In part 23 Oberto killed the King of Sicily in the War for Apulia and Cantanzaro, took Lecce from the Apulians, and plotted to kill the Duke of Apulia’s wife in order to seat his daughter in the Duchy. In this part, an old enemy returns, an old friend fails and new friends save the day.
From out of nowhere Matilda of Genoa strikes at the di Parmas. The feud with her had been 30 years dead when Oberto declared independence from her and left her armies dead on the fields of Modena.
Oberto’s northern armies gather under the banner of Salerno, the white flag with a red slash. They are directed to Genoa where they can merge and gather their commanders.
Distant Worlds Universe and Other Imminent Matrix/Slitherine Releases meet Grogheads
An overview by Boggit
Following on from Home of Wargamers 2014, there has been a flurry of activity from Matrix/Slitherine regarding their new releases. Distant Worlds has only just released on 27th May, and is to be closely followed by Pandora First Contact: Return of the Messeri Expansion, Close Combat: Road to Caen, and Qvadriga on Steam.
Distant Worlds Universe
You can start straight away with a pre-set human campaign, or mix things up with a custom game
For those players who haven’t got Distant Worlds, it is a massively scoped game that conventionally focuses on making broad policy decisions to guide your race to success. Essentially, you represent “the state”, but much of the game is heavily reliant on your private citizens. These private citizens trade, colonise, and exploit much of the universe’s resource potential. Distant Worlds Universe can be an incredibly deep 4X game (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) – if you want it to be. You can micromanage as much, or as little as you wish, although micromanaging carries the risk of your head exploding given the multitude of activities you can engage in! Continue reading →
Boggit interviews J D McNeil at the Home of Wargamers 2014 Conference
J D McNeil, CEO of Matrix/Slitherine delivers his “State of the Company” address at HOW 2014
J D thank you for agreeing to do an interview with me.
It’s a very big step for new developers entering the gaming industry and quite fraught with difficulty. Why should new developers see Matrix/Slitherine as anything more than just another publisher?
There are a number of reasons why a developer would find a deal with us attractive.
The first and primary reason is that we can showcase their game and put it in front of a very dedicated audience. When gamers come to our websites they know exactly where they’re going and what they are coming here for. We track and check statistical analysis of all of this and the industry norms for sell-throughs and visits. It’s an analysis that many companies have and they don’t generally share it. But what I can tell you is that we outstrip any known factors for any other site that we have got information on. The sell-through from visits is enormous, people come, they know why they come, and they buy. So that’s the first reason.
The second reason is that we work with the developers/partners from the very start of their development. No matter how good a developer is, when coming to a new business sector or any business sector, they can make mistakes, they can make errors. That’s not saying that they do make mistakes or errors. But we will advise, cajole, help, push and prompt. We try and get them to a placewhere we know from our business experience that their product will sell. Now that’s invaluable time being saved, it can knock months off to be honest. It’s also the case that when a developer comes to us too late in the cycle, we are often faced with the situation that the errors, or the points, or the things that we think would improve his sales are beyond redemption, and to strip out and rebuild it could take an enormous amount of time. Continue reading →
