Hello, and a very happy upcoming New Years to you all!
I've been thinking a lot about 2022 and what its got in store for Dawn of Iron. I'm excited to share those plans with you now, but first I want to reflect on the year just gone...
2021 Accomplishments & Challenges
This past year was fraught with some major challenges, globally as well as personally. The hardest part of the year was when I lost my mom who was incredibly supportive in my pursuit of Civil War history. She's the one you can ultimately thank for these rules because without her encouragement and steady supply of obscure books about the naval aspect of the war (among other ACW topics!), I would have never got this project off the ground. So, while the loss has been devastating and lead to a bit of a complicated relationship with this project in the middle of the year, it's hardened my resolve to march on in her memory.
As for accomplishments, I wanted to note two things. The big one is that the game was launched this last October, which was a huge milestone made possible by the hard work of playtesters, proofers, and podcasters from the community. So to those people, thank you so much for your support! And thank you to all who have purchased the rules and battle packs! Again, this support helps drive me forward to new Dawn of Iron projects and topics. In fact, if you include the upcoming CSS Arkansas battle pack, we've released 72 ships and 40 upgrades! That blows me away. So thank you all for being an amazing and supportive community.
The second major accomplishment was that I finally fulfilled my dream of getting a resin 3D printer. I've been wanting one for years and finally made it happen this year with the help of my Christmas funds. I've spent the last three weeks or so tirelessly printing ship models from East Coast Ironclads and infantry from Henry Turner Miniatures. With this new tool, I'm able to get caught up with my collection and get more demo games happening in 2022.
Dawn of Iron Plans - 2022
So that was 2021. Let's look ahead at 2022! I've spent some time mapping out the things that I would like to cover this year. It's a quite ambitious list, but I'm excited because these are things that have been often requested that I've been wanting to get to for some time. So hopefully you'll see some things here to look forward to!
Major Releases/Projects
I've got four major things I want to develop this year for the game. I've broken them up into quarters to spread out the work and help build a bit of momentum. Here's the plan:
Quarter 1 (March-ish): Dawn of Iron: First Anthology (Print-on-Demand Book and Cards)
This has been requested quite a bit. It requires a bit of re-formatting but I'm excited to get stuck into this. My intention is to pull all of the existing (and near-future) battle packs and bundle them together into this new publication. I also want to try and reformat the cards so that they fit on a standard-sized large card that can also be sleeved. So I'll be experimenting with sizes and asking you all for your important feedback!
Quarter 2 (June-ish): Standalone Solitaire Rules
This is something that I've been working on since the first COVID lockdowns in 2020. I've got a draft rules system, but my intention is make a standalone version that incorporates solitaire from the ground up. This will also tee up a campaign system that I've been wanting to make for a few years as well! Stay tuned as I'll need some playtesters to really give this system a shakedown cruise.
Quarter 3 (September-ish): Dawn of Iron: Land Battles
A lot of naval battles relied on or supported land elements and I've been wanting to adapt the rules to give you command of brigades and regiments to support. This would open up some new battles for Dawn of Iron, such as Shiloh, James River operations, Baton Rouge, Fort Wagner, and pretty much the entire Red River Campaign, just to name a few. I'm really excited about this one and added it to Q3 to really give me some time to prepare for what this means for the game!
Quarter 4 (December-ish): Dawn of Iron: Second Anthology
If all goes well with the Print-on-Demand in Q1, then I'll be in a good position to release a Volume II that will pull all of 2022's content together into a single volume. My aim is to have it ready for Christmas so that you can spend your holidays on the waterways of the American Civil War
Other Battle and Campaign Packs
So those are my big projects, but I want to supplement them with more battle packs and campaign packs along the way. Here's my wishlist that I want to make my way through in 2022:
Battlepacks
- Battle of Wassaw Sound (CSS Atlanta)
- Battle of Drewry's Bluff
- Battle of Trent's Reach
- Battle of Island No. 10
- First Battle of Charleston
- Battle of Port Royal
- The Timberclads
- The Mississippi Marine Brigade
- The Neverclads (What-if designs)
Campaigns
- Gunboat Commander Campaign (solitaire)
- Tinclad Commander Campaign (solitaire)
- Raider Commander Campaign (solitaire, or multi with Blockade Commander)
- Blockade Commander Campaign (solitaire, or multi with Raider Commander)
Support my Patreon
I'd like to give a very big thank you to all my Patreons for your support this year! Your support gave me the momentum and drive I needed to get through a difficult year. I am eternally grateful for your help.
If you'd like to jump in at the cutting edge of the game's development, it all happens on my Patreon. I'll post content hot off the press there first as sneak previews. As the Patreon community grows, I'll also be posting polls and take special requests for prototype ship cards, and more!
Connect with the Community
If you're not already there, I would encourage you all to stop by our Dawn of Iron Facebook group so that I can thank you virtually! I thrive on your feedback and discussions, so please join us there and help expand and grow the game!
Right, so those are my lofty goals for Dawn of Iron this year! I want to again thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the kind words of encouragement, pdf purchases, battle reports, podcasts, and discussions this year. I'm honored that you've allowed me to entertain you in a small way and I hope to keep that momentum going.
Have a very happy New Year, and I wish you all the very best in 2022!