Heroscapers
Go Back   Heroscapers > Official Valhalla HeroScape > Competitive Armies Discussion
Competitive Armies Discussion Discuss, critique, and build ideas for tournament-caliber armies.

Notices


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old September 5th, 2020, 03:10 AM
Figure's Avatar
Figure Figure is offline
 
Join Date: May 10, 2008
Location: USA-Tucson-Arizona
Posts: 176
Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker
How do you use Marro well?

Brief back story really quickly, started playing Heroscape in 2007 with RotV and my friend got SotM a couple of months later when it released. I had various other units as well, enough to make a full marro army but whenever either of us used marro we would get wiped. 12 years later after a long hiatus I am rebuilding my collection from nothing and I have to say, either I am still as bad as a 13 year old with no knowledge or the marro aren't very good.

Before making this thread I looked for one addressing this and maybe I missed it but I saw nothing. Today, for instance, I was playing a themed game; Jandar Nordic/Heroic units vs marro. 710 points on Sir Heroscapes Arroyo map and NGS shackled not only my Nilfheim but Thorgrim in consecutive turns and it still wasn't a close game. Oppenent had hive, 2x stingers, warriors, NGS, KMS, and SBN and it wasn't really even a competitive game.

Now I have drones x2 and Me-Burq-Sa in the mail and maybe those are the missing links but does anyone have some insight as to why the marro always seem weak?
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old September 5th, 2020, 04:18 AM
rednax's Avatar
rednax rednax is offline
Runa's favorite Minion
 
Join Date: August 6, 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 2,311
Images: 4
rednax wears ripped pants of awesomeness rednax wears ripped pants of awesomeness rednax wears ripped pants of awesomeness rednax wears ripped pants of awesomeness rednax wears ripped pants of awesomeness rednax wears ripped pants of awesomeness
Re: How do you use Marro well?

The strength of the Marro comes from certain units more than others.

Marro Stingers, Marro Warriors, Tor-Kul-Na w/ Marrden Nagrubs, and even Marro Dividers are all pretty competitive. The key is that with all of these units, you can get 3-5 attacks/abilities in per turn which is a huge difference compared to units like SBN and MBS.

The other thing is that Marro really have to be used in a swarm. The more commons you have, the more effective they'll be. Most people probably play with 3-5 squads of Stingers for example. If you want to play Drones, most would recommend 5 squads to achieve their full potential.

If you don't have that many of each squad, you could possibly still piece together a decent army. Just focus more on loading up with the stronger units I mentioned above.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old September 5th, 2020, 05:11 PM
Vydar_XLIII's Avatar
Vydar_XLIII Vydar_XLIII is offline
 
Join Date: October 3, 2008
Location: USA - PA - Philadelphia
Posts: 1,580
Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla
Re: How do you use Marro well?

I don't know what the Jandar army looked like but the biggest flaw I see with the Marro army you posted is that it is mostly high cost, single attack heroes. A somewhat simplistic view of the how to win the game is to maximize the number of attack dice you roll per order marker. When looking at an army through this lens, suddenly the 50 point Marro Warriors are doing more work per turn than the 160 point Su-Bak-Na.

IMO, the Hive is never worth its points, it cant move, its attack is terrible, in this army composition it would need to rebirth 8 Stingers in order to make its points back. Rebirth happens 40% of the time, so the other 60% an order marker on the stingers is objectively better. It could possibly have use to simplify order markers if you're running multiple different common squads, say 2x Stingers, 2x Drones, 2x Drudge, then you get a shot at rebirth each turn and 3 options of squads to activate each OM. In the army you listed above, its 160 points of dead-weight.

Stingers, in large numbers, are the gold standard for a 3 person ranged squad and are arguably one of the easiest units to play. Their stats start good, they don't need to meet any conditions to become good or to boost their stats, such as squads like the Mohecans need to. I like to play them at 4 squads minimum. It is also worth noting that a critical rule to follow while playing with stingers is to never use stinger drain. There, of course, are exceptions to this rule, but more often than not its not worth it.

Marro Warriors are one of the best unique squads in the game. Not because they kill everything all the time but because they almost always kill more than 50 points. With 6 move and 6 range they are very maneuverable. They can spread out and cover a very large area of the board and threaten everything with 4 attacks of 3 (assuming height, which you should have). Once one or two fall they have the opportunity to respawn themselves so they don't have the weakness that most other unique squads have. Other uniques lose value once their numbers dwindle, but the MWs stay threatening with even one left. Good for a few first round attacks or gylph grabs and if you keep on safe, they can clone and come back in the endgame to clean up.

Ne-Gok-Sa and Me-Burq-Sa are significantly worse by themselves or with other marro, then when they are with a unit that bonds with them such as the Romans or the Death Chasers.

Kee-Mo-Shi is bad. Don't play her.

Su-Bak-Na isn't great. Essentially you're paying 160 points to have a Glyph of Lodin. not worth it. Adding a few squads of Nagrubs makes him better, but Tor-Kul-Na and Wo-Sa-Ga are strictly better with Nagrubs.

Assuming you have access to all the SotM figures. The 710 point army I would make is...

Ne-Gok-Sa
Su-Bak-Na
Tor-Kul-Na
2x Marrden Nagrubs
2x Marro Stingers
Marro Warriors
700 Points, 21 spaces
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old September 5th, 2020, 05:15 PM
Figure's Avatar
Figure Figure is offline
 
Join Date: May 10, 2008
Location: USA-Tucson-Arizona
Posts: 176
Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Oh wow I didn't realize it takes that many squads as I've read the minimum you want for commons is 2 squads, of course more would be better, I just thought 2 squads would make them competitive. So with the amount of units I currently have maybe I'll relegate Marro to small point armies until I build up more. (drones going for 50$ a pop it brutal)
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old September 5th, 2020, 05:22 PM
Figure's Avatar
Figure Figure is offline
 
Join Date: May 10, 2008
Location: USA-Tucson-Arizona
Posts: 176
Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vydar is the man View Post
I don't know what the Jandar army looked like but the biggest flaw I see with the Marro army you posted is that it is mostly high cost, single attack heroes. A somewhat simplistic view of the how to win the game is to maximize the number of attack dice you roll per order marker. When looking at an army through this lens, suddenly the 50 point Marro Warriors are doing more work per turn than the 160 point Su-Bak-Na.

IMO, the Hive is never worth its points, it cant move, its attack is terrible, in this army composition it would need to rebirth 8 Stingers in order to make its points back. Rebirth happens 40% of the time, so the other 60% an order marker on the stingers is objectively better. It could possibly have use to simplify order markers if you're running multiple different common squads, say 2x Stingers, 2x Drones, 2x Drudge, then you get a shot at rebirth each turn and 3 options of squads to activate each OM. In the army you listed above, its 160 points of dead-weight.

Stingers, in large numbers, are the gold standard for a 3 person ranged squad and are arguably one of the easiest units to play. Their stats start good, they don't need to meet any conditions to become good or to boost their stats, such as squads like the Mohecans need to. I like to play them at 4 squads minimum. It is also worth noting that a critical rule to follow while playing with stingers is to never use stinger drain. There, of course, are exceptions to this rule, but more often than not its not worth it.

Marro Warriors are one of the best unique squads in the game. Not because they kill everything all the time but because they almost always kill more than 50 points. With 6 move and 6 range they are very maneuverable. They can spread out and cover a very large area of the board and threaten everything with 4 attacks of 3 (assuming height, which you should have). Once one or two fall they have the opportunity to respawn themselves so they don't have the weakness that most other unique squads have. Other uniques lose value once their numbers dwindle, but the MWs stay threatening with even one left. Good for a few first round attacks or gylph grabs and if you keep on safe, they can clone and come back in the endgame to clean up.

Ne-Gok-Sa and Me-Burq-Sa are significantly worse by themselves or with other marro, then when they are with a unit that bonds with them such as the Romans or the Death Chasers.

Kee-Mo-Shi is bad. Don't play her.

Su-Bak-Na isn't great. Essentially you're paying 160 points to have a Glyph of Lodin. not worth it. Adding a few squads of Nagrubs makes him better, but Tor-Kul-Na and Wo-Sa-Ga are strictly better with Nagrubs.

Assuming you have access to all the SotM figures. The 710 point army I would make is...

Ne-Gok-Sa
Su-Bak-Na
Tor-Kul-Na
2x Marrden Nagrubs
2x Marro Stingers
Marro Warriors
700 Points, 21 spaces
The Jandar army was

Tarn
Airborne Elite
Raelin (RotV)
The 3 Viking Warriors
Nilfheim
Edit:And Syvarris to fit the "heroic" theme

My AE got a turn two drop and they cleaned the entire map grabbing height before the Marro could. I'll try out that army too next time a play Marro. I'm slowly adding enough common squads to field more swarm like teams but All Things Heroscape prices seem high and EBay's have been even higher. Was looking at getting a lot of drones and Wo-Sa-Ga yesterday but 5 squads of drones plus WSG is 400$.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old September 5th, 2020, 09:53 PM
Vydar_XLIII's Avatar
Vydar_XLIII Vydar_XLIII is offline
 
Join Date: October 3, 2008
Location: USA - PA - Philadelphia
Posts: 1,580
Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brunaks View Post
Oh wow I didn't realize it takes that many squads as I've read the minimum you want for commons is 2 squads, of course more would be better, I just thought 2 squads would make them competitive. So with the amount of units I currently have maybe I'll relegate Marro to small point armies until I build up more. (drones going for 50$ a pop it brutal)
So you CAN play common squads at 2x, but since I own 6x Stingers I rarely play them at less than 4x. Depending on the format, for example OnlineCon General wars, where there was a 200 point limit on common squads, 2x or 3x are the only options.

Quote:
Originally Posted by rednax View Post
The other thing is that Marro really have to be used in a swarm. The more commons you have, the more effective they'll be. Most people probably play with 3-5 squads of Stingers for example. If you want to play Drones, most would recommend 5 squads to achieve their full potential.
The drones have a different minimum than most common squads due to their Hive Swarm ability. Just reading the card tells you that they need at least 3x in order to get the most out of them. Every squad above 3x is 3 more figures that can die before Hive Swarm starts to become less powerful. Thats why rednax says 5x is optimal. (Note: I don't own any Drones, and only played against them once, so I have no experience if 5x is optimal or not)
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old September 6th, 2020, 02:06 AM
Figure's Avatar
Figure Figure is offline
 
Join Date: May 10, 2008
Location: USA-Tucson-Arizona
Posts: 176
Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Yes I know you CAN at 2x I just worded that poorly. I meant I thought that was the baseline for how many common squads to field but doing a lot more reading on strategy and army discussions I see that is not the case. Thank you all for the insight, I have more stingers and x3 drones in the mail so we shall see how it goes.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old September 6th, 2020, 04:56 PM
Vydar_XLIII's Avatar
Vydar_XLIII Vydar_XLIII is offline
 
Join Date: October 3, 2008
Location: USA - PA - Philadelphia
Posts: 1,580
Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla Vydar_XLIII is inducted into the Halls of Valhalla
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brunaks View Post
The Jandar army was

Tarn
Airborne Elite
Raelin (RotV)
The 3 Viking Warriors
Nilfheim
Edit:And Syvarris to fit the "heroic" theme

My AE got a turn two drop and they cleaned the entire map grabbing height before the Marro could. I'll try out that army too next time a play Marro. I'm slowly adding enough common squads to field more swarm like teams but All Things Heroscape prices seem high and EBay's have been even higher. Was looking at getting a lot of drones and Wo-Sa-Ga yesterday but 5 squads of drones plus WSG is 400$.
This army is very strong, compared to the initial marro army. The AE with height are throwing 16 dice per turn at 8 range. That's hugely powerful if left unchecked. Nilfheim is throwing 12 dice per turn at 5 range, also hugely powerful if left unchecked. If you add Finn and Raelin to the Airborne, now they're throwing 20 attack dice per order marker and defending with 5 dice each. The player playing with the Marro likely didn't have a counter play to the AE, which is why they got slaughtered.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brunaks View Post
Yes I know you CAN at 2x I just worded that poorly. I meant I thought that was the baseline for how many common squads to field but doing a lot more reading on strategy and army discussions I see that is not the case. Thank you all for the insight, I have more stingers and x3 drones in the mail so we shall see how it goes.
No problem, my friend. Glad to be helpful.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old September 8th, 2020, 08:31 AM
itsbuzzi's Avatar
itsbuzzi itsbuzzi is offline
 
Join Date: November 27, 2012
Location: USA - RI - Providence
Posts: 484
itsbuzzi rolls all skulls baby! itsbuzzi rolls all skulls baby! itsbuzzi rolls all skulls baby! itsbuzzi rolls all skulls baby! itsbuzzi rolls all skulls baby! itsbuzzi rolls all skulls baby!
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Hello, there is a post talking about the recommended amount of each expansion and units. It says Stingers, which I have used on a few occasions, are good at 4x. I can attest to this, but the stingers are comparatively cheaper to purchase than others (like the dividers) so you could get away with 5x. They are a fairly common unit and are very good. Link for more info.
https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...29&postcount=1

Keep doing what you're doing, but do it better. ~Self

Classic Card Scans & Tourney Map Building Requirements Excel Sheet
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old September 8th, 2020, 05:30 PM
Lord Pyre's Avatar
Lord Pyre Lord Pyre is offline
...has moist legs
 
Join Date: September 18, 2007
Location: USA - WI - Two Rivers
Posts: 28,628
Images: 1
Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth Lord Pyre is a man of the cloth
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Just proxy all your other Marro as extra Stingers or Drones. Problem solved.
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old September 9th, 2020, 01:31 AM
Figure's Avatar
Figure Figure is offline
 
Join Date: May 10, 2008
Location: USA-Tucson-Arizona
Posts: 176
Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker Figure knows what's in an order marker
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Pyre View Post
Just proxy all your other Marro as extra Stingers or Drones. Problem solved.
Yeah I've thought about that, works well enough just playing at home.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old September 9th, 2020, 11:50 AM
Owlman's Avatar
Owlman Owlman is offline
 
Join Date: April 12, 2013
Location: Homestead FL
Posts: 563
Owlman rolls all skulls baby! Owlman rolls all skulls baby! Owlman rolls all skulls baby! Owlman rolls all skulls baby! Owlman rolls all skulls baby! Owlman rolls all skulls baby!
Re: How do you use Marro well?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vydar is the man View Post
I don't know what the Jandar army looked like but the biggest flaw I see with the Marro army you posted is that it is mostly high cost, single attack heroes. A somewhat simplistic view of the how to win the game is to maximize the number of attack dice you roll per order marker. When looking at an army through this lens, suddenly the 50 point Marro Warriors are doing more work per turn than the 160 point Su-Bak-Na.

IMO, the Hive is never worth its points, it cant move, its attack is terrible, in this army composition it would need to rebirth 8 Stingers in order to make its points back. Rebirth happens 40% of the time, so the other 60% an order marker on the stingers is objectively better. It could possibly have use to simplify order markers if you're running multiple different common squads, say 2x Stingers, 2x Drones, 2x Drudge, then you get a shot at rebirth each turn and 3 options of squads to activate each OM. In the army you listed above, its 160 points of dead-weight.

Stingers, in large numbers, are the gold standard for a 3 person ranged squad and are arguably one of the easiest units to play. Their stats start good, they don't need to meet any conditions to become good or to boost their stats, such as squads like the Mohecans need to. I like to play them at 4 squads minimum. It is also worth noting that a critical rule to follow while playing with stingers is to never use stinger drain. There, of course, are exceptions to this rule, but more often than not its not worth it.

Marro Warriors are one of the best unique squads in the game. Not because they kill everything all the time but because they almost always kill more than 50 points. With 6 move and 6 range they are very maneuverable. They can spread out and cover a very large area of the board and threaten everything with 4 attacks of 3 (assuming height, which you should have). Once one or two fall they have the opportunity to respawn themselves so they don't have the weakness that most other unique squads have. Other uniques lose value once their numbers dwindle, but the MWs stay threatening with even one left. Good for a few first round attacks or gylph grabs and if you keep on safe, they can clone and come back in the endgame to clean up.

Ne-Gok-Sa and Me-Burq-Sa are significantly worse by themselves or with other marro, then when they are with a unit that bonds with them such as the Romans or the Death Chasers.

Kee-Mo-Shi is bad. Don't play her.

Su-Bak-Na isn't great. Essentially you're paying 160 points to have a Glyph of Lodin. not worth it. Adding a few squads of Nagrubs makes him better, but Tor-Kul-Na and Wo-Sa-Ga are strictly better with Nagrubs.

Assuming you have access to all the SotM figures. The 710 point army I would make is...

Ne-Gok-Sa
Su-Bak-Na
Tor-Kul-Na
2x Marrden Nagrubs
2x Marro Stingers
Marro Warriors
700 Points, 21 spaces
There's some great advice here, but wanna add a couple things.

Su-Bak-Na is excellent when used with certain units, namely Stingers and Dividers. SBN w/3x Dividers bumps their chances of surviving an attack to 25%! (16 - higher!) That's HUGE. Not sure if you have any dividers, but if you get your hands on them use 'em, or proxy them.

My fave Marro Hero is by far Tul-Bak-Ra. His teleportation ability gives him HUGE mobility. Plus when he takes damage he can summon marro reinforcements, (i.e. stingers/dividers) to swarm the enemy. I nearly always rush him outta the start zone and clock someone with 4-5 dice depending on height, then smile as they hit him for 2-4 wounds and summon a chunk of my army next to him. Dividers are perfect for this, since they can just sit there and take shots while your Stingers move into position.

Never been a huge fan of Tor-Kul-Na tbh, although his potential to go on a rampage with grubs nearby is dangerous. I'd prefer SBN since he's much cheaper, or even WSG, although she is admittedly a bit more fragile.

For 50 points MBS is still great by himself, with or without bonding options, and NGS is a great glyph grabber. (Good luck getting thru 6 defense/5 life.)


Here's a reliable 500 pt army that works for me, if you wanna test it out:

Dividers x 3 - 150
Stingers x 2 - 120
Tul-Bak-Ra - 130
MBS and Marro Warriors = 50 + 50 = 100

= 500.

(Or sub in NGS + Isamu for 100 if there's a good glyph face up you wanna grab.)

Another one:

SBN - 160
Dividers x 3
Tul-Bak-Ra - 130
Marro Warriors - 50
Isamu - 10

= 500


"Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome; but there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home."
Reply With Quote
Reply

Go Back   Heroscapers > Official Valhalla HeroScape > Competitive Armies Discussion
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Unit Debate #7 -- Marro Drones Vs. Marro Dividers MegaSilver Official Units 70 July 25th, 2009 01:41 PM
Negated Marro Dividers and Marro Rebirth kpotassiumk19 Official Rules & FAQ's 36 June 11th, 2009 10:45 AM
Marro Stingers: The Marro Backbone? Heroscape Elffy Official Units 18 November 27th, 2008 10:12 PM
lor-da-sa, marro snipers, and marro maulers ickleberry Custom Units & Army Cards 2 April 15th, 2007 12:50 PM
Marro drones and marro warriors question.... JenLiss30 Official Units 16 February 23rd, 2007 02:14 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 07:58 AM.

Heroscape background footer

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.