MORE MACHINE THAN MAN

'Anvilborn' Showcases 'Dreamblade's new metallic menaces

By Jeremy Smith
Posted March 9, 2007 10:35 AM


Hellbred? Hivelings? Dreamblade’s lineages have had some fearsome members in the game’s initial sets, but the latest introduces what could be the fiercest figures yet: the anvilborn. April’s set features eight anvilborn minis, the first aspectless creatures for the game. Dreamblade development team members Mike Donais, Steve Warner, Greg Marques and Nate Heiss recently gave us a taste of Anvilborn’s threats.

WICKED CARRIAGE


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The uncommon Carriage, like the rest of the anvilborn, boasts an aggressive movement-based “drive” ability that happens at the beginning of your spawn phase; in this case, it uses the swap drive ability to switch places with an adjacent ally each turn. The 4/6/8 for seven spawn points also boasts fracture 4, a blade ability that lets your opponent disrupt the Carriage but gives you four more blades to spend. Donais describes the overarching theme for the anvilborn as “more mechanical—more machine than man. They don’t have an aspect flavor-wise because of that. And then we tried to give them all ‘build around me’ abilities” so that they wouldn’t drop into every warband. “We’re trying to make them exciting, so we didn’t charge too much” compared to figures in the four aspects, he said.

ELITE GLADIATOR


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This common valor dude carries a beefy 6/10/12 body for 11 spawn and two valor, but it’s his new bladestrike ability that takes a lot of the risk out of his attacks. Whenever he attacks, you can choose to roll six fewer dice, dealing an automatic plus-six damage plus a blade—no insane 15-damage shots, but a sure hit for slightly more than the average. “If you feel like you’re having too many unlucky rolls, you can play a bladestrike guy to try and balance that out because you’re guaranteed a certain result,” Donais told us regarding the Gladiator.
Expect to see similar “strike” abilities elsewhere; “Each aspect had a slightly different version of the bladestrike ability,” said Donais about figs like passion’s Lady of the Manor, who sports a more aggressive version called ragestrike that rolls five fewer dice but hits for a guaranteed six damage.

WRITHING SORCERER


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The reserves mainly have been just a holding cell until now, but that changes significantly with fear’s Writhing Sorcerer. The rare 4/6/8 for seven spawn and two fear can nail reserves directly with its unknow 5 ability, which puts any enemy creature with spawn cost 5 or less directly into its owner’s graveyard. Also, its mind mulch ability gives you a spawn point the turn after an opposing creature goes from reserves to graveyard; watch out, corpsebuilt warbands! “The set does have using your reserves as more of a resource than before,” Marques noted. “And if you combine Writhing Sorcerer with Dreamscape Prophet, you can empty an enemy’s reserves and then always get the mindcrit off,” Donais added, referring to Anvilborn’s new madness creature that trades a blade for four damage if you have more creatures in your reserves than your opponent.

BLOODBOUND SKEEVER


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“The Skeever is one that says, ‘When you play me, we’re just going to fight to the death this turn.’ That’s what passion is about,” Marques said of this new rare fig. When it comes into play, its bloodtax ability negates any conquest points gained from claiming cells that turn and leaves the turn win completely up to creature destruction. Even though the Skeever’s body seems small at 4/3/5 for eight spawn and a passion, Heiss pointed out, “Sometimes it’s very hard to gauge the power level of minis in Dreamblade because there’s so much more going on than just the ability of the mini; it’s how it interacts.” Donais added, “Over sets 2, 3 and 4 we continued to improve passion’s stats, trying to get them more on the curve.” It looks like the aspect definitely gets a boost from Anvilborn.