A new Dark-er Age is on the horizon, but what do we really know?

On April 22, Dark Age announced a new version of their game was on the horizon.  Along with this announcement came a grandiose plan to update the game yearly and to keep the game fresh and new.  Since that announcement Mr. Black, the man behind this great game, has gone on a campaign to give us just enough to think we know what is coming, but not really.  I thought I would take a moment to review what we know and what we suspect is coming in the new edition.



On May 7th, the Kulkukani spotlight video came out and though it would appear there is little this

Fire Caste Symbol?

could have to do with the new release, there is a symbol at the very end of the video.  This symbol stylistically is very different from the Kulkukani, so it leads to speculation that it was a hint of something else.  The symbol is a round red circle with a gold design.  Stylistically it is similar to only one faction, the Dragyri.  I and others have speculated that it's an indication that the Fire Caste is coming.  Couple this with the tag line for Conflaguration,  "Everything dies, and very soon everything burns" and this rumor seems fairly solid.

The followup to the Kulkukani video was a preview of a completely new persona in Dark Age, Oz.  When this preview hit on May 14th, I was struck that this new edition was clearly going to be more than a simple revamp.  This was going to have something for everyone.

Starting on May 20th and ending 11 days later, Mr Black bombarded us with previews of the new stat cards.  He showed us Mean Jellybean, a Living Ancestor, a Bane Leader, Saint Mary, a Pathfinder Mk-I, and John Woe; here.  We saw a Warchief and Wasteland Warriors here.  We saw some spell cards, a Sister of Charity, and Dexus here.  What did we learn and what do we suspect because of these previews?  Well we learned that Take Charge is gone, not a single model previewed that has it now has it on the new cards.  However there is something new on the cards, a chainlink symbol followed by a unit/units and a number in parentheses.  Through the process of elimination we assume it means squadlink, which is not the same as Take Charge, but appears to have replaced it.  We also

can suspect the Fear as a rule in the game is gone.  Every unit previewed that had either Cause Fear or Never Fear now has Cause Panic or Never Panic.  Reach appears to have been standardized as both units previewed that had either RE(2) or RE(4) now only say RE.  CA as a range has been changed to RN 0.  Regeneration is going to be different in the new edition, cause MJB no longer has Regeneration (3) but just Regeneration.  Also we know that units that are in both the Skarrd lists and Followers of the Heretic will have different cards and rules.  The last new revelation we have is a new rule called Field Orders, which gives a special rule to the unit itself, and to all the units listed within 8 inches.  All in all a lot of neat new stuff in there, but not enough to deduce all the changes.

In June we saw two more new units previewed a Deacon for the Forsaken and Worm Sheppard for the Skarrd.  Both give us more insight that there is something new for all players in the next edition.    Couple this with the announcement today that there is a new sub-faction for Outcasts, called the Slavers of Chains Barrow.  With the announcement came two story previews, one for the Warden and the other for Finn Deadeye.  Both give a darker impression for Dark Age, as if that were possible, but yet again we see that there is alot of new stuff in this book.

The last major clue as to what is coming, came on the 4th of July.  On this date, Mr. Black showcased the front and back covers of the new rulebook.  There are actually 3 clues in this update.  The first is speculation and has to do with the image on the back.  A careful examiniation will show that the toes of the "man" are similar to the Dragyri (remember when I mentioned them at the beginning?).  So again we think we see a hint at the Fire Castes return.  Second in the bottom right, above the bar code, is this "First printing - July 2013.  So that means they either are printed or will be very shortly.  But the biggest reveal?  "The Dark Age Core Rulebook includes all the rules needed to play the game, documents and rules for each of the game's nine factions..."  This right here says that there are 2 new factions in this

edition.  There have been no hints about what they might be, and I'm looking forward to seeing what is coming.

There is one last bit to cover, Ravage Magazine issue #8.  Apparently there is a 2 page preview of
the new Dark Age models in the magazine.  What I have been able to surmise, as I don't have a copy yet, is there are some more Slaver Outcasts and new Dragyri in there.  Whether these new Dragyri are Fire Caste is unclear at this time.

But there you go, a comprehensive overview of what we know and what we've been shown.  It was a lot more then I thought when I started this article.  Until next time...

Belgarath97