Admittedly, I don't know very much about this game. When I bought the 2-player starter kit and the rulebook, I was going off the models, description of the gameplay, and story of the company from the guy I talked to at Reapercon. I only knew that this game used cards instead of dice and was sorta sci-fi. I'm not a fan of the bubble-gum-style anime models, but that's because I don't usually paint them. And not using dice? Add alternating turns and open deployment and you got yourself a winner! But in all of that, i never got the 'background' to the game. I got home, suffering a little bit of 'buyer's remorse', but I instantly jumped onto the interwebs and the Youtubes to find anything I could. I found some excessively boring videos and some exceptionally short videos focused on the factions. But nothing really broke down the storyline in any meaningful way. But here's what I know:
Many years in the future, society across the galaxy developed AI and built their worlds around this technology. Then, slowly at first, the stars started disappearing from the night sky. Suddenly, the AI almost everywhere came to life and chose champions meant to for great things. Unfortunately, time passed and the stars continued to disappear until this galaxy is the last one. No science or religion has found a way to stop it yet, but there are champions that travel and battle for the fate of everything. These champions are accompanied by AI constructs with magical powers and help to accomplish objectives or discover powerful relics. These champions are known as Questing Knights and their companions are known as Cyphers. When a Questing Knight reaches those milestones however they do, the Cypher and Knight transform into a more powerful being bent on destroying or saving this last galaxy, known as a Relic Knight.
The 'good guys' are known as the Radiant Faction and are trying to preserve the last galaxy. The 'bad guys' are called the Void Faction and are bent on the destruction of everything. Their champions battle each other for locations of great power and even the location of ancient artifacts to accomplish their goals. The 2-player starter set has two Questing Knights- Bang Bang for the Radiant Faction and Tahariel for the Void Faction. These two are not yet ascended to Relic Knights, but are equally passionate about their cause. Somehow, the fates always seem to lead these two champions against each other as they have become too familiar with each other at every turn.
Bang Bang leads a band of western-style enforcers used to working on the outskirts of civilization. Her Sundown Enforcers are heavily-armoured troops with a lot of firepower, while Miss Kaylee is a cat-woman with an armoured suit, a powerful blaster, and a claw that can rip the eyes out of her foes. Finally, her Cypher is a small cow-creature named Mr. Milky and he has the ability to spray milk on his allies to heal them. Bang Bang herself sports a couple of pistols and fisticuffs with an eagerness to lay down covering fire and knock some sense into those Void folk.
Tahariel leads an elite team of speedy operators interested in darkness and speed. The Dark Pinions are lightly-armoured soldiers with combined firepower and blades fueled by jet packs, and Mikel is an angelic champion with a burning blade and wings of vengeance on the darkness. Tahariel helps them by compelling her foes across the battlefield or melting their minds, while her Cypher is named Cupid and also compels units, allowing everyone to be in position to do the most damage.
And that's it! The models are fantastic and enough to keep me interested by themselves, but the storyline may be nice to know. I do have to note that I haven't gotten any Relic Knights (or their "Questing" version) for my collection yet. I do have most of the available factions and will be adding the Empire of Noh (and probably more) this year at Reapercon. For right now, we're just using that 2-player starter kit with the addition of a couple of models and having a blast. Give it a look-see on their website and definitely let me know if I have anything wrong above. This is just a 'little bit' because that'as all I know!
Of course- Happy Hobbying!
