On a day when we added three new games to our P500 list, I wanted to post something here on our blog to advertise the additions. But the more I thought about it, adding a “We just added three new games to the P500 list!” post here, after we’ve already posted information on all three games across all of our social media and in today’s Customer E-Mail Update, seemed a little redundant and not really in keeping with our “InsideGMT” theme for this blog. So I thought I’d try something a little different – a post about our process, and how one of these three games came to the P500 list. So here goes. I hope you guys find this interesting.
By way of background, all of our designers and design teams know that I routinely add games to our P500 list near the end of each month, to coincide with the release of our Customer E-Mail Update. So as games get close to “ready” for the P500 list, there’s a lot of preparatory conversation back and forth with those designers and teams about whether their game is going to be ready for the list this month. For the games that are going to be ready, the designer or team sends me text for the P500 writeup and an exact component list. I then send the component list to Tony Curtis, who figures out the retail and P500 price points for those components, and the text to Rodger MacGowan or my daughter Rachel Billingsley, who use it to make cool banners for each of the new P500 games. Meanwhile, I create the P500 page itself on our website. This all usually happens about a week before we launch the new P500s near month-end, but there have been times when a writeup came in at the 11th hour and we decided to go with it, when Rodger and Tony did REALLY quick turns to help get the game ready for launch. (It’s always nice to work with professionals – guys who stay cool when things get hectic.)
So let’s talk about how we came to add Falling Sky to the list today. Usually, I know about games in development for months, sometimes years, before they go on our P500 list. But Volko REALLY surprised me with this one. About a month ago, as I was on a long drive home from Stanford Medical Center (fun with shoulders and back!), Volko called and told me, rather casually, that he had a new game in the COIN series, and that it was almost ready for P500!! What?!?! That was stunning but awesome news to me, as Volko and I had just a couple months back laid out an overall strategic plan for the next couple years of COIN P500 additions, and I thought I had a good handle on what was coming. But an ANCIENTS COIN series game!?! Oh, MAN!!!! (Given that about half of our customer base loves ancient games, the “sales guy” part of me was drooling at the potential appeal of COIN doing Ancients.) Wow! It was a bonus that Volko said it was a co-design with his son Andrew, a young man I think very highly of, and one of the savviest COIN series players I’ve met. I think this father-son design team approach is just really cool. And I love seeing younger designers cutting their teeth in the hobby, especially with games that say “GMT” on the box.
So, after discussing all the details and weighing pros and cons (ok, there weren’t that many cons!), we decided to move Falling Sky to the front of the COIN series line and move back a couple other games that we thought we’d be adding later this summer (At least one of those you’ll probably still see on the list later this year.) The rest of the process went smoothly, and the rest of our team was as excited as I was to see this evolution in the COIN series.
Why do I want this game on our P500 list? OK, beyond the “doh! Volko!” aspect, I think this period is PERFECT for COIN! Also, I think that this is going to open up some potential COIN co-designers’ minds to other non-modern possibilities for the COIN series and that we may see some applications of this system to periods and situations that Volko and I never envisioned when we first discussed the possibility of this series several years ago.
If you’d like to read more information about Falling Sky or place a P500 order, please visit our Falling Sky P500 page. Thanks!
Enjoy the games!
Gene
Author: Gene Billingsley
This was definitely an instant order for me; I have all the COIN games and I like series games where the learning curve is mitigated from title to title, especially when the series deals with topics less often covered in gaming, but I’m really interested to see the system handle an ancients setting.
I’m with you, Ananda. Really looking forward to the Ancients tweaks to the COIN system. Also looking forward to a certain new “Struggle” game by a couple nameless designers who I hear are pretty good, but that’s a story for another day! 🙂
Hey Ananda! Been awhile since WBC last year so I hope you’ve been well. You should get your own design blog here too! Take care!
Drool… Yes, this seems like a perfect fit for the system. Very exciting (says the long-time Ancients grognard and – relatively – recent COIN convert 🙂 )
Glad you like it, Marc! Looking forward to seeing you again at the Weekend at the Warehouse in October!
Wow, I’m just smashed. Definitely going for this one. But please, GMT, work on your proofreading and don’t rush. Can’t stand it anymore to wait for a copy of a new COIN title AND 2-3 sheets of errata. This shouldn’t be the way to go.
Thanks for the feedback, Dennis, and for your support of the COIN series. I’ll let Volko speak to errata issues as he is more on top of each game’s status than I am , but I’m pretty sure there is minimal functional game play errata to any of the COIN games, and that most of the “errata sheet” info we have provided is to correct Playbook errors and offer clarifications. That said, your point is well taken that we ALWAYS want to be looking to improve our proofing and quality control. Message received. Thanks!
When I saw this news this morning I flipped out in excitement. My friend, who is my chief COIN rival and a big fan of Ancients, about fell over. Really awesome post here. The insight into the P500 process is very cool. As someone whose day job is PR, this has all the makings of an amazing story to tell to media. All-star designer, incredibly successful board game system, father-son team. I hope some press picks up on this story and continues momentum for you guys. It’s an awesome tale, and one that I think tabletop gamers of all stripes would enjoy hearing about.
Hi Justin! It IS a cool father-son design story, isn’t it? Stay tuned to the blog in mid-late August or so – looks like we’re going to have a joint father-son article about their new game!
I would rather like to see another one like labyrinth 😉
I hear you, Simon – I love Labyrinth! I’d actually like BOTH new COIN series games and more CDGs like Wilderness War and Labyrinth. Alas, there is only ONE of Volko, so we go with what he’s most interested in working on.
That’s pretty much what we say to all of our designers, by the way: “Do what you love, work on things that interest you, and the quality and labor of love will show through.” So if Volko brings us a CDG next, I’ll be thrilled. And if it’s another new COIN game or even something totally different, I’ll know it’s what he’s interested in and that, knowing Volko, it will be very, very good.
There’s a certain Sword of Rome player/host who is such a Roman-phile that he most likely will jump into this game immediately. Yes, I am speaking about YOU, John Zrimc!
Speaking for myself, I am very excited for this entry as now — the implications for the series to go back in time and to different locations can only expand the field and direction even more so than the twentieth and twenty-first century conflicts it already has covered and will be covering.
I am ready to see it join the handful of games on the subject such as GMT’s own Conquest of Gaul and The Siege of Alesia, TSR’s Julius Caesar, S&T’s Caesar in Gallia and the Classic AH’s Caesar (at Alesia) to name a few. I believe it is actually the first wargame designed by a father and son team!
Hi Ken! Really looking forward to your COIN game. Hopefully I can play it a bit at the Warehouse in October.
great to provide the coins serie on a subject as CESAR and the conquest of celtic countries.
In France , we have a long term history about this period , so if I may advise you, In France, are very link with the Gaulois chief VERCINGETORIX who was the first to win Cesar during a battle in Gaule.
It is an ICON in our country , an ICON used by the ancien government in France in the 19èm sciecle , to create a false feeling of french nation .
from France ,
We like GMT in France,
thank you for your work ,
christophe from Grenoble ( french alpes )
More Exclamation Points Gene!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for doing this game. I am incredibly excited (more than I have been for a game in some time, and I’m always excited for new games). Volko has answered some of my questions over on boardgamegeek, giving some wonderful insight into how mechanics will be different from other COIN games: “Battle” replacing Attack/Assault, and the presence of leaders (Caesar, Vercingetorix, Ambiorix) who enable your Special Activities in or adjacent to the spaces they occupy. Sounds fantastic for the period and conflict. I also really like that it will be closer to Cuba Libre in scope and complexity, which should make it easier to rope in players.
And thank you Gene for posting and commenting here. Will you do me a favor and move this game to the top of the queue ASAP? 🙂 Yea!
P.S.: About the errata issue: It’s definitely an annoyance, for example for No Retreat! Russian Front (thank goodness for the living rules), and the CC:Napoleonics, where there are several niggling mistakes in the unit charts and rules. I have a suggestion: crowdsource a round of rules and playbook editing. I’ve seen this work brilliantly on Kickstarter. Send the rules in pdf to and solicit feedback from the P500, while giving them access to the Vassal module for the game. You’ll catch all the little issues, I’m sure, only before the print run. 1000 eyes are better than 2 or 4 or 10.
Thanks for the suggestion, Manfred. I’ll pass it along to our pre-production folks.
As far as moving GW to the top of the queue, only when Volko says it’s tested and ready.
And I’m not surprised at all that Volko answered your Qs and gave insight into the game. He’s full of insights. I so enjoy every time we get to sit down and talk about history, games, and current events. I always learn a lot.
Please add more files, previews, sneak peeks on the P500 page for this game. It looks engaging as always happens to me when the Roman Empire is involved (AH’s “The Republic of Rome” is still a stepstone in my gaming life) but I haven’t yet decided to P500-ing it.