Catching Up
Hello, fellow Warlords!
It's "State of the Game" time! Now that we are a few months past release, we thought it was time to put together an article to catch you up on current events and what to look for on the horizon.
Gratitude
First, we want to give a huge thank you to all of our early adopters, backers, Patreon subs, and everyone playing the game, especially those leading the charge at their LGS. Without you, Warlord wouldn’t be on the rise and in the hands of people around the globe. Your support in the midst of the most chaotic and crowded TCG market in history means the world to us at Kingswood Games.
In many ways, the launch of Into the Accordlands has recovered and gone much better than we could have ever hoped considering the rocky start at the factory. The initial delays, radio silence from manufacturer, and improper collation were, of course, all unexpected set backs. At the same time, ironically, we were able to dodge the highest US tariff rates and allow stores more time to preorder from distributors, essentially doubling initial our orders. The delayed launch also then coincided with Covenant’s Fulfilled program which connects local game stores and publishers directly. This was vital to the continued sales and success of the game when distributors quickly sold out and stores needed restocks quickly.
It's hard for us to truly convey the excitement that stores and players have experienced with Warlord, the positive stories pouring in, and the genuinely impressive turnout we see at store events. We are blessed and grateful that the game has been so well received and that players all over are able to share Warlord with their friends and family.
Organized Play
After launch, organized play was the highest priority. This began over the past month with stores all over the world ordering organized play kits for the powerful Diabolus Ryden. Speaking of, if your store has yet to order an OP kit, they can do so through Fulfilled and learn more about organized play from our previous article. Challenging an overlord at the end of your weekly Warlord event was always a mainstay of the game, and we want this to continue, with new overlords following each set release.
But overlords, of course, are just the first step in the challenge system, which is why we recently announced the first dragon lord Dreq Qor-Teth, who will be attacking the world during his premier week of July 18th-July 26th. Dragon lords are of course very powerful foes, but you also get to craft your deck specifically to challenge them. We have DL runners already in position at regions across the globe to assist with this launch, and we expect to be adding more in the coming months. If you're interested in having a Dragon Lord Attack event at your venue, please reach out through this contact form. You can expect to see a new dragon lord to challenge every three sets or so (once or twice each year).
The final step in the challenge system is the dreaded Medusan Lord. Medusan Lords are run by specific individuals in the community, content creators, or Kingswood staff and are a boss battle that can only ever be defeated once, assuming they are ever defeated at all. If you're going to be at Gen Con this year, be on the lookout for the first Medusan Lord to be revealed there!
Challenge Lord Legality
This is also a good time to point out that Overlords and Dragon Lords will not be legal for Saga Format constructed play initially, and Medusan Lords will never be legal for Saga play. Eagle-eyed players may have noticed that Diabolus indicates that he is part of the "OL" (Overlord) set and Dreq is part of the "DL" (Dragon Lord) set. Currently, only cards printed in Into the Accordlands (ITA) are legal for Saga. Overlords and Dragon Lords with standard frames and no challenge target (meaning they are not redeemable for challenges) will be printed into later sets (around 2 sets later for Overlords and 3 sets later for Dragon Lords), at which time they will be legal for Saga constructed play. Overlords and Dragon Lords will be legal for Ancients Format constructed play as soon as they are first released [Editor’s note: Correction - Overlords and Dragon Lords will be legal for Ancients Format constructed play one week after release.], and Overlords, Dragon Lords, and Medusan Lords will be legal for Alliance Format constructed play as soon as they are released.
The reasoning for this change from previous eras of the game is two-fold. First, we are committed to never printing a card that players cannot obtain through a randomized booster pack at some point. Hard to obtain promos that not everyone has the opportunity to physically acquire has always a point of contention in Warlord and we'd like to put that to rest our Saga Format game play. Second, it is also not healthy competitive standpoint for heavily prized Saga events to allow some players the ability to use Challenge Lords when they are something that a very limited number of players will own with any expediency, or ever in the case of Medusan Lords.
Moving Forward
So, what's next? Our team has been hard at work on upcoming sets (2-4), ancillary products, and more! We teased previously that the title for our second set will be Baraxton: The Guilds Conspire. This second set will, as the name suggests, be set in the massive trade city of Baraxton. Those of you that follow along with the weekly Patreon stories have likely noticed it has been a frequent locale as of late. Baraxton: The Guilds Conspire, as well as the following set, Baraxton: Guilds at War, will both focus on the six guilds that run the city. Our design, development, story, and art teams are all incredibly excited to share these sets with the world. They have done a phenomenal job of crafting, in our very biased opinion, some of the best sets the game has ever seen. We will be sharing some very basic info on Baraxton next month, so keep your eyes peeled. We currently plan for Baraxton: The Guilds Conspire to release in Q4 2026, with the next set to follow in early 2027.
We are, however, still recovering from the delays and constraints put on us by the slower than expected manufacturing process of Into the Accordlands. As a result, we are not caught up to producing as many sets as we normally would in a year. Though you might expect a delay in one process gives more time for others, it actually tends to delay everything else as it requires additional work and money, slowing down how quickly those resources can be put toward upcoming projects. Starting in 2027, we plan on a cadence of three sets per year, with additional ancillary product in between, such as preconstructed Alliance decks and at home PVE Overlord challenges. The good news is, our new manufacturer already proves to be a much more trustworthy partner for the company and the fans. Their excellent communication and attention, other product lines, and equipment and processes gives us confidence in their ability to help us achieve properly collated packs and, as seen with the organized play kits, higher quality cards.
Lastly, and speaking of collation, based on player feedback we have also made a decision that will affect all upcoming Warlord sets. We are reducing the number of Warlords found in the rare and legendary slots, causing them to appear half as often as other cards in those slots. This does not mean less designs, but that they will effectively be twice as rare as a typical card in their rarity slot. This, coupled with proper collation, should give a more enjoyable product opening experience to all players, and add some value and novelty back to opening a pack with a Warlord.
Rules Updates and Ban Announcements
As you may have already seen us doing, we plan to have quarterly announcements for format changes. These will happen regardless of whether there are any changes made. What you are unlikely to see, however is an announcement of an errata. One of the largest pieces of feedback we have received over the years is to maintain the text on a card rather than functionally ‘changing it’ on a PDF or rules clarification somewhere. This is mostly the standard with physical card games, but we like to reiterate this point.
We are not, however, afraid of admitting when something is poorly worded. In cases where a card has rules backing for how it works, but it is still confusing to players, we may look into refreshing the wording on future printings or through the creation of official text.
In a similar vein, we will also be continuing to release quarterly rules updates. These serve as a way to add clarifications, add rules we find are missing, or even add the occasional new rules. In case you didn't know, we do also have Tournament and Event Rules (sometimes called ‘floor rules’) that may also see updates as needed each quarter.
Rules Questions
Speaking of rules questions, if you ever have one that you or your fellow players are unable to find an answer for, we do have a rules question survey that can be found on the rules webpage. This is a major tool we use for rules updates and rulings as we are able to go back and see what sorts of things were asked multiple times, how we responded, etc. These are generally answered within about a week, so it isn’t a great way to quickly fix your board state, but it might help your play group heading into next week’s event.
Rotations and Formats
Another topic we haven't touched on as much is how often we plan to refresh the Saga Format, and what other formats will look like.
Saga is, of course, our primary format. It is our main focus when designing new sets, and the format we expect to be played most. When we roadmap future Warlord sets we know that there will, at some point, be a rotation, meaning some sets will no longer be legal for Saga. Rotations serve as a natural way to refresh the play environment every so often by removing older sets and easing access for new players.
New sets will tend to be in 3-set groupings, with the first set in each grouping being a ‘large’ set, and the new two being smaller sets. This may not always be the case, but it is the currently mapped cadence through at least the 6th Kingswood Warlord release. For example, Into the Accordlands was 340 cards, and Baraxton: The Guilds Conspire and Baraxton: Guilds at War will both be 240 card sets. Saga will contain no more than two of these 3-set groups at a time, with the oldest group of three rotating out as soon as the first set from the next group is released, such that Saga is always 4-6 sets in size.
Of course, one of the first questions continuing players will ask upon rotation is, "What do I do with all of the cards I have from those first 3 sets?". Fortunately, you have multiple options. Currently, we are supporting both the Ancients and Alliance formats, which are non-rotating formats where all sets ever released for Warlord are legal. While Saga remains the company focus, we know Ancients benefits from direct event support and Alliance is growing but still in a fledgling state. In addition to these, at the release of the seventh Saga set, we will be introducing a third non-rotating format that contains all cards printed into a Saga legal set by Kingswood Games.
If you haven't had a change to check out any other formats yet, we recommend it. While both Ancients and Alliance are curated for different groups of people, they are both fun in their own right.
Ancients is great for players who want a highly competitive environment with a large card pool. It has the same deck construction rules as Saga, but with a banlist and the entire historical card pool behind it.
Alliance is a lot of fun for the casual play group. If your favorite thing to do is sit around the kitchen table and play multiplayer games with a group of friends, Alliance is likely for you. Alliance decks are exactly 70 cards, feature two Warlords who form an ‘alliance’, have a larger starting army, is geared toward multiplayer (3-5), and has a few additional rules. It has become a favorite format to unwind with at the company, particularly for our development team.
If you're looking to get into either Ancients or Alliance, picking up the Box of Greed from your LGS or while it’s still in stock at one of our partners is a great place to start. Box of Greed was, sadly, a Kickstarter exclusive, so supply is limited.
You can find all format-specific rules in our Tournament and Event Rules.
Accordlands War Around the World
The last exciting thing we want to talk about is Warlord globally. It's almost unbelievable for us to think that the game we love so much has already reached such a global audience. There are players and stores running Warlord events in the UK, throughout the EU, Australia, Guatemala, Philippines, Canada, Brazil, across the US, and more!
While countries outside the US represent a smaller part of our player base, we are committed to doing what we can to support them. In the UK and EU specifically, we are working with one of our partners on solutions to store and sell product to both LGS and individual players which we hope to be able to launch later this year. Distribution in this part of the world is especially tricky with each country having their own distributors with very few “all of EU” distributors.
We are now also working with an up-and-coming distributor in Brazil that has already been communicating with existing players there to help facilitate Warlord supply throughout the country. This is exciting for us as there exists a longstanding devoted Warlord community in Brazil, but not a good distribution solution for them until now.
Finally, we're also excited to share about a group in the Philippines, NXT LVL Gaming, who has been travelling all over the country to showcase the game, running countless demos, and even organized play.
Contact
That’s all I have for today, just a quick update.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback of any kind, we'd love to hear from you! The best way to reach out to us is through our support email at support@kingswood.gg.
