New Releases and Sneak Peaks from Dark Age

So, LXG goes on holiday, and Mr. Black over at Dark Age goes on a wild rampage of sneak peaks and announcements.  There were a significant amount of new cards released, including some spells, and there are new models (yay!).  So without further ado, I will showcase the models and cards with some commentary.

First off the Bane Leader card.  Notable thoughts:

• Psyche went up 1 point.
• Range is no longer listed as CA but now 0
• New SA "Field Order" apparently for 'Banes' to 'Guard' 
• Of course the Link symbol shows up again with Bane (6)

 Next up, Dexus.  I find this most interesting because there are a number of people in the Dark Age forums that have been asking for updated Followers of the Heretic cards.  This one plus the Sister of Charity later at least lets those who want new cards that they are coming.

John Woe comes as the next card, here are the notable differences for him:

• Here again we see range changed from CA to 0
• Ober Claw's Mal went up to a 20
• John Woe apparently no longer has Never Fear
• The link symbol now with John Woe, ANG-1E (2) 

 Now we have the Living Ancestor, notable differences are:

• Talons' AS went up to 6
• Range is 0 yet again
• Never Fear is missing from this card as well
• Take Charge is not on the card, yet the units he could take charge of are listed by the link symbol

This bugger, aka. Mean Jelly Bean is the next card we'll look at.  His changes are:

• AS here has gone up 1
• RN now says RE instead of RE4
• Cause Panic is a new SA entirely
• Command (1)  is a new ability for MJB
• Regeneration instead of Regeneration (3)
• Take charge Rachets is gone, but there is that link symbol with Rachet (6)

 Ok the Pathfinder Mk-1 card:

• Psyche went from 8 to 12
• RN CA has once again been repleace with RN 0
• AG#1 lost Horrible Death and now has Sunder Armor
• Gained Tough as Nails but lost Fortitude

One of my personal favorite units, Saint Mary.  Her changes include:

• Movement has gone from 2 to 3
• Defiance added as a SA
• Righteous Charge added as a SA
• Yet again we have lost Take Charge and Never Fear, and the link symbol has the old Take Charge Unit, Clergy Ann, followed by a number in parenthesis, 6

This Sister of Charity card is for the Followers of the Heretic specifically.  The differences listed are from the current Skarrd Sister.  So take with a grain of salt.  It seems there will be 2 cards for the Sisters, one for the Heretic and one for the Skarrd.

• Psyche went down from 16 to 14
• Range is again changed from CA to 0
• The two SA's are different, and My Pretty Toys is Missing, I'm attributing this to the 2 card theory

A couple of things I think should be noted from these new cards.  I really think Fear is gone as a rule.  Every card above that had either Never Fear or Cause Fear lost those rules.  There is a new rule called Cause Panic, and all the cards that had Never Fear now have Never Panic.  Of course some of those cards had Never Panic already.  Also of note is the link symbol.  I'm starting to think that this is a new form of Take Charge, though the Wasteland Warrior card I pointed out here is the only card where this doesn't fit.  So it has to be a new form of Take Charge rule.  Mr Black dropped these two hints regarding it, "It's something you've sort of seen before... Only different?" and "Think relations to squads."  So we shall see.

 First off, AG#1?  So spells have attack groups now?  This is very different.  Now for the effect, it has a new name "Sunfire" instead of "Fiery Rain".  The AS, RF, and RN are the same, but the PW is now 4x2 instead of 6x2.  Flame (12) is gone and now there is a rule Fire in it's place.  The spell is still BL(x) but instead of 1 Bio-Energy Counter per inch of blast, it costs 2 Bio-Energy Counters for BL(1) and 3 for BL(2).

Mostly likaly a replacement for Phosphorus Gig, but again listed as an Attack Group.  AS, RF, and RN are the same.  However here both the PW and MAL have changed, to 2x2 and 19, from 3x3 and 18 respectively.

Some major changes here.  Yet again listed as an Attack Group.  Instead of saying PS check, it list the Power of the attack as PS-4.  The Mal went up 1 to 19.  The biggest change has to be to the Description, where it used to be unusable on models with the Never Fear rule, but the effects are less punishing as well.






I've been saving the best for last.  The new model releases are quite good and I hope to see new Kukulkani players, now that there range is filling out.  Not pictured below are the Devoted Preists, as I refuse to post concept art for new models.
First up the Honor Guard, these can be had for $15.99

 Next up the Living Ancestor, now available for $9.99.

The Supreme War Captain, only $9.99.

Last but not least, not a KulKuKani model but Quietus for the Cult of Metamorphosis, your for $12.99.
















As you can see all these models are really well done, and I love the paint jobs.  Dark Age hasn't put a lot out lately in the way of models.  They did address this with this release wave:

To all our loyal players and fans:

As you may have seen, we've been experiencing some issues with our latest batch of releases, leading to setbacks and delays which have affected our release schedule in the past few months. As a result the usual flow and momentum we have in pushing out new models has been less than we have wanted- Unfortunately it was necessary to insure that all our new products meet the high grade and quality we strive for in everything we do here at Dark Age. 

I am glad to say, however, that the setbacks we have been experiencing are being alleviated, and our normal flow is beginning to return. 

Of course, we still feel terrible that our player-base has been affected by all this, so we've decided to make it up to you all by releasing not one, not two, but five new items this month!

 Hopefully now that the problems are behind them, we will continue to see great new models being released. Until next time...

Belgarath97