D.E.I. - Divide et Impera

Expand Your Mind
about 3 years ago – Tue, Mar 09, 2021 at 07:32:49 AM

Hello Scrappers!

It has been longer than usual since the last update and we apologize for this! These are very crazy months in which we have been working hard to speed up the production of DEI and also given our reduced staff to maintain security forces us to be slower in the realization of the Updates, but we will strive not to let so much time pass between an update and the other in the future!

In today's update, we will start introducing you to one of the most original and asymmetrical factions of Divide et Impera, I'm talking about the freaky quintet that just arrived in the City... The Psionics!

Power is in the Mind!

From the beginning, this faction was presented as the most original among those available and the reason is more than evident, a faction made up of 5 Leaders!

Psionics will not have a band of Scrappers at their disposal but they will be able to count on the paranormal abilities of the 5 leaders and on a series of special rules that will make the game experience truly unique and which will thus satisfy veteran players in search of strong emotions!

To compensate for the lack of Scrappers, the 5 leaders will use special Psionic Presence Tokens that will represent their ability to occupy and control the regions of the map.

These tokens will have a value ranging from 1 to 3 and as long as they are on the field they will count as Scrappers for the calculation of the majorities, but they will not be able to take any action and they will disappear at the end of the turn.

Each Psionic will be able to interact differently with these tokens and will be equipped with their own set of skills and Personal Missions.

Due to this faction will not be able to carry out the normal Purebreed Missions (they are dangerous rebels hunted by the Purebreeds forces) each turn will have to solve a mission among those available of a specific Psionic, to represent the personal agenda that these enigmatic leaders want to carry out.

Each Psionic has a unique set of powers that focus on controlling a specific aspect of the game.

For example, Elle will use her powers to control the Drones in play, while Kar'rà is specialized in controlling regions.

In the next updates, we will take a closer look at each of these mysterious characters to make you better understand their style of play!

Production Report

From this update, we will always attach a chart to keep you informed about the production status using the same scheme we are using for wave 2 of Dungeonology.

For each box, you can see the status of the work in the various sectors, remember that the White Death Box is the box that will contain all the Stretch Goals unlocked during the KS!

In this way, you can always be updated on the processing status of all the material!

Before saying goodbye, we are pleased to inform you that the new project by Ludus Magnus Lite (the studio, son of LMS, which deals with lighter and low-budget games) Chamber of Wonders is about to enter in the last 48 hours!

If you like card games and Victorian London (when it had not yet become a desert of snow and ice!), you can throw yourself through the streets of the city in search of strange and rare artifacts to exhibit in your own Chambers of Wonders and show off the fabulous rarities that you have managed to obtain!

Take a look at it, you won't regret it!

See you in a couple of weeks!

For the Awakening! And stay safe!

The new year brings news
about 3 years ago – Sun, Jan 31, 2021 at 11:11:26 PM

Hello, Scrappers!

The new year has begun and for Divide et Impera fans it will be an important year as it will be the year of its release.

As announced in the latest update, DEI delivery has been postponed by a few months due to the problems that the pandemic has created to us in terms of the development and playtest of the rules, but we are convinced that we will be able to keep the delay limited to a few months and let you receive the game over the next summer.

Currently, our sculptors are working on optimizing the miniatures before starting their mass production, and today we show you a couple of sculptures that we haven't shown you yet. 

In the image below you can admire Vladimir, the burly member of the Psionics faction, a faction that will amaze you with its truly original and very asymmetrical gameplay, we will talk about it in one of the next updates!

The second miniature we show you today is the Wild Pack "drone", the menacing Tolstoy!

We have already described the rules of this huge genetically modified polar bear (Update #27) and now you can also enjoy the amazing miniature!

With these two miniatures we have almost completed the miniatures range but don't worry, we will show you the rest in the next updates, and also the Meeples final versions will be available soon to be presented to the DEI's public.

As for the rules, we are working on the final version of the core rulebook, which has undergone some small adjustments according to the rules created for the expansions and for the Stretch Goals. We plan to publish the new version shortly and then to follow, all the expansions and SGs rulebooks.

That's all for today! See you at the next update!

For the Awakening!

Christmas in the Citadel
over 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 10:03:12 PM

Hello Scrappers!

Here we are at the awaited Christmas update, a good opportunity to greet you and take stock of the Divide et Impera development!

On December 7th the Pledge Manager officially closed, and we can proudly tell you that it was a great success! Many new Survivors have joined our ranks thanks to the Late Pledge, proving that even almost a year after KS, the interest in DEI has not waned at all! Many of you have also asked us about the material that we showed and that was not included in the KS and the PM, such as the Sons of Crono faction or the Frost Punk. Well, our long-term projects for DEI are very ambitious and surely in the future, after the delivery of this KS, we will see new material for our favorite game.

But let's talk about closer things, namely the state of work on the DEI production.

A few months ago we announced that the end of DEI production, originally scheduled for January 2021, would certainly be delayed due to the pandemic that obliterated almost the whole of 2020, without being able to give you a new ETA yet given that the situation was and continues to be very unstable. 

But now we are able to provide you with more precise deadlines as much of the work on playtests and rules is nearing completion.

The restrictions applied in Italy for the people's safety have had a significant impact on our times for the processing and playtesting of the rules, but now, albeit with considerable difficulties, we are almost on the finishing straight.

According to our new plans, all files for the start of mass production will be delivered to the factory by January 2021, which we estimate will be finished by May 2021. Consequently, final deliveries will be made between July and August 2021.

We know that announcing a delay is never nice, but 2020 was really a hard year for everyone and unfortunately, DEI's production was hit in full by the pandemic and by all the problems that ensued, but if we manage to contain the delay within the 6/7 months that we have estimated, we will be satisfied!

We will continue to keep you informed with continuous updates on the progress of the work and to show you the still unpublished material (there are still many miniatures to see!), As well as making all the new manuals available as soon as they are finished.

That's all for today! In the hope that 2021 will be a better year than the one that is ending (indeed it's not a so-hard mission...), the Ludus Magnus Studio Team wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy new year, we will meet again in January with a new update!

For the Awakening! Stay safe!

Into the Wild #2
over 3 years ago – Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 11:38:15 PM

Hello Scrappers!

Here we are with the second update dedicated to Wild Packs, the new Faction you unlocked during the DEI KS campaign!

In the last update, we took a look at the special rules of Nikita and the Wolves, the original scrappers of this faction, and we have already seen how much this Faction will be more asymmetrical than the 4 of the base game. "More asymmetrical" does not mean stronger, but that it will be based on slightly different mechanics and will therefore require a different approach than the classic 4 Factions. It will certainly be very popular with players who after a certain number of games with one of the core game factions want to try something different and test themselves with an advanced style of play.

Wild Packs do not use the normal Talents but have 3 fixed Talents that can be progressively unlocked by increasing the number of Controlled Outposts (no matter the color) so for example, 2 Outposts will be needed to unlock HOWL, 4 to unlock SMELL, and 6 to unlock PACK, but be careful! It will not be possible to unlock more than one talent per turn. The control of the Outpost will be essential if you aim to unlock all the Talents but their skills will be very useful, for example, Smell will allow you to immediately make a movement with a newly deployed scrapper!

Wild packs will also have their Big Guy, represented by the menacing bear named Tolstoj.

Tolstoy is the super exclusive "Drone" of this faction (which cannot use "normal" Drones) and can only be controlled by them via a special basic action card plus 3 "advanced" action cards. Whenever the Wild Pack player purchases a Drone card from a Market, he will have to exchange it for one of Tostoj's advanced cards, and it can be added to those available as usual. Tolstoy's Basic card (Ravage) allows you to move it by 2 and collect all resources in a region with at least one neutral or opposing structure. The other cards besides movement will add useful effects to compensate for the faction's limitations.

Finally, taking a look at the action cards of the Wild packs you can see a great predominance of movement actions, this to better manage the particular skills of the Scrappers (as we saw in the last update).

So, what do you think of the Wild Packs? They will surely be one of the most challenging factions to play once you want to try new strategies in your Divide Et Impera games!

Before saying goodbye, we remind you that the DEI Pledge Manager will be permanently closed on December 7th! If you have not yet completed your order, please do so before that date to avoid delays in your shipment! If you have not received the invitation or for any other need, contact us here!

Ludus Magnus Studio contact us

See you soon for a new update!

For the Awakening (and stay safe !!)

Into the Wild #1
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 03:07:13 AM

Hello Scrappers!

In today's update, we'll start to get an overview of one of the Factions unlocked during the campaign, the beastly Wild Packs!

Since it is a very different Faction from the others, with very asymmetrical rules we will dedicate 2 Updates to their presentation, today we will talk about the rules of the Scrappers and the Faction Leader

Nikita, accompanied by the loyal Muso, is the leader of this faction which has as its main feature is that the Scrappers cannot use any type of Refuges, Bridges, and Elevators.

Nikita and Muso are considered a single unit and have 2 powerful special abilities. Unlike all other Wild Pack units, They can use Neutral Refuges, Bridges, and Elevators and always count as 2 for Majority purposes. Also with the RECALL ability: The Enlist action place a Scrapper in the region where Nikita is located instead of in a Refuge (in practice Nikita and Muso act as a Refuge with the ability to move).

Even the Scrappers have 2 very special skills that compensate for the inability to use the Structures. LONE WOLF allows you to move each individual Scrapper when performing a Move action and apply one of the following 3 effects when a Scrapper performs the movement.

DASH: If it moves within the same type of region (Roof / Ground), the scrapper can move 2 regions instead of 1.

CLIMB: The scrapper can move from a Ground region to a Roof and vice versa as if there were an Elevator.

JUMP: The scrapper can jump from a Roof region to a Roof region as if there were a Bridge.

Furthermore, with RETRIEVER, when a Scrapper performs a Collect action in a region where Nikita is not present, it must be immediately replaced into the same Area of Nikita.

Already from these rules, you will have guessed that we are facing a really different faction that will let you play D.E.I. in a totally new way. The Scrappers enjoy very high mobility but the fact that they must always be relocated near Nikita every time they collect a resource, will require careful planning of the current shift but also in the following rounds!

In the next update, we will analyze the Faction cards, the Feats, and of course Tostoj, the giant bear that accompanies this Faction!

Before saying goodbye a couple of Important news!

It makes us very happy to inform you that Barrage, the famous game of which Tommaso Battista is co-author, has been awarded as the best strategy game at the  2020 International Game Awards!

We congratulate Tommaso and we are even more proud of having published D.E.I., bringing to life another his great creation!

Finally, as many of you know these days we have launched Nova Aetas Renaissance on KS, in a campaign to give life to a new edition of the first LMS game, funded almost 5 years ago!

Although it is a very different game from D.E.I., we advise you to take a look at it and, if you like it, follow us on this new adventure!

We are waiting for you!

See you in a couple of weeks!