Future Shadespire ?

[The Angry Hobbit]

Soooo forward thinking when they have all warbands out skaven etc will they just add more characters to those warbands or more warbands or both or what.....? ???

[BaldoBeardo]

More warbands. As with Khorne & Stormcast.

[Kramer]

Reading the Rulebook at the moment. The first thing I read are the backstories. In there they mention a skaven, fireslayers, blood warriors and hunter stormcast, so it might be a while before they will get trough that list

[Killax]

My expectation is that well stay in Shadespire 2018 but Warhammer Underworlds will likely cover more cities.

I also think that 2 months in Warhammer Underworlds can be called a great succes with 10K followers on Warhammer Underworlds Facebook page.

As others have said we can expect Fyreslayers after Skaven followed by Stormcast and Blood Warriors. Then I honestly expect a seperate Universal Card pack and maby even seperate boards and/or the next city starter.

[The Angry Hobbit]

9 minutes ago, Kramer said:

Reading the Rulebook at the moment. The first thing I read are the backstories. In there they mention a skaven, fireslayers, blood warriors and hunter stormcast, so it might be a while before they will get trough that list

Yea I saw that I just thought it’d be kind of nice to have a couple of extra characters per warband just to add abit of diversity in the mirror matches at tournaments, I’m sure they have it all figured out though ?

[Goblin-King]

In my opinion, more characters to existing warbands is unthinkable. It would wreck the whole dynamic of the game.

More warbands
More cards
New tiles
New gamemodes

[someone2040]

I'll be interested to see if the setting actually moves somewhere else or if we get another season of Shadespire. Obviously we know the first 8 warbands are going to be in Shadespire itself, and I would hope that the first 8 are out by around April~ish next year.

Maybe at that point they'll slow down a bit (to let the game settle), they'll let people work out the 'meta' and have a big championship before starting to release the next season, whether that's a bunch more warbands for the Shadespire setting or a completely new and different setting.

 

For me, the cool thing about Shadespire is that as a setting, it just works. The setting explains why your guys 'keep coming back' each new game, any kind of warband can really get lost in the city of Shadespire, so you don't really have the good old why are Wood Elves fighting against Lizardmen type issue.

That being said, new settings will allow them to dive in hard on certain themes, or different style basing, etc. Like if the next setting is done in the Realm of Fire, it makes room for say a Firebellies warband or fire themed warbands which don't necessarily make sense in say, the realm of Life.

[Killax]

I honestly hope they let the game settle and promote events with the promotional cards. At least up until the last quarter of 2018, it's then that I hope to see another Core Set in another city. Reason being that this will offer more new players to the game to have some time to settle in before it's all away again. 

One of the most interesting things I'm eager to figure out is if this will be Games Workshop's first attempt at creating 'limited available' models. For sure it's not so much a hunt for rare cards or models but it could potentially be if we shift over to other cities and the like. I think I wouldn't mind it because so far none of the units has been extremely important for Age of Sigmar but nontheless also useful there.

While Ive also mentioned it elsewhere a lot of great ideas from Warhammer Underworlds would also translate great into a Mordheim-like game but set in the Age of Sigmar setting. There are a lot of great mechanics in Warhammer Underworlds that really don't need to be exclusive to the boardgame variant. A lot of great mechanics can also easily be implemented into a Mordheim-like skirmish (again). The things I love and can see used elsewhere would be:
- Warband specialized abilities and wargear (cards)
- Universal abilities and wargear (cards)
- Being able to push an enemy model 1-3" on a succesful wound roll (mechanic)
- Being able to place Objectives without exactly knowing what you place.
- Being able to claim Objectives in specific territories.
- Being able to "buy" wargear/upgrades ingame once a model has taken another out of action.

All in all though I'm first going to await the next Warbands and offcourse Universal cards that come with them. A ton of interesting design has been revealed but I'm quite certain more will be around. 

 

[Bademeister]

I think there could be something like a rotation, like in other competetive card games.

Shadespire will be the first Edtion with the 8 Warbands. This will be Season 1. On Season 2 there will be an other city with new warbands. 

You will be able to play with warbands from diffrent Seasons. But on tournaments there will be only one season allowed. 

[Kramer]

2 hours ago, Killax said:

Warhammer Underworlds would also translate great into a Mordheim-like game but set in the Age of Sigmar setting. There are a lot of great mechanics in Warhammer Underworlds that really don't need to be exclusive to the boardgame variant. A lot of great mechanics can also easily be implemented into a Mordheim-like skirmish (again

God, I hope this is true. I haven’t played 40k ever. But when they announced the Necromunda box I postponed getting shadespire. The fact that you can ease people in with a board game and then translate the same principles to a 3D game is, in theory, awesome!

[Killax]

1 hour ago, Kramer said:

God, I hope this is true. I haven’t played 40k ever. But when they announced the Necromunda box I postponed getting shadespire. The fact that you can ease people in with a board game and then translate the same principles to a 3D game is, in theory, awesome!

Well if the rumours are true (and they do seem to be) Mordheim will return. However I also wouldn't be extremely suprised if the new Mordheim (like new Necromunda is also somewhat different) will have more Age of Sigmar influences.

So while I could certainly start a fan project above AoS Mordheim I don't think it's out of the realm of possabilities that the eventual new Mordheim will have a lot of Warhammer Underworld influences aswell. As mentioned, the pushes, objectives and cards for gear and abilities are just great ways to speed up the game and also keep book keeping to a minimum.

What is great to see (just figured that out today) is that the Mordheim community most certainly still excists and is alive. There are some amazing tables found on their "boringmordheimforum". I personally hope that the Designers will thake parts of the Age of Sigmar, Skirmish and Shadepire rulebooks to create something as awesome as Mordheim but quite likely even improve on it.

One of the best things in Age of Sigmar is that 2 wound infantry or generally 2 wound models are quite common and any added survivability only increases the fun in Skirmish in my opinion. Mordheim certainly has it's awesome designs but also some things I deem as minor flaws that could easily be improved upon. 

Hope to see more of this idea and concept in 2018, meanwhile I'm enjoying Warhammer Underworlds a lot too. It's so fun because it's so fast.

[Mars_Ranger]

13 hours ago, someone2040 said:

That being said, new settings will allow them to dive in hard on certain themes, or different style basing, etc. Like if the next setting is done in the Realm of Fire, it makes room for say a Firebellies warband or fire themed warbands which don't necessarily make sense in say, the realm of Life.

That would be phenomenal if GW did a Firebellies warband for Warhammer Underworlds! There are so many minor sub-factions (like Firebellies) with few models that could get a nice moment in the spotlight. I don't even collect Ogre Kingdoms, but would buy those in a heartbeat.

[Turragor]

Re: more systems

The more (in number) attractive systems GW brings out, the more the  playerbases for each are stretched or diluted.

I already feel it with just devotion to AoS and now Shadespire. I want to play 40k, AoS skirmish (or reborn mordheim), Warhammer quest, necromunda and blood bowl too but I've only got a few nights a month at best to fit actual games in.  A lot of my hobby is solo in evenings with family asleep built around what I think I'll play in the rare game time I have.

Hence the appeal for Shadespire - if I can get in 4 games in the time of one game of AoS then there's room for both those options in a month - especially if I can negotiate shorter game days or evenings with the Mrs. 

Contrast that to 40k v AoS. That's just a "pick your favourite" choice each time, and if I choose one system enough, well, my hobby goals for the month change, my purchases change, pretty soon I might be out of one entirely.

Also take (as a parallel to this) the top page of streamed games on twitch - notice one thing: there are maybe 4 or 5 really top games representing - broadly speaking - an entire genre each.

Then another 6 or so of decent audiences (for the exact same genres for the most part) until you're down to some very niche interests.

I think that multiplayer games that require a lot of time investment (a metric in which tabletop games still trump any videogame) tend to push out any variety or contenders. People stick to where the crowds are - where the successes are. So in this way, if you siphon off users who want a mordheim shadespire from a shadespire community it's probably not a good thing.

Arguably, shadespire is doing this to AoS already, I mean I say that I like that I have the option for short games now with shadespire but in reality I could already be trying to negotiate 500 point AoS games or playing skirmish... it's just hard to find the audience for those. They are niches in themselves.

Re Shadespire's expansion

I know almost nothing of Magic but know my local hobby shop advertises a new release of cards as a big even every few months. It's kind of similar to Hearthstone I suspect. They drive profits with new better cards. 

For Shadespire I feel like "I don't want that".  I personally - and perhaps naively - hope there's an end goal where the system evolves minimally. I think a big yearly reboot (card reprint) is kind of scary. New warbands are great - up to a point.

The more you add the more variety there is but the harder balance is (ofc you can retire older sets I spose but then variety is a moot point). Mainly I am not sure I want to be in a game that emerges as an unwritten 'subscription fee' of 300 dollars a year or something.

That's a decision I might have to make in future but mostly I suspect ppl don't decide this, they just get sucked in (see Magic - again, no experience, just guessing) because the purchases seem reasonable.

Right now I feel that what, 450 cards and 8 warbands - that's plenty, plenty for 2 years of gaming maturation (with leagues, events, new peripherals and so on).

_______________

So all that is a bit rambling but I guess my main concern of the two with regards to shadespire is ofc point 2. I mean I read that Magic has close to 12,000 unique cards. Is that what is healthy for Shadespire in 5 years? I guess they need to make some money from it somehow to fund development (perhaps prestige items rather than nearly compulsory card expansions).

I think maybe what I'm realising myself is that I'm a fully paid up member of the 'yes reboot armies and bring out new codexes that is fun' gang as a warhammer nerd... but card games... I'm not fully sold on that business mechanic. Maybe I'm just worried about both systems combined.

Maybe someone who knows more can chime in!

[Killax]

@Turragor

Quote

The more (in number) attractive systems GW brings out, the more the  playerbases for each are stretched or diluted.

Yes and no, with this I mean that I personally really like how GW is going for a more boardgame-like approach. Because on one hand they are stretching it but on the other hand Games Workshop is very effectively handling their games in questions like:
- Do you want something casual (BRUTAL)and very fast paced (e.g. Gorechosen)?
- Do you want something tactical and competitive and fast paces (e.g. Warhammer Underworlds)?
- Do you want something casual and very narrative driven (e.g. Warhammer Quest)?
- Do you want something on step in level with just a few models (e.g. Age of Sigmar Skirmish)?
- Do you want something all of the above in an army fashion thaking up a whole night (e.g. Age of Sigmar)?

With this approach the advantage is that none of Games Workshop their products will be a "no sell". Because the fun thing is that soon GW will be able to support all kinds of boardgame like visions with their models (thus products).

Like you I also love Shadespire because it's so fast paced. On the other hand I know that sooner or later I get the itch again to present whole armies and have that semi-epic feel that Age of Sigmar presents by slaughtering models by the masses instead of having duels between characters  

What I do think we see is that Age of Sigmar's rulessystem just isn't as great. I say this with 2K Khorne models on my shelf, a Warmachine army, Malifaux Warband or three and many more random models for several different games  . There is a downside to Shadespire too and that is that it's small and sometimes you just want an army game. I don't really see one biting the other because the games are so different.

BUT THE FAQ IS UP SO BRB!

[thoughttrauma]

more skaven.