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Hernfar Guardians and Warband of Scorn

Announcing Two Army Pack Expansions for BattleLore Second Edition

The Berserkers kept coming, slashing at anything they could reach and leaving guards, archers, horses, even the Battlemages bleeding severely in their wake. Bright light shone through the Rune Golems’ stone bodies marking their wounds. The commander knew it was time to turn the tide of battle, to save his troops, Hernfar Isle, and Terrinoth. He whispered a few words under his breath and immediately heard the clanging of metal. Slowly, steadily, immense and shining automatons marched out of the trees and into the fray. The Uthuk stabbed and slashed at them, and then began to panic as they realized their weapons could not harm these armored, inhuman soldiers.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce two upcoming Army Pack expansions for BattleLore Second Edition. Stand your ground against chaos and destruction with the Daqan army in Hernfar Guardians, or lacerate your opponents and lay waste to the land with the demonic Uthuk Y’llan units of the Warband of Scorn.

In each Army Pack you will find four new unit types for BattleLore Second Edition and two army cards that allow you to quickly deploy complete Daqan or Uthuk Y’llan armies composed entirely of the new units. Additional infantry units – the Daqan Citadel Guards or the Uthuk Blood Harvesters – are also included, along with a complete alternate deck of lore cards, new terrain tiles, and scenario cards. Choose one of the suggested armies or combine the new units with ones from the core set – either way, you’ll command a force of unprecedented might and tactical capabilities.

Fearless Defenders

With Hernfar Guardians, mages, knights, and automatons come under your command to fight in the Daqan army. The Citadel Lancers, horsemen armed with double-headed poleaxes, trample supported enemy units that otherwise would stand firm. Siege Golems, larger and stronger than Rune Golems, are ranged units with a combat value of four and a range of up to six– greater than any other ranged unit on the field. Their immense size also allows them to ignore other units when determining line of sight. Send them forward early in the game to thin out the enemy line, or deploy them behind infantry to support an attack.

For the first time in BattleLore Second Edition, Caster units enter the conflict. These ranged infantry units fight using spells instead of physical force, their power granting them a range up to three and a combat value of three. Fighting for the Daqan Lords are Greyhaven Battlemages, scholars of the most powerful and arcane magics. Their lore results allow you to both gain a point of lore and draw a lore card.

The Battlemages bring with them the Ironbound: indomitable and enchanted automatons with a combat value of four and the ability to ignore one point of damage each combat round. As automatons, they do not need to be commanded the way living troops do. Instead, you can spend a lore to order them, enabling them to fight in every round as long as you have the lore to spend.

Bloodthirsty Demons

As the warriors of Terrinoth unite to defend their homeland, the Uthuk Y’llan gain darker infernal powers and more vicious demonic allies in Warband of Scorn. Once men, the Grotesque and Berserkers have little humanity left in them and seek only to stain the ground crimson with Daqan blood.The monstrous Grotesque can use their Lacerate ability to Bleed target units, so that the unit rolls one fewer die in combat as long as they keep bleeding. The Berserkers’ Deranged ability allows you to reroll one die in every combat roll, making them an unpredictable and vicious threat for the Daqan.

The Uthuk Y’llan gain Caster units as well: the fiendish Blood Sisters, who can Syphon target units to regain health, and cast Blood Magic to bleed their own units in order to harm their enemies. Following them are creeping, insectlike Doombringers. The terrifying presence of these creatures Immobilizes nearby units so that you cannot move them, while the Doombringers themselves can Burrow, ignoring movement restrictions imposed by terrain or other units. Send a Doombringer into the middle of Daqan cavalry to freeze them in place before they can charge forward, then annihilate them before they can fight back.

Changing Terrain

Hernfar Guardians and Warband of Scorn feature additional terrain tiles that allow you to adjust the battlefield landscape according to your will. You deploy these terrain tiles as if they were army units, and must factor them into your deployment cost. Both the Daqan Lords and Uthuk Y’llan gain Barricades that block movement or damage units that move across them. The Daqan also have Crystal Spires: any Daqan unit atop a Crystal Spire during combat can roll one additional die. Similarly, the Uthuk Y’llan can now create Blood Fields, where their units can recover one point of health at the start of your turn.

Each Army Pack includes five scenario cards that incorporate the new terrain tiles, offering your army unique advantages and challenges. In Behind the Lines, your Daqan troops are encouraged to fight their way deep into enemy territory. If you’re commanding the Uthuk Y’llan, the Blood-Stained Forest scenario gives you incentives for sending your Blood Sisters to occupy forest hexes in the middle of the battlefield.

Command and Fight

Hernfar Guardians and Warband of Scorn both contain the units necessary to deploy a complete army, with two suggested deployment options and everything you need to use these units and terrain tiles in battle. For example, with the units included in Hernfar Guardians you can deploy either the Hernfar Guardians army, which is centered around the Citadel Lancers and a Siege Golem, or the more infantry-heavy Tranlon’s Raiders army. Future previews will provide more detail about the strengths and tactical capabilities of the suggested armies.

You can also combine units from the Army Packs with those from the core set to muster an army designed for the battle at hand and customized to fit your strengths as a commander. Similarly, you can substitute the lore decks included in the Army Packs for the lore deck from the core set, or mix cards from both decks to create the lore deck that gives your army the greatest tactical advantages. Whether you command the bloodthirsty and savage Uthuk Y’llan or the noble and fearless Daqan Lords, these Army Packs offer you myriad tactical options. Choose your battlefield and your army, and prepare to fight with these formidable military units. You are in command.

Look for Hernfar Guardians and Warband of Scorn in the first quarter of 2015. In the meantime, watch the Battlelore Second Edition minisite for in-depth previews and further information.

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Source: Hernfar Guardians and Warband of Scorn

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Draft to Victory

A Guest Article on Draft Play for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game

Draft play has long allowed players to experience the excitement of competing to form a deck of cards from a limited card pool. Recently, our in-house manufacturing has allowed us to bring draft play to your battles for the Iron Throne in A Game of Thrones: The Card Game.

For those who have never drafted, a draft begins with each player purchasing a Draft Starter and a Draft Pack. Players open their randomized Draft Packs simultaneously and look at the top ten cards. Each player chooses one card to “draft,” and passes the remaining nine cards to his neighbor. Drafting and passing continues, changing directions with each new group of ten cards, until the Draft Packs are depleted. Once all cards are drafted, players construct decks using their drafted cards and the cards in their Draft Starter and play a series of games against other players in the draft.

Today, guest writer Jonathan Andrews, an avid player of A Game of Thrones and a co-host of the Beyond the Wall podcast, shares his strategies for drafting in A Game of Thrones: The Card Game!

Jonathan Andrews on A Game of Thrones Drafts

Drafting presents a unique challenge to both new and veteran players of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, forcing you to build your deck from a very limited card pool. As a drafter, there are a couple key concepts to remember while choosing your cards:

   
• onclick="window.open(this.href,'','resizable=yes,location=no,menubar=no,scrollbars=yes,status=no,toolbar=no,fullscreen=no,dependent=no,width=300,height=418,status'); return false" href="http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/agotlcg/guest-articles/cards/the-red-viper-draft.png">Know the cards. You can probably find a list of the cards in the draft online, and you’ll want to read them, memorize them, and make sure you understand how they interact. This information lets you play better during games, and it gives you an idea of what decks are possible to create with the limited card pool. You’ll need to steer clear of concepts or deck ideas that the card pool can’t support. Trying to build a characterless deck in a draft is probably a bad idea.

   
• Pick up the bombs. A bomb is a very powerful card that’s hard for your opponent to deal with. If your opponent can’t answer your bomb quickly, it can easily win you the game. The Red Viper (Westeros Draft Set) is a great example of a bomb.

   
• When unsure of what to draft, don’t forget the B.R.E.A.D. acronym. This means that, as a general rule, you want to pick cards in this order: Bombs, Removal, Efficient characters, Attachments, and Dregs

   
• Good drafting makes your deck consistent while maximizing the use of your powerful cards. This means you want to keep the majority of your deck to one or two Houses. Any more Houses than this and you risk destroying your cost curve and setup. It’s also important to balance your deck’s power with its consistency. A good general rule is that a standard draft deck of forty cards should have twenty-two characters, nine resource locations and nine other cards, including attachments, events, and non-resource locations.

Advanced Draft Strategies

There are a number of advanced strategies that players can use while drafting that may not be readily apparent to new drafters. Some of these strategies are listed below:

Signaling is the act of passing or receiving a group of cards with a very clear ideal pick. Signaling can help you or another player choose a House that no one close to you is drafting. It’s normally best to avoid drafting the same House as neighboring players to ensure that you and they all build better decks. Fighting your neighbors over a single House’s key cards renders everyone’s decks less potent.

If you’re passed a clear signal, not taking it can be risky, since the player passing to you now believes you’re playing a certain house (since they sent a signal), and they may try to avoid playing that House themselves. The signals you send and receive give you an idea of which Houses other players are drafting, informing your choices in the early rounds of the draft.

Cutting off means preventing a player from seeing any worthwhile cards from a given House. This is generally done by aggressively taking these cards yourself. Of course, sometimes there will be too many worthwhile cards of a single House and you won’t completely cut a player off. The desired result, however, is to influence other players to cement themselves into a different House than you, so that in later draft rounds they pass over plenty of top cards in your House of choice. Of course, the ultimate value of this strategy depends heavily on the amount of worthwhile cards for your chosen House in later rounds of the draft.

Long-ranging means making decisions based on cards you hope will be passed back to you when a group of cards comes back around the circle. In most drafts, you’ll see the last few cards from your first card groups again, allowing you to plan ahead somewhat. Although the cards that return to you are generally weaker cards, it’s important to have a sense of what might return. Knowing that a card you want is generally unpopular, for example, may justify taking another card, since the unpopular card will likely return. Long-ranging is more useful and reliable the fewer players drafting, since you’ll need to predict fewer picks.

Hate-drafting refers to taking cards without the intention of playing them. Players normally do this to prevent another player from using a powerful card. For example, if a card group contains nothing for your House, but it does contain Balon Greyjoy (Westeros Draft Set), you may choose to hate-draft.

Hate-drafting isn’t very profitable, since it is generally better to increase the strength of your own deck than try to hurt another player’s deck. In the games that you play after the draft, everyone enjoys the advantage you create by hate-drafting, but only you pay the price. Generally, the best time to hate-draft is if a card specifically counters your deck and there is virtually nothing for your deck in the card group.

Adapting means making decisions early in the draft to keep your options open, rather than sending a clear signal and confining yourself to a certain House. Players tend to do this by selecting neutral or multi-House cards early in the draft. The idea behind adapting is that you will have a chance to sense the climate of the draft before choosing a House, reducing the risk that you’ll be stuck in one House while great cards from another keep turning up. The downside to this is that you normally have to take sub-optimal picks early. Players tend to use adapting when their first few card groups have strong neutral cards or no strong cards at all. They can then continue to keep their options open until the second or third card groups.

I hope you have the chance to put these advanced draft strategies to use in your next draft for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game!

Conquer the Iron Throne

Thanks, Jon!

Draft play offers a unique and exciting way to experience A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. There are now two draft pools for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game: the Ice and Fire draft pool and the new Westeros draft pool. Practice your strategies and gain the Iron Throne at your next draft!

Look for more A Game of Thrones strategy articles in coming months.

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Source: Draft to Victory

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Draft to Victory

A Guest Article on Draft Play for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game

Draft play has long allowed players to experience the excitement of competing to form a deck of cards from a limited card pool. Recently, our in-house manufacturing has allowed us to bring draft play to your battles for the Iron Throne in A Game of Thrones: The Card Game.

For those who have never drafted, a draft begins with each player purchasing a Draft Starter and a Draft Pack. Players open their randomized Draft Packs simultaneously and look at the top ten cards. Each player chooses one card to “draft,” and passes the remaining nine cards to his neighbor. Drafting and passing continues, changing directions with each new group of ten cards, until the Draft Packs are depleted. Once all cards are drafted, players construct decks using their drafted cards and the cards in their Draft Starter and play a series of games against other players in the draft.

Today, guest writer Jonathan Andrews, an avid player of A Game of Thrones and a co-host of the Beyond the Wall podcast, shares his strategies for drafting in A Game of Thrones: The Card Game!

Jonathan Andrews on A Game of Thrones Drafts

Drafting presents a unique challenge to both new and veteran players of A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, forcing you to build your deck from a very limited card pool. As a drafter, there are a couple key concepts to remember while choosing your cards:

   
• Know the cards. You can probably find a list of the cards in the draft online, and you’ll want to read them, memorize them, and make sure you understand how they interact. This information lets you play better during games, and it gives you an idea of what decks are possible to create with the limited card pool. You’ll need to steer clear of concepts or deck ideas that the card pool can’t support. Trying to build a characterless deck in a draft is probably a bad idea.

   
• Pick up the bombs. A bomb is a very powerful card that’s hard for your opponent to deal with. If your opponent can’t answer your bomb quickly, it can easily win you the game. The Red Viper (Westeros Draft Set) is a great example of a bomb.

   
• When unsure of what to draft, don’t forget the B.R.E.A.D. acronym. This means that, as a general rule, you want to pick cards in this order: Bombs, Removal, Efficient characters, Attachments, and Dregs

   
• Good drafting makes your deck consistent while maximizing the use of your powerful cards. This means you want to keep the majority of your deck to one or two Houses. Any more Houses than this and you risk destroying your cost curve and setup. It’s also important to balance your deck’s power with its consistency. A good general rule is that a standard draft deck of forty cards should have twenty-two characters, nine resource locations and nine other cards, including attachments, events, and non-resource locations.

Advanced Draft Strategies

There are a number of advanced strategies that players can use while drafting that may not be readily apparent to new drafters. Some of these strategies are listed below:

Signaling is the act of passing or receiving a group of cards with a very clear ideal pick. Signaling can help you or another player choose a House that no one close to you is drafting. It’s normally best to avoid drafting the same House as neighboring players to ensure that you and they all build better decks. Fighting your neighbors over a single House’s key cards renders everyone’s decks less potent.

If you’re passed a clear signal, not taking it can be risky, since the player passing to you now believes you’re playing a certain house (since they sent a signal), and they may try to avoid playing that House themselves. The signals you send and receive give you an idea of which Houses other players are drafting, informing your choices in the early rounds of the draft.

Cutting off means preventing a player from seeing any worthwhile cards from a given House. This is generally done by aggressively taking these cards yourself. Of course, sometimes there will be too many worthwhile cards of a single House and you won’t completely cut a player off. The desired result, however, is to influence other players to cement themselves into a different House than you, so that in later draft rounds they pass over plenty of top cards in your House of choice. Of course, the ultimate value of this strategy depends heavily on the amount of worthwhile cards for your chosen House in later rounds of the draft.

Long-ranging means making decisions based on cards you hope will be passed back to you when a group of cards comes back around the circle. In most drafts, you’ll see the last few cards from your first card groups again, allowing you to plan ahead somewhat. Although the cards that return to you are generally weaker cards, it’s important to have a sense of what might return. Knowing that a card you want is generally unpopular, for example, may justify taking another card, since the unpopular card will likely return. Long-ranging is more useful and reliable the fewer players drafting, since you’ll need to predict fewer picks.

Hate-drafting refers to taking cards without the intention of playing them. Players normally do this to prevent another player from using a powerful card. For example, if a card group contains nothing for your House, but it does contain Balon Greyjoy (Westeros Draft Set), you may choose to hate-draft.

Hate-drafting isn’t very profitable, since it is generally better to increase the strength of your own deck than try to hurt another player’s deck. In the games that you play after the draft, everyone enjoys the advantage you create by hate-drafting, but only you pay the price. Generally, the best time to hate-draft is if a card specifically counters your deck and there is virtually nothing for your deck in the card group.

Adapting means making decisions early in the draft to keep your options open, rather than sending a clear signal and confining yourself to a certain House. Players tend to do this by selecting neutral or multi-House cards early in the draft. The idea behind adapting is that you will have a chance to sense the climate of the draft before choosing a House, reducing the risk that you’ll be stuck in one House while great cards from another keep turning up. The downside to this is that you normally have to take sub-optimal picks early. Players tend to use adapting when their first few card groups have strong neutral cards or no strong cards at all. They can then continue to keep their options open until the second or third card groups.

I hope you have the chance to put these advanced draft strategies to use in your next draft for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game!

Conquer the Iron Throne

Thanks, Jon!

Draft play offers a unique and exciting way to experience A Game of Thrones: The Card Game. There are now two draft pools for A Game of Thrones: The Card Game: the Ice and Fire draft pool and the new Westeros draft pool. Practice your strategies and gain the Iron Throne at your next draft!

Look for more A Game of Thrones strategy articles in coming months.

...

Source: Draft to Victory

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Grievous Wounds

A Preview of The Road Darkens by Lead Developer Caleb Grace

“Frodo threw himself down, and lay on the ground shivering. His left arm was lifeless, and his side and shoulder felt as if icy claws were laid upon them. The trees and rocks about him seemed shadowy and dim.”

    –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Some wounds do not heal quickly. Some wounds cut at your soul as much as they cut at your flesh. They weary you. They weigh you down. And even if they heal, they may leave scars. Your body may still ache at their memories. Some of these wounds may not be physical at all; they may be spiritual – the hollow ache of losing a loved one, the bitter sting of betrayal.

In The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansions for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, these are the types of wounds represented by the game’s burdens. Like boons, which reward you for your successes, burdens can take a variety of forms. In The Black Riders Saga Expansion, we saw burdens appear as treachery cards and an objective card with a setup penalty. Now, as we eagerly await the release of The Road Darkens Saga Expansion, lead developer Caleb Grace reveals some of the new burdens we might receive and offers some insight into their development.

Evils Not Easily Remedied

In our last preview of The Road Darkens, we looked at some of the box’s exciting boon cards. In this final preview for the second The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansion, I want to look at a few of the burden cards with which you will soon have to contend. I’ll start by walking you through the creation of one of my favorite burden cards, Grievous Wound (The Road Darkens, 88).

When designing a burden card, I like to start with a significant event from the book. In this case, we start with the time that Frodo was stabbed by an Orc spear. For a moment, the readers were led to believe that the Ring-bearer had died and the quest was in real jeopardy. This moment of peril took place in Moria, so it was an easy choice to introduce this burden in the expansion’s second scenario, Journey in the Dark.

After choosing the moment I want to represent, and determining where it will appear, the next step is to answer a few key questions that will give the burden its core identity:

   
• What type of card will the burden be?

   
• What effect will it have?

   
• How will the players earn it?

This is definitely one of the most challenging stages of the design process for burdens, and arriving at the answer to each of those questions is a little process of its own.

What Type of Card Will the Burden Be?

First of all, the card type is determined primarily by its function. In the case of Grievous Wound, I knew that it would need to attach to a hero so that it could physically remind players that the hero was hurt. I could have made it a treachery that attached to a hero as part of its “When revealed” effect, but I wanted Grievous Wound to have Setup instructions. Adding the burden to the staging area at the beginning of each scenario would ensure that it would impact the players’ decisions throughout their games, so we gave Grievous Wound the objective card type.

What Effect Will the Burden Have?

The next step was to determine its effect. Matt and I have mentioned in previous articles how we draw heavily from the text in order to merge card effects with theme, and I feel that Grievous Wound is a good example:

“Forced: After a hero takes damage, if Grievous Wound is unattached, attach to that hero. (Counts as a Condition attachment with the text: ‘Forced: After attached hero exhausts, deal 1 damage to it.’)”

This effect was inspired by the passage from The Fellowship of the Ring that follows after Frodo was stabbed:

“Well, it did not skewer me, I am glad to say,” said Frodo; “though I feel as if I had been caught between a hammer and an anvil.” He said no more. He found breathing painful.

That moment stood out to me because it showed that Frodo was still flesh and blood underneath his mithril shirt. The spear thrust may have been thwarted by his hidden coat of mail, but the blow was still powerful enough to injure him. As a result, he found it difficult to exert himself, and that’s what I wanted the burden to convey by dealing one damage to the attached hero each time he or she exhausts.

How Do Players Earn the Burden?

The last decision to make is the most difficult: How do the players earn the burden? The answer to this question can be almost anything, but there are some parameters that we use to help decide. It should be easier to earn a burden than to avoid it; otherwise, we lose a lot of good tension. Trying to avoid the burden should also make the scenario more challenging. Since most players will avoid taking burdens whenever they can, they should have to work harder to that end.

Since each burden is introduced in a specific scenario, earning a burden should also tie into the theme of that scenario. In a previous article, I talked about how in Journey in the Dark, you’re racing through Moria to escape without confronting The Balrog (The Road Darkens, 44) – or, at the very least, not until you’ve made your way to the last quest stage. I also revealed that, if you do encounter The Balrog, the only way to destroy it is to sacrifice a hero at The Great Bridge (The Road Darkens, 50). As a result, many players probably just assume that it would always be better to run from The Balrog rather than lose a hero in campaign mode. Well, that is a valid option, but it comes at a price. The resolution on the campaign card for Journey in the Dark reads:

“The first player must choose one of the burden treachery cards (Pursued by the Enemy or Shadow of Fear), and one of the burden objective cards (Grievous Wound or Overcome by Grief) to add to the Campaign Pool. If The Balrog is still in play, the first player must choose all 4 burden cards instead. The chosen burdens have been earned by the players.”

The two sides of the Journey in the Dark campaign card

Just as the Fellowship paid a high price to escape from Moria, and was forever altered by the experience, you cannot defeat Journey in the Dark in campaign mode without earning a couple of burdens. However, if The Balrog is left alive, the dangers of your quest increase, and you earn all four of the burdens. I find this choice particularly interesting because defeating The Balrog to avoid earning two burdens also means sacrificing a hero. Not only is that thematic, but it also has real significance in campaign mode where losing a hero makes it impossible to use that character in any subsequent scenarios.

When you consider the burdens that you can earn and you think about having to deal with them for the rest of the campaign, it should cause you to seriously consider which hero you might be able to part with in order to avoid that fate. Hopefully, wrestling with that decision will create a fun and memorable moment in your The Lord of the Rings campaign!

The Council Is Still in Session

With its new boons and burdens, The Road Darkens Saga Expansion gives weight not only to its own scenarios but to all The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansion scenarios to follow. Accordingly, you’ll want to think carefully about how you can best make use of your boons and what steps you might be able to take to suffer as few wounds and evils as possible.

Meanwhile, these concerns have also been weighing heavily upon the minds of Frodo Baggins (The Road Darkens, 1) and his companions. While we had anticipated that The Road Darkens would be at retailers this week, the different members of the Council of Elrond have been unable, thus far, to agree on the course of action to take in order to ensure that Isildur’s Bane should never again fall into the hands of Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor. These deliberations have taken longer than expected as one man is currently arguing that Frodo’s ring should be taken to Minas Tirith and used against the power of Mordor. While we wait for the debate to conclude and The Road Darkens to arrive, we will post updates and spoilers on our Facebook page, starting tomorrow with a look at the expansion’s new Boromir ally.

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Source: Grievous Wounds

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Sorcery and Stone

Preview a Hero and a Monster Group from Crusade of the Forgotten

Battle the threat of a rising cult in Crusade of the Forgotten, the third Hero and Monster Collection for Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition!

In this Hero and Monster Collection, you’ll find four heroes, two golems, three medusae, and four sorcerers previously only available through the first edition of Descent. Alongside these figures, which feature completely reimagined artwork and figure sculpts, you’ll encounter two brand-new quests, Crusade of the Forgotten and Shadowside Watch.

In our last preview, we examined the beguiling magics of the medusae and the healing power of Andira Runehand. Today, we turn to the arcane spells of Astarra and the stony strength of the golems!

Master of the Arcane

In each generation, a few brilliant minds provide small contributions to the growth and establishment of rune magic. The decades of dedication necessary for this task never interested Astarra, who preferred a quicker, more direct path. Even after being expelled from the University of Greyhaven for knowing far more than she should, Astarra continued to develop her gift by seeking out Runemasters who would share their secrets. Now, she turns her strange magics to battling the sorcerers of the Forgotten, hoping to learn new secrets when she tests her might against them.

Astarra is an accomplished mage, adept at using many kinds of magic, but her special passion is teleportation and magical movement. In your quests, you’ll find that Astarra can move much further and faster than seems possible. Her hero ability can be used once per round, and it allows you to spend one movement point to remove Astarra’s figure from the map and place her in an empty space adjacent to a hero within three spaces. Not only does this allow you to cover distances faster than ever, it also allows you to bypass troublesome terrain, or leap to the aid of a beleaguered hero.

Astarra’s heroic feat gives you more options for moving around the map in a hurry. This heroic feat can be used at the start of your turn to move every nearby figure one space. This feat can be used in conjunction with Astarra’s ability to give her better options for teleporting, but it can also be used to move monsters, shoving them away from the heroes or bringing them close enough for the heroes to quickly dispatch them.

Carved of Runic Stone

Relics of a previous age, many golems now wander free from any masters. Their rune-forged bodies having long outlasted any ancient bonds. Many upstart mages seek to manipulate a golem’s minute intelligence, but their illusions of control are swiftly crushed by the golem’s temperamental whims. Only a truly seasoned mage can master these magical constructs. Unfortunately for the people of Terrinoth, the sorcerers that lead the Forgotten are nothing if not seasoned.

In battle, golems are fearsome opponents. Though slow and ponderous, their strength is prodigious, and they are nearly impossible to topple. Many a foolish hero has blunted his weapon attempting to cleave the living stone that forms a golem. Every golem has the Ironskin ability, meaning that it is immune to Pierce and all conditions. In addition, every golem can spend a surge to deal more damage, adding to their already massively powerful combat dice.

Master golems are even more difficult to bring down. They share the Ironskin ability with other golems, but they have even more health and can surge for more damage than minion golems. In addition, your master golems have the Unmovable ability, allowing them to ignore any game effects that would force it to move. Once a master golem has taken a stand, no power in Terrinoth can shift it from its place.

The Forgotten Are Coming

The cult of the Forgotten poses a potent threat to everyone in the realm. Whether you oppose their machinations with Astarra’s magic, or serve the cult of the Forgotten with unmovable golems, you’ll find the heroes and monster you need in this Hero and Monster Collection.

Look for Crusade of the Forgotten at your local retailer soon!

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Source: Sorcery and Stone

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Announcing Arkham Nights 2014

Join Us October 17-18 in Roseville, Minnesota

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to be hosting Arkham Nights 2014 on October 17-18 at our Games Center in Roseville, Minnesota! Arkham Nights is two days dedicated to celebrating your favorite games of Lovecraftian horror. This year features the old and the new, including Arkham Horror, Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, Elder Sign, Eldritch Horror, and Mansions of Madness.

All of our games will be available to play across Friday and Saturday, along with unique opportunities for both veterans and newer players. In addition to all of the games and special events this year, we will be previewing the Eldritch Horror expansion Mountains of Madness, providing players with the opportunity to play the game before it arrives in stores!

Discover a New World

Arkham Nights offers two nights full of terror, fun, and new experiences. Throughout the event, attendees can participate in any of the scheduled, open, or learn-to-play events alongside other fans of Cthulhu-themed horror. Players will have the chance to meet and play with the designers for many of the games throughout Friday and Saturday, including special guests Richard Launius, Kevin Wilson, Corey Konieczka, and Nikki Valens!

Arkham Nights 2014 will also feature two Call of Cthluhu: The Card Game tournaments, the epic 18-player scenario for Arkham Horror: To the Barricades!, and more. Don’t miss out on your chance to experience FFG’s exploration of Lovecraft’s twisted mind.

Preregister for Exclusive Arkham Nights Relics

Register before October 10th and get a bag of horrors, including alternate dice for Arkham Horror and Eldritch Horror, one dice bag for your favorite Lovecraftian games featuring the comet symbol from Eldritch Horror, alternate art domain cards for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, and an exclusive Ancient One card for Elder Sign!

Only those who preregister will get these otherworldly treasures, so make sure to register before October 10th. Then mark October 17-18 on your calendar and get ready for an event full of entertainment and fright!

Stay tuned for the schedule of events coming shortly.

...

Source: Announcing Arkham Nights 2014

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Nightmares in the Depths of Moria

Nightmare Decks Are Now Available for the Complete Dwarrowdelf Cycle

“There came a great noise: a rolling Boom that seemed to come from depths far below, and to tremble in the stone at their feet. They sprang towards the door in alarm. Doom, doom it rolled again…”

    –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Having survived a harrowing encounter with the nightmarish Watcher in the Water, several of Middle-earth’s greatest heroes throw open the Doors of Durin. Before them lie the countless dark and deadly caverns of Khazad-dûm, which was once a rich and mighty Dwarven kingdom and now lies abandoned, though not entirely unoccupied. Within its depths dwell masses of Orcs and other, older, and fouler things, including an ancient and terrible evil, a demon of smoke and flame, the Balrog…

Set aside your fears, and venture forth on one of the greatest of all quests – this time in Nightmare Mode! Nightmare Decks are now available for the final three scenarios in the Dwarrowdelf cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game:

   
• The Long Dark Nightmare Deck
  
     

   
• Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck
  
     

   
• Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck

As with every Nightmare Deck, these new Nightmare Decks allow you to revisit three of your favorite scenarios recast with deadlier enemies, darker locations, and more terrifying surprises.

You can pick up your copies today at your local retailer or online through our webstore, or you can read on as developer Matt Newman reveals some of the terrors these Nightmare Decks will soon visit upon you!

The Long Dark

In The Long Dark scenario, the heroes are trying to find their way through Moria’s many dark corridors, and its Nightmare Deck focuses on the scenario’s locate tests. As the heroes attempt to navigate the endless caverns and halls of Khazad-dûm, locate tests represent their efforts to maintain their bearings, and if your heroes fail them, locate tests trigger all of the Lost effects in play, meaning the impact of your locate tests depends largely on the number of Lost effects in play.

To this end, the scenario’s Nightmare Deck ensures there will always be at least one Lost effect in play, because the setup card introduces one that remains perpetually in effect:

“Lost: The first player must choose and discard an ally in play.”

No matter where you are or what enemies or locations are present, you always face the danger of losing an ally in the depths of Moria. This simple change keeps the pressure on you to succeed at every single locate test and makes each of them more tense and challenging.

Several other new cards also punish the heroes for failing locate tests, such as the Trapdoor Spider (The Long Dark Nightmare Deck, 3), which jumps out from its hiding place and preys upon the helpless.

Also, because one popular strategy for defeating this quest focuses on drawing tons of cards and building up a huge hand that would never fail a locate test, I introduced cards such as Sentinel of the Deep (The Long Dark Nightmare Deck, 4) to force players to adapt. Altogether, this Nightmare Deck introduces enough revamped encounter cards and punishing Lost effects that players should find the Nightmare Mode version of this scenario both tough and rewarding.

Foundations of Stone

This unique and much-beloved scenario forced players to do something they’d never before done in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – split the party. In Nightmare Mode, you’ll find a host of new cards that further interact with this unique element of the quest. For example, Giant Cave Centipedes (Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck, 3) can weave their way from your play area to that of another player, or from your ally’s play area to yours.

Even worse, in the unknown depths of Moria, there live creatures with no names, ancient as the world itself. The Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck introduces two new Nameless enemies for your party to discover and fight, as well as a terrible location they call their home, the Nest of Horrors (Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck, 6).

This scenario is also unique in that it has two separate encounter decks. It starts off tamely before literally washing your characters away into the underground rivers where the players are forced to split up and find each other again. The Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck contains new cards for both of these two encounter decks, meaning that it doesn’t just hit them harder in the underground rivers; it also does a better job of wearing down your heroes before splitting them up. This makes for a challenging and engaging scenario from start to finish.

Shadow and Flame

I am very excited for players to get their hands on the Nightmare Deck for Shadow and Flame, one of my personal favorite scenarios in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

One of the challenges our team faced as we designed the Nightmare Deck for this scenario was figuring out a way to make your fight against Durin’s Bane tougher and even more epic without simply restricting all your favorite tricks and tools. I wanted to make sure that you would truly feel the weight and impact of each of the Balrog’s attacks, and I wanted to give the Balrog a variety of different attacks and maneuvers it could perform on each attack, making it feel every bit like the nightmarish incarnation of an awesome, dynamic, and responsive boss enemy. To that end, half of the cards added in this Nightmare Deck are treachery cards with the Attack trait, which are shuffled into a separate “Balrog deck” during setup. These cards have no encounter effects other than devastatingly powerful shadow effects, and they are only ever dealt as shadow cards to the Balrog. However, every time the Balrog attacks, you’re in for a world of hurt!

Even as they add new flame to Durin’s Bane, many of these new shadow effects also counter popular strategies that players have used to find victory in Shadow and Flame.

   
• Do you like to stack defensive items on a powerful defender, along with Burning Brand? Beware the Balrog’s Blazing Grip (Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck, 4), which can render such a character defenseless.
  
     

   
• Do you prefer to play cheap allies you can use to defend against the Balrog? Watch out for Morgoth’s Bidding (Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck, 5), which will make you regret that decision.

Beyond these Attack cards, there are also new locations and enemies you can face during the nightmare version of this quest, such as the new Servant of Flame (Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck, 7), who will make you think twice about who to attack during the combat phase.

The scenario’s objective remains the same: find a way to defeat this creature of flame and shadow, and escape Moria with your lives. But to paraphrase Gandalf, this may be a foe beyond any of you, and I look forward to hearing about your experiences fighting this nightmarish version of Durin’s Bane.

Alámenë!

Your Quest Through the Dwarrowdelf Comes to an End

One way or another, these three new Nightmare Decks allow you to finish your quest through the Dwarrowdelf in style. Will you get lost in the labyrinthine mines of Moria? Will you be devoured by the nameless things that dwell in depths better left untouched? Will you tremble, falter, and fall in battle against Durin’s Bane, one of the most powerful and fearsome creatures in all of Middle-earth? Or will you somehow find the strength, the courage, and the will to survive? Can you find your way out of Khazad-dûm and report back to Rivendell?

Complete your quest with these three new Nightmare Decks, now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

   
• The Long Dark Nightmare Deck
  
     

   
• Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck
  
     

   
• Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck

...

Source: Nightmares in the Depths of Moria

[RSSFeeder]

Nightmares in the Depths of Moria

Nightmare Decks Are Now Available for the Complete Dwarrowdelf Cycle

“There came a great noise: a rolling Boom that seemed to come from depths far below, and to tremble in the stone at their feet. They sprang towards the door in alarm. Doom, doom it rolled again…”
     –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Having survived a harrowing encounter with the nightmarish Watcher in the Water, several of Middle-earth’s greatest heroes throw open the Doors of Durin. Before them lie the countless dark and deadly caverns of Khazad-dûm, which was once a rich and mighty Dwarven kingdom and now lies abandoned, though not entirely unoccupied. Within its depths dwell masses of Orcs and other, older, and fouler things, including an ancient and terrible evil, a demon of smoke and flame, the Balrog…

Set aside your fears, and venture forth on one of the greatest of all quests – this time in Nightmare Mode! Nightmare Decks are now available for the final three scenarios in the Dwarrowdelf cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game:

     
• The Long Dark Nightmare Deck
       
     
• Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck
       
     
• Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck

As with every Nightmare Deck, these new Nightmare Decks allow you to revisit three of your favorite scenarios recast with deadlier enemies, darker locations, and more terrifying surprises.

You can pick up your copies today at your local retailer or online through our webstore, or you can read on as developer Matt Newman reveals some of the terrors these Nightmare Decks will soon visit upon you!

The Long Dark

In The Long Dark scenario, the heroes are trying to find their way through Moria’s many dark corridors, and its Nightmare Deck focuses on the scenario’s locate tests. As the heroes attempt to navigate the endless caverns and halls of Khazad-dûm, locate tests represent their efforts to maintain their bearings, and if your heroes fail them, locate tests trigger all of the Lost effects in play, meaning the impact of your locate tests depends largely on the number of Lost effects in play.

To this end, the scenario’s Nightmare Deck ensures there will always be at least one Lost effect in play, because the setup card introduces one that remains perpetually in effect:

“Lost: The first player must choose and discard an ally in play.”

No matter where you are or what enemies or locations are present, you always face the danger of losing an ally in the depths of Moria. This simple change keeps the pressure on you to succeed at every single locate test and makes each of them more tense and challenging.

Several other new cards also punish the heroes for failing locate tests, such as the Trapdoor Spider (The Long Dark Nightmare Deck, 3), which jumps out from its hiding place and preys upon the helpless.

Also, because one popular strategy for defeating this quest focuses on drawing tons of cards and building up a huge hand that would never fail a locate test, I introduced cards such as Sentinel of the Deep (The Long Dark Nightmare Deck, 4) to force players to adapt. Altogether, this Nightmare Deck introduces enough revamped encounter cards and punishing Lost effects that players should find the Nightmare Mode version of this scenario both tough and rewarding.

Foundations of Stone

This unique and much-beloved scenario forced players to do something they’d never before done in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – split the party. In Nightmare Mode, you’ll find a host of new cards that further interact with this unique element of the quest. For example, Giant Cave Centipedes (Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck, 3) can weave their way from your play area to that of another player, or from your ally’s play area to yours.

Even worse, in the unknown depths of Moria, there live creatures with no names, ancient as the world itself. The Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck introduces two new Nameless enemies for your party to discover and fight, as well as a terrible location they call their home, the Nest of Horrors (Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck, 6).

This scenario is also unique in that it has two separate encounter decks. It starts off tamely before literally washing your characters away into the underground rivers where the players are forced to split up and find each other again. The Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck contains new cards for both of these two encounter decks, meaning that it doesn’t just hit them harder in the underground rivers; it also does a better job of wearing down your heroes before splitting them up. This makes for a challenging and engaging scenario from start to finish.

Shadow and Flame

I am very excited for players to get their hands on the Nightmare Deck for Shadow and Flame, one of my personal favorite scenarios in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

One of the challenges our team faced as we designed the Nightmare Deck for this scenario was figuring out a way to make your fight against Durin’s Bane tougher and even more epic without simply restricting all your favorite tricks and tools. I wanted to make sure that you would truly feel the weight and impact of each of the Balrog’s attacks, and I wanted to give the Balrog a variety of different attacks and maneuvers it could perform on each attack, making it feel every bit like the nightmarish incarnation of an awesome, dynamic, and responsive boss enemy. To that end, half of the cards added in this Nightmare Deck are treachery cards with the Attack trait, which are shuffled into a separate “Balrog deck” during setup. These cards have no encounter effects other than devastatingly powerful shadow effects, and they are only ever dealt as shadow cards to the Balrog. However, every time the Balrog attacks, you’re in for a world of hurt!

Even as they add new flame to Durin’s Bane, many of these new shadow effects also counter popular strategies that players have used to find victory in Shadow and Flame.

     
• Do you like to stack defensive items on a powerful defender, along with Burning Brand? Beware the Balrog’s Blazing Grip (Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck, 4), which can render such a character defenseless.
       
     
• Do you prefer to play cheap allies you can use to defend against the Balrog? Watch out for Morgoth’s Bidding (Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck, 5), which will make you regret that decision.

Beyond these Attack cards, there are also new locations and enemies you can face during the nightmare version of this quest, such as the new Servant of Flame (Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck, 7), who will make you think twice about who to attack during the combat phase.

The scenario’s objective remains the same: find a way to defeat this creature of flame and shadow, and escape Moria with your lives. But to paraphrase Gandalf, this may be a foe beyond any of you, and I look forward to hearing about your experiences fighting this nightmarish version of Durin’s Bane.

Alámenë!

Your Quest Through the Dwarrowdelf Comes to an End

One way or another, these three new Nightmare Decks allow you to finish your quest through the Dwarrowdelf in style. Will you get lost in the labyrinthine mines of Moria? Will you be devoured by the nameless things that dwell in depths better left untouched? Will you tremble, falter, and fall in battle against Durin’s Bane, one of the most powerful and fearsome creatures in all of Middle-earth? Or will you somehow find the strength, the courage, and the will to survive? Can you find your way out of Khazad-dûm and report back to Rivendell?

Complete your quest with these three new Nightmare Decks, now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

     
• The Long Dark Nightmare Deck
       
     
• Foundations of Stone Nightmare Deck
       
     
• Shadow and Flame Nightmare Deck

...

Source: Nightmares in the Depths of Moria

[RSSFeeder]

Alien Intelligence

A Closer Look at XCOM: The Board Game's Unique Companion App

The signal was already breaking up. UFOs over Europe, Africa, and… The early warning system went offline. Despite the limited intel, there was no time to lose. The Commander deployed the Interceptors, praying they were headed where they were needed most. There was another alert. The systems revealed an invasion force headed for the base, and then… nothing. The signal was dead. The satellite network was down. XCOM would have to fight blind…

The alien invasion has already begun!

The initial response to our announcement of XCOM: The Board Game has been positively overwhelming. Our demo tables were packed at Gen Con Indy, then again at PAX, and fan sites have since set the net abuzz with news and reviews about both the game and its use of a free digital companion app.

Why does XCOM make use of a digital companion, and what does it add to the game? These are the questions we’ll address today, as we launch headlong into the first of our series of previews.

Researching New Technology

In XCOM: The Board Game, one to four players work together as department heads of the elite military organization XCOM. It is up to you and your friends to thwart a full-scale alien invasion. This invasion is controlled by the app.

Our goal was that XCOM’s digital companion app would allow us to create a gameplay experience that would go well beyond what would be feasible without it. Accordingly, it is an integral part of the game and drives your play experience. It controls the alien invasion, coordinates hidden information, adds to the game’s tension, distinguishes player roles, and promotes a fully cooperative experience. Moreover, the app, which is available for free as both a downloadable app and an online tool, teaches you the game, guides you through each turn, and serves as your rules reference, one that is always immediately at hand.

XCOM’s digital app compresses a wealth of information into an easily digestible format. Furthermore, it keeps the game’s rules immediately at hand. You can learn about the active action simply by clicking on it, and the menu button allows you to access the full rules in just two quick clicks.

Coordinating the Alien Invasion

Each round is divided into two phases, the timed phase and the resolution phase. Throughout the timed phase, the app creates alerts that pop up onscreen and indicate which actions the players need to take. You may need to place UFOs on the board, assign scientists to research new technologies, or choose which global crisis your team will address.

Whenever an alert pops up, it is accompanied by a limited window of time within which your team can act.

   
       
           
       
   

The app alerts your team to an impending crisis.

After the app triggers the last of these real-time alerts in the timed phase, you enter the untimed resolution phase. In the resolution phase, you are no longer pressed by time limitations, but you face new tensions as you roll dice and push your luck to resolve your research, missions, and global defense. Even in the resolution phase, the app guides you through your turn sequence. Then, at the end of the phase, you input the results of your efforts, the app calculates the aliens’ next tactics, and the next timed phase begins.

By handling all the calculations for the alien invasion plan, the app greatly streamlines the game, and by serving as your timer, the app also helps to amplify the game’s tension. However, the app does far more than reduce your setup time and track the progress of each round’s timed phase. Those elements are useful, but they don’t truly indicate how the app characterizes your experience.

Promoting a Fully Cooperative Game Experience

XCOM: The Board Game is a fully cooperative (or solo) gameplay experience, and this is one important element of the gameplay experience that the app enables. XCOM’s app handles all of the hidden information for the aliens, directing the deployment of each round’s UFOs and enemies, as well as the number of crises that you and your team are forced to resolve. These decisions are made semi-randomly, based upon the game’s invasion plan, its difficulty level, and your ability to deal with the invasion from round to round. In fact, the app’s ability to respond to your actions means that XCOM permits an experience that’s more intelligent than a deck of cards, without requiring a player to assume the role of the aliens.

It’s thematically important that the players in XCOM are all working together to save humanity from the onslaught of a strange and unknown alien menace, but it’s also important for the game’s mechanics. The app introduces two innovative game elements that are critical to your XCOM experience: forecasts and scrambled communications.

Forecasts appear during the timed phase, flashing across your screen as yellow transmissions, and they give you advanced warning of the alien invasion plan for the round before UFOs appear in orbit or enemy strike teams arrive at your base. The information that these forecasts provide is almost always accurate, but the fullness of its intelligence depends upon how well you can maintain your satellite network. In fact, if too many aliens remain in orbit, your satellite network will deteriorate to the point where you might lose your forecasts altogether.

An example of how the app can forecast the arrival of UFOs. The forecast on the left indicates the future arrival of four UFOs (marked in yellow): two in orbit, one in Europe, and one in Australia. The alert on the right shows the arrival of three of these UFOs. Because forecasts rarely lie, we can generally expect that the UFO forecasted to arrive in Europe will arrive later in the round.

This brings us to the idea of scrambled transmissions, which contribute to one of the most remarkable aspects of the XCOM experience. In XCOM: The Board Game, the app doesn’t just play the role of your rival, it’s also your “game manager.” It teaches you the rules in its tutorial mode and then continues to serve as your one-touch rules reference. However, it also prompts you to act. In fact, there is no turn sequence listed in a rulebook because the app manages your turns, and while you’ll recognize the basic patterns of your turns – receiving forecasts, deploying resources, tracking alien movements, and responding to global crises – there is no one, single turn sequence.

Instead, the app tracks the order in which events occur and weighs your team’s actions each turn, and if the aliens are outpacing your satellite network, the app will start scrambling your transmissions, forcing you to deploy your Interceptors before you know where the UFOs are appearing in orbit. You may even have to deploy soldiers to your mission and base before you have any idea what the aliens have planned for the turn.

Here, we see an example of how scrambled transmissions can impact your ability to successfully resist the alien invaders. The screenshot on the left depicts the sort of information you should receive while your satellite network is doing its job; we see that our alert history twice detected UFOs before we had to deploy our Interceptors. The screenshot on the right, however, introduces a nightmarish situation; we are forced to deploy our Interceptors near the very beginning of the round, well before we have any idea where the aliens intend to land their UFOs. We are fighting blind.

The Central Officer

   
       
           
       
   

The Central Officer is responsible for four different aspects of the game. Two of these relate directly to the quality of information that your team receives from the app.

The threat of scrambled transmissions, once again, is another element that adds to the game’s uniquely satisfying cooperative play. XCOM: The Board Game features four asymmetric roles, which players divide between themselves at the beginning of each game. One of these roles is the Central Officer, the XCOM department head responsible to manage both the app and XCOM’s satellite network.

Managing the App

The first of the Central Officer’s listed duties reads:

“Communication – relay information from the app”

At first glance, this duty may appear deceptively straight-forward, but the app isn’t just a digital hourglass. It’s a resource that the Central Officer can manage, and the fact that scrambled transmissions can quickly devastate your efforts means that his role is absolutely vital.

The app has a pause function, and your group has a limited amount of pause time that it can spend each round. This pause time varies according to the game’s difficulty, but it’s also a resource that you can manage carefully in order to ensure that it’s available when you need it most. You can use it to check forecasts or discuss strategies, but if you overuse your pause time, it will run out. Then, you’ll be forced to make your future decisions in shorter windows of time. However, if you complete your earlier, simpler tasks more quickly, the Central Officer can start to bank your pause time for when the invasion hits in full force later in the game.

The fact that the Central Officer controls this pause function means, then, that he’s largely responsible for how much time your group can spend deliberating the merits of different strategic choices. Since each alert opens a limited action window, players can’t spend a long period of time to reach a group consensus about the optimal response, and this means that the multi-player format for XCOM truly encourages each member of the group to carry his or her full weight and focus on a limited set of tasks, rather than trying to manage the whole organization. In turn, the fact that you’re asked to focus so closely on your own tasks and tactics means that you better appreciate your role’s specific challenges, and you gain a greater replay value when you switch roles and tackle another whole set of challenges.

Of course, you’re still a team, and the app’s pause function will let you work together in those moments when you really need to craft your strategies as a group, but the timer and the Central Officer help to ensure that those moments merely punctuate your game experience. They don’t define it.

Your pause time is a variable resource that you will want to manage carefully in order to buy the time you need for your group to reach a consensus during the game’s most critical decisions.

Managing XCOM’s Satellite Network

In addition to managing the app, your Central Officer must also manage XCOM’s network of satellites. He can focus on attacking UFOs in orbit in order to keep your signals strong and your forecasts clear. Or he can jam the invaders’ signals to confuse UFOs hovering over the earth’s continents. When these efforts succeed, the UFOs leave the continents but return to orbit. Of course, once they’re in orbit, those UFOs then threaten to scramble your transmissions. Thus, the Central Officer must constantly weigh the importance of maintaining clear transmissions against the importance of luring alien UFOs away from the Earth.

The more UFOs in orbit, the greater the chance they will scramble your transmissions.

All told, the Central Officer serves your XCOM team as the head of military intelligence, and he’s the member of your group who is most responsible for ensuring that your team can collect the information that you need to formulate a winning plan.

Confronting the Alien Menace

As you can see, the digital companion app for XCOM: The Board Game is an integral part of the game. It streamlines your game experience, coordinates hidden information, serves as your timer, helps to distinguish player roles, and allows you and your friends to enjoy a truly cooperative experience. Additionally, it keeps the game’s rules close at hand, manages your turn sequence, permits variable difficulty levels, and challenges you to maintain a strong satellite network and clear transmissions. Moreover, the app also includes a tutorial that teaches you the game, meaning that you can dive immediately into the action. All in all, this free digital app is far more than a convenient addition to XCOM: The Board Game, it’s the slimy, green, pulsating heart of the alien invasion.

How will you respond to this alien threat? In our upcoming previews, we’ll look at the different roles you can assume as an XCOM department head and the choices with which you’ll have to wrestle as you try to plan your final mission and force the invaders back off our world.

...

Source: Alien Intelligence

[RSSFeeder]

Into the Woods

Talisman: The Woodland Is Now Available

The Woodland, an expansion for Talisman Revised 4th Edition, is now available at your local retailer and in our online store.

For centuries the faeries kept their forested home closed to mortals, but now you can step from the Outer Region of Talisman into their secret and perilous realm. There, paths shift unpredictably, fate can earn you a king’s hatred or a queen’s favor, and, in the heart of the woods, your destiny awaits.

The Realm of the Fae

The Woodland features a corner board depicting a mysterious and uncouth forest, governed by mischievous faeries and inhabited by all ilk of mystical creatures. You may encounter there not only mercurial faeries, but also enchanted animals that fight with Craft instead of Strength, and talking trees eager to share the secrets of the Woodland with you.

We explored the landscape of the Woodland and some of the its Places, Events, and Strangers in our first preview. From infamous and mischievous Puck to the old, hunchbacked witch Baba Yaga, the inhabitants of the Woodland are reliably unpredictable, and will decide what to do with an outsider according to their own changeable whims– or according to your fate.

Light and Dark Fate

As discussed in our second preview, The Woodland brings into play a difference between light and dark fate tokens. While fate tokens in Talisman have always had two sides, one golden and one dark blue, only with The Woodland do the sides take on different effects: you can spend a light fate token to reroll one of your own die rolls, or a dark fate token to reroll another player’s roll.

Inside the Woodland region, fate takes on an even larger significance. The savage King Oberon, kindly Queen Titania, cruel Queen Mab, and many other faeries will judge you based on the amount of fate you have, and whether you have more light fate or dark fate. Light fate is not in any way better than dark fate, but wandering in the Woodland without any fate at all could doom a character to torment and even death.

Meandering Paths and Ultimate Destinies

Our third preview explored the Paths that guide you through the Woodland and the Destinies that you can gain there. Upon entering the Woodland, you choose one of three Path cards that give your character advantages (and disadvantages) during your journey through the woods. Path cards also determine what foe you encounter in the Meeting with Destiny space in the heart of the Woodland. If you reach that space, and defeat whatever danger awaits you there, you can earn a Destiny to aid your character throughout their journey in Talisman.

Brave the Wild Woods

The Woodland brings five more characters to the game of Talisman – three of them, the Ancient Oak, the Leywalker, and the Spider Queen, are introduced in our fourth preview. These characters, particularly suited to brave the ever-changing and treacherous Woodland, can thrive and triumph in any region.

Three game-transforming alternate endings are also included in this expansion. One pits you against either King Oberon or Queen Titania as the two Fae monarchs struggle for dominance, another sends you traveling the far reaches of Talisman to prove your worth, and the last forces you to stand before the Three Fates as they judge whether you are worthy to hold the Crown of Command.

If you can withstand the faeries’ whims and find a path through the shifting trees, you may be rewarded with incredible Strength or Craft, powerful Magic Objects and helpful Followers, or a Destiny to guide you in your quest for the Crown of Command. Prepare to venture into the dark, deep, enchanted Woodland.

Check out the rules on the Talisman support page, and pick up your copy of The Woodland today!

...

Source: Into the Woods

[RSSFeeder]

Treasures and Monsters and Torchlight

Preview DungeonQuest Revised Edition

Clenching the chalice tight in his hand, Hugo ducked and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the troll’s giant fist. He stood up again, moved quickly to the left, and swung his sword into the troll’s thick neck and pushed the blade through with all his might, beheading the monster. The dying troll tumbled down to the ground. Hugo turned to leave the room only to find himself at the edge of a bottomless pit. He grabbed onto the walls in order to avoid falling in. And then he realized the chalice was no longer in his hand, but clanging against stone as it tumbled into the abyss.

In DungeonQuest Revised Edition, one to four players take on the role of heroes and venture into Dragonfire Dungeon, aiming to steal as much loot as possible and escape before the sun sets and the slumbering dragon inside the dungeon wakes up. Inside the dungeon, you’ll wander maze-like corridors in your search for riches. Any chamber you enter may be filled with gold, booby-trapped with swinging axes, or inhabited by an enraged monster. Deep within the dungeon is a treasure chamber, where the bravest heroes can find unfathomable wealth, but the treasure chamber is where the dragon sleeps, and if she catches you, you may not survive the flames.

 

 If you’re familiar with DungeonQuest Third Edition, you can find out more about how DungeonQuest Revised Edition is different on the game's description page. Hearkening back to classic editions of the game, DungeonQuest Revised Edition features a streamlined combat system and the Torchlight variation, both discussed in today’s preview, along with other minor changes to improve gameplay. The downloadable conversion guide that can be found on the product support page enables owners of DungeonQuest Third Edition to play using the rules, combat system, and character sheets of the revised edition.

Whether you're just discovering this fast-paced dungeon raiding game, or have long been a fan of other editions, you can learn more by clicking the thumbnail on the right to download the Learn to Play guide for DungeonQuest Revised Edition (pdf, 2.9 MB) from the support page. You will also find there a detailed Rules Reference guide for the game.

Monster Fighting

Dragonfire Dungeon is an ever-changing and dangerous labyrinth, full of twists, turns, and unexpected challenges. You move through the dungeon by randomly drawing a chamber tile and advancing into that unknown space. Many chambers have specific effects that you resolve the moment you enter them: spider webs might block your path, or the chamber might revolve so that you cannot leave the way you came. Once inside the chamber, you will frequently draw a card to see if you trigger a trap, discover a crypt, encounter a monster, or provoke a wizard’s curse. Your hero’s strength, agility, armor, and luck will frequently be tested in the quest to overcome the dungeon’s traps and obstacles. Sometimes you will move forward unscathed, far more often you will have to fight some sudden threat in order to obtain the treasure you desire.

Combat in DungeonQuest Revised Edition has been streamlined and sped up from other editions of DungeonQuest. When a monster ambushes a hero, the player on their left draws the monster from the monster deck and governs it in combat, revealing the name of the monster but keeping secret its health and any escape penalty. The players controlling the hero and monster secretly select one of three combat cards which determine whether they use a melee, ranged, or magical attack. Then, they simultaneously reveal the chosen cards to see if their weapons match up, or if your hero is trying to fight magic with fire.

For example, Hugo the Glorious is ambushed by a skeleton. You select Hero Melee, while the player controlling the skeleton selects Monster Magic. As shown on the Hero Melee card, Hugo deals one wound and suffers none. And, as shown on the Monster Magic card, the monster suffers one wound and deals none. The skeleton is weakened, but since it has a health of three, it continues fighting. At this point Hugo can either try to escape by testing his agility and taking wounds equal to the monsters escape penalty– none, in this case. Or he can continue to fight until the skeleton is slain. Weigh your hero’s agility against the risk of being wounded carefully, for monsters are only one of the dungeon’s many dangers.

Catacomb Crawling

Some chambers allow you to descend into the catacombs, where even more ghastly threats and treasures await. Down below you may be overrun by a horde of rats or bitten by a venomous spider, or come upon a flying carpet that will ease your journey.  One key advantage of going through the catacombs is that you control the direction, of your movement. If you can survive the dangers that lurk there, braving the catacombs may enable you to reach the treasure chamber long before your opponents who navigate the labyrinth above. Moreover, concealed in the catacombs is the most valuable piece of loot in the whole dungeon: the gigantic diamond. Find it, and then find your way out of the dungeon before the dragon wakes up.

When you descend, you place a travel marker in the chamber where you descended, facing whatever direction you like. At the start of your turn you draw a catacomb card instead of drawing a new tile. If you draw an exit card, you can decide whether to exit back to the dungeon or continue in the catacombs. When you do choose to surface, count the catacomb cards you’ve drawn and move that number of spaces. Then, turn your marker ninety degrees, roll a dice, and move that number of spaces. You may surface in space explored and made safe by other heroes – or you may once more venture into the unknown.

Exploring by Torchlight

In regular DungeonQuest game play, you have no way of knowing the dangers before you. The Torchlight variation introduced in DungeonQuest Revised Edition allows you to see one step ahead. When you enter a chamber, draw tiles for every possible exit out of that space, so that your immediate options become clearer. In your next turn, move into one of those chambers, draw tiles to see what your options are, and then resolve the effects of the chamber you’re in. You may be able to avoid traps, or to head directly towards the treasure chamber rather than being led away by the labrynthine corridors. Or, you may simply have to choose the best of two evils.

The Torchlight Variation gives you increased agency in your journey through the dungeon. It also speeds up the game, since players have some control over where they are going. But Dragonfire Dungeon remains treacherous, and more adventurers find death in its walls than emerge triumphantly with bags of gems. You may avoid a bottomless pit only to be attacked by a lingering shade, or crushed under a ceiling collapse.

Fight, Raid, Run!

Fight your way towards treasure chamber’s plentiful riches, plunge into the haunted catacombs in search of gold, or seize the first piece of loot you encounter and run for the exit before the sun sets and the dragon stirs. Use the Torchlight variation to peer ahead into the maze of corridors, or experience the thrill of never knowing what chamber you’ll enter next. The surprises and dangers you’ll find in DungeonQuest Revised Edition are as incredible as the riches to be stolen from the dragon’s lair.

Pre-order your copy of DungeonQuest Revised Edition today!

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Source: Treasures and Monsters and Torchlight

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A Game of Thrones Championships in Greece

Announcing the 2014 Greek National Championships

Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce the date and location of the first ever 2014 Greek A Game of Thrones: The Card Game National Championships. On September 28th, Fantasy Shop and Kaissa Games will host the A Game of Thrones: The Card Game National Championships! Register today to secure your spot, and prepare to face other passionate players in your favorite game.

Talented Players

The 2014 Greek National Championships are sure to bring premier A Game of Thrones: The Card Game players in Greece out in large numbers. Compete against the best the country has to offer, and show that you have what it takes to control the throne!

On September 28th, Fantasy Shop and Kaissa Games will host the 2014 Greek A Game of Thrones: The Card Game National Championship at Hotel Stratos Vasilikos in Athens, Greece. Those who attend will find a fantastic day of fierce competition and new friendships.

Greek A Game of Thrones: The Card Game players, a full day of fun, excitement, and meeting other passionate players awaits!

A Game of Thrones: The Card Game Joust National Championship

Where: Hotel Stratos Vasilikos
 114 Michalakopoulou
115 27 Athens

When: Sunday, September 28th. 11:00 am start.

Format: Standard Constructed. Swiss rounds and a single elimination play off.

Prizes: The winner will receive a trophy and a first-round bye at the A Game of Thrones: The Card Game European Championships. The winner and runner-up will both receive a Martell messenger bag and plane tickets to the A Game of Thrones: The Card Game European Championships at Stahleck Castle. The top 8 will each receive a playmat, and the top 16 will each receive Martell power tokens. All participants will receive a Beric Dondarrion alternate art card.

Contact: +30 6945720350

Registration and Accommodation

Players can preregister for both events in person at Fantasy Shop Viktoria or by calling +30 2108231072. Venue details and on-site accommodation can be found on the Hotel Stratos Vasilikos website. Don’t miss out on your chance to show your skills in battle!

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Source: A Game of Thrones Championships in Greece

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Android: Netrunner Championships in Greece

Announcing the 2014 Greek National Championships

Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce the date and location of the first ever 2014 Greek Android: Netrunner National Championships. On September 28th, Fantasy Shop and Kaissa Games will host the Android: Netrunner National Championships! Register today to secure your spot, and prepare to face other passionate players in your favorite game.

Talented Players

The 2014 Greek National Championships are sure to bring premier players in Greece out in large numbers. Compete against the best the country has to offer, and show that you have what it takes to represent your country in international competition.

On September 28th, Fantasy Shop and Kaissa Games will host the 2014 Greek National Championship for Android: Netrunner at Hotel Stratos Vasilikos in Athens, Greece. Players who attend will discover a day filled tough competition and new friends.

Greek Android: Netrunner players, the time to log onto the net and test your skills against Runners and Corps alike approaches!

Android: Netrunner National Championship

Where: Hotel Stratos Vasilikos
114 Michalakopoulou
115 27 Athens

When: Sunday, September 28th. 11:00 am start.

Format: Standard Constructed. Swiss rounds and a double-elimination championship bracket.

Prizes: The winner will receive a trophy and a first-round bye at the Android: Netrunner World Championship in Roseville, Minnesota. The winner and runner-up will both receive a Tori Hanzo messenger bag. The top 8 will each receive a Tori Hanzo playmat, and the top 16 will each receive a set of agenda tokens. All participants will receive a Noise alternate art card.

Contact: +30 6945720350

Registration and Accommodation

Players can preregister for both events in person at Fantasy Shop Viktoria or by calling +30 2108231072. Venue details and on-site accommodation can be found on the Hotel Stratos Vasilikos website. Don’t miss out on your chance to prove your Android: Netrunner skills!

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Source: Android: Netrunner Championships in Greece

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Even Death May Die

A Preview of The Sleeper Below for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die.”

    –H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

The world is about to change. The Sleeper Below is coming soon, and Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game will never be the same…

Cloistered within the dank confines of an Arkham basement, at the base of a building set back among the city’s darkest alleyways, several cultists offer blood sacrifices in a dark ritual dedicated to an ancient and unfathomable being of tremendous power. They seek to wake this terrible entity, hoping to be rewarded with power and the freedom to act wildly amid a world set to ruin, lawless, with its governments shattered, with the very idea of morality severely battered and broken. Likewise, there is a group of sinister cultists living in the wintery darkness of Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle, and its members carve hideous runes into bone and utter foul words in evil chants as they, too, offer themselves to the great Cthulhu.

These actions are reflected by those of other cultists in other sects, spread across the globe, all of whom have retained and communicated through the ages the tattered knowledge of a slumbering Ancient One, that will someday awake, and when it awakes, it will shatter human civilization.

Simultaneously, there are professors, police officers, and scientists who have stumbled across these cults, their rituals, and their sinister intents. These unlikely heroes seek to prevent the cults from attaining their goals. There exist, also, a handful of secret societies who have learned of Cthulhu and other elder ones, and they seek to control these powers, even as alien cultures such as the strange Mi-Go, elder things, and Yithians secretly operate within our world, driven by motives utterly incomprehensible to humanity.

That fact that all of these different factions enter Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game to pursue their various objectives leads us to the game’s struggles, and within those struggles, each faction plays toward its own strengths. Now, the upcoming arrival of The Sleeper Below will change those struggles significantly, as it not only provides the Cult of Cthulhu with new fuel and new strength to conduct their foul rituals, but it adds two new mechanics. The first of these is the Dormant keyword, which we’ve explored in detail within an earlier preview. The second, however, is something even darker and deadlier; it is the ability to permanently remove cards from the game.

Doomed Beyond Death

The idea of removing cards from the game was first introduced with the conspiracy The Mage’s Machinations (Terror in Venice, 30), but this first foray into the “remove from game” mechanic was limited in two ways: It only targeted characters, and its removal was temporary. Once the conspiracy was won, the winner would gain control of both characters that had been removed from the game.

Now, a few cards in The Sleeper Below give new teeth to the mechanic and, in so doing, define a fate that, to the game’s many characters, is worse than madness, injury, destruction, and even death. After all, death is not always permanent within Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game. Characters who are destroyed or who suffer enough wounds to “die” are placed in the discard pile, but there are many secrets and many powers that can rip a soul out of the discard pile and bring it back into play. Many of these are dark, like Unspeakable Resurrection (Core Set, 119), and they fall under the domains of those hideous powers that threaten humanity. Other effects, like that of Professor Nathaniel Peaslee (Core Set, 24), aren’t quite so dark; they don’t bring subjects back from the dead, altered and ghoulish. They simply cheat death.

In fact, the game incorporates so many different effects that interact with your discard piles that the use of the discard pile as a second “hand of cards” has become a prominent element of the game. For this reason, characters such as the Stalking Hound (Perilous Trials, 39), Yithian Scout (The Key and the Gate, 15), and Descendant of Eibon (The Terror of the Tides, 75) have become some of the game’s most resilient and pervasive characters, while other characters such as the Lost Oracle (The Key and the Gate, 9) have introduced powerful effects that are extremely hard to cancel.

However, in The Sleeper Below, we find some new answers to the questions these cards can raise.

   
       
           
           
       
       
           
           
       
       
           
           
       
   

	First of all, the Bone Sculptor (The Sleeper Below, 10), is a Cultist who can potentially remove any character from the game, even an Ancient One. Better yet, he allows you to gain control of that character for a phase, meaning that you can potentially use your opponent’s most powerful characters against him.             “Action: Exhaust Bone Sculptor and pay X (minimum of 1) to choose 1 character in any discard pile with a cost of X or lower. Put it into play under your control. At the end of the phase remove it from the game. Limit once per turn.”             The fact that the Bone Sculptor can trigger his ability any time he can exhaust means that he imbues each of your open domains with a profound sense of menace.
	Next, the support card Even Death May Die (The Sleeper Below, 37) attaches to your opponent’s discard pile. Then, so long as it is attached, you can choose to disrupt your opponent anytime he would place a card into the discard pile. That card is, instead, removed from the game, and you place a success token on Even Death May Die. Because Even Death May Die has the Fated 4 keyword, you can add four success tokens to it before you must place it on the bottom of your deck, but this support, like Snow Graves (At the Mountains of Madness, 15), can severely disrupt a wide range of powerful combinations that rely upon the ability to dip into the discard pile. Unlike Snow Graves, though, Even Death May Die can permanently disrupt some combinations by removing key elements of those combinations from the game, and even if Even Death May Die is later destroyed, your opponent will have no way to regain access to those cards.
	Finally, the third instance of this new mechanic that appears in The Sleeper Below is The Stars are Right (The Sleeper Below, 33). Unlike the expansion’s other two cards that remove cards from the game, The Stars are Right offers this removal as a sort of penalty. If you can’t meet certain conditions by the end of the phase in which you play The Stars are Right, the Dormant character that you bring into play is forever removed from the game:             “Action: Put a Dormant character into play from your hand. At the end of the phase, attach it as a Dormant card at a story where you have no success tokens, otherwise remove it from the game.”

Altogether, these cards and the whole “remove from game” mechanic suggests that the Cult of Cthulhu is more powerful than we had ever imagined. Their dark worship of the great devourer has opened a gateway to some realm from which nothing shall ever return – an out-of-play zone in which cards cannot be targeted. There are no interactions with these cards. They are beyond the abyss of Azathoth. They are doomed  forever.

Gather Your Strength in the Face of Absolute Annihilation

How will the proliferation of the “remove from game” mechanic impact the struggles of Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game? The world trembles as its different factions become aware of this impending threat…

The Sleeper Below expansion for Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game is coming soon! Stay tuned for word of its official release, as well as a sample deck list that makes good use of the Cult of Cthulhu, the Dormant keyword, and the “remove from game” mechanic.

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Source: Even Death May Die

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Always Be Ready for Action

Announcing Seven Specialization Decks for STAR WARS (R): Age of Rebellion (TM)

Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce that seven new Specialization Decks for Star Wars®: Age of Rebellion™ are now available at your local retailer and online through our webstore!

These decks represent each of the Ace and Commander specializations from the Age of Rebellion Core Rulebook, as well as the universal Recruit specialization: Ace Driver, Ace Gunner, Ace Pilot, Commander Commodore, Commander Squadron Leader, Commander Tactician, and Recruit.

Whether you start as a recruit or join the Rebellion as an Ace pilot defecting from the Imperial Navy, the cards from these specialization decks will help you climb effortlessly through the ranks of the Rebel Alliance and make your mark in the Galactic Civil War!

Don’t Forget the Details

Age of Rebellion Specialization Decks grant quick and convenient access to each character’s talents and abilities, helping you to stay focused and make quick decisions during gameplay. GMs, new players, and experienced players alike will appreciate these handy reference cards.

No matter what your background, your character’s talents are vital as you and your crew deal with whatever surprises come your way. A single talent can make the difference between success and failure, freedom and captivity, and even life and death. Don’t risk letting a talent slip your mind during game play! Each of the twenty cards in these Specialization Decks clearly presents the rules for one of your character’s talents, along with artwork that serves to both color your gaming experience and enhance your memory.

With Specialization Decks to keep your talents in front of your eyes and at the forefront of your mind, you’ll be able to more easily remember all your character’s important details and important advantages.

The first seven Specialization Decks present all the talents for the Ace and Commander careers, as well as those for the Rebel Alliance’s universal Recruit specialization:

Recruit

   
• Any level of involvement in the Empire versus Alliance conflict can get a person embroiled in conflict very quickly. Regardless of your role in the group, knowing how to throw a punch, shoot a blaster, or drive a vehicle can be crucial in the field. It may even mean the difference between life and death. With the Recruit Specialization Deck you can improve your odds and help get your team out of sticky situations.

Ace Driver

   
• On or above the ground, Drivers become part of the machines they drive. Talented and imaginative enough to attempt maneuvers no design engineer ever intended, the best Drivers appear to move effortlessly through even the most difficult terrain. Keep your cards at hand and your eyes on the road. The Driver Specialization Deck will help keep you steady at the wheel.

Ace Gunner

   
• For Gunners, the output of a vehicle or ship weapon is the ultimate expression of projected power. They see mastery of such weapons as a way for a single person to show the Empire what it means to fight for freedom. With the Gunner Specialization Deck, you’ll be sure to sharpen your aim and cripple your foes.

Ace Pilot

   
• Pilots are most in their element when the sounds of their screaming engines reververate throughout their cockpits. Out among the stars, these Aces perform high-speed maneuvers that would send lesser pilots into seizures or unconsciousness. With the Pilot Specialization Deck, you will more easily evade your enemies and race full throttle through the galaxy!

Commander Commodore

   
• The lives that they’ve chosen place the Rebellion’s Commodores firmly among the stars, with hard ship decks under their feet. Each and every one of them has demonstrated great gifts for strategic thinking and resource management on a large scale. The best Commodores know how to make the most of their resources, and the talents in the Commodore Specialization Deck will allow you to stay calm in tough situations and bolster entire fleets with your commanding presence.

Commander Squadron Leader

   
• In the Galactic Civil War, Rebel snubfighters and other small vehicles go hammer-and-tongs against the massive Imperial war machine. The technological disparity can be daunting, but the confidence and skill of the Rebellion’s Squadron Leaders inspire pilots to follow them into the worst kinds of hell and back again. Their tactical genius and daring keep their pilots alive. Form ranks and command the field with the Squadron Leader Specialization Deck.

Commander Tactician

   
• Tacticians are responsible for establishing the ground conditions that will lead to victory in battle. Under their courageous and savvy leadership, just a few Rebel troops with blasters and bombs can disable an Imperial installation or disrupt an entire defensive grid. Lay the foundations for your victories with the Tactician Specialization Deck, and lead your troops out of danger and into glory!

Explore All the Galaxy Has to Offer

Age of Rebellion Specialization Decks don’t replace the talent trees found in the Core Rulebook, but they are excellent tools to help you spend less time reviewing rules and more time battling the evil Galactic Empire! Each card in a Specialization Deck includes a description of a single talent, along with the icons for dice needed to make any relevant checks. Additionally, each Specialization Deck comes with a reference card (shown at right), which details how to use its twenty included talent cards.

You never know where your duties might take you next, but you know there’s always another battle and another chance to strike a blow against the evil Galactic Empire. Do your part to remain ready for action at a moment’s notice. The Specialization Decks for the Recruit, Ace Driver, Ace Gunner, Ace Pilot, Commander Commodore, Commander Squadron Leader, and Commander Tactician are available now!

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Source: Always Be Ready for Action