Arena Rex Forums

** I botched some of the rules on these 2 games, so I played a 3rd game. Thoughts for game #3 can be found on page 2 of this thread... **

I've recently played two 3v3 games, both using the following forces:

Ludus Magnus:
Otho
Urbicus
Hermes

vs

Legio XIII:
Aquila
Ban-Luca
Gaius Pallidus

My initial goals were to get an improved "feel" for the rules, and find any kinks. I also wanted to test the strength of Gaius, along with the strength of the interaction between Otho and Hermes.

I set the board up with 3 pillars, arranged in a large triangle, and 2 pits placed on the outer board edges along the centerline.

Game 1 - Magnus side won. It came down to Hermes and Urbicus vs Ban-Luca. Neither of which could beat Ban-Luca's ARM 4, so they had to resort to pushing her into the pits. Honestly, easier said than done!

Game 2- Legio XIII won. Came down to Gaius and Ban-Luca vs Hermes. Hermes once again couldn't get through Ban-Luca's ARM 4, so focused on Gaius, but due to the constant clear turns, couldn't keep any damage on him.


General things I learned:
- I mainly used the Reaction: Counter Attack. In fact, I'm not even sure I ever even used any of the others aside from trying out the assist reaction once or twice in the first game. Counter Attack (imho) just seems to be the most useful of the reactions. That said, it was rare that I ever countered with more than a single success, it was mostly an easy way to get what essentially boiled down to getting an equivalent DEF 5.

- Both games basically became slugfests in the center of the board until one side got down to a single model. There was pretty much no movement being down once things became engaged, aside from a push... although a majority of the time, the pushed model just seemed to just push back in the next round. It essentially became "dice-slinging" in the middle until one side broke.

- Tactics? What are those? (I kid, I kid) But honestly, I never used them in either game. I used the Ludus Magnus' passive to be able to roll an extra favor dice for a quick burst, but that was about it.

- I found myself kind of rolling like poo, which could have impacted the game. In general, it felt like I was almost always netting just 2 successes unless I spent favor. I couldn't find a decent opportunity to use the power attack ability either. often times, I found I would rather spend for an extra attack after the opponent used his one reaction on the first one.

- a lot of late game "clear turns" especially once one side got down to a single model. After all, if your lone model takes an action and gets a fatigue, you won't be able to use him next turn anyway, you may as well get him up all the way to exhausted for an extra attack, followed by a "clear turn" as long as you think you can live with the extra hit coming your way.


Model Specific thoughts:
Gaius Pallidus - He's good, as I expected, but he seems pretty balanced. His healing ability is nice, but hardly game breaking. I could see him being really annoying late game, when clear turns happen more often. (see above) I may have to set up a little 2v1 scenario just to see how that would play out.

Ban-Luca - Man, she's annoying! in both games, I just could get through her ARM 4, and when I did it would only be for a point or two at best, which was easily healed by Gaius. I'd almost say her ARM stat's a point or two too high. Even 2v1, I couldn't put any true damage on her, and had to resort to pushing her into a pit.

Otho + Hermes - I mainly wanted to see how Otho's "Mentulus" ability that prevents engaged models from spending favor would stack with Hermes' "Aegis of Fame" ability that required a player to spend a favor in order to target him. That little tag team seemed to do pretty well together. Hermes could put himself out there a little more than usual, as long as he was backed up by Otho, he couldn't be touched. This also made Otho the prime target in both games. Both Hermes and Otho seem nice by themselves as well, and will probably be stable part of any of Ludus Magnus Cohorts.

Urbicus - Honestly, he felt like the weakest of all the models on the board. I love the model, so it's kind of a shame that he didn't really perform that well me. He damage tree felt like i was regularly only doing 2 pushes and 3 damage. (mitigated down to 1 due to armor) Most of the other models had similar pushing potential, but also had access to a pure damage route that Urbicus seemed to lack. That said, it could also be the fact that I was having trouble with Ban-Luca's high armor that left me feeling like he underperformed. I really WANT to like him, I honestly do, so I'll probably do some more testing with him and see what happens...

There you have it! Hopefully someone will find this "wall-o-text" useful in some capacity. I'm enjoying the game so far, and plan to expand into some 5v5 games later in the week...

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"He vows to endure, to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword." -The gladiator's oath

http://www.nerdsvsninjas.blogspot.com - a humble blog about gaming and other nerdy stuff...

Hmm, from your description of "two pushes and three damage" it seems like you forgot that every step on the damage tree does at least one point of damage... That means you should have been getting two inches of push plus a total of five damage (three for the "3" and one more for each of the arrows). That gives Urbicus a little more of a punch.

A lone model treats every turn as clear turn AND can subsequently be activated. (Last Man Standing - Condition, page 4 "Clear Turn") - It's a lot of fun
I imagine, especially with Gaius.

Some good observations.

Were you playing yourself in these games?

I will likely be doing a lot of my play testing solo, and my concern is that a predetermined outcome (I.e. wanting to test out Bjarrhvits special ability) may make me less inclined to strategize with the other cohort.

The "slug-fest" observation is a it troubling to me... However a lot of other reviews did not mention this issue so it may have been a fluke of bad dice rolling, as you mentioned. If one side has a high healing component, keeping them relatively immobile in the centre away from pits and within a tight 3" circle would likely be a viable strategy - unless these is a clear way to disrupt this (but with damage-mitigating reactions I feel that players can just form a circle and count on clear turns to live it out)

In short, I am concerned about the power of Gaius - moreso because of the power for it to become a stalemate down the stretch as only 1 or 2 models remain. With the use of counterattack, Gaius can likely hold his own almost indefinitely if he has a lower damage-dealing model attacking him, or one who does not have good push opportunity.

He was one of my fav designs so I will likely pick him up, but want to play test him (and will - soon!)

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http://alladinsbazaar.blogspot.ca - very much a work in progress...

Thanks for the replies guys!

In short, yeah, I botched a few rules as you guys mentioned. I missed the "last man standing" rule, as well as the fact that each box in the damage tree does a point of damage, so in general stuff should have been dying a lot faster! (And this may change my outlook of Urbicus and Ban-Luca's ARM, which is a good thing)

I feel these two mistakes (the damage one in particular) probably mean I should play another game with the same models to get more of a CORRECT feel for them!

Part of "slug-fest" issue was due to poor rolling, the damage mistake I mentioned, but also because I was really reluctant to give away an opportunity attack by moving around once engaged. Game #3, played correctly, could improve it.

Again, thanks for the replies all!

_________________
"He vows to endure, to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword." -The gladiator's oath

http://www.nerdsvsninjas.blogspot.com - a humble blog about gaming and other nerdy stuff...

Actually that's what I like about her. She's supposed to have the highest armour value in the game. When you come up against a foe with a high armour value you start looking for ways like dealing indirect damage (pushing into spikes, pits, other gladiators etc).

Alternatively I'd suggest that in a 3 v 3 match reducing any team to a single member could be considered a victory if both players aggree to it beforehand. Forcing her to have to try to keep her comrades alive would be more challenging than just watching her sit there like a brick.

Aquila and Ban Luca are supposed to have good synergy but I don't see much mention of it. Did it simply not come up during your games?

It really did not come up. In both games, Aquila was always the first to die.

Plus, botching the damage rules may have made her a bit more resilient than intended.

I'm sure my next game will alter my perspective on a lot of things...

_________________
"He vows to endure, to be burned, to be bound, to be beaten, and to be killed by the sword." -The gladiator's oath

http://www.nerdsvsninjas.blogspot.com - a humble blog about gaming and other nerdy stuff...

Without any modifiers, 2 net successes is actually very average (did some math here)

Also, yeah, Urbicus seems better on paper than what I've gotten out of him, to date (even with playing his rules correctly )- I just don't feel like I'm understanding his timing yet.

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I think his strength is his ability to get stuck in and keep fighting. He's not always going to deal a ton of damage, but with Tireless and Second Wind he's going to be able to get more actions/reactions in than many other fighters.

Funnily enough I think it's going to be the same with Sven & Vargr going Berzerk. It's my belief that it's something that can only be mastered with experience (unless I'm lucky enough for it to just click straight away as it's probably very situational).

I reckon Urbicus would make a great team player when paired with someone else who's very defensive or an aggressive damage model like Infelix. Have you considered keeping Urbicus on hand to tirelessly assist a companion's defence? Having him continuously doing that could really add to a gladiator's survival. For extremes Urbicus could make Ban Luca remarkably durable or allow Vargr or Infelix to pile on the damage with impunity (due to having a bodyguard to help boost their defence against the retaliatory strikes).