Deus lo Vult – The Board Game of Rampage, Betrayal and Agony
Created by Hiatus Games
Competitive board game based on medieval miniature and the strategic games played by the military aristocracy all over the world.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Deus lo Vult – The Poster
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Aug 01, 2018 at 04:48:49 AM
Today we have reached 600 likes on our Facebook Page! That means we unlocked the new stretch goal. We'll put a poster with the art of Deus Lo Vult in each box thus you can decorate your knight castles and pilgrim shacks.
Deus lo Vult Poster
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Deus Machina Vult!
over 5 years ago
– Wed, Aug 01, 2018 at 12:02:07 AM
Urbi et Orbi!
The ink has not yet dried on our last update, and here goes the next one! “Deus ex Machina” rewards is unlocked now! With a great rejoicing, we announce the emergence of the Siege Engines in crusaders arsenals! Thanks to your selfless support and our unsparing labor, each army will get two Trebuchet units and two Siege Tower units!
Trebuchet
Trebuchet is a type of catapult, which uses a swinging arm to throw a 100-pound projectile up to 300 yards away. In the game terms, it means you’ll have a ranged unit able to smash your foes with a single blow. Alas, it’s utterly pregnable and needs to be defended by troops.
Trebuchet
Siege Tower
Siege Tower, or Belfry, is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. When a siege tower is near a wall, it would drop a gangplank between it and the wall. Troops could then rush onto the walls and into the castle or city. Having this token while assaulting a city allows you to carry out the attack from either side, whether it’s protected or not.
Siege Tower
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Deus lo Vult - How To Video #4
almost 6 years ago
– Sun, Jul 29, 2018 at 01:45:56 PM
One more of our How-To videos explaining the Rules and Core Mechanics of the Deus lo Vult game. Today’s video is about Divine Will Cards. How they are activated, how they work and how to avoid their impact.
An act of Divine Will is a random negative or positive event that happens in every city after the first coin is taken from it. Some harmful events could be negated by having a certain amenity on the premises. Divine Will cards are drawn at random from the deck every time, so you never know in advance what awaits you in the new city.
After each coin, that was stolen from the city, a random card of God's Will is played. For example, the Cholera card. Depending on the number of coins on the city token - from 1 to 3 units in each army suffer from cholera. But if the player has right Amenity - a toilet, his troops can safely survive cholera and not suffer from the consequences of a terrible disease. To activate the Amenity, you need to tap it on your camp.
We're in love medieval European art. More than that - we bet you too, and this is the reason why we all are here. But it's really hard to find this kind of beauty nowadays, you know. That's why we were so happy when we found THIS.
Medieval Themed Pins
Just check them out. You'll probably need one for your chaperone or your doublet.
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A new board game, Deus lo Vult, has just been released on Kickstarter. The promo, reminiscent of medieval illuminated manuscripts, shows characters living their own lives; crusaders fight Saracen, steal and raise havoc, suffer from cholera, and perish quite graphically and dramatically when due. We couldn’t help asking the game’s developers why and how did they ended up creating such a stunning thing.
Who we talked to:
Mikhail Badelin, a cultural researcher and producer. He started all this.
Aleksandr Komyakhov, illustrator and restorer. He drew all this.
The hive mind of Hiatus Games, a virtual community of people scattered all over the world, from Dnipro to Chile. They did all the rest.
DM: The style, where did it come from? We almost thought it was the “suffering Middle Ages” project.
Badelin: It’s an old idea, in fact. I’m 40, and for like 35 of those years I’ve been an aficionado of illuminated manuscripts. I had this book on European medieval art when I was a kid; it made my imagination run completely wild and eventually made me get an M.A. in cultural studies in my 20. I’ve had it with me in all my journeys. And Sasha Komyakhov is a painter and restorer, so his background influenced both him as an illustrator and the game’s art.
DM: The description you give on your website (“Deus lo Vult — the most opulent medieval board game of rampage, betrayal and agony”) is quite vague. Could you tell a bit more? What’s it about?
HG: Long story short, it’s a 12-by-12 board, with crusader camps in the corners, Saracen camps by sides, and cities to sack in the center. Each player makes his or her first move with a crusader. Crusaders can attack Saracen and sack Saracen cities and towns. The gold a player loots should be transported to his or her camp, and the competitors try to steal it on the way.
DM: How many people does it take to play the game, with all those crusaders and Saracens?
HG: Oh, wait, the same players control Saracen troops. Saracens can wound or kill crusaders, and players use them to spoil the game for their competitors and prevent their crusaders from stealing the treasures of the Holy Land or transporting the loot to crusaders’ camps. The units killed in action aren’t dead for good; in fact, they go to the Purgatorium to atone for their sins in excruciating pain and then join the game all over again.
Moreover, every time a crusader army takes a city, a Divine Will event takes place — there’s a plague, or a rat invasion, or a cross procession, or the entire army gets mercilessly drunk. To protect their army from Divine Will events, players can use amenities: a cat protects them from rats, and a pole of shame for drunks makes it easier to control the drinking-bout epidemic. Amenities are scarce and valuable, so crusaders steal them from each other.
DM: Is there a plot of some sort?
HG: Is there one in poker? Kill-’n’-steal kind of gameplay. The main goal, as if it were a real crusade, is to collect as much gold as possible. “Deus lo vult!” literary means “The God wants it!” Each coin is “engraved” with a “lo” for those who still don’t get it; your God wants precisely this gold.
We also plan to add a series of strategic aims based on real historical events, similarly to chess problems. Players will take Cyprus, or Constantinople, or Jerusalem, etc.
DM: You mentioned the excruciating pain in Purgatorium. How’s it played? Like sex dice, or are there rules?
HG: The Purgatorium can hold up to nine souls. When a new one comes in, the others move towards the exit. If you want to save your precious unit from the Purgatorium, you should fill it with the souls of your enemies. There are also cards of Divine Will that can move units up and down the purgatory ladder, so one can speed up the process of atonement or visibly slow it down.
DM: Has the Deus lo Vult got any ancient relatives?
HG: Yes, we decided to adhere to historical canons, not only in graphics but also in gameplay. We wanted it to be free of d20, races, classes, schools of magic and thick volumes of rules and regulations.
Every major civilization had its board strategy, a must-have for the aristocracy. The Middle East preferred chaturanga; the Far East, shogi (from where we borrowed the two-faced unit tokens and the absence of “irrevocable death”) and janggi (from where we took the concept of value for each unit). And of course, we looked up to backgammon; we owe our moves to this particular granny.
DM: But the volumes of rules are inevitable, aren’t they?
HG: The only text there is are 12 titles of Divine Will cards, and even those are in Latin. Only so many people could read those — almost like it was back then. We wanted the game to have the medieval flavor and spare people from reading long, wordy passages out loud or performing complicated calculations. We encourage people to play for real money, which would be entirely in the fashion of those traditional old games. Back then, people lost kingdoms playing chess, and even small stakes can liven up the game.
DM: By the way, why a board game and not a video/mobile game?
HG: It’s just the matter of authenticity. We’ll consider a video game depending on the demand.
DM: Let’s talk about art. Where did you get those images? Is there copyright for medieval art?
HG: We created everything from scratch. Sasha sought inspiration in The Grandes Chroniques de France, in the Richelieu’s and the National Library of France’s copies, to be precise. The geometrical patterns and four-bladed frames and many other things also originated from those sources. We’d had a hard time choosing between the Morgan Bible and the Chronicles and then finally opted for the later chronicles due to a greater variety of themes and weaponry.
DM: So there’s a chance to learn something about real history?
HG: There is, although somewhat unconventionally. We are fond of the artistic techniques typical of medieval manuscripts, but there’s also this charming naivete with which those artists depicted historical events. The images were astoundingly out of place and time: there were French kings fleeing from burning Troy in Milanese armor with fleur-de-lis, or Joshua taking Jericho by storm, or Julius Caesar’s and Alexander the Great’s coats of arms.
So we decided to preserve this out-of-place perception because we’re as distant from the Crusades as medieval artists were from Julius Caesar. A dozen campaigns that happened within 200 years we melted down in a single pot to produce a continuous event, a bizarre mix of sacking, looting, massacres, epidemics and religious ecstasy.
We put together the most characteristic exemplars and events of all crusades and got quite a game of chance with the betrayal of allies and whole armies perishing for stupid reasons, where players nevertheless end up with some gain — just like the crusaders would, we believe.
DM: And why so much toilet humor?
HG: For the sake of authenticity, again! Medieval artists loved this type of jokes, that’s why even the borders of illuminated Bible manuscripts contained butts and dicks and whatnot.
There’s more to it; we actually had to be much more reserved than our sources because even medieval Christians were less estranged from the works of their bodies’ bottoms than we are now.
So there’s a touch of anal humor acceptable for our contemporaries, but no genital allusions.
DM: Which picture’s the funniest?
HG: We haven’t drawn it yet, but as long as we’re talking about the affairs of the bottom, there’s a Divine Will card for cholera.
When a city suffers from cholera epidemics, several soldiers catch it, too. A player might prevent his camp from perishing by using an amenity of a special latrine (such things weren’t popular in the days of crusades, and the latrine amenity is so scarce in our game that other players might put enormous efforts to take it from you).
DM: Are you already thinking about a sequel or add-ons?
HG: We are, indeed. Add-ons will include numerous new units, characters, and cards. We’re currently testing the Kingdom of Cyprus with naval battles, Berber pirates, and Byzantium.
DM: Are you planning a special edition for the lovers of cholera and other medieval stuff?
HG: We’ve got five hand-painted sets on Kickstarter. The hand-painted option is the priciest. A fan, a venture capitalist from Hong Kong, bought one for his collection.
DM: Which board game’s your favorite? Perhaps you’ll recommend something?
HG: It’s mahjong. And This War Is Mine, when it comes to contemporaries; it’s an enormous work and beautifully designed gameplay.
Current price for Deus lo Vult is USD 29, and first shipments are scheduled for March 2019. A full-throttle game takes from two to four players, although perhaps we’ll consider creating solo scenarios too.
Kickstarter Exclusive Divine Will Card Announced!
almost 6 years ago
– Sun, Jul 29, 2018 at 01:34:32 PM
To commemorate this amazing experience of being loved by Kickstarter, we brought you this brand new Divine Will card - "Initus Calcitrosus" (which is Latin for "Kick Start") - an exclusive Kickstarter-only reward!
Kickstarter Card
Whenever this card is dealt, every player must donate a coin to a band that drew this card, totally ignoring usual band's coin capacity. Enjoy your fortune, but remember - YOU MUST DELIVER! In this case - your sudden treasure to your camp.
Thank you for your support! We really appreciate it!
Stay tuned, there will be more!
Deus lo Vult!
