The Book of Morsbane

[Revdyer]

Remember, game rules are in terms of game rules, not in terms of any sort of reality. Morsbane negates anything that is written on a figure's card as a special power or ability.

[NecroBlade]

As I recently had to remind the C3G guys, "[Negation] can do anything. It's magic."

[flameslayer93]

Morsbane, Morsbane, Morsbane...what am I going to do with you? You have a pathetic 2 defense, a paultry ability and a not so stellar attack power. Your sculpt is above and beyond stupid, so you don't even have that in my book. I mean your "shoot me!" pose can't possibly be more useful than a...distraction? Perfect idea!!! My foe knows that Morsbane ability is dangerous to them, but it only works ocasionally. So, maybe we should try to use you as a dangerous defense unit or even a quick "slapshot" figure, or maybe even both. The power of Morsbane is a little bit tricky to deem at first(or even years worth) sight. Right now put a Medium figure right behind Morsbane. I'll wait. Done? Good. Did you see how well Morsbane's antlers(*shudder*) and his pose blocked your figure? That is just part of his strategy. The other part is using a sneak attack figure like Darrak Ambershard to hide behind the dumb elf's robes. By slowly moving both(2 OM's but use the Axegrinders for extra effect with Darrak), you can put Darrak into the battlefield without being seen. Best part is, if your foe is dumb enough to close in, Darrak's decent move coupled with Sneak Attack, lands 6 attack dice. What if Morbane is the one who you need to take a turn with? Simple, unless it is a high defense samurai, attack it and then lob the 20D at something nearby. With a little luck, you'll land something. Refer to other threads if your looking for a good target for your dice. Now that we've seen him simply as a guard for a sneak, we'll see him as an actual fighter. Idea, rush him behind something to keep his opponent from gunning him down. The less visible he is now, the better(for obvious reasons). When your foes more difficult figures get into the middle(example Drake V2), Morsbane charges low defense squaddies but stays within negation range of his mark. 6 life should allow enough wiggle room for disengagement from maybe a single figure to track his mark. Once that figure is screwed out of powers, do some bluffing. In other words place a single OM on him each round, sometimes 1/2 and sometimes X. Don't put it onto the 3. You'll truly make your foe to see your trickery ended. Maybe Morsbane isn't as bad as some may think.

[tcglkn]

Morsbane is a fun unit to play. Nothing is more satisfying that negating your opponents Cyprien.

[Killometer]

First, let me warn everyone that I am a total Morsbane fanboy, so I am a little biased about how great he is (although Jerry22's Charos might agree with me about what a bad-ass he is: Nat 20 on his very first roll that match at the EtS tourney ).

I'm going to disregard everything else you said about his power sucking, since it is so blatently wrong, what with it's expansive range of 6, no engagement limitations, the ability to use it and still attack, and unlimited attempts until you hit it 3 times (and how often do you see 3 unique units in an army, really?) and instead focus on this factor:

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

You have a pathetic 2 defense

There is no question that he has a Defense of 2,and that, overall, 2 is on the low end of the HS spectrum. HOWEVER, combined with his solid Life of 6, this sets you up to effectively use him very aggresively. If a high defense figure gets engaged, people are usually relucatant to risk giving their opponent a chance at a free wound by leaving engagement. But with a Defense of only 2, Morsbane is probably going to get hit anyways if he stays near an enemy, so you might as well risk the skull and dash him away to a more effective location, i.e. within 6 hexes of someone you want to Negate .

[CheddarLimbo]

Morsebane MORSBANE is a lot of fun in a Dungeon Crawl scenario, as well. If you can snag a treasure glyph that helps him out in the defense department he can be very effective!

[NecroBlade]

Is he the one with the Morse Code special power?

[Tai-Pan]

Morsbane also gets defensive boosts from Kyntela and Acolarh. It's not worth drafting them if he's the only elf in your army, but might be worth considering if you have a few.

[flameslayer93]

Originally Posted by Killometer

First, let me warn everyone that I am a total Morsbane fanboy, so I am a little biased about how great he is (although Jerry22's Charos might agree with me about what a bad-ass he is: Nat 20 on his very first roll that match at the EtS tourney ).

I'm going to disregard everything else you said about his power sucking, since it is so blatently wrong, what with it's expansive range of 6, no engagement limitations, the ability to use it and still attack, and unlimited attempts until you hit it 3 times (and how often do you see 3 unique units in an army, really?) and instead focus on this factor:

There is no question that he has a Defense of 2,and that, overall, 2 is on the low end of the HS spectrum. HOWEVER, combined with his solid Life of 6, this sets you up to effectively use him very aggresively. If a high defense figure gets engaged, people are usually relucatant to risk giving their opponent a chance at a free wound by leaving engagement. But with a Defense of only 2, Morsbane is probably going to get hit anyways if he stays near an enemy, so you might as well risk the skull and dash him away to a more effective location, i.e. within 6 hexes of someone you want to Negate .

I'm glad you read through my article but my first sentences were just opening sentences. They didn't mean anything other than the fact that he does have low end defense. Gladly(as I pointed out) he can survive with his 6 life. That gives him wiggle room. I also like the guy, but that doesn't mean everyone knows my stragy for him. Thank you for enjoying my article.

[vertigosmooth]

I dont get the Morsbane hate I sometimes read on these boards. Anyone who thinks negating another figures special as weak either isn't thinking or has never had it happen to them. I just recently played a fun, 800 point game where I used snipers, Taelord and Raelin and my friend used the elf wizards. Now my friend John(penopticon) is one of the luckiest rollers I've ever met(if you can call it luck, considering every game he rolls like a beast) and he really made Morsbane shine. He negated my Taelord and Raelin both in back to back OM's! Man, they might as well have been dead, it crippled my army completely. Honestly, it would have taken way more turns for him to kill them than it did to negate them completely. I think he is way underrated(at least his power is) and I'm scared to death next time I have to face him.


Dustin

[Devil's Advocate]

Morsbane is the single misrated piece in the game in the power rankings. He is a B+/A- type figure that will win a person more games than almost any other 100 point figure (only competition would be the Krav).

People are irrrationally afraid of the D20 when in reality getting his power to work is not that rare.

[flameslayer93]

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

Morsbane, Morsbane, Morsbane...what am I going to do with you? You have a pathetic 2 defense, a paultry ability and a not so stellar attack power. Your sculpt is above and beyond stupid, so you don't even have that in my book. I mean your "shoot me!" pose can't possibly be more useful than a...distraction? Perfect idea!!!

My foe knows that Morsbane ability is dangerous to them, but it only works ocasionally. So, maybe we should try to use you as a dangerous defense unit or even a quick "slapshot" figure, or maybe even both. The power of Morsbane is a little bit tricky to deem at first(or even years worth) sight.

Right now put a Medium figure right behind Morsbane. I'll wait. Done? Good. Did you see how well Morsbane's antlers(*shudder*) and his pose blocked your figure? That is just part of his strategy. The other part is using a sneak attack figure like Darrak Ambershard to hide behind the dumb elf's robes. By slowly moving both(2 OM's but use the Axegrinders for extra effect with Darrak), you can put Darrak into the battlefield without being seen. Best part is, if your foe is dumb enough to close in, Darrak's decent move coupled with Sneak Attack, lands 6 attack dice.

What if Morbane is the one who you need to take a turn with? Simple, unless it is a high defense samurai, attack it and then lob the 20D at something nearby. With a little luck, you'll land something. Refer to other threads if your looking for a good target for your dice.

Now that we've seen him simply as a guard for a sneak, we'll see him as an actual fighter. Idea, rush him behind something to keep his opponent from gunning him down. The less visible he is now, the better(for obvious reasons). When your foes more difficult figures get into the middle(example Drake V2), Morsbane charges low defense squaddies but stays within negation range of his mark. 6 life should allow enough wiggle room for disengagement from maybe a single figure to track his mark.

Once that figure is screwed out of powers, do some bluffing. In other words place a single OM on him each round, sometimes 1/2 and sometimes X. Don't put it onto the 3. You'll truly make your foe to see your trickery ended. Maybe Morsbane isn't as bad as some may think.

The cleaned up version of my post. Enjoy!