Get Them My Minions!
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Jan 11, 2022 at 12:37:41 AM

By the Power of Grayskull!

Happy New Year, Eternians!

On today's update, we will be taking an in-depth look at the minions of Clash for Eternia, but before we get to that, an important reminder:

Completion of the survey is the single most important part of ensuring that you receive your pledge.

MAKE SURE YOU PAY AND SUBMIT YOUR SURVEY BY THE FEBRUARY 15th DEADLINE. Please be advised that this is the final deadline to guarantee your pledge and that we will produce based on the numbers of confirmed orders in Backerkit. If you fail to confirm your survey by the deadline, we will be completely unable to offer you a pledge later.

Warriors, Heroic, Evil, and... Err, Snake... Michael Shinall here, and today we're going to give a brief look into the various Minions that are coming to you in Clash for Eternia!

We've gone over Minions before, so we're not going to get into the specifics of how they work, but what we are going to do today is check out all the various options you'll have when playing, and my personal thoughts on each.

Before we jump into the individuals, there is a small rules modification that has taken place during Development since the beginning of the Kickstarter. If you look at the original draft of the Minions, you'll notice that each of them had an effect that triggered on rolling a Grayskull result when attacking. Specifically, this effect would replace the typical effect of "+1 Success and +1 Power" with something else.

Part of this was due to the fact that Minions cannot gain Power, and this the Grayskull result was essentially "Deal +1 Success" and that was it. We found over the course of testing and feedback, however, that of all the rules presented, players remembering that these effects replaced the usual result (not ADDING) to them was often the most overlooked rule. This wasn't actually unique to Minions, as many effects replace the Grayskull result with something else. But the point is, we don't really like it when rules situations like that occur. As a result, we evaluated each of the "replacement" effects and instead converted them into "additional effects". We had to move some numbers around for balance, but universally (again, not just on the Minions) any previous effect you might have seen that replaced a result will now just cause additional effects when rolled.

This was most prominent on Minions, so that's why we believed now was the best time to bring that up!

Having said that, let's take a look at the various Minions:

*Note: We've mentioned in all these articles that everything seen here is Work-In-Progress. All stats, numbers, text, and abilities are subject to change before final release as continued development and testing goes on. 

*Additional Note: Today we're just going to focus on the non-Elite Minions available to play, as the Elite ones are tied to specific Characters and/or Scenarios.

• Eternian Soldier: Starting with the Heroic Warriors, you have the base Eternian Soldier. These guys actually lend themselves well to a "control" style of... Controller! Due to their ability to sap Power from the Players (and thus feed it back to the Controller). Select these Minions in Scenarios where you need to stop the Players from achieving a specific goal (which yes, is most of them, but focus on the ones that require them to go to specific points!)
• Bright Moon Archer: One of the most fragile Minions (since they have zero Armor!) the Bright Moon Archers trade survivability for Ranged Potential. Not only that, but should you position them right and allow them to skip movement, you'll get an additional boost to your attack. These minions will favor strategies and scenarios that rely on positioning for the Controller to achieve their goals. 

• King Randor's Guard: Arguably the most durable Minion, since they have the potential to reach Armor 2 and can never become Dazed, which is the primary method of ignoring Armor. Use these guys when you are playing a defensive Scenario or need to hold a point. They might not look it, but they really are a pain to deal with and take down!
• He-Man Mini-Clones: How many can there be?! These guys might not seem durable (well, because they really aren't) and have the extra negative of not causing Escape Damage, but it would be truly unwise for players to ignore them, because each time they attack they have a chance to spawn yet another clone nearby. If they aren't careful, the players can quickly find themselves swarmed by these pint-sized Minions, and then numbers will beat skill!

• Hover Robots: These are the best Minions in the game. Look at them. How can you not like them? Yes, I am basing this entirely off of my personal liking of these adorable flying cans. Ok, so for real though, these guys favor a very aggressive Controller style because they have the highest potential damage capacity of any Minion.
• Horde Trooper: These guys are unique in that they trade any sort of neat Weapon effect with just having decent stats and and Ranged Attack and the capability to blow up if destroyed in Melee. This presents a lose-lose situation for Melee Characters as they can't dispatch the Horde Troopers at range, but can potentially face damage if they approach them. 

• Snake Trooper: The base Minion for the Snake Men, but you can of course take these guys should you so choose with any Villain Controller. These guys specialize in Poison tokens, and while the forces of Snake Mountain make better use of Conditions than the other Villainous forces, the ability to bring these as an option is a welcomed one!
• Skelcon: This is your mobility option when it comes to playing a Villainous Controller. Capable of weaving in-and-out of combat, you'll want to select these Minions when mobility and rapid positioning is called upon by the scenario.
• Skeletor Mini-Clones: Take everything I said about the He-Man Mini-Clones, but make it evilllll. 

And that is going to wrap this week's update and our look into the Minions of Clash for Eternia! Which one are you most excited to bring to the tabletop? What kind of Controller do you feel you will be? Until next time, friends!

You have the Power!

Pledge Manager Launching!
almost 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 08, 2021 at 04:41:33 AM

By the Power of Grayskull!

We're very pleased to announce that the Pledge Manager for Masters of the Universe: The Board Game - Clash for Eternia is now open via the Backerkit platform! If you haven't yet, very soon you’ll be receiving a link to your pledge manager, the Backerkit survey!

The invitation process can take some time, but our goal is to have all surveys out by Thursday, so please don't worry if you haven't received your email yet. Also, please note that you don’t need to create a Backerkit account to fill out your survey. When you receive the email with the survey, just click the survey link to respond.

Completion of the survey is the single most important part of ensuring that you receive your pledge.

On the survey system you will be able to specifically select what optional buys you want to include in your pledge. If you want additional Pledges (Stretch Goals and Daily Secrets included), as well as additional copies of the Optional Buys, you will be able to purchase those as well. You will also be able to define and confirm your shipping address and pay for your shipping cost once everything is selected.

MAKE SURE YOU PAY AND SUBMIT YOUR SURVEY BY THE FEBRUARY 15th DEADLINE. Please be advised that this is the final deadline to guarantee your pledge and that we will produce based on the numbers of confirmed orders in Backerkit. If you fail to confirm your survey by the deadline, we will be completely unable to offer you a pledge later.

For backers familiar with the BackerKit system, please be advised that unlike other projects, your payment will be processed immediately as soon as the order is placed. You’ll still be able to edit your address until the deadline, but the items of your pledge (pledge level and optional buys) will be locked as soon as the order is finalized, no longer being editable from then on. So be sure to fill out your survey carefully, including all the products you want, within the February 15th deadline.

Please note that you’ll be receiving the survey in the same email that you’ve backed the Kickstarter project (or late pledged through the Backerkit pre-order). If you need to check your information or pledge status at any time, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our Masters of the Universe: The Board Game - Clash for Eternia product page. If you don't receive your survey invite by Friday, you should also be able to locate it on the Backerkit project page.

If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the Backerkit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, or If you have any issues/questions, please make sure to contact Support.

 If you want, you can change your pledge level in the survey by clicking the "switch your pledge level" link at the beginning of the survey, or by clicking the on your pledge level.

After you started to fill out the survey (but hasn't completed yet) you can change the pledge level by clicking on your pledge level value towards the top of the page.

And then click on "Switch Pledge levels?" on the 'Your pledge information' window box.

You have the Power!

Empowering Your Characters
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 27, 2021 at 02:54:46 AM

By the Power of Grayskull!

On today’s update we’ll mostly be covering the evolution of a game mechanic that centers around character progression: Empower! But first, we have a straggler character whose painted model had not been posted yet.  Why don't you join us, Stonedar?

Ok, now that that is out of the way...

Michael Shinall here, and we have some general updates on the Design/Development end to share with you today. First off, I will say that we're at a point where we're refining most items - e.g., fine-tuning numbers, polishing wording, etc. When it comes to the specific feel and Skills of each character, we're pretty happy with where everyone has ended up. That being said, I want to throwback to HERE in the Faker Dev. Diary Pt. 2, where I said this:

*Side Note: We've mentioned in all these articles that everything seen here is Work-In-Progress. All stats, numbers, and abilities are subject to change before final release as continued development and testing goes on. I wanted to mention that here because we have some other interesting things to discuss later down the line in regards to certain functions of the Controller, things that will warrant their own topic in future updates... Cryptic, I know!

Well today is the day we're going to talk about that cryptic statement! As I have mentioned before, when it comes to Kickstarter projects, all the gameplay assets essentially get "snapshotted" at a certain point during Design and Dev, because assets need to be generated and, well, we need to talk about stuff. Typically, however, things continue to be refined during this entire process to varying degrees. Specifically here, there was one element myself and Leo were testing out and configuring to see if it was something we wanted to incorporate, and, if so, how well it would actually work.

This is the result of one such venture: Controller Character Empowerment.

It was an element we had been exploring, but whether we wanted to keep it or not... Well, we weren't sure. Over time, however, we configured it in such a way that we really did feel it added to the experience, and decided to incorporate it officially.

Now, we're finally at a point where to reveal and discuss it fully. Ok, so enough talk, just what is it?

Basically, you already saw how the Controller, during Escalation, chooses one of their four Skills to enhance, making it a more powerful version. This is a mechanic that mimics the Characters gaining new Skills as the game progresses. These Skills getting better also enhanced the Controller Characters via the additional options provided, so mechanically it worked just fine... The only slight critic though was that the Controller Characters didn't really see any form of progression through the game. They were static "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" from the beginning. This was intentional, as the variety comes from your overall combination of 3 Characters as well as the order in which you upgrade your Skills.

In the end, we decided to expand on this concept and introduce a similar mechanic to the Controller Characters as well - a parallel to the Controller Skills, if you will.

Enter the Empower mechanic.

Just as Player Characters grow and unlock new Skills, so too do the Controller Characters.

Our usual disclaimer applies, Eternians: all components seen here are still in development and are subject to change.

You'll notice that big new text box there: that is Ram Man's Empowered Effect. Each Character has one, and it starts the game locked. Each time Escalation happens, the Controller will now not only select one of their Controller Skills to enhance, but they will also select 1 of their three Controller Characters and unlock their Empowered Effect! This gives the Controller Characters a sense of progression similar to the Player Characters, but in a simplified form (to match most of the mechanics of the Controller). 

Now, of course you can't just go adding in straight new effects without re-working the balance of the existing ones, which is partly why I cryptically hinted at this a while ago - this isn't something we just spontaneously did - we've been working on it for a while, along with other balance passes.

So, by introducing this mechanic, it also introduces a steadier progression curve for the Controller as well. They will naturally gain more effects and options as the game progresses in a way more in line with the Player Characters, rather than at a different pace.

Let's take a look at some other Controller Characters now:

As you can see, sometimes the Empowered effect is a new Skill, a buff to something the Character already does, or something new entirely - it's all unique to the specific Character!

In addition, as we said, we've been working on the last fine-tuning of numbers and values for all gameplay elements.

While it's not the most exciting parts, I figured we could mention them here as well:

• In general the HP Values of Characters has been tweaked, usually increasing by 1-2. You can see this in the example Controller Characters we posted above.
• Some of the base Attack Die values were reduced (typically with Ranged Attacks).
• If a Skill does not cost Power, it specifically says it is "Free".
• A number of "Bonus Actions" were converted to "Actions".

Like I mentioned above, not the most exciting things to update, especially compared to "Hey, cool new mechanic" but figured it would be worth mentioning here and now, as when we begin speaking about other Characters don't want people to see higher/lower values and compare them to previous versions!

Anyway, that about covers it for today, backers! What Core Box Character would you like for us to dive into next time, and why was it Man-At-Arms?

You have the Power!

Dev Diary: Two Bad
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 13, 2021 at 12:03:09 AM

By the Power of Grayskull!

Eternians, having completed the Dev Diary for Faker in our previous update, today we'll take a look at another Villain of Masters of the Universe: Two Bad. 

Before we get to that however, we have a brief update on the project: we're aiming to launch the pledge manager for the campaign by the end of November.

And now onwards to the main course of the day, brought to you today by Leo Almeida.

Hello, fellow Masters, Leo Almeida here and today I’ll be talking about a character that is particularly important to me for various reasons: Two Bad!

Since Two Bad's distinct characteristic is being played by two different players at the same time on the Player version, that’s the one I’ll be talking about today.

Our usual disclaimer applies here, Eternians: all components seen here are still in development and are subject to change.

Player Card(s)

Two Bad is a character with a great toolkit to deal with different situations, the only problem (or solution) will be your friend. As you can see below, Two Bad has two Player Cards, one controlled by each player, but both keeping the same pool of HP (Power is managed separately).

Having to plan ahead for your, well, head, and your friend’s head as well can be chaotic, but this is part of the fun: if you end up fighting among yourselves you'll run into some strategic problems (even if it IS character appropriate). Remember, two heads think better than one... Usually!

Choose wisely who is going to be each head because you won't be able to switch during the game! Note that even with both of them having Melee Attacks, they have a very distinct use, and choosing the order to use each head is important! Tuvar has an attack that is similar to He-Man’s Throw, which is a great option if you are able to generate that extra attack, while Baddrah has a charge attack with the option of leaving the target Dazed. 

They can be used throughout the round with Tuvar pushing an enemy, then having Baddrah reach the recently pushed enemy, or beginning with Baddrah attacking first and leaving the target dazed for a better attack for Tuvar. Put your two heads together to think and figure out which one is best, otherwise you might be left with Two Bad of a play (Editor's Note: Please stop with these kinds of puns).

In my opinion, the most important thing about Two Bad is that by having two players playing with the same model, and playing multiple activations throughout a round, its crucial that you plan ahead - not only by choosing how to divide the party to complete your objectives but also how to choose your Actions (does it makes sense to move twice with Tuvar, thus attacking twice once its Baddrah’s turn, for example?). These can be very tricky because you must analyze not only your actions in advance but consider what the Controller is doing on the meantime so you don’t have sub-optimal turns for any of the heads.

Skills

As mentioned, both Two Bad skill sides will be picked, but since each head will have 1 side, players should evaluate together how to optimize their choice, as each skill of each level has a way to interact with the other head, to maximize your synergy or chaos.

Props to Michael who came up with the Skill names. They couldn’t be better!

I Have a Plan (Green Skill): This side of the skill is Two Bad’s boost toolkit to get that extra something you needed in your attack, defense or movement. Simple but very effective.

I Have a better Plan! (Green Skill): With this pretty piece of conflict between both heads, you are able to achieve powerful activations and several other possible powerful combos with future acquired Skills. This Skill is also very good if you plan to give it to the other Head and if it has enough power to use it back and forth to maximize number of actions and abilities.

Claw Frenzy (Yellow Skill): While one head is preoccupied on getting kills the other, more responsible, head is worried about positioning themselves well and maneuvering to generate value with this area of effect attack. However we cannot discard the possibility of interacting with the other head as it can turn this into a Bonus Attack, which can make it the more intelligent head by not having to spend an action doing this.

Bear Hug (Yellow Skill): This attack is the go-to damage source of Two Bad Skill cards, being able to convert each Grayskull result into 2 successes (thus extra damage at the cost of power). Coolest part, however, is the feature of your other head,who’s able to boost this attack by spending 1 power to ignore armor, which is definitely a good addition to a heavy hitter.

Defense Coordination (Red Skill): Defensive Red Skill which has to be thought in advance of who is holding first to make sure you don’t have to spend a power to switch it off and so that the power that is used is from the other head, the less intelligent one, so the more intelligent one’s Power can be saved for cool actions.

Attack Coordination (Red Skill): Once the less intelligent part used some of their power to defend both heads, the more intelligent one can pay 1 power and give the other this power, allowing it to buff the intelligent one as well, so it can use their power into several attack actions.

I hope you guys enjoyed this review of Two Bad! Who would you like us to cover next time? Is there a specific element of the game you want to see discussed in depth?  

You have the Power!

Dev Diary: Faker, Part 2
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 30, 2021 at 05:02:22 AM

By the Power of Grayskull!

Eternians, today we have the second part of the Dev Diary for Faker, this time covering his part as a Controller Character (his gameplay as a Player Character was covered in our previous update). We're also bringing you a few more painted models that we received since the end of the campaign. Work on the Pledge Manager is still ongoing, and we'll keep you posted for news of its launch.

Shadow Beasts

Spikor

 Zoar

Michael Shinall here, Eternians. Last time we took a look at Faker and his Character Cards. This time, we'll complete our overview of the character with both his Controller and his AI cards.

You can find the first part of this overview HERE.

 Faker, as a Controller Character

This time we'll begin by checking out Faker's Controller Card and what it brings to the clash:

Like all Controller Characters, Faker has an Attack and then another Skill of some variety (which, while can include other Attacks, typically is something else), so the first thing to look at is his Replica Power Sword Attack. This is pretty much the same as his Player version, although the initial dice are a touch higher, sitting at 4 instead of 3.  Otherwise it carries the same effect of being able to spend Power to boost its dice, as well as ignore Armor. This effect alone already put Faker as a prime damage dealer in his own right when combined with his decent HP and Armor 1. 

*Side Note: We've mentioned in all these articles that everything seen here is Work-In-Progress. All stats, numbers, and abilities are subject to change before final release as continued development and testing goes on. I wanted to mention that here because we have some other interesting things to discuss later down the line in regards to certain functions of the Controller, things that will warrant their own topic in future updates... Cryptic, I know! 

Next thing to look at is what pushes Faker from just being a damage-dealer and squarely puts him in the "disruption" category: His Deceive Skill. This can be quite the potent effect, even if only partially used to its maximum capabilities! Disrupting enemy actions is a big deal, as it can utterly destroy plans and/or set the Players back quite severely. Even just a simple movement reposition can cause chaos, but then factor in the added benefit of forcing attacks OR even other Skills, and you can see how the potential for disruption is very high. Finally, because Faker can use this Skill to force Enemies to become Allies (and vice versa) it means you could even take advantage of those beneficial boosts that Player's have, such as Healing effects. Your own dastardly imagination is your only limitation here!

Faker, as an A.I. Character

Before jumping in here, I'd suggest reading over our in-depth look into Co-Op vs. A.I., found HERE.

Assuming you're all read up there, let's continue:

As you can see, AI Character cards aren't really that fundamentally different from their Controller Versions (**I'm going to again get you to reference that side note bit I mentioned above. In a later update we'll discuss some additional items about AI that are being finalized). The primary difference is that the secondary Skill of an AI Character is reworked in such a way that it can function being autonomous - aka all the decisions are based on the AI Rules and the Character itself. In some cases this does mean the AI Character gained an entirely new Skill vs. their Controller Version (as some didn't translate well), but this is the exception and Faker isn't really one of them.

There isn't really much more to say about Faker's Deceive Skill when it becomes an A.I. Skill. All the fundamentals of how it works remain the same and its just as disruptive here as it is there. When playing against the A.I., much like the Controller, it encourages players to keep spread out when Faker joins the fight, which can help mitigate the effects of Deceive. Unfortunately, that's not always going to be possible with some of the A.I. Scenarios, as splitting up to that degree will set the players back to devastating effects. When encountering Faker, you'll need to be careful about who actually engages him, and who else is nearby - you don't want to find yourself in a situation where Man-At-Arms suddenly turns on Orko, all because He-Man absolutely convinced him that Orko was the evil one this whole time!

And that is going wrap it this time! Which character would you like to see us cover next time? 

You have the Power!