Command Card proposal

[Chad_YMG]

I'm borrowing heavily from Corey's first draft. 

Shadow of Erebus
Discard X Command Cards before your opponent rolls to hit.  If your opponent does equal or less than X points of damage, your unit takes no damage from the attack.  Otherwise, your unit takes the full amount of damage.  Increase X by 1 if your unit is nearby a Priestess.

I think it's OK to let someone pitch a ton of cards to be sure of nullifying one attack.  This version is weaker if you're not near a Priestess.

Challenge of Herakles
Play before your opponent rolls to hit.  Your unit gains D: +1/+0 for this attack and +1 Cge this turn.  If your unit is engaged with an enemy unit that has Offensive Skill 6 or higher, your unit gains an additional D: +1/+0 and +1 Cge.

I think it should invoke a different name, since Hercules by any name is more known for power than skill (although he had that, too!)  Athena, maybe?

Defiance of Thanatos
Play on an engaged unit before rolling to hit.  Your unit gets (+1)+1/+0 this attack.  If it is in the Yellow or in the Red or nearby a Priestess it gets an additional (+1)+0/+0 this attack and C+2 this turn.

While I like the original design I'd rather restrict that sort of thing to factions like the Hawks that were all about the training.

Insert religious name here
Play before your opponent rolls to hit. Your unit gets D+1/+0.  If it is in the Yellow or in the Red or nearby a Priestess it gets an additional D+0/+1.


Aim of the Huntress
Play before rolling to hit.  Your unit gains (+1) +0/+1 this attack and if you cause at least two of damage before damage prevention, you cause an additional point of damage.

I still think this is very powerful.  Might is a perfectly OK command card and this will let an unfair fight get truly gross.

Sisters in Arms
Play when you fail a rout check.  Reroll that rout check.  If the unit is nearby a Priestess it gets C+2 this turn.

Presence of the Huntress
Play during the Movement & Command Phase.  Mark up to two Arete boxes.

Worthy of the Gods
Play before rolling to hit.  Your unit gains (+1) +1/+0 on this attack.  If the unit's Arete box is marked, the unit also gains (+0) +0/+1 on this attack.

[Hannibal]

Shadow of Erebus
Discard X Command Cards before your opponent rolls to hit.  If your opponent does equal or less than X points of damage, your unit takes no damage from the attack.  Otherwise, your unit takes the full amount of damage.  Increase X by 1 if your unit is nearby a Priestess.

I think it's OK to let someone pitch a ton of cards to be sure of nullifying one attack.

I think this could lead to some wonky stuff as the game degenerates into endgame, but that is probably more a problem with the game than the card.

Challenge of Herakles
Play before your opponent rolls to hit.  Your unit gains D: +1/+0 for this attack and +1 Cge this turn.  If your unit is engaged with an enemy unit that has Offensive Skill 6 or higher, your unit gains an additional D: +1/+0 and +1 Cge.

I think it should invoke a different name, since Hercules by any name is more known for power than skill (although he had that, too!)  Athena, maybe?

Challenge of Achilles!

Defiance of Thanatos
Play on an engaged unit before rolling to hit.  Your unit gets (+1)+1/+0 this attack.  If it is in the Yellow or in the Red or nearby a Priestess it gets an additional (+1)+0/+0 this attack and C+2 this turn.

While I like the original design I'd rather restrict that sort of thing to factions like the Hawks that were all about the training.

Fair enough.  Can I recommend that anything tied to Priestesses have religious sounding cards while stuff that is "heroic actions" gets suitable names.  Like this one just screams for "A Hero Shall Rise" as its name.

Insert religious name here
Play before your opponent rolls to hit. Your unit gets D+1/+0.  If it is in the Yellow or in the Red or nearby a Priestess it gets an additional D+0/+1.

What about naming this one Defiance of Thanatos?

Aim of the Huntress
Play before rolling to hit.  Your unit gains (+1) +0/+1 this attack and if you cause at least two of damage before damage prevention, you cause an additional point of damage.

I still think this is very powerful.  Might is a perfectly OK command card and this will let an unfair fight get truly gross.

That works.

Sisters in Arms
Play when you fail a rout check.  Reroll that rout check.  If the unit is nearby a Priestess it gets C+2 this turn.

Since it's tied to a Priestess, what about "Light of the Goddess"?

[Chad_YMG]

I think I agreed with everything in your post. 

[Chad_YMG]

One more thought -- how about a singleton movement card linked either to Perseus or some other famous hero?

Play at the start of Movement & Command.  Target unit gets +1MC and gains maneuver mastery.  You may take direct control of it at no cost.

[Hannibal]

Play at the start of Movement & Command.  Target unit gets +1MC and gains maneuver mastery.  You may take direct control of it at no cost.

Naw.  Too C&C-ish.  I'd keep in the theme of having a unit be more a "collection of warriors" than a "unit of soldiers."  So not many M&C phase command and control cards, which this definitely is.

In the same vein, I think it's a good idea to keep the Courage cookies out of cards wherever we can and instead tack it on to their secondary ability.  Have them gain courage for heroic actions, not cards.  I'm trying to envision ways that secondary ability would work, but the general theme is that this is kinda like the Lizardmen in that its a downhill army.  It gets braver as it gains momentum.

The easiest one is +1 Courage this turn if you force a color change.

Another idea is to have the Cge bump have a range.  Maybe +1 Cge this turn to all units with a centerpoint within 3.5"?  Nearby units get inspired by your deeds.

Another, more complex, is to have Cge go up when that unit causes a color change or a rout.  Then you mark a box over the Cge stat (I'm thinking 3 boxes).  If the unit routs, it erases all the boxes.  Don't think it'd work, but I'm mainly throwing stuff against the wall.


Also, I had a thought on the names of the command cards.  I think using some of the more common names is gonna sound kinda corny.  Like we can get away with Erebus because its not well known.  But if we start naming cards after Achilles and Hector and such, I think the faction is gonna look like a bad D&D conversion.  I'd rather keep the mythos separate from real world, hence names like "The Goddess" and The Oathbreaker."

[ZiNOS]

Greek police here.

Please no more Ancient Greek lore......

• Thanatos is a modern word. Hades was the God of the underworld, Charon his servant that ferried the Souls. I actually live now some kms aways from the river Acherontas, the gate to the Underworld according to Ancient Greek Lore :p :p :p Beat this...
• Erebus is a "sub-deity", was the son of Chaos and is the "god" of darkness. Do you want Erebus or Cerberus, the three headed dog that guarded the Underworld?
• Heracles was a demi-god, Achilles was an immortal hero with a flaw. Choose what you like more.
• "Insert religious name here
  Play before your opponent rolls to hit. Your unit gets D+1/+0.  If it is in the Yellow or in the Red or nearby a Priestess it gets an additional D+0/+1." What about Athena? She is female and she carries a shield after all.
• Sisters in Arms can be renamed as favour of the goddess since this is the wording of the ancient epics, the gods favoured some mortals, no light shining on them, this is Christian stuff.
• Huntress can be Artemis.

But why more Ancient Greece? Come on! Try Celtic myths, Norwegian Mythology, even ancient Indian one (although if has the roots for the gods we know from Greece and the general Mediterranean....

Cheers, i am having a headache with Gaygamela scenario......

[ZiNOS]

One more thought -- how about a singleton movement card linked either to Perseus or some other famous hero?

Play at the start of Movement & Command.  Target unit gets +1MC and gains maneuver mastery.  You may take direct control of it at no cost.

If we go with MALE famous heros, then i think that the whole amazon flavour is a bit thrown aside.

Hermes was the fleet footed god, the messenger of the gods.

Ok, i am stopping..... back to the bed, sick with Gastroenteritis.....

[Chad_YMG]

Naw.  Too C&C-ish.  I'd keep in the theme of having a unit be more a "collection of warriors" than a "unit of soldiers."  So not many M&C phase command and control cards, which this definitely is.

Agreed.  I like the card design, but not for this faction.

In the same vein, I think it's a good idea to keep the Courage cookies out of cards wherever we can and instead tack it on to their secondary ability.  Have them gain courage for heroic actions, not cards.  I'm trying to envision ways that secondary ability would work, but the general theme is that this is kinda like the Lizardmen in that its a downhill army.  It gets braver as it gains momentum.

The easiest one is +1 Courage this turn if you force a color change.

Another idea is to have the Cge bump have a range.  Maybe +1 Cge this turn to all units with a centerpoint within 3.5"?  Nearby units get inspired by your deeds.

I think we want to avoid the tracking and measuring in the latter option.  The straightforward C+1 is good, but I think I'd broaden it to include any damage in the red.  Basically, if you do damage that would normally cause a rout check then you get C+1.

Another option would be to give each unit a heroism box that gets marked if they do something and gives a permanent bonus.  That would allow the possibility of command cards or command actions being an alternate way to mark the box.  (Reversing this line of thought, a unit's Arete box might automatically get marked when it kills or routs an enemy unit, as a sign of divine favor or just battle lust.)

Also, I had a thought on the names of the command cards.  I think using some of the more common names is gonna sound kinda corny.  Like we can get away with Erebus because its not well known.  But if we start naming cards after Achilles and Hector and such, I think the faction is gonna look like a bad D&D conversion.  I'd rather keep the mythos separate from real world, hence names like "The Goddess" and The Oathbreaker."

At this stage in development I think it's more about putting things out there with obvious meanings and then seeing how we feel about them.  I think our long term goal should be to aim for a mythos that is inspired by Greek mythology but not drawn directly from it.

[ZiNOS]

Concerning Challenge of Heracles that still needs a name according to the files posted by Chad, i very much like one word names like mettle, accuracy etc.

What about : "Endurance" or "Stamina"?

[gull2112]

Concerning Challenge of Heracles that still needs a name according to the files posted by Chad, i very much like one word names like mettle, accuracy etc.

What about : "Endurance" or "Stamina"?

This just gave me an idea for a Finnish mythos faction that had "Sissu" as a faction trait!

[ZiNOS]

LOL, nice one!