An turn based combat adventure RPG with a unique combat system with no dice rolling ⚔️.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Update #46 - Preparing files for manufacturing
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Oct 10, 2022 at 03:27:35 AM
Hello all,
We've been very busy over the last few weeks preparing our files for the printers and finalising our proof-reading. There's not much to update you on at this stage, however we still wanted to touch base and let you all know where we are. Please see below some of the things we've been up to during the month of September.
Prepping Art Files
As we go through each file individually to prepare it for print, we're giving them a final touch up. See below an example. There will be some slight variance from our KS campaign images, but that's expected. We're making our components even more beautiful as we export them to the manufacturer. We have a few more weeks left of this process and then we're finally done! The next time you hear from us, should be with news that the project has finally left our hands and is with the manufacturer :)
Hero ability card backs.
Tabletop Gaming Live
The weekend of 17/18th September we attended the Tabletop Gaming Live event in the Manchester, UK which has a footfall of around 4-5k people and was hosted inside an old warehouse. We had a great time at the event showcasing our game to lots of members of the public walking by. A few players took 20mins out of their day to have a quick 1v1 battle on our Arena station.
Rather peculiar venue inside an old Warehouse!
Ally cards on show
Our Dragon Mother has been well and truly defeated.
Last Call
At a quick glance we can see that there are a small handful of you left who have pledged via KS, but haven't completed your survey. This is your last call to get your surveys complete before we consolidate them for fulfilment. We'll adhere to still honour your pledge, however, if your survey is not complete by the end of this month, we can't promise fulfilment will be at the same time as all other backers. We haven't locked address's so please don't worry about that for now, this is for those final few that have not completed their original survey sent out earlier in the year. If anyone needs any assistance with the survey, please make yourself known and we will do our best to assist you.
Thank You
And finally we'd like to thank each and every one of you for your patience whilst we prepare our files for print. This is a slow process, going back and forth with files daily, but rest assured we're working as hard as we can to get the game ready for you all and we're super excited for delivery in Q1/Q2 next year. That's all for this update. Thank you all for being here on this journey with us. We look forward to an exciting future ahead.
While the rest of the team prepare files for print our artist has been working away.
Update #45 General Update & Boss Deep Dive
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Sep 09, 2022 at 09:49:39 AM
Hello all.
Welcome back to another update. In this update we will take a deep-dive into our second boss within the ice scenario, the Frost Minotaur. Before we jump into that deep-dive, see a general update below.
If you haven't caught up on our previous deep dives, you can find them all here.
We can confirm we are now in the final stages of checking and proof-reading. Once proofs are approved, we are creating art files in guidelines with our manufacturer, of which we have already started. We're also liaising with them almost daily at this stage :) Our main priority right now is getting our order in with them. Once that has been placed, we will focus on creating the print sheets for all of our Print and Play backers. Estimating, mid-late October these will be ready for our PnP backers.
Hero Updates
Many of our heroes have had minor updates over the last 6 months, here are a few of the last minute ones. Scholar's INT value has been increased from 6>7. Scholar's Vaporise spell has increased from 1>2 DMG. Our Shaman has had a -2 AGI debuff added to her Flame Blast spell and a +1 DEF buff added to her Ice Wall spell. Our Illusionist has had the wording on his Phantasmal Image spell adjusted to now say 'attack spell', thus only allowing him to cast an attack spell from an enemy's board, not a support spell. This became tricky for us having to print more components that are really necessary. For example, if the Illusionist summoned a pet, or transformed into a demon. The Dragon Knight has had his Knight's Pledge spell removed and replaced with a survival spell which grants all allies 4 HP and protection for 2 turns. The Musketeer has had a new line of text added to her hero ability that restricts the amount of times she can reload in a turn to a maximum of 3 to stop immense DMG. The Shieldmaiden (our KS exclusive hero) has had her Sword's Presence spell changed. We have removed the +4 base HP buff as it felt a little 'boring' and now has a new spell that allows her to attack an enemy with her CD:0 spell when an ally uses a Melee attack, for as long as there is a CD die on this spell. The Blood Mage has had the amount of HP gained from 4>5 on his Benevolent Sacrifice spell.
Card Backs - Updated
We've updated some of the card backs to fit the games theme a little better. See samples below:
We have updated our tutorial sheet to fit the same fonts/style as our rulebook. Alongside updating lots of the tokens/art and the wording to align with changes made since the Kickstarter. Here is a sample:
Reference Sheets - Updated
All of our reference sheets have also been updated in the same style/fonts as our rulebook, including all required updates since the campaign. The reference sheets elaborate on some spells that might need some rulings, alongside providing a quick reference for conditions. These reference sheets will be a little smaller than A4 size. See some samples below:
Solo Mode Rulebook
Our 6 page rulebook will be inside the true solo mode addon. Instead of a saddle stitch, this will be a sheet of paper, folded in 6. This box is slightly larger than a poker sized card. This true solo mode rulebook describes how the monster deck and monster attributes die work.
So yes, we've been busy to the say the least! But we thank each and everyone of you for your patience during these last few months whilst we've polished everything off. We're almost as excited as you guys to the see the final product as our prototypes are very much outdated now, so we've mostly been using print outs of paper for our last few test runs. Now moving onto our boss dee-dive, the Frost Minotaur.
Frost Minotaur Deep Dive
Arctic conditions are the most suitable for the Frost Minotaur. His enemies are thwarted by the sub-zero
climes he loves and he regularly freezes foes solid.
Frost Minotaur Passive Ability
Cascade : When an enemy casts a spell, make a note of its cooldown value. At the end of the round, add up all of the CD values and divide that number by the amount of enemy spells that were cast that round. If the final number is odd all enemies receive that much un-defendable DMG and if the number is even, you gain that much HP.
Frost Minotaur Boss Abilities
You are immune to Paralyze and Hex.
Whilst frozen you may still take a main phase. When a frozen condition leaves you, take a bonus turn.
< 90 HP : Arctic Repercussions - Both you and the enemy become frozen for 1 turn if you receive more than 9 DMG from a single attack after defence.
< 50 HP : Snow Storm - All players get frozen for 1 turn. Includes the Frost Minotaur.
< 30 HP : Minotaur's Charge - During your boss upkeep, randomly charge at an enemy dealing 5 un-defendable DMG.
Frost Minotaur Support Spells
Arctic Survivor - Whilst there is a cooldown die on arctic survivor, all incoming damage you receive is increased by a value of 4 after defending against the attack. You also gain 4 HP during your hero upkeep.
No Mercy - One ally receives +4 STR & AGI for 3 turns.
Minotaur's Feast - One ally receives +3 HP regen for 3 turns and a 3 HP shield.
Protein Spike - Whilst there is a cooldown die on Protein Spike, all of your attack spells stun your enemies for 2 turns.
Frost Minotaur Attack Spells
Ice Punch - A melee attack with a single target that deals 4 DMG with a chance to freeze the enemy.
Ice Beam - A ranged frost elemental type attack that deals 5 DMG to a single target. This attack adds both +STR and +INT attack modifiers.
Frost Shock - A ranged frost elemental type attack that deals 8 DMG to a single target and frightens them. Frightened is a condition that stops an enemy from casting ranged attacks.
Wild Horns - A split spell, with the first half immobilising a spell from each enemy for 2 turns. The second half of the spell is a melee attack that deals 9 DMG to a single target. This spell has a chance of stunning the enemy.
Aggressive Charge - A ranged AOE attack that deals 10 DMG plus wounds the enemy for 3 turns. Wounded is a condition that reduces the amount of HP a target can receive by 50%. This aggressive charge spell also has a chance to stun the enemy. There is a section in the rulebook that covers the rolling of the boss die in scenarios like this. If stun gets added to the spell here via the boss die, the stun condition will last for 3 turns because it lasts for the same duration at the existing conditions, which here is wounded. If stun was added to Wild Horns, instead it would only last 2 turns, the same as immobilise.
Boss Strategy
- The Frost Minotaur is a tricky boss to defeat due to his constant stuns and freezing. It's worth noting that when you deal more than 9 DMG to the Minotaur after defence, you will immediately get frozen. This is effectively losing 2 turns, as it freezes the boss which in turn grants him a bonus turn. On occasions it's still worth dealing more than 9 DMG from a single attack, but preferably only from a damage (DPS) type hero who can hit for a lot more when buffed. Try to keep your support and healers always ready to react to the boss, as his Cascade ability can't be taken lightly.
- When playing as the boss, have a CD die on Protein Spike as often as you can. Use Wild Horns to immobilise enemy spells and then attack them to increase the CD die you just placed. Cascade is too un-reliable to consider a heal, so ensure your HP is topped up with Arctic Survivor and Minotaur's Feast.
And that's a wrap for now!
We hope you enjoyed learning more about our Frost Minotaur boss that you'll be able to find in our ice scenario. We will be back soon with more updates, as promised we'll keep you all up to date along the entire process even after we've placed our order with the manufacturer. We will also continue with the remaining few boss deep-dives. Until next time, stay safe and have a great weekend.
- Heroes of the Shire
Update #44 - Hero Deep Dive & Rulebook v2
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Aug 13, 2022 at 12:40:49 AM
Hello all.
Welcome back to another update. In this update we will take a deep-dive into our final hero, the Assassin. Before we jump into the Assassin's kit and spell mastery, we've got a quick update on the game for you below.
If you haven't caught up on our previous deep dives, you can find them all here.
We've made many small little updates to the game since our last update, to mention just a few, we've updated all the reference sheets with all of the new icons and fonts. We've made a few last minute balance changes to a few heroes, most notably the Runesmith, Alchemist and Dragon Knight to ensure kits are equal across all game modes. We've changed the action card icon on the exploration cards and we'll leave it there, as we've made lots of these little changes to improve the game. See the new icon below for action cards.
Now we've finished the second draft of the rulebook, we're moving onto the solo mode rulebook, which is only a few pages long and will be complete for the next update. Over the next few weeks we will be finalising all game components, getting them ready for print, sending documents off to be proof-read etc. Once this is complete and the files are with the manufacturer in China, we will begin prepping files for our Print & Play backers. The manufacturers have informed us that they are working fast through their backlog (Shanghai COVID which locked the city down for 3 months) and that we shouldn't see much delay with our project.
Rulebook Progress
We've finished our second draft of the 32 page rulebook. We'll work on cleaning it up over the next few weeks and adding in a components page on page 1. If you would like to cast your eyes across the rulebook and give us feedback you are welcome to. Please send feedback to [email protected]. Please use this email address if you would like to request a .DOC version of the rulebook for editing purposes. For those of you that are too busy to read the rulebook, please see some screenshots below. Link here to download the rulebook : HOTSRulebook_FinalDraft_v2.pdf. We kindly ask you not to share the rulebook amongst the community just yet as it's not 100% finished. Please allow us a few more weeks to finalise the rulebook fully.
Note : We are using UK English, not US English.
PvP Gameplay Videos
As requested by our Discord community, we posted a few more gameplay videos to our YouTube. We will create more Scenario and Solo mode videos soon. A 2vs2 Arena battle multi-handing game and a 1vs1 Arena battle using equipment boards and ally cards was uploaded to our YouTube, of which you can see below.
Assassin Deep-Dive
The Assassin focuses on covert methods of inflicting swift and immense damage on his opponents with his preferred weapons of poison and shadow. But, despite the high speed of his manoeuvres, he musttread carefully, as he can be vulnerable to attacks if not prepared.
Assassin Hero Ability
Poison Coating : During the Assassin's hero upkeep a D6 die must be rolled. The results of this die roll will decide which poison, if any, are coated to his attacks during combat.
If a #2 is rolled - Flesh Eating Poison is added to the weapon, which grants poison for 3 turns.
If a #4 is rolled - Crippling Poison is added to the weapon, which stuns the enemy for 2 turns.
If a #6 is rolled, Voodoo Poison is added to the weapon, which hexes the enemy for 2 turns.
All other die roll results end with the poison failing to be equipped in time.
SupportSpells
Splash Of Blood - All allies add Bleed to their next attack.
Poison Mix - During the Assassin's next hero upkeep, the D6 die is rolled 3 times instead of 1 with multiple poisons being added to the attack. Note the same poison can't be applied twice, only different poisons. If you are very lucky and a 2, 4 & 6 are rolled, all 3 poisons would be added to the next attack.
Vanish - One ally can't be targeted for 1 turn and that same ally receives advantage for 2 turns (50% more DMG).
Disfigure - After dealing damage to an enemy they get left with -1 STR & DEF for 2 turns. The Assassin may cast another spell.
GrapplingHook - The Assassin casts this spell when he becomes the target of an enemy attack, allowing him to escape all danger and receive 0 DMG until end of turn. Note spells that deal unpreventable DMG get around this, as that DMG can't be prevented.
Attack Spells
FlyingDagger - A ranged attack that deals 1 damage to a single enemy. This spell has a cooldown of 0 and grants a +STR attack modifier.
Slice& Dice - A melee AOE attack that deals 2 damage to all enemies. AOE attacks are a great way to spread poison from the Assassin's poison coating ability.
Execute - A melee attack that deals 2 damage to a single target. This attack deals an additional 3 DMG if the target is bleeding.
Mutilate - A melee attack spell that deals 1 DMG to a single target. This spell also bleeds and lacerates the target. Lacerate deals 6 DMG over 3 turns, while bleed deals 3 DMG over 3 turns. Mutilate is a nifty way to get around an enemies high DEF stat.
Slash - A melee attack that deals 7 DMG to a single target, whilst adding a STR attack modifier. Nothing fancy, just huge direct damage.
Assassin Spell Mastery
The Assassin has 3 paths to follow, each making his play style completely different. The path you chose will typically dictate how you interact with your player board. See Shadow Arts down the left, PoisonMaster in the middle and Dismember on the right. Should you follow the Dark Arts path, you'll grant yourself more evasion and benefits for evading attacks. Follow the Poison Master path and you'll be rewarded for coating your weapons in poison. Following the Dismember path will grant high single fire damage for those difficult battles.
Dark Arts
This path unlocks Invisibility, which is a way to cast Vanish during an enemies turn, the perfect combo for getting 50% more DMG from advantage when it comes back round to the Assassin's turn. This path also offers several ways to reduce the CD of the Assassins vanish spell. This path is frustrating to play against in the Arena, as the Assassin has not only 1 (Grappling Hook) but now 2 ways to avoid an enemies big combo, making him difficult to kill.
Poison Master
This path rewards the Assassin for poising himself, alongside granting him additional STR for successfully applying poison during his hero upkeep. Helpful infection is the spell that initiates these effects. If the poison starts to hurt the Assassin's team he can remove it in exchange for 10 HP. While this path can hold its own, it works fantastic in combination with another of our heroes we have already deep-dived a few months back.
Dismember
The path for those players out there that love competing for the highest damage output on the team! Opening up play on the Assassin's first turn with advantage can be a great opener, especially as he has the highest AGI value in the game (tied with the Huntress). Haste can add an additional +8 DMG to the Assassin's next attack, another powerful spell combined with Vanish. Haemorrhage is unlocked in this path, a strong attack spell that grants double bleed, the perfect recipe for the Butcher spell.
Assassin Reference Sheet
And that's a wrap for now guys!
Thank you very much for your patience as we turn Heroes of the Shire from a kitchen table dream into a refined and professional product. As always we'll be transparent about our project and keep everyone updated/informed along the way. We're not too far away now :)
We will be back soon with more updates and boss deep-dives. We'll be showcasing our Frost Minotaur boss next in a deep-dive. As always, a big thank you to each and everyone of you for being here and supporting us on this journey. Until we meet again in another update, have a great week and we look forward to sharing more progress with you.
- Heroes of the Shire
Update #43 - Boss Deep Dive & Rulebook Update
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Jul 07, 2022 at 01:51:05 AM
Hello all.
Welcome back to another update. In this update we will take a deep-dive into our first boss within the earth scenario, the Acidic Hydra. Before we jump into the boss deep-dive, see a few minor samples of our rulebook pages and terrain hexes.
If you haven't caught up on our previous deep dives, you can find them all here.
We're almost there with the final edition of the rulebook (first draft). We'll have it complete and ready for your eyes in the next update. In the meantime see some screenshots below of how we've changed the fonts to be clearer, alongside some layout adjustments to keep things easy and simple to understand.
Terrain Hexes
Here are a few samples of our scenario hexes that form the foundations of scenario mode.
Snow Giant Deep-Dive
Snow Giant Passive Ability
Giant's Rage : Anytime an enemy casts a spell you receive a buff.
- Support spells grant you +1 INT for 2 turns
- Attack spells grant you +1 STR for 2 turns.
Snow Giant Boss Abilities
You are immune to Frozen, Paralyze, Disarmed and Frightened.
Pre-battle : All enemies receive an Alpine Forest card which they add to their ability tab. When an enemy leaves the protection of the forest, punish them!
< 80 HP : Deep Breath - You gain 2 HP each time an enemy removes an Alpine Forest card from their ability tab.
< 50 HP : Hide & Seek - During your boss upkeep you may remove an Alpine Forest card from an enemy at random.
< 30 HP : Tree Fall - Remove all Alpine Forest cards from the game.
Snow Giant Support Spells
Snow Patrol - The next time you cast Avalanche it adds a +INT modifier.
Reflective Glare - Whilst you have a CD die on Reflective Glare any negative buffs or conditions you would receive, instead can be applied to an enemy of your choice.
No More Hiding - You may remove an Alpine Forest card from an enemies ability tab.
Snow Shield - Target ally receives an 8 HP shield and +2 frost DMG for 3 turns.
Snow Giant Attack Spells
Fist Of Fury - A powerful split spell melee attack that deals 0 DMG with the first half and 0 DMG with the second half. Of course it's a little more powerful than 0 DMG :) This spell adds a +STR modifier. In case you missed it, the Snow Giant has 11 STR and 11 INT base stats, he's an angry giant!
Snow Breath - A melee, frost elemental type attack that deals 6 DMG plus disarms a single enemy target.
Snow Cloud - A ranged, frost elemental type attack that deals 5 DMG to all enemies. This spell has a 33% chance to freeze all enemies.
Snow Fall - A ranged, frost elemental type attack that deals 7 DMG to all enemies, plus 3 un-defendable DMG if the Snow Giant has a shield. Any value on the shield token is classed as having a shield.
Avalanche - A ranged, frost elemental type attack that deals 8 DMG to all enemies and leaves them with -3 DEF for 3 turns. Combined with Snow Patrol this spell hits for 29 DMG without any buffs from the bosses Giant Rage ability.
And there we have it, our Snow Giant. The final boss in the ice scenario.
And that's a wrap for now!
We hope you enjoyed learning more about our Snow Giant boss that you'll be able to find in our Ice scenario. We will be back soon with our rulebook to share alongside a deep-dive into our final hero, the Assassin! Until next game, stay safe and have a great week.
- Heroes of the Shire
Update #42 - General Update - Hero Deep Dive
almost 4 years ago
– Sat, Jun 18, 2022 at 03:02:35 PM
Hello all.
Welcome back to another update. In today's update we'll give you a few general updates that we've made to the game alongside jumping into a hero deep-dive of our Huntress hero.
If you haven't caught up on our previous deep dives, you can find them all here.
First up, we're now back and unpacked from the UK Games Expo, which is the third largest convention of its kind in the world. We had an amazing time demoing and showcasing Heroes of the Shire. We bumped into a handful of UK backers too which was awesome! We were also showing off our mini's which will be coming in 2023 as an addon, during our first expansion. Alongside that we also did an exclusive preview of 2 new heroes that would be joining the fray in a coming expansion, the Gypsy and Mercenary of which you can see their artwork on the pull-up banners in the above images from the expo. We also had the pleasure to meet our manufacturers in person at the convention alongside one of our fulfilment companies. Couple of things we learnt from speaking directly to both parties:
1. Our manufacturer is based in Shanghai China. If any of you have backed other games last year, you probably already know what's coming as you've no doubt already heard this by now. There has been 28 million people out of work in China for 3 months due to COVID-19. After speaking with the manufacturer they insured us that they are still taking on new projects, but they wanted to warn us that there is a 3 month backlog as their operations have only just returned back to normal last week. This information means that we will no doubt see a few months delay from this. Fingers crossed not much as we plan to put our order in with them soon to help get the ball rolling faster.
2. Our EU fulfilment company tell us that the large spike in fuel costs has increased their bills. They tell us that they are absorbing as much of the price increase as they can but are currently charging their clients like us a surcharge on top of what we've already been quoted. We are looking at a 10-15% increase in the costs. For you as a backer, this isn't something for you to worry about. It's us here at Senior Games who will see this loss. Heroes of the Shire is a passion project for us, that will not see us make a profit, but a break even and that is something we are happy with. These extra costs will now see us at a small loss from the project as we offered cost price on shipping to almost every backer for a 6kg parcel. We do not wish to ask anybody to pay more towards shipping because it's no doubt everybody's least favourite part about being a backer, but if anyone would like to add any play mats/sleeves to their orders that would be very helpful for us. We'll have a few hundred surplus of each of the addons so shifting these really helps our already small margins. To do this, please send us a DM and we can manually add these to your pledge since pledges have been locked. To help us offset these increased costs we will be increasing the MSRP, meaning that your Kickstarter pledge represents significant savings as well lots of extra content with the stretch goals and exclusive hero.
After the success we had at the UKGE, we're now looking to visit several more UK/EU conventions and will be looking for volunteers to help join us on our stand. If you're passionate about Heroes of the Shire and this is something of interest to you, please make sure to be following us on our social media channels where we will post such opportunities. Our backers who live in the country we're exhibiting in will get first dibs. Speaking of more exhibitions, we'll be exhibiting at the Tabletop Gaming Live event in Manchester UK on 17th & 18th September. Hopefully we'll have our master copy by then from the manufacturers and will be able to show off the final edition.
We have almost every component in the game finished now aside from the rulebook. Over the next few weeks we will be taking a dive into our rulebook to add in all the new stuff from the stretch goals, alongside adding the changes we made during the Kickstarter campaign. Also, we'll be working in general to make the rulebook clearer and easier to follow with a better layout. Once we've completed the rulebook we will grant all of our backers access where you'll be able to give us some feedback for a short window of time. Once we've made the feedback alterations, all game components will be having their final proofs and will be deemed ready for mass production. For our Print and Play backers, your wait is almost over, we're estimating a delivery in around 8-10 weeks. For our physical copy backers that will have to wait a little longer for manufacturing and shipping, we will be adding our scenario mode to Tabletopia in Q3 so you can play that edition in the meantime (solo mode will be included in that too). We're also in talks with TTS about adding it to their platform too.
Hero Board Update
We've made all the artwork on the back of our hero and boss boards full art. This is a move that our discord community approved of, so we hope everyone here likes it too.
New full art boards
Old Board
Older boards with black background
General updates
- We've made elite trash mobs slightly more difficult to kill by increasing most of their defence values by 1. This move was to help the immersive experience of battling an elite monster (gold frame) vs the regular ones (bronze frame).
- Our character bios have all been updated.
- We've added the term semi-permanent to the game. This is for things like the Druids animal forms and a Warriors stance that are permanent buffs but only while certain conditions are met making them semi-permanent. A definition of these will be added into the rulebook.
- Created new elemental icons to differentiate from conditions that used the same artwork. For example our paralyze condition was the same as our electricity elemental damage. The same is true for our fire damage and burn, poison damage and poison, frost damage and frozen. Whilst this was all clear in the rulebook what icons meant on the outside of a spell vs the inside of the spell, to avoid any confusion we've added in new artwork for these icons.
- We've numbered all of our cards with small numbers at the bottom as a reference to help us and you quickly identify cards, as we've around 400 cards in the game.
- We've added a capital letter C and S to a couple of AI deck cards. The C cards should be removed when playing solo as they are powerful and only for coop play. Whilst the S are a little weak for coop play and only for solo play. Most cards are universal but there are around 2-4 that come into the above category.
Pet Buffs
Previously our cards (pets, trash mobs & allies) were not able to receive buffs or status effects. This is because tracking them for each turn is difficult. Over the years we have implemented a few designs for this, but decided it was too fiddly, so we left them out of the final design. We have recently made a change to this.
Cards may now receive 1 buff or condition (token). This is represented by placing the token on the artwork of the card for a status effect or near the altered stat for a buff. A CD die is then placed on the buff or condition to represent how many turns it lasts for. For example turn 1 the Huntress casts Horn Of Agility granting all allies +3 AGI for 3 turns. You would grant yourself +3 AGI for 3 turns as per usual, you would now take a +3 buff and place it next to the AGI stat of your pet cards with a die value of 3. When it comes round to the pets turn, you would reduce the CD die from 3>2 to represent how many more turns is left of this increased stat, then moving into the pets main phase. If any ally was to grant +2 STR to all allies, the Huntress may choose to leave the +3 AGI buff there or change to the new buff of +2 STR. If she does so, the +3 AGI would be removed. Anytime a boss or an enemy grants a status effect you can't choose, and this new effect must be added with your old one removed.
An older design of this had us placing CD die on each tokens of a pet card, but when battling lots of trash mobs or playing vs the warlock/bard who can spam out a lot of tokens, things got messy with dice and tokens all over the cards. By having only the 1 token on a pet/ally/trash mob card, this still allows you to still get immersed into the scenario but not bored with all the fiddling. We've been in house testing this system for a few months and can confirm we're very happy with the changes and we're confident you will be too.
Quest Reward Items
These items were added during the KS campaign as a stretch goal. We've added x10 quests with x10 loot items for completing the quests. These loot items are very strong as the quests can take up to 4hrs to complete.
Huntress Deep Dive
With the grace and stealth of a stalking cat, the Huntress summons pets to aid her in battle. What she lacks in size she compensates for in speed and agility, resulting in her reputation as a deadly markswoman.
Huntress Hero Ability
During the Huntress' first hero upkeep she may summon either the Bear, Snake or Bird pet. To summon her pet she adds it to her ability tab. Once summoned she may not use the other 2 pets until her next battle where she has her first hero upkeep again. Each pet works well vs different enemies so there is no 1 pet that you'll always be picking.
Bear
Snake
Bird
SupportSpells
Horn Of Agility - All allies receive +3 agility for 3 turns. This spell has a cooldown of 3.
Feed The Pets - Remove all cooldown die from your pet cards with a cooldown of 4.
Inner Beast - One ally receives +3 strength for 3 turns with a cooldown of 4.
Summon Wolf - Summon a wolf to battle. Add the wolf card to your ability tab. There is no limit to the amount of pets you can have on your ability tab. If the wolf is still alive by the time you're cooldown finishes you may summon a second wolf to your ability tab. This spell has a cooldown of 5.
Marksmanship - Your next attack grants knockback and deals 50% more damage, you may cast an attack spell now. This is a very strong spell, as knockback is a condition that forces your enemy to skip their turn unless they pay 4 HP to get back up. 9 times out of 10 your opponent will pay the 4 HP, so on top of 50% more damage there is another 4 un-defendable from knockback. This spell has a cooldown of 6.
Wolf Pet
Attack Spells
LongShot - A ranged attack that deals 3 damage to a single enemy. This spell has a cooldown of 0.
Multishot - A ranged AOE attack that deals 1 damage to all enemies. Note this spell uses an AGI attack modifier not the typical STR for a physical DPS hero. This spell has a cooldown of 2.
Arrow Blade - A melee attack that deals 1 damage to a single target. This spell also grants x2 attack modifiers making it easier to buff when playing alongside other heroes. This spell has a cooldown of 3.
Piercing Shot - A ranged attack that deals un-defendable damage. A very strong attack to combine with your Marksmanship spell. This spell has a cooldown of 5.
Double Shot - This ranged split spell allows the huntress to attack for 2 damage plus her strength, followed by another 2 damage plus her strength. Another great spell to combine with Marksmanship due to the split targeting. This would allow you to place Knockback on 2 separate enemies if you attacked 2 different enemies with each half of the spell. This spell has a cooldown of 5.
Huntress Spell Mastery
The Huntress has 3 paths to follow, each making her play style completely different. The path you chose will typically dictate how you interact with your player board. See Swordsmanship down the left, ArrowSpecialist in the middle and Companionship on the right. Should you follow the Arrow Specialist path, you're less likely to be summoning your other pets and will be more focused on casting your ranged spells, whilst in the Companionship tree you're more likely to be summoning as many pets as possible and reducing their cooldowns over direct damage.
Swordsmanship
This path brings a large boost to the Huntresses melee attacks, so if you enjoy close quarter combat but still want pets in combat, this might be the hero for you. The swordmaster ability increase all melee damage by 1. With the addition of Cut Throat the final ability, all melee attacks also grant bleed. In this path you will unlock a new powerful melee attack called double edge which grants knockback. To further increase the damage output of your melee attacks you can unlock a new support spell called Sharpen Steel which grants +2 DMG on your next melee attack. The agile Huntress has also learnt to parry attacks, granting herself with a little evasion. This new spell Defensive Parry once unlocked allows the Huntress to become immune to damage for 1 turn when she is the target on an enemy attack, whilst then casting her Arrow Blade melee spell ignoring its cooldown die. This path helps the Huntress get around bosses and other other high defence heroes in arena mode with status effects like bleed and knockback which all grant un-defendable damage.
Arrow Specialist
One of my favourite paths to follow is the Arrow Specialist, as this is the path that allows you to sit back and fire arrow after arrow. You'll unlock 2 new ranged attacks. One called Poison Arrows which of course coats the tips of her arrows in a lethal poison, and a second spell called Tactical Shot which deals AOE damage plus strips the enemies defence. Target Practice is a new support ability that allows you to reduce the cooldown of a single spell by a value of 3. Helpful for getting back your Marksmanship ability or Summon Wolf. Towards the bottom of the path we have Sharpen Arrows, an ability that increase the damage of all the Huntresses ranged attacks. At the end of round 3 the Huntress lets off a flare granting her increased stats for the rest of the battle. This constant flow of high damage will be tough to defend.
Companionship
The path for boosting the power of your pets. Why send arrows and swords at your enemies when you can send in an army of pets. A new ability called Animal Sanctuary grants you 4 HP when a pet dies. Don't forget that our Blood Mage can make sacrifices should you need it. A new support spell called Leadership is unlocked in this path which allows the Huntress to skip her main phase action, in doing so all of her pets are allows to attack twice during their turn. A true friend to the animal kingdom! What's more scary than an onslaught of pets? More pets! In this path you are able to unlock a new pet called the Boar. This pet deals un-defendable damage and calls other pets to assist. Strength of the Wild grants an increase in damage to your starting pets, whilst Double Trouble allows you to have x2 starting pets instead of x1. This path proves to be fantastic in the Arena vs cloth wearing type heroes with low defence values. The constant flow of damage from the pets can be overwhelming if your enemy doesn't have a strategic plan in action.
Boar
And that's a wrap for now guys!
Thank you very much for your patience as we turn Heroes of the Shire from a kitchen table dream into a refined and professional product. As always we'll be transparent about our project and keep everyone updated/informed along the way. We will be back soon with more updates and deep-dives. We'll cover our Snow Giant boss next in a boss deep-dive, who can steamroll heroes if they are not hiding amongst the trees. As always, a big thank you to each and everyone of you for being here and supporting us on this journey. Until we meet again in another update, have a great week and we look forward to sharing more progress with you.
