Sunday, July 31, 2005

Huge news about DDM rules changes

Mike Donais posted on the Wizards boards:
As Steve hinted at the fixed minis are only commons that you will be fine with multiples of (a common orc and elf). These are just in there because there is a teaching the game guide that walks you through a fight between the 2 minis.

The maps are all full color like the Championship map. Additional maps will be available through fantastic locations so you will have many maps to choose from right away. Each of them is beautiful also (I just saw a bunch of them finished this week and they made me quite happy!). Fantastic Locations contain 4 maps (2 double sided).

Epic cards and epic play will continue being part of the game but will not replace 200 as the primary format. It will be the new way to play at 500 points. We have numerous Epic maps also which are all huge friendly and legal in the 500 point epic format.

Initiative will be used to determine which player's map is used and then again to determine who chooses the side they want. Each player brings one map with them to the tourney as part of their warband.

The 'simplifications' are not anything to be excited about. The biggest one is the use of maps to get the games started faster (more playing and less setting up). We were also able to do some really cool stuff with the maps that we could never do with tiles (hint: teleporters). So we managed to make some of the maps even more tactical than tiles could be for the people who are into that style of play.

The only other significant change is the speed 2 rule went away. This seems to speed up the game and make it more fun because you don't have to keep checking that everyone is under command constantly and you don't have to worry about accidentally moving someone full speed when they were not under command (I hate when I do that). It was also necessary due to some maps with heavy walls which would block commanders from seeing their troops.