"We" are aiming to release the demo sometime in September or beginning of October (before the Steam October Fest). The core features are ready but we want to deliver something solid and as much bug-free as possible. We want to release a demo that you can enjoy playing and that gives you the right idea of what is this game about.

Gameplay features (demo)

Let's dive in the core loop of the game and the most important features and game mechanics that will be available in the demo.

All starts in the Units HUB, Before starting any match, you are required to form different groups of units that will be available for deployment in the battleground. Each unit has different stats that influence the hit chance in combat and some special units grant immunities and have abilities to use in the battleground. Forming unique groups by combining different units is one of the key features of the game.

Next to the Units HUB, there is the Combat Simulator room. You can simulate combat between different units groups in any terrain and at any combat distance. It is a very useful tool to design your units groups to counter enemy groups or aid ally groups and test your strategies.

After forming your groups you are ready to start a match! Select the faction you want to play with and the deployment gold. The gold is used to deploy your units groups. Similar to tabletop wargames, where the units has a cost in "points", here your groups has a cost in gold that depends on the units in it. You can deploy as many groups as the gold allows you. And this brings us to the so-called deployment phase.

When you start a skimirsh, you are required to deploy units groups around your main base. Groups are not unique, unless they have unique units in it, meaning that you can deploy multiple times the same group. The deployment phase is a "blind"phase in multiplayer online, where you only know the other players deployments after you are ready with your deployment. In local multiplayer, it is a "semi-blind" phase, where you only see "where" and "how many units" the other players deployed, but not what type of units.

After every player is ready the match starts. It is a turn-based game, meaning that you perform as many turn actions as you can with all your units group and whenever you are satisfied, you can end your turn. In every turn you can change the formation, move, cast abilities and attack with all your units groups. Attacking is the only definitive action, meaning that your remaining turn actions for that group are lost, so you must consider attacking the last thing.

When attacking or better known as entering in combat, there are two phases: the direct attack or the attack your group perform against the enemy group and the counter-attack of the enemy group, if and when the group has units left and the units have enough attack range. For example, attacking with ranged groups to a fully melee group at a distance greater than one hex, results in just a direct attack of the ranged group.

But there is an interesting deviation when more than one enemy group is at one hex of distance to the group that is about to attack. Both enemy groups, will be able to counter-attack!

In the battleground there are neutral bases that you can conquer with your units groups. Conquered bases will give you some benefits and terrain control that can be used to deploy faction-specific structures. Besides, some victory modes require you to conquer bases and keep them for a specific number of turns.

Terrains

Every hex in the battleground is a different terrain. Terrains can have important stat modifiers for the units groups standing on them. For example, the hill grants the group with more accuracy but adds a penalty on courage. Terrains and other elements in the battleground have different height. Units in higher terrains might gain an increased attack range. Besides, higher terrains block the visibility and can be used to protected your units from being attacked.

Group formation

Every turn you can change the formation of your units groups. Every formation has its own stat modifiers and, in particular, the Guard formation has a special behaviour that will be explained further below in the proximity attack section.

Engaging

When moving a group of units close to an enemy group (at one hex of distance). The enemy group enters in the so-called engaged state depicted with two crossed swords. When you are engaged, you can perform turn actions normally, but if you move your group away from the enemy group, your group will lose all remaining turn actions.

Proximity attack

As mentioned before, the Guard formation brings some special behaviour to your units. You can set your group of units in Guard formation and decide the direction in which they are going to "watch". Whenever an enemy group crosses their range of view (depicted with red eyes), they will get automatically attacked by your group. Note that, this formation is mostly interesting when ranged units are in the group, so that you can attack at distance.

Incapacitation

There is a specific ability that can incapacitate a units group. Any group incapacitated will not be able to perform any turn action in the next turn.

Factions, research and abilities

There are two available factions for the demo, Aarbar and Corx. Each faction has slight variations in the common units stats and three unique special units. Special units can grant immunities to the group they belong to, i.e. immunity to be engaged or incapacitated. Besides, they can use abilities.

Abilities have a cast range and can be offensive or supportive, meaning that you can cast them on enemy groups or ally groups. They have a number of cooldown turns after being used and each group it limited to cast one ability per turn.

Every faction has different researches to permanently upgrade your units, i.e. by granting benefits on the stats. Each research takes a number of turns to be completed and during that time you cannot start other researches. Here, the strategy comes on planning wisely what to research first!

Finally, there are special and unique structures that can be deployed in terrains around your bases. These structures create a range effect providing downgrades or upgrades for the units group standing nearby.