Got my copy last week from the Amazon pre-order! Love the quick and simple rules and the art is perfect for the style of the game. I plan to play the first match with some friends next week 😊 Can't wait to see battle reports popping out!
I’ve been playing skirmish games for more years than I care to think about (ok, over 50) and this one is such a refreshing change, for so many reasons. Only received my copy yesterday and I can’t wait to play. Thanks Michael.
This sounds so cool!! I've been circling around skirmish games for a while now but everything you said you wanted to address kept me from biting the bullet. I can't wait to pick this up and give it a shot!!!!!
Congratulations! Awesome news, also even more awesome theme idea, also even more awesome artstyle, also Osprey publishing can be taken a guarantee of high quality :)
As soon as you said "When you kill an enemy..." I said to myself "You can absorb their power?" And that's exactly what it is! Now that's good delivery on a fantasy right there.
Good luck Wheels, you deserve the world mate, skirmish games aren't really my thing anymore since discovering ttrpgs but this looks ace, best of look to you!:)
Being a games designer by hobby myself this is amazing and I'm so happy for you! I would love to see you play some games of this with friends on here! Definitely subscribing for this
Hell yeah! This looks awesome! Love skirmish games but like you said they still take all night and can only get a game or two in each time. I’d love to see a battle report of this game to see how it works out on the table!
Oh wow this is spooky, never seen your channel before but i saw this getting played last week and thought it looked really cool Lots of really interesting ideas here, ill grab a copy when im a little more flush :)
Any chance you'll release a DECK of POWERS? so that you dont have to reference the Rule Book? The cards can be placed right on the table so you can know at all times what powers your going for.
Massive congratulations on this. Planning on getting a video on this awesome book up at some point soon so don't worry about bias 😉 Does this mean we can expect some wargames/miniatures content?
Looks really interesting - I love the premise. 2 questions: 1 - Is it available as a .pdf download, and 2 - Is there a solo or co-operative playing option?
It is available as a pdf yes, and also epub. There's no solo/coop just yet but as I've said to a few others here I'm very open to making one if Osprey are keen
It’s just as important to highlight what the game doesn’t do to inform players. The biggest unanswered question in this video is, is the game playable solo/co-op? In miniature gaming today this is so important for so many of us considering a purchase ( myself included) not to be mentioned. Congratulations on the book 🙂
I agree. 2 player skirmish games are ubiquitous. And most people only want to play the established systems. A solo/co-op mode is like an 'insurance policy' so that if my friends or others aren't interested, it's still worth getting for myself 😊 So...will it have a solo mode?
It doesn't currently but it's definitely something I'm open to making in the future! I imagine it depends on how well the base book sells to make it worth it for Osprey but that would be out of my hands.
@@just4funshowI don’t know the ratio of solo players vs together with friends, in my mind I want to say it would double your sales from the off having a solo mode? But that is plucked from the air :/ …..Ash from Guerrilla Miniatures Games ( I’m sure he will be reviewing your book at some point) has a great video pressing the desire of solo gaming modes in modern miniature rule sets. I’ll probably pick up a copy to show support. With hope for the future. 🤞🏻
@raxacor Yeah, I know the Solo Board Gamers FB group hit 10,000 members back before Cov-19 Now it has over 50,000 members and a tonne of other groups have spawned. There's quite a lot of posts about solo miniature games on those too, which are allowed as they're still both solo and tabletop related. If this had a solo mode, I'm sure the skirmish gamers would post about it on there too.
Having self-published my own superhero themed skirmish game, I feel like the algorithm threw me towards this video because frankly - IT LOOKS SO GOOD! Comic-y, Graphic Novel-y art in tabletop gaming seems mostly focused on RPGs so really loving how this book looks both cover and pages. Listening to your "pitch" so to speak, the TTRPG inspiration is very clear there, do you plan on showing this off around the South East at stores and conventions such as Salute?
We had a demo day at Dice Saloon as I mentioned in the vid but would depend on where Osprey are planning to be! I've still not managed to make a Salute yet but I really should head to one
@just4funshow I know Mantic have done "tours" so to speak around hobby shops but I think that's more so they can sell stock to the shop i assume. I wasn't sure if Osprey do similar things with releases now, but it sounded like the type of game where a traditional demo game length is the full game length so I was curious about how demoing was being run! Other thing I picked up on, being a short game length but campaign focused, for people who did want the whole evening of gameplay experience are there campaigns that can be run in 4 hours or so total length?
The campaigns in FREAKZ! are open ended so there's no set length, they can go long if you want them to but they're designed to naturally ramp into a final battle. My hopes is that it sells well though and I can start releasing more written campaigns a la Frostgrave with more set scenarios that lead into eachother. I'd definitely be up for releasing a book of shorter form campaigns that finish over a very short window!
This came from having a chat with one of the editors at Osprey when I went to Essen one year. We already knew their marketing team because of my work on Dicebreaker (which obviously helped a lot!) so I had them introduce me but I feel like they were pretty open to pitches. It's a little trickier to get in if you haven't made anything before, self publishing a few things to show a track record is a good start, even if they're ugly they show you can get something finished and they see what your game design is like. I'd already put out a few TTRPGs myself through Itch.io and Kickstarter before this. Then just being able to develop a pitch that shows off the best parts of your game and explains why it'd be a good fit for the publisher and a good investment for them to publish it. Have something they can look at and read, have answers for questions they might have and be willing to adapt your ideas a little to meet what they're looking for (my original pitch for FREAKZ! didn't have anything campaign related worked out and that's a big deal for most wargamers so it was something I had to provide some ideas for to make the prospect a little more attractive for Osprey). Hope that helps, and good luck!
I think it's sick as hell and EVERYONE should play it, it's available to purchase digitally and physically online and you can even order a copy from Amazon so it should be very easy to get hold of!
Got my copy last week from the Amazon pre-order! Love the quick and simple rules and the art is perfect for the style of the game. I plan to play the first match with some friends next week 😊 Can't wait to see battle reports popping out!
Commenting literally just to assure Wheels it is 100% ok to be excited over an ISBN number.
Hahahaha thank you!
I’ve been playing skirmish games for more years than I care to think about (ok, over 50) and this one is such a refreshing change, for so many reasons. Only received my copy yesterday and I can’t wait to play. Thanks Michael.
I hope you have a great time with it!
Gosh Osprey have SUCH a good catalog. Glad to see something new in its fold!
Congratulations! The artwork looks incredible- would like to see a gameplay vid - sounds like you have some really fun and unique rules in there 😊
Gameplay coming within the next week!
@@just4funshow I would also love to see some gameplay!
So pleased for you... Well done, you lovely, lovely man!
This sounds so cool!! I've been circling around skirmish games for a while now but everything you said you wanted to address kept me from biting the bullet. I can't wait to pick this up and give it a shot!!!!!
Ah I'm so glad!
Congratulations! Awesome news, also even more awesome theme idea, also even more awesome artstyle, also Osprey publishing can be taken a guarantee of high quality :)
As soon as you said "When you kill an enemy..." I said to myself "You can absorb their power?" And that's exactly what it is!
Now that's good delivery on a fantasy right there.
Sounds awesome - I have picked up a copy and looking forward to playing.
Good luck Wheels, you deserve the world mate, skirmish games aren't really my thing anymore since discovering ttrpgs but this looks ace, best of look to you!:)
Being a games designer by hobby myself this is amazing and I'm so happy for you! I would love to see you play some games of this with friends on here! Definitely subscribing for this
We've got gameplay on the way, should be up within the next week
Hell yeah! This looks awesome! Love skirmish games but like you said they still take all night and can only get a game or two in each time.
I’d love to see a battle report of this game to see how it works out on the table!
We've already filmed one and it'll be up within a week or so!
@@just4funshow awesome!
Big congrats, Wheels. Looks like we're launch day twins on Osprey :) Freaks looks fantastic. Can't wait to play.
Hell yeah great to see you popping up in UA-cam comments again friend! Congrats on Terror Beneath, hope it's going down a storm
Oh wow this is spooky, never seen your channel before but i saw this getting played last week and thought it looked really cool
Lots of really interesting ideas here, ill grab a copy when im a little more flush :)
Ah did you see us at Dice Saloon? If so they should have some copies in the shop when you're ready :) Thanks for checking out the game!
Hey man this is super cool. I come from the more miniature side of things and love indie mini games, will keep an eye out for this one.
Awesome, thank you!
To be fair!!!
❤❤❤
Ahhh so cool this popped up on UA-cam! I wanna give it a go with my nephew
Does the game support Solo or Co-Op play?
I was about to ask the same thing lol
Not currently but I'm very open to writing an expansion that does so
Any chance you'll release a DECK of POWERS? so that you dont have to reference the Rule Book?
The cards can be placed right on the table so you can know at all times what powers your going for.
I'd love to! Seems like an easy win. All depends on how well it sells for Osprey I imagine :)
Well done mate that's greeat,hope it goes well!!!
Looks awesome!
Massive congratulations on this. Planning on getting a video on this awesome book up at some point soon so don't worry about bias 😉
Does this mean we can expect some wargames/miniatures content?
Absolutely, we've got gameplay on the way and then we're hoping to do some Gaslands as well!
Congrats
Looks really interesting - I love the premise. 2 questions: 1 - Is it available as a .pdf download, and 2 - Is there a solo or co-operative playing option?
It is available as a pdf yes, and also epub. There's no solo/coop just yet but as I've said to a few others here I'm very open to making one if Osprey are keen
It’s just as important to highlight what the game doesn’t do to inform players. The biggest unanswered question in this video is, is the game playable solo/co-op? In miniature gaming today this is so important for so many of us considering a purchase ( myself included) not to be mentioned. Congratulations on the book 🙂
I agree.
2 player skirmish games are ubiquitous.
And most people only want to play the established systems.
A solo/co-op mode is like an 'insurance policy' so that if my friends or others aren't interested, it's still worth getting for myself 😊
So...will it have a solo mode?
It doesn't currently but it's definitely something I'm open to making in the future! I imagine it depends on how well the base book sells to make it worth it for Osprey but that would be out of my hands.
@@just4funshowI don’t know the ratio of solo players vs together with friends, in my mind I want to say it would double your sales from the off having a solo mode? But that is plucked from the air :/ …..Ash from Guerrilla Miniatures Games ( I’m sure he will be reviewing your book at some point) has a great video pressing the desire of solo gaming modes in modern miniature rule sets.
I’ll probably pick up a copy to show support. With hope for the future. 🤞🏻
@raxacor Yeah, I know the Solo Board Gamers FB group hit 10,000 members back before Cov-19
Now it has over 50,000 members and a tonne of other groups have spawned. There's quite a lot of posts about solo miniature games on those too, which are allowed as they're still both solo and tabletop related.
If this had a solo mode, I'm sure the skirmish gamers would post about it on there too.
Having self-published my own superhero themed skirmish game, I feel like the algorithm threw me towards this video because frankly - IT LOOKS SO GOOD! Comic-y, Graphic Novel-y art in tabletop gaming seems mostly focused on RPGs so really loving how this book looks both cover and pages.
Listening to your "pitch" so to speak, the TTRPG inspiration is very clear there, do you plan on showing this off around the South East at stores and conventions such as Salute?
We had a demo day at Dice Saloon as I mentioned in the vid but would depend on where Osprey are planning to be! I've still not managed to make a Salute yet but I really should head to one
@just4funshow I know Mantic have done "tours" so to speak around hobby shops but I think that's more so they can sell stock to the shop i assume. I wasn't sure if Osprey do similar things with releases now, but it sounded like the type of game where a traditional demo game length is the full game length so I was curious about how demoing was being run!
Other thing I picked up on, being a short game length but campaign focused, for people who did want the whole evening of gameplay experience are there campaigns that can be run in 4 hours or so total length?
The campaigns in FREAKZ! are open ended so there's no set length, they can go long if you want them to but they're designed to naturally ramp into a final battle. My hopes is that it sells well though and I can start releasing more written campaigns a la Frostgrave with more set scenarios that lead into eachother. I'd definitely be up for releasing a book of shorter form campaigns that finish over a very short window!
Great work! Any advice on getting stuff published?
This came from having a chat with one of the editors at Osprey when I went to Essen one year. We already knew their marketing team because of my work on Dicebreaker (which obviously helped a lot!) so I had them introduce me but I feel like they were pretty open to pitches. It's a little trickier to get in if you haven't made anything before, self publishing a few things to show a track record is a good start, even if they're ugly they show you can get something finished and they see what your game design is like. I'd already put out a few TTRPGs myself through Itch.io and Kickstarter before this. Then just being able to develop a pitch that shows off the best parts of your game and explains why it'd be a good fit for the publisher and a good investment for them to publish it. Have something they can look at and read, have answers for questions they might have and be willing to adapt your ideas a little to meet what they're looking for (my original pitch for FREAKZ! didn't have anything campaign related worked out and that's a big deal for most wargamers so it was something I had to provide some ideas for to make the prospect a little more attractive for Osprey). Hope that helps, and good luck!
Human ventriloquist? Shouldn't it be human puppeteer?
Heck yeah!!
This sounds rad. Congrats on the publication! Are you at MCM?
We're not unfortunately! Hope you have a wonderful time though! :)
Awesome 👍
How many "models" is a warband strong?
6-8!
Congrats Wheels! Be more biased and less humble. Convince me that i absolutely need this game!👹 I'm in the states, how do i get it?
I think it's sick as hell and EVERYONE should play it, it's available to purchase digitally and physically online and you can even order a copy from Amazon so it should be very easy to get hold of!
@just4funshow Shut up and take my money! Pre-ordered on Amazon!
Hiya. I don’t suppose you’re going to create a facebook group or something so people can share pictures of their minis and games?
Did you say a game takes two hours...?