Political struggle in post-Cold War Europe. Tense strategy game. No luck - just skill. 2 asymmetric players. Game time: 60-90 minutes.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Production and Pledge Manager
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Aug 02, 2019 at 03:06:09 AM
Hello Everyone!
Production update
The production of the game runs on schedule. We have just finished editing the English game files. Our partners have received them for translation and layout. Now we are uploading them here, for your final proofreading. Please take a look at the files - if you have any remarks, please mark them directly on the files, using the Dropbox tools. We will be collecting them till the end of this week. Then our native proofreaders will use them for the final edition of the rules and we will be able to put them to print.
With the game entering production soon, we have to compile a final list of backers and pre-orders. We are going to close the Pledge Manager at 12th of August. That gives you 10 days to complete your orders and close your pledges. And there are still many of you who need to do it:
That is why you should no longer hesitate, so please visit the Pledge Manager today! Log in with your Kickstarter email and finalize the procedure. Please note, that the pre-order will be closed at the same time. Your cards will be charged next week as well. Thank you!
As this particular project is drawing to a close, then what about...
The Next Project
You have been waiting for this one since the end of our Hannibal&Hamilcar campaign. Successors is one of the best multiplayer strategy games ever published. It now returns in full glory in brand new, exclusive edition!
PLEDGE MANAGER AND PRE-ORDER ARE LIVE
almost 5 years ago
– Fri, Jul 12, 2019 at 03:36:51 PM
Hello Everyone!
The Backerkit Pledge Manager (PM) is now open, and you should receive an email invitation soon. If not, please check your SPAM folder. If you still can’t see the invitation, please go directly to https://europe-divided-project.backerkit.com/ and use your Kickstarter registration e-mail to get your invitation.
After you click the invitation link, please choose your country. This will set up your shipping charge.
Next please choose your language edition.
Then continue with the add-ons. Please add to your cart the additional items you wish to have in your order - as it is done in a regular web shop. Your pledged amount is your available credit (reduced by the pledge you have choosen, that you already have in your basket, including the game itself and free Rubeuro coins set). But you can purchase any extra items, and total to be paid will be created indlucing the shipping price.
Finally, enter your shipping address, pay the balance, and click "Place Order" and you'll be all set.
Once you respond to your survey, you can still go back later and change your choices until we close the surveys and get our final counts. If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://europe-divided-project.backerkit.com/
If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://europe-divided-project.backerkit.com/faq
If you have any questions about the Pledge Manager or how your order is processed, please make sure to contact Backerkit Support first, as the tool is very user-friendly and has a solid helpdesk. If they can’t help you, please contact Agata Jurczyszyn, our BackerKit Manager: agata.jurczyszyn[at]vertima.trade
The pledge manager will be open till 12th of August.
PRE-ORDER
The Pledge Manager is open for anyone who would like to receive the game at the same time as the Kickstarter backers. Here is a link to the preorder page (it works like a regular web shop): https://europe-divided-project.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Please note that the Rubeuro metal coins set and Deluxe wooden dice and military presence meeples set are sold separately (as an add-ons). Everything else is the same as in the campaign, for the Black Sea Pledge.
Happy gaming!
Michal & PHALANX Team
The World United
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 01, 2019 at 11:18:36 AM
Hello Everyone,
There is more than eight hundred backers behind this project. Not just from Europe. From the whole World. It is a fantastic result for a board game with such a heavy theme. Please accept our deepest thanks for your support.
We haven’t reached the Future Variant goal, but it won’t be forgotten. If the game does well in retail and needs to be reprinted we will look into the possibility to publish the variant as an expansion. In order to be updated on the developments, make sure to join our newsletter database: https://phalanxgames.co.uk/newsletter.html
As you know, we are restless at Phalanx and the moment one project goes to production, the next one is announced. So, what’s next?
The Classic Returns
New Phalanx Edition of Fire in the Sky is now available for preorder!
Fire in the Sky is a two-player game of strategic rivalry and tactical responsiveness set in during the Pacific War, which stretched between Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th 1941 and Hiroshima and Nagasaki obliteration in the atomic hellfire in August 1945. During 16 phase-based turns, you will attempt to conduct successful attacks on your opponent’s units, break loose from the sea siege or simply outsmart your enemy so craftily that his willingness to carry on would be crushed. You shall not forget about the logistics – spend your transportation points wisely and supply your units with oil or they end up as unarmed stationary ducks, an easy prey for enemy dive bombers or destroyers.
And what about our next Kickstarter campaign? Please join Phalanx Club, our Facebook group and you will be among the first to know: https://www.facebook.com/groups/phalanxclub/
The Next Steps
Please read the following info, as this is very important post-campaign data that all of you need to know:
1. We will be setting up the pledge manager as soon as possible - we will use BackerKit.com. It will allow you to:
manage your pledges (check your items, add or remove items from your pledge),
purchase extra copies of the game, add-ons etc.,
enter your delivery addresses.
Please do not send us messages containing the above information, as we will be unable to process it. These kinds of choices are made in the pledge manager ONLY.
2. People who have missed the campaign will be able to pre-order the game in the pledge manager. You will be able to buy the Rubeuro Coins Set Expansion as an add-on, as well as the deluxe wooden Dice Set and Military Presence Meeples.
3. Once the pledge manager is open, you will receive an email notification. There is also going to be a separate update too. You really can’t miss it, although please check your spam email from time to time. ;)
4. The pledge manager should go live in 1 month after the campaign finished, as we need to make the final quotes for shipping based on the number of backers from each country, and setup all the products in the manager. It will be live for another 1 month. The pledge manager works like a standard webshop where you choose the items you want to get for your credit (the amount pledged during the campaign). You will be able to increase your credit, to pay for shipping and add-ons, if you choose any.
5. Current payments are processed by Kickstarter, so please contact their help desk if you have any problems with charging your cards. Sorry, but we can't help you in any way, as this is run solely by Kickstarter and we have no influence over this process.
6. We will keep you updated about game development and production status. We won’t be spamming, but we will try making a at least a single update a month, or more if there is anything important to share.
That’s all for now. See you in the comments section and in the next updates!
Thank you, and happy gaming!
Jaro, Waldek, Michal and PHALANX Team
Final struggle
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 01, 2019 at 10:58:44 AM
Hello Everyone,
Our campaign is nearing the end. It is a good moment for a short summary:
Thanks to your generous support, Europe Divided is funded and will be published this year! As the design is complete and the files are laid out, we plan to deliver the game to your homes before Christmas.
We can still make an important upgrade to the game content, by reaching the goal of 50.000 GBP. This unlocks the Future Variant, a ‘what-if’ game mode introducing a dozen new Headline Cards and a new version of the game board. Here you can find more info about this variant: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phalanxgames/europe-divided/posts/2538734
You can help reaching the goal by letting your gaming groups know about the project and sharing the information on social media channels. You may also opt to upgrade your pledge from Black Sea to the Baltic Sea Pledge. You may also add Europe Divided Card Holders to your pledge. This would both help reaching the final goal and keep your cards properly arranged while playing the game. Here is the info on how this can be done: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/phalanxgames/europe-divided/posts/2543976
The Agency for International Development grew out of programs like the Marshall Plan, but the agency itself wasn’t established until November 3, 1961 under President Kennedy. USAID was created to help the United States win the “hearts and minds” of citizens around the World with the attractiveness of its own model, officially through civic action, economic aid and humanitarian assistance.
In reality, as a cold war policy tool, the agency was, at times, used as a front for CIA operations and operatives. The agency’s funds come from the U.S. federal budget. USAID, as with any agency of American power, is an instrument of geopolitical and corporate force. USAID has a long history of acting as a contract vehicle for various CIA covert activities worldwide.
In the 1990s, USAID financed and backed Anatoly Chubais and Yegor Gaidar, who implemented drastic reforms that led to the crumbling of Russia's economy, generating growing anti-American sentiments. Since Vladimir Putin came to power and American influence waned, USAID and other privately-funded NGOs have focused on exposing alleged widespread corruption and election fraud in Russia. As a result, American NGOs were no longer allowed to operate in the Russian Federation while the local USAID office was shut down in October 2012.
U.S. President Barak Obama continued USAID’s involvement in CIA-directed programs in former Soviet states, including Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine. The Euromaidan revolt was also a product of NGOs (including Omidyar Network and the Open Society), U.S.-funded outfits, and USAID (active in Kiev since 1992 on the same compound as the U.S. Embassy) working covertly to organize the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. In the north Caucasus, NGOs supported by USAID, have been accused by Russian authorities of having links to Chechen separatists.
In April 2019, head of the Agency Mark Green indicated that USAID would unveil “a framework to help counter malign Kremlin influence, especially in Europe and Eurasia”, allocating $584 million in State Department and USAID foreign assistance for that task. There are projects of actually militarizing USAID by creating “Rapid Expeditionary Development” (RED) teams embedded with U.S. Special Forces and the FBI outside of typical USAID areas of operation.
Written by Eric G.L. Pinzelli
Happy gaming!
Michal & PHALANX Team
Happy Birthday!
almost 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 01, 2019 at 10:02:15 AM
Hello Everyone,
Today is a special day for this project, as it is Chris Marling’s birthday so it would be really great to have the Future Goals Stretch Goals funded. So, why don’t you try to spread the word and convince those hesitating, that together we can see this game even better!
Cheers!
Project Followers
We know there is there is over 2 thousand project followers and the conversion rate tells us, there could be much improvement in the number of backers if only those, who are yet not committed would decide to support us. What would be the reasons to do it? Well, at least a few:
You’d be getting a great game ahead of retail
You’d be getting metal Rubeuro coins
You will help to unlock the last Stretch Goal of the campaign
It’s really a win-win situation for you and us - so why not to show Europa a bit of your loving?
Thanks for all your support and looking forward to see those undecided finally kicking in!
Hybrid Warfare
And now, tune in to some info on Hybrid Warfare, for nowadays not only civilians may reenact soldiers, but also soldiers may receive an order to act like civilians. But only for a while...
According to Western analysts, “Hybrid Warfare” (or New Generation Warfare) refers to Russian use of a broad range of subversive instruments, including some nonmilitary, to further Russian national interests, a kind of conflict that recognizes no boundaries between covert and overt war. Assassinations, information and cyberwarfare were a Soviet heritage, the Soviets being masters in propaganda, misinformation and political manipulation, often with the goal of masking underlying weaknesses.
The new way of war is as part of a broader geopolitical competition between Russia and the West over the issue of the world order. Moscow supposedly uses hybrid warfare to ensure compliance on a number of specific policy questions; to divide and weaken NATO; to subvert pro-Western governments; to create pretexts for war; to annex territory; and to ensure access to European markets on its own terms. This ‘”Hybrid war” fought in a truly global, virtually borderless environment, is for the moment the accepted term of art in Western military and strategic circles.
On the other hand, Moscow has also blamed Washington of conducting hybrid warfare against Russia, especially during the so-called “color revolutions” and the “Euromaidan” revolt (see Europe Divided's Headline Cards). Many Russian strategists and political observers contend that it is the West that has been waging Hybrid War, (Gibridnaya Voyna), since the end of the Cold War to isolate, undermine politically, and destabilize the Russian Federation.
