100% Theoryscape

[Flavius Maximus]

Overkill can be useful, you know. I have never once said, "OH, I wish I had rolled one less skull on that Izumi." OVerkill can provide peace-of-mind, and in some cases, just the activator for a custom figure. (Kamikaze Warriors- If the skulls rolled from an adjacent normal attack exceed the shields rolled by a Kamikaze Warrior those extra skulls are attributed to the attacking figure.)
And though there are disadvantages to wasting attacks that could be better utilized elsewhere on stronger units, the danger implied will still affect the opponent's stragey. Sure Krug just beat the snot out of Sgt. Drake, but Q9 is still over there tearing apart your squads. But next turn, your opponent responds with Drake. Why? To protect his army from a greater percieved danger. Never underestimate the power of a good menacer. (shout out: Great work, Jexik!)

Overkill can set a precedent in the mind of the foe, that the high-powered figure you're advancing will always hit that hard, even though their rational brain tells them the chances of consistent overkill diminishes with each roll.
I'll admit that I get ticked when Jotun rolls a perfect 8 on an Ashigaru, but the visual image of those eight grinning skulls can stick with you. Make you think "Man, I'm glad that wasn't Q9."

And on Deathreavers: personally I've never gotten them to work for me, but I'm more of a guerilla fighter type of guy. Thumbs up to anyone who can get them to stay alive.

Sorry about the long post. I ramble.

[nyys]

Keeping Reavers alive isn't really the point, it's forcing your opponent to shoot at them instead of your high priced units. Sure they can't scatter against special attacks, but I'd still rather my Rats take fire then my squads of Stingers bringing up the rear.

[Trekkie]

The "overkill" scenario just happened to me recently when I was in an all-kill 1000 pt army game (with a special rule where Massive Curse activates after every round). I was wearing down my opponent with a soldier/warlord/scout army while he had everything from Kyries to orcs to ninjas (Taelord+Isamu vs. SotM Drake...not good by the way). Using Venoc Warlord to slide behind and above his front lines and grabbing glyphs was my best strategy, but I got into an engagement with a heavy grut. I had a choice: I could stop moving and attack this mere orc with 7 dice (because of glyphs and height advantage) or should I take a swipe (already having 3 wounds) and try to take down Taelord. I did "overkill" this orc and eventually Taelord became quite a nuissance (but nothing my "off-suit" in the army, Sujoah, couldn't take care of right after massacring Zelrig). The point is, I wonder whether I should have moved on with VW, who was the LAST figure standing, or if I chose the right thing by overkilling the orc...please tell me

[ElvenEnvy]

Sometimes the sure bet of an overkill outweights it's loss of productivity. Sure you can gamble with the dice to make a good attack, but many times running the risk just doesn't get you the reward.

I personally find it gratifying to to see a surplus of skulls because many opponents think "his dice are hot, I better be careful" instead of "his dice will even out this next round, now's my attack".

[nyys]

Its always fun to see more skulls than defense your opponent can roll, but if you can absorb the swipe (if it goes badly) rolling 6-7 (or more) dice against a Hero figure is hard to give up.

Unless the weaker figure in question is holding a powerful glyph or blocking a key point, then I think I'd go after the Hero more times than not.

[Sarpedon]

Greetings, everyone.

As you know, Gen Con is coming up soon. I'm waaay too poor/broke to attend, but I've got more than enough mouth to speculate. I wonder what the winning army will be this year. Surely we must take into consideration the Wave 9 units, but, my hunch is it will be usual suspects who will be standing in the winner's circle when all is said and done.

Here's my prediction: Spider Poison will win it if he goes.

If he goes, I think the army he'll take shall include (ROTV) Raelin and lots of ranged units/common squads. In spite of what I said in the first paragraph, I don't think any of the Wave 9 units will be part of the winning army. Not even a single one! Those are my predictions. What do you think? Give us your Winning player and the characteristics of his/her winning army. The flood gates are wide open!

[killercactus]

spider_poison is probably the favorite, but I don't like going with the favorite, so I'll guess ManTrainChooChoo (because I won't be there to pull out a ridiculous top 16 victory against him ). I won't speculate more about his army than to say it won't have Mass or Stingers in it.

[1Mmirg]

I'll bite on Spider Poison doing it again and I'll agree that he is unlikely to have Wave 9 units. (I'm quite curious to see.)

But what I want to comment on are a few trailing points from earlier in this thread.

I am a fan of seeing the start zone shrink. I think it does speed up the game, change up the armies/units that see play, and emphasize heroes just a bit more. In fact, I'm fairly sure that my next event will use a 20 space start zone. It isn't a huge change, but it is a fun one. I think varying the start zone is a great thing to see happen more at more events. (Also, I believe that you can use all current maps easily enough--units can be placed in any of the available 24 spaces, but there still can't be more than 20 (or 18 or 15 or 22) spaces used.)

I also hope that we'll see a few more glyphs come out. A Range +1 (or even +2) would be a nice addition. I like the LOS fog idea. I also agree that adjusting the glyph pool effects the armies that come and I am a big fan of seeing glyphs on maps. There is generally a need to see objective-based play amplified, since the default of HS is so often "kill 'em all."

Sarpedon (and others), great points and ideas in here. Thanks for this.

[Toad Rocket]

Well, there is a chance some wave 9 units might be in the winning army. Only because most people will not be used to fighting/countering them. However, I would not be surprised if no wave 9 units are in the winning circle because nothing in that wave screams that they are A+ units.

Now that I talked in a complete circle I will end my post.

[IAmBatman]

I think the Repulsors will make it in a top 5-10 army at Gencon, but I don't think they'll be in the #1 army. They do throw enough of a curveball at Q9 and the rats to warrant consideration from top players in army construction, though. Not to mention glads/blasts.

[1Mmirg]

I agree. I think it is likely that Repulsors (and maybe some others) will be in the top armies. I'm just not sure that Wave 9 has units that match the kinds of uses that SP seems to play toward. (But I'll be happily shown to be wrong.)

I hope to see someone really play the Gladiators well and make a top position. Army builds like this are going to really show the difference, imo, of moderate players (myself included) and truly excellent ones. Same army, different hands, much better results.

I wonder if Atlaga will see some high-level play. (I'm excited to see a strong Kyrie-based (involved) army do extrememly well.) Time will tell.

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I think the Repulsors will make it in a top 5-10 army at Gencon, but I don't think they'll be in the #1 army. They do throw enough of a curveball at Q9 and the rats to warrant consideration from top players in army construction, though. Not to mention glads/blasts.

I suspect the Repulsors' great downfall will be trying to play them like something their not. I imagine a lot of people will try to play them like the Rats as a melee screen, try too hard to make Overload work, or play them like Blastatrons and have a whole squad swarm and be pretty disappointed with the results. I think they'll work best if its kept in mind you only need to get one in melee and the rest essentially become Aubren Archers with better defense.