Mercenaries & Privateers Late Backer / Pre-Orders

Created by Jason R. Williams

Mercenaries & Privateers is a card expansion for the Swords & Sails epic game of diplomacy, conquest, and intrigue set in 1000 AD. You can get all the original items which were available with the original Kickstarter while supplies last. You can even add items from our Tali, Roman Knucklebones and Micro-Role Playing game if desired. Look for the Separate Shipping Add-On to request shipping the current items (previously manufactured) as soon as we can and not to wait for everything to come at once.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

M&P: Welcome 2022, PnPs Sent
about 2 years ago – Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 05:55:43 PM

I have finally been able to push the button to send out the PnP distributions.  This represents two different reward levels which were included in the campaign.

The smaller PnP which everyone who pledge $8 or more should have received an email for is the M&P Only PnP files.  Everyone at this level and above will receive a download zip file which contains the following files:

  •  M&P__rules_page_color.pdf:   5x2 fold out rules / reference
  •  M&P_Cards_pnp.pdf:            130 double sided cards (10 bonus cards)
  •  Swords&Sails_rules_v21.pdf:    Updated digital version of the rules.
  •  PrintingSwords&SailsPnPfilesDirections.pdf:    Directions for printing
  •  _M&P_pnp_edition_readme.txt:      License file granting permission to print.

Anyone who pledged at the New Recruit level or the Knights level ($99) and above will receive all digital files for PnP, including the files included for digital PnP M&P above and the digital files for both new Minor Player expansions (Khazar Empire and Armenian Kingdom).  If you are in this category, you will get both emails as BackerKit does not have a way for me to test this condition for digital distributions.  As this is over 1 gig in digital files, even when compressed, we have broken it into 5 separate distribution zip files. 

  •  Distribution1:    East+West Maps, Updated version of Rules, Year/Income sheet, FirstTurnSheets (Major Player), Double and Single sided punch-outs, Alternate Cubes+Ship Pieces
  •  Distribution2:   Major players Army, Fleet, Diplomat cards
  •  Distribution3:   Original Intrigue Cards, Leader Cards, Orange+White Extra Units 
  •  Distribution4:    6 Original Minor Players A&B (Poland, Hungary, Qurtuba, Bulgaria, Leon, Ireland) Army Cards, Fleet Cards, First Turn Sheets, Faction Disks, Alternate Cubes+Ship Pieces
  •  Distribution5:    M&P cards, M&P rule page, Minor Player A&B Diplomat cards, Minor Player C (Khazar + Armenia) Army, Fleet, Diplomat cards, Faction Disks, AlternativeCubes+Ship print pieces

Each Distribution above will also have a copy of the printing directions and the license to print a copy for personal use (which is sufficient to use at a printing service such as Staples). 

If anyone has any trouble either receiving the files above or printing the PnP content, feel free to contact me.  Also, I will be creating a limited distribution for sending out only the digital copy of the two new minor players (Khazar & Armenia) for those that are below the $99 Knight backer level and will not receive All PnP files but did pay to add the additional minor players as add ons (for example the Master Warrior and Count reward level).  I will also be including these two distributions as new pre-order options for PnP digital only rewards.  If you received the full Swords&Sails Digital PnP distributions (the 5 files above) you will not need this additional distribution as you will already have the files in Distribution5.

Additionally feel free to reach out to me for any reason related to the content above as I have been working with the manufacturer to get the M&P and two new Minor Players printed and we have very little time to make additional changes.


I want to again thank everyone for the continued support and understanding that we ran a bit past the original time on getting the digital PnP content sent out.


NOTE:  I had to replace the Distribution5 as the MinorPlayersC_ArmyFleetDiplomatCards_pnp.pdf file only had 1 page in it.  It is now corrected, if you already downloaded, just re-download.


Jason.

M&P: Happy Holiday's
over 2 years ago – Sun, Dec 26, 2021 at 08:49:50 AM

I hope everyone has good family time and can get together for some gaming during the holidays.


I was hoping to send out the Print-n-Play files before now so everyone would have them before the Holidays.  But,  I have been spending the time since the last update correcting files and verifying last minute items with the printer.  It was important to have the same digital files available for those which backed at the PnP levels only.

We are almost there as we have completed all the cards for M&P, finally have a tuck box which matches the manufactures format, and have completed the new rule sheet for M&P.

As for the two Minor Player addons, all files for the Khazar Kingdom are ready to go except I need to make a few minor mods to the First Turn sheet / Reference which will include the variant specials for the two new Minor Players.  

For the Armenian Kingdom, all component art  is ready except the same update for the reference sheet needed for Khazar and I need to finalize the Armenian TuckBox cover art.

I should be able to get these all done by New Years and hope to be sending the differently formatted (to make self printing easy) PnP files by New Years day, or shortly after.


So thank you all and to all a very joyous and gamey Holiday time of year.


Jason.


Oh, and here is the M&P rules here for reading enjoyment:


https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3m1mbotzfp3frt/m%26p__rules_color.pdf?dl=0

M&P Thanksgiving Update:
over 2 years ago – Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 07:55:13 PM

We have now passed the U.S. Thanksgiving Holiday, Black Friday, and even Cyber-Monday.  Hopefully, families were able to get together and celebrate more this year than in 2020.  I was also hoping to release the Print-n-Play versions of Mercenaries & Privateers cards and the two new Minor Players around this time.  I have made progress but the release of the P-n-P will take a few more weeks to fully finalize.  

In the meantime, I can share the final front and back covers for the Mercenaries & Privateers Tuckbox and the Khazar Minor Player Tuck Box.  The front of the M&P box should look very familiar and examples of many of the cards are shown on the back of the box.

M&P Box Cover Front
M&P Box Cover Back
Khazar Minor Player Box Front
Khazar Minor Player Box Back

The Box for the Khazar Empire is only slightly larger than the 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 Army, Fleet, and Diplomat cards shown on the back of the box, with the player reference sheet, now folded up into quarters to fit and the rest of the depth, just enough to fit the 28 punch out faction markers, the wooden army cubes and fleet pieces, and the custom dice.  The box depth will be about the same as the M&P double card tuck box (two side by side card packs of 60 cards each, almost an inch thick.

I will share the Armenian Minor Player cover and back of the box in the next week or two, when I should finally have all the P-n-P files ready as well.


Jason.

M&P Update: Charging Cards Nov. 15th
over 2 years ago – Sun, Nov 14, 2021 at 08:18:44 AM

Hey everyone,

We will be locking orders and charging cards for all backers which weren't already charged on the 15th.  If you either want to make any changes or need to delay or make changes, just send an email or message me.

In other news as was reported in the comments from the previous update, we have succeeded in passing all the post KS / BackerKit stretch goals.  This means we will be creating full minor players which includes the 5 Army cards, 5 Fleet cards, a Diplomacy card, 28 pinch out faction markers, 5 wooden Army cubes, 5 wooden fleet pieces, and 2 custom faction dice for both the Khazarian Empire and the Armenian Kingdom.


I am making progress on the final designs and artwork layouts for all components and should be able to share these in a few weeks, when I also expect to fulfill the electronic / PnP copies.


Thank you all for your support.


Jason Williams

M&P: Welcome to November Update
over 2 years ago – Tue, Nov 02, 2021 at 02:02:15 PM

As we slide past Halloween weekend and into November we have now added $178 more for add-ons.  This is thanks to several individuals who have added things to their orders to get us there.   This leaves us just $42 shy of the goal for the Armenian Custom dice.  I am sure we will be able to get a few more add-ons or orders to get there, and again, I want to thank everyone who has helped us reduce the gap.   Also, if you have tried to go back to your order and you have found it locked, all you need to do is ask me to unlock it.  We will be preparing to charge the credit cards for the balance of the additional orders, VAT, other taxes and shipping charges shortly, but I wanted to allow some time for anyone who needs me to delay charging their Credit Cards to please reach out to me before next weekend.


In other news I am preparing the files for manufacturing and for PnP / TTS use.  It looks like I should be able to release the PnP and TTS files around Thanksgiving timeframe (TTS may occur a week or so later).


Jason.