With approximately 24-hours left, it’s obvious that GKR: Heavy Hitters backers aren’t going to be content until they smash every single Stretch Goal. I covered the Weta Workshop/Cryptozoic campaign previously; but if you need a refresher…
GKR: Heavy Hitters is a standalone, miniature combat/deck-building tabletop game for 2–4 players. It combines drool-worthy collectible robots with dice-rolling, deck-management, and tactical play. You pilot your Heavy Hitter (an oversized mech that dominates the board) and a squad of three support units through the ruins of an abandoned city, competing to either wipe your opponent off the map or reduce four skyscrapers to rubble.
As the campaign has progressed, Weta Workshop has rolled out a staggering number of Kickstarter exclusives, along with a few choice add-ons to help push campaign funding higher (over $750k at the time I wrote this article). The base game that will be sold at retail is already impressive, with four highly-detailed, pre-painted Heavy Hitter mechs, plus a dozen smaller unpainted drones, cards galore, handfuls of dice, and miniatures for the four Heavy Hitter pilots.
So what’s been unlocked? Let’s break it down!
For everyone, Kickstarter backers and retail buyers alike, you’ll now enjoy a double-sided game board that gives you an additional battlefield to conquer. Additional Sponsor and Weapons cards (that give you extra advantages in game) will also be in the box, along with a Glory Hound Mini (it was originally a cardboard marker).
Pretty nice, eh? Well, you haven’t seen the Kickstarter backer exclusives yet! Not only do KS backers get additional weapon cards, terrain tiles (which alters the board after events like nuclear strikes), and new Solo and 2v2 rules; but you get plastic pilot dashboards, corporate-themed attack dice, themed buildings, four new pilots (with minis if you back at the Pilot’s Edition tier), and four new Mercenary Unit miniatures (that can be deployed like Support Units when you discard Sponsor Cards)! All that’s without spending a dime extra over your original pledge.
But what if your $99-$125 still doesn’t get you enough GKR? Well, there’s always add-ons! So far, there are four announced: Urban Wasteland for $45, Big Little Buddy for $30, Faction Themed Defense Dice for $25, and Mech Decals for $7. The Faction Themed Defense Dice are nice; but given that themed attack dice were added to the game for free, I was originally miffed that we have to pay extra for these. Then I realized the Hapsi dice container came with it and all was forgiven. Big Little Buddy provides some interesting mechanics – he’s a mid-sized unit that can lend support to your team, firing one weapon per round, after which, you lose him and he’s up for grabs again. The Urban Wasteland expansion is where my money will go, though. The $45 add-on replaces the cardboard buildings that ship with the game with 3-D printed models, plus sentry guns for the buildings, printed corporate logos and building spires, building decals, and translucent tags (I’m a sucker for translucent plastic). It’s the most expensive of the add-ons; but it provides a huge upgrade to the core components.
You only have about a day left if want to jump in and upgrade your backer-level (or pledge if you haven’t done so already). And in a very clever boots move, they’ve added a $5 digital comic tier that you have to pledge at if you want access to the pledge manager. So all of you $1 backers that were just going to wait it all out before pledging, you’ll need to adjust your level accordingly! It’s readily apparent that Weta Workshop and Cryptozoic are dedicated to giving their Kickstarter backers a huge amount of bonus content for helping make GKR a reality. Head over to the GKR: Heavy Hitters Kickstarter campaign page today before it’s too late!
