My First Game

[Sand Goblin]

Hey all!  Yesterday, I finished my first game.  It was pretty fun, and pretty ridiculous in a good way.  I thought I'd share my experiences with you guys.  I didn't keep a super organized log of the game, so unfortunately, I can't go by round.

First part of the game (In which lizards and demons clash) - So it was me as the Straywood Beastmaster, and my father as the Warlock.  I started out by quickly arming myself with a staff and ring of beasts, while he cam out with an imp and his Lash of Hellfire.  He started pressing forward next, so in response, I summoned myself a mana flower.  I just sat back.  He was breathing down my neck, with his imp in the same zone as my Mage, and his Mage 1 behind (Both spent their actions all on moving, so no attacks yet).  I now pulled out my combo: I jet streamed his Mage back with my quickcast, and then summoned a Tegu.  Yay!  His imp hit my Mage for 2 damage.  My father remained put, summoning a battleforge.  Next, I killed the imp in one shot from my Tegu (Not really, but he got a Rot in, which took the last wound.)  Using my mana, I gave my Tegu Bear Strength and Rhino hide. 

Second Quarter (In which a Dragon murders EVERYTHING) - My Father took one more cooling turn, doing nothing but summoning a Slayer.  I then gave myself Bearskin, and my Tegu got Cheetah Speed.  My father, at this point, started forward with his Blood Reaper Slayer, and his Mage who now had a Helm of Fear and a Fireshaper ring.  I gave my Tegu one last buff, Eagle Wings.  at this point, I now have a poisonous lizard with an Iron hide, incredible strength and speed, and wings.  So I essentially now have a Dragon.  My father pressed forward with all he had, including another Imp that he pulled out.  My Dragon murdered ALL OF IT!  My Mage didn't even participate In combat.  He just summoned a fox to take a little heat off of the Dragon, and Healed the crap out of Dragon.  I killed both of his demons, and he killed my fox.  I was decidedly winning.  Then, my father started playing to his strengths.  BOOM!  Chains of Agony and just plain ole Agony.  My mighty Dragon was now weak and Incapable of moving.  I purified away the Agony, since my Dragon Had plenty of protection.  Then my father and I dueled, and sadly he came out on top with his Mage, who slayed my Dragon (He now had a LOT of gear, and was chucking a lot of dice.  That sucked, but it was fine.  It DID kill two demons, and take a chunk out of the Warlock.  Now, however, he was pressing on my Mage with another Imp. 

Part 3 (The beasts are unleashed) - My Mage was down to half life, but I had been saving.  A Regeneration Belt found its way around my waist.  And a Steelclaw Grizzly came out.  The Bear started murdering his Mage, and my Mage made short work of the Imp.  I should also mention that while he inflicting Burn markers on my Mage, I was very lucky with my rolls, rolling many, many blanks.  He retreated again, but not without first offering a parting gift.  Using Chains of Agony, which he got from my Dragon thanks to Curseweaving, he kept my Mage put.  And now he had Moloch's torment out, which meant I was taking Damage every turn, half negating my Belt.  OK.  I could live with that.  A Timber Wolf came out to assist my bear, who just recently received Regrowth.  I took the battle to the center.

The final showdown. (The Beasts are TRULY unleashed here)  This part of the Game was big blur for me.  I do remember this.  Throughout many turns, and all in the center zones, a huge battle commenced.  On my side, The Grizzly, Wolf, Redclaw, a Gorilla, Two falcons, and a Second Wolf were all competitors.  On his side, Malacoda, Goran, a Vampiress, a Hellion, and his Mgae were all competitors.  He barely came out on top, which lost me the game.  You see, At one point, he poisoned the Blood of My Mage AND gave him Ghoul Rot AND blew  up my Staff.  I managed to get rid of Ghoul Rot, but my Mage had Finite life now.  From here, he hunted down my mage.  I'm proud to say that all of his big units (Malacoda, Vampiress, Goran) Were slaughtered by my creatures during the showdown, and his hellion and final bloodreaper were also slain by My final reserves of Foxes and Bobcats, and Cevere.  When he finally slayed my Mage, I had reduced his to half life, and I would of gotten further if Aldramelech didn't come out. 

What I learned - I learned two Big Things about my Beastmaster.  One, spawnpoints are awesome.  I was underwhelmed by Lair, but my Father turning his Mage into Voltron with his Battle Forge made me realize that Spawnpoints are useful.  Two, I need to swarm more.  I lost because While my Dragon was awesome, I need to have more creatures out to support him then a frickin fox.

Cheers!  Really enjoyed the game, can't wait to play again!       

[Zuberi]

Sounds like a great game. In addition to your swarming idea, you guys might both try summoning some bigger stuff at the beginning of the game. Remember, you start with 10 mana before the first channeling phase. This means in round one you should have 19 or 20 mana to work with which is plenty to get out a Vampiress or Grizzly Bear.

[silverclawgrizzly]

Welcome to the arena! The Straywood Beast Master is still my favorite mage. Sounds like a tough battle there, you gotta be careful with a Warlocks curses, keep that Mage Wand and Dispel ready!

[Sand Goblin]

Another immediate impression I had on the game, with Beastmaster,  was that you shouldn't summon big creatures right off of the bat.  Like, anything that has a cost of 15+.  That way, you can remain flexible.  You have a ton of buffs that can accomplish anything, so why summon a huge creature right off of the bat?  Say you summon Cevere at first chance.  Your opponent will quickly swarm him, on account of his defense, and the fact that he is ONE unit.  If I summon a Grizzly, my opponent will take it down with 2-3 mid level creatures.  I'm suddenly down. 

So now, I have a guess to what I should do.

So, what I do is summon a weak or middle strength creature, depending on the MU.  For tougher, more aggressive Mages like the Warlock or Warlord, it will be a stronger creature.  My opponent will counter with his own creature, and now, I can start prepping.  Did he summon a Big beast?  Time to give my creature Mongoose Agility, Rhino Hide, Bear Strength, and Bull Endurance, and suddenly, he's faced with a nasty powerhouse.  Or, if he summons a flyer, Eagle wings, and up to 2 more enchantments (depending on what the enemy creature's stats are) give me an edge.  If he summon a ranged unit, like Gorgons or Archers, I give my creature Cheetah Speed and Bear Strength.  Basically, summoning a weaker creature, and buffing it to beat my opponent's creatures, seems like a good move. 

Am I right, or I a bit messed up?   

[MrSaucy]

To answer your questions Sand Goblin, it really "depends." It depends a lot on who your opponent is, how your opponent is playing, what your spellbook is centered on, etc. I think the mage you are playing against is the most important variable to consider. Say you are playing as beastmaster. If your opponent is a Wizard then maybe swarming him is  a bad idea (Mordok's Obelisk and Suppression Cloak can really stick it to you). If your opponent is Necromancer you would want to be careful about swarming because allowing Necromancer to kill a lot of creatures gives him more creatures to choose from to reanimate. But if you are playing against a Forcemaster then swarm would probably be the way to go.

[Sand Goblin]

Right.  So say, against a necro, I might want to summon a fairly weak creature, like a Bobcat.  Then buff the crap out of it, and keep healing it.  When my necro opponent FINALLY kills it, he only gets one, weak card out of the giant beast that decimated his zombies.  Against a Wizard, Summon some tougher creatures, like Tegus, and give them a few buffs.  Against forcemaster, summon a whole lot of weak creatures and give them each a buff.

[Zuberi]

You need to consider who you're playing against, as well as the efficiency of your actions. Lets take the example of your Bobcat. Buffing it up to the same level as Cervere is quite expensive. The number of enchants it would require would end up costing you more mana than Cervere alone would have, and you have spent numerous actions to do so whereas Cervere would have only cost you one action. You could also have started hurting their mage a lot sooner and for a lot more damage by summoning the big creature early.

Bobcat + Bear Strength + Bulls Endurance + Cheetah Speed + Mongoose Agility + Rhino Hide = 29 mana and 6 actions for a creature with an 8+ Defense, 2 Armor, 8 Life, 4 Dice Attack, Fast, Elusive, and Charge +2

Cervere = 15 mana and 1 action for a creature with 8+ Defense, 2 Armor, 11 Life, 4 Dice Attack, Fast, and Elusive.

It is quite clear which is the better deal. That's not to say big creatures are necessarily the better route. A swarm of small creatures can be quite deadly. I just wanted to suggest a viable alternative. Partly because I thought you guys might not have started with the correct amount of mana. It is a common mistake I see, and whenever people don't seem to have taken full advantage of their starting mana I worry they might have made it. Your warlock opponent especially might should consider big creatures early on since they aren't as good at swarming as you are.

[Sand Goblin]

We both started with 10 mana, which I think is the correct amount.  As Beastmaster, it seems that a smart opening would always be the Staff and Ring of Beasts. 

The Bobcat example was specifically for the Necromancer MU.  I have super expensive, super powerful, deadly war beast.  Once he finally kills it, all he gets to reanimate is frickin cat.  Cevere is a better deal, yes, but I don't exactly fancy fighting a zombie Cevere.  Or a zombie Grizzly.  I can handle fighting a zombie bobcat.

[Master Ruprecht]

do not forget the channelling in the first round. So you actually have 19 mana available during your first turn, which makes (among other possibilities) a Lair an option.

[Zuberi]

With your necromancer example, reanimation is not the concern. The concern is efficiency. You've spent 29 mana and 6 actions to buff the bobcat up to a level akin to a single level 4 creature. The necromancer could spend half the mana cost and 1 action to just summon a level 4 creature and go toe to toe with your bobcat. You've wasted a lot of resources for absolutely no benefit over the necro. If you want big creatures, summon big creatures. If you want small creatures, be happy with small creatures. Don't try to turn small creatures into big creatures, because it's not worth the investment.

And again, the 10 mana is what you start with before channeling. When you enter the Action Phase on round one you should have between 19 and 20 mana in your supply depending on your rate of channeling. This allows room for lots of smart openings. The Staff and Ring opening is not bad, but there are plenty of others to rival it and even surpass it.

[Sand Goblin]

Yep, we were playing right.  By the end of the Planning Phase, we both had 19 mana. 

We just played another game.  I am typing this form my phone, so this is going to be short.

I opened with what I have found to be open my best possible openings - Lair and Ring of Beasts.  I quickly summoned a pair of foxes next turn, and in the proceeding turns, I also filled up my back 3 zones with mana flowers.  I swarmed my father, who attempted to play like last game, cursing a lot.  I simply out-swarmed him.  He was able to take on the first weak wave of Bobcats and Fixes, but he was not able to handle it as I brought out stronger and stronger creatures with more efficiency.  It climaxed when I pulled an evil turn, moving my mage up to Rouse a newly summoned gorilla, and Tanglevining his Mage.  I slaughtered him, my Mage only had 3 Damage on him when the game was done.

I like Beastmaster.