Tail Feathers: Staborah

Tail Feathers is the exciting new miniature skirmish game by Jerry Hawthorne set in the beloved world of Mice and Mystics. Soar across the table, send your troops on dangerous missions, and defend your nest! Players will recreate the famous battles for aerial supremacy that shaped the Mice and Mystics world. Pre-order Tail Feathers today for $15 off the retail price and a free promo Mice and Mystics Lost Chapter compatible with Downwood Tales!

An Unruly Offspring

While the mighty birds of the region are battling it out in the open skies and between the trees of the forest, loyal foot troops and heroes wage battles in the trees and on the ground. Their goal: drive the enemy birds away by destroying their nests. The real stars of these battles are the heroes who hit harder and last longer than the average grunt. This week we will be taking a look at Staborah, the stubborn daughter of Snag the lord of Dreadmound. A defiant and disobedient young rat, Staborah rarely listens to her father's instructions. Her passion for battle and her fascination with poison draw her into many dangerous escapades, often causing Snag to rescue her and drag her back to the Mound for punishment that does little to curb her enthusiasm for mayhem.

In The Thick of it

Snag's daughter is headstrong and prone to sneaking off to join the battle deep behind enemy lines. She is comfortable fighting alone, but sometimes leads groups of commandos on secret missions without approval from Snag. Although he is frustrated by her disobedience, he is also secretly proud of her unbridled spirit.

Stats

Heroes are an important part of your force. They usually hit hard, defend well, and can use a variety of action cards to aid you in your battlefield goals. Staborah is the only rat hero on foot available in the base game, and so her flexibility to perform a variety of roles is important. Her low point cost makes her a desirable draft choice for most rat armies.

Battle: Staborah has mediocre melee and ranged combat values both set at 2. This is less of a disappointment than it first appears. Staborah prefers fighting alone behind enemy lines where she uses stealth and the art of surprise to overpower her enemies. When Staborah is in an enemy home tree, she adds 1 point to both her melee and ranged attack values!

Life: Staborah has 3 life points which give her some staying power. She gets into the enemy tree and she's there long enough to create havoc.

Defense: With a standard defense of 2, Staborah can avoid the casualty pile for short stints. Time your use of her to avoid being defeated by large numbers of retaliatory attacks.

Speed: Staborah has a speed of 4 which is faster than most other rats. This allows her to grab objectives quicker and respond to battlefield conditions more rapidly.

Proficiencies and Action Cards

Action cards can be used by heroes on the ground as well. Staborah has the sword and shield proficiencies. The sword proficiency unlocks all kinds of melee attack options such as Poison Knowhow, Battlesqueak, and Back Slash. She also has the shield proficiency which will allow her to exploit future defensive action cards (the base does not include a defensive action card that she can use).

Strategy

Staborah is a dependable, low-cost hero that puts pressure on the enemy's nest. Use her to spearhead your assaults and rely on her presence to divert your opponent's attention away from attacking your home nest. She must be dealt with as 3 dice melee attacks will tear a nest up.

Nest Blitz: Use a bird to transport Staborah, a siege mission, or a leaf to get her into your opponent's tree. Once there, her stats get the bump and she can attack the opponent's nest. Try to use the Back Slash action card to attack twice each time you activate her. Before your opponent can deal with her, you will have damaged their nest quite a bit.

Assassin: When dealing with opponent's heroes and creatures, Staborah can be quite effective, especially when using certain action cards. Poison Knowhow can really increase her damage output, and Back Slash can be used to cut down foot troops fairly efficiently.

Fast Response: Many scenarios will have objectives both for birds and for foot troops. With her speed, Staborah can grab and hold objectives better than any other foot unit currently in the rat army. Some objectives require that you destroy something. Staborah can be your go-to for objective based scenarios.

Nest Defender: Sometimes you find yourself on the ropes. Staborah can help defend your home nest from invaders bent on destruction. Get her into their space and use action cards to augment her attacks and eliminate the threat.

Heroes Abound

In addition to Staborah, Tail Feathers includes unit cards for all the figures found in the Mice & Mystics base game. This means there are many hero figures and creatures to choose from. On the rat team, Staborah is the only ground hero so far, so her importance cannot be overlooked, and she will undoubtedly be leading your rats into battle many times.

Written by Jerry Hawthorne.
Jerry Hawthorne is the designer of Tail Feathers as well as Mice and Mystics.

Click here to pre-order Tail Feathers today for $15 off the retail price and a special promo Mice and Mystics scenario with initiative and search cards compatible with Mice and Mystics: Downwood Tales!

Tail Feathers Preview Articles
Videos: Video Overview
Week 1: Round Phases, Story Part 1
Week 2: Flight Basics, Aerijin & Zure, Story Part 2
Week 3: Attacking, Grizzard & Snag, Story Part 3
Week 4: Ground Troops, Snibble and Sienna, Valchirp and Wella, Story Part 3
Week 5: Scenarios