# Beyond the Gate of Antares - a new wargame from Rick Priestley (details updated 2/2)



## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

Rick Priestley's new wargame Beyond the Gates of Antares currently has a kickstarer up and running - they're looking for funds to get the initial rules released along with developing and producing the first batch of minis. The main selling point they're going for isn't so much the rules or minis (although the rules they've detailed dso far seem good), but that the universe will be highly interactive, with the results that players submit online will contribute to the universe as a whole, including what new units and weaponry are available to their factions.

Link to the Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2037958218/beyond-the-gates-of-antares

Over the first 3 weeks of the Kickstarter, they have collaborated with their forum community to produce the Kickstarter Exclusive mini - Hansa Nairobi. The metal mini is included in every pledge level from £25 and up. He's looking pretty great in my opinion:










As well as this, if you look on the kickstarter page you can find several videos with Rick Priestley demonstrating some outlines of the rules and basic gameplay. It's an activation based system, with each player completing an activation with 1 unit, then play passing to the other player. It also has a variety of Reactions built into the system (similar to Infinity), so you'll never be hanging around waiting with nothing to do.

The interactive universe is what's got me excited about the game, and persuaded me to pledge. I'm really looking forward to seeing where they'll go with the idea. The discuss it at fairly great length in this video with Beasts of War - it's an hour long, but I think it's worth a watch if you're in any way interested in what they have planned for the project.






It's shaping up to be something very interesting game if we can get it funded. I've chipped in for a level which includes a good chunk of minis.

UPDATE 2/2/13: The Kickstarter just hit £100k, 1/3 of the way to the funding goal. A good chunk of stuff has been revealed over the last week and a bit - more details in Post 17 of the thread here, or on The Kickstarter Page.


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## Loli (Mar 26, 2009)

If i had £3,930 spare id do it just so i could be a game character.......


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## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

I'm very tempted by the rules & starter set - really curious about the idea of the game being set around an expanding and evolving game universe, although the worry is how long they'd manage to keep such a thing going.


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

EmbraCraig said:


> I'm very tempted by the rules & starter set - really curious about the idea of the game being set around an expanding and evolving game universe, although the worry is how long they'd manage to keep such a thing going.


I imagine what they'll do is say "We will focus on region A in the first 3 months of the year. All games played in this time can be fed back to affect the universe. At the end of the three months we'll release a special, world changing, scenario that everyone can play and feedback their results. The average result of all the games will stand and change region A forever (a main character dies, a planet is lost, a new faction appears. That sort of thing)

Doing something like that would be pretty sustainable. It also adds really cool elements to introducing new factions. The results of a period could have an impact on what allegiances new factions have, their tech etc. 

I've not looking into the universe itself, but as a model for how the universe is built, it's what I've always waited for!


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## Loli (Mar 26, 2009)

imm0rtal reaper said:


> I imagine what they'll do is say "We will focus on region A in the first 3 months of the year. All games played in this time can be fed back to affect the universe. At the end of the three months we'll release a special, world changing, scenario that everyone can play and feedback their results. The average result of all the games will stand and change region A forever (a main character dies, a planet is lost, a new faction appears. That sort of thing)


Isn't that similar to what 40k did for Eye of Terror? Swear they did something similar.


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## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

A similar idea, but this game is promising that it wont be a one-off - these events will be running constantly, with new campaigns every few months, so the universe will evolve over time to reflect what's happening on people's tables all over the world.

And that sounds like a very cool idea to me


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## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

Double post, but it does add interesting new info - they've posted a kickstarter update today that gives a little bit of gameplay footage. Game flows back and forth quickly - it's a turnabout system, but squads have the opportunity to use reactions during the opponents activations to allow things like snap shots at units as they move from cover to cover. Base mechanic looks to be very simple - roll under the relevant score on a d10.

It all looks interesting enough to me that I've chipped in some money, and will be contributing over at their development program forums. Lots of good discussion happening over there 

Link to the update with the gameplay vid is http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2037958218/beyond-the-gates-of-antares/posts/384481?ref=activity.


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

BoW have a video interview with the Dark Space guys talking about the game. It's a long 'un, but fascinating none the less. 

A few bits for those who don't want to watch it for the hour: 

The "living world" will work much like we speculated. The dev team will periodically open up areas of the map and players and take part in "episodes" that shape the game world. 

These episodes can be anything from a weekend raid to gain control of a planet all the way up introducing new alien races and technologies. 

*A note on raids* - Something particularly interesting that was brought up is text/email/facebook updates about episodes. In their example, everyone who had registered on their site as the attacking faction received an email telling them a raid was taking place to control a particular planet. However, the defending faction's players didn't get the email until some hours later. This creates a very interesting dynamic where you, the defender, receive an email telling you your planet has been under siege for a few hours and you need to rush home and play some games. 

*A note on the technology* - An example was given in the video that the team may design a new piece of tech, a weapon say, and then run a episode to see which faction actually gets to use that weapon. So the games you play have a very real impact on the universe. 

They also spoke of online guild systems similar to MMOs to allow people to easily connect to other players of their faction. 


I think (and hope) all these things are going to create a really engaging game that really keeps people interested over time. 

I'd love to set up a heresy guild so we can go out there and crush all others before our might!


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## slaaneshy (Feb 20, 2008)

Glad you broke it down - gonna rep you for enduring it - that presenter was so dull I couldn't watch it...even the panel looked sleepy!


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

slaaneshy said:


> Glad you broke it down - gonna rep you for enduring it - that presenter was so dull I couldn't watch it...even the panel looked sleepy!


Thanks. 

I'm really excited by Antares, the "metagame" aspect is really attracting to me, and I've pledged the £25 for the hardback book and Hansa model, so you can expect me to be updating this thread a fair bit over the next 40 days


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## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

imm0rtal reaper said:


> Thanks.
> 
> I'm really excited by Antares, the "metagame" aspect is really attracting to me, and I've pledged the £25 for the hardback book and Hansa model, so you can expect me to be updating this thread a fair bit over the next 40 days


Aye, I've been meaning to update this for a couple of days - I'll go back to edit the original post to add additional info from the Kickstarter page, such as the videos around various aspects of the gameplay and the completed shots of the green for the Kickstarter exclusive Hansa model. Next week we're meant to see new concepts and possibly greens for the wardrones models that'll be included with kickstarter pledges that include minis.

I've chipped in as a backer at the Feeder level - really want to see this one succeed as I really like the whole evolving universe and open development concepts.

I actually thought for an hour long video, Warren did a good job of being enthusiastic about the concept all the way through. Rick and Rik from DSC are obviously passionate about what they're doing (although I felt a bit sorry about John from Warlord games - he didn't really seem to have too much to contribute to the questions asked). And there are a few nods to things that have changed at GW over the last 25 years for anyone who's interested in a dig behind the scenes.


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## Adramalech (Nov 10, 2009)

I wasn't really intrigued enough to pledge, despite the daemon prince of slaanesh.


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## spanner94ezekiel (Jan 6, 2011)

Damn this looks good. Unfortunately I have no idea who the fuck I'd play against, in addition to the fact that I don't have anyone who even plays 40k near me. So I would throw in my lot, but I wouldn't be very helpful to the overall campaign, not being able to play games and all.


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## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

I've updated the first post with some more details about the kickstarter - it's well worth checking out the kickstarter page, with more details being added all the time.


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## Leonardo (Apr 7, 2010)

I have put in a pledge today. It sounds interesting and well worth a punt. The guys running it appear to be taking feedback seriously and it would seem that the community get a real say in everything that they do (from rules to sculpts).


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## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

Rick Priestley is doing an Ask Me Anything on Reddit right now for anyone who is interested - some interesting questions asked and answered...

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/172inz/i_am_rick_priestley_ask_me_anything/


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## EmbraCraig (Jan 19, 2009)

An update to this one - the kickstarter has definitely stalled a bit (hit £100k today, which is 1/3 of the way through with more than half of the kickstarter time gone), but there's some good info and concept art coming out on the factions and some WiP shots from another couple of models.

The stuff that's coming out if shaping up to be really good, and I still think there's promise of something interesting here if they can pull off the real time campaign element.

They're trying out a club reward system as well - this is a secondary way to unlock stretch goals to go with breaking the initial target and then some. Of course, if the Kickstarter doesn't succeed it wont matter either way...

Some WiP and concept stuff:
Wardrone Very Early Initial WiP:









Boromite Overseer WiP:









Concept art and faction backgrounds:

























(If you head to the kickstarter page and click on the images, they'll open up into an expanded bit of background).

And also a bit about how they see the real time campaigns working and being tracked:









(These images really aren't a community friendly way to help this information spread...)


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

Another "everyone is humanoid" universe. Can't really get worked up over this. Factions seem nothing more than different skins, weapons look derived from Halo and other teenager-vogue videogames, there's just not that much meat on this particular bone for me.

As usual, I'll check back when it's almost done, and decide if it has something new by then that could interest me.


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