Jaime and I did another game this week, testing out the rule that the Umenzi Heal Spell can only affect unengaged units. We also used the deployment rule, currently under
playtest.
2000 points, open map, total warfare.
Set Up and StrategyUndead, left to right:
Skeleton Trolls behind Zombie Trolls, Zombie Trolls, Zombie Trolls, Zombie Trolls, Zombie Trolls, Zombies behind Skeleton Spearmen, Zombies behind Skeleton Spearmen.
Jaime figures that, with Toughness 4, the Zombie Trolls would eventually grind down my lighter Umenzi units, and/or last for a very long time vs. even Chosen. He also figures that this would be a good army to test the Healing rule, as combat would last many, many turns.
Umenzi, left to right
Spearmen behind High Priests behind Spearmen, Shamans behind Warriors, Spearmen, Warriors, Spearmen, Shamans behind Worthy, Worthy behind Spearmen.
Almost identical to my army in our previous game; I traded Spearmen for Warriors in order to get the points to upgrade Atlatlmen to High Priests.
With only power 5, even my spearmen had no real hope of breaking through those Zombie Trolls, but I hoped the the cheaper units would hold long enough for my army to break the undead flanks.
Advancing to Battle!On the left:
Spearmen slide to the side, as do the High Priests. I'm feeling reasonably certain that this fight can be won.
In the middle: my units are on Hold, waiting for the hexed Zombies to charge. I'm hopefull that Spearmen, even if they can't get a quick kill, may be able to put the Zombie trolls into the red at some point, which means only 2 attack dice coming my way.
On the right, my Spearmen, move to the side. The Undead do a direct control to prevent the left Skeleton Spearmen from being pinched, which also ensures that the Zombies will get just far enough forward.
Ugly, man!....Left to right...
My Spearmen were the one unit which failed their Fear check.
*sigh* They were also the one unit which I was counting on to win.... The High Priests behind them throw their first of many Death Curses.
After 3 turns of combat, Spearmen go into the yellow and rout, putting a highly inconvenient hole in my line.
In the middle, 3 more very slow combats with units doing minimal damage to each other. It would've been nice to have been able to Heal my units and avoid those yellow Rout checks.
Spearmen also turn tail and run from Zombie trolls. Annoying, but not too bad: the Zombie trolls do minimal damage on the free attack, and my units, blocked in by Shamans (a nice example as to the value of Shamans as warm bodies), don't cause a hole in my line, and will be reformed and on Hold, ready to continue to the combat.
My not-so-Worthy, despite being lavished with Red cards, are barely hurting the Skeleton Spearmen.
Worthy next to them engage the Zombies, to minimal effect so far.
On the far flank, Spearmen duel. It's an even fight in theory, and the results are pretty even, though I'm using more Command Cards and other goodies to try to win, including a Devotion of Courage card.
Feeling the PinchLeft to right...
Spearmen are pinched, but are brave and hold up, despite going into the red. Helped by High Priests, they put some real hurt on the Skeleton Trolls.
Warriors turn and run when they go into the yellow, allowing yet another one of my units to get pinched and destroyed.
The Shamans will be sacrificing themselves to keep the entire line from getting rolled.
Two other fights grind on.
Worthy have finally destroyed the Skeleton Spearmen opponents, but really nasty attack dice & cards has put them in the red (!). Zombies have moved into no-turning-back range.
Worthy have destroyed Zombies, but my Spearmen are wiped out by more incredible hits by Skeleton Speramen. (Note to self: "Arms of the Fallen" is a nasty, nasty, nasty card!!!
) Fortunately it's my turn next.
Sweet Revenge!Left to right...
My pinched Spearmen go down, but with a bless, a Might card, and a Death Curse, they take the Skeleton Trolls down with them! Meanwhile, my rallied Spearmen have hit the Zombie Trolls in the rear!
Shamans sacrifice themselves to buy time while my Warriors rally, as the other Zombie Troll combats slowly grind on...
I order the Worthy on the right not to engage the Skeleton SPearmen on the far right, but instead to pinch the Zombies with the other Worthy. The Zombies explode, and the Skeleton Spearmen are just out of range to engage.
Eastward MigrationLeft to right...
Spearmen finish off the Zombie Trolls They were attacking from behind. My rallied Warriors catch more Zombie Trolls from behind.
High Priests start casting Heal.
Zombie Trolls pinch my Shamans out of existence. One of them had been in the red, so alone with two dice it would've taken far too long to kill even Shamans. Then they pinch my Warriors.
The rightmost Zombie Trolls are pinched by Worthy, but they fight like demons. They hit to the side and killed my Worthy, then finished off my Spearmen--while my pinch did very minimal damage.
Worthy are going after those Skeleton Spearmen, which Jaime has pulled back a bit.
Endgame Part 1Jaime was in danger of missing his train, so we played fast, and I took fewer photos. This is a few turns later.
On the left, Warriors take down those Skeleton Trolls whose rear they were on. I was sure my Warriors were safe--they had only 1 red box left, but had Faith Armor (vs. 2 dice as 1s and 4s.). Then, on their last attack, the Skeleton Trolls did one point...I let it ride (choosing not to "Roll with the Blow" away the initial "hit."), and then he dumped some evil Undead card that says "do 1 extra damage if you've done at least 1."
Note to self: buy the Undead so I don't get caught with my pants around my ankles again!
Another Zombie trolls turned to fight. They put some hurt on my Spearmen, but the Spearmen, helped by a few more Death Curses, kill them off.
Meanwhile, two Zombie Trolls go after my Worthy, who run to the corner. Finally, they engage one, and, with some good luck, destroy it before the other one hits their flank.
Endgame Part 2Finally Jaime's dice go weak, and I'm drawing blue cards to beat the band. Between them and Faith Armor, it's starting to look like I'm going to be able to pinch those last Zombie Trolls and eke out a win!
Then, on the turn before I get the pinch, the Worthy are put into the red. They rout and die.
I still think I have an excellent chance here--zombie trolls are in the red after the first turn of combat, and I have Faith Armor... High Priests, with one hit point, are getting Faith Armored each turn so that they take no damage from throwing Death Curses.
If the Trolls can't do 2 damage in 2 turns (2 dice at 2s and 5s), they won't every be able to hurt my Spearmen, and will eventually get Death Cursed to death...
Then, when down to 2-3 hit points, he gets 2 hits on 2 dice, my Spearmen go into the red, rout, and I concede the game.
Victory to the Undead!---------------------------
Wow that was Close! One Zombie troll in the red, or about 72 scenario points. 5-4 split (9-point system, 3-3 in the standard 6-point system).
Overall, this felt like a well played game all around, albeit not the most interesting one. We each had a wide line. Nobody got outmaneuvered. Nobody got pinched except when its neighbor routed or was destroyed.
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Comments on rules (See
http://yourmovegames.com/forum/index.php/topic,4608.0.html .)
Deployment Rule - I had 12 units to his 10, so I had to do a single "twin deployment" (This is the same as if we'd done "Option D"). So I slapped down my 2 Shamans. Had no real effect on the game. Units were pretty much were I wanted them, though in hindsight I wonder if I should've tried to break a Skeleton Troll with Worthy.
Umenzi (non) Healing Rule - although I lost this game,
I'm still liking the no-healing-engaged-units rule. The fact is, both of us played a solid game here.
Jaime's dice were a bit nicer (Through fear or horrible dice, my attacks were very weak initially in the places I needed to break through. And I blew 2 of my first 3 rout checks, and 3 of my first 5.), though not by too much (Umenzi Courage after that was pretty good, and I was able twice to do exactly enough damage to pop his units in the nick of time)....
and he won by a hair.
Healing engaged units would've been very nice in this battle. I likely would've won if I'd been able to do that. The question is, given solid play by Jaime and somewhat better dice, should I have won this game? I'm thinking no.
This to me suggests that the Umenzi without healing engaged are about where they should be on the power curve, though I'll want to test the Umenzi vs. a different faction before putting this one forward for a vote.
Tangential Comment: though I lost in the end,
HOLY CRAP did I get good use out of those High Priests!!! I think they threw something like 4 blesses/hexes, 4 Heals, and 8 Death Curses over the course of the game!
Given that High Priests cost 130 and Shamans 100, High Priests should rearlly be a lot better. (A 30% difference is like an upgrade from Carthaginian Spearmen to Libyan Fail.) Their ability to throw Death Curses, while Shamans just do Blesses/Hexes when units are engaged, justifies this differential in a way that throwing Death Curses instead of Heals did not, IMHO
That's it for now! Happy Holidays, everyone!
