Since the last post, the heroes have been struggling in our games at home. Roxor brought the pain in the first game which saw the Paladin die twice (The Resurrection Charm saved him the first time...) and the nasty demise of his team-mates. The numbers game got the better of the heroes in the second game, although we ended that adventure part way through due to the time. That being said, the situation may have been savable, despite the loss of Candy & Cola, but I guess we'll never know for sure...
First up is the Starguild Sapper; another Dwarf guy with a massive hammer. He has the standard six square movement and three action points with one poition. But, he can take an extra wound, which is pretty cool. He can't be knocked to the ground and, because of the afore-mentioned huge hammer, he has the skill Reach 2. This means he can strike enemies up to two squares away, so does not need to be in the normal melee range to attack them.
His first special attack costing two points, is Astral Hammer. This attack effects a cross-shaped area up to two squares in front of, behind and to each side of the target square, potentially taking down a lot of bad guys in the one strike, notching up slots on the loot-o-meter in the process. His second special attack, POW! costs two points again, gives an extra red dice to the attack roll and has the Massive Damage rule, meaning that, if the attack is successful, it inflicts two wounds instead of one.
For one action, the Starguild Sapper can make himself immune to status effects until the start of his next go. His potion, Burning Bloom, give the effected hero Range 8 on all non-special attacks and also causes the fire status effect to the target of those attacks. Pretty mean.
I'll hold my hands up and say that I got the Deeproot Scout all wrong. I figured he was just there to make up the numbers, but he's actually performed very well in the missions we've taken him in already. He's one of those characters that I previously spoke about blurring the borders of particular skill sets that each figure specializes in. This guy is equally proficient with a sword as he is with his bow from the start of the game. In addition, he's got some nifty little skills, like the boomerang ability. He can retrieve a treasure chest from up to six spaces away (even round corners). Mental. But useful if the nearest loot box is on the other side of lava squares/ other difficult terrain/bad guys (or a combination of these things).
Although use of the bow is shown as a special attack, it only costs a single action to shoot, so you're not penalized if you want to attack from range instead of up close. For two action points, the Deeproot Scout can use Acorn Grenade which has a burst affect on the eight squares around the target square and which will knock the effected models to the ground, if it doesn't kill them outright. Unfortunately, this attack is Dangerous, so it can impact a fellow hero if they're in the way.
Lastly, the Sprite Syrup potion grants the Scout an extra action point, which, in the heat of battle is extremely useful.
Much like the Hexcast Sorceress in the last post, Princess Ruby for me is in the 'nice to have, but not essential' category. She's a magic user with a range six magic attack as standard and also has the Dodge skill. This means that she can use her dexterity roll to try and avoid an incoming attack instead of using the normal Armor dice. For one action point each, the Maidens Favor and Maidens Token actions grant one hero within six squares an extra blue Attack dice and an extra blue Will dice, respectively. Maiden's Kiss, also for one point, can heal a single wound on a hero within two spaces of Princess Ruby.
The Happily Ever After potion type is quite interesting. The card reads "Discard a single drawn loot or relic (treasure) card and immediately draw another" it doesn't specify whether or not that applies to attached and equipped cards or just drawn which are waiting to be allocated.... I'll try and seek some clarification on the tubes, but this does potentially mean juicing up the heroes at lightning speed, so long as you can keep replacing those spent potion tokens on the Princess...
This is where Candy and Cola come in. This figure is a special addition, currently only offered from Sodapop HQ in Boise, Idaho, USA, but Santa was the dude this year and grabbed one on his way through.
If you can throw good dice, this is a dream party member. If you have a habit of throwing a one when anything but will win the game, then you might want to re-think taking C and C in SDE. These guys are all about the potions. Once per turn (and nowhere is it mentioned that it has to be at the start!), you can use the Cola ability which grants you one potion, up to your maximum number, for each star rolled on a single blue dice.
In most areas, Candy and Cola are pretty average (although two red dice for a Will roll early on can be useful...), but if you can nail the Cola rolls, you're sorted. For two actions points, you can use Vending Machine and transfer a potion from C and C to another hero within six squares.
The Soothing Soda potion makes one hero immune to status effects or, for three potions (currently the highest in the game...) Candy and Cola get two additional action points to spend. So, if you are teaming them up with Princess Ruby or the Royal Paladin, and the dice gods are smiling on you, you'll probably weather the storm and make it out of the dungeon in one piece. However, all of that aside, in the games that we've taken them on so far, the heroes have really struggled, despite potions being regenerated all over the shop. So, reluctantly, I'm kind of on the fence about the usefulness of Candy and Cola in the three-hero game. They may well even sit in the same category as the Hexcast Sorceress and Princess Ruby...
So that's about it for the hero guide. I'd be interested to hear anyone's views about their favourite/least favourite characters in SDE.
I also managed to get a few moments of dry weather to start getting the heroes undercoated so that I can get some painting in. Hopefully, I'll get the results on here sooner rather than later.
I'm thinking that next time I'll post up some stats for the boss models to see how they all stack up. Until then, I'll be seeing you...
Pete
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