Sad news for Golem Arcana fans. The latest expansion, Durani: Champions of the Western Wind, will be the last released for the game. Harebrained Schemes has achieved a lot with the game, and broke some new ground with their product. Sadly, sales haven’t kept up with the money put in to support the game with new releases, app updates, living world campaigns, etc…

To show their appreciation to their fans for all the support they’ve given, Harebrained will be running a 50% off sale on Golem Arcana products until the end of February.

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Golem Arcana’s next Living World scenario, Realm of Cinders, is starting on May 6th and running until July 28th. This time around there will be 3 chapters, each running in their own time period between those two dates. Each chapter will have it’s own scenarios, plotline advances, and hidden surprises. The chapters will run as follows:

Chapter 1: May 6th through June 3rd (This chapter includes a three-player version and a quick-play two-player version.)

Chapter 2: June 10th through June 30th

Chapter 3: July 8th through July 28th

Remember, playing in Living World scenarios lets you help dictate what direction the world of Golem Arcana takes!

In addition to the new scenarios, there will be physical prizes given out by GA Emissaries at participating brick-and-mortar stores. To find out if a store near you is participating, checkout the event finder. Not only that, but for each week you participate in an Emissary’s event, you’re GA account will be awarded 75 Talons, the in-game currency used to purchase new Ancient Ones.

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Golem Arcana is a great game. It’s actually one of the best games I reviewed last year. Fans of the game know that the cardboard tokens that come with the game can be a bit flimsy. This is my no means a criticism. Just fact.

J.C. Hutchins, a huge fan of the game and author of some of the world’s fiction, has taken it upon himself to create a fantastic set of ceramic tokens that add a bit more durability, and beauty, to the game. I’m fortunate enough to have a set of these tokens from his early days of making them, and love love them. Now he’s producing more sets and selling them online. The really cool part? They’re officially licensed Golem Arcana merchandise authorized by Harebrained Schemes.

Each 21-token set is $20 and includes:

• 8 Mana Well tokens (1 side features the “full” design; the other side features the “half full” design)
• 4 Ancient One blessing tokens
• 4 Ancient One curse tokens
• 1 Durani sigil token
• 1 Gudanna sigil token
• 1 Urugal sigil token
• 1 Zikia sigil token
• 1 Golem Arcana token
• 1 storage pouch

If you own the game then you owe it to yourself to indulge in this excellently crafted set of tokens. You’ll be glad you did.

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Coming in January and February of 2015 for Golem Arcana are the Durani Scions of Honor and the Zikia Spirits of the Wildwood. Each set comes with 3 new golems and four new relics.

The contents of both are as follows:

Durani Scions of Honor Expansion

• The Vigilant Sentinel, a warsprite that targets foes with a Burning Beacon.
• The Growling Phalanx, a titan designed to protect friends and punish foes.
• The Blazing Dervish, an ogre that enters into a deadly Blade Dance
• Foundation Stone of Parvata: a portable hill that can be deployed on the battlefield.
• Bhakram’s Cauldron: increases a Ranged Attack’s damage.
• Heart-Pulse of Nadi: repels enemies.
• Darya’s Fading Helm: increases a Golem’s invulnerability.

Zikia Spirits of the Wildwood Expansion

• The Creeper, a warsprite that can unleash deadly poison spores.
• The Thornbeast, an ogre that can dive and drop on enemies.
• The Fen Lord, a titan that pins down and entangles opponents.
• The Tears of Dyati: used to create a small lake on the battlefield.
• The Shoot of Zardt: repels enemies from strategic terrain
• Kajit-Ura’s Horn: instantly transports a friendly Golem into cover.
• Jaya’s Gift: used to keep an ally out of harm’s way.

Each will retail for $34.99. Click the images below to get a shot of all 3 miniatures for each expansion.

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After 2 weeks of intense battles by Golem Arcana players, the results of the Battle of Two Rock are in! In the end Gudanna Dominion forces were able to keep control over Two Rock, but there’s more to the story than just the Dominion victory. Head on over the to GA blog to read the full results, with a promise of more statistical information coming soon.

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The first campaign in the Living World of Golem Arcana has begun! Over the next 2 months there will be 3 different scenarios available to play in the Shadow of the Khan campaign. The first, The Battle of Two Rock, will run until November 12th.

This is another great thing about having a digital aspect to Golem Arcana. Players can pledge their 1000 point army to the Dominion or Empire and have their victories, quests, character interaction, and more affect the world of Eretsu.

The next two Story Scenarios will be The Caves of Metis running November 19 – December 3 and The Lords of the Line running December 10 – December 24.

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Golem Arcana took Kickstarter by storm a while back ago. Released to the public in August, the game has been making waves. I finally got my grubby little hands on a core set and sat down with my two oldest kids to give it a whirl.

Yes.

Yes, it’s awesome. Yes, you should buy it. Yes, you should play it.

The game does an amazing job of things in almost every aspect of delivery. For those of you who don’t know, Golem Arcana is a miniatures game that needs a tablet or smart phone to play. A special stylus is included with the game to help the free app “see” the golems, board tiles, and cards. Golems, and their abilities, can be selected by tapping their bases or cards. Golems are moved by tapping the spaces on the board tiles. Everything from golem stats, modifiers, terrain effects, etc… is accounted for in the app. This make it very easy to set the game up and just play without ready any rules at all. the tutorial battles in the app get you started right away. Of course there’s also a link to the full rules from inside the app or on the Golem Arcana website.

I initially played the first few tutorials with just the base set. I played a few times with my 9-year-old son and my 7-year-old daughter. Both had no problem picking up the basics and having a blast with the game. My daughter is still constantly asking me to play. I ended up snagged both expansion armies to play with, and now have my eyes on the colossi.

There’s also a few extras I’d like to mention here. You aren’t limited to just 1 stylus during play. More can be purchased so that you don’t need to pass it around. In later scenarios, golems are fully customizable. You can pick your golem, the knight who rides it, relics, and powers. Everything has a point value, just as you’d expect in a miniatures game. Also, a good read through the full rules of the game once you have a few battles under your belt is well worth it. Knowing the inner workings of the game will help you form better armies, and plan better strategies. While you can get away with just having the game do everything for you, it’s nice to know why certain things happen during the course of battle.

I really can’t recommend the game enough. It’s one of my favorites this year so far.

I foresee much more Golem Arcana products in our household soon as more expansions are released.

A copy of the base game was provided free for review by Harebrained Schemes. Additional products were purchased.

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Gen Con provided me an opportunity to take a closer look at Golem Arcana—its system and its figures. As we’ve explained before, with Golem Arcana, Harebrained Schemes provides a sophisticated miniatures game system where all the typical burdens of such games—from tracking the unique abilities and current stats of individual units to generally enforcing the rules—are supported by a mobile app that integrates with the physical components of the game through a Bluetooth-enabled stylus.

I didn’t play through a full scenario but I did test the software a bit, and examined the miniatures (if at their size you can call them that). The stylus and mobile app seem to work as advertised. They’re quite easy to use and responsive. It took me but a couple of minutes to become comfortable with the interface.

I was particularly struck by how the system and story are designed to work together. For example, the abilities of a golem figure in battle can vary, depending on which golem knight is controlling it, the blessings and curses bestowed on it by the Ancient Ones, and the relics in its possession. All of these factors are accounted for in the app, which thus makes it possible for players to field a wide variety of units with a limited set of minis.

Software integration also allows Harebrained Schemes to provide a living storyline and flexible scenarios. At the macro level, the company tracks games played and uses the tallied results to determine future developments. At the micro level, a player’s choices and accomplishments in one game will affect future scenarios.

To be honest, I don’t know if making things easier is what gamers really want. The new technology may get them excited, but over the long-run I’m afraid that it’s actually the painting, collecting, and detailed rules that keep them interested. On the other hand, Harebrained Schemes’ implementation of Golem Arcana is certainly impressive. There’s a lot of potential in this game and Harebrained Schemes appears ready to see it through.

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After a hugely successful Kickstarter campain, Harebrained Schemes will be releasing Golem Arcana in August of this year! Retailing at $80 for the core set, Golem Arcana is a point-based miniatures game that uses a pen to interface the miniatures and such with an iPad/Android device.

Examples of the electronic interface include:

To Move:

• Tap the base of the Golem you want to move.

• Tap the square on the board you’d like to move to.

• The App calculates movement costs, reminds you of the appropriate rules when necessary, and handles any necessary record keeping.

To Launch an Attack:

• Tap the base of the Golem making the attack.

• Tap the base of the target.

• The App calculates line of sight, the chance to hit (automatically applying all the relevant modifiers), and expected damage.

• Roll the dice. (Or have the App do it for you!)

This is one I’ve been dying while waiting for release. The whole concept of the game is amazing, and the miniatures all look amazing.

Also available in August will be certain creature expansion packs for $35, and a tile expansion for $25. Future releases will start arriving in September.

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