The Best 180 Points to Spend with Minions

[killercactus]

Alright - I want to build a competitive 400 pt army for a tournament setting, starting with Minions of Utgar x2. That leaves me 180 points to round it out, and I'm not quite sure who to add in here. These are the options I've considered:

Taelord - the seemingly obvious choice. He can take advantage of Utgar's Orders and boosts Deadly Strike. However, that gives me a 7 figure army with no range and a heck of a lot of susceptibility to Braxas (and Zelrig to a lesser extent). Plus I doubt 6 Minions can hold their own against a slew of common squads.

Marro Stingers x3 - Sticking with the Utgar theme, I can pull out their best Bread and Butter squad, the Stingers. Three squads will give me 9 figures that can attack three times per turn. It goes a little bit towards protecting the army against Braxas, but makes Zelrig more of a threat. Also, the range isn't very big, meaning my entire army is still outranged by the 4th Mass / 10th Foot.

Major Q9 - What do you do when you need 180 points in a tournament? Go grab Q9. I like this choice because Q9 provides some anti Cyprien, Braxas and Zelrig strategy, and he can outrange the 4th Mass / 10th Foot. However, I kind of get an "all of my eggs are in one basket" feeling with a 7 figure army. But at least I'll be throwing a ton of defense dice no matter who they attack.

Raelin + Krav Maga Agents - The original dominating 180 points, and still strong today. The Krav would be great at drawing in the Mass / Foot and other ranged foes, which gives a two-fold bonus. One, the figures will have to bring themselves into the Minions' axes and two, Raelin can now protect the Minions as well. Still though, the Minions biggest problem is Braxas, and the Krav don't really solve that very well. They also fall easily to Cyprien, another figure the Minions have a tough time dealing with.

Runa + Zetacron - You had to know it was coming. It seems a crime for me to play Minions without including Runa but, even with a long range punch from Zetacron, I think she falls a bit short of the mark against the other 180 point combinations. I really need a way to punish common squads and draw them in, and while Zetacron outranges them, he doesn't last long enough to get the job done.

So, that's where I'm at. I think I'm leaning towards Q9 or Raelin + Krav, but I just can't make a decision. Any thoughts from the community?

[iceman3317]

x2 Minions of Utgar 220
Raelin 80
Isamu 10
Otonashi 10
Marcu 20
Guilty 30
Eldgrim 30
Total: 400

This is one I made up.
I like the army you made with Krav and Raelin,but there is to many squads. Then elves and dragons will burn you up. Harder to kill you though with the high defence and the +2 def dice.

[Cleon]

Major Q9 can always be an option but I like Raelin and Kravs. You have good melee, and with that addition you now have range and a pumper. I love the stingers and x3 of them is a cool option, but you then lack a hero and Zelrig may eat that army up. x2 Hounds is a cool option too. I'm undecided, I'll have to think a bit more...

[Dredd Stev]

I'll toss my army-building hat in the ring:

Taelord - A solid choice for a core of MoUx2... but in a 400 point setting his cost is hard to justify.

q9 - Always a good choice he does bring alot to the table, but like you said now you've got all your eggs in his (albeit very strong) basket.

Rae-Rae + Kravs - You hit the nail on the head with this one too, it's a powerful combo and brings lots of what you were looking for to the 220 Minion core.

I gather that you are MOST concerned with Zilrig/Braxas so how about these additions:

Marro Warriors + DW8K: Gives you range, some ant-dragon help and a SA... all nice to have.

Zetacron + Kaemon Awa: More range, a SA and some heroes to fill out you army against the anti-squad dragons.

Syv + Finn: Big time range and bonus attack for the minions. Once the Finnster goes down you get a MEAN elf hero.

Just a few ideas, I tend to like the more a-typical options... I'm sure you'll see lots of Krav/Raelin combos and plenty of q9 based builds anyway.

[killercactus]

Awa and Zetacron is very interesting... Rats are troublesome for the Minions as well. It would be nice to have a special attack to mitigate that a bit. Both heroes also provide longer range than the Mass / Foot do, denying them WTF. I'll have to look a bit harder into that option...

[Kaemon Awasome]

I think the Krav/Raelin combo makes the most sense of those that you presented. I think it would take care of Braxas better than you think considering its a 400 pt. army build. How many people will have Braxas? Even if you push all your Minions forward to take out Braxas you've essentially traded shots. If they don't have Braxas and you turtle your team together 8 defense for the Minions coupled with 7 range from KM would do pretty well against most squads.

I would also consider Krug + Marro Warriors or Marro Stingers x2 + MW and leading out with the MW by spreading them out and cloning.

[Aldin]

Krav/Raelin sounds really good for the reasons listed above. I also think Kaemon/Zetacron would be fun. One other idea to ponder is DW8k/1xRats/Isamu. Isamu for glyphs, Rats for interdiction and DW8k for high defense and a special that works against any low defense figure (Elves/Braxas/4th Mass/etc).

~Aldin, who also thinks Q9 is good here

[ollie]

I took Minions x3 and Johnny Shotgun, James Murphy and Guilty ("Cowboys From Hell") to a 500pt tournament and it was fun and pretty effective. You could drop a squad of Minions and add in Isamu to make it 400pts. The ranged specials with area-effect are even more desirable if you expect a lot of Wave 8.

[Karl Marx]

I like the Krav/Raelen or stingers option but I suggest Cyprein and Guilty to take out your opponents heros and ranged units. Realizing that Q9 could be a problem for Cyprein yoiu would have to take him out soley with the minions...

[Soul Shackle]

Originally Posted by Dredd Stev

Zetacron + Kaemon Awa: More range, a SA and some heroes to fill out you army against the anti-squad dragons.

This would have been my suggestion. You have some good ideas in your original post, as well.

[Onion Knight]

I am big advocate of using Stingers with Minions. That combo is absolutly devastating.
But Onion Knight, what about Zelrig?
Zelrig schmelrig!
First off you must situate your starting zone in such a way as to minimize the damage Zelrig can do to your Stingers. If you win initiative you may get to Zelrig first. Stingers spread out and go after Zelrig ASAP. They can take him out. Don't worry about the Minions, even against Majestic Fires, Minions can hold up with 4 defense.

[Dredd Stev]

Originally Posted by Onion Knight

Zelrig schmelrig!
First off you must situate your starting zone in such a way as to minimize the damage Zelrig can do to your Stingers. If you win initiative you may get to Zelrig first. Stingers spread out and go after Zelrig ASAP. They can take him out. Don't worry about the Minions, even against Majestic Fires, Minions can hold up with 4 defense.

I think you are understating the impact Zelrig has on this set-up. The stingers have the potential to take him down, but I'd say that it's an up hill battle for the marro. They don't have great range, and even if MF is only hitting one stinger at a time that stinger is prolly toast... and with only X2 that’s going to hit their effectiveness in a hurry.

The MoU are way, WAY to slow to deal with Zilrig effectively too. 7 range and 6 flight can just run circles around the red devils, and the loss of 2 def is painful, even for a high def figure.