Game sizes

[Magno]

I guess 200pts is the standard game size and official tourney size. This is also the points of all the starters (save Immortals of course). We've only ever played Egares vs Mercs and both games were extremely close.

So I wonder if this initial sense of balance is pretty universal. Do all the starters play balanced against one another?

Do the armies, once you start building non starter lists at 200 pts play pretty well balanced? Are there recipe lists (i.e. a list that you see all the time for a particular army that you will see where ever you go; i.e. Warmachine/Hordes lists).

Does the game maintain its fun, tactics and mechanics at larger point values or do things start to get gummed up at 300, 350, 400 pts?

With Confrontation, we usually always played at 500pts (I prefered 400pts) and folks even played often at 600pts. I felt the game got very slow and gummed up at that point level or you were always playing with the big boys.

[WEiRD sKeTCH]

200 points is the standard and the starter boxes are very competitive.

Tournaments are 200 pts base with a 60 point reserve. What that means is that between matches, you can swap models between your main list and your reserves to make a different list per battle (if you so wish).

Another thing to keep in mind with HD is that it's a scenario based game as opposed to Warmachine's "Kill the Leader" victories.

There were some issues with some 1634 rules interactions that were seen as "broken". Most, if not all, of those issues were fixed with the 1635 update.

As to higher point games, I haven't tried any yet...

[Silveri]

Hell Dorado is indeed a scenario driven game especially in a tournament setting and thus a list that relies on a one-trick-pony tends to fail since the tactical aspect is much stronger than in Confrontation. The game is designed to be played at 200 points and I haven't tried using larger point values so far as 200 points plays fast and well.

If you're at a loss of what to play then the missions scenario would be a good starting point since there's so many things to achieve. If you want something completely different, then play "exchange of souls" (and probably swear never to do that again).

Demon lists tend to include at least one of the greater damned ones and the sloths, but otherwise I haven't seen that many "recipes". Saracens tend to have the lancer, but he's really not that tough since he eats up so damn many CMD points. I even once wielded a shooter saracen list (led by Tarik - where everybody could shoot except for Tarik and his eagle) just for the sake of it being possible and given the fact that it was purely a joke list done in about 2 minutes, it did comparatively well.

There certainly are some common combos, but the main point is that with 200 points you really have to think about what you want to and can wield simultaneously and an übercombo would probably leave your list so vulnerable on one side or unable to control objectives that it wouldn't probably be worth it.

That being said, demons are so cheesy that they should be banned from hell alltogether. Erm... wait a moment...

[Bob]

So I wonder if this initial sense of balance is pretty universal. Do all the starters play balanced against one another?

The westerner starter used to be weaker than the others, but this has been fixed in 1635. The other ones are on par. Maybe Bran is a bit easier to play for beginners.

Do the armies, once you start building non starter lists at 200 pts play pretty well balanced? Are there recipe lists (i.e. a list that you see all the time for a particular army that you will see where ever you go; i.e. Warmachine/Hordes lists).

There are a few stars in each faction, but nothing really mandatory. There is a strong nemesis effect due to the influence of the 3 defensive stats: you need strong damage tables reduce high Hit Points, it's easier to use some automatic damage to bypass Protection and explosions can bypass high DEF. Low DEF also tend to be more vulnerable to tables with special effects, and so on...

The same rules of thumb also apply when you want to protect your own minis. This makes the efficiency of a mini highly dependant on the context and a proper use, hence the importance of getting the Domination to pick up your fights.

Does the game maintain its fun, tactics and mechanics at larger point values or do things start to get gummed up at 300, 350, 400 pts?

I don't think this has been tested, and auras or orders that affect the whole table might get out of control if you increase the game size. Moreover, most scenarios are built to be played on a standard 30" * 30" table, which might be too small for larger companies.