Making Much Progress
about 1 year ago
– Mon, May 01, 2023 at 06:47:24 AM
A Happy International Day of Workers' Solidarity (May 1st) to one and all, comrades! We don't have any big parades, but we do have plenty of updates.
On the Cards
Vladimír Dudáš, our highly esteemed graphic designer, and Ben Rawlings, our equally artistic savant, have been churning out cards of various colours and content. Keeping in mind these are works-in-progress, here are some samples:
Fulcrum Leader unique cards - the Zampolit and GCI cards
The F-15E Strike Eagle and the MiG-27 "Flogger K" variants - for punishing the enemy's ground targets
Events (EL) and Targets (FL) - the core of any Air Leader Game
Rulebooks, Updates and Expansions
We have also completed all the writing on the Fulcrum Leader and Eagle Leader rulebooks, with just minor rules for the Expansions remaining, and are swiftly progressing to graphic layout.
Veteran players of Hornet Leader, Phantom Leader and IAF Leader will be pleased to know that we are also done with the official errata and rules clarifications (which we've always planned to include with Eagle Leader and Fulcrum Leader.)
This will probably be a Letter-size, double- or triple-panel fold-out cardstock (similar to the Warfighter Keywords sheet), so that they can be stored with each Hornet, Phantom and IAF Leader game for easy reference.
We should also mention about the Expansions here. The report is: all fifteen designs are finished, and the card-, campaign- and counter-making is well underway.
Fulcrum Leader Campaign Sheet for the 1970's Soviet Offensive to neutralize NATO!
Standard Combat Loads
The Eagle Leader team has been hard at work codifying Standard Combat Loads (SCL). SCL are recommended for players who do not want to spend a lot of time determining what weapons should be on an aircraft. SCL are drawn from zero-cost weaponry, and can be a good baseline.
However, veteran Air Leader players wil also be aware that to get the best results, you must do a bit of min-maxing! In Eagle Leader, that will be more to aircraft selection - rely on the F-15C for air-to-air and the F-111 for air-to-ground. Their SCLs will reflect that.
Smoothies
Which brings us to our final point... Our playtesting team has been busy conducting their sorties one after another, and the gameplay is very much smoother, clearer and more streamlined than where we began. Among the changes:
Clearer text effects for Events and Zampolits
Reduced overlap and smoothed out Pilot Skills
Finalized the sub-variants of the Aircraft appearing in the game (actually... more effort than it sounds)
Dropped a bunch of fiddly, useless rules
Streamlined the rules for several major munitions
There's a clash on the border, a flame in the sky...
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out at [email protected] if you have any questions about your pledge or the pledge manager. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Ben, Doug and Phil, Co-Designers
Come join us for our newest Kickstarter!
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 12:18:14 PM
Third Option, A New Design by Joe Fernandez and published by DVG is Live on Kickstarter!
Join the CIA's Directorate of Clandestine Operations Special Activities Center, otherwise known as the "Third Option" and prepare, plan, and execute highly classified cover missions across the globe to safeguard US and allied interests around the world!
Card and Art Previews
about 1 year ago
– Tue, Mar 21, 2023 at 07:21:06 PM
Card and Art Previews
We're back! Firstly, thanks to Dan and Kevin for allowing a redirect in the team's efforts to update the card art from the early prototypes shown previously in the Kickstarter.
It has taken no small amount of time and effort to generate new templates, have arguments over the layout, throw insults about fellow team members' artistic visions, and generally come to an agreement on a vastly improved product.
Of course, we would not even have taken the first step on this redesign if not for our graphic designer and all-around good guy, Vladimir Dudik! A special thanks goes out his way to update the artwork you see here.
First up are the newly revised Pilot cards. The aircraft art created by Ben Rawlings for the iconic MiG-29 Fulcrum and F-15 Eagle now has a card frame that carries the same weight of design and period theme.
MiG-29 "Fulcrum-A" Card
F-15C Eagle Card
Players of the Air Leader series will be familiar with Support Aircraft and how they assist your primary Pilots with accomplishing the assigned mission. But in Eagle Leader and Fulcrum Leader, that has been modified with the Stress-for-Effect mechanic as seen on the new EF-11 Raven card below:
EF-111A Raven Support Card
A new type of Support mechanic was added in the Hornet Leader expansion with the inclusion of Squadron Assets. Eagle Leader and Fulcrum Leader has expanded on that concept for both NATO and the Warsaw Pact, by adding Squadron Assets that can help with specific target types, or add die roll modifiers in key game phases. Many of you asked where the Su-25 Frogfoot was in the pantheon of Fulcrum Leader aircraft, and here it is:
Su-25 Frogfoot Strike Squadron Asset Card
You can see that the Frogfoot can be a "force multiplier" for a low SO cost, but it will require you to knock the threat level down for it to ingress and strike the target. You might ask, how are we to roll an 11+ on 1d10 to get 4 hits? Well, there certainly would be other Squadron Assets that can give you positive die roll modifiers for your Air-to-Ground strikes!
The aircraft cards are not the only ones being revised, as both Eagle Leader and Fulcrum Leader have undergone a tires-to-tails art upgrade to bring Event, Target and even Zampolit card art up to the new DVG standard. This is something which the designers have pushed very hard for, and we want to make the game as good-looking as we can.
We will show more of the upgraded card art in the coming weeks, as we continue to build out the cards, smoothen the rules, and turn everything into a polished product worthy of release.
In the meantime, we'll leave you with this music video Soviet Jets 1947-1980 (with a few cameos) set to Gunship's synthwave track The Drone Racers:
Doug, Phil and Ben, Co-Designers
Just FOUR MORE DAYS for the Flying Tigers Kickstarter!
about 1 year ago
– Fri, Mar 17, 2023 at 03:28:00 PM
We just have four more days to unlock stretch goals for DVG's newest title in the Leader Series!
Russ and the art team have been hard at work creating new planes, pilots, targets, and campaigns for Flying Tigers Leader. We are very excited to get these to your table!
Join the Flying Tigers on Kickstarter and come fly the unfriendly skies!
