BEOWULF. a|state. Maskwitches. Cold City:Hot War. FiveEvil
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You can now sign up to be notified when the Trench Crusade Backdrops Book campaign goes live. As you might know we often run short campaigns, so don’t miss out!
The PDF version of The Burn is now updated to the standalone edition, with everything you need to play! If you already have it, we’ve updated your library to contain the new version absolutely free
The physical book is off to print, and the pre-order for that will be coming soon! We’ll be bringing copies of the new edition to Tabletop Scotland in September.
In the latest update to our web store software, our carefully calibrated formulas for charging you shipping have been deleted.
So we can either shut the store and wait for it to be fixed, or stay open and give you (wildly) discounted shipping on larger orders.
Have at it.
https://handiwork.games/shop
The “sale” will last until the bug is fixed. Or we go bust from offering such cheap shipping. Whichever comes first.
We’re producing a new stand alone edition of The Burn! No longer will you need a separate rulebook to play. Everything you need will be in the one 64 page book, complete with some new artwork of our Wee Folk friends along the Polmont Burn.
Take on the role of the Wee Folk and protect The Burn from the spirits of pollution, litter, and filth!
We will have print copies at Tabletop Scotland, and we’ll update everyone’s existing PDFs with the new edition as soon as it’s locked in.
And looking great! All pre-orders are packed up and will hit the post tomorrow!
And with that the two new books are off pre-order and are now just regular orders. Nice.
Maskwitches has been nominated for an ENnie award for Best Art, and voting is now open here.
I don’t mind playing the ENnies game – it’s one we voluntarily sign up to play. I also don’t take it too seriously. It’s nice to win awards, of course. And I have real respect for the work that goes into them.
But it is definitely a game when it’s a public vote: the entrants pre-existing audiences, their ability to spend time canvassing and so on? They’re all massive factors. Some of which we at Handiwork gain from, some are more challenging.
And while again I don’t mind any of this: this is the game we set out to play when we entered, I have some lingering reservation about art as competition and the very idea of “Best Art”.
So let’s take a look at all the entrants in The Best Art category. This year in particular features some amazing art, and I’m gonna leverage my 25 years of professional art making and art directing in games to take a look at all the entrants and sing their praises, while enjoying their relative merits.
It’s a cliche, but getting a nomination from the judging panel is a win. After that it comes down to the voting public, which is anyone’s guess. So you know. Let’s stick to thinking of this as a game.
Alphabetically, Maskwitches comes first, so let’s stick to that ordering. There’s a whole blog about the making of it over this way.
Continue reading “Thinking about The ENnies”Handiwork Games signs license with Factory Fortress Inc for official Trench Crusade Backdrop Books!
We’re delighted to hare that we have completed contracts with Factory Fortress to make a new range of Backdrop Books for the smash-hit Trench Crusade.
Handiwork Games already produces a range of backdrop books in A4 and A3 sizes for miniature enthusiasts to put behind their miniatures, aimed at levelling-up their mini photography. These were awarded third place in the On TableTop Accessory of the Year 2024, and have seen two successful kickstarters.
And now Backdrop Books are heading into the world of Trench Crusade! With rumours of two initial books, in two sizes, we will be bringing this new range to crowdfunding later in this year.
Jon Hodgson, Handiwork’s Managing Director and one of the artists behind Backdrop Books said:
“As a fan of Mike Franchina’s art for two decades, I’ve been following Trench Crusade with keen interest. It’s been amazing to see it coalesce into his juggernaut of a setting, and I’ve been so delighted to see it reach so many gamers. Such an imaginative and well realised setting, with such great minis, and a culture of modelling and kit-bashing is a perfect fit for what we do!
I’m super excited to see what people create with our Trench Crusade backdrops!”
About Trench Crusade
Trench Crusade is a skirmish-scale tabletop miniatures game that plunges players deep into a horrifying alternate timeline. During the Crusades a heretical band of Templars dared defy the Almighty, unleashing the forces of Hell upon the Earth. Over 800 years later, in the Year of Our Lord 1914, this merciless war between the forces of Heaven and Hell rages on in a cataclysmic struggle that will decide the very fate of humanity’s soul.
Find out more about Trench Crusade at https://www.trenchcrusade.com/
About Handiwork Games
Founded in 2019 by industry veteran Jon Hodgson, Handiwork Games is a game design and publishing company based in Scotland. They produce various game products, including a|state second edition, BEOWULF Age of Heroes, Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland, the award-winning The Forest Dragon card game and a range of unique gaming accessories.
We have just released two new backdrop books – Deserts and Warmer Climes, and Planets and Nebulae. These are not being kickstarted – they’re done, and A4 stock arrives with us tomorrow, the A3s next week.
We’ve opened a pre-order today on our web store so that we can get ahead of picking and packing, before we open general orders next week.
The pre-order is here.
Let’s check out the preview images of all the pages!
And that’s not all! We have some super exciting Backdrop Book news to reveal later today UK time. So be sure to keep an eye on our website and social media for that announcement!
You can follow us:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/handiworkgames
Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/handiworkgames
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/handiworkgames.bsky.social
Or join the FB Backdrops group.
Congratulations to all the nominees, and thank you to the judges.
We’re stoked!
We have 3 new backdrop books coming your way in the near future.
First up is World War Ruins:
The World War Ruins book features a host of scenes of ruined buildings reminiscent of European cities – perfect settings for the World Wars or sci-fi miniatures.
By special arrangement this book is being initially offered EXCLUSIVELY through Bad Squiddo’s upcoming Women of WW2: Resistance kickstarter!
They’ll be first available during this Kickstarter campaign and included in some very tasty bundles. There is no better way to show off your brand new painted Women of Resistance!
Later, we’ll have these books available direct from us on our web store – but it will be after Resistance backers get their copies!
| The second new book is a first – a pure Paul Bourne backdrops book! 32 amazing space vistas of planets and starfields for all your sci-fi or cosmic models. This will be available direct from our web store this month. The images in this book are so clean and fresh there was no need for any overpainting. They’re lush! |
The third book is Deserts and Warmer Climes and will be perfect for your Bronze Age fantasy or North Africa WW2 minis. There’s loads of desert scenes but also a healthy dose of Mediterranean island scenes too! This will also be available from us in July from our web store!
Find out more about Backdrop Books here.
And order into the existing titles here.
Find out more about using Backdrop Books in your commercial endeavours here.