Jaime is humoring me and testing a rule change I'd probably like to see--that Umenzi healing only works on unengaged units. So we played this game using that rule.
We also tested an alternative deployment rule, where, having 3 more units than I did, Jaime had to deploy 2 units instead of 1 before I deployed any. (Folks on the Rules Team Forum - we were testing "C" though in this case it was equivalent to "D.")
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Set Up and StrategyUndead Army: 6 Zombies behind 7 Rat Swarms, with Skeleton Trolls on each flank. 15 units and he bought 2 Command Cards as well! Yike!
Jaime figures the Rat Swarms would put enough hurt on the Umenzi line units that the Zombies just might cause a rout or two and roll my line. He also planed on them holding out long enough that the Skeleton Trolls would mop up my army.
Umenzi, left to right:
Front row: Spearmen, Warriors, Spearmen, Worthy, Spearmen, Spearmen, Spearmen
Middle Row: Worthy, Javelineers, Spearmen
Rear Row: Shamans, Shamans.
I went with a Spear-heavy build figuring that I'd be seeing Zombies--v.s. which that first javelin wave is pretty ineffective, and the extra die to grind it out turn after turn is almost as good. Plus the good undead units are all either cavalry or large, so the spear bonus would help. 2 Worthy would provide a bit of leadership in addition to the Shamans. The Atlatlmen could help prevent a quick breakthrough, or help produce a quick breakthrough, as needed.
The moment he laid down all those Rat Swarms I kicked myself hard for not taking Javelineers instead of Spearmen! A line of Javelineers would've shredded those rats in a single turn!
Simultaneous Screwing UpI did my standard opening move of having my units close on location targets behind the line. This allows for an extra couple of turns of Umenzi spells. In this case, it also meant that the Rat Swarms would pull far ahead of the Zombie line--this proved key later.
Meanwhile, on each flank, Spearmen fanned out to the side, which suddenly made them the closest units from the point of view of the Rat Swarms! This screwed up both of us:
I'd plotted their movement to deal with the Skeleton Trolls, not the Rat Swarms, so on each flank I had to blow a Command Action to change orders or Direct Control in order avoid having the Rat Swarms flank my units.
Jaime had it even worse, as the next photo shows!
Cock-Blocked!On both flanks, the Rat Swarms get between the Umenzi Spearmen and the Skeleton Trolls, forcing the Skellies to sit uselessly behind his line.
In the middle, Rats of engaged. For the first time ever, I pitch a card while playing "Devotion of Endurance" in order to give all of my troops +1 toughness. Useful vs. that ( 8 ) 5/3 attack profile of the Rats Swarms!
In the middle-left, I too suffer from cock-blockage. All the turning to engage the Rat Swarms meant that my Umenzi Warriors get squeezed out and fall behind my main line. They will remain unengaged until very late in the game.
Painful Wipeout!On the flanks, Rat Swarms continue to keep the Skeleton Trolls back, though they're putting a bit of damage onto my units.
In the middle, Rat Swarms are annihilated in 2 turns, but they've put a hurting on the Umenzi: my spearmen on either side of the Worthy each have a single green box left.
In a normal game, Shamans would've been healing my units, but nearby units are all engaged, so blessing it is.
Scaring off the SkelliesOn the left, the Rat Swarm has been destroyed. Jaime pulls back the Skeleton Trolls, as they'll get pinched if they engage my Spearmen. I'm excited that my Worthy are unengaged, as it lets the Shamans heal them a point.
In the center, Zombies get close to my units. Not quite there...
On the right, I was nervous about that Skeleton Troll breaking my Spearmen and rolling my line. I needed the second-to-right Spearmen to win fairly quickly, so I let the third-to-right Spearmen pinch the Rat Swarm out of existence. Unfortunately, this meant that the (3rd to right) Spearmen got flanked by zombies. A good command card and better dice and my unit takes 4 damage and runs away, leaving an ugly hole in my line!
The good news, though, is that the threat of a pinch once again forces Jaime to hold back his Skeleton Trolls.
This was a big payoff from my initial backward move--had my line gone straight forward the zombies would've moved to within 1.25", so I wouldn't have been able to threaten a pinch and the Skeleton Trolls would've engaged 2 turns sooner rather than costing the Undead a Command Action.
It also illustrates that 2.5" movement has a real drawback.
Painful SlownessLeft to right...
My holding Spearmen are pushed forward into no-turning-back range of the Skeleton Trolls. If my Worthy can finish off those Zombies quickly those Trolls will get pinched into oblivion!
But no such luck.
I dumped my best red cards, but the Worthy underperformed horribly.
Spearmen are knocked into the yellow by Zombies, but luckily they hold.
A rout would've been disastrous, and I hadn't yet drawn Devotion of Courage.
Worthy bash on some Zombies.
I deal the best I can with that hole in my line. By offering their flank to the Zombies in front of them, my Spearmen get their closest center point just
slightly over 2.5" away from the zombies to the right, while at the same time they protect the Worthy!
Another instance of the Zombies' slowness biting Jaime--had they been MC 3.5 I could not have prevented the pinch. Meanwhile, i start to move Atlatlmen forward to plug that hole.
Those Zombies are also just out of range of the Spearmen to the right, who also hold when they go into the yellow, and are beating down more Zombies.
Spearmen on the far right can't delay the fight any longer, but they're as ready as they're going to be: faith armored and unwounded. The Rat Swarm had failed to do a single point to them, apart from peeling off previous faith armor.
All the controlling I had to go gives Jaime a moderate advantage in Command Cards at this point.
Undead Power!Left to right...
Skeleton Trolls one-shot my Spearmen. They then devour the Shamans who boldly stepped foward in an effort to buy time for the Worthy to come in and pinch.
My not-so-Worthy, however, have other idea, and still decline to do even average damage vs. those Zombies. Those Zombies lasted at least 5 turns despite my best cards being played!
Spearmen are about to finish off Zombies.
Worthy, who were victorious, pinch and annihilate more Zombies, but those Zombies simultaneously go a couple of really nasty swings and unexpectedly wipe out their Spearmen opponents.
Atlatlmen are holding up very well vs. their Zombie opponents. A super-lucky initial hit did 2 damage, which meant the Zombies only had 3 dice after turn 1. The Atlatlmen hold when they go into the yellow, and help is on the way!
Spearmen, who initially routed, are rallied and sent to help vs. the Skeleton Trolls.
On the far right, Skeleton Trolls beat my brave Spearmen into the ground. At least my guys made them bleed, of whatever Skeletons do...ooze marrow? Anyway, they are sadly just out of the front arc of the nearby Spearmen.
Shamans have healed a couple of units as they became unengaged, but they are about to be crushed by the Skeleton Trolls.
The Rampage Continues...On the left, Skeleton trolls engage my Umenzi Warriors. If they can hold on for 2 turns my Worthy will come in and pinch. But they skeedattle. At least they survive, and before running away they put some real hurt onto the Skellies.
Worthy are coming to help the Atlatlmen.
My Spearmen are positioned such that if the Skeleton Trolls hit one, the other will nail them on the flank.
Compound Umenzi FAIL!On the left, Skeleton Trolls, in the fracking red, do 3 damage to my Worthy who run and perish!
In the center, the Zombies put the Atlatlmen into the Red, and the Atlatlmen run for it! But they survive, and the zombies are flanked and exploded by my Worthy. Meanwhile, the Atlatlmen are rallied and positioned to serve as a speed bump.
On the right, Skeleton Trolls one-shot my wounded spearmen (the ones who had been ralled). The other hit their flank, but they take minimal damage and wipe them out too! (I was rather cranky after Jaime rolled 4 dice needing 3s to hit and landed all 4 hits, blowing through the faith armor and wiping out the 3 yellow boxes.) Not having any Leadership-providing units within range really hurt!
Trading Two-for-TwoOn the left, Skeleton Trolls, in the red, rout & kill my Spearmen in the second turn of combat. But my Warriors charge their rear and they shatter in a pile of broken bones!
On the right, Skeletron Trolls, also in the red, easily stomp out my already-mauled Atlatlmen, but then my Worthy hit them in the flank and take them down.
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Victory to the Umenzi!Final tally:
In the Green: Worthy
In the Yellow: Warriors
In the afterlife: Worthy, 6 Spearmen, Atlatlmen, 2 Shamans
Total points: 358. Just barely into the 6-3 (or, if you prefer, 4-2) range, which starts at 320.
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Comments on the game:
It was clever, but I don't think the Rat Swarms + Zombies are all that effective a combination. Yes, the Rat Swarms softened my units up, but my units were almost all ultimately victorious, and this combination costs around 200 points, while my Spearmen cost 170. Still, it wasn't doomed to failure. My courage mid-game was pretty good. Another blown rout check or two and the Zombies just might've rolled my line. But, it was a less-than-even chance for that to happen. A better option would've been to pair Rat Swarms with Skeleton warriors in places, with single or even double zombies in others. But Jaime just slapped this army together to help me playtest, he may well not have taken it in a "serious" game.
As pointed out above, this game contained 2 nice illustration of the drawbacks to slow speed. I'm not claiming that it's unbalanced, just that slowness is not always the bargain it appears to be.
This was by no means my best game played.
I should've anticipated that the rats would go after my flanking Spearmen and plotted their location targets accordingly. Also, I forgot to put the M+S modifier on my Atlatlmen, reducing their effectiveness. Still, I won't hang my head in shame too much--as the big goal--preventing those Skeleton Trolls from breaking through early, was accomplished.
I was expecting to win a pretty significant victory until all those failures (of both courage and to kill stuff on time) toward the end. This was in part because Umenzi can really suck in the late game once the Shamans go down. Pretty much every rout check is failed (unless you have Devotion of Courage, a card I didn't draw until my very last turn.)
All that said, this game was great fun! Nothing too fancy, and really violent! Both sides just grinding each other down!
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Comments on the rules tested:
- I thought the set up rule worked well, though it's a bit hard to tell. As Umenzi, I received some Poor Man's Foresight from those two Shamans. Also, Jaime's army was so uniform that deployment order really didn't matter much. Still, I like the symmetrical deployment schemes. As the player with fewer units, I felt somewhat advantaged in the early set up, about even in the middle of it, and a bit disadvantaged at the end, resulting in no real net advantage.
- It's only 1 game so far, but I liked how the Umenzi Shamans worked. They were certainly still worth their price. They put on some important blesses/hexes (which helped me two-shot all those Rat Swarms), got in a couple of Heals when they could (though not always on the exact unit I would've healed if I would've chosen), and ultimately were valuable speed bumps as my flanks began to collapse. Less good than Shamans under the current rules, but that's the point. It felt more balanced.
We plan to do another Umenzi playtest next week. Until then, hope you all enjoyed the read!
