On 8th April 2022, Warlord released the following article: https://warlord-community.warlordgames.com/the-future-of-beyond-the-gates-of-antares/?__s=8k89yvrlwr9z2tglavky, the essence of which is:
[… economic environment as background…] We have made the difficult decision to halt development of the Beyond the Gates of Antares (BtGoA) system as it requires much more resource to do it justice than our traditional historical games and we have no wish to do so half-heartedly. Sadly this means Tim Bancroft will also be leaving Warlord Games – we wish Tim all the very best for the future and thank him for his tireless work on the Antares project.
Over the next few months Warlord Games will be moving the production of the existing BtGoA models to our sister company, Skytrex, so you can still buy reinforcements for their armies.
However, BtGoA is not being abandoned! Tim and Rick Priestley (the progenitor of the game) will be taking over future support and development of the game and universe. Their first plan is to release the second edition of BtGoA (Antares 2) as a series of free, PDF downloads and will be supporting the game through a new Nexus website [… Skytrex, Warlord, Nexus websites addresses …].
Warlord Games, 2022
This means that Tim was made redundant and lost his job as it no longer existed. It also means that, whilst there are some constraints to optimise and ease production, a huge number of discontinued items as well as all the existing range that was compatible with Antares 2 will be moving to Skytrex and will be produced and sold by Skytrex – nothing will be going through Warlord.
Rick and I (Tim) feel this is an opportunity. Tim has reworked all of Antares 2 to fit with the existing range of models and we have altered the format so that:
- Antares 2, the second edition of Beyond the Gates of Antares is published with this website going live.
- The essential rules are in a modular format. This means the Core Rules, Arms & Equipment, Playing the Game, quick ref sheet, army lists and background are all in separate productions so can be released and maintained independently of each other. Indeed, the Core Rules can even be used for other universes! See Rules Central.
- The essential rules are all in free, PDF format. We have also made them black and white on a clear background so printing at home is easy.
- We can extend the universe with player-contributed STLs or with player-created models that Skytrex could produce.
- The existing models (and many in the back-catalogue) will continue to be manufactured and sold by Skytrex, as well as some new models.
- We can easily extend the universe with player-sourced contributions such as Freeborn Houses, columns, fiction, mercenaries, Boromite Clans and Guilds, scenarios, campaigns, faction lists, and so on. This is constrained by the time we have, though, for checking through the Antares conformity – and in a busy world! We won’t be able to publish all as we will try to keep a high standard and will not be able to take material that is too far from the Antares background.
- Amendments can be made quickly and cheaply and we do not need to be tied to a print format. We are are aware some players like books so are looking at PoD (Print on Demand) at a number of places but will not let the print format dictate where Antares is going: digital offers us greater flexibilty and adaptability. The army lists, for example, are unlikely to be in paper for that reason!
- We can continue to develop the storyline and narrative as steered by players and games days.
Overall, we think it’s an opportunity for Antares to try a different approach, one bolstered by the core production in Skytrex, but an approach that is more open. We’re maintaining it on a hobby basis, so things may be rough and ready, but with player support, we hope the game can continue. The destination is vague and over the horizon, but we’re looking forward to the journey and intend to keep having fun as the game and narrative evolves.
Have fun!
Tim & Rick
Antares Nexus 