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PostPosted: Wed Nov 06, 2013 6:50 pm 
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Noxius
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Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2013 7:01 am
Posts: 38
Location: Dumfries
Just had my best game of Arena Rex yet!

Cohorts

Ludus Magnus (Me)
Marcus Furius
Hermes
Infelix
Otho
Noxius

Blood Brothers (opponent)
Sven
Vargr
Frigge
Hroka
Caho-Ta

Board - Same as last time. Pit (playing card box) in the centre and a square of four 50mm pillars about 10" from centre.

Pre-game plan

I wanted to see what a Hermes-Otho combo would be like, though I decided when choosing my Cohort that adding Viatrix to the combo would use up too much of my strength and would likely prove unwieldy in reality. Marcus Furius would help me lock down those fast moving models and generate me some favour. Infelix and Noxius were going to be my assassins. When I first saw Noxius I wasn't that impressed, but after having a few games I started to wonder about his damage potential, so he would be a fun experiment. Infelix would likely flank and hit and run a lot, making use of reactions, reposition and Swift.

I made up my opponent's cohort, as usual. Mostly I was trying to keep it simple for him, so since Sven, Vargr and Frigge are on the same sheet I picked them, plus they work well together. However, I wanted to try out a mounted model so went with Hroka and Caho-Ta. Unlike like last time my opponent wouldn't have as much in the way of favour generation, but he would still have some great offensive models and plenty of synergy.

Game

I should point out that by the time the game ended my second thought was "I can't remember a thing!" but I think I've managed to piece together what happened.

I deployed Hermes and Otho in my centre, Noxius and Marcus on my right flank and Infelix on my left flank. My opponent deployed all his models in his centre.

The opening phase of the game was one of caution, each of us only moving once, maybe twice, but ensuring we were well out of engagement range. We both knew by now that whoever made the first offensive was likely to suffer a brutal counterattack. I had Marcus on my right flank and Hermes and Otho moving up towards the centre pit (but far enough to not be in any danger). Infelix went wide on the left flank, but my opponent focussed all his efforts on the right flank.

My opponent made the first attack with Hroka and Caho-Ta, charging Marcus and attacking twice each. My opponent's dice rolls were atrocious and he managed very little damage, while also leaving Hroka and Caho-Ta exhausted. In my opponent's defence it was only after this that he remembered you couldn't reduce exhaustion outside the clear turn.

I countered that appalling display with Noxius, who attacked Hroka and dealt some significant damage. I believe Vargr moved up to support Hroka and Caho-Ta, but suffered similar bad luck. Marcus then killed Hroka. Sven and Frigge were moving up the centre, but didn't engage. Vargr dealt some significant damage to Marcus at some point. Noxius then dealt a lot of damage and killed Caho-Ta. Marcus had one vitality box left and retreated, leaving Vargr and Noxius.

Frigge charged Otho, but did very little damage. Hermes had an appalling attack against Frigge which triggered Retaliate. At some point Hermes pushed Frigge towards the pit, but didn't quite make it. Hermes was left exhausted and had just pushed Frigge out of range of Otho so she managed to push Hermes into the pit. Meanwhile Vargr killed Noxius. My opponent, who had suffered poor luck and had begun losing hope was suddenly rolling lucky again.

But good luck didn't stop Otho from pushing Frigge into the pit. While Vargr moved in to avenge Frigge, Sven chased after Marcus and killed him, but was now as far away from the action as Infelix who had yet to participate.

Things were starting to get really tense by now, we both had two models left and Otho and Vargr were fighting near the pit. Vargr attacked Otho in attempt to push him into the pit, however only managed one push which would be ignored by the larger model. Now let it never be said that I am not a generous opponent, as I reminded my opponent that since he was attacking an exhausted model he not only got an extra push, but a push from his damage tree due to the extra success, thus allowing him to push Otho into the pit. Infelix then moved in and pushed Vargr in the pit (well I'm not THAT generous).

Suddenly it was last man standing for both players, the fact that both models were Swift made it seem all the more tense. If you've ever seen Top Gear, the guest celebrity alwys sits on the edge of their seat when Jeremy Clarkson reads out their laptime, well we were doing the same. The finale of the game was a desperate waltz of both models exhausting themselves in an attempt to push the opponent into the pit. Sven made an attempt to push Infelix into the pit, but failed. Infelix then moved around to try the same, and though Sven did take his follow up move he still managed to stay out of the pit. Infelix didn't take his follow up move so Sven would need 3 pushes. Sven rolled very well against Infelix's pitiful Defence 1. But he only had two pushes... only Infelix was exhausted providing an extra push, thus resulting in Infelix joining Hermes, Otho, Frigge and Vargr in what must be a very deep pit.

Game reaction

What a game! At the start I was overjoyed with my opponent's poor luck and my high damage output. Then, just when in any other game we might have gone through the motions of a one-sided match, my opponent's luck changed and I knew I would have to stay alert. Things remained pretty even after that, I had luck pushing models into the pit, but I also had badly damaged models which got picked off, not to mention my own taste of the pit. Still, I put up a good fight and that finale had us both on the edge of our seat praying for the favour of lady luck. When the game ended we were both exhausted, from being so immersed in the action and holding our breath for so long at the end. After this game I think my friend is well and truly hooked.

Post-game thoughts

Perhaps not the best example of strategic genius, but enlightening all the same. My opponent made a big mistake with Hroka and Caho-Ta, there's just no denying that. I'm not sure if it was a good or bad thing that I held Infelix back as long as I did, since I was focussing on other things and it did allow me to make a late game push (pun intended) to (almost) victory. Marcus didn't work as I intended, but that was because my opponent was exhausting his own models, and never moved them. I was really disappointed in Hermes, I was worried that him and Otho would be too powerful, but as impressive as his damage tree is, he needs to net a lot of successes to make a real impact. Otho helped me against the Frigge blitz.. Noxius was fantastic, and though he only has Attack 4 with Hated, the fact he has higher damage in fewer boxes means he can do some real damage even with only a couple of successes. It was a shame that Infelix was in a showdown with another Swift model, because then I think I might have had an edge. I think next time we'll be a lot more careful around the pits =]

Reactions

Reactions weren't used very often, though in most cases it was because there was a lot more fatiguing going on. I understand them better now, but knowing when to use them is a large part of the learning curve. Naturally the last fight was reaction-free, and I think it is a testament to the power of reactions that knowing you can't use them makes a fight that much tenser, like sudden death.

Exhaustion and Clear Turns

My opponent started exhausting really early. The second half of the game saw us both pushing our models that bit harder. Marcus was the first of mine to exhaust and most of the models in the pit got there because they exhausted themselves in an effort to push the last poor sod in. Relentless made a few appearances, that extra activation giving my opponent a real chance to turn the tables. I only had one clear turn outside last man standing, but I did use Ludus Magnus' tactic, Outclass, defensively to blunt my opponent's offensive (he had 5 favour dice at this point) and hopefully give me a chance to survive long enough to mount a counter offensive.

Favour

As predicted, I generated more favour for most of the game. Early on my opponent did get a boost from the death of Hroka and Caho-Ta. Towards the end I was a little starved, which is why I used Outclass to restrict my opponent. Otho and Noxius did restrict my use of favour, and I did have to remind myself that Noxius did not stop the opponent from spending favour either. Noxius' death gave my opponent another boost of favour, but he did tend to waste it attacking models that were already near death. I tried to spend mine more wisely, usually when trying to push an enemy into the pit, or defending myself. Hermes only generated one favour from Aegis of Fame, which didn't seem to have much effect. All in all I think favour seemed balanced in this game.

Opinion and Suggestions

I'm not sure why Infelix only has Defence 1, and why Sven has Armour 1 when Infelix had Armour 0. I think both should have Armour 0, but I haven't decided if Infelix would need to take a hit to damage output to justify Defence 2 (which wouldn't be worth it imo).

I still haven't decided if I think BB's damage output is too high or if the only thing that is too high is my opponent's dice rolls. I am beginning to lose count how many times I've suffered 10-11 damage. I think maybe Frigge's last or second last damage box should be changed from 3 to fatigue up. I think she's very versatile, and on top of her good defence and armour she can put out high damage. Now the counter is that BB have their damage spread out, with several 2s, and I remember doing very little damage first time I played them. However, I think that giving Frigge a fatigue up makes sense, because it's not just a case of reducing her damage output a little, but it actually makes her more versatile while representing her shield-bashing her opponent.

Sven as well is able to output damage very reliably, needing only 4 success to do 10 damage (plus no reactions). Add any favour to his attack 5 and your chances of success are pretty high. Sven is described as being a patient hunter, the yin to Frigge's yang , so on principle I also don't like him having Berserk. I will discuss my suggested changes for him in a separate thread though.

Unfortunately, I can't really comment on Caho-Ta, but that's my opponent's fault =P Ultimately, despite the whole bonus of getting two attacks per fatigue level, I don't feel that Caho-Ta is equal to a separate gladiator not combined with Hroka are they equal to any of the other titans. I do recall someone saying the pair were really effective, so I could be very wrong, and this game hardly supplies concrete evidence either way.

On the whole I'm happy with Ludus Magnus. As impressive as Hermes' damage tree looks, I'm not actually that impressed with him. He can reliably generate favour, and is relatively flexible and balanced stat wise, but his damage output is pretty poor. It all comes down to Aegis of Fame really, but I think that any opponent facing him is going to be that much more careful with their favour. It's not too hard to generate favour over the course of a game, plus you likely won't have to pay too much before Hermes bites the dust. Not sure what I suggest, if anything, but he is on my watch list.

Thanks for reading =D

Well, as you can see by the length of this post, I am well and truly pumped for the arrival of Arena Rex. Still hoping to save up so I can beg RRG to upgrade my pledge to Crassus (job interview Friday, so fingers crossed!), but there's no doubt that I will own every model for this game one way or another. Next game I'm going to try out Morituri =]

_________________
Bentley Hunter from the Kickstarter.


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