Welcome to another community challenge. This time the Black Knight. While not yet released, he can be easily played with a proxy model thanks to the released SDE:Legends PDFs. In this challenge, the idea is to use the Black Knight's AMBUSH ability to bypass the front lines and strike directly at the spawn points, potentially stifling the Dark Consul's advance and giving the Heroes a massive leg up in slaying the Dungeon Boss.
I can't remember if Discord member Odinsgrandson, or Kiko Kempt or came up with the original play, but Odinsgrandson has branded it "The Black Knight Gambit."
SDE Classic and Arcade 2.0 allow you to chose any new Hero when re-entering play with a Princess Coin, albeit at the expense of any equipped loot the defeated Hero may had equipped. This is an important part of the play.
AMBUSH allows the Black Knight to be spawned on any open square when brought into play using a Princess Coin.
The play is as follows: a single Hero is rushed up, likely creating enough ruckus to get the Dark Consul's attention, and placed in a vulnerable spot. --> The poor hapless Hero is counter attacked by minions and (ideally) defeated early. --> Upon return, the sacrificial Hero is exchanged for the Black Knight, who spawns on the third tile right in beat-down range of the spawn point.
Further, I would recommend bringing the Deeproot Scout for his Sprite Syrup potion (+1AP), or something similar. Against a three wound spawn point, this will be extra insurance in case an attack whiffs. In the case of a four wound spawn point, it'll give you the extra action to destroy the spawn point in one activation. The extra dice granted by Black Knight's 'YOU'RE ALONE' ability should help mitigate whiffs, but dice will be dice.
This all sounds good, but I would like to playtest it and see what holes I can poke in this play. I invite you all to do the same. I foresee a number of things going wrong.
-A single dice whiff can throw a monkey wrench in this plan and possibly leave Black Knight open for counter attack when the Consul Spawns monsters on the Spawn Point he failed to destroy. I guess that is why we are calling this a 'gambit'.
-Paying a single Princess Coin on the front end, just to trigger this play puts the Dark Consul one step closer to victory. The argument is that losing a Princess Coin would be worth it for the toll exacted against the Dark Consul. But is it if the Consul can get an easy second coin from an expose Black Knight?
If the Dark Consul is wise to this play, will they place their 4 wound spawn points on the second and third tile, just to throw the gambit off? As mentioned above, bringing the Deeproot Scout could offset this, though it leaves no room for a whiffed attack and adds requirements to the play. Furthermore, a wise Consul could target the Deeproot Scout first, forcing the Heroes to choose between bringing the Scout back and delaying the play, or bringing the Black Knight back and committing to the gambit without the Sprite Syrup potion. Maybe you can survive the counter attack after all?
These are just a few theories. But without play-testing, they are just theories. I'd like to hear how this plays out for you. If you were the Dark Consul, how would you counter The Black Knight Gambit? If you bring your ideas to the table, I'd love to hear how it plays out. I will be taking this for a spin myself. Probably over two or more games, playing both sides so I can really stress test it.
I'll update this after each testing session of my own, along with any submitted battle reports from the community. Looking forward to your input.
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UPDATE 28 August 2019
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Last kni... coughcough night was the first official playtest of The Black Knight Gambit for my playgroup and wow... it was effective, but not for the reasons we predicted above. It seems the threat of having a Hero poised to take out the third spawn point by turn four was more valuable than actually taking out said spawn point. Read on and see why.
True to the playbook, one Hero must take one for the team and with only 2 Blue ARM as a base stat, the Rainbow Dragoon was a perfect candidate to make that heroic sacrifice. He lasted surprisingly longer than expected though, thanks to the luck of the dice.
Four turns in the brave Dragoon falls, only to be replaced by a more sinister Hero. With the Black Knight dug in on tile three and the rest of the Heroes approaching the second tile, both remaining spawn points are simultaneously threatened. Getting that third treasure chest didn't hurt either.
Between the Princess Coin, Wizard Ring and Sturdy Cloak, the Black Knight had a guaranteed +3 to every armor roll. Suffice it to say he had no problem staying alive.
Additionally his 'You're Alone' ability, combined with 2 red STR and the Dwarven Axe was more than sufficient to make him a viable threat.
The extra action provided by the Fizzy Beverage was just frosting on the cake at this point.
Ultimately, the Dark Consul was fighting a battle on two fronts. A dilemma was created and the Dark Consul struggled to come up with a solution. Focus on the main group and abandon tile 3? Commit to tile 3 and let the main Hero group advance with impunity? In the end the Monsters were divided into two separate small forces that the Heroes were able to easily manage.
This also had a great side effect of helping the Heroes accrue loot at a swift rate, solely by virtue of how fast the monsters were falling. By the time the Dungeon Boss showed up, the Heroes were all blinged out, with the Moonspire Guardian sweeping in for the finishing strike.
After the first playtest, I am a believer in this play. I don't think it's outright broken but (played correctly) it forces the Dark Consul player to make some hard decisions. I will likely try it out again in the future to try and poke holes in it (and hopefully you guys do the same and send me your feedback) but for now I'm calling The Black Knight Gambit a solid tactic.
We first started talking about this when we were discussing mobility options to get around the labyrinthine dungeon you created. Either I came up with it first, or we both came up with it independently from one another. I first brought up the Black Knight (although I did misunderstand his ability- since I didn't realize that heroes don't Spawn when they're first placed in the dungeon). Spending a Princess Coin in order to invade the undefended third tile is a risky move, and I suspect will lead to an interesting game whether it goes well or not. - One thing I'd like to point out is that it is best if you can set up the sacrificial hero in a very good spo…