SFR, Inc.

[DialFforFunky]

I got a question by Drewsmart as to why I thought the Feral were such a powerful race, and since I might as well share my thoughts, I decided to open this topic. It will probably contain a lot of unstructured rambling, but it will probably get the point across.

Dice:
Lets start with the tangible part of the feral: their dice. As a whole, they save pretty decently, and have a decent amount of maneuvers. They have the 'a bit of everything' mindset, without having too much unfocused icons on their dice.
When looking at specifics, only the missile units are a huge let-down. They waste a good deal of icons on melee, and they haven't got a single save icon. This way they don't deal more missile damage than other races, they save very poorly, and they're not being too quick either.
The heavy melee, light melee and cavalry create a nice spectrum of melee, maneuver and save icons. They are quite similar, but with the decent power level they all share, that's hardly a bad thing. The rares are all quite good as they all have solid SAIs, though the Wolverine-folk certainly takes the cake for me. Rend is just such a strong SAI. Oh, and the Horse-folk has some serious speed! I never realised it before, but it averages out with the Dragonne Knight! Wow!
Some might also call the mages diluted, as they have melee faces and loads of saves. I feel this is only in part true. The melee faces are somewhat wasted on them. But the amount of saves these guys have is fantastic. Whereas other mages tend to die to any serious appliance of force, the feral common and uncommon mages can actually take a hit. Not having a massive amounts of magic faces might not look good, but I think they're still good enough casters. Especially when considering you get to double your id's, which counterbalances a good bit when looking at totals. The Wolverine-folk is much like most other rare mages, which simply is quite good.
Then the monsters. Most of these are actually quite decent as well, as far as monsters go. I really like the Owl-folk, as it has enough Fly icons and Dispell Magic to not be a big target, and it also has enough magic faces to still be considered a proper mage. The other SAIs are a bit wasted on it. The Elephant-folk can turn your ordinary melee force into something disturbingly powerful while again not being too big a target because of the 3 save icons. The Tiger-folk is comparable to most decent monsters of other races. The Rhino-folk and the Bear-folk are lousy, which balances the monsters out overall.


Abilities:

The Feral only have one racial ability, Feralization. Feralization isn't tied to a specific terrain, and it doesn't directly give them a stronger board position, so the ability might be mistaken as being slightly bland and weak at first. I believe it is neither.
First of all power. This racial benefit has it. Taking casualties is something that will happen in most games, which means this benefit will have an effect in most games. When you compare this to, for example, the Scalders Intangibility, the difference is quite clear. The fact that it doesn't need a specific terrain is a power as well, as it doesn't tie your race to a specific type of terrain. You can do well on your opponents turf as well as your own.
When Feralization occurs, you essentially get 3 free magic per terrain you occupy. This might not seem much at first, but you might as well view it this way: your mages will need to spend 3 less magic when casting. If you occupy 2 terrains, you almost get a 'free' dragon. Not only is this good in a quantitative way. Keeping your dice in the game is one of the most important parts in the game (hence the populartiy of mages, trolls and gold medallions), and Feralization generates this high quality service for free. A side benefit of this is that it also makes your army immune to all the small dents and cheap shots your opponent might inflict on your army. That one finger of death isn't going to do anything. Those 2 damage the melee attack did will be back in a second. That lonely common will be back to join the main army in no time.
Then for the tricks. First of all, the combo with the racial spell Hide should be obvious. Just stick a single common with Hide on a terrain an you'll get an additional Feralization next turn. That's not all though. Then there's the 'Replanting' aspect of this racial benefit. Feralization helps to keep your key high-health dice on the board by simply promoting a lower health into the specific die you need. If you build an army around some rending Wolf-folk, simply include some 2 health dice to ensure the Wolverine is back at the start of your turn. Finally, this power can be used to shift your dice around. Need that cavalry unit accompanying your mages to help out with your meanies at the frontier? Simply promote it to something bigger, then have it recruited/promoted at the appropriate terrain, and save your mages from the troubles of having to cast path. This might even mean that counter-attacking into counters during your opponents turn might not always be a bad thing. A few dead units might be a bad thing in terms of quantity, but it might actually be quite rewarding in therms of quality and flexibility.


Magic:

For me, this is probably the most significant aspect of the Feral power. To put it blunt: the Feral have the best spell list in the game.
First the basic spells. I believe the gold and blue magic schools to be the best two out there. Gold provides great strategic versatility. The powerhouses Path and TRtM are among the best spells in the game, as they allow any army to be very competitive in a maneuvering strategy. But gold magic also provides strong spells for fighting the attrition fight. Stoneskin can help your melee forces survive longer than the opponent, and Dust to Dust will win out in the long rung against opponents that cannot bring their dice back from the BUA.
Then there is the very aggressive blue magic. Two damage spells, one bottom up, the other top down. Hailstorm is the top down blunt instrument, great for decimating smaller armies and units that thought they were safe in reserves (or sent there by you). On the other end, there is lightning storm, which is great for picking off the juicy targets in bigger armies, and the sole reason many monsters are hardly playable. As for non-damaging spells, Wind walk provides the Ying to TRtM's Yang. While TRtM is more cost-effective, Wind Walk is more reliable by being an additive modifier. TRtM can help troops when they emerge from reserves, while Wind Walk can be cast from reserves. And the Feral have them both. Finally, there's Breath of Life, about which I hardly need to say a thing. Once again, keeping dice in the game is a core aspect, making this a core spell.
Then the racial spells. Hide is probably the most significant of these. Not only does is provide an easy Feralization-enabler, but combined with the great maneuver-altering spells Hide also makes any unassuming lonely common a significant maneuvering threat. Another option is to have a common 'scout ahead' for an army in reserves. Cast hide on it, send it to the terrain you want to go to next turn. Then cast buffs on it the following turn, Allowing your whole army to benefit from the buffs. Speaking of buffs: Feral have a pretty great one. Wilding is a great spell because of its flexibility. Not only do you get to choose the specific die after rolling the entire army, increasing chances of successful use, but you also get to use it during both save and melee rolls. Finally, doubling modifiers are great things to let results get out of hand really fast. If you can add a Buring Hands somehow, your results get quadrupled. Not to mention Firewalker monsters on an 8th and flaming armour (I know, hard to achieve, but still: 32 melee from a single icon...). Backlash provides a nice way for the feral to cheaply gain advantage in a casters vs. casters position. Finally, Call of the Wild might be a bit of an unassuming spell, but with feral monsters, is still provides a very quick power-shift the opponent might not be expecting. Kind of a mini-path that also lets you pull your guys from reserves.
All in all, I think the feral spell-list is a very well-rounded one. It has loads of maneuvering tricks as well as attrition tools, which mean that the feral can do well in either strategy to win the game (8th face or straightforward killing).

Conclusion:
So there you have it: the most important reasons why I think Feral are a fantastic race. The Feral have a very decent icon ascription and distribution (save for the missile troops), they have a flexible and strong racial benefit, and a terrific list of spells. This makes Feral the complete package, and perhaps even the strongest race in Dragon Dice.



For some older ramblings on topics partly discussed in this topic:

Racial and General Spell Lists Ratings
Though Feral might not get the best stand-alone rating, they still end up pretty high. Combined with the overall scores fir the gold and blue schools of magic, is should not be hard to see why I think they have the best magic in the game.


Icon Distribution Ratings
A list I made rating all the races according to race. Feral do end up firmly in the mid-section with a score of 5.8, but this is mainly due to maneuver icons being present on most dice, which are hardly ever is a fully wasted icons (as opposed the the single melee or missile icons, yucky coral elves and such).



F
_________________
717

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Good read there Funky.

Even if the dice distribution was crappy like the Firewalkers, I still think the Feral would be way up there.

Feralization + Hide + Blue and Gold Magic is just ridiculous good.

Whenever I have a new player playing, I usually give them Feral (unless they want a specific race).
_________________
HeroScape - Tree Town Open Champion (2008, 2016), Nebraska Skirmish Champion (2008, 2010) GenCon LightWeight Champion (2009), GenCon General Wars (Aquilla Champion 2009) GenCon Unique Hero Champion (2009, 2010)
Dragon Dice - Gen Con Worlds Champion 2011, 2012, 2016, 2017 O Town 2013 Overall Winner

[Skawilly]

Yes, they have 'arguably' the strongest color combination of magic.
So what if their mages usually hold only 50% magic casting vs a possible 67%. It hardly matters. Plus, not only are their colors great (In that being the best basic spells) but they are the only race to cast 'invincibility' but also backlash is pretty buff. Scent of Fear is the only way to get rid of a faded undead unit with a pool of stepped damage. It will also clear out an 8th face sooooo easily. The kin are unaffected so all you need is enough to drive out the mages and your good, the kin will dissipate on their own and the 8 will move to 7th. Though the last 2 are circumstantial, they are still strong moves.

Their Icon distro is the 2nd or 3rd best in the game. Yep, who cares about their lack of ranged. Trumpet does not affect that anyway. Its the only real buff in the game at the moment towards an army that is not magic enhanced. This is ridiculous in that it also stacks with wilding, which chooses a target AFTER the melee roll to ensure it activates. Making it so easy to get one unit to dish out 16 melee. That is yet another broken concept. They have great Icon distro units when you build proper armies of moves/saves/melee.

Feralization renders other Direct Damaging spells against them useless. I mean to say, effectively it would require 4 damage to successfully get through saves to hold permanent which is easily undone be a 3 point res. I heard elsewhere that is one of those racials that only activates when there are dead, but thats not the case. Its a defensive buff thats always active. Dwarves/Treefolk/Scalders dont have direct damage spells, but neither does anyone else when dealing with Feral, for the most part.

Bottom line....
Feralization is WAY over the top.

Their magic is simply too good even for the so called 'small' numbers they pull (Which is usually only about 5 less than a 67% race)

Their icon distro is perfect for what they do. Yes they lack in ranged but they are not meant for that even by the designers standards. Only melee/save buffs via SAI and magic. So to say they are tied for 2nd place, this is ONLY because their mages are missing an average of about 5 or so points a magic roll.

The synergy they have w/their units is just outstanding. Its unmatched by any other race.

Summary...
This race is not broken for any one specific reason. I feel that feralization can be toned down but even still its all of the above combined. They have 3 really strong strats that are easily pulled off. Most other races need a bit of luck on the starting terrain and a lot of skill to really accomplish what makes them shine. This race gets many different angles handed to them every time. I am not talking about those corner cases where melee tromps your mages on the first round. That can happen to anyone. I am just saying they have a higher chance of being setup more easily, for the most part on most terrains.
This race is outta control. They are outside of the spectrum of whats good and whats bad to play as. Even the most difficult army to play is still inside the spectrum of good play. These guys are bad form to bring to a table or, as the above stated, give em to new players and constantly remind them to feralize for a decent match.
_________________
Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Denimwizard]

I too offer the feral army to new players i teach. It helps that they only have one racial ability.

Skawilly I never thought to use scent of fear at an 8th face haha that is just awesome.

Don't forget guys Wilding is also not race specific it can be used on things like wolf packs. (which is feralesque ) to generate massive amounts of damage.

I can speak to the invincibility that Ferals bring to the table even when combined with another army. With the Frostwing/feral army I built. The Feral were mostly mages with some cavalry thrown in. The Frostwings were melee and missile focused. This combined with the Gold Medallion made heavy casualties trivial. Within a couple turns id generate enough magic to bring most of the army back from the DUA. So i can see what your saying.
_________________
750 Dragon Dice and Counting!

[Skawilly]

[DEEPBLUEB2]

I not sure if you covered this with feralization...
but I feel this is a major advantage with the race.

Not only can you feralize...
but feralize is done one terrain at a time...
thus you can feralize a unit that has already been used in feralization.

So what this means is you are not restricted to only using units in the DUA at the start of your turn.

So let's say you have only 1 dead rare in the dua...but feral at 3 terrains.

terrain 1:

you promote an uncommon to the rare...

so now only an uncommon is in your dua


terrain 2: you promote a common to the uncommon

so now only a common is in your dua


terrain 3:

recruit the lone common

you promote a common to the

no units in the dua.

[Skawilly]

i am glad you brought that up Mr. Rayborn. In this manner, feralizing is also done with City/Kings Die as well.
_________________
Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Dolus]

[DEEPBLUEB2]

[Skawilly]

[Dolus]