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Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2022 3:03 pm
by jereme
My most recent game featured humans vs monsters. Monsters represent the cool factor of Darklands, and have all sorts of cool abilities: Mighty Strike, Terrible/Vicious Damage, etc. However, monsters have low skill compared to humans, which means that they won't be able to trigger those abilities on fated strikes. This greatly reduces their damage output. Against a maximum size unit of humans, monsters (either singly or as units) really struggle to win fights. A block of 30 humans is often cheaper.

Our experience in that game has caused us to question the use of monsters in Darklands. Ignoring the cool factor and financials, how do you use monsters? Do you find them to be effective against large (20+) blocks of infantry?

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 1:37 pm
by Grizzle
In the current ruleset of 2nd edition, effects like terrible and vicious damage occur on a fated 9 but also on an opponent's roll of 0 to parry, evade, avoid, so higher skilled troops can get affected by them.

Same with any conditions, like venom or corruption.

With mighty strike if they have higher skill a 9 still effects them, but they can do a constitution test, if they fail they're knocked out.

If anything, when you account for those, infantry is quite fragile.

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 3:12 pm
by jereme
Grizzle wrote:With mighty strike if they have higher skill a 9 still effects them, but they can do a constitution test, if they fail they're knocked out.

I hadn't read all of the Glass Jaw Test. Thanks for pointing that out!

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 3:15 pm
by Grizzle
jereme wrote:
Grizzle wrote:With mighty strike if they have higher skill a 9 still effects them, but they can do a constitution test, if they fail they're knocked out.


The text of Mighty Strike only mentions Fated Strikes (not Fated Damage). Fated Strikes are not possible if the attacker has a skill in a lower band than the attacked model.


I think the section on glass jaw test covers it. I've not got my book in front of me at the moment, though.

*EDIT*

Found it on the PDF

"Glass Jaw Test Warriors whose mass is greater than the Mighty Striking warrior's mass, or who cannot suffer a fated strike from a strike roll of a 9 (i.e., their SKILL is greater than the Mighty Striking warrior's SKILL), must take a CONSTITUTION TEST - in this case a GGLASSLASS J JAWAW T TESTEST with a GGLASSLASS J JAWAW RROLLOLL - to see whether it becomes a Knocked Out warrior.
However, each enemy warrior that has suffered a fated mighty strike only has to take one GLASS JAW TEST per Attack action.
Glass Jaw Test Modifiers -mass-mass - Subtract the mass of the enemy warrior suffering the Mighty Strike If the GLASS JAW TEST is passed, the enemy warrior manages to shrug off the concussive effects and carry on fighting as normal.
If the GLASS JAW TEST is failed, the enemy warrior becomes a Knocked out warrior as above."

If that's not in the book version I'll check when I get home.

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 4:23 pm
by jereme
My read of that is that the Glass Jaw test is made for all models hit if the attacked model's skill is in a higher band than the attacker's skill, regardless of the original strike roll.

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 6:28 pm
by Grizzle
jereme wrote:My read of that is that the Glass Jaw test is made for all models hit if the attacked model's skill is in a higher band than the attacker's skill, regardless of the original strike roll.


Well, it's only a snippet, out of full context, from the 2.7.5.2.13 Mighty strike section on page 88 of the hardback 2nd edition book.

If you have access to this the 2.7.5.2.13 Mighty strike is the title of the section for the rule and the Fated Mighty Strike and then Glass jaw test are sub-sections of the whole section explaining the rule.

If you read it in sequence, it reads, to me, that you need fated 9's to get the mighty strike knockouts, but then you have an exception of the glass jaw test in the case of those who have higher skill. So the reading, from what I can tell, boils down to "I need 9's to get fated hits to induce a mighty strike on targets of equal or lesser mass, except where I roll a 9 and the target is a higher skill so I cannot get a fated hit that knocks them out, instead they must then take a constitution test (glass jaw test) to see if they are knocked out. In either case, a roll of 9 was needed to initiate either a fated knockout or a glass jaw test."

I think that was put in for this reason, as a specific exception, because otherwise, monsters would not be able to affect infantry with a lot of their special attacks and rules as you stated in your original post.

If I've got that wrong I'll stand corrected, plus it'll make monsters even better.

I hope that wasn't too long-winded, but I've learned from this game that the rules tend to need explaining in detail for them to make sense. It can be complicated but I personally love that. :lol:

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 7:34 pm
by Rob Lane
What Grizzle said, basically...

Cheers
Rob

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2022 11:11 am
by jereme
So a 9 is required on the strike roll for mighty strike to happen.

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2022 8:29 am
by Rob Lane
jereme wrote:So a 9 is required on the strike roll for mighty strike to happen.


Yes, but if you can't cause a fated hit because your SKILL is too low, your enemy has to take a GLASS JAW TEST.

Cheers
Rob

Re: Of Monsters and Men

Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2022 5:36 pm
by jereme
copy. I'd read the glass jaw test as being independent of the strike roll (just needed a success).