Played my first real games of Shadespire!

Yes, yes, I've played some games of Shadespire- two teaching/learning games with Rob, and some three player learning/teaching games with BK and Joey, but this past Tuesday I managed to play my first real one on one games of Shadespire, using decks I've built against someone using decks they've built.

I built decks for two of my warbands- Steelheart's Champions, and the Chosen Axes.  I played two games with each, all against Joey running his Ironskull’s Boyz warband.

For Steelheart's Champions, I wanted to try something different.  All of our games so far (the learning/teaching games), have all followed a similar formula.  Basically everything runs in, charging and battling, and much glory is scored in the slaughter.  The games were brutal, dynamic, quick... and a little luck dependent.

Instead, I wanted to try something more controlled.  I was going to take my Champions, spend the first turn moving back, away from the opposing warband, try to score some easy early objectives, like Consecrated Area (above), Sigmar's Bulwark, and the Hold Objective... objectives.

Getting a few early points will let me play some great upgrades to increase how dangerous my warband is (Great Strength), or set up for the end game with the various Key upgrades.  I then finish my deck with a bunch of pushes, a Healing Potion, a Last Chance... things like that.  Whatever I can to help keep my warband alive!

With that said, for the first time, I actually spent time considering my board choice and placement this time (all our previous games were long-edge to long-edge, creating a board where we could get into each other quickly.

Anyway, first game, I ran my deck against Joey's Ironskulls, and I think he wasn't quite prepared for it (again, this was our first real game).  I won the board placement, and attached the boards along their short edge, making a long, narrow board.  I then moved everything back, scored two glory early, upgraded, and came out and killed his leader on the second round.  From there, nothing was really a threat, and I ended up winning, 10-2.

Second game I once again won the board placement roll, but got a tad cocky from the first game, and left Steelheart a little closer to his oncoming Orruks.  He got killed early, giving the Orruks some glory to upgrade with, and they were able to steamroll the rest of my warband, beating me 6-4.

I decided to try the other deck I brought, which was my Chosen Axes.  My strategy for this one was a bit different.  The goal was to once again to stay away first turn, Inspiring Fjul-Grimnir, then upgrading him a bunch before sending him out to slaughter the opposing warband.  With luck, I would either get Shining Example or Alone in the Darkness is my opening hand, score one of them, and go to town with my Inspired Leader.

For the Power deck, I packed a lot of Move upgrade cards, a lot of random push cards, and things to make Fjul-Grimnir scarier.  I was also lucky in that I drew Spoils of Battle in both of my games with this deck.

Game 3, I once again won the board roll off, once again elected for the long, narrow setup, and things went basically to play.  I used Spoils of Battle to put a Move upgrade on Fjul-Grimnir, Inspired him, and sent him out.  We danced around a bit, and missed a lot of attacks, and when the dust settled, we were tied at five glory apiece.  Fortunately, in my effort to Inspire one of my other guys, I had actually parked someone on an objective, and due to that, I was able to win the game on a tie breaker!

Game 4 went much like Game 3, except more bloody.  I killed Joey's leader, but Joey managed to kill a couple of Dwarfs.  I ended the final turn leading by two glory... but after we scored our end game objectives, we ended up tied at 8 glory apiece! 

I then realized I had Treasure-Lust in my hand... and no one on an objective.  Oops!  There really was nothing that prevented me from pushing a guy onto one, in case of a tie breaker.  But I honestly didn't think about it (something I'll consider from now on at least).

So, in my first set of 'real' games, I went 2-1-1, learned a valuable lesson, and tried a new style of gameplay.  I had a great time, and I think this is something we'll get on the table a few times going forward, as it plays so quickly that it works as a perfect filler!  I have a Skaven warband I need to assemble, and in the meantime, I need to figure out a fun way to play the Reavers, as I haven't actually tried them yet.  Looking forward to more games!

Played some Shadespire!

So I've been trying out Shadespire, and after three games, I have to say I'm pretty impressed!

I went into the games having read all the rules, glanced over a few of the cards, and honestly, had quite a few concerns, some of which trying it out have allayed.

I'd like to talk about what I was concerned about pre-game, and my thoughts after three games (one of which was three player).

The game is too simple
I read the rules, and really, the game didn't wow me after that.  You get four activations, can move or attack (or both), or do other things.  Attacks are just roll dice for both sides, check for crits, if tied, check for relevant symbols, do damage.

During play, I noticed that although the rules are really as simple as they seem, the interplay of actions during the battle phase, and the positioning of models on the boards really seem to create enough depth.  Given that, the simplicity in the rules is almost a positive- you don't want to get bogged down with them while playing- you want to play the game, roll some dice, and get into the parts where your decisions matter.  Makes sense.

Movement doesn't matter
I was really concerned about this- it looked like once you charged, you basically just sat there swinging at each other until a model was gone, then you moved into your next battle.  In three games, this hasn't been the case though.  Moving has been extremely important, and positioning to deny a charge, or prepare for appropriate supports has actually seemed to be quite valuable.  This becomes evident with the cards that allow any sort of movement- Sidestep from the Core Set seemed to completely destroy a plan I was setting up, for instance.  So three twgames in, I'm not too worried about this.

Do the symbols on the dice matter?
Let me do this by example.  Obryn the Bold is starting next to Targor.  Obryn the Bold rolls two dice, needing hammers on the attack.  Targor gets 1 dice, needing an arrow, to get any form of defense.  A successful attack kills the model.

But wait!  Crits are more important.  If Obryn rolls a crit, and Targor doesn't, it will be a hit, regardless.  If Targor rolls a crit, but Obryn doesn't, it's a miss, regardless of what's on the roll.

Each dice has one side that counts as a Critical, as well as sides with symbols for the different attack and defense types, as well as symbols for when your fighter is being supported (either on attack or defense).  But really, these symbols are almost irrelevant when you look at the critical symbols.

For some hard numbers- normally, Obryn hits about 59% of the time.  If Targor's dice had NOTHING but that one Critical symbol on it, Obryn would hit about 65% of the time.  Six percent is one in sixteen, or so.

Most things in the game start with a single defense die.  Some can gain a second when getting inspired, or through other means.  And this sort of crit thing really feels most evident with the defense die.

I've run the numbers for quite a few simulations- I realize it's not as dire as I initially thought... but man, it is something that I still wonder about.  More games will be enlightening here.

Deck Building
I honestly started out by thinking that deck building wouldn't be very satisfying.  You essentially are building two decks with 32 cards total, all as singletons.  I figured the lack of variety would make me lose interest quick.  I'm very pleased to learn how wrong I was.  A brief check of decks online (here) shows several different, interesting builds for each of the warbands.  There are some overlap between some decks for the same warband, but the variety of objective choices in the decks seems very telling of very interesting build choices when constructing the deck.

Also, despite the singleton nature of deck building, there are a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) ways to get some consistency out of your decks.  For instance, the Earth Shakes for the Chosen Axes can double as a second copy of Sidestep, or as a second copy of Distraction, from the Core Set.  The point is- if there are effects you want in duplicate in your deck, there are likely ways to get them.

The fact they are releasing a card expansion pretty soon, to me, further reinforces this.  If deck building weren't interesting, would there really be a market for a bunch of cards to add to your decks?  Of course not.

The Bottom Line
Honestly, I've been very impressed with Shadespire.  As a big fan of the LCGs from FFG, I really appreciate the way they are releasing cards, and the variety of deck building choices has me eager to find more chances to play.  The miniatures are top notch, as always with GW.  The mechanics of the game are very smooth and easy to teach and play.  This is a game that I can see easily finding time to play as a filler for conventions or even other gaming hangouts, and one I look forward to expanding my collection with in the future.