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Good day everyone! I am a 40k player, and I was looking for a side game for quite some time. Almost started Infinity, look into some large scale game, and last week I made a post about small scale tactical game, with a bonus question of Tactical RPG a la FFTactics (my favorite game of ALL time). Someone suggest me EFT. I look a bit, check a demo game of 30min online... and I was dazzle!

So long story short: I bought EFT Beginner box yesterday (shipping today!). And I had some question (some may be due to language barrier).
1- What is the digest rulebook? Is is a smaller version but with all the page, or did some page got cut to make a smaller version?
2- What is Miasma War and Gaiden? It's expansion, ok. But what are the benefits of each expansion? From what I understand, Miasma is more oriented toward player(s) versus environment battle (which is nice). Should I get that book too, or did the miasma rules been include in the digest book?
3- When you buy a blister online, do you receive the card for that character? Or is there other deck of character card + items card I need to buy?

And then, I have question about where to go next. I saw that there is 4 miniature in the beginner box. and I saw that the board is a 8x8 board (ok for 2 on 2, but I imagine more minis will require bigger board)
1- What is a good size party? I haven't read the rule yet, but from the demo I got that party are costed in crystal. So what is the ''usual'' format suggested? 10 Crystal? And how many miniature does that make?
2- How do you choose the miniature? Similar to what I ask earlier: is there a way to know the stats of the characters before buying them? I guess for now I will choose by look anyway hehe (SLIME ARMY FOR THE WIN!!!)
3- How do you go about making bigger board? Do you stack Geomancer board next to each other? Or is the board easy enought to replicate to make your own scenery?


I am SUPER EXCITED to receive my box (no idea how long the shipping is going to take). This is by far the most promising boardgame/tabletop I have seen in a while! If you guys have any pointers or comments please post here or PM me

Glad to hear you're so excited! I'll reply to each point to give you a hand.

1A) The Digest is the core rulebook without the Lore/Fluff or the Unit Profiles. It includes all the main rules as well as a number of scenarios/objective types.

2A) Like you said, the Miasma War is a PvE Campaign, it can be run using simply Artificial Intelligence Cards,"Adventure Mode" which are available separately, or It can be run by a GM/DM for one or more players. It also includes are few other mechanics for variant play. Like the core book, it includes some new unit profiles.

Gaiden is the book currently in the works, which is a new selection of Scenarios and Unit Profiles. Gaiden includes more one-off "Sidestory/Gaiden" style content, something for everyone so to speak.

Neither are included in the digest book.

3A) Each model includes the appropriate cards for it when you buy it, so the unit profiles in the core book, and the two expansions are more reference material than required content. You can also check out our store on WargameVault (http://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/2597/On-The-Lamb) and pick up packs of stat cards or Item cards in packs.


1B) If you took all the models in the beginner set for yourself, (rather than splitting it like a 2 player set) You'd have 6 Points or "Crystals" (2 - 2 Point models, and 2 - 1 Point models) Our recommended game size is 10 Crystals, so you're more than halfway there! Most models range between 1 and 3 crystals, so a party could range from 10 models to 4 depending on what you pick.

2B) Picking your minis is a tough choice. We'd like to think theyre at least reasonably balanced, but a lot of it can come down to synergy between your models, AND the commands you pick for them. Each stat card has a list of abilities, but each time you play, you can only select a smaller number of them to use in battle. So even if you arn't changing minis, your party can get changed a bit. On our Facebook Fan page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/797938113626441/), a bunch of players have started discussing the meta for the game, which might be a good place to check for opinions on useful models. The page is a 'closed group' which means you'll have to request to join, a measure just to keep out spam bots. Shouldn't take long for an admin to add you.

Personally, I like 'covering my bases'. Many objectives are positioning related, like king of the hill, so having a unit or two that can affect enemy positions/slow down enemies is super useful. The Male Dragoon or the Male Dark Knight, both have a 'pull' attack that can be used to keep enemies off the objective. Both of those can also count as a good melee unit, so a ranged unit, and a healer are the next 'musts', the Crusader or Lunarian are decent healers who can also take a hit or two without folding. Magic attacks are defended with a generally weaker stat (especially on big physical bruisers) so grabbing a Sorcerer is a great way to cover ranged and magic in one go. I could ramble on forever about party builds, so I'll leave it there.

3B)The Geomancer boards slide up to each other really well, especially if you sand the pieces a little to make sure they're smooth. When running bigger games, I also find that using the stacking pieces to lock more than one base board together keeps the panels from sliding about.

I hope you have fun with the game, make sure to keep us up to date here or on the FB page!

Is there somewhere I could find a complete list of all the miniature + stat card available? Also, what are the DLC? Only models with background lore?

And yeah, I'm planning on getting some model, slowly, to have enough to build 2 10crystal team so my friend can join in! (like, all the model are mine, but I have enought for 2 team kinda thing).

I'm not too convince about the 2 expansion book. Might be the price, or the fact that I don't think that I need additional scenario or whatever since I can come out with mine. I am not saying it's bad product, just definitly not for me right now I would think.

and 4 Geomancer board seems like the way to go! Once you assemble a board, is it fix in a specific config, or you can change it pretty easily? 3 other board to complete the one I will get in the starter seem like my next buy haha!.

The webstore is the closest to a complete list. A party builder app is in the works, but no exact ETA on it to help decide on models. The "DLC" are new scenarios, sometimes paired with model profiles. That content is all pay-what-you-want digital pdfs on our wargame vault page.

The expansion books are definitely optional! We simply want to make sure there is something for everyone. As a creative type, I've never had issue straying from the stated rules for any game, but We've had lots of people ask for more scenarios or 'single player' content, So those books were written with those folks in mind.

Geomancer boards are designed to be reconfigured, if you want, each time you play. The product requires some assembly, but ends up as a collection of 'lego' type parts, that stack and rearrange.

Awesome! Thank you very much for all the great info! I will wait patiently for my starter box (I imagine it will take a while since I'm in Canada lol)

Count on me to spread the word about that game in my area hobby shop and to my friends

The webstore is the closest to a complete list

Oh ya, but I was talking more about character cards. Maybe I don't understand the system perfectly, but from what I understand, character sheet come with the miniature, or in a character card deck. From what I read, it was also in the Rulebook.

But if I have the digest rulebook with the beginner box, I will only have the cards for the character I own, with no idea of the stats of other charcter that are for sale. So do I absolutly have to buy a deck of character card, to pick which one I want to buy (and then receive another card with the mini) or is there a place I can actually llook at the card before buying a character? I feel like I have to go solely with my guts here lol.

It's more like each miniature comes with a character card. Battsu/Knight[2h] being a good example, you buy the model and it comes with a card for Battsu and a variant Knight card that can be used with that model, or the regular Knight model.

There currently isn't a database of the entire line like BattleCollege for Warmachine/Hordes, which is why miscatonic suggested checking out the website for what's released (as the books have stat entries that don't have released models).

If you want to see a list of all available models and their stat cards without having extra stat cards when you buy the models, I would suggest grabbing the PDFs of the Stat Cards for the Core Rulebook and the Miasma War. This gives you all of the Stat Cards for every model in the game without having to worry about extras lying around.

Ok good thank you!. Where could I find the PDFs of the Stat Cards for the Core Rulebook and the Miasma War and how much would it cost me?

 PandaHero wrote:
Ok good thank you!. Where could I find the PDFs of the Stat Cards for the Core Rulebook and the Miasma War and how much would it cost me?

http://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/2597/On-The-Lamb

Stat Card PDFs come with thier respective book PDF; you can also buy stat card decks (not PDFs) from WGV as well.

If you go here you'll find the cards.

They're about 10 bucks American per pack, so 20 bucks or so?

Thanks I feel like such a noob lol :S

 PandaHero wrote:
Thanks I feel like such a noob lol :S

Don't worry about it! We all start somewhere.

Before I click the buy button: In the Beginner box, will I get the Stat card deck for all the card in the core rulebook, or will I get only 4 stat card for the 4 miniature included in the box?

What about items? do I get the item deck#1, or do I get another bunch of items?

I want to know before I will buy the Miasma Stat cards and the items #2 deck if that's the only thing i'm missing.

 PandaHero wrote:
Before I click the buy button: In the Beginner box, will I get the Stat card deck for all the card in the core rulebook, or will I get only 4 stat card for the 4 miniature included in the box?

What about items? do I get the item deck#1, or do I get another bunch of items?

I want to know before I will buy the Miasma Stat cards and the items #2 deck if that's the only thing i'm missing.

You only get the stat cards for the included miniatures and it includes a couple of potion cards, not any of the item decks.

Ah ok thanks! guess I will buy all 4 decks then

I'm slow and only saw that you've found your way here. Awesome! Welcome!

Hehe thanks
Still waiting for my stuff tho lol. Probably in the mail somewhere!

Any luck with the post yet PandaHero?

I just stumbled on this post, but I came to let you know about the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/797938113626441/

There's a lot more overall activity there. People posting pictures of their painted models/in progress shots. Game pics. Model discussion etc.
Also a good place to ask about any rules questions!

Hope the models have made it to you by now

Yes I have seen the facebook group (I join it and enjoyed watching all the models getting painted) but I still prefer to keep posting on dakka website since it's easier for me with my current access to internet.

Unfortunately, I haven't receive my starter box yet :( The first one that was shiped seem to have lost itself along the way. On The Lamb was kind enough to re-ship, and hopefully I should receive it soon! (Tracking says it arrived in Canada, but now it's back in the US for some reason. I'm very confused. I continue to check my mailbox everyday tho).

I will be able to post battle report and more list idea when I actually got my stuff. So far, I received all the cards (items and character, all 4 decks) so I was able to play a couple game with some list I made with proxy models and check a checker board.

As soon as I get my hand on the full rulebook (I am still using the quickstart one) and a couple minis + geomancer board, I will be able to be more active.