51 minutes ago, tall thin climber said:

Remove Icon: When an icon is removed, it is ignored
and cannot be spent. To track which icons have been
removed, players can set aside the die that contains that
icon or rotate that die—if an icon is removed from a face
with multiple icons—to a face without the removed icon
showing.

From the rulebook 51.4. So, it means to remove one icon, not die face or icon type.

OK, thanks for that but it doesn't really answer my question clearly.

Does it simply remove the dice icon (aka hit, surge, morale, mortal) from ONE DICE or from the ENTIRE ATTACK.

Entire attack seems bonkers.

21 minutes ago, Viktus106 said:

Entire  attack seems  bonke  r  s.

It removes one single icon from the pool of icons. That's why I said 'not icon type'.

So, if the die roll plus modifiers/abilities resulted in a pool of double hit, hit-surge, hit, and mortal wound then you could choose to remove one hit icon (each hit icon on a double hit die face is a separate icon) or one surge icon or one mortal wound icon.

41 minutes ago, Viktus106 said:

OK, thanks for that but it doesn't really answer my question clearly.

Does it simply remove the dice icon (aka hit, surge, morale, mortal) from ONE DICE or from the ENTIRE ATTACK.

Entire attack seems bonkers.

I've asked this to and no one has been able to give me a clear answer either.

But the more I read and think about it, I'm inclined to agree with @tall thin climber

OK, perfect. So it's one icon on one dice.

That's more understandable. I think this is where players generally take short cuts and don't actually sit there and do it as per order of operations. I mean, I personally don't sit there and point at each dice and say, " I am spending the hit icon on this red dice to add three to the damage pool, i'll spend the hit icon on this blue dice as well to add another three to the damage pool ". . . I generally just go, " that's six damage . . so remove a tray and two more models. "

I just wanted to be sure because this is going to be one of those things that get's debating during a game, I just know it. Its on par with the "remove a dice after re-rolls" discussion and since we haven't had a FAQ in almost a year, I just want to ensure I am understanding things correctly.

I appreciate you replying so quickly.

1 minute ago, Viktus106 said:

I appreciate    you  replying so quickly    

My pleasure. I prefer to have these discussions outside of a game.

My reasoning for the double hit being two icons is because both hit and mortal strike have entries that read "X is a dice icon that...", while there is no entry for "Double hit is a dice icon that...". "One dice icon" is the phrase used on Spirit Sword.

Annoyingly, surge "an icon found on dice, modifier dials, ...".

But I've learnt something today too in re-reading the attack steps: there's a set order to resolving dice icons types: surges, accuracy, mortal, hits, morale. Whereas my local group tends to spend in an order of the attacker's choosing: frequently spending hits to remove the back ranks so that the mortal strikes can then target the figure upgrades.

Thank you.

Imagine if Elves had an artifact bearer.

I remove your accuracy.

29 minutes ago, Glucose98 said:

Imagine if Elves had an artifact bearer.

I remove your accuracy.

Most tautological runewars defense ever? I use my artifact to stop you from sniping the figure that gives me an artifact.

Man, if Elves had an artifact bearer, I could put Malcorne's on something that actually rallies decently well instead of Aliana.

Leonx with Packleader's Spear.

Archer blocks with Heartseeker.

So much fun to be had...

Yeah, Malcorne's is really odd on Aliana because of the rally. You're almost forced to hope you can get a pull of Latari Memorials to get the constant recharge, though if you've got some kind of "pull" list that brings the enemy to you very well, it can work out. Malcorne's was really intended to sync well with Maegan's white rally modifier. And just thinking through the heroes, and most of their uniques combo with one or more artifacts. That gives us a couple of different options for each hero. I'm going to use Latari as an example, because that's what I play most with, but I've looked at the other factions and really get the sense that they all have a spread of builds.

1. Pure Damage Option: Aliana, Packleader's Spear, Ambush Predator. Drops 9-10 damage with a mortal on turn-3, which is enough to drop a 2x1 or a hero. You can delay and get a little more Lethal, but I get the impression you're really intended to drop the big wallop early, ready Packleader's Spear from that big Wallop, and continue kicking out 6-7 with mortal the next round. Maegan gets Martial Magic and either Reaping Blade or Fortuna's Dice. She'll get 6 damage typically, though oddly and perhaps inefficiently distributed. Fortuna's let's you fix that distribution somewhat and increase its efficiency, so you don't end up with wasted surges/hits that don't do wounds. Reaping is cheaper and doesn't require your modifier dial/terrain to keep readying. And looking forward to Prince Faolin, Legendary Prowess is his damage build. He'll do pretty decent and consistent damage naturally with his base White/Blue, adding at least one blue, and possibly picking up another die from flanking. Legendary Prowess and Spirit Sword combine to work on keeping him alive a bit longer. So he's got a defensive build that improves his longevity allowing his offensive card and dial to trigger for longer.

2. Improve your other units build: Maegan + Malcorne's. The primary reason to take Malcorne's is to make all of the rest of your units better. It might incidentally make Maegan slightly better, specifically if her surge splashes much more broadly. In this kind of build, you really want your hero to hang back a bit and keep triggering Malcornes. They'll be weaker in this kind of build, but they can swoop in at the end and do some damage. I think Aliana and Malcorne's can work out in this way in that you can simply hold her back and let Ambush Predator build up a bit more. Her dial does hamper her, but at least you can keep use Malcorne's Bequest for as long as it matters. I'll also note that Maegan allows an extra Sorceress upgrade for the bigger stacks, and a sorceress to be taken at all on the small stacks. I'm just not quite sure Latari get enough push and I haven't really found a good way to exploit it. I might add that Arcane Mastery is another one of those utility options on Maegan, but not one I've really experimented with since it seems to want her to get close, but without the benefits of Martial Magic. For Prince Faolin, this should be obvious through his other two specials: Valor of the Fallen and Etharyon of the Ailatar, both of which improve your other units in some kind of key way. I'd also note that that is not entirely beyond him to take Malcorne's himself, since he rallies on both dials and should be able to keep readying it.

3. Not every hero has this, but I get this from Kethra, Maro, and Maegan. That is the possibility of playing them as a kind of ranged sniper.