Version 3.0 of DeepWars Core Rules is now in the store, so bring your warbands and get ready for more underwater battles. The game is fully compatible with version 2.5, but it has some improvements to streamline gameplay. The Blood Reef supplement has been updated as well, so players can take the deadly Nereids of Blood Reef into battle.
Some of the changes are below
- Activation is simplified and made less punishing. Either take free activation for 1 action or roll 3 dice to compare to Q. Each success gives an action & 3 successes and 2 or more 6’s gives 4 actions. Players can use advanced rules that end the warband’s turn if rolling 3 failures on activation.
- Breaking through walls, submarine hulls and corals all use a unified Breach Check system with defined Difficulty Levels (DL) for different materials. A weapon’s Breach modifier adds to the roll, as does some ability modifiers (Big +1, Huge +3, Powerful +1).
- Models have a single set of health points now, but players can still do a “Targeted Critical” attack to shoot for the head and try to do extra damage.
- Armor has only one value now, since there are no separate wounds for body parts. The point values for building models stay the same, as there are Armor Effects that account for variations. In the end, these new armor effects ensure that all point values from version 2.5 armor and weapons are still equivalent.
- Weapons only break now if they have “unstable”, “fragile” or “hazardous”. This reduces time worrying about every weapon being damaged.
- In Battles and Campaigns, the section is easier to use in making a scenario and picking a “Difficulty Level”. Expert level uses the advanced activation rules while Beginner and Advanced do not. There are now Events in scenarios, so the difficulty level modifies those, as well as when artifacts are pre-activated.
- Wild creatures and Monsters section is expanded with AI routines for all sorts of things now. Monsters are ethereals or other “non-animals” but big wild creatures can use “Boss Monster” routines made by the players. The AI now accounts for differnt special abilities, like Distract and Combo Attack.
- Wild Creatures have a new profile section with pictures for all of them. Ethereals get their own section too, and Gothagga has a Boss AI. Some more ethereals were added as well.
- The painting guide for the dive soldier was added, along with new warband and tournament templates and a Gameplay Summary sheet with Ancient Artifact table at the end. This makes it easy to play without having to find that information deep in the book.
