Chronicles from the North PART 1

Welcome, Adventurers, to Chronicles from the North, a brand-new series that takes a closer look at what you can expect in the Northern Wind dungeon-crawler. In this series, we’ll detail some of the game’s unique mechanics while also introducing you to the cast of heroes—their stories, their capabilities, and how they can change your battlefield. Today, we kick things off with a general overview of the key differences between the classic Skirmish rules of Eldfall Chronicles and the fresh Northern Wind rules, providing the context you’ll need for the rest of the series. After this, we’ll alternate between hero introductions and deep dives into both Quest and Campaign-wide mechanics. Without further ado, here are the top changes between Skirmish and Northern Wind gameplay!

QUESTS AND CAMPAIGN

The shift from Skirmish to the dungeon crawler experience of Northern Wind isn’t just a change in rules—it’s a whole new way to adventure. While Skirmish focuses on quick, punchy quests or short series of quests, Northern Wind challenges you to navigate a sprawling, branching campaign that can easily clock in at 60 hours of play and offers up to 33 different endings based on your choices. This means that both the pacing and goals are completely transformed. Further mechanic changes—from tile-based movement and revised Line of Sight to the introduction of Weakpoints and Chaos Cards—turn every session into a dynamic, meaningful, and unpredictable journey.

There’s a lot more to unpack here, but we’ll save the deep dive for future installments in this series. Prepare for an epic campaign where every decision truly matters, and the adventure never ends!

TILES AND MOVEMENT

Moving on to the tabletop, one of the most noticeable changes is the shift from inch-based measurements to tile-based movement. In the Skirmish game, everything on the field is measured in inches. Northern Wind, however, introduces tiles—each with a set number of spaces and a maximum capacity for models per space. All ranges and movement speeds have been adjusted to this new system, where one space roughly equates to two inches in the Skirmish game. While this change sacrifices a bit of granularity, it greatly simplifies gameplay. Ranged attack distances are now determined simply by counting spaces to the target, ignoring any corner tiles in your path. This streamlining makes the game more accessible and faster to play.

LINE OF SIGHT

Alongside the new tile system comes a revised approach to Line of Sight (LoS). With tiles, each space carries one or more Line of Sight markers. If you can draw an uninterrupted line between a marker in one space and a marker in another, then models in those spaces have Line of Sight to each other. Additionally, a model must have the target space’s marker within its front arc to establish that connection.

On the right, the blue lines show where there is LoS and possible ranged Attacks. The red line shows where there is no LoS. (The graphic is very small in comparison to the actual tiles.)

This change is designed to ease play, however, traditional LoS is still available for those who find it more intuitive.

WEAK POINTS

Northern Wind is tailored to a PvE experience, which demands a different kind of feedback from the dice than PvP does. In Skirmish, a failed Damage roll might simply do nothing, but in PvE, that kind of result wasn’t acceptable. Our solution was Weak Points (WP).
When a model fails a Damage roll, instead of inflicting the Wound it aimed for, it inflicts a Weak Point—representing a sprained ankle, a loose strap of armor, or a momentary loss of balance. Similarly, if heroes succeed in their Attack roll but score lower than their opponents—resulting in a lost Confrontation or a successful enemy Dodge—they inflict Weak Points. These can later be exploited—heroes can spend Weak Points on Hostiles to gain Knockback, score automatic Critical Hits, or even push foes off cliffs. Essentially, Weak Points ensure that the game keeps moving forward, even when the dice don’t roll in your favor.

CHAOS CARDS

Another exciting twist is the introduction of Chaos cards.
In a PvE experience, players are usually aware of what’s happening, so we need a random element to keep things unpredictable. At the start of each Hostile Turn, a random Chaos card is drawn to throw a bit of chaos into the mix.
Whether it’s sudden changes in weather, ambushes, or unexpected beneficial effects, Chaos cards force you to adapt on the fly and keep the gameplay dynamic.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

In summary, while the core of Eldfall Chronicles—the Activation system, the dice-rolling mechanics, and other fundamentals—remains the same, Northern Wind introduces changes that streamline Movement and Line of Sight, enforce continuous progress through Weak Points, and add a delightful layer of unpredictability with Chaos Cards. This makes the game both easier to pick up for new players and refreshingly unpredictable for veterans.

That’s all for this week—stay tuned for next week when we take a closer look at Seigen, the first of our mighty heroes!