Shadespire

[me_in_japan]

Jeez. Look at me! I'm posting in the warhammer fantasy section of the forums. Surely the end times must be upon us.

What? You mean...they've already happened?

Oh.


Anyway. Enough of this nonsense. What do you all think of Shadespire? I actually don't know much meself, but damn those are some tasty skellies. If this proves to be a Sigmarised Mordheim (and after Newcromunda, it seems likely) I could well be interested. How bout you lot?

https://www.warhammer-community.com/201 ... -revealed/

*edit* oh, buggrit. Never mind. Not a skirmish game. Pah.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/201 ... -unveiled/

[kojibear]

Could this be their answer to the new Fantasy Flight's rune war game?

[The Other Dave]

Could this be their answer to the new Fantasy Flight's rune war game?

I don't think so - Runewars is a rank and file unit-based game, and this looks like a skirmishy board game thing as much as anything. (Really, GW's answer to Runewars was WHFB. )

[me_in_japan]

it looks like it might even be their answer to X-wing. Pre-paint (or lack) aside, its a game that seems to be small scale, based on card interactions, and will be aimed squarely at the organised play crowd i.e. simple, airtight rules, short play time. Card combos/collectability.

[The Other Dave]

airtight rules

I'll believe it when I see it.

[The Other Dave]

airtight rules

I'll believe it when I see it.

So apparently this thing actually does have really good rules! I'm hearing a lot of excellent buzz about Shadespire as a game, namely that it's very fast to play, rewards tactical play, and while there's no customization of the figures in your warband, lots of space for customization and "list-building" through customizing the objective, upgrade and dirty tricks cards you bring along. Plus a (relatively) super-cheap buy-in cost - the core set is 8500 yen, and warbands are 4000 - helped out a bunch by the fact that you don't really need to buy anything besides your warband if you're not interested in chasing cards*. And it's proving very popular among Japanese gamers (unsurprising given its play area and storage requirements), so getting into it may help a bit with the bridge-building stuff that some of us have been talking about lately.

*Each warband includes about half and half warband-specific and universal cards, so (as is common with these things) you may end up wanting a card or two that comes with a warband you don't really want. But still, it's not going to be as bad as, say, X-Wing, since you can never have more than 1 copy of a given card in your deck, and for casual play the cards you do get will still allow for lots of customization - you get a lot more cards than you're legally allowed to build your deck with with just the one warband.

The 8 warbands scheduled for launch are just 2 varieties of stormcast eternals, 2 varieties of khorne-flavored chaos dudes, orcs, skellingtons, skaven, and those weird AoS naked fire dwarves, but still. Seems like there's lots of space for expansion.

I've pretty much decided to buy myself an orc (orruk, whatever) warband this month, and probably pick up the core set with my winter bonus next month. For 4000 yen, why not?

[Lovejoy]

The skellingtons look really great and do tempt somewhat. If only they were in the core set.
But I really dislike most of the other factions so far. Reimagined AoS Orcs and Dwarfs are the foulest contenders here. Chaos and Skaven probably aren’t as objectionable. But I won’t pick up a starter with Sigmarines in it.

[me_in_japan]

The minis in the starter set are what give me pause for thought, too. I have no interest in either sigmarines or chaos, so that's just going to be plastic sitting around doing nothing of use, yet costing me money. It'd be nice if there were a starter set with just the rules/board/cards in it, but I don't see that happening, tbh.

I'll think on it a bit more...

ps. starter set + warband box from GWJ: 12,500en
starter set + warband box from Firestorm Games: 7740en

I don't know why I keep making this comparison; it's not like I expect a miraculous turnaround, but every time I feel compelled to do it, and every time it irks the hell out of me.

[The Other Dave]

ps. starter set + warband box from GWJ: 12,500en
starter set + warband box from Firestorm Games: 7740en

I don't know why I keep making this comparison; it's not like I expect a miraculous turnaround, but every time I feel compelled to do it, and every time it irks the hell out of me.

I’ve maybe gotten too used to thinking in terms of shipping prices from the States, which would wipe out those savings, but yeah. At least we’re not in Australia?

I agree with everybody about the Stormcast, but the chaos, undead, orcs and skaven look pretty sweet (actually, in terms of the lore I’ve gleaned, the undead would’ve been a natural include in the core set, but I guess they wanted to stick with their standard stormcast vs khorne matchup). And I’ve pulled the trigger on orcs this morning, so I’ll almost certainly get a core set next month, if that makes it easier for local people to think about picking a warband up - you only need one copy of the core set to play, for rules, boards, counters and dice, so I’d be able to “host” games. But no pressure either - that’ll give me 3 gangs to use to show people the game, and we may not even like it. It just seemed like a better use of 15000 yen than a tyranid codex and two carnifexes in terms of money vs potential games played, heh.

[Konrad]

The new "Fantasy" aesthetic just does nothing for me. Where are the spined mutant-rats? The fish? Give me that Old-school-Old-World!