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Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape
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If you're open to it, another idea for a change is to flip the life/defense ratio (going down to 4L and a higher defense) to make it harder to wound him with normal attacks and make each life point more valuable. As it stands, I'd probably ignore Sustained by Blood the majority of the time since 5 turns on the frontlines is plenty to deal damage, but making each life point more valuable makes the decision a lot harder, and it feels very in line with the cultist playstyle.
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That's an interesting thought, though I'd be more afraid of him getting a few wounds in 1 turn from focused attacks and then potentially being unused until an Acolyte could get near him for him to swallow (which might take too long and be killed before one reaches him). I'd really rather the player take the occasional risk by having A-N wound himself and get enemy attacks, than be forced to kill an Acolyte EVERY activation in order for him to make sure he doesn't kill himself in just a few turns. 6 life provides some room for a few turns of hurting himself as well as eating some acolytes when it's the right time. For example, he might be out of position to eat an acolyte, but the wound to him might be worth it if he can fly in and go nuts on some enemy units. Likewise...you might also want him to Autokill an Acolyte if he's low life and you need him to survive.
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I actually feel like it's balanced a little too much towards the opposite direction currently. As it stands, I think that it rarely makes sense to destroy your own Acolyte, since he's already pretty durable and probably doesn't need too much time to deal his damage with so many attacks and flying. Making his base life lower would make that sacrifice more painful, but I suspect that it would still be one that people make on more than one occasion.
Perhaps 5 life would be a better balance, though, in terms of making Sustained by Blood have a more impactful negative impact without forcing the player to play him like a Hivelord.
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Originally Posted by Sir Heroscape
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Notably, destroying an Acolyte for Sustained by Blood satisfies the Acolytyes' Dark Pact, so even if he doesn't kill an opponent's figure, you get to hide from his wound for giving up the 50% chance that a squad figure will live. I'm not sure if this is in line with the theme you're intending or not.
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Yes it is in line. I wanted there to be some tension for activating this guy. Autokilling an Acolyte does serve to satisfy Dark Pact, which is nice...but Dark Pact is actually the "safer" route if you fail because it's only 50% chance. So, normally you'd want A-N just to take the wound and go hurt something with only a 50% chance for an Acolyte to die. But, killing an Acolyte ensures only 1 wound is being dealt to your own army that turn and it allows A-N to survive a little longer. I like units that create this type of tension in the midst of battle.
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It might just be a matter of perspective. If I know that I'm not going to be able to attack anything, then I would go ahead and guarantee that Agrith-Naar ignores the wound rather than take a chance at 2 wounds that turn. Of course, the smarter move in that instance is to just not take a turn with Agrith-Naar in the first place unless you need to hunt something down, so I don't think that it really matters too much. I just wanted to make sure that was the theme you were intending.