When designing new cards for The Long Cold, finding new and interesting combos was central, and Trusted Companion is a perfect example of this.
With Trusted Companion by your side, you can have a Car ready to go while using the Horse to handle daily stuff. You can have permanent weapons such as Machete without removing the option of Pistol, Flamethrower and the like if your arm gets wounded. Plus, you actually get and extra space for a wound, making your weapon management all that safer. The other way to get an extra wound space requires exercise, but can definitely be worth it too. Going into close combat with zombies is dangerous though, so be sure to bring a Knife and some Bandage.
But do you know what the best thing with an extra wound space is? You can eat some Canned Food. Or a Cow.
So who’s the hero? You? The Trusted Companion? Or the Cow? The answer is in the title/headline.
Jacob has written a few articles about the development of After the Virus: The Long Cold which we will share over the coming weeks. Enjoy!
Designer Diary: After the Virus – The Long Cold
Part #2: Delving into delaying
So what else can animals be good for? Well, for one thing, they are excellent at warning against danger.
Delayed? Yeah, we have new effects on the zombies too. A delayed zombie card doesn’t attack this turn. Delayed zombies don’t stop you from using healing effects such as Medkit, and they don’t stop you from ending the turn. And you can attack them all you want. Next turn, the effect is removed and they attack normally again.
How then do you delay zombies? You just goat to have the right animal or do some fencing. Or see the zombies well in advance.
Hey, why are there six zombies on that 4-zombie card? Hmm, must be one of those new zombie cards that you add with each mission. They often have different number of enemies on them from their level number to compensate for an ability. In this case, having them starting delayed is an excellent excuse for adding a couple more zombies to the card!
Want to see another of the new zombie cards? Here you go:
Cute, aren’t they? You actually never have to deal with them. But if you don’t, you’ll reach the level 2 zombie cards sooner. And being 2 zombies on a level 1 card, it takes a bit of work to get rid of them. Fortunately, you can have a buddy on guard duty, picking them off one by one.
Jacob has written a few articles about the development of After the Virus: The Long Cold which we will share over the coming weeks. Enjoy!
Designer Diary: After the Virus – The Long Cold
Part #1: Fleshing it out
When designing the original After the Virus, we had limited space in the deck, and needed a good mix of cards and card types. There were so many things that naturally belonged in the game, like facilities, weapons, vehicles, equipment etc, but we could only add a few of each and though we are very proud of the result, there is so much more that belongs in the theme, and so many more combos to explore! Enter The Long Cold…
Yes, this is our chance to do what we always wanted: go wild and add all the things that couldn’t fit before! Zombie movies often have iconic weapons and equipment, such as the beloved Chainsaw from the base game. Other things we want in the game include a crossbow, a horse, spear, fences and other things that takes us back to a movie scene. Or just triggers our imagination.
With that in mind, we also wanted to round out the gameplay themes in the game. You have probably noted that there is an animal in the base game (the Dog), but no other animals, and nothing that combos with them. Time to fix that. Similar situation with armor, but there are also quite a few areas where we had a few cards but no real combo, like throwing weapons, facilities, events etc. Time to fix that too. You could say that we have explored the design space.
So how does this work with the fixed starting deck of After the Virus? We decided that the best way was to gradually introduce new cards during a campaign, so that players both get to focus on and enjoy a few new cards at a time, and build up their character deck over time! Yep, ladies and gentlemen, a real campaign where your decisions carry over to future missions. So you’ll be familiar with the base game deck, but gradually tweak it, introducing new cards and combos.
By having a separate area deck with new cards, players are allowed to get cards from there, as long as they exchange them for their own scouted cards. This way, players have to pay a little extra for a new card (the scout cost for the card they take out), and they have to scout cards they are willing to let go from their deck. The longer into the campaign they get, the harder it will be to find ‘dead weight’ to sacrifice for new cool stuff. New stuff that go directly into play when you get them, and lurks in your area deck in future missions.
Yeah, so we have a whole new campaign too, with the special twist that most missions have carry over rules (called aftermath) that allow you to thematically keep a few cards in play between missions.
Now, back to the Horse. Do you know what else horses can do? CHAAAAARGE!!!
At last we have stocked up on the sought after Dual Layer Player Boards! For 160 SEK you will get 5 boards that help your resources stay in place better, adds spaces to signify 10 and 20 production, and well… they make the game even more fun! Buy yours here.
apart from designing board games, we love laying puzzles! For years, we’ve challenged each other to puzzle contests, with new puzzles every year – and now we’ve created our own! We’re happy to announce that we have added four puzzles to the webshop, and of course we also made a bundle with all of them for you to enjoy at a lower price. Happy puzzling!
Dear fellow gamers!
We know you are all eager to get your hands on the Dual Layer Player Boards, Metal Cubes, Sleeve Sets, and, of course, the fan-made boards. All of this (and more) is finally on its way! There have been some delays, but this is the latest estimate of the re-stocking dates:
– Dual Layer Player Boards: in the middle of June
– Metal Cubes, Sleeves etc: in the middle of July (This is also when the Ultimate Bundle can be made again)
– Fan-Made Boards, Angel Fury: in August
Terraforming Mars: In the Shadow of Deimos is the first book set in the Terraforming Mars universe, written by Jane Killick, formerly known for her work on Babylon 5. The book is now available in the web shop.
This year marks the 10-year anniversary for our game Space Station. Last year, we made a second edition of the game together with Hexy Studio, fitting their game series about the StarScrappers. The Second Edition is named StarScrappers: Orbital and features streamlined rules, rebalancing of the cards, and gorgeous new artwork. Check it out here!
we’ve experienced some technical difficulties which increased some shipping rates without us realizing it. We have now reduced the shipping rates again for the affected regions: Denmark, Finland, Baltics.
We have also recently lowered the shipping cost to North America by about 15%.
From June 1st to August 31st, we will add 1 Summer Season Promo to each and every order made in the web shop. This card, Bactoviral Research, is designed to make microbe strategies more attractive while putting players into various dilemmas: “Should I play it now to get my microbe cards going, or should I wait until I have more science tags?” “Should I play it now to get the extra science tag I need, or should I wait for other science tags to show up?” “Should I place the microbes on a terraforming microbe card, or should I place them on VP-gaining microbe cards?”
Angel Fury is now on Kickstarter, and it is already funded! This is your chance to get it before all others, and at a decent discount as well. Angel Fury is out most elaborate board game project yet. With over 200 miniatures, it is the perfect crossover between miniature war games and board games. So if you like miniature games, but rarely have the time to play them, Angel Fury will fit perfectly in your collection, with play time between 1-2 hours.
The game also features resource management, hand management, deck-building, and asymmetrical player powers. You can see the introduction below, or at the Kickstarter page. We look forward to welcome you there!
Speaking of Kickstarters, many have now received their Terraforming Mars: Big Box, but the process is long and will continue a few more weeks. We’re also in the production step of Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, which is turning out great. Cheers!
