This thread was born out of a discussion (mainly) about the three terrain based Cleric spells. At the suggestion of one of the posters on that thread I have started this one (well, really just reposted a post from the soon to be removed DoW forums), to focus on the merits of taking a Level 3 Cleric with regards to the effectiveness of the terrain spells on particular adventures:

Caboose wrote on Mon, 08 December 2008 10:50

There are just too many hills/forests in most of the scenarios to avoid them....

1. Agincourt: HR and RR are useless; entirely possible to outright avoid, and certainly possible to mitigate the effectiveness of FF

2. First Chevauchee: entirely possible to outright avoid/certainly possible to mitigate exposure to FF and RR. Difficult to avoid HR, but certainly possible to mitigate exposure to HR.

3. Burgos, Castille: RR is the one to fear most; followed by HR and then FF, both of which are easy to mitigate against.

4. Deeper in Castille: With the Hills being prominent in the center of the board, HR would cause problems, but still able to mitigate exposure; FF the next most problematic, followed by RR.

5. Wizards & Lore: as with most boards, hard to avoid all three terrain types at once, but two of the three on this one could be accomplished, hills being the easiest to mitigate, roughly even for the forest and river.

6. A Complex Web: Hills the most difficult to contend with due to their promenince in the middle of the center section, and to a lesser extent the middle of the standard left/pennant right. Forest a lesser concern and river little to no concern.

7. Crisis in Avignon: If the bridge must be held by the standards, FF is a major concern, otherwise all three can be mitigated on this terrain-light board. Again, mitigating all three at the same time would be constricting, but possible.

8. A Burgundian Chevauchee: This is the board where I've honed most of my Cleric battling skills When playing the pre-set adventure I enjoy taking the pennant side on this one. Difficult to avoid all three terrain types for an extended period of time, but easy enough to do at the beginning while building ones hand for an attack focused wherever the cards reveal to be the wisest choice. If playing Call to Arms, same advantage holds for the pennants as, save for the river, that side of the board is fairly sparse. As the game moves along, HR causes the most consternation, followed by FF and (as usual ) then RR.

9. Free Companies on a War Footing: This is the adventure where I think the Cleric Spells get their reputation. First off, it is why RR doesn't garner the respect that the other two do, as it is useless here. Constrictive to the point of futility to avoid or even usefully mitigate both forest and hill, a decision must be made early on which of the two to focus the mitigating tactics.

10. Assaulting the Tourelles: Another terrain rich board, but still opportunity to mitigate two of the three early on, and then decide amongst which to focus ones tactics as the cards reveal themselves.

11. Two Bridges: If the bridge objective is kept, FF becomes a valuable weapon. Proximity to hills or forest is not a stiff challenge, biding time until the cards reveal themselves is possible.

12. Crossing the Rhone: RR is the most potent of the three on this one, HR and FF can be dealt with without greatly compromising ones battle plans.

13. Hill Camp: RR is useless. FF is the one to fear, causing great trouble in the center and standard right/pennant left sections, HR less so, but still to be reckoned with.

14. West of the Rhone: FF is the only card to give much concern - HR only affecting the far edge of standard right/pennant left and RR being useless. Either avoiding early on until some level of safety is assured, or charging forth with abandon in the hopes of doing enough damage while waiting for a FF remedy (or damning that the card will ever come into play) have a better chance than not of being affective.

15. Brignais: Similar to Free Companies, yet lighter on the FF potential, a tad heavier on the HR potential. Equivalent RR potential.

16. Battle of Lewes: HR is the killer here, FF could come in handy (more for pennants than standards - goes for HR too, but to a lesser extent). FF is useless.