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Originally posted by Orion72

Also, with Epics, 500 pt play is coming into its own as a separate format. At our Epic tourney yesterday, out of 17 players, every person either played or faced an Elminster. Yet you'll almost never see him in 200 play.

Presumably we're getting Epics in War Drums as well, plus Epic cards for older figures like Drizzt, and then next summer we have Dragon Queen Huges (hopefully WITHOUT Save = 10!).

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I think Alusair has a place in the future, possibly in 500. Have to see.

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Originally posted by Liquidburn

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Originally posted by Orion72

Also, with Epics, 500 pt play is coming into its own as a separate format. At our Epic tourney yesterday, out of 17 players, every person either played or faced an Elminster. Yet you'll almost never see him in 200 play.

Presumably we're getting Epics in War Drums as well, plus Epic cards for older figures like Drizzt, and then next summer we have Dragon Queen Huges (hopefully WITHOUT Save = 10!).

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That's funny. At our tournament only one player played Elminster, he ended up in the 3rd. I think a figure that wiull proove itself as a very big powerhouse in Epic will be Ghaele Eladrin.

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Originally posted by kaiserluger

Ghaele has improved intiative though so its likely you will get to pick your map.

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Originally posted by ChristopherGroves

I think Alusair has a place in the future, possibly in 500. Have to see.

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Originally posted by Aesnath

Does anyone think that the Archmage is a little too omnipresent in 500pts? He just shoots several potential 500 WBs in the foot. Makes warband building less fun. Archmage + Elminster is pretty popular among my friends.

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Originally posted by Vrecknidj

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Originally posted by Liquidburn

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Originally posted by Orion72

Also, with Epics, 500 pt play is coming into its own as a separate format. At our Epic tourney yesterday, out of 17 players, every person either played or faced an Elminster. Yet you'll almost never see him in 200 play.

Presumably we're getting Epics in War Drums as well, plus Epic cards for older figures like Drizzt, and then next summer we have Dragon Queen Huges (hopefully WITHOUT Save = 10!).

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That's funny. At our tournament only one player played Elminster, he ended up in the 3rd. I think a figure that wiull proove itself as a very big powerhouse in Epic will be Ghaele Eladrin.

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Do you think the Ghaele will continue to shine in 500-point play when there are more maps to choose from? I wonder how much that figure depends upon prevalent Hellspike maps to be a top contender.

Dave

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Originally posted by Liquidburn


She's very solid on the Tomb map too, She just needs a way to block herself in so she can hide behind the big hitters.

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Originally posted by bshugg

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Originally posted by Liquidburn


She's very solid on the Tomb map too, She just needs a way to block herself in so she can hide behind the big hitters.

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I will second that. She works well on all the epic maps out so far. Not sure how that will change when we add teleporters to the mix.

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Originally posted by bshugg

Its both really. Her ranged is solid, her gaze is deadly to save =10 guys and she can even fight in melee. On top of that +8 on init and random hitters taking extra turns because they roll a 19 or 20 is just nice fluff. She is very fragile, but if well piloted and supported she should rarely have to make it into combat and at risk.

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Originally posted by Vrecknidj

After re-reading the Gith/JA thread, I'm happy about the current state of the game. It appears that local metagames are driving different sorts of builds, and that's good, I think, for the national scene.

I think that there will be more warband variety in the upcoming tournament season (and not just for the obvious, trivial fact that there are more pieces). In any particular region, a LSD or LRD band could qualify, in some other region, we might see GAS bands or IM/FB bands qualifying. That, and with the introduction of War Drums, we should have a rather robust spring ahead of us, and almost too much to consider for the qualifiers.

Dave

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Originally posted by evil_boy

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Originally posted by Vrecknidj

After re-reading the Gith/JA thread, I'm happy about the current state of the game. It appears that local metagames are driving different sorts of builds, and that's good, I think, for the national scene.

I think that there will be more warband variety in the upcoming tournament season (and not just for the obvious, trivial fact that there are more pieces). In any particular region, a LSD or LRD band could qualify, in some other region, we might see GAS bands or IM/FB bands qualifying. That, and with the introduction of War Drums, we should have a rather robust spring ahead of us, and almost too much to consider for the qualifiers.

Dave

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Actually, isn't that to be expected as more and more minis are being produced? There will definitely be new minis that are good, and will thus see play. The olds ones remain viable as well, as will see play too. So we have more and more competitive band types.

Actually I'm not sure if that is such a good thing. It's great for now, but come many sets later, there will be too many bands, too many good pieces to consider. We had it lucky so far, because when DDm was just starting out many pieces were priced weirdly or wrongly. Now with pieces being more efficiently costed, we should see an exponential increase in the number of competitive figures. Unless they keep increasing the power curve and thus phasing out older pieces, we may soon have way too many good choices to handle.

I'm not complaining here, just wondering if anyone else feels the same way, and is this a good thing? At the very least it will be a major headache for anyone who is participating in a major tourney and has 100 types of tier 1 bands to prepare against... [)]

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Originally posted by nycfarmkid

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Originally posted by evil_boy

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Originally posted by Vrecknidj

After re-reading the Gith/JA thread, I'm happy about the current state of the game. It appears that local metagames are driving different sorts of builds, and that's good, I think, for the national scene.

I think that there will be more warband variety in the upcoming tournament season (and not just for the obvious, trivial fact that there are more pieces). In any particular region, a LSD or LRD band could qualify, in some other region, we might see GAS bands or IM/FB bands qualifying. That, and with the introduction of War Drums, we should have a rather robust spring ahead of us, and almost too much to consider for the qualifiers.

Dave

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Actually, isn't that to be expected as more and more minis are being produced? There will definitely be new minis that are good, and will thus see play. The olds ones remain viable as well, as will see play too. So we have more and more competitive band types.

Actually I'm not sure if that is such a good thing. It's great for now, but come many sets later, there will be too many bands, too many good pieces to consider. We had it lucky so far, because when DDm was just starting out many pieces were priced weirdly or wrongly. Now with pieces being more efficiently costed, we should see an exponential increase in the number of competitive figures. Unless they keep increasing the power curve and thus phasing out older pieces, we may soon have way too many good choices to handle.

I'm not complaining here, just wondering if anyone else feels the same way, and is this a good thing? At the very least it will be a major headache for anyone who is participating in a major tourney and has 100 types of tier 1 bands to prepare against... [)]

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I'm not sure thats a bad thing. Sure it will be hard to optimize your band against the field, but in the same sense it gives people who favor all types of warbands a chance. The key in that environment would to play the band that you are best with, not the best band. I like that better.

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Originally posted by Kiddoc

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Originally posted by nycfarmkid

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Originally posted by evil_boy

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Originally posted by Vrecknidj

After re-reading the Gith/JA thread, I'm happy about the current state of the game. It appears that local metagames are driving different sorts of builds, and that's good, I think, for the national scene.

I think that there will be more warband variety in the upcoming tournament season (and not just for the obvious, trivial fact that there are more pieces). In any particular region, a LSD or LRD band could qualify, in some other region, we might see GAS bands or IM/FB bands qualifying. That, and with the introduction of War Drums, we should have a rather robust spring ahead of us, and almost too much to consider for the qualifiers.

Dave

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Actually, isn't that to be expected as more and more minis are being produced? There will definitely be new minis that are good, and will thus see play. The olds ones remain viable as well, as will see play too. So we have more and more competitive band types.

Actually I'm not sure if that is such a good thing. It's great for now, but come many sets later, there will be too many bands, too many good pieces to consider. We had it lucky so far, because when DDm was just starting out many pieces were priced weirdly or wrongly. Now with pieces being more efficiently costed, we should see an exponential increase in the number of competitive figures. Unless they keep increasing the power curve and thus phasing out older pieces, we may soon have way too many good choices to handle.

I'm not complaining here, just wondering if anyone else feels the same way, and is this a good thing? At the very least it will be a major headache for anyone who is participating in a major tourney and has 100 types of tier 1 bands to prepare against... [)]

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I'm not sure thats a bad thing. Sure it will be hard to optimize your band against the field, but in the same sense it gives people who favor all types of warbands a chance. The key in that environment would to play the band that you are best with, not the best band. I like that better.

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Agreed. I think a huge variety of warbands in the metagame is a really great thing to look forward to.

I have no problem admitting that my success at Gencon was in LARGE part due to the fact that I was so damned well prepared to face the 4 warband types that were competitive at that time. I had great statistical matchups against other CE bands, so I practiced the HELL out of tactics/strategy to beat the high AC warbands that I didn't match up with so well statistically.

Having a huge number of warbands to prepare against forces you to broaden your focus. You need to be more flexible, and have a better grasp of a wide range of tactics. It tends to reward those players who have a lot of practice and preparation, who have a flexible warband, and who have a great grasp for the strategy of how the game is played.

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Originally posted by ChristopherGroves

There will be a "natural" limit to the number of competitive bands ... there has to be. In order for the game to continue to be competitive we will either see power-creep (which we're really seeing some already), strict set rotation (which most folks don't want) or other scenario/format changes.

The WORST thing for the game in my opinion are a million different possible competitive bands ... which would then reduce skill to the point such that major games are decided on the roll of a simple, single die regardless of which of the three million competitive bands you brought.

However, a dozen or three "good enough" bands is a great basis I think ... and that's where we are right now. I've got no doubts that as things evolve and are released that some figures and warbands WILL fall to the wayside into tier-two land (Clay Golem anyone?)

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Originally posted by Vrecknidj


Sure, die rolls will win some games, but when you've got two top notch players, each piloting a top notch band, it's pretty much got to be dice that determine the outcome. I remember reading Fenris' GenCon report and realizing that he could have lost one of those earlier games and that would have altered the match-ups from there on up and could have resulted in a different champ (not to take anything away from Fenris). But, at the level of play that many maxminis members aspire to, small mistakes will often be costly, and lucky rolls will win some games.

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Originally posted by Vrecknidj


Sure, die rolls will win some games, but when you've got two top notch players, each piloting a top notch band, it's pretty much got to be dice that determine the outcome. I remember reading Fenris' GenCon report and realizing that he could have lost one of those earlier games and that would have altered the match-ups from there on up and could have resulted in a different champ (not to take anything away from Fenris). But, at the level of play that many maxminis members aspire to, small mistakes will often be costly, and lucky rolls will win some games.

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Originally posted by ChristopherGroves


The WORST thing for the game in my opinion are a million different possible competitive bands ... which would then reduce skill to the point such that major games are decided on the roll of a simple, single die regardless of which of the three million competitive bands you brought.

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