I do believe you should just be calculating combinations that generate inspiration tokens and not factoring in blank die. You shouldn't have less of generating 1 surge from a blue/red die combo on oathsworn calvary then you do on spearmen. Also with rerolls the question really becomes do you roll a surge on red die? If you do, you can fish for an inspiration token with a reroll on your blue.

The enemy unit doesn't line up with you, You line up with it. I hate to keep honking the horn about threat value and small units going to 1 threat don't really do anything. That said, things like like a group of Rune Golems really want to come in once a targets threat values are significantly reduced so they are really hard to wound. That said I think duel 3 by 2 formations of Daqan Spearmen might be really strong considering the versatility of their dial. Skeletons look to be excessively cumbersome on the table and I think just increasing their footprint in general might be the most effective strategy. Reanimate Archers might be strong to run as the minimums as currently Daqan have very few ways to reduce their output at range. Kari can do it and she is effective at it, but that is just one model. Carrion Lancer msu is probably really strong being able to apply several blight tokens a turn and being very tough tarpits in their own right. I expect any type of real MSU strategy from Daqan to be destroyed currently as their lack of ranged is a very real hindrance. A full formation of reanimate archers with out upgrades is pretty capable of dropping 6-7 spearmen in a single attack. I could see rune golems running in 1 tray formations as kind of an elite flanker. Oathsworn calvary seem to fragile to reanimate archers to run in their smallest formation, I think the 2 by 2 is the safest one and also most cost effective. The 3by2 might offer some interesting ugrades as the supplements are released later on to make it worth it. The 3 by 3 seems almost foolish with how fragile they are for how expensive the unit is. I suppose that will entirely depend on Lord Hawthorne.

Here are some cards: Lord Hawthorne: Double Surge for an inspiration token Can make another melee attack against a target that hasn't already been attacked by him. His Skill abillity gives each other ally at range 1-3(5?) an inspiration token. Ankaur Maro: Double surge to remove `1 wound on his ranged attack. The number of white die he rolls is equal to red runes. 0/2/4 Skill ability adds up to green runes full trays to a waiqar infantry unit. Suffer as many wounds as trays added. Item Cards: The Dawnblade: for every surge spent deal damage equal to your threat to a melee target The Duskblade: Double surge to reduce defense by 1 Dispatch Runner: Hard to make out but it looks like it allows an ally in range to perform a ranged attack? Fire Rune: I can't make out some key parts of the card but it looks like you perform an attack with 1 red die which its threat is equal to the red runes available.

Observations: Coreset 200 Expansions Daqan: Oathsworn Calvary x3: 74.85 Rune Golems x3: 104.85 Daqan Infantry Upgrade x2: 49.9 Daqan Spearmen x2: 49.9 Lord Hawthorne: 24.95 Waiqar: Reanimate Archers x4: 99.8 Reanimate Infantry Upgrade x2: 49.9 Reanimates x2: 49.9 Carrion Lancers x3: 104.85 Ankaur Maro: 24.95 Dual Core Plus Daqan: 504.45 Dual Core Plus Waiqar: 529.4 Everything: 833.85 This isn't efficient and I don't suggest it. This is for maximum combinations/skew. Oathsworn Calvary an extra box is bought so you can run it in max formation with out attaching a command expansion(unannounced or unknown if it will come.) or Lord Hawthorne(If he can, I suspect he can.) An extra Rune Golem box just incase you are in situation where you want to run a full Daqan spearmen formation with FLRG and a full formation of rune golems! Double Infantry upgrades if the 3 by 2 formation of spearmen is really strong in multiples( I think it might.) Same reason for the duel Spearmen box. Reanimate Archers has a full extra formation, which is probably the most excessive purchase but also probably the strongest with out any table time. Reanimate Archers are really strong and if you could screen 2 full formations effectively, it would be pretty terrifying I think. Double command so you can run duel 3x2 formations as well. The Two reanimate trays so you can run the full formation of reanimates as well as duel 3x2. 3 Boxs of lancers so you can run a full formation unit and a support lancer in the reanimates. So lets do an actual realistic purchase list: Coreset 200 Expansions Daqan: 194.65 Oathsworn Calvary x2: 49.9 Rune Golems x2: 69.9 Daqan Infantry Upgrade x1: 24.95 Daqan Spearmen x1: 24.95 Lord Hawthorne: 24.95 Waiqar: 194.65 Reanimate Archers x1: 24.95 Reanimate Infantry Upgrade x1: 24.95 Reanimates x2: 49.9 Carrion Lancers x2: 69.9 Ankaur Maro: 24.95 Dual Core Plus Daqan: 394.65 Dual Core Plus Waiqar: 394.65 Everything: 589.3 You might buy a bit more then this, maybe another infantry command box/spearmen formation for the Daqan, and maybe another full formation of Waiqar. It should be said, in the skope of the game even this is a lot and well beyond what you need to play at 200 points. The upgrade cards seem quite hard to tell if there will be new cards available for both factions in just one factions packaging. Look at the cards, Daqan only have one unit that gets the weaved symbol, the oathsworn calvary, and if there is a discrepancy somewhere I expect it to be there.

I do believe it is both. And I do think you can reboot the universe to an earlier time period with out redacting future plot points that have happened(that were good) and still allow player input in the story line as well. I know they have done some limited experimentation with this in A:NR and GoT. I have a question to the the vets of the IP/community, what was the actual lead time in story line input. For instance, whatever tournament that was won or system that came to a conclusion that allowed players to affect the story line, how long did it take before you saw that in product?

FFG was experimenting with delivering story inserts into conquest before the GW partnership ended. GOT atleast early on(not sure about now) tried to follow the books plot line. I think they got enough experience to try and adequately flash out a bit of the universe with story line inserts/card art/mechanics/characters.

IF that is the level of the card art in the game. WOW.

Kari is a unique infantry unit. Ardus is a unique infantry unit. I do definitely think a regiments of renown type thing is possible in the future.

At a guess, I'm agreeing with Budgernaut. Elves and Uthuk demo at gencon, release around this time next year. With us perhaps getting Hawthorne/Vorakesh and unit expansions at gencon.

I'd be shocked if they continued to do Saga sets, with out raising the price. If I had the cashflow, I'd buy cases just to run online retail singles in between "waves".

I did preface with it assume. Consider me jaded after how things fell out with the GW IPs.

I'm going to assume something pretty steep. There is no telling how long they think they can keep a starwars liscene, and instead of keeping a sustainable ccg(as profitable as they can be) model they are playing for very high ROI model even if it's not long term sustainable. I personally think this is a very negative business model towards gamers, while an extremely lucrative one to case crackers.

The limited print runs will cause cards to continue to bear a high price. If there isn't a rotation for competitive play, powerful old cards will become to expensive to be purchasable by newer players. If there is a rotation, the limited printed runs still cause an spike in card price but ultimately causing your investment to devalue sharply after an x amount; unless there is an eternal formation, which I recommend looking at the above point. It's not the "limited" print fun, it's how extremely limited they are. Having a 4 month long print for the smaller expansions will create insane prices if a powercard is printed there. 100 dollars plus.

Glad I held off, and won't be purchasing for sure.

Considering Kari's ability, formal diplomatic ties might be strained but it seems like some relationship between the Latari and the Daqan still exists. Limited as it might be.

I wouldn't be shocked if a delay happened, considering it seems the updates have just stopped. I remember similar events for The Greater Devourer, and that was a mighty big delay. I think 4 months on the boat?

On the subject of rule books: The past couple of years FFGs rule books have grown from discombobulated mess's to actual functional documents that coherently explain how to play a game. The number 1 problem I tend to see is when people confuse game syntax with plain language, and that really tends to happen with any game. On Topic: The lack of updates makes me think they are saving up for the final sprint/flurry of updates that tend to come out prelaunch.

The fellowship of the ring is literally Elrond and Gandalf forming a band of mercenaries. Eldar conscript races to fight battles for them by engineering events to delay their doom. Retribution of Scyrah is the most extreme elf faction out of any fantasy setting, as they want to magicide every single other magic user as *revenge* for their dead gods. Literal scorched earth policy, they know they are going to die and want to take down every one else they can. It's not a matter of Elves using mercenaries it is a matter of framing it. Elves wouldn't use your service because they need it, they would use you because it's not worth their effort to do the task. I could easily see the elves buying the service of a front line fighting unit because that type of dirty fighting is beneath them. They would definitely reinforce the fact that they could do this task better then you. Elves would use mercenaries to protect their own lives in a risky situation because a single elf life is worth a X human/dwarf/orc lives. Elves would literally be the most ungrateful employer, and would probably remind you after the battle that you didn't do it as good as an elf could have. IMO

Mistlands Saboteur is a reanimates command champion upgrade. FLRG has 4 armor and 2 health. If you roll 4 damage and one accuracy, you can assign the 4 damage to the front line rune golem to apply 1 damage instead of killing 4 daqan spearmen.

If your unit rolls 4 damage and one accuracy, it can apply 4 damage to cause one wound to a FLRG.

I love the magic system aswell, it does the same thing the die system does. It's adds a small amount of variance to keep you on your toes and add some excited, by doesn't add a wide degree of variance to feel like it forces a ton of luck.

So: FLRG: Requires a Rune Golem to be added to the squad, we know this because it has the picture of a model in the top right. Metered March: Doesn't require anything to be added to the squad because it has no model in the top right. Not every card in the command expansions will require a model. When that model is added to the squad it replaces units/trays, it does not add new trays. It uses the original units command dial and start card plus whatever modifiers are on the upgrade card. For instance when spearmen attack and you have a front line rune golem, the spearmen gain brutal (blue rune). For instance when spearmen attack and you have an attached Kari, the spearmen attack with an extra blue die and can use the surge ability printed on the card. The model for all intents and purposes is a part of the unit and does not retain any previous qualities. If there is no model with specified hit points required by the upgrade card, you can not remove it with accuracy attacks.(However, one of the spoiled champion upgrades for reanimates looks like he can removed non model upgrade cards.) As has been explained in multiple game demos and by Tony on these boards Threat does not multiply any symbol but hit. There is some chance that they could have changed it between the demos and actual release of the game, it is however much likely Rafpark read the rules wrong. That would be a very big change in the fundamental calculations of the game and with out any price adjustments or probability altering else wise would throw the balance of the game to **** probably.(Kari would become absolutely vomit inducing, she is already the most use of points in the game.) This is all tentative to change until an actual rules document is revealed to us.

I think they managed to hit an even spread in the increasing damage/decreasing cost plus the stronger upgrades being available at higher ranks to make it more of a mixed bag rather than a this or that. I do think having atleast one well endowed unit will be important, and then an array of units to support it. Reanimates ironically seem like they would work better in in the 3by2 formations.

The art in the lore article was awesome, the undead legion was just excellent and has me eager to see more art from the team. The lore wasn't bad, but it wasn't new. I feel like they were setting up some outside element as to why Waiqar could suddenly be proficient in necromancy. I'm pretty eager to see the lore book. Hopefully, we get some real meat and potatoes in that.

Excellent Post! Always multiple ways to skin a cat, not really trying to convince one person of anything, I'm really just fleshing out ideas and running with it. Armchair game design is a bit of hobby. You're bit on everybody else just stuck with being a neutral archer was an excellent point. Archers was perhaps not really the best unit to describe it with. However, I do agree when applicable that units don't need to be comparably good to be equally good in both armies. While still creating interesting game play elements and meaningful decisions in list building. Another good criticism for mercenaries, is just really how modular and specialized units can be in this game. Between the dial, the stat card, and the upgrade cards units can serve radically specialized roles that can really prevent a variety of options from just becoming a homogeneous blend. Almost all of the units in the core set have radically different functions on the table, while point for point are almost all equivalently costed. The only exceptionally general unit is the spearmen, and that seems more to be it's specific strength is the tactical flexibility within that single choice. I really want the wolf calvary, super bad. I normally love the demons/barbarian type guys, but Elves on Wolves just sounds incredibly awesome. I also love mobility, and trying to win by out maneuvering my opponent. I don't know if elves ally with treemen in this game, but Tree Folk are pretty cool aswell, and ent style model would be pretty cool, but it might be a little to cliche.