Relicblade Ramblings 1: Introduction and Knight Tactic Cards

I've hit a bit of a painting slump, so in the interest of diversifying my hobby time I've decided to resurrect the blog! And what better place to (re)start than with a new series of articles on Relicblade?

I love Relicblade. From the moment I first saw it being played on Guerilla Miniature Games I was enamoured: quirky, characterful sculpts, smooth gameplay, and a great indie development story drew me in, and I've been hooked since. I've written about it on here in the past, but since my pledge for Storms of Kural (the most recent Kickstarter, as well as the first one I've actually been able to participate in) arrived yesterday, I decided this was a great opportunity to dig into the game in earnest.

I've named this series “Relicblade Ramblings” in a nod to my long-on-hiatus “Mordheim Musings”, and I plan to start off by taking some time to think about the upgrade cards that are one of the game's core mechanics. 

For those unfamiliar, a brief explanation: In Relicblade, each character has an associated card with their abilities and stats, much like a character sheet in an RPG, which also lists a set of upgrade types available to them. These upgrades have cards of their own, which give both a detailed explanation of the effect and a condensed version at the bottom so that they can be conveniently tucked under a character card, “extending” it. Together, these cards make up the core warband-building mechanic of the game.

My main reason for doing this is personal: I have a big collection of Relicblade cards, at least one copy of each one currently in production, and it's a LOT of information to sift through! My intention in this series is not to critique these cards or point out limitations, but to take a positive approach, focusing on how and when the card can be useful, and providing a few characters who I think can best make use of it. In doing this I am hoping to break out of my tendency to stick with proscribed “builds” and encourage more experimentation both on my part and on that of other players who happen to read this!

In the interest of not burning out, this first part will focus on the Knight Tactic cards - that is to say, those that can only be taken by characters with the Knight keyword. I figured this would be a good way to chunk my work and test the format without totally overwhelming myself first thing. Here we go! (Initially, I planned to cover all the Tactics restricted by keyword, but as you'll see below I had plenty to say about the Knight ones alone!).

The Shark Warrior

Riposte

Starting off strong here with a fan favourite upgrade. Riposte lets a Knight deal damage when they spend a Dodge token (a counter that adds an extra D6 to their defense against an attack). Dodge tokens are ubiquitous and easily accessible: have an extra Action Die (AD from here on) at the end of an activation? Dodge! In a sticky spot? Dodge! The Bounty Hunter can even redistribute Dodge tokens from friends and foes to get them where you need them. All that said, I think this is a strong choice for any Knight: these characters want to be in close combat as much as possible, and this Tactic allows them to leverage their (usually) strong armour outside of a purely defensive context. 

I think it works best on the OG, the Advocate Questing Knight: with a base armour value of 3, they're already among the most durable characters in the game, and will regularly exceed their opponent's damage roll even without Dodge tokens. With Riposte, this excess is absolutely punishing! 

On the Adversary side, the Shark Warrior gains similar benefits from Riposte with an equal armour value, though I have found that the Shark is easily capable of killing their foes before armour comes into play with the one-two punch of its Dual Strike (one of the few attacks that can actually kill an opponent outright, as it rolls for damage twice). 

My third top choice would be the new Thoranic Guard, a Neutral character released with Storms of Kural: while she “only” has 2 armour (a more than respectable amount, it just pales a bit in comparison to the Questing Knight and Shark's 3!), she also gets two Tactic upgrade slots! Since most characters (including all the other Knights currently in the game) have one Tactic slot tops, this means the Thoranic Guard can pick up Riposte while still leaving room for another powerful Tactic.

This section is already long, but an honourable mention goes to the Lotus Bladesong, the second Neutral Knight available. Her Poetic Grace ability grants her +1 armour for each Dodge token she has, which incentivizes getting plenty on her. I believe five is feasible with a few synergies, and while this is probably overkill, I like the thought of annihilating an enemy on the Riposte. This is a bit of a double-edged sword, however, as each time the Lotus Bladesong Ripostes, she will reduce her Riposte “damage bonus” (i.e. her armour value) by 1 as she gives up the Dodge token.

I've come back to this section again to add another honourable mention: the Gnome Battlesmith. Like the Thoranic Guard, he has 2 armour, but his Deft special ability lets him move 1” after spending a Dodge token (ignoring enemies), giving some added benefit to his Riposte!

The Questing Knight

Sword Master

Sword Master strikes me as an easily slept-on Tactic, granting the Knight a bonus AD for melee weapon actions only. Knights in general have a fairly adequate action economy, usually with enough dice to charge and use all of their attacks in a single activation, possibly even with a Focus to improve their chances of landing a particularly difficult blow. Of course, “adequate” isn't necessarily what you're looking for, and the added flexibility from Sword Master frees up one of the Knight's AD for mobility, Dodging, or other abilities that might otherwise be ruled out in an aggressive turn.

Easily my top choice for this is the Mounted Battlesmith, an Advocate gnome Knight with a mount. The two current mount options both offer unparalleled mobility among Knights (Move 6 and 7 respectively for the Ibex and the Shadow Fox, with 2 AD each!), but the Mounted Battlesmith in turn sacrifices some of his own action economy to make this happen, with only 2 AD himself. His first attack, Cavalry Hammer, requires 1 AD to execute, and his second, Precision Strike, requires 2, which means the Mounted Battlesmith can't do both, and furthermore can't Focus to improve the odds with his powerful secondary attack. Sword Master changes all of this, freeing up the Mounted Battlesmith to do either of these, which in my opinion makes him the best candidate overall.

The Gnome Battlesmith (on foot) and Shark Warrior are essentially tied for my second choice here, with a slight edge to the Battlesmith since the Shark has a few other preferential options. Both have a similar attack selection to the Mounted Battlesmith, with a one-AD primary and two-AD secondary attack, and each has 4 AD total. This means that in a single activation, they can do both but with only a single AD left over for Dodging, moving, Focusing, or in the Shark's case, using its powerful Thrashing Bite, another rare ability that can kill outright! The added flexibility of Sword Master is very welcome for both of these characters.

My third choice here is the Lotus Bladesong, but not because her AD are limited; quite the opposite actually! With 5 AD, she has the most of any current Knight, and Sword Master further secures this action supremacy. As mentioned above, the Lotus Bladesong is incentivized to Dodge for bonus armour, meaning each AD freed up for this purpose will make her significantly less fragile. Furthermore, her primary attack can be executed three times, has a low difficulty of 3, and she's incentivized AGAINST Focusing it by her Perfect Harmony ability, which allows her to ignore enemy armour on a Critical Hit (which is easier done with one die than two, since it requires all dice to match the attack's difficulty). With Sword Master, the Lotus Bladesong can comfortably attack three times, Focus her Dodge to gain two tokens, and move, all in one activation!

One might wonder why the Questing Knight isn't ranked alongside the Gnome Battlesmith and Shark Warrior above. Put simply, the Questing Knight is a more defensively-focused character, while the Shark and Gnome are more aggressive. The Questing Knight's high armour is great for Riposte, and while they do have a 1-AD and 2-AD attack, their secondary attack is less deadly than the Gnome's (which ignores armour) or Shark's (which gets two damage rolls, stripping Dodge tokens or being able to down an enemy and confirm the kill in one go). While added action economy is never bad, I believe the Questing Knight is much better used as an anvil than a hammer.

The Mounted Battlesmith (on Ibex)

Knightly Challenge

Knightly Challenge reduces an Engaged enemy's armour by 1 for as long as they remain Engaged by the Knight. While it costs 1 AD, this is a great support ability in a fight for a few reasons. First, if you're expecting a fight to take longer than a single round to resolve, this is potentially a single AD investment for multiple turns of value. Second, there aren't many abilities that reduce armour, and this can be an unexpected hindrance to an opponent's resilient targets. Third, this penalty doesn't only apply to the Knight's attacks: ALL attackers will find the challenged character easier to crack open. Last that I can think of, it forces decision-making from the enemy: stay and fight with a dangerous liability, or risk one or more AD to disengage? I hadn't considered this ability much before this write-up, but I really like it now!

My top choice for Knightly Challenge is the Gnome Battlesmith, for the simple reason that both of his attacks have Range 1. This means that he can engage an enemy without being engaged by them in turn, further muddying the waters of enemy decision-making: unless they also have a way to fight the Battlesmith at arm's length (via a Range 1 melee attack, spell, or other ability), they now have the awkward restriction that moving that half inch to engage the Battlesmith will consume an AD, but won't count as a charge. Normally when a character charges, they gain a bonus AD to attack, which essentially allows them to “refund” an AD they spent moving. This ability to lock down an enemy so effectively is not to be underestimated.

Second place here goes to the Mounted Battlesmith, who also enjoys two Range 1 attacks, and can also leverage his mount's added mobility to chase down high-value targets to challenge. Giving up Sword Master does mean leaning much more heavily into a supporting role for the Mounted Battlesmith, and I don't think there are many support Tactics that complement his skillset better.

My third choice here is the Thoranic Guard, both because of her two Tactic slots (making each individual Tactic less limiting) and because she can make excellent use of the armour penalty without losing out much on the AD cost of Knightly Challenge. Her Thoranic Blade attack is pretty exceptional: with a difficulty of 3, a +4 damage modifier (which is quite high!), and the ability to execute it twice, she can devote an AD to challenging and still reliably get one or both potential hits in, her already high damage becoming even more punishing as a result. While this would take three of her four AD, the added mobility from her Hold the Line ability (which allows her to move 3” towards an ally when they use a Dodge token) can reduce the need for investing into Move actions. 

The Gnome Battlesmith

Honor Guard

Among the newest Knight Tactics available, Honor Guard came out alongside the Thoranic Guard. It allows the Knight to act as a “bodyguard” for a friendly character, with the potential (on a d6 roll of 3+) to absorb incoming attacks while their charge is within 3”. This is a very interesting ability to me, as it adds more utility to the Knight's quintessentially generous armour, and can synergize well with several other Tactics and abilities. Honor Guard commits the Knight to a more supporting, defensive role, and I think it would go well alongside high-value, low-armour allies such as Witches and Wizards, who are typically glass cannons. It's worth noting that this is a Passive ability rather than a Special ability, which means it can trigger multiple times per activation as opposed to only absorbing one incoming attack.

My top choice is the Thoranic Guard, who again has a couple of abilities that I feel synergize very well with Honor Guard. At a baseline, she's plenty durable with armour 2 and a generous health pool of 5 boxes (the same as most Knights). Her two special abilities, Staunch Defender and Hold the Line, both lean into the same style of play that Honor Guard encourages and help her stay close to her charge. I mentioned Hold the Line above, and the mobility it adds means that it isn't a huge deal if she's separated from her charge, so long as they have some Dodge tokens to burn. On a side note I love the visual of this dwarf samurai speeding across the battlefield as the character she's protecting desperately dodges blows! Staunch Defender allows allies within 3” to spend the Thoranic Guard's Dodge tokens, which I see as a reactive ability akin to the Warden of Justice's Guardian ability (see below): when the Honor Guard fails, this is the failsafe that keeps the protected character from biting it. Finally, as I've touched on a couple of times already, I love the flexibility that the Thoranic Guard's two Tactic slots allow, and could see a great synergy between Honor Guard and Riposte provided she's in the same combat as the character she's protecting!

My second choice for Honor Guard is the Warden of Justice, from the Advocate side. The Warden already has a similar ability, Guardian, which allows him to take up to 3 damage that would hit an ally within 3”, but I don't think this makes Honor Guard obsolete: Guardian is a reactive ability, shifting damage after the fact, but Honor Guard is proactive and can redirect the attack as a whole. This means that while Guardian deals guaranteed damage to the Warden, Honor Guard might result in the attack bouncing harmlessly off his decent 2 armour, particularly with a Dodge token in the mix. Guardian can also act as a failsafe if the attack does connect, granting the protected character an extra layer of defense, and the Warden's Inner Peace ability offers a reliable way to restore 3 health at a time to himself, easily tanking him back up for the next hit.

The two characters above really knock it out of the park as far as Honor Guard is concerned, but I'll give a joint third place to the Questing Knight and Shark Warrior. While I feel their Tactic slot is better spent elsewhere, their 3 armour does make them excellent damage sponges! Just make sure you've got a healer or some equipment on hand to patch them up.

The Thoranic Guard (L) and Lotus Bladesong (R), awaiting paint

Legendary Mystique

This is the second of the new Storms of Kural Knight Tactics, and the final card I'll be looking at today. It's worth noting that Legendary Mystique isn't limited to Knights, but can be taken by Fighters and Barbarians as well! This means I'll be looking at it a couple more times in those contexts down the line. Legendary Mystique lets the Knight automatically succeed their first recovery roll (normally requiring a 6 on a d6) and recover 2 health instead of the normal 1. Recovery rolls are normally nail-biting affairs, especially for a high-value character like a Knight, and the more they're failed (rolling a 6 isn't easy!) the more the Knight is left vulnerable, as well as the rest of your warband by extension without their solid armour and combat prowess. On top of this, recovering a single health box means anything stronger than a fart can easily down a character a second time, but two health boxes is a much more comforting amount, especially once you factor in high armour and Dodge tokens!

My top choice here is the Warden of Justice, entirely because of his Inner Peace ability. Combining the two, the Warden can go from down and out to fully healed in a single activation, forcing your opponent to take him down all over again! Combine this with a utility spell or gear to boost his armour (more on that sometime later) and you could end up with a seriously resilient tank on your hands.

My second choice here is a tie between the Gnome Battlesmith, Mounted Battlesmith, and Lotus Bladesong. What ties these three together is their fragility, as the Knights with the lowest health at four boxes each. Being at increased risk of getting put down is a good enough justification in itself, but once you factor in the fact that their critical health box is their second-last one, the ability shines even more. A character with damaged critical health boxes starts their activation with 1 fewer AD per box, and any other Knight will start with a damaged critical health box even with the 2 box recovery. These three, however, will recover their critical box and be in full fighting form, making them just as deadly as they were before they fell!

I don't have a particular third choice here: the improved recovery is pretty ubiquitous for Knights as frontline, powerful characters you want to keep in the fight. I might lean more towards it for the Shark Warrior and Thoranic Guard than the Questing Knight, simply because they can deal damage very efficiently even with a missing AD (the Shark has Dual Strike, and the Guard hits on 3s with a +4 damage modifier on her Thoranic Blade). 

The Warden of Justice

Wrap-up

That concludes part 1 of what I'm anticipating being an extended series, especially given how much more I could say about these few cards than I expected! From this analysis, I'm taking away a couple of things: first, Knights have some very potent Tactics available to them, and each one can drastically shift the character's playstyle; and second, while you're spoiled for choice with six Tactics, most Knights can only bring a single one to battle, so choose wisely! I've also developed a strong affinity for the Thoranic Guard. I didn't know very much about the character before writing this, but I think she's one of my new favourites for how well-rounded she is! 

As usual if you have any impressions, insights, or points of contention, feel free to share them! I do this for fun and I love the discussion. Not sure when the next part will come along, but judging by length I plan to focus on Fighter and Barbarian Tactics next. Hope you can check it out!