Arena Rex Forums

So I will be coming back to post more thoughts and hopefully some match write ups from this past weekend's big Tournament. Close to 30 players were there and it was a blast!

The new patron system was pretty cool and I am looking forward to using it in my own store tourneys.

All of my opponents were great to play against. Met players from New York, Germany, Tennessee, and Michigan. A special shout out to my last two opponents as I was a bit of pill at times during our matches. My apologies as sometimes my poor dice get the best of me.

Yeah, the tourney was great. The Patreons were really interesting, and added some massive swings to the games at critical times. I also thought the scenarios brought everything to a whole new level.

For those that didn't attend, in one scnario, each player was provided with a Noxiius model to add to their cohort. The goal was to kill the opponents Noxiius, while keeping yours alive. My opponent had Acerbus in his cohort, and went straight through my lines trying to pit my Noxiius. It was an awesome time trying my best to dodge an angry Rhino, while also trying to crank out enough damage against my opponent. Luckily, Hermes was eventually able to kick my opponents Noxiius into a hungry Leo (living hazard), and the two of them together were able to get the kill.

That was the round two scenario and I loved it as it was the prize box scenario that had Noxius as the only figure that could open the boxes.

I lost my Septimus early to some bad dice. Frigge came up and I flubbed all my counter attack dice (6 dice plus 1 favor = 0 successes ) has me take a lot of damage and pushed into Leo... one dead Septimus.

Then I tried the same thing against Frigge... three figures plus living hazards over four of my activations before I could muster enough successes to bring her down.

This left my Noxius exposed and a bit power attack left him with two health boxes. Luckily my dice came to life as my opponent was strung out from trying to get Noxius. I knocked out a few and got some breathing room but time ran out. It would have been interesting to finish the whole match... exhausting but interesting! As it was we went to two tie breaks (vitality remaining first, which we tied and then damage on Noxius)

I personally liked the round 1 with the duel zones that were guarded by prisoners!

I didn't win much, but really had a great time. Thanks to the RR guys for such a great event.

The last game of 'capture the flag" was good. My opponent played it perfectly and was able to sneak in and grab my defended flag and zip back to her control area within three activations. I tried to give chase, but there was nothing I could do.

I hadn't planned on playing anything at GenCon, but it may be worth a one day trip to play Arena Rex again.

Yep that last round scenario was rough for a lot of people. Basically it was capture the flag for those who were not there. You had to grab the opponents flag and bring it back to your duel zone near your start zone. You must control your duel zone with the flag in it to immediately win.

What made this really rough was all the obstacles and hazards. There were four pits, one living hazard and a bunch of crates that choked up many travel lanes. It made movement interesting for small bases, hard to impossible for large bases and almost impossible for for huge bases.

On that scenario I got lucky... had Viatrix and Marcus Furious skirt the perimeter toward the enemy flag. I had Iason, Otho, Septimus, and Lupa to defend and hold my zone.

My opponent came up with Hermes and Otho with Viatrix lagging way behind down the center and Micon making a slow approach down the center lane but angling towards my two flankers. The opponent held the flag with Iason and Infelix.

Long and the short of it I thought I could get two pushes on a Hermes who was dangerously close to a pit near my zone... two flubbed dice rolls later Septimus is in the pit. Then Lupa moves in only to be thwarted by Cavet Emptor.(sorry on spelling) which lead to Lupa in the pit. There was also a moment when we both used our Patron abilities... that was super frustrating! Things were looking grim and I was getting, sadly, testy as nothing I was doing was working. After apologizing profusely things turned. Micon committed to the flank to stop the slow approach on the flag by Marcus and Viatrix. My opponent's Viatrix was loosely defending his duel zone so was mostly out of the picture. That meant he was attacking my Otho with Otho and Hermes... not good. However on my clear turn my dice perked up as the Rhino shoved and exhausted enemy Otho into pit. This meant Otho v. Hermes... again not good as Otho cannot attack Hermes... stupid Hated!

In the meantime Marcus tied up Iason, Micon, and Infelix allowing Viatrix using move and move reactions to get the enemy flag. A few turns later I am in the zone with Otho surviving Hermes attacks and the rhino bearing down to help Otho clear out Hermes. In the end Hermes pushes Viatrix into a wall causing her to drop the flag. A clear turn allows me to recover and the Viatrix puts the finish on Hermes. Otho picks up flag and I win on scenario.

All in all a tough fight that given how my early game was going I should not have pulled out.

I will say I like the objective based scenario win conditions more than beat opponent to a pulp style games. It causes you to think more and consider other ways to win when things go sideways.

What is the patron system?

Any insights to tournament/organized play for this game?

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Basically a patron is supporting their favorite gladiators during a match with benefits.

Before the match ups the players bid on which "patron" or set of benefits they want or bid on who chooses first, second, etc. whatever the group decides or works fastest.

Each player has 16 points to bid. Any points remaining after the bid are used to buy benefits during matches. Points do not recover between matches so whatever you have left has to last you the entire tournament. Makes bidding a bit more tense.

Benefits ranged from spending 1 point to heal all remaining gladiators in a cohort 1 health box to for 3 points you can start the game on a clear turn. Some patrons had two abilities. (I had the heal every one one health box and for two points I could replicate Lupa's Caveat Emptor). Some patron benefits were only available once per match like cancel another players reaction or get two reactions during an opponent's activation. In general there was a good variety but I do not remember them all.

In all it was a nice twist. To be honest I forgot my abilities during most of my matches... probably cost me at least one match for sure. I think the patron system will work very well in a store or small scale (less than 20 person) setting. But it worked fine for the 30 plus it was just we had to break into multiple groups to bid on the 8 different Patron abilities. I talked with Walker after the tournament and they will be adding more so they will have near 16 different "Patrons" to bid on.

Patrons sound like a great way to spice things up!
I look forward to seeing the tournament scenario write-ups that they usually do, and hope the patrons make their way into a small book sometime soon.

Had a great time, some close games. Not sure about the patron system, some of the powers were bonkers for certain armies...