Big update to the line talked about today. A bit of background that some big arguments exploded on Facebook recently from a few people about the current state of the rules and errata and how Modiphius appears to be ignoring the game.
Firstly, we are pausing development and releases for two months from the end of July. ... We will use this time to update and consolidate, with the community's assistance, the errata and FAQ’s into one list. We will then apply this list to the existing rulebook to update and correct it. We are not proposing to make wholesale structural changes to the book at this time (but see below) but will ensure that the errors are fixed, contradictions resolved, ambiguities removed and page references are updated. We will include the expanded quick reference sheets that are available in the PDF so if you want it, everything will be in one place.
The updated rulebook will be made available for free in PDF and sent to all customers. For retailers it will be available via the Bits & Mortar scheme to give to their customers.
The game has had some really bad errata count (and they're still looking for playtesters to help in this) so an updated PDF will be very welcome as this was the main ask of most people. I was in the living wiki camp as I'm certain several of the loudest complainers will be back to complaining once a new errata on this updated PDF is issues (as it's impossible to have the perfect rulebook and arguments were made that it has to be for the game to be playable).
We will then print this updated rulebook and will offer copies FREE via the Modiphius web store to all customers who purchased the game, you will only have to pay postage. Modiphius will work with distributors and retailers to get the books out to stores. Stickers will be added to existing stock of Core sets advising how to get the updated rulebooks. Unfortunately we are not in a position to swap out the rulebooks in the Core sets already produced but we hope the availability of the updated PDF’s and the free rulebooks will offset this.
This is rather a big surprise that they're eating the cost of a new rulebook in print.
With regard to the card packs, we recognize that changing suppliers has not given the best results. These changes have, unfortunately, been beyond our control, and whilst there has been some variation in the card quality, we feel the card packs are still fit for purpose. However, we are looking at returning to our original printers if possible, who had suffered a fire. There are implications on timing that changing back to our original printers in China may have. It may mean we have to delay the Chapter 3 card pack until after miniatures have launched.
Some cards from the chapter 2 pack had a miss alignment on colors (just barely) and so they look fuzzy. Kind of surprised they're not going the FWW route and doing local die cut punch out cards due to the cost and trouble they've had with all the Elderscrolls cards.
Other things: * There won't be PDFs of the cards from card packs. Selling this is how they're paying the bills * we got the names of several chapters to show that the game is in fact being worked on (names and release subject to change) ** Chapter 4: Rise of Dragons (dragon, Draguer and similar stuff) ** Chapter 5: Forgotten and Forsaken ** Chapter 6: Dragonborn ** Chapter 7: Twilight God * Chapter 8 is looking to be non-skyrim stuff in 2024.
I'm waiting for it to hit US shores to consider buying as my ES playing has really dropped off this year due to a lack of custom characters (I think the game my friends and I want is different from the game Modphius wants to put out) as none of us really care for the random NPCs in the game that we're forced to use as Heroes. The game is trying to straddle the traditional wargame and the new "adventure wargame" in a way that doesn't excite us. Not really worth paying for over seas shipping just to have everyone have the same complaints over character selection for co-op games.
At least with fallout you can add the hero card to any unit to make into a decent PC for co-op(plus the basic character creation off or Archtypes) but ES is hurt by this more then Fallout would be just due to the nature of what's possible in character creation for the source material vs Fallout (which has never been that super varied).
From the last comment from Chris in the Fallout thread the US store is in "testing" so hopefully it will be soon. Though this campaign book only just shipped out to NA this week from what I understand so unless they're air freighting it could be quite a while until it's available in the US.
US webstore Beta invites are out. The store requires a password to enter, so it is invite only atm, and includes a one time use 20% coupon.
Shipping to the west coast starts at $13 from the looks of it. I add lots of things an it stayed at $16 with like 10 items of different sizes. So still not great if you want one or two small things but really good if you get a lot -- but that tends to be how things are shipping wise these days.
Availability is pretty much expected to be current with what store have in terms of figures. The wave 2 card packs are there, which are hard to find state side atm. Sadly the word wall and dragonclaw doors are not available but the matt is.
Neither of those are up for sale in the US yet. The email said somethings would be listed as out of stock, probably for testing, but they just don't have them in. Probably won't see them for another few weeks.
Well, since the beta discount code only works until August 30, I will just order what I can through a discount retailer with free shipping. And then it’s anybody’s guess when they will be in stock for retail.
The best items to use the discount for ES:CTA are the play mat and terrain pieces as none of those have gone into general distribution. An email today from Chris said new items would be showing up before the end of the month so some of the out of stock exclusives might appear before then.
Just a little note to say congrats to the team and thanks to all the fans who voted as The Elder Scrolls Call to Arms was awarded best Miniatures Game of 2021 at the recent Tabletop Gaming Awards.
The Troll Trader has Call to Arms boxed sets in its 40% off clearance sale at the moment. Got the Dwemer Spheres and Spiders for £23.40 plus £2.00 UK delivery.
Ya. I'm not super interested in it right now either as I don't need another game of this type and I already have most of what the game is offering mini wise. A buddy is looking at getting it.
There will be a larger plastic dragon unlocked but looking at the preview it will be smaller then the resin version. I'm going to wait and see as if Modiphius ever does an Elder Scrolls 2d20 (more of a when then if I'd wager) I'll be having to run that due to the series fans in my game group and the plastic minis will be nice.
Also do note Modiphius has a pretty bad track record with delivering crowd funded stuff. Most things are 2-3 years late but the tooling is done on everything in the core box and dawnguard from what I understand so everything ready for production there. The only exclusives are the game mat and metal coins but the minis upgrade will be limited post campaign.
I think it's a "as long as you know what you're potentially getting into" type of thing.
I will say that I do like the company and own lots of their stuff (full lines of 4 RPGs, a bunch of 3rd party RPGs they distribute and a lot of minis from 3 lines) and they are really trying to be overly transparent with this crowdfunder and hopefully won't be making their earlier mistakes of biting off more then they can chew with unlocks which have been exasperated by production issues in the past (which they have gotten ahead of here at least with the main box and expansion).
So some unlocks that might be of intrest to CTA players. There's going to be an "Adventurers primer" that's being unlocked that will add CTA cards/rules for the figures in the boardgame.
In the Adventurer’s Primer, you will be able to take the miniatures for the base game and expansions and fight exciting tabletop battles that pit your heroes against the fearsome wandering monsters from the board game. Using a streamlined and simplified set of the award-winning rules, The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms miniatures, you can recreate the exciting battles in the world of The Elder Scrolls!
We have unlocked the PDF which all tiers now get, and next will unlock a set of dice which will go in the Miniatures Upgrade Set and then will gradually unlock unit cards for all the miniatures across all the boxes. Backers who don't get the Miniatures Upgrade Set can download a set of stickers to apply to normal dice to try out the rules or purchase the £35 The Elder Scrolls Call to Arms core rules box which includes a full set.
We want to unlock the rulebook and all the units cards in print for the Miniatures Upgrade set to add lots of value and make this a great expansion for those supporting the board game and gives you another way to play with the contents and great cross-over value for fans of the Call to Arms miniatures game.
Sounds like there could be other options post release to integrate the two where you can use the board to simulate an area control campaign in the wargame or set up dungeons crawls. Those are just musing on Discord and may never happen.
Also the big plastic dragon they're teasing is likely going to be on a 70mm base. The resin one is on a 100mm base but the wings are to the side and effectively make it 120mm. The plastic version the wings are attacked to the top (instead of side) of the base which is around a 40% size decrease.
Siygess wrote: Ooof, my monies! Well, I suppose I can hold off on the additional adventurers until there is a print version of Into the Dark available.
But when that happens? I need these. Especially Sven!
I'm not sure there's going to be a print version of Into the Dark.
Siygess wrote: Ooof, my monies! Well, I suppose I can hold off on the additional adventurers until there is a print version of Into the Dark available.
But when that happens? I need these. Especially Sven!
I'm not sure there's going to be a print version of Into the Dark.
Manchu wrote:Digital only would be astonishingly lame and feel like a red flag for the product line.
They did the same thing with fallout due to print costs and MSRP not being practical for such a small document but John has recently stated they're looking at combining the fallout Into The Wasteland with other rulesets that would be too small on their own as well (with die cut cards) for that line. I would suspect to see something similar with Into the Dark with CTA settlement mode (being worked on) expansion and probably a wilderness generator (like into the wasteland) if one is planned. It could also get wrapped into one of their yearly planned campaign books for CTA but until Gavin, John or Chis let us know what the plans are you'll have to assume there won't be a print.
Manchu wrote: Digital only would be astonishingly lame and feel like a red flag for the product line.
Gavin and I sat down today and planned out the share of 2D and 3D between now and 2025 so no worries about the product line on that front.
The issues right now are Bethesda being super busy with Starfield and TES so not having as much capacity to approve as we usually have (we are working out how to resolve that) and the whole global situation still being bumpy.
Paper and printing are still crazy expensive and backed up, we had a quote for an 11 month wait on some book printing recently.
So, digital helps as it means we can release things sooner rather than later. We can do minis in house so that's easier (and approval is much faster on non written content). Now, I know nothing about the status of Into the Dark so please don't misread this as confirmation of anything, more letting you know that we are planned right up to end 2024 and have no intention of stopping there as long as we have the various licences.
Manchu wrote: Digital only would be astonishingly lame and feel like a red flag for the product line.
Gavin and I sat down today and planned out the share of 2D and 3D between now and 2025 so no worries about the product line on that front.
I have what's purported to be a partial transcript:
Gavin: I need 30 slots a month for models Jon: I don't think we really have the manufacturing capacity for 30 new models a month in Elder Scrolls in addition to Fallout. Gavin: Hear me out. What if all of the models were Gunners ... Joh: Go on... Gavin: ...in costume
About 20% off for miniatures making them fairly in line with your average store but they have most of the line on sale and somethings (like the card packs) were hard to find a few months ago so worth a gander if you've been looking. Probably a bit better for the Fallout crowd as a good number of things in the sale have been hard to find in stores recently.
Some really good prices on older RPG books (infinity and John Carter) and Achtung Cthulhu stuff from the UK store. Really wish the John Carter miniatures got more love, including an adventure game mode like ES:CTA and Fallout, as the minis are great but the wargame light rules didn't do much for me (neither did the RPG light rules the book have converting things to the Conan Rules is the way to go if you do pick up the 2d20 stuff).
Also the Troll set and Giant spider just got released today as well.
Manchu wrote: Digital only would be astonishingly lame and feel like a red flag for the product line.
Hello all. Gavin here.
Into the Dark has an interesting background. I always strive to be transparent, as those of you who follow my postings on Discord will know, so a little context will help. I think.
I'd had an idea that we wanted a procedural Quest generating system since we released that game. It was something we'd talked about during the very, very early days of discussing Thanehold, to generate threats as part of the whole settlement building system. We released Call to Arms in September 2020 and started to hear of disruptions to global shipping due to some new virus. 2021 came around and we all learnt around COVID-19.
Modiphius essentially shut down for a number of months as the whole country went into Lockdown. During this time Chris asked Mark Latham for a fast and dirty, quick turn-around procedural delve generator framework. It was always designed to be a non-core add-on - a way for the TES:CTA player to keep playing during Lockdown when you couldn't get together with friends.
It was also designed to be a framework that we can use to add additional modules on in future - Thanehold has a couple of new types of Delve and we have a couple of others in Histories of the Empire Volume 2.
As part of that idea that it was a base to build upon, we never envisaged that it would go into print. It has always been envisaged as a PDF download. That said, I have talked previously about my desire to do a deluxe, stand-alone rulebook that includes a load of additional vlaue add stuff, like painting guides, terrain guides consolidating all our PDF scenarios and Into the Dark.
We've also been looking at anthologies. I also work over our Achtung! Cthulhu line and we have a regular output of PDF adventures that we will likely consolidate into a print product, with some bonus content, and the same model would seem to be a logical for TES:CTA. Into the Dark also seems to be a good fit for just such a folio type publication, too.
So, Into The Dark likely won't be released on its own as a print product. Unless it is.
Here’s hoping it is, maybe as part of Histories Volume 3 or something. Modiphius is still carving out its place in the minis gaming market and pdf/stl content might be fine for RPG lines but miniatures gamers are the most tactile.
The Volkihar Vampire and the Dawnguard core sets have both gone up for pre-order to be released towards the end of July. No word yet on what will be in the Chapter 3 Bundle; the card set for Chapter 3 might not be around until August so that will presumably have an impact on the rollout of those. We know that there's at least a Bandit core and some further Vamp/Dawnguard sets to follow (with crossbows and dogs).
Geifer wrote: Going by the picture on the previous page, am I correct in thinking that Serana comes in a box of adventurers which has yet to be released?
Yes, she'll be in an Adventurer set. If past record is anything to go on there'll possibly be 2 Adventurer sets for the Chapter and I seem to recall they came out a few months after the main launch.
Patience has certainly been a virtue with this one. Nice to see that new stuff is starting to roll out again.
The updated rulebook is still being finalized in terms of layouts and last bits of editing before the digital version goes public (the print version is, sensibly IMO, coming after folks get their hands on it and can spot any potential errors).
There's some excellent rules expansions on the way; hopefully stuff like the Steam and Shadow book aren't too far off.
To be fair Modiphius still releases models infinitely faster than I paint. I haven't really been in a fantasy mood lately and was hoping that Serana might help with that. One of the few Elder Scrolls characters I actually like.
Haven't updated in a while and there's been a few new sets now gone up on sale/for pre-order:
Adventurer Fortune Hunters set, including a Dragonborn (in Ancient Falmer Armour) with 2 head options (one of which is a bit vampiric), Serana and some of the named bandit-related characters from Skyrim:
Spoiler:
Bandit Core set; a mixture of named leaders and some more general bandits who double up as thralls for Vampires:
Spoiler:
Dawnguard Stalwarts; filling out the named faction members and the war-huskies:
Spoiler:
Volkihar Inner Circle; adds in some higher ranked Volkihar vamps and one from outside the clan, along with Gargoyles
Spoiler:
Still waiting on an update for the rules for all of this; the Chapter 3 cards were still sat in approvals last I heard but least there's an outside chance I might catch up on the painting backlog before they hit the table.
The trolls were also released a while ago, June I think, as I picked some up with a FWW order.
I enjoy the game but haven't been in the mood to play it as I was pretty involved in the Facebook group where all the drama happened that caused the rulebook rework and pausing of the game releases. All that dumb drama really burned me out on anything really associated with the game.
Not sure if I will ever play it again but I did like that it was, at least in relation to FWW, a beer and pretzel type of game. Super easy to set up and more streamlined play overall though I would have liked the games to have similar movement rules and LOC rules. I don't know why one is from the start of the base and the other center. Seams like an odd thing to change when you have games with similar mechanics that are based off of IP from the same company.
This game did catch my eye but I was holding off until the rulebook was redone cause it sounded like a mess. If they released a bunch of dunmer in bone armor or ordinators and stuff i'd buy it just to collect though. Anything morrowind/dunmer related is just too cool to pass up.
Thargrim wrote: This game did catch my eye but I was holding off until the rulebook was redone cause it sounded like a mess. If they released a bunch of dunmer in bone armor or ordinators and stuff i'd buy it just to collect though. Anything morrowind/dunmer related is just too cool to pass up.
It's no where near as bad as people have made it out to be. The people complaining the loudest really hadn't played a tabeltop game before and their biggest complaint were: 1) No errata should exist at all, if there is errata it's bad and a failed game (I wish I was kidding). 2) The game was too complex and rules too hard to follow as no game should take more then 1-2 playthroughs to fully learn.
There was a reasonable amount of errata, especially on cards but Modphius had been printing replacements for those, but nothing that if you played as printed would significantly change things. It really turned into a bit of a mob mentality as 2-3 people posted about it every day for weeks and that it was horrible and Modiphius needed to right this injustice (with no real constructive feedback on what to improve, just that it was bad most times). And since that was what most of the posts were everyone started to believe them and reworking the rulebook was about the only option they had at that point. And since Modiphius announced they were reworking the rules that lead everyone that heard the complaints to say "well it must be true then".
Since Modiphius is paying a lot for IP that are widely known to try and attract new blood into the hobby there's a good argument to be made that they should extend the rules a bit (which can be costly to even add 2-4 pages) to be a bit more handholdy (I see this need a lot on the Fallout Wasteland Warfare subreddit with new players) and verbose then they are -- but hardly a mess. Anyone that's use to RPGs, Complex boardgame or wargames in general will have no significant issues with the rules.
I think it's also fair to say Modiphius usually has and issue with cramming too many rules into too small of a book for their RPGs and the Fallout 2d20 RPG is kind of a mess sadly. It should have been two books with a slightly larger page count between the two but they did it in one (as expansions sell like 1/3rd what the core books do) and there's clearly areas where they just removed things (even important sentences leaving rules awkwardly written) to hit that page count and that game suffered because of it.
While the wargames have good rules but they're written for experienced players yet they're really targeting new players.
Thargrim wrote: This game did catch my eye but I was holding off until the rulebook was redone cause it sounded like a mess. If they released a bunch of dunmer in bone armor or ordinators and stuff i'd buy it just to collect though. Anything morrowind/dunmer related is just too cool to pass up.
The rulebook update should be available before too long (was awaiting final layout a couple of months ago, not sure if it has to go through approvals still). One of the upcoming Chapters focuses on the Dragonborn DLC from Skyrim so there should certainly be some Bonemould-armed Dunmer in there.
Monkeysloth wrote: The trolls were also released a while ago, June I think, as I picked some up with a FWW order.
I enjoy the game but haven't been in the mood to play it as I was pretty involved in the Facebook group where all the drama happened that caused the rulebook rework and pausing of the game releases. All that dumb drama really burned me out on anything really associated with the game.
Not sure if I will ever play it again but I did like that it was, at least in relation to FWW, a beer and pretzel type of game. Super easy to set up and more streamlined play overall though I would have liked the games to have similar movement rules and LOC rules. I don't know why one is from the start of the base and the other center. Seams like an odd thing to change when you have games with similar mechanics that are based off of IP from the same company.
The Trolls were released in January (time flies...).
Ah that one weird day in the FB group... Actually felt bad for the guy who made the initial post as their concerns about the rules layout were fairly reasonable and polite; it was just escalated by one or two people into something ridiculous.
From what I can gather, the change to front of base movement/range etc. was to make CtA more straightforward and in line with typical wargaming movement (melee combat is also fairly streamlined compared to FO:WW).
Melee is about the same (though no equivalent to FWW battlecry/charge/pushback system that I remember). Ranged is simpler as you don't have a long/short range that have different damage and cover is different.
Monkeysloth wrote: Melee is about the same (though no equivalent to FWW battlecry/charge/pushback system that I remember). Ranged is simpler as you don't have a long/short range that have different damage and cover is different.
Indeed, it's the removal of Battlecry and charge (and generally a bit less reliance on icons and symbols to convey special effects for weapons) that streamline the melee process. How armour works also involves less rolling of dice.
Ranged weapons in CtA absolutely do have short/long ranges with different damages/effects; those respective differences are just based on flat numerical range rather than the coloured bands though (and, again, less reliance on icons) so generally feel a bit more efficient in how that information is conveyed.
The Modcon 2022 stream had a fairly hefty chunk of reveals for Call to Arms to round out the Chapter 3 content (will update with images as and when).
Dawnguard Vampire Hunters - a more 'rank and file' Dawnguard set with 3x Dawnguard with Warhammers and 3x Dawnguard Scouts with Crossbows.
Vampire Fledgelings - 3x Volkihar Vampire Fledgelings and 3x Death Hounds. Supposed to represent more of a random encounter you'd find out in the wilds of Skyrim rather than the more powerful named Vampires.
Bandit Pillagers - Mixture of (even more) named Bandit leaders and some core Bandits with axe and shield.
Bandit Outlaws - 3x Bandits with Bows 3x Bandits with Two-Handed Axes.
Spriggans (were revealed previously but not mentioned here yet; not available on the main Modiphius store just yet):
Spoiler:
Spriggan Matriarch:
Spoiler:
Chapter 3 Promo model is a Wolf Familiar in clear blue resin (maybe one day it can come in normal resin too...).
Teased for the future with some 3d renders were a Giant and an unmasked Dragon Priest (the latter of which is to go alongside the next Chapter: Rise of the Dragon Priests
Chapter 3 cards are still with approvals but going forward, they're adapting to the same release method as Fallout WW with the punch-sleeve cards and an accompanying source book.
Chapter 3 cards are through layout and about to go to print. There's a whole proofing/approval cycle to do, but we're seeing good progress.
Core rulebook rewrite is in layout now and changes have been approved by Bethesda in super fast time, which is really great. Its a lot of layout work, so this may not appear soon, but its being worked on.
Histories of the Empire: Volume 2 Steam and Shadow is with the editors now. I'll update ETA as we see how much editing the editor needs to edit.
Chapter 3 cards are through layout and about to go to print. There's a whole proofing/approval cycle to do, but we're seeing good progress.
Core rulebook rewrite is in layout now and changes have been approved by Bethesda in super fast time, which is really great. Its a lot of layout work, so this may not appear soon, but its being worked on.
Histories of the Empire: Volume 2 Steam and Shadow is with the editors now. I'll update ETA as we see how much editing the editor needs to edit.
That's all for now.
G.
Great news!
Will there be a proofreadable version of the rewritten rulebook before it's finalised? One thing the internet hivemind is good for is spotting errors.
Chapter 3 cards are through layout and about to go to print. There's a whole proofing/approval cycle to do, but we're seeing good progress.
Core rulebook rewrite is in layout now and changes have been approved by Bethesda in super fast time, which is really great. Its a lot of layout work, so this may not appear soon, but its being worked on.
Histories of the Empire: Volume 2 Steam and Shadow is with the editors now. I'll update ETA as we see how much editing the editor needs to edit.
That's all for now.
G.
Great news!
Will there be a proofreadable version of the rewritten rulebook before it's finalised? One thing the internet hivemind is good for is spotting errors.
It's going to be available as a PDF for community feedback prior to it going to physical print so should be plenty of opportunity for proofing like that.
Chapter 3. Cards are available for pre-order and should be shipping towards the end of the month, alongside the last of the Dawnguard and Vampire sets. There's also the bundles going up for pre-order this Friday with the clear-resin Wolf Familiar as the promotional model.
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
The updated rulebook is fairly imminent, with the final version coming down the line after a period of public feedback. The next couple of Histories of the Empire tomes are also well into development (Book 2 is basically written, just needs to go into layouts; it has some very fun content in it).
Dragon rules needed more playtesting apparently so they're not coming just yet.
End of the article also offers some pretty clear hints as to what's coming after the Draugr in Chapter 4 (something, something werewolves...) and showing off one of the named characters for Winterhold.
Spoiler:
Should also note that, like Fallout WW, Call to Arms is very likely to be moving to blank plastic bases in the future rather than the detailed resin ones. Chapter 5 onwards was mentioned as the likely switchover.
Bundles for the Chapter 3 sets are now available. Some good savings in there if you can live with the shipping costs (which are apparently out of Modiphius' control). Comes with the Wolf Familiar promotional model in clear resin.
Looks a good price to me, though it's not my market. Selection is likewise good. The on-sale items are basically the most recent waves of releases (bar the very last one which might only just be making its way through the U.S. stock chain with the new warehouse).
Dawnguard/Vampire sets are obviously quite specific faction pieces (and lovely models at that) but those Bandit sets are just great buys for anyone playing the game; they have multiple uses just within the Chapter 3. cards as well as just being generally useful Skyrim models.
A new Starter Set which doesn't offer anything 'new' but bundles the previous rules/cards/dice alongside the associated miniatures and the Ethereal Dragonborn promotional model.
The first wave of Chapter 4 sets have also made an appearance.
Draugr Scourges (Draugr should be getting rules as a playable faction for the first time in this Chapter):
Plus the College of Winterhold gets a core set with some of the major players of their questlines:
The revised rulebook is also currently available for download and player feedback. Rules themselves haven't altered dramatically but they've looked to improve the layout and ease of access. The Adversary (AI) rules have had some slight tweaks to give them a bit more opportunity to activate and be more reactive to the players.
The starter doesn't have the revised rulebook either. It's the old one but you can get a free copy of the printed rules if you pay shipping once they're out later this year.
Anyone that bought the old starter box should be able to get it as well the same way.
Monkeysloth wrote: The starter doesn't have the revised rulebook either. It's the old one but you can get a free copy of the printed rules if you pay shipping once they're out later this year.
Anyone that bought the old starter box should be able to get it as well the same way.
Sorry, yes, I thought that was apparent from what I'd posted but probably not obvious looking back. Yep, it's basically a re-packaged bundle of previous content, including the existing rulebooks. Anyone purchasing it will get access to a 'free' (sans postage) version of the revised one once it's gone to print. Personally hoping they don't rush to get the physical versions of the new ones out as there's still a fair bit of tidying up to do on the wording and some copy/paste of the existing one that's either erroneous or unnecessary.
They've set up a dedicated website for Call to Arms as well:
The Modiphius webstore is also currently running a sale on a lot of the Chapter 1&2 sets; still probably more expensive than can be found elsewhere but there's some boxes like the Elder Scrolls Online characters that can't usually be found anywhere except directly from them.
Also, link to the recent AMA with Modiphius showing off some other upcoming sets including saber cats, multiple different Dragonborn variants and some more (named) Draugr
Apparently some trials going on with the ghosties in that last set to see how they look in transparent (presumably blue-tinted) resin as per some of the promotional models like the Wolf Familiar.
Not sure if this is worth digging up the old thread over, but I thought some people might be interested that Modiphius is putting all the Chapter 1 minis and terrain up on MyMiniFactory Frontiers as STLs (some pending funding unlocks).
I'm a touch baffled by their decision to offer 50% discounts on buying the physical rules and cards, separate to this campaign, instead of including PDFs. This feels an awful lot like, "We don't want to manage casting these in resin anymore, so here's an alternative way to supply them," to me, but that's pure conjecture on my part. I've held off on picking up Call to Arms because I'd long reached my limit on Modiphius card packs with Fallout Wasteland Warfare, and I don't think this campaign will change that for me.
But hey, if you're already in the game and have a 3D printer, this looks like a great way to boost your numbers of Imperial and Stormcloak nameless troops!
If it makes you feel any better about getting you use way less cards for CTA. Only one AI card for a faction and only Heroic units do you choose equipment for. It's a fraction of the setup time of FWW.
The game itself never really got a footing. It's plastic kits where not very good, just made from the resin sculpts, it's rules were FWW light in many ways but didn't embrace the sandbox of FWW and wanted to be more of a PVP game with sandbox play and compete against Frostgrave but had pretty limited/restricted list building that neither Frostgrave or FWW players liked.
I actually like the core loop of a basic CTA game better then FWW (including enemy respawning) but CTA does not do long term campaigns well (and they might have added more to this but I haven't bought any of the books in a while) nor was there one in the core box ala settlement mode.
The line manager, while very active on discord and social media, was very adamant against doing certain things people wanted. Since the game was basically FWW reskinned with some streamlining people wanted custom characters/progression, which they didn't want to do, print on demand cards, which they didn't want to do and I think a lot of people (myself included) decided to play other things that had those.
I have a friend who still puts hours into skyrim every year and cannot place half the named units that game wanted you to use a hero and every time I played the game with the group they complained most of my group complained about not being able to make your own character since it's a bethesda game property -- that's why you play them. So we just stopped playing it because even though they liked the rules we didn't like the lack of progression (which is weird since FWW has multiple including a second way to make characters included in a pdf this past summer).
Then there's the rulebook, which I had no issue with (mostly, as nothing is perfect) that caused the Facebook group to blow up in fights over. That group use to be almost as busy as the FWW group at launch and now you may see one post a month (if even that).
So basically now they don't want to keep the physical game in stock as FWW/Factions needs that factory time as those games still have boxes out of stock from a year ago. I suspect they want to discount the physical stuff to clear it all out and move on from the line once the current wave book (4 I believe) is out
There is a PDF supplement for Call to Arms that adds a settlement mode and levelling up to the game, making those FWW (or perhaps, FWW RPG) parallels all the more noticeable. As with the FWW RPG, you can't create a character from scratch and have to start with an existing profile card, but since spent XP equates to an additional gold cost (unlike the FWW RPG, sadly) you can absolutely use the system to let players tailor a character at the start of a campaign.
We recently did this at our club, limiting each player's character to 60 gold in total, including equipment, and limiting the amount of XP you could spend to 10. That way, a player could pick a 40 gold profile, add 20 gold of equipment and not bother with the XP, and that wouldn't feel imbalanced against, say, a 30 gold profile where 10xp had been spent (with a value of lets say 12 gold), plus 18 gold of equipment.
I do agree, however, that the move to offering STLs does seem like a way to reduce the burden on manufacturing but that seems lile a practical move to me; they already do this for the Star Trek minis and the FWW terrain sets.
They're not bad minis, if you're into that sort of thing. On the higher end of the price scale tho, if you like em but are not in a hurry, I'd wait for sales, Modiphius tends to have pretty deep discounts on STLs on black friday.
If it makes you feel any better about getting you use way less cards for CTA. Only one AI card for a faction and only Heroic units do you choose equipment for. It's a fraction of the setup time of FWW.
The game itself never really got a footing. It's plastic kits where not very good, just made from the resin sculpts, it's rules were FWW light in many ways but didn't embrace the sandbox of FWW and wanted to be more of a PVP game with sandbox play and compete against Frostgrave but had pretty limited/restricted list building that neither Frostgrave or FWW players liked.
I actually like the core loop of a basic CTA game better then FWW (including enemy respawning) but CTA does not do long term campaigns well (and they might have added more to this but I haven't bought any of the books in a while) nor was there one in the core box ala settlement mode.
The line manager, while very active on discord and social media, was very adamant against doing certain things people wanted. Since the game was basically FWW reskinned with some streamlining people wanted custom characters/progression, which they didn't want to do, print on demand cards, which they didn't want to do and I think a lot of people (myself included) decided to play other things that had those.
I have a friend who still puts hours into skyrim every year and cannot place half the named units that game wanted you to use a hero and every time I played the game with the group they complained most of my group complained about not being able to make your own character since it's a bethesda game property -- that's why you play them. So we just stopped playing it because even though they liked the rules we didn't like the lack of progression (which is weird since FWW has multiple including a second way to make characters included in a pdf this past summer).
Then there's the rulebook, which I had no issue with (mostly, as nothing is perfect) that caused the Facebook group to blow up in fights over. That group use to be almost as busy as the FWW group at launch and now you may see one post a month (if even that).
So basically now they don't want to keep the physical game in stock as FWW/Factions needs that factory time as those games still have boxes out of stock from a year ago. I suspect they want to discount the physical stuff to clear it all out and move on from the line once the current wave book (4 I believe) is out
Allegedly, they're not discontinuing physical production (though I have doubts for various reasons) and still very much producing more content for the game. Chapter 5 has been soft-announced, although it's supposedly not coming until late-2025, which is a staggeringly long gap between waves. Regardless, it does feel like it's something of a burden for them at this point. Persistent logistical issues haven't helped (and the seemingly torturous approvals process with Bethesda, though it doesn't seem to hamper Fallout content as much...) and they've been very unfortunate in a lot of respects but the eternal delays combined with no attempt at meaningful communication for months (years) at a time just leaves a very bad impression. I know they're wary of announcing things ahead of time because it will inevitably get delayed but the complete dearth of information just leads to folks not caring.
They did release a Tales of Tamriel pdf which has full party progression and settlement building rules so there's now an option for a persistent campaign.
When I said I'd hit my limit on Modiphius card packs with Fallout:WW, I meant it. About a year ago, I had to construct my own box for the mini-Euro cards out of a shipping box and hot glue. It is UNREAL how many cards that game has now, and I couldn't find a mini-Euro box large enough to hold them all.
Also, I'm not a fan of Modiphius's 32mm, realistic proportion scale. Their minis feel less like minis to me, and more like small sculptures of game assets. The new FOWW plastic kits with weapon and assembly options help a bit, but I still feel like I'd prefer to convert my own 'close enough' 28mm versions of everything but the super mutants and power armor. CTA has the exact same problem, for me.
Finally, I've also held off on CTA as Elder Scrolls just doesn't hold enough of a unique draw for me over all the other (and often better, IMO) generic fantasy rulesets out there. I can make a Dragonborn out of the Frostgrave barbarians kit, print out some draugr to go with my 28mm skeletons I already have, and go to town using the ruleset of my choice.
Between the cost of the STLs and the factors I discussed above, I came to the conclusion that another Modiphius/Bethesda wargame just isn't for me. I'm sitting this campaign out.
The digital version of the revised rulebook has (finally) been released (along with an updated quick reference sheet). As expected, nigh on identical to the version from last April other than some typos fixed. Hopefully the people who have been waiting for this to appear have a reason to get involved now.
If it makes you feel any better about getting you use way less cards for CTA. Only one AI card for a faction and only Heroic units do you choose equipment for. It's a fraction of the setup time of FWW.
The game itself never really got a footing. It's plastic kits where not very good, just made from the resin sculpts, it's rules were FWW light in many ways but didn't embrace the sandbox of FWW and wanted to be more of a PVP game with sandbox play and compete against Frostgrave but had pretty limited/restricted list building that neither Frostgrave or FWW players liked.
I actually like the core loop of a basic CTA game better then FWW (including enemy respawning) but CTA does not do long term campaigns well (and they might have added more to this but I haven't bought any of the books in a while) nor was there one in the core box ala settlement mode.
The line manager, while very active on discord and social media, was very adamant against doing certain things people wanted. Since the game was basically FWW reskinned with some streamlining people wanted custom characters/progression, which they didn't want to do, print on demand cards, which they didn't want to do and I think a lot of people (myself included) decided to play other things that had those.
I have a friend who still puts hours into skyrim every year and cannot place half the named units that game wanted you to use a hero and every time I played the game with the group they complained most of my group complained about not being able to make your own character since it's a bethesda game property -- that's why you play them. So we just stopped playing it because even though they liked the rules we didn't like the lack of progression (which is weird since FWW has multiple including a second way to make characters included in a pdf this past summer).
Then there's the rulebook, which I had no issue with (mostly, as nothing is perfect) that caused the Facebook group to blow up in fights over. That group use to be almost as busy as the FWW group at launch and now you may see one post a month (if even that).
So basically now they don't want to keep the physical game in stock as FWW/Factions needs that factory time as those games still have boxes out of stock from a year ago. I suspect they want to discount the physical stuff to clear it all out and move on from the line once the current wave book (4 I believe) is out
Allegedly, they're not discontinuing physical production (though I have doubts for various reasons) and still very much producing more content for the game. Chapter 5 has been soft-announced, although it's supposedly not coming until late-2025, which is a staggeringly long gap between waves. Regardless, it does feel like it's something of a burden for them at this point. Persistent logistical issues haven't helped (and the seemingly torturous approvals process with Bethesda, though it doesn't seem to hamper Fallout content as much...) and they've been very unfortunate in a lot of respects but the eternal delays combined with no attempt at meaningful communication for months (years) at a time just leaves a very bad impression. I know they're wary of announcing things ahead of time because it will inevitably get delayed but the complete dearth of information just leads to folks not caring.
They did release a Tales of Tamriel pdf which has full party progression and settlement building rules so there's now an option for a persistent campaign.
The thing that no one is being told is modiphius is slow walking the approvals not Bethesda. Jon gave us an overview, years ago, on how Bethesda approvals go. Modiphius is prioritizing Fallout and possibly un-announced stuff with Bethesda over CTA as Modiphius just has a certain amount of time a month/quarter for approvals and decides what's priority not Bethesda. Now it could be, some times, the Elder Scrolls people don't have as much time for approvals as Fallout (as starfall caused all approvals to slow down as people were finishing it up) but not for what's been a few years now.
The thing that no one is being told is modiphius is slow walking the approvals not Bethesda. Jon gave us an overview, years ago, on how Bethesda approvals go. Modiphius is prioritizing Fallout and possibly un-announced stuff with Bethesda over CTA as Modiphius just has a certain amount of time a month/quarter for approvals and decides what's priority not Bethesda. Now it could be, some times, the Elder Scrolls people don't have as much time for approvals as Fallout (as starfall caused all approvals to slow down as people were finishing it up) but not for what's been a few years now.
Falmer and Forsworn the main focus of the next wave. Most significantly though, all future content is going to be digital only. STLs for miniatures and print at home for the cards. Probably a bit of a Hail-Mary for the game at this point.
The Forsworn and Falmer are the 2 factions I've been wanting since the game release and the sculpts do look really good (especially for the Falmer) but I don't think there's much else from Skyrim I'm really interested in that's not already released. Unless they do multipart kits for more custom stuff a lot is just pretty generic fantasy and I really don't need half of the line as I've already got so many things that are close enough (bandits/thieves/vampires) that it's hard to justify many boxes except when they're on deep discount (as they are really good sculpts). I passed on the MMF launch because I really didn't need most of what was in there and am fine buying the 1-2 sets I want later on as while printing is cheap -- time isn't and I don't really need x more of something I already have painted up.
Be curious if wave 6 becomes a thing as they're still going through older existing sculpts with those copyrights for finished sculpts being 2022 and how much is waiting around for release (there are still Fallout sculpts from 6 years ago that haven't been released or publicly seen -- so not just The Master) as maybe there will be something that will catch my eye.
I'm also honestly surprised we haven't gotten an Elderscrolls 2d20 game as Fallout 2d20 as that would clearly help sales of the minis.
I imagine the prospect of Chapter 6 will depend on how well this new approach goes with 5. Hopefully it makes it as that was slated to be the Dragonborn DLC so the Morrowind crowd would finally get something. Those sculpts being 3 years+ old is just a stark reminder of how much nonsense this game has gone through. There's been a lot of misfortune with Covid, printer fires etc. but there's also just been a seemingly endless stream of apathy from Modiphius that's been transposed onto the playerbase. Not just in the eternal delays for products to be released but a critical lack of engagement. It's not like they make a huge effort with Fallout but there's at least very regular correspondence with the blogs, painting streams and the like.
Gavin was talking in discord about how interested he is in factions and things there that could be applied to CTA. I'm wondering if they'll just make a new not necromunda/factions and reuse the same minis and maybe keep supporting CTA with print and play cards or just drop it. I honestly don't think Modiphius would still be supporting fww with factions out if FWW wasnt still the bigger game as the current crew really don't seem to care for WW that much.
I don't think anyone in Modiphius wanted call to arms to be a semi reskin of FWW and out side of James (FWW designer) and Chris (owner) no one at the company really seems to like non pvp games and CTA shows that as it really struggles to decide what it wants to be.
Modiphius marketing budget is basically zero so If they wanted to jump in the Oblivion bandwagon having a box of named characters in this past blog would have been the time to get some coverage on sites. That's really the only way they ever get seen.
The line manager, while very active on discord and social media, was very adamant against doing certain things people wanted. Since the game was basically FWW reskinned with some streamlining people wanted custom characters/progression, which they didn't want to do, print on demand cards, which they didn't want to do and I think a lot of people (myself included) decided to play other things that had those.
I wasn't against them. I proposed many of them, but we were not able to do them for a variety of reasons. We are still not in a position to do Print and Play, for instance.
Also, not FWW reskinned. Mark Latham wrote the rules based on some FWW elements - roll low, d 20 skill dice - but it deviates from FWW far more than it shares.
The line manager, while very active on discord and social media, was very adamant against doing certain things people wanted. Since the game was basically FWW reskinned with some streamlining people wanted custom characters/progression, which they didn't want to do, print on demand cards, which they didn't want to do and I think a lot of people (myself included) decided to play other things that had those.
I wasn't against them. I proposed many of them, but we were not able to do them for a variety of reasons. We are still not in a position to do Print and Play, for instance.
Unfortunate that Print and Play seams to be block by contracts or something else equally important as the FWW community has not been that happy with the Print on Demand cards. Not because of quality or price but because of poor customer support from both companies (Forgefire even had the wrong email for their support for months -- even better was it was another company's email) but mistakes on Modiphius's end like wrong card sizes and other things like wrong files sent to the printer. Some stuff has been resolved (like wrong cards being printed but not size) but when long time boosters of the game are complaining something needs to be fixed. I don't see people paying out 50 cents US a card to by a wave set for $100 and being fine with the amount of errors that been popping up with the fallout cards.
Also, not FWW reskinned. Mark Latham wrote the rules based on some FWW elements - roll low, d 20 skill dice - but it deviates from FWW far more than it shares.
G.
Also weapon effects, AI, armor/wounds, stealth (if using FWW RPG) -- but oddly enough range measuring is different just slightly enough (front of base vs back of base) to really be annoying when playing both games. Sure there's a lot that's different between games but it's the same basic game.
Good value. The skirmish rules in that set are fairly stripped down version but the core rulebook is available as a download for free so I suppose that's not a huge barrier. It's certainly a great entry point if you just want to get games on the table with suitable models (though these are board game plastics rather than wargame quality miniatures, albeit very good board game plastics).
It doesn't really translate as a direct comparison to the actual core starter set. The only models that would vaguely cross over (and therefore have rules in the core set) would be the Dragonborn and Hadvar. You're missing Draugr, skeletons, Imperial Soldiers, Imperial Mage, Ralof, Ysrald and the Greatsword Stormcloaks. Wolves have never had models (and their rules were in Chapter 1 as opposed to the core set). What this box does have is unique model profiles that aren't found elsewhere.
