So, as I've posted already, next Sunday I'll be introducing some friends of mine to the world of DDM.
So that you all know, if that helps claryfying what this group likes, let me tell you that its my Magic playgroup, very dedicated to EDH/Commander: guys who enjoy big flashy fings that do lots of tricks in huge decks used in multiplayer games that can last hours!
So, they all know about D&D but never played it. Most of them didn't even knew what DDM was until I told them that it had some similarities to Hero Clix (our local club promotes some Hero Clix events when there's a new release and after the gaming is done sometimes we just keep looking at the other guys playing it).
Anyway, since I do own several minis I decided that I can support the event. Yet since I don't want to loose them right away, I'll skip the warband building and go straight to the game. That means that I'll have to bring some pre-built warbands to the event and that's the tricky part.
Well, I've only played the game a few times, very sporadicaly and with someone who knew as much as I: very little.
Well, I don't want the guys to feel unconfortable because they end up with a poor warband facing a great warband. Ballance is needed. And that's where I ask you to help me. I need someone experienced to help me ballance the warbands so that everyone can experience the game in a reasonable fun way.
So, right now I do have several warbands built and got 3 unused commanders that can be used as an add-on to these ones or to build new ones. So that you know, they are Snaketongue Cultist and Troglodyte Captain.
I'm considering 200pt warbands with up to 8 activations and going to use 3.5 rules. Besides, I still own several other creatures that can be swapped in (if you want a full list of those creatures, please ask me).
Right now the warbands are:
LG - Based on smite bonus & spellcasters
1 High Inquisitor - 49pt, Commander 4
1 Knight of the Chalice - 25pt, Commander 3
1 War Weaver - 33pt
1 Cormyrean War Wizard - 29pt
1 Combat Medic - 28pt
2 Arcanix Guard - 2x9pt
1 Celestial Black Bear - 9pt
Total - 191pt, 8 activations
LG - Mostly wanted to use Iron Golem, Blessed Hunter and Vampire Hunter
1 Knight of the Chalice - 25pt, Commander 3
1 Iron Golem - 61pt
1 Blessed Hunter - 47pt
1 Dwarf Sniper - 34pt
1 Vampire Hunter - 18pt
2 Devotee of the Silver Flame - 2x7
Total - 199pt, 7 activations
LG - Tordek ftw!
1 Knight of the Chalice - 25pt, Commander 3
1 Mercenary Sergeant - 23pt, Commander 2
1 Tordek, Dwarf Champion - 59pt
1 Githzerai Monk - 34pt
1 Warforged Wizard - 19pt
2 Soldier of Bytopia - 2x12pt
1 Azer Fighter - 10pt
Total - 194pt, 8 activations
LE - Truth be told, this is a green warband. Besides, wanted Dragons are big and flashy, right?
1 Inspired Lieutenant - 45pt, Commander 4
1 Large Green Dragon - 51pt
1 Greenspawn Razorfiend - 45pt
1 Flameskull - 25pt
1 Hobgoblin Archer - 11pt
1 Inspired Shock Trooper - 11pt
1 Greenspawn Sneak - 6pt
1 Skeletal Dwarf - 6pt
Total - 200pt, 8 activations
LE - Reach 2
1 Mercenary Sergeant - 21pt, Commander 2
1 Maug - 41pt
1 Dragonmark Heir of Deneith - 34pt
1 Soulknife Infiltrator - 24pt
1 Shadar-kai Assassin - 24pt
1 Terror Wight - 20pt
2 Dolgaunt Monk - 2x14pt
Total - 192pt, 8 activations
LE - Kobolds!!! Seriously, just for the fun of it.
1 Pit Fiend - 105pt, Commander 4
1 Kobold Sorcerer - 20pt
1 Kobold Champion - 11pt
1 Kobold Monk - 5pt
2 Kobold Zombie - 2x4pt
2 Kobold Miner - 2x3pt
Total - 155pt, 8 activations
LE - Outsiders.
1 Pit Fiend - 105pt, Commander 4
1 Ice Devil - 74pt
2 Azer Figher - 2x10pt
Total - 199pt, 4 activations
CG - Big flashy creatures like the Rider, the Dragon, the Phoera and the Barbarian
1 Free League Ranger - 25pt, Commander 2
1 Clawfoot Rider - 48pt
1 Medium Copper Dragon - 32pt
1 Gnome Trickster - 27pt
1 Half-Ogre Barbarian - 25pt
1 Phoera - 19pt
1 Halfling Rogue - 13pt
1 Hero of Valhalla - 11pt
Total - 200pt, 8 activations
CG - Beast and Plantmaster
1 Warden of the Wood - 46pt, Commander 4
1 Wemic Barbarian - 53pt
1 Spirit Folk Fighter - 19pt
2 War Ape - 2x14pt
2 Diseased Dire Rat - 2x14pt
1 Myconid Guard - 9pt
Total - 183pt, 8 activations
CG - Elves with a little support
1 Lyrandar Skyfire Captan - 55pt, Commander 3
1 Rikka, Angelic Avenger - 31pt
1 Shadowdancer - 28pt
2 Wood Elf Ranger - 2x23pt
1 Steelheart Archer - 15pt
1 Elf Stalker - 15pt
1 Elf Warrior - 4pt
Total - 195pt, 8 activations
CG - Drizzt, Wulfgar and Guen
1 Drizzt, Drow Ranger - 87pt, Commander 3
1 Wulfgar - 54pt, Commander 1
1 Guenhwyvar - 33pt
1 Merchant Guard - 8pt
1 Changeling Rogue - 8pt
1 Halfling Sneak - 5pt
1 Tavern Brawler - 4pt
Total - 199pt, 7 activations
CE - Obould's army.
1 King Obould Many-Arrows - 65pt, Commander 4
1 Ogre Skirmisher - 38pt
1 Blood Ghost Berserker - 37pt
2 Orc Mauler - 2x26pt
1 Orc Savage - 7pt
Total - 199pt, 6 activations
CE - Drow.
1 Drow Arachnomancer - 52pt, Commander 4
1 Draegloth - 56pt
1 Drider - 26pt
1 Shrieking Harpy - 21pt
1 Demonweb Swarm - 10pt
1 Quaggoth Slave - 10pt
2 Lolth's Sting - 2x7pt
Total - 189pt, 8 activations
I have a Bat Familiar in this party, although I might consider moving it to some other party with spellcasters
CE - Tieflings, black dragons, fancy!
1 Tiefling Blademaster - 27pt, Commander 3
2 Doomguard - 2x26pt, Commander 1
1 Large Black Dragon - 44pt
1 Blackspawn Exterminator - 39pt
1 Tiefling Warlock - 25pt
1 Small Black Dragon - 11pt
Total - 198pt, 7 activations
CE - Huge beasts.
1 Ravenous Vampire - 58pt, Commander 4
1 Large Black Dragon - 44pt
1 Umber Hulk Delver - 36pt
2 Winter Wolf - 2x24pt
1 Whitespawn Hordeling - 9pt
1 Fiendish Snake - 5pt
Total - 200pt, 7 activations
CE - Dawn of the Dead
1 Ravenous Vampire - 58pt, Commander 4
1 Caller in Darkness - 53pt
1 Vampire Dire Wolf - 48pt
1 Skeletal Reaper - 21pt
1 Deathlock - 12pt
1 Orc Skeleton - 5pt
1 Twig Blight - 3pt
Total - 200pt, 7 activations
I know, there are lots of warbands to check and I bet some of them are just too powerful. Willing to hear your input, please.
It is a bit too long ago that i played 3.5 to really say something about your warbands...
You might want to try and get all warbands above 190 points at least. Also the four activation warband might be a bit boring against slow opponents.
Beside that, if it's an introduction tournament anyway, why not just let people switch warbands after every game? That way they can play around with a lot of miniatures and you can always edit or remove warbands that are too strong (or too weak i guess).
That's the idea. There will be 4-6 players. That's why I've built so many warbands. I want people to be able to try different settings.
The problem with upping the smaller parties to 190+pt is that they'll get more than 8 activations. From what I've read that's against the rules, right?
Ok, granted. This is an introductory session and I shouldn't be so rigid in certain things. I'll take a look into them later on.
As for the 4 activation warband has one big problem: half of them are high-cost creatures. It might be a bit problematic. Should I remove the Ice Devil and use some lower cost creatures?
I recommend keeping at least one low activation band, to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of such bands. I would also advice you to stick to the rules, since there are so many of those, adding "house rules" is just going to cause more confusion, especially if any of you ever play outside of your regular group. Having said that, it's your game and you should do whatever is the most fun for your group. In all likelihood you'll be all making dozens of rules errors during your first 200 games, after which it cuts down to about a dozen per player per game.
LOL! You sound quite optimistic.
I see what you mean. So that people can understand how to properly build a party, right? Its easier to show them what to do and what not.
So, right now I have 3 warbands underneath 190pt but all of them stand at 8 activations. I believe that the kobold party is quite weak (although I think that Conceal is one hell of an ability) so I think I'll give that kobold commander a Bat Familiar to try and ballance things a bit... Wish I had more familiars for my other spellcasters.
By the way, it might be a bit too hard to play a few games while "teaching" it to all players in different maps. So I thought "what the heck, lets play multiplayer". But that might be too chaotic, to have more than 2 players per map for a 1st time, right?
As for winning, I've read somewhere that it can be achieved either by achieving victory points or by annihilating the opposing warband, right? It might be easier for now to play to the last man standing.
EDIT - Just exausted my commanders:
CE - Large Red Dragon ftw!
1 Snaketongue Cultist - 17pt, Commander 2
1 Large Red Dragon - 83pt
3 Gravetouched Ghoul - 3x23pt
1 Burning Skeleton - 13pt
1 Giant Frog - 10pt
1 Small Fire Elemental - 8pt
Total - 200pt, 8 activations
LE - Large Blue Dragon because dragons are fun and I need to give good use to these babies
1 Troglodyte Captain - 53pt, Commander 5
1 Large Blue Dragon - 68pt
1 Troglodyte Barbarian - 24pt
1 Rot Scarab Swarm - 19pt
1 Iron Cobra - 14pt
1 Dread Warrior - 10pt
1 Skeletal Dwarf - 6pt
1 Skeletal Legionnaire - 4pt
Total - 198pt, 8 activations
There's a lot of variety in each one - the commanders work pretty well with them all. I think they'd be enjoyable to play - so I'd play them in an introductory games day. I do agree with JJ that you might start the guys off with 5 or 6 activations though.
To do so I'd have to change this:
LE - Outsiders.
1 Pit Fiend - 105pt, Commander 4
1 Ice Devil - 74pt
2 Azer Figher - 2x10pt
Total - 199pt, 4 activations
I can either remove the Azer Fighters and add something else with low activation costs to offset the Pit Fiend and the Ice Devil (maximizing the Devil as it gets immunity to both fire and cold when under command) or remove the Devil (I think that when under command he might be the most powerful creature in the warband) and use something else... But whatever else I use, the Fiend's ability will be irrelevant.
If so I can use a 3rd Large Black Dragon in the Devil's place and add some other smaller creatures.
Hmmm - if you're struggling to make fewer activations, just go for the larger warband and allow a longer game so that they get used to using all the abilities. It's finding those synergies that makes DDM so interesting.
Sorry, but I didn't understood it. I'm trying to keep the warbands ballanced...
As a side note, this event was postponed. Oh well. Maybe next weekend.
At last there was a chance to test the game! I brought with me every single I own, my Icon dragons and all the maps. There were 4 players (I didn't get a chance to play, mostly just "teaching"). The rules were a bit confusing to them, being the 1st time they played and all. And there were many, many doubts about them. I couldn't fully enlighten them in all situations though.
Although not a huge success (there were mixed feelings about it, I believe), players are willing to give it a try some other time (we're considering playing it at least once a month).
I need to make sure I get the rules straight so that next time less time is spend checking the manual (which can be somewhat a pain to deal with while tracking 2 different games in simultaneous).
Anyway, thank you guys for the help.