For our first Warden, I’m excited to introduce Eligor Larington, a solid tank-class hero with a wide array of defensive options and a solid foundation to any team composition.

Backstory

"I was raised reading and re-reading the Grand Chronicle in an abbey, by monks who revered the old heroes and legends. I want to have my name on those pages someday."

Abandoned as a child at a remote monastery, Eligor was taken in by the monks there and taught to revere the traditions and histories of the world. He became obsessed with the Grand Chronicle, a record of history spanning thousands of years of lore, and made it his life’s ambition to become a hero whose story would be immortalized in its pages.

When he came of age, Eligor chose the path of a Templar—wandering monk-knights who ride through the countryside and act as judges or the law and teachers of religion. Eligor has sworn service to Ka-Shin, goddess of light, justice, and retribution. As he travels the realm and serves the people of his homeland of Jeffreys, he searches for daring and dangerous exploits, eager to undertake a quest that will earn him a place in the pages of history.

Pros

• Excellent survivability when defending himself and others.
• Wide spread of ranges.
• Can cover most of his teammates from a central position. Artifacts provide improved survival and melee capability to the whole team.

Cons

• Limited opportunities to attack at an advantage without support from allies.
• Few options for dealing with range or combat tricks.
  

Gameplay

Eligor’s ability is perhaps the most straightforward in the game: When he’s declared as the defender of an attack, he gets +2 Power. It’s simple enough on paper, but the actual repercussions are much more nuanced.

This leads us to talk about the first and one of the most interesting points of combat in Wardens: The attacker’s target is not necessarily the defender. When A attacks B, it’s possible to defend by having C attack A. Then, whichever side does the most damage, A or C, inflicts the wound on their target.

With that information, you can imagine how this actually plays out. Wardens who are in range of Eligor’s attacks have to be very wary of attacking any member of your team, because Eligor can turn around and counterattack them with a significant advantage.

Similarly, attacking Eligor within his preferred ranges is very difficult, because when he defends himself his power is often insurmountable.

Team Role

Tanks are heroes who can reliably win combat even when they’re outnumbered or out of position. They are capable of being the front line of your team and making the first move into opposing territory. The limitation of this class is that they usually don’t have a ton of tricks.

They have limited ranges and solid numbers, and those are their best defenses against attacks. Tanks will typically win while they are fighting in their preferred conditions, and lose when they’re out-ranged or fall victim to various combat tricks.

Eligor’s ability allows him to wade into combat first. He can’t survive forever on the front lines—he’ll eventually be out-ranged or out-flanked by opponents, but he can get out in front and reliably cover the rest of the team’s advance. This makes him a great pick for teams of close and mid-range Wardens who need a little time to rush forward and establish their positioning for combat.

Card Preview

Templar’s Retribution

This card is the reason that your opponent should never attack Eligor in melee. A 9-power attack (combined with Eligor’s defense bonus) is a very difficult act to follow.

Surprisingly, this is also Eligor’s best offensive tool in melee. By attacking, Eligor forces the opponent to target him with their response, guaranteeing that this becomes a 7-power attack.
It’s Eligor’s most limited tool for covering allies, and generally shouldn’t be used unless no other options are available.

The artifact on this card, Weapon Grease, is subtle. The attacker wins speed ties by default, so it is only useful when defending. Practically, it improves the defense of your whole team, because your opponent can’t count on going first anymore when they are attacking. It’s best used against brawlers and assassins, whose technical skills often rely on going first to spoil the defender’s retaliation.

Battle Warder

Battle Warder is a solid attack that threatens assassins and other opponents who would try to out-range Eligor. With a fast advance, Eligor can duck under dedicated ranged attacks, while advancing his positioning on the board. In the worst case, it can also be used to take cover behind terrain, or to intercept attacks directed at foes behind Eligor.

Charge Boots are a global anti-ranger tool that benefits your whole team, effectively giving the best benefits of Battle Warder to any of your allies. It pairs best with a melee-capable team.

Chained Strike

Chained Strike lets Eligor threaten an absurd area for a tank. Though slow, the solid long range of this attack means that it’s difficult to dodge or tech. Even when it doesn’t win combat, a hit can be deadly.

Eligor gets to pull the opponent into his preferred range, and perhaps dangerously out of position. The move also gets advantage on hit, which means that if Eligor leads with it as an attack, you’ll get to take the next turn—a potential 1-2 punch that can spell doom for a warden.

Ram’s Pauldrons is an incredibly good artifact that makes your entire team more capable in melee. A bonus of +3 is better than the default assist bonus, so your allies can win melee combat even when they’re outnumbered 2 against 1.

Aegis (Normal)

Aegis is the definition of a solid attack. It keeps the user rooted in place, resisting any attempts to spoil their attack or contest a point by pushing.

In Wardens, controlling key points on the table can be more important than winning combat. Indeed, some teams will even throw a combat—taking a position they know will earn them a wound or defeat—in order to clear a control point. Aegis is an effective blocker for this strategy and allows you to resist these machinations.

Medkit is a very effective tool that is best used when defending with a non-target Warden or an attacking fast warden. The fragile keyword means that any damage will disrupt your strike, so it should only be used in a situation where there’s no danger of the Warden using it being hit first.

Conclusions

Eligor brings a huge amount of survivability to any team composition, in the form of his ability to cover a wide range, survive direct strikes, and reliably defend at an advantage. He needs to be supported by allies that provide the force and cunning to win on offense, but he can provide them with plenty of opportunities to set up their own strategies.

Learn more about the game Wardens on Gamefound!