“Fantasy Flight Games is delighted to announce the upcoming release of Merchant of Venus, a board game of space traders and alien riches. Two to four players race through the galaxy on a wild dash for cash, locating and establishing vital trade lines to transport goods from the planets where they’re common, to the planets where they can sell for maximum profit.”

Then on the 22nd of October Stronghold games posted the following announcement on their web site:

“Stronghold Games, in conjunction with the Designer and license holder, A. Richard Hamblen, announced yesterday that we will reprint “Richard Hamblen’s Merchant of Venus“. We look forward to bringing you this great game during 2012 !”

If you care about this publishing fiasco then read on …

Naturally we don’t own Merchant of Venus. For all of you who were born after or around the year 1980; it is a classic science fiction board game with beautiful artwork and unprecedented rules of play. Trading in space while equipping your space faring bucket with lasers, shields, engines, additional cargo space … we are thinking about Elite, how about you? Perhaps Privateer if you aren’t as ancient as we are. Anyway, we will leave the review for a another post. The game was published by Avalon Hill; designed by Richard Hamblen and it all happened in year 1988.

The game has been out of print for some time and we would love to get our hands on a copy but eBay prices are to steep for our pocket. Both announcements gave us some positive love towards owning a copy; but on the other hand they generated a lot of fear that we will have to wait for some time due to possible lawsuits that both FFG and Stronghold Games could face.

In the light of developing events Stronghold Games clarified that they have come to an agreement directly with Mr. Hamblen for a license to reprint the original version of Merchant of Venus board game. It seems that Stronghold Games and Mr. Hamblen believe they have exclusive license over the game. Unfortunately FFG also bought the exclusive license from Hasbro and they also believe they have the exclusive thing. Hasbro owns Avalon Hill company and all their licenses, which probably include the original Merchant of Venus license since they already released the game in 1988. Fantasy Flight Games CEO, Christian T. Petersen, posted on the BoardGameGeek forums his side of the story. We are wondering who got the most $$$ from the whole shady deal? Right now we known that the only one who will surely gain is Mr. Hamblen. It seems that he knew about both deals and he is turning out to be the master manipulator in the whole situation.

Both companies claim to have license to publish this long lost marvel. We would prefer that only one company prevails. We really don’t care if it is Stronghold Games or Fantasy Flight Games as long as Merchant of Venus gets published in due course. We believe that two versions of the same game would create a chasm in the market and divide player base. For now all parties seem to have valid claim to publish the game and the question which arises is, which side to back up?

Backing your side

There are some arguments which tell that Stronghold Games will make more accurate game. For example, they will do a reprint of the original game with support for six players while Fantasy Flight Games is thinking ahead and they are planning to release a four players base game, hinting to further expansions.

Then, there are actual session reports which tell us that the game of four players is an optimal group size for the game in terms of game time, components used and optimal fun. Fantasy Flight Games will surely do an expansion at a later stage of development allowing 5-6 player game. It would be the natural course of action.

Information available about rule set is scarce, but enough to push the original fans toward Stronghold Games. Fantasy Flight Games already announced changes to the original rules. It is unclear at this point if the additional rules will be optional or required.

From the manufacturing standpoint we feel much better with Fantasy Flight Games since they have an enormous amount of resources in designers, developers and money which they can throw in the production of the game. Stronghold Games just does not give us the same vibe.

While religious wars are being fought on the BoardGameGeek forums we feel that it is time for the gamers to decide for themselves what is best for them. Forum wars will clean all the dirty laundry of both companies and all fans who feel the urge to raise voice can speak up. The real losers here will, again, be the players. For now, let’s wait for the lawyers to get to the bottom of this licensing issue, stop the speculation and start to plan the strategy for your victory.

I can not wait for the Venus to rise

If you find the game interesting and can not wait for the war to end then go to BoardGameGeek site search for board game Merchant of Venus and in files section search for files from user Dathkadan. He has recreated the game art with expansions. Print the game components, and recreate your own copy of this old gem.

Parts, parts, parts

You will get 2 models with the package. You can field the models in a squadron that has 2-3 models. The model comes in 8 parts:

• back resign engine section; which also connects support pegs to the stand,
• front pewter section,
• 2 pewter middle sections,
• in 1 piece 3 pewter main structure beams,
• 1 long clear acrylic beam representing main weapon,
• 2 shorter clear acrylic beams representing support pegs,
• 1 80×40 mm stand

Assembly

Model requires a little bit of work, which is quite unusual for Firestorm Armada models. You will need to cut off the pewter main structure beams and file their end pieces so that they are flat and can stand perpendicular to a flat surface. Watch out that the lengths of beams will be the same. Next you will have to trim and file the other pewter pieces, specially the pewter middle sections on which the main structure beams will lay. Dry fit everything so that all of the pieces fit together without major gaps.

For the assembly I decided to use cyanoacrilic dry fast glue. Since there is quite some weight in the  front of the model and the main structure beams do not provide much support and do not have much contact surface with front section and engine section I decided to go with pinning of the front and engine sections together with main structure beams. I drilled holes in the middle of the beams on both ends about 5 mm in length and the same in the front and engine section in the middle of the holders where the beams will be glued. I used 0.4 mm drill with 0.4 mm wire for pins.

Then I glued together two of the main structure beams to the front section pins. The clear acrylic beam – the middle section beam was not glued, mainly for the painting reasons. It provides enough support to finish the gluing of the middle round support sections and provides enough stability for the model. First glue both support sections to the existing main structure beams. After they firmly hold in place, glue the last main structure beam to the front section and round support sections. When glue dries you should have a sturdy front part of model from which you can remove the middle beam.

Since you already pinned the engine section, and dry fitted model through the process, the model should fit together quite well. Maybe some drilling for the middle section beam will be required which I recommend will be done in engine section. If you are not worried with painting the model you can assemble the front and engine section with the middle section beam and also the stand with 2 pegs and fit your Xelocian Hantari Class Cruiser to them.

Good or Bad

It looks like the model is something new for the Spartans. My engine section had some problems with the casting so I needed to do some remodeling on the engine part.  Once painted it will look like battle damage.

The assembly is a little bit tricky. Lots of parts checking and dry fitting. There is also the pinning part which is probably not required, but recommended. I also noticed that the main structure beams are a little bit soft. Probably so you can simply bend them into the right direction if everything else fails.

The middle section beam – the main weapon – is problematic from painting standpoint. If you are going to paint it in specific color you should paint it before you assemble the model. This will also mean you will have to prime the model before you completely assemble it, then assemble it with painted middle section beam and paint it afterward.

But the result should be out of this Galaxy. Not easy to do but highly recommended!

Publisher will try to lure you with a slogan

“Alien Frontiers is a game of resource management, worker placement, and area control set in a retro-future scifi universe”

and they are right. It is a science fiction themed, territory building dice game. Yes a dice game. And although I dislike dice in games I have dusted off my dice tower because this game gets away with it. Mechanics which will compel players to play the game include

• Area control – players are rewarded for controlling an area of the board
• Worker placement – players draft actions from the final or variable set available to them
• Dice rolling – game uses dice – for RNG purposes

Game info

Designer: Tory Niemann
Publisher: Clever Mojo Games
Playtime: 1 hour (our initial game took 1 hour + 15 minutes for setup and rule explanation)
Players: 2-4
Suggested Age: 10+
Dice: 3-6 per player (+ one extra dice for one of the players)
Board: Main board, Cards, Two types of Resource pieces, and Colony tokens for each player
Space requirement: 4 player game does not require too much space, medium coffee table should suffice

In 2010 Clever Mojo Games launcher a Kickstarter campaign to ask for founding of their new board game titled Alien Frontiers. Game was successfully funded and first printing was available late 2010 for Kickstarter backers. Due to localized market penetration and small initial print run game did not achieve world-wide acceptance until second and third printing both of which happened in 2011. Clever Mojo Games claims that they sold 5,000 copies of the game and are planning to sell 5,000 more by the end of the year.

Goal in the game is simple. Score as many victory points as possible until the first player places its last colony. Now lets look at the components and give a little insight how this is achieved.

Squares on the board mark where to dock the ship!

One quarter folded piece of sturdy board with a masking tape on bends to prevent tear and wear. It represents an unknown planet, the identity of it is not really important for the game. What is important is that this planet is a place of interest to the players. They will compete for planetary dominance by placing colony tokens on the eight areas dividing the planet. The areas are territories which give the controlling player bonus over some aspect of the game – bonus on using the orbital facility directly above the territory. Control over territory is given to the player who has the most colonies on the territory and this can change through the course of the game. Players can influence the rules of the territory by using special field generators which can be placed on the territory when circumstances allow it.

Above the planet players will notice eight orbital facilities on which they can dock their ships. Ships, are there are ships in this game? Well yes and no. To see the ships in the game you are required to posses a little bit of abstract thinking. Imagination, if you like to call it that way. Ships are represented by dice. Each die represents one ship. And what is ingenious in the form of mechanic of the game; each ship can change its value based on the die value of your roll. Players start with three ships each, and can build up their fleet to maximum of six ships. There is an extra ship available as a honey pot on the planet which can be one of the micro goals of the game.

Each orbital facility has special rule which governs its behavior. For example docked ships of specific value give player solar fuel tokens at the Solar converter, by docking a ship with a value of 3 player gains 3 solar fuel tokens, with a value of 5 or more player gains 3 solar fuel tokens. Rules for each orbital facility are clearly marked on the game board with iconographic reference and explained in detail in the rulebook accompanying the game and extremely well written short reference on the back of the rulebook.

Orbital facilities range from already described Solar converter, Colonist Hub, Colony Constructor, Lunar Mine, Maintenance Bay, Orbital Market, Raiders’ Outpost, Shipyard, Terraforming Station to Alien Artifact which is directly coupled with additional game component – The Alien Tech Cards. They allow the player to bend the basic game rules. Most of the cards can be used immediately after they are acquired. They have a permanent ability which must be paid with fuel. Player can discard some of the cards – if allowed by the card text – and receive the benefit of the discard action.

Setup is performed by the least experienced player

Board is placed on the table. Upper left corner will be populated with solar fuel tokens while lower right corner with ore tokens. Each player gets three dice of its chosen color.  The rest are placed by the maintenance bay off the game board; for later construction in the course of the game. Players get their colony tokens; amount of  which varies depending on the number of players playing the game.

Planet on the game board is populated with territory bonus markers along with the clear dice representing the seventh player ship; a Relic ship. Alien Cards deck is shuffled and each player is dealt one Alien tech card face up. Three Alien tech cards are dealt face up near the Alien Artifact orbital facility representing cards that can be used by the facility rule. The rest of cards form draw pile from which Alien Artifact will repopulate its artifacts.

Players choose player one by rolling for highest dice roll. Counting clockwise from player one players receive allotment which compensate for turn order disparities. This allotment is received only on first turn.

Now let’s roll the dice.

Running through the player turn

Player starts the turn by gathering all of its ships and rolling them. Once the score is known it decides to dock all of his ships on the orbital facility for which it qualifies. Once docked the benefit gain of the facility is immediate.

Alien technology cards acquired by player can be used as appropriate at any time during the players turn. Cards that require fuel payment can be used once per turn and player may discard only one not already used tech card per turn.

Once all ships are docked and tech cards used, player must discard to eight resources cumulatively and the turn passes to next player on the left.

Simple? There is not more to the game? Scoring is essential.

Victory track does not lie

Alien Frontiers game turn is as simple as it can be. While talking about initial game setup I have not written about victory track. It is a part of the game board with a scoring track on which each player puts one of its colony markers or specially designed plastic ship markers and use it to track its victory progress during the game.

The progress is not cumulative. It is a snapshot of the current board and hand situation at any single point during the game. Player will receive one VP for colony on a territory, one VP per territory they control, one VP for possession of specific Alien technology card in a game and one VP for controlling territory with a Positron field in a game.

Game ends when first player places its last colony marker on the planet. Ties are broken firstly by number of alien tech cards, secondly by number of ore tokens and lastly by number of fuel tokens.

I am not a drone this game is not for me!

Could be. I was initially convinced by retro style artwork of the game. It reminded me of all the science fiction novels I read all only equipped with one piece of visual art which helped me emerge my self into the story. Oh, maybe I forgot to mention it. Artwork brings me closer to 1950 golden age of science fiction. Although there is a boom of science fiction themed board games as of late I do not see a game that respects and openly shows it in their components.

As far as the components go, they are top notch. All of the game components come in zip locked plastic bags for easy storage. Game board and victory track are made of sturdy paperboard. All colony tokens and resource tokens are the same in size and well painted. And the dice are correctly weighted and lay comfortably in my hand. And remember 6 is not the best result you can get in a turn.

Further more since there is a small company backing this game I get real customer satisfaction for my money. Their support is excellent and also their distributors network is available in Europe.

From their Kickstarter campaign they have come a long way and I wonder what is looming on the horizon.

There must be more

While launched Clever Mojo Games stated that they are preparing expansions for the base game. There are two expansions planned. First is called Alien Frontiers: Factions which is expected to be released in start of 2012 and the other Alien Frontiers: Outer Belt is still in development and will be released at later date.

Alien Frontiers: Factions is published in the same way as Alien Frontiers that is by a Kickstarter campaign which allows backers to get an expansion and a booster pack for the expansion before the expansion hits the market at affordable and competitive prices. If you are interested take a look at the

I am sure they have a backer level for Alien Frontiers owners and also for backers who are late in boarding the Alien Frontiers train available for worldwide delivery until 2, October 2011.

Google has some interesting results, but what stands out for me is Level 7 science fiction novel by Mordecai Roshwald. Speculation at this point but maybe the setting will be taken from the novel. We can only hope that this product will be compatible with Warmachine or Hordes products already published by Privateer press.

We will be closely monitoring this development.

I read something on the net about a 30+ years old board game that was space themed and recently went through reprinting and repainting process. I was instantly interested mainly due to the space theme which is something I really enjoy in board games. What stroke me as inspiring was the fact that the game endured for 30 years and made it successfully through repainting process. It was chewed by the game board sites and not spat out and forgotten.In essence this game falls in the category of bluffing card games. Its base mechanics includeHand management - meaning that players are rewarded for playing the cards in certain sequences or groupsVariable player power - different abilities/powers are assigned to a player which in turn allow player to win in different pathGame infoDesigner: Bill Eberle, Jack Kittredge, Peter Olotka, and Bill Norton Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Playtime: 1 hour (our initial game took 1 hour and 30 minutes + 15 minutes for setup) Players: 3-5 Suggested Age: 12+ Dice: None Board: Cards and playing pieces - no board per se Space requirement: 5 player game does not require too much space, medium coffee table should sufficeInitially the game was published by EON in 1977. It was republished by Mayfair Games and Avalon Hill (Hasbro) and this new edition was revised, updated and released by Fantasy Flight Games in 2008.The goal of the game is rather simple. Establish five colonies on home planets not owned by you.Initial game setup

Players chooses a color and are dealt 5 round card board pieces and 20 stack-able plastic flying saucers – playing pieces in chosen color that represent home planets and attacking or defending ships. In the middle of the playing table, accessible to all players, a card board piece is put which represents The Warp. This is where all the flying saucers will end up when destroyed in the space battles. Another pointy looking card board piece is placed on the table. It represents Hyperspace gate – a starting point of offensive player.

Bundled with the game there are 50 Alien cards representing 50 player powers. Each Alien card has its own Flare card which represents aftermath or boost to the alien power that can be used by all the players  in the game. Each player is dealt two randomly chosen Flare cards. From those cards he has to chose one Alien card which will be his Alien card for the game. Dealt Flare cards are not shown to all the players they are shuffled together with the Cosmic cards and put on the table. A deck of Destiny cards is shuffled and placed on the table. Destiny cards represent a player color that will be the defending player in an encounter.

Cards from Destiny deck are turned until a color card is shown and that player is the initial player. Destiny deck is reshuffled and placed on the table. Each player is dealt 8 Cosmic cards which represent his playing hand. Game can now start with the initial player.

Game play – a player’s turn

Active player becomes the offense and will have an encounter with another player.  He regroups his forces and turns the Destiny card – designating new defending player. Offensive player now commits up to 4  ships from his colonies or home planets to the fight and puts them on the Hyperspace gate which is pointed at the defending player chosen home system.  Defending player ships on chosen home system represent his defending force.

At this point offense and defense start to gather allies. All players can be invited and after they accept they become allies with defending or offending player. Allies can also commit up to 4 ships from their colonies to the fight. Once alliances are established Main players chose an encounter card which is put face down on the table. Main players turns the chosen encounter card and score is calculated from number of ships participating in the encounter and played card values. Special encounter cards or alien powers can create special situations in which the winner of the combat is determined in a different manor.If attackers win they can establish a colony and defender's ships go to warp. If attackers lose their ships go to warp. Main defending player is rewarded with keeping his colony and allied defender is rewarded a defenders reward. If attacking player was successful he turns another Destiny card and repeats another turn, this time skipping his regroup phase. Then the game play passes to the player on the left.The Aliens & Cosmic CardsNothing can prepare you for another turn of the Cosmic Encounter. No two games are the same - there are fifty alien cards bundled with the game to give it superb variety.

The alien cards in FFG’s version are separated in three different categories. Green, yellow and red, representing the degree with which the Aliens can alter the normal game play. Green cards will have less affect on the game than yellow which affects less then red. It is recommended that newbie players start the game with green Aliens and then gradually when they are more proficient with the rules spice up the game with yellow and red. This can depend on the general experience of your game group. Our second game was full blown with red aliens and we did not regret it.

Alien sheets include descriptions of Alien powers. They are described in details about players role, when the power can be used, in which encounter phase can be used and if the power is mandatory or not. Players must pay special attention to the power description. Sometimes they can be miss-leading due to the usage of the words use, may use and used which can present timing issues. Artwork on the cards is superb, their design simple and intuitive and after a game or two they become second nature to the player.

Cosmic Cards are categorized with a clearly marked card type, card title and card description. Special attention must be paid to text describing what role must player posses, when the card can be used and in which encounter phase. The design of Cosmic cards which include Encounters (Attack, Negotiate, Morph), Artifacts, Reinforcements and Flares is simple and intuitive to use.

Is this game for me?

I guess it depends on the type of gamer you are. If you like bluffing games and you have 3+ friends which can play the same game again and again and discover its depths and rediscover how the same Alien pulverized you again and again then I can say yes, this game is for you.

The game pieces in FFG’s game are made of quality cardboard material, cards are tough and durable. Plastic pieces can be swallowed by little children so take care of those flying saucers. The game has an endless re-playability, various encounter options and don’t forget about the social aspect when the alliances are forming.

It is a complex game with complex rules, so a good understanding of English language is required to understand the mechanics that ties the Alien powers and grants their usage in the game.  There is also some confusion for the “literal” players since there is some “errata” present in the Alien sheets and Cosmic cards. FFG has provided FAQ which handles some of the confusion.

I have to mention that it is a space themed game and we all know there are not enough of those around and its got some mileage under its hood. Expansions to the base game are already on the market and I will do another post and describe the goodies available in them at a later date.

Too good to be true – I would like to try it

You can! Not the FFG version because there is no VASSAL module which will allow you on-line game play on VASSAL engine but there is a company on the net that bought the intellectual property rights from EON and published Cosmic Encounter Online which will not be hard to track for the Google minded.

Board setup

It has been a while since I bought a board game and this had to change. I had three main rules to follow while considering which game to buy.

• No dice – throwing dice takes time and it’s too random for my taste
• Advanced game play – I didn’t want a family game, I wanted something complex, but not too complex
• Weight of the box – rule of thumb which can indicate game complexity and lots of pretty stuff in the box

The fourth rule, well more of a guideline, was that the game had to be set in the future. I’ve been playing all sorts of games for quite some time (video and board games) and I am fed up with medieval stuff. I like tech! Lasers and space ships. In the end, Sid Meier’s Civilization was my pick. Being a fan of Sid Meier’s Civilization for a long time I didn’t want to get my hopes up too soon and my expectations were mediocre at best.

Game Info

Designer: Kevin Wilson
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Playtime: 2-4 hours (our first game took 6 hours + 1 hour for board setup)
Players: 2-4
Suggeste Age: 13+
Dice: None
Board: Modular map
Space requirement: 4 player game needs a fair amount of space, large kitchen table will be barely enough

Starting the game

Initial board setup

The game board consists of two main parts, one is the modular map and the other is the market. On the market you will find military units, city buildings and wonders. All those items can be build with production (yellow hammer icon) once they run out they are no longer available. Modular map is randomized and the size of it is based on the number of players playing the game. Initially the game starts with most of the map covered and players have to discover those map parts. First setup will take quite some time. There are a lot of small tokens that you’ll have to punch out of the cardboard and sorting through them takes some time.

The game

Civilization: The Board Game feels and looks like Civilization V, but at the same time it is different. Beside few minor details, the game mechanic is quite good and enjoyable. There are six races in the game. American, Chinese, Egyptian, German, Roman and Russian and each player randomly draws one of the race cards. Only four races are in the game at the same time. Players then apply their racial bonuses and build starting cities and buildings, for example, Egyptians get to build one random ancient wonder.

Exploring the map

There are four ways to win the game:

• Military – Destroy an enemy capital city, which proved to be a real challenge
• Economic – Gather 15 gold coins, which seems a little bit too easy
• Cultural – Climb the cultural ladder, which is there-there
• Scientific – Invent space flight, which can really surprise you

Each way is quite specific and you will be forced to focus on the task while trying not to reveal your plans to your opponents. Each turn has phases in which you can build new cities, collect trade points, harvest resources or build units, move armies on the map. Last phase is the research phase. Some of the phases can be played simultaneously by all players, others will have to be played one by one.

Combat

What good is a military part of a game with no combat? Combat is rock-paper-scissors based and sometimes outcome of combat will be hilarious. Simply put, infantry trumps over cavalry, cavalry trumps over artillery and artillery trumps over infantry. Taking this into consideration, the defender who starts first (unless defending a city) is at the slight disadvantage. Trumping unit does damage first and opposing unit must survive the attack to deal its damage. Pikemen destroying tanks? Yes, that was taken directly from the computer game. ;) Then there are the airplanes that don’t trump and can’t get trumped over, you get them really late in the game and they are quite powerful. Still, a group of skilled archers can shoot them down.

Archers vs. Airplanes

What I liked

Tech pyramid! Research is awesome. During the game you build your own tech pyramid and you have to decide which technologies you’ll discover and this greatly influences the game. All the civilizations start with one starting tech, the rest need to be discovered. Discovering techs is as exciting as it is in the computer version of the game, you’ll spend a lot of time just going through all the tech cards trying to decide which tech to discover next. Gunpowder or writing?

I also liked the general feeling of the game, it was the Civilization but at the same time it wasn’t. Slow starting pace that developed into an arms race on one side of the board and a cultural race on the other side of the board. Then a failed military conquest and a tech victory that came almost by a complete surprise. We realized two turns before the end that we were screwed. Even a quickly researched nuke didn’t help. :(

Military victory is actually quite hard to achieve. Defending a capital city will give you a big bonus and without four stacked armies you are unlikely to win.

Resources, buildings and units can run out. This means that your opponent can build the last barracks available and it will prevent other players from building them.

What I disliked

Not much. Game manual could be better, some things are unclear and hard to find. Exploring the map seems a little counter productive at the beginning and it doesn’t really pay off.  On the other hand, acquiring important resources early in the game can mean a big advancement. Sometimes it seemed that effect and influence of wonders is too big and you get to obsolete them quite late in the game.

Only four players. This can be a problem if you have more than four people that would like to play. On our last game night we had between three to five spectators around the table so an expansion pack is something that I would really like to see.

Unsorted token mess

I like games with a lot of stuff in the box, but I don’t like boxes where you don’t have any room to put tokens once they are punched out. Civilization has only one compartment. With more than 200 cards and more than 200 tokens this game is really a drag to set up. With a little help from Ikea, I sorted things out.

Neatly sorted tokens

Civilization, plugged or unplugged?

If you want fast paced game, quick turns and instant action, then go for the plugged variant. On the other hand, the unplugged version is a great representation of the computer game. It offers a lot of fun, it doesn’t take too long to play and it is a definitely one of the games that you should try to play on one of your gaming nights with your board game buddies. Bring a few beers or other beverages of your taste, you’ll need to stay hydrated.

Expansion pack is needed. Even after playing only a few games I think that an expansion pack could add few more races in the game. I missed Brits, Incas, Greeks and a few more. Throw in a few more units and expanded market with few more buildings, new wonders and a bunch of map tiles and 4 more players and the game will be even better.

“Dawnguard sentinels charge into the enemy as an overwhelming tide of cleaving blades. These heavily armored knights use their great swords to expertly carve through any adversary willing to stand against them. Sentinels embody sheer determination in flesh and steel and view themselves as the timeless essence of their order.

Dawnguard Sentinels come in a box (PIP 35009). A player may field two Dawnguard Sentinel units for each warcaster in his Retribution army.”

New day, new Retribution unit. This one will be a heavy infantry unit. Speculation wise, dawnguard sentinels will come in a box (meaning no blisters), which could mean small unit size. Probably on small bases, but on close inspection of the concept art and the size of the figure in regard on the sword they could be on a medium size base with some damage boxes. Big shoulder padds and parachute pants. Feel of metal exoskeleton and oversized two handed sword. If they will be on small base expect combined melee attack of some kind. What puzzles me is that the helmet doesn’t have any eye hole? Do they charge blindly in any force they can sense? Only time will tell.

“Kaelyssa is the foremost strike force commander of the Retribution’s mage hunters. Her sergeants claim she can hear the heartbeats of the enemy and taste their movements on the wind. Those wizards caught in her sights are left defenseless as their own magic is negated or turned against them. To Kaelyssa her calling is a dangerous but thrilling endeavor, and with every mission she extends the depths of her formidable talents.

Kaelyssa comes in a blister (PIP 35003). A player may field one Kaelyssa in his Retribution army.”

Now this is more like my style. Magic negation ability with assassination techniques. Due to affinity to goggles I would speculate she spent some time in Cygnar. Her weapons look like a formidable arrow rifle confirming my suspicions of ranged threat and some kind of light scimitar which could be seen as a signature of ninja assassin play style. Check out press release here.

On 20, May 2009 the Privateer press announced new Retribution model to the community with this press release:

“Dawnlord Vyros views the military might of the new Retribution as a sword in his hands, one sufficient to sunder any obstacle. He has the loyalty of the Dawnguard and the volunteered assets of dozens of other houses. The dawnlord has a reputation as a bold and forthright general who leads by example. Even pursuits such as falconry Vyros extends to applications in war, linking his mind to his hawk’s to look down from above and survey the battlefield.

Vyros comes in a blister (PIP 35001). A player may field one Vyros in his Retribution army.”

So we got an elf, with falcon who is a general and could be a warcaster or a solo. The bird is not a warcaster, that is sure. Or is it ? Anyway I have learned that it sometimes lands on Myrmadons. They usually look the other way and clean up afterwards, keeping the insults to themselves. Vyros will fit on 30 mm base and he will undoubtly use his sword if he does not tip ower. It is a mighty big swodr that one, so my money would be on the warcaster.

Enough speculation. Check it out for yourself.

“The legendary Dawnguard have ever defended the security of Ios by eliminating threats to the kingdom as soon as they are identified. Here’s a sneak peek at the Dawnguard Invictors releasing this September for the Retribution of Scyrah.”

This author speculates that this will be a range unit, with exoskeleton look of the armor and an razor sharp blade. The look of the unit is somehow similar to Final Fantasy characters. I speculate that unit will have new magic tricks which will be favourable to Japanese market and deployed through parachute pants.  Check out the conceptual art.