Call It Shadespire!

Decision: Should you play the New Board "The Herbaceous Checkerboard"?   TL;DR The warbands likely to get the most use out of this board are ones that have a small number of models and easy-to-score passive/defensive objectives; ie. the Sigmarite warbands.  Small aggro warbands like Orcs and Magore's may also benefit from using this board.  Other warbands likely have better options. Prelude Today, we'll be taking a look at one of the two new boards being released for Shadespire - The Herbaceous Checkerboard (the other board - the one with the blue - is called The Lachrymose Tetrahedron ).  For the purposes of referring to the board, we'll be using the above orientation as the default, and referring to specific edges and directions using a NESW system based on this orientation. Factor: Edge Hexes Right out of the box, we get to look at what is probably the most attractive feature of this board.  While having 4 starting-edge hexes is not part...

Decision: Should you play the New Board "The Lachrymose Tetrahedron"? TL;DR: Sigmarite warbands and Zarbag's Gitz may have something to gain from using this board.  Most other warbands already have an option that works better for them. Prelude Today, we'll be taking a look at one of the two new boards being released for Shadespire - The Lachrymose Tetrahedron (the other board - the one with the orange tint - is called the Herbaceous Checkerboard).  For the purposes of referring to the board, we'll be using the above orientation as the default, and referring to specific edges and directions using a NESW system based on this orientation. Factor: Edge Hexes While having starting hexes that are also edge hexes has lost some value due to Extreme Flank being placed on the SBAR list, we should likely still consider the number of starting-edge hexes when determining which board to play.  In the long-board/hallway setup, The Lachrymose Tetrahedron ...

Decision: Should You Play Obliterated? TL;DR:  If you're playing goblins, you should probably play this.  Snirk is a powerhouse. Factor:2-Glory, Score-Immediately Having a 2-glory, score-immediately objective in the early game is particularly important for Gitz players, as the little green guys become significantly more beefy when they inspire.  This kind of objective combos well with Miraculous Escape, Cover Ground, and other similar objectives that score 1 glory for almost no effort.   As of this writing, there are only 17 objectives that are score-immediately for 2 glory.  Of those, 4 are not available to Gitz players (and why would you be considering Obliterated otherwise?).  Malicious Kill is the other Gitz-specific objective that meets these criteria, and may well be a good option to play with as well.  However, we tend to avoid objectives that require your opponent to do something specific in order to score them. Of the rem...

SPECIAL: LVO RECAP So the Call It Shadespire playgroup headed out to play in the Las Vegas Open last weekend, and this article will focus on our experience there! Factor: The People I want to start out by saying that the people playing Shadespire at the convention were - universally - awesome.  Everyone there seemed out to have a good time, and all of my matches were fantastic, no exaggeration.  I'd like to give a special shout out to the Canadians there - especially Sam, Justin, and Kaptain Murder - who were all friendly to the Albuquerque crew, even putting up with our appropriation of Canadian culture in our team names (on Friday we were LETTERKENNY, on Sunday we were DIRTY DANGLES).  My opponents were all super cool, and I honestly had a blast every single game.  It's been a long time since I played a tournament and didn't have a single game that felt bad. Factor: Las Vegas For real, hanging out in Las Vegas involves a lot of walking - and...

Decision: Should you play Jabbertoad? Image Blatantly Stolen from Can You Roll a Crit?   Author's Note : Bottomdecking is a  series of short articles where we examine bad choices that are made by reasonable people - please note that this is not meant as an indictment of any person, it's the cards that are bad, not the people.  Mostly, Bottomdecking articles are a fun way for me to cut my workload while I'm busy with real life stuff (Getting ready for LVO, in this case), and hopefully cause a couple of people to chuckle along the way. TL;DR:  C'mon.  No. Factor: Crunch Right out of the gate, the math on this batrachian projectile is quite poor.  It's only doing 0.7037 damage per unblocked use to begin with.  When we factor in defense rolls, this number gets worse.  Against the ever increasing tide of 2-dodge models, for example, Kermit is going to miss more than half the time, resulting in 0.48 damage per average use....

Decision: Should you play Seize the Initiative?   Author's Note : Bottomdecking is a new series of short articles where we examine bad choices that are made by reasonable people - please note that this is not meant as an indictment of any person, it's the cards that are bad, not the people.  Mostly, Bottomdecking articles are a fun way for me to cut my workload while I'm busy with real life stuff (Getting ready for LVO, in this case), and hopefully cause a couple of people to chuckle along the way. TL; DR:  No; unless you play a 3-model warband, in which case: still no . Factor: Probability At base, you've got about a 1.6% chance of rolling 3 crits on any given rolloff for the first activation.  If you happen to place all your models first at the game's beginning, you've got a 13.2% chance of pulling three crits there - still not great.  However, we should also keep in mind that during that first activation rolloff, you've got the lowes...

Decision: Should you play Seized Trophy? TL; DR: Yeah, probably.  It's no showstopper, but it's likely worth an upgrade slot to be able to inspire your fighter for free (at some point, you probably played Inspiration Strikes, right?). Prelude: Disclaimer This card isn't released yet; you probably shouldn't play it until it is.   Additionally, we have very little information about the other cards in this set, therefore this analysis will be necessarily incomplete.  Things may change drastically as we learn about new cards.  This is a preliminary look only. Factor: Fuzzy Math Seized Trophy is one of those cards that you wouldn't even consider in any warband other than Godsworn (even if it was a universal), so it's important that we view it specifically through the lens of that warband.  When a Godsworn fighter gets an upgrade, they inspire.  So in this article, we'll be looking at Seized Trophy as a method to upgrade your fighters.  How t...