Arena Rex Forums

So I had another game today. This game was somehow more enjoyable than previous ones, but that might be because we got the rules right.

Me
Urien
Aquila
Ban-Luca
Gaius
Lupa

Opponent
Frigge
Sven
Hroka
Leo

Board - Pit in the centre, square of four pillars roughly 10" from centre.

Pre-game thoughts

The main test was to see how BB played when they had extra Favour generation. Since some people seem to think they're OP, I gave them to my opponent (who'd never heard of Arena Rex before) to see how they played with a new player. As much as I love BB, I've been rather taken by Legio XIII recently, and wanted to try the out. The plan was to get to gave two teams - Urien and Ban-Luca, and Lupa and Aquila - combining Hot Headed with Co-ordinated Strike. Gaius would then go where he was needed, healing if need be. My primary target was Leo.

The Game

There were two phases to the battle.

Phase One - a battle on two flanks

Urien and Ban-Luca marched up the left flank, while Hroka, Sven and Frigge moved to meet them. Urien made a power attack with Hot Headed, but it failed terribly, and Hroka killed him rather swiftly. Ban-Luca reacted with a move to avoid being pushed into the pit, withdrawing back to my side. Meanwhile Lupa and Aquila moved up the right flank, and faced Leo. Lupa used a power attack with Hot Headed to kill Stage 1 Leo before he had any chance to Roar (though he did provide plenty of Favour from his vitality bar). Phase 2 Leo was far deadlier, especially when Counter-attacking, and him and Aquila generated a lot of Favour while bleeding each other. Frigge moved to help, but it was Leo who killed Aquila. Lupa then crushed Leo's skull and made a tactical retreat to join Ban-Luca and Gaius, who up to this point hadn't activated.

Phase Two - pile up

I consolidated my cohort near the bottom right pillar. Frigge moved in on the right, Sven from the left. While Phase One was being resolved, Hroka overstretched herself and was eventually killed when Lupa withdrew. Frigge killed Gaius, but naturally he didn't die. I positioned Ban-Luca behind Sven to use Co-ordained Strike, but poor rolls and some misjudgement saw Sven pushing her into the pit. Lupa reduced Sven to 2 wounds, but was killed by Frigge. I believe Sven finished off Gaius. Frigge was the only model that survived the game unscathed.

Favour

We both generated quite a lot of Favour. The most either of us had was six, but five was pretty average. Early on luck favoured my opponent, but he didn't manage his Favour as well as I did, so when Leo died his Favour started drying up and his luck changed. By the end I was managing to have one or two Favour, though Lupa was getting a free one with Hot Headed, while my opponent had very little, but his luck came back and he consistently did large amounts of damage without the need for Favour.

Reactions

I had a better understanding of reactions in this game. I used the move reaction to help me fall back and reposition, while my opponent used counterattack with Leo to great effect. Neither of us have quite mastered the set up for Assist though. Opportunity attack was the only reaction that caused a little confusion.

Clear Turns

Only one Tactic was used, by me, and that was Manoeuvre to help me withdraw a model. I didn't make any use of Maniple, which I probably should have (I set up to use it several times, but I was always Fatigued). While I had a lot of Favour at times, the cost for Stone Guard was too great at the time. Of course BB used Relentless, but only once or twice. There weren't that many Clear Turns.

Post game thoughts

Both my opponent and I agreed I held Gaius back too long. I also think that instead of sending Urien and Lupa ahead first I should have sent Ban-Luca and Aquila, then positioned Urien and Lupa to set up co-ordinated strike. My opponent was perhaps over-confident in Leo at first. I should have targeted Sven when I had the chance, but my opponent rather forgot about him, and so I did too. Lupa was awesome, and her ability to power and attack with a free Favour then withdraw (with Reposition plus a move if needed) made her my opponent's primary target.

Opinion and Questions

I was generally happy with BB being able to generate Favour, however I feel like they could all do with a reduction in damage, and in some cases armour (Sven really shouldn't have any armour). They're relentless, and fast and favour hit and run, this should be balanced with lower health, armour and damage than average. Their health seems fine, Frigge's armour's fine, but their damage is a just a little bit high. Legio XIII are okay on the whole, I can't really pinpoint anything single thing wrong with them, but they are comfortable average at pretty much everything, with higher armour than LM. Still think Urien needs an extra injection of character. Gaius' Undying seems a little odd, but I can see how it might prove useful.

Question about Opportunity Attack. It says when an enemy moves in your engagement range, so does that include when they enter your engagement range, because that sounds odd. I charge towards you to make an attack, but somehow you kill me before I raise my weapon. If that does apply, then why wait to counterattack? I feel like it should say "when an enemy attempts to leave this models engagement range". Overall I'm not a big fan of Opportunity Attack. I think there should be some way to deal with hit and runners, but the way Opportunity Attack is written now just isn't it for me.

It was my opponent's first tase of Arena Rex, and he rather enjoyed it (helped he won =P)

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Bentley Hunter from the Kickstarter.

yep, opporunity attack isn't working well, since often it is the active player that wants to use it, but nonono!: no reactions on your own turn
i really think leo is a gift for that abusive BB play for 6on6 since he kinda blocks cohort tactics elseway, the horse is kinda good to lower the modelnumber of yours. you really should try to get a clearturn as often as you can, means ALWAYS react, ALWAYS exaust everyone except sven, frigge and when needed vargr/bearmaiden. your goal should be: activate sven as often as you can! even when no one is around, use reactions (react and don#t move, when not needed, but GET FATIQUE). the 2 flanks are good idea, 1 flank hroka other flank sven and frigge vargr bit behind and to the mid, but he needs to guard sven for this. following this and you see what the issue will be... it's good dman hard to beat, when you don't have the counters in your list :/
main goal of your opponent will be to pin down sven and frigge, since they change in engagements. sven and frigge are by far the best gladiators in my oppinion (followed by hermes, zhara and iason/that guy should ahve a fatigue up in his dmgtree)

Great write-up, and really helpful feedback formatting!

As for Opportunity Attack reactions, it is:

It doesn't matter where they move. If they're engaged, and declare a move action, you can opportunity attack if you're fresh. You can't Opportunity Attack if they are moving into your melee range, since when they declared the movement they were outside.

@basuh, I've created a new thread to address list combos.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Opportunity Attack as written. It discourages people from making the first attack, especially since you can't react to a reaction. If there was a bonus to the first attack, or an attack made after a move then maybe it'd be worth it, but I think OA as is just doesn't work. I think there are various alternatives for how it could be implemented so that it doesn't crossover with counterattack.

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Bentley Hunter from the Kickstarter.

I think I understand the general objection to striking first, based around Counterattack and/or Assist. I'm still a little confused as to where you're seeing the crossover between Opportunity Attack and Counterattack, though. Remember that Opportunity Attack triggers on the declaration of the move -- if they have to move in to get to you, that means they (usually) started outside of your melee range, and didn't provide a trigger for that reaction.

The only times Counterattack and Opportunity Attack should both be choices are:

1. When someone is maneuvering within melee for a different angle on an attack they're likely about to make on a fresh opponent, or
2. When they are breaking off combat with one fresh opponent to move and attack another.

It's entirely possible that I'm missing something -- can you give me an example of a scenario where the chance for an Opportunity Attack specifically discourages someone from attacking first?

What I meant by crossover between OA and CA was that whereas other reactions fulfil different functions, OA and CA are similar despite their different triggers, and when you have the choice between them you will likely always pick OA.

After more thought I'll concede on the point about discouraging first attacks, up to a point. I realise that if I want to move towards a different enemy without fear of OA I need only react with a movement or use reposition if able.

One example where OA is perhaps OP is Leo. He's bad enough Counterattacking with 6 dice (more than most), but getting 7 dice before spending Favour in an attack that can't be countered (my defence 2 model tends to react with a sobbing prayer), not to mention his ability to spend favour instead of fatigue... well, that's just mean =]

I haven't playtested enough to know for certain whether my issues are to do with the rules (the potential over-effectiveness of reactions) or merely the learning curve of the game (it definitely falls under the deceptively simple category).

When I first played AR it was Favour that stood out, and Favour generation that concerned me, but now I see that Reactions (and the ability to ignore reactions) are the real balancing challenge, but also what makes AR so special =]

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Bentley Hunter from the Kickstarter.