Tactical uses of the Block and Ready actions

Hi,

I have only been playing solo games so far and I am struggling to see a situation when I would be better served by taking the Block action over the Ready action.

Am I missing something? Does anybody have any tactical insights on when best to use the Block action?

Thanks

Well, block gives you extra armour, Ready lets you try and hit them after they have acted. Defensive, offensive.

If you are up against an opponent with a high damage, hard hitting attack, you may be in a situation where you just want to live through the attack - when outnumbered by a couple of Draugr and Deathlord the extra passive Yellow - and potentially adding your shield value on to your armour (assuming you have something better than a wooden shield) - can mean the difference between staying up and quaffing a potion or going down under a hail of Honed Nordic weapons. Block, of course, also lets you Shield Bash which, if you are outnumbering an opponent, can be very handy.

On the other hand, if you see a pack of wolves up ahead, you know they are faster than you, but are fairly weak. Taking a Ready action lets them come to you first, and you can maybe strike and kill one before it tries to sink its teeth into you.

G.

I think you can’t use Ready in the same activation as you Attack. So if you begin in contact with an enemy and attack, you could follow up with Block.

andy

You can gain Ready and Block tokens in the same activation, though. You can Block, then Ready - since neither count as an Attack action until you spend the Ready to do so. You’ll then get the passive Yellow up until you spend the Ready token to move or make an attack, or spend the Block to try and gain the bonus from a shield.

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