Archives for January 2015

Duration Tokens

dragonflyDragonfly finished casting his Control Weather spell and a small look of satisfaction slid across his face as the attackers, a pair of small Black Shadow Dragon siblings, were forced to the ground. His own allies, a Harpy Archer and Angelic Paladin (he shook his head, still unsure that anyone would believe the story of how he became allied with such creatures*) were safely behind him and the force of the storm.

“Ready yourselves,” he called to his allies, “they won’t be able to take off again until they leave the storm or it ends.”

The angel nodded sagely and the harpy screeched in what Dragonfly could only assume was agreement.

The larger of the two black shadow dragons hissed at the storm, flapping in a vain attempt to lift off once again.

Its smaller sister prepared to turn and walk out of the storm’s reach, using a wing to keep the wind and rain out of her eyes. “Stop that, idiot! We need to move before that druid uses Call Lightning.”

“Why?” asked the brother.

“Because the lightning will be stronger under this weather spell.”

“Oh,” said her brother, “how long does it last?”

“I don’t know!” she yelled, “Ask the druid!”

He did. The druid looked surprised, but not as surprised as his two allies as he started to answer the dragon. “It gets two duration tokens!” he called out.

The bigger black shadow dragon turned back to his sister, “Three turns!”

His sister shook her head, “It’s only two turns, doofus. The rest of this turn, and all of next turn.”

“But he just cast the spell!” called her brother.

The smaller black shadow dragon sighed, her brother was always embarrassing her, “It works just like Shadow Breath!”

“No, that gets three tokens!” he yelled back.

She face-winged and called to the druid, “Maybe you can explain it? He won’t listen to me.”

The druid took a step forward but was interrupted by the angel’s shout of protest, “You’re kidding?! You’re going to explain yourself to him?”

The druid stepped forward and began drawing a few large rectangles in the dirt in front of him, “Of course. I’m neutral!”

The harpy shook her head, and may have face-palmed if not for her claws.

“Listen carefully,” the druid called out, “When you use your Shadow Breath, you place 3 Duration Tokens on it, correct?” He drew three hourglass figures on one of the rectangles and glanced up.

The large dragon nodded; of course he knew that, it took three turns before it was ready again, everyone knew that!

“Well,” continued Dragonfly, “When I cast Control Weather, I place 2 Duration Tokens on it,” he drew two hourglasses on the next rectangle, “See?”

He looked up again as the dragon answered, “Yes …”

“They work the same,” his sister said impatiently, “like I’ve told you before.”

Her brother shook his head, “No, I put my tokens down ‘Afterwards.'”

She sighed, and looked around, hoping no other dragons could see them.

“Your sister is right,” called out the druid, “In both cases, we place our Duration Tokens down as we use the Upgrade.”

“But …” the larger dragon started, “your spell has a Continuous Effect!”

“All that means is that my Upgrade keeps doing something while the Duration Tokens are on it. The spell keeps working. Your Breath Weapon is only different in that it does not keep doing something. In both cases, we remove one Duration Token at the end of the turn, from each Upgrade card that has Duration Tokens.”

The angel had to admit he was impressed by how patient the druid was. He prepared to charge the dragon.

The dragon slowly nodded at the druid, “Ok, ok. But not on your first turn.”

“So close…” said his sister.

The druid looked thoughtful for a moment, “Why do you think that would be true?” he asked.

“You had to disable it,” the dragon declared.

“… and yet so far,” his sister muttered, she considered using her Shadow Breath on both of them, but she was sure the Druid was out of range.

“I think I see the confusion,” said the druid, “Disabling the Upgrade is irrelevant. It just means I would have to spend an extra action to prepare to use the spell again, which would be silly in this case, since the Upgrade goes away when the Continuous Effect ends! Which is what happens when the last Duration Token is removed. During the End Phase, you remove 1 Duration Token from each Upgrade Card.”

The dragon seemed to think it over, “So, you will remove one Duration Token from it at the end of this turn, then the last one from it at the end of next turn, and then the spell ends AND the Upgrade goes away.”

His sister gasped, “You’ve got it! And it doesn’t matter when you put the Duration Tokens on the Upgrade Card, you always remove one from each Upgrade Card during the End Phase!”

The Druid smiled. He’d always quite enjoyed teaching, “Well done. Keep in mind that I could have, if I wanted, used my Staff of the Woodlands to add an extra Duration Token to the card.”

His sister rolled her eyes, “Don’t confuse him more!”

“No, I get it!” the larger Dragon exclaimed, “You would have Disabled the Staff and gotten to put 3 Duration Tokens on the Control Weather Upgrade card instead of 2! It just would have lasted 1 extra turn! If I used my breath on you right now, and you used the staff, we would both put three Duration Tokens down and both remove one at the end of this turn!”

“Why didn’t you?” asked the sister.

The angel turned to the druid, “That’s a good question. You won’t get to recast it since it goes away when the Effect ends.”

The druid looked a little embarrassed, “I forgot I could, actually.”

The harpy snorted.

“It’s been a long day …” Dragonfly grumbled.

The harpy nodded in agreement. It had been a long day**.

The two dragons put their heads together and whispered to each other, the brother slowly nodding at the sister.

The brother turned suddenly back towards the druid, drawing in a deep breath. The druid braced for the necrotic energy of a Shadow Breath.

“We concede.” the larger shadow dragon said.

“You … concede?” stammered the druid.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been trying to explain this. THANK you” his sister responded, “Let’s go, Reggie.”

Both dragons turned and quickly moved across the battle area.

“What just happened?” asked the Angel, “Where are you going?”

The brother leaped into the air and shouted back, “We saw some bird people!”

His sister followed, but hesitated to call back to them, “He means the Aarakocra. I’m going to try to explain how Area Effects work with Troops!”

The strange allies watched the Black Shadow Dragon siblings fly off, quickly losing them against the night sky.

“Well,” said Dragonfly, “that was … odd. Shall we build a campfire?”

The angel sighed and hung his Holy Warhammer from his belt, “Druid,” he began, “How did you know the second one was female?”

Dragonfly turned to look at the angel, “I’m a druid.”

 

* a story for another time.
** another story for another time.

Heeeere’s Vakka!

The last of Wave 3, the Silver Dragon Expansion, has now been seen in the wild!

Beating out Lord Maximillian for title of the most expensive, as well as becoming the highest level Creature so far, is Vakka, the Ancient Silver Dragon. Vakka is a team player, with a special ability that really helps out, but at 57 points, there’s not a lot of room for the rest of the team!

Here is her unique ability:

After Vakka moves, she may choose 1 friendly Creature within Range 1 – 2. That Creature may immediately perform an Action on its Action Bar as a free Action.

At level 17, she’ll be one of the last to move each turn (if not the last), then she can let a friendly Creature perform a bonus Action from their Action Bar (though, remember it cannot be one they already used this turn).

This big lady doesn’t just help lead the team though, she is full on ready to anchor it with her PMV of 5! She can take the hits too, with 9 Health and 3 Armor. She might not notice you’re even in combat with her for a few rounds.

Hey, what’s that on her back? A Human Paladin? Hmm, she looks like she’s going to sneeze. Oh, it wasn’t a sneeze, it was Cold Breath! And the Human Paladin is right there two, ready to wipe your nose (off your face)!

Vakka is fun at parties too, with a bunch of party tricks!

Vakka_grin

Look at that grin! Vakka loves parties!

Now you see her, now you don’t!
You still don’t!
You still don’t!

She’s over there now! Wow! And her breath weapon is ready again. Ow! So cold! You can’t move! Wait, not cold, you’re suffering from Paralysis, the effect of a Silver Dragon’s Paralyzing Breath! I hope you weren’t flying because you’re about to come tumbling down (and rolling two attack dice that ignore both defense dice and Armor!)

She’s gone again! She’s over there, just behind you! First there was Time Stop and now a Dimension Door! Amazing!

Her kid brother, a Level 7 Ancient Silver Dragon at “only” 37 points, has a trick or two himself! You think you’ve sneaked up along side of him (we’ve got our eye on you Umberlis), but his Wing Attack allows him to strike out to the left or right without warning! While not as impressive as his big sister, he’s no slouch either, with 7 Health and 2 Armor of his own!

Looks like the Silvers have one more trick up their sleeve. With a wink and the Monocle of the Twitching Tail (that is, by the way, the largest monocle I have ever seen), they can prevent flying creatures from making hard turns while in the air or making any Tail attacks.

… and now I know why the Harpy came with a poop token.

(links and Legion Builder will be active as soon as possible)

Happy Harpy Hitters!

Wiz Kids continues releasing more information, for the Harpy this time, only short days after giving us the Wyvern’s cards. Again, no Ground Maneuver card (probably because it is on the backside of the Flight Maneuver card).

Sycorax is her name, and multi-claw attacks are her game.

If Sycorax inflicts at least 1 damage against a Creature with her first Claw attack, she may immediately make a second Claw attack against the same Creature.

We can also talk about some of the very interesting Upgrades that come with the Harpy expansion, like:

Captivating Song:

Action: Place 1 DT on this Upgrade.
Continuous Effect: You cannot make any attacks except the attacks that are triggered by this Effect. Whenever any non-Harpy Creature declares an attack within Range 1 – 2 of you in any direction (ground and air), use your Primary Weapon Value to make an immediate Ranged Thunder attack against that Creature. This attack penetrates armor. If you inflict at least 1 damage against the Creature, it sustains no damage but cannot attack this round. When this Effect ends for any reason, discard this card.
Must be a Harpy to equip.

So, a Harpy can take an action that lets her make an attempt to shutdown all attempts to attack, except from other Harpy Creatures withing 6 inches of her in all directions.  That’s more than 12 inches in diameter, or more than a third of the playing area! That’s a pretty sweet deal.

Wicked Tongue:

Action: Disable this Upgrade and then place 1 DT on it to force 1 Creature at Range 1 – 2 in your forward arc to receive the Continuous Effect below.
Continuous Effect: The affected Creature cannot roll more than 3 dice each time that it attacks or defends. This does not affect the number of dice that the Creature can re-roll.
Must be a Harpy to equip

 Ok, these harpies are pretty impressive. She stares you down and you just don’t get to roll more than 3 dice. Sorry Lord Maximillian, you only get three defense dice. Sorry Balagos, I know you’re angry, but Harpy’s just not impressed.

Harpy hears you. Harpy doesn’t care.

There’s more, but again, discovery is fun, so I leave it up to you. Here are the rest of the cards:

… but what I really want to know is what is in the scenario that comes with the Harpy Expansion:

Harpy-stuff… what has Manny O’Donnell cooked up that requires this:

poopMr. O’Donnell, why is there a pooping token?

I’m tempted to ask the audience to come up with their best guesses, but perhaps we should just wait for an official answer this time.

Instead, let’s talk about which of the cards above is the most exciting. For me, it has to be Wicked Tongue. It can change the entire way the game is being played and shut down a one-hit-wonder style Legion.

What are you looking forward to in this expansion?

Wild Worrisome Wyverns

So WizKids revealed everything about the Wyvern Expansion set except for the Ground Manuevers.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at what’s coming in this Expansion.

BlackthornFirst, the unique named Creature is “Blackthorn.” That’s already pretty awesome! Let’s compare him to the generic version of a Wyvern.

Blackthorn is 3 levels higher, has 1 Agility compared to the generic’s 0, 2 additional Monster Upgrade slots, and finally a pretty nice unique ability:

Instead of attacking normally, Blackthorn may make 1 Bite attack and 1 Tail attack; neither attack can be initiated from the “Attack:” text on an Upgrade.

So if you’re good at maneuvering, you can position yourself to be between two enemy units (or fly so you overlap a ground unit, then glide past them to get a front arc attack on another unit and a rear attack on the unit you just passed!

All those differences for only 6 points!

What do we get to give the Wyverns? We’ll take a quick look at a few highlights!

Stinger:

Disable this Upgrade to make a Primary Weapon Tail Attack against a Creature at Range 1 – 2 in your rear arc. Roll +2 attack dice during this attack. This attack is considered a Poison attack.

A 6 die attack, even from the generic version of the Wyvern, with the possibility of a Target for re-rolls or a Charge to position yourself behind a ground Creature (no +1 for rear arc attacks after a Charge, but you still get 6 dice). Pretty good for 5 points!

Deadly Venom:

During the Combat Phase, you may target 1 non-Poison Creature that was just damaged by your Poison attack. That Creature receives the Continuous Effect below. Place 2 DT on this Upgrade.

Continuous Effect: At the start of the End Phase, the affected Creature must flip one of its face down Damage Cards face up; the affected Creature chooses the card at random and immediately suffers its effects. If the Creature does not have any face down Damage Cards, it receives 1 face down Damage Card instead.

The obvious follow-up to the Stinger attack, this Upgrade will convert Damage a creature has already sustained into a Critical Effect! That’s incredibly strong. If the Creature has removed all Damage Cards, through healing for example, then Deadly Venom does another damage! Additionally, this ignores all armor!

Ferocious:

During a Primary Weapon Melee attack against a Creature at Range 1, you may convert 1 of your blank results into 1 Hit result.

Another good card. For 3 points, you can convert a blank result against a Creature at Range 1 to a Hit! Also a nice card for any other Monster Creature type, such as Lord Max, Jarl Horn, or the Aarakocra!

Or give it to the generic Wraith, who can only attack at Range 1, and take a Concentrate maneuver. Now, as long as you can get in close, you are guaranteed at least 1 hit that penetrates armor because Hit count, Critical Hits count, Concentrates can convert to a Hit, and 1 blank converts to a Hit. Suddenly that little Wraith is a little scary.

There’s more of course, but I think part of the fun is discovering the combinations yourself, so pop over to the Legion Builder, select Wyvern from the Set dropdown menu, and check out what’s available!

Added Blackthorn and Cave Wyvern to Legion Builder

Blackthorn and the Cave Wyvern have been added to the Legion Builder, along with:

We’ll add the ground maneuver card when it’s revealed.

Wyvern and other neutral tease

Over on Board Game Geek, Andrew Parks dropped some more teaser information.

Here are the highlights, but head over there and read the details:

  1. Wyverns are vicious, have a fierce bite and tall attack that is “as powerful as that of a medium strength dragon.”
  2. The named wyvern is “sometimes striking with teeth and tail during the same round.”
  3. A wyvern’s tail has a stinger with powerful poison that’s “as strong as Balagos’ bite when he’s really angry.”
  4. The wyvern’s stinger can also cause wounds that “may fester and impede your abilities in unpredictable ways.”
  5. In the air, wyverns can “grab their targets with both claws” and allowing for an extra tail attack. Andrew says “This is the only way in Attack Wing so far to make a tail attack from your forward arc.”
  6. A “ferocious wyverns is much less likely to let an attack slip by without scoring at least 1 hit.” Andrew also says that “many monsters are ferocious.”
  7. Wyverns (and other monsters) are alert, making it harder to hit them from a medium range.
  8. Wyverns have treasures, perhaps a “small dagger” that “may have sulfuric properties that seep through armor and continue to damage an opponent over time.”

In the same thread, Andrew says that the wyverns aren’t as strong as dragons and that dragon upgrades will not work on them.

So, a PMV like a medium strength dragon (Eshaedra, 4?), an attack that is as strong as an angry Balagos (6?), some sort of tail follow-up attack, and more.

The wyvern expansion sounds like a lot of fun! I can’t wait to see what Shirley has!

Finally, Andrew also lets us know that stone giants, the wood elf druid, and griffons are all neutral.

 

Exploring Unique Abilities

With 19 revealed unique Creatures, we already have a wide variety of special abilities, starting from the first three dragons:

Eshaedra

Believe it or not, you want to get closer to Eshaedra!

Balagos rolls +1 attack die whenever he attacks a Creature who possesses fewer Damage Cards than he has.

Eshaedra rolls +1 attack die and +1 defense die whenever she is in combat at Range 3 or 4.

After performing a “4” or “5” Maneuver, Galadaeros rolls +2 defense dice against every attack for the remainder of the round.

to our most recently revealed abilities, such as:

Umberlis rolls +1 attack die whenever he attacks a Creature that does not have him in its forward arc.

Arveiaturace may equip the Close Quarters Upgrade for 0 LP. Each time she attacks with her Claws, she rolls +1 attack die.

Some of them have great synergy in the game, while others are just fun to play!

Have you found some of the great combinations you can already do?

Big Bully Balagos just gets meaner if you’re not as injured as he is! This works with any damage dealing attack.

Extra Sneaky Sniper Eshaedra likes to hit from a distance. Give her extra chances to do so by equipping her with attack spells, plus Prayer!

Unpredictable Umberlis gets an extra attack die against anyone he can sneak up on! Give him the Ebon Cloak and he can feint out of his enemy’s arc to suddenly get himself an extra attack die!

Acrobatic Arveiaturace will tear off your face if you let her get in close while she has the Close Quarters and the Aerobat Amulet and Haste.

Do you have a favorite?

Share it with us (bonus points for alliteration or assonance)!

Some Wave 3 Hints – Silver Dragon

DragonCrawlersRadio interviewed Andrew Parks, one of the Lead Designers for Dungeons and Dragons: Attack Wing, and he let out a few spoilers about the Silver Dragon and a little more.

Here’s her picture again, from the initial solicitation sheet:

Silver Dragon

Silver Dragon

Andrew let out the following about the Silver Dragon expansion:

  • The named version is a she.
  • She is the highest level creature in the game so far.
  • She will be be the highest point creature in the game so far (meaning she’s at least 51 points, as Lord Maximilian is 50).
  • The Silver Dragon expansion will have some “unusual” spells that you “wouldn’t expect” in a miniature game.
  • The Silver Dragon is an Ancient Silver Dragon.
  • The Silver Dragon has a way spell that allows her to travel in a way that does “not use legs or wings”.

Andrew let us know that Manny, the other Lead Designer for DND:AW, is mostly focused on the adventures, so if you like those, send him your thanks!

When one of the interviewers asked about a tarrasque, Andrew said it wasn’t currently planned and also pointed out that creatures must be able to fly or have ranged attacks to be considered for the game.

Andrew also left a bonus tease at the end of the interview when asked about a favorite Creature so far. He mentioned a Dwarven Fighter (from Wave 6) who is a “total ass kicker” and who can hold more equipment than any other Creature so far.

Finally, he let us know that the team is already working on Wave 9! Since each figure has a generic and a unique, that means that between the three dragons in the starter, the 7 creatures in wave 1, and three figures each in waves 2-8, 62 Creatures have already been created!

… I think I’m going to need more storage.

Update 1: A user named Chris pointed out that there is already an exception to the ranged/flyer rule, the Human Paladin, but the paladin expansion comes with a card called Challenge which lets you, as a free action, force a flyer to soar or land! Thanks, Chris!

Update 2: Andrew also let us know a bit about one of the “most iconic characters,” a certain Drow Ranger in Wave 5 (expected in March), who is a “butt-kicker in this game” and who has his “figurine of wondrous power” and “so many really awesome things from the books.”

Update 6: Added that the Dwarven Fighter is in Wave 6.

Wave 3 Mini-Preview

It took us a few days to clean up the mess Santagos left behind, but now that we have, I thought we could take a look at what is coming in Wave 3.

This information has been available for a while now, but recent conversations made it clear to me that not everyone knows what’s coming next, so let’s talk about it!

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We’ve got a Harpy expansion, a Silver Dragon expansion, and finally a Wyvern expansion. Images obtained from solicitation sheets.

I’m looking forward to the Silver Dragon the most, but I’m hoping the unique Harpy is named “Shirley” so I can make a “Wyvern and Shirley”* Legion!

Wave 3 is currently expected in January, so hopefully we won’t have to wait long for these units to fly into stores!

* trust me, it’s funny. Go ask your parents!

Glossary of Special Game Terms (Reference Cards)

One of our users helpfully pointed out that we had forgotten to make our Glossary of Special Game Terms easy to find (and only mentioned it at the bottom of the “Organized Play 1 prizes, plus new Glossary” post in November).

There is now a list of links available in the menu on the left (or down below if you’re on a device with a small resolution).

Here is the link for those of you who would like to bookmark it:

http://dndaw.com/dungeons-and-dragons-attack-wing-special-ability-glossary/

So far it only includes the information on the special reference cards for specific abilities (like the Wraith’s Incorporeal), but more terms will be added as needed.

Should we also add the terms listed in the rulebook’s index? Would that be useful to be able to look up terms such as “Exhaustion” or “Pressed Soldiers”?

Let us know in the comments and remember to watch the skies!