Tabletop Tavern Joins Steam Next Fest + Massive Demo Update

We’re excited to officially announce that Tabletop Tavern will be part of Steam Next Fest from February 23rd to March 2nd!

This will likely be the last major event before launch so we're rolling out the red carpet with major updates to the demo.

Community Faction Vote

The most significant update from a content standpoint is the addition of a new playable faction and leader! Which one you ask? That's up to you! From now until February 24th, you can vote in our Discord for the faction you want to be unlocked in the demo.

Vote for the:

• Green Tide

• Taelindor Forest

• Sanguine Court

• Sakura Dynasty

• Deepstone Hold

• Drakosaur Brood

The winner will be added to the demo on February 26th!

Combat States

We’ve added Combat States for more tactical control in battles.

Ranged units can now swap between two stances:

• Volley Fire (default)

• Fire at Will: 2x attack speed, -20% accuracy

Use rapid fire mode when you want to quickly destroy a priority target, at the cost of burning through ammo much faster.

Shielded units can also now swap between two stances:

• Balanced (default)

• Defensive: -50% base melee attack, +50% base melee defense

Your units won’t kill as much in defensive stance, but it’s great at holding the line while your archers or cavalry devastate the enemy.

Anti-Large Rework: Anti-large units must now be braced and stationary to negate cavalry charge bonuses. Reposition carelessly and you’ll pay for it.

Order Queueing

You can now queue multiple commands. Plan flanks, set maneuvers, and shift your attention elsewhere while your army automatically executes.

Morale System Overhaul

The Morale system is something we’ve continuously received feedback on so we’ve reworked it with a few new additions. There are now 3 combat morale states:

• Winning, Losing, and Evenly Matched

These states are calculated based on damage dealt and sustained by a unit in the last few seconds. If you’re winning, your morale holds stronger. If you’re losing badly, morale drops rapidly.

Additional changes:

• Retreating allies apply temporary morale penalties nearby

• Army wide morale penalty when at 25% of it's initial strength

• Balance of Power bar added to UI

Meta Progression

Originally planned for 1.0, we're adding meta progression to the demo so we can test it with you and tweak it based on your feedback before release.

To unlock upgrades you’ll need to deposit gold you earn during your runs in towns. This can then be spent on upgrades back in the main menu. This is the first iteration of this system and it will very likely change based on your feedback so please let us know what’s working and what could be done better!

Randomized Factions & Boards

Board 1 now randomizes between The Green Tide & The Sanguine Court.

The other factions such as The Iron Legion, Ravenhost, and Sakura Dynasty inhabit board 2, with the remaining strongest factions being reserved for the full game on board 3.

Reworked Towns

Towns now appear on Layers 3, 8, and 15, escalating from Village > Castle> City.

Rewards, garrison strength, and recruitment value scale according to the size of the town.

Difficulty Changes

There are now more difficulties to prove your strength, and all difficulties have been updated with additional new modifiers to provide even more challenges to the strongest players

Smaller Changes

We've also made some smaller updates like:

• Increased rewards from boss battles to include gear items

• Signature units now have their own dedicated pack in shops

• Each faction now comes with music fitting their specific flavor!

We are so insanely close to the finish line and we’ll be sharing more information on the official release date shortly after Next Fest ends. Tabletop Tavern is very nearly feature complete but it still needs some balancing and polishing before we're confident that it will live up to its full potential at launch. Next Fest is a fantastic opportunity to gather valuable feedback from new and returning players so our goal is to use this feedback to make the final improvements needed before release.

Make sure to check out the newest updates to the demo when Steam Next Fest starts on February 23rd!

I cant say it enough, but thank you guys so much 🤝