Celestial Affinity: Decimation of Bearmount Kickstarter

Cerberus Studios sind mit einem neuen Kickstarter gestartet.

Celestial Affinity – The Decimation of Bearmount

Miniature 54mm Medieval Fantasy Skirmish Game

Cerberus Studios is my little corner of the hobby market where I specialise in creating fantasy worlds and designing highly detailed miniatures.  I have a passion for gaming, fantasy and modelling and my aim is to deliver creative products and storylines that capture your imagination. Cerberus Studios is celebrating 4 years within the hobby market place with my first, and ongoing releases of my 32mm scale Mortals‘ Reckoning miniatures. Im delighted and lucky enough to say they are gracing tabletops and hobby stations around the world.

www.cerberus-studios.com

My love of history, art, books and fantasy over the years has helped to fire my imagination to create this new medieval world of Celestial Affinity.  I wanted to deliver a story that captures the darkness we all love in Vampire stories, the beastly and violent nature of the myths of Werewolves, the tenacity and emtional cocktail that is the human species, and to round it off, the horror and unknown of the occult and demons.

Mix it all together and you have Celestial Affinity a medieval fantasy.

Why 54mm and a skirmish game?

With my first IP ‚Mortals‘ Reckoning‘ I wanted to deliver to you strong characters in 32mm scale and allow your imaginations to take you to whatever world you wanted them in.

For Celestial Affinity though I wanted to deliver more. With 54mm scale its a wonderful size for painters and collectors, but not only that, its a scale that looks superb on the tabletop and lends itself perfectly to a small skirmish game. Seeing small bands of warriors face off at this scale is very exciting.

The Skirmish game format allowed me to introduce you to my world on a smaller scale and give you a taste of the lore, characters and miniatures. With even more to come.

The World and main players within it:

• Humankind – Stoic Heroes that face off against all threats to the kingdoms.
• Storr – Barbarian peoples with Werewolf heritage and a violence to match.
• Var’ac – Vampyre peoples, beautiful, deadly and blessed by the Dragon.
• Daemons – Infiltrators into this realm, and enemy to all.

I started crafting a world where Kingdoms ruled by Human Kings, Storr and Werewolf Warlords, and Vampyric Va’rac warriors, warred with one another for supremacy. However this would all come crashing down with the arrival of the ultimate evil, Emperor Ar’onath and his Daemon hordes. I have written hundreds of years of lore and characters to spoil you with.

Emperor Ar’onath

BUT… as i built the world I soon realised I needed to scale it down and introduce you, (initially), to a much smaller part of the world, and a game that allowed you to fully experience the races and the beginnings of what will be a much larger tableau for you to enjoy…

Beginnings…

My story begins with a ritual, and a mage who dabbles in diabolical arts he has no business playing with and as such, unintentionally garners the attention of the Emperor of the Daemon realm. Emperor Ar’onath. The full short story is included in the main rulebook:

„From the portal’s unfathomable depths rose an impossibly large, taloned hand, reaching out from the centre of this swirling chaos. The acolytes immediately let go of their leader and backed away, as an enormous palm peeled open menacingly. They could scarcely believe their eyes as this wall of flesh filled the room, edging closer to its prey. Fingers the size of tree trunks sailed over the Savant Mage’s head as five monstrous claws dug into the ground behind him. The talons now curled back towards their target, carving through the stone slabs like a plough through soil…“

From this foundation I began with the tale of Bearmount, the first settlement to fall to the incursion of this new Daemonic foe and the perfect beginnings for the game.

Beginnings – Humankind

The boxed game for the ‚Decimation of Bearmount‘ has full rules for all races to take part however for the ‚Narrative Play‘ of the game 2 main races play host to this adventure beginning with Humankind.

Beginnings – Daemons

The Daemons main introduction to you the player is the ‚Prime Daemon‘ and lesser ‚Minions‘ and ‚Scarabs‘.  These monstrous invaders are merciless killers, intent on the utter destruction of all they encounter.

The Daemons combine savage power, and for the lesser scarabs the ability to bog down your opponent, harassing them or overwhelming them.

In reality the Daemons represent the horde that pours into the realm and as such there will be far more options and variants as the game progresses and develops.

The Daemons are not all violence and murder though… within their ranks lies a host of greater Daemons, (Ar’amon is teased in the narrative playbook as well as in the stretch goal showcased below) and a completely new variant – the Witch Mage (again more of which will be teased via a stretch goal) These vile abominations warp magic and twist it to their own dark powers.

Beginnings – Bearmount

The small village named Bearmount, set away and apart from the main human kingdom of Audax, but populated by men and women who live by, work with, and on many occasion, fall out with, the people of the Storr (Werewolves) and their enemies the Vampyre peoples of the Var’ac.  Its lore is simple but infamous with the events that take place and so is the perfect setting for the invasion to begin.

With the setting and the races outlined, The ‚Narrative play‘ option throws you into the story and sets up a selection of scenarios pitting the humans against the invader. With a complete map of the area and distinct timelines of events you can rein-act.

‚Celestial Affinity – The Decimation Of Bearmount‘ is a starter set and the ideal way to get into Celestial Affinity. With the opportunity to fight with up to four (4) races, the full rules, and all of the dice, tokens, and acessories that you need to play the game, there is no better time to jump in and lose yourself in this competitive miniatures games.

To fully enjoy and appreciate the system I also recommend the additional use of the high quality resin 54mm scale miniatures, to round off the complete gaming experience.

The miniatures are available separately in other reward options

 The Key Features 

• Perfect for new Celestial Affinity players.
• Standees available if you prefer non miniature orientated games.
• All you need to begin your adventures and an introduction to the world and miniature range.
• Mixed ‚Play options‘
• The foundations to a much larger world

The Gameplay:

Pitting heroes against the hated Daemons the game allows you, and up to four (4) players the opportunity to fight in melee, from afar using ranged, or engaging the forces of magic that are at play in the world, against each other.

Being based on the foundations of a skirmish game, each side has a force of three (3) miniatures each to fight with. You can of course have more, and the game allows for this, using allocated points, but thats up to you.

It is a turn based system with the feature of a cube expenditure method, allowing your armies soldiers a chance to win, or simply survive. The game has a maximum of 4 turns unless otherwise stated and can be completed in a hour for smaller narratives.

The main focus races for this starter box is Humankind and the Daemons.

Miniatures in Play – Human Halberdsmen vs Daemon

Gameplay is not restricted to these two (2) races however. The rulebook gives you a detailed breakdown on the forces you can employ using The Storr, Var’ac or, you can mix them all up and fight against the Daemon hordes united.

The miniatures are based on the smallest base at 40mm round, with the largest (at present) being 170mm oval. If you prefer to play without miniatures the Standees come with bases also at 40mm.

The game gives a variety of options to play:

• ‚Open Play style‘ allowing you to fight against one another in a straight fight to the death.
• ‚Open Scenario Play‘ allowing you to fight using designed scenarios.
• ‚Narrative Play‘ The Decimation of Bearmount – A set storyline to enjoy. Humans vs Daemons.

The Character cards:

Each Miniature comes with its own 6×4″ Stat card (details can also be found in the rulebooks). These cards allow you to not only keep track of your character in game, but also outlines special abilities and act as the cube counter, meaning you can easily see how drained your character becomes both in health and stamina.

The joy of these cards allows easy track-ability, but also if you want to play competitively, these can be hidden from your opponent, in doing so upping the stakes when challenging.

Magic:

The Decimation of Bearmount gameplay also includes an element of magic where Humans and Daemons have the abilities to hurl destructive power at one another, or heal or hamper friend and foe.

There a different levels of mage from acolyte to Mythic master. The rules for magic are included in the main rulebook and are used in game via ‚Spell cards‘ chosen before the game begins.

The starter box contains options for magic including 15 spells for human mages.

The Miniatures:

The miniature range for this game is set at 54mm scale. I wanted to give hobbyists and players a scale that they could really enjoy, both on a practical and aesthetic level. 54mm is beautiful scale for detail and handling, offering painters, collectors and gamers a truly wonderful project to work on.

The Daemon horde

Emperor Ar’onath ADD-ON

As many may be aware the epic Ar’onath miniature has been available for a while, standing at 230mm tall and comes with a 170mm oval bespoke scarab base, he is the flagship miniature for the Celestial IP and I couldn’t not include him in the debut game. He  is available as an ADD-ON for this Kickstarter.

Emperor Ar’onath has been out for a year now and im delighted to say he has been chosen by many a painter, gamer and collector to be part of their armies.

Stretch Goals:

With your support Celestial Affinity can be so much more than this starter box. Behind the scenes I have been working to create epic expansions, miniatures and characters.

Below are the projects I would be delighted to share with you, and together should the goals be met this rich world of lore, and fantasy gameplay can be enhanced.

Shipping:

Please DO NOT add shipping to your pledge amount!** Shipping will be paid in the pledge manager process

• UNITED KINGDOM        – £5
• UNITED STATES            – £15
•  EUROPE (EU)                – £12
•  EUROPE (NON– EU)     – £15
• AUSTRAILIA                   – £15
• REST OF THE WORLD  – £19

Pledge Manager:

After the project, you will receive access to the pledge manager. You will need to formalise your order in a simple check out process. Shipping is paid during this part of the campaign.

Shipping Date: December 2023

My goal is to be early on this project. 90% of the miniatures are at the moulding stage and have already been quality checked.

Die Kampagne ist finanziert und läuft noch 18 Tage.

Quelle: Celestial Affinity – The Decimation of Bearmount