The Final Week! + Showcase Stream Tonight!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Feb 14, 2023 at 04:36:47 PM

The Final Battle!

It's been a long month but we're hitting the finishing line in style! The campaign ends on Friday at 8pm Eastern! Thank you so much to everyone who's here and showed up to make this robot game a reality. Now do a final push! Let's break those final goals! 

1000 Backers! $100k! If we hit either of these, we will make both of the expansions unlocked at $94k - Kaiju Variants and 4 more Solo Bosses.

• Tell your local gaming groups and stores about the campaign! We have a $100 retail pledge!
• Shout out the campaign on Reddit, BoardGameGeek, and TikTok! We have the least presence there!
• Retweet us!

Streams! (Tonight!)

We're continuing to show off the game and its contents! We go live on Twitch twice per month, and replays are on our YouTube Channel! We did some great solo and 2player streams last week!

!! TONIGHT! At 7:30pm Eastern! AKA NOW!! We're doing a "Comment on Every" Stream where we'll look at all 100~ robot cards in the box. Witness what you've unlocked! !! Tune in!

ART SHOWCASE

AEGIS2 Artist ZarynScribbles compiled the art showcase stream he did on day 1 of the campaign! You can see a whole bunch of AEGIS2's robot art from all our artists.

Sub to him on YouTube, Twitch and Twitter! He does a lot of great Transformers and Apex Legends content!

$88k UNLOCK: Star Sheriff Stell

The victor of the Five Nations War is back! With new duds! She's ditched her Sector Authority Uniform for something a bit more stylish!

The justice-minded young officer Stell is one of the first people in modern times to unlock an AEGIS-Class robot, the Aroz-Ell-Sol. That showcase of power (along with Ainer's defeat of Etwal) allowed the her nation, the Sector Authority, to put an end to the Five Nations War in AEGIS1.

Ever since unlocking that power, she's been a bit MIA, much to her boss's chagrin. But near the end of AEGIS2's story, she's set to reappear and hunt down a certain world's-most-wanted fugitive.

AEGIS2's Stell comes with five basic robots, and five combined robots, culminating in a redux of her powerful Aroz-Ell-Sol. Her basic team focuses on two things: the weapon attribute Precise, and a redone version of AEGIS1's Combat Drop mechanic.

Precise grants bonuses if you attack at the exact furthest distance from the target! Think hard about your positioning!

Combat Drop allows your robots on the field to summon allies from off the board, dropping them into play in strategic locations! You start the game with Combat Drop bots out of play, and use them to bamboozle enemies later! AEGIS1's version of the mechanic just wasn't very good in retrospect, with too many restrictions, so we're redoing it entirely in AEGIS2 (and in the AEGIS1 upgrade back). 

Some combined robots can even use this to teleport to the enemy backline upon combining!

When she's done surrounding the enemy, she'll merge her combines together to form the powerful AROZ-8000, which resonates damage to a wide radius with its Absolute Territory ability!

Unlike AEGIS1's "Ell-Gel-Ion", this AEGI-type robot actually listens to commands. And of course, when she needs it most, Stell can pull out her ultimate weapon! The Aroz-Ell-Sol! You'll have to wait and see what that looks like though!

Commander Spotlight: Salazar

Our final Commander Spotlight! Let's talk about AEGIS2's S-themed commander...

The Ruler of the World

As the head of the Sector Authority’s police force, Salazar is the de facto ruler of Sigaea, and now the most feared man alive. Salazar desires nothing less than to stamp out all violent war and conflict on the planet, subjecting those who would stand in his way to draconian punishments. Allowing the threat of the AROZ-ELL-SOL to bend people to the Sector Authority’s will, despite Stell’s unwillingness to cooperate with his displays of power, Salazar secretly plots to unleash his own level five robot in order to bring order to Sigaea once and for all.

Strategy and mechanics:
 Salazar is ready to unleash destruction tenfold upon those who would cause conflict in Sigaea, wielding a balanced team of artillery and close range aggressors to enforce his will. He unleashes his combines relentlessly, using his AUTHORITY ability to grant them rerolls and leave enemies cowering in the face of his assault. 

Should his opponents still not realize the might of the Sector Authority, Salazar can unleash a perfect offense and defense with the mighty ENDER-GAN, unleashing a storm of bullets from behind his unparalleled GAN-DRONE defense array. 

When it’s time to put an end to the conflict, Salazar will utilize his ultimate weapon, the level 5 ENDER-GAN-SHAH, to burn away all opposition to progress and peace.

Shout out to LunarLux!

Our buddies made a cool video game! It's an action-adventure RPG inspired by Trigger anime and Megaman Battle Network that got funded last year, and now you can wishlist it on Steam! I thought y'all might like it!

Fight and Unite
 

Stream Week! + *He* is Back! New mechanics, and MORE POLLS
about 3 years ago – Mon, Feb 06, 2023 at 05:03:52 PM

Battered But Still Going

The campaign had a great weekend! Meanwhile, we had to move! Nothing like doing a Kickstarter in the midst of days of heavy lifting and aggressive cleaning. Our new place has an immense amount of space for AEGIS-making and shipping though. New chapter of life, new AEGIS.

As usual, we are reachable and abuzz on Discord.

Happy to see y'all smashed the next major goal in my absence!

This Week's Streams! Weds and Fri!

We're showing off the game and doing some more AMAs on Twitch!

•  Weds the 8th, 7pm Eastern: Indrix vs Salazar precon team showcase! Battle of the Burninators
•  Friday the 10th, 7pm Eastern: Solo Battle (Playtest) Showcase! Ender GanShah, Arlysion, and/or IkaSaur 

Join in and watch! See the game in action, ask questions, heckle!

 New mechanics, Part 1:

AEGIS2 has several new combat mechanics! In AEGIS, robots have attacks called Actions, which have little tags called Attributes that alter how an Action functions. Below we're going to go over the new attributes you'll be seeing in the new set!

•  GAMBIT: Featured prominently on A and G robots, Gambit is a high risk high reward attribute that allows you to roll extra dice for an action, in exchange for a higher risk of the entire action failing!

•  RECHARGE: A supportive mechanic found on several E, I, and S robots throughout AEGIS 2, recharge will restore your energy by the cost of the action for every 1 you roll, allowing you the opportunity to react, even when one of your actions has missed.

•  BLAZE and RUST: AEGIS1 has powerful tags such as Restrain and Disarm that stop enemies from moving/attacking outright. In AEGIS2, we wanted similar effects, but with more interaction/decision making. Blaze will deal damage to robots that move, meanwhile Rust will trigger if the enemy attacks. Instances of Blaze and Rust stack, interact with defense buffs/debuffs, and disappear after one turn like any other debuff. This allows for a variety of cool robot designs and strategies.  Blaze is found mostly on A, I and S robots, while Rust is on E's, G's and I's.

•  QUELL: And to top it all off - Any robot hit by quell Action lose all attributes on their actions until your next turn. Removing the ability to shoot over walls, blaze you, or attack twice is immensely powerful! There are a lot of attributes in the game, and this can level the playing field. Quell is found mostly on I and S robots.

AEGIS2 also doesn't include a bunch of AEGIS1's tags, and is mostly centered around these, so don't worry about a big overload!

79k UNLOCK! Punished Ainer

We got there! Precon team #8! And we're happy to  announce the next commander joining AEGIS 2 will be the returning hero of AEGIS 1, Ainer! The much more jaded Allied Provinces hero joins the fight with a full team of 10 new robots.

  What makes this team (and the next one, if we get there!!) special is that they're built around creating an AEGIS-Class Voltron robot. Y'all want to make the big bois? Here's your team!

   At the end of AEGIS1's intense final duel, Etwal left Ainer bloody and  bruised; his right arm and leg had taken severe damage in the fight. As  he limped home to the Allied Provinces, he was ambushed by the second  heir of the Empyreal Realms, Ethrael. Given an invitation he could not refuse, he was captured and brought back to the capital in secret. For the last few years, she has been trying to instill in Ainer what it truly  means to sacrifice and be a leader. Ainer, however, is exhausted, and wants nothing  more to do with war. He'll find there's no rest for the virtuous, though.

 In AEGIS 2, Ainer pushes his robots to the limits, using risky Gambit actions and powerful, yet self-damaging, maneuvers to aggressively claim victory  before his own team falls apart. Ainer's Reckless Fire allows him to sustain damage to grant a variety of powerful bonuses, such as rerolls, damage buffs, or even increased range to his first robot that uses an Action each turn.

 As his team  falls apart, Ainer combines to repair them, creating mighty robots such  as his personal ARK-GO, charging into battle and unleashing mighty  swings to send his opponents flying.

Going even further, the hero  can make use of his trump card, the ARK-Infinity, unleashing a  brilliant barrage of attacks, while pushing even a legendary level 5  robot to it's absolute limits.  

 
 Upcoming Stretch Goal POLL

Our goal image is getting LONG! Its length symbolizes your triumphs, however, so I won't collapse them.

    Coming up pretty quickly will be AEGIS2's fourth boss, followed by our ~FINAL prebuilt team~!! Who could this person be?
   But then at $94,000, things get interesting. Will we get there? 11 days left! I'm really hoping we do, and smash right by it. 

But if you could only choose one expansion to add to the game, added to all y'alls pledges, would you...

A. Kaiju Command Variant Expansion!

Like A1's Variant Command expansion, this will have ~10 alternate forms of robots in the box, featuring tweaked art and abilities based on whether the robot becomes a rogue Kaijubot, or an ally to our heroes!

 
 B. 2x Solo Boss Expansion!

This expansion will add four (4!) solo bosses to the game, for a total of 8, packed separately. Relevantly, these bosses are bots featured in AEGIS1, and there may even be some surprises in store here.

Of course, if we really bring it home in the final week, who's to say both won't happen?

Fight and Unite

The Marathon (+ More Polls!)
about 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 03, 2023 at 03:58:47 PM

WEEK 3: END

We're halfway done! The campaign's steaming right along towards the final week. This has been a great experience and I've been having a lot of fun talking with you all in our Discord. 

AEGIS2's also going to have eight backer-created characters and we've already hit the ground running on those behind the scenes. They're coming out very cool!

We're also wrapping up AEGIS2's remaining art so we can have all the assets ready and get this baby at the factory before Summer. The remaining pieces are a doozy!

STREAM TONIGHT, and STREAM POLL!

• We are doing a SOLO MODE STREAM on Twitch TONIGHT, around 7pm Eastern. (Now/Soon!) Tune in! Ask questions!
• Wednesday the 8th!
• Friday 10th!
• Tues the 14th!

And you can VOTE on what stuff you most want to see!

•  A. More showcases of prebuilt teams!
•  B. More/Multiplayer Starpoint Arena!
•  C. More Solo boss showcases!
•  D. Custom teams and ~High Level Play~
•  E. Draft Mode!
•  F. Scenario book scenarios! (Co-Op and other weird things!)*

*Scenarios are very much under construction but obviously that makes the streams funnier and you can see our design process

$75k GOAL GET: The Fancy Box + POLL 2!

Our latest broken goal gets you some cute interior box printing. Don't worry though, it's not just going to be a nice floral pattern. We can do a few things, and I'm interested in your thoughts - after all, the game is for you! And here on Kickstarter you can help make it, that's the whole point!

•  X. AEGIS1 had something like the above poster on its box sleeve that broke down all of the robots by type. We could something like this again, but inside the box lid!
•  Y. Prebuilt team lists/! These exist on some reference cards in the box, but we've found that people lose those in the shuffle, so maybe something more central would help. 
•  Z. A box tray diagram! We'll have one of these on an insert paper this time, but maybe it would be even better in the lid. We'll spice it up with some art of course.

Commander Spotlight: Indrix!

The Greatest Showman, the Bard Blazer himself!

An oddity amongst the Iris Dominion, the unruly and high energy musician Indrix replaced the enigmatic Whitehelm as their SIGEA Tournament representative at the last minute. Indrix rapidly becomes a celebrity around the globe with his show stopping performances and penchant for pyrotechnics. It's great PR for the much maligned Dominion! However as he gets more popular, it becomes harder and harder to reign in his impulsive nature. What will happen when he becomes more of a distraction to the Iris Dominion than he is to Sigaea?

Strategy and mechanics:
Indrix is always fired up, using his ITAR-066 to ignite the passions of his listeners and control the pace of the battle with his PYRE SOLO. Whenever you miss a roll, it lets you an enemy ablaze, damaging it when it moves!

It’s impossible not to dance along to Indrix’s beat thanks to powerful MOVE actions, but BLAZE and RUST mean his opponent is always at risk if they lose their rhythm. If someone won’t join in on the fun, the IKA-4000 takes the stage to bring the party to them, grappling to their backline and throwing them into the limelight. 

Fight and Unite

WEEK 3 UNLOCKS! + POLL
about 3 years ago – Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 01:14:13 PM

Go Team!

Welcome to the third week of AEGIS2's campaign! We're running til the 17th, so half way to go. We're making progress towards our stretch goals every day and are moving towards some of the meatier, spicier content!

$69k Gift Update

Chinese New Year is over and we're now talking to our manufacturer again! This means we'll be solidifying this bonus for all backers mentioned in Update 4. 

A. Special Star Die: This big, glittery d6 with special markings will be used in our new Star Point mode + other ways, and for all your other d6 needs.

B. Cross Promo Card: This special Machineless Commander crosses over from one of our friend's games. We've even had another friend reach out too, so... two promo cards? Maybe.

Choose Wisely!

To clarify, this won't be purely exclusive, but you all will be getting it for free, and it will only be available in limited quantities post-campaign/BackerKit.

$73k UNLOCKED: Mika the Burning Red

He's back! And here's Commander #10, and final piece of the Challenger Team we talked about in Update 3! 

Mika, like Cyndane, was a backer-created Commander in AEGIS1, and now he's returned with his own robot! He's a fiend for fighting and is always looking for the thrill of an evenly matched battle. In battle, he can copy his skills and stats onto another robot and attack using that piece instead! A great addition to the Challenger Team's drone mechanic.

Mika's new robot, the tentatively titled 'ARK-X', is a slashy melee robot, very on-brand for him.

Mika's art is being done by new artist Jeff Chen! Follow him! He's a rising star. We're getting into the realm of unlocks with WIP art, that's how good the campaign is doing!

This brings us to the milestone 75th robot! 

The Next Goals!!!!!

We're running into the statistical slowest part of the campaign this week, so make sure to bang those drums! Share the campaign like it just launched, tag your fave news sites and content creators!

$75K: we'll be adding a nice graphic to the inside of the box that shows a breakdown of all the robots. This will be similar to the big Pokemon-esque box sleeve poster that came with the deluxe 2018 game.

$79K: Another new prebuilt team unlocked! Who's is it? Vote on the poll below!

$82K: A fourth Solo Titan to fight! 

RETAILER TIER ADDED!!!

Got a favorite store? Have them toss us $100 to secure their deposit on an AEGIS order to be completed post-campaign and have them DM us and send a message. This will be good for multiple copies minimum, and will also include any unlocked promos and special doodads from the campaign, one for each copy!

COMMANDER SPOTLIGHT #3: Ganith

A Merchant Without a Cause:

Behind her facade as a no nonsense career member of the Great States military, Ganith is a corrupt arms dealer, selling weapons and robots to anyone who can pay her exorbitant fees. With war and conflict as her trade, the state of the world has forced Ganith to get creative, joining the SIGEA tournament to represent her nation, and advertise to those who still wish to cause mayhem in the shadows. Ganith prefers to drag matches out to show off what her wares can do, but barely ever wins, leaving many to wonder why the Great States would choose her as a representative. Despite her gruff and surly nature, she does have a bit of a soft spot for Ashla, becoming almost like a mentor to the young pilot after meeting her in battle several times.

Strategy and mechanics:
 Keep your friends close, and your ammo closer. Ganith enters the tournament with her custom GAMRA-100, and a host of artillery to blast her enemies away. Defending her team with the GOF-200’s force fields while her INADE robots rain down grenades. If a robot misses, just RELOAD and try again, there’s plenty of ammo to go around! As her enemies close in, Ganith coordinates her assault, unleashing RETURN FIRE when one of her robots is damaged. 

With plans for any situation Ganith can make the GOF-INADE to stop more aggressive teams in their tracks, or the AKTEL-5000 to drag opposing robots right into the line of fire. When she’s ready to end the match with a bang, the titanic AKTEL-9000 will blast her opponents to the horizon.

NEXT COMMANDER POLL

As we head towards our target 100 robots, we have two more Commander Teams to reveal. But if a meteor were to hit the campaign tomorrow, which new character + 10-robot team would YOU want to make it into the box?

You may even recognize them...

X. The Neo Star Sheriff, a Shining Ray of Justice!

or

Y. The War-Torn Rebel Hero, Vanquisher of Empires!

Fight and Unite

The Nice Update (AMA Stream Tonight!)
about 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 27, 2023 at 04:25:34 PM

It's been a crazy week, but we're going into the weekend with almost 71k and continuing to smash through stretch goals. Thank you to all of our backers for making this campaign such a success!

We're streaming tonight! 

(Pretty much now!)

We had to delay this earlier in the week, but tonight at 7:30pm EST, we'll be going live on Twitch toplay through AEGIS2's 2-Player demo on TabletopSimulator, show off the game, and answer any questions you might have about AEGIS or this Kickstarter. The replay will also be on our YouTube channel.

If you're interested in participating in future AEGIS streams, talking about the game, asking Kickstarter questions, or even participating in playtests for future AEGIS content, come and check out Discord!

69k + upcoming 73k goal

We hit $69,000! As per Update #4, this means we'll be giving all backers a free gift! We're doing either a promo card, or a fancy die. This will be decided in the coming weeks based on your feedback, and our factory's opinions. Maybe we'll do both!

We're also closing in on our 73k stretch goal, which will unlock the second of our returning commanders from the poll in update #3. This masked duelist has joined the SIGEA tournament for his own mysterious reasons, and since AEGIS 1 has acquired a new custom built robot. Look forward to finding out more in our next update!

AEGIS2 Game Boards

AEGIS2 comes with a three-sided game board to support our traditional game modes, as well as some exciting new features, and tenser games. While AEGIS1 comes with a bunch of terrain tiles and a customizable map, AEGIS2 gives you three maps with printed setups to start your games quicker!

In this update we'd like to walk you through what makes each side of this board so special.

The "River Board":

Designed for 1v1 matches, the river board showcases new terrain and obstacles between you and your opponent. Being a smaller board, this map quickly forces both players into a confrontation, with a raging river cutting through it's center that will slow your advance. This river valley also has an adverse effect on robot targeting, with special "Jamming" spots that you can place your robots on in order to reroll your opponent's dice.

Starpoint Arena:

Our second small map is for both our brand new game modes: Starpoint Arena and Solo mode. Learn about Solo in our last update! It's also smaller map with no special terrain effects for standard games. Rush each other down!

In the Starpoint Arena, your robots are never truly destroyed, respawning every round! Instead, you win by reducing your opponent's score to zero, through destroying their robots, and holding the titular Starpoints! 

These points possess their own mysterious power, allowing you to spend your energy to gain special effects that can really turn the tide of the match.

If you can't wait to step into the arena, we'll be talking more about the new Starpoint game mode in a future update!

Four Player Battlefield:

If you open the board, you'll find a larger map that's perfect for four player games, traditional 1v1 AEGIS on a larger board, or four player Starpoint. 

Six Player Mat:

Returning from AEGIS 1, if four player isn't enough robot action for your playgroup, we offer an add-on for a high quality 6 player neoprene mat! It's also shaped perfectly for even 3-player matches. You can find out more about our plans for the reprint of this mat here!

Ethrael

Story blurb:

The beloved princess of the Empyreal realms, Ethrael is the symbol of the empire’s return to power after their failings in the great war. Believing she fights for the entirety of the Empyre, not just herself, Ethrael has joined the SIGEA tournament to reclaim her nation’s status in the eyes of the world. As the current frontrunner in the tournament, Ethrael has challenged Salazar to a duel to the death for control over Sigaea, and will use every bit of her grace and skill with the blade for the sake of her homeland's honor.

Strategy and mechanics:

Ethrael pushes her robot’s speed to their limits, dancing in and out of close range combat with her AETHER WIND ability and her ECHO-202. Don’t let her speed fool you, every move is calculated to aim for a CRITICAL weakness, or give her time to RECHARGE and maintain the upper hand. When the enemies of the Empyreal Realms close in, Ethrael descends upon their battered forces in the valkyrie robot ECHO-GLA-IVE.

Fight and Unite