Time of Legends: Joan of Arc 1.5 by Mythic Games: An Overview of their latest Kickstarter
When I first started looking down the rabbit hole that is board gaming Kickstarters, one of the few games that I was late to the party on was Rising Sun by CMON and Time of Legends: Joan of Arc by Mythic Games. As with most Kickstarter funded games, most titles do see a release in retail but the items included end up being far less than what was made available to original backers. While this bothers some, I understand the reasoning and respect the process. Those where gifts to those who had faith in a project that had yet been put to market. For buying into the dream early, you get to reap some of the benefits. While this mindset also impact the dreaded sense of FOMO, it also makes more people genuinely invest in a game that may not make it to market without the supporters from the gaming community.
Fast forward to this Summer, I posed a question to Mythic via one of their social media outlets and asked if they would revisit Joan of Arc or have a retail release of it. They replied to wait and see. Eventually I saw CoolStuffInc release a preorder link for a retail version of Joan of Arc. While it wasn’t ultimately what I hoped for, I realized that it was better than nothing. For some reason, I kept pushing off preordering the game. I just wanted to wait and see if Mythic had something else up their sleeve. On October 1st, they decided to launch what many gamers were waiting to see: a new Kickstarter for a 1.5 edition of Time of Legends: Joan of Arc.
When describing the premise of the game, I decided to back to original game to describe the base game. Below is a brief description of the game from Mythic on the first campaign’s page:
Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is a narrative miniatures board game that plunges you into the heart of the Hundred Years’ War. In this dark, medieval universe, kings plot for the throne of France, and on the battlefield their heroic knights clash with foes both real and legendary. For more than a century, from 1337 to 1453, the fields of France rang to the sound of constant warfare. The Hundred Years’ War is one of the longest wars ever fought and is the source of many of our collective ideas about heroic knights of old. It was also a time of myths and legends, and a fervent faith in the literal truth of the doctrine of Holy Mother Church. It is this world of strife and faith that this game recreates.
I am new the this type of gaming but love the way it is designed. The game feature beautifully sculpted miniatures and painted artwork for the cards and scenario books. The play field is set in a way that allows you to see a battlefield from a unique vantage point, that let you see all that is going on in real time. The game’s inclusion of terrain pieces also allows the map to feel more real and like your soldiers are fighting in a lived in place. With the added pieces available in the 1.5 Edition, the abilities of what you can do has increased even more.
The 1.5 Edition of the game provides an update to the overall rule book created by Mythic. If you were an original backer, you only have to pay for $20 worth of products and you would get the hardcover revision of the rules/ scenario book for free. But there is far more being offered in this campaign.
The updated game also included a new set of minis and scenarios titled The Teutonic Knights Box. The box includes over 100 new minis, new cards, and more. If you are like me and missed out on the original campaign, you can add that to your Kickstarter pledge or later on during the Pledge Manager. That Core Pledge is $129 and comes with all of the Kickstarter bonuses from the original Kickstarter (minus to the Super Exclusive items that was reserved for the original backers only). That Core Pledge includes over 300 minis, 38 terrain pieces, 17 scenarios, and more.
Along with those two options, Mythic is also selling several difference expansions that add more models, terrain pieces, cards, and additional scenarios. One of the most popular expansions from the first campaign is the Legendary Dragon Expansion, which includes a large dragon with a 20 inch wingspan. The three expansions I’m looking forward to is: Legendary Dragon Expansion , Siege Expansion, and Apocalypse Expansion. While the prices are high, the quality of the material receive is worth it. Also, Mythic Games plan on keeping their Pledge Manager open for several months, which will allow customers to save up enough funds to pay for what they want from the Kickstarter.
As of the publishing of this article, Mythic Games has entered into the last 48 hours of their Kickstarter for Joan of Arc 1.5 and has earned over $810,000. If you’re interested but not sure what to get, go ahead and pledge $6, which will grant you access to their Pledge Manager in the future.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1162110258/time-of-legends-joan-of-arc-15/description