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Hello backers,
We are back with another update. We divided it into four big sections, so it is easier for you to navigate and find the most important information – New Stretch Goal, FAQ, Meet the Team, and the Rules.
New Stretch Goal
Yesterday Thorgal’s daughter Wolfcub joined you as a fifth playable character, and today we have prepared an additional, special scenario for you, thematically related to wolves. It’s called Winter Demon.
A cruel winter has gripped the North. Terrible snowstorms, severe cold, eerie howling of wolves… It’s during such times that legends of the Winter Demon descending from the enchanted mountain come alive.
An additional, eighth scenario tells the story of survival during the darkest, winter days in the North. Players discover buried paths, push through to distant settlements, and protect them from the attacks of starving wolf packs. The key is exploration: players must discover passages through the mountains and gain access to even the most remote villages and hamlets. Players are also tasked with gaining knowledge about who is behind the wolf attacks. Is it really the legendary Winter Demon? The mystery of the frozen land will force players to make a choice that will change all of its inhabitants, the heroes themselves… and the goal of the entire scenario.
Winter Demon is a complex scenario, introducing new Action and Event cards. With Winter Demon you will have 8 fully replayable scenarios in the game box.
FAQ
In this section, we’d like to address the most frequent questions we found in the comments section.
What about the French version
As for today, we cannot confirm the French edition of the game. Portal Games works for the French market with our trusted partner IELLO, and they released many of our games, but they don’t do with us our big crowdfunding campaigns like 51st State and others.
Our licensing team is in talks with other partners, but we cannot confirm anything yet.
The Portal Games team is aware of how important the comic book is for francophone fans and we hope to bring this game to French, but as for now, we cannot confirm it is happening.
Group shipping prices
To our surprise, we noticed many comments from backers who were not happy with the low cost of Group Pledge shipping in Poland. There were questions asked about why it is so cheap in Poland.
There are several reasons. First and foremost, Portal Games is a company from Poland and to deliver the games to backers in Poland we will not have to use third-party companies and shipping HUBs, but we will do it by ourselves, in-house so to speak. That allows us to cut significant costs.
Additionally, as a company operating in Poland, with one of the biggest board games online stores in Poland (we ship over 1000 orders every month), we have a very good contract with shipping companies, and we can provide these great prices to our backers from Poland.
Does this gameplay solo?
There were also questions on solo mode. Yes, as you can find in the rulebook dedicated section – the game is fully playable solo. In solo mode, there is a special twist incorporated – one player commands two characters, so effects referring to the number of players and number of characters have different outomes.
You ask a lot of questions in the comments. We are analyzing them with the entire team, some of them are answered on the fly, some will be answered in a special update, but we are very keen on communicating with you. Ask, suggest, throw ideas – many of the suggestions from comments on our previous campaigns have found their way into the games!
Will you have Stretch Pay option?
Yes, thank you for these questions. Today we are enabling this option in the campaign. Stretch Pay is a great feature from Gamefound – after the campaign ends, your Pledge will be divided into 10 parts paid monthly (beware: it is impossible to use Stretch Pay in the Late Pledge. It is available for you onlyduring the campaign)!
Meet the Team
There is a big team of people bringing you the game and the whole excitement. We’d like to present them and allow you to get to know them a little better. Today we start with Gosia, as you already talk with her!
Gosia works in Portal Games customer service and is responsible for all the communication with our fans, both during the crowdfunding campaigns as well as in regular day-to-day emails and comments.
Gosia is a vivid gamer. Her beloved board game is Castles of Burgundy. Her favorite Portal Games game is 51st State. Her favorite Thorgal album is… She has not read them yet, so we must assume that her fav will be Betrayed Sorcerer as the first one! On top of that, Gosia is a member of Portal Games in-house Blood Bowl league. She plays the Ork Team and throws her Goblins with Troll!
During this campaign, Gosia is answering all your questions in the comments.
Rules
At first glance, the action system in Thorgal is based on well-known and popular worker placement mechanics. Players have four action pawns. In their turn, they place one of the pawns on the chosen action and take action.
Actions are usually printed on the board in games with worker placement mechanics. In Thorgal, we put them on cards. The game includes a deck of cards with all possible actions, and each scenario instructs players which cards to use in the particular game. This allows standard actions such as Movement, Trade, or Combat and specific, dedicated actions such as Sailing, Bargaining, or Climbing.
Action cards are placed next to the board in a row. The actions described on cards have different values, depending on the players’ previous actions taken. Most actions have a strength of 1 plus 1 for each pawn on the action cards to the left.
Look at this example:
If I place my pawn on the blue Movement action, I will move only two regions. There are no pawns to the left of it, so we resolve only the base value.
If I place my pawn on the gray Resource Gathering action, I will collect 1 resource and an additional one for each pawn to the left, a total of 3 resources.
Worker placement like you’ve never seen before. This is worker placement in which players are constantly talking, deciding what actions they want to take because the order of actions taken and where we put our pawns matters a lot. This mechanism engages players and teaches them to plan. Those who think twice and plan their actions will get significantly more out of each action.
In one of the previous articles, I wrote that Thorgal: the board game is an interesting hybrid, dripping with theme and story, but also an interesting, original challenge for players who like euro games.
I hope you like this simple, clever mechanism, the rule that encourages players to discuss and plan together. And if you do, let me show you one more twist here.
In one of the previous articles, I mentioned that players would have the opportunity to upgrade actions. When doing this, they take a new Action card from the deck and replace it with the one already in the game. What is the purpose of this?
Each action card has its number. It determines the place in the line of cards. Imagine a situation where the Fight action card has 2. It is second from the left and, therefore, very weak. There are rarely any pawns to the left of it. Suddenly it is replaced with the Fight action card number 12, which lands at the end of the line, on the right.
Do you see how this changes the game? How suddenly this Fight becomes more powerful? And do you see that it carries further consequences? We strengthened Fight but weakened another action, right? Is it worth doing? When should it be done?
Conversations, debates, game tactics.
See you tomorrow
Thank you for today! Please, help us spread the word about the campaign and talk to you next time!
Ignacy
Learn more about Thorgal: The Board Game: https://gamefound.com/projects/portalgames/thorgal-the-board-game
