Hi Faithful Readers, Sorry we haven't been posting much this week; it's been crazy and busy around here—but jeremiah and I got to hang out for a few days! Today I wanted to give you a heads-up on a cool-looking project called Burning Suns, from SunTzuGames—it ends in just 48 hours. We featured it a couple of weeks ago in a Kickstarter Weekly, but today it gets its very own post. Burning Suns is a tactical, 4x game for 2-5 players, ages 14 and up. The time to play is approximately 40 minutes per player.

The game comes with over 700 empires. 700!! You can customize the race you play, and you'll have different strengths and weaknesses depending on what you play. I would love to find out how they were able to keep all of those empires balanced.

There's a market that lets you hire mercenaries, or build buildings, or buy other resources. There's warfare and negotiation and politics and dice, and everything you's expect from a 4x game. It comes with plastic ships, some of which hold dice that you use to track hits. It's elegant and simple and looks totally cool. There's a bunch of other stuff, and this just scratches the surface.

One of my favorite things about this is that they're looking for help from the community: SunTzuGames wants people to come up with tournament, co-op, and solitaire rules you can use with the game. That's a great way to involve people, get them invested in the product, and get the best game you can get.

£55 (or approximately $89) gets you a copy of the game, and all stretch rewards—and that includes shipping across the pond to the US. Check out the campaign while you still can—only two more days. Thanks for reading!

Minion Games, makers of games such as The Manhattan Project and Kingdom of Solomon have launched a Kickstarter for Hegemonic, a 4x space game. The four x's stand for explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. Hegemonic is for 2 to 6 players, and claims to play in 30 to 45 minutes per player. According to the Boardgamegeek description, "Each player assumes the leadership of a Great House. Players will explore sectors of the galaxy; build up their empire's industrial, political, and martial capacity; employ far-reaching technologies to outmaneuver and out fight competing empires; and perform calculated actions to plot their way to hegemony. Hegemonic is distinct among empire-building games because the industrial, political, and martial systems of your empire each expand your overall economy, can be used to initiate direct conflicts across lines, and contribute power towards victory. Players earn points at the end of every turn based on the relative power they have in each galaxy region. Players able to strategically hold and maintain a majority stake in the regions through industrial expansion, political leverage, and military force, will be poised for victory. But never underestimate a well-timed and daring move from your opponent – they may snatch victory from your grip!"

They've already hit their goal and there are still 17 days to go in the campaign. If you like complex, low-luck board games, consider backing Hegemonic.

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