I didn't have "Impeccability" yet. Now I bought one. So let me take you along on a ride, here is my thought process of deck building centered around a key item / keycard. What’s the draw of the item? First theres the wicked item icon. Then we got unblockable dmg from the keycard "ready to strike", a unique card with a broad variety of synergies. There’s plenty of fun to be had with all those interactions. You’re able to effectively punish overreliance on the usual blocks like Parries and Defenders Block. You bypass them and contain their cycling effect. Ready to strike acts as deterrence once revealed. You get two copies with this major token helmet. This is what a legendary should be like. The secondary card is great armor and suits the already predefined role, aggressively pushing and holding a vital zone. You counter: Blocks and movement, two pillars of this game. how to extend on that? Obviously, equip according to the conditions of "ready to strike". You want enemies to be close. You want them to move around. You don’t want them to leave. You want to determine the rules of an engagement, survive and keep working the very same enemy characters til they are no more. My Strike-Warrior attempts that with the tailored support of a priest and a mage. I choose a 1/1/1 build. What holds the keycard back? There are many things you don’t control at play. First there is the roll, but there’s nothing that can be done about it but to mention bad rolls a lot in the chat. Then this card will reveal itself to the enemy. He has the chance to adapt. You can't force him to spend his own moves. You can't shut the effect down. Your enemy might profit from your damage, Martyrs being the prime example. But I also just added the vengeance / sparkling cloth hopping as synergy here. Limited reach. Though this card has a zone of control and can damage multiple targets at best, its only range 1. Unbuffable. The base dmg dealt isn’t stellar and receptive to armor reduction. Not a free card. To keep a revealed copy in hand limits you and makes you predictable. Natural Counter cards: Range 2 attacks. All sorts of damage reduction. Cards triggered by your damage. (Martyr, Boosted Heal, Sparkling Cloth, Inspiring Armor etc.) Immovable effects. Bad Luck. How to overcome that and make the card shine: Control the rules of engagement and keep your Strike-Warrior alive Focus on a target, debuff and hinder your opponents chance to adapt Enable your Strike-Warrior to be active Max out the damage potential of your strategy Usually you would bring your Strike-Warrior into position and wait for the enemy to come. But timidity isnt a tactic. I favour having at least solid options to engage, especially while looking at enemy mages. My dream is to close in and strike in one go - and it is possible. Muscle through and gusts of war can provide that. So these are my thoughts before i even enter the keep. A first draft... ...usually suffers from my wishful thinking and undergoes further developement, battle by battle. Not few people misconceive these days of smoothening as weakness, which i find puzzling. Spoiler: "First Strike" Mentor Level 99k Human Warrior Pressing Problems Rotting Club Rotting Club Galvanized Zombie Plates Hexagon Shield Impeccability Muscle-bound Boots Savant Positioning Novice Bruising 1 x Reliable Mail 2 x Disorienting Block 1 x Vanguard 4 x Wimpy - Remember that petty melee isnt your core strategy. But the priest has a remedy for your handicaps if you wanna do some bashing. 1 x Surging Shield Block 2 x Bruiser 2 x Forward Thinking 1 x Barge 1 x Creature Of The Night 1 x Grounding Plates 1 x Bludgeon 6 x Bash 2 x Ready To Strike 2 x Muscle Through 2 x Block 4 x Pressing Bash 2 x Pushback Parry 1 x Clumsy Static Level 99k Human Priest Inquisitor's Morningstar Radhammer - brutal damage. Glowing Hide Armor - coz good drain & vanguard Aegis Of The Defender - the idea is to move and shield an ally once things get hairy. Muscle-bound Boots - the idea is to give some more to the warrior via BFT Medical Kit - i do like the ranged debuff potential here. Epigenetic Eraser - suits this build, given there are plenty of handicaps involved. Green Lotus Root Perfect Flexibility Beginner Corruption - the safe choice would be some altruism here. 2 x Greater Heal 4 x Destructive Purge 1 x Weak Chop 1 x Reliable Hide Armor 4 x Curse Of Fragility - play this AFTER you purged. 1 x Clumsy 1 x Invigorating Touch 1 x Purging Strike 1 x Superstitious 2 x Purge 2 x Defender's Block 1 x Flimsy Block 2 x Advanced Battlefield Training 2 x Powerful Bash 1 x Radiation Bolt - use your ranged stuff before the mage wastes his. 2 x Inquisitor's Strike 2 x Muscle Through 1 x Thick Hide Armor 1 x Genetic Engineering - Hardly reliable, but might help the Strike-Warrior in unexpected ways. 1 x Blight 2 x Gene Therapy - less of a wild card then Engineering, at least you get healing. 1 x Laser Strike Verbal Level 99k Human Wizard Gusting Feystaff - interesting item, is this played? Gusting Feystaff Forval's Chain Rust Creature Gland Forval's Chain Rust Creature Gland Vasyl's Ectoplasmic Raiments Lt. Buckwell's Boots Savant Positioning Battery 2 x Melt Armor 4 x Path Of Knives 6 x Gusts Of War 1 x Vanguard 2 x Force Bolt 1 x Force Cone - can trigger the strike while maintaining the pairing! 1 x Officer's Harness 2 x Short Perplexing Ray - traditonally your last mean to disengage. 1 x Spark Inductor 1 x Acid Leak 2 x Medium's Garb 2 x Acid Blast 1 x Dissolve Armor 2 x Forward Thinking 2 x Flanking Move 2 x Creature Of The Night 2 x Sorcerous Bolt 2 x Silver Bolt Further thoughts: I'm pretty curious if i can make the gusts of war / ready to strike opening work. So i bring A LOT of gusts of war. Probably too many. Range 4 means I have to endanger the wizard by bringing him close to the enemy. In this build we actually got use for spirit cards, even considered bringing Ethereal Form. Spirits unfold crippling effects and are evasive. Anti-armor, debuff and discards are their specialty. I settled for Medium's Garb. The wizard is meant to control who meets who in a melee environment. The natural counter cards suggest that some purging might be a good idea. Since we are out for extra debuffs, how about making use of destructive purge? Then we go over to curse of fragility and path of knives. Those are highly discouraging cards, if they stick, they might give you time in themselves. Last you go for perplexing and dismantling of whoever dares to actually close in. Disorienting Block is an obvious choice to max out the striking, so is pushback parry. The Debuff-Priest could ofc be a classic altruism healer, his function as ranged debuffer aside. Since items with destructive purge come with fearsome attacks, i felt tempted to bring a personal favourite in, Battlefield Training. Since the strategy asks you to keep mediums garb and ready to strike in your hand, the context is right for Forward Thinking. Concessions to the current meta: Health was never worth less, people are eager to trade it for extra cards and movement. Purging already answers Martyr and Altruism. Bless is problematic but can be compensated with control and discards. If you just can’t match an opponent’s rate of recovery, concentrate on controlling the victory squares. The non-melee approach already answers enemy parry stacking etc. Anti-Armor already is a build-in necessity. Buffed Nimble Strike cheesiness may become a poor tradeoff given our purges / Path of Knives. Concessions to item cost and itemization: You can’t have everything. The claim "no dead cards!" is an empty one, often bound to boring simplicity. This build has a strategy. Therefore timing will decide, if new cards are dead or not. You can only shift the odds. I had my eyes on flash flood as well, to separate, cut off retreat routes, block victory squares for the enemy and force him into striking distance. I also would have liked to pair Laser Beacon with the debuff for its similarities with ready to strike. My first choice item would be R-18 Raygun. I meant to bring Jump Soldier at first on both supports. I wish the Priest had more drains to share with the Strike-Warrior. Barbed Mail on the Strike-Warrior would fit the theme of unblockable, reactive damage. I have choosen Grounding Plates for higher durability. Force Field or Nimbus would be suitable ways to extend the questionable durability of the Strike-Warrior. Alternative routes... ...are plenty. How to play this: I havent tried it yet. Hints are all over this post. But there will be a phase of preparation early in the round and heated engagement later.
I'd like to point out that Ready To Strike will trigger whenever an effect allows or attempts to move an enemy, even if they won't/can't actually move (like bashing someone against a wall). However, I just tested Bashing an Immovable enemy, and RtS did not trigger. PS. The first two battles of Spreading Blight are a great place to experiment with RtS in the campaign.
Hypnotic beacon is great to shut down enemies but no incentive to move in itself. You can however bring more damaging terrain on the wizard to provoke an opponent to move whilst adjacent to your Strike Warrior. @Lucky Dice, anything you wanna share /link on the topic?
sure back in, like, january, or whenever the Batford maps were a thing, i used to run a certain deck that made everybody hate me Spoiler: Here I am terribly sorry Level 15 Dwarf Warrior Eixocl's Hammer Eixocl's Hammer Pressing Problems Perilous Ringmail Hexagon Shield Impeccability Muscle-bound Boots Raging Battler Novice Bruising 2 x Reliable Mail 1 x Clumsy 2 x Bruiser 2 x Ready To Strike 1 x Bludgeon 2 x Disorienting Block 2 x Dodge 4 x Blind Rage 2 x Muscle Through 1 x Traveling Curse 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 1 x Surging Shield Block 4 x Lunging Bash 2 x Pushback Parry 1 x Thickened Mail 8 x Pressing Bash Jugglist Level 23 Human Wizard Mullik's Blisterstaff Mullik's Blisterstaff The Soulstone Ring Of Appropriation Cinnabar Ring The Soulstone Cape Of Dark Magic Pergop's Slippers Perfect Guidance Focused Electromancy 1 x Hover 1 x Sparkling Cloth Armor 2 x Gusts Of War 2 x Force Bolt 2 x Telekinesis 1 x Leadership 4 x Firestorm 2 x Violent Spin 1 x Spell Skill 8 x Force Cone 3 x Spark Generator 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 1 x Wimpy 1 x Jump, Soldier! 1 x Boiling Armor 4 x Flash Flood 1 x Dissolve Armor Questerrdere Level 23 Human Wizard Mullik's Blisterstaff Mullik's Blisterstaff The Soulstone Ring Of Appropriation Cinnabar Ring The Soulstone Cape Of Dark Magic Pergop's Slippers Perfect Guidance Focused Electromancy 1 x Hover 1 x Sparkling Cloth Armor 2 x Gusts Of War 2 x Force Bolt 2 x Telekinesis 1 x Leadership 4 x Firestorm 2 x Violent Spin 1 x Spell Skill 8 x Force Cone 3 x Spark Generator 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 1 x Wimpy 1 x Jump, Soldier! 1 x Boiling Armor 4 x Flash Flood 1 x Dissolve Armor i got back to impeccability back in march, when @ParodyKnaveBob and @CT5 were rocking surging human wizards, I thought a wall was what was needed instead of a third wizard. guess I wasn't entirely wrong Spoiler: replicate all you want I am terribly sorry Level 15 Dwarf Warrior Eixocl's Hammer Porior's Nimble Mace Pressing Problems Spiked Tlahuiztli Shield Of The Tumbler Impeccability Galvanized Zombie Boots Raging Battler Focused Bruising 1 x Simple Strike 1 x Ouch! 2 x Ready To Strike 1 x Reliable Mail 1 x Toughened Hide Strips 1 x Hardy Mail 4 x Disorienting Block 1 x Dodge 3 x Blind Rage 3 x Bruiser 1 x Creature Of The Night 3 x Able Bludgeon 1 x Barbed Platemail 6 x Lunging Bash 1 x Mail 6 x Pressing Bash Jugglist Level 23 Human Wizard Dynamic Staff Dynamic Staff Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Sensate's Ring Armorbane Pendant Cotton Wizard's Robes Muscle-bound Boots Focused Positioning Focused Electromancy 4 x Surging Bolt 1 x Combustible 1 x Gusts Of War 2 x Stone Spikes 4 x Telekinesis 2 x Little Zap 1 x Clumsy 1 x Memory Loss 2 x Muscle Through 2 x Arcane Aura 1 x Squeamish 2 x Unstable Bolt 3 x Vanguard 6 x Surging Blast 1 x Dissolve Armor 3 x Spark Generator Questerrdere Level 23 Human Wizard Dynamic Staff Dynamic Staff Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Asmod's Telekinetic Chain Sensate's Ring Armorbane Pendant Cotton Wizard's Robes Muscle-bound Boots Focused Positioning Focused Electromancy 4 x Surging Bolt 1 x Combustible 1 x Gusts Of War 2 x Stone Spikes 4 x Telekinesis 2 x Little Zap 1 x Clumsy 1 x Memory Loss 2 x Muscle Through 2 x Arcane Aura 1 x Squeamish 2 x Unstable Bolt 3 x Vanguard 6 x Surging Blast 1 x Dissolve Armor 3 x Spark Generator
Ditto? $;^ J As my SRC Comrades know, I haven't posted anything publically about RtS all these months, but since Volty Dice brought up Batford's timing (and tagged me albeit for different purposes), not to mention everyone's recent raving about DD's Impeccability helping with certain difficult adventures, heheh, sure 'kay, I'll throw in. Batford was in late autumn. I remember plainly because that's when I had my own RtS party that brought me to 1600 for the first time. Batford always lasts way too short of time. $:^ [ Fwiw, especially since I didn't have Impeccability yet, but relied on overspending a on Helm Of Preparation until I got Ambush Captain's Casque, I built my 1/1/1 party to do two basic things: Take full offensive advantage of RtS once I drew it. Before drawing RtS, make sure my other draws would still win by themselves. This strategy led to this "funniest moment." $;^ J Hoo boy, I still remember the one highly decisive round (after hhh had already held me off for four rounds of VP-earning) where I had to bluff hhh's entire team for several turns to waste all his cards before finally bringing in my real tactic -- Muscle Through past his priest and over gobs of Illusory Barrier to smack his two wizards at the wall away from the VSs -> Ready To Strike -> wiz tries to Walk away -> RtS -> Barge back between the wall and me (and off the VS again) -> RtS -> etc. ~whew~ Good times. Good times. $F^ J So okay, since I'm here already, I'll give encouragement: Yeah, keep at it Robauke, you're on the right track -- including counters. In one Triple Duel match, rinco had double Mimetic Armor hidden in hand when I zoomed in for the offense. That didn't go well, ha ha ha ha. Otoh, yes, certain blocks can devastate. One Batford match, a buffed-up elf warrior attacked my RtS dwarf and -- without any Vengeance or Sparkling Cloth Armor shenanigans -- dropped from 25 to 0 before it was the opp's turn again. $:^ ] The only attack I used was an 8-damage Lunging Bash. Oh! And one last thing. Last night on Fool's Trap, I played an 1100er using Impeccability, Rotting Club, Flash Flood, Force Cone, the list went on. Then, I saw your post on the forum. Ha ha! Looks like you already influenced the locals pretty quickly, Rob. $:^ }
