Magic-Based Faction

[Jatha]

I have a few ideas for a wizard faction that relies on magic/spells to buff its rather mediocre units (I like to call it Frogwarts).
Has anyone else had a similer idea?

[Kevin]

I take it you mean besides the Umenzi...

[Jatha]

I take it you mean besides the Umenzi...

Seeing how I don't  own the Umenzi, I can't say they're not exactly what I had in mind, but from the discription they seem different enough.

I was thinking more along the lines of being able to chose from a selection of mage units that each have a different focus in the magical arts.

I'll work out a rough draft of units and abilites and post them here.

[Jatha]

Unit ability: Natural Magicians.  Spend one CA to mark a check box on any mage unit. At any point during your turn, as long as all conditions are meet, you may erase the mark to cast an additional spell. Normal rules for spells apply.

Summoned: A Summoned unit is deployed on the battledfield just like any other unit.
To play a card on a Summoned unit, you must first discard an addtional card.
If at the end of the M&C phase a Summoned unit is outside the range of a Summoner, the Summoned unit takes one damage.
A Summonded unit cannot be blessed or healed except by a Summoner.

Personal Servents: Atk (5) 4/4 Dfn 1/1 Rg 0 Crg 11 MC 3.5  3gr/3yl/2rd

A basic fodder unit.

Adept Summoner: Atk (4) 4/4 Dfn 2/1 Rg7" Crg 12 MC 3.5"  3gr/2yl/2rd
1 checkbox
Minor Heal Summons: Heal minor Summons one damage point.

The first level. Summoners will have a higher attack and defense skill than most mages due to their tendency to be closer to the front lines.
 
Companions: Atk (4*) 4*/4* Dfn 2/1 Rg 0" Crg - MC 5" 3gr/4yl/2rd
Minor Summons
Fearless
If the Companion is engaged with a unit that is also engaged with a Summoner, the Companion gains (+1) +1/+1 and the Summoner gains +1 Courage.
May not have more Companions on the battlefield than Summoners

Adapt Enchanter: Atk (3) 3/3 Dfn 1/1 Rg *" Crg 12 MC 3.5" 3gr/2yl/2rd
1 Checkbox

Enchant Armor. (Blessing) Range 7". During your Movement and Command Phase, if Enchanter is unengaged, select one friendly unit. That unit gains +0/+1 Defense this combat phase.

Enchant Footgear. (Blessing) Range 1.25" During your Movement and Command phase, if Enchanter is unengaged, select one friendly unit. That unit gains +1 MC for this Movement phase. May apply to self. 

I'm not sure if this unit is balenced or not, so feed back is welcome. I'll be sure to post more when I have it.

[Zelc]

I don't think I've seen any factions quite like this.  I've experimented with some factions that have a few similarities, so maybe I'll share with you my thoughts on those and see if you can draw some inspiration from this.

I've thought about a couple factions based around units with "leadership auras" (aka provide bonuses).  The Swarm army is the faction that was posted on this forum, where Swarm units provide bonuses to other Swarm units which they're backing up.  This faction actually used a lot of ideas I thought of from a Spirit faction I was brainstorming about much earlier.  The spirit faction would consist of a bunch of Lesser Spirits, dull grey translucent units with vanilla stat lines.  The army would also have Elementals or Greater Spirits, which would be colorful spirits who fill nearby Lesser Spirits with their vibrant hues (bonuses).

Fluff-wise and crunch-wise, the Spirit army had some potential.  However, I ultimately discarded it as being too difficult to balance.  I had two problems:

• In BGFW, unit stats are multiplicative, not additive.  This is mostly true for units which already have a high point cost; for cheaper units, the difference between the two may not be significant.  For example, a (+0) +1/+1 bonus to attack costs more than the sum of the costs of a (+0) +1/+0 bonus and a (+0) +0/+1 bonus.  For reference, a (+1) +1/+1 bonus roughly doubles the damage your unit does, assuming this doesn't take the unit into double-overkills to hit or wound.  You can see how this bonus would be a lot better on a (5) 6/6 unit than on a (4) 4/4 unit.
  Defense bonuses are also problematic.  I had prototyped a Lesser Spirit with 2/2 defense along with Greater Spirits that boost each type of defense.  This would combine to form a 3/3 defense unit, which is much harder to bust through than a 2/2 defense unit (they take roughly 40%-60% less damage).  There's an especially high jump in defense between a 3 and a 4 in a defense number.
  Thus, it becomes really difficult to assign the proper point cost to the aura.
• I wanted my Greater Spirits to be capable of fighting and deploy on the line, rather than sit in the back.  I thought having a bunch of units that could only sit in the back would be very restrictive in army deployment and would also cause problems with "Poor Man's Foresight" and army control.  However, putting Greater Spirits on the line meant they'd be extremely vulnerable.  If they get killed, the rest of your army begins to suck.  I could give them more health boxes, but then they'd cost a lot and army building would be very constrained.

Fortunately, the Swarm Army's fluff and crunch lent themselves very nicely to solving these two problems:

• All the Swarm units have an extremely cheap base body, so stacking bonuses shouldn't create a huge deviation from the true cost.  Additionally, with the limited back-up range, I effectively cap how many auras each unit can benefit from (basically the cap is 2, with an expensive option for getting a third aura on a unit).  The best stats a unit could get is (6) 6/6 with a 1/3 defense, but that requires 3 backup units which is not efficient or reliable.  Most likely, either the offensive skill or power will be a 5, or the defense will be 1/2.  Given the front line only has 3/3/2 health and 12 Courage (13 with 3 backup units), it won't be long before they start losing some of their stats.
• Any of the Swarm units could be on the front line or in the back line.  They're built to fight just fine on the front line, while providing valuable bonuses on the back line.  This gives people lots of flexibility in how they build and deploy their armies.  Also, I gave them a faction ability to combat the army control issue.

The biggest issue I foresee with the Swarm Army right now is determining just how brittle the front line should be.  The faction degrades very weirdly.  In one sense, a unit's death or rout isn't as bad for this faction as for other factions.  You'll usually have lots of back-up units to fill the gap.  However, when you move a unit from a back-up position to the front line, not only is the unit in that spot weaker, but so is the unit right next to that spot!  Both of them lose the bonuses from having that extra back-up unit.  It's too easy for a few units on your line to die too quickly, and suddenly your entire line is very weak because they no longer have units backing them up.  (It'd be interesting to see whether cavalry is effective against this faction; I suspect they will be effective, but they'd have to be used in tactically different ways).  On the other hand, if they're too sturdy, they'll rip through the enemy line before the front line of swarm units starts to die and back-up units are depleted.

I'm also trying to stick some expensive support casters with tanky bodies in my Beastmen faction.  Coming up with original support spells that didn't make you want to stall the engagement is actually pretty tough, so if you have ideas, I'm all ears.

I also thought about creating a faction that was very weak, but had ways of drawing extra command cards and had units which could benefit from 2 red and 2 blue cards.  That got shot down as a bad idea.

[Jatha]

I've read both threads, and to me it seems you're working on two factions whose operating principles that are essentility polar opposites. On the one hand, you have the Swarm, a faction that starts off really strong in the opening turns, then fades as the game progresses. On the other side are the Beastmen, who clock in as a "late bloomer" faction that gains strength while whittling away at your enemy's.

The Faction I'm working on follows along the same basic operating principles as the High Elves: Hold the line until overwhelming force can be applied at a single point. However, while the High Elves use tanky units and maneuvering to this end, I want this faction to use magic to apply force as needed, shifting objectives as the battle unfolds.

As for support spells, I really don't have anything orginial, just a bunch of stat buffs. But feel free to borrow anything you think would match well.

Speaking of which, I need to credit Gull for giving me the idea to adding the Summoner and Summoned units.

[Jatha]

A few more units today.

Anemoi Riders: Atk (5) 5/5  Dfn 3/1  Rge 10.5"  Crg 13  MC 8.5"  Gr3/Yl2/Rd1
2 Checkboxes

If Anemoi Riders fail a rout check, they are destroyed.
Anomoi Riders may not be healed or blessed.
Impulsive
+1/0 Dfn when charging.

Static Buildup: If Anemoi riders remain Unengaged and stationary during the Movement and Command Phase, you may mark one checkbox for free.

Tempest (Curse): Select one enemy unit. During that units next ranged attack, it rolls at
(-0) -2/-0

Shock and Awe: When ever Anemoi Riders Are considered charging, you may spend one CA to erase a checkbox. For each checkbqox erased, add one impact hit.

I really like this unit. I really do. But I'm not sure it fits in well with this faction. What I see in my head is a group of Summoners calling forth a bunch of wind spirits and , mantaining rather shaky control, riding them into battle.

Warlock: Atk (3) 3/3 Dfn 1/1 Rge *  Crg 13  MC 3.5   3Gr/2Yl/2Rd   1 Checkbox

Concussive Blast : Range 10.5" LoS
Select one unit. That unit takes a (3) 6/6 damage check. Any unit within 1" of the front or rear, or within .5" of a flank, takes a (2) 3/3 damage check.
This spell is unaffected by comand cards.
A unit may not be affected by more than one Concussive Blast.

Magic Missile: Attack (5) 5/5. Range 14". Indirect fire
You may not attack an enemy unit with this spell more than once per turn per Warlock
The Warlock is the range attacker for this faction. I'll probably end up adding another spell of some sort in the future.

[Zelc]

I've read both threads, and to me it seems you're working on two factions whose operating principles that are essentility polar opposites. On the one hand, you have the Swarm, a faction that starts off really strong in the opening turns, then fades as the game progresses. On the other side are the Beastmen, who clock in as a "late bloomer" faction that gains strength while whittling away at your enemy's.

Yea, the Beastmen faction isn't really comparable to this faction; I just mentioned it so you'd let me steal your support spell ideas .  On the other hand, the Swarm faction has a similar "buffing" mechanic that this faction uses (and especially that Spirit faction I scrapped), and hopefully you'll find my thoughts on such mechanics useful.

By the way,

Any unit within 1" of the front or rear, or within .5" of a flank, takes a (2) 3/3 damage check.

We try to have everything in terms of card lengths.  Unfortunately, that means the minimum measured distance in BGFW is 1.25".

[Zelc]

Warlock: Atk (3) 3/3 Dfn 1/1 Rge *  Crg 13  MC 3.5   3Gr/2Yl/2Rd   3 Checkboxes

Concussive Blast : Range 10.5" LoS
Select one unit. That unit takes a (3) 6/6 damage check. Any unit within 1" of the front or rear, or within .5" of a flank, takes a (2) 3/3 damage check.
This spell is unaffected by comand cards.
A unit may not be affected by more than one Concussive Blast.

Magic Missile: Attack (5) 5/5. Range 14". Indirect fire

The Warlock is the range attacker for this faction. I'll probably end up adding another spell of some sort in the future.

Hmm, this unit seems problematic.  Let's say I stand and shoot.  I get 2 turns shooting at Long Range and 2 turns shooting at Short Range.  In Short Range, I spend 3 CA's per turn to mark the boxes, and burn through them all right away.  That means the enemy unit just took, in total, attacks of (10) 4/5 and (40) 5/5 before it reaches my line, which probably means it died.  That seems really strong.

I'd caution against making a faction ability better than an average Command Card, and it seems like this one might run into trouble.

[Jatha]

I toned down the Warlock spellcasting abiliy (reduced checkboxes) and changed the Magic Missile attack spell. I still need to think up a new spell though.