Xilos-Aversary: Part 2

By Chief Antares Archivist David Horobin,
supported by Archivist-Aspirant Jon Harrington.

Special thanks to Rick Priestley, Tim Bancroft, Richard Carlisle and others that made this compilation of Antares history possible.

November 7 2025 marks the 10 year anniversary of the release of the “Beyond The Gates Of Antares: Strike Vector One – The Xilos Horizon” boxed set.
The Xilos-Aversary posts commemorate this momentous occasion.

We continue our delve into the the history of Antares with Part 2 – From Kickstarter cancellation, through to collaboration with Warlord and the eventual release of “Strike Vector One: The Xilos Horizon”.

Post Kickstarter to Release (2013–2015)

Warlord Games Partnership and Official Release (June 2013)

With the cancellation of the Kickstarter, the concept of Antares as a table top war game existing within a Real Time Dynamic Gaming universe had to adapt.  Discussions were had and decisions were made.  The Antares table top game would continue to be developed, but without the Real Time Dynamic Gaming Universe.

As such Dark Space Corp would no longer develop the game, as their contribution to the project was rooted within the online experience of the game.

An announcement was made in an email and on the DarkSpaceCorp page on 28 June 2013 that Warlord Games would pick up the development of the table top Antares game.

Warlord Games First Open Day (July 2013)

With the delays to the game creation, the first iteration of the new rules were available for inspection at the Warlord Game’s Day in July 2013 (Warlord’s first Open Day and the first time I got to meet Mr RP!).

Albeit, the rules were not particularly advanced at that point in time…

The announcement that Warlord Games were taking on the game development enabled the game to adapt the Order Dice mechanic from the already successful Bolt Action WWII game, and blend with this with the already established D10 dice system and reactions that had already been announced during the Kickstarter.

There were very few developments announced in 2013, though 2014 saw a marked increase in news and all round content.

Warlord Games Development Archives (Jan 2014 to Nov 2020)

Still available online is the entire collection of Warlord Games Articles – a whole 53 pages worth.

Similar to the Part 1 Xilos-Aversary post, I’m not going to copy or highlight every single minor update. Overly excited Archivists can use the link above and bathe their ocular nodes in all the glorious history.

But throughout the course of Warlord’s Articles, we see commentary on how the rules developed, images of models being created and enhancements to the background material/setting.

A New Mercenary Approaches (April 2014)

Bovan Tuk, the fearsome Mhagris mercenary leader joined Hansa Nairoba to become the second model to be released for the game.

During the Kickstarter programme (update #50), we were introduced to this character, with the imagery very heavily based on the initial concept art.

Warlord Games First Open Day (July 2014)

It took a while for the early rules to be refined; but almost a year later an Alpha Version of the rules were made available to purchase at the 2014 Warlord Games Day.

The available figures on that day were a mixture of Boromite and Algoryn metals, which became the “unofficial” release of these factions – at the time there were only a handful of unit types available for each.

Keen eyed Archivists will note that the same image was used later as a cover for the Beyond the Gates of Antares dice game, published in 2016. The later image, however, featured the addition of a Ghar battle suit towering over the Algoryn trooper. At this point in time the Ghar were a mere glimmer in their creator’s eye – nothing more than early concept art, which, as we’ll see shortly, was subject to change.

Others among you may note that the C3 Strike Trooper on the cover of the Alpha Edition was the inspiration for how I would eventually paint my Concord faction –at this point in the timeline, no figures had been released, but the imagery of these factions had coalesced into what we recognise now.

During the life-cycle of the Alpha rules, feedback was sought from the community, giving prospective players ample chance to shape the evolution of the game.  The army lists existed in the same format that first edition players will be familiar with, though one of the Concord lists permitted the direct blending of Freeborn and Concord in the same formation – something which was not repeated in later iterations.

Part of the early lore for the Freeborn was that they often fought on behalf of the IMTel factions, but as the background was developed the Freeborn became more mercantile and less directly concerned with the security of the more technological factions.

There were some interesting items of equipment: Synker Shields, Compression Shells & T-skin (Transkin) among others; the prevalence of “Hyper-Materials” was at it’s peak use and really came through with this version of the rules, although Hypermats would still be common across Antarean society its impact on the rules was reduced.

The artwork had also been refined and there were pictures of actual models to be used in the game.

And there was still no mention of the Gwar (Ghar) in this rule set.

Beta Edition (November 2014)

Following a Warlord Staff Playtest at John Stallard’s gaming den, the Alpha rules were upgraded and released as a perfect-bound Beta Edition in October 2014 (and available to download from November 2014).

Rules-wise, the beta version was a smaller version of what became the first edition rules and implemented some of the changes from the initial feedback of the Alpha. Neither Alpha nor Beta versions included anything in the rules for using Pan-Simians, which had been significantly covered through the Kickstarter and DSC development stages. The “War-Drone” concept morphed into drones that supported biological units (such as the C3D1 Light Support Drone).

The Beta rules were available for roughly a year before the actual release, giving the community to chance to give the game a try. Again, there was nothing about the Gwar (Ghar), though that was soon to change.

Ghar Sighted (December 2014)

The Ghar were teased as early as April 2014 , labelled as “first concept placeholder” art. The feedback on forums and other social media was critical, though one would have been mistaken to think this was the final version.

As part of Warlord’s “12 Days Of Christmas” teasers, the first image of the new Ghar design was released into the wild. This proved a significant update to the earlier concept art, and received a much more enthusiastic reception.

Notable Releases in 2015

January 2015 saw the formation of Army Deals for Algoryn & Boromite forces; a consolidation of the metals that had previously been released throughout the second half of 2014. A Concord Army Deal followed shortly after in February 2015, followed by the Concord Nuhu in April and the female version in September.

Hansa Nairoba and Bovan Tuk were bolstered in June 2015 by the first release of additional Freeborn units, the Domari Squad. The Army Deal for Freeborn following shortly afterwards in July 2015.

With the release of the Freeborn, units for 4 of the 6 initial factions were available: Algoryn, Boromite, Concord and Freeborn. The Isorians would not make their presence felt until after Xilos Horizon.

September 2015 saw the sunset of the Beta play-test rules, whose ending coincided with the announcement of the game’s imminent release in the form of “Strike Vector One – The Xilos Horizon”. The iconic Ghar became the focal point of the game’s release, and in October 2015 we were given our first glimpse of a little Ghar chap named Fartok.

We didn’t know then how influential this wretched outcast would be in Ghar history, but as part of the release event in November, Fartok was given his very own scenario.

And that concludes the most important (in this humble Archivist’s opinion) milestones in the development of the “Beyond The Gates Of Antares” game, taking us from the cancellation of the Kickstarter to the official release of the boxed game.

Xilos-Aversary Part 3

Next time we’ll cover the release of “Strike Vector One: The Xilos Horizon”, exploring some of the events that marked this momentous occasion, along with the many releases for the game through to the release of Version 2.

Don’t forget about this time-bending conundrum mentioned in the Prologue:

“The IMTel is never wrong” is a common theme throughout the Antares Universe – BUT it has been significantly wrong once. What was the one time the IMTel was wrong? (Hint – there is a picture clue in the 1st Edition rule book about Josen).

Post your answers in the comments section below. Correct answers will get a +5 Regurge upgrade to your own personal shard, to help you to really savour the last meal you had.

The answer will be revealed in the final Xilos-Aversary post.

Until next time!!