After a few months of not actually playing any games of Arena Rex, my son (D) and I sat down to get one in. Coincidentally, it was the first game we've played with a (95%) finished arena and terrain, so it was also a christening of sorts.
We started by rolling off for first choice of gladiators, then alternated choosing - D won and selected Hermes, I chose Noxius, D chose Micon, I chose Urbicus, D chose Iason, I chose Marcus Furius.
D LOVES him some Hermes and often uses him to tie up one of my better fighters with his Aegis of Fame skill... If I want to cause him some consistent damage I've got to devote one of my gladiators with a decent ATK so I can increase my chances of hurting him and not just waste that Favor. He said he picked Micon because he really wanted to get a chance to use Atlas Throw (which he did, to great effect), and Iason because of the mobility his Intervene/Support skills give - D loved the idea that he gets to move three inches to get into position to use a Reaction: Assist, then gets to reposition three more inches.
I wanted Noxius because he can put out some serious damage with his tree (despite being pretty fragile), but I had to make sure he didn't get bogged down with Hermes since he can't spend any Favor (Hated) but would NEED to do that to even attack him. I needed to make sure he skirted him without getting engaged and subsequently giving up a R: Opportunity Attack when he inevitably tried to peel away to fight someone he could actually hit. Urbicus is pretty tough on his own but I really liked him as complementary fighter... Since he can R: Assist more than normal with Tireless it feels like he's always making a difference. I picked Marcus Furius because I really wanted to use Iason (for the same reasons D did) but he obviously was off the table, so I took the next most painted figure available (partly painted is better than not painted, IMO). My basic plan was to get Urbicus and Marcus into the middle of his guys and then have Noxius hit 'em as hard as possible.
Here's how it went down...
Overview of the arena (this is mid-battle, so ignore the position of the minis)
ACTION
Hermes and Marcus Furius headed each other off to the right side of the pit and kept each other occupied pretty much the whole game. Looking back, I think this was the battle that won the game for D because Aegis of Fame meant I kept having to burn Favor as soon as I got it to keep getting some damage on Hermes. So, while sadly-WIP Marcus Furius ended up offing Hermes after trading blows for about three turns, this fight meant I didn't have enough Favor for Urbicus and Noxius to hang in versus Micon and Iason.
This is right before the crucial turn that switched the tide of the game in my son's favor... After Marcus had done some impressive damage to Hermes and Noxius had hammered Micon down to just a few remaining Vitality in the previous two turns, Micon scored 6 net successes on Noxius (****ing terrible defense roll). Because Noxius had Exhausted himself to do that damage, that meant Micon was able to push the scrappy slave four inches (three from his damage tree plus one freebie due to Noxius being Exhausted) toward the pit then hoist him up and Atlas Throw him into the pit. So not only did Noxius die but Micon scored FOUR Favor: two due to Noxii (whoever kills Noxius gets it), one more because he died due to a terrain hazard, and one more for having an unapplied net success on his damage tree. This was the point where D started piling up Favor (he got up to six here) and I was scrambling to keep even one or two on deck, which tilted the battle.
And here is your unlikely winner: shamefully unpainted Iason. After a string of killing (Marcus killed Hermes, Micon killed Marcus, Urbicus killed Micon) the game came down to him versus Urbicus. They traded damage for a few turns, with the Last Man Standing rule clearing their Fatigue, but D's stockpile of Favor meant that with his last attack he was able to add three Favor dice to a Power Attack and do eight damage to Urbicus (after his ARM kicked in) when he only had two Vitality left. Just crushed him to finish things off.
TAKEAWAYS
***We pretty much maxed out the Power Attacks when it was our respective turns. Rerolling misses really makes a difference. I'm no mathematician, but that just seemed more likely to get a decent number of successes than doing a double-attack.
***Favor made all the difference. I did a bunch of damage to my son's top two fighters right away, which was great, but it also gave him FOUR more Favor than me. That plus the fact that I had to burn a Favor just to attempt to injure Hermes meant that he was constantly able to hit me harder than I could him - adding at least one "double success" Favor dice to his attacks pretty much every turn really started to hurt. I went from having a clear Vitality advantage early on to getting a string of bad Attack rolls and then scrambling to just keep guys alive. Like I said earlier, that side battle between Hermes and Marcus was what won the game for him.
***Playing with (mostly) painted minis and painted hazards in a painted arena is waaaaaaaay better than playing with paper cut-outs and random terrain markers on a kitchen tabletop. No surprise, I know, but still.
***With the news that Septimus and Nero will be headed my way soon (hopefully) I'm extremely eager to get some more minis finished. Leo and Marcus are next in line - after that, who knows? Maybe my new bullish friends...
Thanks for reading - let me know what questions or feedback you might have!
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