SFR, Inc.

[DEEPBLUEB2]

NEWS FLASH
All Sunburst/Sunflare army wins battlefest
Now,let's take a look at the strategies of spell casting,survival tips,
terrain choices,initial setup,or anything else useful that might
shed some "Firewalker" light to anyone who dares to try this
treacherous firewalk of life.

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Maneuver Roll:
True it's not out of the realm of possibilities to win the maneuver roll,
but does one even attempt it?Should the choice be to load up on a home terrain...in that case which home terrain should be chosen?
or does it make even more sense to just roll with the punches and hope to get an opposing home terrain that you could fire-walk out of?
The highland has plenty of magic,should this be your new abode,
so do you just keep it at magic and try to win the war of attrition?
Already things get complicated and we have not even rolled.
And what do you do with all that magic,
surely you can't risk it all on a single army with a unit that can dispel,
Is there some formula?an order of priorities:
dragons,lightning strike,bring back health,dancing lights,.....
or do you just have fun and play it where it lies?

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Terrain Choice:Home terrain
Let's see....
a temple could allow a combo "lightning strike" "burial"
"protection from black spells"
a standing stones would allow a full array of spells,
but you may have to defend it,
a city could promote the dragonkin,bring back life.
a tower??? well maybe not for a home
but is the strategy to get to an eight face?
a terrain on magic can keep your units safe from melee.


Since using only commons and uncommons provide more chances for IDs
do we consider matching the terrain for doubling magic,
and do we really need to double,
after all, the amount of magic
should be plentiful with just the magic icons alone.
Or should we use a terrain that won't allow other Firewalkers to visit.
Again this all happens before we even start the game.

Frontier Terrain:

Do we propose a frontier terrain with Firewalking abilities,in-case your opponent decides to go first?
The tower might work here, creating a null as a bonus.

And here is the Big Question?
Do we gather the entire army together as one big army?
Seems like the way to go.....

[ddicerc]

Here's a bigger question: take another high-concept army, the Leopard Rider/Troll rend-and-regnerate crew.

Now you have Sunflares and Sunbursts, each of whom can only save by rolling an ID. Your starting terrain will come up melee as often or more often than magic, except on a Highland, but then you can't Firewalk off that terrain. You're not likely to outroll a bunch of Leopard Riders for either the horde roll or on any maneuver attempt. If they catch you on a melee face (or bring in a Village minor, which gives a 37.5% chance of getting melee on a different face), you aren't going to last long. Unless the terrains all roll favorably (very low), you may not even get to try your magic. Of course, if you do, you'll get the break-even Lightning Strike chance, or multiple dragons (but you'd only have three you could summon), and at worst the goblins retreat and hope for multiple regens.

Worse, try playing them against the 15-Dragonlord/Slayer/Master/Hunter combos out there...

On the plus side, against "normal" competition, this would be a terrific magic-generating army, and with LS, DL, dragons, Wind Walk, and even Hailstorm (imagine 30+ point storms on reserves!), you could wreak a lot of havoc from one favorable terrain (better yet, an 8th face).

I'd like to see this army in action. Bet it could trash the Canadian Pelters (if it could survive the intitial onslaught of pellets).
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Well,if I may quote SFR President Chuck Pint
"Leopard Riders are legendary for not saving against Lightning Strikes"
And trolls are lightning bait...
But that army would be a major threat,
thanks for the input Steve,
seems like the stage for that match up would be determined early.

"15-Dragonlord/Slayer/Master/Hunter"... well sounds deadly

thanks again
Jim

[DEEPBLUEB2]

This army is from 5 time World Champion Mark A. Wiker

00 Dragon Dice Battlefest 1st Place (ShoreCon)

Death from Above

· Home – Swampland City

Sunburst

· Campaign – Highland City

Sunflare x13

Blue Bronze Targe x3

· Horde

Sunburst x26

Blue Speed Slipper x4

· Red Wyrm x3

· Blue Dragonkin Champion

Red Dragonkin Champion

Blue Dragonmount

Red Dragonsteed x2

Blue Dragonfoal x3

Red Dragonfoal x2

· Coastland Village

Flatland Village

Highland Village

Swampland Village

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Although Mark used a few Magestorm items in his
Battlefest "All Sunburst/Sunflare army"....
This army brings new light to what can be accomplished with these
2 Firewalker mages.


Excellent Mark!!!!!!

[ddicerc]

Mark's MIs do help cover two weaknesses in the army-saves and maneuvers (against a fast army). Mark did like his MIs (especially those Speed Slippers).

The funny thing is, I don't remember much about the ShoreCon Battlefest in 2000. I might have been playing Sealed Box at the time...

Trolls actually aren't "Lightning Bait" per se. Since a Troll saves 50% of the time, on the average it takes 2 LS to kill one. It can be revived with that same 12 points of magic, so it's at break-even. The LR/Troll army does base its recovery on Regens, however, so if you could wipe out all the Trolls with LSs at one shot, or even the majority of them, it would be enough.

The problem would be getting the first shot. Suppose a mostly LR horde went to your stacked home, 30h up. If that terrain came up at or near melee, the mages wouldn't live to their turn. Of course, if it came up deep in the magic range, the LRs would have to beat a hasty retreat...
_________________
Steve "DDice" Braun
The Diceman's Gaming Pages: http://ddicerc.weebly.com
2014-2015 U.S. National Champion
(Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...)

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Ok I made up the "Lightning Bait' part...sorry
but before anyones brings it up.....

Mark did also win a Battlefest with a Fireshadow/Troll army:

‘99 Dragon Dice Battlefest 1st Place (Origins)

· Home - Coastland City

Fireshadow

· Campaign - Coastland Standing Stones

Troll x2

Fireshadow x 4

Gold Medallion

· Horde

Troll

Fireshadow x6

· Blue Wyrm x3

· Blue Dragonkin Champion x2

Blue Dragonsteed x1

Blue Dragonmount x3

Blue Dragonfoal x3

· Coastland Village

Flatland Village

Highland Village

Swampland Village

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Avoiding Decimation:
Ok so you were almost wiped out on the first turn....
you retreat to the reserves,
so what is the minimal amout of dice needed to rebuild?

If you only had a Sunburst and a Sunflare remaining:
you would need in your DUA a minimum of 2 Sunbursts,
in order to rebuild,before you could bring in a Sunflare.
So that's 3 turns until you even had a shot at bringing one Sunflare back.

So your army will need Sunbursts.
If your Sunbursts are getting buried,so are you.
So don't limit the Sunbursts too much,
they are your spark to keep the fire going.

You would need 3 Sunbursts in your reserves and 3 in your DUA
in order to bring back one Sunflare,that's 6 total.
Once the ball get's rolling,the Sunflares will take over,
allowing you to bring back more Sunflares.
Keep in mind the minimum requirements for rebuilding in the reserves.

If you do not have the required Sunflares in your DUA,
say for exampled they have been buried,
you will need to double magic at a Terrain.

So to help avoid Decimation,add a few extra Sunbursts.
Likewise when taking damage,choose the Sunbursts over the Sunflares.
(but don't decimate your Sunbursts,you might need them for saves)

So you might ask,
well then why not just make an all Sunflare army?
Well for one,since the army does not save unless you roll an ID,
the chances for rolling more IDs increases with more dice.
Secondly,an all Sunflare army will have a harder time bringing back
Sunflares if you get knocked down to only 2 units.
And another reason is promotion.

[DEEPBLUEB2]

When to leave the reserves:
The rebuilding is working!!!
In order to cast Lightning Strike,Dragons,Dragonkin,Mirage,to name a few spells...
we need to get to a terrain.

Key Issue:
You need to calculate how many units will survive an attack.

Wind Walk can be cast from the reserves,
So you need to keep units in the reserve now for
regeneration (Spark or Breath of Life) and Wind Walks.

It's time to forge ahead!!!
Move your units to a terrain!!!!
Keep some in reserves!!!!!

You know the drill.

[piMaster]

[DEEPBLUEB2]

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Spell Casting:
So we made it to a terrain.....
one with blue!!!
Half the army is still regenerating,(some in the reserves some in the DUA)
so at the terrain are 10 Sunbursts and 10 Sunflares.
You cast windwalks from the reserves and the army is able to move the terrain to magic.
So now you roll for magic.....
Let's use 30 as an average roll and look at the different ways to use magic.

10 points of dragonkin might work as a shield.
You are on magic,so a melee attack might not happen next turn.

Perhaps 10 points of health with Breath of Life would be a better idea.

3 Dragons and a Lightning Strike
(3 points left for dragonkin or Breath of Life)

5 Lightning Strikes

Dancing Lights,Ash Storm x12

Hailstorm x15

Using Specific spells to resovle specific issues may be a good idea as well:
Mirage
Blue or Red Elemental Blast
"Dust Devil/Dancing Lights" nasty combo!!!

If you wanted to guaratee a death,
we will use a troll as an example,
in this case... the final troll!!!
While rather costly,but definitive...
try casting 8 Firebolts, (24 points of magic)
that will inflict 8 points of damage on the troll....he can roll for saves
but he won't be able to generate enough.(Hopefully he won't regen)
and you still have 6 points left to Lighting Strike another unit.

Have Fun!!!

[DEEPBLUEB2]

http://www.sfr-inc.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=24237#24237

well I won....but it was not all Sunflares and Sunburst....

Good enough!!!