This is the board game released by GW not too long ago called Shadespire. It's a wonderfully tactical game based around very small warbands fighting across the ruins of the once great city, also called the Mirrored City, and plays out very similar to a gladiator arena. It's not just about bashing your opponents to a pulp but also claiming ground and defeating your enemies using ploys and maneuvering to outsmart and beat them.
For those that like board games, this is a fun game that takes up less than an hour between two players and only needs as much space as a coffee table (but definitely more than an end-table). For those that like strategy games, this one fits that bill too. In fact, it's rather impressive how much of the game is based on strategy and tactics and less on the statline of your warriors. And for those that like miniatures, well, this is a GW game, so the miniatures are fantastic as always. It has it all.
In fact, the game is so good that my wife and kids actually love it. It's short, it's not complicated (there's no army books or extensive rules that require a literature degree to translate), and it's actually pretty balanced off the learning curve. It's so balanced, in fact, that I've had discussions about which warband was the best and there's no consensus between our various areas (remember, I am connected OUTSIDE my gaming area and all across the nation- thanks career!). I've heard that Chaos has the best (they're my favorite), Undead have the best (especially in the southeast, apparently), and even that Orruks are the best from the bashers I talk to. Remember, though, even the cheesiest force means nothing without the practice and skill to use it, especially in a game as tactical as this one.
I definitely drive that point home because my wife, being the lover of the Undead that she is (I even bought her the Legions of Nagash book for AoS as a Valentine's Day gift!), sometimes forgets this and laments the weakness of her skeletons. You see, we played a couple of games the other night and my Stormcast demolished her.
The first game saw her winning the roll-off to set up the battlefield and she chose to do a 'bottleneck' setup. With her objectives centered on capturing objectives, she made it more difficult to get around my hoplite-like Stormcast. Just like the Pass at Thermopylae, I could clog her up and just gain glory points (objective points) by smashing her to dust at will while she struggled to move anywhere. The game ended 10-4 with her feeling pretty sad.
I took a little time and explained how she should have played. Remembering that this game is very strategic, I reminded her that it starts with the board setup and continues into placing the objectives. The bottleneck is a strategy that I would use against her numerical superiority, and placing the objectives in my deployment zone would make it harder for her to capture them. She made both of those mistakes and was already in an uphill battle before she ever deployed anything.
Now, mind you, she'd already learned this stuff a couple months back when I took control of the Undead and completely annihilated my son's Ironjaws. Using the proper strategy and then playing the right Power Cards and moving the right way makes all the difference. I showed her the tactics to using the warband after explaining the strategy behind the board setup. But time passed and she forgot. That first game was just a good reminder, and we then took the opportunity to play a second game (again, the games are very short, only being 3 turns and 12 total activations!).
Unfortunately for her, I won the roll-off for the second game and set up the board in the same way. After all, it's an advantage to lesser numbers to 'bottleneck' their opponent. But she was much better prepared this time and actually put up a good fight, despite the struggle presented by the board and setup. Most importantly, she realized that she needed to quit sending Petitioners (the crappy troop skellies) to fight me because I would always kill them and get the glory points for it (knocking out an opponent's warriors also gets you objective points in this game) and instead use them to chase objectives. Fight me with the good warriors (who still die, but they cause damage on the way out) and suddenly my Stormcast weren't unstoppable. By the time the fog cleared, I still won but only by a score 15-10. If she remembers what I reminded her and what she did in this game, I don't think I'll win the next one...
In a twisted sense of irony, the Lord of Death won't let us die in the Mirrored City and escape from an eternity of combat and death, meaning that victory or not, the fight will happen again (and again, and again, and again, and... you get the point). Stormcast killing skeletons means nothing- THEY'RE ALREADY DEAD! But skeletons killing Stormcast (or Orruks, or Marauders, or soon be Skaven and Berserkers) means that they suffer only to be brought back to life and have to do it all over again! The Lord of Death doesn't gain victory through defeating his opponents, and definitely isn't defeated when his opponents destroy his forces. Nagash won't let this game die. So I guess I'll just have to take joy in giving his Undead forces the same respect they give me- a death followed by yet another death. I just hope the wife doesn't figure out how to avoid that punishment while giving it back...
Until next game!!!
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