Ronnie Rounds Off Walking Dead Wave Five Week

Hi Ronnie here,

Just popping in to round off the Walking Dead blog week – and I hope everyone has enjoyed seeing what awesomeness we have for wave 5, a few sneak peeks of Here’s Negan – The Board Game and some insight into our plans for keeping this game being played for years to come

We love the fact that this skirmish game has 3 ways of being played – the narrative storyline, the co-op angle and the PvP – and over the week we have talked about how we are going to develop all 3.

I just want to debunk what seems to be a slight misconception. In the video with T&G (which you can watch below) I talked about ‘Fear the Hunters’ (aka wave 5) being the last expansion in the current format. What I meant by that is a wave will no longer always consist of both a Big Expansion (with 5 or 6 minis, cardboard terrain, cards, and rules covering both a narrative arc and another style of play) alongside 6 booster boxes (in fact even by wave 5 we have already scaled back the boosters to 4).

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OayBy6IMYo&t=67s[/embed]

Why the change?

We have done away with the monolithic quarterly release for a number of reasons.

We felt the storyline changes from predominantly PvE to more PvP, and we want to reflect that in the releases. Moreover, a lot of the main characters (and lots of the dead ones!) have already been introduced (and obviously many of those characters already have 1 or even 2 sculpts), and so unless they have changed significantly (such as Caaaaarrrl growing up, or characters losing limbs!) then there isn’t a need for a new sculpt, even if they do need a new card.

It was becoming clear that each new wave needed to cater to changing needs.

For example, in these releases we decided to focus more on developing the gameplay in the core, rather than just in the expansion. So rather than adding another sculpt to the already numerous Walkers, the wave 5 plastic boosters will come with two major game changers instead:

• Firstly, there will be new Veteran cards (to boost your more junior characters up to wave 5 levels, reinvigorating some of the lesser models to be viable in higher level games). We can’t wait to see some of those early wave 1 and wave 2 characters being used on the tabletop more
• We are also aware that many of you will have played through the event deck many, many times, and so we have added a new and unique Event card into each booster – to be added to your base deck – to give some new walker scenarios during your games.

[caption id="attachment_19999" align="aligncenter" width="423"] You can see all the lovely new cards at the bottom![/caption]

In essence, each new release from now on will focus on a particular aspect of the game – and develop that aspect really well. Then we will focus on another part of the game and keep rolling round. All the while bringing out new characters to ensure we follow Robert Kirkman’s superb narrative.

For example, Here’s Negan: The Board Game focuses absolutely on a new narrative story arc – but it is presented in a way that should both excite existing players with a new setting and fresh new mechanics, but also opens the door to a board game audience that might be unfamiliar with the more open style skirmish game.

And if you get the game on pre-order (either from Mantic or any good hobby store) you’ll also get the All Out War cards totally free – allowing the Here’s Negan game to kick off your Savior Warband. Plus, because we’re so nice, I’m sure we’ll make those character cards available through Mantic Points some time in the New Year too. So Here’s Negan is your chance to get them FIRST!

And the future…

Well, I have already mentioned the development of the skirmish game, with some force organisation cards and missions to allow some of us crazies to take the PvP element on to the next level. However, we will also be doing more narrative stories (which could be downloads, or a book with story arcs gathered together) and we will keep releasing cool upgrades (like event cards, more equipment and character cards, and even a GREEN dice… whatever could that be?) to keep the game play in the core narrative fresh and exciting. Oh, and we will of course continue to release the awesome models to show off all the new faces from the story.

So, for now feast your eyes on Eugene, Rosita and my favourite Abraham! And get excited about what we have planned for Jesus, Gregory and of course The Whisperers!

Until next time …stay alive!