Kerberos Productions, the makers of Sword of the Stars, have released a new tabletop simulation game for the PC. Hoards of Glory is a Viking-themed strategy game of dice placement, economy and combat for 1-4 players. Playable by up to four friends via the Internet, it also offers a variety of AI opponents to fill in when human opponents are not available.
Hoards of Glory is the first stand-alone simulation of a tabletop game that Kerberos has released. Their previous tabletop projects, The Pit: The Board Game and Planetary Control, were both modeled using the popular Tabletop Simulator software. Why make a stand-alone product now?
"Tabletop Simulator was a good place for us to start," says developer Chris Gerspacher. "Our version of The Pit: The Board Game on TTS is a popular download and earned us a Steam Community Award. But I found there were limitations to the platform, and it was expensive for newbies. If people didn't already own a copy of TTS it was costing them over $20 to buy the software so they could try a virtual version of Planetary Control or The Pit. I thought we could create a better model of the game and lower that price point if we built something by hand."
Why create a tabletop game using the Unreal Engine? "We are always curious to see what Unreal could do when faced with an unusual challenge," says Kerberos CEO Martin Cirulis. "First we threw randomized terrain and adaptive layouts at UE4 with our game The Pit: Infinity. Now we have discovered it is able to handle the physics of rolling dice and falling coins like a champ and we have had no problem giving the game multiple AI personalities. Unreal also stepped up to the challenges of multiplayer for a tabletop simulation very well. We can have AI's play alongside humans seamlessly or have an AI player drop in if a human player has to drop out."
Why make a tabletop game that's only available for PC? "We missed Game Night!" says Kerberos COO Chris Stewart. "Since the COVID restrictions began in March, everyone has been working remotely. We can't meet friends and go to the pub or a game store to roll dice anymore, and we couldn't take a prototype of Hoards of Glory to Origins and GenCon to connect with new players. A PC simulation of the game seemed like the best option. It helps to keep gaming alive and the dice rolling for us, as well as all the tabletop players who love our games."
Why the Viking theme? "Vikings are fun!" says writer Arinn Dembo. "And they were a perfect fit for the mechanics of the game: spears, shields, hoards of treasure, but also duty and debts to pay. On a more serious note, Viking are part of our heritage. Our whole team is connected to the Viking Diaspora in various ways--our great-grandparents came to the New World from places like Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Scotland, Ireland, and northern Germany. We either have Viking blood or our ancestors spilled Viking blood--sometimes both!"
Hoards of Glory will be available on Steam from November 6, 2020. The price will be $4.99 USD, with a 30% discount for release week.
3 Boast Cards can be mixed and matched to offer a variety of victory conditions
Satisfying 3D physics for dice and coins
Spear animations to signal attack
10 Unique AI Opponents
2 AI modes - Easy and Normal
Single-player against up to 3 AI opponents
Multi-player via Internet for up to 4 human players
Drop-in AI fills in when humans drop out of multiplayer matches
Tutorial and written rules to learn the basics of the game
Kerberos 2 Day Sale!
Looking to pick up some DLC for The Pit?
Curious to try Ground Pounders?
Ready to rule the world in Kaiju-A-GoGo?
Now's the time, as all Kerberos indie games are on sale for the next two days!
With Summer still a ways off, we thought we'd take advantage of the retail tools Steam provides and for a 24 hour period offer up Ground Pounders and its Tarka DLC in a publisher flash sale. Tomorrow morning, 10AM PST, for 24 hours, the Ground Pounders products are on sale (except the HD map-pack - that's free, as always.)
Been curious about Ground Pounders? Why not check it out? Been thinking about picking up the DLC and playing as the Tarka? Tomorrow's your chance! Been a player for awhile and want to dominate your friends? Now you can - your treat!
In a simultaneous release, Kerberos Productions has unveiled new DLC for their two most recent games, Sword of the Stars: The Pit and Sword of the Stars: Ground Pounders. As both feature the alien Tarka race it was only natural to call this Tark Week!
Ground Pounders: Tarkan Campaign adds a third army faction to the tactical, multi-platform, strategy wargame. Besides the new army and vehicles, the DLC adds new battle cards and SotSdex entries.
“Ever since the Tark appeared as opponents in the original release of Ground Pounders, fans have been asking for a full campaign where they take control of this unique warrior race.” Said CEO and Design Lead, Martin Cirulis. “This Tarkan expansion is the first step in representing all the races of the SotSverse on planetary battlefields!”
Ground Pounders: Tarkan Campaign lets players control a third faction, the Tarka Imperial Army. Seen as an AI opponent in the base game, the Tark army is now comprised of dozens of different unit types. You will lead your ground pounders across a variety of worlds, increase their experience levels and abilities over the course of two campaigns, and use them to unlock special action cards that can add special effects to single-player games, or to up the stakes in your cross-platform multi-player battles.
Features
Control a third army from the Sword of the Stars universe – The Tarkan Imperial Army!
Whole new campaign to play through, comprised of 19 battles!
New units covering land, sea, and air!
New battle cards!
Enjoy a SotSdex filled with new Tarkan Lore details on famous units, personalities, battles and weapon systems
Ground Pounders Update 1.0.3876!
It's been a relatively problem-free first week for Ground Pounders, but headed into the weekend we have a few fixes for people.
Critical:
- Fixed Demo CTD
- Fixed CTD from playing card
- Fixed scenario CTD
- Fixed CTD in Unit Upgrade screen
- Fixed supply transport links not working
- Fixed Unit Upgrade functionality
- Fixed MP scenario issues when selecting to play as player 2
- Show enemy units out of supply
- Fixed not being able to advance when it is available as a combat result
- Fixed getting stuck in some tutorials
1.0.3876
Ground Pounders Makes Landfall, Leaves Early Access!
The day has come and Ground Pounders has left Early Access and is a New Release on Steam. A big thank you to all our supporters and Early Access players for helping us tune the game. Last night we made one last update to the game before it transitioned to New Release this morning.
We will be maintaining regular support and the Android / iOS versions of the game will be live soon, for those who want the option to play on the go as well. Stay tuned for where you can pick up the mobile game.
Here are the update details;
Critical:
Fixed CTD in SotsDex
Fixed CTD in combat
Fixed CTD when while playing, going to main menu, then loading the save game
Fixed CTD in multiplayer when waiting for opponent to join
Fixed air base combat CTD
Fixed supply chain freeze
Fixed tutorial hang
Fixed edge case where you would not be able to spawn a divisional command unit
Enable difficulty select
Unlock units in the SotsDex by playing through the campaign
Allow players to save or discard changes in the unit shop
Updated credits list
Other:
Player profile rank can be increased as you win skirmishes and campaign battles
Allow inspecting units docked on a transport unit
Fixed unit facing when selecting to play the opponent
Fixed supply lines when unit is under ground
New Steam Achievements added
1.0.3815
Ground Pounders Early Access Update 16 - Early Access ends July 11th!
It's time. Friday, July 11th. Mark your calendar. Tell your procrastinating friends, last chance to join in the fun at the Early Access price!
Critical:
Fixed Human mission 3 and Hiver mission 2
New enemies in Human campaign...
Fixed CTD when attacking units with 0 ATT/DEF
Fixed card CTD
Fixed hover units not being able to move over roads easily
Fixed being able to transport boats with ground transports
Fixed loading save game CTD
Reworked Player Profile Screen
Use slider to delete a player profile
Fixed not being able to save a game using the same name as someone else with another profile
Hiver campaign recruit points rebalance
Allow selecting the destination to deploy a unit
Other:
Updated Campaign Select Screen
AI tweaking
Make campaign briefing description into a scroll text
Show unit command limit for a battle in the campaign select screen
Fixed supply icons disappearing
Allowed being able to cancel giving a unit an aspect
Beta 0.1.3598
Ground Pounders Early Access Update 15
As we finalize distribution of the non-Steam builds, a lot of stuff got addressed in this update, including the replacement of the placeholder radio chatter from your units. Thanks all and as always, keep the feedback comin'!
Beta 0.1.3496
Critical:
First half of Human Campaign (the Hiver portion) updated
Fixed CTD when selecting Air Base
Fixed CTD with air units and reactionary fire
Fixed combat CTD
Fixed unstable ground causing occasional CTD
Fixed retreat result for units that are involved in air com
Fixed getting stuck in card tutorial
Fixed defender unit not getting any dice in air combat
Don't modify unit XP during combat
Fixed air units attacking more than once
Automatically consume support unit's lowest dice first, instead of first
Fixed showing defensive support unit's ratings modify before combat has been committed
Campaign battles now will unlock units
Fixed attribute highlights for unit upgrades in unit screens
Updated campaign rewards dialog to show any units unlocked by winning a mission
Show stat comparison when looking to upgrade units
Enabled selling units
Allow divisional command units to upgrade to anything
Fixed not able to swap players in MP
Fixed not saving victory point or supply zone owners in MP
Update player select dialog
Fixed non air transport units not picking up units
Fixed bridges only working half of the time
Other:
Fixed AI not distributing supply points if a card is played on a unit
AI update
Radio speech update
Fixed engineer units able to build constructs with random dies instead of assigned dies only
Fixed not being able to attack when out of supply for 1 turn
Fixed combat scene alignment in full screen
Fixed transport UI
In resupply phase, only highlight units that CAN be reinforced, instead of all the ones that require reinforcements (more clear on available actions)
Prevent advancing from the start phase until after viewing the combat results
Cleaned up unit shop
Speed up dice animation
Fixed so that when you finish a campaign mission and its the last mission on the planet, you return to the star map screen where you can select the next planet
Removed background in roll results table
Allowed for multiple victory bonuses
Give rewards for victory bonuses
Fixed preventing spawning air units in an air base with a unit on it
Fixed discard button getting lost behind the cards
Highlight "My Units" and highlight units that can upgrade and add aspects
Prevent playing with a deck that the player cannot use in a battle
Show spawn locations when you draw a spawn unit card
Fixed being able to click buttons when card preview is up in Deck Management Screen
Fixed unit availability costs in placement phase
Updated selection effect on lists
Ground Pounders Early Access Update 14: Where In The World Is Update 13?
Lets just say, for the sake of argument, I neglected to post the 13th update and changelog because of superstition... and not oafish forgetfulness. I've posted them below. Urg.
As has been said, we're in the final push to final release - some of you have asked for a time-frame and on the one hand I want to say that this point, more than any other, is exactly when we want it to be ready when it's ready, so we're not rushing things. And at the same time, without commitment to a date, in the next couple of weeks.
Playtesting is critical right now! Thank you for all the feedback and bug notes!
Critical:
Fixed exit game CTD
Fixed CTD from air units not docking correctly
Fixed audio crash
Fixed CTD when removing a spawned unit
Fixed victory point turn count not being saved
Fixed units spotted by recon not hiding at the start of the turn
Enabled spawning air units and ships in any combat
Enabled purchasing and upgrading to air units and ships
Other:
Fixed AI playing recon card when the player's cards or space superiority cards are disabled
Fixed supply transport linking
Fixed requesting div command unit when there is a div command unit on the field
AI update
AI not to move Air Supply units on top of enemy bases
Fixed unit placement UI
Beta 0.1.3319
Critical:
Fixed CTD when attacking air base
Fixed quit crash
Fixed AI not using air units for combat support
Fixed being able to surface in on an invalid hex
Fixed MP freezes due to structures getting constantly revealed
Fixed text input placement on mac
Changes to AI attacking
Other:
Fixed (patch) fix AI "yo yo" action
AI tuning update with air units
Fixed moving off of victory points causes the victory point to go back to neutral
Added profile name syntax to savegames
Added notification for when you have pending friend requests
Fixed card tray sometimes showing AI hand
Beta 0.1.3284
Ground Pounders Early Access Update 12: Remove Fast Desktop Access Feature
With the last big update, a few crashes to desktop cropped up, some universal and a few to the new Mac version specifically. It's not all crash fixes though! Meanwhile, we are fast approaching the end of Early Access, so please make sure to share your feedback before we're unable to accommodate certain things!
One important note: One crash would remain in old save game data, so we have to delete old saves.
Critical:
Fixed CTD when starting Mac version
Fixed end turn CTDs
Fixed removing spawned unit CTD
Fixed CTD when units are destroyed from being out of supply
Fixed CTD from temporary supply zones
Fixed not being able to select "Discard Card Mode" when unit tray is visible
Fixed "Random" button not available in the Deck Manager Screen
Fixed being able to randomly add cards to a deck that are not available to the faction of the deck
Fixed losing data in the last battle of a planet in campaign mode, requiring you to have to play it again
Fixed not saving player dice rolls when you save during the Equip Phase
Fixed issue where units have double the dice when you load a save game
Fixed units sometimes getting extreme dice rolls
Changes and Addition:
Greyed out units that are not affordable in combat
Fixed needing to click a unit twice to deselect it after it is reinforced
Fixed supply lines showing a green line from Command to unit when the Command's line is red (un-supplied)
Fixed helicopters not animating in the combat animation
Fixed units not exploding in the combat animation when air units are in the combat
Fixed air bases not showing as selected when you click on them
NOTE: Old saves will be deleted to fix a further CTD
