I had two options for this review of the Knights of Falladir starter set for Diskwars.
1) review the diskwars game as a whole.
2) Review the Knights of Falladir, as opposed to the other armies.
I chose the second option. If you want a general review of diskwars, you can check here and here.
The starter set comes with 8 "flats" of disks, seven of which contain units for your army. 4 of the flats are fixed, so you will always get basic units of the right army. 3 of the flats are random, and can contain anything. The Knights of Falladir set gives you general foot infantry and archers, as well as 1 heavy cavalry and 1 unit of pikemen. You also will get a scout and a falconer. Everything else is basically random.
The Knights of Falladir are, for the most part, your proto-typical medieval European force, with knights, archers, pikemen, and general foot infantry. Their special characters also seem fairly average and generic, with improved warriors and some magic users. Nothing really special, though, that I could see. You should remember that Diskwars is a collectible game, however, and you don’t get all the knight disks in your starter pack, so there could be some great disks that I’ve just never seen. (full disclosure: 1 have 2 Knights of Falladir sets; 1 from RPG.net, and 1 I bought)
For the sake of comparisons, let’s compare some standard knight units against standard units from other armies:
General foot grunts:
Knights: Men-At-Arms / move 3 / attack 3 / defense 3 / toughness 2 / cost 4
Acolyte: Men of the Sword / move 3 / attack 3 / defense 3 / toughness 3 / cost 4
Dwarves: Regiment of the Anvil / move 3 / attack 3 / toughness 4 / cost 3
Uthuk: Warriors of Yllan / move 3 / attack 4 / defense 2 / toughness 3 / cost 5
All told, the knights unit is tied for last in what you get for the points you spend, while the dwarves have the best unit for the price of those listed here. Let’s try something else…
Missile troops:
Knights: Royal Bowmen / move 3 / attack 2 / defense 2 / toughness 2 / cost 5 / shoots 3 arrow counters
Acolyte: Sunderland Archers / move 3 / attack 2 / defense 2 / toughness 2 / cost 5 / shoots 3 arrow counters
Dwarves: Crossbows of Tuggarth / move 3 / attack 2 / defense 2 / toughness 4 / cost 6 / shoots 2 bolt counters
Uthuk: Don’ra Stingers / move 3 / attack 2 / defense 2 / toughness 2 / cost 5 / shoots 3 arrow counters
Comparing attributes, things come out pretty even here. The only difference is with the dwarves. Some armies have a “tougher” foot unit for primarily defensive strategies. Let’s compare those…
Defensive troops:
Knights: Pikemen / move 2 (larger disk, though) / attack 1 / defense 6 / toughness 5 / cost 6
Acolyte: Dervishes / move 4 / attack 3 / defense 4 / toughness 4 / cost 7 / can’t be attacked by fast-moving disks
Dwarves: Stalwarts / move 3 / attack 2 / defense 6 / toughness 6 / cost 7 / wounds 2
Uthuk: [couldn’t find a unit of this type for comparison]
The knights have a good defensive unit, though not as good attribute-wise as the dwarves. The pikemen disk is bigger, though, so it’s harder to get past it. Lastly, we come to cavalry. Only 2 of my 4 comparison armies have cavalry, so this isn’t as useful as I would have liked…
Cavalry:
Knights: Heavy Horse Cavalry / move 5 (larger disk) / attack 6 / defense 3 / toughness 4 / cost 8
Acolyte: Carpet Riders / move 6 (larger disk) / attack 5 / defense 2 / toughness 5 / cost 9 / flying
The heavy cavalry measures up well to the carpet riders, so they seem pretty even.
Comparing special characters is kind of pointless, as they range all over the map in fighting skill and special abilities. Also, each army contains special units, and the knights are no exception. They have falconers and scouts, who are individually weak, but can take away actions from enemy disks or help archers to hit targets, respectively. These disks seem roughly balanced with other special units from other armies, if maybe a littler less useful in practice, by what I have seen.
But the proof is in the playing. My games with the knights have been mostly bad. Their men-at-arms unit is the worst in the game, in my opinion. This puts undue emphasis on your cavalry and archers if going on the offense, and archers and pikemen of playing defensively. Or your special characters, if you get some good ones. I have been unable to find a good strategy for this army, though my special ability to never find effective special characters may have something to do with that. I must say, though, that the speed of the cavalry units can be effective if you need to get control of a land disk in a hurry. I won a game that way, once; the opposing army was too slow. That will likely only work once, though.
Bottom line, I can’t recommend the knights as a starting army if you want to just buy a diskwars pack and get playing. It doesn’t seem properly balanced with other armies. If you’re willing to invest a lot, you will likely find the special characters you need to balance out your weaknesses in general troops. If you’re not, try another army. Those dwarves look pretty good…
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)