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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Ramblings: Ranged Assassinations

Being really bored I decided to throw together some Scaverous lists. I already know what I'll be running the next couple of weeks, but sometimes putting together a few random lists, makes things clearer to me. As I put in Croe's Cutthroats, I got the distinct feeling I was about to embark on another "pDenny adventure".

Against an experienced opponent with an assassination list, a slightly worse player won't learn anything. He will deploy, he will advance, and he will die. I discovered this fact with pDenny, but eCaine will also take out newbies in turn two, and so will eMakeda, and Scaverous with the right list.

I've always been a fan of balanced lists, with the ability to play both assassination and attrition, but with Mortenebra I found a love for assassinations. The problem arose when I got good at it, because a game just isn't fun when it ends thirty seconds into your opponents second turn, and you didn't get to roll a single dice.


With Mortenebra an opponent could block my vectors, build a castle, and while it rarely worked they still learned a few things and enjoyed the game. I've had a lot of really close games with Mortenebra, but I've had exactly two close games with pDenny (including the first game, which I lost). With eGaspy I've had exactly one close game (decided on victory points, which I lost), and with Scaverous I've had a couple of close games, but only because I deliberately avoid playing assassination lists.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this, but I think what I'm trying to say is, that in a game between players with a different skill level, an assassination list will ruin the fun. In attrition the experienced player will have a lot more opportunities to make mistakes, and one mistake wont automatically cost the new player the game. It's a hard balance to strike, but perhaps we can keep it in mind, and gain some better (and happier) opponents in the long run.

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