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Isn't the pitch and play rule for Wolves and Bears stamped now?  I thought it was.  Regardless, I was assuming that we would use the pitch and play.  So pitch and play away!

[Set Up]

Brook and I had the opportunity to get together briefly last Saturday night and we figured we’d give the High Elves a spin with our Precision house rule.  We had theorized that Precision would be weakened by moving from a +1 power charge to a +1 or +2 dice charge, so we decided to make it so that a unit that has it’s Precision box erased can still have offensive command cards played on it during the same attack.  Having the High Elves face off against Lizardmen would also help continue to test if a flat +2 across the board is helpful to large units.

Set Up



Lizardmen played by Brook
From top to bottom:
2 Triceratops Herds
4 Swarmling Warriors backed by 2 Hatchlings in the second rank
2 Raptor Packs

The Scorpion crews where quite happy about those Trike Herds.  The Battle Squad closest to them where of a different opinion.  I got Brook’s plan here and I see its merits.  Essentially, he wanted to over power me on the flanks while the lesser units in the center held up and where backed up by the Hatchlings.  He certainly had the numbers to do it.  I think I made a few cracks about sending children into battle against beings that where hundreds or even thousands of years old.

High Elves played by your humble narrator
From top to bottom:
Battle Squad
Elder Blade Swordsmen in front of Scorpions
Battle Squad
Elder Blade Battle Squad
Chariots (second rank)
Elder Blade Swordsmen
Battle Squad

My idea with this build was pretty simple.  Field a nearly full line while allowing the Chariots to roam the background and seek a juicy target.  It turns out that I had plenty of them to choose from.

Standing Orders

The Lizardmen units where set on a standard close with the exception of the Raptor Packs who where set to close on terrain objectives represented by the red dice.  The High Elves mostly had unit objectives and you can see the objective numbers and corresponding numbers on the Lizardmen unit cards.  The Scorpions where targeting the Trike Herd that was in the Lizardmen front rank.  The green bead on the far end of the map represents a close objective for the Battle Squad on the right flank.  I was obviously anticipating the use of direct control in the near future.

Early Turns


Taken before combat on the High Elven turn

Brook decided I should go first.  The Trike Herd was out of my Scorpions’ range, so they put a point of damage on the Swarmlings next to them.  I plopped Precision on the Elder Blade Swordsmen on my right as well as on the Elder Blade Battle Squad.  If you need 5’s to wound it isn’t such a bad deal!  Brook placed Fury on a few of his Swarmlings as well.  You can’t tell much from the image above, but there was a lot of jockeying for position on both flanks.  I direct controlled my Battle Squad on the far right to be just out of range of the Trike Herd while still covering enough of the Elder Blade Swordsmen’s flank to prevent the Trikes from pinching them.  Brook changed the standing order of the Swarmlings close to the Chariots to close on the Elder Blade Swordsmen and I used direct control on both the EBS and Battle Squads to shoot them over to the left to prevent the EBS from getting pinched by these Swarmlings and a Raptor Pack.  Yay Maneuver Mastery!  My Chariots had squirted through the gap I created in my line and I used direct control on them to keep them from charging the Swarmlings to avoid themselves getting pinched by the same Raptor Pack that was threatening the EBS.  It was a mess over there!

The Scorpions where getting off to a slow start and only managed a point of damage in their first 2 shots at the Trike Herd.

Full Engagement!



From top to bottom:
Seeing the Writing on the wall, I direct controlled my Battle Squad again to face them outward to delay the certain death of a Triceratops Herd pinch.  Elder Blade Swordsmen blow through Swarmlings pretty quickly and force a failed route check when they hit the red.  Brook chose to back them up with Hatchlings.  These unfortunate individuals failed their courage check when put into the yellow and ran off with 1 red hit box remaining after free attacks.  Brook never reformed them.  A Battle Squad is slowly hacking away at more Swarmlings while the Elder Blade Battle Squad made short work of their Swarmling opponents.  I believe this may have also involved a failed route check.  I had used direct control once again on the Chariots to keep them from final rushing the Raptor Pack and then getting pinched by Hatchlings.  It looked pretty good until the EBBS blew up the Swarmlings.  Brook was quick to see the potential and ordered the Hatchlings to charge the Chariots who found themselves pinched!  The Chariots survived with 2 red hit boxes remaining and did their return attack on the Hatchlings, but failed the courage check and died running off.  Not to complain because this would be the only instance any of my units would rout.  Swarmlings final rushed my Elder Blade Swordsmen on my left flank and the High Elves had a horrible charge turn, only inflicting a single point of damage!  Note that the Raptor Pack at the bottom of the pic isn’t engaged with the Battle Squad just yet.  Also note that hardly any damage was done to my line units at this point.  Most of Brook’s units needed 2s and 2s plus his attack dice where sub par.

Endgame



From top to bottom:
The Trike Herd rammed into my Battle Squad who failed their fear check, but they held on valiantly due to a combination of command cards and lukewarm Lizardmen dice.  After a few more pings from the Scorpions and a rare point from the Battle Squad, the Trikes went into the yellow and routed!  The other Trike Herd was compelled to close on the Elder Blade Swordsmen once the Hatchlings fled.  The Swordsmen failed their fear check as well, but the Trikes only managed a sad point of damage on the charge.  The Battle Squad next to the EBS finished off the Swarmlings they where facing and worked their way over to help out the EBS with the Trike Herd.  My Elder Blade Battle Squad flanked the Hatchlings that had pinched my Chariots and the Hatchlings didn’t last long.  My other Elder Blade Swordsmen performed horridly their first 2 attacks (only 1 point per turn!) but they suddenly gained traction and did a whopping 5 points of damage in a single turn which put their Swarmling opponents straight into the red!  The Swarmlings blew their courage check and that was the end of them.  Brook then had his Raptor Pack charge the EBS and both of these units proceeded to pound the tar out of each other.  They both went into the red on the same turn and my EBS succeeded their courage check while the Raptors failed theirs.  My Elder Blade Battle Squad would have gotten the flank on the Raptors on the following turn, but it was still a humiliating way for the Raptors to go out.  The other Raptor Pack was actually losing in a straight up fight against my Battle Squad on my left flank.  Brook surrendered at this point.  It clearly wasn’t a banner day for the Lizardmen.

Final Thoughts 

Brook told me after the game that his biggest mistake was not capping his Swarmlings at 3.5”.  This allowed me to engage the weak units in the center of his line quickly while denying him the flank units for an extra couple of turns.  One interesting aspect of the game was that I used a LOT of direct control.  Brook made a couple of standing order changes that forced me use it more often then I normally would.  The majority of the Lizardmen units had poor match ups and normally wouldn’t do well against a High Elven line, but the dice exasperated this issue and Brook also failed a few more courage checks than he should of.  The Chariots where my only failed rout.  Both High Elven units that squared off against Triceratops Herds failed their fear checks but that wasn’t the end of the world.  The only thing that really went poorly for me was the Scorpions that only contributed a total of 4 damage the entire game (1 to Swarmlings, 3 to a Trike Herd).

On the +2 Dice Charge

As expected, adding dice to units that already have good attack stats and are facing units with poor defensive stats is going to create a larger divide in expected damage between those two units.  That was reinforced here.  As you may have noticed, the High Elven units in the center of the line hardly took any damage at all while the lesser Lizardmen units they faced took a beating.    The result would have been the same with the current +1 power charge, it just came about a little faster using the +2 dice charge.  In theory +2 dice is good for Large units, but the dice in this game where clearly below average and it didn't provide much help offensively.  I will say that trying to inflict damage on a unit with 4 toughness just became super difficult.  1/4 has gone from a good defensive stat to a really good defensive stat.

On the High Elven Precision change

I used Precision a couple of times this game while playing red command cards and got an extra point of damage out of it each time, but it was involving Elder Blade units facing Swarmlings.  Sadly, Brook’s dice where poor enough to make this a non-factor and we really where unable to conclude whether or not it was a fair fix.  More testing will be needed.

Heroes of the Game

Lizardmen – The Raptor Pack that was in on pinching the Chariots and then took an Elder Blade Swordsmen unit into the red before routing.  This was as good as it got for the reptiles.

High Elves – Brook’s dice.  Oh, I have to award this to a unit?  OK, its the Battle Squad that held off one of the Triceratops Herds on my right flank.  Not only did they hold them off, they produced that one point of damage that removed the last green hit box on the Trikes that forced the failed courage check.

What are the current rules for the wolf packs and bear packs in the Ravenwood army?  Is it still pitch one to play one?

In general, his dice were rather swingy.  He do zero damage, zero damage, zero damage, then 4 damage.  The problem, though, was he couldn't do enough damage to get a breakthrough in time.  Part of that was the dice rolls.  Part of that was his literal luck of the draw.  Here's the cards remaining undrawn at the end of the game:

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2845/9044358848_c3db75be7a_c.jpg

Orc have 6 Pow-boosting cards in their hand (2 Might, 2 Force, 2 Blood Scent).  Of those, 4 of them were still in the deck at the end of the game, and the Blood Scent he drew the last round.  The Orcs were trying to claw through a bunch of T3 with only a single Might to help them out.

Oh man that's harsh!  And even though he had incredible luck with the courage rolls, the fact that he drew I Kill You Meself twice created dead cards in his hand while all of the goodies where at the bottom.

It was a shame that elephant unit on the far left (his right) took so long to see combat.

Yeah, that whole situation was a comedy of errors that ended up working out in my favor.  I goofed a rule I should (and do) know, but he was so amused by the concept of pinching with skirmishers that he didn't see that he hosed his own plan.  But had I not routed/destroyed the skirmishers on the turn I did (i.e. his turn), I wouldn't have been able to move up on my turn and avoid a pinch.

At the end of the game, he was actually thinking this build has some promise.  I don't think he's wrong (not sure he's right either), but he was definitely wrong to try it against the phalanxes.

It seems that Scott had a hang up with slaughtering his own quadrupeds by the hundreds.  It was a shame that elephant unit on the far left (his right) took so long to see combat. 

I could definitely see having made Cygnets without maneuver mastery.  It fits their status as novice-by-high-elf-standards and would have made them a bit more efficient as tanks.  I absolutely wouldn't have accepted giving them a 5/4 offense or 2/1 defense for the reasons given by Kevin.  Everyone has to fight their first battle sometime, but High Elves would never risk their own with crappy equipment implied by those stats (or by the novice skill implied by a 4/5 offensive profile.

As an aside, one of the most common complaints/suggestions made about a given faction is that it needs a unit that is good at some particular function.  Whether we're right in our faction design it's important to note that faction weaknesses are by design.  It's not an absolute rule but in general I think it improves the game when factions are good at some things but not others.  If every faction had a good heavy cavalry and a good light cavalry and a good tank and a good breakthrough unit and could play stand-and-shoot and close-and-hose equally well and had some units that were good at disruption and good chumps, etc., then the distinction between the armies begins to wane.  The High Elves were always meant to be an army that tended to be outnumbered and to have to make tough (and sometimes painful) choices in order to field a full line.  Cygnets and Battle Squads were included because without them this problem was just too severe but we never wanted them to have a weenie unit and I still don't.

Yeah, I used a modified version, but yeah basically it's the same situation.  One note is that this sub-phase is gone:

C3:  Javelin subphase.  Javelin (including Pila) attacks by units which are Charging or being Charged are resolved.

As per Chad's suggested changes to the Javelin rule, these attacks happen at the same time as the other attacks.

In general, I favor the rules being in the same order as the phases.  However, note that the 3.x turn order has changed, so that "attack spells" happen at a different time from "non-attack spells."  From the google doc...

3.0.1  Combat Phase Order


The combat phase is divided into subphases.


C1:  Spell subphase.  All non-attack spells are resolved. 


C2:  Target Selection subphase.  All units which have a choice of which enemy to target must select their targets. 


C3:  Javelin subphase.  Javelin (including Pila) attacks by units which are Charging or being Charged are resolved.

C3a Combat Consequences


C4:  Other Combat subphase.  All other attacks (including attack spells, and Javelins/Pila thrown at range) are resolved.

C4a Combat Consequences.



Note:  All attacks which occur in the same subphase are treated as being simultaneous.  So even if your unit is damaged destroyed by the opponent’s attack it still makes its own attack, and does so at its initial strength in the subphase.


[This replaces the previous 3.0.1 section.  Note:  in the next edition of the rulebook, it’s possible that the rules in section 3 should be renumbered/reordered to correspond to the new subphases.]

I'm going to use this thread for polling the audience about the updated rulebook (referred to henceforth as version 3.X).

My first question is spells.  In the current rulebook (3.0), spells is in section 7.8, tucked all the way at the back.  However, the stamped rules has this order of operations:

Step 1: Choose Defenders
Step 2: Cast Spells
   2A: Active Player casts spells
   2B: Spell Consequences
Step 3: Ranged and Engaged Combat
   3A: Active player’s ranged and engaged attacks
   3B: Non-Active player’s ranged (note this is rare) and engaged attacks
   3C: Combat Consequences

With the West Coast rules, I put Spell Casting in the main section, as its mentioned here.  Should I do that with the 3.X rules as well? Or should I go back to the 3.0 rules and tack it on at the end?

The upside of putting it in the middle of the rulebook is that we don't have people flipping through the book.  The rules show up in the order they're mentioned in the above order of operations.  The downside is that most factions don't actually have spell casters, and so to a new player it may be a diversion from the most common aspect of the combat system (i.e. shooting and engaged attacks), that serves only to confuse.  I can see a good argument for either. 

What says the peanut gallery?