Half Sword News

[p]Hello everyone![/p][p]Half Sword is finally releasing into Early Access!

Release Date: 30th of January[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]You have a whole week to prepare!

Thank you for waiting for this extra month, we hope you rested well on your holidays and now you are ready for all the new stuff we prepared for you![/p][p]As you understand, we are still working on the game and new content will be added as we continue our way into the full release.[/p][p]Bugs, performance, occasional crashes and other things are being actively ironed out as fast as our tiny team can handle.[/p][p]Please, feel free to inform us of any issues that affect your immersion in the skirmishes of Half Sword. [/p][p]See you very soon,[/p][p]The Half Sword Team[/p][p]
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[p]Hello everyone![/p][p]We have an important announcement about Half Sword’s release this year.[/p][p]We’ll start with the bad news, we won’t be making it before the end of the year.[/p][p]Now the good news. The game is almost ready for release and only needs a final polish push. We’re delaying the launch, but only by a short time. We’re currently running tests and resolving issues so that your first experience with Half Sword Early Access is as good as it can be.[/p][p]We know many of you were hoping to play Half Sword before the New Year, and trust us, we wanted that too, but we need just a little more time before we can all plunge our swords into our Willies.[/p][p]We’re now aiming for a release in Q1 2026. We’ll be announcing the official release date soon, so stay tuned.[/p][p]We are extremely happy we made so many of you happy with our Demo and we want to continue in this direction with what we are working on.[/p][p]Thank you so much for your continuous support, your patience, and your enthusiasm. It means the world to us, and we’re determined to make the wait be worth it.[/p][p]See you very soon.[/p][p]The Half Sword team[/p]

[h2]Day 7: The Fool’s Wheel[/h2][p][/p][p]The Jester brought the idea from Burgundy, or so the talk goes. Said he’d once seen such a thing at a duke’s tourney, a marvel of iron and noise that scattered knights like dice from a cup. The Baron liked the sound of that. He told his fool to build one, and soon enough the smiths were melting scrap for the barrels.[/p][p][/p][p]It’s a cross of timber, four mouths of cannon fixed on a turning post. When fired, it spins like the devil’s own toy, hurling shot wherever fortune pleases. The Jester calls it the Wheel of Justice. The Baron laughs and lets it stand near the lists, where men bleed for sport.[/p][p][/p][p]Folk say it’s luck decides where the iron lands, but those who’ve watched the Jester’s eyes know better. He spins it when the crowd’s loudest, so none can tell if it’s fate or his hand that chooses who dies.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Origin: Central European design, likely Saxon or Burgundian influence. Workshops in cities such as Nuremberg and Augsburg were already experimenting with clustered small-bore barrels. [/p][p][/p][p]Purpose: Used as anti-personnel or anti-charge deterrents, firing multiple small iron balls at close range. They were cheap, terrifying, and easy to reload compared to full bombards. [/p][p][/p][p]Mechanics: Four small barrels fixed to a rotating timber frame, the rotation allowed rapid repositioning or sequential firing. Some were experimental siege or defense devices; others ceremonial or for executions.[/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[h2]Day 6: The Lord’s Hall [/h2][p][/p][p]Aye, the Baron’s hall, some call it the feast hall, but around here we call it the Furnace. You’ll know why soon enough. It sits high in the great tower, windows like arrow slits staring down over all of Frankenberg. From there, the Baron sees everything, and likes to remind us of it. [/p][p][/p][p]Used to be a fine place, years back. Hogs roasting on the spits, music from the lute, laughter thick as the smoke. But once the old lord died and this one took his seat, the smell changed. He kept the fires, aye, but not for meat. Now the pits burn for those who’ve tried his patience one too many times. Says it warms his bones to hear a man scream truth. [/p][p][/p][p]They say the stones still sweat there at night, as if the heat never left. Me, I don’t go near it. Some fires never go out, no matter how long the hall stands cold.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

[h2]Day 5: The Cellar Beneath Gottfried’s Inn [/h2][p][/p][p]Gottfried’s a shrewd one, make no mistake. Folks drink their fill upstairs, singing and stamping, never knowing what lies beneath their feet. That cellar of his, stone-laid, old as the town itself, he cleared the middle clean, built a ring of torches round it, and calls it his “Friendly Competition.” [/p][p][/p][p]Travelers are his guests of choice. Mercenaries, wanderers, men with coin and tempers both. The locals think the place still holds wine and spare stools, but when the bells strike midnight, the air below grows thick with shouting. You can hear the echoes in the walls if you listen hard enough, fists on flesh, bets changing hands, prayers whispered between blows. [/p][p][/p][p]Gottfried swears it’s harmless sport. Maybe so. But those stones remember. They’ve soaked more than ale over the years.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]