Homefront now available

by Chris Lobban, Chief Programmer

6th August 2010

Surprise! Happy Birthday!

Okay, so apparently nobody out there is having a birthday today besides my son. Oh well, you get a surprise present anyway. It's Homefront, a new mini-expansion for First Edition! Unlike our normal slow-spoiler buildup, this expansion was actually released in full today. That's because unlike most expansions, this one doesn't really have much new gameplay in it. Like Identity Crisis this expansion is full of reprint cards, though this time with lots of great AI. As an expansion, Homefront's main goal is to make it easier for new players to enter the game. It does this in two ways:

1. Reprint all of the Homeworld/HQ pairings, so that new players can get their hands on them. One of the Homeworlds, and all of the HQs were previously rares and are therefore hard to get for a lot of people. However, these days they're also vital cards to ensure that your deck keeps moving quickly, for some affiliations in particular those free plays are required to let them keep up with DQSS and other similar shenanigans.
2. Reprint 18 important dilemmas (a mix of key 1E cards and 2EBC conversions), that a new player will need to get their hands on in order to build reliable dilemma combos. Also, as a visual aid for new players, to help get them started at the art of building good dilemma combos, the dilemmas are all colour coded. The card number has a Green, Yellow or Red background behind it. Any new player can sit down with these dilemmas, and set them up in the order of Green, Yellow, Red and have a viable dilemma combo. They can mix and match to learn which dilemmas go best together, and use that as a learning tool to start developing their own dilemma combos from their own dilemmas. One of the hardest concepts to teach in this game, just got easier.

So although this set doesn't really contain any new gameplay for the hardcore players (aside from a handful of new 2EBC conversions), it should go a long way towards helping out new players. And really, doesn't helping out new players help out everybody? The easier we make the game for new players to enter into, the longer it will last. And the Continuing Committee is dedicated to making sure that both First and Second editions continue to have a long life for years to come.