Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor is live (War comes in bright colours)
Update: Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor has launched on Kickstarter and the campaign will run for 23 days. You may pledge for either the Core box (with 4 factions) or the Core box plus the Arch-Nemesis expansion (4 more factions and extra bosses). A playmat and a mini-campaign pdf are available as add-ons.
Our preview post below was published on August 16.
Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor is a 1-4 player cooperative 4X game set in a post-apocalyptic frozen fantasy world. It will launch on Kickstarter on August 18.
In Uprising, you take control of two or more factions who rebel against the forces of a tyrannical Emperor and at the same time try to fend off hordes of Undead. Each faction has its own hero, units, and special abilities called 'feats'. Factions have their home base on one of the hexes on the board, and as the game progresses, they get to build more bases and fortifications. The goal of Uprising is for the factions to gain more victory points than their enemies.
At the start of the game, you choose how many chapters you wish to play (between 2 and 4) and receive a set amount of resources (crystals, food and constructing materials). On each round, you first reveal a card from the Event deck and apply both its positive and negative effects. Then, you get to spend your 8 gems to perform actions: move on the board, explore a hex, build a new haven, buy items from the market or undertake a quest.
You may also take a Command action that lets you gather your units on your hero's hex and attack your enemy. Combat is performed by rolling dice for both you and the opponents until either you or them are eliminated from the hex. According to one of the designers, even though the Empire and the forces of Chaos (the Undead) are unfriendly to each other, letting them fight between themselves is not a good strategy: the winning enemy will gain victory points, and you don't want to let them get ahead of you on the track.