9/1/24 The Final Update
4 months ago
– Sun, Sep 01, 2024 at 07:12:27 AM
Hi, hello, welcome to the final monthly update for Railways of the Lost Atlas!
Thanks!
Big thanks to you all, the 1562 Backers in 1136 Cities in 52 Countries who made this project possible!
Thanks to everyone who helped with playtesting and providing feedback during the design process.
Thanks to Studio Delger for the fun partnership, looking forward to even more!
Special thank you to everyone posting about Railways of the Lost Atlas on BGG and social media, be sure you check out the BGG forums to see discussions, rules questions, and fan variants. We want to be sure to mention Kim Kopowski’s Map Generator which can really show off some wild random maps. Check out Justin Bell of Meeple Mountain's Review. Also keep an eye out for an interview with us on the new episode of Wheel Tapping coming on September 9th.
Final Fulfillment Notes
Hopefully everyone has their game now (other than those few who never completed their backerkit survey), if not please e-mail us at [email protected] and we will do our best to work it out. There were a few hiccups with fulfillment but we were able to resolve them pretty quickly once we knew about them.
If you have your game but noticed parts missing or damaged you can use that same e-mail address or the Replacements Form on our website to let us know and we’ll get those issues resolved for you.
Looking Ahead
In addition to managing this campaign we’ve been tinkering with a couple new ideas we hope to be bringing to a larger audience soon. First is a follow-up expansion for Railways of the Lost Atlas that we’ve actually been working on since before the Kickstarter campaign. It’s planned to be three separate modules that mix and match into the base game as desired. New Minors and Majors, Landmarks, and The Metropolitan Public Railway (working name). Here’s a sneak peek at one of the landmarks and one of the new Minor Companies:
The Parks landmark adds a +10 bonus to any adjacent city that has a track leg pointing into the park tile (indicated with a treeple on the city tile, 1 treeple per city max). The bonus is for any train that runs to or through that city even if the route doesn’t end at the park tile (think of it like a bump for just having a park entrance nearby).
Twin Cities Company is kind of like a mix between Adaptive and Expansive. It’s the simplest new Company in the expansion but we’ve really enjoyed the flexibility it provides throughout the game. The day/night skyline logo is so fun and opened up the possibility of a special president’s certificate, thanks to Tim for thinking a little outside the box on that one.
Second is a new game idea that takes some basic concepts from deckbuilding games and translates them into a game about running around your own expanding map collecting stuff to build more stuff. We are in the very early stages of testing with a handmade prototype but we’re having a lot of fun with it:
We are not particularly active on social media, but that might change!
Follow us on X, (Twitter?):
AsteriskJacob
AsteriskKevin
And Instagram!
If you want to keep up with just the major announcements you can sign up for our e-mail list that we are only really planning to use for the big stuff (new campaigns, major developments, etc.).
We really hope you have fun with Railways of the Lost Atlas, we made it as the perfect game for us and it’s so fun to see others enjoying it too.
Thank you!
Asterisk Games
8/1/24 Fulfillment update, replacement parts reminder, Cube4Me insert update, Media
5 months ago
– Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 08:20:07 AM
Fulfillment Update
Backers in the UK/EU/rest of Europe have been receiving their copies and everyone should have theirs shortly. Please allow a little more time for delivery, but you may contact us if you have any questions or are concerned about the delivery.
We are aware and investigating Singaporean backers not receiving their games. This should be resolved soon.
All other fulfillment is complete. If you have not received your backed copy please contact us and we will look into it.
Replacement Parts
Reminder to anyone who has received their game and notices any parts that are missing or damaged. Please reach out to us at [email protected] or go to the missing/damaged parts form on our website here: Asterisk-Games.com/replacements.
Cube4Me Trays
Cube4Me has posted an update about their available tile trays including tips on how to store the game. We really appreciate the support from Marcin and the team at Cube4Me. You can check out the trays here.
3D printed storage solution
We do also want to again shout out our backer Robert for designing this 3D printed storage solution and encourage folks to check them out.
Files here:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1724631269/railways-of-the-lost-atlas-board-game-3d
Or a physical print here:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1711009194/railways-of-the-lost-atlas-board-game-3d
Railways of the Lost Atlas in the Media!
We have begun to see some fantastic content made about our game and are linking to some of it below. As first time designers/publishers it really is hard to describe how cool it is to see it mentioned in the wild. Really encourage you to check all of these out.
BGG Podcast Episode #47
Game Brain Podcast #218
JonGetsGames - Games of the Month July ‘24
Jon also posted a fantastic full two player playthrough.
The two of us, Kevin and Jacob, will make an appearance later this month on the Wheel Tapping Podcast with Chris Whitpan and Tony Fryer. We had a great conversation about our design process and the decisions we made while getting this game to print. Railways also makes an appearance in their recent Top 10 18xx games episode, a true honor.
Future Updates
As it seems fulfillment is wrapping up and this campaign is coming to an end, we are currently planning at least one more update September 1st where we may tease the future of Asterisk Games and Railways of the Lost Atlas.
Thanks for everything,
Asterisk Games
Quick update on UK/EU fulfillment
6 months ago
– Tue, Jul 09, 2024 at 04:03:32 PM
Hello!
We've just gotten word that fulfillment for the UK and EU regions started today. Hopefully this means all games will be delivered within the month of July.
As always, if you receive your game and it is missing parts or has damaged parts, please reach out to [email protected] or fill out the form on our website at Asterisk-Games.com/replacements
Thanks so much!
Asterisk
7/1/24 More fulfillment, more replacement parts, and another insert option
6 months ago
– Mon, Jul 01, 2024 at 06:15:07 AM
Hello!
Fulfillment
Let’s start with UK/EU - Our VAT registration came through in the early part of June and we sent the needed information to QML in order to start prep for the second ocean freight to the UK. That shipment is on its way and is expected to take a few weeks. Our delivery estimate for UK and EU backers is August. Honestly, with how frustrating the international tax process is, we’re happy with this outcome. Obviously we would have liked to have all games in backer’s hands within the month of July but we did try our best with the requirements we had to meet.
US fulfillment is fully underway. Give the shipments another week or so before inquiring about games that haven’t arrived yet just to make sure we’re not chasing packages that are still on the way.
Asia and Australia/NZ fulfillment is complete - If you were a backer in these regions and you have not received your rewards yet please reach out to us at [email protected] so we can look into the status of your order.
Replacement Parts
Reminder to anyone who has received their game and notices any parts that are missing or damaged. Please reach out to us at [email protected] or go to the missing/damaged parts form on our website here: Asterisk-Games.com/replacements
Cube4Me tile trays are in progress
Marcin and the team at Cube4Me have been working on a set of tile trays and identification stickers that will fit our track tiles and they are nearing production and ready to take preorders. The preorder currently has a 25% discount which runs for two weeks. Then it will be 20% off for the remainder of July. August onward will be full price. Here are the links:
New tray:
https://cube4me.com/product/15-compartments-9mm-depth-big-comp-low-tray/
Railways of the Lost Atlas:
https://cube4me.com/product/railways-of-the-lost-atlas/
Thanks for reading!
-Asterisk
6/1/24 Fulfillment, replacement parts, and an insert option
7 months ago
– Sat, Jun 01, 2024 at 07:16:23 AM
Fulfillment
Things are progressing well on all fronts.
Backers in the Asia region should start seeing games get delivered soon if they have not shown up already. The hub shipments should have arrived at their destinations in the past week so we expect most packages to be on their way to backers.
The US/CA/UK/EU freight should be hitting port on June 4th. QML estimates 1-2 weeks to reach their warehouse and fulfillment to start soon after.
We have gotten a couple updates on our UK VAT registration from HMRC indicating that the process is moving along and we may have a VAT number soon. As soon as we get that it will be communicated to QML so we can schedule the shipment to our UK fulfillment partner.
The shipment for AU/NZ landed in Sydney and stock has arrived at the fulfillment hub. Packaging is underway as we speak.
Replacement Parts
As people start receiving their games some manufacturing errors are to be expected, though we hope they are rare. In the event that your game is missing any components or any components are damaged, please send an e-mail to [email protected] with a brief description of what parts need to be replaced and the address to send them to. A picture is helpful for damaged components so we can keep a record of those issues. We have a small reserve of spare parts specifically to resolve these issues.
3D printable Insert Option
One of our backers, Robert, generously offered to develop a 3D printable insert for Railways of the Lost Atlas. I printed one for my copy and it works perfectly. You can see pictures of it in use in the links below.
If you are interested in this insert option you can buy the files to print it yourself here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1724631269/railways-of-the-lost-atlas-board-game-3d
Or a physical print here:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1711009194/railways-of-the-lost-atlas-board-game-3d
We do have another tray/insert option in the works, I expect to have more information to share on that one in our next update.
If you don’t have or want an insert, this is our recommended storage method. It uses all bags that come with the game (we don’t recommend sleeving money cards, but this will fit sleeved certificates and trains easily):
Thanks!
Asterisk
