Hello gamers, we hope that you had a happy new year! In the last few months, we have been working hard to make Space Lion the best game it can be. We recently launched a playtest program and were overwhelmed by the amount of feedback we received. Our team carefully analyzed all of this feedback and used it to fine-tune the final version of the game. We are very happy with the balance we achieved while still maintaining the asymmetry of each army.

Changes Coming to Space Lion
During our testing and beta period, we identified a few areas of the game that we wanted to improve upon. This is the main reason why the release of Space Lion has been delayed.  The core system of the game saw a few significant change, but don’t worry, the game is still very similar and should now be even easier to play! I’d like to go over these changes with you now.

Planning Effects have been replaced with Discard Effects
 This was done in order to make the game more understandable and to reduce the amount places information appears. Now all your effects are on your cards (effects from the playerboards have been removed). All units now have discard effects, which are similar to the old planning effects. Some units also have unique discard effects which really opened up our design space.

Unit Recovery Timing Change
We also made a change to the timing of unit recovery. Players often forgot to recover their units at the start of the battle phase, so we decided to move this phase to the end of the round to make it feel more organic. To facilitate this change, players now have ‘two discard piles’: one for face-up cards and another for face-down cards. Face-up discarded cards return to the owner at the end of the round, while face-down discarded cards remain discarded and are turned face-up. When a battle is over, solo cards are discarded face-up, while grouped cards are discarded face-down.

Lead Effects and Card Reveal Timing
We also made a change to the timing of unit reveal. All units no longer flip at the start of the battle phase. Instead, units are revealed in a battle when that battle is chosen to resolve. This makes choosing which battle to resolve first a more strategic decision both for the player resolving battles and the player on the defensive. Since cards are discarded face-up now, more information is revealed as time goes on. Choose your battle order carefully!  With the addition of lead effects and the new discard mechanic, players will have a good number of face-up cards to work with even on the first battle of the round. This should make for more interesting choices and allow some hope for the defending player to pull off a trick.

Turncoat Mini Expansion
We are also excited to announce that we have created 10 new lion cards that can be found in the Turncoat Mini Expansion. Each Lion is carefully designed to have a different playstyle based on which army it is being played in even though its effect is the same. Each Lion can be used in two different armies, so you will receive a total of 20 cards. This mini expansion is automatically included in the Kickstarter version of the game.