I have no problem with the back and forth. I just want this card to be something that is useful for the faction. +2 courage all around just doesn't fit them and doesn't allow for mitigating a failed rout check like some of the other better cards out there.
Oh, I wasn't like rage quitting or anything. I just have a different design philosophy and don't want to waste your time if we have different desired outcomes.
IMO, what makes the High Elves such a top tier faction is that they are good at the two things that are king in Battleground: matchups and maneuverability. They have one of the widest variety of units of all the factions. They have almost the same variety as Dark Elves. They have less lower-end (i.e. sandbag) units, but they can field a variety of viable builds from 5" movers that punch to a grindy line of Battle Squads and EB Swordsmen. What makes this even better is that between Sprint & Maneuver Mastery, they are better at making their good matchups happen fast and their bad matchups happen slow. Which simply cannot be overstated how powerful that is.
One of the only weaknesses of them is that they lack a Courage bailout. So when you fail that Cge 13 Yellow check, a hole opens in the line and there's very little High Elves can do about it. Which makes a viable counter strategy to them either A) grind out across a wide front or B) hit those Battle Squads with a big thump unit like Knights or Marauders. Option A is "He will fail 1 in 4 checks, so I will make him take as many as possible." Option B is "I'm gonna take all 8 boxes off as fast as I can. And if he fails that Cge check, it's bonus for me."
Given how strong the faction is, the only way I'd be willing to entertain taking either of those options off the table would be to weaken something else (And I know this is shading away from House Rules and into Rules Team a little bit). So if Oathbound becomes as good as I Kill You Meself or even Ordered Retreat, I'd only agree to that if (picking something out of the air without really thinking about it), Maneuver Mastery only negates -1 MC or even went away entirely.
That said, one thing that bugs me about where the HE's are now is the "double loss" of one of the HE beatstick units failing that Courage check. What I mean is that, if your Battle Squad blows a Cge check then it has failed to do 1 job: prevent a breakthrough. Yeah that's bad, and it may be the unit's only job. But, if you have a HE Knights or Eb Sword unit, that unit has
two jobs: prevent a breakthrough and create a breakthrough.
So when the Knights blow their check, it's not just one step back on the path to victory. It's two steps back. Because now he's pinching AND you have lost one of your beatstick units.
And sure that can happen in a lot of factions. But usually you have a Courage bailout or the unit is sufficiently powerful (i.e. T4 or a lot of hit boxes) that you can play cards to mitigate that.
So if there was an area to improve on, I'd say it's making that blown test be only a single step back on the path. That's why I like negating the Rear Attack bonus and then auto-rally
[1]. This lets you get your beatstick unit back in the fight. Which means the enemy has a choice: pinch (and expose their flank) or go after the rallied unit to finish it off. In other words, the enemy either destroys your breakthrough unit or it breaks through your line. So now your beatsick unit is only failing at one of its jobs. The card turns a "double loss" into a "single loss."
[1]Mind you, this Green card means you can still play a Blue card on those free strikes. Yes that gets pricey in terms of Command Cards, but it means that you really can do your best to preserve that unit if you need to.
