Thank you for your continued interest in the games of “Sound of Drums,” your kindness, and your support.
I hope this message finds you well during this unusual summer. For me, this summer was very unusual and exciting because I spent just under 5 weeks in the U.S. to attend the Consimworld Expo and the WBC. It was very exciting, and I met countless players from the U.S. at these two conventions whom I had previously only known via email. It was a great pleasure to meet so many of you in person and say “hello.” I was especially delighted by the many games of Neither King Nor God LTD Edition and Mare Nostrum that were played.
I was grateful to spend a week with Jim Lauffenburger, with whom I’ve worked extensively on Iron Cross. I was actually supposed to see Matt Brown (designer of Bull Run 1861) as well, but personal circumstances unfortunately prevented that, and I’d like to take this opportunity to send Matt my best wishes.
I had a reunion with Grant from TPA, and I was especially happy to meet David Fox and Ben Hull. They’re really great game designers and super nice guys and I enjoyed a lot to talk to them.
While we spent the summer tracking the progress of the shipments of containers containing Battles of Napoleon Vol. 2: Quatre Bras / Wartenburg 1813, Brandywine 1777 from our friends at Les3Zouaves, and Model’s Counterattack 2nd ed. from DiSSimula to the various “hubs,” we weren’t idle and used the time to present our new projects at conventions, among other things:
– Battles of The American Civil War, Vol. 1 Bull Run 1861
– Iron Cross, Vol. 1 Army Group North 1941
– Neither King Nor God (Epic Edition)
– Assault – Red Horizon 1941 (currently on Gamefound)
– No Retreat: Russian Front 1941–45
(I am very proud of the recessed Army Boards 🙂
– Battles of Napoleon, Vol. 3: Aspern-Essling 1809
That’s why we have several so-called “landing pages” for future projects—we want to use the GF platform as efficiently as possible to keep you up to date, in case you don’t use the other platforms we typically operate on.
There is only a very rough timeline for these projects, with no specific timeframes, since the games are at different stages of design and development.
The games The Great Escape and Operation Valkyrie are much closer to be ready for preorder / crowdfunding.
The order of the upcoming releases is very likely to be The Great Escape, Battles of Napoleon, Vol. 3: Aspern-Essling 1809 and Operation Valkyrie.
Carl Paradis is currently working on Vol. 2 of Battle Commander (and I hope he has finished his part of the work before the ski season starts :-).
A side note :
Logistics has become a truly complicated challenge. We ship from the printer to 7 different hubs worldwide. I’m asked for updates every now and then, and it might seem like I don’t feel like providing them. The truth is more complex: I’m often waiting for reliable information myself. An ETA is always very tentative at this point, and I’ve stopped asking our brokers for updates every single day, because that doesn’t make the ship go any faster and it doesn’t prioritize customs clearance at the port. The brokers want to settle the paperwork quickly, and we want to get the goods as soon as possible so we can start fulfillment. I hope we’re not upsetting anyone—believe me, I’m not happy about the current transit times either.
On behalf of the Sound of Drums team, I thank you for your support and patience, and wish you and your beloved all the best, a great summer, peace, health and harmony!
Uwe and the Sound of Drums Team
🥁🎲⚔️