Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Saint Johan is an absolute beast in melee combat... but I *did* manage to win the MTI at the CMONExpo using Saint Mark, as the result of an insane final melee where he and Saint Johan had killed everything else on the table and went back and forth locked in hand-to-hand combat for 2 full rounds. Should it have happened, statistically? Hell no, Mark's strength is definitely as a ranged combatant. But that's one of the wonderful things about the dice mechanics in Dark Age. The game is exciting every single time I play it.

Also, the story is top notch for a tabletop game. Easily my favorite lore and worldbuilding of any game on the market. They actually create characters in the fluff and kill them, making their deaths mean something. It doesn't affect the tabletop game so much as what you're allowed to play as it does for character growth. Much like how you can play an entire subfaction army of Forsaken as Saint Johan, but he also has an entire subfaction in a different faction (Skarrd) as Father Johan, and they can be played against each other.

Based on the images I saw of Saint Joan (who is Saint Mary's sidekick, basically, turned Saint) I came away strongly with the impression that she has taken Mary's mantle after Mary dies. The quote was given as something close to "When Darkness Falls... The Phoenix shall rise." Saint Joan is wearing some kind of black (or blackened...) armor that looks very similar to Mary's gold armor... makes me wonder if Mary maybe burns to death and Joan takes her place.

Clayton cheated. Weighted dice, I hear.

But seriously, C-- I need help building a Fire Caste army so I can give some of my Prevailers stuff to Alpharius.

Er...yes, plus help him with that doublequick-like!

 Pugnacious_Cee wrote:
Also, the story is top notch for a tabletop game. Easily my favorite lore and worldbuilding of any game on the market. They actually create characters in the fluff and kill them, making their deaths mean something. It doesn't affect the tabletop game so much as what you're allowed to play as it does for character growth. Much like how you can play an entire subfaction army of Forsaken as Saint Johan, but he also has an entire subfaction in a different faction (Skarrd) as Father Johan, and they can be played against each other.

Based on the images I saw of Saint Joan (who is Saint Mary's sidekick, basically, turned Saint) I came away strongly with the impression that she has taken Mary's mantle after Mary dies. The quote was given as something close to "When Darkness Falls... The Phoenix shall rise." Saint Joan is wearing some kind of black (or blackened...) armor that looks very similar to Mary's gold armor... makes me wonder if Mary maybe burns to death and Joan takes her place.

Interesting. Have any named characters died in the fluff already? (Spoiler tags please I'm never going to be able to pick the army books up for this but others might get go if they get spoilers )

That is pretty quick with Joan, didn't she just come out in fanatasicm? I picked her up at GenCon last year

@JoeRugby, yeah, a couple of characters that I can think of off the top of my head have died or otherwise changed significantly. The books are definitely worth reading.

@Digclaw, yup she's the same Joan that runs in Mary's subfaction, and just released last year with Fanaticism. Mary's narrative throughout the Fanaticism book definitely sets Joan up for something big, though. Joan is arguably one of the more important (and definitely memorable) characters from that book.

Couldn't see a Dark Age thread at the top of the Misc Games heap...what's the best entry point for this game?
Do they have starter sets? The CMoN store is not very clear.

 plastictrees wrote:
Couldn't see a Dark Age thread at the top of the Misc Games heap...what's the best entry point for this game?
Do they have starter sets? The CMoN store is not very clear.

Starter sets are all pretty well balanced, especially now that they've reworked a few of them.

If you have any questions, I'm sure between the few of us here that are interested, we can get you set up.

But starter boxes, if everyone is running one, are pretty suited to go against one another.

So, say I want to get started with the Salt Nomads. What would it take?

 Guildsman wrote:
So, say I want to get started with the Salt Nomads. What would it take?

Anybody know a good third party resource that might answer this question in detail? I think this range represent the nicest miniatures on the market at the moment as I'm really quite taken to the aesthetic so a bit of info/reviews of the game from a good reputable source would be great.

I shall have a quick google and edit this post if I get any helpful results, meanwhile don't be afraid to share if you're already in the know!

Thanks!

 Guildsman wrote:
So, say I want to get started with the Salt Nomads. What would it take?

Salt Nomads are the newest subfaction so they don't have a box or anything.
You need the Dark Age: Outcasts book to field them or any other outcasts, and they're able to field ANY non-Slaver Outcast model.

IMO, you'll be able to make ready use of the following models with a Salt Nomad force:
Behadrin Durshe, the BladeMaster (your leader / melee monster)
Oathpourer (A cool model that's great support)
A blister of Tribal Warriors (your basic combatant)
A Fixer (the outcast Doctor/Mechanic)
Scuts (those children with boomerangs: They're scouts and expendible units)
Then the rest is your choice of what you want. You could pick some cool looking bounty hunters, more generalist outcast models, or whatnot... or different salt nomad models based on what seems fitting to what you want to play.

Fair enough. What about other factions? Is it generally the starter box, core rules, and another book?

 Guildsman wrote:
Fair enough. What about other factions? Is it generally the starter box, core rules, and another book?

The game's going through a transition now to 'army book' format, but everyone has up to date cards. The Starterbox and blisters should come with their stat cards, but a deck for the faction would be solid.

For the most part, the Starter Box and a card deck is fine. The Rules are free online, and only Outcasts (as of right now) have a faction book. The others can have their stats found in the decks.

Alternatively instead of a starter box, you could pick up a few models depending on the faction and give that a go. Identify what models look coolest, and ask here and I'm sure people can express if that makes sense or not.
IE, for St. Luke's Forsaken, who has no starter box, a blister of his Arsenal troops, one of his Stinger troops, and any of his faction's characters would be a pretty playable list.

July's releases are here!

Wow they look great, I need to start working on my Dark Age stuff at some point.

They've definitely improved on model quality.

Everything from about 2013 for dark age has been amazing and yet their forums are pretty dead... So talking Dakka for help as a Prevailers noobie what should I look at getting with the upcoming Forsaken revamp?

Thinking of:

Dark Age: Fanaticism?
ArchAngel Gaberial
Flock x3
Shepard


To start but not really sure where to move from there?

I can't help you much there - I'm still very much a Dark Age beginner!

Have you tried asking on the most excellent fan page, Samaria in Ashes, over on Facebook?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/samariainashes/

So we have something very VERY special to show you Monday, but let's set the weekend up right by looking at the last of the four original saints: SAINT LUKE, THE RENEGADE SAINT! Now, unfortunately Luke's Bull will not be making it to GenCon, but he will see retail stores shortly after. In the meantime, let's show you some previews of him and his revamped units!

All these Saints on giant mechanical beasts just reminds me of a weird mashup of ideas from Masami Kurumada's Saint Seiya and B'TX manga series.

A totally left field though I'm sure, but one that has definitely kept my interest.

Once I've cleared out some of these half painted figures on my table I'm totally tracking some of these new mounted guys down.

I am not a fan of the saints on large beasts but other than that the models are looking sleeker and like they said they are starting to scale out all of the older models.

As far as list building I have always been a fan of models that play into my play style rather than models that people deem as "effective". It also depends if you are playing missions or straight kill them all type of scenarios.

New Images from Beasts of War:

Those last two are just awesome. Wow.

Great game system too.

I want almost everything they put out for this game now!

What a lovely fellow on his rooster mount! That warrior maiden with her iron halo and flail might find a place on my shelves, too. Also had a peek at their Facebook page and I love Saint Mark's robo reptile steed.

Lots of great models coming to Dark Age.

Yea, I don't know how I feel about the guy on rooster mount. I think I actually would prefer it if it WERE a mechanical rooster. Or chocobo, but really I want to refer to his mount as "Rooster Cogburn" and pretend that the mount is the character, just with some dude on top to hit people with hammers.

Last two female models are fantastic.

And isn't the mount a griffon?

Such great sculpts. Dark Age is not that far from Mierce on my "I wonder what awesome mini they will show next" scale.

Probably a griffon, but all I can see now is ending the model where the rider currently is, and moving the rider forward of the wings and adding a metal feather tail.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Last two female models are fantastic.

And isn't the mount a griffon?

That might've been the idea initially but that creatures head is all cock, not Eagle.