What is the Ascension Campaign?

This week, we’re taking a closer look at one of our most ambitious releases to date, the upcoming Advanced Rules Module: Ascension Campaign for Tribal Conquest.

The Ascension Campaign is designed to radically change how your games begin and, more importantly, how they grow. When starting a campaign, players have extremely limited access to followers and spells. If you are playing using only the core rules alongside this expansion, the only Tribesmen available to your tribe, aside from the Shaman herself, are Braves, and your spellcasting options are restricted to just four spells: Scry, Blast, Channel, and Dispel.

This scarcity is entirely intentional. The Ascension Campaign is about the slow and dangerous accumulation of power. To achieve victory, a Shaman must gather enough power to perform a sacred ritual, the culmination of which will transcend them from the mortal plane and elevate them to immortal godhood.

Over the course of the campaign, players gather Knowledge for their tribe, unlocking new followers, spells, and capabilities. Knowledge is purchased using Ascension Points, which also serve as the primary victory resource of the campaign. Every unlock makes your tribe stronger, but each point spent moves you further away from ultimate victory. Power comes at a cost, and every decision matters.

Knowledge is not the only way Ascension Points can be spent. The campaign also introduces a Tribal Trait Tree, allowing players to permanently upgrade specific aspects of their tribe. These upgrades are unique across the campaign, meaning once a player claims a trait, no other player may do so. Competition for these powerful enhancements can be just as fierce as the race for godhood itself.

Releasing alongside the Ascension Campaign booklet is our next piece of terrain, the Vault of Knowledge. One tribe, usually the one with the greatest accumulated Knowledge, is tasked with guarding the Vault. Should rival tribes manage to break in, they may permanently unlock a piece of Knowledge from the guardian tribe’s campaign roster, turning defence into a vital strategic concern.

Click on me to enlarge.

This Advanced Rules Module is shaping up to be our largest release yet. Not only does it introduce a fully realised narrative campaign to link your games of Tribal Conquest, but it also includes an additional expansion, Advanced Rules Module: Tribal Leaders. We’ll be diving into that in more detail another time.

We’re aiming to release the Ascension Campaign at our first event of the year, Bedford Tabletop Expo, taking place in the first week of March. We cannot wait to see tribes begin their journey towards godhood.