The Final Unlock: Neoprene Play Mat
11 months ago
– Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 12:51:09 PM
You asked us for a play mat option. You demanded it. You pretended to be a pizza delivery driver and surprised us at the office, screaming something about the sweet scent of neoprene.
Fine! We submit!
We have some plans for play mats in the future that we think you're going to appreciate. And we know that play mats, and the ability to get just the right one is important to card players. But since we needed a single design for this campaign, we decided to keep it simple and ensure that it was applicable to everyone. After all, you don't necessarily want a creepy Jessa mat when you're running a sheepy Orrick deck!
This neoprene play mat comes in the sky blue and gold theme of Ascendancy, and lays out a single player's play area. You've got room for everything, battlefield and spellboard, active and exhausted dice, all your card piles, and you can even store your dice reference cards on the game logo. It'll smarten up your game table, keep it organized, and new players will probably find it especially useful.
It's the play mat for every occasion.
Forty-eight hours! Let's gooooo!
Sixth Reveal and Update on Card Count
11 months ago
– Thu, Apr 24, 2025 at 03:33:29 PM
We just revealed the sixth campaign bonus, which is a dice roller app. Now, most of us prefer the tactile joy of rolling dice and stacking counters, but a dice roller app opens up lots of opportunities!
This new app will pair nicely with the POD site, allowing new players to jump into the game without needing to own any dice, or bother with converting the die faces of standard six-sided dice.
It also makes traveling with Ashes that much easier, especially since the app will also be able to track the health of Phoenixborn. A player can use it to track just their own dice and health, or two players can share at the same time. And of course we know many of you will be keen to find out if the app can also handle Dragonborn (and Chimera) die rolling as well as health tracking. Yes indeed!
The app will also be handy any time an oddball situation pops up, like say you suddenly find yourself hosting multiple Ashes games at once. Now there will be no fear of running out of dice or damage tokens.
The app is still in development, we only just started, but hope to release it this year. We'll share more details regarding what it can do and how it works, as its features take shape and a release date becomes more clear.
Finally, one note on card count. The Ashes Big Box Storage Solution has people wondering how well it can store especially large collections, or how we calculated its storage capacity. Here are some important stats:
- We used Plaid Hat Games sleeves in our calculations, which are 90 microns. You might be able to hold more or less, depending on the thickness of the sleeves you plan on using.
- We've had a couple different numbers for the game's card count floating around. Previously we said more than 1700. Well we have gone back through it, recounted everything, and now have a much more precise number for you: 1,881.
- This means if you have a complete collection (1 of every Ashes retail set, including the new starter set), you will have 1,881 cards.
We hope this makes it easier to calculate how much space you will need, and how many sleeves you will require. Thanks again to everyone for bringing this project to life!
New Campaign Reveal: Upgraded Premium Tokens
11 months ago
– Mon, Apr 21, 2025 at 06:07:15 PM
Today's update will be short and sweet. A lot of people asked us why a premium token set wasn't enough for two players. Simply put, the premium tokens replaced one of the cardboard punch sheets in the Ashes Ascendancy Starter Set, an amount we knew would work for most players, and would keep costs low. After all, more molds equal more expense. But we got a lot of feedback from backers, so our intrepid boss went to the printer, and they worked out a great solution. The cost is negligible for us, and now each Ashes Premium Token Pack will include three wound tokens with a 10 on one side and a 20 on the other. What does this mean? One set of premium tokens will be plenty for two players. You can battle a Dragonborn co-operatively (or a Chimera for that matter) and not worry about running out of tokens. Thanks everyone for helping to make this happen!
Errata Pack Revealed
11 months ago
– Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 05:48:57 PM
We have finalized the details of the Errata Pack we will be including in the Ashes Ascendancy Starter Set. These revised cards are:
Void Pulse
Enchanted Violinist
Return to Soil
Chained Creations
Luminous Seedling
Reimagine
Molten Gold
Ice Trap
Emperor Lion
Summon Fallen
Brennen Blackcloud
Rimea Careworn
Salamander Monk Spirit
Three-Eyed Owl
Indiglow Creeper
Want to see the cards? Download them here! Want to read about the decisions behind changing these cards? Read about it here! If you're a new player though, you might find the details in the news article to be a little much, so you're totally fine just trusting us, the updates are for the best!
We have also taken this opportunity to update our FAQ and Organized Play guidelines. Feel free to take a look.
Finally, here are a couple FAQs, some already answered, that pop up enough to discuss here.
Q: Why don't the premium tokens have 10/20 wound tokens?
A: 10/20 tokens would have required another mold which would have the raised the cost of the tokens for everyone. Instead, we had the premium token set replicate one of the two counter sheets that will come in the starter set. One set will be plenty for one player, and in many cases even enough for two. If you want to play 2-player co-op with all the bells and whistles, you'll want a second set, but most people will find one set suits their needs just fine.
Q: I'm in the US and these tariffs have me scared. How much am I going to end paying?
A: We hear you and we have you covered. Check out Update #6 and breathe easier.
Q: Do I need extra dice for the Dragonborn or Chimera?
A: No way. The most of those dice you will ever need for the solo/co-op experience, is what you get in those respective boxes. We included them as an add-on, because there are some among you who covet more of these dice. We aren't sure what they're planning on doing with them! Perhaps they want to run multiple solo games at once? Whatever the case, we'll probably have to notify Interpol, just to be safe!
Finally, one astute backer noticed we miscalculated the total value of the All-In tier in the image. That's due to us making one change at the last minute, and removing an unpublished item that didn't belong there. We forgot to update the graphic, though you'll notice the All-In tier reward shows the correct value! That's our mistake and a thoroughly unintentional one. Apologies!
Thank you backers! We appreciate you joining us on this exciting journey, and can't wait to show you more!
Improved Asia Shipping Rates, Errata Pack
11 months ago
– Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 03:30:42 PM
This is a small update to let you know that we have found a reliable partner for Asian fulfillment, allowing us to greatly lower our shipping rates to China, Hong Kong, and the rest of Asia. Hooray!
Also, we revealed a new campaign bonus on Monday: an errata pack! Some of our previous Ashes expansions also contained updated cards for other sets. Backers reasonably wondered how they could be sure they would have the most up-to-date cards. We had a similar concern, and didn't want anyone backing this campaign to receive an older product that could in any way need updating. The solution to this is the errata pack, a collection of cards that have been updated over the years to either fix an error or rebalance a card's effect. We will be bundling them with every copy of the Ashes Ascendancy Starter Set. If you have the older cards in question, replace them with the same cards from the errata pack. Don't have the older cards? Well good news, now you have a few bonus cards to add to your collection! We'll be sharing details on what's included in the pack in an update on Thursday.
Thanks everyone, for backing this project and being part of Ashes history!
