Tactical Assault Games » Tips & Tricks… Clearing Your Hand

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ROLE PLAYING AID

It has been brought to our attention that both the Combat Cards & the Fantasy Cards can serve as useful aids in running role-playing campaigns - especially to resolve combats that do not directly involve the player characters, but may still have an important bearing on the campaign.

Who hasn't played in a role playing campaign where the heroes set out on a mission or quest along with a company of the king's guard or a platoon of colonial marines escorting them?

The extra troops are not there do the heroes' work for them, but rather to support the heroes in some important role - such as keeping the escape route open from marauding orcs while the heroes explore, or by holding the alien monstrosities at bay while the heroes search a wreck site.

Unfortunately, playing out a side battle that doesn't involve the heroes, at the level of detail that most role playing games do, may prove impractical and tedious - and result in too much precious game time being taken away from the action involving the characters.

Yet the success of these troops and their mission is important to the story line and will eventually affect the heroes, so some attention should be given to their struggle and its outcome.

That is where the Combat Cards & Fantasy Cards can really be a life saver. With the simplicity of generic unit types, the speed of play, and the ease of teaching the rules to newbies, they can be an efficient and effective way to resolve those important side battles - without taking too much time away from the main adventure.

The narrative nature of the Cards also allow game masters flexibility in determining how important aspect of the battle will mesh with the role playing action as well with the role playing system being used.

(Some examples being: How many rounds went by before that alien nasty broke through the marines' lines and went for the heroes? Has an Eliminated unit truly lost all of its "damage points" or is just unconscious and clinging to life?).

Combine the core games with the appropriate expansion sets, and the feel and flavor of just about any role playing system can be emulated on the Combat Cards or Fantasy Cards battlefield.

So the next time your heroes are about to set out with an escort in tow, give some thought to how the Combat Cards or the Fantasy Cards just might prove to be a real help to you the beleaguered game master...

Tips & Tricks… Clearing Your Hand

Sometimes during a battle players may find themselves stuck with a few cards in their hand that they really can’t use. It might be because they don’t have a particular unit in their force that could use the card, or it might be due to the fact that the unit that can use the card is currently Shaken or Out of Action on the battlefield.

Either way, it becomes necessary to get the useless cards out of your hand and reload with some cards you can use right now. Below are a few tips and tricks for being able to effectively clear out your hand without sacrificing too much of the initiative to your opponent.

Two key things to remember from the rules about discarding cards from your hand: 1) you cannot play and discard cards on the same turn, you can only do one or the other on your turn; and 2) you do not have to discard your entire hand – you may select any number of cards to discard up to, and including, your whole hand.

Given these parameters, the secret to effectively clearing your hand is knowing when the best time is to sacrifice a turn to get rid of some cards. While every player has their favorite moments to ditch cards, veteran players have identified some of the most advantageous:

When the opponent’s force has numerous units that are Confused, Shaken or Out of Action. This usually means they will be desperately trying to accumulate the cards needed to recover, and they won’t be very focused on attacking your units. This gives you a great window for changing out your cards.

After your opponent forgoes their turn to discard some of their cards. You are not subject to any offensive action from your opponent that turn, so it is a good time to get a fresh hand and formulate some new strategies.

After your opponent makes several attacks that are unsuccessful. It will take a little time for your opponent to reload on attacking cards, and since you aren’t forced to recover your own units, it is a great time to ditch the cards you can’t use for some new ones.

When your opponent is playing defensively. If your opponent has started to pull back some of their units; when they seem to be forgoing attacks in lieu of getting into position; when they are bringing up units from the rear – these can all be signs that your opponent is preparing for your attack. And why wouldn’t they? If your hand is clogged with unusable cards you probably haven’t been playing many cards, giving the impression you are carefully hoarding cards for the “perfect” attack hand. That is a great time to surprise them instead with a turn of discarding to clear out your hand.

There are of course many other opportune times to get rid of unwanted cards from your hand during a battle, and every player will have to find the best times to do so given the scenario, forces involved and so on. They key is to get it done as often as necessary, and with as little adverse effect on your own forces as possible.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 9:37 am and is filed under Tips & Tricks....

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Creative Ideas

Tips & Tricks… Clearing Your Hand

Combat Cards: Free Downloads

Combat Cards: Articles