We’ve looked at the contents of the intro atlas.
We’ve examined the hero and his friends.
But every hero is only as great as the challenges they overcome. Today it’s time to look at the intro adversaries.
Of course you can’t do anything with The Jungle Book without involving its most famous villain, the tiger Shere Khan.
Belonging to the “wild” culture, Shere Khan demonstrates his power as a ferocious tiger with a very healthy 8 strength and 3 vitality and a built in “Damage +1.” Those he doesn’t overwhelm, will still limp away from the fight with an extra wound for their troubles. Now while it is true that Shere Khan does appear at the start of Mowgli’s first tale, he never actually faces the man-cub until the end of the story, so we gave him a home site of 5, close to the end of the demo game’s path.
Still, a single foe is not as exciting to play in a card game. He needs some sidekicks – some helpers to try and catch Mowgli. While the first story does mention a jackal lackey named Tabaqui as well as Shere Khan being “great friends with the younger wolves of the Pack,” there didn’t seem to be much ‘there’ to provide flavor. So we turned to the villains of Mowgli’s second tale: the Bandar-log.
With no distinctly named character or figure among their number (in the books there is no King Louie), The Jungle Book’s monkey tribe was a natural “filler” for the demo deck. Since the battle with the Bandar-log takes place before Shere Khan’s showdown, both of these minions were given a home site of 4. One representing a lone monkey, and the other representing several together. To help players learn how some minions like to work in numbers and are a greater threat if they “swarm,” the basic anarchist there was given game text to encourage you to get out as many Bandar-log as you could. (It also helps teach the importance of skirmish order as you can aim to try and weaken some of the monkeys before their fights.)
To further encourage a “swarming” play, the Bandar-log were also given a special event which gets cheaper the more of them you have on the field, resulting in one of them getting a substantial strength bonus.
Finally, we couldn’t leave the villain of the jungle without any tricks.
The mirror version of “hunting for food,” (their flavor texts tie together), this skirmish event is not a large strength bonus, but at 0 risk it can arrive at any time (even the Bandar-log can use it), keeping you from ever getting complacent and letting your guard down. Also the moment captured by our artist, Elena Terzi for this card is just before Shere Khan renders Mowgli an orphan, beginning their destined conflict.
The jungle is a dangerous place. Beware those who would treat it lightly…
As always you can pick up a copy of the intro deck at our store.