The Book of Tul-Bak-Ra

[Onion Knight]

Being an advocate of Aggressive Play, I was pretty excited last night when Gulp and I were play-testing armies for GenCon and I witnessed the power of TBR.

When I first read about his teleport ability I felt it was interesting and fun, but being the competitive player that I am, I didn't see much use in a 130 point, one attack hero for many tournament armies. Little did I know!

TBR is fast and can be behind enemy lines in no time. Usually you wouldn't want a single attack, moderately expensive hero surrounded by enemies with no help in sight. But remember that in tournaments, you're going to have to face Raelin, Q9, Nilfheim, KMA, and/or Kaemon Awa.

Teleport TBN into your opponent's start zone and start smacking Raelin around! Now you've just thrown a tire iron into your opponent's game plan and hopefully put a little hurtin' on a few of his Heroes.

Your opponent attacks TBN and you get to bring in reinforcements. Dividers? Drones? Drudge? No way! You bring in the (A+) Stingers and now your opponent has a shirt full of marro before he's even gotten his order markers set for round two. You can even teleport around and bop some the other heroes in the nose, all the while, bringing in more stingers.

For 130 points this guy may be a steal. He's a perfect compliment to my favorite squad in the game.

[Obsidian]

Originally Posted by Onion Knight

Being an advocate of Aggressive Play, I was pretty excited last night when Gulp and I were play-testing armies for GenCon and I witnessed the power of TBR.

When I first read about his teleport ability I felt it was interesting and fun, but being the competitive player that I am, I didn't see much use in a 130 point, one attack hero for many tournament armies. Little did I know!

TBR is fast and can be behind enemy lines in no time. Usually you wouldn't want a single attack, moderately expensive hero surrounded by enemies with no help in sight. But remember that in tournaments, you're going to have to face Raelin, Q9, Nilfheim, KMA, and/or Kaemon Awa.

Teleport TBN into your opponent's start zone and start smacking Raelin around! Now you've just thrown a tire iron into your opponent's game plan and hopefully put a little hurtin' on a few of his Heroes.

Your opponent attacks TBN and you get to bring in reinforcements. Dividers? Drones? Drudge? No way! You bring in the (A+) Stingers and now your opponent has a shirt full of marro before he's even gotten his order markers set for round two. You can even teleport around and bop some the other heroes in the nose, all the while, bringing in more stingers.

For 130 points this guy may be a steal. He's a perfect compliment to my favorite squad in the game.

He is the one of the best examples of a figure that doesn't kill his point worth but can still be worth his points.
I would teleport dividers over stingers for this reason: You won't actually be attacking with the dividers, as much as you are positioning your long range units with turn markers while your opponent tries to break free from TBR. You use the dividers to maintain engagement with Nilf, Q9, Raelin, etc while your shooters move into position on height. The map has to be right for this strategy, but what strategy doesn't rely on terrain? If you can get in position and fire on your opponent's army while he is engaged with your teleported squads, they have no way to retaliate. Sure, you will loose TBR and a couple squads of dividers by the end, but hopefully you put some wounds on key figures and now have your main force in position while your opponent is still in the start zone.

Theoryscaping a lot here but an idea to consider.

[spiteofthedice]

Originally Posted by Onion Knight

Your opponent attacks TBN and you get to bring in reinforcements. Dividers? Drones? Drudge? No way! You bring in the (A+) Stingers

While I have lots of love for the Stingers, and usually include them with TBR, don't underestimate the Dividers. I just played them again today and its the 3rd or 4th time they've dominated for me. Particularly if you are Teleporting them behind enemy lines and into heavy melee. The ability to save 2 lives with a single roll of the d20 is HUGE. If you haven't experienced this, you really should try them again. They great on their own, but Teleported by TBR, they are molten evil.

~Spite

[kenjib]

Originally Posted by Obsidian

Sure, you will loose TBR and a couple squads of dividers by the end, but hopefully you put some wounds on key figures and now have your main force in position while your opponent is still in the start zone.

The problem is that in a typical game, TBR and 2 squads of dividers are almost half of your points, so you don't really have a main force left...you just have the other half of your army.

[Obsidian]

Originally Posted by kenjib

The problem is that in a typical game, TBR and 2 squads of dividers are almost half of your points, so you don't really have a main force left...you just have the other half of your army.

True. It all depends on how much TBR's unit and your ranged figures take out before TBR dies. If you take out key figures or about half of your opponent then you end up on top since you have the terrain advantage.

[Warlord Alpha]

Originally Posted by kenjib

The problem is that in a typical game, TBR and 2 squads of dividers are almost half of your points, so you don't really have a main force left...you just have the other half of your army.

So? All you need is stingers anyway. Well, Su-Bak-Na would be nice too, I guess at 600 points then maybe. But at 500, stingers + dividers + TBR seems pretty respectable.

In your example, TBR + 2x dividers = 230. That leaves 270 points. That isn't nothing. Of course, most people say you need dividers in large amounts for them to really bring the hurt, so 3x or 4x leaves you with 220 or 170. TBR + 3x dividers + 3x stingers = 460, I don't know what you could throw in for 40 points but I bet there is something.

[kenjib]

Originally Posted by Warlord Alpha

So? All you need is stingers anyway. Well, Su-Bak-Na would be nice too, I guess at 600 points then maybe. But at 500, stingers + dividers + TBR seems pretty respectable.

In your example, TBR + 2x dividers = 230. That leaves 270 points. That isn't nothing. Of course, most people say you need dividers in large amounts for them to really bring the hurt, so 3x or 4x leaves you with 220 or 170. TBR + 3x dividers + 3x stingers = 460, I don't know what you could throw in for 40 points but I bet there is something.

...but that's 220-270 points worth of stingers or whatever while your opponent has 500 points worth of figures with a few significant wounds on them. I'm not sure whether advantageous board position can make up for that deficit.

[Astronaut Jones]

I have a ruling question on Tul-Bak-Ra. I'm new here so if proper etiquette would be to place this in the ruling section of the forum, my apologies...

Ok so tonight I shotgun blasted 3 marro warriors and Tul-Bak-Ra with the old James Murphy. A Marro warrior was in the center surrounded by the other 2 and Tul-Bak-Ra. Tul-Bak-Ra took two damage and my friend controlling them wanted to know if it was possible to teleport the two collateral warriors out of harms way. We ruled that he couldn't on the grounds that my other friend said that the attacker chooses the order of who, after the target, rolls their defense. I didn't know about that rule and was just curious if anybody else had any input. Thanks

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Astronaut Jones

I have a ruling question on Tul-Bak-Ra. I'm new here so if proper etiquette would be to place this in the ruling section of the forum, my apologies...

Ok so tonight I shotgun blasted 3 marro warriors and Tul-Bak-Ra with the old James Murphy. A Marro warrior was in the center surrounded by the other 2 and Tul-Bak-Ra. Tul-Bak-Ra took two damage and my friend controlling them wanted to know if it was possible to teleport the two collateral warriors out of harms way. We ruled that he couldn't on the grounds that my other friend said that the attacker chooses the order of who, after the target, rolls their defense. I didn't know about that rule and was just curious if anybody else had any input. Thanks

This is a good question, and is also posted in the correct place, by the way.

Let me make sure I have the scenario: A Marro Warrior is the target, and TBR and 2 other Warriors are adjacent to it, and therefore affected.

I would rule the same way you did - however, if the attacker chose for the Shotgun Blast to affect TBR before the collateral Warriors, it would be a legal move. But, if the attacker chose for the Shotgun Blast to affect the Marro Warriors first (as he probably should), then it doesn't work.

[spiteofthedice]

Killer has the correct answer, I believe. Good question.

Originally Posted by killercactus

if the attacker chose for the Shotgun Blast to affect the Marro Warriors first (as he probably should)

I just wanted to comment on the bolded part and say that there is an argument for attacking TBR first, and it is precisely the situation Jones is describing: If you attack TBR first and score two hits, your opponent moves the Dividers and you won't hit them this turn, however, he'll still only have two Dividers standing there. If you attack the Dividers first, by the time you score 2 hits on TBR, he can teleport in 2 more Dividers, since your attacks are all used up. Just something to think about.

~Spite, who rocks the Divider army

[Aldin]

I'm not so sure on this one. It was recently ruled that even if a Repulsor shuts down DW9k's explosion attack the rest of the defense rolls need to be made. Given that, I'd think that anything which would have been hit with the blast still has to roll defense dice, even if they get warped away.

~Aldin, curious as to whether this really is the same concept

[Elginb]

Originally Posted by Astronaut Jones

I have a ruling question on Tul-Bak-Ra. I'm new here so if proper etiquette would be to place this in the ruling section of the forum, my apologies...

Ok so tonight I shotgun blasted 3 marro warriors and Tul-Bak-Ra with the old James Murphy. A Marro warrior was in the center surrounded by the other 2 and Tul-Bak-Ra. Tul-Bak-Ra took two damage and my friend controlling them wanted to know if it was possible to teleport the two collateral warriors out of harms way. We ruled that he couldn't on the grounds that my other friend said that the attacker chooses the order of who, after the target, rolls their defense. I didn't know about that rule and was just curious if anybody else had any input. Thanks

Now I would disagree with the other guys-- I think the results of the attack are simultaneous and it wouldn't matter who rolled defense dice first. Even though you're rolling defense dice seperately, that's just a mechanical issue. And though Tul-Bak-Ra's power says those teleported take no leaving engagement strikes, it doesn't say that they avoid the results of an attack altogether. Anyway, the main point is that at the time the attack dice is rolled, the figures were adjacent and therefore affected by the Shotgun Blast. That's my interpretation, anyway.