Orc's Terminology Guide

[OEAO]

The goal of this thread is to define the current terminology used by competitive players. We often say phrases and words that we take for granted, but other players don't know what we're talking about. Hopefully, this thread proves to be a good resource for newer players to know and understand commonly used phrases.

A good starting place is Jexik's Common Abbreviations. This is meant to add a lot of the more modern terminology to an already-excellent list.

Unit Terms
Bruiser: a unit that consistently throws 4-5 attack dice. Examples include Horned Skull Brutes, Tandros Kreel, and 1 squad of Knights of Weston with Finn.
Can-Opener: a unit that consistently throws 6+ attack dice. This allows them to pretty consistently have a chance against a Major Q9. Examples include Nilfheim, Eltahale, and the Frost Giant.
Splash: using (generally) no more than 150 points or 9 hexes of a single common unit. Common examples include 1-2x Mezzos, 2x PKs, and 1-2x HSBs.
Tech: a unit (often times a splash) that specifically targets one particular matchup/group of matchups, often time done to cover a weakness in your army. Examples of anti-range tech are 1-2x PKs and Krav.

Army Terms
Bread and Butter: typical army with simple OM management and multiples of 1-2 common units.
Splash: an army (generally for RtW) that uses a variety of splashed units alongside Raelin. These armies are generally defensive with a pod-like nature to them. Generally has units that fill the roles of Screen, Range, and Bruiser, as well as sometimes having Anti-Range.
Toolbox: different from Splash armies in how they play because of their lack of Raelin. Toolbox armies utilize individual splashed pieces that are all threats yet defensive enough by themselves to afford not having to spend 80 points on Raelin. Worth separating because these armies play very differently than a typical Splash army. Chosen units in these tend to fill multiple roles as opposed to a single one (examples: Arkmer and Tandros are both Bruisers and Screens, PKs with Concan are Bruisers and Anti-Range). Threat Sequencing is very important for Toolbox armies, more so than Splash armies that like to have all of their pieces up at least somewhat.

Other General Terms
Kiting: shooting from maximum range of a unit and using your move to maintain maximum distance at all times. Often, it is better to kite with a unit like Nilfheim and get only one shot off while remaining protected rather than rushing in to get off his melee attack or 3x4 and exposing him to counter-attacks. One of the biggest mistakes I see less experienced players make is not effectively kiting. Units that kite well are very mobile with good range. Examples include Krav/Skahen, Nilfheim, and Mimring.
AxB (at C): a common abbreviation where you are making A (number of attacks) with B (amount of red dice) at C (the maximum range). For example, Kaemon's and Q10's specials are generally called 2x4s, 4th Mass make 4x3s at 6, etc.
Threat Sequencing: the order in which you deploy your army pieces across the board so that they best line up into your opponent's likely line of play (thanks vegie!). Find comparative advantages between your armies and make sure you get the matchups within the armies that you like.
Tether: tying up an opponent's figure to prevent it from moving and attacking more important figures. A vital part of successfully playing melee armies is putting a squaddie in a normally sub-optimal tactical position to prevent them from engaging or shooting your more important figures.

This will be a progressive list as I think of more things that should be added. As always, please leave feedback, and happy Scaping!

[vegietarian18]

Interesting list!

I think to some degree you are retrofitting definitions to terms ex: Krug and Alastair are definitely can-openers even though they cannot consistently throw 6 attack.

I'm also not convinced that you can "tech" in any meaningful way in Heroscape, even in formats where you aren't encouraged to play the strongest armies possible. There just aren't enough points in an army to allow for specific matchup counters. I mean, you can put in figures that help in matchups that your army is weak in, but that's not "teching" in the traditional sense, that's matchup smoothing.

Very important term that I think about a lot in Reverse the Whip style games:

Threat Sequencing: the order in which you deploy your army pieces across the board so that they best line up into your opponent's likely line of play (ex. you probably don't want your Phantom Knights to run in to your opponent's Knights of Weston, and your opponent probably doesn't want his 4th Mass to run into your Phantom Knights, so are you going to deploy Phantoms or Othkurik and Greenscales as primary offense first?)

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by vegietarian18

Interesting list!

I think to some degree you are retrofitting definitions to terms ex: Krug and Alastair are definitely can-openers even though they cannot consistently throw 6 attack.

I'm also not convinced that you can "tech" in any meaningful way in Heroscape, even in formats where you aren't encouraged to play the strongest armies possible. There just aren't enough points in an army to allow for specific matchup counters. I mean, you can put in figures that help in matchups that your army is weak in, but that's not "teching" in the traditional sense, that's matchup smoothing.

Very important term that I think about a lot in Reverse the Whip style games:

Threat Sequencing: the order in which you deploy your army pieces across the board so that they best line up into your opponent's likely line of play (ex. you probably don't want your Phantom Knights to run in to your opponent's Knights of Weston, and your opponent probably doesn't want his 4th Mass to run into your Phantom Knights, so are you going to deploy Phantoms or Othkurik and Greenscales as primary offense first?)

Thanks for the feedback vegie!

I don't see Alastair as a can-opener, he's definitely a standard bruiser to me. Krug is interesting in that he can easily get that 6 attack necessary, but I'm fine with saying that Krug overlaps the two.

Teching in Scape is definitely not quite the same thing as in other games like the AGoT LCG or X-Wing, for example. However, it's close enough, and throwing in 1 squad of Phantoms to specifically take care of Krav if the rest of your army struggles against them is certainly a tech. Matchup smoothing would be more broadly against a range of figures in an army, as opposed to one particular unit. And "matchup smoothers" is definitely not going to catch on..

I'll add Threat Sequencing, thanks! Although I think it's worth noting that splitting OMs in that situation makes the most sense at least early to feel it out. Threat Sequencing is an important part of my "How To Get Good Fast" article I'm working on.

[vegietarian18]

Alastair can definitely be a bruiser but if you're trying to get wounds on Q9 or another high defense hero with a Knights based army, Alastair will be a can-opener. 2 attacks of 5 gives about the same can-opening potential as 1 of 6.

My experience w/ the term teching is from Hearthstone with a 30 card deck. You can play a complete deck with room for specific "tech" cards that are useless in other matchups. With Heroscape I feel with most armies having no more than 7 cards including something as "tech" is just a part of your army. 1x Phantoms will probably have to do a lot in other matchups besides Krav.

And I agree splitting OMs early to deploy all figures and threaten attacks from both is essential for two part armies

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by vegietarian18

Alastair can definitely be a bruiser but if you're trying to get wounds on Q9 or another high defense hero with a Knights based army, Alastair will be a can-opener. 2 attacks of 5 gives about the same can-opening potential as 1 of 6.

My experience w/ the term teching is from Hearthstone with a 30 card deck. You can play a complete deck with room for specific "tech" cards that are useless in other matchups. With Heroscape I feel with most armies having no more than 7 cards including something as "tech" is just a part of your army. 1x Phantoms will probably have to do a lot in other matchups besides Krav.

And I agree splitting OMs early to deploy all figures and threaten attacks from both is essential for two part armies

Yeah that's true, but he also is pretty squishy. Same reason that I consider Carr and Drake v1 Bruisers. I want my can-opener to be able to deal more than just a damage or two. I'll have to add something to the definition to reflect that.

And teching is pretty similar in just about every game. Again, I'm not saying that teching here is the exact same. However, it's similar enough to get tossed around by competitive players that it's worth including.

[Dysole]

All right. I'll bite. My first Gencon main event army.

Ashigaru Harqs x3
Raelin
Eltahale
Black Wyrmlings x2

The Wyrms were in there for any small or medium figures that were good vs wait then fire due to high defense (primarily Krav, but there were others; not that they actually did anything to Skahen or Isamu or anyone really). Now is this matchup smoothing or tech? :P

~Dysole, kind of hoping there's a disagreement

[vegietarian18]

Fair point about Alastair being squishy.

I guess another reason I'm not sure "teching" is a real thing is that every example seems to be "teching" against Krav. I don't think people would include 2x Warriors of Ashra as anti-melee tech, and it's far too many points to bring a big hero as anti-Q9 tech. I would consider Wyrmlings matchup smoothing for sure; omit Wyrmlings for Harquebus x4 instead and you can run into high defense armies like Hounds that a pile of Harqs and Eltahale will struggle with.

The strongest example of teching in Heroscape might be in the reinforcement Main Event format in 2010 when ManTrainChooChoo added solo Arkmer to counter Knights of Weston in his first matchup of day 2.

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Originally Posted by vegietarian18

The strongest example of teching in Heroscape might be in the reinforcement Main Event format in 2010 when ManTrainChooChoo added solo Arkmer to counter Knights of Weston in his first matchup of day 2.

Sigh...

Now I have to talk with my therapist again...

[OEAO]

Originally Posted by vegietarian18

Fair point about Alastair being squishy.

I guess another reason I'm not sure "teching" is a real thing is that every example seems to be "teching" against Krav. I don't think people would include 2x Warriors of Ashra as anti-melee tech, and it's far too many points to bring a big hero as anti-Q9 tech. I would consider Wyrmlings matchup smoothing for sure; omit Wyrmlings for Harquebus x4 instead and you can run into high defense armies like Hounds that a pile of Harqs and Eltahale will struggle with.

The strongest example of teching in Heroscape might be in the reinforcement Main Event format in 2010 when ManTrainChooChoo added solo Arkmer to counter Knights of Weston in his first matchup of day 2.

Excuse me, I've brought 2x WoA as anti-melee tech TWICE now...