Fellow tactical minis gamers--Let it begin!!!
Sorry for the quickness and sloppiness of this post, I don't have time to edit or draft. It's comic con weekend! Special thanks to Justin for running the demo and answering a billion minute tactical hypotheticals.
Some of you already know me for my awkwardly outspokenness on the Mechwarrior forums. (If I don't like something, you will hear about it: I'm no kiss-a%s, folks). I won a national championship with that game, and 2nd and 3rd two years at worlds. I've already thrown down the gauntlet saying I'll win the world championships with this game. :> So, as I pepper words on tactics and strats and depth of this game, I don't think i'm just blowing smoke.
(Yes, Tehhunter, I'll tell you the juice about pets... later. :> )
I apologize if my memory is faulty... I'm sure i'll get a stat or six wrong-- I was trying to process the game; rules; map; terrain; vps; win, duh!; comic con noise; talk with the creator, Justin; calm my nerves; and memorize all twelve cards.
Also, I apologize if these are already listed. If so, correct any mistakes I made please. I'll try to demarcate my guesses with ?'s. Remember this is all on memory, I didn't write anything down.
Gorebelly-- 9 life; 3? Physical armor; 1 Resist armor; Attack = 3 ticks, 1 range, 6 dice, crit +1 damage
His nine health makes him a beast--but maybe only in demo. He's a bit 1 dimensional--but that one dimension is raw power. If the enemy is not packing magical attacks, gorebelly will make them pay in blood--if they are, gorebelly may not last long. This may have more to do with it being a demo game though. His two cards were:
Charge-- 0, 1tick? Add +1 move to this figure this turn. (maybe it has to have an enemy in range). When it makes an attack this turn, the target must add 1 tick to his clock.
I forget the second card. It wasn't used.
Interlude: Ok, I'm going to get into it here--before I talk about this card. If you are a tactical gamer, you can already see it from that card... The tactics are going to be awesome. We were playing 11pts vs 11pts... so we both needed 11vps to win. Killing is worth 4 pts; Vp space, next to or on it, at end of turn 5 or 10, is worth 1 pt/per character. There you have it--for this demo 2 kills and 3 vps collected wins the game. You NEED those vp squares--3 of them total from turns 5 and 10. You have to mix it up quickly. (action bar cards had no vp value, not sure if they will later, but I didn't notice a stat for it--their resource was tick dependent).
Back to charge: So, with charge, gorebelly can die and respawn (two ticks) and then charge right to the vp. So don't be standing on it when gorebelly respawns. No joke. He likes swining that axe.
Charge adds a tick to the defender also. Sounds like 'Meh,' but considering the game is ALL about time/tick/timing management, adding a click to something is huge. More than huge. Off the top of my head: First, it can break combos, forcing an enemy to use one character before the other. Second, it means that it is quite possible to get a 2nd attack in before the defender is able to be used, all because of that extra tick. If this is tactically too fast, just ask. Third, if they are waiting on a turn 10 use of their action card, (so they can use it again right away) Charge pushes their clock to 1... sucks hard for them.
All that and +1 move. Huge! I like charge.
Oh, I remember the second card: Execute. 1tick? range 1. if target has 2 health or less, it is destroyed.
I don't remember the 'tags' for ability cards, but they function something like this: React, modify, action. These are my terms. Action takes the place of your regular action. Modify modifies an action. React, is, um, well, reacting to an action against you. :-)
Charge was a modify, as it modifies your action. Your action was to swing your axe of pain. Execute is an action. If you use it, you don't get to swing said axe of super-pain. The benefit was that execute costs 1 tick... swinging axe of 'tylenols-not-going-to-help-you' pain costs three. The longer the game went, the more I fretted over that axe.
Lotherin: 6 health; 1 p.armor; 2 r.amor; attack 2 ticks, 2 range, 4 dice Crit = holy nova. +1 damage to all enemy figures adjacent to Loth, +1 heal to all friendly figures adjacent to Loth.
Nice crit, but very unreliable--esp with only 4 attack dice. I can't remember what the special 'box' ability was--I want to say it was heal. (because Loth healed during the game) but that might have been from an action card.
Loth's stats left something to be lacking, imo. For a 2v2 game, having a 'support' character seemed a little unbalanced. Esp. as I cornered and killed my opponent's gorebelly so quickly. Loth might have worked better if psychic scream was utilized.
Psychic Scream: (might have been called mind blast): 1 tick? range 2? 7 attack. All hits, after armor, equal no damage, but you can move their figure that many spaces away from Loth. Huge! When I asked for some more on that, Justin made it appear that the controller of PScream got to move the figure away from Loth UP to the number of 'net' hits. (I stopped our game to ask, so it was quick).So, as I see it, that pretty much means half the board. One basically just can't move the enemy behind Loth. This took the place of his attack (an action)... I hope.
Heal: I think. I don't remember much, but I think it heals for 4 dice. It was used, and worked well for my opponent. I think low-tick cost healing will be very significant in this game in 3v3 and larger.
Now, my dudes!
We've all seen Vindicator Hodoon. http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wowminis/en/news/default.aspx?aid=4401
I believe his stats were unchanged. I talked to Justin about how balanced I thought this figure was in its niche. As a 'risky' wargamer, he's exactly what I didn't want to see in the set (tactically speaking). He's a defensive house, whose offensive abilities are chaotic (he has to crit to be worthwhile, imo. And with only 4 dice...hmm). I would never want to use him (I like offense) but I never want to fight him either--because he's defensivly super solid, no real weakness. If he had a weakness it is from heavy long range magic attacks, but then again, he can pack heal, which is more tick efficient than heavy long range magic attacks.
Two tactial examples: Gorebelly steps up and deals his full seven damage... Hodoon blocks 3 or 4 of it... takes 3 or 4. Now, gorebelly spent 3 ticks, hodoon can spend three to attack back... but if he does so, gorebelly will 'probably' get to go next. Hodoon can, instead, spend two ticks to heal... and still get to attack before gorebelly. (not that his regular attack hurts gorebelly, but hey). This is even more true about range attacks. Hodoon takes a ton, from a 3 tick heavy long range attack... then moves 2, heals (2 tick) and gets to move and attack again before the heavy long range magic guy goes again. (and if Hodoon crits...he just might one-shot the caster. You see my point: he's solid). You don't want to waste you attacks on him, but you can't leave him alone either.
So, adding in some heal and cards to make his damage better, and its a recipe for versatility.
Flash Heal: 2ticks? range? 4dice. Don't know if this was an action or a modify... but I think it was his action. I didn't use it. The power of it, however, seems to come from the fact that you took a tank that can heal. Armor and healing, and not having to take another healer seems strong. Especially if you are interested in keeping your damage output up. I imagine Hodoon will see action in 3v3 games and smaller: maybe not as much as the game scales up.
Hammer of Wrath: 2 ticks? 2 range? 5 magic dice. crit +1? Action. Yeah, this hurts gorebelly. Add in ruby's six attack fireball, and a free same turn fire blast and gorebelly is a pile of ashes. Loth is not a happy camper at that point. Hodoon just keeps looking better and better. He just has to stay away from P.Scream (and the like) and he's in business. His box ability is decent, too... especially in an all paladin army. :-) Ruby stood way back in my game, she wasn't going to rely on +1 p.armor to help her out.
Ruby: 5 health; 1 p.armor; 3 r.armor: Attack 3 ticks, 3 range, 6 dice. Crit = +1 damage.
Pretty straightforward. Move ruby, adjust los, pick up dice, burn enemy. But wait, there's more.
Fire blast: I honestly can't remember if this costs 0 ticks or 2. range 2? It modifies the action. 3 dice, crit +1. Rule to know (tm): You can move before or after you attack. With fire blast you can do even more. Example: You can regular attack, move and then fireblast something else (or same) all in one turn. (I think--I hit the same target). I felt this card was very strong. Basically it means that ruby can move and do 11 damage in one turn. Still, she better be able to, she has 5 life and no armor to speak of. And she has to play around terrain.
Ice barrior: This was the only react card we used. You play it when you are targeted by an attack. It cost ruby 1 tick, and prevented the next two damage she would take. Of course, since I had it, I would have used it (if ruby was attacked) but, in general I think the tick cost made it a problem. Ruby going off-line for another turn, especially in small games, is a problem. I can imagine there would be better action cards for her. This card seems more like a get-out-of-jail card, I made a huge mistake, kind of recovery action card. Not my normal cup of earl grey.
There you have it. I hope this is new info and not just writing in vain.
Oh, there will be talent specific cards.
There will be pets. (Tehhunter is still waiting, I know).
Maybe I should leave that for another post? Whadda think?
Pet death gives opponents zero vps. How nice is that?
Pets are action cards. So, they will replace one of your 'abilities.' Pets have a seperate clock. They are summoed with the same tick/clock number as the Hunter/warlock/etc. So, first turn: Hunter moves 2 and summons. If it costs 3 ticks, you'd move hunter to tick 4. Pet would be summoned with its clock at tick 4.
If they die they can be resummoned... after the card has become 'ready.' (after turn ten)
They are summoned adjacent to the master. (iirc)
If the character dies. The pet dies. (ouch)
I believe pets will be equally strong as characters--which is huge. This is a guess trying to figure out how sealed would work. You don't want pets to be worthless space in sealed... so i guess they also function as actual monsters--with full character stats. We know there is a voidwalker monster. Do we? And a voidwalker pet. Do we? I doubt there would be different 'character' cards--that could mess-up sealed. If the backs of ALL cards are the same. You could put the summon cost on the front... and turn the character card face down, using it as an action card. Make sense? Seems like it would save a bit on printing, and open more space in the set. But, that's all just a guess. And frankly, as I was writing it, I began to doubt it.
Thoughts? Questions? I can always go back and ask them directly.
-c