Happy 7th Anniversary of Fort Circle Games!

We are very proud to be publishing Volko Ruhnke's amazing design Hunt for Blackbeard. Hunt for Blackbeard pits two players against one another as hunter and hunted in a fast-moving game of detection, deception, and confrontation.  Hunt for Blackbeard comes with the quality components you’ve come to expect from Fort Circle Games, including a gorgeous two-layered map of colonial North Carolina, custom wooden pieces, durable and colorful tiles and markers, and plenty of historical materials to immerse yourself in the events of the past.  We are currently crowdfunding the game on Kickstarter - and we would love your support for this fantastic game.

The second printing of Votes for Women is on its way from the factory - and we want to thank everyone for your patience! We had a small production delay and then a big shipping delay due to the closure of our home port of Baltimore.  Our main shipment to the US are now on their way from Yantian to Tampa (of all places!).  If you placed a pre-order or were a Kickstarter backer and have moved recently, please be in touch with me to update your mailing address.  And if you are looking to pick up a copy, you can still pre-order at our website. Of the 4800 copies we ordered in the second printing, over 3600 are already allocated to pre-orders, Kickstarter backers and retail partners.  Looks like we may need a third printing soon!

The Halls of Montezuma will resume production in July. As the Kickstarter backers know, we are moving to a deeper box (2.5 inches instead of 2 inches) for all of our future print runs and that has been a godsend for The Halls of Montezuma.  We moved to a bigger map and revised some other components so the game will meet the high expectations that Gilberto and I - and all of you - have for the game. For those of you unfamiliar with the design, it is a two-player look at the Mexican-American War. As the "American" player, you are the Polk Administration - working with Congress to pass treaties and your legislative agenda while prosecuting the war against Mexico. As the "Mexican" player, you control all of the forces opposing the Polk Administration - not only the Mexican government and Mexican army, but also the Whig Party, the nascent American anti-war movement, fierce Apache and Comanche warriors, and even Mother Nature in the form of bad weather and devastating diseases.  There is also a solo mode available.

We are working on plenty of new games. First Monday in October will be our next game. Designed by Talia Rosen and developed by Jason Matthews, the game tracks the history of the US Supreme Court. We are deep in artwork at the moment and look to bring it to Kickstarter in September.  Following that will be Night Witches, designed by Elizabeth Davidson and David Thompson. One or two players play as Soviet female pilots flying harassment missions against the Luftwaffe during WW2. Ian O'Toole is working on the graphic design as we speak and I cannot wait to see what he comes up with!  

The rest of our pipeline is quite rich and diverse, including:

• Shakespeare's First Folio, that we have designed for the Shakespeare Folger Library, which will begin production in July.
• Peace 1905, winner of the ConSim Game Jam, on the negotiation of the peace treaty between Russia and Japan in 1905. The design team, headed up by Maurice Suckling, is working on adding a third player - Teddy Roosevelt - so the game can be played with one, two, or three players.
• Open Windows, designed by GUWS alum Robert Shala, a two-player game about deception and paranoia, where one player is Putin and the other player is "the West."  We are exploring this being our first "small box" game (9x9x1.5 inches).
• And so much more, including Jason Matthews' United States v. Aaron Burr, a reprint of The Shores of Tripoli, Guano Guano Guano, and games by Dan Bullock, Alex Knight, and Jan Day.

I want to thank everyone sincerely for being part of our little company's grand adventure at making historical games that are fun, educational and beautiful.  Without all of your support, we could not do what we do.

-- Kevin

P.S. Here is the link to the Hunt for Blackbeard kickstarter campaign one more time!