Unit Strategy Review: How to use Iskra/Rechets of Bogdan

[Taeblewalker]

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Unit Strategy Review
Units: Iskra Esenwein and Rechets of Bogdan
Author: Taeblewalker (with thanks to my sewing circle)

Special Note: We normally don’t combine units into one guide. This time, it was unavoidable, as the Rechets simply cannot be used without Iskra, and Iskra’s power, Summon the Rechets of Bogdan, is a significant part of her value. We will not combine units again like this unless absolutely necessary.

When the Esenwein family appeared to Utgar in a vision, even the Valkyrie General may not have realized what he had bargained for. As a vampire who can summon extra-dimensional fiends, Iskra put a bizarre twist on the Airborne Elite’s old trick of The Drop. After she has feasted on the souls of the living, the Undead, and even the mechanical, she likelier than not eventually gets lucky – and unleashes a gnashing swarm of undead mayhem that slices the sky to ribbons and takes the life out of the hardiest of foes!

We will begin with their stats.

Vital Statistics
Iskra Esenwein
Cost – 50 – Knight / Bishop
Size – Medium 4 – vulnerable
Life – 4 – Below Average
Move – 6 – Fast
Range – 1 Melee
Attack – 3 - Average
Defense – 3 – Poor
Summon the Rechets of Bogdan – summons the Rechets of Bogdan into battle on a 14 – sub-reliant
Life Drain – heal a wound for each figure she kills – tactical advantage high
Flying – tactical advantage high

Rechets of Bogdan
Cost – 50* – Bishop
Size – Medium 4 – vulnerable
Life – Squad
Move – 6 – Fast
Range – 1 – Melee
Attack – 3** – Average
Defense – 3 – Poor
*Iskra’s Summoning – the Rechets of Bogdan cannot enter the game unless summoned by Iskra, but get to take an extra turn when they do – tactical advantage – moderate
**Lethal Sting – kills a small or medium figure when all skulls are rolled – tactical advantage moderate
Flying – ignores elevations when moving and is not engaged when passing over other figures – tactical advantage high

In-Depth Analysis:
We shall now look carefully at Iskra’s and the Rechets of Bogdan’s statistics, and draw strategies from our conclusions. Below is an explanation of Agatagary's cost classification:

Pawn class (expendable, units that can be useful, but are not worth enormous trouble to protect)
Bishop class (more useful than a pawn, but still somewhat expendable)
Knight class (units that are interestingly powerful and can have a significant impact on the game in of themselves. It is advisable that they be kept alive, but if absolutely necessary they may be sacrificed)
Rook class (units that almost inevitably have a significant impact on the game, and whose death should be avoided as much as possible)
Queen class (devastatingly powerful or important units that should be protected at all costs)

Class:
Let us begin with an analysis of Iskra Esenwein’s and the Rechets of Bogdan’s size and cost. Iskra is a Medium-size Knight Class unit who becomes a Bishop Class unit after she has summoned her Rechets of Bogdan into battle. This is because she no longer needs to be preserved to summon the Rechets, but she can still have a significant impact upon the game if played correctly. Some part of her 50 point cost buys her summoning ability, making her, in reality, more of a 40-45 point figure when used on her own; however, in order to make use of all of those 50 points, you need to spend another 50 on the Rechets of Bogdan. The Rechets themselves are a Medium-size Bishop Class unit, used primarily for assassination of important Small and Medium figures.

To examine the Iskra Esenwein’s and the Rechets of Bogdan’s core stats, we will break them up into two categories—offensive ability and survivability.

Offense:
Iskra Esenwein has an average Attack of 3. However, her perceived threat is greater before she summons the Rechets of Bogdan. If she manages to roll a 14, she has a bunch of Rechets summoned 6 spaces from her that she can use after her normal turn, increasing the threat range to 13! Not only this, but Iskra herself moves 6, so the threat range of this rotten combo is effectively 19! Her Flying ability allows her to reach targets quickly. The Rechets of Bogdan have the same Attack, but are blessed with the ability to use it three times in one turn. Their greatest threat comes from Lethal Sting. They have a 12.5% chance of performing this deadly maneuver, comparable to the Deathstalkers’ chance of Maul, but with an instant kill guaranteed no matter how much life the hero has! This makes their Offense better than average against Small or Medium figures.

Survivability:
The Undead immunity to Zombies Rise Again helps minimize bonuses to your opponent’s Zombie army, but otherwise both Iskra and the Rechets are vulnerable to many powers that affect Medium figures. They share a low Defense of 3. Iskra’s Survivability improves if she can find fodder for Life Drain, and her Life of 4 is just high enough to give her a fighting chance to make use of it. You must remember, however, that she is only a 50 point hero, 5-10 of whose points are strictly for her Summoning power. Once she has summoned her Rechets, her effective cost of 40-45 places her somewhere between Guilty McCreech and Shiori – useful, but expendable. As for the Rechets of Bogdan, their unique status means that their low Survivability cannot be mitigated by the purchase of multiple squads. You will have to deploy them wisely into a place where they can cause maximum damage in minimal time, hopefully taking out several important units in the process.

General Strategy:
Since the game starts with Iskra, so shall this guide. Iskra is a unit that presents only a moderate threat personally but presents a great potential threat – and for this, your opponent will both fear her and hunt her. You might feel tempted to send her directly in the battle, taking turn after turn with her, and hoping to get that critical 14 on the 20-sided die. The more turns you take, you may reason, the greater a chance of success. While you would be correct, there are several show-stoppers here. First of all, Iskra is just not powerful enough, even with Life Drain, to survive long on the front line. She needs to skulk a bit, awaiting her opportunity. The second problem is that, when all is said and done, Iskra and the Rechets of Bogdan combined make only a 100 point combination. You are likely to have more expensive (and more reliable) units that can and should take turns early in the game. For example, it would be a shame to waste the opportunity to take turns with Braxas and Tor-Kul-Na in the hope of using a combination worth less than half the cost of each.

So where does that leave us? Iskra, as stated, does carry a pretty big potential threat. Spending one order marker on her per round is not a bad idea. In a tactic referred to in the Book of the Rechets of Bogdan as “Johnny’s Gambit,” you should make this Order Marker #3. This way, if the Summon power works, you can immediately reset the order markers on the next round to include the Rechets.

Meanwhile, have Iskra skulk near the main battle, picking off stragglers. Don’t take empty turns with her just to try for the summons! Use her first activation to move her near the battle. Have her hide behind ruins, trees, or other figures, staying out of sniper range. When you see a chance to take out a Venoc Viper or an Arrow Grut, take it! These “snacks” will help her to stay alive, healing the inevitable wounds she will suffer from the slings and arrows of her enemies. Use her if you can to put the finishing touch on a wounded unit with fairly low Defense such as Mimring or Su-Bak-Na. Suck up the life force of these units, bolstering her power. As you keep rolling that 20-sided die with baited breath, remember – between her summoning range of 6 and the Rechets’ Move of 6, the Rechets can move to engage targets that are 13 spaces away from Iskra on the turn that they appear. Furthermore, while she needs to see where they appear, she does not need to see where they are going – which means that she can hide out of sight of the ranged units that would otherwise shoot at her, and still summon the Rechets to a place where they can immediately fly to and attack those same ranged units.

Once the Rechets have been summoned, the game changes dramatically for Iskra. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that she has served her purpose! She may be more expendable, but with this comes a greater freedom to attack enemy units. She is only a 50 point figure with strings no longer attached at this point, so feel free to place her in the thick of things and hope to take out units with her. Her Life Drain will still work to keep her alive, while her stats will allow her to make a decent showing in combat against low-priced units. If you can get her near a more powerful figure that has been reduced to low Life, you might want to consider adding insult to injury by having her put the finishing touch on that unit and removing a wound marker from her own card. In the event that you draft Iskra by herself, just use her from the start as the more expendable unit she would become if she had already summoned the Rechets.

The Rechets of Bogdan are a very nice assassination unit to threaten unique heroes with high Life. Their Lethal Sting ability allows them a flat 12.5% chance of automatically killing any Small or Medium figure; this number jumps up to just over 30% if they all attack the same target. Their ability to pop out of nowhere due to Iskra’s Summoning allows them a threat range of 13 spaces from wherever she is, so they have a good chance to reach their prey, no matter in which direction they lie. The high cost of heroes such as Taelord and Spartacus make them very lucrative targets for Lethal Sting. You might think that the Rechets would also be good assassins for high Defense squads such as the Minions of Utgar, who weigh in at a similar cost. However, while you practically need Lethal Sting to take them out, remember that their cost is divided among three figures, and therefore they do not provide the same return per kill as the heroes do.

That said, squads can still be viable targets! Having a Life of only 1, squad figures just need to be treated differently. Try to gain some advantage such as height. This die might be a liability when you are relying upon Lethal Sting to take out a hero or two, but for squad figures, Lethal Sting is usually a red herring, the pursuit of which makes it difficult to take out figures that would otherwise fall to an enhanced Attack of 4 or more. You need only beat the opponent’s roll by 1 skull, so treat Lethal Sting as icing on the cake, useful if it happens to come up on 4 or more dice against a high Defense squad figure. As for Large and Huge figures, they are invulnerable to Lethal Sting, so going for any extra Attack dice against them is a no-brainer.

There are several ways to get those extra attack dice. Flying gives the Rechets the chance to gain higher ground, if such is to be had. Glyphs that enhance Attack such as Astrid and Ulvania are either there on the board or they are not; glyph holders such as the Deathreavers are best used, freeing Rechets to do their thing. If you are lucky enough to have Finn the Viking Champion’s Warrior Spirit on the Rechets’ card, more power to you! If you can get adjacent to a Dumutef Guard, you can take advantage of Devourer Ehancement whch gives the Rechets one extra attack die. If you have sent a Dumutef into the fray to use its Attack of 4 to do some damage to another unit, the Rechets can then join it. The trick here is to actually send your Dumutef in first, as most opponents will avoid going into adjacency with it unless they have no choice. With its threat range of 7, a Dumutef Guard will be able move into engagement with any units that have a Range of 6 or less before they can fire upon it. Alternately, you may have a Dumutef placed at a choke point on a road. With a Defense of 5, your opponent might find this Dumuteff difficult to take out at range and send in his melee units. This gives you a chance to use adjacency to the Dumutef to gain an extra attack die. This tactic may not work on many maps where you cannot set up the Dumutef properly, but if you can, it's worth the trouble.

The Rechets are small enough to fit almost anywhere, but a word or two about battlements is in order. They are tricky to fit among battlements on a map that has a single row of hexes adorned on both sides. The wings of the Rechets make it difficult, but not impossible, to find a configuration where one of the figures will fit when battlements are on either side of its hex. It is worth remembering at times when you want to send the Rechets to a castle top to take out units such as Syvarris or the Roman Archers, that they really can land there, despite appearances to the contrary.

Optional Strategies:
Flag Capture: If you want a fairly cheap unit for capturing flags or for giving you a presence inside a castle or some other location that grants Victory Condition for a given scenario, the Rechets of Bogdan can get there fast. Have Iskra move within 12 spaces of the desired space and summon them to take it. If they are already on the board, remember that they have Flying and a Move of 6, which gives them a decent chance to get where they need to be quickly.

Uncle Marcu and Me!: A tried and true Orc army that has Ornak at its head could benefit from sending out Iskra and Marcu on Order Marker #1 with his Red Flag of Fury Aura. The pair can go in, take out a number of weaker units that might otherwise bog down Grimnak, Tornak, and their Blade and Heavy Gruts. This advance mop-up team presents a quandary for your opponent – Marcu is deadly with his Move of 7 and Attack of 4, and his Defense of 1 makes him tempting to take out – but with his Life of 6 and Life Drain special power, this can take a few turns, during which you might summon the Rechets of Bogdan. If your opponent concentrates on taking out Iskra first, Marcu will earn his bloody reputation as a fearsome Nosferatu by running unchecked among your opponent’s forces. On your other order markers, you can try taking turns with Iskra, or you can bring up the bulk of your Orc army into position.

Units to Avoid:
Braxas, Grimnak, etc. : Units with instant destroy powers such as Poisonous Acid Breath and Chomp will make quick work of the Iskra and the Rechets. Stay away, unless these units are almost destroyed. If they are at full strength, Iskra is likely to be destroyed altogether, and attrition to the Rechets of Bogdan if not outright annihilation is almost certain.

Morsbane: Unique units are vulnerable to Negation of both their own powers and Iskra’s. Keep your vampire/fiend alliance far away from his area of effect, unless you plan to move in and take him out quickly. Beware also if your opponent has order markers on Ulginesh, which lets him take turns with Morsbane and any other Elf Wizard he controls.

For additional information see the Book of Iskra Esenwein and the Book of Rechets of Bogdan

[Taeblewalker]

Offense:
Iskra Esenwein has an average Attack of 3. However, her perceived threat is greater before she summons the Rechets of Bogdan. If she manages to roll a 14, she has a bunch of Rechets summoned 6 spaces from her that she can use after her normal turn, increasing the threat range to 13!

And here, ladies and gentlemen, I strongly resist the urge to say “poodle gun.”

[Shades fan]

The Rechets have had great luck with me using their lethal sting power they have destroyed Warden 816 and many others it is a much better power than maul.But I have 1 big problem with most of the units in Wave 7 for all the Vampires The Warden and many others [Excluding the Ashigaru's and the Templars]have a messed up Height of 4 it is crazy.The warden in my opinion should be a height of 6 but they would have to make a new mold the Vamps should be a height of 5 because I compared them to all the rest of the Medium 5 and they match.But to the point Tablewalker I think you nailed it when you said "First of all, Iskra is just not powerful enough, even with Life Drain, to survive long on the front line. She needs to skulk a bit, awaiting her opportunity."

[Mindfreak]

Uncle Marcu and Me,

Rechets are preety awasome looking, and I think Isk and her venomous pets are underappreciated. They're like the AE, Potentially devestating but risky.

[Boozehammer]

Solid article.

I have mad love for the Rechets and Iskra, they have always done well for me.

[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by Shades fan

The Rechets have had great luck with me using their lethal sting power they have destroyed Warden 816 and many others it is a much better power than maul.But I have 1 big problem with most of the units in Wave 7 for all the Vampires The Warden and many others [Excluding the Ashigaru's and the Templars]have a messed up Height of 4 it is crazy.The warden in my opinion should be a height of 6 but they would have to make a new mold the Vamps should be a height of 5 because I compared them to all the rest of the Medium 5 and they match.But to the point Tablewalker I think you nailed it when you said "First of all, Iskra is just not powerful enough, even with Life Drain, to survive long on the front line. She needs to skulk a bit, awaiting her opportunity."

I like to use Cyprien to go in first to take out some units. Iskra is great to follow up in a castle storming scenario.

[STAROCEAN980]

Excellent article TableWalker.
I just want to let you know that the title of this thread says, "Iskra and the Rechets of Bog", instead of "Bogdan".

[hi1hi1hi1hi1]

Originally Posted by STAROCEAN980

Excellent article TableWalker.
I just want to let you know that the title of this thread says, "Iskra and the Rechets of Bog", instead of "Bogdan".

There's a max character count for titles. Unit Strategy Review - Iskra and the Rechets of Bogdan must have been three letters too long.

[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by hi1hi1hi1hi1

There's a max character count for titles. Unit Strategy Review - Iskra and the Rechets of Bogdan must have been three letters too long.

Yes. I will try to fix it somewhat.

[soberman]

The thing is, if you employ the Uncle Marcu and Me! tactic, doesn't that fly in the face of the common-sense logic behind Johnny"s Gambit?

In a related question, who dares sully the name of Johnny Cash by saying he consorts with demons? Or is that Johnny139?

I liked the bit about lethal sting being a red herring against squads. Good stuff!

In a related thought, I think a squad of man-eating red herrings would rock!
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[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by soberman

The thing is, if you employ the Uncle Marcu and Me! tactic, doesn't that fly in the face of the common-sense logic behind Johnny"s Gambit?

In a related question, who dares sully the name of Johnny Cash by saying he consorts with demons? Or is that Johnny139?

I liked the bit about lethal sting being a red herring against squads. Good stuff!

In a related thought, I think a squad of man-eating red herrings would rock!
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now playing: Luscious Jackson Fever In, Fever Out

"Uncle Marcu and me" is definitely an "optional strategy," and different to the way you would normally use her.

Yes, it's Johnny139.

I think the herrings are coming out with the pirate set.

[soberman]

Taeblewalker wrote:

Yes, it's Johnny139.

I nailed it!! Yes!! What do I win? Seriously, though, I would think that "Johnny's Gambit" would be evident to any lunkhead, but I guess not? Good for him to be the first one to post it!
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