Four Horsemen: An apocalyptic co-op game - Late pledge store

March Update: Production underway
about 1 year ago – Sun, Mar 03, 2024 at 12:00:59 PM

Hi everyone! Welcome to March! This is a little delayed since production started in February, but:

According to the Gameland, production should take until about May (a rough estimate). At that point, the game will get on a boat and head to the distribution center. I printed 1000 copies, which will be enough to cover the orders plus any parts that break during shipping. However, there won't be a ton of copies available after the Kickstarter for distribution to retailers or selling on the website.

Apparently, the long production time is from the mini molds. I've asked Gameland for an advanced copy of the final game production ("Send me the first one!") so I can do an unboxing video and demo of the final game. Super pumped this is in printing. You can see some of the mini reviews and how they break it up into pieces. Don't worry, all of the minis come fully assembled.

With production underway, I can announce that the pledge manager will close on March 31.  This is a little later than I told some of you (the original date was March 15th-ish), but I wanted to keep it open slightly longer to give people a chance to finalize their pledge. Please finalize your pledge if you have not!! 

I've played more games recently. I still love playing against Krampus no matter which hero I play. His gift giving mechanic adds randomness to the game but leads to a lot of fun when you get a terrible present. Meeple on Board also demoed the game over at Cannes. I haven't heard back on how that went, but I'm hoping they took some pictures! I'll share them once I have them.

As always, LMK if there's something you want to see or know. I appreciate your support!

Four Horsemen

February update
about 1 year ago – Thu, Feb 01, 2024 at 09:36:59 AM

Hi everyone!

The good news is that Four Horsemen is still on-track for full delivery by August this year. The bad news is manufacturing has been slow so there haven't been a lot of updates in the last month. The proofs are done, inserts created, and the game is moving along, but I'm still waiting on the white box test that shows all components and how they fit into the box. The manufacturer (Gameland) has assured me production will complete just after the Chinese New Year. Hurrah!

After production, the game will be loaded on a freight ship bound for the distribution centers. As such, the pledge manager will close on March 15th. Please complete your shipping information before then! After the boat reaches the distribution centers, we'll get shipping numbers and start delivering. 

For today's update, I thought I'd share some of the villains in Four Horsemen. Each villain uniquely changes the strategy and win conditions. Your favorite hero might excel against some villains and be rubbish against others. I find that the best strategy is a good mix of support and warrior heroes. Some of the villains are:

1. Malaise is the tutorial villain but still fun to play even after you know the game. My regular play testers call her the sandbox villain as Malaise lets you try different strategies and weird combinations. To beat Malaise, the heroes need to prevent one event and demonstrate their divine powers. She's also only 6 hours (turns). 

• Avarice is greed and envy. Avaracie loves relics, even damaged ones.  To prevent Avarice from owning all humankind, the heroes need to stop Avarcie from acquiring relics by re-acquiring their own sacrificed relics.  Avarice turns Four Horsemen into a more traditional deck builder where your stack of relics grows beyond the usual 10.

• Hades, a Greek god, floods the earth with minions from the underworld causing their numbers to double each turn. I'd advise heroes to clear the board of his followers to avoid being overrun. Hades is in league with death and wants to rain destruction down on the mortals. To stop Hades, the heroes have to prevent 4 catastrophes. 

• Iblis, from Islam, leads the devils and controls both volcanoes and fire. Each turn, Iblis destroys part of a continent making the land uninhabitable, even for demons. Heroes caught by the destruction suffer divinity damage. Iblis shortens the demon track in each continent, which allows the demons to hunt down a hero's followers more quickly. To defeat Iblis, the heroes must create an area that is safe from his devil servants. 

• Behemoth, from Christianity, is too large and powerful for a binding spell to banish. Instead, the heroes attack Behemoth head-on while he roams the world spawning his children. Unlike other nemesia, Behemoth is defeated immediately after taking a certain amount of damage. Behemoth hits back hard so a good mix of defense and offense is advisable.

• Louhi is a powerful Finnish witch with protective arcane powers. These powers allow her to whisk away her minions just before death, meaning heroes can never defeat them all. As a powerful magic user herself, Louhi can only be defeated by casting two binding rituals at the same time. 

• Beelzebub, the lord of flies, devours everything in his path. Each round, Beelzebub consumes the heroes' followers or feeds on a hero's power instead. Beelzebub is the strongest when he's hungry. To defeat him, the heroes must sacrifice their own followers to weaken Beelzebub sufficiently that the binding ritual can seal him away for a time.  

• Abaddon is the void and can cancel other magical and divine powers. Each round, Abaddon covers the world with darkness suppressing relics with certain properties. Heroes with those relics cannot use them. The best way to beat Abaddon is with cunning and an arsenal of different magical artifacts. 

• Agon is the Greek concept of conquest. Agon pits the heroes against each other to find the true champion in their midst. Agon turns Four Horsemen into a competitive game where the heroes struggle against each other for prestige. There can only be one champion.

• Apep is a giant snake from Egypt that hates light. Her goal is to devour the sun as her offspring need total darkness to survive. Her nests are represented by demonic portals with their spawn being her demonic children. Destroy the nests to save the world. 

• The last one for today, Hundun, from China, causes confusion and blindness. You never know what relic you might find with Hundun involved as you acquire them randomly. To defeat Hundun, the heroes must bring order back to the world by organizing their arsenal against it. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the villains described. Please let me know if you have any questions or need help with the pledge manager. Thank you for backing the game!

Happy New Year and Digital Proofs
about 1 year ago – Wed, Jan 03, 2024 at 08:01:14 AM

Welcome to 2024! The digital proofs were delivered and approved. We're now waiting on the white box test. This is where the manufacture puts together the box using plain white cards to make sure everything fits. This is also where the inserts are designed. I will hopefully have both to share in the next update. 

For this update, here are a couple of images of what a digital proof looks like:

Happy Holidays!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 22, 2023 at 11:43:15 PM

Happy holidays everyone! I've finished reviewing most of the digital proofs. We're just waiting on a couple of cards. However, I wanted to share this wallpaper that was created by our very talented Nicoleta Stavarache. She's amazing.

Happy holidays!
over 1 year ago – Wed, Dec 06, 2023 at 02:25:58 PM

Hi everyone, 

The good news is everything is still on track! I had to make a couple of minor adjustments in sizing of components to keep the boxes the standard 300mm x 300mm, but I finished that and sent all of the updated files to the manufacturer. I've paid the deposit on printing the game and am waiting on the digital proofs. I should be able to share them with you in the January update! Once the proofs are complete, the manufacturer will print the copies, which will take 4-6 weeks. After printing, they'll get on a boat to the distribution centers of Naylor games for final shipping. 

The pledge manager is ticking along. Roughly 2/3 of customers have completed their pledge already. I received several requests to keep the pledge manager open until March, so I will leave it alone until then. I'll start sending out reminder emails to backers who haven't completed their pledge around the end of January. 

There's a new review of Four Horsemen out in German. Super cool video and the content creator is a wonderful guy. If you speak German, check out his channel! 

After I received the digital proofs, I'll update the rulebooks on BGG so you can check them out. I uploaded the base and expansion rulebooks for anyone interested. Those files are about 1 version behind the final. 

Happy holidays again! Have some wallpaper art for fun.

Jeremy