Men at Arms / Mercenaries

[Jalapenotrellis]

We had our first go at WoM Q1 last night. Everyone hired like 3 each. They were all dead by the time they left the upper right quadrant of the board because they put them on the front lines, they fell in a pit trap instantly dying, got killed by the fire burst trap.

I think a strategy to keep them alive would be to not have them jump traps and just stay behind and go back up the stairs. Also, avoid putting the scout at the front lines at all costs (one of the players did this...probably didn't think that through). They all said they wouldn't get men at arms in the future...which will be nice.

We also had the idea that now that we have 5 people who want to play, the 5th person could control all the men at arms.

[Kurgan]

Interesting feedback. Did any of the Scouts use their ability to search for and disarm traps?

[Jalapenotrellis]

Yes, we had that happen like once. I am going to switch to the Barbarian Quest pack rules for Mercenaries. The EU version makes them less useful (1 bp). At least the later version requires more gold for their use. Crossbowman gets 3 attack instead of 2 also.

[Jalapenotrellis]

We switched to using the Barbarian Quest pack rules for Mercenaries, and they are a lot more popular than the men-at-arms rules in Wizards of Morcar. The only part that makes no sense is that the halbardier has the exact same stats as the crossbowman but less utility and costs the same. Thinking of changing it to giving the Halberdier 4 defend, 7 Movement, and 3 body points as well as diagonal attacks to make him unique and kinda like an hp tank bruiser but lower defense than the swordsman. Will see what my group thinks. Also we are doubling the stay-hired cost to 40 gp so that they are not kamikaze and rewarded for keeping them alive. BQP rules don't reward that, and WoM rules do, so found a hybrid approach to take the good of both.

[Kurgan]

The way I see it, there are limited numbers of Mercenaries (especially if you were talking about the BQP which has half the number that WOM) available, so I could see someone going for the crossbow guy but then when there aren't any more of those ones left, going for the halberdier.

As for the Crossbowman being the same only better than the Halberdier... it really depends upon if you treat the Crossbow as being able to hit the four closest diagonal squares or not (see the big endless Crossbow debate on these forums) or if you say it still needs one square away (thus the halberd is useful for something the crossbow can't do).

You could also artificially limit which Mercs can be hired between quests if you really wanted to force them to use a certain type I suppose (you can hire from the guys who showed up this time kind of deal).

[lestodante]

To limit mercerenaries in a quest, you can roll a red die first: the result will be the number of mercenaries available to be hired.
Also draw as many cards as the die roll from the mercenary deck: this will determine what kind of mercenaries are available.
These rules will not affect mercenaries already hired in the previous quest; if they survived, they are still available.

[Jalapenotrellis]

To limit mercerenaries in a quest, you can roll a red die first: the result will be the number of mercenaries available to be hired.
Also draw as many cards as the die roll from the mercenary deck: this will determine what kind of mercenaries are available.
These rules will not affect mercenaries already hired in the previous quest; if they survived, they are still available.

This sounds great too. Makes them seem less gamey and more what's available for hire.

I think finances are another limitation though. They will spend themselves out and then not have money for the good shops coming up in the elf and barb quest packs.

[steeltekki]

Thats what happened in our game the only time we really tried it. Ran out of money!

[QorDaq]

To limit mercerenaries in a quest, you can roll a red die first: the result will be the number of mercenaries available to be hired.
Also draw as many cards as the die roll from the mercenary deck: this will determine what kind of mercenaries are available.
These rules will not affect mercenaries already hired in the previous quest; if they survived, they are still available.

That's a great idea, and gives me some inspiration for a variation on your idea. Kudos.

A single [2022] Frozen Horror set gives us a total of 12 Mercs in 4 "Classes". There are three of each Class so using 4D4 of different colors, and a simple chart as below; one could create a an availability list at the start of a game as follows:

Die 1 - (Black): Crossbow
Die 2 - (Gray): Halberdier
Die 3 - (Green): Scout
Die 4 - (Red): Sword

The colors above are just examples, any color of D4 could work. Or even a single D4 rolled once for each Class.

Results of 1-3 on a given D4 = the number of Mercs of that Class available to hire for the Quest.
Results of 4 = 0 (None of that type of Merc is available to hire).

Hmm.... I may try this out.

And, I do appreciate that not everyone owns D4s, or wants to use dice not included in the game, but for those who do...

[steeltekki]

Lots of great ideas. Love the D4 idea