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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
Wanderer999's Avatar
Congrats Grungebob, my Queen of the Hill isn't getting as much marketing as yours lol~ Needing some help at www.medievalords.com
Posted November 15th, 2015 at 01:43 PM by Wanderer999 Wanderer999 is offline
Old
Rÿchean's Avatar
All the components are top notch, built to last and beautiful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hendal
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?
If all goes right, I plan on hosting Summoner Wars, Ashes, and Tail Feathers events at GenCon 2016.
Posted November 20th, 2015 at 09:38 PM by Rÿchean Rÿchean is offline
Old
caps's Avatar
This looks like a great game. Thanks for sharing grungebob.
Posted November 21st, 2015 at 04:03 PM by caps caps is offline
Old
SirGalahad's Avatar
Looks like a great play! Thanks for keeping up the good work.
Posted December 30th, 2015 at 03:02 PM by SirGalahad SirGalahad is offline
 
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