Dice Roller App & OP Update!
Greetings, Phoenixborn!
Plaid Hat Games has returned from Essen Spiel '25. While there were no Ashes products for sale (we're going to fulfill Kickstarter pledges first), we did bring a copy of the new Ashes Ascendancy Starter Set with us. Our main goal was just to show visiting backers what they could expect, but that lush Ashes art drew in a lot of new, interested people.
The Ashes Dice Roller App
We have two juicy updates today. First, we wanted to let you know the Ashes Dice Roller app has entered open testing!
The app can be accessed through the Google Play Store or the Apple Store. Note that if you choose the Apple Store, you will also need to download Test Flight, which lets you access apps that are still in testing. Please feel free to try the app out and put it through its paces! This handy app is mainly an automated die roller, something that is especially useful for new players who don't own dice yet, or those who don't want to travel with dice. There are other featuers as well, so feel free to dig in.
Ashes Organized Play Update
The second update is for Ashes Organized Play; the Chained List is receiving two new additions. Take to the Skies and Silver Paladin are now chained. As a reminder, this means that these cards cannot be included in your First Five or be played during the first round of the game in competitive events. Feel free to play how you wish casually or in PvE games of Ashes.
Dimona’s second unique card from Red Rains: The Siege of Lordswall has proven to be a tremendously aggressive option in competitive play. Not only that, the ability to reliably set up this unit as an attacker and the limited defensive options against it make Dimona’s Divinity Mount too heavily centralizing of a First Five option for a healthy metagame. Furthermore, the downside of the Queen Rider ability does not come into relevancy quickly enough when used in a hyper-aggressive strategy. Divinity Mount should be more than strong enough to be played in later rounds of the game as a powerful way to break through battlefields, while also more appropriately weighing Queen Rider as a risky downside as the game draws closer to conclusion.
Silver Paladin represents an excessive swing in resources when paired with attack-reducing effects such as Royal Charm or Regress. This particular combination of effects can be reliably set up due to the nature of choosing your First Five, and puts an undue level of pressure on the opponent’s ability to play higher cost units in their First Five. Protecting units from hard destroy effects in Round 1 is also much more difficult than damage-based removal, making a Round 1 Paladin both excessively powerful and without meaningful drawback, thus warranting a chain of this card. Silver Paladin should also remain a viable mid-game unit, serving more as a way to swing board states when the right opportunity arises rather than being a core opening move.
AshCon?
The people have been waiting (demanding?) a new AshCon, so we have an event planned closer to the delivery of the Ashes Ascendancy Kickstarter campaign. Stay tuned!
