New Scenario Art, 2024 Convention Schedule, Expansion Map Tile Teaser, Update Pack, & More!
12 months ago – Thu, Feb 29, 2024 at 03:44:05 PM

Welcome to our end-of-month update for February! We have a ton of great stuff to cover, a wall of text for those that love to read, some vids, expansions teasers, our 2024 convention schedule, and more!! Read on for details...

Painted Minis Update (Ready to ship in March)

Before we get into the really good stuff, get ready to receive your painted minis in March!

Jason Gibeault of Splintered Brush Studio is placing finishing touches on the last minis of our 55 Painted Mini sets, and will be shipping to international backers direct from Canada. It might also make sense to have him ship the rest to US backers, but that's not something you'll have to worry about -- Painted Minis folks don't need to pay additional shipping for this. It's just a logistics thing we'll handle on our end. If Canadian shipping rates to the US is too dang high, Jason will ship the US backers' minis to Bridge, and Bridge will fulfill them.

Do you want a set of Painted Minis?

I have sent 10 more copies of unpainted Miniatures to Jason, which will give you guys another opportunity to get a set. The price is $600 per set. Just send an email to [email protected] to get started.

New Scenario Coming In March!

Get a load of this art, people!

Something is happening beneath Fallbrook... The rumbling of earthquakes isn't abnormal for this area, being close to the San Andreas Fault Line, but their frequency and strength as of late has the citizens concerned.

You could immediately feel the difference in these quakes, too. However, you immediately peg the true cause of the disturbances: This is not just earthly... it is demonic!

What these anomalous quakes signify is unknown to you now, but you're not about to let them go unchecked. You must delve into the earth and stop the source of the quakes before something dreadful happens!

We expect to release this scenario pack free for all backers by the time our next update goes live on March 31!

If you live near San Antonio, TX and would like to experience it live with me, join us on Thursday, March 21st from 5-10pm at The Printed Meeple for a special pre-release playthrough! 

Bring your game if you have it, or just plan to join up with someone else's game if you don't!

The full address for The Printed Meeple: 13032 Nacogdoches Rd, San Antonio, TX 78217

2024 Convention Schedule

Our 2024 is starting to heat up with conventions! We might add more to this, but here is where we're currently confirmed to be:

March 4-6: GAMA Trade Show (Louisville, KY)

March 21: The Printed Meeple (San Antonio, TX)

June 20-23: Origins Game Fair (Colombus, OH)

September 6-8: Strong Tower Con (Waukesha, WI)

If you're going to any of these, let us know! I (Andrew) would love to meet you, and if you're interested in volunteering to help in our booth and demo Deliverance or host playthroughs, let me know via email at [email protected]! Depending on how much you're able to help, we can comp your convention badges and maybe even your hotel stay! Space is limited for this of course, so only the most hardcore fans should apply 😉

In fact, if you are willing to consider hosting game playthroughs of Deliverance during any conventions this year, that would be amazing, too!

Expansion Map Tile Teaser

Yoann Boissonnet, our awesome map tile artist, is back at work on Deliverance! You might also know Yoann's work from other games like Mansions of Madness, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth, or the recent Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era by Chip Theory Games. I'm stoked to have Yoann back on board!

This underground-style map tile was one we designed, but never brought to "final," during the development of the first Deliverance map. The original idea was that we wanted a location players knew to adorn the edges of the underground tile, and the earth was to be "cut away" to reveal what interesting things were taking place in the underground areas around Fallbrook. Do you recognize this location?

Well, we're revisiting and re-mastering this concept! There is still much more to be done in the city of Fallbrook, and players are going to dive deeper into the story. We're extremely excited about the twists and turns we have planned, and some of these will be hinted at in the map. And -- what's this? There are still barriers in Fallbrook! As with the first barrier mystery, you're going to have to dig deeper to figure out why! (pun intended)

Notice the lines and some oddly shaped crude marks -- that's certainly not part of the original tile! But these are part of our plan and instruction for Yoann. We're making some significant changes to these to bring them in line with the Deliverance Mines (our underground tile in the base game). We're featuring much more of the "underground" area and worrying less about being so obvious about which surface area they align with. We're also amending their color scheme a bit so they provide some beautiful contrast to the map as you're playing. To continue with the example that players are familiar with, the underground mine tile adds another layer of depth and beauty to the game when it's used, but it needs more than a few friends, doesn't it? :)

This is the first time we've revealed our intent with the new map tiles and layouts. What do you think? What new locations would you like to see in the Deliverance map?

Returning Backer Update Pack + Rules Appendix

I have been doing a lot of work on the expansion, but we have also done a significant amount of looking back at our base game. I decided to sit behind the camera and get some of my thoughts immortalized on our YouTube Channel for you guys!

So here's the summary: We generally did a good job, but there were a few errors we plan to fix and quality of life rules improvements! We're going to fix each of these types of errors below in the future re-printing. However, we're also going to create an update pack for existing backers that want this fixed, and we're going to subsidize the cost so it's as cheap as possible for you guys. You were the first ones that believed we were something special, and that deserves not only our recognition, but our very best in supporting you with the best version of what we make.

Let's summarize a few of them in various categories for reference:

1) The only major error: Hateful Fiend's "Self-Harm" skill

This was probably the error that caused players the greatest amount of frustration. This "Move 4" text should have not been included. Some players reported all the demons were right on top of them after a round, and they cited the Hateful Fiend as one of the big offenders. Whoops! This change was accidentally made when we sent the "final adjustments" files to Longpack right before printing, which is why it looked like the editors missed it. I take the blame, but I'm sure Meddling Imps were the true root cause of my error 😆 Lesson learned: Let my editor review the final adjustment files next time!
 

2) Some non-errors, but still needs clarity & fixing:

Rules Question: What do I do when I draw 2 Battle Cards of the same type? This was the most common rules question our players had for us. They ended up settling this in the correct way some of the time (stage the battle, then discard the duplicate Battle card. All minions of that type act together). Then the strange stuff: Sometimes they gave this minion type double the actions, and other times they let half the minions act on the first Battle card of that type, and the other half act on the final Battle card. We're going to add an example to the rulebook to clarify this!

An Appendix added to the Rulebook to clarify nuances and edge cases. This is another rulebook fix that I didn't originally intend to add -- Our "Golden Rules" were meant to allow players to handle edge cases in game situations they didn't have complete clarity on. I didn't want the Rulebook to be a 50+ page beast, because I thought players wouldn't appreciate that very much. Well, it turns out I was half right. Some players really wanted to know the way I intended every situation to be played. And while much of those players' questions are answered via our social channels (Discord, Facebook, and BoardGameGeek especially), I know that can't possibly be everyone that has these questions. We're going to add an "Appendix A" which will be 2-6 pages of tiny text to clarify specific cards and edge cases for you rules lawyers and game night teachers!
 

3) Text that looks like it alters rules, but is actually just a reminder of the rules is going away.

Idle Hands is an example of a card that contains a reminder of the rules, but caused players some confusion. The last sentence is actually just reminder text, but has not been italicized. Consequently, it's a common card that players had questions about! Our solution for this card in particular is to remove that final sentence from the game.
 

4) Some improvements to the flow of the game & additions:

The Darkness Track: Resolve cards from left to right, and cascade remaining cards to the left-most spaces when angels cast down cards. This is a subtle adjustment, because many of our players already resolve this way and cascade (aka- shift) the cards to the left. However, this also introduces a subtle added form of randomness -- Now, those min/max players can't simply optimize their Darkness resolving like they used to. The game get a bit more difficult as a result (more on that later)

Expand rules for the soloist. Solo angels rejoice -- we are going to clarify the experience a bit! I find the best way for a solo player to try Deliverance for the first time is to play 2 angels, because that allows folks to experience more of the angels and find the characters they love twice as fast. The Intercessor, while definitely the overall best way to play solo in my view, causes the traits and advantages of a single angel to really shine. But the Intercessor isn't a great pick when you have no idea how any of these angels work, is it?

Add rules for a 5th angel. It is my belief that Deliverance can play well at 5 angels, but the historical problems prevented me from doing this upon release. We're working our way through the problems of the 5th angel, and I'm pretty confident we're going to have a 5th player rules in the next rulebook iteration! The map might be a bit larger, and we're going to need to adjust the number of Darkness card spaces available on that Darkness Track to 6, but this can work! I'm not sure if this is goign to be a base game rules adjustment or an addition in our expansion, but we're going to make this work!

Add rules for a "novice" difficulty level. Adventure was my attempt at helping new players feel like they were in danger, but giving them a lot of room to recover from a dangerous place. Well, it turns out that some new players have no idea that protecting Saints is a good idea, and wonder why they barely survive the first battle on Adventure difficulty. The boss then smashes them into oblivion since they entered that final battle with 2-4 HP each. Ouch! So we're going to introduce rules that allow angels to heal to full HP between battles in a "novice" difficulty level. That should help frustrated newbies stand more of a chance in their first few games (and consequently, give Deliverance more chances at the table).

What's next?

We're still hard at work on the Deliverance expansion. We're making a lot faster headway than we did our first go-round. We're aiming for a 1 year (or less) gap between the time players back the expansion on KS to the time players start playing on the table. That's very realistic for us now, because we have more resources to invest thanks to the game doing well.

Speaking of the game doing well, did you know Deliverance is the highest-rated "Christian" board game ever made with an 8.7 on BoardGameGeek? We also rank as the 557th ranked Thematic game, the 1417th Strategic game, and 3106th overall out of every game listed on BGG. That's pretty cool, and certainly something to celebrate for us!

Many people told me this idea was terrible, or that it would never work, or that nobody wanted it. Thank you for making YOUR voice heard, and thank every single one of you for giving us a review. We're at 534 reviews on BGG as of the time of this writing, and Deliverance wouldn't be anywhere close to these numbers if not for the gracious and excited reviews of folks like you!!

Speaking of reviews, we have new reviews online that are super positive, and several more reviews coming down the pipeline! We're just getting started. Thank you for supporting us on this journey in all the ways you guys have over these years... With your timely words of encouragement, your finances, your amazing ideas, and your prayers, too!

From the bottom of my heart (and I mean this every time I say it -- my heart is so full every time I think about how you invested in us and how much you really care), thank you.

Kindest regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

Expansion Teasers, Shirts + Painted Minis Info, & More!
about 1 year ago – Wed, Jan 31, 2024 at 01:30:07 PM

Welcome back, Insiders! I'm going to make this update a good one for all the fans of Deliverance. Let's get right into it!!

First, the stuff that's really important to some of you:

We have delivered all games and add-ons to everyone from the Kickstarter with the exception of two things:

1) T-Shirts for International Backers

T-Shirts for International Backers are in queue to be delivered! Looking back, I wonder why this took so long to make it happen... But then I remember we have an 11-week old baby. 

I blame my son, John Constantine Lowen for this delay. He won't mind 😆 We call him John Con, and wow this little dude is a chonky boi!!!

2) Painted Miniatures

Painted Miniatures are nearly completed! Here's a video update and a pic of the completed master set -- the detail and refinement on these is incredible! I can't wait to see them in person! I'll talk about delivery time below the pic:

These minis have been a long time coming! The level of detail up close is fantastic. A message from our painter:

More info on that special contest is coming next month :D If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch the video!

Our painted minis are delayed a bit longer than I hoped, but I'm happy to say the expected completion date is the end of February. We're going to ship all international orders direct from Canada, and will likely bulk ship the US orders down to Bridge for immediate fulfillment upon arrival.

Thanks for your work on these minis, Jason! If you don't know, our miniature painting studio started at 3 painters, and is now only the original master painter himself. 554 miniatures were individually painted by Jason. He began working on these around October (as soon as we could get him the minis in the mail). On completion, he will have completed 110+ highly detailed Deliverance angel miniatures per month. That's a lot of painting!

Expansion Teaser: Sauriel

We continue to make excellent progress on art for angels, demons, and everything in between! I'm delighted to introduce you to a brand new, never-before-seen angelic warrior featured in the Deliverance expansion:

Sauriel's visual style draws inspiration from Mexican culture, renaissance art (dat halo!), and the famous artistic depictions of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This angel differs from many of our other angelic heroes that feature elemental prowess. Sauriel features a heavy use of a brand new expansion mechanic called incense. These aretokens on the battlefield that angels may move through to heal themselves. However, Sauriel will have many other uses for incense, including powering up his abilities with boosted damage, reduced courage costs, and more.

In addition to his high-damage builds, Sauriel also leverages Prayer in new ways and will serve as an interesting support-focused angel if that's your favored play style. Sauriel is one of the first angels to gain a ranged courage-building heal skill -- Skilled Sauriel players will find many innovative ways to help allies survive impossible odds in Sauriel's skills and Angel Talents!

Expansion Campaign Timing

The Deliverance Expansion Kickstarter (or Gamefound) campaign is slated to hit late summer around July or August. Because we have managed to raise lots of revenue through an incredible run of Deliverance game sales, we're moving full-steam ahead on expansion content with a team, now! Our aim is to run the crowdfunding campaign and deliver within a year of launch, which actually puts us further ahead right now than when we funded our first Kickstarter!

Answers To Frequently Asked Questions

We have a number of commonly asked questions as well as some important news that we need to get out to you, so please read these headlines to see if they apply to you:

If you're considering placing an order of Deliverance

If you're one of those that pledged $1 and couldn't complete your pledge, now is a good time to purchase on our website -- we already sold out of 99% of our addons, and have less than 400 units remaining at our warehouses around the world (including less than 50 remaining in each Australia, UK, and EU regions). If you're one of these backers and do purchase, I'm happy to credit your campaign donation to your order! First place your order, then let us know at [email protected]. We will credit you through a partial refund after we verify!

When will we restock addons?

Because we have such a limited stock of games remaining as well as the minimum order quantity of add-ons, you're going to need to wait until our next Kickstarter campaign to grab that set of metal coins, acrylic standees, or the neoprene mat (we have less than 10 Neoprene Mats remaining in the US right now).

Will you have an update pack for backers of the first campaign?

We're proud to say that our game held up very well once tens of thousands of games started getting played! That said, we did have a few errors that snuck their way through that we plan to fix. A limited number of cards and the Hateful Fiend Minion board have corrections that need to be made. In addition to that, we're going to release a "Rules Appendix" that will cover some of the rules in finer detail with visual examples (such as the placement of battle cards on the initiative track, helpful angel-specific clarifications, demon "surround / fallback" rules, and map tile placements in the final battle of skirmish mode). We will release a very inexpensive update pack for backers of the first game which includes these things -- you guys helped us bring Deliverance to life, and are the driving force behind our expansion efforts, so we considered this very important!

What's Next?

We're going to continue work on our expansion! Future private play testing opportunities are on the horizon, so if you'd like to test the new Deliverance Expansion content, be sure to join us on our Discord Community!

We also recently announced Scenarios (and released our first free scenario pack in December). These were a huge hit with Deliverance backers, and so our next scenario pack is scheduled for release in March! We're having a blast designing these, and even more fun seeing how much you all enjoy them!

Every single one of you reading this is important to me. You're important to our team, too. It's not because I want your money 9 months from now, either. It's because you're on this journey with us, and we're celebrating this really awesome thing we made together. Speaking for myself (Andrew here), I can say that one of my primary drivers to get work done in Deliverance each day is that I know you're right there with me.

Deliverance isn't just a game... It's a movement. And while I'm not yet ready to divulge the incredible places we're going with the experience, I can promise you it will be a wild ride that branches into an area that board games have never gone before. I look forward to continuing in this journey with you!

Kindest regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

A Free Holiday Gift & Deliverance News
about 1 year ago – Sat, Dec 30, 2023 at 05:06:08 PM

We're releasing this update a day early, yaaaaay!!! 😇 We have a legitimate gift for all fans of Deliverance: Our Holiday Scenario Pack! If you haven't seen it yet, you're going to want to read this update. Plus, news on other Deliverance items inside...

Deliverance named Hidden Gem of 2023

Reviewers have Deliverance in hand and are trickling content. I think we're going to get a lot of coverage in January by all sorts of reviewers! But one particular review jumped out to me - Colin Degnan, formerly of One-Stop Co-Op Shop, and now co-host of Meet Me At The Table, revealed Deliverance as his Hidden Gem of 2023!

This was especially cool, because Colin's early prototype playthrough and review on One-Stop Co-Op Shop was responsible for a lot of buzz around Deliverance during our Kickstarter campaign. I shared his playthrough video whenever anyone wanted to see gameplay, because his positive attitude is so infectious and he had so much fun with Deliverance! If you're one of those folks that just got it for Christmas or haven't made the time to open it, I recommend to check out Colin's Campaign playthrough -- it will definitely help you get excited about opening the box and into the game!

1 Brag & 1 Controversy

I don't normally like to strut around like a peacock, but this one was pretty cool. If you missed it, Deliverance ranked as the hottest game on BoardGameGeek.com for 9 days in a row this month. We had tons of reviews added, tens of thousands of page views, and +10 sales per day as a result (if you haven't reviewed Deliverance on BGG, please do). In the end, we nearly doubled the number of people that know about Deliverance on BoardGameGeek! I am particularly excited about what this means for the future of Deliverance... I think we're going to make some big waves with our expansion!

For those familiar, we eventually dropped to #3, #9, and then were gone from the list! From what I have gathered, this is because BGG mods locked the #1 hottest review on BGG as well as the #1 hottest thread on BGG about Deliverance at the same time, and that killed our ranking. For those that are wondering if it was a spiteful action, I'd rather you guys not spend time on that. It wouldn't be the first time we "suddenly" dropped off the ranking (For those that remember, during our KS campaign, we dropped from top 10 to rank 252 of 258 campaigns despite raising $2k+ per day). My recommendation is to not dwell on these things, because unless mods speak out as to why they did this, we just won't know! Making assumptions about being persecuted may or may not be correct, but I think it's the wrong thing to dwell on. What could be done about it if it were some sort of persecution, anyway? Let's look forward to what's next, rather than behind! We have a ton of fans and a ton of positive buzz, including our 8.7 rating on BGG to celebrate!

A Gift: Holiday Scenario Pack

If you're a fan of Deliverance, you're going to absolutely love this -- Earlier this month, we released our first Deliverance Scenario Pack, and announced that we plan to release FREE additional content packs on a quarterly basis for your enjoyment! This pack includes 3 missions.

A "Scenario" is a new type of mission that blends Skirmish and Campaign modes to create a unique “one-shot” gameplay event that can be replayed over and over (and at higher difficulties if you have the skill). Scenarios offer a unique scripted set-up and special victory conditions of a Campaign mission, and also infuse the leveling system and scaling difficulty levels of Skirmish mode. On top of this, we even add a Challenge option. Spoken from experience, these are incredibly entertaining and worth playing if you're a fan of this game. That said, these missions are not meant for new players -- they assume you have played the game before, and offer no learning curve (and no mercy) to new players. If you can beat any of these on Nightmare+ difficulty with the Challenge mode enabled, my hat is off to you.

 DropBox link (This link won't work long-term, but works for now): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n6kc59wjvggfgp6jdmt9z/Deliverance-2023-Holiday-Scenario-Pack-v1-1.pdf?rlkey=26xojdv7jl169z6bqx8tvtkcz&dl=0

BGG Link (This link will work long-term, but is not yet updated to v1.1 on BGG as of the time of this posting): https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/270569/2023-holiday-scenario-pack 

Outstanding Items

Painted Minis - Our studio, Splintered Brush Studios, is set to wrap painting of our angels this next month. If time is on our side, we can get these sent out to our Angel + Archangel Investors toward the end of the month!

T-Shirts (International Backers) - We're ready to send these shirts out, but WOW the holiday shopping season was crazy. We ended up selling out of ALL our add-ons and over 600 games in December. The team at Bridge was stretched thin, and so I thought it wise to wait until January to send t-shirts to our international backers. Bridge is a good company for fulfillment, but asking them to sort through 3 shirt styles and 9 sizes when they're in crunch time would have likely resulted in more errors than normal. International backers can expect these to begin their journey this month.

Archangel Investor Sketches - All hand-drawn original sketches have been mailed out 😇

A Note About Replacement Parts

Is your Deliverance game damaged or missing parts? As long as we have stock available, we will replace any part that affects your ability to play the game.

While most add-ons are sold out, we kept a few extra copies on hand for issuing replacement parts. The most common issue is a broken or missing Acrylic Standee, a missing Talent card pack, or a missing character board. Overall, factory defects are extremely limited, which I am happy about.

If you experience any issue with missing or damage parts, we will replace it for you! We cannot provide free replacements for cosmetic imperfections or minor damage that does not affect gameplay. Please email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of!

What's Next?

The holidays have been a blast for our family and the Deliverance team, but so unbelievably busy! Still, we each managed to find some time to relax and recover from the insanity. With the start of 2024 quickly approaching, we turn our sights back to designing the new Deliverance Expansion.

We also have a few pretty interesting surprises in store for you all down the road! Expect a lot to happen in 2024, including our next Crowdfunding campaign!

We're already hard at work on the expansion, and we have learned a LOT from running our first full Crowdfunding campaign. Much of my emphasis for our team in the next few months is related to both game design and development. These are key tasks to accomplish on the path to getting the expansion into your hands. It is my goal to have a *much* shorter delivery window for you all during our next campaign -- It is my mission to cut our delivery time in half for this upcoming event. We're going to get there through the expertise we gained from our first KS campaign as well as the expanded internal team we have!

I think we're hovering 6-8 months from our next expansion campaign -- I'm remaining flexible, because you never know! As always, I'll keep you all posted here.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Kindest regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

A Special Christmas Present For You All 😇
about 1 year ago – Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 02:25:49 PM

It's been a whirlwind of a month for me, both due to the delivery of our baby John Constantine Lowen as well as the receipt of games for our UK backers, the opening of our webstore, and continued work on all aspects of our upcoming expansion! But most awesome of all -- we prepared a special Christmas surprise for you...

But First, An Update On Our Remaining Pledge Items

T-Shirts for International Backers (EU, UK, Asia, and AUS/NZ)

We have our international t-shirts to send out. They're ready, but I need to compile the addresses and get them sent. I confess this has been my delay, which I will handily blame on my new infant son born early this month. There just wasn't enough time to do everything, and I knew it would be too much for me if I were to add this task on top of a very tall pile of family responsibilities! My wife just started her third week of recovery, and I have been a full-time dad as well as leader of Deliverance and our Crowdfunding Nerds marketing agency, so I have had to make some purposeful delays to certain items like this on my task list. Sorry everyone for the delay, but I do promise to send your shirts this month!

Painted Angel Miniatures

Our painting studio (Splintered Brush Studio) is about 70% complete with the painting of 55 sets of angels. Originally, the head of the studio, Jason Gibeault, estimated completion for the end of this month. 55 sets x 9 angels per set = 505 angel models!

He has all models spraypainted (primer and base coat done), and 5 models are completed. However, he still has 4 models remaining to do the detail work. After that is complete, he will pack them up and we'll get them shipped! I do not expect to have these to you guys by Christmas based on the current workload remaining, but as always, I will keep you posted as to the status on our Facebook and Discord communities and through comments on Kickstarter when I have something to report!

Custom Sketch Art (Archangel Investors)

I received all of the incredible sketch art from Dan Maynard. They blow my mind that I have them in person. These are truly one-of-a-kind art pieces that deserve to hang in a prominent place :D I can't wait for you all to look at them! They're also delayed due to baby John, but I do expect these will be sent out and delivered by Christmas for you Archangel Investors 🎄😇

THE ABOMINATION THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS?!

It looks like the Grouch is up to no good, assaulting the holiday spirits of the Saints of Fallbrook (the "who's whos" of Deliverance). You're going to need to put a stop to his plans, or there won't be any holiday cheer left to celebrate!

You're going to battle against Cruel Archers to keep the hearths of the Saints lit, you'll need to escort a special person acting in the spirit of Saint Nicholas delivering gifts to the poor, and you'll need to put a final stop to Og's plans to ruin Christmas for everyone by healing his hatred for everything that moves (and then sending him to the abyss with a big lump of coal for his naughty attitude).

But before you can do that, you have to get the upcoming Deliverance scenario pack! It's not currently available, but once it is, it's going to be free for all backers and fans of Deliverance (Merry Christmas)!

These new scenarios are the very first of our Deliverance "Skirmish Missions" teased in our last update. I am pleased to announce that we plan to send out quarterly Scenarios for download, and we might just include a full Scenario Book as an add-on during our next Kickstarter campaign if this is appreciated by our community!

Scenarios are one-shot missions with special Campaign rules and victory conditions that use the Skirmish XP and leveling system. They can each be played on their own with optional Challenge rules, or in some cases, sequentially in a fun mini-campaign like this first set of 3!

How can you get this free 3-mission Scenario pack? Be on the lookout for an e-mail coming to you guys later this month with the download inside! If you're not subscribed to our email list, you should do that! This might make for a fun bonus to those Deliverance games you're buying for gifts this Christmas! And speaking of that...

Christmas Order Deadline: Dec 8th

We have been informed by Bridge (our US fulfillment partner) that the last webstore order date for arrival by Christmas is December 8th! That means if you're planning to buy a gift, do it right away! We're working to get some stock to Amazon that could arrive later than that, though it'll cost more there.

For other regions, we have stock in AUS/NZ, the UK, and the EU. Games and add-ons will ship within those regions duty-free!

More Expansion Teasers!

We shared the first look at a new angel earlier this month via our email newsletter, though some of you might have already met this angel!

I'll keep the spoilers to a minimum and request that y'all do the same! Meet Corra, a playable angel in the upcoming Deliverance expansion 😇

Now, Meet John Constantine!

My son John Constantine Lowen was born November 8th at 11:36pm at 8lbs, just 24 minutes short of his older sister River's b-day 🥰 He wasn't named after the comicbook demonslayer, though that is sort of an awesome coincidence 😆 Little dude is #7 for us, and our SECOND son born since the the Deliverance Kickstarter. Babies and cross-country moving are my top reason for delay, and I think with little Johnny, our family is probably at the end of the baby phase. My wife took some baby pics and they're adorable, so you get to see a few of them!

What's Next?

December is going to be a month of hard work on the Deliverance expansion, because my wife will finally be recovered enough to take over. Christine (my wife) is such a hard worker -- being a dad to 7 while trying to keep all the ships running is a crazy thing. I can't wait for her to be at 100% again!

I also need to give a shoutout and thank you to my awesome staff at Crowdfunding Nerds & Next Level Web. They have entirely taken over and done such an incredible job... I'm their boss and they're my employees, but it sure feels more like they're my friends. I would go to the fires of Mount Doom with any one of them (provided they weren't Boromir, who would try to take the ring of course). I try to show appreciation in many ways, but they are the unsung heroes of Deliverance, because their hard work and try hard attitudes is what allows me to work on Deliverance!! Rick, Sean, Alex, Ryan, and Jacob, thank you for what you do!!!

And a final thank you to YOU, my Insiders, for being a fan of this project I made. When you share your reviews and experiences with the game here, BGG, YouTube, and on social media, every single one of them is like a breath of fresh air and a joy to read!

Kindest regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team

UK/EU Delivery, A Baby, New Expansion Reveal, & More!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2023 at 03:57:44 PM

We have a ton for you in this update! UK & EU backers, rejoice, for your shipping is nigh!! For those that are fans of Deliverance, you're going to love a few of the reveals we give in this update. And for those that need a bit more convincing to rip that shrinkwrap off the box and set it up quickly, I have something for you, too! Read on for details...

Timeline? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Timeline!

Since we have generally completed the delivery of our game to most regions (save a limited number of backers with an error or a broken Meddling Imp standee), I'll forego the general timeline you're used to and get specific about our remaining regions for delivery!

First, Why Should You Play Deliverance?

This was an interesting question I got to answer on a podcast that aired today. I thought you guys might really enjoy it. The audio is below, which you can play as you read this update! I'll add a bit of written commentary after the Spotify audio link:

This podcast was about 30 mins long and focused on Deliverance. Here are some timestamps for you (not links, but they're useful if you want to skip to the relevant section!

0:00 - An introduction to the podcast and a bit about my life. 

5:15 - We get into how Deliverance came about (which has some new info I haven't shared before for those interested). 

9:43 - Deliverance is NOT an easy game.

11:38 - Game design is a lonely road (a bit of an aside).

13:16 - How I would describe Deliverance to a new player?

14:32 - Mechanics of Deliverance & how it plays.

19:48 - Why should I play Deliverance?

29:50 - Concluding remarks.

UK Delivery Update

We put GamesQuest through a lot this month. Before I get into what happened since our last update, I'll share the end from the beginning: UK will be delivering imminently! Some of you UK backers may receive packages as early as next week Monday! Shirts + painted minis will be shipped separately.

So for those interested, here's a bit more info. Working with GQ took a while. I approved addresses about 2 weeks ago, but I finally received confirmation and a request to pay for the estimated shipping costs earlier this morning (on the 31st). We paid immediately! Once we paid, I was told that the orders would go to the warehouse staff to process shipments! Woot! 😊

The delay for GQ was due in part to our requirement that they split the EU orders off so we could send them to HappyShops and fulfill from within Germany (more on that below). It was a bit of an emergency, because the way that they intended to send shipments was going to cost us a crazy amount of money we didn't plan to spend. For every juicy bit of drama (lol), read the EU update.

Lastly, for our UK and EU backers, we will be shipping T-shirts in early November to you guys from the US. For those that ordered painted minis, we will be shipping those from Canada when Splintered Brush Studio has finished with them.

EU Delivery Update

EU backers, rejoice! Our Deliverance games made it into HappyShops, and all you should have received an address confirmation to your inbox earlier this week! The short version of the good news is that we are on schedule for EU deliveries to begin next week! Shirts and Painted Minis will ship separately.

The journey to our final shipment to the EU was a long and winding one. If I could have gone back and done something over, this would have been it. I would have shipped direct from China to HappyShops. You would have received your games 2 months ago, and I would have dealt with less headaches and paid less in fees. This is a lesson we will carry with us for next time, I promise you.

So what was all the drama? Some of you on our Discord community heard the news as it was happening, but let's share it here for others!

So, it turns out our OSS VAT reporting only works if we fulfill from within an EU country, but GamesQuest changed the plan and wanted to air-freight games to backers from the UK using IOSS. Americans are totally confused right now, so for y'all that are reading this, that means the €7500 we paid for VAT wouldn't count, and we'd have to pay it again on top of €6-10 more per package (~280 packages). So, because we did not want to needlessly spend €10,000 on top of paying €7500 more for EU VAT, we pulled some emergency pit maneuvers and asked GamesQuest to split the shipment into pallets destined for the EU, which we air-freighted to HappyShops in Germany for within-EU fulfillment. Everything was going swimmingly, and then we got held up by German Customs officials. I was scared, because that can take weeks to resolve, but thankfully, they approved our games and forwarded them to HappyShops, along with a bill to me for $700 as a sign of tribute to their position of power 😆

Many of you in the EU have been very active and encouraging in our communities while not even having a copy of the game. I really appreciate you guys! Once you get a copy, I can't wait to chat strategy!

Baby Deliverance & Deliverance Support

Christy, my wife, is over 39 weeks pregnant. She could have a "deliverance" any day now. She hasn't yet, but I feel like by the time anybody in the UK or EU receives Deliverance, I'm going to be exhausted and dealing with my 7th baby. I'll make sure to post pics in our Facebook community for you guys that want to see!

I'm currently trying to decide between John Constantine Lowen or Constantine John Lowen as his name. I'm not trying to name him after the epic demon-slayer from the comics and movie, though I think that's sort of awesome. We love the name John, and my father-in-law's name is Constantine which we also love.

How is this relevant to you? Deliverance backers (especially in the UK/EU) need to be supported, especially in this time of deliveries! I have asked my good friend and long-time Deliverance helper, Adam Glass, to come on board full-time and assist me with support requests in addition to game design. He's ready and trained up (and he has been handling support requests for the last week). My life is very complicated, and so that I can be a GOOD company that does more than tell you how much I care, I recognized the need to expand our team to give you guys the ongoing support you need.

If you have a support request, you can use our support ticket system on HivePM as always, but you may now also email [email protected] for help. Adam or I will get back to you, and it will be pretty quick!

Shirts, Painted Minis & Sketches

I addressed shirts a bit in the above updates, but we're going to send international Shirt orders in November -- I hoped to send these earlier, but it didn't make any sense to send before UK and EU backers confirmed addresses. All international orders will be sent out at the same time, including to Asia and Australia regions.

In regard to painted minis, Splinered Brush Studio has informed me they hope to have these completed by the end of November! There is hope that these will arrive in time for Christmas. I may request they mail them direct from their location in Canada, rather than mailing them to Bridge and having Bridge send them internationally for time and cost's sake. I'll have an update on this when we get closer to delivering these!

For you Archangel Investors, your sketches are complete, but I threw a monkey wrench into the mix here and had another sketch crafted that took a while -- my wife saw the beautiful sketches and asked that we get one of these, too! I couldn't tell her no, because she is my Christine, Voice of Thunder, and I love her and also didn't want her to Lightning Stab me. These are coming this November!

Garphill Games Made Something Awesome

I am so excited to share this game with you guys! We have an amazing Christian themed game that is made by a fantastic company that knows great games. Garphill Games (famous for awesome games like Raiders of the North Sea) has launched Ezra And Nehemiah on Kickstarter! 

They only have 51 hours to go as of the time of this writing, but dude you should go and back this now. It looks amazing, the theme looks really well implemented, and I'm backing this right after I finish writing this update. 

It does help that Sam (one of the designers) loves Deliverance, but this was an instaback for me anyway. As always, I want you guys to know about worthwhile Christian projects that are high quality games -- it seems many more are showing up. I think there is a serious demand in the market for *high quality* Christian-themed games!

One More Thing You Need To See 😆

We're in full-swing with our Deliverance marketing, sending copies to reviewers and seeing some fruit from that crop up here and there. I do expect to see a lot more coverage in the next month (and if you have covered it, let me know so I can share)!, but I thought this was really cool. The Babylon Bee did another tabletop video, and covered Deliverance so beautifully. Check it out here:

I nearly died when they referenced pouring water on Space Hulk. I have personally played with that copy of Space Hulk, and it is so beautiful... I also greatly appreciated that little alien's sacrifice. He will be remembered by us all, I hope 😆

Deliverance Expansion Plans

Every so often, I am asked if we are working on the expansion for Deliverance. The answer is that we are! We're deep in development of the Deliverance expansion, and we have really big plans for the game that scales beyond traditional expansions. It's also perfectly on-theme for Deliverance 😉

Let's first give a general update on the progress and plans for the future:

We're deep in development as I said, but the goal is to finish much of the work before we go to Kickstarter. My aim is to cut our estimated delivery timeline in half, and to beat that delivery timeline. I plan to get our manufacturer working on the miniature sculpts and digital manufacturing proofs even before we launch on Kickstarter. We will have the game developed and tested, thanks to Tabletop Simulator and our thriving Discord community's willingness to playtest content with us! We have a larger team working on Deliverance, and we have established relationships now with both our manufacturer and shipping partners, and we have all the lessons from this massive project under our belt. We're considering a launch next summer. We're not rushing to go back to KS, but we want to do this right!

So, what am I willing to reveal to you today? This is something I have considered much, but until now, I haven't decided on what to share. So let's share something new we're working on:

Skirmish Missions!

We have received so many requests for ways to play the Campaign missions as "one-shot" experiences, and our response to this is to craft scripted missions that you can set up and play at game night or at board game conventions. 

Skirmish Missions use the normal XP gain and scaling difficulty levels of Skirmish mode and combine things like interesting special rules, secondary objectives, or alternate victory conditions (some of which are showcased in Campaign missions). You may need to battle through constantly spawning hordes of demons to escort a Saint to a particular location, fight a brand new Lieutenant boss for control of an area of Fallbrook, or encounter spawning waves of demons triggered from the time track on the Darkness Board!

The best part of this is that you're not going to need to wait for the expansion or pay for anything more to enjoy these. More on this is coming soon... I highly recommend you join our email list if you haven't already!

I promise pics of the baby next time :) See y'all again on November 30!

Kind regards,

Andrew Lowen & the Deliverance Team