Crowdfunding Update: 4/20/2023

Things have been very busy on the Crowdfunding front at Sentry Box for the last couple of months.

This is just a highlight on some of the campaigns we have recently backed, as well as a some of the items that we are still looking forward to arriving.

Upcoming Campaigns:
I don’t have a lot to say about any of these, as they haven’t launched as of this writing, but here is a list of games that we will tentatively be creating retail pledges for, if available.

AHOTNIK	https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ahotnik/ahotnik
APEX LEGENDS: THE BOARD GAME	https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/glasscannonunplugged/apex-legends-the-board-game
CITIES OF VENUS	https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tinrobot/cities-of-venus
CYSMIC | A RACE FOR SURVIVAL DURING SEISMIC ARMAGEDDON	https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starreachgames/cysmic-a-race-for-survival-during-seismic-armageddon
DEAD CELLS: THE ROGUE-LITE BOARD GAME	https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scorpionmasque/dead-cells-the-rogue-lite-board-game
ENDEAVOUR: DEEP SEA	https://gamefound.com/projects/age-of-gaming/endeavor-deep-sea
FEUD: THE SEER’S PROPHECY	https://www.mindgate-studios.com/feud
NEMESIS: RETALIATION	https://gamefound.com/projects/awaken-realms/nemesis-retaliation
CARSON CITY BIG BOX	https://gamefound.com/projects/quined-games/carson-city-big-box

Current Campaign Highlights:

Santorini Co-op & Deluxe Pantheon Edition:

From BGG:

NOTE: Pantheon Edition includes all material from the Golden Fleece expansion, as well as every promo card and many new cards. A lot of cards are revamped, reworked, and rebalanced.

Santorini is an accessible strategy game, simple enough for an elementary school classroom while aiming to provide gameplay depth and content for hardcore gamers to explore, the rules are simple. Each turn consists of 2 steps:

1. Move – move one of your builders into a neighboring space. You may move your Builder Pawn on the same level, step-up one level, or step down any number of levels.

2. Build – Then construct a building level adjacent to the builder you moved. When building on top of the third level, place a dome instead, removing that space from play.

3. Winning the game – If either of your builders reaches the third level, you win.

Also: Variable player powers – Santorini features variable player powers layered over an otherwise abstract game, with many thematic god and hero powers that fundamentally change the way the game is played.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roxley/santorini-pantheon-edition-and-the-riddle-of-the-sphinx

Fractured Sky:

From BGG:

Fractured Sky by IV Studios is a game of deduction, sneaky strategy, and resource management set on a fantastical island. Players lead their kingdom in the hunt for shards of fractured falling stars, which are rumored to grant wishes to those that can amass enough of them. 

Using airships, players send their armies to regions with the star shards, but finding those is not always easy and hiring seers to predict their falls can be worth the investment. Over time, players will increase their presence on the island, placing permanent buildings to give them advantages like extra resources or increasing the size of their troop numbers.

Only one wish will be granted, so who will amass the most shards before the final star falls?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ivstudios/fractured-sky

Zombicide: White Death

From BGG:

Winter is upon us and its dark and cruel night brings forth dreadful menaces, worse than frostbite…

Zombicide Medieval Fantasy is back!

With new survivors, new zombies, new setting, and new rules!

Scale the great walls to your advantage…and much more.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/zombicide-white-death

Past Campaigns:

Marvel United: Multiverse:
This was a smash hit with our Crowdfunding Group on Facebook and is the single largest campaign that I have personally overlooked in my time at The Box.

A total of 28 different SKU’s have been placed into our system, with around 250 total preorders taken.  We closed our pledge manager for this campaign last week and are not eagerly waiting for it to be delivered early 2024.

We still have limited space for preorders on this one, so if you are looking to adding some multiverse chaos to your games of Marvel United, don’t hesitate to reach out to the store and we will help you out.  The only catch is that because our order numbers have already been committed, there is a possibility we may collect more preorders than we have allocated inventory, but that should only be a problem on a handful of SKUs, so don’t hesitate to ask.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/marvel-united-multiverse

Maple Valley / Creature Comforts reprint:

This was another very successful campaign that we were involved in and are expecting delivery just in time for Christmas this year.  The exciting part of this one, is that at the last minute KTBG announced that there would be an additional game for sale called Diced Veggies, and that if people committed to it through the preorder process, it would be delivered at the same time, for no additional shipping charges.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kidstablebg/creature-comforts-maple-valley

Reasons to Crowdfund through Sentry Box:

• We take the risk and speculation out of Crowdfunding because we don’t require you to place a deposit or pay for your purchase up front.
• When your preorder arrives instore, we will place it on hold for you for 7 days.
• You pay $0 shipping. We cover all shipping charges for you.
• If you change your mind, you can cancel your preorder at any time.
• We offer you double rewards points on all preorders.

How to place an order:

• Call the store at (403) 245-2121.
• Message us on Facebook, Instagram.
• Email orders@sentrybox.com.
• Drop by the store and say hi!

How to get me to look at a project:

• Email crowdfunding@sentrybox.com.
• Mention the project in the group and include a link if possible.

Join our Crowdfunding Community on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/861325685151430

Painting Demo Extra – Asajj Ventress, for Star Wars: Legion

Today Sue takes us through a quick and easy way to paint up the newest addition to the ranks of the Separatist Alliance for Atomic Mass Games’ Star Wars: Legion

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – Dec 26-Jan 1

Renee and Jenn played a couple of games of Clank: Catacombs and had an absolute blast! “I’ve always loved the Clank series; its a fantastic game and I always have so much fun playing it. I have Clank In Space and all its expansions, but never owned the original – this version, in which the board is different each and every time, addressed my biggest concern about the original: that the board was always the same each time you played. Catacombs adds some new mechanics like lock picks and prisoners which are cool additions, but the puzzle of trying to figure out which artifact to get, as they are revealed and then the best route out when the board is constantly evolving is just awesome. Predictably both games played very differently as a result which is exactly what I was hoping for in this version.”

What have The Sentry Box been up to – Dec 12-18

Chris provides another update on his Kill Team campaign with Mike. “Mike’s Gellerpox Infected return to do battle with Chris’s Ork Kommandos on their home turf. Normally eager to get up close and personal, the sneaky Orks held back a bit – the advancing line of Nightmare Hulks might have given them second thoughts. Their caution seemed justified, as the Ork Nob leader stepped up to have a go with his Power Klaw and was promptly mashed into the dirt. But just behind him came the Bomb Squig, who blew up right in the middle of the Gellerpox to devastating effect! The Ork’s dakka efforts eventually brought down the now-weakened enemy, allowing the Boyz to sweep up the remaining victory points. Orks iz da winnars!”

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – Sept 12-18

Greg completed another promotional puzzle sent by Czech Games, this time a 1000 piece puzzle of the cover from Galaxy Trucker. “It was another one where I left a good chunk of the edge until near the end because of the colour scheme. The main artwork is fun and colourful though and I enjoyed putting it together “

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – June 20-26

Greg and Tracy played another two player game of Foundations of Rome with the Monuments module. “One of the monuments was a huge Winery that was 2×3 in size and earned a big 4 coins and 8 points per scoring phase. I was fortunate enough to build it in the second era, although Tracy then built a civic building next to it to leech victory points from it. We fought over the population track to earn the bonus points available for that, and between us we built the rest of the monuments too. In the end it was a pretty close game but I managed to just stay ahead on the population track and it proved to be enough to win me the game. Still can’t get over how awesome this game looks on the table too!”

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – May 9-15

Greg and Tracy played a couple of games of new arrival Yak. “First off, the components in this game are amazing. Chunky bakelite yaks with plastic horns; plastic carts with wheels; big chunky wooden blocks; dual layer player boards. All very nice. The game is one where you’re trading food for stone blocks of different colours in order to build a stone tower. Carts move around clockwise unless a fog token is pulled from the bag, in which case they switch direction. Planning ahead for what’s coming up is important, so these unexpected switches can throw a spanner in the works. In this game I got completely destroyed by Tracy who outscored me in every category. It was a fun, light to medium game though and I enjoyed it quite a bit. A couple days later Tracy also suggested a second game of Yak so we played this one again while the kids were busy. We still didn’t add the extra scoring cards, so it was just the normal scoring. Things went better for me this time and I was able to grab lots of food tokens a few times and then spend them the next turn. I even bought three crystal stones in one turn for 8 bread, which helped me get a large group of 7 stones for end game scoring. We’d both like to try this with more players now as it may have different dynamic. Plus I want to add the extra scoring cards for some variety.”

Changes to the Store Play Space are coming!

Now that we have been open for in-store gaming for a while, we are looking to make a few changes to allow us to keep offering a welcoming, safe environment for people to come and have fun in our space.

Read on to find out all of the details!

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – April 18-24

Renee and Jenn got Creature Comforts by local designer Roberta Taylor to the table. “This game is already very cute, in an Everdell kind of way, but the Kickstarter version with upgraded wooden components and custom Gametrayz is just beautiful. You play over 8 seasons, gathering resources to build comforts and improvements for points. Players simultaneously place their workers on the board, however, you need to spend dice to activate each location successfully. But the thing is, when you place your workers, you only know the values of your 2 family dice and you’re forced to risk your choices on the results of the remaining 4 village dice. This results in some rounds feeling highly successful and other rounds just not going your way. There are ways to mitigate your risk, either through powers granted by built improvements or tokens which allow you to alter the value of the dice. Jenn and I both really enjoyed the resulting choices we were forced to make each round, struggling to commit to riskier choices that may pay off big over safer options. We definitely had a lot of fun playing this and are looking forward to playing it again.”

Sean cracked open the Army Painter Speed Paint set and gave it a try:

I doodled on this pugnacious Reaper Dwarf fightin’ lady. I was interested to see what results I could achieve with the ‘one coat and done’ claim by Army Painter. I primed her with matt white brush on from Army Painter. Here you can see the results. I’m pretty happy what I accomplished in 20 minutes. The Speed Paints have a good consistency and doesn’t run readily. You can squoosh them around to manage shadow and highlights. The drying is reasonably quick so I didn’t have too much bleeding of paints into each other.

There are some colours I am in love with. The Fire Giant Orange, which I used on her hair is brilliant, run and get a bottle. The Ember Red which I used on her shield rune is also a solid paint, though the picture does not do it justice. High fives to the Hardened Leather and Pallid Bone, everyone will get a lot of mileage out of these. The Grey (which I used on her metal bits) and the Purple are both deep and intense. They’ll shine on large surfaces. I am merely whelmed by the Highlord Blue I used on her kilt, but those who collect the popular lines of Ubermensch Galactic Troopers will find this shade useful. It does well on flat surfaces. The Orc Skin is green. That is it’s sole virtue. I am displeased with how the skin turned out. The hue is decent but it’s not as smooth as I’d like. Looks blotchy. I will varnish and repaint. I’ll try it on a few other figs with different undercoat. The Zealot Yellow which I used for her base is an interesting shade, not sure what to do with it…might be good monster hide.

Do you want the Starter Set?  Yeah, I think its a decent range for popular fantasy applications. Price is right too. Best advice I’ve ever received about painting was never to limit yourself to only one line of paints. Rather, view each shade on it’s own merit and application. Using this advice, most painters will find some fun stuff in here. The included brush is also very, very nice. I look forward to getting some of the more subdued colours and see I can exploit them for historicals. As far as ‘one and done’, I’m mixed. If I was painting 30 Maggies (as I’ve named her) sure, that’s perfect. Once I get my flesh technique more gooder I’d probably be happy with this as a PC fig. I have painted much worse, in longer time, so very, very often.

Renee played through the Cantaloop adventure Breaking into Prison. “This is a solo adventure game, billed as an analogue version of an old school point-and-click adventure, and it holds true. The game is presented in a book filled with locations – pictures with items and people with whom you can interact – and conversations which further the story. As you collect items, you can use them in the locations, or give them to people, using a code system which reveals your next piece of information. All info is either in the book at the relevant location, or in an inventory sheet, hidden behind red text so you can only read it when you place the red decoder over it. The story is decent and they added a lot of dad joke level humour to the game, especially when you try combining random items. There are 2 tangents of the story each with their own goals, so you find yourself going back and forth a bit. As you achieve each element of the story you check off a box in the grid, and this is used by the game to figure out where you are in the story. It’s one of those games where you have a bunch of items, a bunch of locations and you’re trying to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing next; there were definitely times when I felt stuck, so I was very grateful for the help system which based on where you are in story, tells you what your next objective is and then if you need it, starts giving you some hints about how to achieve it. But just knowing what I was supposed to be focusing on was a big help. I was afraid I would find it all too fiddly, that it would just be easier if it was a video game, but I ended up enjoying the experience of curling up on the sofa and just making my way through it. There is a lot of game play – I think it took me about 8-10 one hour sessions over a few weeks. I don’t think this is for everyone, but I liked it.”

What have The Sentry Box staff been up to – April 11-17

Sue finished her first Escher for Necromunda. “She is from the Death Maiden/ Wyld Runner box, but her arms are from the Weapons & Upgrades kit.  I gave her a Sisters of Battle head. I painted this model to table top quality using mostly Contrast Paints. I primed her with Grey Seer and colored her skin with Kislev Flesh. I used a thinned down black Contrast Paint (thinned with Contrast Medium) to paint her leather clothes. I thought that the black Contrast Paint over the Grey Seer would make a pretty nice looking quick leather. I put an extra coat of the thinned down Contrast paint between the straps to differentiate between the black pants and the black straps. The yellow pieces are Contrast Paint also. I added the blue streaks to her hair to make her look more punky.”

Greg and his group played a four player game of Space Base this time, “I think it makes it more tempting to buy lots of cheap ships so you have more deployed for potential use on opponent’s turns. I ended up getting a bunch of ships for the middle numbers so I was hitting them quite often. Then I saw the ‘Win the Game’ ship and decided to go for it because the others hadn’t really got victory point engines going and I was also able to get a few ships that would help me bump up the dice roll so that I could hit that ‘Win the Game’ ship in the 12 slot. It was slow going, and Matt ended up making it to 40 points on my turn, but it was just as I got the final charge on that card and was able to use it to win! A rare occurrence but a satisfying one!”

Greg also played some Sushi Go. “I always seem to do badly at this game but this time I resisted the early sashimi and opted for nigiri and maki rolls. Scoring was pretty close throughout, and at the very end I had managed to win, tying for most puddings, with Tracy losing 6 points for having the least. That proved decisive as she otherwise would have won.”

Greg provides his weekly Agricola game update. “I drafted some fun cards in this game, with synergy between them. However, they really worked better as cards for if I was the start player, which unfortunately I was not. I opted to still stick with playing them though, it just took more time and effort. They did work pretty well, scoring me a decent 48 points overall, but it was probably a mistake to stick with my initial plan and not play more tactically. Tracy meanwhile avoided the trap of the grain strategy that she often goes with, and played a stronger game, denying me early clay, getting a fireplace and the early sheep, and otherwise having a solid game plan. At the end when I looked at her farm I knew I might be in trouble and it turned out to be a close victory for her 50 to 48. She sometimes gets demoralised playing this against me as I usually win, but this time she played a good game, the practice paid off and she got a deserved win.”

Renee and Jenn finally got around to trying out Isle of Cats and ended up playing several games over the weekend. “We were expecting to enjoy this game and it absolutely lived up the expectations. Each round you do some card drafting, then have to decide which cards to purchase, and how many fish to use to do so, in order to get you baskets to save cats or collect treasures to add to your boat, play anytime cards that give you extra actions or abilities as well as end gaming scoring objectives. Of course, you need to make sure you still have enough fish left over to actually save some cats with the baskets you purchased! It’s a great combination of hand and fish management combined with the puzzle of filling your boat with rescued cats in order to meet your scoring objectives. I also really appreciated how much the end game scoring objectives you purchased in the game changed how to played the game. In the first game I just tried to fill my boat with cat families and in another game I ended up getting even more points by leaving the entire middle of my boat empty. Such a fun game!”

Kris used the last of his Sentry Box BBQ Sauce to make some Pulled Pork. “I got some Pork Tenderloin from a local butcher (Ernest Meats, I use them all of the time and their meat is locally sourced, great quality and they deliver to Cochrane!) I applied a dry rub to the pork, mixed with Chopped Garlic, lime juice and some salt and pepper and left it to marinade for 4 hours. I then preheated the oven to 450°f and cooked for 25 minutes in a covered oven dish turning once. After letting the pork rest for 5 minutes I roughly sliced it and added it to the slow cooker, added the Sentry Box Red Dragon BBQ Sauce a table spoon of Tomato Puree and a tea spoon of brown sugar and cooked on low in the slow cooker for 4-6 hours. I had mine on a Scottish Flowered Bap with lots of Butter and cheese, but it serves well as a rice dish too. Can’t wait for a restock of the Sauce in time for summer as that was the last of my stash!”

Renee and family did an unboxing and introductory evening of Return to Dark Tower! This game’s primary feature of course is the tower, which lights up, turns and makes sound, which delighted Christopher and had even us adults amused. You play using an app, to which the tower connects, so that dropping skulls in the tower at the end of your turn triggers events and such in the app, and as the adventure progresses, causes the tower to shift and spit out skulls, or light up gates to remove revealing glyphs which impact gameplay. The board itself is a map on which the players – each playing a different character with varying abilities – move around, cleansing the board of skulls, battling foes, exploring dungeons and completing quests. The quests, battles and dungeons are all handled in the app so the board itself is quite simple. We only played about half a scenario but enough to understand all the basic elements of gameplay. We’re pretty sure we weren’t following all the rules so next step is to review all the rules before trying to actually play the entire first scenario.

Greg and his group got A Feast for Odin back to the table again. “In our regular game we ended up with just three players. I decided to go for a whaling strategy, and only got myself one extra island, focusing mostly on filling the main board. I also did a bit of immigration and got myself a longhouse to use up some of the extra food I was getting. It did score me much better than the last game, earning 110 points, but still not enough to keep up with Matt’s pillaging.”

Greg got the fantastic The Quacks of Quedlinburg to the table. “Somehow Tracy had never actually played this, so I must have had all my previous games of it at The Sentry Box or some other game night. We played the first ingredient set since it was Tracy’s first game, and it had been a while for me so it was good to keep it fairly straightforward. I was reminded several times during the course of this game how much my skill I have in being able to draw the one chip from many that is the only one that will cause me to explode. I truly do have a gift for it. As it turns out though, it happened in the middle of the game when it perhaps had less impact than if it had happened towards the end. In fact I was behind the whole game but in the last round Tracy exploded and I was able to come from behind and sneak a close victory.”

Kris finally got to learn one of the games he picked up at the GAMA Trade Show. “Lost Ones is an interactive story adventure game. My character Maeve, woke up after being kidnapped by the Fae and is searching for a way home. So far I spoke with some spooky trees who filled me in on the gossip and told me that if I can awaken their brethren, they may be able to open a portal back to my world, then I met a delightful water spirit who told me that up in the north west there was something that would let me breath underwater, and that sounded cooler than going home, so I went and found a dwarven city, stole a key that will open any door and then had a sleep. (It was a busy day after all!) The mechanics are really simple, just set collection from an ability deck to overcome challenge levels for different encounters, but hand management is important as if you ever run out of cards you lose. The art work and feel of the game is really nice, and it has the dark undertones of traditional fairy tales so probably not one I will be playing with Evie any time soon, but I am looking forward to continuing my quest to find my way home (and be able to breathe underwater, obviously…)”