PB& Games

0.7.37: every lord's own slam, the mat laid as cloth, and faster browser fights

Version 0.7.37 29 min read

Four pictures in a two by two grid: the Mimic's treasure chest biting down on a line of soldiers, a giant bone hand clawing up through the board beside Rex Mortifer, an iceberg with penguins toppling onto a line of soldiers in front of Calvin the polar bear, and the Magma Magnate in his crown and ermine cape rising out of a lava-lit stage.

0.7.37 is out on Steam, the itch.io downloads, the browser version and the Android download. The lords who used to drop a prop on your line at a phase break now each strike their own way: Rex Mortifer's bone hand claws up out of the board, the Mimic's treasure chest hops down the road and bites, and Calvin's iceberg rolls over onto your soldiers. Elite and boss entrances get a show for each lord, the felt mat goes down one of six ways at the start of a fight, the warlords' signs are redrawn (the King's is now a velvet cloth you can push around), and Uncle Jim writes in spilled ink. In the browser a player's turn takes about half as long to draw, and on Android the game starts on about a third of the memory it used to.

Every lord strikes in their own way

At a phase break, most lords used to drop a prop on your line. It fell out of the sky shrinking over a dark disc, squashed, held, and flew back up, the same for everyone. Now each lord's blow is its own move, made for the thing it is: 27 of them, for 25 lords. Calvin has three. The blow lands at the same moment as before, within the first second, so nothing about the fight's timing changed. Every piece is printed card, and nothing fades out: each one leaves by going somewhere, into the board, off the edge of the frame, or folded flat.

The Elder Treant's stomp card is now called Rising Root. A ridge runs through the board toward your line, the board tears, and a root the size of a wagon arches up and drives its tip down in front of your soldiers.

On a kraft board on green felt, a ridge runs through the board from the Elder Treant toward a small line of soldiers. The board tears open and a great brown root arches up out of it and drives its tip down in front of the line, throwing the soldiers back, then sinks away and leaves cracks across the roads

Blastcap lobs a lit keg end over end. It thuds down, rocks and skids while the fuse burns, swells, and bursts into its own staves.

A goblin in a miner's helmet lobs a wooden keg with a skull painted on it. It thuds down in front of a line of soldiers, rocks and skids, the fuse sputters, and it blows apart in a red cut-paper burst, its staves flying and the line thrown back

The Houndmaster's hound comes down out of the sky with its jaws open while its lower jaw rises out of a gash in the board. They snap shut, shake once like a dog with a rat, and part.

A huge dark hound's head comes down out of the top of the frame with its jaws wide, while a lower jaw of teeth rises out of the board under it. The jaws snap shut on the soldiers in front of the Houndmaster, shake, and part, leaving rows of red tooth marks down the roads

The Brass Colossus brings down a forge press. It lets down on its rod, hisses while its gauge climbs, then stamps the board in with steam blasting out flat both ways.

Beside the Brass Colossus, a brass forge press with a pressure gauge lets down on a steel rod, hisses, then stamps down onto the board in front of him, steam blowing out flat both ways and the soldiers thrown back along jagged blue cracks

The Mimic's slam is the chest it really is. It leaps in, hops down the board clapping its lid, and lands jaws first on your line, spitting coins.

Beside the Mimic, a silver-grey crowned figure, a treasure chest with eyes and rows of teeth leaps in, hops down the board clapping its lid, and lands jaws first on the soldiers, gold coins bursting out of its mouth. It chomps again and hops away out of the top of the frame

Rex Mortifer's board tents up and rips, and a bone hand claws up through the hole, swats over at the wrist onto your soldiers, grips, and drags back under.

In front of Rex Mortifer, a crowned skeleton in purple robes, the board tents up and rips, and a giant bone hand claws up through the hole, swats down across the soldiers, grips, and drags back under, leaving finger furrows down the roads

Calvin's three are the bear's paw, his Belly Flop spell (a penguin that leaps out of the sea, flops on its belly and toboggans at your line), and the berg: it shoulders up out of the floe, a crack runs up its face, and it goes over onto your soldiers as the sea comes up round it.

On a sea-ice board, an iceberg with penguins on top shoulders up out of the floe in front of Calvin, the polar bear, teeters, and falls over onto the soldiers, the sea opening round it. It sinks where it lies and leaves cracks across the ice

Perihelion's star finishes its fall: it streaks in on a trail of paper flame and punches a crater whose top layer peels back in flaps, then splits and sinks into it.

A burning rock streaks down out of the sky on a long cut-paper flame in front of Perihelion, a small dark star-shaped lord. It punches into the board under a big orange paper star, the board's top layer bursting up in flaps round a black crater, then the rock splits and sinks into it

The board below has the other nineteen at the moment of the blow. Simple Ton's club is swung in one fast arc and buried in the board, Haldric's four tower shields slam down rim-first across the front, Wynken's bolster drifts down like a falling leaf and bursts in feathers, Silvertongue's gavel knocks twice before it comes down ("going, going, gone"), the Pale Rider's scythe swings down on a pendulum and slits the road, and the Grave Tide rolls in as a wave that breaks over your line and drains back.

Nineteen small battle pictures in a grid on a dark background, each with a lord's name under it and the lord's blow landing in front: Simple Ton's club buried in the board, Haldric's wall of tower shields, Bill's hoof, Cadric's talon raking, Wynken's striped bolster, Amanita's purple mushroom, Verdy's striped sting, the werewolf Wally's clawed paw at night, the Lost Witch's shut grimoire, the Cursemonger's seal in red wax, Silvertongue's gavel, two crossed swords before Haft, the Magnate's lava bomb splatting, the Pale Rider's scythe, the Grave Tide's curling wave, Fear Drinker's dark crown, the Avatar of Winter's shattered icicle, a polar bear's paw before Calvin, and Calvin's penguin on its belly

These were filmed with each blow fired on its own, without the banner that comes before it in a fight, and with the screen shake off. Wally's is the exception: that tile is from his real first break at night.

Haldric's great shield

Haldric's Close Ranks break was redone so you can see it. At half health the camera comes in on his castle as the drawbridge drops, and four of his shieldbearers march out of the gate with the quarters of a gold shield held over their helmets. An armourer welds the quarters whole in front of him, the four throw it up to him, and he catches it, "+1 Armor" floating up off him, and throws his old blue shield back for the armourer to carry home before the bridge goes up. Then The Great Shield card plays, and his Armor goes from 1 to 2 for the rest of the fight.

Four knights in blue and red carry four gold shield quarters over their heads along the top edge of a blue felt mat, below a painted castle wall with its drawbridge down over the moat. A ring-shaped cardboard road runs round a pool of felt, and Haldric stands at its right end under his nameplate, a bunch of iron keys beside him
A felt mat with a ring-shaped cardboard road sits on a desk. The camera pulls back to show a long painted castle along the back wall, then moves in as a drawbridge drops in front of its gate. Four knights carry the quarters of a gold shield over their heads out of the gate and round the mat to Haldric, a fifth man welds the quarters together in front of him, the four throw the shield to Haldric, he catches it, +1 Armor floats up off him, he throws his old blue shield back, and the welder carries it home before the bridge goes up

On some boards the crew never comes out in this version; that is under Known issues at the end.

Entrances, with a show for each lord

The entrance page from 0.7.36 now plays in six beats. The house lights go down over the lord's own world, the lord comes on in silhouette in their own way, the lights hit on the landing and the lord's own slam is heard, the nameplate is slapped onto the page, the camera creeps in during the hold, and then the page peels away and the plate flies across the field and drops onto the lord's head. A boss holds for 2 seconds and an elite for 1.2, and a click once the name is down still cuts it short. Every beat has a quiet sound of its own.

Twelve entrance pages in a grid, each a lord standing in a spotlight in front of his own painted world with his nameplate on the lower left: Haldric in armour with a tower shield before two castles, Bill the Bull-Blooded with a cleaver by a yurt, Wynken asleep in a patchwork bed under a night sky, Verdy B. Queen in a pink petal skirt by a hive, the Lost Witch with a glowing staff, the Cursemonger in a purple hood holding a crooked staff, Silvertongue the snake in a top hat coiled by a market stall, Hew and Haft the Twins side by side with two plates, the Brass Colossus in a foundry, the Mimic as a silver copy of the Queen with its plate on the lower right, the Grave Tide in a sea-green wave by a lighthouse, and Calvin the polar bear with a spear in front of an ice palace

When the followspot hits Wally, waving, the shadow he throws on the wall behind him is the wolf he turns into under the moon.

A fight's board, then a sheet of paper rolls across the screen from the right and lays down a village at dusk under a striped moon, the lights down. A black silhouette of a man waving walks in; the followspot hits him and he is Wally in his yellow cardigan with a watering can, while the shadow thrown on the wall behind him is a wolf's. His nameplate, Wally on a green-roofed sign among daisies, is slapped onto the lower left. The page peels off to the left, the sign flies across the board and drops over his head, and he says "Folks here are very close. Almost a pack, really."

The Houndmaster runs on, and once he lands his three heads bite in turn, each on its own neck.

A sheet rolls on over a round dirt arena and lays down a kennel yard at sunset, a log cabin with antlers over the door. A black silhouette of a three-headed hound runs in; the lights hit and he is a black and tan dog with three heads in spiked red collars, and the heads bite to the left one after another while pairs of cut-paper jaws snap in the air beside them. His plate, Houndmaster on a torn strip, sits on the lower left; then the page peels off and the plate flies to his head

The six who rise through the floor each bring their own show. The stage floor splits under the Magma Magnate, three jets of lava go up, and he surges up between them.

A sheet rolls on over the Magnate's board and lays down his world at night: a domed palace, a volcano and a brick kiln. A glowing crack opens across the stage floor, three tall jets of lava go up out of it, and a black silhouette in a crown surges up between them. The lights hit: he is the Magma Magnate, crowned, a torch in one hand and an ermine cape behind him, the jets fall back and the crack cools. His plate, a stone slab with Magma Magnate in orange letters, is slapped on the lower left and its little volcano smokes; then the page peels off and the plate flies across the board to his head

Rex Mortifer's ledger drops open, its leaves riffle over with a soul going up off each, and he stands up out of the book's gutter like a pop-up page.

A sheet rolls on over Rex Mortifer's board and lays down a graveyard at night under a bone arch, with a clock tower and an hourglass. An open book drops onto the stage and its pages riffle over, pale souls rising off them; a black silhouette with a crown and a staff stands up out of the book's gutter like a pop-up page. The lights hit: a crowned skeleton in a purple and red robe, bones and souls whirling round him. His plate, a torn ledger page reading Rex Mortifer, is slapped onto the lower left; then the page peels off and the plate flies across the board to his head

Blastcap's spark runs a fuse across the floor to a powder keg on his mark, and when the smoke clears he is standing where the keg was.

A sheet rolls on over Blastcap's board and lays down a powder works on a grey morning, the lights down. A lit fuse runs across the stage floor from the right to a wooden keg on his mark; the keg goes up in a starburst of orange card and a roll of grey smoke, and as the smoke clears the goblin Blastcap is standing in the followspot where the keg was, a candle on his helmet, a bundle of dynamite in one hand and a ball and chain in the other. His plate, Blastcap, the Powder-Reeve on a plank, is slapped on the lower left; the page peels away and the plate flies to his head
  • The Mimic's page is mirrored, left for right, the way the Mimic is.
  • The Fear Drinker flies on as a moth on a crooked flight, and a whisper comes out of the dark as his page comes on.
  • The Iron Wardens' captain marches on in three measured steps.

Simple Ton stamps twice

At half health Simple Ton gets mad and stamps twice. The first stamp is a cross little hop that knocks the camera back off him. The second is the real one: it hurls your line back down the road and sends a ruck through the felt like a kicked rug. The near corner of the blanket flips up and flops back dog-eared, the border is dragged askew, and the card on the wall loses a strip of tape and hangs crooked. It stays that way for the rest of the fight.

A fight on a blue felt blanket: the King at the left end of a cardboard board, Simple Ton the green troll at the right with "Troll... winding up. Soon... Big smash." over him, and the hand of cards at the foot of the screen. The camera is knocked back until the whole box is in frame, the blanket on the desk and the meadow card with its rainbow on the wall behind. A ridge of cloth races out across the felt from Ton's end, the near corner flips up and flops back, the card on the wall drops crooked on one tape, and the camera comes back in on a blanket left in rumpled folds and hummocks, Ton saying "Ton not wait anymore."

The mat goes down like cloth

At the start of a fight the felt mat used to unroll the same way every time. Now it goes down one of six ways: unrolled off a tube, shaken out like a tablecloth, floated down on a cushion of air, unfolded from a folded square, rolled apart from two rolls, or dropped rumpled and smoothed flat. The way is picked from the fight's seed, so everyone at a co-op table sees the same one. A few fights keep the plain roll: torn pairs of mats, Wally's village, the floating board and the Battle of Vows. With Reduce Motion on, the mat drops in plain. On phones, and with Reduce effects on, the cloth is cut coarser so it costs less to draw.

Six views of an empty desk, each with a felt mat coming down in a different way and a lord's back wall behind it. Unroll: a tube of blue felt drops at the back and rolls toward you. Shake-out: a green mat is flicked in from the side and settles far edge first. Parachute: a cream mat floats down flat and a bubble of air runs out from under it. Unfold: a grey square folded in four lands and opens out, half by half, into a slate mat. Double roll: two navy rolls land in the middle and roll apart to the edges. Smooth-out: a mat lands rumpled and its creases flatten. Every one ends flat and taped at the corners, with the cardboard board landing on it
A cream mat bordered in green and pastel honeycomb cells floats down flat over the desk under Verdy B. Queen's wall, its edges slap down, and a pale blister of trapped air slides across under the felt and out at the side
Two navy rolls land side by side in the middle of the desk under Rex Mortifer's wall and roll apart toward the left and right edges, opening a dark blue mat with a gold trim like a scroll

The warlords' signs, and the King's cloth

The fourteen warlords' painted signs got a second and a third pass. Every name now keeps room above and below it, so none sits jammed against the top edge. The King's sign is now a cloth of estate: velvet dyed in his seat's colour, caught up under his crown and falling in two swags, with gold braid, an ermine hem and a gold tassel at each corner. The Queen's is the same under her tiara. The Eternal's sign is an obsidian clock face, the Boxer's is a side of his ring with his gloves hung off a corner post, the Pirate's board ends in gilt scrolls, the Dragon's plaque is beaten gold on a heap of card coins, and the Viking's shields hang close along his longship's rail. The loudest colours were toned down, and every sign is printed through the same paper grain as the cards. Your name goes on your warlord's sign over your commander in a fight and on the draft screen; here they all are with the sample name Marigold:

Fifteen painted name signs on a dark board, each carrying the name Marigold and its warlord's epithet, with the warlord named in gold under it: the King's blue velvet cloth under a gold crown with an ermine hem, the Queen's in green under a tiara, the Mummy's sandstone lintel, the Spaceman's white panel, the Gunslinger's poster on planks, the Eternal's dark clock face with hourglasses, the Boxer's ring apron under three ropes, the Pirate's board with a coil of rope, the Witch's shingle hung from a branch, the Viking's longship lined with shields, the Ninja's scroll, the Train Conductor's station sign with a pocket watch, the Explorer's crate board, the Dragon's gold plaque on a heap of coins, and the Cyborg's steel plate

The King's cloth is a real cloth. Run the pointer across it and the velvet drags and tilts, the hem bends and the tassels swing. Half a second after you leave it, it starts easing back into its drape, whatever fold you left it in.

The King's blue velvet name sign, reading Marigold, Warlord of the Realm under a gold crown. A mouse pointer sweeps across it twice; the velvet drags and tilts under the pointer, the ermine hem bends and a tassel swings, and after the pointer leaves the cloth eases back into its two swags and hangs still

Three lords' names changed, and their plates with them. The bog lord is Vetch everywhere now, where his army used to be called the Bog Trappers, and the Warsmith and the Houndmaster dropped their "The". The Pale Rider's plate had a lot tag on it reading "1", which meant nothing; his horse's cast shoe hangs off the waystone's twine in its place, rimed with frost.

Four enemy lords' painted name plates on a dark board: a mossy swamp sign reading Vetch, the Bog-Vizier among bulrushes with a noose hanging off it, an iron anvil reading Warsmith with a hammer on top and tally marks, a paper bill reading Houndmaster with a coiled leash at its left end, and a grey waystone reading Pale Rider with a horseshoe hung on twine at the left and a candle on stacked stones at the right

How a run ends

The verdict at the top of the end-of-run page is cut from card now. VICTORY is a prize ribbon: it lands with a rosette at each end, the ribbon's ends unfurl behind it, tails drop under the rosettes with a burst of paper confetti, and a fan of gold card rays turns slowly behind it.

The top of the end-of-run page. A cream strip lands with a paper rosette at each end, the word VICTORY forms out of scraps of card, crimson ribbon ends unfold behind the strip, two tails drop under each rosette with paper confetti, and a fan of gold card rays opens and turns behind it

DEFEAT is the same strip, ruined. It lands already split down the middle, and a beat later the tear gives and each half swings down off the one tack still holding it. Its right end is burnt away, and a scrap drops out of the tear.

A grey card strip pinned with two brass tacks to a dusky cardboard backdrop with a paper sun setting behind hills. DEFEAT forms on it already split down the middle; then the tear gives, both halves swing down off their tacks and hang crooked with the word broken into DEF and EAT, and a small scrap drops out of the tear. Below, the King's figure stands among his troops with teardrops over his head

Uncle Jim writes in ink

Uncle Jim's words used to be typed out a letter at a time. Now they are written: a wet drop of ink runs along the line with the newest letters, and behind it the ink draws back into crisp type. His walk-up on the road, his check-in note and the closing line of an event's result page are all written this way. A tap still finishes the line at once. On phones and in the browser each letter lands as a blot of wet ink and dries into its colour instead, and with Reduce Motion on the check-in note and an event's closing line are printed whole.

Uncle Jim's taped note on the road. His words are written onto it a few letters at a time: a wet black drop of ink runs along the line with the newest letter, the letters show dark through it, and behind it the ink draws back into crisp type. It writes four lines, the last reading "Heard tell you ran The Elder Treant clean out of the territory. Yee-haw, says I, and also: good riddance."
On an event's result page under the headline The Standard Marches On, the closing line is written in italic ink onto a torn scrap taped to the page: "He hands it over the way men hand over sons. The old cloth lifts in a wind that isn't blowing." A small red pin with a star flies past the scrap's left edge on its way to the run bar while it writes

The Crayon Roads, redrawn

In The Crayon Roads you draw the next fight's roads yourself. Your warlord and the lord now stand on their own stands, exactly where the fight will put them and as big. The crayon wears down as you draw, since each road has only so much wax, and its stroke is the same line the fight draws down the middle of a road. When you cut them out, the knife goes round the roads three times, one sheet at a time, the waste card falls off the desk, and the cut sheets settle as the fight's roads with the toys dropping onto the mat where they stood. Coins on the sheet pay gold. In co-op every seat draws its own roads live.

A sheet of card lies over the desk with the King on a blue stand at its left and Gorehoof, a big purple boar, on a red stand at its right, toys and gold coins scattered between them. A blue crayon draws three roads from the King to Gorehoof, round the toys and over the coins, and the crayons in the tray at the lower left wear down as it goes. The pieces lift away, a craft knife cuts round the roads three times, the waste card falls off the desk, and the three cut sheets settle as the fight's roads on the lord's mat

Smaller things in the fight

Card faces. A card's flavour line now sits at the foot of its text box in a quieter ink, with room between it and the rules, so the rules read first. Spells and powers get 4 more pixels of text box, since they have no attack and health badges in the bottom corners, and 125 card faces print their rules a size bigger for it. This is everywhere a card face is drawn: the hand, rewards, the shop, the draft and the vows.

Two rows of the same four cards, Knights, Lightning, Death Toll and Fireball, the top row labelled 0.7.36 and the bottom 0.7.37. On top the italic flavour line sits right under the rules in nearly the same dark ink; below, it sits at the bottom of the text box in a lighter brown, with empty space between it and the rules

Hurrying a phase break. A click, a tap or the controller's A during a big phase break's reveal now runs the rest of it at four times speed. The fight is held while a break plays, so nothing is skipped and you are back in the fight sooner. The press that dismisses the break's banner doesn't count, and in co-op the break always plays at its own pace.

Phase tabs. The little paper tabs that mark a boss's phase breaks on the health strip now fold with the strip as it pleats down, and stay at their place along it.

The Elder Treant's log nameplate over his health readout, 52 / 52, and a flat green paper health strip with two small paper tabs hanging under it. The health drops to 49, 45, 32 and 28; each time the green part of the strip folds into pleats, and the tabs bend with the pleats under them and stay at their place along the strip

Change clocks. The countdown rings for an egg about to hatch, a unit turned into something else by Polymorph, and one of Wally's villagers about to turn at moonrise are now one ring, cut to fit the stand it lies round. The moon and Polymorph rings used to be nearly three stands wide.

Three pieces stand on a sandy road. A small green larva on a blue stand has a pale gold ring lying round the foot of its stand, a villager in a cap and satchel has a pale blue one, and a sheep on a red stand has a violet one. Each ring hugs the stand's own oval, bright along most of its length and dimmer along a short stretch at the back

Barricade+. The upgraded Barricade raises a wall of 3 barricades across one lane, the way Grix's walls go up. You still aim it anywhere for free; the aim picks the lane and how far up it the wall stands, and while you drag, a pale outline stands on every spot a barricade will land.

A green aim arrow curves up onto a sandy road. Three pale outlines of a wooden fence stand in a line across the road's width where it points, and slide along the road together as the aim moves. Then three real wooden barricades on blue stands drop onto those three spots

Uncle Jim's Care Package. The Mummy, the Eternal and the Witch have a spell as their signature card, so the Care Package used to give them a plain unit instead. Now it plays a free copy of their signature spell (Pharaoh's Curse, Rift in Time or Witches' Brew) on the first turn of each fight, then exhausts it. The spell is held up so you can read it, and the package's chest pops on the card as it goes out.

The card Pharaoh's Curse stands enlarged in the middle of a sandy battlefield, with Jim's care package, a small wooden chest, popping on its top edge. A line of purple dots runs from it to a pack of boars and their purple boar lord on the right

When a lord musters troops onto the field, the stamp that marks where they land now breathes in a ring cut from the lord's paper, so it is easier to spot.

Co-op

When an ally recommends an option, the ring in their colour is now traced round the option's own shape (a card's gems and badges, a slip's tab) instead of a rough box, and it stands clear of the controller's own highlight.

A Choose a card to add pick with three cards: Insight, Muggers and Adrenaline. A pirate's head pokes up over Insight and a witch's over Adrenaline. Insight is outlined in green and Adrenaline in pink, each line following the card's own edge, bumping out round its cost gem. Muggers in the middle has no outline

Balance

  • Pack Tactics now counts allies within 400 instead of 900. At 900 it reached across most of the arena, so the whole army always counted as one pack and the range ring said nothing. Now the pack is the bodies on its own road and the next one over. Spirit Rites keep their 900.
  • Chimera (Mutagenesis): On Strike, heal 1 (2 when upgraded), in place of On Kill, +2 max HP.
  • Barricade+ raises a wall of 3 across one lane (above). Plain Barricade still drops one anywhere for free.
  • Uncle Jim's Care Package casts the signature spell for the Mummy, the Eternal and the Witch instead of summoning a plain unit (above).
  • Haldric's Close Ranks now hands him the great shield: his Armor goes from 1 to 2 for the rest of the fight.

The browser version

The browser's fights were sluggish, even raising and playing a card. Measured in Chrome, most of each frame of a player's turn was spent waiting on Chrome's own graphics process, and one setting was most of that wait: the live cut-out edge on every punched-out piece on the field (the props, the curios, the commanders' cut edges). It is now off by default in the browser, and "Cut-out edges on stand-up pieces" in the Advanced settings still turns it back on. The lanes' drop shadow and the lane threat marks were made cheaper too.

On a 1280x720 page, the median frame of a player's turn went from 16.7 ms to 8.8, holding a raised card from 17.2 to 8.3, and playing it from 19.6 to 8.4. On a fullscreen 2560x1440 page the turn went from 19.3 ms to 9.6. With Chrome slowing the CPU to a quarter of its speed, the share of a turn's frames over 33 ms went from nearly all of them to between 5% and 36%.

After that, what was left was draw calls, and most of them were things holding still:

  • While your hand rests, the browser draws it once and lays it down as a single picture; it goes back to being drawn the moment anything in it moves. A card being carried is drawn live and the rest of the fan stays a picture. With the hand at rest, a fight's frame went from about 870 draw calls to about 530.
  • The fight's buttons and widgets (the speed buttons, the End Turn plate, the piles, the energy seal) are printed the same way once they hold still, in the browser and on phones.
  • A unit's stand and its health strip are now drawn in one call each, with the same picture, so a unit costs about 3.5 draw calls in the browser where it cost about 6.3.

Phones

Android starts on far less memory. Android now builds on our own version of the game's engine. As the game starts, the engine keeps a parsed copy of the game's scripts, and almost all of it was the insides of functions that nothing reads again. Ours lets those go. On a Pixel 10 Pro XL the game's peak memory while starting went from about 2,525 MB to about 860, it settles at the title holding about two thirds of what it did, and the game is ready for its first fight about 4.5 seconds sooner. A game holding less memory is less likely to be the one Android closes.

The muster stopped hitching. Switching between the two body types on Choose Your Warlord stalled a phone for seven or eight frames of a quarter of a second each, because each warlord's pictures were read as he turned. A phone now reads both body types ahead while the muster is open, and the switch runs without a frame over 34 ms. The first spin of the wheel no longer hitches as each warlord's sign is cut.

Reading your hand. Press a card in your hand and slide your finger along the fan: each card you pass over rises to be read, and nothing is played. Lift your finger and that card stays open. Slide up out of the hand and the card under your finger is played.

A phone-shaped view of a battle with five cards in hand. A finger mark presses the first card, Knights, which rises enlarged to be read; the finger slides right along the hand and Lightning, Death Toll and then Insight each rise in turn in its place. The finger then slides straight up, Insight lifts out of the hand onto the field and is played, the energy counter drops from 3/3 to 2/3 and three new cards are dealt into the hand

Choose Your Warlord. The front warlord's sign is cut at reading size on a phone, and the twelve colour chips stand in one row; the "Player color:" label gave up its room to fit them. Tapping a starter card lifts it over everything to read.

The warlord select screen at a phone's shape. Seven standing paper warlords on a wheel under a blue Choose Your Warlord banner, the King in front; under him his blue velvet sign reading KING, Warlord of the Realm. Below: his Max HP of 110, his pin Commander's Heart, three starter cards, a single row of twelve colour chips, Type 1 and Type 2, and the buttons Back, Spin the Wheel and Sound the March, with the ascension card War-Weary at the right

Also in this update

  • Heartwood Unbound no longer jumps the camera back to the middle of the field when its pull-out stops, and the board's settle starts from rest.
  • Calvin's open mouth is redrawn: a lip on the jaw's edge and teeth that read as teeth.
  • Were-Wally's swiping paw is a wolf's paw in his own fur.
  • The Twins' swords stay inside the camera's view in the top lane.
  • Haldric's gate no longer shows two sets of drawbridge chains.
  • A press while the opening film is still loading shows "Loading..." in the skip corner, then "Tap again to skip" once the game is in.
  • Grand Experiment's text says "your units gain +5 max HP" instead of "your fielded units".

Known issues

  • On some board layouts in the Iron Wardens fight, nobody comes out of the castle for Haldric's great shield: it changes on his arm between two frames, with the camera left at the whole desk. It is fixed for the next update.
  • When the Care Package plays its spell at the start of a fight, the line naming it can run off the left edge of the screen, and the Your Turn banner unfolds behind the card.

This post went out to players on Steam and itch.io on 26 October 2026, and is kept here. Comments and questions are read on either of those, in the Discord, or through the quill in game.