Control your Luck

Control your Luck

Miss Fortune

The dice are rolling: You recognize their sound even at the end of the world—the sound of fate making a decision. You watch how the dice bounce off each other, how they knock a few models off the table, and slowly, but surely, come to a stop. The fate of the dice has been made: You have lost.

We all love a little bit of excitement, the adrenaline rush when we throw a whole bucket load of dice and nervously await the results. However, you know what does not feel good? Receiving bad results three times in a row and losing the game through no fault of your own. It is always better to make a bad decision, than to have bad luck. Ultimately, you can learn from those mistakes. From bad luck? Well, there are only so many bad rolls we can accept, before flipping the table.

The Big Idea

When designing Masters of the Universe: Battleground we made sure that the outcome of the game would depend on a player’s choice, not on the whim of dice. To reach that goal, we provided players with as many possibilities to influence the outcome of the tests they would perform, as possible. It wasn’t easy. We could not simply remove all randomness and lose the excitement it brings to the table. Instead, we sought to find a balance between chance and predictability, and that is exactly what we achieved. Today, we will talk about a few mechanisms that have helped us maintain that balance.

Try again

First and foremost—rerolls. When a player has a possibility to reroll bad results, they no longer feel defenseless against the cruel waves of fate; and it is as easy as that. However, we cannot simply provide a player with unlimited rerolls. This possibility had to be limited somehow, otherwise a player would reroll all their failed dice without a second thought. Where there is no choice, there is no fun. In a single flash of unexpected brilliance—even we can have those once in a while—we decided to tie rerolls to a pre-existing resource in the game: Mana. One mana point gives a player’s character one reroll in any test, no strings attached. A player can use this mana reroll to increase their chances of knocking out the enemy, or to help their character survive a counterattack. However, this resource is strictly limited to the amount of mana a player has in their reserves, and if a player uses too much mana, their character won’t be able to use their skills and spells. Now, there is a choice!

Let’s Focus!

Has this ever happened to you? Your opponent's model is barely alive but is still holding the objective. You need to knock them out and there is only one chance to make it happen. The stakes are high and you have mana for rerolls, but you want to increase your chances even further. How can you do this? 

It's simple! With a small investment of spending one action point, a player’s character can perform a focus action to gain a focus token on their character card, and increase the scope of their next test by one—instead of rolling 4s to succeed, they have to roll 3s. They now have a focused character: That should be enough. They take a deep breath, take the dice, and make the roll…

What is more interesting, the focus token—received as a result of the player performing a focus action—stays on their character until that character performs another test. If their focused character performs a test, they must spend their focus token, returning the spent focus token back to the supply. It is possible to gain a focus token in one activation and spend it in another. Therefore, choosing the right moment to perform a focus action is vital for controlling the outcome of the battle.

Master Tactician

Your characters’ position matters. We know, it is not a surprise, but the simplest solutions are often the most effective and Masters of the Universe: Battleground gives you plenty of opportunities to take advantage of proper positioning.Let us imagine a situation; your character only has one action point left, and they are standing in the middle of the battleground like an open target. What should they do? Should your character run behind some terrain to gain cover? When a character is in cover, the scope of the enemy attack against them is decreased by one—instead of rolling 4s to succeed, they have to roll 5s. Should your character go and take the high ground, such as a platform? When a player’s character is on a platform, it will provide cover against attacks from below and allow their character to ignore most of the terrain pieces when it is their turn to attack—giving them a massive advantage.

Lastly, should your character flank? When a player’s character gets behind an opponent, they can perform a flank attack, resulting in the scope of that attack increasing by one—instead of rolling 4s to succeed, they have to roll 3s. Combine this flanking attack with a focus token and the player’s character will make a truly devastating blow to their opponent!

It’s Your Fate

We cannot forget about one of the most important mechanics—fate cards. Usually a player will spend one card per every activation, but there is nothing stopping them from using more! Even if a player’s characters would not gain all the benefits from those extra cards—only the bonus, the section under the horizontal line—those extra mana points and other effects can be exactly what they need to be successful in the task at hand.

A player can even spend all of their fate cards at once, and a single hero will do spectacular things. Great! The downside of that tactic, is that the rest of their force will not be able to execute any actions in the current round.

Limitations

Controlling the odds works in both ways. No matter how many action points a player uses, or how many rerolls a player will get, or how well a player’s force will be positioned, they are not going to knock out an enemy with just one lucky blow. Each weapon has a limit on the damage it can deal with a single attack. On the weapon cards there is a list of all possible attack effects.

If the most expensive weapon attack requires three successes and deals exactly two wounds, a player would not be able to deal any more, even if they are about to roll thirteen dice. In other words, if a player gives themself too much of an advantage, they may end up wasting precious resources.

To Victory!

Adapt to the situation on the battleground. Try to read your opponent’s plans and boost your chances when the opportunity strikes. Win with tactics, not luck. This is how you can become the real Master of the Universe!

Remember that our game designers await you on Board Game Geek! Click the link below to visit the site:

Board Game Geek Forum Thread