Thanks!
I was wondering about this Leader move, because discarding cards blindly during Move action does mess up my guesstimate what cards remain still in the deck. In other words, I find it difficult to gauge the chances when it comes to Combat action. Flipping a single card when the results can range from 2 to Kings and Queens carries a lot of consequences :)
This may sound like a complaint - but in my initial foray into the game, it also made me think of positioning more. I think that there is a reason why English have more mobile cavalry in Your design :) and Danes have more units... Also, that victory conditions are written the way that they are. The unpredictability of combat does feel like a feature of "early medieval" battle plus it makes one ponder about their in-game decisions.
My sole regret with Your design is that the reverse side of the units - those cool shields - the reverse side does not play any function in a game :D
(No worries about not playing my game :P - I am slowly taking my sweet time with other jam submissions myself)
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You got it right: the blind discard for each Move is to maintain uncertainty about the remaining cards in hand. Because (as you pointed out) the outcomes of medieval battles (as best we understand them) were very often uncertain. Positioning and timing do become important.
Also, the shields on the reverse side do serve a function: to add to the over all aesthetics of the game. That's important, right? :-)