Game On

I played my first game on the weekend, courtesy of the downloadable demo (and Swathi). The game plays as I thought it would; the base 10 mechanic, low attack ranges and simple terrain rules make for a very smooth experience. The board felt a bit roomy with only two figures per side, and the strategy seemed a little on the simple side. No doubt the addition of an extra character will up the permutations, but it makes me wonder if 3v3 games will provide enough complexity to separate the very good players from the good players. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not seeing all the depth in the game quite yet; I don't have a lot of experience with competitive miniatures play.

A big part of playing the game successfully is reading how a match will progress before it even begins. Which character will you target? Which character will you opponent target? How will you push an advantage? Does the map allow for easy consolidation of a victory point location, or will you have to aggressively pursue withdrawing enemies? Which team relies more on their action bar? In constructed tournaments, you should know how your match will play out against all the major archetypes. You have to know how you will go about winning.

Right now I'm pretty clueless about all this. I'm not even sure what Horde's game plan should be in the demo game. It seems quite difficult for Gorebelly and Lotherin to take out Ruby without exposing themselves to a lethal level of firepower. I think examining the demo scenario might give me some insight into how to use the time system to create avenues of attack. Alliance seems to have a more obvious directive, Hodoon isn't afraid of attacks and I know that a succession of assaults from Ruby and the paladin will bring down Lotherin about 3/4s of the time. Thanks to Tien Pham for providing me with the calculator.

Next: More musings