[rdhight]

Well, I'll add some content. I've been playing Sujoah and the Fyorlag Spiders off-and-on in draft games. Not a big fan of bonding armies with only one hero (or having 305 points of melee figures in my army!), but I have more respect for the bugs than I thought I would. That 8 and 7 move is a big, big help.

1. I tried Sujoah alone and with spiders x2, but I think spiders x3 is the right thing to do unless you badly need the start zone spaces or points for something critical. If you're up against something like Cyprien, Zombies, or Tagawas that will thrive on your spiders, you're probably going to be better off ditching the whole Aquilla crowd and going another route altogether. Unless you're fighting soulborgs, Cyprien and Venom are miles better than a non-bonding Sujoah.

2. Against almost all enemies, you want Sujoah and the spiders to engage simultaneously or close to it. You want to get the maximum possible four-attack turns. If you fly Sujoah forward 8 spaces on the first spider marker, it's likely that you'll end up getting just his one attack for a turn or two, then a turn or two of four attacks, and then Sujoah will die early with lots of non-bonding spiders left running around. Often, I'll use Sujoah's first turn to move him onto road or height near my start zone and let some spiders get a head start. There are those times when you just have to get that glyph, or engage with Zelrig, or what-have-you, but letting the spiders run ahead does seem to work well in many cases.

3. It's more convenient to have Sujoah die first, not the spiders. If you have two or three of those 2-defense spiders left and Sujoah is barely scratched, you have to look ahead and predict which order markers are safe to put on the spiders and which aren't. It leads to waste. With spiders x3, you're more likely to have a comfortable supply of the squad figures left when their boss dies, so they can seamlessly continue on with no loss of turns (often blocking for the next ranged wave coming up behind).

4. Don't be seduced by Entangling Web or Poison Sting. It is not a requirement to entangle in order to get good use out of the spiders. Some games, you won't entangle. Some games, you'll never even be in a position to entangle. That doesn't mean they stink. Likewise, drafting Sujoah doesn't mean you have the "right" to poison everyone to death. I think of him as having a 4 attack against 1-life figures and in the neighborhood of a 5-6 attack against multi-lifers. And just like the guy with 6 attack dice sometimes whiffs, so will the sting special attack. Just be glad it is a special attack and therefore has some little perks attached.

5. Use Sujoah to influence your opponent to draft squads. Point 4 notwithstanding, the nice thing about this bonding group's d20 powers is that they do in fact work against all sizes/races/classes/etc., so that the main thing they can do to counter-draft you is to take a bunch of squads and decrease the attack power of Poison Sting. If you have a hankering to play Zelrig, DW8000, or your squad-killer of choice, Sujoah may bring your prey to you.