Test 1/14/21 Wulfing Hunters

Test Subject:


HUNTER'S HOWL
After revealing an Order Marker on this Army Card and before taking a turn with the Wulfing Hunters, if at least two Wulfing Hunters that you control are engaged, you may either move and attack with 4 Wulfing Hunters that you control or first take a turn with a Hunter Hero that you control.


Tundra Survivalist
When a Wulfing Hunter is attacked by a non-adjacent figure and at least 1 skull is rolled, roll the 20-sided die. If that Wulfing Hunter is on an Ice space, add 3 to your die roll. If he is on a snow space, add 6 to your die roll. If you roll 1-15, roll defense dice normally. If you roll a 16 or higher, ignore all damage that would be inflicted by the attack.


Map: Failed Negotiations

Armies:

130 Greater Ice Elemental
115 Boreos
100 Talingul
115 Lilja
40 Patrick Ferguson
500, 6 hexes

vs

100 Himmelskralle
95 Arktos
105 Van Nessing
200 Hunters
500, 11 hexes

Stats:

Shiftrex
Attack rolls: 11 out of 30 (36.67%)
Defense rolls: 28 out of 74 (37.84%)
Total dice rolled: 104
Time used: 0h, 8m, 16s


Luke
Attack rolls: 51 out of 101 (50.5%)
Defense rolls: 6 out of 19 (31.58%)
Total dice rolled: 120
Time used: 0h, 28m, 52s

Outcome:

Heavy loss for Hunters, remaining figures were a one life missing Talingul, Lilja, Boreos and Patrick Ferguson. Hunter amassed with cover to ready a charge while Ice Elemental and Lilja walked in with double attack and big dice to consistently kill hunters while Boreos limited movement with his wind field.

Thoughts:

Hunters were able to get 1 howl, and 1 survivalist roll. Their ability is incredibly hard to pull off since they need to survive at least one round of combat while engaged, unless I lose initiative in which case it would be two rounds. The survivalist roll, improved now, is doing substantially better at this point but it still only came up once. Playing figures that cannot get their powers to go off in unengaging and makes even powerful figures like Himmelskralle seem really useless. This shoul have been a matchup where the hunters got a howl or two off because they could throw some dice, have an enemy survive and then ramp up the hunt. This does not happen due to how fragile they actually are in terms of defense and development as a two man squad.

My thoughts are moving to a different secondary ability to replace survivalist. Considering upgrading the primary ability to trigger more often as two man squads usually suffer in power, survivability or development.

Have also received feedback about the general that the figures are under and lots of good discussion!

GAME 2

Map: Ticalla Tower

Armies:

260 Dreadgul Raiders x4
110 Valguard
95 Pel the Hill Giant
30 Guilty McCreech
495, 15 hexes

vs

90 Feral Troll
95 Arktos
10 Isamu
300 Hunters
495, 15 hexes

Stats:

Attack rolls: 11 out of 31 (35.48%)
Defense rolls: 12 out of 42 (28.57%)
Total dice rolled: 73
Time used: 0h, 7m, 29s


Cleon
Attack rolls: 31 out of 68 (45.59%)
Defense rolls: 8 out of 26 (30.77%)
Total dice rolled: 94
Time used: 0h, 32m, 11s

Outcome:

Heavy loss for Hunters, remaining figures were all on enemy team except 2 Dreadgul Raiders. Developed on level 2 hex, which is highest on map and waited for charge to try and survive with multiple engagements with early interaciton from Guilty. Conceded game with 1 hunter, Arktos with 2 life, full life Feral Troll and isamu.

Thoughts:

Definitely loses to good melee, that should be inherent in the design that they will be less effective in a straight up Melee against figures like the knights of weston or cathar spearmen but here I lost to a three man melee bonding squad where the bonded figure whiffed or was not used in order to get the higher attack buff. Arktos was able to buff a few figures due to manual positioning from early development.

Howl did not go off even once because I could not survive engagements. Survivalist worked a total of 4 times which was around half, this helped survive early attacks from Guilty. At this point it is very obvious that multiple engagements at the beginning of a turn will be highly difficult. This might necessitate a reversion of the ability to be checked at the end of the turn rather than at the beginning in order to keep the 2 figure engagement condition for Howl.

Squads definitely suffered from power due to poor roll stats, survivability was not on rolls or necessarily positioning as things were a mixture of even ground, height and low ground as figures died. Development was something I spent a long time on in the beginning and it just gave easier access to have the figures killed as a group.

GAME 3

Map: Bad Moon Rising

Armies:

175 Brontos
160 Microcorp Troopers x2
160 Red Mantis Blade Dancers x2
495, 14 hexes

vs

100 Himmelskralle
95 Arktos
300 Hunters
495, 13 hexes

Stats:

Shiftrex
Attack rolls: 22 out of 63 (34.92%)
Defense rolls: 16 out of 57 (28.07%)
Total dice rolled: 120
Time used: 0h, 9m, 33s


Cleon
Attack rolls: 41 out of 76 (53.95%)
Defense rolls: 16 out of 48 (33.33%)
Total dice rolled: 124
Time used: 0h, 33m, 37s

Outcome:

Heavy loss for Hunters, remaining figures when game was conceded were 1 Hunter and full life Arktos, enemy controlled Brontos with 2 wounds and 2 blade dancers and 5 troopers. I developed Heroes one turn each first and then started to develop Hunters onto the road while Brontos helped Blade Dancers move in and consistently killed hunters with whomp and good positioning from dancers.

Thoughts:

Rolls were a bit low this game and the dancers can definitely out position the hunters. Comparing with another 2 man squad puts things into perspective as they have better mobility, better attack opportunity and a durability power. While I have a weaker, conditional durability power that happens before defense and a bonding ability. Dancers also cost more points which is an option for improvements.

Survivalist was used zero times this turn because troopers never moved into range, they only interacted with Himmelskralle when I broke away lategame to try and reclaim some points. Howl was used zero times this turn because I could never keep enough engagements with the dancers or with Brontos because they were consistenly destroying units.

Both powers need to be reworked and the theme needs to be examined. I have decided on some edits to make along with an update on what general the unit should be under for further testing.