The Book of Baldar

[KCU Master 2007]

The Book of Baldar
Champion of the Guild Dwarves - Starter Set 1: Guild Dwarves and Cave Goblins

Character Bio: Baldar is the captain of the Defenders. He rose quickly through their ranks, a ferocious warrior, skilled with shield and axe like no other.

Rules Clarifications
- On Baldar's card, his Shield Block says: "If an opponent fails to roll a Hit on every die for that attack, Baldar receives no wounds from the attack."

On Maelena's card, her Burning Blade says: "In addition to any wounds dealt by the attack, add 1 Wound Marker to the card being attacked."

If I am reading her card right, even if she rolls Misses on both her attack dice, the targeted figure still receives one wound. The confusion comes when attack Baldar. If she rolls a Miss, does he still receive a wound from Burning Blade?

Baldar would still recieve the auto wound, the burning blade wound isn't part of the attack, it is in addition to the attack.

- If Baldar is in his area of effect and Gror rolls a hit and a miss does Baldar's shield block activate or not (if he is on your team and if you are fighting Dwarves vs. Dwarves)?

If you are the one hammer quaking and Baldar is in the wake, he takes damage even if you don't roll all hits, which is the case any time you attack a Baldar your control. If he is trapped in the wake of an opponent's AOE he doesn't take any wounds unless the dice are all hits.

Community Contributions
N/A

[esper88]

I played my first free build game the other day, with Baldar under the guidance of Sera. And all I have to say is Wow oh Wow Wow Wow. Move over Kalon, there's a new cheaper you in town.

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but Sera and Baldar perfectly complement one another. It's almost as beautiful as Scagg and Sneeks doing the late game dance.

With walls to siphon attacks, the opponent will either be whittling away at Baldar with low attack units, or running the gambit with a high attack unit. Low attack units can be healed instantly, and at a summon cost of 4 you'll have the magic to spare. With high attackers, odds are they will be wasting attacks. But if Elut-Bal manages to roll a hit on all 4 dice, I say give them the kill and have them scratch a lotto ticket for you.

All in all, he's a must have in a Vanguard free build.

[prometheuslkr]

Aaargghh!! I just played a game against the dwarves(I was the FK) and Baldar was able to kill all 3 of my champions! He didn't kill them all single-handedly(often he was helped by his Defender Corps), but he can really control the board with intimidation. Especially against champs like Elut-Bal.

[Killer Lawnmower]

Oh ya, he definately goes after heroes. You get him against commons though, and he goes down relatively easy, if they have 1-2 attack. Or if your against Elves they can Auto-Wound pretty easily. But heck ya, he rocks against champs.

[prometheuslkr]

I almost see the Dwarves Faction as having one champ for each of the other starting factions:
baldar for the high-attack Orcs,
Thorkur who can block the auto-wounds of Elves,
and Gror to smash the large groups of weak Goblins.

[iglew]

... But if Elut-Bal manages to roll a hit on all 4 dice, I say give them the kill and have them scratch a lotto ticket for you.

I once lost Baldar to a Horde-Attack Blarf rolling FIVE dice. No joke.

It was an endgame and I was using Baldar to hold off a fully-pumped Blarf. My opponent had managed to get two hits on him, and then she played a Horde Attack so that her last common could roll two dice and hope for two of two. Blarf was only there to pump up the Horde Attack, but he rolled first and scored five out of five. We just had to laugh.

(In retrospect, it's not quite as improbable as it seemed. It's 32:243, which works out to 13%.)

[PePe QuiCoSE]

Baldar twice decimated my Orcs when I had nothing but 2 AV or higher against new players. I call it a good introduction to the game

OnT: with all these previews there are new ways to screw this guy and to get screwed by him, nice.

[Sauam]

I very much like Baldar and I find him underrated.

He is so cheap for such strong attacks... his ability even work on common like Smasher which does happen quite often

[Marroking1]

I have had some bad experences with Baldar. Like the time Baldar game through battling Blagog and Ragnor then went to Grognak just to get his head smashed in by 4-attack.

[TheLion]

He can be situational, but I keep him in the deck. At his worst, he can build magic and at his best, he is great against higher attack commons and champions.

With three champions in each deck, it's nice to have options (like prometheuslkr pointed out) against a variety of decks. Not having those options could put you at a disadvantage.

Also, it's why I usually just play the Oldin deck, without changes. It plays well as is, which is to the credit Truth and the playtesters. Players can tweak it for personal preferences, but IMO they aren't improving the deck.