GARPA AT SEEEEEEAAAAA!  OK, not just afloat, but there’s a pair of naval-heavy games for you this week to go with some gargantuan aircraft and more RPG hi-jinks.

Captain’s Sea (GMT Games)
P500 – Made the cut!  P500 price $45, MSRP $65

A ship-to-ship combat game with a mixture of a square grid (!) and octagonal counters (!!) that covers the actions of the fledgling US Navy in the early 1800s.  Battles include US ships against both British and French opponents, and focus on commanding a single ship through skillful maneuvering and solid crew allocations to weapons and rigging.  Flying monkeys and subsurface atomic bombs round out your arsenals (just kidding!).  Sail over to GMT while it’s still ‘officially’ on p500, but know that you’re going to get it, since it made the cut and is going to head to production sometime soon.

Hands in the Sea (Knight Works Games)
$19k of $15k, ends 25 March 2015

A naval-flavored take on the First Punic War with a  deck-building mechanic that’s inspired by A Few Acres of Snow, Hands in the Sea is a Euro-looking game with definite Grog undertones.  There are some settling / expanding mechanics, but at its heart, Hands in the Sea is all about kicking the other guy’s tookus.  There are combined arms attacks, flanking movements, and even bribery of enemy units – what’s not to love!  The reviews of the playtest versions range from “good” to “hell, yeah” and the company has multiple games already out there, so it’s not a pure vanity press.  Attack their Kickstarter page here, and see the reviews below (especially the very thorough Judd Vance review).  You can also see the rules on the official website.

Wings of Glory Giants of the Sky expansion (Ares Games)
$55k of $20k, ends 2 April 2015

Those of you who have seen our coverage of Ares Games at last year’s Origins shouldn’t be surprised that this campaign was funded in about 3 hours.  This new expansion has some steep prices attached to the pledge levels, but that’s because you’re getting models with wingspans from 8” to 12”, at scale.  No, those aren’t Spinal Tap measurements, either.  Stretch goals include new poster-sized play mats (unlocked) and a mobile app (not yet).  Fly over to their campaign page and check out the uber-gorgeous models and try to keep your wallet from jumping through your computer monitor.  We dare you.

Check out how big that bomber is compared to the little Fokker below. (Yes, our caption writer is a mental 12-year-old)

Deck Dice (d20 Entertainment)
$3000 of $3500, ends 7 April 2015

There’s nothing fancy here – these are playing cards with a bunch of polyhedral dice along the edges from the same guys that brought you the RPG pencil dice.  But for folks that might have space or noise considerations with their gaming, or already using a deck of cards in their games (looking at you, Savage Worlds!) these might be a great fit.  The full deck includes your usual 52 cards, plus 2 jokers, 2 rooks, and 4 wizards, so you can make up new rules on the fly as needed.   The sell in double-deck packs of red and blue, so a baseline pledge of $20 sounds like a lot until you realize that you’re getting 120 cards in the pack.  Shuffle off to their Kickstarter page and see what you think.

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And let us know if we’ve ever talked you into ordering something through GARPA! 🙂