[Pod 1] UKUSHISA PRIDE (Blazing Firecats) - Editing

[The Long eared bat]

I like the sound of Blaze.

[The Long eared bat]

Map: Dance Of The Dryads
Glyphs: Unique Attack +1, Defense +1
400 point armies
Team 1: Ukushisa Pride(100), Mika Connour, Feral Troll, Krav Maga Agents
Team 2: Iron Golem, 2x Marro Stingers, 2x Marrden Hounds

Match report: Ukushisa move out first and met by Stingers with Drain and killed 1 Ukushisa. Krav moved in for support killed 2 Stingers. Hounds moved in a killed a Ukushisa with Plague. Last Ukushisa used [Blaze] which was a poor attack and got blocked. The last Ukushisa lasted 2 good attacks from Stingers but died on a 3rd attack due to an initiative win. The Ukushisa ended up being hold up units for the Krav who went on to do alot of damage by taking glyphs and height. Hounds were too quick for them and the Krav fell. Mika and Troll couldn't pull back a win.

Units that survived: 3 Stingers, 2 Hounds and full life Iron Golem.

[The Long eared bat]

Second playtest on same map same teams
Map: Dance Of The Dryads
Glyphs: Unique Attack +1, Defense +1
400 point armies
Team 1: Ukushisa Pride(100), Mika Connour, Feral Troll, Krav Maga Agents
Team 2: Iron Golem, 2x Marro Stingers, 2x Marrden Hounds

Match report:This time theb Krav moved out first, but only killed 3 before lossing 2 members to Stingers. This allowed the Hounds to rush into Team 1's start zone and killed 1 Ukushisa. The Ukushisa were then activated and used [Blaze] which killed 1 Hound. Second Blaze killed 1 Stinger and 3rd Blaze killed 1 Hound (80 killed in total)
The last Ukushisa was a good block for Troll and Mika to move and clean up the remaining Hounds. Iron Golem was too strong for a wounded Troll and also the remaining Ukushisa.

Units that survived: 1 Stinger and Full Life Iron Golem.

Thoughts on both tests: Team 2 was probably a stronger team and Stinger Drain and Pack Movement were consistent. On this map the Ukushisa didn't need to worry about lava and Team 2 were at risk from height attacks from Ukushisa on lava spaces. You really want to use up [Blaze] markers as quickly as possible to get the full effect.

[All Your Pie]

Map: Elswin Plateau
Glyphs: Lodin and Ulvania
480 points
Army 1: Ukushisa Pride (100), Laglor (110), 53rd Sharpshooters x3 (165), Gorillitroopers x1 (105)
Army 2: Havech Eradicators x4 (360), Kaemon Awa (120)

Blaze usage 1: Round 2 OM 3. Movement boost used to reach and kill 1 extra havech. Other attacks were blocked, including a 3 skulls blocked by 4 shields.

Afterwards, one Ukushisa fell but the others blocked quite a few hits. They clogged up the board for a while before going down but didn't receive any other OMs. After that, Kaemon managed to get in and take out the gorillitroopers before going down, allowing the Havechs to close in for a victory.

Final: Havech win with 4 remaining.

Thoughts: The Ukushisa weren't quite right for the rest of the army, but they were still fairly useful. Not 100 points useful, certainly, but they occupied the Havech for quite a while. I might try them in more of a cleanup role next.

[Scytale]

I'm not particularly thrilled with the playtesting reports. I'm failing to see the value of the Blaze markers. They have a theoretical value, but with the nature of the rest of the design most of the turns they take they'll get to Blaze. Which means it's not much different than just having the better stats all the time, or at least not worth a marker mechanic.

I like the concept, but I would prefer it to be more tactically interesting. A quick suggestion:

BLAZE
Once per round, after revealing an order marker on this army Card, you may add 2 to this card's Move value and 1 to its Attack value for the remainder of that turn. The Ukushisa Pride may not Blaze if any of them are on a water space.

A once-per-round limitation will force more tactics, particularly in order marker placement.

[The Long eared bat]

BLAZE
Once per round, after revealing an order marker on this army Card, you may add 2 to this card's Move value and 1 to its Attack value for the remainder of that turn. The Ukushisa Pride may not Blaze if any of them are on a water space.

I think with this power they should be less points 80-90 maybe.

[robbdaman]

Maybe increase the boost to 2 attack dice and serif the makes them more useful. 5 attack dice is fairly strong for taking down big heroes.

[All Your Pie]

I think the current question is not whether or not Blaze is a useful boost, but whether or not there are any interesting tactical decisions to make with whether or not to use a marker.

I don't know that a once per round limitation is a significant improvement, though. It will force different tactics, but not necessarily more, as it seems to me you'd only ever give them one OM in a round.

I'd like to see one or two more tests focusing on this unit in an endgame scenario before we consider making changes here. I'll see about getting around to that later this week if I can although I may not have the time.

[kevindola]

400 Points
Map: Ashfall by Flash19
Glyphs: Wannok Valda

Army 1: Nilfheim, Greenscales x3, Guilty
Army 2: Goblin Cutters x4, Syvarris, Ukushisa Pride


Which units survived?
Nilfheim (1 life)
Guilty (1 life)


Syvarris opened up and killed 5 Greenscales and put 2 wounds on Nilfheim before being killed by Ice Shards and Greenscale attacks. However in that same time period Nilfheim largely accepted the Greenscale losses in order to Ice Shard the 1 defense goblins.

Goblins did manage to kill a few more greenscales and tie up Nilfheim for another wound (though not for long tieing him up) in order to let the Ukushisa involved.

They killed the last greenscales who had encroached into the SZ, but Nilf was positioned on height and made it very difficult to get multiple engagements. The Firecats put a few more wounds on Nilfheim, but couldn't quite bring the Ice Dragon down.

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

4 OMs

Used all 3 Blaze Token

Never used Lava Resistance.

First OM 3 alive - Used Blaze, move boost allowed attack on Nilf: killed 2 GS and 1w Nilf
2nd OM 2 alive - Used Blaze, move boost allowed attack on Nilf, 1w Nilf
3rd OM 1 alive - Used Blaze, attack vs. Nilf blocked
4th OM 1 alive - no blazes left, attack vs. Nilf Blocked


Damage: 2 GS, 2w Nilfheim (~100)


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

I think these felines could be pretty potent when facing a wounded spread out force endgame. Nilfheim on height doesn't quite meet that standard and even though they filled their points, they didn't get Nilf swarmed due to his positioning and potent ice attacks.

edit: I don't really think there is much decision points around Inflame. It's a unique squad so you don't know how long they'll be around to be choosy about using those 3 tokens. Anytime you are able to make an attack, you will use Inflame. If you wanted to make it more of a decision point you have to tie it to a negative. Losing defense, or killing an Ukushisa every time you use a marker (obviously you would need to give a significant boost if choosing a kill) Or maybe you just have 1 or 2 markers and everytime one of your Ukushisa ends the round on a lava space you gain a marker back..

[All Your Pie]

Alright, at this point I can agree that the testing consensus is that Inflame/Blaze isn't all that interesting of a decision to make. We're probably best served workshopping another way for the power to function.

Personally, I stand by what I said in that changing it from markers to once per round doesn't feel like an improvement in terms of decision making. It does make the mechanic a little more clean, though, and it doesn't present the appearance of decision making where there isn't much.

I think, though, that I'd rather see some other function for the markers in addition or some downside to losing markers. Something like:

Searing Body
Before rolling defense dice against a normal attack from an adjacent figure with a member of the Ukushisa Pride, you may remove a Blaze counter from this card. If you do, all excess shields count as unblockable hits on the attacking figure.

Or (with a drop to 3 or 4 defense)

Flame Barrier
When rolling defense dice with a member of the Ukushisa Pride that does not occupy a water space, you may roll one additional die for each blaze counter on this card.

Something along those lines is my preference. Thoughts?

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

Personally, I stand by what I said in that changing it from markers to once per round doesn't feel like an improvement in terms of decision making. It does make the mechanic a little more clean, though, and it doesn't present the appearance of decision making where there isn't much.

That I have to disagree with. As they are, the Pride are pretty sharky. That's to be expected; they're a unique melee squad. Once you get them into combat, you will want to get use out of them before they go down. That makes it difficult to maximize Blaze; if you have to wait whole rounds between activations, you will likely not have them alive long enough to use them again. You have to be careful to time the uses to maximize Blaze, which will, at the least, push people toward trying to time a 3rd order marker usage, or be picky about what turns Blaze is used on.

I'm not thrilled about adding another power, especially if the goal is to try to make not-valuable markers valuable. The right decision is to dump the markers. But let's take a look at these.

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

Searing Body

Before rolling defense dice against a normal attack from an adjacent figure with a member of the Ukushisa Pride, you may remove a Blaze counter from this card. If you do, all excess shields count as unblockable hits on the attacking figure.

I'd rather dump the markers and just give them counterstrike. This is just a more limited version, and since it's a unique squad they probably don't need the limitation.

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

Flame Barrier
When rolling defense dice with a member of the Ukushisa Pride that does not occupy a water space, you may roll one additional die for each blaze counter on this card.

That's pretty interesting. As I noted, I don't like adding another power to make the markers useful, but this makes for more interesting decisions about whether or not to use them up.

[The Long eared bat]

I have come up with two alternative powers what do you think?

PRIDE HUNT
Start the game with 3 Hunt markers on this army card. Before moving, you may choose a unique hero figure within 7 clear sight spaces for each member of the Ukushisa Pride. Place a Hunt marker on that figure's card. The Ukushisa may roll one additional attack die for each Hunt marker on a figure's army card.

BLAZE
Before moving, choose one opponent's fgure. The Ukushisa Pride may roll two additional attack dice when attacking the chosen figure.