Mortal Gods - Hades Rises
Hades really didn't do well vs Jason & friends on the last game, with the necromancers spending the whole game just stemming the tide by summoning over and over due to skeletons constantly dying and running away.
So for this one I decided to go with double necromancers.
Lets see how they do against these cronies of the so called father of gods.. Bah!
For this build I decided to go skeleton HEAVY and go with double necromancer. In the last game the necromancer was employed full time to just keep resurrecting skeletons who were being destroyed left right and centre. With two necromancers I hoped to have more black pebbles to do more interesting things.
First clash was the mighty Minotaur vs the Hydra.
The Hydra is very scary when at full health.. but in the games so far it doesn't stay at full health for long as he is public enemy #1. Unfortunately as soon as he gets any damage his effectiveness starts to fall, which is a shame as other big meanies remain at full fighting power until death.
Anyways, the Minotaur charges in and cleaves through the Hydras armour to do 4 damage
In the main battle zone the Skeleton shambling horde charged forward and rolled 7 attack dice on a centaur. They didn't make a dent. 🙁
The centaur on the right then counter charged...
In the centaurs counter charge, he destroyed 7 skeletons in one hit! With over half of them dead the shambling horde crumbles and splits up
The centaur on the left shoots his bow to kill off two more skeletons. With this being too much, all skeletons in the vicinity fail their morale check (with 1 dice) and run away
The battle continues with the hydra using all his activations to defend against the onslaught.
The skeletons try to charge the minotaur but fail their morale check.
Skeletons failing their check to attack the minotaur will become a reoccurring theme thoughout the battle
The centaur leader destroys an entire base of skeletons in one hit, which then causes a morale crisis in the are with again, everybody running away. Including the Hydra who sprints down towards the board edge.
I had quite enough of skeletons dying en-mass and triggering morale failures, so I had the idea of summoning as far as I could so that when they die, nobody would know.
I spotted the Zeus priest sitting all by himself.. Bam! Skeletons are summoned next to him and over the course of two turns (with two bases of skeletons being killed and then resurrected) they slowly chip away at the health of the priest to eventually kill him
Paul's centeur hero charges in to attack the Hydra, who decided to join the party (did no damage to the minotaur as the hydra didn't have many heads/attacks left)
He just about survived the centaur's attacks.
I then summoned some skeletons to surround the centaur leader. They attacked with a "frenzy", which is very nice as they are rolling 5 dice!
Blamo! They did a massive amount of damage, which then forced the centaur back an inch. However he was surrounded by enemies and so took an automatic damage due to not being able to fall back.. This finished him off!
Game over with all black pebbled leaders dead (and now part of the kingdom of Hades)
Final thoughts on the game.
I spent most of the game thoroughly depressed and on the defensive. The skeletons dying all the time and then triggering mass routes was really demoralising for me . Because of the mass deaths, the necromancers spent the whole game just summoning skeletons. Its a shame that only once I manage to do something interesting with them and spend a pebble on a frenzed charge as it was just too important to keep re-summoning skeletons as otherwise there would be nothing on the board and the necromancers would get the chop.
Might have to house rule skeletons having to roll morale checks for when fellow skeletons die as I felt it really dictates the game with Hades being on the defensive the whole time.
I am not sold on the Hydra who seems to be targeted for death all the time by a big beasty or hero. The Hydra just becomes impotent as he spends his actions defending and when he does get to attack, his attacks are weak due to his wounds. He really wants to just fight regular soldiers and not big beasties who do huge spike damage that quickly get the hydras power level down to that of a hamster.
I loved summoning skeletons where the opponent didn't think they were going to be. I must try more of this tactic!
----------
Are you looking for a gaming club in the South East of England?
If so join us at Wycombe Warband.
