The Fundead Stumble Closer to Tauber

It's been a busy few months in the Goblin King Games playtesting department since the Kickstarter campaign concluded! With the pledge manager closing soon (31st January), we decided to update everyone on how playtesting is progressing by looking at a few of the models that have evolved since the teasers were released.

Please keep in mind that whilst these versions of the cards are certainly closer to the final product than the previously teased cards, they are still playtest cards. Hence they are still not final and are subject to change.

Some Minor Rules Tweaks & Reshuffling

Greymair work in progress stat card.

A lot of characters are in a similar position to when they were first teased, with only minor changes. Greymair and Abra Cadaverous are two examples.

As well as some power tweaks in their 'Drain Life' and 'Claws and Stick' abilities, you may notice their passive abilities which trigger when a friendly model is slain are no longer present. Whilst the majority of Shades still possess "When a friendly model is slain..." abilities, we found during playtesting that having so many of them was overwhelming. Frequently a Shade would be slain and the Shade player would then need to spend a while determining what has triggered what and then resolve it all. Most abilities have now therefore been updated so that they're resolved during the relevant model's activation instead of immediately. In Greymair's case, this means he doesn't need to remember to immediately use his ‘Salve’ when a model is slain and can instead use it in his own time. With this tweak, players don't need to bring their game to a sudden halt every time a Shade dies. They can instead activate their relative "Death trigger" abilities as and when they activate the model with the ability in question.

Abra Cadaverous work in progress stat card.

Abra Cadaverous in the meantime hasn't received a new death trigger ability and has instead gained his previous end step effect (‘Fashion from Flesh’) as a new passive ability. We found during playtesting that triggering his signature's end step effect was clunky, awkward and generally difficult to achieve with any shred of reliability. Since this is designed to be a big part of his character and playstyle, it got shifted over to a passive ability instead. In essence, he has remained exactly the same in terms of identity and playstyle but less clunky and awkward to use. 

Shifting his summon over to his passive also shows a thematic tweak across the entirety of the Shades. With more playtesting, the archetypes of the Risen and Spirits have become more apparent and certain themes and identities have formed. One such sub-theme which emerged is the way that both these sub-factions summon. The spirits enjoy bringing their friends along with them from the deadlands, hence their summons are primarily with passive abilities. The Risen on the other hand must raise their psychopomps anew, using arcane abilities to bring them into play. With this in mind, Greymair's summon has been shifted over to an arcane ability. This will allow him to now summon both familiar psychopomps, but require him to spend his energy to do so.

Only a Single Change in Identity

Marley work in progress stat card.

Most models have undergone changes like Greymair and Abra Cadaverous; tweaks to make them easier to use and play, but not changing their core identity or playstyle. In fact, only a single model has undergone a change like this: Marley. Marley's previously teased version was awkward to use, not very powerful and didn't feel like he brought the Spirits together to form a cohesive troupe with an identity.

Marley was meant to be a model like Hoff, Mama Gimble or El Capitano - a model you can build a keyword-focused troupe around. To achieve this, a few updates have been made to his card. The overly complex and underpowered active abilities have been scrapped and replaced with the much simpler ‘Reanimate’ ability. To account for how flimsy his previous version was and to add character to this ghostly spirit he also gained 'Incorporeal Form' which might look familiar to an ability of Vespa's. Finally, the main ability to help bind the Spirits into a cohesive troupe is 'Blink'. With this, all nearby spirits gain a huge boost in mobility, granting them the ability to place within 1" for a cost of only 1 energy. As well as allowing for disengagements and walking through walls, this usually equates to more like a 2” move since the base size is added to the 1” with a place effect. This is therefore especially useful for the Echo of the Forgotten King, Abra Cadaverous, Snag and Sen'ara who will gain an even bigger benefit for placement with their 40mm bases.

With all of these tweaks, the Spirits have been enjoying a very unique playstyle. Teleporting around the board with their multiple placement effects and cursing all who come near. The Shade Spirits now present an evasive, hard-to-pin-down troupe which slowly grinds down their opposition with curses, reanimation and other attritional effects.

Some Small Clarifications & Wording Tweaks

Brave Sir Pidge work in progress stat card.

Marley is the only model which has undergone a big change in identity and playstyle. Most changes are, like Greymair and Abra, purely for ease of understanding and use and still keeping their teased core identity. Some changes are even more minor though, with negligible effects on abilities and just small clarifications. Brave Sir Pidge for example has lost his dueling sword... but gained a +2 melee bonus on his active ability! The reason for this tweak is that you're less likely to forget this bonus now as it's integrated into his melee attack. It also has a nice side bonus of reducing the number of words on his card, allowing us to up the font size. ‘Psychpomp’ as an ability has also been renamed and the wording tweaked to be consistent with ‘Thrall’ on Boris' bunnies to make it clearer that they function exactly the same as the bunnies.

Negroli work in progress stat card.

Likewise, Negroli has also undergone minor changes. The summoner of Sir Pidge has had the word 'enemy' added to 'A Bone to Pick with you' and 'another' added to his end-step effect for clarity. Another tiny tweak is his summon, which is now activated on a pink or green 1, instead of blue or green. This is just a minor tweak to add more variety to the colours of summons, to prevent troupes which remove cards from the deck from completely stifling them. These abilities will still cause difficulties for the Shades, but won't completely shut them down.

& Some Fine as They Currently Are!

Viktor Petty work in progress stat card.

Morag work in progress stat card.

Finally, we'll take a look at Morag and Viktor who are... still exactly the same as their previous iteration! Although most characters have received small wording or gameplay tweaks some characters are still exactly the same as their earlier teased versions.

We hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the current playtest progress and are looking forward to getting your hands on them! As these are still playtest cards they are still subject to change, but we hope you can see from the previous spoilers and these updates that their identities and characters should be very close to their teasers.

Be sure to back today while late backing is still open!