0.7.19 to 0.7.21: every lord's stage filled in, and the stage turns to felt

10 October 2026 Version 0.7.19 19 min read

Four stages in a two by two grid: Verdy B. Queen's garden wall with its flowerpot windmill and straw hive, the Brass Colossus's arena turned into a brass machine, Perihelion's observatory wall with its orrery, and the Magma Magnate's board hanging over a pit of melt.

This post covers 0.7.19, 0.7.20 and 0.7.21, which went out on 8 and 9 October. Every enemy lord's stage now has pieces of the lord's own place standing along the back wall, hanging in the sky and standing on the mat, drawn in the same hand as the card behind them. The stage is cut from felt paper, and the big headings arrive as scrunched balls of paper that unfold into letters. Also in these builds: the Brass Colossus's arena turns into a machine, Perihelion switches gravity off, the Magma Magnate's kiln burns the mat down into his pit, four finishing moves are redone in paper, Fireball and thrown potions are cut from card, there are two new events, and a long balance pass.

Every lord's stage, filled in

0.7.18 gave every lord a hand-drawn backdrop card and a blanket for a mat. The pieces standing in front of them were still the old ones: a few dark mounds, stumps and rocks on the kraft wall either side of the card, and toys drawn in an older hand. Now every lord stands pieces of their own place, cut out in the card's own hand and in its colours.

Across all 42 lords that comes to 327 pieces along the back wall, 84 hung in the sky, 168 standing on the mats, and 143 toys drawn again. Pull the camera all the way back and you see the whole wall, flanks and all.

The Brass Colossus's and Perihelion's back walls pulled all the way back, 0.7.18 above 0.7.19. In 0.7.18 the kraft either side of the Colossus's card holds two heaps of brown cogs and a pylon; in 0.7.19 it stands a workshop, a stamping press and a jib crane with its load, then a lamp house, a tower and a water tank, with an airship and a kite in the sky. Perihelion's flanks go from dark crystal clusters to a star globe, the great reflector in its timber gantry with a penny-farthing adrift above it, the mural quadrant in its niche and an armillary

Wynken's and the Broodmother's back walls, before and after. Wynken's flanks trade autumn trees and doors for a wardrobe open on the stars, a bedside lamp, a cottage roofed with a nightcap, a star tree, a tower of mattresses and a four-poster with the night hung inside it, with a cot mobile in his sky. The Broodmother's trade dark trees and fence posts for her larder stump, a dead snag with an orb web and a spider let down on her line, the egg-sac tree, the egg hammock and a webbed handcart, with a great moth in her sky

The Lost Witch's and Amanita's back walls, before and after. The Witch's flanks go from wind-bent trees to a rooks' nest on a cartwheel, a stack of hatboxes, her crystal on its table, her books stacked as high as a house and her star-glass tower, with loose pages blowing across the sky. Amanita's go from clumps of purple mushrooms to pale inkcaps, a glowing green cap, a compost barrow and a magenta cap cottage, with a sporeling under a parasol hanging in her sky

The Grave Tide's and Simple Ton's back walls, before and after. The Grave Tide's flanks trade shipwreck ribs for a wreck's mainmast in rags, a phantom ship riding a cloud of sea-fret, a dark net shop and the pilot's hut up on its piles, with gulls overhead. Simple Ton's trade grey hills for a friend turned to stone with the washing strung to his fist, a sheep-topped stack, the end of the rainbow coming down into a pot and his bath under the rain cloud he keeps on a rope, with his long johns blowing away across the sky

Warlord Ash's and Haldric's back walls, before and after. Ash's flanks go from braziers and burnt huts to the village his raiders took: a chapel belfry, a gate with their black crown banner, a burnt cottage, a heap of plunder, a raider's tent and a torched windmill, with crows and loose bunting in the sky. Haldric's go from flags and small towers to an autumn oak, the bowyer's shop, a trebuchet, a stair turret with a key for a vane and a springald, with a volley of bolts going over in the sky

Some short pieces stand at the foot of the card itself, so you see them at the distance a fight is played from, not only when you pull back.

Three back walls at the playing distance. The Cursemonger's purple market lane at night with three Dead Weights chained ring to ring, a shop full of wrapped presents, a giant pincushion house stuck with pins and a heap of presents in front of it, and two jinxes flying a ladder over with a cat hanging off it. Verdy B. Queen's garden with a flowerpot mill, a skep big enough to live in, a honey pot with a ladder up it, flower stands and a wheelbarrow of cut flowers. Wynken's dream wood with a grandfather clock, sheep counted over a stile, a red alarm clock and a wooden shoe sailing a river of light out of the moon

The mat gets pieces too, and every toy was drawn again to match the card.

The Cursemonger's stage piece by piece. In 0.7.18 his cloth held a jar, a charm post, a crate with a cat on it, a crow on a post and a skull pole. In 0.7.19 the crate holds Curselings with the cat on its lid, the charm post hangs an eye, a bell and a horned moon, his cloth stands a pincushion, his ledger on its lectern and three Curselings in a row, and his wall stands the Returns Office, the Curseling stall, his bow-top wagon, the Hexwrights' shears and thimble, three Dead Weights and a heap of presents

Grix's stage piece by piece. In 0.7.18 his quilt held a banner, a junk stack, a pot helm, a cauldron, a catapult and a cart wheel. In 0.7.19 those toys are redrawn in the card's hand, his quilt also stands a lamp post, a signpost, a goblin scarecrow with a cookpot for a head and a ring of toadstools, and his wall stands a patchwork house, a mushroom house, a windmill, a junk pile, a gate tower, a lookout, a gong and a market stall

Most of them do something when you poke them. Perihelion's great reflector swings in its gantry, Haldric's trebuchet swings its arm, the Cursemonger's shears snip, and the Avatar of Winter's snowball rolls off and back. Some have someone living in them: a Specter looks out of the Fear Drinker's windows, a black cat out of the Lost Witch's doors, and a small Gravitite out of Perihelion's observatory.

Perihelion's wall pieces poked: the teal reflector tube swings back and forth in its timber gantry, the penny-farthing above it bobs with its wheels turning, and the star globe beside it rocks on its stand

0.7.20 finished the last three walls, for the Twins, Simple Ton and Mum, the Word, and made sure a lord's piece never stands twice on one wall. Pulled all the way back, 33 of the 42 walls had been showing one of their pieces twice, Blastcap two live kegs among them.

Felt

The stage is felt construction paper now. The mat, the backdrop card, the toys, the wall pieces, the clouds and the pieces in the sky each carry a felt fibre in their own paper, so it moves with them when the camera pans and zooms or a toy hops. The units, the commanders, the cardboard lanes, the tape and the cutting mat carry none. Whatever a felt piece throws is felt too, so Blastcap's keg goes up in felt staves and hoops.

The Warsmith's gun blanket up close, 0.7.18 beside 0.7.19. In 0.7.18 it is a flat blue print with an old tan anvil standing on it. In 0.7.19 the same blue is a soft felt with a visible fibre, and a small grindstone with a sword on it stands nearby

The mat also lost the crease that ran across its middle, and it rolls out at the start of a fight now. It comes down as a tube of its own paper, unrolls toward you with a ripple running back through it, and its corners are taped down after.

The opening of Verdy B. Queen's fight, at half speed: a rolled tube of her hexagon quilt drops onto the bare green cutting mat, unrolls toward the camera with a ripple running back through it, the cardboard lanes land on it, and the corners are taped down

Headings cut from paper

Screen titles, the big headings and the words on every hanging banner are cut-paper letters now. Each word arrives as a row of scrunched-up paper balls that unfold into letters, a little off the line and each a little bigger or smaller than the next, as if cut out with scissors.

VICTORY unfolding, slowed down: a row of crumpled red paper balls on cream paper opens out one by one into chunky cut letters

The blue felt banner hung over Choose Your Warlord: the words arrive as small crumpled paper balls along the banner and unfold into cream cut-paper letters

Two headings before and after. The Settings sheet's title goes from a plain printed word to bold cut-paper letters, and the Compendium's Boon (16) heading goes from thin red type to bold cut red letters

Bosses

The Brass Colossus. Once the Foundry Titan is down from his refit, his whole arena stands up into the machine he is. The blueprint mat turns over into brass plate, the back wall closes into his face, clawed arms rise along both sides of the board and cogs turn at the corners. It keeps moving for the rest of the fight.

The Brass Colossus's arena standing up: the camera pulls back, the blue blueprint mat turns over into riveted brass plate square by square, the back wall closes into a great brass face, clawed arms rise along both sides of the board and cog wheels start turning at the corners

The machine running: the cardboard board stands on a brass deck ruled with black slots, with turning cog wheels along the edges, two jointed brass arms with open claws either side, and the Brass Colossus at the far end with his foundries turning out soldiers

Perihelion. Its Syzygy switches gravity off. A pulse of warped air leaves it, the lane stack comes apart into its roads and drifts, and every body floats, along with the toys on the mat and the wall. Its death brings it all back down, one piece at a time, with a puff where each lands.

Perihelion's fight with gravity off: the cardboard lane stack has come apart into two roads drifting apart over the starry blue blanket, with the units still standing on them

The Magma Magnate. When his kiln burns the back wall, the fire runs on down across the mat, and under it is his pit: a cut-paper shaft of ledges going down through the desk to a lake of melt everywhere the lanes are not, with crust on the melt, fires along the burnt lip, his imps watching from the ledges, and the board lit from underneath.

The Magma Magnate's kiln burning: the back wall goes up in flames, the fire runs down off the wall and round the edge of the mat, and the mat burns away to show the pit of melt underneath the board

The Magma Magnate's pit: the cardboard board hangs over a shaft of dark paper ledges dropping to a lake of orange melt cracked with black crust, with small fires along the burnt edge and the furnace wall glowing behind

Rex Mortifer. When he cuts the lanes out of the mat, the islands left between them go up as pieces of the table, with the mat's thickness and the desk's wood showing at the edge, and the pieces standing on the mat go up with them.

Rex Mortifer's cut: holes open in the board onto a purple underworld of cloud, and the island left between the lanes stands up as a slab of the table with its edge showing, a brazier of green ghostfire still standing on it

The Pale Rider no longer vanishes in a see-through mist when he moves to a new cairn. His piece rears in a bank of paper dust, gallops round the back of the cairns with his name and health sliding along under him, and leaves a pair of horseshoes on the board. His last break stands him at every cairn at once: three riders say "Which", "one", "am I?", and the first two that take a real blow burst as illusions.

Finishing moves

Four finishing moves were redone in paper.

Blastcap's end: the warlord walks up, lights his fuse and steps back, and the keg goes off in a pop-up of stacked stars and flame, staves, cut smoke and confetti, leaving a scorch on the board

The Magma Magnate's end in his pit: the warlord blows out the candles on his crown, blows his fireball back over his shoulder, and tips the cold statue over backwards off the board into the melt

Grix's end: the warlord stacks three stolen crowns on top of the one on Grix's head until they stand four high, and Grix topples over flat

The summer sun that ends the Avatar of Winter is three pieces of card on a brass pin, two sheets of rays turning against each other, and the spring after it is folded paper: a crocus, a snowdrop and two fern crosiers.
Blastcap's keg goes off the way his bombs do: stacked stars, flame tongues, a dust skirt, cut smoke and confetti.
The Magma Magnate dies in three breaths: one for the candles on his crown, a gale that blows his fireball back over his shoulder, and a single finger that tips the cold statue backwards into his own pit.
Grix's three stolen crowns stack on top of the one on his head, four high.

The fight, in paper

Fireball is cut from card: a paper comet thrown from the caster, a sunburst of flat flame, and a pop-up bonfire of stacked red, orange, yellow and cream sheets that flickers and folds away.

Fireball at half speed: a small paper comet flies in from the left, bursts into a sunburst of flat flame beside Gorehoof, and leaves a pop-up bonfire of red, orange and yellow paper sheets that flickers and folds down to a scorch

A thrown potion breaks on the field as cut paper and floats its name up out of the splash. Blood, ooze and hit flecks are cut paper too.

Four potions thrown onto the board, slowed down: a Firebomb bursts into orange paper flame, a Love Potion into pink paper hearts, a Barricade Kit into a grey splash, and an Echo Vial into purple, each with its name floating up out of the splash on a ribbon

Seismic Steps breaks the board out to a spear's length: a giant's footfall drops a cracked plate of ground as wide as what it shook, with slabs heaved up and clods thrown to the rim. It used to draw five hairlines hidden under the giant's own stand.

Seismic Steps up close: a cyclops giant's footfall cracks a plate of ground round its stand with fissures running out to the edge and slabs tipped up between them, and the soldiers standing in reach are knocked back

A card made better in your hand is shown being made better. Gene Therapy, The Pack Grows, Exspiravit and the Blue Jay lift the card out of the fan, stick new copies of the changed pieces of its face onto it, throw paper streamers from behind it and drop it back in its slot.

Three cards made better in the hand, each in five frames. The Knights lift out of the fan and a new, bigger health heart is stuck onto the corner. The Young Giant gets a new count badge and a new name strip, Young Giants. The Young Giants get a new rules strip reading Cleave. When Drawn: draw a card. Each finishes with paper streamers bursting from behind the card

Any unit that gets stronger now stands up the upgrade column: Growth, On Kill and Devour, Soul Harvest, When Struck, a battlecry's gift, Channeling, Pack Tactics, and the powers, relics, potions and spells that raise attack, armor or max HP.
Auras pour instead of pulsing. Burn and Charm climb a little every tenth of a second, and Stun, Fear and Madness fill a meter on the body and land when it is full, so overlapping fields get there sooner. The first hold lands half an interval after a body walks in.
Pointing at a lane front shows how many more units it will stop, and the count comes down as it goes through the line.

Events and screens

The Blood God's Wheel is a new event. Bleed 5 HP to spin a wheel with one wedge for every relic you carry, and take a copy of the one it stops on. Or bleed 5 more, and that relic comes off the wheel while its neighbours swell to fill the gap, and it goes round again.

The Blood God's Wheel: a many-mouthed white beast stands at a bloody cartwheel in a ravine, and the paper wheel in front of it, five coloured wedges each holding one of your relics, has stopped on the Warlord's Horn. The buttons under it read Take its twin and Bleed again (5 HP)

The Seer's Tripod is another. Breathe in the fumes, and the page it lands on is buried under Uncle Jim's head, several hundred times over, parting only round the pointer.

The Seer's Tripod: hundreds of cut-paper Uncle Jim heads pour down over the event page and pile up down the left side, while the page beside them reads Nothing but Uncle Jim

The Path of Evolution is chosen at a fork in the road now, on a pop-up scene of its own instead of a black screen.

The Path of Evolution for Steel Legion at Level 4: the Shield Bearers card stands in the middle of a paper countryside with a fork in the road, an arrow pointing left to Death Knights under a red signpost and an autumn castle, and an arrow pointing right to Adamant Sentinels under a blue signpost and a grey castle, with a Decide Later button on a slip at the bottom

The Daily March briefing takes the whole screen, on its own road, and unfolds like the road map it is.

The Daily March briefing on a paper countryside of patchwork hills and windmills under the day's name, The Iron Charge: today's commander, the Boxer, dressed in pack parts, stands on the left over his Championship Belt relic; today's three packs and two orders sit on taped slips in the middle above a marching drum; and today's warlords are a lined sheet on the right

The Alchemist's Vat dissolves the card you feed it. The brew eats the old face away in pits from the foot up, and the card it became is underneath.
The Demon of Worst Choices comes closer while the page waits, until his whole head fills the space under the run header.
The Tomb of the Thirteenth hangs the number the door asks for over the basin, chiselled in bone and granite on black slate.
Uncle Jim's raincloud rains. Paper drops fall and splash on his head and shirt, and every few seconds the cloud wrings itself out.

Your warlord

The King's sign is his royal standard: crimson hung from a gilt rod with a tassel off each end, his name in gold leaf between two copies of the crown his doll wears, and his title inked on an ermine hem. As the Queen it carries her three-bladed circlet.

The King's and the Queen's signs before and after. Before, each is a salmon pennant with flat zigzag crowns at both ends. After, each is a crimson standard hung from a gilt rod with tassels, the name in gold between two jewelled crowns, five-bladed for the King and three-bladed for the Queen, and WARLORD OF THE REALM on an ermine hem below

Giantkind's head is a huge baby's head now, with big eyes, rosy cheeks, one tooth and one curl of hair. A warlord wearing Giantkind's parts stands physically bigger, and his health bar, taunts and stand measure him as he stands.
When you win a fight, your warlord leads a conga line of your deck's units across the victory page, one piece for each summon card, three steps and a kick.

Reading the fight

Slimify is a keyword now. A slimed unit's card says it splits into half-health copies of itself when it dies, a second cast adds to the count, and the slimed body is re-inked in the Slime's greens with bubbles, a wobble and drips.
Defector is a keyword. It gilds wherever a card names it, and its panel says it is a fully Charmed enemy that changed sides.
The battle log writes who struck whom, what each card did and what hurt each commander.
On a controller, aiming a spell opens where the game would cast it for you: an area spell on the group worth hitting, a single-target spell on its target, a lane spell on its lane. The d-pad nudges the aim the way you press it.

Balance

Errant Whispers summons five Whispers at 7 HP and 3 attack, up from three at 5 HP and 2 attack.
The Prizefighter gets Pounce 3 and 8 health instead of 5, and its upgrade takes it to Pounce 6.
The Charmweaver's strikes land Charm 1, on top of her Charm Aura.
Flashpowder scatters 4 traps that deal 3 damage as well as Blind, and its upgrade scatters 6.
Pit Trap Diagrams lays two Bear Traps at random spots each round instead of dealing 4 damage to a random enemy.
The Boiler's upgrade buys +5 attack and +7 HP per energy spent, up from +4 and +6.
The Rapt-Boar carries 6 HP again.
Exit Fee sends an Alley Hawker instead of the Alley Cavalier, and it surfaces at midfield, so there is a long walk to catch it.
Brother Clang has 34 HP, up from 26, so the fight lasts long enough for the Great Toll to ring.
Mini Me is half your commander's max HP and attack, and anything the card has banked is added on top of that half instead of being overwritten.
The Mudflat Derby's odds add up to 100%: the favourite runs at 50 and the stayer at 35 beside Old Thunder's 15.
The Tome of Threefold Paths pays its curse in cards that are all Rare or better.
Echo Vial copies the whole card, so a Congregation's echo musters its Thrall again and Fan Club its defectors, where it used to pour only the printed squad.
Chain of Sorrows no longer answers its own kills.
0.7.21: Overwatch no longer shells the enemy commander. Dropped on a lord's feet, one 1-energy card turned every ranged unit you had on him for ten seconds. The mark now fires only on the army standing in it.

Co-op

A joiner sees everything the host's units have that their printed cards do not say: a one-off Undying or Overheal, the Growth and Thorns flasks, a Power folded into a standing army, the Mimic's mirror and Pack Tactics armor all show on a joiner's hover and on the body.
The Pale Rider's mirror images stand and burst the same way on every seat.
A joiner's lane-front count reads the same number as the host's and stops on the same body.

Fixes

A game closed between a hand-over and the button that leaves it no longer pays twice. Uncle Jim's check-in relic, the treasure room's relic and the craft room's rest, craft or hatch each go into the save the moment they are given, and the reopened screen shows only its way out.
A run closed on the last boss's defeat resumes onto its verdict page instead of a map with no road left on it.
The Witch's Cauldron's Cleansing Tears stacks its Regen when it pours twice.
Double Down settles as its wheel stops, on screen, and a Jackpot burns the card there.
The upgrade peek you open with a right click keeps its card on the page instead of hanging half off the screen.
0.7.21: the pencil line round the mat's torn edge comes down with the mat instead of turning up ahead of it.

In the browser

0.7.20's browser build came out too big for itch, so the web version sat on 0.7.17 while every other build moved on. 0.7.21 fits again, and the browser build caught up with everything above.

This post went out to players on Steam and itch.io on 10 October 2026, and is kept here. Comments and questions are read on either of those, in the Discord, or through the quill in game.