The fourth round of Pretender Wars has officially begun, featuring several game rule changes and balance tweaks (see below) that were recently tested in unranked games, in a faster paced game featuring 60 seconds ticks.
The pretender remains House Elliott — seems like the lords and ladies were a bit too careless in previous rounds, letting victory slip through their fingers. Or perhaps House Elliott is far more dangerous than anyone initially believed?
Remember, teamwork is key! Players can now form alliances of three, and there are new ways to support each other toward victory.
Will this round see a new champion rise, or will House Elliott hold on to its claim?
(The Coat of Arms of the current Pretender, House Elliott)
Rewards
A heraldry package 🛡️ and the "Pretender Bloodline" achievement 🥇 that will appear on your player profile. The active pretender(s) also receive a special, highlighted 🜲 Pretender role on our discord server.
Guides and Community
You can still find a few starting tips for the ranked games in a new, bite-size guide here on Steam:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3353070835
We also have a dedicated chat for Pretender Games on our 💬 discord!
Recent balance changes ⚖️
(Compared to the last Pretender Wars round)
Terrain changes
- Forests received +1 woodcutter / +1 hunter / +1 woodward slots (36/34/18) (still mutually exclusive)
- Swamplands received +5 fishermen / +3 artisans (still mutually exclusive), but lost 1 forager and 1 folk healer slots (11/5).
Improvement changes
- Farmlands received exclusive jobs (on top of the original slots): 2 folk healers / 4 artisans (default choice: artisans)
- Mines received +3 gemstone miners / +3 iron miners (28/28) (still mutually exclusive)
- Ecclesiastical Fiefs received +1 monk / +2 wine growers (still mutually exclusive) on top of the existing jobs.
- Castles were tweaked to provide more patrols and less watchmen on multiple levels
- Settlements were tweaked to provide slightly less gong farmers and folk healers on level 3-6. These changes were compensated by offering more artisans, bards and some other labourers.
Labourer changes
- Merchants generate one less coins (4)
- Sea traders now also consume 1 safety, and provide 2 less coins (11).
- Caravaneers now also consume an extra safety (2), provide one less health (2) and 2 less coins (10)
- Scribes now provide +2 social wellbeing (3), otherwise unchanged
- Gong Farmers provide 2 health less (4).
- Physicians provide 2 health less (13)
- Bards now also have 1 coin consumption
- Taverners now provide one less social wellbeing (5)
Victory conditions
- All victory conditions were tweaked. Alliance victory condition thresholds were increased to stay in line with the larger maximum size of alliances.
Diplomacy
- The maximum treaty value for Barons has been increased to 6. This means that a player can ally with two additional players now.
Commands
- You can now form your 2nd, 3rd and 4th feudum spending less virtue but more coins. The 5th feudum's virtue cost has been slightly increased.
Demo Games
We also keep hosting (unranked) demo games to fine-tune the existing rulebook settings, as well as to explore different scenarios (remember, all game rules are moddable!) based on community feedback and ideas. For everyone aspiring to defeat the pretender, or just wanting to check the game, it is a great place to practice or explore the game's basics!
Generally speaking, it’s worth checking these games weekly or bi-weekly to see what’s changed and, if you like, provide feedback on them, so I can make a better game for you!
That's it for now, thank you for your time and I hope that you appreciate the news. See you in Feudums!
Join the Noble Houses! --- ✉️ Newsletter | 💬 Community Discord | 💗Patreon