Godtear

Godtear is a two player skirmish level board game published by SteamForged Games in the UK.

The premise of the storyline is that the gods have been slain, and mortal champions have arisen to claim their power from the remaining "God Tears" that have been left laying about, and the resulting conflict with other champions. Unfortunately there is painfully little fluff on the units and characters, so the players are left to fill in their narratives entirely on their own.

From a design point of view, the aim is to get the players into the action as quickly as possible. There are no points scores to calculate and no min-maxing of unit options. Models are played straight out of the box and comprise of a Champion and their Followers. The game assumes that each set is equivalent to every other set in terms of value, although certainly some units are harder to play than others, or offer more complex stratagems in order to play efficiently.

The scale of the game is intended to be played with 1-3 champions per player, with a one champion game taking about half an hour; though larger games obviously scale up in complexity and length.

Gameplay Overview

The turn is split into three phases:

• The Plot Phase, where each player performs the entirety of their actions at once, activating each champion and unit one after the other, looking for good positions to strike, or preparing buffs and debuffs that will help later.
  • The plot phase is the only phase where a champion can put down their Banner and stake a claim to the objective hexes strewn across the board. These are worth big points at the end of the turn, though they will require protecting until then.
  • Going first in the plot phase can have its advantages and disadvantages; It allows you to throw penalties on your opponent before they get the chance to do anything about it, but you are affectively allowing the opponent to see all of your moves and give them the room to counter you.
• The Clash Phase is where players alternate activating their units back and forth and is generally the most energetic phase. Where plot abilities are usually inoffensive, the clash abilities are where nearly all attack and damaging actions occur.
• The End Phase, where administrative clean-up is performed. Each players banners are removed and victory points are scored. Some champions have abilities that only apply in the End Phase, so its worth keeping an eye on.

In each phase an activated unit can perform two actions, such as moving, attacking, or casting. Sometimes a unit can perform a third action, depending on its abilities, and sometimes units have passive powers that help them in certain situations. Unit abilities are performed using proprietary dice which show hits and misses. When a unit attacks another, they need to roll to hit with a number of dice indicated and meet or exceed a target's dodge value. If an ability causes damage, it then needs roll a number of damage dice and then have a result that exceeds the units protection value.

Like Champion units, Follower units activate all at once, regardless of how many models are in that unit. While they may all move as a single action, only a single model may be the origin of an attack or a casting, potentially meaning that a six man squad could have five men standing around doing very little. To counter this imbalance, Followers often have scaling abilities based on the number of models they have stacked in a single hex, or are in adjacent positions on the board, allowing for impressive moves that can meet or even exceed those of their leaders.

It's also absolutely worth mentioning that no model is ever removed from the play permanently. Any champion or follower knocked out can spend an action to "rally" or "recruit" and return to play. Some Champions are better at this than others, giving bonuses to returned units, or bringing more models back at once. Effectively meaning that a player always has an avenue of reclaiming the initiative rather than inexorably declining into irrelevance if the battle continues to go against them.

Victory Conditions

The goal of Godtear is to score a total of five victory points, with each turn providing a set number of victory points to the leading player at the end. This means that games can last up to five turns, but are more likely to finish much earlier.

As each turn progresses, the players record their steps by moving the turn token left and right on the victory ladder, representing their dominance over one another. Players move steps by:

• Slaying an enemy Champion: 4 steps
• Slaying an Enemy Follower: 1 step
• Claiming an Objective Hex: 1 step
• Still having a banner on an Objective Hex in the End Phase: 4 step

If the ladder is on one players side during the end phase, they claim the token and its victory points. The next turn token automatically starts on the other player's side, giving them the choice of whether to go first or second next turn.

Champion Summaries

Slayers

Slayer Champions are cast in red plastic. They gain +1 step on the victory ladder if their champion personally knocks out a enemy champion.

Their abilities are usually centered around high damage attacks. Their followers are sometimes quite weak, but often fill supporting roles that apply buffs and debuffs in order to help their leader.

• Morrigan, Lich Queen of the Frozen Wastes: (Eternal Glade Starter Set). Despite coming in the starter kit and being a good exemplar for how Slayers are probably meant to be played, Morrigan requires a bit of micromanagement that is unfriendly to newbie players. She has a good range of attacks with very high damage potential, iceblade is a very good attack that can also deal consistent damage so long as the enemy has a debuff applied, and Icebolt applies the qualifying debuff. Similarly, "Snowball's Chance" allows her to one-shot ANY model with a single hit, but Morrigan is extremely dependent on gaining buffs and applying debuffs to ensure her skills actually work. Thankfully her passive ability allows her to double the bonus provided by buffs, but her Cold Bones followers are ONLY able to give her +1 accuracy or movement buffs, meaning that if she really wants to hurt something, she needs an allied champion to layer on those damage buffs.
• Rangosh, Scourge of the Broken Plains: Rangosh is a fantastic Slayer champion, he is a powerhouse who is relatively straightforward to use, while his followers have several useful functions, but ultimately exist to sacrifice themselves to make their champion better. On the surface, Rangosh can buff his damage and debuff enemy dodge during the plot phase. In the Clash he has a highly accurate range 2 whiplash skill with respectable damage, but also pulls an enemy model one hex closer to him on a hit, regardless of whether it causes damage. This pulls his target into range of his other ability, which is a massive damage 7 jawbreaker attack, which if it hits can be sufficient to one shot anyone on respectable rolls, the problem is its accuracy. To counter that problem Rangosh can sacrifice one of his bandit followers within 3 hexes to add an extra dice to his hit and/or damage rolls, virtually guaranteeing big hits. The Bandits are no slouches either, and while they exist to be sacrificed, they have "ambush" attacks that work in the plot and clash phases, giving low but reliable damage, as well as a respectable ranged attack. If you want a slayer and can't be bothered thinking about synergy then Rangosh is an easy go-to choice.
• Lorsann, the Autumnal Wind: Elven glass cannon with archers as followers who are almost as good as she is. Lorsann has insane range and damage potential and is reasonably easy to play without thinking too hard about it. She can just give herself a damage buff and apply a protection debuff against the enemy in the plot phase, and her selection of attacks in the clash phase range from simply applying one damage for free, all the way up to rolling five damage dice on an attack TWICE. Her Mistwood Ranger followers can also apply a protection debuff and have a respectful ranged attack that can do extra damage to wounded champions, though it runs the risk of stealing the kill from their leader and losing the free ladder step. Lorsann's massive drawback is the protection score of 1 that she and her followers share, so they will get torn up like wet paper as soon as something mean looks at them. Lorsann's passive powers allows her to hit-and-run so long as her attacks cause at least one wound, giving her the option of keeping well out of the way.
• Maxen, the Artificer: High damage sniper that comes with a bunch of look-out birds who grant accuracy buffs to adjacent champions. His own attacks have decreasing accuracy with range but his Eagle-Eyed companions make him a better team player than Lorsann, since he can counter his own penalties while buffing allies. His movement speed of 1 is godawful though, and he has no inherent means of boosting it, so on a battlefield with widespread objective hexes or against a speed-debuffing opponent he will be in trouble, again hinting at his need to be supported by allied champions who can buff him in turn.
• Keera, Dragon Princess: Contrary to having a strong champion and weaker followers, Keera has two dragons and actually has zero offensive potential on her own. She does have attacks listed on her skill card, but per passive skill dictates that they must be measured from her dragon companions and they are essentially better versions of the dragon's standard suite of attacks. Because her attacks are measured from two different locations that are capable of flying over obstacles, she is a very good slayer, since she actually finds it easy to chase and attack enemy champions. However, despite being massive dragons with five wounds each, they actually have low dodge and protection scores, so they can go down surprisingly easily. This all means that if the dragons go down, Keera can't make any attacks for a while. Thankfully one of Keera's skills in both Plot/Clash phases allow her to immediately recruit a dragon so they will never be down for long. The problem is that she still remains a fragile champion on her own with no ability to attack, so if someone gets up in her face and the dragons are elsewhere, then she is in REAL trouble.
• Sneaky Peet, the Maligned: Goblin Ninjas, and pretty damned effective too, if a bit counter-intuitive and tricker to use. They are one of the few units in the game capable of causing damage during the plot phase; Which means they might not be in best position to launch an attack when the turn starts. Peet himself has a range of useful abilities, including the ability to jump hexes, and he has the same attack in both the plot and clash phases that does a free point of damage just for scoring the hit, regardless of the following damage roll. The followers only damaging attack is in the plot phase, and it has an odd rule where is becomes more damaging but less accurate the more followers are in a stack (the sweet spot is two). However, as with all slayers, their primary function is to assist their boss, so he gets more accurate for each follower adjacent to his target, kind of like a more selfish version of Maxen. Though admittedly, his attacks are already decent enough so he doesn't really need their help. In any case, his followers are very mobile, capable of moving through enemy hexes, or one can instantly redeploy next to him for SURPRISE FUCKERS! Peet and his followers also have a frankly insane dodge score of 5, which can be made even higher with an allied champion with the appropriate buffs. This is balanced out their dismal protection score of 1, so any hits on them are likely going to hurt.
• Skullbreaker, The Dragon Slayer: No doubt has the most dangerous attack in the game. With a whopping 7 damage and the potential to go even higher with the "Go for the Belly Skill"/"I Smell Blood" skills making his damage or accuracy scores jump up to 9, so there is a reasonable certainty that he will one-shot every opponent even without factoring in buffs/debuffs. To help make this attack, Skullbreaker has the ability to ignore followers for the sake of movement, so enemies cannot wall up to prevent him from passing. Skullbreaker can also simply remove a single debuff as an action in the plot phase, so it's not like an enemy can reliably reduce his accuracy or damage to try and stop him. Additionally, his Tooth Bearer followers can simultaneously give their boss a choice of boon or +1 movement whenever they damage anything, and their primary attack does 1 damage as a hit effect, IE: prior to the actual damage roll. So Skullbreaker is liable to always have the advantage when it comes to make his attack. The downsides are that his protection score is a piss-poor 1, so he's on par with Sneaky Peet in fragility. He also has middling/low speed; after making his attack, he suffers a movement debuff. Yes he can remove it with an action in the plot phase, but if he's going to spend the action, he might as well move with the imposed restriction anyway. Luckily, his followers have better movement skills, and with four of them can be spread out to try and shepherd their target to where Skullbreaker wants them.

Maelstrom

Maelstrom Champions are cast in yellow plastic. They gain +1 step on the victory ladder for each follower they take out personally.

Maelstrom characters are typically have skills that are able to hit multiple models in a single hex, or are able to strike into multiple hexes. Their followers often come with abilities to rapidly deploy or take advantage of area.

• Titus, the Disgraced: (Borderlands Starter Set) Titus is the quintessential Maelstrom champion. He is a great hunter of followers. On his own he is a very useful champion, with +1 dodge and protection against follower attacks as his passive ability. He can force enemy followers to move to his advantage, and has a couple of primary attacks that can strike multiple models in different hexes. His ultimate ability also lets him use a skill, move one space, and use another skill, AS ONE ACTION So he is meaty enough to square up to enemy champions if he needs to. His Glory Seeker followers are no slouches either and have an attack that scales massively as the target gets surrounded by more Glory Seekers, meaning it pays to spread them about rather than concentrate them. Additionally, Titus is great for positional play as his followers automatically move two spaces when they are recruited, getting them back into action quickly. Titus is a good general option for games of nearly any size.
• Blackjaw, the Sweeping Flame: like Titus, Blackjaw is a pretty good Maelstrom champion, though he does have much tighter focus. In many cases Blackjaw's attacks must exclusively attack followers or have better efficiency against multi-model groups. He gets a bonus action if he knocks out followers and his ultimate ability is a five model nuclear blast. That's not to say he can't try his luck against enemy champions too, but he has relatively low dodge and protection scores with no means to buff himself so he may likely come off worse in those cases. His Unburnt Reaver followers are otherwise standard followers but come with their own passive aura that debuffs enemy followers accuracy so long as the Reavers outnumber their opponent in the hex. Blackjaw is a good Maelstrom champion, but the sheer degree of focus means he will struggle to cover on battlefields with limited target options.
• Jeet, the Wandering Warrior: Goblin Samurai who utterly messes with the turn sequence by making all of her attacks in the plot phase, then spending the clash phase running away and attempting to keep enough buffs on herself to last into the next turn. On paper this kind of burst damage might look really awesome, as you can pull off amazing shit and your opponent can't do anything about it. But in practice it can be very bad, since you might start a turn in a really bad situation and have to deal with the immediacy of having to attack NOW! You also have to juggle the need of having to place the banner and score some extra points or doing damage. This reversal turns the clash phase into her "plot phase" where she needs to set up for the next assault, but all of her units also have crap movement in the clash phase, so the enemy can freely chase her down or back off without having to worry about the immediate consequences. But luckily Jeet is here to help with that, she gets a bonus action where she can rapid slash some enemy followers, just because, so no matter what else she chooses to do, she can get some hits in. Her Golden Shrike followers are also able to force enemy followers to move 1 hex for free each time they end their activations in both phases, also just because. So they don't have to be stuck in shitty situations. Ultimately, if you can plan effectively, the planets might align correctly and Jeet will make your opponent's jaw drop when you are able to smack them with so much damage in one sitting. But unless you can pull it off, you're likely to be spending a couple of turns not achieving what you wanted to do.
• Grimgut, the Vile: another Champion who plays utterly against the normal flow of the game and will likely find it very difficult to score points or win in 1v1 match-ups, but could be great in positional play. Grimgut has every low movement speed, sub-par defenses, and cannot directly attack champions by himself. The trade off is that he is able to unspawn all of his Retchling followers and puke up all five of them as a single action. The Retchlings only have one ability to use in each phase, either debuffing enemy movement or a rapid fire ranged attack that can target three models in a single hex, but they are allowed to repeat their actions, so that can reap a LOT of damage. Grimgut's passive ability allows him to string the retchlings out in a line when they spawn, and he has abilities that can be channeled through his followers, effectively giving him a massive reach of seven/eight hexes each turn. But because he's not likely doing the damage himself he's probably not going to be reaping the extra point for slaying followers by himself that often.
• Luella, The Raging Storm: someone heard that Dwarves were meant to be slow defensive fighters, so they decided to break that cliché by giving us a Dwarven woman who has got to go faster and gets a free action with each activation. She has very interesting mechanics. Initially, she has very slow speed, but is able to boost herself with a speed buff every phase, and her passive skill allows her to take an extra step so long as she moves in a straight line. She also gains a bonus action in each phase if she moves 3 hexes, which amounts to a dodge debuff, or a middling level attack, but it pays to make sure she is buffed. Her Arc Lightning primary attack is actually pretty good, with an area of effect secondary blast so long as she hits with the first. Now, she can simply stand still and use all her attacks, and that's fine, and she should be doing this, otherwise her primary attack loop is very predictable (buff>move>bonus action or move>attack>bonus, generally in straight lines) Her Shield maiden followers also suffer from a thematic discrepancy. They are nowhere near as fast as Luella so will struggle to keep close enough to provide their free protective buff, unless you spread them around and limit their effectiveness. Hinting that you should just keep Luella standing still when you need her to, but save the burst damage for when you want to surprise the enemy by taking 30% more actions than anyone else and hitting from miles away.
• Kailinn, the Fury of the Forest: Kailinn is a unique one; She looks very simple but there a lot going on with her. She is easily the fastest Champion, bar none. Her own actions revolve around movement and attacks, she either moves a lot in the plot phase, potentially pulling a friendly champion along for a ride, and then she has high damage attacks for the clash phase, potentially striking three different models, and gaining a bonus attack if she moves. Her passive ability is that she can freely enter enemy follower spaces and harmlessly push them out of the way, which can be good for herding them together, while her ultimate simply knocks out a follower for an extra ladder step, no questions asked... Kailinn's followers are also rather special, she has two large multi-wound models rather than a team, but their teamwork beats out anyone elses. Unlike any other followers, when one uses a skill, the other can immediately also use that same skill, meaning that despite being only two models, they have more board presence than any other followers. Her main and glaring weakness is that she CANNOT enter objective hexes, effectively putting her at a huge disadvantage in terms of board access, especially against shapers who can close off areas and guardians who can turtle up. In 1-1 matches, she is playing on hard mode by not being able to cast down banners.

Shapers

Shaper Champions are cast in green plastic. They gain +1 step on the victory ladder each time they place their banner as part of a claim action.

Shapers are generally good utility characters, often coming with abilities that interact with objective hexes that give them more opportunities to place their banner. Their followers often come with gimmicks that are central to their playstyle.

• Nia, the Crystalmancer: (Eternal Glade starter set) Nia is a great beginner champion with a wide range of useful abilities. She can steal boons from enemies and shift debuffs to them. Most of her and her followers attacks have respectable range, so she doesn't have to get stuck in a melee. Her primary gimmick allows her to sacrifice a quartzling follower and replace it with an objective hex. This gives her somewhere new to deploy a banner while effectively walling off areas against enemy followers who can't enter the new hex; truly "shaping" the battlefield. Her main weakness is a lack of mobility, since she and her followers have low movement scores, or are forced to travel in fixed directions. While she does get quartzlings back for free whenever the banner gets removed, the need to sacrifice units for her main style means it she is constantly low on manpower and is unlikely to win head on engagements.
• Raith'Marid, the Rising Tsunami: A teleporting lizardman water monk who is very effective at playing keep-away with the enemy. His gimmick revolves entirely around his Splashling followers who on paper have zero damage potential and zero movement. Instead of moving, they are able to be "placed" anywhere within three hexes, which circumvents normal movement restrictions like obstacles and objective hexes. During his activation, Raith'Marid can then teleport to their location by removing the Splashling and gaining a choice of any boon in return, so he can be tailored for his subsequent action. It also pays to never bunch splashlings together so that Raith'Marid has movement options. The Splashlings other ability can push enemy models out of hexes, giving them the ability to clear spaces and keep enemies at arms length. Raith'Marid can also move objective hexes around, potentially closing off avenues of counter attack by enemy followers, or pulling the rug out from underneath enemy banners that he might be just out of reach. In terms of damage potential, Raith'Marid is rather average, but it is his ability to choose where and how he attacks that makes him very useful.
• Shayle, Keeper of the Oath: a unique champion in that he has no inherent damaging abilities and only one Follower; a mighty rock golem called Landslide. Shayle's abilities are very simple, in the plot phase he either buffs Landslide or shunts boons from enemy models onto friendly ones. While in the clash phase he clears ALL enemy buffs entirely, without rolling to hit or debuffs their movement. Landslide does everything else, but instead of moving, he is "placed" for free every time Shalye activates so long as they remain in range of each other. This also means that if they get separated Landslide gets trapped in place. Landslide can move enemy models around quite reliably, he can also throw on a debuff to protection without having to roll to hit and has a very powerful boulder bash attack. If Landslide is defeated then he leaves an objective hex on the space, closing it off to enemy followers. The whole problem with Shayle is rather obvious, as his entire gimmick revolves around a single model that can only make one attack each turn. If he doesn't have allies he will easily get surrounded and overwhelmed so the decision of whether to use him or not utterly depends on whether you can take advantage of the positional play he offers and his ability to reliably flatten enemy boons.
• Rattlebone, Prophet of the Ascended Past: an utterly frightening champion who does very little direct damage, but throws out blight debuffs as if they were wedding confetti. She also can also move boon and blight tokens more freely than Nia is able to do, and is even passively capable of moving them around every activation. Her hexlings can get free boons up to twice per phase but can't do any damage, so basically exist as moving stockpiles of boon tokens that will eventually get shunted off, while also throwing out their choice of blight every phase. Rattlebone makes the perfect support champion for those characters who could use the extra bit of help (eg: Morrigan), but can also royally fuck up any enemy strategy dependent on token placement (eg: Maxen, Luella). Her other unique ability can temporarily create two objective hexes in the clash phase, which isn't that great for scoring points considering most banners have to go down in the plot phase unless you can combo with some champions ability to move them around. Mostly it's a good excuse to further fuck with the enemy and close off vital attack routes they were thinking about using.
• Styx, Lord of Hounds: a very effective shaper of the battlefield. He is relatively slow, but has a lot of special rules that allow him to do different things. Most of his abilities are about forcing enemy movement, or otherwise inconveniencing the opponent, and in many cases not even requiring anything to roll. In the Plot phase, he can move an enemy one space towards himself, and can also throw a protection debuff that doesn't require to hit, as a bonus action. In the Clash phase he can simply lift an Objective hex one space towards himself, with all models on it. He only has one attack though, which is a respectable accuracy 5, damage 5, so he has a good chance of damaging everyone. His attack also imposes a damage debuff on a hit, which he is going to need because he only has a protection score of 2 so he is rather fragile. Styx's ultimate power simply knocks out any enemy model within two hexes, period. However he gains no ladder steps for doing this, so it is probably best kept for when you get into a situation you really don't want to be in. His canine followers are large, much like Keera's dragons. They have a curiously worded attack in the Clash phase which allows them to roll to hit three times; that means rolling four accuracy dice three times, and with each hit they get to add two dice to the following damage roll. They also have the ability to drag followers around passively at the end of their turn and can also cast down enemy banners, which is something that followers cannot usually do. When all put together, it means that Styx is capable of reshaping enemy formations at his whim, opponents such as Guardians, who depend on walling up around things will probably have a bad time. His weakness is that because he is pulling opponents towards himself, he is liable to generate a lot of aggro, so beware of Slayers who will welcome the chance to get up in his face.

Guardians

Guardian Champions are cast in blue plastic. They gain +1 step on the victory ladder each time their banner gets removed as part of the end phase points accumulation.

Guardians and their followers are typified by a need to protect their banner once it has been deployed and are therefore quite tanky.

• Finvarr, Lord of Mirages: (Borderlands starter set) Finvarr is quite a forgiving champion to use; he is straightforward as a beginner champion with decent mobility, and who is able to still be useful in larger skirmishes. He and his followers play similarly to each other so there isn't a whole lot to take track of. Finvarr himself is likely to spend the game hogging a pocket of objective hexes since standing on them gives him +2 accuracy dice. Their primary attack loop is to cast void weapons to give themselves an extra damage dice, then use their vampiric weapons to restore wounds and keep them in play; even restoring dead followers without the need to constantly recruit more. Finvarr's other gimmick allows him to shunt friendly banners around, which isn't of much use in a small battle, but can be a saver in larger, messier games where holding objective hexes can be difficult with multiple champions vying for space.
• Rhodri, Thane of the Forsaken Holds: It is a bit of a cliché, but Dwarves do make excellent defenders. Rhodri does exactly what you expect of him, he and his followers have protection 4 by default, with the option to increase it by +1 for an action. They are utterly immovable so long as the banner is down and they are close to it, so they can't be messed with. They only have a single attack so it's not going to get complicated. Rhodri's big trick is the ability to place his banner in the clash phase once per game, so he can steal a turn if he gets his activation at the end of the phase. The main downside is their low speed, even if they use a second action to move the extra hex, it's not a lot. In all likelihood they will be stuck in position and stay there for the duration of the game.
• Helena, Inspiration of Hope: Guess what? Helena IS her banner, so that means no action spared in order to plant it down and no chance of it being cast down just by the enemy walking over it. The problem is that she is fragile with only four wounds, so a good smack can take her out. To keep her on the table, her Peasant followers have the ability to heal her for one wound each phase. Her peasants are quite weak, but they gain +1 dodge and protection while within 2 hexes of Helena, and with SIX of them, and the possibility of restoring up to three per turn (using Helena's "Rally the Troops" skill) they can make an effective wall keeping her safe and healthy. Helena also makes a good support Champion for other teams with large body counts, since her ultimate ability allows all friendly Champions to immediately restore their followers up to the maximum, which can massively turn the tide of a battle in a single activation.
• Halftusk, Warden of the Stonekin Isle: The "tank" of the Guardians. Halftusk can heal two of his own wounds by using an action each phase, meaning it can be very difficult to drop him. He also has an interesting mechanic where his primary attack skill automatically allows a second attack as a bonus action, meaning he can throw out as much damage as some Maelstrom Champions. This is contrasted by the fact that his followers CANNOT cause any damage on their own but can pull banners and models from hex to hex. Halftusk's most interesting gimmick is the fact that his Froglodytes have the ability to enter objective hexes -something that is otherwise impossible for followers to do- and then supercharge their defences by adding +1 dodge and protection. Meaning that when Halftusk wants to defend his banner, he is absolutely capable of walling up around it and making sure that no-one else can waltz in and just knock it over.
• Mournblade, the Soulless:. The "Anti-Slayer". Mournblade has got a lot of useful gimmicks that make him a bastard to take down, especially in larger games. For starters, he only has a wound score of 1, so any sucessful hit will probably take him out. However, his "Undying" passive ability means he's only worth a single ladder step when he's defeated rather than four, and he immediately rallies himself when any enemy (Champion or Follower) is knocked out. His followers can also rally him with one of their actions, so Mournblade doesn't have to waste an action when he has so many avenues for someone else doing it for him, he is going to be going down and getting right back up again multiple times during the game. If his allies happen to go down, he also has the ability to rally ALL friendly champions as a single action, while his only damaging attack automatically restores one of his Knightshade followers. Mournblade is the guy who just keeps staying at peak efficiency at all times. Additionally, those Knightshades also reduce the speed stat of adjacent enemies to zero, effectively soaking the aggro and nullifying characters who might rather be doing something else. His other great trick is that when he makes a claim action, he can place his banner up the three hexes away, which makes him a safe bet for keeping it safe.
• Jaak, the Dubious Alchemist: Goblin Alchemist, also an incredibly useful bastard. Like all Goblins, they have a tendency to invert the play order; Jaak and his followers do the most damage in the Plot phase, and are slower in the Clash phase. But thankfully he and his followers attacks all have a two hex range, so don't really have to worry about getting caught out of position as much. Jaak has two major tricks that make his really useful no matter what scale of game you play. This first is that he is a healer: so long as his banner is in play, after every action he can remove a wound token from a model within two hexes, and has the ultimate ability to remove a variable number of wounds to any number of champions/large followers within two hexes, then also healing them again because his passive still applies. Secondly, his followers are capable of playing hot potato with his banner. They are able to place it for him in the Plot phase, which is something no other follower can do, and they are allowed to reposition any friendly banners in the Clash phase. Both of these traits make him exceptionally flexible and an asset in larger games. His followers do the same thing as Sneaky Peet's and are more damaging but less accurate the more models there are in the hex, but they also gain added accuracy and damage so long as their banner is in play, they can even force enemy movement away from themselves and apply a speed debuff to keep them there, so there aren't really any issues there. His primary flaws are that he and his followers have sub-par speed and even lower protection scores. While he can buff both of his own using skill actions, his followers are always going to be easy pickings, so be careful of Maelstrom champions looking to take advantage of them for easy points.