The alleyways of Venice are looking a little more dangerous today.

HONK!

A sprinting ostrich flashes past!

HONK HONK HONK!

Oh no, there are loads of them!

That’s right, the Ostrich Racing boxed set is finally here, and with it comes a couple of new characters for your games of Carnevale. If you’re a Guild player you’re in for a treat – we’re also making a couple of tweaks to existing characters too.

New Ostriches!

Starting off with the loudest and most obnoxious of all characters though. We’re riding into battle on the back of an ostrich. The Pulcinellas will do anything for a good time.

The first new character here is the Ostrich King?! (punctuation included)

This weird Leader character is all about fighting and speed.

If you have Pulcinellas in your gang already, you’ll notice a familiar line up here. The Ostrich King is very similar to the King For a Day. He has more Life Points, thanks to the ostrich he’s riding. He also moves a blinding 7 inches per action! Although with Limited Movement you’re pretty much stuck at ground level (unless you find some handy steps nearby).

The Ostrich King hits really hard with 5 Attack, and his Staff of Credit not only Stuns, but has -3 Penetration, which means he won’t rely on those attacks from above quite as much.

The Ostrich King has the familiar Do As I Say, Not As I Do and Mob Rule, which make your Pulcinellas able to score objectives and hit harder respectively.

The biggest difference is the Fult Tilt Command Ability, which makes all Pulcinellas (on the whole board) move an extra inch until the end of the round. You’ll want to activate the Ostrich King early on and lead from the front!

The second new character is the Very Loud Ostrich. Not only does the ostrich honk, but the Pulcinella toots and doots as well!

This Hero choice comes with 2 Command Points, which is very handy. While the Pulcinella Leaders are not particularly adept at leading, between the Brewer and the Very Loud Ostrich, you can get a surprising number of Command Points in your gang.

The Very Loud Ostrich has their own Command Ability too, making friendly characters charge in. Up to 2 get to make a free move, but they have to charge into an opponent, so line it up and get stuck in.

Finally, there’s nothing funnier than hitting an opponent over the head with a trumpet. Every time you do it, all friendly characters within 3″ replenish a Will Point. Doot!

 

Our friendly Ostrich Riders make a pretty good (albeit unwieldy) gang, especially since Ostrich Riders are now a Henchman choice, so you can go all-mounted!

Capodecina – a Leader For Everyone

Guild players don’t just get new ostriches though, you’re also getting some little rules updates too. And the biggest of the little updates is by far the humble Capodecina.

The Capo’s stats have long been the envy of most, and with a massive 5 Command Points, he’s an excellent Leader. However, his Command Ability was a bit weak, and he didn’t really fill the role of charismatic hero to lead the people. So we changed that!

Fight For The Guild is his new Command Ability, which increases friendly characters’ Union special rule by +1 for the entire game. That means anyone with Union with at least 2 other friendly characters in base contact with them or with their target get +2 ATT! That’s a massive buff.

But it’s not just Citizens that get that benefit anymore. Thanks to the new Rise Up ability, every character with the Trade keyword gains the Union special rule as long as the Capodecina is on the board. Note that the Capodecina themself won’t benefit from the Union skill – they can’t be encouraged by themselves!

So who has the Trade keyword? A short list:

• Butchers
• Barbers
• Fishermen
• Arbalests & Citizens (although they already have Union)
• Black Lamp(!)
• Gondoliers

So if you want to build a Guild gang around the working people of Venice, the Capodecina is your new best friend. Just make sure you pay your tithes.

Other Guild Updates

We’ve also done a little balancing on some of these characters as well.

Black Lamp has gained a bit of a bonus on his The Lamp special rule, stopping all magic from being cast within 3″ of him. Now, he’s not the strongest character on his own, but this really encourages you to get stuck in!

He – like all the other Guild – has also received a fancy new card, with fancy new detailing to help pick out things like Command Abilities at a glance. Pretty!

The Butcher has seen a 1 Ducat reduction, and the Barber a 1 Ducat increase. The Barber has also been reduced to Expert Offence (1). Hopefully this will see a little more parity between the two in different gangs (especially since both have just received new models today!)

And that’s it for today’s rules updates!

If you want to have a go with the new characters, or check out how it will change your gang composition, then all of these updates are ready for you on the Carnevale Gang Builder.

If you want some new ostriches to make your games even more wacky, head over to the TTCombat webstore to check out the new releases!