Suck.

Here are the details:

The boats to the European Union and Hong Kong will not be leaving before Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, this means a delay of 3 weeks for these backers. After Chinese New Year, we will reassess the schedule and determine if it is still beneficial to ship in 2 waves or return to 1 wave.

As a silver lining, we have noticed several EU backers worried about increased VAT fees with a split shipment. We have received assurances from our fulfillment center in Germany that backers in EU countries will have NO VAT fees. They are all covered by Soda Pop and is our reason for finding the fulfillment centers in the first place.

The boats with the containers for Australia, Canada, United States and United Kingdom are leaving on time, before Chinese New Year. Fulfillment of the Always Super Pledge (Core Game and Boo Booty Box) and Everything Box will begin as soon as they arrive to their respective warehouses.

It is important to note that right now the US west coast harbors are having labor disputes that have already caused one recent weekend strike and general “slow unloading” of container ships. Hopefully it is resolved by the time our ships arrive.

As we do every week, we will keep you posted on every phase. We no longer have any way of directly influencing these time tables, so we will all be hopping around in anticipation together.

Lets cleanse with fire —

Ember Mage

For veterans of the game the Ember Mage will look very familiar since she changed very little from 1st to 2nd Edition.

The Ember Mage arrives in the dungeon with standard Hero: 6 movement points, 3 action points, and, more or less standard, ARM of 3 blue. She has a feeble STR of 2 blue, but that doesn’t matter because it’s WILL where the Ember Mage does all her heavy lifting.

With a WILL of 2 red, and a Magic range of 8 squares and the ability Fire, the Ember Mage can be an engine of destruction. Both of her unique actions feed off of this with Fire Wave hitting every model adjacent to the mage, and Magma Strike adding a whopping +3 blue WILL.

The Ember Mage can carry two potions. White Mage is an emergency potion that Heals every friendly model within 5 squares. Fire Water grants a Hero +1 blue STR and the ability Fire. Perfect for helping Melee Heroes wreak fiery destruction.

Rock Out With Roxor

One of the most fearsome bosses in 1st Edition, Roxor, got a bit of an overhaul in 2nd Edition. Roxor is available in the Caverns of Roxor Level Expansion. All pledges of Always Super will receive his upgrade cards.

Like Von Drakk, Roxor is a shapeshifting dungeon boss. During the Consul’s upkeep Rockin’ Roxor can Shapeshift into Ragin’ Roxor. We’ll look at Rockin’ first then move to Ragin’.

While his STR of 2 red and 2 stars is solid, Rockin’ Roxor is all about defense. A beefy ARM of 1 green, 2 red, and 2 stars repels most attacks. Paired with his Immune: Status Effects ability, Rockin’ Roxor ensures Heroes have to fight for every single wound.

Roxor isn’t a fast boss but his Burrow ability allows him to ignore walls, structures, difficult terrain, and enemy models when moving, making him surprisingly hard to escape.

Rockin’ Roxor has two unique offensive actions. Minion Toss allow Roxor to throw one friendly model at another model up to 6 squares away. As soon as the thrown model makes contact with another model (friendly or enemy) the model stops and deals damage to all the models it hit. How much damage? 1 blue dice per square that the model moved, so up to 6 blue! Ouch.

Cave In is a melee offensive action that can target a model 6 squares away, hitting the target and every model within 2 squares. Since it is an offensive action, if it wounds them it also inflicts the status effect Knockdown.

Ragin’ Roxor is all about offensive output. His STR moves up to 2 blue, 2 red, and 1 green which packs a hefty punch that is augmented by the ability Fire. However, his ARM takes a hit, becoming 2 blue and 2 red and his immunity is moved to only Immune: Fire.

Ragin’ Roxor gets a new suite of offensive actions as well. Volcano is a Wave 3 offensive action hitting every model within 3 squares of Roxor—60 squares—wow!

Molten Steel is another melee offensive action with a range of 6 squares that increases Roxor’s STR by another +1 red and inflicts the debilitating status effect Hex. Hex, you’ll recall, forces Heroes to discard the highest result rolled on an offense roll, making it much harder for a Hero to hurt monsters. Mwhahahaha

For Boss Fight effects, Roxor causes Tremors on all Heroes when he arrives, inflicting Slow.

When reduced to half his starting number of wounds Earthquake causes all Heroes to sufferKnockdown.

Roxor changes very little in Arcade Mode. Starting as Rockin Roxor he will Shapeshift into Ragin’ Roxor whenever a Spawn command is drawn.

A STR of 3 stars is a bit low for a dungeon boss, but that is made up for with his incredible ARM of 5 stars and 10 hearts! The loss of Throw is accounted for in an improved RNG (range) of 6 squares.

Cave In becomes a signature action that is used anytime a Fight command is drawn. It also gets a bump to Burst 3, hitting every enemy within 3 squares of Roxor’s target.

When a Unique command is drawn Tremors is unleashed. As a support action Heroes get no defense roll instead they are immediately Slowed. Oh, yes, that is Wave 6 so every model on the tile is going to get hit!

Ragin’ Roxor also performs almost identically in Arcade Mode. His STR and ARM get directly swapped from Rockin’.

Note that he gets a speed bump with 8 movement points. We found in Arcade, losing Burrow and not having a human controller caused Ragin’ to get caught up sometimes, so the extra bump in movement ensures he gets where he needs to be. He also gets an extra action point which helps him really dish out the pain.

Volcano becomes the signature action, performing exactly like the Classic Mode version.

Molten Steel triggers only on a Unique command, but its effects largely remain the same.

While the Roxor of Forgotten King isn’t the Backlash turtling king of 1st edition, he is now a much more dynamic boss. Using his Ragin’ form to stick damage and status effects on Heroes then reverting to Rockin’ form to shed his own ailments and reposition, make him a true terror of the dungeon!

Until next week may you always roll stars and—

Sparkleburst!