Stealthing assassins, rampaging rhinos, and gigantic floating machines? SAGA's battlefield just got a little more interesting. With the recent launch of the Unit of the Week program, potential new allies and unfamiliar foes are appearing all the time.

The preliminary wave of units kicked off with the great dragon, which is not only the game's first neutral flying unit, but also its first ultra-rare. Six faction-specific cards of varying rarities followed. Here's a quick peak at some of the new warriors:

Great Dragon - Ultra Rare Special: Units in target area (30m) suffer 35-165 damage, -25 morale, and -20% DR for 30 seconds.

Dark Elf Assassin - Uncommon Special: Assassins are invisible, movement -50%. First attack guaranteed hit at 200% damage.

Flying Fortress - Rare Special: Drops hand cannoneers or hunters (25m) onto the battlefield for 120 seconds.

Humongous Ballistary - Uncommon Special: Unit gains +100% range and -10% AR for 30 seconds.

Treant Warrior - Uncommon Special: Treant Warriors are immobile, gain 1000% DR, and heal 500-750 HP for 45 seconds.

Giant Magi - Uncommon Special: (passive) Enemy units in 20 yard range take -1% DR every 3 seconds. (active) Enemy units in target range are sucked into the center of the target.

War Rhino - Uncommon Special: (passive) Abomination has a +100% AR, +100% Damage, and +100% DR against infantry.

Players have enjoyed the new units in this first wave of units. We're going to continue making new units, but listening to player reaction, we're not going to release them one at a time. Stay tuned for information on upcoming cards, because you wouldn't want to miss hero-class units, revolutionary new spells, and powerful new allies for each faction.

It's a little-known fact that ogres are actually very decent neighbors. If ever you need something smashed, mangled, and/or chopped up into tiny little bits, they're always glad to lend a helping hand. In the past, the ogres have been difficult to distinguish from their comrades-in-arms, the orcs, but no more! Recently, these strapping fellows have received a graphical update that allows their inner beauty to shine through.

War's buildings are also being re-textured, the most exciting change in a series of updates planned for SAGA's buildings. Here's a small taste of the eye-candy in store:

We recently sat down with lead artist John Lawton for the third installment in our series of developer interviews. Hear more about how he entered the gaming industry, what it takes to implement a unit into the game, and his perspective on balance in SAGA. You can find the full interview here.

Read more about the campaigns here.

This November, the Order and the Brotherhood offered up their most promising political candidates in a battle for the hearts, minds, and- mostly importantly- votes of SAGA's players. Yeven Nyrr, an elven druid of courage and determination ran against the resourceful and devious dark elf summoner, Gandred Krull, for the prestigious position of Gaia's elected official.

The week-long campaign trail was arduous, and many good souls were lost to the ravenous lobbyist groups (which consisted mostly of hellhounds and opinionated bears), but a winner was eventually chosen. The player's of SAGA proved their love of giant units, voting Order's Yeven Nyrr into office on Monday.

Order nations will receive access to a brand-spankin' new quest before anyone else. Players that successfully complete this mission will be rewarded with something quite unlike the loot from other quests. Let's just say Yeven Nyrr plans to make good on some of his campaign promises...

We mentioned in the last newsletter that major alterations were in the works for SAGA's spell system. After careful consideration of the player feedback we received, here are some of the changes that are being worked on:

• Spells ranks have been standardized. Uncommons now go up to 10 ranks, and rares go up to 5.
• The cost for spell creation is 5 CP, plus an additional CP for each rank (max cp for uncommons is 15C. For rares it's 9 CP).
• The strength of effect and/or size of target of many spells has been increased at maximum rank. This is balanced by greater god favor requirements for higher spells ranks.
• All nations begin with a max of 100 god favor, and will gain an additional 10 god favor per level (450 god favor max).
• Spells are now one-time use during battle.

Many spells will be given a higher rank limit, and will power up more quickly at higher ranks. These changes do not include summon spells, which will be governed by a different set of rules. Balancing spells to suit the new system will be an ongoing process. As always, we appreciate the value of player feedback has in helping SAGA to become a better game.

Here are a few highlights from the two most recent patches:

• The giant magus has been added to the game.
• The war rhino has been added to the game. This is the last of the first wave of new units. More details on the second wave, soon.
• The amount of CP gained when garrisoning and reactivating is now based on the damage that unit has taken.
• Retreated units will no longer count towards satisfying the gods in pvp matches
• The stats of several units have been altered for balance purposes.
• Several quests have been added.

Version 1.44.11 Patch notes

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