The KAT Napoleonic keycap and peripherals collection is now available for preorder! This Group Buy will last until approximately December 9th, 2020. All but two of the vendors (g Heavy & Fancy Customs) are currently live!

Check out the KAT Napoleonic homepage for more renders and all the details.

Where can I buy KAT Napoleonic?

• USA – MKUltra Corp
• Europe – myKeyboard.eu
• Canada – Ashkeebs
• Also Canada – g Heavy Industries (Madness Kit only, pending)
• Singapore / Southeast Asia / Australia – HEX Keyboards
• Chile / South America – Fancy Customs (pending)
• China / Rest of World – ZFrontier

For guidance on what kits to buy for what type of keyboard, check out the KIT Shopping List on the KAT Napoleonic homepage! For more detailed questions, please feel free to ask on my Discord server (NoPunIn10Key).

KAT Napoleonic Peripherals

Deskmats in two sizes and two designs can be purchased from most vendors alongside your keycaps.

Likewise, a limited number of custom USB cables from KustomKeys will be available on MKUltra, myKeyboard.eu, Ashkeebs, and Fancy Customs. These will likely not be available for the entire duration of the Group Buy, as we are limited to approximately 100 cables worldwide.

Finally, we are partnering with Keeb Nerd for official Napoleonic scarves (neck gaiters) and coffee mugs. These are made-to-order and are sold by Keeb Nerd’s own site. Check in with the NoPunIn10Key Discord server for discount codes.

As announced in the NoPunIn10Key Discord last week, as well as on Reddit, I have added what should be the fortieth and and final kit to the KAT Napoleonic product line: British Navy TKL Mods.

British Navy Mods

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Conone by kindakeyboards. Renders by Manzel.

The British Navy kit was added as a response to popular demand for Indigo-colored mods using either English or icon-only legends. The British Navy uniform will only be available as a single alternative mods kit. Its contents are pared down as compared to the standard TKL kits and do not offer quite the same compatibility; the price will be lower to reflect this.

The British Navy Alternative TKL Mods Kit is fully compatible with the French Indigo Numpad kit for full-size keyboards.

Other Kit Updates

Also per popular demand, the Ortho Mods kit in the French Indigo colorway has been updated to use icon-only legends. Additionally, the Doppelkaiser alpha kit (Hungarian & South Slavic Latin) received a minor correction to account for a mislabeled character.

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We are less than eight weeks from the KAT Napoleonic Group Buy, which starts November 9th. I have new renders and alphas to share, including support for JIS, ANSI-JP, Eurkey, and Latin American Spanish.

Renders

First are some new and revised renders from manzel:

• New: the Abacus numpad by SomeGreekGuy (unreleased). Shown here with the Austrian White numpad kit and the Minard deskmat.
• Updated: the Boardrun by Shensmobile (IC on Reddit). These renders now show the most up-to-date version of the Uhlan alpha kit, with the Lithuanian legends now shown in red.

Alpha Kit Revisions

Based on survey responses and other feedback, three new kits have been added.

• Nagasaki
  • Japanese JIS & ANSI-JP layouts
  • Katakana sublegends in gold
  • Compatible with the standard US layout.
  • 3u spacebar included for JIS.
  • Fullwidth / Half-width key included for JIS in all three colorways.
• Blücher
  • Eurkey versions 1.2 & 1.3
  • Compatible with the standard US layout.
  • Eurkey website link
• Agustina
  • Spanish (European & Latin American)
  • Replaces the Murat kit

The Austerlitz and João VI alpha kits have been sidelined at this time due to lack of interest.

Multiple updates have been made to the KAT Napoleonic main page.

1. Vendors
   1. HEX Keyboards has joined on as our Southeast Asia vendor.
2. Alphas: Error Fixes & Minor Tweaks
   1. Act of Mediation
   2. Alexander
   3. Austerlitz
   4. Bépoleon Nonaparte
   5. Karađorđe
   6. Marie Louise
   7. Pondicherry
   8. Sequoyah
   9. Waterloo
3. Alphas: Combined Language Redesigns
   1. In the kits below, gold still represents AltGr sublegends for the primary language. Red represents the primary legends of the alternate language.
   2. Alpha kits where two languages are displayed simultaneously, but neither displays AltGr characters, are still slated to use the gold coloration for all sublegends.
   3. Updated Kits:
      1. Chateauguay – Canadian Multilingual & Canadian French
      2. Doppelkaiser – South Slavic Latin & Hungarian (replaces Illyria)
      3. Uhlan – Polish & Lithuanian (will now differ from render)
4. Alphas: Other Substantial Updates
   1. Bernadotte – Added several keys to provide correct AltGr legends, particularly with regard to the <> key.
   2. João VI – Some legend updates. Clarified in description that this is the European Portuguese layout.
   3. Murat – Removed all AltGr legends in order to expand compatibility to the Italian 142 layout. Clarified in description that this is the European Spanish layout.
5. Core Mod Updates
   1. Various Russian Green – The 1u version of Backspace is now “Back” instead of “Bksp”.
   2. Various French Indigo – The translations for “Lower” and “Raise”have been updated to “Dimin” and “Augm”
   3. Ortho – Four of the 1.5u keys that were convex are now R2 for better Iris/Corne support. A couple 1u blanks in R2 were also added.
   4. Forties – Major updates to kit contents, particularly for spacebars.
   5. Ergo – Lower/Raise are now R2 to make them usable on the thumb clusters if desired. Two 1u convex blanks were added.
6. Miscellaneous Kit Updates
   1. Mac & Vortex kit is now back to being just a Mac kit, and its contents were reduced significantly to make it more affordable.
   2. Spacebars kit – Major updates to kit contents.

Head on over to the official KAT Napoleonic page to learn more about this keycap set:

https://katnapoleonic.com/kat-napoleonic/

Over the past few months, I’ve been working on a non-Diplomacy-related project: a custom mechanical keyboard keycap set called KAT Napoleonic. I’ll be hosting information about it here, since this is the WordPress site that I already have up-and-running.

As of my writing this post, the page for KAT Napoleonic is not yet publicly viewable; that will probably change in the next few weeks.

In Diplomacy variant news, I am getting ready to host another Tournament Through Time in 2021. Similar to the 2018 Tournament Through Time, the 2021 TTT will be a series of advanced Dip variant games played online via Discord over the course of the year. This time, the tournament will not be team-based, though players will be able to appoint proxies to play on their behalf during periodic absences. I’ve enlisted some assistant GMs to be able to run more than one board per round, and my plan is to have three rounds total, with each round fielding approx. 3 tables.

Similar to many face-to-face tournaments, the final round will include a “top table” made up of the highest-ranked players so far. The winner of the top table will be the victor of the whole tournament, while other awards will go to the players with the highest scores. Players whose scores were “Best in Division” will likewise be recognized (a multi-variant equivalent to “Best <Country>” awards).

Official registration has begun (quietly), with all rules and planning currently posted in the 2021 TTT Discord Server. Additionally, check out the registration form if you are interested in competing.

The first playtesting of Order of the Dragon will commence shortly.  We have enough players for one game, though we may have enough for two games to run concurrently.

Communication and play will occur on Discord, though the official registration page is hosted at the PlayDiplomacy forums:

https://www.playdiplomacy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=253&t=60565