Kickstarter Campaign: Zong Shi from Eagle/Gryphon Games

Eagle/Gryphon Games has been around for a while now, and has consistently released board games that I have found fun, engaging, and wanting to go back to time and again. This past year, E/G has started using Kickstarter to test the waters on some of their titles that don't always traditionally fit with their previous offerings. To date, they have had successful Kickstarter campaigns for the games The Road to Canterbury and Mirror Mirror, and have just launched their newest campaign this morning for Kevin Nunn's Zong Shi, a worker placement game set in old China.

 

You can find the Kickstarter page for this game here.

Follow the jump for the press release and more

The press release from Eagle-Gryphon Games:

October 11^th, 2011:  On October 11^th Gryphon games launched Zong Shi on Kickstarter.com, the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. Zong Shi features the art of Cyril van der Haegen (Magic the Gathering, Arkham Horror, Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game) and is the newest game by designer Kevin Nunn who is the behind such recent Kickstarter hits as Rolling Freight and 1955: The War of Espionage. 

Zong Shi combines a number of strategic elements such as worker placement, resource management, and project completion into a cohesive, exciting, and most importantly, fun game.  In Zong Shi you try to score the most victory points by using your Master and Apprentice to acquire goods in the marketplace to complete artistic works.  Visits to town elders allow you to acquire Scrolls of Fortune that grant special rewards and abilities.  The game ends the round after any player completes a sixth project and the player with most victory points wins.

Personally, I'm excited for this game for several reasons. Firstly, like I said, E/G has consistently put out games that I have enjoyed. While at first glance, they may not be as flashy or sexy as something from Fantasy Flight, they are quick to learn and have a great amount of re playability. Roll Through the Ages gets a ton of love in our house because of this. I'm also a huge sucker for worker placement games, and this one hits it off huge with having to collect different resources in order to complete tasks and score points in order to win. The theme itself is an interesting one that you don't really see in board game form too often.

Kevin Nunn is also the game designer for this game. While he isn't as widely known yet, he has designed games that have been on Kickstarter in the past that have been successful. While that is exciting in itself, its the other games he has to his credit that make this one an interesting departure from them. See, he has designed a game called Duck Duck Go, which involves the use of rubber duckies that are dressed in various uniforms and costumes. The versatility in design between these two titles intrigues me, since one is made for a group of 6 year olds, the other is clearly not.

Also - the art. Not certain if you are familiar with the games that the artist has been involved in, but it is bad ass. E/G has also been consistent in lining up some great talent when it comes to its artwork. Defenders of the Realm had Larry Elmore (Dragonlance saga),and the soon to be released Dragon Rampage  artwork was also done by THE SAME GUY AS THIS GAME!!! I mean, lets take a look at some of it, shall we?

So yeah, if anything, definitely worth your time to check it out if only based on the company, the art, and the game design. Which...is probably why you'd be interested too.