Heavy Steam es un curioso juego táctico militar, en un ambiente Stemapunk, con elementos de gestión, en el que deberemos dirigir a nuestros grandes robots a la batalla.
No he tenido la oportunidad de leer el reglamento, pero con el vídeo de presentación, el juego tiene encanto.
Vale la pena dedicarle unos minutos.

Heavy Steam is a steampunk themed strategy and resource management game that uses mechs called steam titans in miniature based combat!

Set in a steampunk universe, Heavy Steam is a game about piloting a giant mechanical humanoid war machine of doom. As a pilot you use the steam titan’s resources to strategically complete scenario objectives. More often than not it’s to defeat your opponent, but you’ve never shied away from a fight, have you?

In Heavy Steam you play the role of a pilot controlling your steam titian’s systems from the command center inside its head.
Fully customize your steam titan: choose a robot, recruit your pilot, then customize with weapons of your choice.
Plan ahead if you want to power your legs, weapons or other systems.
The battle board is abstracted with easy to master combat.
Event cards, terrain cards and other cards keep the game fresh and new every time you play.
Game play is for 2-4 players.

Heavy Steam is a game about using your resources wisely to strategically attack your opponent. Set in a steampunk universe, your job is to decide where to utilize your energy, a compound called “zenjin” more commonly referred to as steam rock or steam for short, in your...well…. steam titan. Steam titans are giant war machines manned by talented pilots who are part strategists, part engineers, and part navigators. They also happen to be the rock stars of their day. Using your pilot’s special abilities, as well as cards that modify your weapons and the terrain, you decide whether to power up your weapons, bolster your defenses or transfer steam to your legs in order to move.

Phases allow you to move your steam titan, attack the enemy, manage your energy, purchase cards, and keep your pressure from reaching the critical stages. Because the flow of steam takes time, you must think several turns ahead while also reacting immediately to enemy attack. Players roll one set of dice for attack and a different unique set for defense. Since you are creating a campaign against your opponent, and reacting to their attack it’s best to plan ahead, but prepare a backup plan!

Game Setup

When starting a game of Heavy Steam, the player will be able to choose whether they are a stalwart member of the UK Alliance or the calculating C.E.T. (Central Europe Trust). Once a player makes their choice they pick one of the light or heavy steam titans and the titan board to match. The steam titan board tells the player how much steam they begin with, and where to place the steam for a powered up steam titan to begin gameplay. Players select a pilot, one of the brave men and women who have the considerable skills and know-how to maneuver these giant warmachines. Pilots give some specialized bonuses, so players should note what each pilot can do.

Move

In the first phase of the game each player determines whether or not they will maneuver their steam titan into a deadly foray or strategically retreat. In Heavy Steam the focus of the game is on managing your steam, thus movement is simplified to forward and backward. The closer you are to your opponent, the more effective your weapons. Movement also allows you to play a terrain card that can bolster your defenses or make movement less costly. Each steam titan must expend steam to move. Of course, the bigger they are the more substantial the energy cost.

Combat

Hopefully you are prepared for a rousing session of military fisticuffs! In the combat phase, starting with the side that has initiative, a steam titan, infantry, or mobile cannon may attack the opposing side. Teams alternate who is attacking so that every attack comes from an alternating side until both sides deem themselves finished. Of course, if one side has more weapons powered up they will be able to attack more often in the phase than their opponents. Once you have determined whom to attack, the simple to learn combat system keeps the gamers scrambling to mitigate damage control!

Steam Allocation

Now that each player has finished a rousing phase of bashing each other to smithereens, each player must redistribute their power supply. Each steam titan is different in regards to how much power it can hold. However, the energy must all flow from the central core out to the extremities, one section at a time. This means that a freshly exhausted weapon may not be able to fire again on the next round, or that a damaged shield may take priority over recharging said weapon. The steam titan boards are laid out to show how the flow of energy is distributed as well as how much energy you may have from your power reserves to recharge at a time. Of course you can try and push it through faster, wartime tactics make for hard decisions sometimes, but this comes at a cost of potentially overloading your system, so beware!

Battle Card Acquisition

Do you have steam in your head? If your command station is powered up, you may now use that energy to purchase additional cards. Remember, cards can give any number of bonuses from new terrain, more infantry or mobile cannons, bonuses during combat or engineering help in the form of removing damage cubes. A player may also choose to retain that energy to keep initiative in the next round, or reroll your hit location die during a successful attack in combat.

Release Pressure

Now you may move some of the expended energy from the boiler pressure back into your power reserve. If it was an active combat round, you should have quite a bit, but only the allotted amount may be moved…that is, unless you have a card to aid you or planned ahead and use your steam vent!

Once this happens, the phases begin anew. With good planning and a crafty eye toward your opponent, you have come out ahead and still have enough steam to carry you through another round of battle! The game ends when one brave steam titan is destroyed, thus ending the battle.

Below is a preliminary list of what comes in the box. The box will be designed with a nice try to hold all the components and miniatures.

Retail box: 15” x 12” x 3”
Game board: 14.9” x 18.3”
Player boards: 4 double sided player board - each measuring 13” x 10.25”
300 - 8mm cubes
Cards: 24 Weapon Cards, 55 Battle Cards and 12 Pilot Cards.
Dice: 8 blue, 8 red - *upgradeable to custom dice with a stretch goal.
Dice: 2 standard black dice.
1 Heavy, 2 Light, UK Alliance steam titans miniatures.
1 Heavy, 2 Light C.E.T ( Central European Trust) steam titans miniatures.
4 Mobile Armor and 6 Infantry UK Alliance miniatures *Upgradeable to unique models with Stretch Goals.
4 Mobile Armor and 6 Infantry C.E.T miniatures *Upgradeable to unique models with Stretch Goals.
Terrain effects and turn order Tokens
Rule book

Greenbrier Games prides our-self in making fantastic miniatures. From our first zombie in our core Zpocalypse game to our ever expanding realm of creations including our partnership with Arctic Justice Games to bring their miniatures for Fairytale Games to life, we are constantly striving to improve each creation. This would never work without the tireless efforts of Jed and Kieran, but don’t let them know that.

The Minis will be done with injection molding and the end result will be a much harder plastic than Zpocalypse and more equivalent to Zpocalypse: Aftermath. The large Steam Titans will have detachable arms to switch to the weapon of your choice if a stretch goal is hit!

Greenbrier Games has worked on several projects, such as Zpocalypse, Zpocalypse Aftermath, and our most recent being the Fairytale Games.

Greenbrier Games has run three successful Kickstarter campaigns, but we are still just a bunch of average folks working day jobs while playing and creating board games in our spare time.

Zpocalypse, our first Kickstarter campaign, held the brief title of top grossing board game project in history until the awesome Steve Jackson re-released OGRE and overran us! Our Aftermath project also did very well and our recently successful Ninja Dice project far exceeded our expectations! Thanks again to all of our supporters; you made these projects happen! But we are still just normal folks trying to break even while making our dreams come true.

Early-Adopter Discount: Because we admire our backers and wish to show our appreciation, Heavy Steam is being offered on Kickstarter at $75 but has an expected MSRP of $85.
Limited Availability: We no longer create Kickstarter exclusives. That being said, certain rewards will only have a limited number of copies based on the final pledge totals.
We Listen: We treat backers as collaborators. Your contribution extends to aiding us in game creation because we value your input. We promptly and transparently address all questions and concerns and consider ourselves lucky to have so many people striving to make the game the best it can be.
Because We Need You: We've covered most of the cost of graphic design and art for Heavy Steam, but we can’t manufacture and ship the game without your support.

We are all lifelong gamers in one form or another who have been leading dual lives. By day working normal jobs, by night (and on weekends) building games whether physical or digital. In our spare time, we have formed a successful board game development and publishing company. We are so excited to add Heavy Steam to our weird little family of Zpocalypse and Ninja Dice!

The bottom line is Heavy Steam will not be published unless this campaign is successful.

We think this is an amazingly fun game, but we don't have a treasure chest of money to publish it without your help. That's why we've once again turned to Kickstarter, and to you, to help make this awesome little game a reality!

Risks and challengesLearn about accountability on Kickstarter

This is our fourth Kickstarter project. Our first project started with cardboard and ended up with custom miniatures, cards, dice and expansion packs and we've learned the ins and outs of nearly every facet of the board game manufacturing world. We've learned (painfully!) how to set realistic goals for both ourselves and our backers, hopefully making the process rewarding for everyone involved.

As with any project produced overseas, there can be unforeseen production delays, shipping delays, and customs delays. So we've learned (again painfully!) all about delays and ways to manage or avoid them. We’ve also learned there are some delays you can never foresee, but you always have a Plans B through….X to keep the work and the project moving forward.

We've had great success working with Grand Prix International and will continue to work with them on this project. Over 60% of the artwork has been complete including pre-modeling all the miniatures in the base game ( even those we would add with stretch goals). We just need to finish the card art and put in the final touches. We've also learned to be realistic in the extra time needed for any extra content that may be added with our stretch goals.

There are potential delays in a complex manufacturing project like Heavy Steam but with the experience from our last three projects and our close relationship with our manufacturer we are confident that we will meet (or beat) our projected delivery date. Our last project, Ninja Dice, is right on schedule and will deliver in April as projected. We expect the same for Heavy Steam.

Thank you so much for your help making our dreams a reality!

-- The team at Greenbrier Games