Desperate for more news, I was looking at the Infantry Upgrade expansions again today, when I noticed some upgrades I hadn't seen before! In this image there are three figure upgrades:

• Artifact Bearer, a unit champion that gives the unit access to a Unique upgrade (that dies when he does!)
• Lion Standard Bearer? a standard bearer that probably gives them steadfast: fear
• (Baffling? Battling?) Cornicen, a musician that has an action ability that I can't make out. Something like "Each (enemy? friendly?) unit at range (1 to 3?)..." can anyone make sense of it?

The Waiqar equivalent only has one other shown, and I can't parse it.

Interestingly, this means there are likely three of each figure upgrade in the box, rather than the two I had assumed. Rejoice for more choices!

Reaping Blade on some spearmen is a very interesting thought, plus whatever other artifacts get released over the next few expansions.

Too bad the artifact bearer is Daqan only. Putting heartseeker on a nice big block of deepwood archers brought in through Kari would be awesome.

Waiqar "profane banner bearer" is interesting imo which pretty much is the biggs of runewars. But weird is the text in the ffg article says the upgrade has defence four but the card they show has defence two :/

7 hours ago, Soulless said:

Waiqar "profane banner bearer" is interesting imo which pretty much is the biggs of runewars. But weird is the text in the ffg article says the upgrade has defence four but the card they show has defence two :/

FFG gets game play details wrong on their news articles all the time.

Anyone else able to read the upgrade on the far left?

Fortunes Dice: Exhaust this card to turn a die to a side of your choice

That is what I see.

As for Artifact Bearer, that is what I read as well

Never noticed it before. It does appear that there are 3 versions of each character. You can see 3 music upgrade cards, 3 banner bearer cards, and then 6 figure upgrade cards. We know the Waiqar drummer and the Daqan horner are music upgrades, and we know the banner holders are banner upgrades. Makes sense for the other 6 aforementioned upgrades to be split between the other two figures.

That would be very nice as I'd love to see a 3rd "wizard" upgrade for the Daqan. I'm not really thrilled at the Geomancer or Channeler.

The Geomancer will most likely kill off half his back row whenever he uses his special ability but I suppose there might be times where that's a good trade. Having him survive until you get into a good position to use him however will be tricky as with just 2 defense/1 health nearly any ranged attack that rolls a hit and accuracy will pick him off (Channeler too!).

As for the Channeler, there will hopefully be more magic stuff in the future but right now manipulating runes is very situational. A Rune Golem in the right spot at the right time hoping for 4 unstable runes to pull off his surprise 4 move/charge, hoping for more stable runes to trigger Brutal or his defense modifier, or maybe getting rid of natural runes to deny Regeneration... anything else? Bad part is you're still just recasting the runes so there's a 50/50 chance you don't change anything.

You're also committed to putting these wizards in a 4 tray unit. I could see a 2 tray unit that's essentially a bodyguard for a Geomancer as he runs in to do his thing, or having a Channeler just sit in the back to fiddle with runes.

If thats true thats kinda neat to have multiple kinds of unit upgrades, especially if you cant take them all as it forces diversity.

15 hours ago, Lyraeus said:

Anyone else able to read the upgrade on the far left?

Fortunes Dice: Exhaust this card to turn a die to a side of your choice

That is what I see.

As for Artifact Bearer, that is what I read as well

Fortuna's Dice. Descent has an equipment card with the same name. I would imagine that in world, it's the same set of dice.

1 hour ago, Daverman said:

That would be very nice as I'd love to see a 3rd "wizard" upgrade for the Daqan. I'm not really thrilled at the Geomancer or Channeler.

The Geomancer will most likely kill off half his back row whenever he uses his special ability but I suppose there might be times where that's a good trade. Having him survive until you get into a good position to use him however will be tricky as with just 2 defense/1 health nearly any ranged attack that rolls a hit and accuracy will pick him off (Channeler too!).

As for the Channeler, there will hopefully be more magic stuff in the future but right now manipulating runes is very situational. A Rune Golem in the right spot at the right time hoping for 4 unstable runes to pull off his surprise 4 move/charge, hoping for more stable runes to trigger Brutal or his defense modifier, or maybe getting rid of natural runes to deny Regeneration... anything else? Bad part is you're still just recasting the runes so there's a 50/50 chance you don't change anything.

You're also committed to putting these wizards in a 4 tray unit. I could see a 2 tray unit that's essentially a bodyguard for a Geomancer as he runs in to do his thing, or having a Channeler just sit in the back to fiddle with runes.

Geomancer is quite bizarre, that's for sure. A hero with an ability like Ardus's for Daqan would be VERY interesting - 2-tray units with a geomancer is easier to get use out of.

Runes also apply to Wind and Fire Runes, as well as to Ankaur Maro's ranged attack and ability to add trays to units. I think having influence over them is going to be consistently useful, will just come down to fitting in a list. Cool support piece.

@Daverman @Bhelliom the wizards are champion upgrades, meaning they can only go in 4 tray units minimum.

Oh I know, my comment was a complaint that you're committed to a 4 tray unit if you want them. I was suggesting that they might be more useful if you could put them in smaller formations.

9 hours ago, rowdyoctopus said:

Never noticed it before. It does appear that there are 3 versions of each character. You can see 3 music upgrade cards, 3 banner bearer cards, and then 6 figure upgrade cards. We know the Waiqar drummer and the Daqan horner are music upgrades, and we know the banner holders are banner upgrades. Makes sense for the other 6 aforementioned upgrades to be split between the other two figures.

There could be a General upgrade version not locked to a faction.

46 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

There could be a General upgrade version not locked to a faction.

They have the faction colors on them. The champion upgrades are typically figure upgrades, but I guess they don't have to be. I can't imagine some figures having 3 versions and others only 2.

1 hour ago, rowdyoctopus said:

The champion upgrades are typically figure upgrades, but I guess they don't have to be.

Dispatch Runner from the core is a perfect example of this.