"Taelord costs too much."

We've all read it before. We've all said it before. It's a truism that is pretty much as old as Heroscape websites.

Anyone who read my article in codex 10 will probably start to see the issue here. The game isn't just about points, but about what you are doing with your turns. That's the basis of all of my order marker essays, and the first step on the real route to solid play.

I threw around the term turn productivity in my first order marker article, without ever taking the time to define it. Productivity in economic terms is the amount of output you get from a unit of input. Turn productivity (or perhaps more accurately order marker productivity) in Heroscape terms is simply what you get out of a given turn. How many figures are activated and how many dice can they potentially roll on their attacks in the space of one order marker? That's turn productivity.

So why does Marcu Esenwein,...

Last time, I hypothesized that figures like Cyprien, Marro Stingers, Marcu, and Isamu marked a new trend in the life and devolopment of the tournament metagame. We had new units that used the d20, but yet were still competitively priced and powerful. I conjectured that Sujoah and the Fyorlag Spiders might be a continuation of this trend.

However, in light of recent Gencon and National Heroscape Day tournaments, this does not seem to be the case. Sure, the Stingers are very powerful and have even earned a spot as an A+ unit in spider's Power Rankings, but Sujoah seems to be a bit too focused as a Hero/Unique Squad killer. Similarly the Fyorlag Spiders' special just seems to hard to get to work very often because of their low defense. New Predators in the future could certainly turn this all around though.

So what has happened since last year?

The Zelrig Effect
I love the smell of Majestic Fires in the morning.

The...

In an effort to keep some weird army v. player distinction, I went back through all of my old battle reports and tallied up my wins and losses. With a total of 113 tournament games, I have a record of 82-31, but I wanted to see how I did with certain units as well as against certain units.

The underlined part in any category marks where my record goes past the breaking point of 72%, which is my record against everything. When looking at the armies that I've played, units below the underline have performed less well. Units below the line in my opponent's data, these are units that have done above average against me.

This may say more about my own personal preferences in army selection and weaknesses, but I found it interesting.

Playing Style/Nemesis Data!

The first block of stuff is just my records using each different unit. I'm not all that adventurous when it comes to army construction. My worst outing (2-3) was with a...

Thirteen Tournament Postulates

Here are some little rules that I’ve thought of and conglomerated after numerous discussions on these forums. Tournament directors and attendees should be conscious of these factors and how they affect what people will play.

1. As time goes by, previously unbeatable armies will look less impressive, not only because of new and better alternatives, but also because people will have learned how to counter strategies and popular units of the past.

2. As time goes by, more people will begin to have access to “everything,” and their collections will increase in size. Saying that ‘no one will play that many Blastatrons or 4th Mass’ etc... will not be safe to say any more unless expressly prohibited by the tournament regulations.

3. People will also start to play more ‘good’ units, either because they read strategy articles, or they remember how they lost to Major Q9 or Deathreavers.

4....

Evolution of the Tournament Metagame: A Brief History

Here are a few ground rules outlining my thinking before going forward:

1. Heroscape is awesome, fun, and competitive. These ideals can coexist peacefully.
2. This largely assumes the standard tournament structure that requires a player to use the same premade army all day. Drafting changes things a lot.
3. I suck at Heroscape. I make no claims to be the best, but I like to observe others and play the game. I've also only been playing since last July, and I went to my first tournament in October. If I make any false claims, call me out on my BS.
4. This is largely theoryscape, but it is empirical theoryscape. I watch how and what I play. I watch what the top players play. I listen to and watch how people react to an ever-changing game.

Heroscape: BCE (Before Common Era- I forget who thought of this, but it is quite an effective way to describe the ‘good old...