Commonwealth & Dominion Overviews & First Boxes - Starting Moonstone
Although the starter box is a great start to the game of moonstone, many might want to start collecting a different way. You may, for example, fancy a troupe that's not available in the starter set. There are currently 2 factions available in moonstone with each faction containing a few races that are commonly associated with that faction. Two such examples are Gnomes commonly associated with the Commonwealth and Faeries who mostly belong in Dominion. However, so long as models share the same faction then
they can be used together irrespective of race. This means it is possible to mix goblins and faeries or gnomes and humans. So long as the cards have the same symbol in the top right, they can be used together. Despite
this, collecting one race of models can often help with learning the game. So it is often not a bad idea to start collecting 'a race' as opposed to a faction. With this in mind, what are the 2 factions and what races are they generally comprised of?
Commonwealth
Commonwealth makes an ideal starting faction in Moonstone. Their approach to combat is to generally have higher numbers than their opponent and to brute force their way to victory. Whether this is having higher wounds and outlasting them or using a higher melee stat to outclass them in combat, the Commonwealth is happy to face an opponent head-on in many ways. As well as great stats, they often boast passive abilities to increase and decrease various damage. On the side of aggression and melee prowess, the humans of Moonstone are unmatched in their abilities. Meanwhile, the gnomes can withstand all but the most brutal of attacks and still be able to fight back.
Humans
Difficulty: Easy
Enjoy destroying all opposition in melee combat with overwhelming power? Enjoy having higher stats than your opponent and powerful passive abilities? Then the humans are probably for you! Generally, the most straightforward to play, humans are a great place to start in Moonstone. With a higher number of wounds than most and often toting armour, they are fairly forgiving for newer players. They also rely on synergy less so than other races. This is not to say they don't have any synergies, the starter set for example has Eric who buffs several human nobles exceedingly well!
Whilst they generally tend to orientate to melee combat with models such as Baron Von Fancyhat and Fritz, the humans can also dip their toes in other areas of the game. When they do so they are generally straightforward and simple in method, such as Flintlock who dabbles in ranged damage. Unlike other ranged models in Moonstone who require support to meet their full potential, Flintlock is happy to go without the support, perfectly self-sufficient with his long-range, high-damage gun. He will of course still enjoy simple buffs, such as Quack's 'Foresight' ability, but he'll never be reliant on them.
When starting humans, it's hard to go wrong with The Barony (or the starter set). Baron Von Fancyhat is the quintessential human, boasting high stats and great passive abilities such as plate armour and the longsword. Flintlock is another great, simplistic ranged damage dealer and Eric is great at buffing and healing both of these models straightforwardly. Beyond this, a great second box is Tumbledown Street. Adding another terrifying melee threat with Fritz, great energy manipulation and support with Agatha and a generic healer with Quack.
Gnomes
Difficulty: Medium
Whilst the humans enjoy destroying all opposition in their path, the gnome's head-on approach is to generally endure whatever their opponent can possibly throw their way with phenomenal resilience. As well as defensive passives and high wound counts, gnomes have all their energy skewed to the left of their wound bars. This means that although they generally don't have too much energy, it will usually all be available even when badly wounded. The gnomes are also a little more reliant on positional synergies than the humans with many passive abilities improving gnomes if they stay close to other gnomes. This can lead to a slow methodical playstyle where a gnome troupe will clump up together and move slowly up the board.
Another theme, which helps with their generally sluggish movement, is their focus on ranged damage with crossbows, bolt throwers and traps galore. With some exceptions, most gnomes have access to some sort of ranged attack and in some cases, a really good ranged attack. Most of these have ranges in excess of 10", so the gnomes can wear down enemies at range before grabbing all the moonstones or finishing them off in melee. The main exception to this is the gnome's Nordic brethren who trade a little toughness and ranged damage for speed, allowing them to barrel into combat with amazing haste! In melee, the gnomes are no slouch either but are held back by an abundance of 1" melee stats. Overall the gnomes are a well-rounded, tough faction, which usually need to play close to each other to perform to their full potential.
The best box for starting gnomes is without a doubt Mama's Boys. With Mama's Boys, you get access to the head of the gnomish family, the centrepiece of all gnomes list and their only healer with Mama Gimble. With Mama, all gnomes nearby are tougher, better in melee and more likely to hit with their arcane abilities. To complement Mama, the box also contains Quarrel, a very typical gnome. Although hampered by 'Slow', Quarrel has a crossbow with an obscene 14" range and 2X damage profile! He also is not afraid to help his militia friends, such as Billy, with an active ability which buffs a model's melee and arcane abilities significantly. For a second box, Brothers in Arms provides even more militia for Quarrel to help. It also contains Graddock who grants immunities to catastrophes to nearby gnomes and can help newer players with his abilities that give the gnomes an edge during arcane actions.
Dominion
Maybe a brute force approach isn't for you. If a sneaky approach to combat and large piles of energy is more to your liking, then the dominion is for you! Unlike the commonwealth, the dominion relies a lot more on synergy, especially within the 2 main races. This means that despite the fact goblins and faeries can be used together they are usually less efficient together than gnomes and humans for example. They also generally carry a better evade stat than their commonwealth counterparts and generate more energy but are usually a little flimsier, especially on wounds. When it comes to fighting in an underhanded fashion, the goblins are the masters. If a more sneaky and evasive game plan is what intrigues you, the faeries are the way to go.
Goblins
Difficulty: Medium
In a somewhat inverse manner to the humans, the goblins are generally pathetic in melee, have bad stats and often want to avoid fair fights. What they do excel at is starting unfair fights. They also excel at helping each other out with numerous active and arcane abilities. This leads to goblins being able to pull off some crazy stunts, but only if they spend time setting it up. Such as, but not limited to, goblins collecting hordes of moonstones then teleporting back to their deployment or goblin pyromaniacs felling trolls or giants with a single activation.
To complement this playstyle, goblins are usually furnished with a good evade stat, a medium to low health stat and a good amount of energy. So unlike the commonwealth, the goblins will occasionally be able to avoid opponents' arcane abilities such as ranged attacks and control abilities. With a host of arcane abilities and a large deposit of energy, they are also good at avoiding bad combats by debilitating their opponents at range and reaction stepping out of trouble. Once they are in the thick of combat, however, they will often fall very quickly with their low wound count.
Much like the humans, the best way to start here is with the starter set or the respective troupe box. Beaky Bobby is a fantastic healer who can occasionally deal large amounts of damage up close, a great model for all goblin troupes. To complement Beaky, Vicious midget and Doug can get stuck into combat. The midget can bully models with low damage potential, relying on his plate armour to keep him alive. Meanwhile, Doug can attack models whilst remaining outside their melee range with his excellent 3" melee range. After Goblin City, Mushrooms and Mayhem can make an excellent second box, containing three fantastic goblin support models.
Faeries
Difficulty: Hard
If goblins are somewhat inverse humans, then the faeries could be seen as inverse gnomes. Unlike the gnomes, the faeries are loaded with energy, fragile and fast. Similar to the gnomes, however, the faeries are somewhat tough to kill. This toughness, however, stems from avoiding combat and damage rather than being tough enough to take it head-on. Given that all faeries have between 5 and 6 wounds, being able to avoid damage is very useful. This is achieved through a phenomenal evade stat of -2 across the board, boatloads of energy to reaction step outside of all danger and some amazing defensive signatures.
These amazing defensive signatures, however, do not translate into amazing melee skills in general. Much like the gnomes, most faeries are saddled with 1" melee and to make things worse, most faeries have 'weakling' and some have 'feeble' which severely limits their output in melee. If faeries do need to deal damage they can rely on a lot of magical damage, usually in the form of short-range arcane abilities such as 'Fizzlepop'. A final feature of the faeries is further benefits to bluffing. A few faeries possess abilities which buff themselves, usually with energy, if they or another nearby friendly successfully bluffs. All of this in combination can lead to a very hard but rewarding race to play. Learning when and where to bluff as well as when to keep energy back for reactions can mean the difference between a dead faerie and victory.
If this sort of gaming and painting challenge intrigues you, where is the best place to start? Whilst healing is important for all troupes, as you might be able to tell with all the prior troupe boxes with healers, it is even more so for faeries due to their low health and high energy. Much like the other races then it is probably a good idea to start with a box with a healer. With this in mind, the best box to start is The Enclave with possibly one of the best healers in the game, Fraya. It also features Teetoe, a hard-to-target faerie who's great at holding onto moonstones and the Fencer who boasts the highest base melee stat in the game! Beyond this, blood magic can make a great second box for those wishing to focus on faeries. It brings Diana, the queen of the fae herself, who brings even more to the faeries with her high magic damage output and faerie support abilities.
Commonwealth
Commonwealth makes an ideal starting faction in Moonstone. Their approach to combat is to generally have higher numbers than their opponent and to brute force their way to victory. Whether this is having higher wounds and outlasting them or using a higher melee stat to outclass them in combat, the Commonwealth is happy to face an opponent head-on in many ways. As well as great stats, they often boast passive abilities to increase and decrease various damage. On the side of aggression and melee prowess, the humans of Moonstone are unmatched in their abilities. Meanwhile, the gnomes can withstand all but the most brutal of attacks and still be able to fight back.
Humans
Difficulty: Easy
Enjoy destroying all opposition in melee combat with overwhelming power? Enjoy having higher stats than your opponent and powerful passive abilities? Then the humans are probably for you! Generally, the most straightforward to play, humans are a great place to start in Moonstone. With a higher number of wounds than most and often toting armour, they are fairly forgiving for newer players. They also rely on synergy less so than other races. This is not to say they don't have any synergies, the starter set for example has Eric who buffs several human nobles exceedingly well!
Whilst they generally tend to orientate to melee combat with models such as Baron Von Fancyhat and Fritz, the humans can also dip their toes in other areas of the game. When they do so they are generally straightforward and simple in method, such as Flintlock who dabbles in ranged damage. Unlike other ranged models in Moonstone who require support to meet their full potential, Flintlock is happy to go without the support, perfectly self-sufficient with his long-range, high-damage gun. He will of course still enjoy simple buffs, such as Quack's 'Foresight' ability, but he'll never be reliant on them.
Gnomes
Difficulty: Medium
Whilst the humans enjoy destroying all opposition in their path, the gnome's head-on approach is to generally endure whatever their opponent can possibly throw their way with phenomenal resilience. As well as defensive passives and high wound counts, gnomes have all their energy skewed to the left of their wound bars. This means that although they generally don't have too much energy, it will usually all be available even when badly wounded. The gnomes are also a little more reliant on positional synergies than the humans with many passive abilities improving gnomes if they stay close to other gnomes. This can lead to a slow methodical playstyle where a gnome troupe will clump up together and move slowly up the board.
Another theme, which helps with their generally sluggish movement, is their focus on ranged damage with crossbows, bolt throwers and traps galore. With some exceptions, most gnomes have access to some sort of ranged attack and in some cases, a really good ranged attack. Most of these have ranges in excess of 10", so the gnomes can wear down enemies at range before grabbing all the moonstones or finishing them off in melee. The main exception to this is the gnome's Nordic brethren who trade a little toughness and ranged damage for speed, allowing them to barrel into combat with amazing haste! In melee, the gnomes are no slouch either but are held back by an abundance of 1" melee stats. Overall the gnomes are a well-rounded, tough faction, which usually need to play close to each other to perform to their full potential.
Dominion
Maybe a brute force approach isn't for you. If a sneaky approach to combat and large piles of energy is more to your liking, then the dominion is for you! Unlike the commonwealth, the dominion relies a lot more on synergy, especially within the 2 main races. This means that despite the fact goblins and faeries can be used together they are usually less efficient together than gnomes and humans for example. They also generally carry a better evade stat than their commonwealth counterparts and generate more energy but are usually a little flimsier, especially on wounds. When it comes to fighting in an underhanded fashion, the goblins are the masters. If a more sneaky and evasive game plan is what intrigues you, the faeries are the way to go.
Goblins
Difficulty: Medium
In a somewhat inverse manner to the humans, the goblins are generally pathetic in melee, have bad stats and often want to avoid fair fights. What they do excel at is starting unfair fights. They also excel at helping each other out with numerous active and arcane abilities. This leads to goblins being able to pull off some crazy stunts, but only if they spend time setting it up. Such as, but not limited to, goblins collecting hordes of moonstones then teleporting back to their deployment or goblin pyromaniacs felling trolls or giants with a single activation.
To complement this playstyle, goblins are usually furnished with a good evade stat, a medium to low health stat and a good amount of energy. So unlike the commonwealth, the goblins will occasionally be able to avoid opponents' arcane abilities such as ranged attacks and control abilities. With a host of arcane abilities and a large deposit of energy, they are also good at avoiding bad combats by debilitating their opponents at range and reaction stepping out of trouble. Once they are in the thick of combat, however, they will often fall very quickly with their low wound count.
Faeries
Difficulty: Hard
If goblins are somewhat inverse humans, then the faeries could be seen as inverse gnomes. Unlike the gnomes, the faeries are loaded with energy, fragile and fast. Similar to the gnomes, however, the faeries are somewhat tough to kill. This toughness, however, stems from avoiding combat and damage rather than being tough enough to take it head-on. Given that all faeries have between 5 and 6 wounds, being able to avoid damage is very useful. This is achieved through a phenomenal evade stat of -2 across the board, boatloads of energy to reaction step outside of all danger and some amazing defensive signatures.
These amazing defensive signatures, however, do not translate into amazing melee skills in general. Much like the gnomes, most faeries are saddled with 1" melee and to make things worse, most faeries have 'weakling' and some have 'feeble' which severely limits their output in melee. If faeries do need to deal damage they can rely on a lot of magical damage, usually in the form of short-range arcane abilities such as 'Fizzlepop'. A final feature of the faeries is further benefits to bluffing. A few faeries possess abilities which buff themselves, usually with energy, if they or another nearby friendly successfully bluffs. All of this in combination can lead to a very hard but rewarding race to play. Learning when and where to bluff as well as when to keep energy back for reactions can mean the difference between a dead faerie and victory.
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