First batch of tracking numbers from PL fulfillment center are in BackerKit
over 2 years ago – Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 02:20:38 PM

Ladies & Gentlemen,

As our containers arrived last week, the fulfillment center started quickly packing orders, and by this morning they managed to deal with:

• all of the largest orders - which were very few, but time consuming (those tracking numbers have been sent via direct messages)
• another 350 orders, for which tracking numbers have been uploaded into BackerKit.

At this time, we have hopes that by the end of next week all orders will be packed and handed over to the couriers. When fulfillment from Poland is complete, we will post another update with details.

Have a great week,

Andrei

More tracking numbers. Canada news.
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 03, 2021 at 02:06:02 AM

Ladies & Gentlemen,

First of all, news for our Canadian bakers: the shipment cleared customs and should arrive at our fulfillment center by the end of the week (quoting FedEx):

"Container  arrived  railyard  and  now our agent is awaiting to move to  CFS  for de-stuff and  delivery. Delivery will be mid to end of week."

We thus expect that all orders from Canada will be shipped out maximum 10 days after receiving the pallets.

From Poland another batch of packages have been prepared to send, and the tracking numbers are in BackerKit already. There are still a few (less than 50 packages) to be shipped out of Poland, but the majority of orders have already been processed.

Have a great week,

Andrei

Containers approaching fulfillment centers in Canada and Poland
over 2 years ago – Tue, Aug 17, 2021 at 01:58:36 AM

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Let's start with news from Canada: the pallets with Dark Ages are being processed through customs. We hope they will reach our fulfillment center at the end of the month, but we're perhaps a little optimistic, as ports are both busy and understaffed (summer holidays).

Moving on to Europe delivery: Our two containers cleared customs and they are scheduled for delivery in Poland on Friday this week, which incidentally in the same date as Paladin season 5 container. 

Less than fun fact: In order to avoid this exact scenario, when we shipped out of Chine, the containers for Dark Ages and Paladin sleeves were supposed to arrive 15-20 days apart, but delays at loading, transit, customs, etc made them arrive at the same time. Logistics gods are working against us!

Our fulfillment center must deal with both campaign at the same time, so as a compromise they will prioritize the shipments to far away locations for both projects. After that, for Europe, Dark Ages will be delivered before Paladin. They are working on a technical solution to have separate teams for packing and labeling, so that both projects are out of the door asap.

We expect that all Dark Ages packages to be set out by 1-Sep.

Have a great week,

Andrei

How to organize everying + upcoming live play
over 2 years ago – Fri, Aug 13, 2021 at 02:43:47 AM

Since this will be a bit of a lengthy update, let's begin with the shortest piece of information.

Live Play Event on August 23

On Monday, August 23 @ 6 PM MDT (Aug 24 @ 2:00 CEST) Rainer will host a Dark Ages live play. He will be joined by 3 guests and the event will be streamed live on our Twitch channel:

https://twitch.tv/rainer_boardanddice

You don't want to miss it!

Organizing Dark Ages

As you unbox your game, one inevitable question will arise: How am I supposed to organize everything in the box?

Fear not! Whether you backed the Heritage of Charlemagne or the Holy Roman Empire game—or both!—this update contains a comprehensive step-by-step process for organizing everything.

There are plenty of narrated pictures for you to follow, even if, in the midst of all excitement, you happen to open and punch everything before reading this update.

Let's get started!

*** Unless otherwise noted, the instructions apply to both games, even if the components of a particular copy are shown at the moment. Where important differences apply, they will be well noted. ***

First, empty the entire box, inserts and everything. We will soon put everything back in a nice and organized fashion.

Locate all player components, neutral units, and dice. Each player color has its own set of 4 bags containing plastic pieces. There are also three smaller bags containing wooden discs. The neutral units are gray and come in 3 bags.

The first thing we need to do is to consolidate some of these components, since we will be using a few of the bags for other purposes.

For each player color, combine archers and infantry into one bag. Place all wooden discs (of that color) in the same bag as the farm houses. When you are done, you should have 3 bags per color.

Next we will do something similar with the neutral units by combining their archers and infantry into one bag. Also remove the dice from their bag.

When you are done, you should have a total of 9 empty plastic bags.

Now it is time to punch out all cardboard tokens. If you added on the realistic resources, feel free to leave all corresponding cardboard tokens unpunched. Do not discard the punched out sheets afterwards! We will be using those as well shortly.

Place the resources (wood, leather, stone, iron, and gold) in the 5 larger same-size bags. This applies to realistic resources as well!

Separate the barbarian tokens by color (blue and red), placing tokens of the same color into one of the smaller bags. Place the 12 War tokens into the third small bag.

Combine all 56 player markers (14 per color)—but not the +100/200 tokens—into the last bag (which previously held the dice).

We can now clear up some table space by putting a few things back into the game box. Remember those punched out sheets we saved? We will place those two at the bottom, followed by the larger insert, like this:

If you DID NOT add on the realistic resources:

Place the city miniatures, grand buildings, churches, and production buildings on the bottom. Place the keeps and all player component bags (not the cardboard tokens) on top. Everything will fit just fine with plenty of room to spare. Put the lid on top of the tray as this tray is now done!

If you DID add on the realistic resources:

Place the city miniatures, grand buildings, and realistic resources (not the coins) on the bottom. Place the production buildings and all player component bags (not the cardboard tokens) on top. Everything will fit just fine with plenty of room to spare. Put the lid on top of the tray as this tray is now done!

Next we will organize the shallower insert. In the next several photos I left the insert on the table, but you can easily place the insert in your game already. We will get to all the cards shortly. However, for the next step you will need the small pack of 5 action cards.

Here there will also be some changes depending on whether you have the realistic resources or not, so let's start with the part that everyone has in common.

Inside the irregularly shaped compartment, place the neutral cavalry units and one set of barbarian tokens on the bottom. Place the remaining neutral units and second bag of barbarian tokens on top. Put all the dice in the compartment on the right. Inside the smallest compartment, place the action cards along with the +100/200 VP tokens and the bag of player markers.

If you DID NOT add on the realistic resources:

In the compartment on the left side, place the bags of resource tokens on the bottom (wood, leather, stone, and iron; in two layers) with the war tokens and gold on top.

If you DID add on the realistic resources:

Place the war tokens on top of the dice.

In the compartment on the left side, place the keep miniatures on the bottom with the churches and gold coins on top.

Alright! Finally it is time to deal with the cards! From now on, there will be some changes depending on whether you have the Heritage of Charlemagne or the Holy Roman Empire game.

If you have already organized your cards differently—don't worry! You will be able to follow the images to organize everything.

Now, if you have not yet unpacked the decks, you should have four separate decks of cards. Unwrap them and place them in the following order:

Going from left to right, place the 1st stack on top of the 2nd stack, that stack on top of the 3rd, and so on. At the end, the leftmost stack should be on top and the rightmost stack on the bottom.

I will now go over how to organize your cards, based on which game you have. For the most part, I will reference the card fronts (which is what you see above).

If you have Heritage of Charlemagne: (Holy Roman Empire will follow ... but not for a while)

Take cards off the top, grouping them by type (cards that look the same) until you have 5 stacks. Continue taking cards off the top for the 6th stack until you come to one of the title cards (Kingdom of England). You should have these six stacks of cards in front of you.

These are (from left to right, top to bottom): common technologies, grand buildings, vassals, cognomen, military technologies, and ruler starting cards. We now need to separate a few cards from these individual stacks.

From the grand buildings, take out Egmond Abbey and Cluny Abbey:

From the vassals, take out Theoblad the Trickster:

From the military technologies, take out the Fyrd, Norman Knights, and Jinete (these cards should be at the bottom of the stack and can easily be recognized as they are the only ones not divided across the middle):

Take all the leader starting cards and flip them over, sorting them into stacks based on their backs. The card you took out previously, flip those over and add them to the correct leader cards based on their backs. When you are done, you should have 7 stacks of 3 cards each:

Set aside these two leaders along with the grand buildings:

Shuffle together the remaining common technologies, vassals, cognomen, and military technologies. This is your Culture deck in the game. (Some modules may later add cards to this deck, but we will store those cards separately.)

Let's continue taking cards off our stack, still grouping them by their fronts, forming 13 more stacks (and then an assortment of 9 random cards at the end).

These are:

(top row) — Title cards, Fibonacci (single card), Alchemists module, Alliances module, Norsemen module

(middle row) — Commanders module, Patronage module, Distant Campaigns module, Ages of War module, Wyrd module

(bottom row) — Conquest of England module ... and the remaining ones are for the solo mode (but don't group the solo cards together just yet)

See those last 9 cards? 6 of them you need to grab now, as they are used in every game of Dark Ages, so we want to store those separately from the other solo cards. They have solo units on one side and barbarian units on the other.

Let's put those 6 cards with the title cards for now.

We are now ready to put together our second deck of cards (remember, we already created the Culture deck previously).

Take the title/unit cards, the leaders, the grand buildings (including the set-aside leaders), and all solo cards. Make a deck with the solo cards on the bottom, the set-aside leaders next, the grand buildings, the rest of the leaders, the title cards, and the unit cards.

In similar manner, combine the following module cards: Fibonacci, Alchemist, Alliance, Norsemen, Patronage, and Commanders.

Finally, do the same with the remaining module cards: Distant Campaigns, Ages of War, Wyrd, and Conquest of England.

You should now, once again, have 4 decks of cards, but specifically organized into one Culture deck, one starting/solo/title deck, and two module decks (with the exception of Grand Buildings). There are 5 spots for cards, so there will be no problem fitting these into the insert.

If you sleeved your cards with Paladin Premium Sleeves, hold on just one second, and I'll get back to you.

The sideways deck is our starting/solo/title deck. Next to it is the Culture deck. The two module decks are in the upper two slots.

So, you sleeved your cards? First of all—me too!

We should make a few minor adjustments to make everything fit a little better. But there is plenty of room in the insert, so it will not be a problem.

First, take the title/unit cards off that sideways deck. Next, let's split the Culture deck in half. Place the title cards on top of one half of the Culture deck and the unit cards on top of the other half.

If you're like me and annoyed by the fact that the two module decks are slightly different heights, simply swap places between Fibonacci and the Conquest of England.

With the Culture deck split in half, everything fits perfectly inside the insert, sleeved cards and all!

If you have Holy Roman Empire: (Finally!)

Take cards off the top, grouping them by type (cards that look the same) until you have 5 stacks. Continue taking cards off the top for the 6th stack until you come to one of the title cards (Duchy of Carinthia). You should have these six stacks of cards in front of you.

These are (from left to right, top to bottom): common technologies, grand buildings, artifacts, cognomen, military technologies, and ruler starting cards. We now need to separate a few cards from these individual stacks.

From the grand buildings, take out Tuscany Fortifications and Misnia Castle:

From the artifacts, take out Arm of St. George:

From the military technologies, take out Teutonic Knights, Magyar Horse Archers, and Heavy Crossbowmen (these cards should be at the bottom of the stack and can easily be recognized as they are the only ones not divided across the middle):

Take all the leader starting cards and flip them over, sorting them into stacks based on their backs. The card you took out previously, flip those over and add them to the correct leader cards based on their backs. When you are done, you should have 7 stacks of 3 cards each:

Set aside these two leaders along with the grand buildings:

Shuffle together the remaining common technologies, vassals, cognomen, and military technologies. This is your Culture deck in the game. (Some modules may later add cards to this deck, but we will store those cards separately.)

Let's continue taking cards off our stack, still grouping them by their fronts, forming 13 more stacks (and then an assortment of 9 random cards at the end).

These are:

(top row) — Title cards, The Pope (single card), Alchemists module, Alliances module, Travels of Benjamin module

(middle row) — Commanders module, Crusades module, Distant Campaigns module, Ages of War module, Wyrd module

(bottom row) — Rise of Poland module ... and the remaining ones are for the solo mode (but don't group the solo cards together just yet)

See those last 9 cards? 6 of them you need to grab now, as they are used in every game of Dark Ages, so we want to store those separately from the other solo cards. They have solo units on one side and barbarian units on the other.

Let's put those 6 cards with the title cards for now.

We are now ready to put together our second deck of cards (remember, we already created the Culture deck previously).

Take the title/unit cards, the leaders, the grand buildings (including the set-aside leaders), and all solo cards. Make a deck with the solo cards on the bottom, the set-aside leaders next, the grand buildings, the rest of the leaders, the title cards, and the unit cards.

In similar manner, combine the following module cards: The Pope, Alchemist, Alliance, Travels of Benjamin, Commanders, Crusades, and Distant Campaigns.

Finally, do the same with the remaining module cards: Ages of War, Wyrd, and Rise of Poland.

You should now, once again, have 4 decks of cards, but specifically organized into one Culture deck, one starting/solo/title deck, and two module decks (with the exception of Grand Buildings). There are 5 spots for cards, so there will be no problem fitting these into the insert.

If you sleeved your cards with Paladin Premium Sleeves, hold on just one second, and I'll get back to you.

The sideways deck is our starting/solo/title deck. Next to it is the Culture deck. The two module decks are in the upper two slots.

So, you sleeved your cards? First of all—me too!

We should make a few minor adjustments to make everything fit a little better. But there is plenty of room in the insert, so it will not be a problem.

First, take the title/unit cards off that sideways deck. Next, let's split the Culture deck in half. Place the title cards on top of one half of the Culture deck and the unit cards on top of the other half.

With the Culture deck split in half, everything fits perfectly inside the insert, sleeved cards and all!

At last! Let's add the rest of the things to the box!

No matter how you arrived at this point in this long update—whether via Heritage of Charlemagne or Holy Roman Empire (or both!), realistic resources or cardboard tokens, sleeved or naked cards—everything fits perfectly inside the inserts and it is now time to, quite literally, put the lid on.

First, let's add the lid to the tray itself. Then we add the main game board followed by the Culture board. Next we add the player boards and the rule book.

And with that, we can close the lid and take a well-deserved nap!

If you have read this far, you are a champ!

Don't forget about the live play event on August 23!

— Rainer

(Oh, you added on play mats as well?! Sorry, can't make those fit in the box.)

News for Canada and Europe
over 2 years ago – Mon, Aug 09, 2021 at 12:28:31 PM

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Let's start with news for Canada: the pallets with games for Canadian backers are aboard the vessel XIN TAI CANG, which is due to arrive at a port on the West coast of Canada in 3 days (9-Aug). The process of getting these through customs has already started. We have no exact information on when these pallets will arrive at our fulfillment center, however we hope that it won't take longer than 2 weeks.

Because of that, we've sent the 48h notice to all Canadian backers, which means that from now there are 48 hours left to update addresses.

The vessel carrying the containers with Dark Ages for Europe has reach Hamburg port and are now in customs, a process which was supposed to be completed today, but it looks more like Monday. We have high hopes to receive the game next week and to start the fulfillment process right away. Since the containers are floor loaded (no pallets), our fulfillment center will need about 3 days to unload and repack everything, then they will process packages to regions outside Europe first (e.g. South America), followed by all European countries. We expect the whole process to last for a few weeks.

As soon as we have more news we will post another update and when we start receiving tracking numbers we will upload them to BackerKit.

Have a great weekend,

Andrei