In this chapter of the tactics section we will discuss the creation of a Smasher set and its use.
A set claiming this definition should be characterized by its wide use of Smasher dice and should aim at winning through the elimination of the opponent’s dice (not necessarily of his or her Life dice first).
Clearly many of you will already know that the best Smasher is the black one, its specialized color, that is why we decide to include in out set 2 black Smashers; they will be the core of the set. A further Attack die could be an Assault, which could be used both to stop the opponent’s attacks and to boost the Smashers. Our first idea would be that of chosing a red Assault, the specialized color, but for now we will do with a black one.
Since we already have three Attack dice in our set, let’s set up our defence. We start with a Nullifier, a die with a number of possible uses. A Smasher set needs to be careful of its own danger: a Smasher can be devastating for its enemy but it can also turn against us if used badly.
Let’s decide then to add a blue Nullifier, a specialized die, we can use both as defence, to save our Smashers in case they would fail and finally to play a further nice trick: if the Smasher tactic is successful and our opponent has a single low value Life die remaining in play, the Nullifier strike can spare him or her a pointless agony, handing us the match.
We have other two defence dice to choose, if we want a “3-3-3” equally distributed set. It is also possible to unbalance the set choosing either a slower but safer tactic, a defensive one, or an overpowering and more aggressive one. Let’s pick the latter option, despite black tends to “eat up” its own life, owing to the “one rule” bonus it gets (+3 to one Defense die and –1 to one Life die).
We will add a Powerup die to regenerate the life eaten up with the Smasher one rule and to give a further chance to our Smasher dice. We do not add a third Defense die and choose to play with 4 Life dice, building a “3-2-4” set; this will grant greater flexibility, allowing us to cast our Life dice at the beginning of each turn if we need to. We can use our Life dice for a surprise tactic as well: let’s add two black Regeneration dice we can keep in Reserve and use in Skirmish putting into play the Assault and Smasher dice ended up in Limbo; this move will increase the pressure on our opponent allowing us to play each turn our Skirmish attacks without giving up the Battle attack. The remaining Life dice will be a black Swarm and a black Fortress. We will be granted two different tactics depending on whether we want to force an attack or to defend ourselves from a Swarm set.
It goes without saying that if we have any rare dice we should exchange them for the Smashers or the Nullifier.
Well, our black and blue Smasher set is ready. Clearly this is not the only possible Smasher set, there are endless other possibilities. The set can be modified depending on the opponent we are facing or on our personal taste. For example, we can increase the Attack dice (a black Assault instead of a Fortress?) or we can change its color turning it into a softer Smasher, maybe a white one..but we leave you this choices.
See you in the next tactics section. You’d better start thinking of your own personal tactics because we will soon ask you about them.
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