A disagreement arose on this topic in another thread (regarding Blightmaker) where it was becoming off topic. I think it is a question important enough to merit a thread of its own. It is certainly an argument often used when discussing NG, but is it really valid?
However, before I weigh in on the question, I want time to consider another viewpoint. Thus, I will open the question if anyone cares to express a perspective on the question while I ponder how I would answer it.
Not going to copy and paste from that other thread for now, but no, they are not generally underpowered, and the argument, though used often, is generally not valid
Half of them are trash fillers that nobody plays. Examples:
-Van Moorlehem Servant (useless)
-Nauzicaa Brigade (bad)
-Magne Division (could be decent but row condition is impossible to achieve versus Nilfgaard, Scoia'tael or White Frost ability, Nauzicaa Sargent is way better because of this. Magne should be buffed a bit because row punishments like Lacerates, Crushing Traps, Hemdall, Gerd, Dragon's Dream, Regis, Colossal Ifrit, Igni and so on)
-Mage Infiltrator (bad since Endrega Larva nerf-buff, good with Impera Enforcers if they survive)
-Infiltrator (bad because low tempo)
-Imperial Diplomacy (decent but has RNG, not reason to play it except for assimilate and enslave-tactical decks)
-Deithwen Arbalest (useless)
-Combat Engineer (useless)
-Battle Preparation (bad in general, decent in Soldier archetype)
-Ard Feainn Light Cavalry (useless)
-Viper Witcher (bad since token clog nerf)
-Spotter (bad, too expensive for 5 provisions)
-Rot Tosser (bad because opponent can react and play around Cow Carcass, decent only on red coin when opponent passes)
-Mangonel (bad, could be decent but is useless as removal)
-Impera Enforcers (bad in general, good-decent if it survives but this is always rare)
-Impera Brigade (decent-bad, condition more difficult to achieve than Hunting Pack because Nauzicaa Sargent-Magne Division can be removed when you don't play Soldier archetype, when this happens is a brick)
-Fire Scorpion (decent only in enslave-tactical archetypes, useless in every other archetype, can be easily removed from board)
-Experimental Remedy (decent and good in some situations but it's a meh, useful sometimes but meh in general)
-Daerlan Soldier (good-decent in Soldier archetype, useless in every other scenario)
-Amnesty (very bad in general except for some specific situations, decent in enslave-tactical archetype. Expensive)
-Standard Bearer (bad-useless in general, good in combination with Cahir-Yen, can be decent as well in Soldier archetype)
-Ointment (bad-useless in general, good-decent in Soldier archetype)
-Mage Assassin (useless by itself, good-decent in combination)
Yes, they are, like probably anyone who actually plays the faction would be able to tell. If you don't play the faction you won't know what it is like to play it or its cards, and as a result cannot contribute anything that's based on real experience.
Very few NG Bronzes are very strong, some are good -- but many are meh, and many are garbage no one plays.
Van Moorlehem Servant, Toussaint Knight-Errant, Slave Driver, Recruit, Ointment, Nauzicaa Brigade, Mage Infiltrator, Deithwen Arbalest, Combat Engineer, Ard Feainn Light Cavalry, Angry Mob, Alchemist, Standard Bearer, Spotter, Menagerie Keeper, Mangonel, Ard Feainn Tortoise, and even Rot Tosser are ones I can easily name that I never see played, and would never play myself, outside the occasional meme (and some not even there because their design makes no sense).
----> That's 18 out of 61 NG Bronzes; 27,7% of them are, in my opinion and experience, utter trash.
Many of the other 43 only work in a certain archetype and even there are by no means too strong.
Yes, they are, like probably anyone who actually plays the faction would be able to tell. If you don't play the faction you won't know what it is like to play it or its cards, and as a result cannot contribute anything that's based on real experience.
Very few NG Bronzes are very strong, some are good -- but many are meh, and many are garbage no one plays.
Van Moorlehem Servant, Toussaint Knight-Errant, Slave Driver, Recruit, Ointment, Nauzicaa Brigade, Mage Infiltrator, Deithwen Arbalest, Combat Engineer, Ard Feainn Light Cavalry, Angry Mob, Alchemist, Standard Bearer, Spotter, Menagerie Keeper, Mangonel, Ard Feainn Tortoise, and even Rot Tosser are ones I can easily name that I never see played, and would never play myself, outside the occasional meme (and some not even there because their design makes no sense).
----> That's 18 out of 61 NG Bronzes; 27,7% of them are, in my opinion and experience, utter trash.
Many of the other 43 only work in a certain archetype and even there are by no means too strong.
Questionable personal opinions and preference aside, the point is that every faction has "garbage" bronzes. I can certainly list some ST examples for you. So "generally" NG bronzes are not weaker than anything else. Even if we both agree on some arbitrary number of garbage bronzes for every faction and it turns out NG has like (just for example) 2 more garbage bronzes than ST, the ST at the same time has NOTHING like the Blightmaker or VWM in its bronze pool, so it still averages out.
Questionable personal opinions and preference aside, the point is that every faction has "garbage" bronzes. I can certainly list some ST examples for you. So "generally" NG bronzes are not weaker than anything else. Even if we both agree on some arbitrary number of garbage bronzes for every faction and it turns out NG has like (just for example) 2 more garbage bronzes than ST, the ST at the same time has NOTHING like the Blightmaker or VWM in its bronze pool, so it still averages out.
Scoia'tael has the worst faction bronzes, followed by Nilfgaard. SY, SKG, NR, MO bronzes are better in general than these two factions. Of course Neutral bronze units are the worst in the whole game.
1st worst position = Neutral bronze units.
2nd worst position (1st worst faction position) = Scoia'tael bronzes and some overcosted epic golds
3rd worst position (2nd worst faction position) =Nilfgaard bronzes and some overcosted useless-meh golds (low tempo as well in a lot of its golds-bronzes having 3 base power, etc. Those units are good in general but when they brick it feels terrible)
This is the podium among crap bronze faction cards.
Sure they aren't.
Just like there aren't two, long lists of cards in posts, from people who actually play the faction, above that clearly demonstrate that NG has tons of worthless, trash Bronzes.
And like I said, if you don't play the faction it's impossible for you to speak from any real experience with that faction. Especially if you're extremely biased against the faction.
Sure they aren't.
Just like there aren't two, long lists of cards in posts, from people who actually play the faction, above that clearly demonstrate that NG has tons of worthless, trash Bronzes.
And like I said, if you don't play the faction it's impossible for you to speak from any real experience with that faction. Especially if you're extremely biased against the faction.
Your lists mean nothing if you aren't listing other faction bronzes to compare them with. The thread question is are NG bronzes weaker than OTHER FACTIONS, not "Does NG have garbage bronzes." Me not liking NG as an idea and not playing the faction has nothing to do with the fact that every faction has bad cards, and NG is not some underdog everyone is supposed to root for and give breaks to.
Of course not. In fact, comparing with other bronzes they are even better.
Example - imperial diviner - can purify everything without a condition and also its an engine.
All the assimilate cards can buff 2 or more times in the same turn. And for those who will say "aah, but you need to play assimilate decks and thats sucks" i will ask, you really play with NG? Assimiate can be triggered by artoriou, braathens, GG, Ball, Coup - and all those cards are auto included in a lot of decks, so you dont need to play "pure assimilate" to trigger it.
The same goes to Nauzica Sergent who can boost more than one time per turn and its only 4 provision(and, one more time, almost all the other NG cards have deploy abillity, so nayzica goes really strong)
Another 4 provision its great - Master of disguise - boost himself 1 per turn and almost without condition (lets be honest, lock one unit with NG its easy - and i will talk about it later)
The same goes for Magne DIvision - and the only condition you need to put alone in a row (and if you have both in hand, you dont have any condition). And, increadible, the best faction to disrupt Magne is.... NG with spies.
Talking about spies, you can copy the good bronzes of you opponent, and, with a little setup, you can put even more of the same bronze. Andregas larva its too broke? What about copy it with 2 Duches and in the other round you can create more 2 with experimental remedy.
Also spies can clocg your opponent row, can disrupt some cards wich need something in theyr side (like Arghnad and sukrus) or wich needs only to play for the same faction (the SC guy who gives 2 damage).
Lets talk about locks? They have 4 beatiful and good and cheap locks, wich can disrupt a lot of engines and opponents strategy.
Whants more? What about a good 7 for 4 to gain tempo in first round? Yes, you have - tortoise (oh, your opponent damaged it? Ok, he becames a 6 for 4 and prevents another unit to take damge - thats cool).
You need still more tempo in round 1 with your bronzes because you are in blue coin? Dont worry. you have a beatifull 8 for 5 - Nilfgaardian Knight.
Talking about tempo in round 1, what about the excelente thinning and superb blightmaker combo?
Needs more thinning? Dont worry, you have 2 more combo cards, while almost all the other factions got only one.
Whant to play more controll than the locks? Ok, you have 6 (yes six) special damage cards. Also, all of them are tactics, so they are good combo with fire scorpion (of course they are better use with Helfty Helge, but we are talking only about bronzes).
You gained some free damage with fire scorpiom? Just put an opponent's unit to 3 and steal it with Amnesty - also, gain more charges to fire scorpion.
Tired of everything i said and whants to try something diferent? What about the clogs cards? Also, with that, we have vyper witcher adept, witch its 4 provision and boost himself by every turn (in clog, almost without condition).
Needing to win that round you clogged your opponent a lot? Dont worry, play untill the end and wins a (usually) 10+ power cards using Viper witcher Mentor.
Well, i really dont know where the bronze cards are weak?
Aaah but we have a huge list of stupid cards... Yes, we have, in the same we have in other factions. If you whant to try to use that list to convince me NG bronzes are weak, sorry my friend, but your arent a NG player, you are a NG fan but dont play the faction
EDIT: for the last, if NG bronzes are too weak, why we have artorius been played (wich creates another bronze), braathens (wich also create another bronze) and ramon?.
Also, for incredible, a lot of players try to use operator in NG. They are crazy, because creates another bronze. And, whants to see more crazy they are? They copy that NG sh* bronze they created....
Post automatically merged:
In another post. If someone says i dont play with NG (like in The other topic)
And. As everyone knows, i dont like NG, its not even The faction i play most, but NG its just free wins..
(ok, we have better faction and tier 1 PR zero decks? Yes, but NG will always shine)
No one claimed there are NO good NG Bronzes, and you only listed ones that aren't total garbage. You never addressed any of the cards that are trash, and did not even acknowledge their existence -- which automatically undermines your arguments as you are not looking at the full picture.
Take into account ALL of the Bronzes and try to make that same argument again. Maybe then it will have some real weight.
Unless you do, all that post of yours shows that you are able to cherry-pick cards that support your argument (which anyone can do) but not able to take into account the cards that do not support your argument.
It is entirely possible for cards like Artorius, Braathens, and Ramon to be great even if there are only a handful of good Bronzes in the entire faction. That argument of yours makes literally no sense.
The simple existence of good Bronzes makes those two Golds widely played. Again, no one said there are no good NG Bronzes.
The Operator argument would not even be worth addressing. The most common target for him seems to be Kingslayer, and everyone knows mill is just a meme and nowhere near competitive. Operator himself is mostly a meme card.
(I also won't have anything more to say to you on this topic. It is extremely tiresome to even attempt to discuss a faction with people who openly hate it and constantly bash it for the sake of being negative.)
No one claimed there are NO good NG Bronzes, and you only listed ones that aren't total garbage. You never addressed any of the cards that are trash, and did not even acknowledge their existence -- which automatically undermines your arguments as you are not looking at the full picture.
Take into account ALL of the Bronzes and try to make that same argument again. Maybe then it will have some real weight.
Unless you do, all that post of yours shows that you are able to cherry-pick cards that support your argument (which anyone can do) but not able to take into account the cards that do not support your argument.
It is entirely possible for cards like Artorius, Braathens, and Ramon to be great even if there are only a handful of good Bronzes in the entire faction. That argument of yours makes literally no sense.
The simple existence of good Bronzes makes those two Golds widely played. Again, no one said there are no good NG Bronzes.
The Operator argument would not even be worth addressing. The most common target for him seems to be Kingslayer, and everyone knows mill is just a meme and nowhere near competitive. Operator himself is mostly a meme card.
(I also won't have anything more to say to you on this topic. It is extremely tiresome to even attempt to discuss a faction with people who openly hate it and constantly bash it for the sake of being negative.)
Scoia'tael has the worst faction bronzes, followed by Nilfgaard. SY, SKG, NR, MO bronzes are better in general than these two factions. Of course Neutral bronze units are the worst in the whole game.
1st worst position = Neutral bronze units.
2nd worst position (1st worst faction position) = Scoia'tael bronzes and some overcosted epic golds
3rd worst position (2nd worst faction position) =Nilfgaard bronzes and some overcosted useless-meh golds (low tempo as well in a lot of its golds-bronzes having 3 base power, etc. Those units are good in general but when they brick it feels terrible)
This is the podium among crap bronze faction cards.
Compared to the past they have become Better e.g. combat engineer is now 7 for 4 instead of 6 for 4; however even as a filler there's no reason to play it because it brings nothing to the table and most artifacts suck anyway. Unfortunately a lot of NG bronzes are filler that don't support any archetype automatically placing them into garbage Tier.
Of course there are also good cards like dames and fangs, though it's worth noticing these staple cards are almost two years old.
Ultimately I believe there's a tiny fraction of good bronzes, a chunck of "ok" cards and a majority of meme/mediocre/bad cards
They are great when combined with other cards or left uncontested (eg Thirsty Dames, Sergeants or VM Hunters with Ball, Seditious Aristocrats with Fergus or Usurper) but definitely suck if you don't have your combo pieces together. Blightmaker also bricks veeery easily and can make you lose out on some high-end golds if you're somewhat unlucky and don't draw them with Joachim or Roderick. I like the buffed Ard Feainn Tortoise, I really want soldiers to get their time to shine one day. A little bit more pointslam and less control, that's how NG should be if you ask me.
After seeing arguments that NG bronze units are not weak, I decided to take a closer look at all bronze units to re-evaluate my position. Toward this end, I collected some statistics I would like to share.
But first, I want to explain exactly what I did and what limitations I see in the calculation. I went through all bronze cards in each faction, recorded their provision cost, and estimated the number of points each card would play for. In some cases, (e.g. Drummond Berserker), it is pretty easy to estimate value (it does 2 damage points before becoming a 6 point Bear Abomination for a total of eight). In other cases (especially engines), I took the base value and tried to estimate how often they would trigger on average before either being stopped or the round ending. For example, I assumed an An Craite Longship would trigger an average of 5 times, playing for its 4 power plus 5 damage = 9 points. This is obviously subjective, but I used my best judgment. Generally, I assumed that when a player has control of setting a card up, that they will do so, but that results are random when the player lacks control. There are some cards that have elements I cannot assign a value to (what is a lock worth? What is a clog worth? What is a consume worth?) — in these cases, I recorded the card value I could compute, and noted that there were additional characteristics that modify a card’s value (so Van Moorlehem Hunters we’re assigned a value of 3 with a note that they had modifying power). And some cards were so situational that they could not be assigned a value (e.g. Duchess Informants). These cards were removed from the pool. I did try to avoid counting effects twice (so I counted an expected value of wandering treants for each symbiosis card, but not for nature cards.) I then computed an average value for each faction at each provision level.
I did not perform this calculation for Syndicate as I have not played the faction enough to be confident of my judgments. I have watched a large number of streamed SY games, but there are too many cards never played. I also did not compute an average of 6 provision cards — for two reasons. First, the factions have only from 2 to 4 six provision cards each, which is an unreliably small sample size. Second, 6 provision bronzes tend to play similar roles to 6 and 7 provision golds in a deck, and are generally very different than the four and five provision cards which tend to be used to make room for high provision cards in a deck. When people complain about “weak bronzes”, I think it usually refers to cheap cards included to enable expensive cards to be added.
These results are limited by at least three factors: the inability to evaluate certain effects, the subjective judgments required in evaluating cards, and that I am simply examining an average (which does not reflect the value of cards likely to be played in a deck).
So without further ado, here are my results. On each line, I list faction, followed by average played value of 4 provision cards in that faction, and finally the value of 5 provision cards.
MO | 6.79 | 8.41
SK | 6.10 | 7.29
NR | 6.00 | 7.12
ST | 5.83 | 6.83
NG | 5.71 | 6.79
By the way, I did not find significant differences in numbers of cards flagged for unevaluated effects — 10 in MO, 12 in NG, 14 in SK, 15 in NR, and 16 in ST. Of course, not all these uncounted effects are equal. And if you do not trust my valuations, you can always duplicate my procedure with your valuations.
Conclusions: I continue to believe NG and ST have relatively weak bronzes. MO surprised me, but it’s large number of simple point slam cards, together with deathwish cards whose value could be inflated might account for this.
And when talking about bronze strength, the best measure is the average value of cards one is likely to include in a deck — and this depends on a deck archetype. For instance, both Dwarven mercenary and Vernossiel’s commandos were given good ratings — but not in the same deck. I did look at several meta decks; most include from 11 to 14 bronzes. It would be interesting to evaluate the highest value possible for each faction from 13 compatible low provision cards. I will give those results after I have a chance to compute them.
After seeing arguments that NG bronze units are not weak, I decided to take a closer look at all bronze units to re-evaluate my position. Toward this end, I collected some statistics I would like to share.
But first, I want to explain exactly what I did and what limitations I see in the calculation. I went through all bronze cards in each faction, recorded their provision cost, and estimated the number of points each card would play for. In some cases, (e.g. Drummond Berserker), it is pretty easy to estimate value (it does 2 damage points before becoming a 6 point Bear Abomination for a total of eight). In other cases (especially engines), I took the base value and tried to estimate how often they would trigger on average before either being stopped or the round ending. For example, I assumed an An Craite Longship would trigger an average of 5 times, playing for its 4 power plus 5 damage = 9 points. This is obviously subjective, but I used my best judgment. Generally, I assumed that when a player has control of setting a card up, that they will do so, but that results are random when the player lacks control. There are some cards that have elements I cannot assign a value to (what is a lock worth? What is a clog worth? What is a consume worth?) — in these cases, I recorded the card value I could compute, and noted that there were additional characteristics that modify a card’s value (so Van Moorlehem Hunters we’re assigned a value of 3 with a note that they had modifying power). And some cards were so situational that they could not be assigned a value (e.g. Duchess Informants). These cards were removed from the pool. I did try to avoid counting effects twice (so I counted an expected value of wandering treants for each symbiosis card, but not for nature cards.) I then computed an average value for each faction at each provision level.
I did not perform this calculation for Syndicate as I have not played the faction enough to be confident of my judgments. I have watched a large number of streamed SY games, but there are too many cards never played. I also did not compute an average of 6 provision cards — for two reasons. First, the factions have only from 2 to 4 six provision cards each, which is an unreliably small sample size. Second, 6 provision bronzes tend to play similar roles to 6 and 7 provision golds in a deck, and are generally very different than the four and five provision cards which tend to be used to make room for high provision cards in a deck. When people complain about “weak bronzes”, I think it usually refers to cheap cards included to enable expensive cards to be added.
These results are limited by at least three factors: the inability to evaluate certain effects, the subjective judgments required in evaluating cards, and that I am simply examining an average (which does not reflect the value of cards likely to be played in a deck).
So without further ado, here are my results. On each line, I list faction, followed by average played value of 4 provision cards in that faction, and finally the value of 5 provision cards.
MO | 6.79 | 8.41
SK | 6.10 | 7.29
NR | 6.00 | 7.12
ST | 5.83 | 6.83
NG | 5.71 | 6.79
By the way, I did not find significant differences in numbers of cards flagged for unevaluated effects — 10 in MO, 12 in NG, 14 in SK, 15 in NR, and 16 in ST. Of course, not all these uncounted effects are equal. And if you do not trust my valuations, you can always duplicate my procedure with your valuations.
Conclusions: I continue to believe NG and ST have relatively weak bronzes. MO surprised me, but it’s large number of simple point slam cards, together with deathwish cards whose value could be inflated might account for this.
And when talking about bronze strength, the best measure is the average value of cards one is likely to include in a deck — and this depends on a deck archetype. For instance, both Dwarven mercenary and Vernossiel’s commandos were given good ratings — but not in the same deck. I did look at several meta decks; most include from 11 to 14 bronzes. It would be interesting to evaluate the highest value possible for each faction from 13 compatible low provision cards. I will give those results after I have a chance to compute them.
Something many of the garbage NG Bronzes have in common is their age; they're from the base set and have never been changed from the then-prevalent principle of "provision cost = value when played".
Therein lies a major issue, I feel. A simple matter, but not so simple to fix, of outdated numbers. Some of them have been buffed, but their ability is so utterly useless (e.g. Combat Engineer) that it's made zero difference.
(I'm sure the same also applies to garbage Bronzes from other factions; I'm not saying this is exclusive to NG, but since the topic is NG I'm only looking at it.)
In my opinión they are very good, but at the same time extremly conditinional (just the opposite of sk which are good always), gonna give some examples:
Náuzica sargent: we all know how good It is, but if you are against simbiosis or that sk madoc deck you better mulligan since its gonna die as soon as it touch the board to a rebuke or a bomb, making him then extremly bad.
Emmisary: 90% of the Times bad (It can make you go really tall), but against sk Warriors is great since It can make survive your engines, or maybe in the ball mirror is good to have It in case last round turns to Who clog first the enemy board.
And last example, i read here amnesty is bad, and is true, but right now with the amount of people playing sk madoc and sy i find It really good, and since i add It i manage to win a lot against sk madoc even on blue Coín, stealing madoc from them its such a strong move (tho i got to cut It from my deck since the provisión Nerf )
Meanwhile st bronzes are just bad in any case haha, i mean ok dwarfs bronzes are good but the archetipe is really weak right now, and simbiosis got some good too but still i think very few compared to ng.
After seeing arguments that NG bronze units are not weak, I decided to take a closer look at all bronze units to re-evaluate my position. Toward this end, I collected some statistics I would like to share.
But first, I want to explain exactly what I did and what limitations I see in the calculation. I went through all bronze cards in each faction, recorded their provision cost, and estimated the number of points each card would play for. In some cases, (e.g. Drummond Berserker), it is pretty easy to estimate value (it does 2 damage points before becoming a 6 point Bear Abomination for a total of eight). In other cases (especially engines), I took the base value and tried to estimate how often they would trigger on average before either being stopped or the round ending. For example, I assumed an An Craite Longship would trigger an average of 5 times, playing for its 4 power plus 5 damage = 9 points. This is obviously subjective, but I used my best judgment. Generally, I assumed that when a player has control of setting a card up, that they will do so, but that results are random when the player lacks control. There are some cards that have elements I cannot assign a value to (what is a lock worth? What is a clog worth? What is a consume worth?) — in these cases, I recorded the card value I could compute, and noted that there were additional characteristics that modify a card’s value (so Van Moorlehem Hunters we’re assigned a value of 3 with a note that they had modifying power). And some cards were so situational that they could not be assigned a value (e.g. Duchess Informants). These cards were removed from the pool. I did try to avoid counting effects twice (so I counted an expected value of wandering treants for each symbiosis card, but not for nature cards.) I then computed an average value for each faction at each provision level.
I did not perform this calculation for Syndicate as I have not played the faction enough to be confident of my judgments. I have watched a large number of streamed SY games, but there are too many cards never played. I also did not compute an average of 6 provision cards — for two reasons. First, the factions have only from 2 to 4 six provision cards each, which is an unreliably small sample size. Second, 6 provision bronzes tend to play similar roles to 6 and 7 provision golds in a deck, and are generally very different than the four and five provision cards which tend to be used to make room for high provision cards in a deck. When people complain about “weak bronzes”, I think it usually refers to cheap cards included to enable expensive cards to be added.
These results are limited by at least three factors: the inability to evaluate certain effects, the subjective judgments required in evaluating cards, and that I am simply examining an average (which does not reflect the value of cards likely to be played in a deck).
So without further ado, here are my results. On each line, I list faction, followed by average played value of 4 provision cards in that faction, and finally the value of 5 provision cards.
MO | 6.79 | 8.41
SK | 6.10 | 7.29
NR | 6.00 | 7.12
ST | 5.83 | 6.83
NG | 5.71 | 6.79
By the way, I did not find significant differences in numbers of cards flagged for unevaluated effects — 10 in MO, 12 in NG, 14 in SK, 15 in NR, and 16 in ST. Of course, not all these uncounted effects are equal. And if you do not trust my valuations, you can always duplicate my procedure with your valuations.
Conclusions: I continue to believe NG and ST have relatively weak bronzes. MO surprised me, but it’s large number of simple point slam cards, together with deathwish cards whose value could be inflated might account for this.
And when talking about bronze strength, the best measure is the average value of cards one is likely to include in a deck — and this depends on a deck archetype. For instance, both Dwarven mercenary and Vernossiel’s commandos were given good ratings — but not in the same deck. I did look at several meta decks; most include from 11 to 14 bronzes. It would be interesting to evaluate the highest value possible for each faction from 13 compatible low provision cards. I will give those results after I have a chance to compute them.
I've been away for a bit, but I wanted to respond to this.
First, I strongly disagree with the reasoning of excluding the 6p bronze cards. They are not closer to the golds of comparable provision cost in function, the latter being mostly tech utility such as purify, move, lock, etc, while the former are just bronzes that can be included twice in the deck and played up to 4 times with various aids.
So I would like to look at 6p bronzes:
MO: Barbegazi, Ancient Foglet, and Larva.
SK: War of Clans, Freya's Blessing, Greatsword
NG: VWM, Blightmaker, Kingslayer, Amnesty
NR: Frigate and Runeword
SY: Fallen Knight and Townsfolk
ST: Smuggler and Crushing Trap.
Putting aside the fact how terrible ST looks in comparison even with the next faction up (NR), I think it's fairly clear here that NG is not in the bottom half. Individually, I think VWM, Blightmaker and the Foglet are on top here, being fairly equal in overall value and synergy within their respective factions. At first glance, the foglet may seem stronger, but it's tied to the weather deck, while the Blightmaker and VWM can be played pretty much wherever you want, which evens that out, imo. The next best units are the Larvae and Fallen Knight, Followed by GW and the Frigate, then by everything else. Kingslayer is a bad card, but again, it works great in its deck. It's not for nothing mill players spam it with operator. Its point value on the board is completely irrelevant.
The Amnesty seems like an uninspired 8 for 6, but capturing an opponent's unit can also be worth more than just straight points. Conclusion: NG>MO>SK>SY>NR>>>ST
Now, coming back to Kingslayer's board value being irrelevant, the same is true for a lot of other NG bronzes: you can't properly evaluate them by trying to calculate average board value of the cards played. Alba Cavalry doesn't "play for 5" It's a 5 body 5p card that generates value by preventing engine point generation. So if you play it and stop an engine turn 1 and empty your ten cards that round, that cavalry just played for 14. Same goes for VMH. Fangs board value is irrelevant, if it has the potential to destroy any non-veiled unit PLUS all of these cards can trigger multiple other engines, like sargeant and the dame. Viper Witcher board value is "only" 6, but it clogs the deck, lowering the chances of your opponent to draw the cards they need and enabling your Kolgrim. That's where his value lies.
In short, cool-looking two-decimal numbers and all, I find your calculations and conclusions to be very suspect. I might do might own comparison of 5p and 4p bronzes across factions some time later, and I expect my results will be different.
