Wave 9 Play test: Brave Arrow and the MRT

[Mombo101]

Hi ya'll, so last night I tested out Brave Arrow and the Mohican River Tribe out with Tomcollins2000 during our usual gaming night. I mainly wanted to test these guys out to see just how good they were. I was excited about them when I first saw them on the site, and needless to say, I'm still excited about them.

Before I begin though, please forgive me for this not being a full battle report. I forgot to take notes during the game, and so as a result most of this is going by memory.

Anyways, the army I decided to run was this:
3x Mohican River Tribe
Brave Arrow
2x Venoc Vipers
Mittens
Theracus

Tomcollins2000 played:
Q9
Raelin
Krave Maga Agents
Rats (forgot the exact number)

I wanted to go against a highly competitive army, for the main reason that it gives a very good estimation of their viability.

So, as the game began I won initiative, and sent my Vipers out first. The map we were using was one which is going to be used at GenCon, and Darkmage7a built it just to see how it was, and it looked pretty cool. Which map it was exactly, I'm not 100% sure, but I hope he might post a comment with the exact name of the map. Anyways, I sent my Vipers out and nearly made it to the opposing starting zone. I was about 3 or 4 spaces shy. I made my frenzy roll and was able to attack. I killed a rat or two, then made another frenzy roll. Make a long story short, before all of my Vipers died, I managed to kill 4 or 5 rats. Not good, but not bad either.

Onto the Wave 9 guys. After my vipers died I sent Theracus and Brave Arrow out first. TomCollins2000 placed Raelin 9 spaces away, where I could get height, so she was my first target. Having a 5 attack with height on Raelin with Theracus is pretty cool (and who would have thought you could do that with the griffin ). The fact that Theracus could get out so quickly and bring Brave Arrow along is just plain awesome. The thing I realized though, and it's something I didn't utilize enough, with these two figures you have 3 spaces to use. One might consider this a disadvantage, but on the contrary. With the speed of these figures, pinning a unique hero or a couple pieces of the same squad is a definite possibility which could be utilized very well.

Then the Mohicans went, there were still a few rats left on the board, so the MRT were sent out to intercept them. A few times I intentionally ignored my attack with the MRT to make sure Brave Arrow could get his attack on Raelin. This is the tricky part about them. I found that coordinating between when getting adjacent vs range, and whether or not Brave Arrow should attack or move, was something I needed to keep constant attention on. It especially didn't help matters going against rats, but it did help my decision making process in a way. If I wanted Brave Arrow to attack why should I risk the rats scattering? Unfortunately, Brave Arrow died with Raelin being a few life short of dying. Concealment is good, but all it takes to defeat him is engaging him, and that's what happened.

On the other hand, the MRT are masters when you can get their speed into play. They managed to do some decent work, getting Q9 down to 1 life, and taking out the Krav Maga. Sadly, their concealment isn't as good. If a piece was around 2-4 spaces away, the MRT were guaranteed to be attacked, and 1 defense die sucks pretty badly. They did do a pretty good job, and if I rolled a bit better than what I was rolling, then I probably would have taken out a few more guys. Still though, once Brave Arrow was out of the picture (not that it mattered too much) they fell like dominos.

Needless to say I didn't win the game against Tomcollins2000, but I found that the Mohicans are pretty good. These are the things that I've found which have to be considered when playing them:

1) When is it more important to be adjacent vs in range?
2) When is it more important to get an attack with Brave Arrow vs moving?
3) Placement of Brave Arrow and the MRT in response to opposing ranged figures
4) Placement of Brave Arrow with other scouts other than the MRT
5) When is using terrain vs concealment with Brave Arrow and the MRT more important?

Anyways, like I said the MRT and Brave Arrow are pretty good, just a bit tricky to play. I apologize for this not being a full battle report, but if anyone has any questions about the match I'll gladly answer them (Tomcollins2000 might even answer them as well).

[SymphonyScaper]

Very cool! After reading all these play testing battles around this site, I'm dying to have my own.

[Brownsfan82]

Even though the battle report was short, it was interesting. You way of playing the Mohican Tribe is different than I imagine but it might work. I would think I would attack while I was adjacent just to kill when I can even if I don't get a turn with Brave Arrow. I never thought about the Theracus and Brave Arrow combo, nice. I like the 20 sider roll in addition to the defense roll. I think if you rolled better with the MRT, you would love it. From 3 spaces away all you need to roll is a 16 or higher.

All in all, no one predicted these guys as a competitive unit. And I don't think playtesting will prove it. But they seem like fun (the point of heroscape).

[Mombo101]

Originally Posted by Brownsfan82

Even though the battle report was short, it was interesting. You way of playing the Mohican Tribe is different than I imagine but it might work. I would think I would attack while I was adjacent just to kill when I can even if I don't get a turn with Brave Arrow. I never thought about the Theracus and Brave Arrow combo, nice. I like the 20 sider roll in addition to the defense roll. I think if you rolled better with the MRT, you would love it. From 3 spaces away all you need to roll is a 16 or higher.

All in all, no one predicted these guys as a competitive unit. And I don't think playtesting will prove it. But they seem like fun (the point of heroscape).

My intent wasn't to see how competitive/noncompetitive the squad was, but how good they were (I know that may not seem to make a whole heck of a lot of sense, but I digress). All in all I just wanted to see how they could do. Will I play these all the time? Definitely. Will I use these in a tournament? Probably, but then again I use pretty much anything and everything in a tournament

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Mombo101

My intent wasn't to see how competitive/noncompetitive the squad was, but how good they were (I know that may not seem to make a whole heck of a lot of sense, but I digress). All in all I just wanted to see how they could do. Will I play these all the time? Definitely. Will I use these in a tournament? Probably, but then again I use pretty much anything and everything in a tournament

This report was very interesting. I've tested the same army (but with 3x Vipers instead of Theracus) and had some success. I led out with the Mohicans instead of the Vipers, thinking that the Venocs would have more success once the battlefield was thinned out. The Mohicans killed everything, so it didn't matter (I faced a Kaemon, Raelin, Stingers x5 build). I also found it difficult to attack what I was engaged to, with the fear of killing it and then not getting a Brave Arrow turn, but then I stuck a couple Mohicans onto Raelin. They're a blast to play.

[tomcollins2000]

Mombo101 did not roll well at all after the first frenzy rolls, if he had it could have been very different game. MTR and Brave Arrow are kind of hard to play because they tend to be a versatile unit and thats where they are strong. Also I think the 90 point combo of the theracus and brave arrow is great.

[Darkmage7a]

The map was Gauntlet by Marduk and can be found here; http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ad.php?t=25191

Not really sure what map to play this week guys, maybe something with 30 start zones, I found that kind of interesting at Bengi's. Talk about lucky hounds. Good warm up for the Saratoga slugfest too.

[Bengi]

How about these:

Healing Waters


Slash and Burn


Common Ground

[Darkmage7a]

Cool, Good suggestions Bengi, I haven't played the first two yet. Common ground is good too but I'm always on the lookout for something new. I might make a map I designed earlier this week for 30 start zones too. See you then guys.