Wonkiest factions

[gull2112]

I was going to blog about which factions were easiest to play and which ones the wonkiest. I had come up with this rating system based on number of faction special abilities, and spells, and keywords, etc. The problem I ran into was that the numbers thus generated did not seem to reflect the actual complications of the factions. HE had the same rating as Dwarves!
I decided just to rank them in order based on my humble opinion. So here it is:

Umenzi
Dark Elves/High Elves/Ravenwood
Rome
Carthage
M&M
Undead
Orcs/Dwarves
Hawkshold/Lizardmen

Note that this has nothing to do with how powerful a faction is, it simply basically ranks how many different things a player must consider when faced with various choices gamewise, and how subtle those choices are. For instance, Carthage would be pretty straightforward and simple, but using the foresight ability effectively requires an understanding of unit dynamics that can get pretty heady, especially for a newbie.
Umenzi I ranked toughest, but not by a lot, simply because other than the GWE's, they are a very light faction and require a lot of decisions to be made as to how to set up and maintain overall synergy.
Rome I ranked tougher than Cathage because for a Roman army to be used effectively you have to deploy in depth which is unlike any other faction and takes a little effort to wrap your mind around.

[Kevin]

Nice list.  I'd move Ravenwood to just below Rome, and the High Elves to just below Undead.  (Apart from Battle Mages, they're quite simple & straightforward), but otherwise I'm in total agreement with the list.

[gull2112]

Nice list.  I'd move Ravenwood to just below Rome, and the High Elves to just below Undead.  (Apart from Battle Mages, they're quite simple & straightforward), but otherwise I'm in total agreement with the list.

I was placing the HE higher because of their many Faction abilities, and I still would leave them where they are, but when I look again I concede that Maneuver Mastery makes them very forgiving, though I would say it then becomes too easy to rely on that, and end up with no spare actions for command cards. Ergo, my complexity rating.

There are essentially two different target groups here. Newbies who don't want to get overwhelmed, and convention worn or distracted (by reffing and/or teaching newbies) players who don't want to be bogged by details and other attention sapping tasks (essentially, energy alllotment).

I do concede your Ravenwood assertion however.

"The Ravenwood Assertion" sounds like a Big Bang Theory episode. 

[Niko White]

Nice list.  I'd move Ravenwood to just below Rome, and the High Elves to just below Undead.  (Apart from Battle Mages, they're quite simple & straightforward), but otherwise I'm in total agreement with the list.

Strongly disagree on High Elves; it's very easy to over- or under-use precision, Sprint, and MM, and either is bad.  Also MM means you aren't as hosed if you horribly screw up deployment but if you're actively using it to increase flexibility it makes tons of decision points.

[BubblePig]

Nice list.  I'd move Ravenwood to just below Rome, and the High Elves to just below Undead.  (Apart from Battle Mages, they're quite simple & straightforward), but otherwise I'm in total agreement with the list.

Strongly disagree on High Elves; it's very easy to over- or under-use precision, Sprint, and MM, and either is bad.  Also MM means you aren't as hosed if you horribly screw up deployment but if you're actively using it to increase flexibility it makes tons of decision points.

In my opinion, one of the easiest faux-pas to make in most factions is overuse of the special ability, so I don't see how that makes High Elves more or less wonky. Is there any faction ability that is just a no-brainer to use all the time?

[Niko White]

Nice list.  I'd move Ravenwood to just below Rome, and the High Elves to just below Undead.  (Apart from Battle Mages, they're quite simple & straightforward), but otherwise I'm in total agreement with the list.

Strongly disagree on High Elves; it's very easy to over- or under-use precision, Sprint, and MM, and either is bad.  Also MM means you aren't as hosed if you horribly screw up deployment but if you're actively using it to increase flexibility it makes tons of decision points.

In my opinion, one of the easiest faux-pas to make in most factions is overuse of the special ability, so I don't see how that makes High Elves more or less wonky. Is there any faction ability that is just a no-brainer to use all the time?

No, but some of them guide you more in terms of when they are or aren't right to use, or aren't as bad if you get it wrong, IMO.  Hawk Bravery and Rune of Uruz are both good enough that if you just mark it on everyone by the time they get engaged it isn't a disaster, ditto Faith Armor.  And most factions just have one.  Precision especially is usually a trap but you're selling yourself short if you never use it.

I think the idea of "easy to play" is pretty hard to pin down in lots of ways, but I maintain the High Elves are a challenging faction, and they're certainly the one newbies have the hardest time with.  Between their tendency to get rolled if things start going badly and the fact that you need to be decent at the game to even figure out what Maneuver Mastery means, let alone all the tactical implications, they've got to be high on the list for most definitions.

If by "hard to play" you mean "difficult to win with" then I agree that drops sharply off with experience - skilled players should find the High Elves quite strong.  But that's not what I took to be the question; I was reading "hard to play" as "requiring a lot of skill and/or understanding of the game" rather than "difficult to win with."  Given the complexity of Maneuver Mastery, Sprint to some extent, and the interaction of the two especially, I'm quite sure they qualify, and my experience with new players trying to get a feel for them bears that out.

I guess to me there's also a difference between maximum result and minimum result - ie, I think a faction should count as easy to play if someone just bumbling along with it will do reasonably well, even if the "optimal" plays are hard to figure out.  I'm sure it's possible to play Dwarves better than I do, since I don't like them much, but I'm also pretty sure they're a relatively easy faction to play, because the obvious plan - throw down some random line units and get stuck in - works well.  There isn't really an obvious plan for HE's and most armies you can make with them don't do very well.

[elgin_j]

I think Lizardmen and Dwarves probably need to be swapped around.  The Lizzies are far more challenging to play with than the short ones.

If we're talking about factions that are easy to win with then I'd suggest the Hawks move above Orcs, Lizzies and Dwarves, as I find they shine best the better they're understood.

[BubblePig]

I guess I was thinking of this in terms of low-mid level players since a total newcomer is probably gonna get smoked the first few times they sit down to play anyway. I think precision is more of a waste of a command action on those occasions when it should be left alone. But because of that lack of payoff, in the admittedly small number of games I've played vs newcomers playing High Elves my opponent figured that out. Compare that with Rune of Uruz and Faith Armor, on the other hand, which often get put on units that IMO won't pay back the investment, even by non-newcomers. Maneuver Mastery and Sprint have the potential of being misused, but often make up for that by lessening the pain of bad maneuvering. Bravery is the only special ability I can think of that isn't a trap for the new player.

[RushAss]

I think different factions are more difficult in different phases of the game.  I'll expand on what Niko said about the Dwarves.  As long as you have a halfway decent build, you can pretty much plop down a bunch of line guys and do reasonably well.  The difficulty with them lies in the army deployment itself.  If you find a way to screw that up then you can be in trouble because you'll be burning command actions like crazy between Sprinting them (just to move 3.5!), switching standing orders, and direct control.  The Umenzi and Rome are similar in that you have to know how to deploy these guys due to their synergistic nature.  Once you know how to deploy these 3 factions well, the game play itself generally isn't so bad. 

And then you have the other side of the coin in the Elven factions.  Especially the High Elves.  With the High Elves you can deploy poorly and still come out OK because these guys can just zip around each other and snap into a more optimal formation in a couple of turns.  So they are more forgiving in the deployment aspect.  However, they become much more difficult as the game progresses due to them having more decision points available to them than most other factions. 

So I'm really not sure which faction is the wonkiest.  If you where going by which faction was the oddest or most unique, I'd go with the Umenzi.

[BubblePig]

Assuming wonkiest means - you need a lot of experience to play the faction well at all, or factions that still have a steep learning curve when you are starting to get the hang of other factions:
 
Dark Elves - Lots of really cool units you should leave in the box most of the time
M&M - Lots of really cool units you should leave in the box most of the time
Umenzi - One really cool unit you should leave in the box most of the time
Carthage - Hard to avoid impulsive units, unit costs can make army building challenging, using foresight well adds to that challenge
Rome - Like Carthage but with more straightforward units, good unit cost spread, and easier special abilities
High Elves - Expensive units and so many ways to spend command points
Lizardmen - Paying for the frenzy up front, but not getting bonus until opponent in the yellow
Ravenwood - Good unit cost spread, good flexibility
Undead - A lot of units you don't have to worry about routing 
Orcs - Plain solid units and lash can get you out of a jam, meeting core can be annoying
Dwarves - Rune of Uruz can be a waste on some units
Hawkshold - Bravery: my vote for least challenging faction-specific way to spend a command point

Gull, I think Rome is far easier to get the hang of than Carthage.

[Zelc]

As far as faction abilities go, I think Precision is probably the worst.  Even a bad offensive command card is worth about 0.8 damage, so it's really only good if your unit wounds on a 5+.  Plus you have to use it before rolling to hit so you can't even play around enemy command cards.  Maybe it's good if you really need your Chariots to one-shot an enemy and you can't draw enough Command Cards to guarantee a red one.  But that's OK, because the High Elf Command Action ability is Maneuver Mastery anyway.

Also, I think I'm the only one, but I'm going to vote for Hawkshold as being hard to build and deploy.  It's not nearly as straightforward as, say, the High Elves.