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Spirit Island

Created by GreaterThanGames

The cooperative settler-destruction strategy game!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Spirit Island is in Transit! Please update your shipping addresses!
almost 7 years ago – Wed, Jun 07, 2017 at 12:01:12 AM

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Spirit Island is finally on board a ship on its way to the US! It has left China aboard the container ship MOL Beauty, and is scheduled to arrive here in St. Louis right at the end of June.

In order to ensure prompt shipping as soon as it arrives, it's VITALLY important that you update your address in BackerKit by the end of this week! If you need to update your address, please don't send an email to us, just go right here and update it as needed. We're going to be locking things down by Friday night so that we can begin printing shipping labels, so it's very important that this get done in a timely fashion. If a package gets shipped to the wrong address, it'll delay getting your game to you by a significant amount, and neither of us want that.

Once again, just to make sure it's heard, update your address here, if needed: https://spirit-island.backerkit.com/backer/welcome

Between now and delivery time, we'll have one more update for you: an in-depth look at Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares. I wanted to keep this update shorter though to focus on the exciting delivery news!

Christopher and I spent all of our down time at UK Games Expo playing Spirit Island, and oh boy is it fun. Between the two of us, we played over two dozen full length games, all with just the 8 spirits in the core game, and we still haven't reached the end of all of the core game content by a long shot.

I could not be more thrilled by how Spirit Island turned out. It has been a long time coming, but wow is this game fun. I hope that when you get it in a few weeks, you are as pleased with it as we are.

~Paul

Production Photos!!!
almost 7 years ago – Sun, May 28, 2017 at 10:26:27 PM

Hey everyone! Paul here with a middle of the night update that I'm super excited about! I just got back from ACD Games Day (an event held by ACD Distribution for a bunch of retailers) in Madison, WI and am about to catch a flight to UK Games Expo, but before I do I wanted to post a quick update about the absolute coolest thing that arrived in the office while I was gone!

 

That's a real production copy of Spirit Island, shipped to us off the assembly line by the factory! At this point, the rest of the games are on a boat heading to the US from China, but after *years* of waiting for this game to really exist, I'm absolutely thrilled about how it turned out!

The game weighs in at 4.5lbs, and that's just the core game without any expansion content! There is absolutely tons of stuff in the box, but nevertheless it all fits!

 

That rulebook is huge and awesome, and printed on some thick, glossy stock. It is about the size and weight of a really high quality wall calendar. And inside, it is full of detailed examples as well as some cool bits of art. Here's a quick look at one page!

 

There are a bunch of examples and art all through the book, plus a lore section at the back for anyone interested in more details about the world!

Ok, back to the components. Here's the first layer!

 

Those two trays lift out and hold all of the bits that you need to use during gameplay; the tray on the right holds Invader stuff (Blight, Explorers, Towns, and Cities), and the one on the left holds Spirit stuff (Energy and Dahan). There is also a bag of fear and of markers for spirit-specific effects. Not pictured are the half dozen additional bags that Christopher took to use for another project; in the future, I'll use them to sort out the four spirit colors each into its own bag instead of having the wooden spirit tokens mixed in with the Dahan.

On to the second layer! This holds the 8 spirit panels as well as all of the cards in 2 wells (major powers & minor powers on one side, fear cards, starting spirit cards, power progression cards, and rules reminder cards on the other). But wait, there's more!

 

Beneath one of the card wells is a mini-euro sized card well for the invader cards, and over beneath the spirit panels is a space for the board, with enough space above it for the punchboard fear level cards plus some scenario-specific pieces. But there is even more!

 

Underneath the board is yet another well, this time for the adversary and scenario panels!

There is seriously a ton of stuff. Here it is all spread out on the coffee table at GTG HQ.

 

That's all for today! Our first Tuesday of the month update will probably be very brief, and just let you know that Spirit Island is still on a boat. It'll also likely remind you to go update your shipping address in BackerKit if needed, but you can get a jump on that by doing so right now!

Craig, Christopher, and I will all be out of the office for the next week, so comment responses might be slow. However, if the shipper tells me the specific boat name at any point during the trip, I'll post it here so that you can follow along. If not, I'll definitely be able to let you know when the games make landfall.

Photo Spreads and A Spread of Rampant Green
almost 7 years ago – Tue, May 02, 2017 at 09:30:24 PM

It's May and we're in the bloom of spring here in St. Louis. We thought it would be neat to capitalize on that with today's update!

First of all, it's worth saying that there's not too much to report on delivery just yet. We're deep in manufacturing and just waiting for games to be finished. As soon as this is done, they'll get loaded onto a ship and begin the journey to our warehouse! We'll be letting you know as soon as this happens.

Now, normally I wouldn't do this, but it's pretty exciting. As I was in the process of writing this update, I got an email from the factory with photos you'll definitely want to see. So I jumped back up here and modified a few things. It's actual photos of the board!

We have samples of the playmat to show you, too! They turned out really great. Take a look!

 On top of this, we have some additional lore from Eric. This time, he's going to be talking about A Spread of Rampant Green!

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A Spread of Rampant Green is a force of continual renewal and regeneration, a jungle so thick and verdant you can barely see five feet ahead with plants overgrowing your path behind as you walk. Wherever it goes, creepers and greenery twine their way across the land, and the leaves rustle with sounds of laughter; for all that it's ancient and primal, it loves life with the same wholehearted exuberance as a toddler, and shows up at human villages with all the enthusiasm of a kid doing a flying belly-flop atop an unsuspecting parent.

Thankfully, it's powerful enough that its acts of reckless enthusiasm happen at a timescale humans can react to: a village may be overgrown in a night or three, but not in minutes.

Here's its Spirit Panel:

  • Growth: Unlike the other core-game Spirits, it has a two-part Growth: you always add a Presence to Jungle or Wetland, in addition to a choice from the right. Given that one of those three also adds Presence, Rampant Green will get Presence out more quickly than just about anyone. The choices on the right give a good variety of options, though "+1 Card Play this turn" is unusual - A Spread of Rampant Green can choose to spike its activity in a way most Spirits can't.
  • Presence: Its Presence tracks are some of the worst we've seen: its Energy gain is barely better than Ocean's Hungry Grasp, and its Card Plays are as low as Vital Strength of the Earth's. This appearance is slightly deceiving, since it can play Presence faster than other Spirits, and it has the option of temporarily boosting its Card Plays via Growth - but still, it's not exactly super-strong here.
  • Special Rules - Choke the Land with Green: Here's a powerhouse of an ability! A Spread of Rampant Green can entirely shut down a Ravage or Build in a land where it has a Sacred Site. And with the ability to play 2 Presence in a single turn, it can make a Sacred Site on-demand (in a nearby Jungle or Wetland, at least). It does have to destroy one of those Presence...
  • Special Rules - Steady Regeneration: ...but it can eventually regrow, placing destroyed Presence back onto the board. This regeneration isn't just useful for Choke the Land with Green; it could also be critical for maintaining Presence once the Island becomes Blighted, albeit at a cost in Energy. Of course, placing destroyed Presence is worse than placing new Presence, so this ability is most useful in later game.
  • Innate Power - Creepers Tear into Mortar: 1 damage to a Town or City isn't very good - by itself it does nothing. But the higher levels of this innate permit either destroying a single Town/City outright, or spreading out single points of damage to finish off multiple damaged population centers. The targeting is pretty restrictive, although A Spread of Rampant Green does tend to want to get up close + personal with the Invaders, and will have more Presence out than most Spirits.
  • Innate Power - All-Enveloping Green slows down the Invaders' Ravaging through sheer volume of greenery. Defend 2 isn't much, but it reduces the damage of (1 Explorer + 1 Town) from 3 down to an insignificant 1, so it's useful in a commonly-occuring situation. Similarly, Defend 4 can just-barely-guard against (1 Town + 1 City). This Innate differs in several ways from the ability to prevent Ravages altogether via Choke the Land with Green: it allows Dahan counterattacks, it can be performed at a greater range, and it doesn't destroy Presence - but it requires certain elements, can only be done once/turn, and is limited in how much damage it can stop. The two dovetail nicely to provide defense in a wide range of situations.

Both Innates require a lot of Plant to activate. Two is available via the Energy Presence track; let's look at the Unique Powers:

General trends:

  • For elements, it has 4 Plant, 2 Water, 2 Moon, and 1 Sun. It'll have little difficulty in hitting 3+ Plant as the game goes on; its ability to trigger Innate Powers is more likely to revolve around its secondary elements of Moon and Water. (Some have asked why it uses Moon rather than Sun. While all plants gain energy from sunshine, on a conceptual/spiritual level, A Spread of Rampant Green is more strongly aligned with the Moon aspects of regrowth and transformation than with Sun aspects like day, light, heat, dominance, constancy, focus, and command.)
  • They're not super-expensive, averaging less than 1 Energy each. In early game, Energy looks tight, so this will probably be helpful. Green powers up quickly, though, and by late game will probably have the leftover Energy to use one or two of the more affordable Major Powers.
  • There's not much offense or Fear, and what there is is restricted. In a smaller game, A Spread of Rampant Green will probably need to take damage / fear-dealing Power Cards. (In a larger game, it can just keep the Invaders in check while everyone else powers up to hammer them.)

Specific cards:

  • Fields Choked with Growth forces the relocation of a single Town - or of multiple Dahan, since they know how to listen to the message being sent. Nicely inexpensive, though Slow, so using it to best effect will require understanding how the Invaders are going to act.
  • Gift of Proliferation lets another Spirit add a Presence, ramping them up faster (in both board presence and Presence tracks) than they otherwise would. This can be especially effective for Spirits with limited ability to place new Presence (as their Presence tracks tend to grant greater benefits per placement) or for Spirits with good late-game payoffs at the end of a long Presence track.
  • Overgrow in a Night lets A Spread of Rampant Green get even more Presence on the board - and at Fast speed, so it can be used to set up its Choke the Land With Green ability! The Fear option is probably more of a situational / late-game use for this Power Card, since getting additional Presence onto the board is so good.
  • Stem the Flow of Fresh Water does damage - to just one Town/City in lands with plentiful water, to all Towns & Cities in Mountains and Sands (where water is harder to come by). This is a tricky card to use effectively: it needs to combo with other powers to actually destroy anything, and while it works quite well with the "Creepers Tear into Mortar" Innate, it doesn't provide Moon so is of limited use in triggering it. It's Slow and targets from a Sacred Site, so any Sacred Site you dismantle during the Invader Phase (by using it for Choke the Land with Green) won't be available to target this Power from. Finally, it's at its most effective in the two terrains that are harder for Rampant Green to get into. However, if you do set it up well, it can wipe out multiple Towns/Cities... and for a damage-dealing Power, it's incredibly cheap.

A Spread of Rampant Green is - both metaphorically and literally - a grappler that goes to close quarters and pins down the Invaders, holding them in check while the Spirits grow in power. It will need to rely on allies, new Power Cards, and/or the Dahan to help it out with damage and fear, but can also help its allies to develop faster. It has to manage the tradeoff of when to sacrifice Presence to prevent Ravages / Builds, and benefits notably from a bit of foresight, so is a medium-complexity Spirit: fine once you've internalized how the Invaders act, but not good for a first play.

Production Update and Eric Talks Lore
almost 7 years ago – Tue, Apr 04, 2017 at 10:40:38 PM

Hey, everyone!

What's the feeling in the air? A pressure, like the approach of a mighty being.

That's right, we're nearing the end. Spirit Island is undergoing serious mass production as we speak. All files are approved, the presses are running, and things are being assembled. If everything goes according to schedule, we hope to be delivering in June of this year!

That's about all we have to say on that front. This is, unfortunately, the most boring part of the publishing process. However, to tide you over until the real news rolls in, Eric has written up some in-depth coverage about two spirits that we haven't spoken much of previously.

First up, Thunderspeaker!

Back during the Kickstarter campaign, the first Spirit I looked at in-depth was Lightning's Swift Strike. It seems only appropriate that I lead these profiles off with Thunderspeaker - a child of the Lightning, though "child" means a rather different sort of thing to spirits than it does to humans.

Thunderspeaker is a spirit of sound and of power, of words on the wind and bright bursts of destruction. It is tied strongly to the Dahan by a long-standing vow, and most often appears in human form as a result, but no one would mistake it for an ordinary person: its form crackles with energy and its voice carries a storm-born strength.

It serves the Dahan mostly in times of great need - it fought fiercely alongside them during the Second Reckoning - but has also been known to turn up from time to time offering aid unasked-for, calling messages to distant families or guarding against a hitherto-unknown threat. It has occasionally agreed to serve as a commander of sorts, when multiple Dahan clans wish to make common cause but cannot agree on which of them should lead the effort.

Thunderspeaker has not been much seen since the destruction of the Servant Cults. Some speculate that fighting against Dahan - even on behalf of other Dahan - must have taken a heavy spiritual toll, given the oath that binds it.

Thunderspeaker is a medium-complexity spirit that works through and with the Dahan:

 What do we see?

Growth: Hey... these Growth options look a little familiar. We haven't seen them exactly - but they follow a very similar pattern to those of Lightning's Swift Strike: Thunderspeaker can play two Presence in a turn, or one Presence and gain Energy, and only gains Power Cards when Reclaiming. But there are differences: it places Presence most easily where Dahan are, of course, and gains two Power Cards on Reclaim; when it changes, it can change a great deal. (A legacy both of the drastic change it underwent in its own history and its affinity for humans, which are more changeable than Spirits.)

Special Rules: Unsurprisingly, Thunderspeaker can move along with Dahan - it wouldn't be much of a fighting-ally if it couldn't. The second half is less rosy: when Dahan die in combat within Thunderspeaker's sphere of influence, its failure to fulfill its oath takes a metaphysical toll.

Presence Tracks: Nothing to write home about: its Energy track is slightly worse than either Lightning's Swift Strike or River Surges in Sunlight, both of which can also put out two Presence/turn, and its Card Plays track is slightly worse than River's - nowhere near like Lightning's. It does get some bonus elements on its Energy track, but the mainstay of its power lies elsewhere - it's not terribly potent in a traditional-Spirit sort of way.

Presence Tracks: Also worth noting is that both tracks crest to "nearly as good as they're going to get" roughly halfway along. Thunderspeaker's probably going to be very effective in midgame but not as much of a late-game powerhouse as Spirits which continue a strong ramp-up.

Innate Power - Gather the Warriors: With any Animal (the element of humanity), Thunderspeaker can use Air to call Dahan from nearby lands and Sun to command them elsewhere. Depending on its available elements, this could move several Dahan up to two lands distant, which is very good Dahan movement - though limited to once/turn.

Innate Power - Lead the Furious Assault: Usually, the Dahan only counterattack after being assaulted by the Invaders. We'd expect to see something to change this from Thunderspeaker, and here it is. Getting 2-3 Dahan somewhere isn't too hard, particularly given Thunderspeaker's other innate - the primary limiter here is likely to be elements. 2 Sun and 1 Fire doesn't look too hard, but 4 Sun + 3 Fire will probably take until midgame at least to be feasible.

So, what are its Power Cards?

Some general trends:

  • It has 4 Air, 3 Sun, 2 Fire, and 2 Animal. It shouldn't have too much trouble triggering Lead the Furious Assault most rounds, so long as it has 2-3 Card Plays, and once it reaches 3 Card Plays and +Air it'll be able to make both of its Innates Fast fairly frequently. Definitely a midgame powerhouse! With this element profile, it ought to be able to use Gather the Warriors semi-frequently as well - though both Animal elements are on high-cost cards.
  • Only two of its Power Cards move Dahan, and but one of those moves multiple Dahan. Between those and Gather the Warriors, it's probably only going to average one good Dahan movement per turn. (It's used to fighting alongside the Dahan, but not to acting as general in a multi-pronged war.) This isn't nearly enough to make maximum use of its offensive abilities, so it'll either need to let some Invaders encroach onto Dahan-held lands as a tactical ploy, help from other Spirits to get Dahan into position, or to draft new Powers which let it do so. Fortunately, it has that double-Power-gain Growth option!
  • Nearly all of its Powers are Dahan-centric to some extent or other. Not surprising.
  • It has some good inexpensive options, but also some pricier Powers that it just won't have the Energy to use often unless it's getting Energy from somewhere other than its Presence track - perhaps Growth, perhaps boon Powers from other Spirits. It's definitely going to be strapped for Energy during early game, and will likely need to pick up some additional Minor Powers to avoid getting caught in situations where the only cards it has available are too expensive for it to play.

Specific cards:

  • Manifestation of Power and Glory: If used poorly, this Power can be "spend 3 Energy for 1 Fear + 1 Damage", which is terrible. But set up effectively, it can be an devastating hammer of a Power: with 4 Dahan and 4 Presence, it does 16 Damage, which is enough to obliterate nearly any Invader enclave. Thunderspeaker's ability to move Presence along with Dahan will probably be crucial in setting this up.
  • Sudden Ambush: A good Power for killing off Explorers before they Build, helping keep the Invaders contained. But it's expensive - and it keeps the Invaders out of lands with Dahan (where Thunderspeaker is most effective), exacerbating the need for more Dahan movement. One to be used judiciously.
  • Voice of Thunder: When you're the thunder, you can shout really loudly. Cheap Dahan movement, or terrifying the Invaders - either is useful.
  • Words of Warning: Even if Thunderspeaker isn't present, it can influence the course of a battle with the Invaders. In a small skirmish, forewarning may prevent the Dahan from taking any casualties at all; in larger battles it can transform a massacre into a hard-fought victory - or at least make the Invaders pay for their aggression. However, this Power is only useful when the Invaders are Ravaging, so will require good timing to use effectively.

Overall: Thunderspeaker is likely to have a somewhat constrained early game, striking opportunistic blows against the Invaders as it grows. But if the players can keep a good number of Dahan alive and get them well-positioned by midgame, Thunderspeaker turns into a juggernaut of destruction, limited mostly by where the Dahan can get to. How else it progresses depends on what Powers it takes - it's capable of a fair amount of versatility, though if it departs too strongly from its core elements its offense will suffer somewhat.

Next up, we have Shadows Flicker Like Flames!

Spirits corresponding directly to natural features make instinctive sense to human minds: "the spirit of this river here", or "a spirit of stormy wind" are straightforward and easy to grasp. Some spirits are more inscrutiable, such as the Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds, or harder to perceive, such as the Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island. And then there are others still whose nature simply does not mesh well with humanity's view of the universe, such as Shadows Flicker Like Flame.

It is the shadow of a candleflame; a fire that withers what it touches rather than igniting it; the dark silhouette of a tree cast across the ground which, when you step on it, turns out to be a pit of ink-black otherspace. Its form is as fluid as as smoke, rising up from any shadow lying on the ground.

Shadows Flicker Like Flame does not seem to represent any natural phenomenon known outside of itself, but is associated with shade, transformation, shadows given life, unnatural spaces, and engulfing dark. While it is not a spirit of terror per se, it evokes a primal fear in humans, both due to its associations and the alienness of its nature. It seems to honor its bargains, but it thinks along strange lines... and when it's near, you're never entirely sure that you won't just vanish.

Other Spirits do not seem to find Shadows Flicker Like Flame the least bit unnatural, however; perhaps humanity's view of nature is not perfectly complete.

Let's take a look. Shadows Flicker Like Flame is one of the four low-complexity spirits good for learning with, albeit the most complex of those four.

 Growth: It can only play 1 Presence/turn, and can't put down any when it Reclaims Power Cards, so it's not going to get as much Presence out as many Spirits. However, it can reach up to 3 lands away to place Presence, which is further than most. And every turn it'll be either gaining a new Power Card or gaining +3 Energy, which gives it a strong foundation for either heavy-hitting Major Powers or a lots-of-small-Powers approach.

Presence: Both tracks ramp up quickly, though with not placing Presence every turn progression along them is going to be slow. Like Growth, these look good for a variety of approaches.

Special Rules: Shadows Flicker Like Flame doesn't see space in quite the same way as most beings, and with a bit of aid from the Dahan can act at an immense distance. This costs Energy, so isn't to be used trivially, but its Energy income is pretty good. This ability will be at its most useful in 3-4p games (where the island is large and spirits have more trouble reaching each other to work in concert), but it can also make Powers with Range 0 or Range measured from a Sacred Site much more versatile.

Innate Power - Darkness Swallows the Unwary: Only targets near a Sacred Site, but Shadows of the Dahan can help with that. The baseline effect of moving an Explorer at Fast speed - before the Invaders go - is fantastically useful; it can short-circuit the Explore-Build-Ravage cycle in a land right at the start, before a Town gets built. Higher levels allow destroying Invaders and doing extra Fear in the process - seems good, but how hard will it be to trigger?

 Overall:

  • It has 4 Moon, 3 Air, 2 Fire, and a smattering of other elements. Hitting the base level of Darkness Swallows the Unwary won't be hard; there's only one combination of 2 cards that fails to trigger it.
  • There's Fear all over the place, averaging 2 Fear per Power Card. Fighting against Shadows Flicker Like Flame is going to inexorably break the Invaders' will to resist. The exact benefits of any given Fear Card are uncertain, but they always add up over time, and reliable Fear both unlocks easier Victory conditions and enables more potent Fear effects earlier in the game.
  • Nothing costs more than 1. It won't need scads of Energy just to make good use of its starting Powers - unlike, say, Vital Strength of the Earth. This gives it good flexibility.
  • Only one is Fast. Shadows' main means of pre-empting the Invaders is going to be its Innate Power, unless it's fighting alongside Lightning's Swift Strike; otherwise it'll have to plan ahead and be patient.

Specific cards:

  • Concealing Shadows: This hides the Dahan in one land, keeping them alive (and allowing them to counterattack!) no matter many Invaders are Ravaging. It does nothing to protect the land, and has a Range of 0, so for most Spirits using this Power Card would be a sacrifice play: they'd need Presence in a land the Invaders were about to thoroughly Ravage. While the Dahan would survive to counterattack, the Ravage would still Blight the land and destroy the Spirit's Presence! But Shadows' special rule (Shadows of the Dahan) lets it pay 1 Energy to reach out and use this anywhere there's Dahan - which the card needs anyway - making it substantially more valuable. And it's cheap. The only real downside is that it requires getting a fair number of Dahan to be where there's a fair number of Invaders.
  • Crops Wither and Fade: Colonists are used to crops dying, but not to them fading out of existence entirely! This Power is terrible for clearing lands of Invaders - it's a downgrade on a single Invader, and can't touch Explorers - but is one of the cheapest ways in the game to get rid of a City. This combines very nicely with an emphasis on Fear, since once you hit Terror Level 3, you can win by eliminating all Cities. It has a Range of 0, restricting its use pretty heavily - but Shadows of The Dahan allows a workaround.
  • Favors Called Due: Shadows Flicker Like Flame did a great service to all Dahan some generations back, and most Dahan - with their traditions of reciprocity - feel that they still owe it for that aid. This is represented both by the Shadows of the Dahan special rule and this Power Card, which incites more Dahan to move than most other Spirits can manage. It also sends dark shadows with them, and the resulting gathering can strike fear into the hearts of the Invaders. In concert with Shadows of the Dahan, this Power allows for moving Dahan anywhere on the island.
  • Mantle of Dread: Lets a Spirit guard one of their lands by frightening some Invaders out of it. It's Slow, so may or may not be useful in moving Explorers to prevent Builds, but it can reliably kick out the (Explorer + Town) that you'll get from Invaders Exploring then Building into a new land. The more players are in a game, the more versatile this becomes.

Overall: Shadows has several abilities which shine in a larger game, reaching through others (Spirit or Dahan) to affect the fight all the way across the island. In a smaller game, those will be less important - but the consistent Fear it generates will be more significant. (Earning a Fear Card requires 4 Fear/player, so in smaller games each Spirit's Fear has a higher proportional impact.)

Custom Box Inserts!
about 7 years ago – Tue, Mar 07, 2017 at 10:39:55 PM

Greetings from Boston, where we are setting up for PAX East! The factory has been ramping up after Chinese New Year and we’re excited to show you the latest white sample we received which included the custom molded inserts for the game box. Your game will come with a two-tiered tray system that’s not only great for storing the game, but for organizing pieces on your table.

The top tier of the box is made from two separate trays with organizers for all of your Explorers, Towns, Cities, Dahan, and tokens. There are lovely finger grips on the edges of the tray to help you pop the trays out and access the remaining components underneath. You can easily use these trays during gameplay to keep the pieces organized.

Here are some pictures of the insert trays in the core game and also a few shots of the expansion organizer insert as well.

Top Layer For Organizing Pieces
Top Layer For Organizing Pieces

 

Finger Grips in the Tray
Finger Grips in the Tray

 

Second Tier of the Insert
Second Tier of the Insert

 

Expansion Game Insert
Expansion Game Insert

We’re excited with how well production is coming along on these components and we hope you are, too! Check back next month for more exciting news!