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Competitive Armies Discussion Discuss, critique, and build ideas for tournament-caliber armies. |
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#25
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Great article!
I could not be seeing things correctly, but to me the Flag Bearers only seemed affect the pricing structure of the game and not much of the game itself. Actually, now that I think about it, these guys are probably the reason HS is with WotC right now. |
#26
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Yeah, laglor, doesn't put the beat down on anybody!
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#27
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For Chimpy and others, I added a paragraph about our current era. In short, I think it's interesting that a lot more units these days have d20 powers without being terrible.
While I agree that flagbearers have affected the metagame, I won't break up that period into two parts. I don't think they changed things nearly as much as rats and Q9. I don't think that Laglor would be all that impressive if it weren't for Q9. Q9 is the one figure that I wouldn't mind them banning... with our current releases. If they don't make an anti-soulborg figure at some point, I'll be very surprised. So far, I think the game has done a great job of balancing itself out. I'd just like to see Wave 8, and I'd love to see Aquilla's Alliance. |
#28
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This was a really interesting read--well done!
Something that might begin to influence what units people bring in DFW lately is peer pressure. Comments like, "Okay people, enough with the Q9." or "Oh great, rats. Again." are becoming louder and more common. This peer pressure to bring new and interesting armies for others to play against may begin pushing Q9/rats/etc out of more established tournaments. Wisinger is famous for bringing an interesting mix. So maybe less Q9 and rats. Maybe. I'm still bringing Braxas every chance I get... |
#29
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#30
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#31
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Wow! You always make great articles Jexik!
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#32
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I think I'll go through the B+ and above units on the Power Rankings and remark about what each of them are best at facing.
As I do this, the more I realize it is very similar to spider's descriptions, but I'm trying to tweak it more toward how it affects the metagame. If you expect to see lots of heroes, go for hero killers- squads? squad killers, strong glyphs? bring rats or Marcu- etc. A+ 4th Mass. Line (70*) Excellent at killing enemy squads, especially commons. Can out maneuver and punish most Unique-heavy armies, unless those armies don't need to maneuver. Deathreavers (40*) Excellent at locking down anything without a special attack, or a strong regular attack. Best glyph holding squad in the game. Major Q9 (180) Excellent for killing most enemy squads and ranged heroes. Extremely versatile special attack. Raelin the Kyrie Warrior-ROTV (80) Awesome, all the time, but less so in a mostly melee army. A Arrow Gruts (40*) Well-played and supported, they can do well against most enemy squads. Can whittle heroes down. Blastatrons (60*) Similar to Arrow Gruts, but better against Heroes. Cyprien Esenwein (150) Definitive Unique and/or Ranged squad killer. Weak against melee, and of course Soulborgs. Gladiatrons (80*) Cool for controling anything they can grab onto. B-trons necessary. Isamu (10) He has a 60% chance of being a huge headache. Kaemon Awa(120) Good against just about anything. Best mid to late game. Knights of Weston(70*) Tough enough to engage enemy squads and heroes. Champions make them worth it. Krav Maga Agents (100) Best Unique Squad for killing other squads. Good against 4th Mass. Raelin and/or Rats all but required. Krug (120) Best Hero-killing Hero in the game. Weak against any squad with range 7 or more, or even 6 depending on the terrain. Laglor (110) Best used to support Agents and Majors. Marcu Esenwein (20) Unreliable killer, but great glyph holder. Marro Stingers (60*) Very solid anti-hero and anti-squad. Not perfect in either category, but good. Marro Warriors (50) Can kill almost an infinite amount of melee units. Me-Burq-Sa (50) Great assassin for anything he can stare down. Nilfheim (185) One of the best Hero and Squad killers around. Pity you can draft just one. Roman Legionnaires (50*) Similar to Knights, but more dependent on terrain. Sir Gilbert (105) Mostly support, but also makes a nice glyph holder with his base stats. Swog Rider (25*) Mostly support, but also a nice unique ranged squad buster. A- Airborne Elite (110) The grenades suck unless you're really lucky. Best used against anything melee or unique. Alastair MacDirk (110) Great hero killer, and a nice compliment to the MacDirks or Knights. Aubrien Archers (70*) Good against squads or heroes with low defense. Braxas (210) One of the best anti-squad units, but most useful against expensive or unique ones. Nice for expenive heroes that she can get too. Eldgrim the Viking Champion (30) Glyph holder with a twist. Major Q10 (150) Like Kaemon. Marcus Decimus Gallus (100) Like Gilbert. Minions of Utgar (110*) Excellent against heroes, and pretty good against most squads. Sonya Esenwein (45) B+ Blade Gruts (40*) Good in low point games. Heavy Gruts (70*) Like a mix of Romans and Knights. Marro Drones (50*) Fast and potentially deadly. Nakita Agents (120) Used mostly for their boosts, although they have decent attacks in a pinch. Omnicron Snipers (100*) Much like the AE- they're best against anything expensive, melee, unique, or heroic. Otherwise they are a tough sell. Sentinels of Jandar (110*) Great glyph holders and against any Heroes, even those with special attacks. Sgt. Drake Alexander-SOTM (170) Defensively great against ranged squads, offensively good against heroes. Theracus (40) He can do some crazy stuff with glyphs or allowing people to reach heights. |
#33
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Re: Metagame Evolution
Resurrecting thread here, boss!
I envision a metagame revolution of unprecedented proportions with the advent of Master Set 3. I believe that tournament maps, in the near future, will be hybrids, containing terrain and glyphs from all of Heroscape. The balance of power between squads and heroes will be restored. What armies will be in the top 10 in this Brave New World? How many of the existing "best" armies will make the cut? Will the goals of tournament scenarios broaden significantly beyond those of, say Gencon ("kill them all", "heat of battle", etc.)? Or will all events be strictly D&D or pre-D&D? I hope that these will be hybrids too, but do I underestimate the divide within the community at large, and/or the conservatism of those who organize them? |
#34
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Re: Metagame Evolution
I think we've already seen a pretty cool revolution this last year with the resurgence of melee and Braxas. The upcoming D&D waves have several units that I'm sure will make their way into tournament builds, and a few that make excellent counter-drafts to other popular stuff from the past.
As for the maps and glyphs. I haven't talked too much with Ry and GB about it yet, but they're usually the ones handling the events at GenCon, and I'll be extremely surprised if the main event doesn't allow all things Valhalla (including MS 3 and the D&D waves). I'm thinking of running a tourney or two before then, and one thing I'm looking at is to have a couple Dungeon maps with symbol-side up Treasure glyphs only, a couple maps with random normal glyphs ssu, and a map or two with fixed glyphs known before hand. Toss in a small drafting element, and people will have to play to their map and their opponent, instead of just making the best double blind army. It's going to be an interesting year for tournaments and organized events, that's for sure. I'm really looking forward to it. |
#35
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Re: Metagame Evolution
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#36
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Re: Metagame Evolution
Great thoughts kolakoski!
I, for one, don't see too much of a meta game shift. I really don't see alot of tournys use glyphs, of the 19 I've been too only 1 used them. Perhaps this may change with this new set of glyphs. However, my experience with glyphs was game changing, in a bad way as I could directly relate my loss to my oppenents control of a certain glyph. While these new glyphs have a different approach, I'm still sceptical. As for style of play. While its a novel idea to try and add new flavor to tournys by running senario's and such, at this stage I don't think it will work. There have to be time limits imposed simply to keep the tourny flowing, at the time limit, there must be a secondary win condition if the objective is not met. I'm not certain that senario play will lend itself well to structured tourny play. Finally, senario's can often call for specific units to be used, or a specific set of units need be used to achive a successful outcome. I've heard it mentioned that the DnD "adventure party" works best in the given senario and that using other units of the same points makeup, may not be a good idea. I could be wrong, I have not read the senario, nor played through it. However if this is the case, then that could be very limiting on which units one would get to bring to a tourny, and may decrease the overall fun. For now, I think tournys will stay the same, perhaps the equipment glyphs might get tried out, and the DnD guys may go for a spin in the tourny cycle, but all in all things won't change much. For this heroscaper, I like that prospect. 73 tournaments. 175 - 145 - 1 overall record. 6 tournament wins. |
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