Did terrifying get a lot better?

[Ludvig]

I only have a few games in m3e but so far terrifying is killing me.

Under the old rules the black joker would waste a lot of your ap if you were unlucky but unless that happened you only cheated once and took that model out with a plethora of attacks from the same one or two models. These days I find I'm losing a ton of attacks from failing stupidly low terrifying tests. An example would be Francisco trying to kill Chompalomps in my last game. Franc has flurry and a trigger for more attacks and I spent a few ap from other models obeying him but my hand was depleted super early since I had to cheat terrifying duels for both him and Perdita on every attack I made apart from already wanting to discard for more actions and wanting to cheat for triggers. I think I ended up failing three or four terrifying tests in a single turn when under the old rules most of those attacks would have been declared without terrifying tests.

How am I supposed to adapt to this change (apart from picking ruthless models) and have others noted similar effects of the new terror rules?

[Maniacal_cackle]

I play the Dreamer, and so my crew makes extensive use of terrifying. Here's some tips!

First, how does terrifying work (in a strategic sense)? It bleeds you of resources. It doesn't outright stop attacks, but as you're noting in your post, it hits your resources pretty hard to have to pour lots of cheated cards into terrifying.

The single biggest tip then is: make each attack count. Rather than hit your opponent repeatedly for 2-3 damage, you're really wanting to get in a few solid whacks of 4-6 damage. Focus is really useful here, as it means you're getting a lot more bang for each cheated flip. Similarly, don't try to use loads of attacks spread over several models. Hit them hard with your main attacker.

High willpower makes a massive difference as well. A four willpower is going to fail 33% more often than a six willpower against a terrifying (11). Every point of willpower makes a big difference.

I see a lot of people make a mistake in games generally: making attacks they don't need to be making. This mistake is even more obvious when terrifying is involved. Don't announce the attack if you have better things to do with your time, and be judicious with your resources so you can make your attacks count.

[Scoffer]

Terrifying is much stronger now as a defencive ability, but thank Wyrd it's not offencive any more. 

Apart from picking ruthless models (which I think is a perfect decision) you can use non-targeting damage sources: blasts, pulses, shockwaves, hazardous auras etc.

[Ludvig]

@Maniacal_cackle it was reckoning so I had to take down Chompy and a Teddy before they snacked through my entire crew while also weathering a few stitched togethers. It was mostly Perdita and Francisco who were making horror tests since my go to with terror from m2e would be to have a single model pass the test and churn out attacks. Being the Ortegas meant pretty much every attack had focus but the damn terror duel isn't affected by that and between hard to wound, summoned alps and bleeding cards I had trouble getting decent damage in.

[Jesy Blue]

Compared to being Paralysed, it's a whole lot better for people who are against it.

As Guild, your Faction has the second most Ruthless models at 6.... yes, zero of them are in Family (which is weird considering you're the Neverborn hunting keyword). 

 

[Scoffer]

2 minutes ago, Jesy Blue said:

Compared to being Paralysed, it's a whole lot better for people who are against it.

As Guild, your Faction has the second most Ruthless models at 6.... yes, zero of them are in Family (which is weird considering you're the Neverborn hunting keyword). 

 

Guild has Pale Rider and The Lone Marshal - both are incredibly good in killing things.

[Maniacal_cackle]

6 hours ago, Ludvig said:

@Maniacal_cackle it was reckoning so I had to take down Chompy and a Teddy before they snacked through my entire crew while also weathering a few stitched togethers. It was mostly Perdita and Francisco who were making horror tests since my go to with terror from m2e would be to have a single model pass the test and churn out attacks. Being the Ortegas meant pretty much every attack had focus but the damn terror duel isn't affected by that and between hard to wound, summoned alps and bleeding cards I had trouble getting decent damage in.

Hard to wound? Lord Chompy and teddy don't have hard to wound. I'm struggling to think of anyone in keyword that does have it.

[Maniacal_cackle]

Also, re alps. They are squishy and likely worth killing first.

But overall, Chompy is a glass cannon once you get past terrifying. Two hits of four and he is dead, which should be doable once you deal with the minus flips (focus and kill alps).

Don't get me wrong. It is a brutal crew. But I think you'll get there.

[Ludvig]

52 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

Also, re alps. They are squishy and likely worth killing first.

But overall, Chompy is a glass cannon once you get past terrifying. Two hits of four and he is dead, which should be doable once you deal with the minus flips (focus and kill alps).

Don't get me wrong. It is a brutal crew. But I think you'll get there.

Yeah, it was probably the alp or hard cover that gave me the minus. I kind of left the alp because I was feeling swamped and I tried going for a kill shot with zero cards in hand which healed chompy but then I forgot it and did it again. 😅

@Scoffer I have the marshal so I could try that once I paint him. 

 

[Kharnage]

56 minutes ago, Maniacal_cackle said:

But overall, Chompy is a glass cannon once you get past terrifying. Two hits of four and he is dead, which should be doable once you deal with the minus flips (focus and kill alps).

I mean, assuming the Dreamer player uses no stones for some reason, sure. Not that Chompy isn't squishy, but it's not as simple as all that.

[Maniacal_cackle]

@Kharnage true, forgot about that! But generally, the Dreamer is very resource intensive. If you're making him use stones to survive, you're pressuring him pretty well.

@Ludvig, ouch! Yeah, once you run out of cards, terrifying is brutal. Another angle to explore is that other than Lord Chompy Bits, they struggle with scheme denial. If you're running low on hand power, pressuring over capturing schemes is useful. Harder on Reckoning, I know.

Hang in there. It'll take a bit, but you'll get the hang of it. My opponents are also coming to grips with hand efficiency against Terrifying, and they're rapidly learning to play around it.

 

[Ludvig]

It mostly disrupted my game plan a bit making me lose by a single point when terrifying used to be so easy to handle (especially with Perdita making everyone wp 8 and ignoring all duels herself in m2e). I have trouble adapting to all the changes and reading the power of the revised abilities. 

With my limited model selection I had crap schemers and had intended to clear out his big threats and win the Strat but I ended up almost tabled despite him allocating 20ss to just scheme run around the edges while I went full power bubble in the center. I thought I would be able to handle half a crew at least. 😅

[Ogid]

Apart for the good advices they gave you about how to handle Terrifying, consider the board layout. That influence a lot the power of ranged crews; if the Dreamer's crew had Cover all the fight it isn't surprising you struggled to deal with them. Cover bounuses are HUGE, that  to damage will make you deal min damage in most cases and the +1 to Df is noticeable, even with Focused.

Papa Loco "Blow it to Hell" can deny cover; take advantage of that when fighting into entrenched positions.