BOARD GAME – Legion: The Siberian Story

Dear friends,

our campaign is done and thanks to you we can say it has been successful! We have managed to get 31,871 EUR, which is enough for us to make the game in English and in Czech, design beautiful art for it and print everything. 

This has only come true thanks to you and we are immensely grateful for the chance we have been given. What happens now?

In the following week, we will contact all those of you who chose perks that include trips, sleepovers, etc. We will try to find a time that will work for you to do that.

In May, we will contact all those of you who want to have a character in the game: we will ask you to give us materials for our graphic artists and during the summer we will present our proposals to you and talk them through with you. 

At the same time, we’ll draft a new prototype version for the end of July, this time allowing for in-person play, and start an open round of testing that you can participate in as well - you’ll just need to print the prototype at home. Some of the testing will take place with the new graphic art. 

In July, we will present another version of the game with a new batch of illustrations and we’ll be doing that regularly until the autumn. In October, we want to have everything ready for printing, and how long it takes before the game is produced will depend on the printers. We hope that altogether, we will have enough time to deliver the game to your tables in May 2022.

At the moment, we are also negotiating with other distributors and publishers who expressed their interest in our game. But that doesn’t mean much to you, our HitHit backers, since you will get your games either way.

And that is all. What we wanted to give you now was a practical overview of what’s ahead. There is a lot of work to be done and we are very glad that you allowed us to do it. We will also be happy for anybody interested in the testing or in helping any other way: just contact us over this email or sign up to our Discord.

Thank you so much for your trust.

With love,

Legion team

In recent days, we have hit a huge milestone: we managed to get all the backing necessary to make the game. You all deserve a very big thank you for that. We are grateful that you decided our game was worth it. 

But it’s not over yet! We still have three days of the campaign left, so we’ve updated our stretch goals: if we get a bit more money, we will be able to make a few nice improvements to the game.

We are also going to tell you a bit more about the White Army. 

The White Army consists of a wide spectrum of people: from old-school Imperial loyalists to the liberal middle class and professional soldiers. In the game, they are represented by forces commanded by the self-appointed ruler of all Russia, Admiral Kolchak.

The White Army was the main force standing against the Bolshevik rule over Russia and trying mainly to overthrow them - even though they weren’t always exactly united about that. This fragmentation was one of the main causes of their defeat.

The Civil War, however, has brought many changes. Many Imperial officers joined the White Army, but some did choose the Red revolution, which needed seasoned military professionals. In the game, the Reds will be able to recruit White Army soldiers and vice versa - unlike the Legionnaires, who cannot cooperate with the Reds at all.

The disunited White Army groups in our game and its snowy Siberian foothills can be led by Captain Konovalov or the mysterious O.

Captain Konovalov is a master of tactical retreats and strategy. He can use his supplies to create cost-effective traps that wound everyone that comes to a Plot, in order to deter others and pick the best battlefields.

The mysterious O. is the game's éminence grise. You don’t need to know her; what’s in a name?  Actions speak the loudest. O. is a White Army intelligence officer. She works in secret, and so do all the characters she recruits. All healthy characters under O.’s command are so stealthy that they always act as if it was night in the game: you keep all your character cards face down and others have no idea who you deploy where. Other commanders can only do that when it is night in the game. This leaves all the other factions unaware of what O. is planning. And that is not all! You don’t need to know anything about O., but she wants to know everything. And she is so persuasive that she will find out. Once a round, she can take a look at the action cards in any player’s hand.

The White Army is fragmented, and they have no unique ability in common. They do have a lot of characters from two unique groups: doctors and characters specialized in hand-to-hand combat. It is clear how doctors, members of the bourgeoisie hated by the Reds, can be useful. Some old Imperial officers, Cossacks, and even Kazakhs can also charge forward and assault the enemy, which makes every deployment a risky venture, balancing on the edge between striking at the enemy and getting wounded. That naturally makes the doctors come in handy quite a lot...

In the last few days, we have brought you a bunch of news. Most importantly, we've showed you Legion: Siberian We also showcased a real playthrough in our gameplay video. And then there are two new PERKS. 

Want to buy our game? You only have a few more days to do so. :) 

Now we’re getting to the legionnaires, the Czechoslovak army in exile. After the Czechoslovaks refused to support the Reds, they found themselves in a difficult situation and had to become an independent army. In the chaos of the Civil War, the Legions managed to gain control over a huge part of Russia - but our heroes are in a slightly different situation. They were ambushed on the move and now they have to fight their way through no man’s land to their brothers.

The legionnaires can choose from two commanders: Lieutenant Topol is best at keeping his people safe and moving- at every Location, he can heal his troops. Colonel Kadlec, on the other hand, is quite distant from the battlefield and instead of long-term sustainability, he focuses on winning decisive conflicts at a few key Plots that he invests everything into. 

Legionnaires also have a few things in common. Only Legionnaire characters have the following ability:

Brotherhood
Special legionnaire ability.

Reaction. Only applies to Characters with the Brotherhood ability present at the same Plot at the same time - even if some of these Characters belong to another player. Play at any point when another Character with Brotherhood would be wounded. The Character playing Brotherhood will get the wound instead of another Brother at the same Plot.

They are truly devoted, and one brother would follow another into Hell and to the front lines. They stand out by having excellent civilian support and the highest number of nurses and doctors in the game. Their Characters also include a range of specialists, from sappers to an assault squad, which can charge forward using their special Assault ability. On the other hand, they don’t have many Jacks of all trades, meaning legionnaires need to mostly focus on cooperation and perseverance.  

We have 2 NEW REWARDS for you. ?

1) In cooperation with the Czechoslovak Legionnaires' Association, we also offer a special reward: the possibility of sleeping in the LEGIONARY TRAIN during its summer stay in Prague.

2) You can receive a unique version of the game in a handmade wooden box, which was created by Maty (https://matymoves.com/) only in a limited number for Legion: Siberian Journey. ?

Wondering how to play Legion: Siberian Journey? How do game principles work and how does the game evolve? We have the game GAMEPLAY for you!

We have prepared for you an overview of what awaits you in the box with the game Legion: Siberian Journey. ?

And together we enter the finish line! The last week of the campaign is ahead of us and we are very pleased with your support ?

Are you interested in more? Take a look on the web.

 ? WWW.LEGIONGAME.CZ

Eleven days to the end of our campaign for the board game LEGION:  SIBERIAN JOURNEY!

What’s still coming? Updated rules, new graphic art, a gameplay video, and a few surprises. 

Now it’s time to go through our fractions. 

THE RED ARMY

What will you experience if you choose to play for the Reds?

Slightly different goals in the game and very different tools to achieve them.

The Red Army is leading the country through a bloody revolution and trying to upend and overthrow the old regime. They are approaching the small Siberian territory that is the setting of our game from the west.

Every fractions has slightly different goals in the story. The legionnaires are trying to reconnect with the main body of their troops; the Reds and the Whites are trying to get control over as much land as they can, and the warlord commanders want to get respect, either by maintaining order or by sowing chaos all around.

All that is represented in the game by victory points: whoever got the most points managed to achieve their goals best.

Each fraction can choose out of two commanders. Those have different approaches and abilities. Let’s introduce them

The Reds give you a choice between Commissars Raskolnikov and Polzin.

Comissar Polzin is a drafting specialist.  Once every round, as part of the Auction, he can spend 3 resources to draft a random character from the pack into their fraction. Alternatively, he can sacrifice one of his characters to replace it by a new one from the pack. Somebody stops being useful? They’ll be replaced by a random new recruit. We need more soldiers? No problem. Polzin will make sure you are never short for characters to send to plots!

And what about Commissar Raskolnikov? He is infamous in Siberia for his brutality. If his squad loses at a plot, they will at least wound their more successful rivals. His main tactic is fear and real Red terror.

As Raskolnikov and Polzin, you will regularly need to draft characters into the Red Army fraction. Anybody is welcome. Except for legionnaires! Those would never work with the Reds, not for all the tea in China. Or should we rather say “not for all the food, drink, and jewellery in Siberia”?

And what else is typical for the Red Army?

Some Red characters have a special, Red-only ability: comradery. Comrades can go to plots that already contain another Red character, regardless of whether they have the necessary abilities for it. This gives more flexibility to the Reds, but it also requires collaboration. Their fraction contains a few extremely competent characters, as well as a number of less talented comrades who need to follow the example of others.

It's time to ask you if you have some questions for us. Whether about the development of the game, about the game itself or about the creators. Send us all your questions to the e-mail until Sunday, April 18. We will collect them, answer them and publish the answers.

We are looking forward!

Before we do that, though, we’d like to brag a bit: the German game outlet Teizeiltheiden wrote about us, so if you are a German speaker, read more here.

We’re also making a video for you, to document the gameplay. We’ll show you all the game stages and how the game really works. And if you want, you can still sign up for online game trials: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfS5S65TI9m9L7ikn2C6FJQa5d_-HLuxbkrrsBScLogl7J76g/viewform

Now let’s move on to the action cards!

Action cards are a bunch of amazing gimmicks, tactics and events, encompassing everything from medicine to jammed rifles. Action cards are the tricks up your sleeve.

You can get them during the Auction in exchange for Resources, and you can do so in two different ways. In every round, a number of Action cards equal to the number of players is drawn in the Auction phase and placed on the board next to the characters.

Every player can bid four times in the Auction. They can bid on characters or action cards or both, but they need to figure out the right balance. The number of resources and bids is limited, after all. As you know from the character card info, whoever bid the most Resources on a card will win it. That’s the easiest way to get an Action card. 

If you Commander has excellent supply lines in Siberia, which means abundant Resources, you can also try a more surefire way: You spend two Resources during the Auction and draw one random Action card from the pack. It’s obvious that will have both advantages and disadvantages. Your co-players will have no way to know the tactics you might use against them later, but you will also risk spending Resources for something you’ll be unable to use.

At the moment, the game has 22 types of Action cards, which fall into 5 main categories. These are cards that influence the number of resources, medicines, character abilities, victory points, and Plot tactics.

Action cards can help you get provisions (Resources), they can heal your characters, prevent wounds, or even overcome death. A rare jewel or incriminating evidence can also help you gain secret victory points, improve your characters’ abilities or steamroll through a Plot. You can lay an ambush, reinforce your troops, or weaken your opponents, bribe or blackmail somebody else’s character, or fall back from a Plot that you would be sure to lose.

What Action cards can you encounter in the game? We’ve got three examples for you!

Sniper Shot: Play it while deploying a character into a squad at a Plot. If the character has the Combat ability (can use weapons), they can wound any character at the given Plot.

Tactical Retreat: Play it before Plots are evaluated, once everybody has passed. The card allows you to remove all of your characters from one Plot into the Reserve.

Jewellery Set: If you play the card, you can spend the jewellery for 3R. If you keep the card, it counts as two victory points.

22 days! That is the time that remains in our campaign, and we only need 40% more to meet our goals! Thank you all for your support.

In the meantime, we have presented quite a lot of things already: details on the game in the Dohráno podcast, the campaign plan, the rules, and we also launched the signup for online playthroughs, as well as a Discord server a and presented character cards. 

Today we’ll look at our Plot and Location cards. Before we do that, though, we just want to answer some FAQs. First off: the game is still being developed and the point of the crowdfunding is to allows us to finish it. That means finalize the graphic art, make all the cards, print the components. All these things cost some money: we cannot make the graphic art for 300 cards through volunteer work. That’s why we are using HitHit, so that we can get the game done.

Secondly: The game is not our full-time job and never will be. All of the team members have their day jobs or study full-time and we work on the game in our free time. We’re not trying to get rich with the game. We’re making Legion because it makes us happy and because we love games and the history of the Legions. The budget also reflects that: half of all out profits (whatever is left after we cover the costs) will go to the Czechoslovak Legionnaire Association and the Rolling Association.

Now, to the cards. Let’s start with the LOCATIONS!

Locations can have three difficulty levels: first, second, and a special final location, the Destination.

Every round takes place at a new Location. The last Location must be drawn from the Destination pack. The player who ends up with the lowest number of points at the end of the third day (round) picks this last location from the pack.

The first two rounds are at first level Locations, the third and fourth and second level Locations. The fifth round takes place at the final Destination. 

What do the Locations look like and what makes them special? 

Every location sets up the atmosphere for the upcoming round. It contains a difficulty rating and some victory points, as well as special effect that’s described on the card. Some Locations take place at night, which means you deploy characters to squad in secret, with your cards covered. Other Locations wound your characters with a cruel blizzard or let them rest in the peace of a monastery rather than hurry after Plots. You can find yourselves at a marketplace, in the middle of the woods, by a mass grave, in a storm, or at a railway station. Every day brings a new challenge!

Then we have the PLOT cards!

The plots let you fight with sword or pistol, make speeches at funerals, reveal secret dispatches, or get involved in the opium trade. When resolving a Plot, you need to think tactically, find allies in other fractions or bribe other players. Plots let you win victory points.

They can be competitive or cooperative.

In a competitive plot, players battle against one another, trying to get the strongest squad at the plot.

In a cooperative Plot, players collaborate on overcoming the problem presented by the Plot. Every cooperative Plot has a difficulty number that you need to exceed. 

There are over 50 Plots in the game. Your players sometimes need combat skills to take part in a plot, at other times thay may use their charm or cunning. 

The reward for resolving Plots is victory points. Many Plots also contain special effects: Some wound your characters, while others give you a tactical advantage. 

Whoever wins the most plots in a round controls the Location and its victory points.

Characters are the main tools in the hand of the commanders who deploy them to deal with plots: to fight, collect cues, spy, make dignified eulogies, or win over hearts and minds with a motivational speech.

INSPIRED BY HISTORY

In the making of our game, we were significantly inspired by history: from great political events to individual diaries and current research (for example as part of the project http://legie100.com/krev-legionare/). The heroes in our game intentionally do not include any real historical figures. You will only encounter real people in second-hand mentions, or as characters requested by legionnaire families who explicitly consented to having these real figures in the game. Our reasons for this are mainly ethical. The game is a fictional alternative history, and the characters will experience things that will depend purely on the players’ decisions. 

Texts attached to the characters will tell you more about what they were inspired with. These stories did happen and belong to real people, and we want to use them to share the ordinary and extraordinary stories of people who found themselves in the middle of a civil war, whether they be soldiers, clerks, or spies.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

The hardest and most expensive task that we are collecting money for through our HitHit campaign, apart from the printing, is the graphic design of our characters. This is how we bring them to life:

1. Every character has a basic personality, abilities, and a set of personal circumstances. We want to make them authentic, most of all, rather than complicated or epic at any cost. Our game will let you encounter a private turned PoW, a seasoned Brother Rifleman, a scheming noble lady or a desperate civilian. 
    
2. Based on our instructions, Tomáš, one of our team members, researches all the facts, comes up with proposals and shows authentic gear and clothes to out graphic artists. The illustrations are based on period photographs, surviving artefacts, and scholarly literature.
    
3. After that, Honza, another member of our team, transforms these proposals into computer graphics and draws it in our unified style.

Then, for example, you might get this calm and reliable smoker. :)  

CHARACTER ATTRIBUTES

The numbers and symbols on the cards represent the characters’ attributes. Every character in the game is unique. Every card therefore contains their name and their fraction - Antonín Kalvoda here is a legionnaire. In the game that means that it is easiest to draft him for the player who plays as the Legionnaires, harder for the White Army and the Warlords, and impossible for the Reds.

In the game, you will gradually build your own little group of characters that belong to your fraction. Every day in the game (one round) starts with an auction, with the commanders bidding their resources (money, cigarettes, sugarloaves...) to get the best characters. In general, it is easiest to draft characters from one’s own fraction, but we’re in a civil war: Sometimes you’ll bribe someone, sometimes someone might defect. Card prices are not given, they depend on the players’ interest in the auction.

The top left corner contains a number. The character number might be the most important feature of a card: it tells you how capable Antonín is when deployed to a plot. His 4 is pretty decent. The strongest character in the game has 9, but at a dire price; the average is around 4. 

On the other side, you can see a bullet icon. Icons determine the plots Antonín can participate in. Plots can have three requirements (combat/intrigue/charisma). Antonin’s one icon means he can only engage in the combat ones. Some characters have two icons; certain extremely capable individuals might even have three. Antonín, as a soldier, is obviously pretty specialized on fighting.

But if you look under his name, you will see one more thing: an ability! Some abilities are described right on the card, but some are so frequent that they’re included in a glossary. Brotherhood, for example, is a typical legionnaire ability. Should any other legionnaire at the same plot get wounded, Antonín can jump in and take the wound instead. 

All of that is hidden in one character card: one of the 35 legionnaires and 140 characters in total. 

http://www.legiongame.cz

As we promised, we are launching the signup for the online playthroughs of our board game Legion: Siberian Journey. ?

We are sorry, but because of the pandemic we cannot meet in person and play our board game live. Still, we want to give you the opportunity (though limited by the online simulation) to try out what playing our new game will be like. ?

We want to note right away: It is very likely that we will not be able to show the game to everybody who’s interested, because of our limited capacities and time. We will try to give the chance to play to as many people as possible, but not everybody might get a chance. We therefore decided to always draw lots for the playthrough spots.

We’re attaching the signup form that will work from tonight onwards. Please make sure you read the conditions to avoid any unnecessary delays and issues. ?

We’re also launching a new DISCORD server that will let you meet other players, discuss the game and get all the current news first-hand: https://discord.gg/Jxn4kSxr82

?  If you have any questions, email us at: siberianjourney@rolling.cz

?  http://www.legiongame.cz/home/

With no further ado, we’re presenting the RULES! It’s still a beta version, so we’ll appreciate any comments, ideas, and innovations. You can tell us here or write an email to us at siberianjourney@rolling.cz.

You can now find the rules on our website: www.legiongame.cz!

OUR NEWSLETTER: http://eepurl.com/hsnBsv

We have two pieces of news for you!

Presenting the campaign timetable. How will Legion be played and what will the game look like? We will show you that in the following weeks and you can also look forward to several online playtests. We have also added some FAQs: we’ll tell you more about what you will get and what we will do with your money. 

Secondly: There has been a lot of interest in our I WANT TO BE IN THE GAME and I  REALLY WANT TO BE IN THE GAME perks and they sold out within a few days. We decided to offer you a second round, which is already available online. Do you (really) want to be in the game? You have the chance :) And it's the last chance. 

OUR WEB: www.legiongame.cz

OUR NEWSLETTER: http://eepurl.com/hsnBsv

Thank you all very much! On the first day since launch, we managed to meet 20% of our main goal. ?

However, we are still at the beginning. Over the next week, we will present our campaign plan to you: that will, for example, include showcasing the rules, individual cards etc. ?

? You can also find more information on the website: www.legiongame.cz/home/

? You can join our mailing list as well: http://eepurl.com/hsnBsv

If you like the game, you can also help us by sharing our HitHit project. 

Thank you! ?