All of my “Design Corners” are in response to comments or questions from you, the backers. Feel free to suggest more and I’ll keep doing these forever! This one is because a backer asked the sensible question, “Are the Order & Unchained minions identical except for their figures? Are the Unchained & Order item & trap cards the same? How different are the two games?”
The answer is, first, that the Order and Unchained minions have different stats, and are NOT identical, though they do share similarities. A human soldier has different vulnerabilities than an orc, for example. This is true for all the minions. A Lion, for example, is the Order’s ecological answer to the Gnoll, but it has different vulnerability, a different attack, a different speed, and it evolves differently over time. But it still fills the same niche. (Both hunt down enemy heroes for instance.)
The two sides have some overlap with their traps & items – about 25% are the same (both teams have access to the Quarter Pounder, for instance). The rest of their cards are highly different. In general, Unchained items & traps tend to be more powerful, but are likelier to be one-use in nature – like grenades and bombs. Order items & traps are less powerful, but keep working over time.