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Teaser Blood on the Water Tuesday

We’re almost there! The new book is almost out!

That’s right, the day that Carnevale fans have been waiting for since… well since before the Plague Doctors unleashed a virus on the world… is almost here!

This Friday, Carnevale’s first campaign book, Blood on the Water is going up for pre-order!

This amazing new volume is 112 pages long. It contains:

• Brand new stories! An ongoing narrative moves Venice into the new year. The story explores the entire year of 1795, splitting into three distinct conflicts. The Guild and Patricians are battling over the fate of the Arsenale and Venice’s future as a military power. The Rashaar are invading the island of Malta as the remaining Hospitaller Knights try to hold firm and protect the people. Meanwhile the Doctors have been undergoing to devious new experiments that put them firmly in Vlad Dracula’s sights. Written in part by returning star Gav Thorpe, he and Lewis Clarke are joined by David laPorta to craft the new chapter in Carnevale’s history.
• Beautiful art! This book is so full of amazing full-colour art by a whole slew of artists. It’s truly a visual wonder, in which you’ll see your favourite characters and brand new ones rendered in incredible detail.
• An updated rulebook! That’s right, Blood on the Water contains the full Carnevale rules. In what we’re dubbing 2.2 of the rules, we’ve tweaked and changed a bunch of bits to make it the most engaging it’s ever been. Annoyances have been removed, and more new things have been added.
• Brand new rules! In addition to the core rules, Blood on the Water contains loads of new, advanced rules for your games of Carnevale. Exclusive to this book, rules like Reactions provide new ways to play, while expanded scenery rules allow you to ride to battle in boats! There are also new ways to upgrade your gangs with new Equipment, unique Artifacts and the dangerous Ill Tides.
• 15 new scenarios! Focusing on the three main conflicts, Blood on the Water allows you to fight the battles of the story. See if you can beat the protagonists and tell your own version of events with scenarios like none you’ve ever played before.

It’s a great book, full of everything a Carnevale fan needs!

It’s not just the book going up for pre-order this week though, every single faction is getting a new boxed set of brand new miniatures!

Dockworkers

The Guild are receiving help from the Arsenale by the Dockworkers. This complete gang in a box offers new ways to play with your Guild forces, and a whole new area to have dominion over: the water! With a Harbourmaster to direct the battle, a Shipwright to lead the charge with his huge riveting hammer, a Fisherman with choice of weapons, and two Mariners, the Guild are taking back the canals.

Venetian Navy

On the other side of the conflict, the Patricians are instating a brand new Venetian Navy! Taking control of the Arsenale is key to their plans, and they’re paying a whole new navy to do so. A Sopracomito is a Leader with a whole load of coin, while the Naval Leiutenant is a more reliable source of command and has a multi-barrelled Nock Gun. A Naval Ensign is recently promoted and looking to prove her worth, while the two Naval Recruits hope their enthusiasm makes up for their lack of training.

Feral Besiegers

Over on the island of Malta, things have been strange for a while. Since the Rent in the Sky opened, an army of feral creatures have been trying to scale the fort walls. This box contains all new Henchman choices for the Rashaar. A Bulbous Toad will skewer foes with its tongue and pull them back in to bite, while the two Hellhounds scale the walls with a dangerous speed. Finally the Cymothoan Crusher might not be the most hardy foe, but watch out for this 50mm base Henchman’s devastating charge!

Knights Hospitaller

Standing firm against the Rashaar invasion are the Knights Hospitaller. Allied with the Vatican, if left on their own to survive, they are brave beyond measure. Lead to battle by the Knight Commander, he will not go down without a fight! A Paladin of St Lazarus has fought and died countless times, but God keeps bringing him back for more. Two Knights of Malta fight back to back with their fellow bretheren, and a young Maltese Squire provides some much needed long range support from the battlements.

Sleepless Undead

The Doctors of San Servolo have been busy behind the scenes, constructing golems of flesh and metal. The Master of Necromantic Studies has somehow found a way to reanimate the dead with her syringe of Elixir of Death. The result are two Husks – corpses reanimated, although they’re more like boxes of spare parts. A hulking Monstrosity is what happens when the box of spares is overflowing, and a Doctor of Venesection is a being altogether more twisted: a Strigoi with the mind of a Doctor. They’re brilliant but cannot be trusted – best to take their arms, just in case.

Airborne Cannibals

Vlad Dracula is not letting the Doctors get away with their experiements, and is sending out a whole host of new Strigoi – this time by the air. The Stryha Crone leads the way, blending into her surroundings and attacking at the opportune moment. She commands a Strige: a Strigoi who has been forced to eat only other Strigoi. Fall too far down that path, and they devolve into the hideous Strzyga, whose torn wings barely keep their bulging muscles in the air. Vlad is not above any perverse behaviour, and turning children into Strigoi yields the vicious Harpies. What they lack in raw power is met with a complete lack of empathy.

Unhinged Understudies

What’s this? New Commedia dell’Arte?? What a day! The curtains are drawn on this new complete gang for Gifted players, expanding on the Commedia with several archetypes. Drawn to Venice for various reasons, this motley crew has a bit of everything.

La Signora leads the way in a dress large enough that no one can ignore her. She tries to take centre stage in front of the Innamorati: star-crossed lovers whose love and sanity were torn apart by the Rent in the Sky. Mezzetino is bitter that his supposed brother Brighella left him to die. He’s after revenge on anyone that looks at him and his rapier wrong. Coviello is rather more relaxed, trying to make new friends through playing his lute (although he’s doing rather the opposite in practice). Finally Scapino always seems to be in the wrong place at the right time… at least he’s an expert in running away!

Carnevale Item Cards

That’s not all!

This new deck of cards provides you with a wealth of options for upgrading your gang. The 33 cards are split into three categories:

• Equipment cards offer upgrades for a gang at an affordable price. From Gondolas to Parachutes to full Boats! These are reworked and easier to use than ever.
• Artifact cards give players the option to take a single unique, powerful Artifact in their gang. From weighted dice to a death mask to a suit of plate armour, there’s something for everyone.
• Ill Tides are a brand new addition to your games, offering negative items! If you’re over your Ducat limit, your opponent can draw one or more of these cards to even the scales. Be wary: they usually happen at the most inopportune moment!

BOATS BOATS BOATS!

Did we just mention boats? Oh yeah we did!

Available this week, the boats are sailing in!

There are six new MDF boats coming your way on Friday, and all are styled after the six main factions in Carnevale (although the Patricians Brig would suit the Duke very well, thank you).

Boats are a new Equipment option in Carnevale, but many of these boats would look perfectly at home in many historical settings. Made almost entirely out of MDF, these boats are true marvels of flat-pack scenery. Using laminated layers of wood, you build up the hull piece by piece.

There are plenty of options available on the kits for advanced modellers as well. These kits are affordable, and designed to be made beautiful; a hobbyist’s dream. They have the option to string up your own rigging and even make your own sails, or you can use the included MDF sails, paint them up, and get some games in!

Wow, that’s a lot of new stuff this week!

We’ve even got the webstore exclusives going up on Friday to celebrate Adepticon (perfect timing for Blood on the Water, what a coincidence!). They’ll be up for a week, so you’ll be able to pick up Zovena Vela, the Queens of the Adriatic, or any others you might want.

All of these goodies will be hitting the TTCombat webstore this Friday. All week we’re going to be talking about the epic new book and new rules for every faction. Make sure to stop by every day to get all the information about the most exciting Carnevale release… ever!

Weiter geht es mit einem genaueren Blick auf die Dockworkers:

New Rules: The Guild

The Dockworkers are on their way to the Arsenale, and they’re bringing their best new rules with them!

This Friday sees the release of Blood on the Water, the first campaign book for Carnevale. And with it we’re also releasing the free 2.2 edition of the rules, and doing a full balance pass on every single character in the game!

So, what does that mean for the hard working people, thieves, and – newest of all – dockworkers of the Guild? Well, today we’ll have a quick look.

We’re not going to go over every single character, because every one has had some tweaks!

Faction Command Ability

Every faction Command Ability in the game has been revisited and re-evaluated. Interestingly these abilities were some of the first rules designed for version 2.0, and since then the game has changed!

Mob Mentality is still here, but it works a little differently. Rather than rolling a Mind check (which often isn’t the Guild’s strength), you get a number a re-rolls equal to the number of friendly characters in line of sight. You don’t have to mob up together – you can get your Capo up high and use it from the rooftops where you can see your whole gang!

Union

Ahhhh, the Union special rule. A unique ability shared by many members of the Guild. A skill that truly defines the style of the faction: the more they have, the better they are. Working together for the good of each person.

Well, we got rid of it.

Listen, it was clunky and annoying, and encouraged people to move their gangs around the board in huge groups. It was rubbish.

Instead, any characters that had Union before now get Companion (Trade).

It might not look like much if you didn’t read the notes from yesterday, but Companion now not only helps characters share their MIND value, but also replenishes 1 Will Point every turn if they start with line of sight to another character with the Trade keyword.

While it’s not quite the same as +1 ATTACK, an extra Will Point each turn is incredibly versatile, and only requires 1 extra Citizen (or Arbalest, Gondolier, Butcher etc) in order to work.

Command

To get the most out of the Trade keyword, you’ll want a Capodecina.

The Capodecina has had a few changes. While they’re not quite as aggressive as before, they do give everyone with the Trade keyword Companion (Trade), which is a great trade off.

They’re no longer Acrobatic, but instead they have a strange new skill called Aerial Attack. What does it do? Well, let’s just say that fall damage becomes a bit of a non-issue.

The Great & Noble Cult of the End of Days

What about the crazy people in pyjamas? They have that amazing ability “Mob Rule” which adds extra attacks depending on how many of them are in base contact.

Sorry, did I say “have”? I meant “had”. Because that’s gone too.

Pulcinellas also have Companion, but theirs is for any character with the End of Days keyword. Which – you may have already guessed – is all the Pulcinellas.

Like the Citizens, this does mean they’re a little worse at attacking generally, but it means they that much more reliable at everything else. And if you’ve played with a Pulcinella gang, you’ll know that a little more reliability is always useful.

Oh and did I mention that they’re now only eight Ducats?! In fact, almost all the Pulcinellas have gone down in price significantly, so while they’re not as good at mobbing up, you’ll be able to take an actual mob into battle.

House of Virtue

What about the Harlots? They don’t have a special rule that we’re removing, don’t worry.

However, the Madame still gives them all Companion, which means they replenish Will Points as well! The Guild has entirely turned into a faction that replenishes Will Points every turn. They’re not necessarily the best fighters (the Madame has actually become a little worse), but they’re reliable through to the end of the game.

Oh and while the Madame gives out Parry (2) until the end of the game, the regular Harlots have lost it I’m afraid. Instead they all have Slippery which (if you read yesterday’s post) means they can run away from base contact without even having to roll, making them extremely mobile.

Dockworkers

Okay, enough of the existing stuff. If you want to know how the Butcher has Expert Grappler (2), or the Gondolier is 11 Ducats, you’ll have to wait until Friday to see the rest of the changes. Now we’re talking about new things!

The Dockworkers box is a complete gang in itself, and is the start of an expansion into the dockyards of the Arsenale. This sub-faction of the Guild has a focus on water and being defensive, and are equally good both in the canals and on the ground.

In no one is this role more apparent than the Harbourmaster. A heavy defensive Leader character, she has an Aquatic Sailor’s Knife (remember, Unarmed is no longer Aquatic, so this is very handy), and a very useful Clockwork Pistol.

Fast Swimmer (2) is a great skill, but that’s actually Fast Swimmer (3) thanks to her Born to Swim rule! This is a Leader you take if you don’t want to be afraid of the water. Although her pistol is Black Powder, so make sure you shoot it before diving in!

There are two Mariners in the box. These are the Guild’s answer to the Rashaar Hybrid. With Fast Swimmer (2) they’re equally comfortable in the canals as they are on the ground. And with an Aquatic Dive Knife, they can cut up fish monsters as much as they desire.

Mariners aren’t particularly outstanding in any other areas, but they do come with Boat Crew, which is an Ability we haven’t seen before. What does it do? Well, I’m not telling you today, so get your guesses in!

Finally the Dockworkers set contains a single Shipwright. This imposing character certainly brings a fair bit of pain to the table.

As one of the Guild’s only 40mm base models, he can block off whole streets on his own, and is better at grappling and drowning against 30mm base opponents. With +2 Damage on his Riveting Hammer and Expert Offence (2), he’s going to be putting out a lot of pain for a Henchman! Just look out, he’s not particularly fast in the water (since he’s more used to putting boats together on dry land).

So what do you think? There’s a lot to take in here! Everyone getting replenishing Will Points, Harbourmasters turning the Guild into some kind of a water-based gang, and Ostrich Riders gaining First Strike (2)! Wait, I didn’t mention that last bit before, did I?

The Guild’s new rules will all be available for free on Friday, and the Dockworkers will be up for pre-order then as well. We’ll be back all week with more rules, and all the new pre-orders will be on the TTCombat webstore in just a few short days!

Auch die neue Navy bekommt einen Sonderbeitrag:

New Rules: Patricians

The fanciest people in Venice aren’t going to miss their chance for new rules, are they?

Blood on the Water is hitting the shelves this Friday! The first campaign book for Carnevale is chock-full of stories, scenarios, and brand new rules. And with it we’re also releasing the free 2.2 edition of the rules, and doing a full balance pass on every single character in the game!

We’re going to take a look at the Patricians to see how they’re changing with this balance pass, and of course have a look at some of the characters from the new Venetian Navy boxed set too.

Faction Command Ability

Every faction Command Ability in the game has been revisited and re-evaluated, and the Patricians are no different.

In fact, the Patricians have a brand new faction Command Ability, and it’s a key part of how the faction as a whole plays.

Are you a Patricians player? Well this next sentence is for your eyes only: Patricians are better than everyone else.

Are you a non-Patricians player? Well this sentence is just for you: Patricians are better than you.

And this Command Ability proves it! Patricians by their very nature are self-centred, selfish, and self-obsessed. They don’t really care what anyone else has to say and don’t really need to listen to them either. Let the Masquerata Begin shows that they don’t need to rely on anyone else. While this ability is very similar to the Order command, it doesn’t rely on anyone being in line of sight. A Patricians character with Command Points can just make themselves better, regardless of where they are on the board. Oh and there’s a chance it won’t even use a Command Point!

Command

Speaking of Command Points. They’re an integral part of Patricians being better than everyone else, but Command Points in general are not as prevalent as they used to be.

Before, certain Heroes would have some Command Points, but others did not. Now, in Patricians, every Noble has 1. That’s right, even Adventuring Nobles and Venetian Spies! Almost all of those characters have the Councillor keyword as well, meaning they might not use one when doing their Command Ability!

The Foreign Dignitary (previously Foreign Noble) shown here has had some changes. For one, these Dignitaries have been sent to Venice to broker trade deals. So why wouldn’t they speak Venetian, or at least Italian? No more penalties here!

For two, any Councillor is trying to win their favour and show them a good time. They’ll go out of their way to make this deal work, bossing around everyone and burning all their bridges (sometimes literally) to make that happen. In-game that means they replenish Command Points if they’re close enough! The Foreign Dignitary is going to become a staple in a lot of gangs.

Henchmen

We can’t talk about Patricians without mentioning about the Barnabotti!

These party-goers might not have the Councillor keyword (since they sell their vote to the highest bidder anyway), but they do also come with a Command Point! Unfortunately they’re limited in their use of it, but can give themselves an extra AP once a game.

Barnabotti are a little worse than they used to be (you’ll notice a lot of Henchmen have gone down to Attack 3 as standard), but they do now come with both sword and pistol! Don’t worry how your models look – you can now give them whatever weapon you think look coolest.

Remember that Companion replenishes Will Points as well, and they’ve dropped to 12 Ducats from 13! They are truly one of the best Henchmen out there.

Speaking of which…

PAN LADY!

Pan Lady has been awarded the character profile she truly deserved, separate from the Butler. She’s her own lady, and she will hurt you. While she’s not the Hero or Leader that some were campaigning for, she actually brings something that the Patricians were sorely lacking: a cheap (and good) Henchman choice! At 9 Ducats, she’s a steal!

Courtesans

While we’re talking about Henchman choices, Patricians players will notice on Friday that there is an ommission from the roster. You may have gained the Butler and Household Staff as separate choices, but the Courtesan has been removed.

We don’t do this lightly, and we know that this decision may cause some annoyance for some of you, but there are a lot of reasons we decided to removed Courtesans from the game.

You may have noticed that over the last few years, we’ve pushed to have a more equal split of men and women (and fish monsters) in Carnevale. We are an inclusive company, and believe that our products should reflect that. There are many amazing women in Carnevale like the Queens of the Adriatic, Moon, and White Dove (in fact, almost all of the recent art was drawn by an amazing woman, artist Rei), and the Courtesans did not live up to that standard.

We know that there were prostitutes in Venice at the time. We’re even happy to say that the Patricians still hire prostitutes. The difference is that we do not see a reason for them to be taken out onto the streets to fight. They have no weapons and no reason to be in the game.

The Guild have the House of Virtue as a subfaction, and that is not going to change. We’ve worked hard to make sure that the women and men in the House of Virtue have a purpose in-game. Spies and assassins, the Harlots are a welcome addition. Gav and I worked hard to make sure that the House of Virtue had their place and their agency. However, Courtesans have neither of those things, and so we’ve made the decision to remove them from the roster.

On purely practical terms, the Courtesans don’t fulfil a useful role in the Patricians faction. We’ve reworked their rules half a dozen times in playtesting to try to make them work, but couldn’t find anything for them to do that made us want to keep them.

We stand proud in our decision to make Carnevale an inclusive game, and the Courtesans were a remnant of a way of game design that we do not support. With that said, it’s time to look to the future of the Patricians and of Venice…

Venetian Navy

The newest box set coming for the Patricians this week is the Venetian Navy! This box contains five brand new models, with four new character classes. It’s a complete gang… sort of. Let me explain.

The Venetian Navy are led by a Sopracomito. This historic position is manned by a young noble who has been sent into military service in order to earn respect and the title he was born into. Put into the emerging Venetian Navy, the Sopracomito is responsible for the coin chest, and for raising a crew to sail out to unknown waters.

For that reason, he has both the Councillor and Officer keywords! He’s also not exactly the most commanding, or inspiring character. He’s not a fighter really either. However, he does have a lot of money. Able to move friendly Soldiers around the board and replenish their Will Points, he can also pay people to inspire them onto greater acts – letting friendly characters use his Will Points!

The Sopracomito is the cheapest Leader character in the game, and one of the worst at being an actual Leader. He’s great in small games though, allowing you to get almost a full extra character compared to taking a Venetian Noble! If you still want some fighting prowess though, take another Leader and the Sopracomito becomes just a Hero, so he’s still useful in larger games. What a deal!

If you’re looking for a true Officer for your gang, the Naval Lieutenant fills that role nicely! He’s a great swimmer, makes friendly characters even faster at swimming, and is also a Soldier so can be the target of other skills as well!

Of course, let’s not pretend we’re not excited for that gun. The Nock Gun is a thing of beauty. With six barrels of pure destruction, this thing packs a serious punch. +3 Damage is kind of ridiculous. You can even put both of his Will Points into the shot for a potential 8 Damage! However, Unwieldy means you have to line your shots up carefully, and your opponent can fairly easily get out of the way before he shoots again, so plan well.

The Lieutenant is also Boat Crew, which is a new ability. It lets you deploy on a boat, and helps when you want to sail it. Boat Crew that start their turn on a boat also replenish 1 Will Point, which makes him very useful for sail-by shootings!

The third new character in the set is the Naval Ensign. This lady has been in the navy since it was founded (a few months ago). She’s risen through the ranks and has seen more action than most (not hard). She – like all City Guard and Marksmen – has Companion (Officer) which helps her stay in the fight long after you’d think.

She swims fast, has a long ranged Fishing Spear that does extra damage, is Aquatic, and she also brings Hunter to the table. She’s worth every one of her 12 Ducats!

Finally the box comes with two Naval Recruits. These soldiers are brand new to the military, recruited as part of a massive drive to bring Venice back to the forefront as a military superpower (and put the Patricians at odds against the Guild – read more about it in Blood on the Water!).

Naval Recruits aren’t amazing. Their Naval Cutlasses are pretty good, but aren’t Aquatic. And other than Fast Swimmer (2), they’re not offering much. But for 9 Ducats, you can easily fill out your Henchman slots while still having cash left for some expensive Heroes!

Are you excited to field some Patricians who actually don’t mind being in the water? How about getting access to loads of Command Points?

We didn’t even have time to talk about Venetian Nobles inspiring their underlings to kill to replenish Will Points! Or Adventuring Nobles knowing every single Wild Magic spell! Heck, I didn’t even mention that Syphilitic Nobles have Frenzied now.

Oh well, there’s only so much time in the day, and Friday will be here before you know it with all these rules for free, and Blood on the Water and the Venetian Navy available for pre-order!

We’ll be back all week with more rules, and all the new pre-orders will be on the TTCombat webstore in just a few short days!

Quelle: TTCombat