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ICV2 is reporting that a settlement has been reached in the CSG/Pocketmodel lawsuit between WotC & WizKids:
WizKids Inc. and Wizards of the Coast have jointly announced that they have reached a settlement of the claims and counterclaims in the WizKids vs. Wizards of the Coast lawsuit. WizKids filed the lawsuit last June (see “WizKids Sues WotC”) in response to Wizards of the Coast’s announcement of a patent on “Constructible Strategy Games” (see “WotC Announces CSG Patent”).
As part of the settlement, which also provides for the dismissal of all claims and counterclaims, “Wizards has granted WizKids a license for the Pirates PocketModel Game to United States Patent No. 7,201,374, and all related patents that might issue.” The rest of the settlement remains confidential, and under terms of the agreement neither WizKids nor Wizards of the Coast can comment further on the agreement.
Welcome to this final sneak peek into Against the Giants. In a week or two, you'll be able to get your hands on a new set of huge miniatures with which to crush your foes and threaten your players!
For this final week, we look at creatures with ties to fire.
Efreeti Flamestrider
Old-school Dungeons & Dragons fans should remember this creature from the Dave Sutherland painting that graced the cover of the original Dungeons Masters Guide. He's back in 4th Edition with reinforcements -- the Monster Manual offers a DM the choice of five different efreets, including the Efreeti Flamestrider.
The Efreeti Flamestrider has the potential to be incredibly mobile. Fiery Teleport allows this skirmisher to skip around the battlefield, but only to spaces adjacent to fire creatures or next to creatures taking ongoing fire damage. The second part requires no ally -- if the Flamestrider hits with Fiery Grasp, a ranged attack that can target any creature he can see, the Efreet can immediately use his move action to teleport adjacent to the target.
Retreating is a little more difficult, because you're not as likely to have ongoing fire damage on any of your creatures. If you thought ahead and included another creature in your warband with the fire keyword, then you're set. Perhaps you can use a …
MechWarrior has some of the most dedicated fans of any game line in the industry, and WizKids deeply values those fans. It’s for our fans that we have kept MechWarrior events running as long as we have─eight months past the release of the latest MechWarrior product. However, monthly WizKids-supported MechWarrior events will be ending at stores in July, and culminating in August with the MechWarrior Championships at GenCon. We want to level with you and tell you why supported MechWarrior events are ending for now:
1) We are simply out of prizes in sufficient quantity. For North America alone, it takes one set of 750-1100 individual, usually identical figures or cards to support each of the 3-4 MechWarrior events each month. The last set of “new” prize support created for MechWarrior was eight months ago, the six Wolf’s Dragoon LE ’Mechs. You may have noticed we’ve had to reuse some old kits recently and stretch things in various ways to have all the events covered. There’s essentially nothing left in our warehouse in sufficient quantity.
2) We can’t create new prize support without a new product. When the sculpting, painting, tooling, and production lines for a set are designed, we can turn some quantity of that set into LE prizes. OP material cannot be generated without being attached to a set - this has always been true, and for all of our lines. As no new MechWarrior sets have been created, we have been unable to generate new prize support.
WizKids believes it is worth supporting fans, even when we are not currently producing new products. Some companies immediately cut OP to save money. But we love MechWarrior as much as you do, and we wanted to keep the MechWarrior tournament experience going as long as possible.
That being said, there are still many awesome MechWarrior things to look forward to:
1) The... [Read More]
It's only a few more weeks before the Against the Giants prerelease, but if you make it to the Delve at Origins in Columbus next weekend, you could walk away with one or more alternate painted miniatures from the set.
Those who can't make it to Origins will have to settle for the penultimate preview!
Shadow Hulk
This week's huge miniature is the shadow hulk, a huge version of the Dungeons & Dragons staple. One of the many goals of 4th Edition was to extend the life of iconic monsters such as the umber hulk and the carrion crawler. Many of these creatures have multiple versions at different levels so they can be used throughout the span of a campaign.
The Shadow Hulk is a solo monster usable in a mid to late paragon tier encounter. It can maneuver quite well for a huge creature, thanks to burrowing through walls, and it causes additional damage whenever a confused creature activates within the Shadow Hulk's ample reach. In sealed games with this set, if you manage to pull both this and the Tomebound Arcanist, you'll get even more use out of the Shadow Hulk's Prey on the Weak-Minded ability.
With the advent of the revised D&D Miniatures game, we have reworked the rules for Epic Sealed Tournament play. The format for the Against the Giants Prereleases will be "400 Point Epic Sealed." Players at the prereleases will build 400-point warbands with no more than 10 figures. The assault scenario will be used. To win a game, players must score 400 victory points. Players earn victory points by eliminating opposing creatures (points = the creature's cost) and by occupying victory areas at the end of a round (points = 20 for occupying one or more areas).
Players will also be required to have an Epic battle map. But not to worry, each player who attends an Against the Giants prerelease event will receive the Epic battle map "King's Road," freshly updated for the new rules.
This week, we feature two figures similar in more than one way. Uncommon? Check. Deal fire damage? Check. The ability to rain fire from a distance? Check.
Eladrin Pyromancer
The Eladrin Pyromancer is a straight up artillery piece who rains down fire on your opponents. His signature Fireball will hurt anyone but the few pieces resistant to fire damage, even if he misses with his attack. Once that's used up, he can still peg off enemies with Fireblast.
Defensively, the pyromancer surrounds his person with a shield of circling blades. If you think you're about to be attacked in melee, you should active this ability and cause automatic damage to any creature that tries to hit with a melee attack. It lasts as long as the wizard chooses not to move. If you have other creatures that can slide the Eladrin around, you might be able to have it last quite a while and still throw off a few Fireblasts.
The pyromancer can be a bit aggressive. Here's a guy that actually wants to burn himself! His damage output skyrockets if he's able to take a little bit of fire damage, thanks to his recharging Fireball. If stuck in the area of effect of his own Fireball, he can use it again. In his spare time, he jumps over fire pits in his hometown village of Evermelt.
Of course, if he takes fire damage too many times, he'll start to look like our next guy …
Blazing Skeleton
Now that you have your 4th Edition Monster Manual, turn to page 234. Against the Giants fills your Blazing Skeleton needs with this Uncommon miniature. This is one of my favorites in the set: a dynamic pose, a good use of clear plastic, a painted charred skeleton; what's not to like?
