Dragon Dice™

The Feral

Heavy Melee	Light Melee	Missile	Cavalry	Magic
Lynx	Hound	Falcon	Antelope	Weasel
Leopard	Fox	Hawk	Horse	Badger
Tiger	Wolf	Vulture	Buffalo	Wolverine
Bear	Elephant	Lion	Rhino	Owl

Introduction

The beast within drives these creatures to the point of pure destruction. The Feral are the true embodiment of nature in Esfah. There are the strong beasts like the tiger, the swift animals like the horse, and the intelligent creatures like the weasel. Together, the Feral are a sight to behold, no matter how much damage their foes can create; they just keep multiplying to overwhelm their prey.

The Feral special ability:

Feralization: Every turn before the Dragon strikes, the Feral can recruit/promote one unit for each army at a terrain.

The Feral have 44 total Maneuver icons, the most of any race. Take advantage of this strength when building armies. However, the Feral have the least amount of magic icons for any race 19. This is a problem at times, generally the Feral either do wonders with magic or completely crap out, that is the chance you have to take when playing Feral.

The Feral also have the least amount of missile icons 14, but these guys are not meant to fight from a far, if you want a missile army choose other races (Frostwings or Scalders).

Now the third best saving race in the game with 35 icons is a good thing, you generally do not have to worry about routing and they can stand up to a lot of damage.

The Feral have some very strong points.

They do not need magic to bring units back to life.
As a whole, they have a great percentage for saves
They have access to damaging magic (Blue), and maneuver magic (Gold)
They irritate the other players, because Feral are just so hard to eliminate, you beat them down, and they keep coming back.
A Feral army can use any rarity of unit without drawback.

The Feral do have some very weak points.

Their magic is at best 50% of the magician’s icons.
They can not handle Dancing Lights (Red)

Strategies

Here are a few strategies when building a Feral army.

Always use all the rarities in an army (Common, Uncommon, and Rare), with a monster thrown in every now and again.
Feral magicians save very well; do not fear when attacking opposing magicians with a melee attack.
The Buffalo-folk is the best all around unit; it saves 50%, maneuvers 50%, and melees 50%. Not to mention the deterrence that counter is on attacking foes. I always use Buffalo-folk in all my Feral armies.
Combine the Feral with other protective magic (Earthen Armor, Dwarves) and hindering magic (Dancing Lights, Dwarves). Or offensive magic (Firebolt, Firewalkers).

Strategy for playing a Feral army:

The Feral win by controlling 2 terrain, they will not win a battle of attrition or mass damage, unless magic is not involved. So, the goal for Feral is to get an 8th face as fast as possible. This gives them a huge advantage. It lets them have the ability to steal another terrain from a different player. This is accomplished by hoarding all your units on the 8th face, then pathing one common cavalry unit over to another terrain and casting hide on the unit so it can not be affected by magic, missile, or melee. Every turn, use the hidden unit to maneuver the terrain up one spot at a time. This pushes the game forward toward your goal, two 8th faces. It also makes the other players start maneuvering to gain an 8th face of their own control. Take advantage of the situation when it arises, if any player maneuvers a terrain to a 7, try to take the terrain by pathing a unit over, then casting as many Rock to Mud spells as possible. Because the maneuvering ties go to the active Player this, “trick,” allows you to gain an 8th face with just one unit, and can win many games.

However, this maneuver can be countered by any race. The simple solution is to cast a dragon where the hidden unit is placed. The hide spell is removed, and then the dragon strikes. Usually, the dragon will kill the Feral unit. Which gets rid of one huge headache for the other players. The best race that counters the Feral are firewalkers. They can use elemental bolt and dispel the hide spell, then follow up with firebolts or lightning bolts; one way to get around this when facing firewalkers, path larger units over to the terrain and hide them. This forces the firewalkers to generate more magic to tend with the unit. If possible keep a rare unit hidden, the firewalkers would have to generate 9 points of magic to dispel the hidden spell. Then use more magic to try and destroy the unit. This becomes very costly and sometimes too much, especially when Dwarves are employed to cast dancing lights on the Feral’s foes. Overall, if you learn to use these two tools, they can work to your advantage and will win you many games. I have won the Origins Championship in 1997, and qualified for the semi-final at Gencon every year with these strategies. Obviously this army can be beaten, as I have never won the world championship, but it is a sound strategy and a wise one as well. So, go forth my Feral friends, use this knowledge to conquer the planet of Esfah and claim it for the beast.

Almost all Feral Armies:

All Feral

1 Wolverine-Folk (Rare Mage)
1 Badger-Folk (Uncommon Mage)
11 Weasel-Folk (Common Mage)
2 Theurgest (Common Dwarf Mage)
1 Buffalo-Folk (Rare Cavalry)
1 Horse-Folk (Uncommon Cavalry)
7 Antelope-folk (Common Cavalry)
2 Speed Slippers (Common Maneuver Magic Item)
1 Dragonslayer (Biggest baddest unit in the game, enough said)

This army keeps coming back, use the cavalry in the hoard with 4 common mages, then place the other magic units in the campaign with the Dragonslayer. Leave one lonely common Feral mage at home. Take the cavalry and Dragonslayer to the terrain closest to an 8th face. If any of the terrains you currently occupy are 5 or 6, move the cavalry there and place the mages in reserve (if they don’t have magic already). Cast wind walks, stone skins, and earthen armor (now the purpose for the dwarves is revealed) to protect your larger units from lightning strikes. If you get the 8th face take all the units there and proceed with the Feral strategy as described above.

Mixed Feral Army:

1 Wolverine-Folk (Rare Mage)
1 Badger-Folk (Uncommon Mage)
5 Weasel-Folk (Common Mage)
4 Theurgist (Common Dwarf Mage)
4 Sunburst (Firewalker Common Mage)
1 Dragonslayer (See above, should be in almost all armies)
1 Buffalo-Folk (Rare Cavalry)
1 Horse Folk (Uncommon Cavalry)
8 Antelope-Folk (Common Cavalry)
1 Speed Slipper (Common Maneuver Magic Item)

The change to this army is the obvious inclusion of more dwarf magic and a new addition of firewalker magic. These give you added options: They give you the ability to cast Dancing Lights. They also give you the ability to cast the firewalker spells Firebolt, Elemental Blast, and Mirage. These in addition to the Feral staples make a very good combination that can do damage with magic, hinder your opponent, and win many games.

Now use the knowledge contained here to go forth and multiply as the Feral do so well, and become the next world champion of Esfah.