Squadron Strike: Axanar In Development

Ad Astra Games and Axanar Productions will bring the space battles of the Four Years War to tabletop gaming with Squadron Strike: Axanar!  Using the critically acclaimed Squadron Strike game engine, Squadron Strike: Axanar will show the arms race between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets in unprecedented detail. The product will be available in both PDF and print formats, and will include the canonical class histories for all the ships in the film.  Additional products include a line of fleet scale miniatures. 

Ad Astra Games makes engaging 3D tabletop miniatures games, and has multiple licenses using its Squadron Strike game system. Ad Astra has recently completed a Kickstarter for electronic game aids for Squadron Strike.

Squadron Strike: Axanar supports 2D and 3D play, and is in closed playtesting now. If you already own Squadron Strike and want to get in on the second phase playtesting, please contact Ken Burnside (design@adastragames.com) for details.  Squadron Strike can be purchased directly from Ad Astra Games website.

Squadron Strike: Axanar will be available on the Axanar website as a perk for donating to the production. To find out more about Axanar Productions, watch Prelude to Axanar on Youtube, and visit their website at www.axanarproductions.com

We expect public playtesting to begin around June 15th, possibly sooner. Playtesting will require signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

May The Fourth Be With You!

With the widespread availability of gorgeous miniatures from a galaxy Far Far Away, it seems only appropriate to take them into new dimensions that have heretofore been unexplored...  

These are excellent ships to use for basic introductory games - they're fast, they're nimble, and the A7 Twin Engine Fighter tends to die quickly.  

We recommend a scenario where each of the new players gets a Cross Wing fighter and the instructor flies waves of A7s to be shot down by our heroic newbies. 

Also included are a set of optional rules for Squadron Strike that allow you to more properly capture the feel of cinematic starfighters.

https://www.patreon.com/StarShipsRUs for more details - the content is Patrons Only.

Kickstarter After Action Report: Setting Goals

This isn't a formal After Action Report with assessments, but my first Kickstarter is done.  It exceeded every possible expectation I, and my team, had.  I'd figured that I had a shot, with a late Kickstarter surge, of hitting my $5000 funding goal.  If I got 110 backers, I figured I'd be safe.

Final tally?  $15,942.    350 backers.   33 days.  Lots of work by myself, Ethan McKinney and Jon Barson.  Jerome Mrozak's yeoman work getting the first version of the AVID Assistant done is what allowed this to be as successful as it was - and Charles Oines' trailer got us a LOT of eyeballs.

I'd ran out stretch goals in three phases.

Phase I:  Pay for the work that had already been done.  This was the initial funding goal.
Phase Ia and Ib:  Add features I'd wanted in Phase I, but hadn't been able to fund out of pocket.
Phase Ic:  Make the browser based app into native apps for Android and iOS.

Phase II was adding plotting support for Squadron Strike.  
Phase IIa was making the platform apps less expensive ($0.99).  Phase IIb is making it free.  I figure that I made more off of those two stretch goals than I'd've made off of Google Play / iTunes sales for several years of having them up.

Phase III will be be game automation for Attack Vector: Tactical, and it will slide back to a future Kickstarter.  Attack Vector: Tactical has some difficult-to-implement tricks, which is why, when we hit $15,000 with 5ish hours to go, I didn't uncork those stretch goals.  Besides, I suspect we'll have a better idea scoping out what's needed for AV:T after we finish Phase II.

This is far from my only software development project.  You'll hear more about others down the road.

And thank you to everyone who contributed, pledged, shared links around and talked up the project.  Right now, however, I'm going to sequester myself for the better part of a day and unwind.