SFR, Inc.

[Terrainosaur]

Please help me understand why higher-health units are good.

Common units are easier to promote and recruit, although to be fair common units are easier to kill.
On average, an army of common units have a higher chance of rolling some results.
Common unit sometimes have more results than uncommon or rare units on average.

* The common Dwarf Footman has 5 melee results (.83). The uncommon Dwarf Sergeant has 9 melee results (.75 per health). An army of 18 Footmen would produce 15 melee; an army of 9 Sergeants would produce 13.5.
* The common Dwarf Footman has 7 total results. The rare Warlord has 19 results (6.3 per health).
* Lava Elf Spider Riders have 4 maneuver results (.66). Lava Elf Wyvern Riders have 9 maneuvers (.5 per health).

So why would I go with rare dice when I get more results from common dice?

[chuckpint]

Because rare dice have SAIs. The rare Warlord has a 4-point Smite. That's 4 health of your opponents, dead, no save. Cantrip is the ultimate SAI. Every rare mage has it. In our gaming group, it very often comes down to "don't attack that army, it may get Cantrips".

Normally I just bring uncommons so I can promote from common to uncommon to rare.

Now monsters on the other hand are hard to justify bringing to the table. Except for a few, most die too easily.
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You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[cliffwiggs]

Also, you are comparing a single result type between common and uncommon. on many dice they trade results. the seargent trades a melee for a manuever and a save for a maneuver.

The footman has only 1 maneuver,while the sergeant has 4.

the number of icons per health is constant (and you have to count SAI's are more than non-SAI's.

what you need to do is decide what you want.

If you want melee and saves with no maneuvers, bring two footmen
if you want the possibility of maneuvers at slightly less melee and saves, bring a sergeant.

do you see?
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[Terrainosaur]

It's difficult to measure the values of SAIs. Let's go back to the dwarfs.

The common Pony Rider has 7 possible results.
The rare Mammoth Rider has 19 possible results.

If we assume they're going to be rolling melee, maneuver, or saves (not magic or missiles), here are the possibilities:

Pony Rider: 9
Melee 3
Maneuver 4
Save 2

Mammoth Rider: 31
Melee 16
Maneuver 9
Save 6

Since Trample can be used for different uses, that result gets counted more often. So a Mammoth Rider produces more results than three Pony Riders ... 31 to 27.
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Mitch
http://www.Terrainosaur.com

[cliffwiggs]

you got it.

This is a special case because you knew that trample counts as two results, so you counted it as 12 points of results instead of 6.

If you just count raw icons, then most rares have 19 icons on them. (6.3 per health) where uncommons have 14 icons (7 per health) and commons have 7 icons (7 per health).

Thats why we say a rare has fewer icons. 6.3<7

for things like counter or fly or trample or rend, they end up more results per health than a common. something like smite is less results per health, but its 'special' so 1 special result<>1 normal result.

another reason you would pick bigger units is to ignore points of damage. If I have an all uncommon army, I can't take an odd number of points of damage, so one point always disappears untaken.



Cliff
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Multiplayer Champion Gencon11/Battlefest Champion(tied) GenCon10/World Champion GenCon07/National Champion Origins05/Intermediate Champion GenCon02/Novice Champion Origins99

[DEEPBLUEB2]

The Gold Medallion:

If you are going to use all rares and monsters,
the gold medallion fits this scheme.


Commons are easiest to bury,
and as Chuck has mentioned in a game,
"there is a point of no return with the gold medallion"
so roughly,
the gold medallion can only unbury so much...
since it can only unbury 1 unit at a time,
if your army is all large units,
the gold medallion can be more effective.