I picked up the two starters last weekend, and was eagerly awaiting my first play. I like the rules, the minis are great, and I'd run little trial combat between Kronnen and Cheshire to make sure I understood the basic combat mechanics. I thought it was pretty fun; even in the simple 1 on 1 duel, choosing actions was interesting.

So, with Kronnen painted (first priority since he needed to be assembled), Bael and Cheshire partly painted, and a stand in for Sister Evangeline (who was missing from the box) I tried two games.

My poor opponent never scored a point of damage in two games. Now, part of this was insane luck differences (most of my rolls were 7+; most of hers were 3 or less). But part of it was the poor interaction of the two starter teams. Kronnen just can't hit Cheshire without a really lucky roll, and you need to pile on the bonuses to even have a decent shot at that. For our first games, we just didn't understand the mechanics that well. This didn't hurt the dark side much at all, but it was crippling to the light side. Further, after running a few more test games, it seems like the light side has a very uphill battle. Again, they have a terrible time hitting Cheshire, and Baal's spells will cripple Kronnen very easily.

It made for a miserably unfun game. I like the mechanics enough that I want to try again; I can see where having more models would help (more offensive for the light side, being able to combine attacks to where a target can't defend), but I can't see spending more money on a game that went that badly. She'll MAYBE give it one more try. Maybe.

Sigh...lesson here. Don't try to learn with just one starter each

I've just started too, but my first game went great.

But I think you are right, the two starters need some 'Oomph' to get them going.

Nero and Yuri Olsen didn't have a lot of trouble killing my Harrod / Cheshire in a single hit each, but I held out with the Black Lion and Bael for a while.

I'd advise (if you have the cash) to invest in at least another figure for the light / dark and you should be able to get a much better Idea of how it plays. Kronen cant hit squat yeah - But he takes an age to take down...

StormKnight said:

Heh, yes the two Starters are difficult to play a "fun" game with but as the rules point out the minimum size for a game is really 150pt which is an additional character and they make a HUGE difference.

The Starter v Starter is best used to simply figure out the rules and then add someone to either side, add an extra fighter to the light side and perhaps a ranged character to the dark and you have a vastly different game, Bael needs to watch out and so does Evangaline...

However you can still have a great match-up with the basic sets, in one demonstration game i ran it ended up being Bael v Evangaline slapping each other silly until the lady with the dove finally got lucky.

- Raith
Free Agent 005

Anyone else have the old Dark starter, which has Cheshire and Shinigami Ayl?

How does that play out? I haven't yet gotten the Light starter yet, but I intend to soon to start a few games.

On the other hand, I do have K'haine and Feng Yi as extras...

Chesire and Ayl are both what I call Skirmish tpes, they are able to put out damage but are unarmoured and can suffer pretty easily. If you can get Ayl into close combat her attack that causes Doom is probably the most often used ability while you just stand around using Summun with Cheshire as usual.

- Raith