In this article we’ll take a different look at the newest RUMBLESLAM team. Are you getting irritated by the amount of activations and ridiculous +1 counters these halflings produce? Well let’s see what we can do to stop them!

Halflings…. It’s an unpopular opinion here at TTCombat HQ it seems, but I really, really do not like Halflings. Let’s be honest, who watched Lord of the Rings and skips the cool parts to watch Frodo and Sam walk around talking about rubbish? No one, precisely no one. Halflings are lame, boring and an annoying part of fantasy cliche that need to be destroyed.

So from an entire Kickstarter dedicated to the annoying little runts of the fantasy world, to now a whole RUMBLESLAM team, I am starting to get really fed up of the sight and sound of Halflings. So when playtesting these, and some of the other exciting new teams and superstars for RUMBLESLAM! (I can’t say more, but so exciting!) I’d always let Lewis take Lords of the Ring so I can work out how to beat them, as embarrassingly as possible too.

So many actions!

Yes, yes, They do have so many actions, 6 wrestlers, including that ‘ref’ with plenty of AP each, they certainly get to do a lot in each round.  However this is where the first trick comes in. Make sure you have a wrestler with high Dex and always select them to go first. It seems quite normal to do that, however in RUMBLESLAM sometimes you just want a hard hitter, or fast mover to go first, but you really can’t afford to let these runts go first, you just can’t.

Once you’ve got the first activation of the round, pick one of the weaker Halflings, or the Ref himself if possible, more on him later, and absolutely pummel him. Don’t split your actions amongst different opponents, concentrate completely on one. With only 5HP each it is quite within the realms of possibility to get a Knock Out very early. You may not have the AP to throw or pin them, but at least they are on the floor. The Crowd will thank you for this great service to the world I assure you.* Can you imagine the tears from the poor beaten up Halfling? Glorious.**

Once one wrestler is down they quickly start losing the advantages they have for their increased actions, and of course the less actions they have, the less likely they are to get their Crowd Pleasers, therefore less likely to buff themselves.

The Ref is a cheating ********

Yes, yes he is. How the Lords of the Ring get to bring a Ref who is completely on their team into the ring is beyond me. And though he officially gives his healing pasties to everyone, everytime he gives one to my wrestlers it’s gone cold.

He stops you from hitting any of his friends too hard, of couse this works both ways, but I can assure you, he’ll turn a blind eye to his little halfling friends. Hence I suggest if at all possible, beat him up first. With a single Silver defence, he isn’t too hard to get Beatdowns on. Just keep hitting him until he drops.

Once down he can’t replenish the stamina of the rest of the team either, and one of their key tactics is removed.

They keep getting better!

As the round goes on they will get their Crowd Pleasers in and they will therefore get buffed. Since they get a +1 to stats every time they buff, they become consistent and can become annoyingly powerful, especially the Peso Completo. This is why focussing on one wrestler at a time, completely removing him from the ring is so crucial. It doesn’t take a lot to hurt most of the team at all, and if they only have thier star man left by round 4 or 5, they are in serious trouble.

Remember at the start of each round they are back to square one, again, activate first, batter at least one Halfling into oblivion and by the end of Round three they won’t be laughing about their amount of actions any more.

Peso Completo.

This guy… This guy is going to be the problem. He’s good, really good. with 10HP, a Defence of Gold and Silver, a Grapple of Gold and Copper. He isn’t quite as easy to take down, and while up he can do a lot of damage. Try to stop him getting his Turnbuckle attack off. He’s only got 3 Move and needs all his AP to do it. With a Dex of 2 silver, you can’t rely on knocking him off the turnbuckle, though it would be hilarious should you do so. I suggest leaving this guy until last, beat on the smaller guys first, then use what’s left of your team to hammer this guy.

Who do I take?

Well I was going to make a list of all the Wrestlers that can really hurt Halflings. And let’s be honest, bar some of the weakest rookies, I’m looking at you Skeleton, pretty much everything can do something to the Halflings. Superstars can all make a single Halflings life a pure misery.  Try to go for multiple damage Brawl attacks, and of course Knockdown Grapples are always great.

So make sure you have one high Dex wrestler, and the rest are hard hitting, or hard to hurt wrestlers. You will be outnumbered anyway and out AP’ed, but don’t worry about it, it takes work for them to hurt you early in the round, and if you can cause a lot of damage quickly before they buff and heal up, you’ll find beating up little people easy. ***

Conclusion

Hit early, hit fast, bully one particular halfling at a time until he’s down and out then move on.

So there you have it. My completely rational, sensible and informative guide on how to beat the Lords of the Ring in RUMBLESLAM. If this has made you want to get more wrestlers to hurt little people then take a look at our webstore. You can also buy the new Lords of the Ring team from there too, I suppose some people must like Halflings.

 

*Any assurances of crowd reactions are not to be taken litterally, we all know RUMBLESLAM crowds are very fickle.

**Chris, we really need to have a chat – Lewis.

***Chris, you sure you really don’t want to reword that? Really!? – Lewis