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It's Time to Head Upstalk

The First Data Pack in the Lunar Cycle for Android: Netrunner Is Now Available

It was binary. Elemental. Powerful. Unmatched in its purity. It must be a source. Eden. Hades. Utopia. The nodes that built the net. The oldest protocols.…

Your quest for the legendary source protocols begins now… Upstalk, the first Data Pack in the Lunar Cycle for Android: Netrunner, is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

With its sixty new cards (three copies each of twenty different cards), Upstalk follows cyber explorer Nasir Meidan’s obsessive search for the net’s legendary source protocols. These nodes either built the net, or they’re nothing more than myth. If they actually do exist, wouldn’t they have degraded over time? It’s likely they would have fragmented so badly that their streams would be almost impossible to detect. Still, if they didn’t degrade, is it possible that they could have somehow evolved?

To answer these questions, Nasir Meidan must travel beyond the reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere. That means a journey up the Beanstalk, and each step up the Beanstalk is one step further removed from the Earth and the established ways of thinking about the game’s cat-and-mouse cyberstruggles.

Here, the game defies standard expectations. Corporate trace attempts can punish Runners even when they fail. Corporate assets are everywhere, there’s no life outside of Corporate-sponsored air, and there’s a chance that those who manage or run the net may encounter a shard or fragment of the mythical source code.

Shards of the Source Code

Starting with Upstalk, each of the six Data Packs in the Lunar Cycle introduces a fragment or shard from the legendary source protocols: three fragments for the Corps, and three shards for the Runners.

Like the Eden Shard (Upstalk, 20), each shard is “Limit 1 per deck” and enters the game as a seven-cost virtual resource that a Runner can install from his grip for free, instead of accessing cards, after completing a successful run against a central server. Then, once installed, each shard of the legendary source protocols presents the Runner the option to trash it in exchange for a powerful effect.

In the case of the Eden Shard, the Runner may trash it to force the Corp to draw two cards. It may be foolish to grant the Corp this extra card draw early in the game when your Runner has the advantage, and it may even be unwise in the middle of the game when you need to buy time to finish building your rig. Still, Eden Shard presents a number of potent late-game options.

   
• First of all, Eden Shard partners well with R&D Interface (Future Proof, 107). If you have an R&D Interface installed, you can access an extra card during a successful run on R&D, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’re going to access an agenda, or even anything that you can trash. In such a situation, you can spend one click to run R&D, access the top cards, and leave them. You can then spend a second click to run R&D and install Eden Shard instead of accessing cards. Next, you trash Eden Shard to force the Corp to draw the two cards you left on the top of R&D. Now you’ve given the Corp a couple of cards that hold no surprises for you, and you’ve moved cards that you couldn’t trash from the top of R&D. Finally, you spend a third click to run R&D again, digging deeper into R&D and potentially scoring a couple of game-winning agenda points.

   
• Conversely, if you install Eden Shard early in the game, you may be able bait the Corp into layering additional ice on R&D, reducing its ability to protect its other servers, including HQ. In this case, you might trash Eden Shard to force the Corp to draw two cards into a vulnerable HQ, which you then run.

   
• Since Eden Shard doesn’t have a click requirement, you can trash it at any time, even after the Corp has resolved its last click, meaning that you may be able to force the Corp into a situation that it has no choice but to discard a couple of cards, either spilling agendas into Archives or, more likely, thinning its supply of credits and ice.

   
• Finally, that fact that you can trash Eden Shard to trigger its ability at any time means that it offers the Runner a new measure of protection against one of the Corp’s most powerful combinations. A number of Corp decks use Power Shutdown (Mala Tempora, 58) to empty R&D before layering events back into it with Jackson Howard (Opening Moves, 15) and playing them all in a single click via Accelerated Diagnostics (Mala Tempora, 52). However, a Runner who has installed Eden Shard can simply trash it to force the Corp to draw two cards after it empties R&D with Power Shutdown. Instead of wondering how much meat damage he’s about to take, such a Runner simply forces the Corp to draw when it cannot, and he wins the game.

What Will You Discover?

With Eden Shard, two new identities, and a host of new ice, assets, resources, and events, Upstalk offers plenty of material certain to excite any cyber explorer.

Head to your local retailer to pick up your copy today!

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Source: It's Time to Head Upstalk

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Rising from the Bottom

It Binds All Things Is Now Available for STAR WARS (TM): The Card Game

“I suggest a new strategy, Artoo: let the Wookiee win.”

   –C-3PO, Star Wars: A New Hope

It Binds All Things, the fifth Force Pack in the Echoes of the Force cycle for Star Wars™: The Card Game is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

In this Force Pack, the struggle for control of the Force approaches its climax with a host of new units, events, and enhancements for both light side and dark side. On the forest moon of Endor, you’ll find a Jedi version of Leia Organa, and in the skies above, the A-wing pilots of Green Squadron risk their lives for the Rebel Alliance. The Imperial Navy can return to Hoth with Admiral Piett, while the deadly Droid and Bounty Hunter IG-88 attacks your opponent’s units committed to the Force.

But on Tatooine, you’ll find another tale being told in the gladiatorial pits. Only the fiercest and most resilient of beings survive the brutal environment of the pits, and it is there that you’ll uncover additional support for any Wookiees in your deck.

Loyalty for Life

This objective set begins with A Wookiee’s Journey (It Binds All Things, 599), an objective that provides two resources and possesses the restriction, “Smugglers and Spies affiliation only.” The resources provided by the objective help you to amass your units, and you’ll get additional tricks with the Echoes of the Force (It Binds All Things, 500) fate card included in this objective set. By using Echoes of the Force cleverly, you can severely hamper your opponent’s devotion to the Force, keeping yourself firmly in control.

You’ll find another tool to aid a Wookiee’s devotion to the Force in Faithful Companion (It Binds All Things, 603). This card can provide a resource, but it also grants each Wookiee committed to the Force an additional Force icon. Giving your Wookiees extra Force icons only makes them more capable of grabbing control of the Force struggle!

This objective set continues supporting your Wookiees with Heart of a Wookiee (It Binds All Things, 602), an enhancement that grants one of your Wookiees additional resilience in the face of battle. This enhancement enhances a Wookiee unit, giving that unit three extra damage capacity! Added damage capacity can help any Wookiee, but one Wookiee this enhancement complements especially well is Chewbacca (Edge of Darkness, 319). Chewbacca’s ability allows him to deal great amounts of damage to enemy units, but he must be damaged himself to trigger his Reaction. With the Heart of a Wookiee enhancement, Chewbacca’s potential to deal damage to enemy units is more than doubled.

Opponents foolish enough to attack your units may quickly discover the true power of a Wookiee’s anger. Loyal Wookiee (It Binds All Things, 601) possesses a powerful ability that allows you to put the Loyal Wookiee into play for free whenever a unique Character unit you control leaves play. Getting a powerful defensive unit is always a boon, but if you play your cards right, your units don’t even need to be destroyed to trigger the Loyal Wookiee. A card like Heroes and Legends (Heroes and Legends, 496) causes a unique Character to leave play, allowing you to put the Loyal Wookiee into play and still replace the Character due to the objective’s ability.

The final Wookiee you’ll find in this objective set is Lowhhrick (It Binds All Things, 600). Lowhhrick spent many years as a slave in the fighting pits on Tatooine, and the skills he learned there put him in high demand as a bodyguard and enforcer. Lowhhrick’s talents are expressed with his defensive combat icons and the Elite keyword, but Lowhhrick’s true worth lies in his other ability. Lowhhrick grants each Wookiee unit you control a , potentially allowing you to gather a punishing amount of blast damage, especially when combined with objectives like Raise the Stakes (Edge of Darkness, 322) or Across the Anoat Sector (Edge of Darkness, 339). Granting that much blast damage makes any Wookiee a threat that the dark side is forced to deal with.

Battle Alongside the Wookiees

Whether you experience the raw power of a Wookiee warrior, return to Admiral Piett’s assault on Hoth, or test your piloting skill to the max with Green Squadron, you’ll find cards to support your decks in It Binds All Things. Pick up your copy of this Force Pack from your local retailer today!

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Source: Rising from the Bottom

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Seize Your Prize

The Prize of the North Chapter Pack Is Now Available

“Your prize will be the doom of you. Krakens rise from the sea, Theon, or did you forget that during your years among the wolves? Our strength is in our longships.”

   –George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings

The Iron Throne stands in the Red Keep at King’s Landing, but is it possible that your path to power lies through the icy wastes in the north of Westeros? The Prize of the North Chapter Pack is now available for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, both online through our webstore and at your local retailer!

You’ll find new ways to seize the Iron Throne with the new cards in The Prize of the North Chapter Pack. This Chapter Pack continues the main themes of the Conquest and Defiance cycle, introducing a host of cards with the prized keyword, alongside tools for forming multi-House decks. You’ll also find iconic characters and locations from across the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. At the Wall, House Baratheon joins forces with the men of the Night’s Watch in an attempt to safeguard all of Westeros, while in the south, House Martell plots revenge for crimes long past. Every Great House finds new cards to support their claim to the throne.

Born of Iron



As other Houses wage war on the mainland of Westeros, deadly longships set sail from the Iron Islands, crewed by the fearsome raiders of House Greyjoy. In The Prize of the North, you’ll find new Warships for the Ironborn to sail against the unprotected shores of Westeros.

The first new Warship in The Prize of the North is the Farwynd Explorer (The Prize of the North, 85). This ship waits unseen in Shadows until the opportune moment for its raid. As a Response, you may bring the Farwynd Explorer out of Shadows to cancel a triggered effect, provided you are the first player. By including high-initiative plots in your plot deck, you increase your chances of becoming the first player and taking advantage of your Farwynd Explorer. As an added bonus, when the Farwynd Explorer is in play, it raises the initiative value of your future plots, giving you a better chance of becoming first player and paving the way for more Farwynd Explorers.

The ironborn gain another Warship in Longship Iron Wind (The Prize of the North, 86). This Warship bears the ability, “Challenges: Kneel Longship Iron Wind to put a character with printed cost 2 or lower into play from your hand.” Longship Iron Wind brings more uncertainty than ever to your opponent – they’ll never know exactly what to expect in their challenges since only you know what warriors wait aboard your longships. By waiting to trigger Longship Iron Wind until after making your first challenges, you force your opponent to defend your first challenges before knowing what characters he may encounter later. You might use Longship Iron Wind to play the Lonely Light Envoy (The Prize of the North, 84), or a similar character, such as the House Dayne Escort (The Prize of the North, 89). Putting a character into play with Longship Iron Wind escapes any penalty for playing an out-of-House character, and these Bannermen can quickly prove deadly in large numbers.

Set Sail

Whether you lead a raid against the mainland with the reavers of House Greyjoy or cast your lot with House Targaryen and Daenerys’s dragons, you’ll find plenty of cards for every deck in The Prize of the North Chapter Pack.

Pick up your copy of The Prize of the North at your local retailer today!

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Source: Seize Your Prize

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Your Trials Begin

The Three Trials Is Now Available for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

“My blood runs chill,” said Gimli, but the others were silent, and his voice fell dead on the dank fir-needles at his feet.
     –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Deep within the hills of Dunland, several of Middle-earth’s greatest heroes approach an ancient barrow. Weapons in hand, they ready themselves for whatever they may face. The dead are stirring, and this is only the first of three trials…

The Three Trials is now available!

The Three Trials is the second Adventure Pack in The Ring-maker cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and while its sixty cards expand your deck-building options, they also introduce a challenging and dynamic new scenario that thrusts Middle-earth’s heroes into a series of life-or-death skirmishes with the undead guardians of three sacred Dunlending burial mounds. Each of these guardians presents a different challenge, and to defeat them all, you’ll need to be able to adjust your tactics, even in the middle of your quest.

Boar’s Guardian

At the beginning of your journey through The Three Trials, you are instructed to set aside all three of the scenario’s Guardian enemies, its three Key objectives, and all three of its Barrow locations, as well as the unique location, Hallowed Circle (The Three Trials, 49). Then must brace yourself for the dangers ahead as you press forward toward one of three different stage two quests.

The Three Trials is full of both important player choices and random effects, making its scenario an eminently replayable adventure. However, the first choice you make may very well set the tone for the remainder of your trials, so you’ll want to be sure to choose wisely! At the end of stage one, you select one of three different stage two quest cards, each of which redefines your interactions with the encounter deck, its locations, and its enemies. Additionally, each stage two randomly combines a Guardian enemy, a Barrow location, and the Key that matches the stage’s Guardian.

Like Boar’s Guardian (The Three Trials, 40), each of these Guardian enemies are immune to non-Key attachments, ensuring you won’t catch them in a net, and each comes with a nasty Time X effect that truly sets it apart from the others – and makes it a fearsome foe. For example, the Time X effect on Boar’s Guardian reads:

“Time 2. Forced: After the last time counter is removed from Boar’s Guardian, the engaged player must discard an ally he controls. Place 2 time counters on Boar’s Guardian.”

Wolf’s Guardian

The fact that each of the different Guardian enemies has a nasty Time X effect means you’ll want to race through the quests as quickly as possible. As lead developer Caleb Grace wrote in his preview of The Voice of Isengard, Time X effects are meant to represent the urgency of your quests:

“Matt Newman and I worked hard to explore the different ways we could take advantage of [the Time X keyword] throughout The Voice of Isengard box and The Ring-maker cycle. There weren’t any dull moments during play-testing! It’s not hard to keep players under pressure when there’s a nasty Forced effect on a quest card or encounter card that will trigger after the last Time counter is removed from it.”

And while the scenario’s Guardians all bring nasty Time X effects to the table, they’re also nasty and durable foes in their own right. The Wolf’s Guardian (The Three Trials, 41), for example, has a Defense Strength of three on top of its twelve Hit Points, and when it attacks, your heroes will have to find some way to fend off its powerful Attack Strength of five. Worse yet, if you can’t get past this Guardian before its Time X effect triggers, it makes an immediate attack against the engaged player.

While you might think that effect’s not so terrible since each Guardian has an engagement cost of fifty, each stage two forces its Guardian to engage the first player. If it’s not you, someone has to deal with the Wolf Guardian’s attacks!

Raven’s Guardian

Of course, the Guardians aren’t the only elements you bring into play with each stage two. Each stage two prompts you to add one of the three Key objectives you’ll need to unlock the Hallowed Circle at the end of your trials. Each stage two also prompts you to add one of the scenario’s Barrow locations, and the random possible combinations of Barrow and Guardian can lead to some truly varied and difficult situations.

For example, the Raven’s Guardian (The Three Trials, 42) may have the lowest Attack Strength and Hit Points of the three Guardians, but it also has the highest Threat. You may ask yourself, “What does Threat matter once the enemy is engaged?” That would naturally be an obvious question. Normally, it wouldn't have any impact upon the game once it's out of the staging area, but there’s a very good chance you’ll face the Raven’s Guardian at the Stone Barrow (The Three Trials, 48).

If you face the Raven’s Guardian there and can’t defeat it quickly, you’ll quickly run the risk of losing to threat. On the other hand, you could face the Raven’s Guardian at the Hill Barrow (The Three Trials, 46), and discover that the additional shadow effects it gains with each attack make it a far deadlier adversary than you first imagined. You could very well end up stacking the shadow effects of two copies of Cursed Forest (The Three Trials, 51) and removing two time counters from the Raven’s Guardian when you after you throw a weaker ally in front of it. In such a case, you may end up triggering the Time X effect on Raven’s Guardian at a moment that you weren’t prepared to suffer damage on all your characters.

Find the Courage to Succeed

Though each of the Guardians in The Three Trials is a truly challenging enemy, you must summon up your courage and find the means to defeat them. Perhaps you can take heart as the Adventure Pack’s new hero, Idraen (The Three Trials, 25), and its many allies offer to lend their swords and bows to the cause.

Step forward to begin your trials today. Middle-earth is counting on you!

The Three Trials is now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore.

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Source: Your Trials Begin

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B-Wing Expanded

A Preview of the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack for X-Wing (TM)

The Rebel Aces Expansion Pack for X-Wing™ offers a new look at two of the Rebellion’s most iconic starfighters. The expansion’s highlights are its A-wing and B-wing miniatures, both of which feature alternative paint schemes. However, as we saw in our preview of the expansion’s new A-wing ship cards and upgrades, Rebel Aces presents options for these ships that reach far beyond their repainted surfaces.

Today, we explore how the expansion’s new ship cards and upgrades expand the roles that the B-wing can play in your squads.

 A 360-degree view of the Rebel Aces B-wing.

Freedom to Explore New Roles

As indicated by its prominence within the X-Wing tournament scene, the B-wing is one of the game’s strongest and most reliable starfighters. Paul Heaver claimed the title of 2013 X-Wing World Championship with a squad of two X-wings and two B-wings, and many other players have had success with similar builds throughout the 2014 Store Championship and Regional Championship seasons.

Nonetheless, such squads almost always use the B-wing in similar fashion. They fly a pair of non-unique ships in formation with the rest of their squads, often relying upon Biggs Darklighter to draw enemy fire as long as possible in order to minimize the impact of the B-wing’s main weakness, its low agility value of “1.”

Accordingly, the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack doesn’t markedly increase the B-wing’s power level. It doesn’t need a boost. Instead, Rebel Aces boosts the B-wing’s versatility. By introducing a potent pair of ace B-wing pilots and the B-Wing/E2 modification, which allows the B-wing to carry a crew member, the expansion frees the B-wing to perform other roles in your squads.

In short, Rebel Aces doesn’t increase the B-wing’s effectiveness within the squads in which it appears; it increases the number of squads within which the B-wing can be effective.

As noted, this increased versatility begins with the introduction of two new B-wing pilots, Keyan Farlander and Nera Dantels.

Both of these pilots possess potent abilities that can easily shape how you wage your battles, and with the recent release of Wave IV and the TIE phantom, there’s more call than ever to field ace pilots with high pilot skill values.

Keyan Farlander

First revealed in the Rebel Aces announcement, Keyan Farlander has a pilot skill value of “7,” and he can spend a stress token in order to change all of his focus results to hits. This ability has already drawn plenty of attention from the X-Wing player base, and it goes a long way toward making Keyan Farlander a versatile B-wing pilot.

     
• This ability not only increases the quality of his average attack rolls, it allows Keyan Farlander to derive an advantage from all the red maneuvers on the B-wing’s dial and may help to develop his role as a flanker within Rebel squads.
     
• The fact that his ability can effectively replicate the focus action means that if Keyan Farlander equips Push the Limit as his elite pilot talent, he doesn’t need to perform target lock and focus actions each turn to secure his best chances of landing maximum damage. Instead, he can target lock and barrel roll, or add an Engine Upgrade modification and boost into a better position to launch his attack.
     
• Keyan Farlander’s ability pairs well with Opportunist. Instead of limiting his actions on the next turn, the stress token he takes for Opportunist simply powers up his attack.

Nera Dantels

While Keyan Farlander encourages you to perform a wider range of actions, Nera Dantels encourages you to equip and fire torpedoes.

There are currently three different torpedoes in X-Wing: Proton Torpedoes, Advanced Proton Torpedoes, and Flechette Torpedoes. Each of them offers a strong, solitary punch with a nice bonus effect:

     
• Flechette Torpedoes stress a target with a hull value of “4” or less.
     
• Proton Torpedoes allow you to convert a single focus result to a critical hit.
     
• Advanced Proton Torpedoes allow you to convert up to three blank results to focus results, which you can then convert to hits by spending a focus token.

In fact, there is currently no stronger single shot in the game than that afforded by the Advanced Proton Torpedoes, and Nera Dantels comes with a special ability that makes it easier than ever to make good use of them at critical junctures:

“You can perform [torpedo] secondary weapon attacks against enemy ships outside your firing arc.”

Previously, to fire Advanced Proton Torpedoes, you had to pilot your ship within range “1” of your target, keep it within your firing arc, acquire a target lock on it, and survive long enough to fire. Against TIE swarms that would volley with fourteen attack dice from range “2” or “3,” it could be hard to keep your B-wing intact long enough to fire. Then, if you managed to survive the barrage long enough to fire at range “1,” you were only gaining one attack die over the B-wing’s primary weapon at the same range. Certainly, the quality of your dice would improve, but only if you had both a target lock and focus token.

By allowing you to fire torpedoes from outside of her primary arc, Nera Dantels alters the whole equation. Rather than flying at break-neck speed directly toward her target, she can fly past it, acquire her target lock, and launch her torpedoes. This makes it easier for you to select maneuvers that encourage her survival, and that makes it easier to live long enough to find a quality shot. In fact, since Nera Dantels can target important enemies even as she focuses on piloting out of their firing arcs, she may even be able to survive long enough to make good use of multiple torpedoes.

This is a theory that developer Alex Davy explores in a squad list he designed to take advantage of Nera Dantels and her unique pilot ability.

     Kyle Katarn (21)
          Jan Ors (2)
          Ion Cannon Turret (5)
          Moldy Crow (3)

     Nera Dantels (26)
          B-Wing/E2 (1)
          C-3PO (3)
          Advanced Proton Torpedo (6)
          Advanced Proton Torpedo (6)
          Deadeye (1)

     Biggs Darklighter (25)

     Total Squad Points: 99

Not only does this squad pack a massive punch with its pair of Advanced Proton Torpedoes, it makes use of the B-Wing/E2 modification. For one point, this new upgrade allows you to add a crew member to your B-wing, which opens up a range of new possibilities. Here, the addition of the C-3PO crew upgrade guarantees Nera Dantels at least one evade result every combat phase, and it offers this lasting defensive measure at the same total squad point cost as a single Shield Upgrade.

Exploring the B-wing/E2

The introduction of the B-wing/E2 upgrade in Rebel Aces is also accompanied by the addition of a couple new crew upgrades, one of which Alex features in his squad list.

     
• Once per round, Jan Ors allows a friendly ship within ranges one to three to trade out a focus token for an evade token.
     
• Kyle Katarn, meanwhile, grants his ship a focus token whenever it removes a stress token.

Naturally, these crew members complement each other. So long as they crew ships flying no further than range three apart, whenever Kyle Katarn grants his ship a focus token, Jan Ors can convert it to an evade token.

As Alex demonstrates, these crew members also function very well on each other’s HWK-290s. If Jan Ors flies with Kyle Katarn, then whenever he passes a focus token to another ship, she can convert it to an evade token. Alternatively, if Kyle Katarn serves as a crew member with Jan Ors, then whenever she clears the stress she takes to grant an ally an extra attack die, he can grant her a focus token.

Of course, if you equip your B-wing with the B-wing/E2 modification, you can use any of the different crew upgrades available to Rebel starfighters. There’s a wealth of options that reaches far beyond Jan Ors, Kyle Katarn, and C-3PO, and these options can lead to some exciting, new uses of your B-wings.

     
• Using the B-wing/E2 modification to partner a Tactician on the same B-wing as an Ion Cannon allows you to field a powerful control ship that can lock down an opponent’s key starfighter for as few as twenty-eight squad points.
     
• Adding Nien Nunb to your B-wing might transform it into a more potent flanker. For a total of two squad points, Nien Nunb takes the B-wing’s red straight, four-speed maneuver and make it green, allowing a B-wing that starts opposite the rest of your squad to race into battle more quickly without losing any actions.
     
• At a total of five squad points, the addition of Chewbacca to your modified B-wing can provide the extra resilience it needs to withstand incoming fire for one or two more rounds. In B-wing terms, that’s very likely enough time to destroy one or two more TIE fighters, especially if that B-wing is piloted by an ace like Keyan Farlander, Nera Dantels, or Ten Numb.

Make the Jump to Hyperspace

The B-wing/E2 modification allowed the Rebel Alliance to free its B-wing pilots to focus on flying and leave the gunnery to gunners. Accordingly, the B-wing/E2 featured a markedly improved kill rate over the standard B-wing. Similarly, the B-wing/E2 modification from Rebel Aces allows you the freedom to make use of your B-wings in all-new fashions.

Take advantage of the increased versatility the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack lends your A-wings and B-wings. Head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy today!

Next: We look at how the new mission from Rebel Aces allows you to test the limits of your new A-wing and B-wing.

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Source: B-Wing Expanded

[EvilGinger]

Very cool stuff I just need to play more often some how

 Ginger

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Equipped to Survive

A Preview of the New Droids, Vehicles, and Gear in Far Horizons

“You got a lot of carbon scoring here. It looks like you boys have seen a lot of action.”
     –Luke Skywalker

Once upon a time, a young farm boy from Tatooine cleaned a droid, caused it to play a recorded message, and triggered a series of events that would reshape the galaxy…

When your destiny calls, there’s no place you can go to escape it – not even a desert planet at the far edge of the known universe. Even when the Colonists of Star Wars®: Edge of the Empire™ travel to the far ends of the galaxy in order to establish new homes and new lives, their pasts have a nasty habit of catching up with them. Outstanding obligations lead to adventure. And since your adventures can take you anywhere, it pays to be prepared.

 At the edge of the Empire, even routine shipments may run afoul of pirates.

In the Colonist sourcebook, Far Horizons, you’ll find a wealth of new droids, vehicles, starships, weapons, and gear that any character can use. However, since most of these items are designed to help tame even the wildest and most dangerous environments, the game’s Colonists should find them especially appealing.

Droids

It was Luke Skywalker’s interaction with a pair of droids that first led him down a path that would eventually take him off of Tatooine, past the destruction of the Death Star, and to the ultimate triumph of the Rebel Alliance over the evil Galactic Empire. To say, then, that there’s tremendous potential for adventure within the handful of new droids presented in Far Horizons is a bit of an understatement.

Perhaps even more so than in other areas of the galaxy, droids in the Outer Rim are essential to the day-to-day functions of civilized society. In a region where so many systems remain uncharted and unknown dangers can reside in even the most welcoming paradise, droids help make life easier and safer for their organic masters, colleagues, and friends. Accordingly, Far Horizons features a sampling of speciality droids common to the Outer Rim, including the AC Law Enforcement Droid, which is a relatively new entry to the field of police automata.

Nearly two meters tall, the broad-shouldered AC Series LE droid possesses an average intelligence and a stern, imposing disposition. It is programmed for both standard police duties as well as fast-response riot control, and it is covered in imposing plate armor with only a single red, horizontal photoreceptor band serving as any hint of facial features. These droids aren’t for everyone, though. Even as they’re becoming the standard for police droids at the edge of the galaxy, civilians tend to despise them.

Vehicles and Starships

It is a commonly held belief that the various worlds of the Outer Rim are where old vehicles go to die. Indeed, the region’s inhabitants work hard to keep a great number of speeders and groundcars alive and functional long after they would have been scrapped in the more civilized, affluent areas of the galaxy.

After all, no amount of preparation, innate skill, or specialty equipment can make a difference in an endeavor if an individual and his equipment can’t get where they need to go, and the work performed by colonists’ starships, speeders, and walkers is nearly as important as the work performed by the colonists themselves.

In Far Horizons, you’ll find a large selection of airspeeders, landspeeders, walkers, wheeled and tracked vehicles, and freighters, any of which may serve more than one purpose in times of need.

For example, the Hunchback construction strider is a lightweight utility walker designed for construction and civil engineering work. Similar to the Republic’s AT-PT, the Hunchback is a bipedal walker with a slab-sided rectangular command pod perched atop a pair of powerful reverse-articulated legs. The Hunchback's arms carry a wide array of tools such as plasma cutters, saws, welders, drills, compressed air guns, and small, dextrous manipulators for fine work.

 While it typically carries no offensive weapons, the Hunchback is sturdy and armored, and desperate colonists may find a way to modify it in order to help defend their homesteads from enemy forces.

Weapons, Armor, and Tools

Typically, Colonists are the characters in Edge of the Empire that are least likely to embrace violence when other means may suffice. However, it would be a mistake to assume Colonists have no need of arms or armor. The truth is that on the fringe of the galaxy, violence (and the need to protect against it) is all too commonplace. Accordingly, Far Horizons presents a wide array of weapons and armor, as well as a range of speciality tools appropriate for Colonists of all specializations.

The Outer Rim can be a dangerous and unforgiving place, but that doesn’t you’ll want to shoot to kill each time a situation devolves to violence. Far Horizons introduces a number of non-lethal weapons, like the Telex-Delcor SWE/2 Sonic Rifle, which may not be as useful in a shoot-out against heavily armed Imperial forces, but are incredibly useful for a Marshal who wants to ensure that he earns a reputation for his resolve as well as his justice and mercy.

Such a Marshal may also do well to invest in some of the new armor from Far Horizons, or even some reinforced environment gear. Such suits are valuable to Colonists not only because they must often brave strange and hazardous planetary conditions, but because they are more likely to be exposed to airborne toxins and to suffer injuries from falls or unstable environmental formations.

Finally, though they’re often the last characters you’d expect to load up on weaponry, Colonists usually have the greatest need for specialized tools. Performers must have all manner of amplifiers, props, or instruments. Doctors require a great deal of surgical equipment and medical supplies. Even Politicos need remote access to communications, and Traders and Entrepreneurs need business aids.

Far Horizons introduces a diverse array of these materials, which offer benefits for nearly all characters, and since they introduce so many specialized abilities, their inclusion in (or exclusion from) your setting may provide the impetus for a wide range of thrilling adventures.

Can You Tame the Wildest Edges of the Galaxy?

As the Colonist sourcebook for Edge of the Empire, Far Horizons introduces a wide range of new character options and equipment for any character eager to explore and settle the wildest edges of the galaxy.

Meanwhile, it also explores the concept of the Colonist’s homestead and how the Game Master can use a homestead to shape a campaign. Whether or not your campaign features a character with the Colonist career, the homestead is an idea that transcends a single class and can lend an immediate focus and urgency to your campaign. We’ll take a closer look at how Game Masters can make use of the homestead in our next preview of Far Horizons!

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Source: Equipped to Survive

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Soldiers of the Craftsworlds

Preview the Eldar Faction from Warhammer 40,000: Conquest

“Trust not in their appearance, for the Eldar are as utterly alien to good, honest men as the vile Tyranids and savage Orks. They are capricious and fickle, attacking without cause or warning.”

   –Imperial Commander Abriel Hume

The planets of the Traxis sector offer a tempting target for any burgeoning faction in the galaxy. Filled with valuable resources and possibilities for military strongpoints, cultures as different as the ravaging Orks and the Tau Empire are drawn to clash within this sector. In Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, two players take command of these factions, leading warlords and armies to war and die among the unforgiving expanses of space.

Thus far, we’ve given a detailed overview of gameplay, beginning with the deployment phase and moving onto the command struggle and battles, including an example of a battle. More recently, our previews have turned to exploring the factions available in Warhammer 40,000: Conquest, beginning with the Space Marines and moving on through the Astra Militarium, Orks, Chaos, and Dark Eldar. Today, however, we turn to the wonder of the craftworlds and their inhabitants – the Eldar.

Wraithbone and Psychic Power

The Eldar’s outlook on the galaxy is fundamentally different than nearly every other race, and the way they practice the art of war reflects their curious attitudes. A key Eldar strategy revolves around eliminating your opponent’s choices, and you’ll find plenty of ways to do just that, whether by exhausting your opponent’s units, discarding his cards, or using other combat tricks.

The first Eldar warlord in the Traxis sector is the mighty Psyker Eldorath Starbane (Core Set, 6). Starbane exemplifies the Eldar approach to warfare by offering a powerful Reaction, allowing you to shut down your opponent’s plans. Whenever Starbane commits to a planet, you may exhaust any non-warlord unit at the planet. By exhausting your opponent’s most powerful attacker, your opportunities for the coming fight increase dramatically.

Starbane’s signature squad proffers more tools for playing around your opponent, beginning with four copies of Starbane’s Council (Core Set, 123). These Psykers normally have an attack value of three, but when Starbane’s Council attacks an exhausted unit, they gain two additional ATK, giving them enough power to destroy a wide variety of units in one attack. Their ability pairs naturally with Starbane himself, but since units that come with a warlord from headquarters arrive at a planet exhausted, you may find Starbane’s Council is an excellent way to destroy these units before they can attack.

The next card you’ll find in Starbane’s signature squad is the Alaitoc Shrine (Core Set, 124) . This support bears the text, “Reaction: After an Eldar unit moves to a planet, exhaust this support to ready that unit.” Using this support gives you an excellent way to get around the fact that your units arrive from headquarters in an exhausted state. Triggering the Alaitoc Shrine gives you a leg up on your opponent, and lets you get the most out of the units you bring to a planet with your warlord.

Two copies of Foresight (Core Set, 125) are the next cards in the signature squad, and by playing one of these powerful events after your warlord commits to a planet, you may immediately commit him to a different planet. This gives you the opportunity to trigger Starbane’s ability twice, potentially exhausting two units at different planets, but it also invites you to commit your warlord again with full knowledge of your opponent’s plans. Once you know where your opponent’s warlord has gone, you can move Starbane to oppose him directly or seek his downfall on another planet.

The final card in the signature squad is a free attachment entitled Mobility (Core Set, 126). This card can be attached to an army unit, and it grants that army the Mobile keyword, allowing it to move to an adjacent planet at the beginning of the combat phase. Whether you use Mobility to have an army win the command struggle at one planet and battle on another, or use it to hedge your bets and counter your opponent’s maneuvers, you’ll find plenty of options for using this card.

Elegant in Battle

The Eldar’s tactics of restricting their opponents’ choices continues outside of the signature squad. One such card is the Shrouded Harlequin (Core Set, 134). This army unit bears an Interrupt that allows you to exhaust a target enemy unit at the planet of your choice when the Shrouded Harlequin is destroyed. Whenever your opponent fights back against the Shrouded Harlequin, he pays the price by letting you exhaust one of his units, shutting down his attacks and foiling his plans.

Another army that can help you pin down enemy forces is the Silvered Blade Avengers (Core Set, 136). This unit lets you ensure that your foes can’t strike back, since whenever the Silvered Blade Avengers are declared as an attacker against a non-warlord unit, that unit is exhausted. When it comes to eliminating your opponent’s options, the Silvered Blade Avengers are a dire threat, setting your opponent up for a unit like Starbane’s Council to finish off exhausted units.

Exhausting units is an excellent way to control your opponent in battle, but truly adept Eldar warlords strive to control their opponent even beyond combat. You’ll find one way to do this in the Biel-Tan Warp Spiders (Core Set, 137). Whenever you attack with the Biel-Tan Warp Spiders, you may look at the top two cards of any player’s deck, then discard one of those cards. By using this against your opponent, you can discard cards before they even get to your opponent’s hand, as well as gaining some knowledge of what you can expect in the future.

Another way to foil your opponent’s plans off the field of battle is the event card, Nullify (Core Set, 140). This event is free to play, and it allows you to exhaust a unique Eldar unit, such as your warlord, to cancel any event card played by your opponent. With this amount of control, you can easily deny some of the most powerful effects your opponent can throw at you, leaving you firmly in command of your armies in the Traxis sector.

The Anger of a Master Psyker

Take command of a craftsworld and wield the power of the Eldar to take control of the Traxis sector. The fate of countless worlds rests in your hands. Preorder Warhammer 40,000: Conquest at your local retailer today!

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Source: Soldiers of the Craftsworlds

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No Ordinary Walk in the Woods

Preview the Creatures and Landscape of Talisman: The Woodland

Ahead lies a sunlit meadow of tall grasses and wildflowers, where glowing, winged creatures are flitting about in the air. The path seems to be taking you there, but soon the meadow disappears from view, and the altered path now leads towards a dense, sunless thicket. You feel a chill as you pass through a gate of black branches entwined and twisted like tortured limbs – then suddenly you’re back in the swamplands where you met Puck not long ago. He’s still there, and unfortunately he starts laughing when he sees you…

Discover the perils and enchantments of the deep woods in The Woodland, a new expansion for Talisman Revised 4th Edition. Long closed to mortals, the forested realm of the Fae has reopened. If you dare approach them, the faeries may favor you with extraordinary gifts – or they may put you through unspeakable torments.

In today’s preview, we’ll venture into the Woodland and take a look at some of the spaces on the new corner board, and meet some of the Strangers, Objects, Places, and Enemies that you may encounter on Woodland Cards.

The Forbidding Forest

Once you’ve entered the Woodland, you must either persistently move forward towards the Meeting with Destiny space at the woods’ edge, or else turn around and flee– although it is doubtful that the shifting trees will permit you to exactly retrace your steps. Arrows on the board serve as trail markers, and you must move directly with or directly against them. It is forbidden to leap in other directions, from the Swampland to the Faerie Ring, for example.

The Woodland is fond of disorienting mortals who wander within it. It may prevent you from moving forward to the place you intended, or make it impossible for you to return to a place you’ve been. Bogs slow you down, Swamplands detain you against your will, and many spaces affect movement in unpredictable ways: the Witch Tree will propel you forwards or backwards depending on whether you roll an even or odd number. The Mystic Glen may teleport you into either the Swampland or the Faerie Ring. The Crossroads may even teleport you to a Woods space outside of the Woodland itself.

Near the edge of the woods lies Mab’s Lair. Skulls of her animal, faerie, and human victims litter the ground – it is clearly the most dangerous space of all. There, you must confront the terrifying Queen Mab herself, creator of all dreams, who has a Strength of ten and a Craft of ten. If you defeat her, she will give you a vision of your true purpose. If you cannot, she will haunt you with the darkest nightmares she can create.

Shrewd and Knavish Sprites

In the realm of the Fae you draw Woodland Cards instead of Adventure Cards, since the rules governing that land are unlike those of the mortal world. Like its paths, the Woodland’s Strangers and Events are naturally changeable and capricious. Outside of the Woodland, a Market card permanently establishes a Market where you can buy useful Objects. Inside the Woodland, a Faerie Market may occur. You cannot buy things in a Faerie Market. Instead, every player must give a possession and a piece of gold, a fate token, or a life to the player on the right.

The Mysterious Mist may teleport you to a new location or grant you a Spell, depending on what you roll. The Greenman could give you a life or take one away. If you can defeat the Thieving Piskies, you can send them to steal from another character. The wicked and deformed Baba Yaga may kill one of your Followers, or even your character, or demand one of your objects as a payoff. Her chicken-legged hut is likewise troublesome. Upon encountering it, the hut captures you inside and speeds off, so that as long as you have it as a Follower, you always move exactly five spaces.

The trickster Puck, known for laughing at others’ harm, can transform a character of your choice into a Toad – or he may decide to turn you into one instead. In fact, Baba Yaga could turn you into a Toad as well, as could numerous others. So many of the Woodland’s inhabitants and events can turn characters into Toads that you may become accustomed to amphibian life.

Luck of the Faeries

With fortune’s favor, you will find some protection in the Woodland against its many perils, perhaps a Magic Object once belonging to a long-forgotten king. If you have enough Strength to wear it, Nuadu’s Torc will add to that Strength and keep you from losing it or becoming a Toad. Lugh’s Cloak, an incredibly powerful Magic Object, allows you, if you have a craft of at least five, to avoid being affected by the Strangers and Events that you encounter.

Since how you fare in the Woodland depends heavily on your luck with the dice, the most desirable object in the realm may be the Lucky Charm, which lets you choose your result instead of rolling a die. Mab’s Charm also invites you to change your luck, by allowing you to reroll an Enemy’s attack, making the original result into nothing but a dream.

Into the Woods

The woods may be fearful, deep, and dark, but they also reward those who wander through them in unforeseeable ways. If you can survive the faeries’ dangerous whims and the trials of the enchanted trees, you will emerge from The Woodland a character of proven fortitude, ready to pursue the Crown of Command.

Prepare for your journey through these wild woods, and pre-order Talisman: The Woodland from your local retailer today.

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Source: No Ordinary Walk in the Woods

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A New Mission Briefing

New FAQ and Tournament Rules are Available for X-Wing

The 2014 X-Wing™ National Championship season has begun, and battles are taking place all over the world to determine the fate of the galaxy. Mission briefings are critical to the success of any squadron’s operation. It is where pilots learn not only what is expected of them, but what they’ll be up against and the situations that might arise.

Make sure you’re ready for your next dogfight by reading the new X-Wing FAQ (pdf, 27.2  MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf, 4.2  MB). For those participating in larger scale battles, check out the updated Epic Tournament Rules (pdf, 2.6 MB).

These changes will go into effect on August 1st, 2014.

A Word from the Developers

Greetings, pilots!

We are pleased to announce a number of small but significant changes to the X-Wing Tournament Rules. For starters, we’ve retired the strength of schedule tiebreaker in favor of a new system, margin of victory. This will make it easier for tournament organizers to resolve tiebreakers, and puts each player in control of their own destiny by rewarding big wins and players who fight for every point, even when they’re losing. In addition, we added a step to the Epic Dogfight and Team Epic tournament formats: charging Huge ships up to their energy limits before the game begins! Huge ships will now be able to bring their might to bear immediately, wherever they’re needed most.

We also continue to expand and improve the X-Wing FAQ. As the game grows and absorbs new content, more and more card interactions become possible. The latest update addresses the pressing questions introduced by Wave IV, the Tantive IV release, and Epic play. We’ve also taken this opportunity to introduce the official rules for Large ships performing the barrel roll action as we prepare for the release of the YT-2400 Freighter, a necessary check on the dramatic power of large-base barrel rolling.

Have fun and fly casual!

Alex Davy and Frank Brooks

Thanks guys!

Don’t miss your mission briefing! Download the FAQ, Tournament Rules, and Epic Tournament Rules now, and be prepared for your next run on an enemy’s base.

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Source: A New Mission Briefing

[EvilGinger]

Very cool & they let you chuck squadrons at each other in epic

 Ginger

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Learn the Ways of the Force

New FAQ and Tournament Rules are Available for Star Wars: The Card Game

The 2014 Star Wars™: The Card Game Regional Championship season is almost over, but there is no time for rest in the galactic struggle. Both Rebels and Imperials alike are regrouping and preparing for National Championships around the world.

When resupplying and taking stock of your forces, there’s no better way to prepare than reading the new Star Wars: The Card Game FAQ (pdf, 5.7 MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf, 15.5 MB) and staying up to date on the latest changes.

A Word from the Developers

Hello Star Wars: The Card Game players!

As National Championships kick into full swing, we have been hard at work on a new FAQ and Tournament Rules update.

In the FAQ, we have released a formal definition of the word “copy,” establishing that a copy of a card is any card that shares the same title. We have also outlined (on page 8) the step-by-step process by which damage is dealt. Finally, we have answered some common questions about Echo Base (The Search for Skywalker, 205) and the 3.6 entry in the Q&A section on page 11.

The more significant changes in this release can be found in the Tournament Rules, where we have introduced a Code of Conduct and changed the process by which tournaments are scored and the elimination rounds are handled.

The Code of Conduct

When two or more players sit down to play a game with one another, there are a number of social assumptions being made. One group of gamers may have an implicit assumption that “everyone is equal and competing to win” while another group may make the assumption that “everyone should take it easy on the six year-old.”

In private gaming groups, participants come to their own mutual understanding of why they are playing and how they will play any given game. They essentially create their own implicit code of behavior.

In public gaming, a number of these basic courtesies, social practices, and ethical beliefs that make it possible to sit down and enjoy a game with another human being are sometimes questioned or even challenged as the level of competition intensifies. When results become more important—to some players—than the means to those results, the social fabric that holds a gaming community together can begin to erode, and the integrity of fair play and legitimate competition is lost.

To combat the development of such a situation within the Star Wars: The Card Game community, we have created a more explicit Code of Conduct, and we are taking this opportunity to acknowledge that FFG does not desire and will not tolerate the behavior of cheating or the presence of cheaters at sanctioned Organized Play events.

Scoring Changes

To improve the tournament experience at our more competitive events, we are introducing some significant changes to the method by which such events are scored and run.

First, we are doing away with the “tiebreaker” point in the Swiss rounds. This change is being made so that players are more incentivized to play for a win in each game, instead of seeking to win game one and then play for the tiebreaker point in game two. In addition to eliminating the Swiss tiebreakers, we are adjusting scoring so that a game win is now worth 3 points, a game loss is worth 0, and a game draw (because of time limit) is worth 1 point for each player.

In the elimination rounds, we are introducing a double-elimination system, in which players who make the cut are seeded into a tournament bracket and then play single game matches until one champion remains. In each round, a player uses the deck representing the side of the Force that he or she has played the least over the course of the elimination rounds (in the case of a tie, the higher-seeded player chooses a side). As a player plays more with one side, the likelihood of playing the other side later in the bracket increases.

As elimination games cannot result in a draw, we have also developed a tiebreaker scoring system that will be used to determine the player who is closest to victory whenever a game is called due to time. (The championship game(s) between the final 2 competitors is not timed.) We previously introduced a similar double-elimination system to our Android: Netrunner Tournament Rules, where it has worked well and been well received.

The intent of these changes is to reduce the effect that “match mentality” has had on recent tournament play. We seek to encourage an environment where competitors play for a win in each individual game and build decks toward that end.

Legal Card Sets

Finally, we have added a note to the card legality section of this document stating that the Darkness and Light Force pack will not be legal for the 2014 North American Championship.

Good luck to all players competing in upcoming National championship events, and to those coming to Gen Con, we’re looking forward to seeing you at the show!

Nate French & Erik Dahlman
 Fantasy Flight Games

Thanks guys!

Regrouping takes time. Speed up the process and get a jump on your opponents by downloading and reading the FAQ and Tournament Rules now.

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Source: Learn the Ways of the Force

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Dark and Unknown Magic

Preview New Overlord Cards and Download the Rules for Manor of Ravens

The overlord’s power branches out into new magic with the Manor of Ravens expansion for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition. Two new classes of Overlord cards arrive, alongside the overlord’s first servant, the raven flock. Within this expansion, you’ll find cards to serve your plots for harnessing the power of the haunted manor and destroying the heroes of Terrinoth forever.

In past previews, we explored the monsters you command in Manor of Ravens and we looked at the heroes that dare to oppose your dominion. Today, guest writer Justin Hoeger, an avid Descent player and fan, delves deep into the new classes of Overlord cards you’ll find inside this expansion.

In addition, the rules for Manor of Ravens (pdf, 5.9 MB) are now available for download! Download the rules from the Descent support page, then read below for Justin’s thoughts on the power of new Overlord cards.

Justin Hoeger on the Overlord’s New Powers

In Descent up to this point, the majority of Overlord cards have caused immediate, temporary effects. You played your card, and when its effect completed, the card was discarded. The two new classes of Overlord cards in Manor of Ravens are different. These two classes transform the normal rules for playing your Overlord cards and open the door to a vast array of new strategies.

Arcane Enchantments

The Enchanter class of Overlord cards introduces abilities that persist beyond an immediate effect. Wristlet of Wind, for example, gives a monster group added mobility, letting each monster move one space after it attacks. You have to keep moving to maintain this card’s effects, though; the card is discarded if any monster in the group doesn't move during its activation. The Dragonbone Pendant, on the other hand, can give your monsters an effective attack boost for each attack, but to get the most out of the Dragonbone Pendant, you'll want to spread the damage around. This card is discarded when a monster in the group defeats a hero.

The cards above can benefit any monster group, but others may call for careful consideration to get the most benefit. For example, if you're bringing a large group of low-health monsters into play, you may encircle them with the Rings of Zhol'alam. Each time a monster from the enhanced group is defeated, every nearby hero takes damage. As an added bonus, this card only goes away when the entire monster group is gone. If you move your low-health monsters among the heroes, they'll have to think twice before using skills and abilities that can kill many monsters at once. And if you want to get tricky, you could use a giant's Sweep or a lava beetle's Blast to attack your own monsters alongside the heroes, dealing extra damage for each of your defeated monsters!

The Rune of the Phoenix card can be especially handy for prolonging the life of your monsters. Once a monster in the group suffers wounds equal to its Health, the overlord can discard Rune of the Phoenix to heal five of the monster’s wounds. This is a great card to increase the survivability of your agent if you're playing with a Plot deck. For example, you may play with the Unstable Forces Plot deck included in the Tristayne Olliven Lieutenant Pack. If you have Tristayne Olliven in play as an agent, Rune of the Phoenix paired with Mortal Coil makes him extremely difficult to kill: in Act II, four heroes would have to deal forty-one wounds to destroy him. Until he’s defeated, his magic spells and Ravage ability would wreak havoc on the hero party.

Finally, the Sign of the Last Zenith ensures that your favorite Enchanter cards escape the discard pile. After you play Sign of the Last Zenith on a monster group, every time an Enchanter card is discarded from a different group, the card transfers to the group with Sign of the Last Zenith instead of being discarded. Better yet, you draw an Overlord card every time this effect occurs. If you play your cards right, you could end up with a monster group or lieutenant featuring a terrifying number of Enchantments, while the heroes struggle to chew through your lesser minions.

Call Your Servant

While the Enchanter class focuses on spreading benefits across entire monster groups, the Unkindness class is all about your first servant, the raven flock. Similar to a familiar for a hero, the raven flock can be summoned with the Call of the Ravens card. This servant arrives on the scene adjacent to another monster at the start of an overlord turn. Summoning the raven flock deals four wounds to the adjacent monster, so summoning it close to a monster near death is preferable. Once you purchase the Call of the Ravens card, it’s always available to you. It's never shuffled into your Overlord deck, and doesn't count toward your Overlord deck total, meaning you can use it at any time.

As a monster, the raven flock is fast and versatile, and every other card in the Unkindness class boosts the raven flock’s abilities in some way. You can give it the same Shadow ability as the mighty shadow dragons with the Beneath the Shadow Overlord card, making it more difficult for adjacent heroes to hit the raven flock. The Ill Omen card grants your raven flock an Ominous aura, inflicting the potent new Doomed condition on nearby heroes who fail a Willpower test at the beginning of their turns.

Other cards in the Unkindness class allow your servant to profit from a hero’s defeat. Feast heals the raven flock’s wounds and boosts its health when a hero is defeated within five spaces of your servant. And as a final unkindness to a hero defeated near the raven flock, you can play the Envelop card to remove that hero token from the map. The hero cannot be revived or recover damage for any reason until the servant is defeated!

Thanks, Justin!

New magic and arcane servants await the overlord in the haunted mansion. Click the thumbnail at right to download the rules to Manor of Ravens and uncover the secrets that lurk within. Then, preorder Manor of Ravens at your local retailer today!

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Source: Dark and Unknown Magic

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Enter the Dragon's Lair

The Forgotten Souls Co-op Descent Adventure Is Now Available

Forgotten Souls, a cooperative adventure for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition, is now available via FFG’s in-house manufacturing!

Previously announced in January for Organized Play, Forgotten Souls is a new cooperative adventure, allowing up to four heroes to play a fully cooperative variant of Descent: Journeys in the Dark. In a normal game of Descent, one player takes the role of overlord, commanding monsters and the forces of evil in the game. Up to four players combat the power of the overlord by playing heroes who gain experience and new items over the course of a campaign.

Forgotten Souls changes the normal structure of Descent by emulating a mini campaign in a completely cooperative atmosphere. Although this expansion does not replace the normal game of Descent, it offers a variant for you and your friends to explore an expanding dungeon, passing tests and battling fierce monsters. Encounters and monsters are controlled by decks of cards, rather than the overlord in Forgotten Souls. You’ll also grab loot and experience as you face down a series of encounters, culminating in a battle in the heart of the dragon’s lair. Enter the darkness within Forgotten Souls!

Important: The rules for the Forgotten Souls expansion are not included in the box. The rules (pdf, 20.1 MB) are available for free download by clicking the thumbnail to the right or from the Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition support page.

Into the Dark

Forgotten Souls enables you and up to three friends to experience a mini campaign in one night. You and your friends follow a twisted path, working through the rooms of the dragon’s lair, passing tests and battling any monsters that stand in your way. New rooms and challenges are revealed from an Exploration deck, meaning you’ll never encounter the same dungeon twice in the Forgotten Souls adventure.

Each room that you encounter carries its own objective that you must complete to move on. You may be required to creep through a room of sleeping barghests, or steal dragon treasure from a trash heap. After you either achieve your goal or fail to reach it, you may open the next door and reveal a new Exploration card for you and your fellow heroes to encounter.

There is no overlord player to command his monsters against you in Forgotten Souls, so your objective also changes. In the cooperative variant of Descent, you and the other heroes win the game if you can make your way through the rooms of the Exploration deck until you reach the final main encounter. If you defeat the final main encounter, you win the game, but you must be careful not to run out of time along the way.

The overlord track replaces the overlord’s objective in cooperative Descent. A fate token and a doom token are placed at opposite ends of the track, and if these tokens ever meet, the heroes lose the game. The doom token advances slowly, but once it advances, it can never return. The fate token, however, fluctuates based on the outcomes of your encounters. For example, if a hero is knocked out, fate advances by one, but successfully completing a main encounter may allow you to reset the fate token.

Hordes of monsters lurk in the shadows of this expansion, eager for the blood of heroes. Monsters in Forgotten Souls and all cooperative Descent adventures are controlled by a deck of monster activation cards that gives the monsters a list of actions each turn during the Overlord phase. Monster activation cards contain different actions for every type of monster, meaning you’ll never know exactly how the monsters will react.

Because cooperative Descent simulates a mini campaign, you’ll also have chances to gain experience and collect new items for your heroes. Experience is granted after completing main encounters, and you immediately have the chance to improve your hero’s skills by purchasing new Class cards. You’ll also obtain new items in Forgotten Souls by filling the loot track. The loot track increases with each monster you kill, and killing larger monsters gives you access to a wider selection of items. Grabbing items as you run and fight allows your heroes to improve their armor and weapons over the course of the Forgotten Souls mini campaign.

For more on the Forgotten Souls expansion, we turn to the developer, Jonathan Bove.

Jonathan Bove on the Forgotten Souls Adventure

Exploration is a huge theme in the Forgotten Souls expansion. The heroes open doors and face new encounters on a constantly expanding map, never knowing what they’ll find in the next room. Not knowing what monsters and challenges await you keeps you on your toes and forces you to strategize constantly. More than once I’ve found myself saying “If the Trash Heap is next, we’re in big trouble!”

The monster activation cards are the heart of the cooperative experience, though. I based the AI system around the idea that monsters should always be doing something, even if their prime goal changes. For example, a ranged monster may be instructed to attack the furthest hero. The monster moves to gain line of sight to that hero, but can’t move far enough. Instead of moving again, it will attack a different hero that is in line of sight. So even though the monster didn’t reach its first goal, it’s still dealing damage to the heroes.

Something else I’m very excited about is the loot system. Each time a hero defeats a monster, tokens are added to the loot track. Once the track reaches a certain threshold, the heroes will draw from the Shop Item deck. Loot is gained immediately, without waiting for a shop phase, so you get to fight, loot, and keep on fighting. Spending XP works the same way: you spend it when you earn it. This makes gameplay in Forgotten Souls very fluid and simulates a mini campaign.

The Adventure Begins

Enter the dragon’s lair in Forgotten Souls, a in-house manufacturing expansion that introduces a fully cooperative variant to Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition for players to enjoy alongside the main game. Gather a hero party of your friends, grab some loot, and prepare for adventure!

Download the rules from the support page, and order your copy of the Forgotten Souls adventure today!

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Source: Enter the Dragon's Lair

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Laws of the Old World

New FAQ and Tournament Rules are Available for Warhammer: Diskwars

The 2014 Warhammer: Diskwars National Championships are rumbling near, and new rules and clarifications are here to aid you. Whether you’re leading a bunch of Orcs into glorious battle or riding a steam-driven warmachine against a horde, new strategies can help turn the tide of a struggle.

Be prepared to shift your tactics in the heat of the moment with the help of the new FAQ (pdf, 7.9 MB) and Tournament Rules (pdf, 2.2 MB).

These changes will go into effect on August 1st, 2014.

A Word from the Developers

Greetings Warhammer: Diskwars players!

We have updated both the FAQ and Tournament Rules documents. These documents cover the recent releases of Hammer and Hold and Legions of Darkness, and both sets are now legal for tournament play. In addition to disk and card clarifications, the Tournament Rules provide direction for integrating new scenario, deployment, and terrain cards into your competitive games. By customizing the cards that you bring to a tournament, deciding who to assign initiative to becomes an even more compelling decision.

May the Old World quake with the fury of war, and we hope to see you at Gen Con!

Michael Gernes & Lukas Litzsinger

Thanks Michael and Lukas!

Do you have what it takes to conquer the Old World? Reading the new FAQ and Tournament Rules are a great first step toward developing successful battle plans and crushing your foes!

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Source: Laws of the Old World