With Tectonia, an ambitious project has started in its crowdfunding on Gamefound. The strategic wargame lets three to five players slip into the roles of tribal leaders. The real highlight of the board game is the game board itself - it changes constantly over the course of the game.
Three to five players, up to three hours of playtime per game and a heap of material - this is how the framework of Tectonia can be roughly summarized. The board game is ambitious in several respects: It is a strategic chunk, it relies on an innovative game board trick and it is a one-man project - now it is to be financed by crowdfunding via Gamefound. At least that is the plan of the author behind Tectonia, Hagen Behr. It doesn't really want to explode at the moment, but there is hope: the campaign has already generated around a quarter of the planned sum of 20.000 euros.
"Battle on a Living World"
Tectonia is essentially a war game: Different factions are at each other's throats, the area control concept is embedded in a story about a kind of natural disaster that rocked no less than the world itself. It is precisely from this that Hagen Behr turns the mechanics on which the board game is based: The game board is subject to constant changes over the course of the game – because the tectonic plates move. This creates little twists that players need to factor into their turn planning.
The title suffix "Battle on a living world" sounds like a pop song from the XNUMXs, but describes the idea of Tectonia quite aptly. At the same time, the modular game plan ensures variety. Hundreds of maps can be built with it, so that the setup can be redesigned over and over again. Otherwise, tribal figures, dice, cards and building tiles are included, with which the tactics of one's own tribe can be made visible on the gaming table.
There is a lot of fighting, because that's obviously what it's all about: moving troops, rolling dice and determining majorities - the basic idea of the fights is simple. But because warriors can be strengthened and sectors can limit army sizes, the tactical claim is preserved. Ultimately, it's about movement, resources - and of course victory points.
A board game that has one of the most innovative game board mechanisms of recent years can currently be crowdfunded for around 70 euros. And it is also a campaign that corresponds to the core idea of crowdfunding: There is a resourceful author with an idea, only the money is missing. No big publishers, no big promises, no profit maximization through the back door - at Tectonia it's all about the realization of a board game idea. But it doesn't really want to fly at the start of the campaign on Gamefound. Hagen Behr went live with his project on July 5th. So far he has been able to generate just over EUR 20.000 of the targeted EUR 5.000 – a quarter of the total. The goal is still a long way off, which is due to the course of crowdfunding campaigns: they are often particularly strong in the first 24, 48, sometimes 72 hours, then it levels off - until the final sprint shortly before the deadline.
By the way, the game is produced at least in parts in Europe. In Poland, Granne takes care of the game board, cards and everything that is not figures or dice. The latter two things come from Gameland in China. And Happyshops takes care of the shipping. It costs between ten and twenty euros across Europe or a maximum of 35 euros for the rest of the world.
Sure, the campaign lacks the sexiness that is highly polished in terms of looks, but the gameplay makes an exciting first impression. You should take a look Crowdfunding campaign for Tectonia in any case. You have until July 26th.
And because crowdfunding fans love Motivator so much - a bit of "FOMO" also plays a role here: If the thing is not funded, a small innovation could disappear from the sinking.
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