A First Look at Nilfy

I've recently acquired the ice cold dragon, Chew-Toy...er...Nilfheim. Now that I've played a purely BS game with him, and have chatted with him I will give my first thoughts.

SCULPT
First thing first, I'm going to point out that many people seem to be under the belief that Nilfy's sculpt is fairly obstrusive. Although I'm not certain of this, but I don't think that the dog who previously owned the figure did much to help Nilfy's issues. Of course, this huge size can be quite terrifying in combat. At least the chew toy is on a double hexed base, and not a triple hexed base. His wings really make it seems as though Nilfheim could have been on a triangle.

MOBILITY
Aside from his hugeness, Nilfheim is fairly mobile. I'm not sure if the dog's owner spilled Red Bull on Nilfy or what, but Nilfy's wings can somehow carry him 6 spaces. I say the somehow because his wings are tattered and partially shredded...by dog teeth.

ENDURANCE
Nilfheim's tooth-torn body can get 4 dice against attacks made by everything except dogs. Versus those, he stands no chance. 6 HPs means that he's capable of dying before the enemy. Greenscales can alleviate this though, except against disengaging units.

ATTACK POWER
Despite a few missing and clipped claws and horns, Nilfheim will get to bum-rush his foes with 6 attack dice. If he's behind a wall of meat (aka the Greenscale Warriors), he can try using an ice breath on 3 targets. I wonder if he tried this against the dog. That might have been the only reason he's still alive...

'Scape On.

Why Drafting is "Da Bomb"

In other strategy games I've played, a strategy that hinges on masses of a single type of unit generally don't work too well. I even experimented with with in Ages of Empires: Age of Kings (or something along those lines). I tried taking tons of cavalry units and a few archers. My enemy (the nefarious computer!) countered me with pikemen (who get several boosts against horseback units). Simply said, I was fighting a losing battle. Then, I brought up some siege units to lay waste to the pikemen. After much fighting, I eventually won.

There is one key difference between HeroScape and that game. Army crafting. In HeroScape, you usually have to pick your army somewhat blindly, as you don't know what your opponent is playing. In that game, you can turn the "Fog of War" off so that you see what your opponent is using and you can try to counter. HeroScape has a similar function, though many people (and the metagame tournaments) don't use it. It is drafting. Not only is it in the rulebook, it's also said to be the fairest way of making an army.

So then, here's a theory. Maybe drafting isn't common in metagame play because it's unwieldy and time consuming (assuming both players don't know all of the cards by heart). Plus, there are over 200 units to sift through as is, only adding to the problem. So, why not take a predetermined pool of units, say only characters from a Master Set are viable, and go with that? Even just taking a single Master Set and a single Wave and making a draft pool from that can lead to interesting armies.

The designers made HeroScape units to be fun, so I imagine they may have tested units by drafting. How else will units like Repulsors be of value? [/sarcasm]

Scape On.

Slayer Vs Left

Today I got to play HeroScape with a person who isn't under the age of 13. A big shock there. And, no, it wasn't me. I played against a certain LeftOn4Ya not once, but 3 times. That's more HeroScape than I get in most months! But, why am I wasting time introducing this blog? On with the show!

As the time to meet came closer and closer, I had more and more of the preparations complete, only to be be replaced by excitement. I built a mountain range-esque map, with a little dungeon and shadows mixed in to add color and help Drow and melee. Snow capped off some of the best positions, noting that snow spaces count for 2 movement points.

Once he arrived, we unloaded his car of a giant blue storage bin. I'm not kidding when I say it's gotta be 4-5 feet long. How he got the thing into his car is shocking! It was also heavy, and the real snow was slowing us down. We got the mammoth into the dining room, where he took a quick look at the map. The map didn't seem to impress, but it would get the job done. We chatted for a bit, he showed me why he needed a monster sized storage bin (this guy has tons of figures!), and then we began the main part of the day.

Game 1:
Flameslayer (me):
Sgt. Drake (Swarm of the Marro Version)
Capt. John Varan (C3V)
Raelin (Rise of the Valkyrie Version)
Tactical Combat Unit x3

LeftOn4Ya:
Zaeus (C3V)
Otonashi
Black Wyrmlings x2
Nakita Agents
Gorillanators x3 (CUC Version)

(We didn't go for a General Wars match, but that's how it turned out)

The game opened with LeftOn4Ya advancing his Monkeys and Agents. Having never seen Gorillanators, I was in awe of their 7 movement. These apes were fast on their feet! My first turn involved us learning of an error in the map. Raelin grabbed a glyph first turn. Simply put, oops. Anyways, using the glyph of Erland, I pulled Zaeus into adjacency with Raelin. Though the kyrie did no damage, Drake came up and in a few turns, put Zaeus to shame, having not only dealt no damage, but even losing the first Order Marker in a round. Raelin was gunned down quickly, but she served her purpose well enough. Drake and the toy soldiers slowly cleared out the Nakitas, then proceeded to work their way into the Gorillas. Lefty had to change his strategy from "take Drake down" (because Drake is impervious to ranged normal attacks and engaging him seemed to lead to death) to "Take out the Dollar Store figures". Once he took this route, he slowly cut a bloody swath into my TCUs. Once he was down to his ninja, the game was over.

Slayer: 1 Left: 0

Game 2:
Flameslayer:
Zombie Hulk x2 (SoV)
Zombies of Morindan x8

LeftOn4Ya:
Trogladyte Bonecrusher (Left's Custom)
Wyvern
White Wyrmling
Trogladyte Brutes x4 (Left's Custom)

To make up for the lack of starting hexes for my massive Zombie Army, I threw a 7 hexer behind my Start Zone and called it good. I tried to chage my Zombies, but the map and the overpowered Trog+White Wyrmling combo slowed me down. This being the first time I played the Zombie Hulks, I was also playing like a rookie. We cut the game off at the halfway point, as his Trogs were just too much. Both of my Hulks were killed and I was down to about 4 squads of Zombies while I had killed 1 Trog. We theorized a few ways to make the Trogs much more balanced, including dropping them back to 3 men. Rather than waste the rest of the time we had talking about a single custom, we called it a draw.

Slayer: 1.5 Left: 0.5

Game 3:
Flameslayer:
Ornak
Estivara
Fen Hydra

LeftOn4Ya:
Siege
Havechmech Incinerators (C3V)

(Ok, so I'm not sure about the name of the C3V thing, oh well)

We figured a no glyph, 300 point, speed round would serve our best interests for our last round. I moved out the Hydra early on and the robots killed it just as effectively as Hercules himself! Down to Ornak and Estivara, I didn't give up, but I knew I'd be at a disadvantage. Estivar couldn't pierce Siege's defense, and rather than blocking, she rolled nothing but blanks on defense. Ornak basically became suicidal and got burned and shot to death. And here I though those robots were weak...

Slayer: 1.5 Left: 1.5


Once we completed our games and he got his figures put away, Lefty became a plasticrack dealer. I purchased a NIB Orm's Return, a Marvel Set (yup, I took the plunge), a Nilfy who got used as a Chew toy, a "squad" of knights with the only desirable one being a modified one with a staff, 6 Ashigaru Gun-users and 2 Ashigaru Broken-Spear-users, Finn with a hammer, 2 of the Roman Archers (the third must not have died) Taelord, Kelda, Tornak, and a Marcus whose arm looks shockingly like an Izumi's. Overall, from a lot of used figs, it seems like super glue surgery only needs to be applied to 2 figures. The Broken Spear wielders will be accompanied by 2 of the Gun-wielders.

The review of the day in a word: Fun

'Scape On.

Expendable Warriors

Marro Warriors are often written as MWs...

The Marro Warriors originally come out in the original master set, Rise of the Valkyrie. Even back then, this unique squad had many uses! A cheap unique squad that has the ability to revive themselves, and the chances only get better in water, can find its way into 2 common army roles. Shock-troops, otherwise known as units who greet your enemies first and are going to die rather quickly, or Janitors, otherwise known as units who finish the game for you, wiping out the remnants of the enemy force.










Similar to "strategy blogs" written by me in the past, it would be wise to remember many of the ideas listed here are situational and likely irrational.

Unique Marro Screen
If you have at least 1 destroyed Marro Warrior, and you need to keep your enemies from advancing but your Marro Warriors can't handle that task, have a Marro engage a figure and try to clone. With 2 figures engaged to a targetted unit, that figure is effectively locked down, at least for a little while. Even if you don't get the Clone roll, you should still at least 1 more Marro to try cloning from. This can work to OK effect versus Roman Leginnaires, or any other Horde army. Of course, units who can get 6 figures moving at once (I'm looking at you Zmobies of Morindan) won't be bothered by this tactic.

(Potentially) Endless Marro Cannon!
For this trick, you should advance your Marro Warriors within movement range of melee units and into shooting range of heroes or ranged squad figures. Clone or attack according to your opponents response to this maneuver. Meshing the Unique Marro Screen with this power could be nasty.

Rush and Retreat
This tactic begins by using 3 of your Marro Warriors as shocktroops. Do anything you can to get damage done; take height, glyphs, etc. Leave your 4th Marro Warrior near-ish to your main force and once the 3 shocktrooping Marro Warriors have gone down, hopefully your other units will have begun mobilizing. Anytime you have the free turn, have your lone Marro clone itself. By the time endgame hits, all of your Marro Warriors should have returned to life. This takes the Shocktrooper or Janitor gameplay to a new level. Now, you can have your cake and eat it.

Marveling at Marvel

Recently, I've been in a dilema. As I've stated earlier, I was never much of a comic book guy (video games stole my heart at an early age). But, as it appears that HeroScape stuff is running quite low, I must begin to ponder whether or not the Marvel Master Set (Marvel: The Conflict Begins), would be worth acquiring.

On the plus side, there are 2 Super Heroes who I like. The Incredible Hulk, and The Amazing Spiderman.

But between these two heroes lies some other heroes and villians...







Captian America, for example, isn't a bad bonus, but I don't like him that much. And, who the heck is Thanos? I'm not comic book guy, so I don't know these things...

How about looking at the terrain? I like the snow in HeroScape, but it the lighter asphalt light enough to be considered snow? Or is it gray enough to be road? The black asphalt won't be used much though, I find it ugly...

The broken down building also won't find much play here...

The other stuff (dice, Order Markers, etc.) aren't too big of a concern. I'm not worried about that stuff.

So, I merely have to wonder: Is buying the Marvel Master Set even worth it for 2 heroes, and 2 more I might like and then some possible snow or road? This isn't very easy, I'm afraid.

'Scape On.

HeroSkyping

After Therion and I have played a few times using the interesting HeroSkype system via facebook, I have a few comments about the...experience.


Our first game was slow, but steady. Getting over the learning curve of just using the grid and trying to relay the movements was a daunting task. We worked it all out...after 3 hours. That's about 3 times as long as normal game of 'Scape would've taken.

The second was a bit smoother (Therion came up with the idea of taping off the board so that he wouldn't need a grid). It was a slaughter, making game time only about 1.5 hours, but all of our chatting made the game last...a long time.

Our third, and at the time of this writing, final game took a little over 3 hours, despite using 350 point armies. Although the game itself didn't take too long, Therion had the board built wrong. And then upon fixing it, he made it wrong...again.


With the extra time allotted for having to relay and ensure the grid and board are correct upon each move, I think this system is a good and relatively quick way of playing Scape over the web.