Gold is a premium in this game and some rooms can double their gold haul if you let the Thief do all the hard lifting. Her native power can get obscene if the hero team is paying attention and engineers it well: Elani gets a bonus 1 Gold for every monster she personally kills. She is the ultimate positional piece: Since so much can rely on lining up good shots and working as a team, she can use two shots to get her allies into prime position at the beginning of a Hero turn. The cunning player will see it differently however. This sequence maintains it’s “poor flicker” handicap as its a chance to flee back to safety after a poor shot. This new edition simplifies her powers a bit by making her standard shot sequence Melee > Rush, which allows her to jump out and flee or push other characters in/out of position. I still see her overlooked a little bit as “weak” hero but she can be critical to the team and with her Promo card (more on that below), she easily becomes the MVP of the Base set heroes. She still sports 10 Life so will be doing her fair share of the rough and tumble. Like the Barbarian, Elani the Thief changed very little from previous versions. Since she only has a Rush (move) shot, she can also be used to push your heroes into better positions to set up new shots. Since the familiar is immune to missile shots, it will force enemies to close in and take her out, leaving you room to pounce with your other forces. The Spirit Familiar is interesting in that she can act like your shield while you hide behind and shoot arrows behind. Missiles are also handy against turtling monsters that have missile shots of their own or an alternative to melee-ing into a group of monsters to take out a key target. Placing a missile disc 1 inch from your character gives you a lot of freedom and can open up attack options that other characters would need an extra turn to set up for. Being able to move into a hidden position behind another hero (like Xoric) or an obstacle is key here so that you can fire your missiles while not being a target yourself. These Eleven Arrow abilities have been beefed up from the original version in they now allow you to Rush (move) and then take a shot with the arrow disc. Oleira gains a bit of a boost in this new edition in that she starts with the Spirit Familiar item and 2 Elven Arrow abilities. Weighing in at a weak 8 life, Oleira the Elf is quite the opposite of the Barbarian but has a similar, straight forward approach. You’ll want to make this item count so try not to use it to set up shots but rather, have another hero bump you into position so that even your first melee shot is useful. The biggest change from the original edition is using this item no longer stuns the Barbarian. Of course, if the heroes are all about to lose, there is no glory for losing and having Rage actions left at the end of the game. You only get two Battle Axe items in a game so you have to conserve them for only the most necessary times. This is a good room clearing item when faced with multiple weak enemies. These items are almost a one-for-one replacement of the original editions Rage ability: a 4 chained Melee shot that cannot damage the same target twice. What makes the Barbarian unique is he comes equipped with two Berserker Battle Axe items. This doesn’t mean he is invincible and you can watch that health advantage deteriorate pretty fast if you leave him exposed too often. Not much has changed with him and he is still your all-around beat stick and can withstand jumping into the fray and taking a few hits. Similar to the original version, Xoric the Barbarian is the beefiest of the Base set heroes. To see all of my strategy articles for Catacombs 3rd edition, check out my Geeklist. Pitting similarly tiered entries against each other will lead to the most enjoyable games whereas trying the opposite will yield very lopsided results, especially if there is a skill discrepancy between the players. While a tiered system obviously ranks the characters against themselves, it is not to mean that “top tier” entries are broken or “lower tier” entries are unusable, but rather, they should be used as a guide to help balance the setup of the game. Like I’ve used in my other rankings, I have four tiers: Top Tier, Upper Tier, Standard Tier, Lower Tier. Like I did with my Monster Primer, I decided to add a “power ranking” list to help players decide at a glance which Hero to use in their game. I’ll work on a primer for the Catacomb Lords as well but first, the Heroes of Catacombs. With the new Third Edition of Catacombs out, I thought I’d make a revised primer for the Heroes (new and old) for those looking for an overview or some initial concepts/strategies that are now in this new addition.
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