Senjutsu: Battle For Japan

Post Kickstarter Update #19 Senjutsu Production Update
almost 2 years ago – Sun, Jul 31, 2022 at 06:54:02 AM

Good morning, afternoon and evening Backers! 

A short and sweet Update for you all today. Despite some illness and time off in the office, we've managed to progress the Senjutsu project forward. See below for a production update. 

Production Update: 

Box Files:

Currently with the Licensees who are translating the files. These Box files will be ready for mass production once they are received. 

Rulebook:

With over 10,000 words and 30 diagrams, this Rulebook has been the most challenging document the team has ever worked on.  I want to thank the team for all their hard work in getting it polished! 

Currently with the Licensees who are translating the files. The Rulebook file will be ready for mass production once it is received. 

Cards:

Currently with the Licensees. These Card files will be ready for mass production once they are received. 

Miniatures:

Red Wax Samples are being sent to the Stone Sword office. These Red Wax samples are a final prototype reflection of what the moulds will create as a product. It is the final checking process before mass production and provides us with a 1:1 sample.

After this process, the actual production time of the miniatures is quite fast as the moulds will ready.  

Punchboards: 

The Punchboards are language free and do not require translating. The Punchboard files are ready for mass production.

Timeline Management:

What we don't want to do at Stone Sword Games is split the production into the various language options- as we feel this unfairly leaves some regions of the world without their product as other language options / regions enjoy the product. The English Language version of Senjutsu is finished- but we can't prioritise English / American Backers without excluding the rest of the world. 

Some licensees will finish the files faster than others- to try to negate this we will be ordering every region's miniatures and punchboards in one go. Our intention is to order the miniatures as soon as we have the Red Wax prototypes (assuming no problems with the prototypes). 

Rulebooks typically take far less time to print than miniatures and cards- giving Licensees and Publishers time to send through the documents midway through final production and still have the various Senjutsu versions packaged together. 

Updated Estimated Timeline:

Red Wax Samples received in the next 1-2 weeks. 

Final Miniature Production 4-6 weeks following. 

Punchboards, Cards and Rulebooks should take 5-6 weeks.

New Senjutsu Shipping Date: 

Shipping Charged to Backers: Early September.*

Loaded onto Boats between the 16th to the 30th September. 

Fulfilment Mid-October to November (Australian, NZ and Asian Backers should receive their games earlier in October because of their proximity to China).

* Freight prices are slowly decreasing, so the pushed back shipping date may benefit the final shipping price for the Stone Sword Games team and you, the Backer. 

Now the team have moved past the dread "crunch" of getting Senjutsu finished- I hope Max and I can get posting Updates more regularly- there's still a lot to show off and we're excited to have you with us. 

Much love,

James (and Paul!)

Stone Sword Games

Post Kickstarter Update #18 Senjutsu Production Update, Daimyo Sign-Ups + Don't Miss Hogs of War!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 02, 2022 at 03:37:25 AM

Greetings Samurai.

I hope you have had a good week! We have been incredibly busy but very productive. We've been working on finalising Senjutsu, fulfilling Hogs of War and making progress on Daimyo!

Senjutsu Project Progress:

The final files for Senjutsu's miniatures have come back from the manufacturers and after a few tweaks, the team has approved all the models! This means that we will now be looking at the final moulds being produced and the casting to get underway.

All Card Files have been finished and sent off to our brilliant partners for translation. 

The Rulebook is currently with the editor for a final pass before being sent off to our partners. 

The Art-prints have arrived! Paul and James have a fun job on the horizon as they'll be hand signing all 12,000+ of these art-prints! 

But its great news for us as the prints look absolutely amazing, a great addition to any gaming room wall!

Daimyo Sign ups:

Daimyo now has a Kickstarter page! Daimyo has been created in conjunction with legendary games designer Martin Wallace as a beautiful, area-control euro game for 1 to 6 players! (More details coming soon)

Sign up and don't miss a thing here: 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stoneswordgames/daimyo-battle-for-japan

Hogs of War:

While not part of the Battle for Japan series, Hogs of War: The Miniatures Game (our second Kickstarter) has started fulfilment and is in the hands of many backers already! 

Hogs took a long road to fulfilment (with the way the world has been over the last two years), we persevered and have learned a lot of positive lessons that are being applied to Senjutsu and future projects from Stone Sword Games!

 If you like WW1 or RTS games like Advance Wars and Command and Conquer (or just pigs!), come check out the project here! https://hogs-of-war-the-miniatures-game.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

We're honouring the Kickstarter prices until fulfilment is complete (in another 3-4 weeks) so don't miss out!

That's all for this week folks, have a great weekend!

Until next time -

Max and the rest of the Stone Sword Games team! 

Post Kickstarter Update #17 Progress Update, fully painted set, Solo Progress
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 03:42:14 AM

Greetings Samurai.

I hope you are all having a good week! It has been very busy here with UKGE preparations, then recovery. However we are back to normality here after the show and work on the campaign is fast approaching completion with all things Senjutsu.

Senjutsu Project Progress:

Senjutsu is coming along very well!

We have sent off all of the models to have the moulds made and we have started receiving the final proofs on the 3d files and the vast majority are looking great! A few need some tweaks but we are still absolutely on schedule for the models!

As for the rules again we just have a few finals tweaks to make to the cards, which we are expecting to have with all of our translation partners by the end of the week! The following week we should have the main rulebook to them as well. 

The Rulebook is all but done, we've had a lot of eyes look over it at this point and we are 99% finished

with regard to  the written content of the rulebook. Most of the work to do on the rulebook at this stage is graphical edits and layout choices so this is also absolutely on track for our current launch date!

Solo play:

Solo is looking great with the solo mechanics at a stage that we are very happy with thanks to Dan and the excellent work by play test team!  And with Raben's art nearing completion the book itself is going to look fantastic!

I was able to play it for the first time on TTS this afternoon where I played the first scenario from the "path of the Ronin" campaign, and I was able to pull a very close win! I ended the game with both the Ashigaru down and the Ronin down to just one wound. As the game gets refined further I think this will be a really big asset to the game! And shouldn't be long until its finished and off to translators and printers as well!

Fully painted set:

I was able to get the whole set painted, it took a long time, but I am very pleased with how the whole set of miniatures looks on one board, I think the individual character of the models can really shine through!

I truly can't wait to see what you guys can do with the models when they are released! Please send your paint jobs to us on the Facebook/Instagram or via email to Stone Sword directly as we really want to show off the communities skills!

I hope you all have a great week and farewell until next time Samurai!

- Max

Post Kickstarter Update #16 Polish Publisher Announced, Final Card Counts And A Painted Noble Woman!
almost 2 years ago – Sat, May 14, 2022 at 04:32:11 AM

Good morning, afternoon and evening Samurai!

It’s almost the weekend so to start you all off on a high note, here is an update for Senjutsu!

Ogry Games Joins Senjutsu!

I am delighted to officially announce Ogry games as Senjutsu's newest publisher! Their excellent team will be bringing Senjutsu's Samurai goodness to Poland! Translating the title into Polish for Polish retailers, customers and you the backer! 

Ogry are a veteran games producer and Publisher, and we couldn't be happier to have them on board! (Follow them on Facebook here)

Final card count for Senjutsu!

Paul and Dan have been working non-stop to get Senjutsu's cards finalised. This process has incorporated months of writing, playtesting (thank you community!) and graphical design. 

We have a nearly-final card count for the game and the total is... *drumroll*...

362 UNIQUE cards (Not counting Solo) in Season 1 of Senjutsu! That works out to 792 actual cards with 126 Solo Cards on top for a MASSIVE 918 cards in Senjutsu Season 1!

If you stacked up every card that’s being sent out with Senjutsu Season 1 into a single stack it would be over 18 kilometres high! This is twice the height of Mount Everest! (So we advise against doing this as if they fell over it would make a lot of mess.)

Painted Noble Woman for Senjutsu!

I had a great time painting this one, the detail on her Kimono is extremely intricate and allowed me to really go to town! She might not be a fighter, but she is certainly in the running for my favourite model in the whole range!

Every core set for Senjutsu will come with two Noblewomen (Thanks to Stretch Goals!) meaning you can flex your creative muscles and try two colour schemes on these lovely minis!

Love from everyone at Stone Sword Games,

(And I hope you're all sharpening your paintbrushes in anticipation!)

Max. 

Post Kickstarter Update #15 Wrapping Up The First (TTS) Senjutsu Tournament + Yasuke's Samurai Spotlight
about 2 years ago – Sat, Apr 30, 2022 at 03:54:19 AM

Good morning, afternoon and evening Backers!

Just a quick Update today with our tournament results and Yasuke's Samurai Spotlight!

Wrapping Up The First (TTS) Senjutsu Tournament:

In February, thirty-two brave Samurai stepped into the snow-covered arena of our first (Digital) TTS* tournament, eager to prove their worth.

Over six weeks our budding champions fought through burning villages, bamboo forests, defended noblewomen and clashed over shrines until only the last two contenders remained.

These final, top two contenders, Clint (Zorliton on Discord) and George (George E Ohh on Discord), were matched together for the final: A brutal close-quarter fight on the bridge.

The final was a hard-fought, back and forth game from the outset! With Clint toppling George in a tight finish.

(When we can, Paul and I will get the footage of this epic duel edited and narrated – so we can post it to the SSG YouTube channel for the community to enjoy.)

*Tabletop Simulator

The Top Prize:

As the winner, Clint has been given the chance to design a Senjutsu Core Set card as a prize.

Clint has designed 'Misdirection' and you can check out his card below.

 Misdirection is a unique and very cool Defence Ability Card that can cancel the opponent's rotation - fitting in nicely with the suite of Senjutsu's existing Core Cards.

Bounty Prizes:

Tournament participants had the opportunity to take on the playtest team during the event, with any victory over the team earning a special bounty prize: A alternate-art Character Card featuring one of the four Core Set characters, hand signed by our very own artist, Raben White!

Over the course of the tournament no less than twenty-one bounties were claimed! Congratulations to all of those who defeated these worthy adversaries.

Paul, Dan, and I also took part in the tournament. Beating any of us got the winner a 54mm model of their choice. No less than seven of these gorgeous figures will be winging their way to the winners soon.

Yasuke's Samurai Spotlight:

Yasuke is a named, legendary fighter in the service of Oda Nobunaga. Our version of Yasuke fights using two swords and his immense strength to wear opponents down. 

Elephant Slam for example, allows Yasuke to push back the opponent an additional Hex for each Hex Yasuke moved with an attached Attack Ability Card- sending opponent's flying through terrain, off bridges  and into Caltrop-afflicted Hexes. 

Lion's Fangs, an aggressive Instant Replacement Attack Ability Card, gives Yasuke yet another opportunity to move towards the enemy whilst attacking his front-left and front-right flanks.  

The dual Katana wielded by Yasuke gives rise to some impressive Attack and Defence Ability Cards. 

Righteous Fury - a Jade 3-Focus-Cost Ability Card- gives him the chance to insta-kill an opponent to his forward facing and then move aggressively forward and left/ right for a follow-up attack if the Jade attack fails to end the fight.

A Focus-costed forward step on his Core Card allows Yasuke to close the gap to the opponent quickly and represents the size of his stride against the other fighters. Historical records emphasise Yasuke's stature - so we made him the tallest fighter of Senjutsu Season 1!

Yasuke's Kamae tree is simple and doesn't feature any one-directional gates- allowing players to focus on other elements of their strategy when playing as the African warrior. 

Don't forget- Add-Ons and Extras through BackerKit are charged tomorrow. Email me at [email protected] if you want to get the limited All-In Pledge before we close the PM for production. 

Much love,

James (and Paul!)