In our second issue of the preview series for Age of Chaos' next expansion, The Great Struggle, we will be unveiling some of the new and revamped mechanics for the set as well as revealing some of the upcoming cards and abilities that represent the former Galactic Empire.
In this first section of the preview, we at Galactic Illusionary Gaming had made the decision when designing this set to treat as essentially a relaunch of the game. The teams involved, both design and concept, believed it would give them greater flexibility in creating the Great Struggle and future expansions by approaching the set with this mindset. Consequently, that does mean the set has rapidly developed into the largest card set the company has designed as we develop brand new cards for it and remaster many from the game's earliest sets, but it also means that certain mechanics developed at the beginning needed to either be redesigned completely or tweaked to fit in with the new vision we at the company have for the game.
As an example of this change, certain keyword activated abilities have been cut and changed to merely be activated abilities with no keyword attached to them. Abilities like Scan or Assassinate no longer exist, at least at present as the team does reserve the right to bring them back in new forms in the future. We feel this change will open up more possibilities in the future for new mechanics and abilities, while also streamlining the number of keywords present in the game. The full list of changes and mechanics will be revealed when the expansion launches.
In the second section of this preview, we would like to highlight some of the new mechanics and cards designed for the former Galactic Empire. For these cards and mechanics, we wanted to place greater emphasis on the martial ideologies of the Empire and their focus on fielding a powerful military, but at the cost of not having as many Forceful Being cards as other factions. To make up for this, the Imperial cards have two faction specific keywords known as Enlist and Battalion along with many Trooper and Commando cards that enhance each other as you control more of them.
Enlist - When this card enters the field, enlist a designated number by creating 1/1 Imperial Trooper tokens that also trigger and buff your non-token Imperial Trooper cards. Enlist will be found on many Imperial Officer cards and some new card types we have yet to reveal.
Battalion - Whenever the card with Battalion attacks with two or more Trooper Squads or another designated card type, it gains an effect that enhances each of the attacking cards in some way. This mechanic was also the perfect way to introduce a card archetype that had been hinted at all the way back in Galaxy at War, the Army cards. The team decided to create Squads as a replacement for that unreleased card archetype, and the Imperial cards were a perfect vehicle for introducing them. Expect to see several more Squad cards when the set releases.
In our third preview look, we will be revealing the mechanics and some new cards for the third major faction for this set, the Brotherhood of the Maw, as well as some cards from factions that did not participate as much in the great conflict that consumed our galaxy such as the Eternal Empire and the Ashlan Crusade.
