I know some little threads have already been out about the dwarves on Red Day, but after losing my GW matches without never having a single chance, I think something more has to be said.
I play in Bracket 1 and I know it’s harsh. But harsh is one thing and impossible is another.
My concept is: No game should put a player in the position of loosing a match without having ONE single chance of doing anything.
Ironbeard fills up in one round, strikes, kills, then fills up again. Both of them do.
12 mana in one round, often 12 + 12 (just one simple match three to make 12 mana, if there are two matches, both Ironbeards fill up and the game is done in — one second)
I’m fighting against dreadnoughts, I’m aware of this. But also a level 2000 player (my level is over 1100) has no chance and this concept is just wrong. Specially in GW, where there’s a team and other players involved.
I intend not to criticise, because I know how difficult it is to keep such a complex game balanced and entertaining, but I want to point it out, in case this happened to other players too.
Dwarves are a pain, yes but those battles are far from unbeatable. I’m also in bracket one, and only 2 battles were against dwarves this week, same last week. My dwarf defense went 0/2 this week, last week is was 4/1, surprising cuz last week i fought i much stronger guild. I have a feeling most went with at least 1-2 off color troops this week though. It’s better to go with three of the days color to secure a win than all four and lose a battle imo. Not every match though or probably wouldn’t hold in bracket one. As for counter, empirina can work up front if traited, the extra skull damage is a help. Sometimes you just get a terrible board and can’t fill up, happened to me one battle this week and was extremely frustrating. But i know of others whose dwarf defense haven’t been successful lately, and when defenses don’t work, we find ones who do. So while dwarves are quite annoying i don’t think they’re that bad, at least from what i’m seeing.
Losing a battle nets you no relevant score at all. And Lady Ironbeard is at least easy to manage if you can target her with at least one damage spell to remove her armor.
Not impossible. There’s plenty of ways to survive the spells and get a good score with Red troops. If I can do it in Bracket 1 versus Anonymous, anyone can, given proper planning.
Thank you @zuboki@Ivar and @VenusBlue for taking the time to reply.
I’m not saying it’s impossible, in the last weeks I could get 5/0 against dwarves defenses, but it becomes impossible if they charge 12 mana with only one three-match.
I checked the level of the defender and it wasn’t higher than mine. Bonuses may be a little higher, but it takes at least two or three rounds to me to fill a 12 mana troop. This is what is still unclear to me, what’s the ratio and why some troops charge incredibly quickly.
There needs to be a meta blocker to encourage players to use non-meta teams. The more a troop is used in GW on any given day in defense teams there should be a penalty to that troop or teams abilities.
Mana Surges or some specific Banners are usually the cause. King Highforge making the whole team start with 50% of mana too might be involved in this equation. Imagine a Banner which gives +2 to blue gem matches, then with a Mana Surge on blue gems the team will gain 8 Manas (3x2+2) which is enough for Lord Ironbeard spell plus some extra mana for Lady Ironbeard. The next match of Brown Gems can just as well fill Lady Ironbeard in the next turn.
I think we should have a little more troops that are specialized in “hating colors”. It’s a shame that the gnolls of Wild Plains can’t fill this role because they have random targetting on their spells…
Wild Fang for example would be a good “counter-to-the-counter” for Lord Ironbeard during Red Day if it wouldn’t had random targetting:
I agree with you, though it would be a little complicated to explain it to the users.
By my side, I’m the first meta (ab)user when it comes to defending my guild
@Ivar thanks for the explanation. It’s very clear and Highforge makes this team very strong.
Having Ironbeard Lord and Lady in the first positions makes it even deadly. The frustration is that I couldn’t come up with a counter. I wonder if it would be better to sacrifice one red slot to put one support troup.
The games I won were mostly because in the last weeks players used to put dwarven gate in first position, or for a very generous RNG
You could try something with orcs such as:
Orc
Ogryn
Cyclops
Gar’nok
You’ll have the same 50% of mana on all troops (Gar’nok), Ogryn gives 5 to all stats on your team and you get at least some board-modification/mana generation with Orc’s spell to use when you are able to gain an extra turn while filling Cyclop’s mana to remove Lady Ironbeard armor. And if you are lucky enough maybe some skull cascades will make your Orc hit Lord Ironbeard for a 40+ damage (Enraged) ignoring traits.
Amira does double true damage to Penguin, Dwarven Gate, Lord and Lady Ironbeard. Level your magic sentinel, try to add Ogryn to your team. Scout the enemy, figure out how much health they have (including +4 hp from traits). If they are in oneshot range, go and wipe them out!
EDIT: DawnBringer’s barrier is so good against Dwarves. King Silenus + Bard Class = fast barriers.
I’m probably in the minority of about 0.00001% of the community here but I honestly think only 5+ matches should get mana surges. Given the advantages from banners and mana links three matches really don’t need to produce such high mana amounts, it is unnecessary.
