The Forcemaster's Forcefield

[Ganpot]

Shadow, are you able to give more detail on what the third card was yet?

I'm quite curious about that card as well (although I doubt Shadow will be allowed to spoil the card early).  I just went through all the cards added in Warlord vs Forcemaster to try to pinpoint the other 2 cards he was talking about.  I think one of them is Dancing Scimitar: it gives a free, relatively small attack every turn (perfect for depleting a forcefield).  It also isn't mage or school specific, and doesn't even take up an equipment slot. 

I still don't know what the second card could be.  At first I thought it might be Battle Fury, but that wouldn't really speed things up since you'd have to give up an action to play it. 

Double/Triple Strike and Battle Fury are... more complicated. In those cases, the second attack occurs within the first attack. The FAQ says that a token will be removed for each attack, so that's the black-letter rule, but I couldn't tell you why. Canceling the first attack should cancel all its steps, including step 5 (Doublestrike) and step 8 (Battle Fury). But the FAQ says to make those attacks anyway.

If I had to guess, that ruling is probably to keep the rules logically consistent without having to revise the attack sequence.  It makes sense (especially to newer players) that having a hydra hit a forcefield three times would deplete it, so the rules bend to accommodate it.  That is probably a good thing; I have seen a lot of reviewers compliment Mage Wars on its common-sense friendly set of rules.   

[ringkichard]

Oh, I definitely agree that the FAQ describes the desirable outcome. In the last couple of days it's become clear to me that  Doublestrike and Battle Fury need a new coat of rules paint, is all.

[Ganpot]

In the last couple of days it's become clear to me that  Doublestrike and Battle Fury need a new coat of rules paint, is all.

Yeah, there are several minor rules in the game that I wish were re-written/updated.  Overall though, I am still quite impressed by how straight-forward the rules turned out. 

[Shad0w]

I am not underselling its power. Once you get the card I wanted to be in the set. You will see how I was able to get past the Forcefield every round in a solo vs solo match with no problem. I will let you know two of the three cards needed are already out as of the FM vs Warlord set. I never even bothered to get rid of it since it was a non-issue when play testing. Also once we have the last card they will be in most of my build from now on.

Shadow, are you able to give more detail on what the third card was yet?

It is in the test files. Sorry that is all I can say.

[Shad0w]

In the last couple of days it's become clear to me that  Doublestrike and Battle Fury need a new coat of rules paint, is all.

Yeah, there are several minor rules in the game that I wish were re-written/updated.  Overall though, I am still quite impressed by how straight-forward the rules turned out.

We are currently reviewing a few things.

[ringkichard]

Thinking about it now (on my cellphone) the easiest thing to do to resolve this is to say that a canceled attack immediately enters step 8, so that canceling an attack doesn't let you skip the end step. Not *entirely* sure what other effects that would have, but it would clean this interaction up.

[Shad0w]

Thinking about it now (on my cellphone) the easiest thing to do to resolve this is to say that a canceled attack immediately enters step 8, so that canceling an attack doesn't let you skip the end step. Not *entirely* sure what other effects that would have, but it would clean this interaction up.

That is a topic for another thread

[Sailor Vulcan]

[quote="DarthDadaD20" post=9221]Nullify is certainly one of the most cost effective strategies, You could also us multistrike to get past force field, (the second or third attack at least) Battle fury to eat up charges, any direct damage would get past it. A cheep spell on a wand to eat up charges,(Im thinking invisible fist) As it was said a wall of thorns. There is alot you could do....that said force field is quite amazing!

Those are all viable strategies, although personally I wouldn't use Battle Fury. When I use BF I want to stick a large amount if damage in 1 round, not eat up FF tokens.

Although I think it's been mentioned previously the Wizards Arcane Zap is a cheap attack.

Attacks with push effects could remove 2 tokens if you are also able to Bash the FM into a wall with the passage blocked trait.

Edit: After thinking about it some more I don't know if the push effect would hit the FF like a double strike, or the FM like a damage barrier. Either way it's still a good tactic.

Bashed

When a creature is Pushed into a wall with the Passage Blocked trait it is Bashed. It receives an Unavoidable attack of 3 attack dice of damage. The walls around the outside of the arena have the Passage Blocked trait.



Forcefield tokens absorb unavoidable attacks. So bashing a forcemaster while she's enchanted with her Forcefield will remove a Forcefield token.

[Battlehamster]

As a forcemaster who utilizes forcefield, it really is not that difficult to get rid of. Saving a turn of mana to dispel it is usually the preferred method and there is not a dang thing I can do about it (save jinx you I suppose and hope to catch your dispel). Or if you have several creatures out you can deplete the forcefield through repeated attacks with your small creatures then follow up with your bigs/unavoidable attacks to get through defenses. There are so many unavoidable attacks these days that my defenses are working less and less. Honestly forcefield works fine as is, and really is the only thing that keeps the forcemaster alive any decent amount of time.