There must be a drawback we are missing. We have to trust it is balanced, of course they must have play-tested this thoroughly.
@ Laddinfance. I did couch my concerns with a get-out clause. Great points though and you certainly put me in my place!
Let's focus on Zombie traits then.
LumberingI did realise walls cause Lumbering trouble, manned Archer Tower behind of course. Luckily this is a mainstream build. I suspect this will become even more popular after the DvN release. It's really nice how currently under-used walls will have gained more tactical relevance.
The fact that Zombie Minions were Pests was the main reason why I could see how to deal with them. Anybody can always get away (until surrounded, like in zombie movies). Although a zombie foxhunt would be amusing. Where are the zombie hounds...?
Force Wave is really strong (and points cheap) against Lumbering zombies (also to move ranged units into position). You trade quick for full action with a Force Push or Jet Stream (maybe free with a Tower), much like against Slow threat. But it's like the Boxer vs. the Wrestler. At first, the Boxer will get some good hits in with his reach. But once the Resilient Wrestler makes contact, the Boxer is in big trouble.
Lumbering is bad if you're also a Pest (like Minion) but Brute is not one. It's a handicap against ranged or walls. It's also bad against vine range, allowing blindsiding attacks far from you. It ain't that bad in other cases which sadly is the majority of situations in a normal game.
BloodthirstyWow. I'd never thought of the interaction of Quicksand with Bloodthirsty. I'd always looked at Quicksand as just this highly variable length (like burn) restraint + distraction action with a 24% kill chance after 4 escape attempts. I have considered it with Sleep but paying 4x level and 2 fast actions for a 4-round delay where the victim may be woken and escape seemed a bit too combo-tastic, not particularly mana efficient. However, unlike Pop-Up Sniper, running Quicksand is a luxury for anyone outside of Earth Wizard or Warlord. I've run Quicksand with a regenerating Thorg's Taunt before to great benefit. Doh! I should've extended its use to other compulsion effects. Nice!
Bloodthirsty is a lovely double-edged sword (or drawback if +0). I already mentioned this prevents guarding while there is wounded living around. In practice, you would use support (like Pestilence) to trigger it and can sequence attacks to mitigate its drawback in most cases. You leave a wounded sacrifice but it's at low life so my Minion just takes it out (and maybe converts it) then my Brute is free to follow you (having hindered opposing mage leaving its zone).
My main issue with Bloodthirsty is it is not forced to go after the least life. Most games aren't a theoretical masterpieces of elegant tactical manoeuvring. They soon devolve into a grand melee free-for-all. The opposing mage is often wounded and mobility hobbled in some way (Enfeebled?). Bloodthirsty really has no drawback in this situation, only its extra dice benefit. As mages often have the most life remaining, if Bloodthirsty forced you to choose the target with least life (choose if equal), it would be far more debilitating than it is.
ResilientYou mention Force Crush as a direct damage solution. A kill using this requires far more than the 11 mana it costs to summon a Brute at equal 3 spell points spend (double if not Forcemaster). Whilst Steel Wall and Quicksand with wounded target are nice Earth plays, I really can't see Force Crush as an elegant mana-efficient and spell points-efficient solution.
Water's acidic Corrode is obviously direct damage of choice (damage now not later). Books need Corrode in case of zombie match-ups? Air pushes and Fire burns. So Earth is thankfully weakest here. Yes, I can see that zombies will encourage more elemental attack spells. That's a really clever meta-changer actually. Because the game temporarily lost something thematically "special" with the current lack of zonal attacks and distance nuking (except as a finisher).
Incorporeal is 1/3 damage per die, armour irrelevant
Resilient is 1/2 damage per die, armour irrelevant
Normal is 1/2 damage per die, armour irrelevant + 1/2 damage per die, armour relevant but mitigated by piercing
I like how Resilient says "your piercing does nothing to me, acid however is not so good". It oozes with zombie flavour. It just that without anti-Resilient tools as stated in News, it just seems too good. There is Falcon Precision, Divine Might, Piercing Strike etc. But there is no silver bullet for Resilient so leaving the zombie's life so high seems dangerously optimal...
NonlivingSo they cannot be healed or buffed by most enchantments. Poison Immunity is great and can be leveraged with Pestilence (synergy with Bloodthirsty, Necromancer). In addition Deathlock can nerf the Living to share Nonliving's Finite Life. There are also a lot of effects you are immune to (Bleed, Wounded Prey, curses etc). In a well built deck, Nonliving (with its accompanying Psychic Immunity in most cases) can be a boon. Ask Earth Wizard with 4 Iron Golems, Pestilence, Deathlock etc.
Yes, Holy's Light is good against Nonliving. And there is Etherian Lifetree now to make it more of a drawback. But Nonliving is simply an alternate lifestyle choice. You still have those same 120 spell points, you just spend them differently around your Nonliving creature base.
SummaryBoth Steel Wall and Quicksand are indeed great answers for zombies but too niche outside of Earth Wizard or Warlord. Force Crush seems so mana-inefficient (and simply Dispelled) to slowly remove a Brute that cost just 11 mana. Force Wave however is very cheap.
As I said before, of course you guys have playtested this. But what this says is that every book needs to have anti-zombie tech (or just hope you don't match-up). This further erodes your spell point pool, preventing you from imposing your own game plan consistently.
Because Nonliving is so different to Living in how to deal with it, some builds are pretty much stiffed (Jokhtari's Dire Wolves Bloodthirsty Bleed Wounded Prey with Pestilence Deathlock, Forcemaster's Psychic Controller etc). The reason Earth Wizard is so strong is because it plays very different to all other builds. Necromancer has the same benefits here, but with better support and synergies.
What the Necromancer Zombie build may do to the meta is stifle proactive strategies by spending points on reactive what-if solutions.
The cards previewed are mostly really exciting though, completely game changing. Just worried about Brute unbalancing a game I love.
