Hi folks! Apologies for the 1-day delay – we spent some time with a local game store on Sunday discussing some of what’s coming down the line. So instead of just looking forward at this week’s releases, we thought today would be a good day to talk about our plans for the month of November. Strap in, because there’s a galactic war brewing in the Grandis Galaxy!
This week, expect the fourth and final faction of Season 1 – the Selourian Warlords. We talked a bit about them on last week’s Future Tuesday, and this week you’ll be able to command your very own Selourian Shiver Fleet! Wielding deadly directed plasma weaponry, the Selourians excel at punishing ships without shields, making hiding in a Nebula a far more risky strategy against them.
You can also look forward to new ships for the Dathian Coalition soon, including a deadly Assault Gun Super Heavy starship. Mounting four deadly Pulsar Blasters, this first-of-its-kind ship focuses an immense amount of firepower into the forward arc, obliterating any foolish enough to not flee and making approaching it to Skirmish a dangerous proposition.
There are also new variants coming this month for ALL ships – Refits! While we can’t go into detail on them at the moment, Refits can take the place of a standard ship in your Constructed fleets and come with advanced capabilities or alternate weapon loads. And while you may be limited to one refit in your Constructed Play fleets, there’s a new format coming where you can use up to 3 Refits in your fleet:
Career Play is the signature format of the Admirals Engine, allowing you to take on the role of an Admiral, learn new abilities, and grow your fleet from a small, ragtag force into a well-drilled, specialized Task Force. In the Star Strike setting, Career Play is focused around times of galactic conflict, where all the major powers of the Grandis Galaxy are fighting for dominance. This Season, fight as the Empire, the Accords, the Coalition, or the Warlords in the First Grandis War!
So how does it work? Each player has their own Career, independent of any Events they play in or other players they play with. Players complete sets of 5 games, called a Tour of Duty. After each Tour of Duty, players gain resources they can spend to upgrade their fleet. Upgrades can be either single cards (for example, adding 2 Basic Orders and a Special Order to your reserve for 5 Experience), or you can add randomized packs of orders to get a greater selection of new cards at a similar resource cost (an Order pack grants 5 Basic Orders and 3 Special Orders for 5 Experience).
And if you’re wondering how you have a sealed format for a print-and-play game, well, we have more news – Career Mode will launch our physical products as well! Our signature plastic dry-erase cards will be available for purchase online and through local game stores, as well as plastic ship tokens and 2 different kinds of map (Classic Board and Neoprene Mat)! If you’re a member of our Patreon, you’ll also get a discount code to our online store, in addition to continued print file support and instructions on how to simulate your own Career Mode packs should you wish to print your own instead.
We’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s coming this month, and there’s even more coming as we build up to the First Grandis War – For fans of the Historical Play format, you can expect the Coalition and Warlords to show up in new Scenario Packs, and the conclusion of the Nataran Invasion arc in the Jalguron sector. New maps are coming as we explore more of the Grandis Galaxy, including deadly new terrain features like Black Holes.
Lastly, the deadline to sign up for Penguin Quarterly is coming up soon – We’ll have details on the contents of December’s box later this month, but you can expect a special Admirals set, as well as short stories from the Star Strike universe.
We’re very excited to bring you the unique Career Play experience and so much more for Admirals: Star Strike this month. If you have a local game store you think may be interested, let us know – we’ll reach out to them for you!