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Tail Feathers Preview

Posted November 10th, 2015 at 01:32 AM by truth
Note from Xorlof: y'all know about our very own Grungebob and you may know about his previous game, Mice and Mystics. In this article, he explains what he's been up to lately!

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Hello Heroscapers, Grungebob here! Xorlof has been kind enough to allow me to use the front page of Scapers to talk about my newest game release Tail Feathers.


So some of you might not know who I am. My name is Jerry Hawthorne and I am a Heroscape fan. I got involved with Heroscape in 2004 before it was released, and I had the good fortune of meeting Craig Van Ness, Rob Daviau, and the other good folks at Hasbro who create cool games. I play tested for Hasbro and eventually freelanced for them on Heroscape.

I've always loved miniature games and Heroscape really struck a chord with me. My experiences with Heroscape have led to lifelong friendships and game design career opportunities I never could have imagined.

So here I am, it's 2015, Heroscapers is still a bustling web hub for fans and hobbyists who love to tinker with Heroscape's sort of open-source framework to create new content at an amazing pace and quality. It is a unique collaborative phenomenon that inspires me and baffles me at the same time. Just goes to show the power of a good game.

Tail Feathers is just a couple of weeks out from shipping and we have been having a ball around the Plaid Hat office playtesting new units, designing new scenarios and making marketing videos. Rodney Smith is finishing up his video rulebook and soon the game will be on store shelves.

So what is Tail Feathers? Well, it is a miniature skirmish game similar in many ways to Heroscape. You draft your forces, build a battlefield, set up your troops and then fight for victory. Your troops include small creatures such as mice rats and shrew ground units that battle along the branches of trees, and bird units piloted by rats or mice. It’s all set in the world of Mice & Mystics so there is a charming medieval fantasy theme here.


The units in this game all have a simple set of stats and just a single unique ability. There are common and unique units. Squads function similar to Heroscape as no matter how many of a given squad type you have, you will still only use 1 card. When that squad card is activated, you can move and attack with a number of those figures listed on the card. Think common squads here.


Heroes function similarly to Heroscape, but each hero, whether a pilot or ground hero, has just 1 ability. Additional special actions are included in the form of action cards that are drafted when you put your army together. These action cards are like a bunch of special abilities that you can tailor fit to your play style.


One of the interesting things about Tail Feathers is that your most powerful units are the bird units with their pilots. They are sort of the stars of the show. You can swap out different riders with different birds for different effects. Aerial maneuvering is handled with this unique set of rules. Your birds are mounted on special bases that allow them to tilt. This mechanism allows you to plan the direction of your bird's path before the round begins. If you activate your bird and it is tilted left or right, it will bank that direction when you lay out its flight path. Birds can pick up and transport troops, make devastating swoop attacks, and get caught up in a deadly Death Spiral with an enemy bird.

There are some cool things that players might find new and interesting. As you play the game, you will be rolling dice and those dice each have a cheese symbol on them. When you roll the dice and a cheese appears you place a cheese token on your player clip board. Cheese allows you to do a few cool things.


First, if you have a full cheese wheel you can reroll any cheese you roll while your wheel is full. You can also wipe your cheese wheel clear of cheese and bring back into battle fallen troops. You can also spend cheese to power up action cards I mentioned above. Finally, you can spend cheese to increase your chances of winning initiative for the round.

Anyway, thanks for checking out my stuff. If you're interested in seeing more, you can watch Rodney's preview video here:


If you'd like to know more about Tail Feathers you can go to the Plaid Hat Games website. The preorders for the game will be ending soon http://www.plaidhatgames.com/games/tail-feathers

Until next time, keep on 'Scapin.
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Comments 19
Total Comments 19

Comments

Old
Hahma's Avatar
Looks awesome Jerry! I look forward to trying Tail Feathers with KAM.
Posted November 10th, 2015 at 08:32 AM by Hahma Hahma is offline
Old
stay_golden_PONYBOY's Avatar
This game looks awesome!

Our little website, dedicated to an out-of-print game, has brought so much talent to the masses.

Thanks for highlighting some of it here.
Posted November 10th, 2015 at 09:39 AM by stay_golden_PONYBOY stay_golden_PONYBOY is offline
Old
TREX's Avatar
Looks really cool, reminds me of that old cartoon show "Redwall". Are part of the units inspired from that show?
Posted November 10th, 2015 at 10:11 AM by TREX TREX is offline
Old
Grungebob's Avatar
I love Redwall and many other anthropomorphic rodents fiction.
Posted November 10th, 2015 at 10:20 AM by Grungebob Grungebob is offline
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Sherman Davies's Avatar
Congratulations, Grungebob! From fan to playtester to professional game designer - you are living the dream! Tail Feathers is definitely going on my Christmas gift list.
Posted November 10th, 2015 at 12:33 PM by Sherman Davies Sherman Davies is offline
Old
Scaperedude's Avatar
Looks interesting!
Posted November 10th, 2015 at 05:47 PM by Scaperedude Scaperedude is offline
Old
A3n's Avatar

Looks Great :up:

Congrats @Grungebob . Looks awesome. Will definitely keep an eye out for it hitting my shores.
Posted November 10th, 2015 at 06:37 PM by A3n A3n is offline
Old
davidlhsl's Avatar
That explains all the bird poop on my car.

Looks interesting, and I hope it's a huge success.
Posted November 11th, 2015 at 10:36 AM by davidlhsl davidlhsl is offline
Old
Tiranx's Avatar
It would be sweet if there were cards created to use the units from this game in Mice and Mystics.
Posted November 11th, 2015 at 02:04 PM by Tiranx Tiranx is offline
Old
DarthJak's Avatar
there are.
watch the video
Posted November 11th, 2015 at 03:12 PM by DarthJak DarthJak is offline
Old
IAmBatman's Avatar
That looks really awesome, GBob! Now I just need some money ....
Posted November 12th, 2015 at 09:49 AM by IAmBatman IAmBatman is offline
Old
Confred's Avatar
I had a phase where I was a ravenous Mice and Mystics fan, so I'm excited about this. M&M are still of my favorites in my personal customs.
It looks like there is a squad of Lily's with this game. Will the two be compatible?
Posted November 12th, 2015 at 10:30 PM by Confred Confred is offline
Old
Confred's Avatar
Will Old Crow make an appearance?

How is the durability of the cardboard flight paths? They remind me of the Morale Tracker in Battles of Westeros, which started to come apart after only a few games from rubbing during assembly/disassembly.
Posted November 13th, 2015 at 03:41 PM by Confred Confred is offline
Old
Hendal's Avatar
wow, it really looks impressive, I am pre-ordering this one right now, thanks for sharing, so will there be tournaments at GC is all I want to know?
Posted November 13th, 2015 at 07:20 PM by Hendal Hendal is offline
Old
Taeblewalker's Avatar
Looks great, Jerry!
Posted November 14th, 2015 at 08:58 PM by Taeblewalker Taeblewalker is offline
 
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