Day 4: A Duel of two Guardians
over 1 year ago – Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 11:34:21 PM

There is no stopping you! We are growing and growing. More than 600 new backers joined in since the last update and have unlocked a nicely printed corruption bag for the game!

 Duel of the Guardians: Vote!

The Golden Guardian has awoken from its long slumber and they are challenging the territory of a Half-Floating Stone Golem. Who will you support in this duel?

Please vote in this Google Form. Only one* will make it out of this duel and will join the ranks of the Empire. The vote is open until Sunday October 30th midnight (CST).

 * We need to keep a balance of cards and a balance between the four factions. For this reason, it can really be just one of the two. Both are available. You decide which one we will take.

 Give Away Winner

Many of you joined in on the Give Away but there can only be one winner! It was great to see you all playing and enjoying the base game. And the wheel of fortune has picked @_donuts_ on Instagram, with this picture of the base game:

Congratulations! We will contact you for your shipping address and we will get the preview copy shipped soon.

 Alternative Board Explained

Some of you have asked us how the special scenario on the back of the new board works. So we thought it is high time for an explanation:

You can turn over the exclusive Kickstarter board to play with an alternative power track on the other side (preliminary version below):

When a player moves a marker from space 7 to space 8, they have to decide where to move: They can either move up to 8B, which makes victory for the Undead harder to achieve, or they move down to 8A, which makes victory for the Undead easier to achieve. 

A marker on 8A cannot move to 9B, it can only move to 9A or back to space 7. The same logic applies when a player moves a marker from space 12 to space 11. The victory conditions for the other factions don’t change. For example, if one marker is on 9B while the other marker is on 10A, these markers are still considered next to each other and it’s a Water Folk victory. 

About 1st-Edition Replacement Cards

We will take the time to discuss this matter further within our team. We are in touch with our factory and logistic partners to see what can be done. Of course, we don't want to make production process overly complex, but we also want to avoid producing hundreds of cards that will be thrown away. We keep you posted.

 Support us on BGG

For the social goals we still need 91 subscribers to BGG as well as 47 likes on the How to Play Video. Can you help us out and help us feed our Possessed Poodle?? While you are there, we would greatly appreciate if you could give us your rating on the base game!

Welcome (back) to the World of Oshra!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 02:58:04 AM

We are live!!!! And... well, apparently, we are funded! In just 50 minutes! You broke our record and did it again. Thank you sooo much for your amazing support! With out further ado, here is our first update:

Welcome (back) to the world of Oshra and another BFF Kickstarter campaign! The last two years have been an amazing adventure for us and we are very excited to head into another Kickstarter with you!

What to expect from this campaign?

With the last campaign’s outstanding success, we are walking in a giant’s footsteps. For this reason, we have looked at the last campaign closely and read all your feedback: What were the highlights of the campaign and what was just a gigantic pile of work? 

In this campaign, 25 days packed with lot’s of new art, story background and votings await us. We have prepared more than 14 new cards and have many amazing stretch goals in our backlog, just in case you totally rock this campaign again. Because our strength lies in numbers, we decided to tie all stretch goals to backer numbers, instead of funding level.

A common feedback from last campaign was that the update frequency was too much. For this reason we have re-evaluated our schedule:

We will keep you informed with an update every Monday, Wednesday and Friday including the most recent unlocks, as well as story specials, development insights, strategy advice and some tales from the archives.

In the days in-between we will keep you posted with a Mini-Update in the form of a comment pinned to the top of the comment page. So keep an eye out for that! For more frequent updates please look at our social media sites (especially Twitter) or join our behind the scenes Discord***. Of course, we will also be in the Kickstarter comment section, supported by our amazing new team member Corinna (@BoardToLose). 

Unleash the Guardians: Social Stretch Goals

One of our personal highlights from the last campaign were the small artwork upgrades. For this reason, we included them as some nice social stretch goals again. Here is how you can contribute:

Instagram will aim to repair the Iron Colossus of the Empire. Can you help us to reach 3200 followers on our Instagram account and share 50 feed posts using our hashtag #HiddenLeadersBG ? For example, show us your board game photography skills with the base game!

BoardGameGeek will attempt to nourish the Possessed Poodle back to health. They require a balanced diet of mummified meat that is expensive to acquire. Can you help us to reach 600 subscribers for the BGG page of the base game? In addition, we would love to push RollForCrits’ amazing How To Play Video to 100 likes.

Twitter tries to control a freaked-out Surprised Sapling. Can you help us stop their rampage with 2700 followers and 100 Tweets using #HiddenLeadersBG ? We would especially love to see you play our (base) game!

For a fourth stretch goal the Water Folk will call upon all artists and poets for an expedition into the Oppressed Ocean. So sharpen your pencils! We will share more about this in an upcoming update!

Expansion Give Away: Play Forgotten Legends soon!

When preparing for this campaign we order 25 demo copies for the expansion. Fortunately, we now have some left over. And you know what that means: It’s giveaway time! 

Do you want to have your copy in November including some preliminary material that did not make it into the final game? Then help us out on social media: Post a photo playing Hidden Leaders either on Twitter and/or Instagram, use #HiddenLeadersBG and tag our accounts. After 48 hours we will pick a lucky winner, who will receive their copy right away.

Changes in the Base Game: Double Sided Board

With this campaign, you can get the base game Hidden Leaders in one convenient bundle with the expansion. For this, we revisited the first edition and fixed some minor issues. However, as the Tarot sized leader cards sometimes cause confusion and do not add anything to the mechanics of the game, we decided to remove them from the reprint. Instead, we came up with a new exciting idea that is almost an expansion module in itself:

The Kickstarter version of the base game now comes with a double sided board. On the back of the regular board, you will find an alternative version with two diverging paths. When you move the marker across the 7th or 12th space, you may decide to either go up and delay an Undead victory or to go down and make an Undead victory come earlier. This intensifies the tug-of-war and allows for some surprising moves.

For everyone who owns the base game already, the new board will be available as an add-on for 5€ in the pledge manager, so you won’t miss out on anything. Also, all card changes will be provided as a full-color print-and-play.

Lately, we became aware that UV-Spot creates a lot of unnecessary plastic (see this video by OnePipWonder). For this reason, we have removed all UV Spot in the game. Instead, we improved the board and decided to add linen finish, which will make it more durable.

We hope you are as excited about this new campaign as you are! Thank you so much for your continuous support!

Markus, Raphael and Andreas

***For an invitation to the Discord, please send us a direct message via BGG, Twitter or Instagram.

Day 2: The Guardians are here: Strategy & Lore
over 1 year ago – Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 08:43:08 PM

What a start! You blew right through our first three stretch goals. Thanks to your amazing support, two new guardians and a brand-new artifact have been added to the game:

In today's update we will take a closer look at the Guardian module. Who are they and how do they impact the game?

The Guardians: More deduction in HIDDEN Leaders

The Guardian module is the key expansion module with 21 new heroes (more incoming!) and 4 new leaders. The Guardians are slightly more powerful cards, but if you use them too much, the new Guardian leaders might win. For a full explanation of this module, have a look at the How to Play Video by Roll4Crit. 

Getting stronger cards into the game was what we wanted from Day 1. But would this not disrupt the balance? By tying these powerful cards to a new wining condition, we were able to add them without them completely dominating the game. However, there was one core reason why we decided to add this module to the base game: To add more deduction to Hidden Leaders.

A common feedback from the base game was that the leaders are too easy to tell (especially when playing with beginners). The Guardians strongly work against this effect. They do so in two important ways:

• First, whenever you play a Guardian card this is an ambiguous move. Do you play it for its color? Do you play it because it is a Guardian? Or do you play it just for its strong power? This already makes it harder to tell why someone is doing what they do.
• The second reason comes down to pure math. With four new leaders added to the game, there are many new possible combinations that especially help the 5 and 6 player game. Our Watchful Witch did the math for you:

Now with the Guardian Leaders added it is much, much harder to tell who is who. We hope this addresses the wishes of all who would like more deduction in the game. It is called Hidden Leaders after all.

The Guardians Awaken: A Primal Conflict

Long before any sentient creatures arrived on the Island of Oshra, the island was under the protection of a celestial being later known as Quegetta the Primal, Mother of the Island. Some say she is one with the island itself, others say she is a Goddess who chose this island as her temple.

When intelligent beings from across the ocean, below the deep sea and from within the bowels of the Earth began settling on the island and started their pitiful quarrels, the Mother took action. She created the powerful Guardians to push the invaders of her island.

United by a common enemy and supported by highly powerful artifacts, the Mother and her children were defeated. They were banished into a deep slumber that should last for many centuries. As hundreds of years passed, this primal conflict turned into legends half-forgotten. Yet rumor has it that four unknown descendants of the Emperor have found a way to awaken the Guardians and use them for their purpose...

Unlock our Social Goals & Give Away

Some of you have joined our give away already! Just in case you missed it, here is what you can do: Share a photo of your base game on Twitter or Instagram using #HiddenLeadersBG. This helps us to unlock our artwork upgrades and gives you a chance to win a preview copy of Forgotten Legends that is shipped to you right away. If you don't own the base game already, you can also share a picture of your favorite character!

This give away is still open until Thursday Midnight (CST). The social goals are up for the entire campaign. To make sure that we don't miss your contribution, you can also tag our accounts @BoardGameGoblin(TW) and @Hidden.Leaders(IG).

Clarification: Special Board included in Base Game

We are sorry if we have caused any confusion. The special board which you can add for 5€ to your pledge is already included in the base game that is part of this campaign. However, if you have bought the retail copy or have the base game of the first expansion, you might consider adding it.

We are offering the board for 5€ which covers the production, handling and shipping costs but does not make us any profit. If you would like to save on this, you can also print the board from the Print&Play. In fact, you can print&try the black and white version right now!

 Tarot Leaders added to Print&Play

Many of you have the base game with the unique 1st edition Tarot Leader cards. Unfortunately, we cannot offer them again in this campaign. However, based on a great idea from our Discord community, we decided to add all 10 leaders in Tarot size to the full-color Print&Play. So if you like to use them, just print them and sleeve them and you are ready to go!