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Hi!

Just a quick photo of one of the playtesting sessions of the GRAVETIDES game rules.

For mere mortals like us (we are not professional game designers) writing a decent game is a long and convoluted process made of continuous changes and adjustments to elements that were considered definitive until they were actually playtested on the gaming table.

Even some of the component and play aids you see in the photo has been changed due to the results of the very playtesting session represented.

As any rules writer worth his/her salt we are trying to create a simple but not simplicistic fun game with a lot of tactical options with an engaging background: a really daunting task if there is one…

Generally speaking here follows some of the main points that the GRAVETIDES rules are striving to achieve:

• have many different fantasy races with highly characterized ships and fighting styles
• use D6 only (no polyhedral or special dice) as they are very common and cheap
• use a single template for ship manuevering and firing
• one template to check sailing ship attitude to the wind and to help determining the side (bow, stern, board, starboard) hit by enemy fire
• simple basic rules with specific special rules for each race or ship
• game divided in turns in which players alternate in activating single ships or squadrons
• a “data” card for each ship to record damage and other effects (e.g. fire, critical damage)
• damage differentiated on the basis of the ship side hit (bow, stern, board, starboard)

We are finally near to a draft that we could consider stable and we hope to publish soon a first beta draft in order to collect impressions and feedbacks.

In the meantime…our best SEASON GREETINGS!!

Hi!

Just a brief update.

The geometry of the iceberg base of the Glacier Fortress has been corrected and the missing pieces of the mighty Nadividian admiral warship have been printed successfully.

Our first 3D model is finally ready.

Keep watching this space!

Hi!

One bad news and a good one.

The bad one is that the printing of the Glacier Fortress, whose STL file we have finally managed to fix, has to wait for a spare part for the 3D printer of our friends at SignS that unfortunately has had a critical mechanical failure.

The Nadvidian Admiral Warship has thus to wait a bit more to be able to finally lead into battle the rest of the Frozen Dead fleet.

But while the main vessel of the fleet is still in construction work has continued on its accompanying warship as the bizzare shapes of the Stormbarge are formed from pure ice by the magic of the Necromages of Nadvidia.

The Stormbarge has been devised to channel and amplify the winds generated by an Ice Storm incantation cast by a powerful Frost Mage hosted into the very bowels of the vessel itself.

The frozen wind that is blasted violently from the narrow aperture on the bow of these ice ships making enemy vessel clashing into each other freezing their crews with the same attack.

Even if each ship is intrinsically fragile due to being made out of simple ice an by depending for their attacks and movement on the presence of a single Necromage a squadron af Stormbarge can be quite a menace even for the most powerful enemy fleets.

Scultpting is in progress on the other Nadvidian models as we are hoping to have these two vessel finally printed.

Stay Tuned!

Hi!

As previously anticipated we’ve finally managed to get the sculpting of the Glacier Fortress, the Admiral ship of the Nadvidian fleet, printed thanks to the assistance our friends at SignS.

Unfortunately not everything went as we wanted…

The files containing the pieces of the Fortress were first passed into a slicing software which added the needed printing supports.

The first file was then fed to the printer, with wonderful results (the photos really don’t give any justice) !

After this the printing of the other pieces started only to stop abruptly due to an error in the geometry of the iceberg, giving us an incomplete base and truncated spires.

So it’s now back to the tablet as we have to resculpt the iceberg with a clean geometry in order to get it printed correctly.

This was a bit of a letdown as we were really excited to finally see the Glacier Fortress as a real model, but as Master Joda said ” Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is”.

We’ll be back as soon as the finished Glacier Fortress will be with us.

In the meantime work on the next Nadvidian warship has begun…

Stay tuned!!

Hi!

The Glacier Fortress model has now been separated into its main parts and hopefully ready for 3D printing.

The separation was done with an eye to simple assembling and easy painting and we think we have managed to attain our goal.

We still do not own a 3D printer and do not have any previous experience in model printing and we are going to ask some friends (you know who you are – thank you!) to assist us in learning as fast as possible some tricks of the trade to keep us moving forward.

Next step is getting this first model printed while starting sculpting another of the icy warships from the Frost Necroreges fleet.

Stay Tuned.

Hi!

We’ve finally accomplished to finalize the sculpting of the Glacier Fortess model in all its icy mightiness.

We must confess to be really excited to see our ideas and designs finally rendered in the tridimensional space.

It is now time to print the model and see if our digital sculting comes out as expected once transformed into an actual resin object by the marvels of modern technology.

As our first digital sculpt (the Undead fleet of the Kickstarter had been crafted by hand) the Fortress has been a long but fruitful experience that has allowed us to test and refine our skills in preparation of the creation of next models of the Nadvidian fleet.

We hope to be able to show something new very soon despite the limited time we are able to devote to the GRAVETIDES project.

On a side note, work on the GRAVETIDES rules continues as their design mutate as new ideas emerge and horrible mistakes are realized.

Keep watching this space!

Hi!

Just to share a small advance in the sculpt of the mighty Glacier Fortress.

When the central citadel will be finished and the sculpt separated into printable parts we’ll finally be able to to test it on a 3D printer and subsequently invest into our very own printing rig.

We’ll keep you posted as things progress.

Hi!

While working on the new models of the Nadvidian Frost Dead fleet we are still developing the background of Gravetides adding new realms and races and elaborating further details about the nature and workings of the magical energies of the Sinking World.

We have now added to the list of the fleets of Gravetides the warships of the Necrorealm of the Cinder Dead, also known as Gehenna, which employ the very fumes of the mystical substance burnt in their engines furnaces to fuel their devastating fiery weapons.

Hope you enjoy this new entry as we enjoyed writing it!

Hi!

Just a glimpse of what we are working on before leaving for the Holidays.

The Glacier Fortress is slowly taking shape in the virtual space of the digital sculpting tool (read more about the mighty Admiral vessel of the Frost Dead of Nadvidia here).

What you are seeing is not final (we are definitely not satisfied with the look of the iceberg) and subject to change as the sculting progresses.

With the money collected with the second print of our Kickstarter Undead Fleet we are planning to acquire a 3D printer that will allow us to test the sculpts before calling them final and ready for replication.

We will keep you posted as things move forward.

Keep sailing your fleets!

After restraining ourselves from entitling this post “Winter is coming”, we are now able to declare the ‘winner’ of our little pool that has taken place on this page and on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ResInAere/ ).

The fleet of the Necrorealm of Nadvidia under the command of the Frost Liches triumphed on our Facebook page (70% vs. 30% for 20 votes), gained a marginal victory on gravetides.com (55% vs. 45% for 30 votes) and will be the next to be sculpted and hopefully to be the subject of a future Kickstarter.

In this perspective we’ve further invested in this project acquiring this lovely item that has been delivered to us by the courier just today.

This Wacom Cintiq Pro tablet will help us create the best miniature we’ll be able to produce and (we hope) to make all process a bit easier.

Work is also apace to produce a readable beta of the Gravetides rules in order to collect some feedback and suggestions.

As you can see work has just started, keep watching this space and our Facebook page.

Thank you all!