So I played against Freeborn’s Forcemaster with my Warlock yesterday. It was a highly interesting match, for various reasons.

I was playing my “Lordlock” again that tries to lead two or three of the following big-bads into battle: Dark Pact Slayer, Dark Pact Slayer, Goran, Malacoda, Magma Golem.

 First turn, I opened with a step toward him and two mana flowers. He played a forge and an enchant and decided to stay in his corner. My second turn saw me equipping a hawkeye and placing a forward forge into his center tile. I wanted to start hardcasting the next turn.
He got Moonglow out of the forge, that turn, then Summoned a brute and enchanted it.

Change of plans, then. No creatures. Dark Pact pierce is useless against Brutes, as is the bloodthirst from Goran and a Bloodreaper. I’m not dumb enough to summon a Magma Golem or Malacoda against a force master. I summoned my second forge and tried to gear up for a) cheap curses with moloch and b) more dice on my fire attacks and rerolls for range. I gave myself regrowth and kept chains of Agony for final QC because it’s a pretty neat curse against zombies. He got a force-snake out and revealed redistributed power on his brute.

Next turn, he deployed a dispel-wand and immediately got rid of the Chains of Agony. Wary of a forcepush into a melee-buffed brute, I changed my forge-plan into some defense. Little did the brute care, because it rolled a six-crit attack, ignoring whatever armor I build up. That’s when I started retreating. I put enfeeble onto his mage, without revealing it and I threw an Agony onto the brute to save one of my forges. He attacked, it survived. Then he dispelled the agony. When he was in the left center-tile, together with my first forge and I was in C3, right next to my spawn corner and below my second forge, he halted his charge and refused to walk into my waiting crumble for two turns. I really wanted to get rid of his Wand.

After I shot an 8-dice Fireball into his brute, dealing 4 normal and 2 crit damage and then rerolled that into 7 normal damage (At least I got two burns), he exclaimed “ah, now I see why they’re broken” and proceeded to summon another one. That one also got some power redistributed from a force-snake, as well as the mage.
When his mage and one of the brutes finally destroyed my first forge, I had two leathers, a shadow cloak, and a vet belt. I also had both Warlock rings, precision gloves and Moloch. I felt battle-ready. One of the brutes obliged and walked into my zone.
To hit me with a roll that dealt 11 damage.
I had a guard ready and a firestream, leaving that brute with 8 dmg and 2 burns. I then walked into the right center zone to be with my remaining forge, as well as the forcemaster and the second brute, dissolving the wand.

The burns killed that first brute, now I had to face the second one, as well as a melee+5 Galvitar-Equipped Forcemaster. I’d saved some mana, so I equipped a demonhide armor, played a debilitate onto the forcemaster and, after getting tanglevined in QC, blasted the zone with a ring of fire. Tangle took 6 dmg and two burns,
Forcemaster took 4 dmg and two burns, brute took some normal damage and no burns. At least I rerolled that into a bit of critting. The forcemaster then proceeded to enchant me, instead of hitting me with a debilitated doublestrike into 4 armor and a vet belt, then hit me with the brute, bringing me up to around 21 damage. The demonhide did some work and put 2 more damage onto the brute.

The next turn, I finally activated my regrowth and teleported into my spawn corner, two tiles away from the enfeebled mage and the lumbering brute, thus dropping the tanglevine and guaranteeing that no melee would hit me that turn.

I spent a bit of damage to kill the brute, he spent some mana to de-curse himself with dispels and to try pulling me towards the brute. During all this time, one of the burns from the ring of fire stayed on him. The brute died and we found ourselves back in the forge zone, my demonhide dispelled and my movement somewhat restricted by a force crush. Since I didn’t really fancy getting hit by 9+4 dice, I’d spent my dispels on his bear strength and his Distributed power, and also gave him an Agony. He poisoned my blood and ate a flameblast in return, bringing him to around 15 dmg and a second burn.

Seeing as his melee attacks were rather useless, he summoned a stalker. Stalker got one attack in, got a friendly enchant and brought me to a dangerous point, since poisoned blood and force crush were ticking just as the burns on the forcemaster were. I decided to throw my other two flameblasts into his face, then gave him a ghoul rot and lesser teleported out of the zone in final QC, his ini. At this point, he had Ghoul rot, Moloch damage and two burns to fear in his upkeep, with only a regrowth to help him survive. He was at 29 dmg

In the end, after all automated dmg was applied, he had one hp remaining. My plan had been to use another lesser teleport in order to get out of range (forcecrush preventing a pull) and then just betting my luck on a fireball against his dodge.
Screw the plan though, I killed him with Moloch instead.

Well played, freeborn. That was an enjoyable match.

Things of note:
If all of your creatures either get countered by forcemaster or feel rather useless against brutes, you’re gonna scratch your head a bit when a forcemaster starts summoning brutes against you.

I usually name it a weakness for brutes that it’s hard to buff them. Distributed power kinda circumvents that. Then again, one of the big strengths of a brute is that he doesn’t really need buffs anyway. So while the book idea is an interesting one, I’m not quite sold on it being a smart one yet.

Personally, I’d have tried to use force pulling a bit earlier. In Freeborn’s defense, I usually expected a pull and positioned in ways where one pull would not be enough to get me into real danger. When I finally gave him a chance to pull me, it would have put him out of his forge range to do it and cost him an action because he was already enfeebled.

While his defense protected him from me even attempting a fireball, it didn’t help against my flameblasts. I had three of those, with 2 additional dice, 1 pierce and a reroll. He really needed an answer to that, but once he forcecrushed me, there wasn’t really any mana for a forcefield.

Generally the most fun thing about the match was the way he forced me to completely abandon the plan I had for my book and go back my curselock-roots. I wouldn't confidently say that I can beat that Forcemaster with my other books.

So, that battle you heard about, the one that took place yesterday... Yes. That was me and LuckiestLuke, taking the arena by storm.

The book I chose was a Malakai Priest whose primary idea is to summon a Bridge Troll and use the Crown of Protection to turn that Bridge troll into a WAR TROLL.
As side-options he packs a whole bunch of Attackspells, a forge and some equip, as well as four temples (HoB, Malakai's, Meravan's and a Lasertower). His creatures are Samandriel, Metatron, Troll, Ehren, two Redhelms and three Initiates of the Dawnbreaker, just because I love those little guys. No Cassiel.

So Luke opened with a Flower and Mhegedden, into another Flower and Gerard Madranger.
I opened with Ehren and a Forge, into Troll, Crown and a stack of armor on the troll.

At that point, both of us got terrified of the other's lategame. I imagined him swimming in gold and mana by the time my army got anywhere near ready to deploy and from what I've gathered, he thought that by the time his buildup reached its break-even-point, my troll would reach the break?-never!-point.

Both of us quickly moved into our respective center tile, at which point he had added a Panzerguard to his Army and placed a forge, while I'd equipped a healing ring and a regrowth belt to myself, as well as a Life Link to Ehren (which synergizes nicely with the healing ring.)

He boldly placed a ballista, moving the Panzerguard in there to panzerguard it, thus forcing me to either endure his range attacks or move into the tile with him.
I chose the latter option, even though he outnumbered me 4 to 3, at that point. I somewhat regretted the decision after he revealed a banner of command on the damnable dwarf.

Alas, most of the match played in that zone. We were in range of both Forges, with his ballista unable to shoot anything but my forge. Participants in the battle at this time were Orc, Gerard, Panzerguard and Mhegedden on one side, against a 3-armor-Troll and a Lifelinked Ehren.

My first focus was to kill Gerard. I achieved that by having someone attack the Panzerguard to get rid of the guarding, then blasting the pirate luminously for 7 dice and a burn. Luke equipped a healing wand and tried to keep him alive, while also trying to kill one of my creatures. The troll was the first to get 5 damage due to some guarding, so he focused that one.
We agreed after the game that his focus on the troll with "free" regen, instead of Ehren, whose damage at least would get transferred to the mage, was one of the deciding factors of this match.

To make this long story a wee bit shorter:
I killed Gerard. Just before he died, Luke used his gold to get a Knight of Westlock out, much to my annoyance. I managed to get three burns onto Mhegedden, all of which stayed until his fiery demise. Mhegedden drew at least one heal action from the healing wand, as well as two lesser heals. All hail Malakai.
Luke equipped an elemental wand with a surging wave, because that's actually a very smart thing to do and he's a smart guy. He never did roll a push though, so that's kinda bad luck for him. He almost got the troll, because I felt save and didn't heal it or put a restore on. A swift Dazzle for a stagger and a horrible roll on his part with a thrown rock for 4 blanks saved the troll and sealed the deal.

His Mhegedden had burned, my troll had been healed to full. My Ehren was at 0 damage, his Panzerguard and the KoW about to die. At this point, he switched over to focusing my 14-ish damage mage who only had one armor (and aegis), while I still hadn't bothered attacking his mage.
Attacking mages isn't my style. I'm a conqueror, not an assassin. I also like control more than chance.

His efforts were commendable, but they just ran onto a wall of healing, undoing every bit of progress he made. That pretty much sums up the match and my book. With the troll on 3 reg and Ehren on up to 4 heal per turn, I undo my enemy's progress.

Having spent his attack spells and being informed that my heal spells were still in good supply, Luke surrendered the match. I was at 17 dmg and him at single-digit, but the game was clearly in my favor, seeing as both my creatures had endured through that whole match, while he stood alone, his army vanquished by the justice of Malakai's light.


Noteworthy:

That was my first match with this book. At multiple points during the game, I'd wanted to summon a Redhelm Avenger, but never quite got around to do it. It's an 11 mana investment costing me a full action (and probably my QC too, with those mana costs)

The match, for me, was basic as hell. I didn't do much more than spam attack spells, attacks/guards and heal a lot. Both books were, of course, geared around battle, so neither of us tried to evade it. I could have chosen to draw him out, spread his forces while I destroy his forge and flowers. His ballista, after all, wouldn't prove much of an annoyance against the massive sustain I had in my squad. We both somehow silently agreed to a brawl though.
I am somewhat surprised to see that I came out on top. He outnumbered me through most of the battle. As for the guarding-game, he had an interceptor as well as an elusive hard-hitting demon monster. All I had was two tanky bois and a mage that served as artillery-support.

Healing ring and life link is fun and with Ehren you never feel like you "waste" the healing spell on someone who never had much damage.

Burns can actually kill. Mhegedden took at least 12 damage from burns alone, forcing his mage to spend more and more actions/mana on healing.

This is where the matchup was glaringly in his favor. He had forge, two flowers, discount cape and a forge, while I had nothing but my forge (which, in turn, eats even more mana). One of the reasons why I'm willing to go for this build and also a main reason why it worked in this match is Dazzle. That little wonder of a spell. I got four of them in my book and I think I spent them all.

I actually never use Blind on time. I'm always like "well, I'll kill the creature anyway..."
I'll have to say though, it's a whole mixed bag that spell. You don't get to use it for the next attack of the creature, since it only activates after successfully dealt damage. Most of the time I'd preferred to try for a Stagger or a daze for immediate protection instead of using blind for a lasting impact.
The other issue is who to use it on. The panzerguard was sure to get its attacks out because I had to get around the guard and wasn't willing to use attackspells to do that. Mhegedden dealt the most damage but I was hellbent on killing him anyway. The mage also serves as a nice target, but he's worse than creatures because he can just go like "lol, ok, I use other spells then. You do you, buddy."
In the end, I only threatened to use it after I'd killed all his creatures, to deny him the mage kill. I actually just healed instead, because I wanted to use the healing ring more.
I really want to use that card, but I never quite think the situation warrants it...

Anywhoo.
GG. WP.
Enjoyable match, and bloody till the last minute.

So we played Johktari against Adramelech. I was like "so how fast of a rush are you going to pull on me?" and then just walked straight into him with a double flower opening. Not one of my smartest notions. My Johktari tries to go forge instead of Lair, saving mana for her strong creatures: Two direwolves, a Wolverine, Kralathor, Izimbila. The forge holds two bows, two spears, a wand of each kind and lots of cheap leather armor.

Anywhoo, this is how it went:

I opened with doublemove doubleflower, into forge direwolf T2. That leaves me at 0 mana, almost as if I'd calculated it all out :O
Aridigas opened with a doublemove and forge, then a flower and an enchant, as well as fire ring out of the forge.

For the next turn, I had gloves of precision on forge, which would leave me with 9 mana for either a force hammer onto mage or a Pillar of whythefuckdidtheyreleasethis.
His forge opened with a Lash and I immediately knew that Pillar would win me the game. I did not QC and as my first action my mage walked into his zone and slapped him for 3 dice, forcing him to stay in the zone to attack me or leave it to attack the wolf. He stayed and whipped me, then used another enchant for me. My wolf moved in and bloodthirstily took a bite out of him.
Then I deployed pillar. I feelt so cheap.

The rest of the match is rather easy to tell, we tried to armor up, counter each other's armor and beat each other down. In the end, we were both almost dead when I had Ini and just barely hit that force hammer for 2 normal, 4 crit and a slam. He was at 29 dmg before that. The slam would not have saved me, because he had prepared an Explode. Clever guy.


Noteworthy about this match:
Nothing much.
Pillar OP. That's basically it.
If he leaves my zone I equip a bow and spam attackspells while he has a useless Whip and gets chased by a Direwolf. He also risks getting pushed back all the time.
If he stays in the zone, he can hope to kill me faster, but takes damage from Pillar every turn. If he goes for the dark cloak, he can't get armor.

I did not enjoy that victory.

Big Edit: If you're making one of these, just add a mage and a mage stats card. If you save the book with an empty "mage" slot, it's gonna move the pot down, which causes all sorts of trouble.

Hi guys.

I just made a book and saved it. It's the book I'm gonna load from now on, to make new Mages. It has everything a mage might want and maybe some stuff that some won't want. Still gonna be less of a hassle to remove some of that stuff, instead of adding all of it.

Neat little number: If I use it as it is, so far, with a Forcemaster as an example mage, I'm at 85 SBP. A Warlord would be at a whopping 100.



Mage

Attack
2x Acid Ball

Conjuration
2x Mana Flower
1x Pillar of Righteous Flame
2x Tanglevine

Creature

Enchantment
1x Galvanize
1x Ballad of Courage
1x Chant of Rage
1x Bear Strength
1x Hawkeye
1x Nullify
1x Jinx
2x Poisoned Blood
1x Magebane
2x Regrowth
2x Brace Yourself
1x Rhino Hide

Equipment
1x Leather Chausses
1x Leather Boots
1x Leather Gloves
1x Mage Wand
1x Mage Staff

Incantation
3x Dissolve
2x Teleport
1x Purify
1x Force Push
3x Seeking Dispel
1x Remove Curse
3x Dispel



So I ain't really sure if there's a lot to discuss here, but if something strikes you as odd or something's in there that you'd do vastly different, hit me with it

Hi,

since my last post was rather successful, here's another one:

If I kill something with a Sectarus attack, do I have time to attach Rise Again with the blade's ability before the game actually checks whether or not the damage is sufficient to kill the creature?

I've seen a detailed illustration of the different steps in attack, but it did not show any "check whether unit is dead" step.

If that check is done at the first possible "everything else is resolved"-moment, I would like to think that it's possible.
That would also mean that Zone attacks don't kill creatures/structures one by one, but all at once after the full attack has been resolved.

If that check is immediately done whenever damage is applied to anything, it would make my zombie-raising Deathslayer fantasy impossible.
It would also make it really important to choose whether or not I want my chainlightling to kill the standard bearer first, so that subsequent targets don't have the armor bonus.


I'm rather convinced it's the second case
Please someone prove me wrong.