My First Tourney - Looking for Advice

[Slaader]

So I'll be honest, I don't get to play nearly as much as I'd like. I'm really excited about the tournament coming up in Boston next month (http://www.heroscapers.com/community/showthread.php?t=10080&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0). I'm really excited to meet other 'scapers in the area, and play more games in one day then I will play in the entire month leading up to the tourney.

My army? No clue! My army building skills...so far I just pick some heroes/squads I think are neat, and I play. I haven't crunched the odds on defense vs attack. I certainly haven't been paying attention to synergy.

So Any advice for first time army building? How you do you do it? What do you look for when playing a game? Fun factor? Stats? Color Scheme?

Tell me your secrets!!!!!!! :wink:

[Slaader]

I know it will be asked: What do I have?

1 - Master set
1 - Zombies
1 - Lawmen/Samurai
1 - Ninja/Samurai
1 - Laglor (Flag Bearer)
1 - Wave 6 Heroes (Kiova, Kaemon Awa, Kee-Mo-Shi, Runa, Eldrgrim)

1 - Marvel Expansion (won't be allowed in the Boston tournament)

[Jexik]

How many points is the tournament? What you currently have doesn't give that many options, but you might be able to do okay if you stick to some of the most powerful unique squads and heroes from the Master set and toss Kaemon Awa in there.

500:
Krav Maga Agents 100
Raelin 180
Kaemon Awa 300
Airborne Elite 410

And then spend your last 90 on either Ne-Gok-Sa or Marro/Tarn Warriors+ Eldgrim. No matter what, your army will be somewhat clunky when it comes to order marker placement.

For 400 points, I would probably go:
KMA
Raelin
Kaemon Awa
Tarn Vikings
Marro Warriors

Edit: Forget the second half, it's a 500 pt tourney after all. You could also maybe use the second army and add on the Kozuke for your last 100 points, or replace Eldgrim with Guilty McCreech in the first army. If you really want to use the Ninja, replace the AE with them, but keep in mind than anything with a special attack will make mincemeat out of the Ninjas. (Nilfheim, Q9, Kaemon Awa, etc.)

[yagyuninja]

I think the Raelin, KM, KA, combo might be a good bet, with the Tagawa Samurai thrown in as your bruisers.

Raelin - 80
Tagawa Samurai - 120
Kaemon Awa - 120
Krav Maga - 100

That leaves 80 points. What you have already is a solid ranged hero and squad, and a solid melee squad. What you don't have is numbers, or any sort of fodder. You also will have a difficult time managing order markers, but I don't think that's avoidable. SO:

1) You could add Marro or Tarn plus Eldgrim or Guilty to boost your numbers.
2) You could add Thorgrim or Finn for a melee hero (that could also boost your tagawa or Krav)
3) You could add the Zettians to consolidate your invincible ranged squadron.

All of those sound plausible to me, but each will require a completely different play style. How do you like to play?

EDIT: I messed up Kaemon's points. Had to change everything. :P

[rdhight]

yagyuninja, I like the idea of Raelin, Krav, Kaemon, Tagawa, but I'm surprised that in all your suggestions to fill up that last 80 points, you didn't offer James Murphy. That's what I would take: skip the fodder and go Raelin, Krav, Kaemon, Tagawa, Murphy.

It probably isn't as strong, but here's a long-range group using a few units that haven't been mentioned much:

120 Kaemon Awa
110 Ninjas
110 Airborne Elite
100 Syvarris
060 Deadeye Dan

[Rÿchean]

Yeah you don't have much to choose from.

Kaemon Awa 120
Airborne Elite 110
Laglor 110
Krav Maga Agents 100
Izumi Samurai 60
500

Your markers in early game will be Krav and Izumi and some Laglor to get that range bonus. Izumi for glyph holding. When AE do drop you should be able to do some damge then revert back to Krav Laglor combo. Save K.Awa for mid to late game.

[yagyuninja]

yagyuninja, I like the idea of Raelin, Krav, Kaemon, Tagawa, but I'm surprised that in all your suggestions to fill up that last 80 points, you didn't offer James Murphy. That's what I would take: skip the fodder and go Raelin, Krav, Kaemon, Tagawa, Murphy.

It probably isn't as strong, but here's a long-range group using a few units that haven't been mentioned much:

120 Kaemon Awa
110 Ninjas
110 Airborne Elite
100 Syvarris
060 Deadeye Dan

Whoops, yeah he's a good one. I forgot Guilty too until the last second. I guess I don't think of the cowboys first because I don't use them too often.

[ASmiles]

My army? No clue! My army building skills...so far I just pick some heroes/squads I think are neat, and I play. I haven't crunched the odds on defense vs attack. I certainly haven't been paying attention to synergy.

So Any advice for first time army building? How you do you do it? What do you look for when playing a game? Fun factor? Stats? Color Scheme?

Tell me your secrets!!!!!!! :wink:

First, you're going to be playing 3-5 matches in a row with the same army. So make sure it's an army that enjoy playing with. It doesn't matter how good someone on the internet says the army is. You're going to spend 4-6 hours playing with it. Make sure it's fun.

While it's helpful if your army "fits" together, it's not a requirement. It's more important that you know what your army is capable of and what it's weaknesses are than you find or are given a "perfect" army that you don't know how to play.

If you need/want a specific unit, just ask. Lots of people at the tourney have all of the figures and will let you borrow a figure or two if you ask ahead of time. You can use proxies during testing and then use the real figure for the tournament.

Also, if it affects your choices, so far all of the Beatdown's have been glyphless. I expect that will continue.

See you there.

[Slaader]

thanks ASmiles! Great advice, and thats really how I was planning on handling it. I'm going to order a few packs before the tourney, so hopefully I'll have some fun stuff to chose from.

I shouldn't have listed all my figs, I was looking for more responses like yours.

Much thanks to the people helping me work with what I got though.

[mrbistro]

You also need an army that can react to the different styles of opposition you will see. Generally speaking, blended armies do best. You need to be able to take out ranged opponents as well as melee ones, fight squad-heavy armies and some made up entirely of heroes. Don't rely too much on special abilities that can be taken away from you. You need to be comfortable with your army too. At the last Beantown Beatdown I took a great army (I know this because ASmiles won with an almost identical force) but wasn't very familiar with it. As a result I played clumsily and performed terribly.

Also, don't sweat it too much. Even if you lose every game (been there) you'll have a great time!

[Jexik]

If you do plan on getting a pack or two, I'd highly recommend getting Raknar's Vision, the second large hero pack. Nilfheim, Q9, and Braxas are all quite good, and they obviously don't require multiples to be effective.

[Dr. Weirdscaper]

I know it will be asked: What do I have?

1 - Master set
1 - Zombies
1 - Lawmen/Samurai
1 - Ninja/Samurai
1 - Laglor (Flag Bearer)
1 - Wave 6 Heroes (Kiova, Kaemon Awa, Kee-Mo-Shi, Runa, Eldrgrim)

1 - Marvel Expansion (won't be allowed in the Boston tournament)
GENTLEMEN...

If you want a good "back from the dead army
with what you have, I would recomend:

x2 Zombies
Marro Warriors (they can sorta come back from the dead)
Deathwalker 9000 (he has the word "Death" in his name)
All 3 Viking Champions (even in death, they serve you)

Remember, you can add the Viking auras to DW9000 OR
Marro Warriors. Just remember to keep one MW off to the side for cloning.