Marcher: Empires at War First Edition

Marcher began in 2021 with the foundation of Golden Dragon Games. With the first models sculpted, we knew that we wanted to build off of them into our own game, our own world, and eventually, plastic models. Last year, we ran a crowdfunding campaign for our first plastic models. Now that those molds are cut and the game is nearing the end of development, we're looking to the future.

There is no better way to grow a community for a wargame than to make the game easy to get into. This is what the Battle of the Marne Box is for Marcher. Two armies in hard plastic from Wargames Atlantic, Dice from the Baron of Dice, a movement tool, tokens, and, of course, our two core rulebooks. Everything you need to play in one box, easily split between a couple of friends.

In last year’s campaign, we successfully funded the creation of three plastic kits for the United States Faction: 

G.I. Infantry: The mainline troops for the USA. The frames from this box each build five figures, with options for rifles or special weapons such as an automatic rifle, grenade launcher, sniper rifle, or flamethrower.

Veterans and Command: An upgraded version of the G.I. Infantry, the veterans frame adds options for shotguns, assault rifles, a heat ray gun, and a bazooka, along with specialists such as a flag bearer or medic, and finally, parts to build an officer.

These kits form the US half of the box. The majority of the funding we’re raising with this campaign will be used to do the same for the HRE half. So let’s take a close look at their first three sets in plastic. One thing to note here is that these sculpts are designed for 3D printing, and so the final ones will be different in a number of ways, just because of the conversion process.

Imperial Landwehr: The standard infantry of the Empire. Armed with rifles, solid armor, and, like all Imperial Units, personal shield generators. The frame for this set will ideally include 5 figures, rifles to arm them, and a variety of special weapons, such as a panzerfaust, a flamethrower, a sniper rifle, and parts to build a machine gun team. Depending on space, we’ll try to squeeze more in, but those are the priority!

Sturmpioneers: Imperial Combat Engineers, loaded down with heavy armor, submachine guns, and a can-do attitude. These stalwart troops are fan-favorites and will be our first elite infantry set. We’re still working out the details on how exactly this frame will be laid out, but the box will build either 10 or 12 figures, depending on how the conversion process goes.

Knecht Battlesuits: Advanced power-armor. Nimble, exquisitely crafted, and expensive (in terms of points!) Like the Badger Suits before them, this frame will build one model each, but will be entirely poseable, and come with a variety of weapons, such as (at least) a shield and mace, a zweihander, and a heavy machine gun.

Besides the Battle of the Marne Box, this campaign is the first time we'll be offering printed versions of our rulebooks. Marcher has been in development for a while, and during this time, the rules have been provided for free in PDF form on our Public Drive. This will not be changing! We've committed to providing free rules for Marcher, forever, and have no intention of breaking that promise. However, many people have expressed interest in a way to have the rules without the need for technology, and so we're providing that!

Both of our rulebooks are available as part of this campaign for a discounted rate from their eventual MSRP. The Core Rules will contain the rules of the game, along with missions, and of course, tons of lore and artwork.

Armies of the Great Powers will contain faction rules, unit, and weapon listings for all six of our main factions, along with a hobby guide, more lore, and artwork.

In addition to the Battle of the Marne Starter Box, we have two different kinds of starter sets available.

 Despite these incredible advances, though, the old grudges remain.

The worlds are set alight by greed and ideology, drawing all of humanity into the Great War. Similar to our own First World War, the Great War is an all-consuming conflict fought everywhere people are, and for complicated reasons. The war was not what was hoped for, but it is what has come to pass. If you would like to learn more about the setting, our rulebooks will contain great quantities of lore, but the majority of it is available for free on our WorldAnvil page, which you can access here!

The Great War's biggest players are the six Great Powers. These are the largest and most powerful of the world's nations. They are not the only ones, however. The Major Powers and Minor Powers of the world are active as well, and if all goes well, will be joining the Great Powers on the tabletop in the coming years. We have big plans for Marcher!

A large part of this campaign is focused on the forces of the Holy Roman Empire, and, as the clear standout for our most "alternate history" faction, we wanted to take some time to really figure out their internal divisions. With that, our fantastic team cartographer, Eowyn, has produced what is likely our finest map yet.

In this section, we're going to delve into how Marcher actually plays and examine some of our mechanics in more detail.

Marcher uses D10s instead of D6s, allowing for more depth in each individual Unit and weapon. At the same time, a lot of the more menial busywork to do with movement and LOS that is common in wargames has been optimised, ensuring you spend more time in the action, and less time measuring each individual model.

Marcher also has a non-random Alternating Activation system, allowing for dynamic and reactive gameplay.

Terrain is a huge part of wargaming; however, it usually plays a more passive role on the battlefield. We took inspiration from a number of other games (mostly video games!) when developing our terrain system, and created a truly dynamic system. When playing a game of Marcher, the battlefield will evolve as tanks crush their way through obstacles, as artillery brings buildings down, and most importantly, as your engineers deploy fortifications.

Combat Engineers play a huge role in Marcher, building cover for your advancing troops, laying minefields in the path of oncoming units, and protecting your objectives with rolls of barbed wire.

Part of our effort to differentiate units is in the action economy system of Marcher. All Units, on their activation, have two Actions that they may perform. Each basic type of unit has its own list of possible actions, each more geared to its role. For example, Troops units such as Infantry Squads have the Capture Action as a Free Action, meaning that they spend no Actions to capture objectives, but for a Vehicle unit, Capture is a Difficult Action, meaning that it takes both of their two Actions. These differences mean that each category of unit has upsides and downsides, encouraging you to build varied lists in order to perform well on the battlefield.

As with our previous campaign, we're working with Wargames Atlantic to produce our models in hard plastic.

WGA does fantastic work, and we're extremely happy to be working with them. These are top-of-the-line miniatures, and so require heavy investments of both money and time. The majority of the funds raised from this campaign will be used for the creation of new molds. The upside for that is that these molds last for many years, and so will contribute to the game for a very long time.

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All of the products in this campaign will be available for retail purchase after manufacturing is completed, so why is this campaign the place to pick them up? This is an excellent question!

To start with, all of the physical products included in this campaign are offered at a special discounted rate below their MSRP, and all digital products are offered at a steep discount below our normal large sales.

Besides the monetary argument, there's also what this campaign represents. Our company, Golden Dragon Games, is extremely small. We've been working for years now to bring our models, our game, and our world into the public eye. Because of our size, we don't have a massive amount of capital backing us, and so campaigns like this are the only way we can realize these ambitions. One day, we hope that Marcher is widely played and enjoyed, with a friendly, welcoming community, and fantastic, high-quality models. This campaign is a step down that road.

CEO, Lead Game Designer, Lead Sculptor, Graphic Designer, and Writer: Jackson Jewell

Administrator and Copy Editor: Lia Jewell

Lead Writer: Zach Batson

Writer and Game Developer: Jacob Sullivan

Illustration Artist and Sculptor: Jesse Blom

Cartographer, Language Consultant, Writer, and Community Manager: Eowyn Cwper

Painter and Playtester: Logan Bennett

Writer: Jacob Eugster

Intern: Aldo "Alex" Amezquita

Additional Credits:

Illustration Artist: MunchingBiceps and Hedge Knight

Sculptor: Jurre De Groot

Heraldry: WappenWiki

Our community is a small one, and having the support of other creators is invaluable, both for their insight into the artistic process, assistance with business, and moral support. For that reason, we want to give a heartfelt thanks to our friends in the community and encourage all of you to check out their fantastic work.

During our development period, we've had many playtesters give us a massive amount of feedback. For that, we thank you for helping us to make the best game we can! Specifically, we'd like to thank the community of The Adventure Begins in Conroe, Texas, who have horribly broken our game in more ways than we can recount. Keep it coming!

No AI was used in the creation of this project or any other creation by Golden Dragon Games. We believe that the use of generative AI for creative work is an act of mass-theft, and runs counter to our creative nature as humans.

Marcher has been in development for a while at this point, and we've developed a vibrant and active community. There are a number of places to get involved!

Our Discord server has over 1100 members now, and is extremely active. There's no better place to share painted models, talk about lore, or grab a game in Tabletop Simulator.

We also have active communities on Facebook and Reddit!

We've had a number of videos made about Marcher now, so if you would like to learn more in video format, here are some helpful links!

We wanted to take a moment to thank all of the people who have helped us get to this point. The amount of support you've shown us over the last few years has been incredible, and we are deeply grateful for your faith and enthusiasm.