TaKtiX: Laurence J Sinclair

Will The Chosen be Chosen?

2009-06-26T07:13:00.002+01:00

The Chosen are still shiny and new to me, and I still can't remember all their names when casting I Call Forth Valor. Yes, it's been a year.

ATIRATU has all that summoner-fu going for her, but as I said, I can't be bothered to learn the names of all those daemons, and my deck doesn't attempt to ranch dragons. Any wizard deck worth its wand chews her apart really quickly.

***

NARAM-SIN hasn't even been properly updated with either of the expansion sets, still slowly plugging away with base set cards. And it shows. I've been meaning to convert him over to Nin-Gula (who at least sports the Cantor trait), but that's hardly the thing I'm going to do the night before the tournament (yes, it's tomorrow!)

***

SANGA-KISH is another blasty wizard, with none of the complicated interactions of the other two Chosen decks. He blows things up with spells,effectively has a six card hand,and practically guarantees himself movement to the second rank on the first turn. He gets more powerful as he gets hurt, to boot,so the opponent had better hope to drop him in one hit!

Yes, of the three options available, Snaga-Kish is the most likely to be used in the tournament tomorrow, as he fits into that bicycle-riding window of opportunity. We'll see.

But it'll probably be a few days before I post final choices and resulting events up here...

NoThRoG

2009-06-25T08:14:00.002+01:00

Ahh, the NoThRoG. Always reliable for doing the thing they do best.

KRENTHOR GOUGE is a frontline warlord with a means to heal himself and give his associates better attack bonuses as they get wounded. Those two abilities cover two of the bases of worry that a frontline fighter has.

Krenthor is surrounded by blitzy buddies, nobody above level 3 (although with Hovrakk and Hrunting the level 3 representatives, one can hardly say he's losing out on power by ignoring level 4) and - much like those other frontline decks I have - aims to get to the position where he devours the opposing warlord's face as quickly as possible.

What he has over the others, tactically speaking, is the self-healing to save him from an early,embarrassing demise (not to mention that 4th HP) and a high enough attack that he doesn't need to wait to grab a weapon before getting stuck in.

His downside over,say, Brymin or Alera is that I just don't like him as much, despite his cool name. For one thing he's a troll, and for another he's generally popular, which just rankles me for no explicable reason.

***

SCYRAX is the latest iteration of the siege master style of play, and while he doesn't quite measure up to Syvonne (it's hard to measure up to a hundred foot fire giantess, to be fair), he does bring the wizard tricks that push him past also-rans like Sceth and Contal. And he has an adorable little grin.

It's a 'shooty' deck, but it relies upon the minions more than the warlord to dealout punishing, multi-HP wounds to the enemy (outside the occasional Lightning Bolt where required). And since war machines are pretty chunky, it doesn't want for 'meat' when it comes to holding ranks.

Scyrax does require a LOT of thinking, though. WHich machine should he move forward? Should it fire now, or wait for a more auspicious moment? Is it worth Goza crumpling up an ally for more ammo,or would it be better off lasting for next turn and another shot of its own?

I'm not sure if I want to have to make decisions like that in a tournament. I can't rely on myself to make the right ones in the spur of the moment.

***

SET'ROKH is sexy. The token NoThRoG female for the moment, she follows the Uthanak path to victory - command from behind, allowing big ol'NoThRoG bruisers to win the fight. She uses all those tactical actions that I never manage to make room for in other decks, and that is what makes her different from Kaiten or Sigurdur.

There are steeds in the deck (a few griffons, a verdatha for the big lady), but it's mainly actions that get people into place, with Bokos and One More Time making double use of some of them for greater efficiency than a simple horsie would allow.

I'm undecided as to whether I prefer her to Kaiten. She's hot, but Kaiten has the eye-patch... Oh, yeah, and there are playstyle considerations as well, I'm sure. The Deverenians last that little bit longer with their steed-given stat boosts, but damn if the NoThRoG don't kick out a lot of hurt with their frenzied flailings. If I'm honest, I think that Kaiten's initiative boost may just tip him to being a little better, but don't tell Set'rokh I said that...

***

Just one faction left now, those newbies calling 'emselves The Chosen. And just two days until the tournament itself. I probably should have paced these posts a little better...

Mercenaries

2009-06-24T17:20:00.002+01:00

Mercenaries are a real faction, and the recent printing of Bosun Blacknose has ensured that I keep my current supply at three decks, maximising my starting copies of the little scamp.

KEREBRUS, being a fighter-cleric, is just my kind of warlord. Not quite Lord Netheryn, but close. Also one for running to the front personally, and if you've been reading the last few entries here, that's a playstyle I'm rather given to fondness for.

Most of the times I hear about him in 4th Edition, he's being run as a 'six-man', with no other characters outside the starters (and perhaps Judge Aeacus). That's not for me, however, and so my deck is weighed down by numerous level 3 and 4 fighters eager to share in the killing, splitting up the available movement and meaning that Kerebrus has been beaten more times than he's won, to date.

Starting Brine Fiends may have something to do with it, as well.

***

QUEEN YAHIA is old-school wizard zapping, all the way, with all the familiar mercenary characters running in to attack as fast as possible. The big plus she has over Yavlo (besides better hair) is her built in ability that she can use even if she's drawn no spells for a turn. It's endlessly amusing to remind an opponent to 'stop hitting yourself' as his underlings proceed to cut each other and their warlord apart. There's no real insight to gibe in this case, other than it's fairly simple to pilot, as well.

***

SHAH'SYSS is disappointing. He's finally a sutek(h) warlord, and a frontline fighter to boot. It's just a shame that his ability to grab monsters and boost them has limited effect at present. He hasn't got many friends to play with, and the deck I have constructed is very half-hearted.

He's an ugly lizard and his name isn't nearly as funny as SS-SAURTH's. He's just not the same...

The Free Kingdoms

2009-06-23T17:55:00.003+01:00

They're the faction that gets a banner at the bottom of my Temple of Lore forum signature, so the FreeKs should really be the natural choice for deck to take to Manchester. Yet I'm feeling distinctly ambivalent toward them.

Take my LOGAN EBONWOULFE deck, for example. It's half and half trying for melee and ranged strike kills, which while adaptable does lessen its focus toward both objectives. Barrett and Graham are pulling Logan in two different directions, and it's to his credit that he does as well as he does with the tools I've given him. 'Optimised'. That's the word I'm looking for. He could be optimised better, but I like to have options available when playing, y'know?

Anyway,probably not tournament-worthy.

***

NIOBE throws forward all those big, nasty high-level characters that the FreeKs have access to. Yes, I mean Barrett. She's also a front-line cleric, which I have a fondness for. Again though, this leads to the deck being slightly schizophrenic, torn between rushing Niobe to the front and also keeping the ranks stable enough to bring characters in in rank 4. One collapse early on and it's all over, and the deck often helps defeat itself.

It's also nerve-racking having Niobe spend as soon as possible each turn and hoping that her boosted AC is enough to survive my opponent's worst while the lesser FreeKs try to do some damage back.

***

CAPTAIN ALERA has the pirate trait, and plays very similarly to that old favourite, Kara Wadreth. There're no mixed messages here; just like Brymin, Alera runs up front to smash people down personally. It's very fun, and works better with her than the Deverenians, if only because the FreeK support characters (Aida, Dreiga, Corten Lye, Kiras Yscar, etc.) are so much better than their evil red opposite numbers.

She wins big or she loses big, but either way games don't drag on too long. With a little fine-tuning, she may be up for the challenge...

Elves. Meh.

2009-06-22T18:16:00.002+01:00

They've served me well in the past, but I only have two elf decks assembled for 4th Edition, and even that's stretching the definition of 'assembled'.

RACLESIS has enough cards to be playable, but since it was put together using the plan of throwing in every card with the word POISON on it, it may not hold together too well. It needs a little tuning, and the effort probably won't be worth the poor results, but I'm determined to do something to make the supposed worst warlord playable. It's also refreshing to have access to an Elven cleric warlord that isn't broken.

***

MORGHEN THE UNLIVING is the other deck. Swarms of undead are always fun, and no-one does that better than the only necromancer warlord in the format. Characters enter play, attack straightaway thereafter, and come back for more thanks to Ayaaba and the other necromancer support characters, while Morghen tosses magical death from the safety of the second rank. It's everything a necromancer deck should've been through past formats yet never quite managed to measure up to without being either lame or over-powered.

But it suffers badly against certain match-ups, where a wall of corpsesis no impediment to a barrage of ranged strikes directly into the lich's face. The counter-strategy for this is Morghen hiding in the third rank and acting through his subordinate proxies, but that's not as fun.

Morghen definitely makes my shortlist for decks to take to the conquest event - he's fun.

DWARVES!!! I suppose...

2009-06-19T07:51:00.003+01:00

They're still not a favourite of mine, but in 4th Edition I find myself hating dwarven decks less and less. They're not quite the healing stall-midgets they once were.

My KING ALARIC deck illustrates this perfectly. It's very similar to the Brymin deck I mentioned yesterday, in that it stars a front-rank warlord and their low-level support.

Alaric is slightly more dependent on his minions than the duchess, as his stats are directly tied to them, and they help him out with healing (Atone) and readying (Mentor). His action advantage in getting to lay down a dwarf in reaction to another being killed is great, but also doesn't directly begin to compare with Brymin's card draw. That's one reason why this is one of my few decks to utilise Meet at the Inn!

The other reason is that Alaric is a semi-uber deck. There are a few actions in there (Thrust and Bear's Soul beside MATI, for example), but unlike Brymin he depends on a solid drawing of well-crafted dwarven weaponry to enhance his relatively meagre abilities. He's ever-so-slightly not as fast as her. But then, he is a dwarf.

***

THEKK ROCKBENDER is more of a classical dwarf deck in design, with a cleric sitting at the back to alternately heal and ready his underlings and grind his enemy to paste very freakin' slowly. I never truly grasped the concept in the past (because it offends my delicate quick-play senses), and I still haven't.

Partly I think that I've still not worked how whether he's meant to rush forward to stand amongst his brethren and use his abilities, or hide at the back like a coward. The deck is a painful mixture of the two that doesn't quite gel, and I seriously doubt that I'd risk myself using it in a tournament.

***

SIGURDUR is more my speed. He supports like a cleric, but since he's a fighter he's not afraid to run up and hit things when a job needs doing. Admittedly, that desperate last gasp strategy hasn't paid off in the past,but it exists as an option.

The deck possibly packs even more steeds than Kaiten's. Not becuase the warlord gives extra bonuses along with them, but because his fighters don't need much else. The warlord can create weapons for them, so there's no reason not to pack the deck with enough movement to allow them to use 'em.

With the large number of dwarves that came out in Shattered Empires with abilities playing off spending, destroying or retrieving weapons, the character base for the base pretty much assembled itself. Vex Duntan was all the extra needed.

It's essentially a variation on Deverenian cavalry with dwarves, and that alone makes it the dwarven deck I'm least unlikely to use. The fact that I can't correctly pronounce the warlord's name is enough of a black mark to forever keep me from playing it, though.

***

Next time, I'm onto elves. They've been my reliable tournament first pick in the past, but at the present time I only have two elven decks assembled, fewer than any other faction - including DWARVES.

What's the cause of this great upheaval? You'll just have to wait.

Deverenians?

2009-06-18T17:28:00.002+01:00

Looking through my box, I see that I've currently got four 4E Deverenian decks assembled, more than any other individual faction. That alone must make them favourites to give up the selected deck for next week's UK Conquest event.

They're hogging quite a few good rares, as well.

COMMANDER KAITEN has been assembled using the prudent method of simply throwing in every rare Deverenian paladin I could find, and a stable-load of steeds to properly outfit them - nothing wrong with noble knights charging forwards on sharks as much as verdatha, says I.

Of course, there are also cleric tricks like Kor's Patience (I like to think of it as THE STORM'S patience) and Final Blessing, the By Your Word-lite Ardent and even a minor combo with Sir Edgard and Scimitar (more of a nombo, really).

A little testing last week did show that it chain together a healthy stream of attacks before taking the first action of a turn, but a starting line-up featuring Caleb the Shifter and Inquisitor Slayne may not be for the best. A little experimentation may be needed still.

The biggest point in this deck's favour is that the warlord wears an eyepatch, automatically making him cooler than Maxt Stormcrow on ice.

***

BRYMIN OF THE MARCHES suffers from having her bigger character options pre-poached by the two Deverenian cavalry decks, but that's really more of an opportunity for her to dip a toe in the shallower end of the character pool. That's right; Dev blitz!

With exceptions made for Mother Deiane and Cardinal Scelus (the church often wangles free passes denied to the gentry), everyone is here to run up and smash the enemy pretty quickly, allowing the duchess to do her thing - draw cards and take names. The simple joy of a Squire Arrigan switch-start is one that I've missed for too long, and the other Deverenians don't really have the room to accomodate her.

Of course, the ugly 4E art for Brymin has been replaced by a photoshop of her original I-can't-believe-William-o'Conner-painted-something-so-good portrait. Wouldn't feel right, otherwise.

***

INQUISITOR DMITIR is the other cavalry deck that I mentioned, looking similar to Commander Eye-patch's. Only difference being, the fighter got first dibs on paladins, leaving the Inquisition to make use of Mariah Blackthorn and a false claim that the deck is designed purposefully around level 3 characters.

Still, the deck balances fewer steeds with more healing, a much better Initiative bonus and the ability for the warlord tolive vicariously through his minions with Speed of the Falcon. The times where it manages to lose initiative and not get a heads-up on the terrible hands forthcoming would be a minor impediment, but any warlord that can 'take 10' on a die roll is OK by me. Unless it happened to be a dwarf.

***

YAVLO THE KINDLED has all my Incinerates. He denies them to my other wizard decks with feeble excuses about bonuses to Fire spells. It's kept him alive (sleeved and part of a deck) for the time being, but he'salso been aided by the fact that his character base is composed of wizards, whom my other Devs want nothing to do with. If it can't ride a Griffon, it's not worth playing.

To be fair, Yavlo is a fun deck to play, if nothing special. There areother blasty wizards (that I'll get to in later posts) that are just waiting for him to fall in favour so that they can pry the Incinerate scrolls from his finally cold and dead hands...

***

Of these four decks,I may be erring towards Kaiten, if only due to the thrillof the new and the promise of an eye-patch. Dmitir covers much the same ground, and Brymin's front-rank antics are too risky to reliably win. Yavlo is nothing terribly special over sorcerers of other factions.

Another minor prompt for me to play a Deverenian deck is the current malaise that has settled over the Temple of Lore, with the Dev players complaining about how they're the weakest faction. Not that I'm a good enough player to truly prove 'em wrong, but I'm tempted to give it a shot...

Next time, I'll take a deep breath and seriously consider Dwarfs. Eeg.

Not Quite ManCon, but Close

2009-06-16T07:51:00.003+01:00

It's been difficult, trying to get back into the 'competitive' mindset for the forthcoming UK Conquest event in Manchester (27th-28th June, folks!). What with having missed out on getting to the last KoHIT, it's been quite some time since I was last in a tournament environment.

My chances of building a decent deck are consequently pretty slim.

Chances are, I'll just look through my deck boxes and select whichever oneis the least likely to lose. As cool as Shah'syss is, he does manage to get shot in the face an awful lot.

I'll attempt to share my insights here over the next few days.

Repetitive

2009-01-12T20:29:00.002Z

So, it seems as if all previous entries here in my memory have been promising that 'soon' I will update this with useful content. It should be obvious by now that this has failed to manifest.

I did, for several months, nurture the idea of posting an article about all those cards that have carried through every edition of the game since their first appearance, but the work involved in that led to me constantly putting off getting started on it. And now, with 4th Edition's first expansion (Shattered Empires - on sale now!) out, it's nowhere near as relevant as it was just after a new base set. Oh, well.

Still, I am filled with good intentions. But I'll throw this open to whatever damned souls out there have stuck with me through this, and still read my scant 'updates'. What sort of things should I write about? With a little input,perhaps I'll make this worthwhile after all...

Yeah, So I'm Irregular

2008-09-25T18:50:00.002+01:00

I keep intending to make posts here, yet always get caught up with something else. At the moment, I'm in the process of trimming down my collection of open Warlord cards - do I actually need thirty-forty copies of Blast?

Problem one is determining how many copies of a card is sensible to retain - is six enough? I know that, as soon as I've disposed of the rest, I'll suddenly discover a crushing need for them.

The other problem is the disposal itself. While it will certainly be cathartic to drop a big pile of cards into a recycling bin, is there anyone out there that would give a home to an insulting large pile of mostly-useless commons and uncommons? I feel that the answer is no, somehow.

Preparatory Stacks

2008-07-24T16:10:00.003+01:00

Surely it can't have escaped the attention of anyone interested in reading this here blog that the 4th edition of the Warlord CCG is on its way. I'd go so far as to say 'imminent'. Doubtless a greater proportion of you are even now hurridly sorting through piles of old cards, determining which will be tournament-legal for the new rules incarnation, based upon the steady stream of previews being provided by http://www.warlordccg.de/ and others.

This is all well and good, and I've even gotten so far as bashing together rough decks for each of the non-Chosen Warlords as I've come across valid options in my sifting. Well, Kerebrus is excepted as well, as his card pool does seem to be rather hamstrung by their leader's intolerance.

Segregating the semi-decks away has meant that what remains of the 4E cards fits nicely into a relatively compact space.Of course, once I get my hands on some true 4E product, they'll have to move onto a bigger box, but for now I'm content.

On the other hand, the group of 'non-legal' cards is now bigger than ever. When the last 'resets' for the game rolled around - at Campaign and Epic Editions - I was left with a fair pile of cardboard devouring storage space, but now - after some seven years of playing and collecting this game - it is truly monstrous.

It isn't even sorted. That's the kicker. At this point, where I'm only going to want to look through it to find the odd card for the rare instance when I'll be indulging in an open game, is it really necessary to have it catalogued properly? In recent cases of grabbing a cheap booster box or two off eBay, I'm skimmed all the rares from the packs and simply lumped the rest away without a care.

The proper care and attention for the past is something that I always intend to cultivate, but were I to come across the free time necessary to properly do so, I'm sure I'd rather spend it actually playing the game or building new decks, not dwelling on what was. Yet I don't want to be rid of the old because part of me knows that I'll want it some day. Gah.

Add to all of this the fact that I'll be moving house in a week's time, and I've probably been giving all of this too much thought. It's not as if there isn't a space under the bed that needs to be filled by something so that the bogeyman can't fit under there...

Long Overdue Update

2008-06-25T20:52:00.001+01:00

I am going to start using this again. Yes, I am.

Clearin' out the Tumblebleeds

2007-09-10T18:54:00.000+01:00

I could have sworn that I posted here yesterday, but apparantly blogger must have eaten it. Oh well.

I'll try and post stuff more regularly to this page from now on, what with KoHIT coming up and all.

Clearin' out the Tumblebleeds

2007-09-09T12:05:00.000+01:00

My, it has been a while since I updated this blog at all. I suppose that I really should do something about that, especially with Light & Shadow out and KoHIT approaching. But will that be worth it? Is there anyone out there actually reading this? If there is, please make yourselves known.

Friday saw a tiny four player draft of L&S take place here - this time of year means that one of the student players are in town, since the summer holidays call them home. Still, it went well enough, even if Chris and I both used Kara Wadreth as our warlord and were fighting over the available Free Kingdoms characters.

It didn't seem to be as big a problem as it could have been; L&S is nothing if it doesn't contain well above the usual % of characters for a set, and both of us rounded out our armies well enough. It was finding enough stuff to fill up the other half of the deck that was the problem, and I must say that I've never used Kara's pitching ability half as much as I did that night.

Skrim Spindlespleen and Serolia Calix were the other warlords, the first suffering from a dismal first level character, the second a lack of spells. I myself now have an abiding hatred of Loren; not once but twice did the incompetent dolt critically fail his +8 shot at Haden Rhys, in two separate games against Chris. I wouldn't exactly say that he cost me those games with those specific actions, but it's good to have a scapegoat at times.

Fork Over the Destiny, Handsome

2007-04-11T14:26:00.000+01:00

A Stolen Destinies reveal is coming this weekend in London, and I'm nowhere near ready.

Previously, when attempting Dragon Lord challenges, I've used the mighty Lord Netheryn as my champion, even if I have yet to meet with success. Following AEG's Christmas bundle deals, I'm now adequately enough stocked with Overlords and Dragon Lords to have several attempts at taking down more DL and possibly even a cohort or two. It's just that, without my favourite triple-classer warlord available to use, I'm going to have to think up some new schtick.

Huntress Volda does have the familiar cleric/fighter mix going on, as well as the 'whoops, try again' aspect if she happens to die just before finishing the opponent. Tanning Knives all the way, or something.

The Lady of Mercy, of course, has the cheese factor of amplifying the number of hits that the army can pull off, and the stunning ability is none too shabby either. May feel a bit cheap using her, though.

Then there are the myriad of possible combinations that are waiting out there in those cards, one doubtless worthy enough of a victory. It's just finding the time and dedication to simply sit down and run through the process of working out which ones are useful. Some people have the knack of just sitting down and throwing out a deck list or concept really easily, but I'm more likely to just put it off for as long as possible.

At this rate, I may have something ready during the actual journey to the capital...

Back - and Feelin' Mystical...

2007-03-21T00:58:00.000Z

Hmm, been a while since I updated this. Almost two months! I'll get better in the future, I promise. Tonight, I guess the fact that I had to slog through updating these blogs for Blogger's new Google features (whatever they are) was kharma's way of punishing me.

Well, I took second place in an eight-person tournament in Barnstaple on the weekend. Not the weekend just gone, but the one before. Shows just how much I'd forgotten about this here blog. Still, so long as I'm updating more often than Dyer, it's all good...

I played Biana the Mystical, lobbing flaming death onto the heads of her enemies and racking up a pleasing number of bonus levels over the course of the event. She destroyed Etra Bloodvine in short order; what does she care if her d'Ilchant Keepers are thrown back a rank or two? That doesn't prevent her from burning your face off, so Biana's still happy. Druids don't seem to have great AC or skill, particularly...

Sargok was next, and as much as a NoThRoG frontliner may hate Etra, so a spellslinger isn't good news either. Take out the Truggs in a barrage of magic missiles and those Grudurks lurking behind them are really left twiddling their thumbs. If possible, NoThRoG seem even more vulnerable than druids...

But since I only came second, I must have lost, right? Correct. Dyer's Tavis deck floored me, but then that's hardly a surprise. Even with his errata, he's still a beast of a warlord, cutting down the low-level pleebs that wizards field with no undue problems, and packing enough spells of his own to total the Astral meatshields that I threw up to hold him off. Vicious.

Still, Biana still remains as my favourite wizard warlord currently. It's not just her escalating efficiency that appeals (although that does resemble an old Ter-Soth deck that I put together, which involved a dirty combination of Spell Mastery, Innate Ability and Magic Missiles for exponential fun), but her OPG order. Wizards in general are reliant upon their hand for dealing out damage, whereas fighters can happily still attack even without anything useful in hand. Biana can guarantee throwing out at least some offense on a critical turn, which is usually enough in most circumstances.

Here followeth the deck list:

Biana the Mystical
Acolyte Dorra
Taika the Disjoined
d'Ilchant Keeper x3

Betray Fate x3
Boil Blood x2
Fiery Bolts x3
Final Power x2
Magic Missiles x3
Retributive Strike

Acolyte Dorra
Adina x2
Alexa Genecourt x3
Ghed Carel x3
Ghed Nuri x3
Olivark the Quiet
Prewitt the Benighted x3
Xaros the Mist x3

Damothien's Dungeon x2

Death's Call
Figurine of Wonder x2
Living History x3
Ring of Vorn x2
Wand of Negation

Numerous

2007-01-25T13:57:00.000Z

How many decks can one have assembled before they become too many? Now finding that I can't fit all my Warlord decks into one Battle Box, I'm asking myself that question.

Of course, one wants a variety of decks assembled in order to prevent the possibility of boredom that inevitably arises from playing the same deck over and over again. hence why I have some decks assembled from each faction and every class. That does mean that my humble collection of rare cards is stretched somewhat thin, however; not all my clerics can have access to Sieze Life, not all my assassins can dish out a Knife After Dark, etc. This may lead to some sub-optimal decks, but so long as they're fun, who cares? And since I still have spare Spencers and Dominy's, I can build plenty more FreeK decks, at least...

Sure, I could swap cards in and out of different decks (indeed, my dwarf decks are forced to share the same starting line-up as I don't have enough Warsongs for more'n one deck), but then I'd have to continually be putting cards into and out of all the different deck protectors that I have. It's bad enough that some of my decks have to languish in my old 'clear' protectors rather than luxuriate in the ones with pretty pictures on the back.

Now, there are only three more decks than can fit into the BB (twelve being the number that I consider the comfortable limit of the box's capacity), so it's only three extras to carry around, but is that still too much? Only two days ago did I have a cull of two decks that weren't really pointful to playing (Xiathe sniper and Brikta smash), and as time goes on I will deconstruct those that fail to perform well even after tinkering.

The number twelve was good, though; I could select which deck I would play for a game by rolling a d12. With fifteen decks, the choice becomes harder to randomise. How important is that with regards to determining a sensible number of decks to tote around? probably not quite as valid as the weight of the bag carrying all these piles of cards, right? Well, it's not taxing my definition of 'heavy', so in that regard it's fine.

Since I have no spare deck protectors left now (having bought more last Friday, admittedly), fifteen shall now be the functional maximum, new ideas forcing out old ones when they occur. The number has developed naturally, so there's no need to arbitrarily punish some of the strange decks that I've put together recently.

Except that Ablung one. I don;t know what I was thinking, putting every card with 'Shadow' in its title into a deck and hoping that it would work...

Deverenians at Large

2007-01-18T11:24:00.000Z

In honour of the Stolen Destinies Dev week, you'll find a Dev-related new fiction up at the Alderac forums. Penned as it is by Jon Sherefkin, author of the Skyyrek story, I urge you all to go and read it, as it's told with his customary flair.

Of Medusan Lords and Deverenian Destinies

2007-01-13T16:31:00.000Z

Up at the Warlord main page, there is a chance for people to submit their own ideas for the name of the latest Medusan Lord, a rather badass NoThRoG scout. Just be mindful that the closing date has now been extended to the 21st of this month, so don't be thinking that you've missed your chance!

While you're over at the site, you can also see the images for the warlords from the forthcoming Plane of Secrets expansion. Pretty cool, eh? Combine their sweet art with the fact that they're the first 'off-class' warlords for the factions for a while (by which I mean that the Deverenians get a rogue, the Dwarfs a wizard, the Elves a fighter, the Free Kingdoms a wizard and the NoThRoG a cleric - the Mercenaries' seemingly classless beastie is another matter entirely) and you'll begin to understand just how strange a place the Plane of Secrets is. Full of beauty and wonder, yes, but there are terrors there as well...

Third on the list of updates to the site (though not the least, by any means!) is the latest of the Stolen Destinies selections, this time for Deverenians. Who to choose? Taking into account the fact that all of you can read this time, I'm not going to reel off a list of candidates this time around. I'll just settle for telling you who snagged my own vote.

Sir Corwin Lorath. Not terribly useful from a gameplay point of view, but his minor storyline teaming up with Maxt Stormcrow to kill the emperor needs to be concluded, no? Little lvel 1 like him will need to hijack someone's destiny to get that achieved now, though...

Also, Sir Corwin was the piece of art that made me realise just how awesome an artist Jason Engle is. Random fact of the month.

You'll all be noticing the name 'Laela' on the SD list, and wondering who she is, and why you should bother to waste your vote on her. Well, while I'm not about to spoil the surprise that the Plane of Secrets has here (I'll leave that to someone else), you can extrapolate from her name what business she's about; not a knight or squire, and with no noble family lineage. Hmmm...

The Temple is Down, but...

2007-01-06T01:29:00.000Z

The Alderac Forums now feature Warlord areas alongside L5R, CoH, etc. While the Temple of Lore site may be on the fritz at the moment, there's now somewhere new to put all your posting!

Destiny of the Seven Dwarves

2007-01-02T14:37:00.000Z

Stolen Destinies is here. Malrog Ironface, founder of the Medusan Lord conspiracy, is going to finally have his revenge on the Lands of the Accord. His is a devious scheme, involving a perfect alignment of the moons, the Plane of Secrets and the stealing of fates.
However, all is not lost. With the voting of players of the Warlord CCG (that's you people reading this, unless you happened upon this article randomly) characters that we've all come to know and love can have their destinies assured, elevated to something greater than they were before.
Faction by faction the voting has progressed, with campaigns raging for certain sides in the conflict for popularity; of 42 candidates for each group, only the 7 most popular will seize control of their destinies, with one making it to the exalted position of warlord. Oh, and fiction to go with, natch.
It's week four now, and the Dwarfs are up for the vote. Unfortunately, 2007 has welcomed in a little downtime for the Temple of Lore forums, so I'm going to use my column here to lobby for my favoured candidate instead. Firstly, a list of those up for a chance at the big time (makes this article longer, and thus more impressive):

Aialla Truthlight
Anneal
Avalanche
Awl Beetle
Barhon Ironblade
Barrier
Bleed
Blue Jasper Gargoyle
Brawl
Brin, Pillar of Kor
Chain
Claw
Defiance
Denali Sagebound
Dirge
Dodger
Durick Havard
Edge
Envy
Fetter
Furore
Guardian
Hearth
Hymn
Ice
Limestone Gargoyle
Martyr
Memory
Roar
Rubble
Ruthless
Saul Tombcarver
Scorch
Staunch
Stonefist
Time
Trail
Traveler
Tripwire
Truth
Uthas Battleheim
Will

A shortlist of my own shall now follow. Avalanche is a Blackstone Raider: what's not to like about that? Claw: dwarf with a bear, and a staple character of old in Mat B's Xod deck (so long ago, now...). Dirge: He's almost a synonym for 'bad card' (jockeying with Sedwin Elfhunter on that score, actually; hence why it ain't in the dictionary just yet), but this could really be his chance to shine. Dodger: Hey, he has beet art, that should be reason enough. Edge: Badass from back in the day. Furore: One of Soren Nihil's buddy boys. His master may be gone, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a future (I hear that Ter-Soth's still recruiting...). Guardian: It's pretty clear that this dude's guaranteed a place in the seven dwarves (ha), but he is an icon of the faction, and deserves it. Saul Tombcarver: The guy carves tombs. C'mon... Stonefist: A fist made of stone, and that's his name. Who would win if he arm-wrestled Lord Anguisant, I wonder..?
Of course, all the others have valid arguments for inclusion as well (okay, maybe not the Awl Beetle or any of the Gargoyles; who likes rocks, anyway?), but hopefully this little wonderment of mine has got y'all thinking a bit more. Voting's open through Friday, when the next faction - fifth and penultimate - goes up to the block. Go now!
In the end, I plumped for Furore.

Warlord Advent Calendar

2006-11-27T13:15:00.000Z

Beginning in December, there's the traditional count-down of days before Christmas, and most people will probably be making ready to set up a piece of cardboard with windows hiding chocolates to aid with the anticipation. Twenty-four days and windows, all told.

Warlord booster boxes in Epic now hold twenty-four boosters each. One is enough to see one through the whole process, at a booster a day...

I'm pondering the idea currently. I don't have many Temple of Lore cards, for one thing, my only purchases so far having been for the coupla drafts that we've held here recently, where I got to witness the hideousness of Sir Lucien and Jeffrey in this format first hand. The artificer sets are also quite deadly. Poor old Aquiela (my warlord for the last draft, on Friday) found herself quite unable to generate much offence; sure, Lorand and three copies of Consume From Within meant that I was never short of characters, but that just drew the game out while I waited for my little Frost Shocks to show themselves... Still, she'll be awesome in constructed. Already got decks for her, Biana the Mystical and Xiathe built, and they look none too shabby.

Looking at the decks that I have built, however, I can see a dramatic change in my faction favouritism. Once upon a time, I was all about elves, looking at nothing else (save the occasional foray into using Kerebrus, Azhraan or Rr'egjen) but now...

My Dev count is three (Biana the Mystical, The Bloody Countess and Cardinal Creigh), dwarves zero (though I plan to do something with Trespass and/or Jorn of the Summit in the near future), elves but two (Aquiela and Laurena Kennet), Free Kingdoms one (Jin Valford, with Huntress Volda waiting for me to get around to updating her for ToL), Mercenaries a mighty four (Ablung the Maker, Black Tom of Corinth, Ter-Soth and Xiathe) and NoThRoG one (Syvonne Ashenstorm is the only one that piques my interest).

What happened? At what point did I diverge so greatly from my initial direction? And when did I go insane and decide to want to build a dwarf deck? Ah, I guess that diversity is a good thing, really. At least I'm getting back into the swing of making wizard decs again, even if most of my wizard rares remain in my folder. My recent rogue amnesty (taking apart all those rogue decks that I had) has freed up numerous Sewer Worms and Cloudracers that were at a premium. Spare No Prisoners! now as well...

But yes, the advent calendar. The plan should give a pleasant surprise throughout the month, and should I pull a copy of The Nemesis in the process, I think that Christmas Day is being rescheduled for then...

Debrief Regarding Failure

2006-11-16T15:53:00.000Z

So, back from KoHIT. It was a blast, and Arne and co. should be congratulated for hosting such an awesome spectacle and tournaments. Great to meet so many different players from across the world, and have the opportunity of playing against them. To those that I didn't talk to much, my apologies; I'm not the most outgoing of people, and tend to speak only when spoken to. Anyway, enough of this. I'm sure that you all want to hear about my actual performance in the tournament than my social problems...

In the end, I went for a sniper-y Cathel Rowan deck for the Epic singles (arrived too late on Friday to have Lord Netheryn pwn all comers at the Open tournament). Shooting people in the face is strong right now, so I went with it because it's easy. My character pool was decided upon by the direction of aim in the art; only those firing 'to the left' were allowed to make the cut, so Terlacha was exiled for failing to follow the status quo. The decklist follows, and hopefully its tactics should be fairly simple to work out: shoot people In. The. Face. The Worm and Shadow were only there for protection against a possible counter-sniper attempt, in which case an Enemy at the Gates type scenario would be sure to develop.

Cathel Rowan
Crimson Rigel x2
Dex Glyn x3
Eirlas x3
Javvyn x3
Jigoral x3
Kyrthelia x3
Maxt Stormcrow x3
Talyn
Vivian x3

Strain the Shot x3
Tracking x3

Angel's Tears x3
Camel x3
Collapsing Bow x3
Falter Stones x2
Farglass x3
Hawthorne's Arrows
Roc Fletching x2
Sewer Worm
Shadow of Jealousy

Round one saw me facing off against Andi Leide and his Adonis deck. he was trying to blow me up with the Gambits of the Medusan Lords, but while they on occasion did injure Cathel, their fatality proved too low to impede his acquisition of a killshot. A win for me.

Round two I was dismayed to witness Vince Turner piloting another Adonis deck, doing much the same thing. His draws were truly atrocious, and so once again Cathel took the illusionist's head for a trophy.

Round three was more Deverenians, Jens Brouwer having Aleron as his champion. At this point, the law of averages came back to bite me, ensuring that I could not hit an Astral character to save my life, which proved rather unfortunate when the paladin collapsed Cathel's ranks to bring his down hard. The epic struggle ended one-nil, as the huge AC of Aleron in the second game prevented me from landing that telling sixth wound (!) on him.

Round four: David Haffner using Sargok. The barbarian does exactly what Cathel wants by running to the front, and with Jevae preventing him from summoning any back-up behind him, he was isolated and easy meat for the elves.

Fifth round I was paired against Dominic Swinnen and Trevaine Cartwright, shoty rogue versus melee rogue. While I did have him on the ropes at several points, the well-timed use of Alert to get Cartwright back on his feet and slaughtering my troops gave him the match.

Round six saw a pairing between the ol' Battle Box rivals, as Lenny Leysen was playing Jorn of the Summit. Far from a foregone conclusion, it could have gone either way, with only Jorn's scale mail protecting him from many killing shots and giving Lenny victory.

The seventh and final round had me fighting off Jiri Jindra's Allisara deck. It's almost a dream opponent for Cathel, as wizards have very little protection, and my slew of ranged strikes prevented her from maintaining a rank structure capable of bringing out those big dragons with any consistency.

So, with four victories and three losses, where did I finish in the Swiss? Thirty-third out of a cut to thirty-two. Oops. With no one dropping (and why should they, really?) I was out of the running. Oh well. Tavis would probably have pwned me anyway.

Sunday was doubles, and I teamed up with Steve Redpath, our Etra Bloodvine/Huntress Volda pairing determined to show off the strength of the FreeK/Elf alliance that is developing. Our dream wasn't quite realised, with double Dev delight smashing us utterly, a dwarven union holding us to a nil-nil draw (four cleric warlords - d'ya think anyone died?), our sole triumph being over the Lady of Mercy and her friend Aleron (!) shortly before a tight draw against Laurena and Cathel. Still, got to see Spencer Latham make warlord and promptly run away to the back rans in one game, which was a laugh.

There was also a fair amount of random gaming going on all through the event, but I think that this entry is more than long enough already, so I'll leave you to digest it for now. What did I learn from the experience? SS-ithiss is where it's at. What was I thinking, not using a sutek at all? Well, next time Temple of Lore will be tournament legal, and everything will be different then. Those pesky Deverenians shall feel my wrath...

KoHIT Approacheth

2006-10-16T15:17:00.000+01:00

Tournament last Friday at Clifton Road Games. Eight participants, with Dyer sitting out to avoid that uncomfortable 'odd number' situation.

I won. Jin Valford blitzed his way to the front and to victory numerous times, but wasn't quite up to the task of taking Beradah Dythanus - I ceded that particular honour to Rich and Cathel Rowan.

There's been an awful lot of dissatisfied talk on the Temple of Lore forums regarding the FreeK starting line-up of Spencer Latham and Brother Dominy. While I did utilise this formidable front rank for my deck, not once did it prove to be as overwhelmingly powerful as some would have you believe. Not once did I utterly shatter the opposing ranks, even when Unison and Sucker Punch found their way into my opening hand (which they did with pleasing regularity). I was lucky if the Lathams managed to kill two opposing characters, to be honest. Facing off, as I did, against the likes of Jiyacin Fret, Javvyn and Linnea Warsong, Spence was far from earning his keep.

No, it was purely Jin himself that did all the hard work. The plan was that Spencer would allow Warren Brood (who looks disturbingly like Dyer, it must be said) to clear the path for Jin to get to the front quickly, but more often I was relying on Glenn the Blaze to do so - shortly before he and his Hag friend motivated Jin to work harder. I even got to change into Cyldragen in one game, which pleased me no end and really annoyed the Trespass that had managed to 2/3 kill Jin.

Of course, none of this murmuring has anything to do with the title of this article. Except that I am, at this moment, wondering about what deck I should use at KoHIT, that massive international tournament in Germany. While I do kind of like the Free Kingdoms, I can't help but feel bandwagonny in the current environment, and I can't stand that. Also, while frontline fighters like the Bloody Countess and Jin are fun, the sad truth is that snipers such as Trevor Magson and De'zicrah beat them so resoundingly that they're not a safe option to use at the moment. I could always go back to the leves, those to whom I was once a faction loyalist, but nothing there currently inspires me (unless someone out there wants to photoshop me a full-bleed Laurena card using her original art...).

As a story team emissary, I feel that I should be putting together some deck that makes a form of sense with regards to the fiction, as well. It's not an official obligation or nuthin', but I need to retop my kudos.

Then there are also the side-events to consider. Haven't even looked at Open for months - what new wackiness is Lord Netheryn capable of now? And doubles - are there any interactions left here, at the start of Epic edition?

These conundrums are circling round and round in my head, along with the possibility of securing a deck-backin' quantity of SS-SAURTH!!! cards...

Enough XP to Level?

2006-10-05T14:41:00.000+01:00

Finally got around to bundling off the accumulated XP I have today. Well, XP, koku, plunder, ammo, ghost rock and Crab Clan Wily Traders, to be precise. Gluing it all down was quite a struggle, as the uppity little booster bitties insisted on curling and jumping off at every opportunity. Unable to locate the sticky-back plastic that I know to be in this room somewhere, I settled for putting the sheets into a separate bag within the envelope.

Then there were the envelopes for the cards themselves, which proved a simpler process. Having never used IRCs before, I merely took what the Post Office staff offered me when I asked for them and shoved them inside also. Biting off Sticky tape at the head of the queue as I finalised the sealing of the package was quite an experience.

Will it be worth it? Dunno. Less than half of the 40 cards I asked for are ones that I desperately need, with the rest just being trade-bait. See, I was just fed up of the mouldering stack of booster wrappers in the corner of my room, and decided to send them off to their maker all at once rather than keep the remainder to gather and breed. Now that I'm on a par with my in-box, I can just slice up each new purchase as I get it, and organise things better for next time.

Oh dear God, there's gonna be a next time...