Late Pledges are open, plus a look at the Heavy Water Facility!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, May 19, 2021 at 05:21:03 PM

Hey all,

Hope you all had a great weekend! I just wanted to start this update by letting you all know that Late Pledges are now open, and can be found on our Preorder Store. If you missed the initial campaign and want to get your hands on a copy of Sniper Elite: The Board Game then you can head on over and order your copy!

Check out last week's update for the Pledge Manager FAQs.

The Heavy Water Facility

Onto the game itself - today we're taking a look at the Heavy Water Facility, one of the two new maps included in the Eagle’s Nest expansion. This isolated facility is crucial to the Axis efforts to create nuclear weapons of their own, and as such is a high-priority target for the Allies.

You’ll have seen an early version of the artwork, but here it is in all its glory.

The Heavy Water Facility map is at a much wider scale than any of the others, introducing new challenges for both the Allied and Axis players to contend with.

As the Sniper, by staying off the road you can massively increase your chances of remaining undetected as you dart from hedgerow to hedgerow. However, that added safety comes at a cost. Progress will be much slower, and with just 10 turns to complete each of your objectives you may not have that luxury.

For the Axis forces, knowing that the Sniper could be taking a slow, meandering off-road route can make it very tempting to head off the road yourself as you hunt them down, but by doing so it’s easy to leave some of your soldiers isolated in poor positions. Tracking your opponent down can be tricky – remember that keeping them from achieving their objectives is another route to victory.

You may also be drawn to the river that divides the map, with the bridges creating some great choke points that you can block with your soldiers, but would committing so many troops to this purpose be worth it? While you may be able to make the Sniper’s task more difficult, it would be a challenge to stop them completely, especially when they could have the Diving Equipment as one of their Loadout cards to allow them to move through the water spaces. 

The defenders will face a similar question with the high ground on the Northern and Eastern sides of the map. These areas have designated routes in and out which could be blocked, but if the Sniper has included the Climbing Equipment in their loadout they will be able to scale the cliff faces anywhere along the border.

Whether you are playing as the Sniper or the Defending Forces, discipline is essential, as a handful of choices will make or break a situation for either side. As such, this map is better suited to experienced players on all sides.

One thing you may also have noticed is that the round counter is nowhere to be seen. We decided to remove it from the boards so that we could have the board art itself be as large as possible. The round counter will instead be on the reverse of the solo player board, which can then be placed wherever is most convenient for the players.

Many thanks,

Pete & the Rebellion Unplugged team!

Pledge Managers sent out - check your emails!
almost 3 years ago – Sat, May 15, 2021 at 03:01:29 PM

Hey all,

Thank you to all the smoke test recipients for responding to your surveys! Everything is working as expected, so we've sent out the remaining Pledge Managers from Backerkit. These have gone to the email address you use for your Kickstarter account and may get caught in your spam folder, so be sure to check there just in case. 

As mentioned in the previous update, we'll be keeping the Pledge Manager open for several months to give you plenty of time to decide whether you want to stick to the level you are at or change to a different one. If you do complete your survey quickly then you can ignore all the reminders I send later on!

Many thanks,

Pete & the Rebellion Unplugged team

Pledge Manager FAQs:

I haven't received an email from BackerKit. What should I do?

If you can't find your email from BackerKit, please double check that you are using the email associated with your Kickstarter account and check your spam folder. If there is still nothing, send us a message through Kickstarter and we will look into this for you.

Shipping:

Shipping is higher than I expected – can I switch my Pledge Level to check the difference in shipping prices?

As mentioned in our previous updates, we have seen a significant increase in international shipping rates, but we’ve been working with our distribution hubs to minimize the effect this has on your pledges.

If you would like to know how altering your pledge would affect your shipping costs, please message us directly through Kickstarter and we will get back to you ASAP (the timezone for the Rebellion Unplugged team is BST).

Shipping is higher than I expected – can I cancel my pledge?

If you’d like to cancel your pledge, please message us directly through Kickstarter.

My shipping price has come through as £999 – why?

If your shipping price has come through as £999 please message us through Kickstarter for us to investigate.

It is likely that this will be caused by large orders away from our fulfilment centres, and we will need to talk to our distributors to get bespoke quotes for you.

Late Pledges:

I missed the initial campaign - can I still get a copy?

We'll be opening up Late Pledges on Monday, so if you missed the Kickstarter campaign you'll be able to order your copy from then on.

Pledge Manager smoke test – check your inbox!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, May 12, 2021 at 06:48:01 AM

Hey all,

Thank you all for your patience! Later today some of you will receive an email from BackerKit so that you can finalize your pledges. This email will come to the email linked to your Kickstarter account - be sure to check your spam folder just in case it ends up there.

The email will include a link that allows you to select the Pledge level you want (either sticking with your current level or moving to a different one), as well as selecting addons and confirming your shipping and billing information. We'll be keeping the Pledge Manager open for several months, so if you are still trying to work out which Pledge Level is for you or hadn't budgeted for this don't feel rushed to respond immediately.

If you haven’t received an email don’t worry. We’re doing a “smoke test”, where BackerKit emails a small percentage of backers to make sure there are no issues with the pledge manager. Once they let us know everything is working as intended, we’ll send out the emails to the remaining backers.

Many thanks,

Pete & the Rebellion Unplugged team

Pledge Manager FAQs:

Shipping:

Shipping is higher than I expected – can I switch my Pledge Level to check the difference in shipping prices?

As mentioned in our previous updates, we have seen a significant increase in international shipping rates, but we’ve been working with our distribution hubs to minimize the effect this has on your pledges.  Despite this, shipping in the US is roughly $5-$8 higher than previously estimated.

If you would like to know how altering your pledge would affect your shipping costs, please message us directly through Kickstarter and we will get back to you ASAP (the timezone for the Rebellion Unplugged team is BST).

Shipping is higher than I expected – can I cancel my pledge?

If you’d like to cancel your pledge, please message us directly through Kickstarter.

My shipping price has come through as £999 – why?

If your shipping price has come through as £999 please message us through Kickstarter for us to investigate.

It is likely that this will be caused by large orders away from our fulfilment centres, and we will need to talk to our distributors to get bespoke quotes for you.

Late Pledges:

I missed the Kickstarter campaign, is it still possible to get the game?

Once we have heard back from BackerKit that the smoke test has not had any issues, we’ll be opening the preorder store so that anyone who missed the initial campaign can get the game.

Pledge Manager Update – “smoke test” emails going out at the start of next week!
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 10, 2021 at 01:00:40 PM

Hey all,

Hope you’ve all had a great week! It’s been a busy one for me, as I’ve been working with the team at BackerKit to run the final checks on the Pledge Manager ready for it to be sent out.

We’ve encountered a minor issue with shipping prices for add-ons, which we’re just waiting to hear back from BackerKit on. As a result we’ve decided to hold off on sending out the Pledge Managers until the start of next week. 

This’ll start with a “smoke test”, where BackerKit emails a small percentage of backers at each pledge level to make sure everything is working as it’s supposed to. Then, once they give us the thumbs up, we’ll send out the rest of the emails and open up the preorder store so that anyone who missed the initial campaign can Late Pledge for their copy!

Thanks, and have a great weekend!

Pete & the Rebellion Unplugged team

Revised Delivery Date and Pledge Manager Update
about 3 years ago – Sat, May 01, 2021 at 04:31:44 AM

Hi all,

We’ve got a couple of important updates to share with you today, so I’ve broken the post into two sections.

Project Update

I wanted to let you know that the project is unfortunately running behind schedule. With the difficulties of the past year, we underestimated how long playtesting, artwork, and graphic design would take. Combined with some recent delays to artwork revisions, we have had to revise the estimated delivery date to February 2022.

We’re sorry for the delay, and really appreciate your patience. The extra time this affords us will be focused on ensuring that the graphic design and final artwork not only looks great, but also complements the gameplay of Sniper Elite: The Board Game. We’ll also be running additional playtesting to fine-tune the maps, Specialists, and Allied Snipers so that when the game lands on your doorstep it is the best it can be.

Pledge Manager coming next week

We’re running a final set of tests on the Pledge Manager, and provided there are no issues we’ll be making it live at the end of next week. This will give you all the opportunity to finalize your pledges and confirm your mailing address.

For those who missed the campaign, Late Pledges will also be available. 

More info on this in next week’s update!

Thanks,

Pete & the Rebellion Unplugged team