Warlord 4th Edition CCG - the epic fantasy card game

By now you all have heard that something has changed. Queen-Mother Nyssara is the news Medusan Lord-level challenge (that’s old). Instead of it she has a special character by her side (that’s borrowed - we have seen that in Ghouls). And we have something that is both new and blue:

Battlefields already start in play and cannot be targeted. They are simply an environmental issue to deal with. I hope you’ll enjoy a “skinny-dipping” in this one (beats doing it wearing chainmail, believe me ;-)).

Last week I finally got around to see the new episode of my favourite trilogy (well, now it’s not a trilogy anymore). I guess you have heard about it, the main character is a history professor who is always searching old and famous artefacts. The one with the whip. Yeah, right! The movie was OK, the performance of the actors was above average, but you know, when a sequel is published, your expectations are raised.

But last week happened a lot more than me watching a movie, the 4E Warlord Rules were finished! (And yes, you will be able to read them)

At the beginning of the design process, every design team member got a task (such as Playtest Coordinator) and I gladly took the job as the new Rules Team Coordinator.

Yes, you heard right, the junior on the team (“Don’t call me junior!”) got the Rules part.

No need for panic, the Rules team itself consists of way more experienced and qualified guys.

4E is a sequel, too. Thus your expectations are raised as well, and the rules were always highly discussed and criticized, so our main goal was to streamline the status quo. We did that. But I guess these changes are not as interesting to you as actual game play changes.

So, what changes you’ll be able to find?

(more…)

Back before Campaign Edition reset of the game I made a little bit of a name for myself at GenCon 2003 by piloting an overlooked Mercenary Warlord, and my alias namesake, Kerebrus to a 6-0-1 performance in the Warlord Championships. I have never been one to make any mystery about my affinity towards the leader of the Dark Horsemen, and I even tried a little behind the scenes campaign to get Kerebrus reprinted in the Campaign Edition reset (He almost made it, but Zartoch was needed for reasons that became moot).

Then, as my involvement with the game increased I would often get the question from folks, “When are you going to bring Kerebrus back?”

If it were only that simple. Each member of the design team certainly has cards that they would like to see, for whatever personal reasons. As much as I might like to see Kerebrus return to the field of battle I have to be honest with my evaluation, his abilities (or lack thereof) are not enough to make him viable, and certainly not enough to get people excited over getting back into Warlord: Fourth Edition.

As an early assignment Arne approached me with the question, “If you could bring back Kerebrus with an upgrade, what would you do?” In addition to making me happy at the notion, this struck me to the core of my being. Obviously, I thought Kerebrus was still pretty good, I keep a deck or two of him together at all times. Even though I didn’t think he was flashy enough, I didn’t think he had any weaknesses. I could go with the Mek’kiah route, keep him as is and simply upgrade his level to 5. Maybe just add on a feat and an extra HP to bring him in line with the current batch of front line fighters. So many options, but which one captures who Kerebrus is?

In the end I thought I would keep it simple. Since he is The Dark Horseman, I figured that Riding would be appropriate, and give him some reliability in heading to the front rank. Adding Charisma felt like a natural fit as well, as it is not an easy task to lead a Mercenary outfit, even less so considering the strict rules Kerebrus enforces. It wasn’t easy improving what I thought was an already quality product, so I thought that some sort of downside could capture the essence of possibly the most Lawful Good character in the Accordlands. At first the penalty only applied to Evil characters in Kerebrus’ army, but that was upgraded to include opposing characters, giving Kerebrus a real dynamic reason to take to the front rank, while also giving him a reason to purge the influences of evil from his Army.

So here we are, Kerebrus will be back in Warlord’s fourth edition! While this version (the art is a sketch, not the final art) will go exclusively to the members of the Ordo Phoenicis Ascendentis, the basic stats are unchanged. If you do have a copy of Saga of the Storm edition of Kerebrus, you will be able to legally play him in 4E.

Finally it is done. I hope you’ll have as much fun with him as I will!

The ring of metal clashing was thunderous in his ears and the smell of sweat and blood assaults him as the dwarven cleric stomped his way through the battlefield. All around him his warriors battle against the barbaric Nothrog. Dwarven skill and craftsmanship matched evenly with their cunning savagery.

He turned, his heavy warhammer smashing aside an enemy that had made it through the dwarven shield line. Still he strode on, quickly coming to the side of a fallen warrior. He knelt beside the fallen dwarf, his knees sinking into the blood soaked earth.

He began to chant, his hands held over his felled comrade as he called upon Kor for healing. His voice deepened, resounding through the earth as Kor answered his prayers and slowly, the fallen dwarf’s wounds began to close, skin knitting itself back together. The dwarf opened his eyes slowly, grimacing at his weakness.

“On your feet lad. Kor won’t stand for any napping during this battle!” The cleric stood again, not waiting for the dwarf to stand before turning back to the front line. He raised his warhammer high and began another chant, his voice carrying even over the din of battle. As he marched forward, his war chant continued, and once again Kor granted his aid. As his chant rang out, the dwarves began to fight with renewed strength, and vigor.The blessing’s of Kor steeling their resolve.

His war chant still ringing out loudly, the dwarven cleric plunged into battle. Calling upon Kor for strength in battle, his warhammer smashed aside his enemies, as the divine blessings of Kor kept him safe from harm, as blades were turned aside and wounds closed instantly.

For too long Clerics have hid safely in the back ranks, while healing and readying their minions.

From the beginning, it has seemed that clerics should fight in front ranks. The have had warhammers, armor, 1 rank range actions, etc. that suggested they should be on the front line. However, it never stacked up that they should bother. Oh a few clerics
tried to survive on the front ranks, but it was rather difficult and never worked to well.

In D&D, clerics can wear just as good of armor as fighters and carry shields. They obviously don’t do as much damage, but they are often on the front lines, helping protect the rogues and wizards behind them. It is time for the Clerics of Warlord to do the same and take the battle to the front lines. They will still buff and support their army, but now they may be found leading their armies from the front, healing and supporting while still being pro-active and attacking the opposing army.

From a design stand-point, this is gone about two ways:

The first way is making sure clerics have the items they need. Decent low level armor and weapons, especially ones that give out bonuses to them and their allies (Balian’s helm for example).
The second, more important way, is action cards. Making healing and buffs that do not require spending, but have a limited range, it allows clerics to support their army as normal, while still performing offensive spend orders.

So, we are long past due for another edition of “What has the Warlord 4th Edition Team been up to?”
The long and the short answer to that question is “a lot of things.”

When it comes down to the most essential feature of the Warlord CCG, it would have to be … Warlords. These are the iconic paragons of there respective factions, and essentially what many of the characters in an individual faction aspire to be. So, after taking some time to write out our design visions of the various factions and classes, we tackled Warlords. Considering that the Warlords do so much to define the environment and character of the game, we knew that this step could make or break our whole endeavor.

We could do brand new Warlord designs, or we could do reprint designs. Reprints of course would be easier, but some are too strong, others too weak, and still others just do not adhere to our design map.

So, just to let the readers in on what has gone through our minds, here are the Warlords that we considered in the first round of discussion as reprints for their factions:

• Deverenians: Ginerva of the Moon, Modred of Carcius, Sorceress Ygraine, Sir Aleron D’ilchant, and Madriga.
• Dwarves: Ahdi Akkhar, Gethseme Steelshard, Gris Ironfist, Garn Hearthstone, and Duty
• Elves: Kolivan, Morghen Dythanus, Behlial, Ahdre, Cathel Rowan, Havellin Tansiq, and Rustiq Umbala.
• Free Kingdoms: Iam Unsullied, Sir Robert the Vigilant, Logan Ebonwolfe, Trevaine Cartwright, Atu Amani, Beastmaster Eladric, Samuel, Huntress Volda, Lady of Mercy, Terak Justicebringer, and Jin Valford.
• Mercenaries: Angu Mournwater, Cassandra the Arcane, Xiathe, The Nemesis, Crucin Bascar, and Kayle, King Rowan.
• Nothrogs: Sargok, De’zicrah, Syvonne Ashenstorm, Sceth Hellbringer, Sulak Bloodgullet, and Rathra Dak.

It is hard to find a really good warlord for reprint. Some are heavily dependant on a number of specific other support cards, and that would then limit our freedom with limited number of cards in this release (think Jaqueline Windson, without ‘Bard Only’ actions it would be silly to print her again). Some Warlords might have been too weak when there were released, but could thrive in a reset – other Warlords have mechanics that were simply too weak or expensive to be seriously considered for return, like Trench.

As Warlords are the Icons of this particular CCG – some new Warlords would also be needed for this Fourth Edition of Warlord. We could take old Warlord that didn’t make the grade somehow and re-invent them, we could take classic characters and give them Battlefield promotions inspired by there original text, or we could take fresh, new ideas and gift them to the factions most deserving. It probably wouldn’t surprise you if we did all three.

Wow, that was longer than I expected it to be. And I didn’t even get to talk about starter deck construction. One thing that has been on our minds as a design team is that this product is going to have a different distribution model than all Warlord products before. The contents of the fixed starter decks are going to comprise the complete set of cards, with at sort of nominal, distributional rarity scheme.

Huh? What I am saying is that if you buy all 6 double starter decks, you will have every card in the set. You will have one of each Rare, two of each Uncommon, and three of each Common. As we very much want these to be playable decks, that means that whichever level four and five characters a faction might have will be playable in the deck they come in - provided your ranks hold up -, and our higher level items will have to be at least nominally playable as well.

While the truth of deck construction may yet change, it appears at the outset that each individual deck is going to be mighty close to ‘highlander’ in construction (common in faction characters may be the exception). Somehow the guy who made a deliberate splash on the map with ‘highlander’ decks is working on the set that will be packaged the same way. The world works in mysterious ways.

So, here it is, my first entry as the official “blogger” of the new Warlord design team working under Phoenix Interactive.

Warlord has seen two different environmental resets in the past, Campaign Edition and Epic Edition. When Campaign Edition came along I was on the sidelines, an active AEG Bounty Hunter and a tournament player of budding renown. When the reset for Epic Edition came along I was recently installed as the Technical Editor, so I had a preview of what was to come, but no part in the decisions made that would define the Epic Edition world. Now we are poised to reset the environment once again, and this time I am in a spot to say something about what is to come.

This will be a reset unlike any that have come before though. It is a fundamental flaw of “double bugging” cards prior to a reset – the power level just isn’t quite right. Prior to a reset, a game’s environment is robust, developed, and … crowded. In order for cards to get noticed they need to really stand out, and thus cards designed right before a reset make you stand up and take notice, either for what they do (No Prisoners! or Halo of Fire) or for what problems they help you answer (Rough Road or Infinity’s End). Then these cards became ‘must haves’ in the reset that followed, and the whole subsequent design plan is ramped up to compensate for the set that didn’t entirely have a reset in mind. Fast forward a few years to the Epic reset – this time the reset was being done with two full sets “double bugged”, as well as a set of Warlords (and supporting cast) from the Champions Boxed set.

Mind you, I know that going into the eve of a reset without “double bugged” cards is either a way to dramatically tank sales of a set or enrage your purchasing fan base, but speaking strictly in terms of Design, it is a bad move unless you have the entirety of your reset already mapped out and playtesters dedicated to testing such a “double bugged” set in its new environs.

It is our design intent to bring no such baggage into the reset to come. As such we as designers are being given the freedom to bring you a version of Warlord that will be everything that the property can be – easy to learn, full of strategic depth, and, beyond all else, fun. If you happen to know Oliver, Florian, Jeremiah, Tommy, or myself, then you know that we have a pretty good grasp on fun while supporting a certainly respectable showing in the competitive arena. While it may be hubris to think that we can come up with the most balanced Warlord environment ever, it is certainly a target worthy of aiming for.