- Do you know who Charlemagne was? 
- Yes of course, his majesty, the King of the Franks. 
- And do you know where the capital of his kingdom was? 
- No his majesty, I suppose somewhere in modern France. 
- No, in every part of modern France, and not only. 
- I think I don't understand.
 - The Franks did not have a fixed capital: Charlemagne, and his court with him, moved constantly from one place to another of his reign. In this way he could lead and control the actions of his people.
- It seems a good idea, the proximity to the king is crucial for the population.
- And so I have in mind to do.
- You intend to move the capital, majesty?
- No, I intend to move myself, from province to province in the country, so that everyone can feel close and identify with me: no longer they have to consider me a Foreign King.

In 1831 a state was born, but a nation has yet to be created. Belgium conquered his indipendence from Holland and call a foreign king to lead the new nation. Now, a German king sits on the throne conceiving great plans for his kingdom. First step is the unification of the whole population, always divided because of cultural and religious differences. Then a high industrialization that will lead Belgium to compete with the powerful European nations. Now everyone works together for the growth of the country, under the leadership of a foreign king.

For influential families ancient enmities and differences are hard to forget and each one will compete with the others to earn trust in the eyes of the king.

Will you be able to be protagonist of industrialization and demographic expansion of Belgium, managing to rise your family above the others?
 

Here we show the campaign for the making of The Foreign King boardgame: a fast strategic boardgame for 2-4 players, aged 14+, which lasts about 40 minutes per game. We will make a multilanguage version including Italian, English and German. Other languages could be available if the relative stretch-goals will be unlocked.

This project is available at the same time on 3 crowdfunding platforms: Giochistarter (Italy), Spieleschmiede (Germany) and Kickstarter (USA). To define the total amount collected and the relative Stretch goals activated, you have to consider the sum of the amount reached by the 3 websites. This sum is automatically calculated on Giochistarter: in this page on the left corners you see the total number of participants and the sum collected in all three websites.

-> Beta version rulebook is available in English, Spanish, Italian, German and French.

	Because The Foreign King is a great strategic game easy to play with a short duration.
	Because The Foreing King can be enjoyed by hard-core gamers but also by traditional players.
	Because here, and only here, you can find the Deluxe edition, that will not be released on the market.
	Because thanks to its pocket format it\'s easy to take and play everywhere.
	Because, if with your help we will be able to produce the game, you'll have it before everyone, as any eventually retail distribution will start much later.
	Because with the Fidelity Program, for each purchase made giochistarter allows you to gain/increase a permanent discount linked on your account.
	Because your collaboration can help us make the game better and more interesting!
	Because here you can join to the "Faster Click" contest and win a Medievalia game, if you will be the faster participant to join the campaign.

Because we produce games from the 2007 and we sold more than 110.000 boardgame copies!

Because we published 28 boardgames, like Historia, CO2, Romolo o Remo, De Vulgari Eloquentia or, for Italy market, Race for the Galaxy, Tiny Epic Kingdoms, Dice Town. 

Because we have and we are trusted by several international partners: Rio Grande Games (US),  Stronghold Games (US), Zman Games (US), Elfinwerks (US), Gamenyl Games (US), Arcana (US), MYBG Co. (CN), Heidelberger Spieleverlag (DE); Lookout Games (DE), Juegamos Games (ES), Black Book Editions (FR), Gigamic (FR), Matagot (FR), Artipia Games (GR), Arclight (JP),  BardCentrum Gier (PL), Lacerta (PL), NSKN Games (RO) and Hobby World (RU). 

Because joining our campaigns you will be guaranteed on several aspects: 

• On shipping time: we always respected the shipping timing on other campaigns. We are also improving packaging and delivery conditions to make delivery faster for all world wide addresses.
• On payment: with PayPal you are guaranteed! Paypal protects you and your transactions and if there is any problem it will refund you the money paid.
• On idea changes: whitin 40 days from the order you can cancel it simply sending us an email. You will be immediately refunded!
• On information: on your profile, order section, you can follow your order and find all the info available on it. You can also track it if you package has this service. For any problem write us and we will reply asap. 

Two short reviews in Italian on Giochi sul nostro tavolo and Gioconomicon, and another in English on BGG.

The Foreign King is a light-to-medium weight strategy game for 2-4 players, in which you lead one of most influent bourgeois family of Belgium. Main mechanics are placement and majority, and thanks to his ease of learning and fast pace, a game lasts about 40 minutes. During the game you must pay attention to many factors and to the different strategies that can lead you to the victory. In The Foreign King, opponent\'s actions will be important for your strategy as yours. Especially remember: not only you must choose the best action but you also have to take it at the right moment or your opponent will prevent you to do it.  

The game is divided in turns. In a turn each player takes one action, choosing it from the action that are not yet performed by others players. Availables actions are: 

During the game you have to obtain the majority of citizens of your faction (your color) in the Belgian provinces (place and move citizen actions) and build as many factory as possible (industrialize province). Who industrializes first a province takes a Royal Honor, the greatest King acknowledgment.

With the action Build a factory the yellow player builds a factory in the West-vlaanderen province: he pays 3 francs and takes the factory token from the reserve. As the factory is the first one in the province, the player gains an honor medal.

When the King Leopold I comes in a province where you have the majority of citizens (score whit the King action) you gain Victory Points (VP); you gain more VP if the province is industrialized and depending of which type of factory there was built. To implement your strategy you need to get coins (receive coins action) and to obtain the majority of congressmen (place a congressman action). When a player scores with the King, congressmen can be moved in the scoring province to change the majority of citizens.
 

Only one player per time can move his congressmen in a province. First chooses who has the majority in the Congress, then the second and so on.

Additional actions are the change turn order action, that allows to perform the best action at the best moment, and the Queen action, that allows players to perform an action already chosen by an opponent.

At the end of the game you gain VP for the majority of citizens in more provinces than other players, for the majority of congressmen, for coins owned and for the Royal Honors you gained during the game.

So there are many ways to win in this game and in every moment you are divided by two goals: concentrate your citizens and build more factory in the same province to gain VP during the game or plan the widest possible expansion on the whole Belgium to gain more VP at the end of the game. if you\'ll maneged to match these two aspects of the game you\'ll obtain the esteem of your King and your family will be the most influential of Belgium. 

1 Board 33 x 17 cm
1 King pawn
4 Player pawns, 1 of each player color
64 wooden Discs, 10 mm (citizens), 16 of each player color
1 wooden Disc, 10 mm, king color
9 Royal honor tiles
5 Textile factory wooden markers (white)
5 Metallurgical factory wooden markers (grey)
21 coin tiles: 5 gold (5 Francs), 16 silver (1 Franc)
Rulebook

In addition of the contents above, you can take the deluxe addon and add to the game 10 factory pieces plus any unlocked deluxe stretch-goal. These factory pieces are made in plastic by 3d printing technology. You can use them in the game instead of normal wooden components.

The Foreign King is a great strategic game so is perfect for gamers who wants a quick game with contained duration and like complete information, no alea and interaction among players. But his simply mechanics and ease of learning make The Foreign King perfect for occasional players as entry level in strategic board games.

Some comments from the playtesters:

"Good balance between speed and strategy".

"Great for casual gamers, deep but not long or boring".

"Unanimously we found the title great for demo areas: you explain in a moment, lasts within the hour, and has a certain complexity tactic suitable for a beginner who wants to take an extra step".

"The game runs smoothly, good gameplay, both for beginners and for gamers".

"The simplicity that does not translate into banality: the game turns out indeed very deep and interesting as you progress through the game".

"Despite being a game with few rules and easy to learn has a great strategic depth". 

The game improvements has been made possible thanks to the contributions of the people who were trying it. We want to say thank you to all gamer which helped us and particularly to the Italian game clubs which joined to our nationwide playtest campaign:

Club USS Leonardo, Milano
Compagnia del Foresto, Modena
Giocare seriamente, Pescara
Il capello della strega, Cesena
Jocamus TdG, Catania
Join TdG Civitacastellana, Civitacastellana
Ludus in tabula, Milano
La Civetta sul Comò, Roma
Tdg Venezia, Venezia
Finubus Terrae, Bari
Anno Domini, Trapani

Railroads expansion

- Preparations for your trip are completed Majesty, everything is ready. With which means of transportation you want to move in the country? By horse, carriage?

- I would like to travel by train.

- By train? Which train?

- The train that does not exist yet, but there will be soon. Belgium will soon be famous for its metallurgical industries and railways.

- But it is a huge undertaking, no one has yet built it in Europe.

- Exactly, it\'s time to progress into the future, a great future!

Considering that railways would be a great economic resource and that a complete national network would be necessary, King Leopold I was unusual for its time in planning a national network in advance before each other European country. first railway in continental Europe in 1835, between Brussels and Mechelen.

In 1843, Belgium had the most dense railway network in the world, taking into account of the extension of his territory. In the following years, Belgium becomes one of the major producer of railroads of the world.

Railroads expansion, allows players to build railroads to link the provinces of Belgium. Starting from any metallurgical factory your railroad will cross the Belgium, providing as many victory points as it will be long.

Contens: 10 rail tokens, mini-rulebook.

Catholics vs Liberals expansion

- What Belgians says about our politics?

- People thinks that you are a great king. But you know, Majesty, people is not interested in politics, their unique interest is a good life.

- And what politicians says about Belgium?

- Politicians think that you are a great king. But you know, Majesty, politics are not interested in good life, their unique interest is politic.

- Are you sure you are sincerely answering to my questions?

- The truth, majesty, is that Belgian population, and politicians too, are divided in two groups: Liberal and Catholics; Liberals love you because you are progressive and Catholics love you because you are catholic.

- So Liberals oppose me because I\'m catholic and Catholics oppose me because I\'m progressive. At least in opoosition I was able to join together the entire population! 

Belgium was dominated by a struggle between two political groups, known as the Catholics and the Liberals. In general terms, the Catholics represented the relatively religious, conservative and rural elements in the society, while the Liberals represented the more secular, more progressive and more urban middle-class elements. So the nation was therefore polarized between the conservative Catholics Party and the secular Liberal Party.

With the Chatolics vs Liberals expansion you will participate in the political struggle that took place in Belgium until 1917. Players will join Liberal and Chatholics party and vote in the election to change the political balance of Belgium in their favour. At the end of the game the party with majority of the provinces will earn victory points.

Contens: 10 politic tokens, mini-rulebook.

Riots expansion

- Europe is up in arms, the revolution is everywhere.
- The people rebels against their monarchies to have the Constitution.
- Do you think it will happen also in our country?
- I do not see why, majesty. You are a great king and Belgium already has a Constitution.
- But there\'s always someone unhappy and Belgium is no exception; riots will happen here as well and we will have to intervene.
- You will not want to use weapons against your people, majesty!
- Yes of course, my weapons will be firmness and justice.

In February  1848, Leopold I helped to maintain peace remaining neutral during the revolutionary events that upset Europe between January of 1848 and spring of 1849. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolution into Belgium 
These riots were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe, that remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history, but within a year, reactionary forces had regained control and the revolutions collapsed. 

With the Riots expansion, players have to manage riots in the provinces of Belgium and use them for their purpose ruining the plans of the opponents. They can also use the King Leopold I not only to get victory points by majorities and factories, but also turning off the hotbed of revolution in the country.

Contens: 8 riot tokens, mini-rulebook.   
 

The Foreign King game is language indipendant. All participants will receive a multilanguage version which included a rulebook in Italian, English and German.

The rulebook will be also translated in the languages of giochistarter users which collectively will reach a minimal amount of 1000 euro. In that case the translated rulebook will be available online. If these users will reach the amount of 2000 euro the rulebook will be printed and added to their Foreign King copy. For example, there are 100 backers from Spain, 30 from Mexico and 10 from Argentina. They represent the Spanish group, so if they collectively backed at least 1000 euro, the Spanish rulebook will be put online on Giochix website; with 2000 euro or more, the Spanish rulebook will be printed.

Payment. You can pay with credit cards (Paypal) or by Bank wire transfer. Payments must be made within 10 days from the date of the order or the order will be canceled.

Shipment. Shipping to Italy, Spain, USA and Canada costs simbolically 1 euro. For other EU countries it costs 4.95 euro. For other world Countries shipping cost will be shown after clicking "Proceed to checkout” button on the cart. 

It’s possible pick-up your copy for free at our stand in Essen Fair (Germany, 6-10 October) or our pickup point in Rome. 

We will ship games on September 2015 (or as soon we will receive the games in our warehouse) following the order date. Shipment completion will take some day, depending on the amount of participants in the project. Shipments to the participants in the campaign will be made in advance than stores and distributors, which will be made only the following month. Stores cannot sell the game before shipment date or their orders will be canceled.

Note: We strongly suggest to specify a telephone number in your profile. This helps a lot the game delivery. 
We will use the address specified in your GS account profile: this means you can change it as you wish whitin the date of shipment.

Production. Rarely can occur a production delay out of our control and by our actions. For example there may be a technical problem with the tipography, a delay of a supplier, or a problem with the main publisher which is directly printing the game (for example on an Italian version of an English game).

These facts should be taken into account. Anyway we will notify you promptly if something like that were to happen.

Contents. Game specifications and contents are indicative and can be changed during final production.

Progect pages. Sometime can be there some little variances on the different language project pages (Italian, French, English, Spanish, German) of Giochistarter. In that case, refer to the project English page.

Shipments. Depending on the game, we ship by Postal service, Postal service insured or by Courier (UPS/GLS/Bartolini/SDA). 

Shipments made by Courier or by Postal service insured can be tracked and are insured. Shipments made by Postal service without insurance can not be traced and, although it rarely does, it can happen that they delay or are lost. We recommend to those who want to avoid any problem to use the insured option or an alternative method, if available. 

Shipments insurance doesn't cover any external damage to the box.

If the game will not be delivered because of your mistake (wrong address,recipient repeatedly absent, do not pick up the package after the passage of the courier, etc.), you will have to pay an additional shipping cost for re-send you the game. This cost will also include the return costs of the game. Otherwise, if we made an error, we will send it back at our expense.
If  the game gone lost without any fault, we will reship it only if you took insurance option or Courier service.

If you live out of the European Community, customs taxes could be added. This usually doesn't happen for games. Check your Country legislation to be sure about that, ad this aspect is not a our responsability.

We will no longer accept complaints related to this campaign after 12 months of its term.

Javier García was born in 1970 in Barcelona, the city where he resides. He's a mechanic and has three gorgeous nephews. He enjoys reading, writing, rock music and good series (to name only some of his hobbies). Has previously published Mecca, Zyrcan and Taxi Driver Barcelona. He has also been the creator of the free online spanish board magazine "Ludo Magazine".

Let make him some question:

What was the starting point of The Foreign King? How did the idea come yo your mind?
In this case the initial idea about making a "Kramer style" game was that the board had to be a map, must be some kind of confrontation between players and selecting actions that couldn’t be repeated. There wasn’t much more and I didn’t even was sure about how many players could play, so for the first sketches it was a two players game. One day, reading the newspaper, I read an article about the fight in Belgium between Walloons and Flemings and that's when the spark that allowed me to acclimate the game at that stage appeared. 

How did the game evolve from its inception to its final version?
The game has undergone constant changes since its inception. With the initial base of the game engine, the strategic actions to provide options to the players were missing. Some actions were added and some others were merged into a single action. I tried to find testers in BSK, the most important spanish boardgame forum, and based on the comments and opinions of the people who tested it, I adjusted and changed things, always improving the game. The contribution of Chechu Nieto (Revolver and Tiwlight Struggle Deluxe illustrator) was very important in both the graphics of the prototype and improving some parst of the game. Without his help I don’t think it would come so far. Later, in the hands of Giochix, the game has continued to evolve to add a fourth player, which in its early versions wasn’t present, reduce the length, or adjust scores and maintaining tension. 

What are your next projects?
I have several projects in various stages of development. The most advanced one is "Papua", developed with Diego Ibanez ("Banjooli Xeet" or the future "Holmes & Mycroft”) that is set somewhere just to let it be completely finished. This is a game with dice that mix auction and management. So far he has liked a lot and I hope It gets published someday. Another Project that is almost finished is "Alexandria," a familiar game in thestyle of Stephan Feld which is currently in the Granollers boardgame contest. In a few days I will know if it reaches the final. Finally I have a simple card game called "Doors of Tunisia" quick to play and with a lot of interaction between players.
There are another projects, developed alone or collaborating with other designers, which there aren’t in the final stages of development for now.