Guān Xìng & Zhāng Bāo 关兴 & 张苞

Translated Description:
"Cubs of the Generals 将门虎子 (jiàng mén hǔ zǐ)”
(Note: The title is a commonly used phrase for describing a boy coming from the family of a general, who would eventually inherit his father's skills and bravery.

Who are they:
Think George Bush Jr, or Lee Hsien Loong, and you get the general idea. True, neither Bush Jr nor Prime Minister Lee are "generals", but as the children of incredibly significant history-makers, the cubs are usually not too shabby in their abilities.

Guan Xing is the second son of Guan Yu 关羽. His elder brother Guan Ping 关平 died with their father in the hands of Lu Meng 吕蒙. Zhang Bao is the eldest son of Zhang Fei 张飞, and first appeared in ROTK to inform Liu Bei 刘备 of his father's death. Both the cubs are strong fighters and well-liked by Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮, but both were urgent to avenge their fathers by leading the vanguard. They almost came to blows before Liu Bei intervened and forced them to swear an oath of brotherhood, just like their fathers did. From then on, they usually went into battle together.

Character Ability: Spirit of their Fathers 父魂 (fù hún)
In the drawing phase, you can forfeit the drawing of cards and, instead, display the top two cards from the deck, then receive them. If the two cards displayed are of different colours, you receive the abilities "Warrior Saint 武圣" and "Berserk 咆哮" till the end of your turn.

(Recall:
"Warrior Saint 武圣"
Every card with a "heart" or "diamonds" suit (effectively all red-suit cards) can be used as an ATTACK 杀 card.

"Berserk 咆哮"
You can use as many ATTACK 杀 cards as you wish during your turn.)

Ability's relation to story:
Readers are scathing in his comments for this character's ability. "The ability allows Guan Xing and Zhang Bao to inherit the skills of their fathers respectively, without creativity…" Well, their observation is a 100% accurate. Still, the ability sounds exciting and should make for interesting play. Given Liu Bei in the same team and this character will probably bring armageddon.

How to obtain this character:
Guan Xing and Zhang Bao is available in the 2012 release of OverKnight Fame, otherwise known as OKF2012 (一将成名2012). Click here to purchase now!

Liào Huà 廖化

Translated Description:
"Put through the Mill of Time 历经沧桑 (jīng lì cāng sāng)

Who is he:
Not many people live long enough to witness the birth, pinnacle, and extermination of a state. This old man is one of those rare people. In fact it is believed that he witnessed the entire ROTK timeline as a soldier. As a child soldier, he served under Zhang Jiao 张角 in the yellow turban rebellion, then under Guan Yu 关羽 and Liu Bei 刘备 under the early Shu formation, then Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮 and Jiang Wei 姜维 in the later days of the kingdom. He was alive for so long that he was still alive when the Jin Empire 晋朝 was formed.

Yet the criticism that some have (which I do not subscribe to) about Liao Hua is that he never did enough for Shu. Those who went beyond and excelled, such as Guan Yu, Ma Chao 马超, died valiantly in battle when they pushed too hard. I disagree with this. After all, Zhao Yun 赵云 did not die in battle. Nonetheless, Liao Hua is definitely one of those names that came up often in discussions of ROTK. This old man, he played one heckuva lifetime.

Character Ability 1: Forefront 当先 (dāng xiān) [Enforced ability]
At the beginning of the turn, you perform an extra action phase.

Character Ability 2: Longetivity 伏枥 (fú lì) [Single-use ability]
When you are on the brink of death, you can regain X units of health (X being the number of allegiances still in play). After which you must flip your character card.

Abilities relation to story:
Literally, 伏枥 means “stabled”. Ironically, 伏枥 comes from one of the sentences in Cao Cao's poem "老骥伏枥，志在千里；烈士暮年，壮心不已: An old war-horse may be stabled, yet still it longs to gallop a thousand miles; And a noble-hearted man though advanced in years, never abandons his proud aspirations". This ability was meant to generalize that Liao Hua possessed a long lifespan and his bluffing death. Liao Hua is the vanguard of Late Shu and he was likely the person with longest lifespan in Three Kingdoms Era (excluding the immortal Zuo Ci 左慈), thus giving the ability “Forefront”.

I felt that "Forefront" was a nice-ability without a suitable name. They could have given that name to any character with Vanguard experience in the story, so I felt it's not really tied to Liao Hua. Liao Hua faked his own death in order to escape from Wu kingdom in order to rejoin Guan Yu. This ability has both the element of "a second life" and longevity. Well linked!

How to obtain this character:
Liao Hua is available in the 2012 release of OverKnight Fame, otherwise known as OKF2012 (一将成名2012). Click here to purchase now!

OKF 2012 On Sale Now!

The OKF 2012 pack is fatter than expected. There are 16 playable cards (includes 4 OKF revisions), one special character card, and 1 shiny card from the Fire Expansion (I got Xun Yu shiny!!).

Visit Sino-games.com to get yours now!

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Mǎ Dài 马岱

Translated Description:
"Entrusted during the crisis 临危受命 (lín wēi shòu mìng)"

Who is he:
This guy has a rather dirty resume, because his biggest credit is in tricking and murdering a "compatriot". Before we get to that, let's talk about his relations to other characters. Ma Dai was the cousin of Ma Chao 马超, though Ma Dai never quite got the fame (or infamy) of his cousin. He served for Shu Kingdom and was more notable during Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮's expeditions.

But enough riff-raff. Let's get to the juicy bit. Zhuge Liang once praised Ma Dai as one of the most loyal to Shu Kingdom. You could say that Zhuge Liang was right, because Ma Dai's loyalty led him to feint friendship with Shu's most famous traitor... Wei Yan 魏延. Ma Dai was part of Zhuge Liang's plot to keep check on Wei Yan as the latter seemed likely to revolt. True enough, Wei Yan turned rebel after Zhuge Liang's death, but Ma Dai seized the opportunity whilst an insider to assassinate the rebel. Give this man a trophy!

Character ability 1: Horsemanship 马术 (mǎ shù) [Enforced Ability]
In distance calculations between you and other players, you will always be at -1.

Character ability 2: Backstab 潜袭 (qián xí)
Whenever you use ATTACK 杀 to cause damage to a player within distance of 1, you can flip a judgement card. If the judgement is not hearts, you prevent this damage and instead cause the player reduce his max health units by 1.

Ability's relation to story:
“Backstab” refers to his killing of Wei Yan. In ROTK, Wei Yan revolted against Shu Han. However, Zhuge Liang predicted that and entrusted a mission to Ma Dai before his death. Ma Dai falsely followed Wei Yan. When Wei Yan shouted out “who dares to kill me?”, Ma Dai slayed him from behind. The ability allows Ma Dai to reduce his enemy’s max. health, so Wei Yan cannot regain his health back by his ability “Insanity Streak”.

However, this ability is buggy and overpowered. It is buggy because the presence of awakening abilities of other characters. Awakening abilities use max health as a sign to indicate whether that character has awakened or not. But with this character, it would be impossible. Also, for Deng Ai 邓艾, Jiang Wei 姜维, Sun Ce 孙策, and Zhong Hui 钟会, their awakening abilities require them to reduce 1 max health when awakening. What happen if Ma Dai has reduced their max health to 1…

The ability is overpowered because of it can reduce max health. As you may observe, 1 max health represents 1 normal ability in most characters. But for Ma Dai, he can reduce their max.health…even Cai Wenji can disable abilities at her death. Also, it is extremely powerful to all characters damage-triggered abilities (because it reduces max.health) and abilities related to lost health (e.g. Sun Jian 孙坚, Zhang Chunhua 张春华 and Wang Yi 王异).

How to obtain this character?
Ma Dai is available in the 2012 release of OverKnight Fame, otherwise known as OKF2012 (一将成名2012). Click here to purchase now!