Pre-Order Madness

This morning I went on a bit of a game pre-ordering game.  There was one game that if I wanted to pre-order I needed to do it by tomorrow.  Since I was doing one, I figured I might as well go ahead and put myself down for all of the games that I have been thinking of pre-ordering.  After it was all said and done, I had committed to five games, so here are the games that I will be getting some day.  

Divided Republic
This was the game that I had to pre-order before the end of Sunday.  As of right now there are two ways pre-order games: Kickstarter and P-500.  Kickstarter is a website where people seek funding for a whole lot of different products.  People support projects that they are interested in by pledging money at various levels.   Each project as a certain amount of money it needs to give the project the money it needs to happen, and they have to set a date to reach their goal by.  This game's kickstarter campaign ends on Sunday night, so I backed it for the cost of the game.   This means if it reaches its funding, then after the game is printed I will get sent a copy.  
This game is about the election of 1860.  It is for 2-4 players, with each player playing one of the major parties in the election.  The game is card driven and players will have to decide if they want to play cards for needed political influence of play the card for an unique effect.  I like the historical element of the game and that the game also has a neat element where everyone can lose if the civil war breaks out, so players have to balance their playing to win, without tipping the balance so much that war breaks out. 

Empires of the Void
As I posted last week, I created a game for a game design contest.  The game that I created was distilled down from a game idea I had for a much bigger game.   Here is a post that details the game I was working on.   This video explains Empires of the Void:

I know that you most likely did not read my post and you did not watch the video, so I will tell you that the Empires of the Void has a LOT of similarities to the game I was thinking about making.   I figured I might as well save myself the trouble of making it and support this game.  This is also a kickstarter game. 

Manoeuvre: Distant Lands
This is an expansion to a game we already have.  It adds 4 new armies to the game.  This game is a P500 game.  This is the other way of pre-ordering and it is used by a variety of companies that mostly publish war games.  The way this works, is the game is put on the P500 list and the company begins taking pre-orders.  Once the game reaches 500 pre-orders it "makes the cut".  Once a game has made the cut, and it is ready then it is given a production slot.  When the game begins shipping, the company charges the pre-orders.  Often the P500 price is cheaper than the retail price.  

Thunder Alley

This is also a P500 game.  It is a NASCAR racing game that comes with two tracks (Super speedway and short track).  In this game players control a team of cars.   One of the neat things about this game is that it is card driven, instead of dice.  This game just got added to GMT's P500 list, but I am really excited about it and I am looking forward to following the game as it develops.

1989

This is a game I have had in my mind to pre-order for a while.  It is a 2 player game where players try to sway former soviet block countries to democracy or stay communist.  The game is card driven, and each card can be used for multiple purposes.  Players have to decide how to best use the cards.  This game is developed by the same people who made a game we like called Campaign Manager. 

All of these games will be coming out at some point in 2012, so now I just have to wait. . .a while.