but it was something totally different to see the real thing. It was just an amazing piece of work. Tassos even took the time to get Warriors & Traders logo printed on the top of the wooden box. He made it himself! And as I was looking at the handmade beauty, I’ve noticed that it can rotate, so the players can get all the resources and other tokens much easier and that all the compartments are the perfect size for every single token in Warriors & Traders. And I could not believe that we’ve found him so easily. It is a big day, a great day and the day to remember and cherish when things are going bad, as we have just meet a soul mate. Whatever was the reason for Tassos to do the BOX, for me it meant - here he seats, a Facebook friend, mailing friend, a Twitter friend – a FRIEND who understands our craziness and passion.

Thank you Tassos – you made our day. And the BOX – it’s just precious!

And thank you all for getting through!

A new prototype

These days I'm in Belgium, with Andrei. After two days of playing Magic: The Gathering and Spoils, we started working on the next generation of NSKN boardgames.

Here's how one of them looks like, at the moment:

The game will have a large map and it took us a while to get to the same place and have some battles

As we work on it for the following days, you can find more pictures on the facebook page of NSKN.

Cheers, 



What's new in Warriors & Traders world

First of all, Warriors & Traders is spreading across Europe and North America. The game is already in more than 100 stores, in most of Europe and United States. A list of stores will be available in a few days on the official website.

We also have a nice surprise for our Italian fans! Thanks to Stefano Carluccio, we have a brand new translation of the game rules in Italian. You can download it here and we hope that it will make your game plays easier and more fun.

Last but not least, you can enjoy the first video review of Warriors & Traders in Romanian. Our friends from ce-jucam.ro have just posted it on their blog. It catches all the relevant aspects of the game and it immerses the players in the Warriors & Traders universe, explaining not only the game play, but also the story behind it.

And, just before the winter holidays, we are preparing more surprises for all Warriors & Traders fans, so stay tuned!

Are we actually on the market?

After Essen, many people started asking where can they buy Warriors & Traders - an absolutely legitimate question.

I would translate this question into "Are we actually on the market?" and I will also try to answer it briefly.

The games reached our warehouses exactly one month ago and in the mean time we've been in Essen where more than 200 people bough our game.

What's next? These days we're shipping to the biggest distributors in the United States, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. It will be a week before our game boxes will reach them and another one or two before Warriors & Traders will be in the stores.

The best estimate is that by the end on November, Warriors & Traders will be available for board game fans all over Europe and US. 

Until then Warriors & Traders is available for buying on the official website.

Can you 'compute' the game?

During and after the amazing Spiel '11 Essen experience, many people came to us with one obsessive question: since there's no randomness in the game, can you 'compute' your way to victory?

The answer we always gave was no. For some that was enough, for others, well, they needed to hear the reason.

The simplest and funniest was "can you compute chess?" and if you're no Kasparov, the answer is most likely no. Even though Warriors & Traders is not and never aimed to be as complex as chess, it is still complex enough so that there's no guaranteed winning technique that one can apply in all games and have a 90% probability to win.

Through play testing, and I am taking about more than 200 tests, we balanced the game in such a way that no matter what path you're choosing, you have a chance to win. More than that, we've seen that no one was getting even close of determining the result of the game even two turn before someone actually won.

To conclude, for the skeptics the complete lack of random is a reason to believe that they can actually compute their way into victory no matter what... and this would be true if they played alone. But the truth is that any opponent can and will come up with surprises. So, just like in life, the acts of other create enough randomness so that the game remains non-deterministic and... fun!

The games have arrived

It all started one and a half years ago with a dream and now it's stone cold reality! The games are in the NSKN warehouses and ready to be delivered to our first customers.

Making the games was much more than a game, it involved hard work, imagination, patience and more hard work. The last step was to bring the games from our partners in Germany who physically produced the games to our storage places in Belgium and Romania.

This was supposed to be an easy task, we had everything arranged way ahead of time and it was not the best time for surprises. But life has its own twisted sense of humor... Just a few hours before the pick-up time, the transport company who was responsible to load a full 20 tons truck of games for Romania cancelled on us and another two hours later the van for transporting to Belgium became unavailable.

With a supreme effort of calling, begging and threatening, we managed to limit the delay to only 24 hours. Calling almost every single transport company in Belgium and Romania, we found our salvation. Last Wednesday, in a foggy German morning one truck and one van were loading all the brand new boxes of Warriors & Traders and just yesterday everything arrived without further events in our warehouses.

It looks like every part of the making of these games has its own story to tell and we're hoping for more stories, happy ones from the people who will very soon enjoy our games.

Preorder!

Yes, it is true!

Since we're preparing an online store where one can just come and buy with the credit card, we thought that the pre-order option will be just too much trouble. But, after seeing how many people are interested in having Warriors & Traders now, yesterday if possible, we made it happen!

Now, everyone can sign up on the Warriors & Traders website and get the game at the earliest moment possible.

Why pre-order? First of all, it's a matter of pride, you'll have the game before the others and, most important, you could be playing before the official release, in Spiel'11 Essen, at the end of October. Second, there's a significant 20% discount, namely 10 EUR, and the shipping is included.

Pre-ordering will be possible only before 10th of October 2011. Afterwards, the online shop will come online and the board games will be available for it's original price. So, there's only one thing left to say, hurry up! 

Warriors & Traders

You must be wondering what is Warriors & Traders...

Well, it's a board game, but not just any board game! Right, everyone says so about their own games, it's the best, the coolest. Well, it is right. Let's just look at the facts! First of all, it is a pure strategy game, that means that there is no luck involved, no dice, no unforeseen events, it is just you against your opponents, starting with the same armies, resources and it is only up to you to outwit them. Warriors & Traders is a game where one has to plan ahead, to develop a strategy to defeat the others or buy out their good will.

Second of all, it is interesting! The universe of Warriors & Traders is set in the Dark Ages of Europe and you will choose a country to grow into a great empire. You will raise large armies to battle your enemies, develop your economy and trade for resources, all for one final purpose, the final victory.

Last but not least, Warriors & Traders is fun! There are a lot of interactions between players, you can negotiate with your gaming partners during the trade phase, discuss your plans and strategies, declare war and settle for peace. It's a game where promises are made and broken, where you can play in a powerful alliance or face everyone on your own and enjoy every bit of your time.

For sure, if you will be a fan of Warriors & Traders or you are just curious what's going on in the board games world, you might want to follow this blog. We will bring you the news, we'll discuss together about strategy and we'll give you the latest updates on Warriors & Traders.