Development Diary #19 for Europa Universalis: Defying Destiny - Rejoice, ALL the cards are done, and the PPC process has started! A less happy note on US Tariffs.

Status, PPC, and Timeline

Hello everybody! We have a lot to talk about, but will try to go quickly through each of the topics. First, we have paid the manufacturing deposit and started submitting the print files for the Pre-Production Copy (PPC) of Defying Destiny to Panda Game Manufacturing, and hope to have the PPC in our hands around 15 May. This is the last big milestone before starting mass production.

We have completed writing all the 396 new cards for Defying Destiny, standard as well as mini-sized! You can see them all, and comment on the PDF files linked below. We'd love for you to use your keen eyes to find any issues, small or big, that we might have missed. At the moment, the illustrators are fully occupied working on the artwork that remains to be completed (Age III and IV cards mainly).

In the screenshot above, you can see that all the files submitted have already been approved by the Panda prepress team, and yesterday we received and approved the Digital Proofs (looking like the image below) for all the cards. They have the files for the all the plastics already. We expect to upload punchboards, a preliminary booklet and game boards today, so they can start producing the PPC next week.

While Panda are preparing the PPC, we will be reviewing the feedback on the cards and add the remaining illustrations, as well as completing the scenario booklet, so that we can upload the final print-files for Mass Production once we have approved the PPC.

Production Timeline and Closing of Late Pledges

If everything goes smoothly, mass production can commence at the end of May, which would mean that all products would be complete and ready for bulk shipment in August. We don't know at this time exactly how long ocean freight will take (most ships are for instance still avoiding the Red Sea route, but that could change).

This means we need to submit the final production quantities by 15 May, which also sets the deadline for Late Pledges. In other words, at that point we have to lock down all the pledges, and after this we cannot give any more refunds, since we'll be committed to produce the submitted quantities.

Other Items

Aside from Defying Destiny itself, we received samples of the new miniature sculpts for the Extra Player Set and Extra Miniature Set add-ons, and hope that you are as happy as we are about how they came out. As you can see, they look really neat alongside the existing miniatures, and they fit snugly into the existing player trays, if that's where you want to keep them. The Extra Player Set will come with one such tray, while the Extra Miatures Set will come in a tuckbox with a little tray of its own.

We have been playtesting various new scenarios here at the office lately, with some of our community members stopping by and helping out (thanks Mathias and Andreas!), but we need you for that too! (More on this soon, but also coming to our Discord server.) Some of these scenarios will make into the final booklet, some will probably not.

In any case, the booklet for Defying Destiny is also taking shape. You can find the 3 opening pages of it a bit further down, and some of the scenarios are currently being prepped for Tabletop Simulator, so that you can have a go.

All the Events

Here is the file with all the new Events (A, B, Realm Specific, Age I–IV) in Defying Destiny. A couple of the Realms that disappeared as independent entities quite early on in the EU:tPoP timeframe (notably Milan, Novgorod, and Teutonic Order), do not have separate Realm-specific Events for one or both of Age III and IV. Instead, we found it more flexible to include some extra B-Events with Mercenary Leaders with specific relevance to their region. These can be used as replacements for Realm-specific Events, but also allow more variety in general when creating scenarios. Some Events also allow certain Realms to change into other Realms, just like Denmark can in the core game. Click the link and comment if you see anything funny!

All the Ideas, Milestones, and Missions

I have an Idea for you. Submit your feedback, using the link, if you see some mistakes! Our Milestone is to make all corrections to the cards by mid-May. We hope that our backers across Realms worldwide will be on a Mission to check out the cards for Defying Destiny. Comment on the link if you see anything funny!

All the Action Cards & Trade Cards

4 freshly baked new Trade Cards, including a real Gem! Did you think Teutonic Order was going to have a hard time? Well if someone picks the card and not them, maybe yes.

The Defying Destiny Booklet

Click the image to get a first glance at the 3 first pages of the Scenarios IV booklet.

Europa Universalis: The most recommended solo game on BGG!

We are hopefully no. 1 in your hearts, BUT ALSO, we are no. 1 of Most Recommended Strategy Solo Games in a visualization Igor Larchenko did with the data of the most recommended Solo Games. The visualization shows "Fans Also Like" connections between 500 BGG the most recommended solo games and titles of ★ Top 10 games (you can download the full map on pdf in the link). It's based on % of BGG best and recommended 1 player votes from owners: K,% = (Best 1 player votes + Recommended 1 player votes) / Owners.