Seeing the Potential

I'm going to admit it, I've done next to nothing Warmachine/Hordes related this week - except listen to two episodes of Chain-attack. I really like this podcast because even when I am not interested in the casters being discussed I know they'll rip I to each other enough to be entertaining.

The episodes got me thinking. First, Grim2 looks exceptionally fun to play - all of which makes my next faction more likely to be Trolls than Skorne. Dygmies, in particular, look pretty brutal with him. Nothing is fun about effective RAT 8 POW 16 shots from 10 guys who are dirt cheap and difficult to stop doing their thing. Take this with a grain of salt since I have zero experience with trolls.

The second thing I thought about was Morvahna2. When I read her rules I wasn't super impressed. I thought she looked good but hardly in the top 3-4 of Circle. Well, the community tends to disagree with people calling her top 5 in the game. So, who is right?

Probably everyone else to be honest. Listening to the podcast helped me understand it a bit better. I think she will be dominating for a month or two more then people will figure out the best way to beat her. I don't think she is as good as Haley2, Denny1, Gaspy2 or Harbinger. These guys are monsters and, frankly, can do some stuff that Morvahna can't even dream of. That said, re-rolls for no fury cost are pretty awesome.

Morvahna2 is one of those casters that I just couldn't see the potential myself with. I can see it with most casters but I just couldn't put it all together without seeing it at work. I'm guessing this happens with everyone to an extent. Sometimes, you just don't see it. The mathematical analogy was that I was basically adding her parts together instead of taking the product of the. Big difference! Like Pete Sampras, she is an excellent front runner so I expect her to seal club with impunity. I also think that as people figure her out she will find it harder to actually get to the front in games. She has some real good tools to establish ascendency (re-rolls, Fog of War to limit damage on the approach and purification) but I don't really see these as necessarily enough. To me, I think if she feats to get back into the game she just stalls losing for one more round. If she feats to get the ascendency then there is a good chance it will be back to level pegging by her next turn. However, if she feats while ahead then you are in all sorts of trouble.

I guess time will tell but I think now that I understand her a bit I can also understand her limits. Or maybe I'll be wrong - plenty better players think she will be top 5 for a long time.