2020 C3V Playtest Tournament - (Congrats vegietarian18)

[Scaperedude]

Point Total (500)
Map: Belly of the Beast
Glyphs: Wannok and Dagmar

heroscaper2010: Mohican River Tribe x4, Teeth of the Makwa x2, Makwa Tribesman x2
Scaperedude: Amberhive Protectors x5, Amberhive Queen, Cyprien Esenwein

Which units survived?
Cyprien Esenwein (5/6)

General Battle Report
This match was anyone's game until the very last roll. Heroscaper2010 rolled out and played Mohicans the entire game until the very end. Unfortunately, there was little tribesman/makwa activation the first couple of rounds because I didn't engage with my bees until into the second round when they charged the native American start zone. I perched the queen up on a three height space on the top of the board for the majority of the game, and with a few lucky defense rolls and constant swarming and stinging from the bees, the queen lived longer than she normally would have. The consistency of the bees attacks was really what kept them in the game. Slowly the Makwa did advance across the board through hero activation, but they were slowly picked off by wandering bees. The Makwa tribesmen posed the most serious threat, (particularly because we were playing them wrong and forgot that their second attack only kicks in around other Huntsman), but finally, it came down to a few remaining mohicans, one makwa, and one full life Tribesman against a full life Cyprien. It was incredibly close, but the mohicans were spread out enough that Cyprien was able to clean up. The last Tribessman almost killed the vampire after he saved on shield of the great bear twice in a row against chilling touch and an attack, but Cyprien finally landed the killing blow. Thrilling game all the way to the end.

How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play
The stinging power of the bees if the life blood of the army. For almost half of the game I had up to two-three bees attempting to sting every round, and it proved highly effective. With out stinging, I easily would have lost the game. I never used frenzy, and though the queen did receive the initiative bonus twice during the game it never contributed to me actually winning the initiative. I was about half-and-half with bonding and not bonding with the bees.

Additional Comments
The bee army is certainly a riot to play. With up to six activations per turn, the will certainly be a staple with my future armies. I really never used the frenzy ability and I don't think I ever really will. With four bees in a squad, it's always worth it to me to sting and possibly lose a single bee.

[All Your Pie]

Round 2 Tournament Report: 500 points
Map: Belly of the Beast
Glyphs: Wannok, Dagmar

All Your Pie - Army: Ranjit Singh, Marro Warriors, Guilty McCreech, Zetacron, Himmelskralle, Deathreavers x3
Lefton4ya - Army: Children of the Dark Star x5, Agga-Zemir, Patrick Ferguson, Isamu

2 games played.

Which units survived? Game 1, tournament game: All of army 1 except for 1 rat and 2 Marro Warriors.
Game 2, extra game: All of army 2 except for 3 CotDS.


[B]General Battle Report/Flow of game (be as detailed or general as you like) [/B
]Game 1: This was a quick one. Lefton struggled initially with managing the interplay between Agga and the Children and left Agga exposed. In round 2, I shot 3 wounds onto him with an elevated Ranjit-boosted Guilty and finished the job with Zetacron. He conceded at that point, and we played out a second game for further testing.

Game 2: Lefton held back a bit more until the Children could develop a bit more. He led with a round of Children only and then used 5-child turns with Agga in the middle for the rest of the game. The children did a decent job hacking through deathreavers while I couldn't fire back effectively, as Lion of Punjab left me without decent squad killing offense. I send out Himmelskralle for a 6 dice attack on a child in the middle of round 2, but only rolled 1 blocked skull, followed up by Himmel taking 4 wounds and then dying to lava. I also lost my OM 3 to Spreading Madness as a result of moving Zetacron up too far and forgetting that Agga would advance with Approaching Doom.

After a disastrous round 2, I was pretty much sunk. Himmelskralle was my only unit that could get through that many squaddies and Zetacron never got a good shot on Agga. Lefton snuck the children past my line and dismantled my heroes until I conceded with 2 MW and a few rats left.

How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?
Game 1: Lion of Punjab was used in round 2, giving a boost to MW, Guilty, and Zetacron. The MW didn't kill anything on their turn but Guilty and Zetacron inflicted 3 wounds on Agga each with the help of the boost (including a 4-skull roll from guilty).

The pathing from lefton's SZ made it a little hard to use Approaching Doom. He used it a little once AZ reached open ground, but the game was too short for it to have an effect.

Spreading Madness was attempted once, on a rat I carelessly left in range. It would have moved their OM 2 to something less useful, but the roll was failed.

Game 2: I used Lion of Punjab twice, to less effect this time. Himmel and my MW did little in round 2, and Zetacron lost his OM before getting to use the benefit. In round 3 it boosted a Zeta shot on Agga, but it still only got one skull.

Approaching Doom was still hindered by the map, but lefton used it to reposition Agga on OM 1 to be within Madness range of Zetacron for OM 2.

Madness was used once, a successful roll that moved Zetacron's OM 3 to Rats for a much less useful turn.

Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?
I don't have anything new on Ranjit, other than that I've seen how real his downsides can be. It's hard to build an army around him that can handle both heroes and squads well, and if you use Lion of Punjab you may pay for it with some weaker turns that round as a result of having to spread OMs.

Agga and the Children mesh better than I thought. I was worried that Agga's powerset would made him best on OM 1, making the children a little less flexible and fun, but Lefton played him quite well on OM 2. Spreading Madness is quite scary but doesn't strike me as unfair, especially since I designed my build to be hurt very badly by it anyway.

[Chris Perkins]

The capsocrates (0-1) v. Chris Perkins (0-1) pool of armies is:

* : B-11 Resistance Fighters, Brute Gruts, Axentia, Rygarn, Kursus
* : Children of the Dark Star x3, Z'Thoth Mouth of the Abyss, Agga-Zemir, Guilty McCreech
* Weakness to Bug Spray: Amberhive Protectors x4, Amberhive Queen, Sujoah
* Ugly Orcs: Horned Skull Brutes x3, Goblin Cutters x3, Bugbear Basher x2, Isamu

Chris Perkins chooses which army to play first or may defer. After armies are picked, capsocrates chooses who places first.

Playing tomorrow (7/16) @ 8 pm EST.

capsocrates army TBD

[Heroscaper Guy]

Round 2 Tournament Report: 500 points
Map: Belly of the Beast
Glyphs: Wannok, Dagmar

Heroscaper Guy - Army: Goblin Slashers x4, Bugbear Basher x4, James Murphy
Dysole - Army: Children of the Dark Star x4, Agga-Zemir, Airborne Elite

Which Units Survived? 9 goblins, 2 unwounded bugbears, full health james murphy, a 3/4 bugbear and a 1 health agga (and undropped airborne) when dysole conceded.

General Battle report

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1
No drop for airborn
First nit goes to dysole
Who goes with the children of the dark str and the outsider
I move some gobbos
Agga moves
The slashers kill a child and retreat, moving a bugbear
Child kills a goblin
Goblins kill another child move a hob up
Round 2
Dysole wins init
Moves the outsider up
Goblins kill 3 children, bugbear unsuccessful in hitting the outsider
Spreading madness moves an om to bugbear a from goblin (om 3)
Bugbear d is wounded for 2 from the outsider
Goblins kill 2 more children, bugbear does nothing
3 goblins are killed by the children
Wannok kills the goblin on it
Lava field kills a child and wounds bugbear (3 wounds) and the outsider now at 2
Airborne don’t drop
Dysole wins init
Children deal no wounds
Goblin kills a child
Om 2 on goblins is moved to bugbear c by madness, the bugbear d is killed
Bugbear c moves
Child kills a goblin
Goblins don’t do anything and move to wannok and dagmar, bugbear kills a child, wannok kills another child
Round 3
Airbone don’t drop
Children did nothing
Goblins kill the last 2 children
Om 2 is moved to bugbear b
Bugbear is dealt 3 wounds by the outsider
Bugbear b moves up
Bugbear c rolls a leaving engagement and deals a wond
Wannok and lava deal another 2 wounds after the gobs move up
Final tallies
7 goblins dead, 1 dead bug bear, 3 wounds on another
5 wounds agga-zemir, all the dead children

How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?
Goblin Strategic Retreat was used a lot to move up bugbears and get them into more advantageous situations. Scale wasn't used that much. The Bugbears used bash once (which I think dealt one wound if i remember), the other bugbear powers were not used. Agga moved a bit with approaching doom, and moved two om's with spreading madness.

Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?
So, both these armies were interesting om wise, Dysole had a lot of dice difficulty though which caused their army to fall rather fast and not do that much compared to the goblins. It was great themewise and I thought rather fun, but the dice did cause too much in my favor. I do think the bugbears need to be increased in price slightly though, cause I shouldnt have been able to have four of them. Kinda a too-good for their price situation.

[Knight of Scape]

Point Total: 500
Map: Belly of the Beast
Glyphs: Dagmar; Wannok

KoS: Teeth of the Makwa x5, Makwa Tribesman x1, Raelin (RotV), Kira Jax
Tankyteemo: Ranjit Singh, Syvarris, Krav Maga Agents, Zetacron, Marro Warriors, Siiv, Isamu

Which units survived?
4 of the Teeth and Kira with 2 life left.

General Battle Report/Flow of game (be as detailed or general as you like)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1 I put all 3 OMs on the Tribesman, hoping to develop a bunch of Teeth into offensive positions and make a push for both glyphs. Teemo put his OMs on Krav, Syvarris, and Marro Warriors (and Ranjit). In perhaps the most ridiculous part of the match, we tied on initiative 3 times in a row (1/8000 chance of that happening, so I'll probably never see it again), before the fourth diceoff finally decdied that Tanky went first. His first two turns saw Syvarris and the Krav shooting at Raelin from height, and somehow failing to inflict any wounds in 4 attacks of 5. I moved the Tribesman up to get a melee attack on one of the Krav, which connected, and also to block access to Raelin. Unfortunately, a Marro warrior one-shotted the Tribesman and I lost my 3rd OM, as well as two Teeth. At the end of the round, Syvarris failed to take lava damage, and Kira took the Wannok wound for me.

Round 2 I decided to lead out with Raelin before going all in on the Teeth, so that I could put her on the nice 4 height perch in the middle of the map, and make her a little harder to shoot down. Tanky put his OMs on the same units as last time. Raelin somehow blocked two more attacks of 5 from the Krav and made it to her perch, but despite the fact that she was now the one with height advantage, she proceeded to take 4 wounds from the Marro warriors. The Teeth rolled out and killed a second Krav, but could not hit the Marro Warriors or Syvarris. Syvarris disengaged from a Tooth to kill Raelin, leaving me feeling a bit nervous.

Casualties after 2 rounds: 2 Krav vs. Raelin, Tribesman, 2 Teeth, and one wound on Kira

Round 3 is where things started to turn around. With only one Krav left, Tanky opted to make Siiv his third activation this round, while I put all my OMs on the Teeth. I went first this time, and took out two Marro Warriors, leading Tanky to spend his first turn retreating and water cloning back to a full squad. The Teeth proceeded to pound on Syvarris, and took him out before he could take his turn, costing Tanky and OM. Siiv managed to kill a Tooth, the only damage Tanky inflicted this round.

Round 4, Tanky resorted to putting a numbered OM on Ranjit himself, and he came out and took away OM3 from my Teeth before killing one of them. The Teeth took out Siiv and a Marro warrior, then lost some men to the Marro counterattack. Zetacron moved out on the last OM and also got a Tooth kill. Tanky's army was very limited at this point, however, by the fact that the Marro Warriors were his only way to get more than one attack per turn.

The rest of the game the Teeth slowly mopped up the stragglers of Tanky's army, taking advantage of the fact that even though they died almost every time they were attacked, I was getting three attacks per turn to Tanky's one. The Marro warriors got mopped up in round 5, and while Lion of Pujab was still active in round 6, due to Isamu and Zetacron, the Teeth took them out in round 7 before either of them could take a turn, and then the last of them cleaned up Ranjit himself.

How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?

Spoiler Alert!

The Makwa Tribesman's powers were not very significant. He never had a chance to attack twice (the Teeth weren't close enough to give him a second attack on either of the first two turns). He only got a single Shield of the Great Bear roll, and he failed it, causing him to be one-shotted. The Teeth's Hunting Party ability did let the Tribesman help them advance a bit in the first round (although it would have worked better if he'd lived).

Ranjit's Lion of Pujab was used in every round except the last one (where Ranjit was the only figure left). It let Tanky's figured hit very hard, although it also constrained his movements a lot, since it's hard to protect your figures when they can only move once a round. Diplomatic Subterfuge was used 5 times, successfully removing 4 numbered OMs (plus one X). The solid chance at removing OMs is nice, but given Ranjit's own weak stats it sometimes feels like you're just making up for the OM that you wasted on activating Ranjit.

Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?

Spoiler Alert!

Not a lot of thoughts on the Tribesman this time. He still seems like a solid unit in a Teeth army, but his fairly low survivability does mean you have to be a bit careful with him.

This game kind of confirmed to me what I'd already been hearing from other people's battle reports: Ranjit is not nearly as strong as he first appears. I still think he's a fun unit, and I really like the way he forces you to think differently about army building, and lets you try some wacky builds. As others have said, though, it seems like, especially without a screen, Ranjit armies start out really strong, and then really quickly lose steam once a few of the unique squad figures go down.

The way that Lion of Pujab forces you to activate 3 different army cards each round makes it impossible for the Krav or the Marro Warriors to use the kind of hit and run style that normally makes them so strong, and instead they have to just sit there and let the enemy engage them and kill off some squad figures, greatly weakening your offensive output. In theory, Ranjit might work better with heroes (who don't lose offensive power until they're completely dead), but unfortunately, there are not a lot of heroes out there who can make multiple normal attacks in a turn.

Diplomatic subterfuge is nice, and makes it not feel like a total waste when you have to put OMs on Ranjit after your army is thinned out, but it's not that scary of a power given Ranjit's own mediocre stats.

Overall, I feel like Ranjit is in an okay place, since I think that stuff like an ulimited range attack boost should be handled carefully, and I don't think he's terrible as is, just not high tier. Ranjit armies actually remind me a bit of Elf wizard armies, which also start off with really high potential (e.g. an attack of five and AOE attack of 4 every turn), but quickly lose steam as figures die. Like Elf wizards, Ranjit seems fun to play with or against, but tricky to win with, which I think is a fine place to be.

I would be interested in playing with or against Ranjit + rats, though, since it seems like that's probably his strongest form, and might change my impressions of him.

[caps]

Originally Posted by Chris Perkins

Playing tomorrow (7/16) @ 8 pm EST.

capsocrates army TBD

I'll be playing the Axentia army.

[caps]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

I'll be playing the Axentia army.

Getting underway now. We are doing voice chat on the Heroscapers discord server.

[Chris Perkins]

capsocrates got the win with the Brute Gruts & the B-11 doing most of the key work.

Round 1: I used OM 1 & 2 to advance my Bugbears into the road in the center of the map. capsocrates advanced Axentia but burned herself on OM1&2. My OM3 was on cutters, who moved up but accidentally left a great spot for Axentia to jump into, where she immolated 2/6 squad figures but also herself for her 4th wound (1 cutter had attacked on my OM3 for 1 damage).

Round 2: I went OM 1 & 2 on cutters, OM 3 on HSBs. I won init & opened by moving 3 cutters adjacent to Axentia, who finished her off with mob attack, causing her to auto kill 3 cutters & 1 HSB. Powerless reborn Axentia then went and took two height attacks down on a bugbear, missing both, before my cutters on OM2 & HSBs on OM3 finished her off for the second time. Ultimately she was responsible for 7 dead cutters & 3 dead HSBs (1 of each from lava they took to finish her off on my OM3).

Round 3: capsocrates went 100% on brute gruts and I went OM 1 on cutters to form a screen & OM 2 & 3 on HSBs. Brut gruts did a good job denying me any good attack opportunities while killing most of my cutters (many via HSBs opting to have them killed instead) by my HSBs were unable to kill any brute gruts on my first two HSB OMs.

Round 4 was more exchange in the middle; by the time it was done, caps was down to 1 Brute Grute & I was down to 1 HSB.

Caps switched to 100% B-11 and I tried to corner them with Bugbears, but that went about as well as you would expect. The bugbears ended up finishing Kursus while getting 2 B-11 killed by forcing them onto lava to avoid engagements at the end of rounds. Both bugbears got brought down eventually by the B-11.

Endgame: Isamu v. 2 B-11 & full life Rygarn.

Isamu did awesome Isamu things for a while, taking out both B-11 in a round and a half. He held against Rygarn for a while, doing 1 wound of damage, but eventually missed his d20 and fell with a 3-life Rygarn left for caps.

Testing Figures:

Bugbears. I think they are over-priced for what they bring. The OMs necessary to get them in place are quite extensive, and they aren't good in a cleanup role. My suggestion / thoughts here is to reduce their attack and points together, since they don't want to be attacking much anyways (3 HSBs are much better than 1 Bugbear). They're useful, but for 110 points I'd much rather have 2 more squads of cutters.

Axentia. Has epic potential but seem heavily matchup dependent. Against an all-mele army like mine, seems like she will do quite a bit of damage, even if just from the auto-wounds on her first death. But against any kind of ranged common squad it seems like she'll struggle to get even 100 points of damage before she goes down twice. 180 points seems like a lot to invest in a non-bonding hero that's that matchup dependent. Virtually every other "big" hero in the 170 - 190 point range has much smoother matchups against the range of armies they might see. Other than a bring-2 format where you control the army she'll face, it seems unlikely she'd see competitive play as-is.

gg caps.

[caps]

Belly of the Beast
caps
B-11 Resistance Fighters, Brute Gruts, Axentia, Rygarn, Kursus
vs
CaptainStupendous
3xGoblin Cutters, 3xHorned Skull Brutes, 2xBugbear Basher, Isamue

Round-by-round

Spoiler Alert!

Round1
OM1: Basher moves out
Axentia takes the high ground in the middle of the battleground
OM2: other Basher moves out, creating an Attack Aura zone of death
Axentia positions herself to land in the middle of 6 goblins next turn (avoiding the attack aura zone of death)
OM3: Cutters dance around the start zone, with one engaging Axentia, but the hole is left open
Axentia lands and kills 2 Cutters and 1 HSB with Immolation, but gets 1/5 on her normal attack vs an HSB

Round2
OM1: Cutters swarm Axentia, killing her, which takes out 3 of them and 1 HSB
Axentia gets height on a Basher, but whiffs her normal attack (1/6)
OM2: Cutters swarm Axentia, bringing her to 5/7 life
Axentia attacks a Basher again, but whiffs another time (0/6)

at this point my stats were

caps
Attack rolls: 4 out of 16 (25%)
Defense rolls: 2 out of 15 (13.33%)
Total dice rolled: 31
Time used: 0h, 11m, 14s

+ I had also rolled 100% on self-Immolation and 50% on goblin-Immolation

OM3: HSBs barge into battle and kill Axentia
I lose an OM (I forgot about Chrono Key!!)

Chris
Attack rolls: 14 out of 28 (50%)
Defense rolls: 2 out of 8 (25%)
Total dice rolled: 36
Time used: 0h, 9m, 46s


caps
Attack rolls: 4 out of 16 (25%)
Defense rolls: 4 out of 21 (19.05%)
Total dice rolled: 37
Time used: 0h, 11m, 32s

An HSB dies to lava

Round3
OM1: Brute Gruts advance
Cutters move forward
OM2: Brute Gruts kill 1 Cutter; scatter takes Wannok
HSBs advance, w/1 barge, but fail to kill any Brute Gruts
OM3: Brute Gruts kill Cutter on Wannok; kill 2xHSBs, but Expendable Rabble saves 1; Brute Gruts spend a Berserker marker to attack 2 more HSBs and kill 1 more (total: 2 Cutters, 2 HSBs killed)
HSBs advance and kill 2 Brute Gruts


Round4
OM1: Brute Gruts take another Berserker marker to kill 3 more HSBs
Basher moves up and attacks a Brute Grut but doesn't kill it
OM2: B-11 move up and take potshots
HSB uses attack aura to kill the Brute Grut
OM3: B-11 shoot things
HSB rushes into the start zone and puts 2 wounds on Kursus, engaging a B-11

B-11 dies on Lava

Round5
My notes deteriorate from here; the B-11 stayed at maximum range, often forgoing attacks, and ended up killing the Bashers (including a 4/4 against a 0/4) without ever being seriously threatened by them. I did lose another B-11 to lava.

The game devolved into Isamu vs 2xB-11 and full-life Rygarn
Isamu took out the 2 B-11s and then ended up losing to Rygarn

Stats

Spoiler Alert!

Chris
Attack rolls: 44 out of 104 (42.31%)
Defense rolls: 41 out of 126 (32.54%)
Total dice rolled: 230
Time used: 0h, 21m, 56s


caps
Attack rolls: 71 out of 155 (45.81%)
Defense rolls: 21 out of 67 (31.34%)
Total dice rolled: 222
Time used: 1h, 1m, 35s

Which units survived?
Rygarn with 3 life left

General Battle Report/Flow of game
Axentia suicided into the goblin start zone, but rolled 100% on her self-Immolation rolls and so went down pretty quickly, taking just 137.5 points (plus 25 points of HSB lured onto lava to attack her). Her normal attacks were 100% ineffective.
After that the Brute Gruts blocked up the middle of the board, killing some HSBs and Cutters and providing a buffer as the B-11s rolled out and started taking potshots.
The B-11s ultimately finished off the remainder of the goblins, leaving Isamu vs. 2xB-11s and Rygarn. Isamu killed the B-11s before getting into a game of chicken on some magma tiles with a 3-life Rygarn. Rygarn eventually killed Isamu with a normal attack.

How useful were the playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?
Axentia: killed 7 Cutters and 2 HSBs (plus lured 1 HSB onto lava death)
Bugbear Bashers: Their attack aura strongly impacted my placements. I denied letting them start their turn engaged as often as possible. They did get to use their attack aura several times.

Any additional comments
Second game in a row that Axentia has really hindered her lifespan with Self-Immolation. I feel like she let me down this game.
Bashers seem too expensive for what they add. They would be better off with weaker stats as something you could sprinkle into an army more easily.

[Son of Arathorn]

I deferred to Ericth74, who picked first and took my Aliens build (Agga-Zemir, Children x4, Marro Warriors, Black Wyrmling x2). I took his A-to-Z build (Axentia, Honor Guard of the Blasted Lands x4, Zetacron).

Surviving figures: Axentia (5 wounds), Zetacron (unwounded), and 6 Honor Guard of the Blasted Lands. Eric conceded with a Marro Warrior, a Black Wyrmling, and a Child of the Dark Star on the field.

I opened by sending the Honor Guard up the south road, and Axentia to the 4-height lava field perch in the center of the map. Eric countered with Children of the Dark Star and Marro Warriors. We met in the middle and he bloodied my nose, bringing down some Honor Guard and wounding Axentia while I fumbled around.

Another round of exchanged attacks later, and Axentia was nearly dead while my Honor Guard were out of position, and Agga-Zemir approaching was on the elevated road. On the last Order Marker of the round, the Children killed Axentia. It was my first time playing any of these units, and I had a sinking feeling that I'd played this whole build very wrong. But I decided to gamble, and loaded all four Order Markers on Axentia.

Then Eric won initiative and killed Axentia on the first turn. The Phoenix rose, killing 2 adjacent Children, and flying out to engage Agga-Zemir on the road, kamikaze style. Realistically, I thought I'd maybe get a couple wounds on Agga or kill a Marro Warrior, maybe hold up traffic. Instead, Axentia rolled 4 skulls to 2 shields, then 5 skulls to 1 shield. Agga-Zemir went down before he could get a turn.

And it was right about here that everything turned. Axentia sat in the middle of the Children's main avenue to the battle, not getting turns but not quite dying either, soaking up a fair number of attacks from the Children and Marro. I got the Honor Guard rolling, using Protective Repositioning to slingshot across the field and being careful not to leave Guards open to too many Children engagements.

Eric put up a really good fight, but Arc Lances are brutal when you're already rolling decent dice, and I was rolling decent dice. I grabbed Wannok on my way across the map, and to make a long story short: the Honor Guard chipped away at the Children, pinned down the remaining Marro Warriors (who failed to clone), and that was that.

Axentia: I probably misplayed her in the early rounds, but Phoenix Rising and solid attack dice (9/10) bailed me out. The resurrection mechanic is so much fun, but against an army without a defense-reduction mechanic like the Children, I can see her sometimes being frustrating to melee. Not that that's necessarily bad- so are Warriors of Ashra. But maybe her Life could come down along with her points- 6 Life, 165 points, maybe? I also like how she plays differently after Rising, losing the boon and drawback of Immolation. If her card wasn't crazy crowded I might suggest Insubstantial 1 to balance the range matchup, but that's not happening. Immolation only came up once, with Axentia failing to wound herself.

Agga-Zemir: Hard to assess him, since he went down before taking a turn. Approaching Doom did get him onto high ground, but not much else happened. I did load all 4 of my Order Markers on Axentia to counter the threat of Spreading Madness (give Eric a small chance to pick the X), so that's a cool layer of strategy. It won't necessarily come up often, but it's cool when it does.

Children: not in PT anymore, but 5 activations is still scary. 20 points a figure after the Outsider dies is less so. It's not quite the split the GSW have to deal with when the Lizard King eats it, but it feels pretty similar.

gg, Ericth74!

[Ericth74]

Just to piggyback on what Son of Arathorn said. We had a really fun game, I had the early advantage but could not put him away. Dice failed me at the end, and he played great with the Honor Guard.

Agga-Zemir - Unfortunately Agga never got into the fight. He used Approaching Doom 3 times, he was blocked a for a couple of turns so he didn't activate. Agga only saw two X-order markers, as my focus was trying to engage Axentia. Really hard for me to say how good, bad or otherwise this figure is. On paper he looks really good.

Axentia - Axentia is such a presence in a game, especially with it's first set of lives. My goal was to engage with Children to drop defense and shoot with the Marro. This worked well with the 1st set of lives, in hindsight I put too much focus on trying to kill the 2nd set of lives and let Son of Arathorn's Honor Guard regroup and that shifted the tide of the game. 7 life is a lot, but 14 is a giant mountain to climb. Not sure if I feel Axe needs a bump in points or a reduction in life, seems close but not quite there.

Good game Son of Arathorn, I look forward to playing you again.

Originally Posted by Son of Arathorn

I deferred to Ericth74, who picked first and took my Aliens build (Agga-Zemir, Children x4, Marro Warriors, Black Wyrmling x2). I took his A-to-Z build (Axentia, Honor Guard of the Blasted Lands x4, Zetacron).

Surviving figures: Axentia (5 wounds), Zetacron (unwounded), and 6 Honor Guard of the Blasted Lands. Eric conceded with a Marro Warrior, a Black Wyrmling, and a Child of the Dark Star on the field.

I opened by sending the Honor Guard up the south road, and Axentia to the 4-height lava field perch in the center of the map. Eric countered with Children of the Dark Star and Marro Warriors. We met in the middle and he bloodied my nose, bringing down some Honor Guard and wounding Axentia while I fumbled around.

Another round of exchanged attacks later, and Axentia was nearly dead while my Honor Guard were out of position, and Agga-Zemir approaching was on the elevated road. On the last Order Marker of the round, the Children killed Axentia. It was my first time playing any of these units, and I had a sinking feeling that I'd played this whole build very wrong. But I decided to gamble, and loaded all four Order Markers on Axentia.

Then Eric won initiative and killed Axentia on the first turn. The Phoenix rose, killing 2 adjacent Children, and flying out to engage Agga-Zemir on the road, kamikaze style. Realistically, I thought I'd maybe get a couple wounds on Agga or kill a Marro Warrior, maybe hold up traffic. Instead, Axentia rolled 4 skulls to 2 shields, then 5 skulls to 1 shield. Agga-Zemir went down before he could get a turn.

And it was right about here that everything turned. Axentia sat in the middle of the Children's main avenue to the battle, not getting turns but not quite dying either, soaking up a fair number of attacks from the Children and Marro. I got the Honor Guard rolling, using Protective Repositioning to slingshot across the field and being careful not to leave Guards open to too many Children engagements.

Eric put up a really good fight, but Arc Lances are brutal when you're already rolling decent dice, and I was rolling decent dice. I grabbed Wannok on my way across the map, and to make a long story short: the Honor Guard chipped away at the Children, pinned down the remaining Marro Warriors (who failed to clone), and that was that.

Axentia: I probably misplayed her in the early rounds, but Phoenix Rising and solid attack dice (9/10) bailed me out. The resurrection mechanic is so much fun, but against an army without a defense-reduction mechanic like the Children, I can see her sometimes being frustrating to melee. Not that that's necessarily bad- so are Warriors of Ashra. But maybe her Life could come down along with her points- 6 Life, 165 points, maybe? I also like how she plays differently after Rising, losing the boon and drawback of Immolation. If her card wasn't crazy crowded I might suggest Insubstantial 1 to balance the range matchup, but that's not happening. Immolation only came up once, with Axentia failing to wound herself.

Agga-Zemir: Hard to assess him, since he went down before taking a turn. Approaching Doom did get him onto high ground, but not much else happened. I did load all 4 of my Order Markers on Axentia to counter the threat of Spreading Madness (give Eric a small chance to pick the X), so that's a cool layer of strategy. It won't necessarily come up often, but it's cool when it does.

Children: not in PT anymore, but 5 activations is still scary. 20 points a figure after the Outsider dies is less so. It's not quite the split the GSW have to deal with when the Lizard King eats it, but it feels pretty different.

gg, Ericth74!

[caps]

@Son of Arathorn you may have misplayed Immolation. Axentia *must* roll against herself every time she takes a turn.