Factions in Review

[Dredd Stev]

With the release of ‘the new stuff’ (Since this post will one day be an old one… wave 8, wave 8.5 and TJ) we have seen several factions grow to great masses. Themes like the Marro and Samurai, started all the way back in RotV have filled out to an amazing extent, and newer factions have indeed started to fill them selves out, most notably Ullars Elves.

Now I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here, nor is anything I have to say of particular insight, but I’ve got some time to kill this morning and this is a little project I’ve had in mind for a while. Basically I’m going to give an overview of several of the now established factions, present their major strengths and weaknesses and propose what we may see in the future of said theme.

First things first, let’s get a list of some of these “major factions”. There are several smaller “themes” that exist in Heroscape too, the distinction I make is that a theme is not yet a faction unless it has 5+ cards in the faction (Omni’s for example have only two cards in their theme, thus they are not yet on my list of factions). While there are several themes that I would LOVE to see grow into factions in their own right, I will exclude them from this article in the interest of keeping this from being a short book…

Also there can be an argument made for race/personality ‘factions’ as well. By and large these themes can get very big, and don’t really have the ‘feel’ of a faction as I present them here. As such I’ve excluded them too, with the major exceptions being to some of the “racial” factions likes Orcs, Elves, Marro and Soulborgs. There is some room for debate about who belongs in a given faction too, and this is just my option I’m spouting here. Please feel free to make suggestions about figures that have been left out or included (and should not have been). Also while many factions are general-specific there are a few that reach across the color barrier (these factions are marked with an asterisk).

Jandar:
*Vikings (Add Valguard)
Knights / Sentinels

Ullar:
Elves
Vipers

Einar:
*Soldiers/Warlords (AE, Drake and 4th are all soldiers too)
Samurai

Vydar:
*Soulborgs (Vydar has his own theme of "borg", but you can have a mixed robot army too)
Agents

Utgar:
Orc / Beasts
Death-botsMarro
*Horror (Sudema and Dund feel at home here too…more so Sudema)

Aquilla:
BUGS! (Still only a ‘theme’ at this point… but I wanted to give her some love)

These are the most of the major factions by their respective general. There are also several “mixed factions” in the game too. They are units that look and feel very good together, but are a little bit of a hodge-podge of several units from many different generals. Some of the more notable “mixed factions” include:

Cowboys: (Jandar, Ulllar, Vydar, Einar) (Only 4 cards I know… but gotta give some law-men love!)

Ninja / Monks: (Ullar, Vydar, Utgar, Einar, Aquilla)
Dragons: (Everyone but Aquilla)

I’m sure people can think of more factions that both look and feel strong, I was going to included “Guards”, but I find that the armies that you can build from such a restriction tend to look like a mish mash and play very similarly (so I excluded them). Also, I didn’t include ‘valiant’ as a faction, as I find that it often doesn’t look as good as a pure knight/sentinel build. I will not go into detail on both, as the only real difference is that the valiant builds will have 4th Mass, and therefore be much more well rounded over the non-range knightly builds.

[Dredd Stev]

Let’s start the analysis with Utgar, as he has some of the most established factions in all of Heroscape.

Orc / Beast (Orcish Hoard)
Often argued to be one of the most well rounded and powerful factions in the game, the Orcish hoard (and their beastly brothers) can be an amazingly effective fighting force. With plenty of bonding options, a ranged bonding squad, and great anti-squad and anti-hero attacks these wild blue-skinned warriors have proven themselves on the battle fields of Valhalla again and again.

Prototype Build
Blade Gruts x3 120
Arrow Gruts x3 120
Heavy Gruts x3 210
Grimnak 120
Tornak 100
Ornak 100
Nerak 50
Brunak 110
Swog x4 100
Krug 120
Mimring 150
TOTAL 1300

Average Hero Stats (per card):
Attack: 3.1
Defense: 3.9
Move: 6.4
Range (of ranged figures): 0
Life: 4
Other Hero Stats:
# of unique heroes: 7
1 medium (Ornak)
2 large (Tornak, Nerak)
4 huge (Grimnak, Brunak, Krug, Mimring)
# of common heroes: 1x41 x4 large (Swog)
# of melee SA’s: 1
# of ranged SA’s: 1
# of auto kill’s: 1
# of bonding heroes: 7
Average Squad Stats (per card):
Attack: 2
Defense: 2
Move: 5.7
Range (of ranged figs): 6
Other Squad Stats:
# of unique squads: 0
# of unique figures: 0
# of common squads: 3
# of common figures: 33
9 medium (Arrow Gruts)
12 medium (Blade Gruts)
12 medium (Heavy Gruts)
# of ranged squads: 1
# of ranged figures: 9
# of melee squads: 2
# of melee figures: 24
# of ranged SA’s : 0
# of melee SA’s: 0
# of bonding squads: 3

Major Strengths & Weaknesses
The Orcs have the most bonding options of any faction in the game (albeit spread out over two hero classes: Orc Champion and Beast) and offer several auras and boosts to both of the bonding squad classes (Orc Warriors and Orc Archers). This combined with the massive number of figures that can disengage makes the Orcish hoard an amazingly mobile swarm-type faction. Their wide range of bonding choices often affords them the luxury to react to enemy troop movements in the most effective matter, sending out anti-squad heroes (Mimring or Grimnak) or anti-hero heroes (Krug) as needed. This same idea applies to more supportive heroes too, as the likes of Nerak or Ornak can be brought closer to the warriors they enhance without ‘wasting’ markers on them. On top of all that, Tornak and Mimring have enough movement potential (with movement scores of 7 (with disengage) and 6 (with flight) respectively) to act as a solid assassination figure, making a quick and hard strike at a key figure. Ornak offers a further “bonding” type ability with red flag of fury, though not quite so powerful with all the bonding available anyway, it is none the less a scary thing to move Mimring AND another hero. With Brunak along he can carry Utgar’s flag bearer as one of the activations, keeping him in the required range to use Red Flag more than once or twice in the game, AND bringing him closer to the front lines where his aura can be applied!

The hoard is not without its weaknesses however. They have a major shortage of both range and SA’s, and against the right army this can be devastating. While they can often run right past screeners, they often have to do so at the cost of losing their champions’ enhancements. Their hero set also suffers from a lower-than average life/def score, and many heavy hitters (figures with 5+ attack) can strike down the somewhat fragile Orc/Beast heroes in only a few hits (the major exception here is Krug). Also, while highly mobile many of the heroes are double-spaced, and there is only one hero with flight or another movement-type bonus so on hilly and/or maps with lots of “slow down” terrain the Hoard will often have a hard time deploying quickly enough. As is a major threat to all swarm type factions, explosion attacks can also wreak havoc on deployment and positioning.

Future Figures?
Heavy Arrow Gruts: -1 move, +1/+1 attack/defense over the Arrow Gruts.
Heavy Swog -2 move, +2att/def over normal Swog.
Triceratops Orc Champion – Bigger point value, harder to kill than Grimnak and some sort of charging attack bonus.
Pterodactyl Orc Champion- Flight and range.

Selected Readings:
Battlecry of the Orcs - Part I
Battlecry of the Orcs - Part II
Strategic Maneuvers Army Specific: Swog Spearhead
Strategic Maneuvers Army Specific: Orc Raiders
Intensive Army Analysis: Orcs
Unit Strategy Review: How to use Brunak
Unit Strategy Review: How to use Ornak
Unit Strategy Review: How to use the Swog Rider
Unit Strategy Review: How to Use Mimring
Unit Strategy Review: How to use Nerak, Glacian Swog Rider
Unit Strategy Review: How to use Grimnak
Strategy against Krug/Arrow Gruts/Swog Army
Grimnak/Heavy Grut Combo Effectiveness
Strategy with championship arrow gruts/krug/swogs


EDIT: Next time I'll have a look at the mighty Marro Faction... should be fun (and have a TON of links...)

EDIT: Big Time Thank you to Menchy who very graciously proofed and edited this article for me.

[Shades fan]

Wow nice well thought out post....I here a Rep coming from around the corner!

[jedi_imperium]

Excellent post! Looking forward to seeing the other factions.

[Onion Knight]

The selected readings section is a nice touch.

[Menchy]

Good job Dredd. Especially nice grammar and spelling.

[SpartanNinja]

Excellent work Dredd! I like the idea.

[jedilou]

Dredd Stev,

I like the concept. Love the Orc analysis; great choice for the first faction breakdown.

I guess + rep will have to wait for later ...
"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Dredd Stev again."

[Dark Lord o' THIRST]

It was great! Can't wait 'til the Horror faction.

[Einar's puppy]

Vipers have 3 cards, thus are a theme and not a faction. Just thought you aught to no.

Let me tell you, I really want to play an orc army, but I have none of them. even my friend who has them has no swogs, krug, and only one of each squad...

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Einar's puppy

Vipers have 3 cards, thus are a theme and not a faction. Just thought you aught to no.

Let me tell you, I really want to play an orc army, but I have none of them. even my friend who has them has no swogs, krug, and only one of each squad...

You don't have Grimnak??

[Einar's puppy]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

You don't have Grimnak??

Okay, I've got him, the flag bearer, and mimring, that's it