What is the story of August Games

Road-Kill Rally auto-racing game.  Road-Kill Rally is a board game and strategy game.

Role Playing game.  Board Game.  Strategy Board game.  Auto-combat game.  Founded in 1992, August Games is a publisher of board and role-playing games.  Our design philosophy is simple - Create fun, reasonably priced and well designed games that bring people together.

Road-Kill Rally simulates the fast paced action of futuristic motorized death sports where superstar drivers in weapon-laden cars race through the streets of America in search of blood, fame and fortune.  Points are scored by killing pedestrians, destroying competing drivers and racing across the finish line first.  The surviving driver with the highest number of points at the end of the race is the winner.

No two games of Road-Kill Rally are ever the same.  Unlike most board games, Road-Kill Rally is not played on a single game board.  Rather the board is divided into numerous turn tracks and straight-aways.  The track sections are revealed randomly as play progresses while the old track sections to the rear are removed from play.  Players never know what will be around the next turn or what scoring opportunities may arise.

The combination of random game play and a wide variety of vehicles makes Road-Kill Rally a unique and fun board game experience. Good luck racing and don’t forget that mercy is a moving violation.

Road-Kill Rally is scheduled for release in the spring of 2004.

Our group has been playing games together for twenty years.  During that time we explored scores of role playing and strategy games, most of which fill Dan's garage today.  Thousands of hours of game played granted us a real knack for understanding what makes a good game tick.  Soon, like many games, we began making 'improvements' to the games we played, often combining the best elements of two or more games.  Eventually we started developing our own games.

August Games was founded by Dan George in 1992 during the birth of the internet where he published Bloodthirsty Capitalist Backstabbing Hogs for free on the web.  Dan saw it as the perfect opportunity to promote non-electronic gaming and hook up with fellow gamers.  August Games started out, as many things, as a simple hobby.

I decided to go about creating a game that recreated naval battles during the Age of Sail (1755 – 1815) after watching the Master and Commander, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Horatio Hornblower series.  I found the tactics and action very compelling and believed it would make a nice tabletop game.

Unlike many of the other great naval games out there, War of Sail is intentionally non-complex.  It is more of a simulation than a recreation.  I sacrificed various elements of realism in order to make the game move a lot faster.  This increases the number of players who would enjoy the game and makes introducing the game to new players a lot easier.

War of Sail does not use paper and pencil for recordkeeping.  The ships statistics are tracked on ship boards with colored beads.  Many players find pencil and paper recordkeeping both messy and time consuming.  Also, the ship boards allow all players to clearly see the condition of all ships in the battle.

Lastly, I love miniatures and take all opportunities to expand my collection.  Tabletops full of ship miniatures are spectacular and a real pleasure to play with.

I hope you have as much fun playing War of Sail than I did making it.  Happy gaming

War of Sail depicts naval battles during the Age of Fighting Sail (1739 to 1815). This exciting period of history was the peak of naval sail power where nations utilized great fleets to expand their empires. The seas were dominated by French, English, Spanish and Dutch fleets who fought many great naval battles to maintain their world supremacy. In the end England, utilizing her superior naval power, seized numerous possessions of France, Spain and the Holland. The Spanish, French and Dutch crowns fell into near-bankruptcy, their once great fleets battered and nearly annihilated. By 1815 England had established herself as the “Queen of the Seas” and ushered in a century of European peace entitled the Pax Britannica (Latin for "Peace of Britain").
War of Sail attempts to simulate the major tactical aspects of naval warfare during this period of time. War of Sail is designed to reward players who utilize the fundamental naval strategies of the time. Players must decide how to best allocate their crews during the battle to take advantage of the wind, to outmaneuver their enemies. Good players quickly learn the advantage of using the “Tactics of the Line” to defeat their enemies.
Unlike many of the other naval games out there, War of Sail is relatively simple to learn and play. Various elements of realism and complexity have been sacrificed in order to make the game more playable by a wider variety of people. All a player needs to know to play the game is located on their ship board and a single sheet of easy to understand tables.
Furthermore, War of Sail does not use traditional paper and pencil for record keeping. The ships statistics are tracked on ship boards with colored beads, allowing all players to clearly see the condition of all ships in the battle and manage the operations of their ships. This eliminates the need for photocopying and lengthy resets between games.
I would like to personally thank all of you who have contributed to the game design and play testing process. Your feedback, suggestions and criticisms have been invaluable in making War of Sail a lot of fun. I fully enjoyed getting my French fleets being shattered by such fine players. Thank you!

August Games is dedicated to the production of fun, well-designed products. The kind of games we would want to buy and play ourselves.  Each o