Late Pledge Store - The Old King's Crown: A Tale of Royalty, Rebels and Ruses

August 13th Development Update
about 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 13, 2025 at 05:13:05 AM

Hello everyone,

We’re back with another quick bi-monthly progress update!
It’s swelteringly hot here in Edinburgh (for Scotland at least), the city is heaving with the Fringe Festival in full swing, and we have the windows thrown wide in the studio. So, before we melt, let's jump right in.

With the games on their way to you, the fulfilment schedule remains very much the same as was outlined in our last progress update. For those that missed it, here’s a recap of  the expected fulfilment date for each region.

• China and the surrounding regions will be fulfilled by VFI in mid to late August. These copies should be arriving at the local hub within the next week where fulfilment will then kick off. 
• The rest of Asia will also be fulfilled by VFI in late August to late September.
• Australia & New Zealand will be fulfilled by Heroes & Knights in mid September.
• The United States will be fulfilled by Flying Cloud in mid September.
• Europe will be fulfilled by Meeples.nl in mid to late September.
• UK will be fulfilled by Zatu in mid to late September.
• Canada will be fulfilled by Board Game Bliss in mid to late September.
• Rest of World copies will be fulfilled in late September by Zatu with some potentially extending slightly beyond this depending on the country of delivery. 

As mentioned in the previous update, these are still estimated dates provided to us by our fulfilment partner but we’re committed to ensuring you all stay updated on the schedule as each region begins fulfilment. So, in two-weeks time we’ll be back with more details and as the shipments begin arriving in individual countries, we’ll notify folks when they can expect to start receiving tracking numbers.

We’re closing in on the final chance to update your shipping addresses. If you plan to move home within the next month, please update your shipping address to your new address now, as any incorrect or old addresses on record may lead to delays in receiving your copy of the game. 

If you need to update any shipping information, or you would like to check that your shipping address on record is up to date and accurate, you can do so by following this link below, and inputting your email address. You will then be sent a link to your pledge manager account where you can check and update any required shipping information.

https://theoldkingscrown.backerkit.com/

Charlie Theel (contributor to Polygon, IGN, Ars Technica etc) recently released his review of The Old King’s Crown. It's a fantastic piece and we’re honoured to have had him dig so deeply into the game. 

Thoughtful and nuanced, for us it captures the spirit of the game and reads like a celebration of our big strategy game’s strangeness and strategic highs.

Check it out over on Charlie’s website here!

And excitingly there’s much more coverage, videos & reviews, coming in the near future, as the game itself wings its way to backers. We’ll make sure to keep sharing it both here and on our social media it arrives. 

And if you’d like follow us there to see regular posts, stories and chat to the team! 

• INSTAGRAM
• FACEBOOK
• BLUESKY
  
  And of course over with our wonderful Discord community:
   
• DISCORD

In our last update, two weeks ago, we shared a glimpse into the future of The Old King’s Crown. For those who’d like to read post, for the first time or again, here it is!

We’d like to restate our thanks and gratitude to you, our generous backers. Your support made this game a reality and your patience as our team worked to complete the project has been incredible. 

With shipping in full swing and fulfilment starting very shortly in various territories, we wanted to also clarify several details regarding the announcement and hopefully reassure folks who had legitimate concerns that the campaigns might overlap or not allow folks to get the game to the table before it launches.

• This is only an announcement and preview of a second campaign. That campaign itself won’t launch until around late Q1 2026, giving folks around 5-6 months with the game in advance of it launching. This we feel is a healthy window to give all backers here the time to be able to experience the game and to dig into its world and systems. Then, if interested, the new campaign will be available for folks who might want to follow along over 2026.
• The development of this new expansion did not overlap with, or slow the development of the original campaign. We only began working on this new material once our original campaign’s files had begun to be submitted to our manufacturing partner and were no longer in our hands so to speak.
• Our first print run, between your copies on the water and lots of excitement around the release in retail after that, is completely accounted for. This second campaign includes the new major expansion Songs of Home for players who have got their base game copies, but crucially it is also an opportunity for new folks who might have missed the campaign the first time to have access to it and make sure that the game does not go out of print.
   

You can follow the GAMEFOUND PRE-LAUNCH PAGE here. 

As always if you have any questions, we’re always happy to talk, either here on the social media platforms (links above!). We hope your week is going well and that you have some nice plans coming up for the weekend! 

All the best! 
Andrew, Pablo, Ken & the Eerie Idols team. 

A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 31, 2025 at 08:33:34 AM

Hello everyone!

As promised in our last update that arrived yesterday, it is our great pleasure to share some extremely exciting news with you all.

Some eagle-eyed folks may have already seen the news coming from Gen Con, but for those who missed the announcement, moments ago, as part of Gamefound’s Feast event, we previewed a glimpse into the future of The Old King’s Crown and Eerie Idol Games as a company!

We’re delighted to announce that after fulfilment is complete, we will be running a new campaign for The Old King’s Crown that will include second printing of the game, along with a brand new expansive expansion, Songs of Home.

To see the full preview click the button below and if you want to give the preview page a follow there, we'd be delighted to have you on board! 

 

Click on the video above to see a short animated trailer for the Songs of Home!

Pablo here. Before we get to covering the reveal in detail, I wanted to take this opportunity to address you all directly, those who have been patiently waiting on the game to fulfill. I thought this would be a good chance to clarify a couple of very important details.

THE NEW CAMPAIGN WILL NOT BEGIN UNTIL ALL YOUR FULFILMENT IS COMPLETE

This is vital to myself and the team here. What has gone live today is a just preview. The campaign itself is still a while away.

We could not have made this game, this world, without your support. Now that your shipping is fully underway, we’re in the last stage of that campaign and we want to ensure that that process is complete and wrapped, and that everyone who backed has their copy safely on their shelves and tables.

We would not be in this position if it wasn’t for all our incredible backers, and as such we’re committed to ensuring you all get to experience the game first-hand before all others.

THE MAKING OF THIS NEW EXPANSION DID NOT IMPACT OR DELAY TIMELINE OF YOUR CAMPAIGN

Myself and the team finished The Old King’s Crown active development on the game well over six months ago. We submitted our final files to our manufacturing partner and from that point we shifted into a support role, helping our partners during translation, manufacturing, assembly and now into shipping and fulfilment.

Only then did we move into full, dedicated development on the Songs of Home expansion. It of course folds in ideas and development insights we built up over the many years that we’ve been working on The Old King’s Crown, however only began full-time testing, writing, illustration and balancing on the expansion, once we knew that the original campaign was safely approaching manufacture.

As we’ve drawn closer to the end of this campaign, demand for the game has been unprecedented, with all our copies produced for retail allocated for distribution already.

So we want to make sure that new players and people who missed the campaign have an opportunity to pick up and play the game with a second printing. 
Additionally, it’s the perfect showcase for the expansion that we’ve been working away behind the scenes on during 2025.

With that, let’s venture to the kingdom and take a look at the new announcement.

If folks missed the first campaign this is the perfect way to jump into the world of The Old King’s Crown. Additionally, those folks will be able to add optional add-ons, only some of which we’re revealing at the moments. This will include some returning favourites such as the Wild Kingdom expansion, whereas others will be brand new surprises! 

A BIG NEW EXPANSION ENTERS THE FRAY.

The Songs of Home expansion is a major new addition to the game and its world. It introduces two brand new playable factions, each that introduce new mechanisms, components and play styles. 

Lost knights and people of the heartlands expand the story of the kingdom and its strategic possibilities, adding even more replayability, match-ups and opportunities to explore the system’s emergent gameplay.

Additionally, the expansion grows the world of the game in other significant ways, whether you are playing competitively, co-operatively or solo against the Simulacrum.

Let's take a quick look at the two new factions and a selection of their components before revealing just a small glimpse at some of the other included content.

These weary wanderers, marching perhaps for a final time, are beginning to recall some of their lost old selves. With the return of their memories comes a chance at having a final moment in the sun.

The Wandering introduces a brand new way of upgrading cards to the game. Their basic cards can be transformed into more powerful versions by sacrificing matching archetypes. This encourages different strategic builds and routes through their upgrade paths every time you play. 

Additionally, uncover buried landmarks from their past, reshaping the game’s map with powerful new features they can take advantage of. 
However, they are the last of a great expedition, not many remain and if you choose to command them, you’ll be contending with attrition and the spectre of being stretched too thin in a land that no longer remembers you. Tough strategic considerations await as you select which knights and ruins you choose to focus on returning to their former glory.

These are people of the heartlands, their fortunes and ways tied to the seasons, to the turning of the weather and the rising of the sun. 

They do not score conventionally from locations and instead use a system of tributes to create wealth and value in the different regions of the map, developing a market of different rewards as they play.

Additionally, since they exist at the heart of the kingdom, in the farmlands and the villages, the markets and country roads, they have an unrivalled access to the people and places of the kingdom, making their control of neutral cards in the game unrivalled, building impressive tableaus of powers and alternative methods of scoring.

However, this comes at a cost. They are not interested or equipped for open conflict and have the weakest martial presence in the game. They will need to build and defend their economic engines if they hope to claim victory. Or…perhaps there is another way.
A stranger, whispered way. One of symbols and signs, of omens and fireside stories. One that will allow the harvests to continue again and again.

Alongside the two new factions, we also revealed that the expansion will also vastly increase the number of neutral Kingdom Cards, allowing for even more varied strategies and emergent stories to be told. Each card comes with a unique illustration and effect, meaning no two games play out the same.

And this is not all that comes in the expansion, not by country mile. However, we want to save the surprises for the future as we draw closer to campaign. 

If you’d like sign up to the pre-launch page on Gamefound that is the best way to be kept up to date on that next campaign! We’d love to see you there.

This is just a tiny glimpse into what we've been working on. We’ll have much more to reveal and discuss in the coming weeks and months, and as always we’ll be here on Kickstarter, updating you on the progress of shipping and fulfilment! 

Thanks again and we can’t wait for you all to have the game and to join us on the next adventure as that rolls around. Any questions, as always let me and team know.

All the best and thanks for all your support! 

Pablo, Andrew and Ken

July 30th Progress Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jul 30, 2025 at 09:34:08 AM

Hello everyone!

Andrew here again with a short update to provide some further information to you all about the expected fulfilment dates as we get closer and closer to your games arriving at your door!

In our last update we raised that there had been a small delay and that shipping hadn’t begun. That delay has now been fully resolved and we have a much clearer indication of final shipping and fulfilment timings coming in from our partners.

We’re very happy to report that all the games are either already on the water and on the move, or are being loaded on ships as we speak, ready for immediate departure within a day or two.

With the help of our fantastic fulfilment team at Naylor Games, we’ve been able to put together a rough breakdown of when to expect fulfilment in your region along with the local fulfilment partner for each region.

• China and the surrounding regions will be fulfilled by VFI in mid to late August. As these copies head out from the factory directly to their fulfilment hub over land, they will likely be the first sets of games to arrive due to their proximity.
• The rest of Asia will also be fulfilled by VFI in late August to late September.
• Australia & New Zealand will be fulfilled by Heroes & Knights in mid September.
• The United States will be fulfilled by Flying Cloud in mid September.
• Europe will be fulfilled by Meeples.nl in mid to late September.
• UK will be fulfilled by Zatu in mid to late September.
• Canada will be fulfilled by Board Game Bliss in mid to late September.
• Rest of World copies will be fulfilled in late September by Zatu with some potentially extending slightly beyond this depending on the country of delivery. 

Please keep in mind that these are still estimates based on the best & latest information we have received from our fulfilment team, however, we’re committed to keeping you all updated as the shipping process continues to move forwards.

This is a huge milestone for the project and we’re delighted that the games are that one step closer to being in your hands and on your tables!

With the above timelines in mind, it now means we’re rapidly approaching the cutoff for any required address updates. We would request that if you do anticipate moving home before the expected fulfilment window listed above, that you update your shipping address as soon as possible.  

If you need to change any shipping information, or you would like to check that your shipping address is up to date, you can do so by following this link below, and inputting your email address. You will then be sent a link to your pledge manager account where you can check and update any required shipping information.

https://theoldkingscrown.backerkit.com/

Finally, we’re delighted to share this wonderful beginners guide to the four factions in game, created by Jaffles, who some of you will remember as the host and organiser of the inaugural The Old King’s Crown tournament. In this playful video, Jaffles provides you with an excellent primer for each faction, discussing in detail their themes, abilities, strengths and some things to watch out for when playing as them. This should help you all decide which faction to play as first whilst waiting for your games to arrive! A massive thank you again to Jaffles!

I have to say, what a huge honour it is to have our game inspiring folks to get creative and spend their time and energy making things around it! With that in mind, we’re already aware of a bunch of other things being made by the community, coming in the near future. When they land we’ll make sure to cover them in an update too.

That’s it for this one. A brief one, however, we’ll be back tomorrow with a special one-off update. It’s an exciting one and we can’t wait to share it with you all! 

See you all tomorrow!

Andrew, Pablo, Ken & the Eerie Idols team

July 17th Progress Update
over 1 year ago – Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 09:58:59 AM

Hello folks!

It’s Andrew here with another short progress update from the midst of a pretty intense heatwave (at least by Scottish standards) here in Edinburgh. 

This is a shorter update, however we hope you’ll find it useful and it's a chance to feature some of the latest coverage of the game!

In our last update we mentioned that freighting from China would begin on the 15th of July. The latest from our fulfilment partners is that this has encountered a short delay of 3-7 days, however beyond that all the arrangements between all the parties involved are progressing well.

Apologies for the delay on this. We really wanted to be able to celebrate the game being on the water with you all in this update, so we absolutely share in your disappointment.

The good news is, however, we expect to receive the ship tracking information very soon, and when we’re able to share it, we’ll make it available, so you can all track your copy of the game as it travels around the globe towards your tables. Note: these will likely go out at slightly different times as there are several shipments going out to different parts of the world. 

We’d like to again reiterate our heartfelt thanks to all of our backers for their patience during this freighting process. 

If you need to update your shipping address, you still have time! Rest assured, we’ll be sure to let everyone know before we hit the deadline for making any changes in a further update here.

If you do need to change any shipping information now, you can do so by following this link, and inputting your email address. You will then be sent a link to your pledge manager account where you can update any required shipping information.

https://theoldkingscrown.backerkit.com/

Since the launch of this Kickstarter campaign, it’s no secret that the game has come a long way - refined, playtested by a large dedicated community and polished with the help of excellent collaborators such as Liz Davidson and Ricky Royal. From a prototype into the final game it grew into. However, this now means that much of that early video content out there that was released alongside the campaign is now out of date - especially those that teach new players how to play the game!

So with that in mind, we’re delighted to announce, not one, but two brand new How to Play videos that cover the rules of the final build of the game.

The first of these is produced by Branislav over at Nithrania - Games in a Nutshell. Branislav has produced a huge roster of prestigious How to Play videos, so we’re absolutely delighted that we were able to collaborate with him to create this brand new How to Play for The Old King’s Crown. 

Additionally, stay tuned for a follow up Solo Mode video in this same series!

The second video comes from Chris at Hop on Board. Chris approached us a while back and despite being a fairly new channel, we loved his recent overview of the wonderful Molly House by our friends at Wehrlegig Games. So when he reached out, we were delighted to have the opportunity for The Old King’s Crown to receive the same treatment. 

Both of these videos provide an overview of all of the main rules of the game, including setup, core concepts as well as the individual steps that make up a round of the game. Whether you watch either or both (you should watch both ;) of these videos, you’ll be equipped with everything you need to know to play your first game of The Old King’s Crown when it arrives on your doorstep.

We’d like to thank both Branislav and Chris for all the time, effort and research they poured into these videos. It’s such a treat to have these incredibly valuable resources available to our community.

And this isn’t the only recent coverage of The Old King’s Crown that has been released recently! In case you missed these we’re delighted to share the following:

• An incredible deep dive and primer for those interested in going head to head against the Simulacrum in the dedicated solo mode from Mike over at One Stop Co-Op Shop. 
• A glowing review of the solo mode from Mark Dainty.
• A further deep dive and multi-part solo session filmed by the solo mode’s co-designer, the wonderful Ricky Royal.
• Finally, in case anyone missed it in our previous update, we’ll link again to No Pun Included’s excellent podcast episode where Efka and Elaine discussed their experiences with the game so far! 

That’s it for this shorter update! We’ve been committed to keeping you all updated regularly, so I hope despite its brevity the update has been useful! 
Thanks to everyone who has been covering the game - we have a lot more exciting coverage coming down the line soon too! 
And thanks to you all for your patience whilst the game makes its way to you all.

We’ll be back in under two weeks with hopefully an entire container or two’s worth of shipping updates! 

All the best! 

Andrew, Pablo, Ken & the Eerie Idols Team

July 2nd Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Jul 02, 2025 at 09:30:54 AM

Hi folks! 

It's Ken with a quick update as things continue to move along behind the scenes!

We’re very happy to confirm you the news… 
The Old King’s Crown will begin shipping on the 15th of July.

We know you’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the game, and we’re just as excited to finally start getting it into your hands. While we had originally aimed to begin shipping from China by the end of June, there’s been a delay of two weeks. Apologies for this additional wait. The good news is that we can now confidently confirm when shipping will begin.

It’s a difficult time for international shipping, made more complex by the looming tariff-pause ending in mid August. So we are very relieved and excited to know we'll have shipped out from China in advance of that more uncertain period. This means there should be less complications and delays that might otherwise have occurred around that time, with moving goods out of busy ports in China.

Regardless, we want to thank you for your patience and understanding over these complex past few months. It feels very good to know things will be begin moving very soon. 

PLEASE NOTE: If your address has changed or you need to update your info, please do so as soon as possible here). If you enter your email, Backerkit will send you a link where you can update your information from. 

We’ll have another update soon, with exact deadlines for when addresses can be updated until.

The early word regarding the game is continuing to surface and it has been thrilling seeing the responses! 

Shut Up & Sit Down recently put out a newsletter, taking a sneak peak at some soon to drop games, including ours! In case you missed it on our social media, this is what they said -

If you don’t already, subscribe to the SU&SD newsletter, it’s always great stuff.

Flying solo? This one’s for you! Check out Mark Dainty’s (aka Not Bored Gaming) review of The Old King’s Crown solo mode right here.

“Brilliant game. Phenomenal solo mode. I’m really really blown away by the final version of this. If you backed this game, you should be really really excited for it.”

It was always a dream of ours to bring this big fully-featured solo system to life, one that let you play the complete game and to dive deep into its systems as a solo player. So, it's a real thrill to see responses like this! 

Now, we can't wait to see what solo players build in the Forge (where you can augment and design your own new solo rivals and their behaviours)! 

If you want to follow along and learn how the solo mode plays, who better to take you through it than one of the co-designers of the solo mode, the legendary Ricky Royal! He has an unboxing and multi-part playthrough (which is about to reach its epic conclusion) on his channel, Box of Delights.

Finally - we're so glad folks enjoyed our previous unboxing video covering the base game, which you can find here. Thanks for all your enthusiasm and kind words on that one!

So as a follow-up to that, here is our unboxing for The Wild Kingdom expansion as well!

I know we’ve said this a lot, but it remains true - we couldn’t have done this without your support and patience, thank you again for being part of this journey. We’re beyond excited for you to open the box, dive into the game, and share your experiences with us!

Stay tuned for more updates as fulfilment kicks off!

Thanks,

Ken, Andrew, Pablo & the whole Eerie Idols team x