AOA: Playing The New Factions

[mee likey]

Originally Posted by Blue Trails

Should I say it? No, don't. I'm gonna say it.

Ahem. Am I the only one who gets more excited looking at this card than the official prototype card showing the animated-3D-style art?

Yeah? No?

I'm sure the dev team had plenty of internal discussions about this, and that some graphics employees worked hard on the new card design, but since they say they are listening to feedback from fans, here goes. If you want to change to a complete-hex-shaped card, great. Eliminate empty space, enlarge the font, enlarge the photo. Cool. But the benefits of keeping the rest of the card in the classic 'Scape style is:

• Nobody has to guess at iconography. I know which numeric value is for range and which is for move because, well, it says so . . . with words.
• The design still looks great.
• It's familiar to all the old fans.
• Having a mix of old cards and new will look weird. Even if it is mechanically compatible, it's visually jarring.
• Having a photo of a painted miniature just makes more sense -- for sanity purposes and for gameplay purposes.
• -- many of the card powers use the wording 'figures' anyway. We are moving figures around and we understand that. The name on the card refers to a specific plastic figure, which we can immediately look on the board and say "oh, that's that one". Even if that miniature is painted slightly differently than on the card, there's no denying that the shape on that card matches that figure. Any abstracted imagination of "woo! Kaemon Awa is a badass!" is done completely in my head.
• The 3D artwork is going to turn off a lot of fans. New and old. Not everyone, but a lot. If the argument for using new 3D-cartoonish artwork is to target new fans, I get it, but is that really the aim of this project? (if so, I still don't see a single video posted on the BGG game page, or any of the dev/publishing team responding to questions in the forums over there, where all the potential new fans are looking. I should see some banner ads there.)
• That said, I love you guys for trying to bring 'Scape back and I'm on board 100% either way.

I know that this thread was not necessarily the best place for this post, but this card elicited a strong emotional response from me. I actually got more excited for this card (It's your fault, Blue Trails), like "This is a custom I want to play with! I already have that miniature!" (Pathfinder Skull and Shackles, Kerdak Bonefist)


P.S. Actually, I still think Grithog's playing-size cards are the best. And folks can still print them out on ArtsCow after all these years. My game group combines them with the Random Draft Deck style of drafting.

[Good Pig]

I agree with every single one of your bullet points. Regardless of what happens with the official card design, this design will exist, in fact it already does. Just needs the actual painted KV3 figure to pop into the right side.

I wish the cards would just come like this so we don't have another customs project on our hands, since we already know we'll need to do some painting.

Also, I'm creating a playing card sized template that's very similar to the original design if you're interested.
https://ibb.co/album/42pnJZ

[chas]

The second card for the Marro Pirate is now show here:

https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...93#post2541593

[chas]

Besides the two draft cards we had, four more cards, used in the 40 minute playtest game video now out on youtube and another thread here, are now out. You can find them here on BGG:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/295...78067#40978067

These include the Brood Queen and a Brood squad, a Bear hero, and a Bear squad. In the video, Craig runs a game with Patrick "Intergalactic Patrick" vs. Chris "Encarmine," the other two guys on the Hasbro/Avalon Hill team for Age of Annihilation.

I expect these other cards will show up on this site as well. Note that they in the Original Game format, somewhat modified. This was Choice A in the Discord voting poll.

Its fun to see all six cards being used in the video. Those Bear squaddies take two hits each! And two Glyphs we already know are in the game too.

[chas]

Short Summary of the Game Play Video

***(Video Spoiler Alert!) If you haven't seen the 40 min playtest video with Craig, Patrick, and Chris, you might want to skip this post.***

So, we got to see Player 1 with the Brood Queen Maladrix and the Festering Honor Guard, plus the Marro Pirate Captain (because why not). Player 2 had the Jandar Pirate Captain Killian Vane III, who was the first card revealed, along with a Bear Hero and a Bear melee squad.

The insects of Player 1 moved out to grab the two glyphs, which Player 2 was initially ignoring. These were glyphs we've seen before, and which Craig said would be in the new set for general game balance. Player 2 moved up to scarf up some of the Honor Guard, and it looked like a Blitz by Player 2 was on.

The decisive moment, however, was when Queen Maladrix moved up to the Bear Hero and infested him, and then rolled the number needed to destroy and replace him with a previously eliminated Honor Guard figure. It appears that the Honor Guard starts out on the board, and so the bug army wants a couple of them to die, I'd think, so that they become available to infest enemy figures!

Meanwhile the other HGs got to both glyphs and took their advantages for their army! The Bear was so strong and got taken out so quickly, that it was the turning point of the game.

Both sides moved up their shooting pirates to open fire. But the Brood Queen, while she took some hits, was too strong to go down quickly like the Bear had. And the Bear had been so strong that it probably wouldn't have happened in regular combat. Bears began to disappear until it was clearly all over for Player 2.

Craig himself ran the rounds, and gave some advice to both players. This was a great intro to actual AOA tactics and combat. I hope it becomes part of the offering page--its on youtube so far. Along with the new app features coming for Map Creaation and Army Building, let's hope it will boost our backer numbers. I liked how the orange color, (along with the light green color) which was so Day Glo was now a more muted shade.

***

What did you think of the video? Which of these AOA units, or others, do you want to play the most?

I want to try the Clockworks the most, with their Flyers supplementing the Bears on the ground! And since Craig had said (see the OP) that the Lifeborn Mages would synergize with OG Elf Mages, I'd like to learn more about that. Will it make the Elf Pod Wizards easier to play, for example?

As you can see from that question, I'm hoping that, like C3V Customs, some of the AOA will help balance out and support some of the OG characters.

[chas]

Just got back from a week in the hospital to discover that there has been a major facelift for the Haslab offering page! Yay!!! There is now a Card Compendium for all the revealed cards. I'm liking the new design work more and more. And it looks like there is a chance we'll get funded, since we've got about a third of what we'll need. There are 11 cards or parts of them up today. The link is here:

https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon...ion-compendium

Some of the new cards use old powers, including some from C3V, or synergize with old cards. I'm still waiting to see how the new Lifebourne Mages will work with the old Elf cards, as Craig noted during PulseCon. Note that Sir Heroscape reviews some of the latest in his recent Update on youtube. I'll have more to say here as more cards get revealed.

It seems like their basic side stats may or may not be used for their Master Game (remember that term?) sides. And its fine that they adopted more or less the old seven hex card format in general, for when we play armies with both Old and New cards. Looking good!

I'm liking the new jungle bushes too, because with their cactus like parts, they more clearly block line of sight through them.

Feel free to share any impressions you have here.

[chas]

I put this thread in General Discussion, rather than Heroscape News. This assumed AOA will fund, and we can discuss this topic into the future, with ever more information being revealed as we go along towards production. But as I become more enthralled with what the designers are showing us, I become less confident that we will fund.

Following the campaign has become a double edged sword.

[chas]

Over on my other thread about "Morality," I just did a quick summary where the new Factions seem to be on the Good vs Evil range. The 11 cards revealed so far seem to have Power Synergies which are a bit more Faction specific than in Old Scape. For example, the Brood Queen with her Honor Guard, and supposedly the Clockwork Airship with their Gliders. Are you planning to initially make armies that reflect this?

In my first AOA army, if I have enough points, I'd love to combine the Clockwork Air based cards (Airship, Gliders, Wing Commander) with their ground based ones (Bears and the Burrowbreaker). Such tactics as engaging an opponent in melee with the Bears and etc., and then dropping the flying units on them to finish them off sounds fun.

Do you have any specific plans for your first AOA battle?

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by chas

I put this thread in General Discussion, rather than Heroscape News. This assumed AOA will fund, and we can discuss this topic into the future, with ever more information being revealed as we go along towards production. But as I become more enthralled with what the designers are showing us, I become less confident that we will fund.

Following the campaign has become a double edged sword.

I'm sure these cards will be discussed in the future regardless of what happens with funding.

[caps]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I'm sure these cards will be discussed in the future regardless of what happens with funding.

The cards that they preview as part of the promotion campaign, you mean? Anything they don't show us we will never get to see if the campaign doesn't succeed (thanks to NDAs). No one has ever seen the in-progress Star Wars cards, or the Wave 1 Marvel cards.

I know you know this, Bats, but I wanted it be clear for the lurkers/readers.

[IAmBatman]

Why is there no such thing as a rhetorical answer?

[AMIS]

Originally Posted by chas

Over on my other thread about "Morality," I just did a quick summary where the new Factions seem to be on the Good vs Evil range. The 11 cards revealed so far seem to have Power Synergies which are a bit more Faction specific than in Old Scape. For example, the Brood Queen with her Honor Guard, and supposedly the Clockwork Airship with their Gliders. Are you planning to initially make armies that reflect this?

In my first AOA army, if I have enough points, I'd love to combine the Clockwork Air based cards (Airship, Gliders, Wing Commander) with their ground based ones (Bears and the Burrowbreaker). Such tactics as engaging an opponent in melee with the Bears and etc., and then dropping the flying units on them to finish them off sounds fun.

Do you have any specific plans for your first AOA battle?

Airship, Gliders, Wing Commander, Bears and the Burrowbreaker Vs Zombie's...that would(ve') be(en) my first battle. I'd let my oldest play the AoA and I'd take the zombies, then switch.