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Today's blog is the test run of what we hope to make a weekly feature. Welcome to Unit of the Week. On the left you can see the stats for this week's unit, Arm of the Kel. It is the main infantry unit of the Cult of Kel'Quiroth, and serves as an easy way to get aggressive without drawbacks. Though it has above average life and damage, it has less than average base defense and terrain bonuses and only average base attack bonus. However, the thing that makes Arm of the Kel great is its ability in conjunction with other cult members.
This unit was concieved entirely position down, that is, I needed a main offensive unit for The Cult of Kel'Quiroth so I began his design as that. Originally, his ability triggered for extra damage to a local unit and he had a +2 ATK and 1 DMG. However, this proved to be too good with the ability of other units, so I changed it. originally his life and DEF were both 4, but I changed his life to five after realizing he would be functionally worse than Skeletal Halberdier.
Arm of the Kel is quite playable in many warbands/armies, so I am going to build one to show you some of his many talents.
One of the best parts of Arm of the Kel is his interaction with Kel'Quiroth Cult Wizard
This is going to form the basis of a Kel'Quiroth themed army with a well-rounded mix of units.
Explorers: 3
1xThe Superior- Can retrieve artifact in a pinch and takes care of tough spellcasters
1xLord Raleigh the Cruel- Prevents opponent starting too fast and dominating the game
1xArchmage Tarode- Useful spells with an ability that makes your scouts and casters better
Assistants: 15
3xArm of the Kel - An obvious inclusion, and strong offensive line
3xKel'Quiroth Cult Wizard - defensive spells help, but Chain of Fire dominates the board
3xFoot of the Kel - scout unit fast enough to get in, but can also use spell to pick of weaklings
3xExterminator - Works well against units that have been targets of Force of the Kel
3xSpell-Sharer- Adds amazing spell uses for caster explorers and adds uses of Force of the Kel
Artifacts: 3
1xTelakir, Blade of Shadow- Allows you to fight your way out and even if they take it back it still poisons them
1xShield of Klorinor- this will allow units to survive longer once they pick up the artifact
1xDemonic Amulet- Unit survives longer and is less likely to get hit
Terrain: 3
1xImperial Gardens- Fast start map, lots of forest to position Exterminators on
1xThe Terrace- defensible with good terrain
1xWestern Outpost- incredibly easy to defend, position spellcasters behind choke points
I will be filling in for Gavin's post this week, and when I asked him what he wanted to write the post about he said something strange about eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which of course has nothing to do with Ruin so instead you will be getting something random from me. I thought maybe today we could talk about how a a bill becomes a law...I mean how a unit is made for the game of Ruin.
This process is rumored to start in Gavin's wandering mind in math class. After he scratches the idea for the unit down on lined paper (so primitive!) he will hand it to John some time later in the day and then John will reject it and so this would-be unit for Ruin dies.
But sometimes, if Gavin really likes the concept for a unit he will begin to debate with John and I on why it should be a unit in the exact form that he wrote it. This also too often fails but John (worn down by Gavin's persistent arguments and repeatings of "Come on!") will sometimes take the concept/stats for a unit and tweak them to be more usable by our game and no one turns out happy with this unit. Well thats not entirely true, John and I usually turn out happy and Gavin at least content that he made a unit.
This is the only filter that stands between the almost hundreds of units that Gavin pumps out every week and believe me while most of the time the filter will stop anything too powerful or (dare I say it) stupid from getting put into production, the system is not infallible. Then comes the part while we edit the unit or (if you prefer the term) neuter the unit which I (or Gavin if he gets his act together) will post about some other week.
For now, revel in the fact that you are only reading about Ruin, not designing or playing it.
Suckers...
-Vincent
Being the only person on the design team not to play Ruin, I was the butt of many a joke for some time but I finally grit my teeth and sat down (actually stood up) and played the game I had been helping design. I must start by saying that the game was fun and easy to understand even if it took some time to set up, especially since I had not created my team (army, war band) yet. I went for continuity of race and stuck with the humans. The war band was o.k. and could be successful and not successful as I was about to find out.
We flipped for terrain and I got lucky, flipping my favored map with plenty of forest which most of my army did well on. Also what I didn't know is that the lack of rock was also most excellent. Then was the building of the map which took some time. When we got started I took a defensive strategy (with a melee Explorer and caster assistants, I thought this might be a good idea) and let John's army cross sides first (which wasn't hard because he started out with mostly his scout units anyway). When combat did start I knocked out his assistants in usually one turn (because My explorer was slightly over-powered). Fighting continued in my favor until we had to leave for a party which we were already late for.
The next game I played was the day afterward, same armies, different terrain. My army did not do as well. The lack of forests meant I lost many units and often found myself overwhelmed by numerical advantage and "Polearm Formation". (a mechanic which increased his units with the ability when they were local or adjacent with each other)
This happened 2 times in a row and my conclusion is this: continuity in an army (not just in race) is important, an explorer that can stand up for itself in combat with assistants that support it is very effective, and terrain and numerical advantage can change the tide of battle.
Over all I enjoyed my first game(s) of Ruin and look forward to working on it more.
