SFR, Inc.

[AC]

Rolling for Saves:
Mammoth Rider: ID (3)
Lizard Rider: ID (2)
Infiltrator: 1 Maneuver (&@$*!)
Assassin: 3 Melee
Assassin: 4 Bullseye
Dead Shot: 2 Melee
Dead Shot: 2 Maneuver
Dead Shot x 2: 2 Missile

Total: 5, Doubled for 8th Face, yielding 10 Saves
14 Damage remains
Heck with it. I'll lose both Assassins and all four Dead Shots. It is in painful blows coming back to me why I abandoned Lava Elves for years.

As for DDInventory, I have no idea; I've never used it (I'm grabbing the dice and rolling beside me). There are a couple admin types who doubtless know something.

[AC]

On review, I only see 22 damage (6+4+2+4+2+1+1+1+1). Was there a typo or did I mis-count?

[chuckpint]

loligarchy, you don't get to pick which unit is buried. You only get to select which player has to bury a unit.
_________________
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).

[loligarchy]

Ah, my mistake with the temple go ahead and bury whatever

Additionally my mistake with the missiles. I read that burner's manuever as a missile result

Guess its one of those nights

[loligarchy]

Either way
Second March Manuever attempt
Leopard Rider: 4 Melee
Leopard Rider: 3 Missile
Mugger: 1 ID
Troll: 4 Melee

2 results, methinks that means its not moving

[AC]

Ok. In those cases, I will bury the dead Fusilier -- ideally in an unmarked and thoroughly tamped-down grave. Also I will lose one fewer Dead Shot (so it's 2 Assassins and 3 Dead Shots to the DUA).

Rolling for Counter-Maneuver:
Mammoth Rider: 4 Melee
Lizard Rider: 3 Melee
Infiltrator: 1 Melee
Dead Shot: 2 Melee

Total: 0! (Though 10 Melee, in case, y'know, that's intimidating.) I am short of words to describe this force's performance -- certainly printable ones.

There's still a Transmute Rock... on your army, too, which means you got zero results . . . and still won. 8th Face lost.

[loligarchy]

Wow, um my brain is a little fried apparently this evening, I am quite sorry. Sad thing is I personally typed that into the html rather than bother with using the DDassist board and still forgot it in my roll.
So I guess it goes down to 7

Well no guts no glory right!
Melee attack
Leopard Rider: 3 Missile
Leopard Rider: 3 ID
Mugger: 2 Melee
Troll: 4 Melee

that bloody missile face raises its ugly head
9 melee

[AC]

Rolling for Saves:
Lizard Rider: 2 Save
Mammoth Rider: 4 Melee
Infiltrator: 5 Melee
Dead Shot: 2 Missile

Total: 2 Saves. 7 damage remains. Hmm . . . Which Rare will make the stand? Infiltrator, Lizard Rider, and Dead Shot to DUA.

Rolling for Counterattack:
Mammoth Rider: 3 Trample

Total: 3 damage incoming!

[loligarchy]

I was so sure you'd saved up enough luck to get a counter haha

Save
Leopard Rider: 3 ID
Leopard Rider: 3 Save
Mugger: 1 Maneuver
Troll: 4 Maneuver

saved

No reserves, your turn

Turn Sequence: AC, Loli

Turn 2 AC

	*****************	**	*****************	**	*****************	*****************
	AC BUA		AC DUA		AC Reserve Army (EA) (EA)	AC Summoning Pool
*
	AC		AC		AC Home Army
	Loli's Home (Tower)		Frontier (Loligarchy		AC's Home (Temple)
	Loli Home Army		Loli		Loli
*
	Loli Reserve Army		Loli Summoning Pool		Loli DUA	Loli BUA

[AC]

Fourth Turn
Transmute Rock to Mud on your army at your Home expires
I think I had a Stoneskin that expires as well. I'm not that concerned; it probably worked out better for me that I forgot it.

First March
In Reserves

Rolling for Magic:
Wizard: ID (3)
Wizard: 4 Cantrip
Thaumaturgist: 3 Magic
Fusilier: 1 Maneuver

Total: 10 Gold or Red

Using 6 Red to cast Spark of Life x 2 to return Scorpion Knight from DUA to Reserves
Using 4 Gold to cast Stoneskin x 2 on my army at your Home

Second March
Attempting to Maneuver (why not?):
Mammoth Rider: 3 Melee (of course!)

Total: 0. Awaiting counter attempt.

[loligarchy]

Counter manuever
Leopard Rider: 3 ID
Leopard Rider: 3 ID
Mugger: 1 ID
Troll: 4 Melee

14

[AC]

Didn't mean to leave the tension hanging here. Ended up getting busy with other stuff.

Reserves
Reinforce all from Reserves to your Home.

End of Turn

[loligarchy]

No worries
Turn Sequence: AC, Loligarchy

Turn Sequence: AC, Loligarchy

Turn 2 - Loli

	*****************	**	*****************	**	*****************	*****************
	AC BUA		AC DUA		AC Reserve Army	AC Summoning Pool
*
	AC (Stoneskin x2)		AC		AC Home Army
	Loligarchy's Home (Tower)		Frontier (Loligarchy)		AC's Home (Temple)
	Loligarchy Home Army		Loligarchy		Loligarchy
*
	Loligarchy Reserve Army		Loligarchy Summoning Pool		Loligarchy DUA	Loligarchy BUA

First March
Missile Action
Blazer: 2 Maneuver
Burner: 3 Missile
Burner: 2 Maneuver
Burner: 4 Missile
Pine Prince: 3 ID
Pineling: 2 Missile
Pineling: 1 Missile
Pineling: 2 Missile
Pineling: 1 Missile
Pineling: 1 Save
Pineling: 1 Missile

17 Missile results against your Home Army

Regardless of Results

Second March
Manuever at my home
Leopard Rider: 3 Save
Leopard Rider: 3 Save
Mugger: 1 Maneuver
Troll: 4 Melee
Well at least I can count on that mugger
2 results

[AC]

I brought back a Scorpion Knight, too, so he's going to be helping to eat this barrage.

Rolling for Saves:
Wizard: 3 Save
Wizard: ID (3)
Mammoth Rider: 3 Trample
Thaumaturgist: 2 Magic
Scorpion Knight: 4 Melee
Fusilier: 1 Maneuver

Total: 6 Saves + 2 Stoneskin. Taking 9 damage.
2 Wizards, Thaumaturgist, and Fusilier to DUA

Rolling for Counter-Maneuver:
Mammoth Rider: 3 Trample
Scorpion Knight: 2 Save

Total: 3 Maneuver. Successfully countered.

[loligarchy]

Ok well then I lash out hatefully at you

Melee Attack
Leopard Rider: 3 ID
Leopard Rider: 3 Missile
Mugger: 1 Maneuver
Troll: 4 Melee
7 results

These have got to be the most pacifistic leopard riders I've ever come across...

Regardless of outcome, I end my turn

[loligarchy]

In all seriousness though, this has not been a terribly great game, would you like to regame this?

[AC]

I was thinking much the same thing. Were it not such a habit of mine to blithely see such disasters through to the bitter end, I would have thrown in the towel already.

Just because I'm inclined to give them one last chance to redeem themselves (and/or die), I'm going to roll for Saves:
3 Trample and 1 Melee. It ends as it should.

If I could indulge in a little post mortem, I do have to acknowledge some (perhaps much?) of the blame. Realistically, I should have pulled back from one of the terrains a turn before I did. I was just really angling to get a big magic roll so I could lay into your Frontier force -- at least drop a Dancing Lights -- but it was not to be. (Plus, I don't like always taking the by-the-book safe route.) As bad as those 6's looked off the bat, I think I fell into the trap of trying to take your home when my whole army was designed around the idea of sitting at a Highland.

At the Highland, the Dead Shots save at 33% and the Fusiliers at 50% (and both maneuver at 33%) so it mitigates the elven softness. Of course, the Scorpion Knight saves there at 67%, and look what he did for me. The rolls were naturally a factor; the odds that I would botch both that elf save and the subsequent maneuver roll were on the order of 0.694%, but so a dice game goes. Honestly, I haven't had this many laughs at a game in a while.

It's been my theory that a successful missile-based force will be an Annihilation army. That is to say: You're generally too much at risk trying to capture two 8's, so you settle in one defensive position and lay waste to the enemy. I can assume you were operating from a similar conclusion, since that is the tactic you executed while I floundered.

So, that rambling out of the way, I'm certainly up for another. Fresh forces? Same armies and just reroll hordes/terrains?

[loligarchy]

I have come to a similar conclusion, with one caveat. I have a feeling that a missile force is reliably capable of engaging a more standard army construction provided they take a strong early lead. This is why I believe the concept of the amazon common/magic item army works fairly well. I feel it is likely that any missile army can succeed with a similar mindset, at least often enough.

One issue is that most missile armies are not able to bury, so even if you take an early advantage if the game goes too long you're in serious trouble. Of course that is generally how most games balance between early advantage and 'endgame' strategy and thus to attempt to remedy this partially I gravitated toward a blazer, not that he opted to indulge me. The other alternative of course would be a catapult, but taking one of those is dangerous as you would drop your average missile results by a noticeable margin. 20% saves though

I theorize that a bronze medallion would also likely find excellent use in such an army, as it allows access to a variety of spells that one can cantrip in to various effect (mainly wilding/earthen armor/flaming spears)


That said, the game may be oriented a bit much toward defense in order for such a mindset to succeed, but I prefer to play games with early aggression, its one of the reasons why I was never particularly good at chess.
Frontier terrains also complicate this issue as only one has more than a single arrow face. Combine that with the Feyland only having 1 missile face, along with Swampland, Wasteland and Highlands have 2 missile faces. Given that, statistics do seem to be weighed against missile armies, given that no matter what you do, you're never guaranteed your frontier.

That all being said, I wouldn't mind running with a fresh force.

[AC]

Agreed on all points. I buttressed the Morehl shooters with the Vagha movers on the idea that if I could not take an 8th, I could sit on a missile and counter anything less than a concentrated effort to shift to a different terrain icon.

I'm not much of a video-game player, but having gamer acquaintances means I've dabbled here and there. Within the fantasy genre I seem to recall the implementation frequently being that bows'n'arrows never did as much "damage" as a sword or ax, to theoretically offset the advantage of range. In practice, this usually meant one opted to forego the bow in favor of more swords. In Dragon Dice, the ability to attack without suffering a counterattack (excepting Volley) is tremendous, as is the capacity to attack one terrain away. Compared to melee, the damage output may not be terribly different on average, but the setup is a lot more difficult to achieve (and maintain) -- which I guess intends to establish a balance between the two.

Or I'm overthinking it and granting credit where there was in fact only haphazard indifference, as has been suggested to me before. In any case, I'll start a new topic.

[TheLazyhase]