For the last couple months I have been working hard on re-branding various packaging, books, cards, and concept art for the Cool Mini or Not tabletop game called Dark Age. The game is set on a post-apocalyptic planet called Samaria right after corporations that were conducting illegal experiments left promptly when their activities were revealed. Those left behind are forced to survive on the harsh conditions of the planet, where alien lifeforms are hostile, and the remaining scavenged technology used to sustain the human civilization is unreliable at best. Delve with me into the grim sci fi game of Dark Age.
For more information, please click the image below.
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| Sanguine Plateau has bear witness to many battles that scar the surface of Samaria. |
So the first faction I had the pleasure of revamping is the Forsaken, remnants of the United Worlds staff left behind to fend for themselves. Over time, they have developed a distrust for outsiders, and un-sanctioned technology. Some have even become overzealous in their view on preventing the distribution of illegal technologies. Over time, the most outspoken became part of the inner circle council called the Prevailers. They created the city of Ashkelon as their headquarters, and formed the other less faithful groups into different sectors outside of the inner circle. These outer ring slums are filled with the morally dubiuous. They are often recruit for dangerous tasks outside the city wall, but it is a sacrifice for the glory of the Prevailers. The inhabitants in these cities have taken up a name that is quite suitable for their predicament, the Forsaken.
I will be uploading various boxed sets for each faction in Dark Age. The next couple days I will focus specifically on the Forsaken.
Today we have the Forsaken Starter set. One of my favorite things about the new box set format is that it bypasses the outdated individual blister format. Before, Dark Age players stress out on trying to figure out how many of each unit they can take. Now, each box tells you what you need exactly for a playable army of 500 points. Everything outside of the "Faction Starter" can be considered ancillary and supplementary.
When I designed the box, I used a lot of religious buildings for reference such as Gothic and Romanesque style churches. The frame design features a semi-trompe l'oeil effect that has a pop-up 3D effect.
In this Forsaken Faction Starter, you will receive :
- Warwind A x1
- Field Medic x1
- Coil Diskmaster x1
- Deacon x1
- Banes x3
- Bane Leader x1
The Warwind is your combat oriented commander unit. Like the Deacon, he can squadlink with unrelated units. However, he is strictly melee oriented and he is quite good at it. with a low Defensive value, he is very hard to hit, and his dual katana which crits on a 3 and deals additional +1 damage or a total of 2) when he crits, he can hit very hard. Also, he is very agile meaning enemies do not gain combat bonuses from charging or ganging up on him. The Warwind model has two versions both of which is also featured in future box sets (Forsaken Command Box 1 & 2).
The Coil Diskmaster is a stronger version of the Coil Leader. They sport devices that shoot spinning saw blades of death. The Diskmaster is so skillful with his ranged attacks that he can shoot enemies behind light cover, and hit enemies behind heavy cover as if they are in light cover. As the leader of coils, every time you activate with other coils, they also gain the Crack Shot ability to ignore enemy cover bonuses. The highlight of this unit's attack is the critical strike when you roll a 3, and the decapitate ability similar to the Warwind's melee attacks. Be careful though, technology created on Samaria are often fabricated from scavanged parts and can malfunction if your critically fail your rolls on a 19. To supplement this you will want to have a Weaponsmith on your team, but that is for another box feature.
The Field Medic is your support unit. She keeps your units alive and you do not want to get her into a combat situation where she can be targeted by being singled out. Any units within her influence range of 8 inches do not die right away if their hit points reach 0. Instead, they are in a Dying State that can be stabilized by the medic if she succeeds in using her laser scalpel to restore the downed unit. because the medic is an important for keeping your units alive, other units are willing to take a hit for her when the time comes. Her Human Shield ability allows her to use units more heavily armored to get between her and what can amount to certain death. I would recommend grabbing a Sister of Compassion from a box from a future feature.
Bane Leader and Banes are your bread and butter front line unites. They are relatively well armored but have only 1 hit point for each unit so if they take a wound, they die. On the upside, their melee attacks allow you to roll two die, one die for each side of their two headed mace. This gives you the potential to deal 2 damage each time you use an attack action. The knockdown weapon ability can help turn the tide of battle in your favor if the enemy is knocked prone. This allows other heavier hitting units to take out the hapless enemy.
The Bane leader gives all the bane units that squad-link with him this turn the Guard ability. This allows them to go on hold without having to spend an additional activation.
For more information on how the game plays, please check out the rule book on the Dark Age website.
I hope you enjoyed this post about a fun table top game that I play and have designed for. I am encouraged to see the number of players dropping by the Cool Mini or Not Booth last weekend at the Nova Open in Virginia. I hope more people will pick up the game so we can develop a community. So that is it folks, please stay tuned for future posts about Dark Age the miniature game!
*Miniatures are painted by the talented Jen Haley and the hardworking team from Big Child in Spain.