Well, a big Thank You! to everyone at GenCon who has been sending back reports, and to all the DDM R&D team who were there and sharing their knowledge. It's been a fun time here in Australia reading about what happened. 
I've been trying to gather together the news on my DDM News page - http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/mini.htm - but if you know something I haven't picked up on yet, tell me about it!
Here are the highlights:
Underdark
* 8 Epic figures
* Elminster
* Drow Arachnomancer
* Guenhwyvar
* Dark Naga
* Spiders! (perhaps a swarm)
* Balor
* Rikka, Angelic Avenger (the epic wife of Kiddoc.
)
* Drider Wizard
* Half Fiend Ogre (on box)
* Grey Render (on box)
* Dark Creeper (on box)
* Deep Dragon
* X’endrick Champion (an Eberron drow)
War Drums
* Xorn
* Chimera (pictured on FL: Keep of Fallen Lords)
* Arcane Ballista - the first siege engine construct
* A commander will be in every booster
* The starter contains two preset common minis (Orc Mauler and Wood Elf Ranger) along with 10 random minis, one of which is rare.
Fantastic Locations
* 4 maps in each product, but in some of them, only 3 are legal for DDM.
* One of the maps is designed for Epic play (with huge figures) and is marked as such.
* The reverse side of the "Fane of Lolth" map is the "Tomb of Queen Peregrine", an Epic map
* "Fane of the Drow" ties into the Underdark expansion
* "The Keep of Fallen Lords" ties into the War Drums expansion, and features outdoor maps.
* One map has a Wizard's Laboratory
* Teleportation squares!
* A crashed airship is on one of the maps
* "Hellspike Prison" - maps of deep caverns (2 of magma complex) - these are very different which can be used in the game. 3 of the 4 maps are designed to be tournament legal for miniatures play.
* "Keep of the Fallen King" - ties into mini set 9, War Drums - that mini set has strong war themes - siege engines, cool stuff). This product will be about battlefields and fields of ruin, and other surfaces to play on. Two maps are ruins, two are battlefields.
Maps
* Apart from the Maps in Fantastic Locations, there will be 3 released in Dragon magazine each year.
* There are 4 maps in the War Drums starter
* Aquatic areas are coming, along with lava tubes.
General
* There will be no errata/replacement cards for existing figures
* Epic cards for older figures will be released through the Retailer Kits, and also online. The cards will start appearing in January 2006
* King Snurre may be getting a non-Epic card.
* The Colossal figure is currently in development
* Epic rares are of standard rarity
* There will be an Epic championship next year!
* The next huge set is in 2006. Or not. (Reports vary, I say yes, there will be).
* The tournament format is changing: Assault will stay, but there will be two new scenarios in Triad.
2006 - the Year of the Dragons
* From War Drums onward, Dragons are going to be more aggressively costed, and should be much more part of the game.
Cheers!
I've been trying to gather together the news on my DDM News page - http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/mini.htm - but if you know something I haven't picked up on yet, tell me about it!
Here are the highlights:
Underdark
* 8 Epic figures
* Elminster
* Drow Arachnomancer
* Guenhwyvar
* Dark Naga
* Spiders! (perhaps a swarm)
* Balor
* Rikka, Angelic Avenger (the epic wife of Kiddoc.
)* Drider Wizard
* Half Fiend Ogre (on box)
* Grey Render (on box)
* Dark Creeper (on box)
* Deep Dragon
* X’endrick Champion (an Eberron drow)
War Drums
* Xorn
* Chimera (pictured on FL: Keep of Fallen Lords)
* Arcane Ballista - the first siege engine construct
* A commander will be in every booster
* The starter contains two preset common minis (Orc Mauler and Wood Elf Ranger) along with 10 random minis, one of which is rare.
Fantastic Locations
* 4 maps in each product, but in some of them, only 3 are legal for DDM.
* One of the maps is designed for Epic play (with huge figures) and is marked as such.
* The reverse side of the "Fane of Lolth" map is the "Tomb of Queen Peregrine", an Epic map
* "Fane of the Drow" ties into the Underdark expansion
* "The Keep of Fallen Lords" ties into the War Drums expansion, and features outdoor maps.
* One map has a Wizard's Laboratory
* Teleportation squares!
* A crashed airship is on one of the maps
* "Hellspike Prison" - maps of deep caverns (2 of magma complex) - these are very different which can be used in the game. 3 of the 4 maps are designed to be tournament legal for miniatures play.
* "Keep of the Fallen King" - ties into mini set 9, War Drums - that mini set has strong war themes - siege engines, cool stuff). This product will be about battlefields and fields of ruin, and other surfaces to play on. Two maps are ruins, two are battlefields.
Maps
* Apart from the Maps in Fantastic Locations, there will be 3 released in Dragon magazine each year.
* There are 4 maps in the War Drums starter
* Aquatic areas are coming, along with lava tubes.
General
* There will be no errata/replacement cards for existing figures
* Epic cards for older figures will be released through the Retailer Kits, and also online. The cards will start appearing in January 2006
* King Snurre may be getting a non-Epic card.
* The Colossal figure is currently in development
* Epic rares are of standard rarity
* There will be an Epic championship next year!
* The next huge set is in 2006. Or not. (Reports vary, I say yes, there will be).
* The tournament format is changing: Assault will stay, but there will be two new scenarios in Triad.
2006 - the Year of the Dragons
* From War Drums onward, Dragons are going to be more aggressively costed, and should be much more part of the game.
Cheers!
