Welcome back, adventurers!

The time has come for another character strategy article. The last article went over Sandrai Darkshine, the warlock . This article will be going over the simple and effective warrior, Grumbaz Crowsblood.

Unlike a majority of the other characters that make heavier use of discovery tokens, Crowsblood’s primary focus is maintaining Berserk Stance. It doesn’t take a goblin engineer to tell players that the odds of winning are in favor of Crowsblood as long as he is in Berserk Stance, which increases his attack value and damage value. Grumbaz will appear daunting, at first, to the other players with his three Attack Value (triple that of the other characters at grey level) and two Damage Value while in this stance. For those that are bold enough to choose Grumbaz, this article will help you carve a bloody path to victory.

Playing the warrior will require you to watch the healing spaces and options. Grumbaz is a melee specialist, so unlike the ranged characters, the only way to avoid damage is with armor. He has high attack and damage values and requires a high endurance and evasion, rather than heavy armor, to avoid damage. Leveling up is one of the most viable strategies for the Orc warrior, as every level gained also replenishes his health. Also important in this are the healing potion spaces. These are scattered about the board, and can heal one or two health points. Be careful as these spaces will be where the other players will place discovery tokens, in an effort to slow your frenzied advances.

Grumbaz will most likely encounter large numbers of discovery tokens left behind by other players. The choice a Grumbaz player will have to make is whether to still go to a space with tokens or change their plans and avoid it. The player may want to look at their health before deciding, as this orc does crave blood, both his and his enemy’s. A Grumbaz player needs to get used to taking a fair amount of damage. If a discovery token would prevent him from healing before the encounter - or worse, deal damage to him - then it is probably not a good idea to land on the space. Grumbaz has little health to spare on frivolous tokens.

A few discovery tokens that can ruin a warrior’s day: bombs, diseases, and hexes. Bomb subtracts 2 health from you before the encounter, leaving you with little health to fend off your foe. Disease turns you into more of a target for other ranged characters. Hex flips your card over to the Battle Stance side, removing your bonus for Berserk Stance. Try to keep track of the number of each token that has been revealed so far. This tactic will help out in a long run, because tokens do not get put back into the game after being used. If you know all the Bombs are gone, you gamble a bit less going onto a space with an unknown token.

Grumbaz’s strength can also be his biggest weakness. It is fairly easy to predict where his rage will take him, and plot his demise accordingly. Just like many warriors before him, when you live by the sword you also take the chance of dying by the sword. Grumbaz gains so much from maintaining Berserk Stance that he will most often throw himself into combat to win. Yet he must gain those precious points quickly, if he is to win.

Speed is an asset found in abundance in Grumbaz’ ability deck. The most obvious thing a player will notice is that Grumbaz has no ranged weapon replacements, no true warrior deals death from afar, they prefer it up close and personal. Grumbaz’ combat options are relatively inexpensive, generally requiring one or two energy at most. Heroic Strike is an amazing ability, adding to Grumbaz' attack value. Using Heroic Strike while in Berserk Stance will grant him an attack value of four at grey level. Most of the encounters he will be facing off with will have a defense value between four and seven. With this in mind, having an attack of four means that Grumbaz will hit most everything, and the hardest foes will still be hit on a roll of a three! When he combines his high attack with the fact that his base damage while in Berserk Stance is 2, a player can easily start to see Grumbaz as a player killer. This is a strategy some warriors have explored. However, while in Berserk Stance, Grumbaz receives -2 to his armor. With this penalty, ranged characters love taking on the axe-wielding orc. They can deal their damage and potentially take out Grumbaz before he even gets a swing!

Keeping with the leveling up strategy, Grumbaz needs to move quickly to overcome the other players. In order to do this he has quite a few speed-enhancing abilities. Charge allows him to move an additional space as long as he ends with an enemy or encounter. Even better, this ability requires no energy! Intercept allows him to move 3 more spaces after he defeats an encounter, something quite easily done with a high attack value. Finally, saving the best for last, Victory Rush allows Grumbaz to get another turn following the turn in which he just defeated an encounter. Another round of movement, another combat phase to build up his armory, another clean up phase to collect points; huge speed advantage.

Grumbaz’s other abilities are just as helpful but are very situational. He can kill anything with 1 health left in his space by using Execute, another ability requiring no energy to use. He can also guarantee damage with Recklessness, an ability which turns both combatants dice into swords (sixes). For those spells that opponents desperately need he can use Pummel, which cancels an ability card, to make them think twice the next time they want to have a duel.

This article provides useful information for both players looking for Grumbaz’ weaknesses and for players that are feeling up to playing him. Next article will be going over Burbonn Fang and his bear Samson. Until then, may the path lead you to glory!

David Hanold brought you the Sandrai Darkshine article, and has many more lined up. Stay tuned for his next exciting installment!