The Book of Ornak

[TradeMark]

Originally Posted by flameslayer93

It looks like you could use more muscle, honestly. I’ve played a similar variation of that build before, and felt it just couldn’t win battles of attrition. Although, that was a mixed marvel event, which makes a difference.

One change I probably would have made is trying to fit Cyprien or Heavy Gruts in there somehow. You can probably drop Brunak if you were planning on using the Gruts to mobilize Ornak anyways, freeing up 110 points. Dropping the Blades also will let you fit in 2 squads of Heavies and Iskra (since range wasn’t allowed). The Heavies can mobilize Grimnak on turn 2 and Ornak on Turn 3. Ornak would be able to move Iskra and Krug around on turn 1, a tricky combination once it gets moving. Target Krug or the Vampire? Either way, your getting rammed by Heavies next turn.

Dropping Brunak removes multistrike special attack capability though, which I rate fairly highly in an environment that had high potentials of Ashra, Samurai, and being huge helps against Braxas. Honestly, the only things that didn't have decent damage output were the gruts & Ornak, however I used them more as blockers/glyph so didn't have a ton of problems with them, nor were they often in big combats. I am a bit rusty as I'm just getting back into the game, however I've always been more a mix up player and think highly of Brunak due to his speed.


Now, to your point, Cyprien is a powerhouse on his own, but I wouldn't want to have him tied to 8 hexes for Ornak as his biggest strength is high maneuverability with only mid survivability. With OM1 generally activating Brunak & Krug or Krug & Marcu, It was easier to keep them in range for ~2 turns per Brunak carry. I imagine that the temptation to grab height with a Cyprien move, though probably awesome, would complicate the OM placement in having to back track to him solo or forcing an Ornak bonding on OM3 vs usually having Grimnak chomping.


Generally, keeping the focus on bondables or Krug for OM 2 & 3 worked out really well, in fact Krug was an absolute powerhouse all tourney. Between Chompy & Krug, I wasn't too worried about Cyprien's normal targets.


Heavies vs Blade Gruts isn't much of a debate in standard format (if range) but I think a case can be made in Melee only that Blades can be superior due to blocking. Having double the hexes to work with for only 10 more points let me focus on boosting Heros and hoping their stats would hold up vs what may come. Having the +1 Def Glyph in most games I played was massive for Brunak in particular.


As for a mixed Marvel? Yeah, it'd get crushed, but there's no way I'd bring it to an event like that. The chance to use Cap is just too juicy.