Just wanted to alert peeps that the next SoB preview is up:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=863

Highlights Bones the avatar and a couple Lts.

-shnar

nice!

lalala make the post longer!

nice!

They look prety cool, though I wish the stats for at least one of the lieutenants had been included. It'd give us a feel for the comparative power level between RtL and SoB.

I notice Captain Bones has less treachery than the RtL Avatars, but cheaper upgrades for 2 instead of 1 monster type. Honestly I'm a little surprised that an undead pirate out for revenge would be short on treachery. Would've been nice to see Liutenant stats, but they sound pretty brutal from their descriptinos. And they didn't show us any Avatar upgrades for SoB, in particular those of the Captian

Also, so far the way all the LT's we've seen so far are sea based. None of them go on the land. I hope that land doesn't become a safe-haven for the party.

Considering you can NOT have an encounter on land, I think it's a safe bet to assume there are no land-based Lt's. There's still Razing in the game, so Lt's can siege the cities, but since all cities are ports, I guess they're attacking the various docks of the town

-shnar

Yea, don't forget that the outdoor tiles are not in the standard set, but in RtL and ToI, and FFG makes their expansions stand alone with the base set. SoB won't be adding any outdoor tiles, but rather the island/open water map. But while the heroes will be safe from encounters on land, there isn't very much to away from the shore, and if the lieutenants get bored, they can just siege the ports. None of the cities are landlocked as far as I know.

Yeah, I completely missed that. Still, lame-sauce.

Take a look at the overland map:

You can see that most dungeons are connected pretty tightly to cities, so it's not like there would be that many land encounters anyways. Also, this might be one of the "rebalancing" effects. Some heroes have found that most Encounters are very easy and a good way to get extra cash, so they go *looking* for Encounters instead of avoiding them. Maybe in SoB, they've ratched the difficulty of the encounters up a lot, so heroes are scared of them, and to balance that out, they removed Land Encounters all together?

-shnar

Huh, for some reason the map is oddly cut off (such a weird board system FFG has). Here's the direct URL:

http://www.thegelatinouscube.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/gencon-002.jpg

-shnar

Yeah, but there are tons of dungeons on the land that, other than visually being on the coast, aren't connected to any sea territories. Does this possibly mean that Lt's will lose the ability to re-enforce an area?

That screnshot tells us quite a bit more than the preview...

AVATARS

Master of the Hunt - Diamond Master Hellhound

The Count - ???

Master of Serpents - Diamond Master Naga

SKILLS

Captain skill - Exhaust at start of OL's turn to place Orders on all Heroes who don't have orders on them. Only refreshes when a Glyph is activated.

Deadeye Skill - +2 Range to ranged attacks (?)

Alex the Wise Skill - mentions some kind of teacher (?) Sounds a bit like a familiar.

TOWNS

Denkale M:5, W:5, A:2, T:4 - Queen's Toll: To enter Denkale, the party must pay 100 gold coins.

South West Town M:3, W: 5, A:3, T:5 - Dark Spies: Can't make out the text

Gafford M:2, W:3, A:5, T:1 - School of Alchemy - Purchase potions for 25 Gold each!

Shellport M:3, W:3, A:4, T:2 - Sailors Haven : Party may draw a free Reaver when they enter Shellport.

Trenton M:0, W:4, T:4 - Great Smiths - For twice the cost and 20XP, one Hero may purchase one item of their choice from the current treasure deck. Only one Hero may use this ability each turn.

Hardell M:4, W:4, A: 3, T:3 - Hardell Steel - Can't make the text out; maybe a cost reduction for items?

North West Town (Get name from Runebound) M:4, W:3, T:8 - Looks like it's difficult to get to and the first city to die from the Overlord. The Floating City - All ship Upgrades cost 1 Conquest Token less.

shnar said:

I'm noticing that the land-based trails between nodes don't have the encounter shields like RtL's map did. The sea trails seem to have something akin to those markings, but not the land trails. I don't think it will possible to have overland encounters in SoB. Which makes sense since FFG's pattern of only requiring the base game would eliminate all outdoor terrain tiles except what might be provided in this one. Based on this observation, I wouldn't be surprised if there were no outdoor terrain tiles here.

Oh yeah, they've confirmed that overland encounters are NOT part of SoB. I was just speculating /why/.

And as for Lts reinforcing dungeons, my guess is that rule just doesn't exist anymore.

I am happy that there are a bunch of new skills for this game

(which makes me wonder which skills are they *excluding*?)

-shnar

Ok, so I guess I was wrong and there is 1 landlocked city, and quite a few dungeons on land.

shnar said:

If you look back at the latest preview, it appears Lts can still reinforce dungeons, as the Ghost ship has Brilliant Commander, which I doubt is only meant for its Lt encounter, seeing as it has no minions.

And I'm guessing overland encounters are not part of SoB because they can only fit so many pieces into one expansion, and couldn't fit land encounters in a sea themed expansion due to space/money.

Jake yet again said:

I believe the Count has been confirmed as a Razorwing

Southwest town: looks like it's called Orrin or close to that, appears that whenver the heroes enter or pass through it, the OL gains a conquest (note that only in this town and Denkale can the heroes train in any trait, and these are the ones that have bad things for entering. They also have some of the higher markets and walls.

Shellport: I believe that is a free rumour , which makes more sense

If you better read last preview then you could see that " We were sailing in the southern Cerridor Sea, bound for safe harbor at Garnott.. ."
so hidden city (right down corner) I deducted is named as Garnott . If you traced last log of Thalia then ... they sail from right corner harbour to " Just north of the Narrows of Gracor , we spotted a small island in the distance " that's land where Orrin is. See little maps in my translated ver. of Descent previews.

(first one is from preview Beastmen off the Stardboard Bow )
http://imgupload.sk/images/4i9ghbpwsfuzyyxlodsm.jpg

(and second one is from preview A Gripping Tale )
http://imgupload.sk/images/ml66x73vjbbdca6p3n2j.jpg

blue dashed line marked way to log encounter and red for planning trail. Special thanks to Mark

I have Sea of Blood at home right now. Bought it at the Essen Game Fair. Since I don't have much time at the moment I just took at quick look at the components and the rulebook. Feel free to ask if you want to know some details... although I will be at the Game Fair for the next 3 days I'll try to see what I can answer...

Avatars are:

Master of the Hunt - Diamond Master Hellhound

Master of Serpents - Diamond Master Naga

The Count - Diamond Master Razorwing

Captain Bones - Diamond Skeleton

There are 24 new skill cards for Sea of Blood.

The following skills are removed from play in exchange:

Fighting: Bear Tattoo, Brawny, Furr the Spirit Wolf, Knight, Leadership, Parry, Taunt, Unmovable

Subterfuge: Acrobat, Alertness, Deflect Arrows, Rager, Rapid Fire, Shadow Soul, Skilled, Swift

Wizardry: Bardic Lore, Divine Retribution, Earth Pact, Shar the Brightwing, Spiritwalker, Telekinesis, Water Pact, Willpower

Lorien said:

Whoa...are these flat out removed or are there SoB specific versions of them that come with the game? That is quite the list with some strange ones in there.

Big Remy said:

Indeed. With such a skill list overhaul it will be a very different game.

One of the most fun things about playing around with Enduring Evil is that the skills and equipment are completely changed - so the way characters interact and operate is completely different. Very cool. Party design is quite entertaining with everything new, and new skill combinations discoverable.

I'd be keen to learn what the new skills are like. Hopefully they add some special twist that's fun and aren't just some generic character beefs.

I can't lie. I really am looking forward to this expansion. The concepts are really neat. I just hope it gets more play test time than is predecessors. I may cry tears of joy if it is error free.

Some of the more broken skills are gone, thankfully. I'm also very glad to see the back of Taunt. I don't like skills which close off options.

darkkami said:

I doubt you'll need your tissues.

Ok, as a teaser some of the new skills:

Swashbuckler (Fighting): When you declare a Battle action, you may immediately spend 2 fatigue to gain movement points equal to half your speed (round up) and place a dodge order on yourself at the end of your turn.

Captain (Fighting): Exhaust this skill at the start of the overlord's turn to allow every hero that doesn't already have a placed order (including yourself) to place their order choice of a dodge, rest or aim order. This skill only refreshes when you (and only you) activate a glyph.

Counter Attack (Fighting): After an enemy figure in your melee range rolls a missed result, you may immediately make 1 Melee attack against that figure. You may do this once each time an enemy figure in your melee range rolls a miss result.

Piercing Shot (Subterfuge): Exhaust this skill before making a Ranged attack to make that attack an aimed attack and give it Pierce 10. This skill only refreshes when you (and only you) activate a glyph.

Trickster (Subterfuge): Exhaust this skill before an enemy figure makes an attack against you that only targets 1 space. That attack is redirected against another figure (friendly or enemy) of your choice. If the redirected attack is unable to hit its new target (due to range, etc.) then it automatically misses. This skill only refreshes when you (and only you) activate a glyph.

Koll's Mark (Wizardry): During your turn, you may sacrifice 2 wounds to make 1 additional Magic attack. you may do this up to 2 times per turn. Losing these wounds cannot be prevented by any means.

Ran's Mark (Wizardry): During your turn you may sacrifice 1 wound to heal all other friendly figures within 3 spaces of you (regardless of line of sight) by 1 wound. You may do this up to 2 times per turn.

Alchemist (Wizardry): Each time you (and only you) activate a glyph, you gain 3 potions of your choice.