Examining the Guard Class in Heroscape

"The eyes of your emperor are upon you." So spoke Napoleon to his Old Guard infantry, the solid, indefatigable force that formed the backbone of the 19th century French army. The Old Guard formed the emperor's bodyguard, a potent tactical reserve that was to be unleashed if the battle turned south. Napoleon knew the value of a solid force, ready to protect vital assets and become the ultimate reserve...And you should too. However mundane the task, guards fulfill an important mission: keeping something, or someone, safe. In, Heroscape, the role of the guard is indeed an important one, and one that should be taken advantage of. This post will focus on the role of the Guard class, provide examples of guard strategies, and assist you in successfully implementing Guards within your own armies.

In essence, the role of a guard is to protect a key asset, whether it be a cheerleader, glyph, or even terrain. Enter the Guard class: units that have the stats to protect these assets, with smoking gun, bloody chain, or jackboot heel. When drafting or crafting armies, attention is usually paid to offensive units that can kill the enemy, and defensive cheerleaders that can hold the fort and provide stats-boosting or other critical facets of strategy. Guards tend to fall in the defensive category: draft them to protect your army core and valuable assets. This can include protecting cheerleaders, such as Raelin; critical glyphs; or even terrain, such as a small hill that provides elevation for your ranged units. Although members of the guard class are rarely viewed as competitive*, each member has abilities that can be used to help you win games. In order to give you a strategic synopsis of these abilities, I will be discussing each member of the Guard class in detail.

The Guard class is comprised of:

• Marrden Nagrubs
• Blastatrons
• Zettian Guards
• Dumutef Guard
• Gurei-Oni
• Obsidian Guards
• Granite Guardians
• Drow Chainfighter
• Warden 816: One Guard to rule them all

Let's kick if off with the Marrden Nagrubs.

With a high movement, and cheap cost, grubs are the perfect guard, ready to be sacrificed in an instant for their hivelord. As the only guard class with bonafide bonding (their bonding offers 3 attacks of 2/3, in collaboration with the hivelord's attack.), they perform a selfless duty: surrounding the hivelord, locking up potential threats, and sacrificing themselves to keep the hivelord alive. For a mere 10 points per grub, you can ensure that your hivelord will be around long enough to remove all threats from the game. In fact, you should be willing to take proactive risks, since every attack on your grubs is one less attack on your important hivelord. Ideally, if/when your hivelord is destroyed, you should have no grubs left. However, in the event that you have not lost all of them, they can make a passable end-game squad, moreso if your hivelord did his duty and destroyed all of the tough heroes. With their high movement, they can easily gain height and attack/defend with 3 dice, which can just be enough to clinch a late victory. Adding the Warden grants your grubs a movement of 7, which should be more than adequate to gain height and the coveted extra attack die.

Nagrub builds:

Tor-Kul-Na 220
Nagrubs x3 310
Marro Warriors 360
Marcu 380, 16 spaces

~Dok used this build with success in a 2010 Colorado tourney.

Tor-Kul-Na 220
Nagrubs x3 310
Phantom Knights x3 520, 20 spaces

~Another TKN build, with the grubs sticking close to the hivelord for sacrifice and as a mobile meat shield. Use the Knights to take on ranged threats and to bypass rat screens.

Su-Bak-Na 160
Nagrubs x2 220
Marro Dividers x 5 470, 23 spaces

Su-Bak-Na 160
Grubs x3 250
Stingers x4 490, 23 spaces


~Use your grubs to keep a protective shield of flesh around the defensively weak hivelord.

In closing, remember these points:

• To avoid losing order markers due to your grubs getting wiped out, keep one grub tucked away in a reserve location.
• Grubs are loyal, and should be played as such. They are not afraid to "take one for the team," so don't be afraid to put your grubs in harm's way. Remember, each attack on a grub is one less potential wound on your hivelord.

Please share your thoughts and experiences with the Nagrubs.

Examining the Guard Class Part 1
Examining the Guard Class Part 2
Examining the Guard Class Part 3
Examining the Guard Class Part 4
Examining the Guard Class Part 5
Examining the Guard Class Part 6

*DISCLAIMER: my personal experience involves the casual game, but the competitive expert's opinions and knowledge are respected and encouraged on these blog posts. Namely, please set me straight when you disagree with any of my competitive assumptions.