New Language Edition?
over 4 years ago – Tue, Sep 03, 2019 at 08:44:10 PM

Hello Everyone,

We are starting this update with some good news for the Italian community: Pendragon Game Studio will publish the Italian edition of the game if this campaign gathers at last 150 backers from Italy (for now we have 64, you can check this in the Community section of the campaign page). We know that you have been asking for this, so now it is all in your hands! Please promote this site among your Italian friends and let’s publish the Italian edition of SUCCESSORS together!

Giant Playing Mat

You have asked for some additional info about the SUCCESSORS Giant Playing Mat, so here it goes:

• It is an enlarged version of the board (by 50% - from 84 x 56 cm to 126 x 84 cm), so all areas are bigger, leaving more space for game miniatures and counters placed on the map. Such solution worked well in HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR Giant Playing Mat, and we will keep this here as well.
   
• It is made of eco leather, a 2 mm thick material with leather texture, that is anti allergic, and water, UV and scratch proof.

 Here are some photos of a prototype mat:

To add Giant Playing Mat to your pledge, just increase your pledged amount by £40, clicking on the Manage your pledge button. This add-on is language independent. The estimated shipping cost is an extra £10-£15 per mat, and this will be paid in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

And now let's finish these ads and return to Eric G. L. PINZELLI’s historical capsules. Today he is going to present you the story of mysterious Alexander’s the Great firstborn son...

HERAKLES, ALEXANDER’S FIRST SON

According to Plutarch, Princess Barsine, Memnon of Rhodes’ widow was captured by the Macedonians in Syria after the battle of Issus (November 322). She was the daughter of Persian satrap Artabazus who had been exiled at the Macedonian court with his family for ten years (348 – 338). Thus, Alexander had known them when he was a young boy.

In 327, after Alexander had finished the conquest of Sogdia, Barsine gave birth to Alexander's first-born child, a son called Herakles. Almost immediately, he married Roxana of Bactria. Barsine returned to the west, where she and her son lived in Pergamon, on her father’s estates of Hellespontine Phrygia. According to Arrian of Nicomedia, Barsine and Mentor's daughter (meaning that either she had been married to Memnon’s brother before, or that the scribe got confused with the names) was married to Nearchos, Alexander's admiral, during the Suza weddings (324 BC).

There was another Barsine, Darius III’s daughter, who became Alexander’s wife at the Suza weddings (along with Parysatis, daughter of Artaxerxes III). Stateira II (called Barsine by Arrian of Nicomedia) was assassinated by Roxana immediately after Alexander’s death at Babylon in June 323 BC. Nothing in the sources suggests that Barsine-Stateira was pregnant at that time but it would indicate that Alexander had two Persians Barsine in his life which certainly creates even more confusion unless it was the same person. And then there was this over Barsine, given to Eumenes during the same mass weddings…

If indeed Herakles was Alexander’s only living son at the time, why wasn’t the boy, even if he was a bastard and half-”barbarian”, not considered during the succession crisis at Babylon, and why would Perdikkas and his fellow Macedonian generals chose instead to wait for Roxana (herself a barbarian for the Macedonians), to give birth, not knowing if the baby would be a boy or a girl or would even survive?

Herakles and his mother probably lived in Pergamon under Antigonos’ custody until 309 BC, when suddenly Herakles reappears in the sources: the contested regent Polyperchon “summoned” the young man and his mother to Greece to use as his pawn in the deadly Macedonian political game, but he was persuaded by Kassandros for 100 talents and a share of power to give up the attempt. According to Plutarch, Herakles was strangled after a banquet as was Barsine. Their bodies, according to Justin, were buried privately to conceal the plot. Or maybe this Herakles had merely been a false pretender set up by Polyperchon, and the real one eliminated long before?

To the strongest!

Michal & PHALANX Team

Add-ons
over 4 years ago – Mon, Sep 02, 2019 at 11:53:44 PM

Hello Everyone,

We hope that you had a safe and relaxing weekend and now are ready to start September with your batteries recharged! In the meantime, some of you were active at the campaign page and have smashed 210k stretch goal. You have added a fourth new TYCHE card to the game, this particular one showing the role of diplomatic marriages in the Diadochi era. Thank you for that!

And now we can start our way towards the stretch goal that our playtesters are deliberately asking for - the Province Cards. This is a really neat game upgrade, helping players to control their powers connected with controlled provinces.

To help you unlock this goal, we have prepared a bunch of add-ons you can order during this campaign. To include add-ons in your pledge, please click on the Manage Your Pledge button. To include any items you would like to receive, simply increase your total pledge for the amount of the add-ons. You will be able to let us know in the Pledge Manager (after the campaign ends) which items you have added to your order.

All the money you spend on add-ons during the campaign will increase the funding total - and this will unlock more stretch goals for the SUCCESSORS game. This way you are improving the final product you will receive!

To add Giant Playing Mat to your pledge, just increase your pledged amount by £40, clicking on the Manage your pledge button. This add-on is language independent. The estimated shipping cost is an extra £10-£15 per mat, and this will be paid in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

This add-on was created for non-English, non-Spanish and non-French backers who want to add HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR Golden Geek Edition to their SUCCESSORS Pledge. To add the Mark Simonitch’s HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR Golden Geek edition to your pledge, just increase your pledged amount by £65, clicking on the Manage your pledge button. This add-on is English edition only and contains Price of Failure and Sun of Macedon expansions. The estimated shipping cost is an extra £5 per box, and this will be paid in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

Please note that you will be able to order French and Spanish editions of Mark Simonitch’s 20th Anniversary Edition of HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

This add-on was created for non-English backers who want to add HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR Upgrade Pack to their SUCCESSORS Pledge. To add the HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR Upgrade Pack to your pledge, just increase your pledged amount by £15, clicking on the Manage your pledge button. This add-on is English edition only. The estimated shipping cost is an extra £5 per box, and this will be paid in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

This add-on was created for all backers who would like to pre-order the Sun of Macedon and Price of Failure expansions for HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR. This add-on is English language only. This add-on do not affect the shipping cost.

This add-on was created for all backers who would like to order our early bird bonus - a Kickstarter Exclusive Helepolis miniature for both SUCCESSORS and HANNIBAL & HAMILCAR. This add-on is language independent and do not affect the shipping cost.

We are also offering you other games that we have already published. If they aren’t available at your local store, you can order them here, and you will receive them along SUCCESSORS delivery.

The estimated shipping cost of U-BOOT, Nanty Narking, Freedom!, Europe Divided and The Magnates is an extra £5-£10 per item; Germania Magna and HUNGER is + £5 per game.

You need to purchase at least one copy of SUCCESSORS to be able to include any add-ons in your pledge.

And now we can return to Eric G. L. PINZELLI’s historical capsules about dramatic fate of Alexander’s the Great family.

LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT: PHILIP III ARRHIDAIOS

Arrhidaios was the son of the polygamous king Philip II of Macedon and Philina of Larissa in Thessaly, his fourth wife according to Athenaios of Naukratis, with the dynastic union taking place in 358 or 357 BC. Since Alexander III, son of Olympias, was born in 356 BC, and Arrhidaios’ birth date is unknown, we ignore who of the two brothers had the primogeniture. Originally named Arrhidaeios, he assumed the dynastic name of Philip III after Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC.

Plutarch claimed that Olympias had Arrhidaeios poisoned with “pharmakos”, leaving him disabled for the rest of his life, as a means to secure her own status of chief wife, since she would have produced Philip II’s only healthy heir.

During Alexander’s campaigns, Arrhidaeios was always by his side to avoid his brother being used in any political intrigue. Arrhidaeios didn’t assume any command or responsibility until Alexander’s death. At the Partition of Babylon, it was decided that he would be raised to the kingship but not rule, as he was mentally impaired. From that moment, he became a valuable pawn as the rest of Alexander’s relatives (June 323 BC). When Roxana’s son was born three months later, Philip III had to share the kingship with Alexander IV, under Perdikkas’ watchful authority.

Kynane, Alexander’s warrior half sister (daughter of Philip II and Illyrian princess Audata), then traveled to Persia on her own behalf to have her teenage daughter Eurydike marry Arrhidaeios, her uncle. Perdikkas had sent his brother Alketas to eliminate her, which he did, sparking outrage among the Macedonian troops who protected Eurydike. Perdikkas was forced to allow the marriage to happen. Young Eurydike became queen of Macedon, with a considerable influence over her husband as she tried to take matters into her own hands. She did her best to emancipate the royal couple from the regents Perdikkas and later Antipatros, and finally sided with Kassandros who had rebelled against Polyperchon (319 BC).

In 317 BC, Eurydike and Philip III’s army clashed with the troops assembled by Olympias (who was supporting the claims of her young grandson Alexander IV) and her cousin, the king of Epirus, while Kassandros was still in the Peloponnese. When the two armies faced each other, the Macedonians veterans simply deserted Philip III and switched their allegiance to Olympias. Alexander’s mother had won by simply showing herself.

Olympias had her stepson and his wife walled up in a cell at Amphipolis, first to starve them to death, but as this was taking too much time, and some Macedonian officers were complaining about the cruel treatment inflicted upon the king, Olympias sent Thracians assassins to stab Philip to death. Eurydike, who was not older than 19 at the time, was then forced to commit suicide (December 317 BC). Philip III had been a puppet king for six years and four months. The couple’s cremated remains were recovered by Kassandros who gave them a proper funeral at Aigai (Vergina tomb II, although this is still disputed).

To the strongest!

Michal & PHALANX Team

PS. Our long-lasting friends from Meeples' Corner are running a campaign to enlarge their shop. Please check this out, if you are UK-located backer: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/meeplescorner/meeples-corner-bigger-and-better/ Thank you!

TV series, someday?
over 4 years ago – Fri, Aug 30, 2019 at 10:31:12 PM

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for reaching the first social stretch goal! With 251 interactions to yesterday’s social media posts, you have just added a second version of cavalry counters graphic to the game. You have also unlocked two additional stretch goals, adding a new variant TYCHE card and a plastic miniature tray, to hold game miniatures and bases for miniatures and standees. Thank your fellow backers for that!

Crossing the 200k border opens a new set of stretch goals, connected with the provinces. The first set of 11 Province cards contains provinces with additional effects through control of them, such as fleets, legacy or other bonuses. The second set of 21 Province cards contains provinces without "special effects", that only count for victory points. Those first 11 cards work very well separately, but together with the second batch they make a full set of Province cards. And between them you will find two new TYCHE variant cards, for extra variety of TYCHE cards that you will draw and play during the game.

In today’s historical capsule Eric G. L. PINZELLI will prove that Diadochi era would be no worse base for the “Game of Thrones” plot than the Wars of the Roses! Hopefully we will watch such TV series someday…

SURVIVING IN A RUTHLESS PATRIARCHAL WORLD: KLEOPATRA OF MACEDON, ALEXANDER’S SISTER

King Philip II of Macedon had 7 seven wives but surprisingly few children. Under the circumstances, Olympias had her status raised considerably and became his chief wife when she bore two children to the king: Alexander III (b. 356 BC) and Kleopatra (b. 354 BC). The only other child Philip II had was Philip III Arrhidaeus with Philinna of Larissa. Philip II had Kleopatra marry her own uncle, Alexander I of Epirus to strengthen the alliance between the two kingdoms. It was during the wedding at Aegae in 336 BC that Philip II was assassinated.

Kleopatra and Alexander I of Epirus had 2 children (Neoptolemos II and Kadmeia born in 335 BC) before the king was killed in battle in the Southern Italian Peninsula, fighting against the Samnites and Lucanians (332 BC). Now a widow, Kleopatra returned to live in Pella. After Alexander the Great’s death, Kleopatra invited Leonnatos to cross over to Macedon and marry her, but the general fell in his first encounter against the Hellenic League during the Lamian War (322 BC).

After Leonnatos’ demise, other Macedonian generals attempted to win her hand: Perdikkas, who was assassinated in Egypt soon after, followed by Kassandros, Lysimachos and even Antigonos, but she dismissed all proposals. She moved to Sardis in Lydia, where she remained in Antigonos’ custody during the next ten years.

In 308 BC, she tried to escape to join Ptolemaîos whose fleet was in the Aegean in a last bid to regain freedom and power, but was caught and assassinated, as she was too important to remain alive. Kleopatra, 46 at the time, was one of Alexander the Great’s last relatives. According to Didodorus Siculus (Book XX) she had been “the prize in a contest among the most eminent leaders”. She was survived by her son Neoptolemos, who briefly ascended the throne of Epirus, before being murdered by his cousin Pyrrhos I during dinner, probably along with his sister Kadmeia (297 BC). Two years later, Kleopatra’s half sister Thessalonike was assassinated by her own son Antipatros II of Macedon. The Argead royal family was now extinct.

Thank you for the first week of SUCCESSORS campaign. We won’t post updates during the weekend, but we will return on Monday with some add-ons that you have been asking for!

To the strongest!

Michal & PHALANX Team

Backbone of the Phalanx
over 4 years ago – Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 02:12:28 PM

Hello Everyone,

Closing the third day of the campaign, we have gathered here a wonderful community of more than 2.600 people. It is a fantastic number for a game based on historical events - and we are sure that with your help we can increase this number even more! That is why today we have prepared for you the first social stretch goal, connected to the Cavalry variant that you have unlocked with 90k stretch goal.

If the following social media posts collect together 250 interactions (shares, likes, retweets, etc.), we will upgrade half of the cavalry counters with new graphics, for extra variety!

Facebook post is here: http://bit.ly/SuccessorsFacebook

Twitter post is here: http://bit.ly/SuccessorsTwitter

Instagram post is here: http://bit.ly/SuccessorsInstagram

So please share the posts above with your social media accounts and let’s make this game even better together!

End of early bird bonus

Today at 14:00 GMT we will close the list of backers who will receive for free the Helepolis Siege Engine miniature. You will find this list in the campaign FAQ. It will be available as an add-on later, for 8 GBP. Thank you for your support in the first days of this campaign - you are the backbone of our phalanx!

In the meantime you have smashed two additional stretch goals. Thank you for that! But please check the Stretch Goals section of the campaign page, we have shown more great stuff that is waiting to be put inside your game boxes.

And now let’s get back to our historical capsules, provided by irreplaceable Eric G. L. PINZELLI.

ALEXANDER IV OF MACEDON, THE EMPIRE’S LAST HEIR

Alexander IV was the son of Alexander the Great and Roxana (“Little Star”), a beautiful young princess from Bactria who was 16 when they were married in 327 BC. The queen, probably the woman he loved the most, was pregnant when Alexander died at Babylon four years later. During the succession crisis that followed, Perdikkas proposed to wait, and if the child was a male, he would assume the kingship together with Alexander’s mentally unfit brother Philip III Arrhidaeus(son of Philip II and Philinna of Larissa, Philip had seven wives). Perdikkas would rule over the Empire, acting as regent for both co-sovereigns.

Roxana gave birth to Alexander IV at Babylon in August 323. From then on, the mother and her child, along with Philip III, were used as pawns by Perdikkas, and later by Antipatros, to legitimize their own authority. The kings were forced to move to Macedon in 320 BC by old Antipatros who died soon after. He had appointed Polyperchon as new regent and guardian of the kings, a decision rejected by his son Kassandros that sparked the Second War of the Diadochi. Defeated, Polyperchon had to escape to Epirus with Roxana and the boy-king, where they were joined by Olympias.

Philip III and his wife Eurydike II, who had sided with Kassandros, met Alexander IV’s army in October 317. The Macedonians soldiers abandoned Philip III on the battlefield and joined Olympias who had Eurydike and Philip summarily executed (they were later buried at Aegae-Vergina, tomb II? by Kassandros). Although only 6 years old at the time, Alexander IV was betrothed to Deidameia, daughter of king Aecides of Epirus, Olympias’ cousin. A few months later however, Kassandros managed to take Pydna, and by doing so he captured all the remaining members of the Argead dynasty: Olympias, Roxana, the child-king, and Thessalonike, daughter of Philip II and Nikesipolis from Thessaly. Kassandros had Alexander the Great’s mother killed, and married his captive sister Thessalonike, thus strengthening his own legitimacy, paving his way to secure the throne.

The young Alexander IV and Roxana spent the rest of their days in custody in the citadel of Amphipolis, never to be set free. In 311, Antigonos and his rivals concluded a peace treaty: They would retain power in their domains until Alexander would become sole ruler of the entire empire when he came of age, in 305. This was a death sentence: neither Kassandros nor his adversaries could allow the boy to live until that date! In 310 BC, Both Roxana and her 13 years old son were murdered, although their deaths were kept secret for some time, and Kassandros publicly denied any involvement. Alexander IV’s tomb was discovered in Aegae (tomb III) in November 1977. The young king’s bones kept in a silver urn had been transferred and re-buried probably years after a prompt cremation following his brutal death.

To the strongest!

Michal & PHALANX Team

Two new Editions and the Early Bird extended for another 24hrs!
over 4 years ago – Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 11:48:27 PM

Dzień dobry and Guten Tag Everyone!

Your tremendous support has torn down the wall that divided us from German and Polish editions of SUCCESSORS. You will be able to choose both German and Polish Editions of the 65 GBP SUCCESSORS Pledge in the Pledge Manager. These editions will be published by PHALANX. You now may want to thank yourselves for that.

What is more, you have unlocked three new stretch goals, adding first variant TYCHE cards to the game, plus a miniature of Olympias - the most ambitious and independent woman of her era.

To celebrate such an important event we will prolong the 48h free bonus for extra 24 hours. It means that every backer that supports us till 14.00 GMT of August 29 will receive for free the Kickstarter Exclusive miniature Helepolis Siege Engine expansion. This will help those interested in the DE and PL editions to receive this bonus item for free.

And now it is time for another historical capsule. This one is especially important for Eric G. L. PINZELLI, as he is an expert in this topic, and was invited to join the Japanese team of the Tokyo Museum searching for Alexander’s Tomb in the Oasis of Siwa in 1997 and is currently Andrew Chugg’s advisor in his searches in Venice.

THE SEARCH FOR ALEXANDER’S TOMB

It’s every archaeologist's wildest dream. Whoever would discover Alexander’s the Great tomb and the remains of the most legendary conqueror that ever lived would have his or her own name associated with the mighty king forever. Alexander’s achievements loom over the history of the Ancient World, but where is he? Is he lost, or do we have some clues of his possible whereabouts? According to Robert S. Bianchi, by 1993, there had already been more than 140 searches for Alexander's tomb recognized by Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities.

Let us go back to where it all started. Ptolemaîos I, who portrayed himself as Alexander's closest friend in his historical work, seized his body in 321 BC while Alexander's funeral cortege was on its way to Macedon from Babylon, and brought it to the ancient Egyptian capital at Memphis. This claim was particularly useful in Egypt, where Alexander had been greeted as liberator from Achaemenid Persian rule and had been enthroned as Pharaoh and son of Ammon-Ra, receiving divine honors. During his stay in Egypt, Alexander had also laid the foundations for the city of Alexandria, which became the main Greek colony and capital of this new Hellenistic nation.

Alexander was elevated from a simple patron god of Alexandria to the status of a state god for the Greek populations in the entire Ptolemaic empire, even beyond the confines of Egypt. Under Ptolemaîos II Philadelphos (r. 282–246 BC), Alexander's body was brought to the Soma, and, in contrast to the usual Greek custom of cremation, was entombed in a sarcophagus, which was eventually replaced by a transparent glass coffin. Not only did the presence of Alexander's body in the Ptolemaic capital enhance the dynasty's prestige, but it also became one of the main attractions and pilgrimage sites in the ancient Mediterranean. Julius Caesar, Kleopatra VII, Mark Antony, Octavian, Germanicus, Caligula, Hadrian, Severus, Caracalla in 215 AD… and many more “celebrities” made pilgrimages to Alexander the Great's tomb in Alexandria.

The Ptolemies assigned the deified Alexander a prominent place in the Greek pantheon, associating him with the Olympian gods like Zeus and Apollo. While Ptolemaîos I founded the cult of Alexander, his son and successor Ptolemaîos II completed its connection to the ruler cult around the reigning dynasty itself. Alexander had had four tombs in two Egyptian cities. The literary tradition is clear that the Soma, the fourth and last tomb was located at the crossroads of the major north-south and east-west arteries of Alexandria. The tomb chamber was carved into the rock beneath the Soma mausoleum.

In 356 AD, a tsunami inundated the city. The disaster marked the start of a long era of earthquakes and rising sea levels. Over time, the city’s foundations were buried and forgotten, along with the location of Alexander’s tomb. Though ancient authors such as Strabo, Leo Africanus, and others described the tomb, its location relative to the modern city remains a mystery.

In 2004, British Historian Andrew Chugg published the hypothesis that Alexander’s remains had been buried in St Mark’s basilica in Venice since two Venetian merchants snatched and brought back a modified corpse (assumed until recently to be the Evangelist’s) from Alexandria in 828 AD. And to confirm this bold theory, a large limestone block of sculpture found embedded in the foundations of the old St Mark's Basilica in Venice just a few meters from the Saint's tomb has been independently identified by Eugenio Polito in 1998 as a funerary relief from a princely or royal Macedonian tomb (with a Sun of Vergina, emblem of the Argead Dynasty) of the 3rd century BC... Are we getting closer to find the Holy Grail of World Archaeology?

To the strongest!

Michal & PHALANX Team