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I like the custom dice idea. Yeah I guess there's the drawback of not being compatible with all the other dice out there, but to me it's an extra bell and whistle that makes it the game funner. And besides if obsolescence is your main concern, there are plenty of dice roller apps out there.. I got one for Descent that I always meant to try but never did.

I think custom dice is a tiny issue (if it comes to pass) in context of whether or not it is a well designed, well balanced and fun game that has mechanics that are intuitive but also have depth.

In other words, if the game is awesome (like X-wing) I don't think most people will really care about the dice!

Custom dice increase the ease of accessibility of the game.

To be fair I really like the proprietary dice mechanics for both X-Wing and the Star Wars RPG (of which I play semi-regularly)

The X-Wing dice allow for choices to be made which can affect your effectiveness in attack and/or defense, which would be difficult to easily represent with a numbered D8.

As for the SW RPG I am really enamoured in what they have done with mechanics with their fancy dice. Having the ability to have actions succeed with complications, or fail with advantages gives it something that previous RPGs I have played did not have. And I consider it a good thing.

That said, I can fully understand the desire not to have to buy 100 proprietary dice for your hoard army etc. I am willing to keep my eyes out for it and see what the mechanics look like though.

Well, later on you might need more dice ( it is FFG after all and you always need at least 1 pack extra) but horde armies don't need 100s.

How the game plays is you take your rows across and take your combat dice (so skeletons are 1 red 1 blue I believe) and however many damage symbols you roll, you multiply that by your column across. So 5 columns across and you roll 2 hit symbols you deal 10 damage. You can also reroll your dice equal to the number rows you have.

So even if I have a 10x10 massive huge crazy block of skeletons, im just rolling their 2 combat dice. Im sure cards and special abilities can effect this but your never rolling buckets of dice.

In an interview the designer said you won't have to buy out of faction releases to get cards/upgrades you might want, unlike x-wing

Here's the interview RIPferdy mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7PGaa5N_lw

BrianDavion wrote:
10 years after FFG loses the SW lisence? fat chance finding those dice

It's clunky, but the Core Books for the SW RPG do come with conversion charts for standard d6/d8/d12. Also, stickers.

Now when the dice start coming in proprietary shapes, then I'll be more concerned.

str00dles1 wrote:
Well, later on you might need more dice ( it is FFG after all and you always need at least 1 pack extra) but horde armies don't need 100s.

How the game plays is you take your rows across and take your combat dice (so skeletons are 1 red 1 blue I believe) and however many damage symbols you roll, you multiply that by your column across. So 5 columns across and you roll 2 hit symbols you deal 10 damage. You can also reroll your dice equal to the number rows you have.

So even if I have a 10x10 massive huge crazy block of skeletons, im just rolling their 2 combat dice. Im sure cards and special abilities can effect this but your never rolling buckets of dice.

Making custom dice is relatively inexpensive so this is a non-issue. http://www.chessex.com/Dice/Custom_Dice_Home.htm

I own several games with custom dice and have never lost the dice; maybe I'm just lucky. In any event, I'm not going to pass on an otherwise fun game just because of the dice since a d6 is a d6; if nothing else, I could order blanks for really cheap and carve my own symbols.

Just seen this on the FFG feed, not read it yet but really looking forward to it!! https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/1/3/take-command-2/

I didn't see any pictures of the miniatures between all those loving closeups of the dials.


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Thanks for sharing, though! I'm pretty excited for the miniatures.

The undead looks pretty nifty, though I'm thoroughly unimpressed by the humans. Too bulky, and the limited poses really sticks out for their cavalry


Still, the rules sound like they could be interesting, using a bunch of neat features, like the movement templates, action/effect dials and interlocking bases.

I don't forsee it replacing KoW as my primary fantasy game; but it looks like it could be a great introgame for beginners to the world of ranked battlegames.

The game is very fun, getting to demo it at Gencon. Movement like X wing, just you get to pick actions you do along with movement.

Also the models are semi poseable to different configurations, so its not at static as it looks.

I know FFG loves to reuse art, but if they really want their fantasy setting to be successful, they really need to update it a bit more than they have for this.

Looking forward to seeing how well this goes.

Another update, this time about marching: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/1/9/marching-orders/

Some info about how fightin' works:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/1/16/battle-is-joined/

And the command tool (the wheels thingie):
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/1/3/take-command-2/

The more I learn, the cooler this sounds. It might dethrone Kings of War for me! (though that one is fun too)

So... FFG announced the Expansion packs. Containing 4 or 8 models. At a price point of 30 USD.

Ehm... okay... Not what I expected for a R'n'F game...

I think what will make or break this one as a commercial success is how willing FFG are for people to use other minis as well as or instead of their own, and I suspect the answer to that might be "not at all".

Which is fair enough on one level (aiming for the GW model). I am unlikely to buy in unless I can get access to the expansion rules and components separately from the average-ish minis, though.

So that's how a game dies before it's released.

A shame, I expected a solid competitor to AoS. But these asking prices at this quality with pre-assembled PVC minis with Warmachine-level pose variety are cuckoo land.

On the other hand, it's none too surprising in view of the recent acts of scumbaggery on part of FFG, or should I say, Asmodee. It seems a tabletop gaming company either closes small or sees itself grow to become a GW.

Meh.

Used to be into X-Wing, and got sick of the card system, especially when clearly rubbish ships were released (A-Wing and TIE Advanced, I'm looking at you!), and then 'fixed', provided you either shelled out for extra expansions (£80 to fix the TIE Advanced! £80!), or were lucky enough to play with people who didn't demand you had a copy of every card.

I much prefer my more static rules sets - where units don't suddenly become blindingly good six months down the line because of a card included in an otherwise unrelated expansion. Not my bag at all.

Me, I think this one might on a short road to nowhere. FFG last time I looked has serious supply chain problems - stuff sells out so fast, and then doesn't get restocked for months, new units are delayed, then delayed again (vagaries of international shipping, not saying FFG themselves are necessarily incompetent).

For rank and file? Well, there's already Kings of War, and for those of us who didn't burn our armies in a fit of pique, my nearly complete collection of 8th Edition Warhammer books (never did get Triumph and Treachery sadly). And for my day to day fantasy needs, I for one am happy with Age of Sigmar.

SKR.HH wrote:
So... FFG announced the Expansion packs. Containing 4 or 8 models. At a price point of 30 USD.

Ehm... okay... Not what I expected for a R'n'F game...

With those prices, I have a hard time seeing the game take off.

Even if the rules are good, when you're new on the market you need to be a good deal in every aspect since you start from square one.

It's not like AOS who started with a inbuilt potential audience and could get away with both horrible rules and ovepriced models since as long as they retained a portion of their existing one, they had a playerbase rather than needing to build it up from scratch.

30 dollars for 4 cavalry models...this had better be a small skirmish sized game

Sining wrote:
30 dollars for 4 cavalry models...this had better be a small skirmish sized game

'Tis supposed to be rank-and-file, isn't it?

Lord Kragan wrote:

Sining wrote:
30 dollars for 4 cavalry models...this had better be a small skirmish sized game

'Tis supposed to be rank-and-file, isn't it?

Yes, though "scalable".

I see no reason to choose it over KoW, but that's just my opinion.

I guess the real question is, with Archer pack and Calvary pack have cards the core set doesn't?

If its just like X wing, with you needing to buy the x wing by itself to get new cards, then yea, that's crap.

My plan was 2 core sets. With that, I only really need to buy the 2 command packs, and will have enough archers and horsemen from that then needing to buy additional packs for cards.

Same cards, then 2 coresets is the best deal to go. Different cards, then im going to question buying into this.

I have a ton of other minis games im already in (far to many really) and im afraid that this could suffer like X wing, where some ships are just total crap to newer ones. (Sadly the same issue their completive LCGs go (GoT, Netrunner)

Personally for Fantasy rank and file, 6mm Kings of War has been one of the better ones

Models, movement trays, cards, counters, templates, and dice? That's a lot of stuff to keep up with. This game's going to be a pain to transport.

Entyme - honestly, that sounds no worse than 40k and no different to WHFB.

If they go down the "traditional FFG expansion set" route, I'll just pick up a core set or two assuming that I can get it for a reasonable price and then just use the core set stuff if I want to play this game, but mostly use the models in KoW and other games.

Shame. This game really offers nothing for me so far. And my community is already super divided so all I see coming from this is an even more splintered base. There will be players here that play this simply because its FFG and its sticking a thumb in GW's eye, but KOW or any of the other fantasy games aren't really played here at all to my knowledge.

 EnTyme wrote:
Models, movement trays, cards, counters, templates, and dice? That's a lot of stuff to keep up with. This game's going to be a pain to transport.

You'll have models with literally every table top game, so no sense in complaining about transporting models. You'll also have movement trays in almost every rank and file table top game. These have the advantage that they're all exactly the same size (length and width), so they'll likely stack well. Cards, counters and templates take up roughly the same space as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. In fact, just use a sandwich bag... maybe one of the quart sized ones if the templates are longer. This game will use fewer dice than you're used to. The core set comes with six dice. Realistically, I doubt you'll ever need more than the core six plus an extra dice pack 6. For AoS/40k, it's common to have 50+ dice for your army.

For FFG's other table top games (Armada, X-Wing), the two most common storage systems are foam trays (Battlfoam, Feldherr, etc) or large tackle boxes. I'm a fan of the Plano 7771. It was lots of space for models, cards, counters, dice, a spare pair of gloves, some sun glasses, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and more! I use separate 7771's for Armada, X-Wing, Descent, Arcadia Quest and Zombicide: Black Plague. I have a 7771 sitting at home waiting for Runewars to hit the stores.

Barriers to entry 1) No pre-painted models, 2) Only two factions, 3) Cool background is absent. The models are too generic. Just buy the starter and get the movement templates and rules. Then do what wargamers have done for ages. Buy the models from your favorite miniatures line and mount them on wooden/plastic bases of the correct size. Someone will spoil the cards in the packs online, so now no one needs to buy them. Without miniatures sales this game will die.