Wish list for season 2 - design and rules

[RafaBO]

Totally agree with @riddlesworth and @Goblin-King. I would love the warbands to become more distinct, and not just a slight variation of the same aggro type of game. I am sure they can encourage different play styles by introducing new faction cards or universal cards, or by limiting/banning some of the old must-use universal cards (they could release a card-only expansion for season 1 warbands).

I would really love to see new ways to use the environment. Something in the direction of the shattered city pack, adding more strategic depth and diversity between games. For example a fountain of youth  that heals a fighter (not everyhtign need to be 1 pt damage),  possibility of placing blocked hexes or other tiles not just objectives...

And then the wording (no more cards with the same effect but different card texts), no power creep (making warbands and whole decks obsolete is a cheap move). Overall, I would go for refinement of the core game, solidifying the rules and windows of opportunity, and build up new mechanics on a more solid foundation.

 

[Tutenkharnage]

I'm sorry, but they can't force players who have supported this game through wave 1 to buy all the wave 2 stuff. That's entirely counterintuitive.
Regarding roll-offs and best-of-3, I think they should do the following:

1. Let the winner of the roll-off choose whether to place the first board or the second.
2. The player who lost the roll-off at the start of game 1 automatically wins it for game 2.
3. If a third game is required and the players can agree on who gets to place the first board, that player places the first board; otherwise, they roll off.

[Mr. White]

^ First comment is why I'd like them to consider wave 1 'done'. no wave 2 cards compatible with wave 1, and no wave 1 cards can be in a wave 2 deck. 

The two waves of warbands can still play against each other and a warband of any wave still be tourney legal.

Each wave should be self serving only in terms of their cards.

It will suck if one has to buy up all of wave 2, just to keep their wave 1 warband still viable....

[Anthony225]

1 hour ago, Mr. White said:

^ First comment is why I'd like them to consider wave 1 'done'. no wave 2 cards compatible with wave 1, and no wave 1 cards can be in a wave 2 deck. 

The two waves of warbands can still play against each other and a warband of any wave still be tourney legal.

Each wave should be self serving only in terms of their cards.

It will suck if one has to buy up all of wave 2, just to keep their wave 1 warband still viable....

I like that a lot actually. That way you could have access to any warband still yet if a W1 warband fights against a W2 warband, all the cards will be different whcih would be cool. You could be more prepared also since, with W1 as an example, you'd only have to worry about specific cards from W1. If they give access to both waves then the card pool is that much bigger, hence harder to think about what your opponent may play. And as long as there's no power creep from W1 to W2, every warband will be viable and could play against any other warband. And W2 can be totally different than W1.

[riddlesworth]

1 hour ago, Anthony225 said:

I like that a lot actually. That way you could have access to any warband still yet if a W1 warband fights against a W2 warband, all the cards will be different whcih would be cool. You could be more prepared also since, with W1 as an example, you'd only have to worry about specific cards from W1. If they give access to both waves then the card pool is that much bigger, hence harder to think about what your opponent may play. And as long as there's no power creep from W1 to W2, every warband will be viable and could play against any other warband. And W2 can be totally different than W1.

If the balance of the cards in wave 2 is better but wave 1 cards are still playable, some cards will need taking out of circulation

[froo]

Going on to season 3 and seeing that they're trying to push the boundaries in terms of themes, I've got some dumb ideas.

 

A snotling warband with 15+ models. It would be the only warband where up to 3 models could occupy the same hex. When activating a model, you also activate all snotlings that occupy the same hex. When doing damage to a snotling, excess wounds carry over to other snotlings in the same hex. I don't forsee them inspiring, but I do see a leader type guy having actions to move multiple snotlings at once.

 

Buffs. I'm thinking something similar to Upgrades, where they cost glory to put onto models and they're much stronger than a typical upgrade, but they're also time limited. EG, when you put them on, you put X tokens onto them (detailed on the card) and then each time you take an activation, you remove one of the tokens from each buff of yours on the board. So they're stronger, but might only last 1-3 activations. A Debuff system might be cool too, but your opponent could spend glory to remove tokens as well.

 

New types of Hexes or ways of moving about the board in weird ways. Maybe something like setting up portal hex tiles on the board, scattering them and then those 2 points become connected for really interesting movement strategies.

 

I'm really liking the diversity in warbands in Season 2. There appears like there might be a good mix of shooting/combat/magic oriented warbands, which might lend to making an interesting meta.

[riddlesworth]

Looking at all the review and things that have come out, I'm excited for season 2, but I'm also excited for the health of the game moving forward:

- variety of warbands is amazing. I don't care if the entire night goblin warband moves via the scatter template, i am maining those squigs so hard

- spells mechanic seems well implemented and not over the top HOWEVER

-- until more of the nightvault warbands are released, we're not going to see the true potential of the core set warbands. on first pass, the nighthaunt will be stronger in the overall setting than the evocators because they're not spell reliant and have amazing movement shenanigans

- the clarification on tokens is huge for 2 reasons: stops some of the inane arguments about cards like tyrant's command but also opens up warbands, ploys and upgrades to work with a token manipulation style of play - giving your opponent's move tokens, removing charge tokens etc.

 

On the health of the game side, it's been revealed that a fair few of the neutral cards in the nightvault are reprints of shadespire neutral cards. This is huge for season 3 and beyond. While season 2 doesn't get rid of problematic cards like quick thinker and great concussion (which make it into pretty much every deck on the competitive scene), having reprints in Nightvault of Supremacy, Confusion and so on means that Season 3 can coincide with rotating shadespire neutral cards out of organised/competitive play, giving a balancing option., without eliminating the shadespire warbands and warband specific cards. That for me is huge and shows a far more forward thinking view of the game than we usually get from GW.