My Terrifying issue

[Funinyourgame]

So, i've been playing a few games agaisn't my friend and I noticed something with the "Terrifying (X)" ability. Why is it not limited to "Once per activation"?
Don't get me wrong, I know there is Ruthless, I know there is some form of prevention, but it makes it feel like "To make it fair, use an ability that ignores it completly".

My problem with it, is how frustrating it is to play agaisn't. even on average WP stats (5), you'll need 6+ simply to attempt you action, even if you get it, you still need to succeed for you other action.
Many similar abilities, like Manipulative, Protection (X) have some sort of limitations, either once per activation, requires a sort of payment (Cards or Token) or simply gives you a -Flip. All are very usefull defenses, but no way near the level of defense Terrifying gives, for free.

I might be bias, I always hated Hard CC (I hate Blue/White control decks with a burning passion), but I do believe some mild limitation might help the ability feel less frustrating to play agaisn't.

Simply adding "Once Per activation" would be perfect IMO. You get a nice flip on your first action? Great for you, Terrifying is off for the rest of the Activation. You are unlucky and don't have a good hand? Well, you lost 1 action, but at least you don't need to worry about it for now.

P.S.: I never seen Ruthless being as impactfull versus Manipulative, so I'm deducing it was mostly to counter Terrifying.

[Adran]

One thing to think on, terrifying only works if you attack them. If you don't think you have the cards to force the attack through,  consider if there is a better option.  Even think about focus then attack so you only need to pass the test once, and probably then are less likely to need to cheat the attack   

Last edition you only took 1 terrifying test against a model per turn, but if you failed it you could not attack it at all. So this is a less extreme defence than it used to be. ( and in the edition before that, failing the test made you run away entirely, costing you at least an action to get back, the rest of that activation and possibly even costing you your model  entirely if you ran off the table. 

 

So to you it might be very frustrating  ( and I assume your main opponent is playing a keyword with lots of terrifying) but I wouldn't call it hard control, it's just resource draining. Without you spending any resources you will pass around 60% of the tests, possibly more if you pick your crew to get around the problem and have high wp (or ruthless). The terrifying crew generally has no control over how many and which tests you fail. 

 

Edit- I would suggest trying playing with a few terrifying models and then you'll see how unreliable it is as a defence. 

[Alcathous]

What crew is your opponent playing?

Terrifying is extremely good... right up until it isn't. It's either the most busted defensive tech in the game, or it does literally nothing for you.

As someone who plays several crews that rely on it (Nightmare, Woe), if I rely on Terrifying to keep my models alive then I'm gonna have a rough time if my opponent has some variance swing their way or if they manage their cards well. What I'm usually looking at is how many good cards they flip on their terrifying duels and how many cards they cheat to pass terrifying. If they cheat to pass terrifying, I'm going to do everything in my power to make them miss or cheat to hit.

It may be helpful to think about it as resource drain, and only spend actions into Terrifying if you know you can afford to cheat enough times to guarantee hits and kills. Sometimes the right play is just to YOLO some swings and hope for the best (never into Nightmare FWIW). Terrifying puts a lot of resource pressure on the opponent, but it's definitely not a silver bullet defense. 

Some rules of thumb for playing into terrifying:

• Don't cheat the terrifying duel if you can't cheat the attack flip too
• It's OK to throw actions at terrifying without cheating, but don't make a plan around your attack succeeding
  • UNLESS, failing the terrifying duel puts you in a worse position (looking at you Dreamer)
• If you know its coming, a single ruthless model goes a long way
  • Woe, Nightmare, Tormented, Honeypot, are places you know for sure you'll see some terrifying.

[Ozzac]

Terrifying is good, but not the kind of impenetrable defense you seem to make of it. At most it's annoying if the opponent has lots of models with that ability and the schemes are geared towards killing people.

Ruthless is a good counter, and most hitters have at least 5 wp, so you only need a 6+ to pass, not really hard.

Hard to kill on the other hand is evil.