Leviathans, the ambitious steampunk airship miniature game, is being relaunched more than 11 years after its initial debut. With the crowdfunding campaign going live on August 2, publisher Catalyst Game Labs (the tabletop home of BattleTech) just ahead of the Gen Con tabletop gaming convention in Indianapolis, Indiana and the Shadowrun franchise) have cleared the decks, overcoming a decade’s worth of hurdles to bring Epic Games to market in a proper way. Spoke with co-creator and company founder Randall Biles about the project in late July.
Hobbyists know the catalyst for its 2019 Battletech: Clan Invasion The Kickstarter campaign, which raised more than $2.5 million to relaunch an all-plastic line of miniatures based on a shared library of legacy BattleTech units (part of games by Harebrained Schemes and Piranha Games). With millions of mechs now in circulation, Randall says it’s time for the company to expand a bit. Their son, Brian Biles, is Leviathans Line Developer.
Image: Catalyst Game Labs
“On COVID, to entertain ourselves, we probably played 70 different miniatures games to try to get a better experience for the industry, and Leviathans It’s one of my favorites, after all, after all,” Brian Biles said. “I love this universe, I love the art style, the ships. There’s really nothing I don’t like from top to bottom.”
The historical wargame’s departure point comes with the discovery in 1878 of a lighter-than-air substance known as an electrode. Maritime warships become increasingly obsolete, with colonial European powers now battling for airspace themselves. In this way, the franchise is reminiscent of the 1920+ universe, the premise of the hit strategy game mower, but without the rustic kitsch. This is an all-out war. The Games would begin in 1910, with a full-scale engagement on the French-German border.
Clockwise from left, Tao-So Togo Takeshi, Camila Romano, Anastasia Romanov and Amil Dhar. Images: Marco Pennachietti / Catalyst Game Labs
,LeviathansIn its simplest form, giant warships soaring in the sky are blowing each other up. You know most steampunk centers are the lol kind of stuff with their flapping wings on the edge. Kind of blurry stuff, which is a really cool beauty. Leviathans Unique because you literally take World War I, World War II battleships and cast some magic on them and throw them in the air. And so are these giant machines with huge pieces of metal falling off each other. Steampunk is just taking on this version of Battleships on a different scale than what’s out there. ,
Four ships, dice and dry-erase cards, plus an assortment of maps. Image: Catalyst Game Labs
Leviathans has remained largely unchanged since the beginning of 2011. It uses a proprietary system of color-coded dice to streamline engagement, which relies on concepts such as armor statistics and penetration. battletech Universe). like modern skirmish games necromunda And war cry, it only needs a few miniatures to get started. The rules include basic and advanced layers, with systems for speed, altitude, bracketing fire and torpedoes, creating a unique and dynamic three-dimensional tableau on the table. The final product will consist of a $70 starter set with four ships, maps, dice, standees, and massive four-inch pre-painted miniatures. Construction samples are still underway, but target miniatures with the same level of off-the-shelf detail as Star Wars: X-Wing Miniature Game And Star Wars: Armada,
An initial pre-production sample of the ships as they will look with their final paint. Photo: Catalyst Game Labs
“We decided to have a small starter box that didn’t have a full set per side, for people to understand and get into the game, you know, $100 coffin box. […] The dice are simple, the cards, the whole — everything is going to make it easier,” Brian said. “And so it was another goal to make this an entry-level product for people who get into tabletops.”
The ships would have different sizes and figures, starting with the slower and more heavily armored Leviathan-class battleships, then ship-of-the-line armored cruisers, with faster cruisers of roughly the same size, as well as nimble destroyers. . There will also be smaller attack aircraft in the game – not in the form of miniatures, at least at first. They will use the token for now.
Issues related to colonialism are being considered to help the game appeal to a wider audience. but while . The newly announced updated version of Puerto Rico Ravensburger is adjusting its timeline – among other things – to re-focus gameplay on local farmers rather than colonial governors, Leviathans Keeping its original timeline mostly intact.
“World [of Leviathans] Not a great world,” said Brian Biles. “It’s not something we necessarily want to avoid, but it’s something we definitely want to tackle. […] Especially in Europe, white people were in power [at the start of WWI], These were the officials of all castes.” Other fictional departures will be included as the game’s narrative timeline tracks. For example, the British monarchy would not be with only one woman.
“To the British in particular, India is a big part of them, and trying to make Indians be a big part of the British Empire – not by ignoring the fact that they shouldn’t be, but still having the power to Giving. Things. For the British we have an Indian captain dealing with the fact that he may not actually be the captain. But he’s good enough that they kind of let it slip through , and during this struggle he has to deal with what transcends because of those prejudices.”
The final game will also ship with a points system for competitive matching and campaign play. An anthology of fiction was already released in 2021. It includes the work of alternative history writer Harry Turtledove, as well as major art by the late Doug Chaffee.
