Felguard Legionnaire
Faction: Monster
Race: Demon
Exclusive Preview by Matt Hyra
Today, we preview our first Monster. Indeed, some people are breathing a sigh of relief—the people who thought maybe there were no Monsters in Spoils of War. Fear not! Ok, actually, a little bit of fear is reasonable—this guy is scary.
Let’s look at the Felguard from top to bottom. A 7 honor Demon with 3 armor, 2 resist, and 8 health . . . hey, we’ve seen that before on Bleakheart Hellcaller, a fan favorite. Still running similarly, they both have a 3 tick, 5 die attack. The Hellcaller wins out in the comparison, as his attack has greater range. So what the devil does this guy do for Demon armies?
Demons in Spoils of War don’t mind being attacked. They tend to get more powerful the more damage they take. Some Demons go so far as to damage themselves and their allies just to gain power. Some Demon action bar cards hurt as much as they help, which I think means that they get double the effect out of their cards. Can someone check my math?
Demonic Frenzy is one example of how Demons get better with (dam)age. With 8 health to work with, a simple flesh wound will translate into a great chance to hit with every attack die. Better still, your chances to get a crit skyrocket. When the Felguard is missing a few major organs, it can just go ahead and re-roll all 5 attack dice in search of a crit. Sure, your opponent will be loathe to bunch up for the Cleaver’s follow-up attack, but sometimes it’s just unavoidable. And when the Felguard does swing twice, don’t forget to re-roll a few of those attack dice as well.
Speaking of unavoidable, if you decide against the self-induced method of turning on the frenzy ability, there is always taunt. Make your opponent do all the work! Granted, with good stats like it has, there is no guarantee that your opponent’s attacks will actually do any damage, so be prepared to be disappointed on occasion. No pain, no gain.
Some of you savvy players will not miss the fact that demonology warlocks just happen to have felguards in their stable of summonable pets in the World of Warcraft MMO. Well, here you go . . .
Jhuroon has a lot in common with his free-range brother the Legionnaire. Jhuroon is pretty close to another full character. Its armor and resist are better than half the characters in the game. Its attack is good for a pet, and doubly great against opponents who bunch up (*cough* Thangal). For the modest investment of 2 ticks, this pet will wreak havoc on the opposition, who would be wise to not allow it to live long. With its stats, it will likely take more ticks to get rid of than it took to summon. Comparing it to the pets from the Core Set, Jhuroon costs 1 less tick than Fury and has a similar attack; costs the same as Bloodclaw, but has much better stats; and costs far less than Hukkrit for slightly better stats and a better attack. And one attack rarely takes out Jhuroon like it does the frail Santuria, who’s also at 2 ticks.
So far, the only Demonology Warlock in the minis game is Radak Doombringer, but Spoils of War will introduce a couple of new ones. The next time a Demo Lock shows up on the other side of the table, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s coming.