It looks like on top of the AoE Whirlwind of Death™ options that were spolied for him earlier, he's got some legs as a spikey turtle that makes cheap melee infantry explode.
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/5/2/hero-of-the-daqan-lords/
Whoa! Three news articles in a single day!
Good grief he can attack at init2? didnt notice that before.
Faster than Kari....
Lord Hawthorne also has two different versions of a melee attack, a red that can be modified with a hit and a yellow that can be modified with a special modifier symbol for use with upgrades or placing inspiration tokens on nearby forces with his own ability.
...and there's the Rules mistake.
1 minute ago, Vineheart01 said:Good grief he can attack at init2? didnt notice that before.
Faster than Kari....
Kari attacks with range at 2.
Any two of the above upgrades makes him nutz
Well he seems like he'll be fun to deal with, between his dial, his upgrades, and his tray-swapping shenanigans.
Good lord. Can't wait for a proper Undead melee powerhouse. Ardus is dangerous and all, but wow.
13 minutes ago, Vineheart01 said:Good grief he can attack at init2? didnt notice that before.
Faster than Kari....
Either attacking or using his skill at 2 with the defense modifier means that just about anything that attacks him in melee is going to take 5 damage if he takes Might of Daqan and Shield of Margath.
Shield of Margath is Bone Spurs reincarnated ... except for Lord Hawthorne instead of the Uthuk Y'llan. (Except that BattleLore didn't have defense values, so it's slightly different.)
Yeah that's pretty strong... yellow attack at init 2, toss in the +1 defense modifier, anyone attacking you will take 4 damage (5 if you take that shield too).
Can we assume his single figure upgrade version will grant his multi-attack capability to whatever he's attached to?
Edited by Daverman8 minutes ago, Daverman said:Can we assume his single figure upgrade version will grant his multi-attack capability to whatever he's attached to?
Seems like a safe bet.
I think he'll be particularly strong as a support unit provided that there are enough upgrades available that need to be exhausted. You can screen him from ranged attacks with the units that he is supporting and anything that comes to whack him in melee range is in trouble, all the while he's loading your other units up with inspirations. After everyone has been whittled down and he has to actually go out and handle business himself, a full health Hawthorne with Might and Shield is probably a little scary as an end game piece.
I suppose things making these 'bonkers' heroes balanced:
- with upgrades they're 30-50 points so you get what you pay for with them taking up a sizeable amount of your list
- you less points for other units, potentially making certain objectives more difficult
- the game's tagline is "Epic Battles in an Age of Heroes" so they're bound to be a big deal
Reconfiguring trays seems exciting to me. Play Red Rover with an 18 tray wide army of oathsworn cavalry!
4 minutes ago, werdnaegni said:Reconfiguring trays seems exciting to me. Play Red Rover with an 18 tray wide army of oathsworn cavalry!
A unit can't be wider or deeper than four trays. All ranks must be full. That really limits the possibilities (though it is still cool). 4x1 Latari Archers with Rank Discipline are bound to be cool and cheap (for a unit with 4 threat and 2 rerolls).
Edited by WWHSD10 minutes ago, WWHSD said:4x1 Latari Archers with Rank Discipline are bound to be cool and cheap (for a unit with 4 threat and 2 rerolls).
Yes, and an additional advantage is that any 4-tray-wide ranged attack unit have a much wider firing arc, which increases their chance of getting a valid target "through traffic", i.e. when protected in front with allied units.
All Cav Daqan, 4 x 1 with Rank Discipline with Hawthorne leading them will be nasty....
Geez, Hawthrone is just silly. I'm quite enjoying the Might of Daqan and Shield of Margath combination. Add in that white defense die and, geez, you've got a stellar little unit. Best of all is that you can simply have him stay back a few turns and hand out Inspiration tokens to you army before he runs amok on the opponent.
I can just think of Renaimates running away like in AoD and screaming that they need to cheese it.
Wow, he's beastly. Expensive, but beastly - and a really nice support ability. I also really like the model, so this is just a win-win-win all around. A little scared to see what the undead are getting though!
Lore time! For those who aren't aware, Margath is a dragon that rises during or shortly before these next great wars take place. I don't know about you, but I'm totally digging the idea of a shield made from dragon hide/scales that damages the attacker on impact. So cool!
Link to Runebound info on her him:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2015/10/20/the-ascendence-of-margath/
Edited by ParakitorI'm still in the midst of wrapping my head around the ruleset so please correct me if I'm wrong. Hawthornes 2nd Ability can trigger over and over, right? Example, he selects Melee Attack as his revealed Action, he resolves this vs an Engaged Enemy Unit (just has to be 'touching' one of his Edges). Then his Special Ability kicks in and he can now perform an Attack vs a second Engaged Unit. If there happens to be a third, fourth (I know more and more unlikely since there is only so much physical space) Engaged Unit, does he keep triggering his Special Ability? If so then the Upgrade that lengthens his 'reach' will make this scenario even more likely! So, am I getting something wrong?
No I believe you're right, the ability can be used over and over so long as he has targets to pick from. It's just a matter of how many targets he can physically be engaged with.
2 hours ago, Daverman said:No I believe you're right, the ability can be used over and over so long as he has targets to pick from. It's just a matter of how many targets he can physically be engaged with.
If it was meant to be limited to a single extra attack per round it could have been written much simpler than it was.
"Once per activation after you perform a [MELEE ATTACK], you may perform a [MELEE ATTACK] against another enemy".
The fact that it specifies that you can only choose targets that have not already been targeted by a melee attack of yours this activation when it already specifies "another enemy" makes it seem like it is clearly intended to be used multiple times in a round.
It's a cool ability and all but if you think about what needs to happen on the table for him to be able to attack more than two enemies in a round (even with Sweeping Strikes) it will be a rare occurrence. It's probably most likely to happen when an enemy has you flanked by multiple units. If that's the case, this is pretty much Hawthorne's Death Blossom and he's hoping to go out in a blaze of glory.
So if Hawthorne were to attack a unit, eliminate a tray, close in and then find himself engaged with another unit... can he attack again? I've looked over the rules and I'm not sure exactly when closing in happens as far as the attack step is concerned. If it's after the attack step I'd say he can't attack the new target. Trays are removed in step 10 but the attack rules don't specify closing in.
If Hawthorne is targeted by your opponent, multiple enemies may happen more often then it currently does.
Alianna will take care of Hawthorne rather quickly, her and her Leonx are much ?