Project 500 - Redux

[happyjosiah]

About 4 years ago, a member of the site who has only 14 posts came up with what I thought was a fantastic idea. You can read the original concept here: http://www.heroscapers.com/community...ad.php?t=19472

Essentially, the goal was to create a whole bunch of 500 point armies that were reasonably synergistic/thematic/fun but also contained no duplication of figures. In other words, if army #1 has Microcorps Agents, no other army will also. This allows for a single, mostly-complete Heroscape collection to have a pre-made army selection.

I have not been strict in adhering to the 500 point limit (armies range from 490 to 520), but these should ideally be balanced against each other regardless.

In the case of the initial Project 500 thread, these armies were to be used in a tournament with new people. However, I found the idea appealing for a different reason: I often play with casual players. These are people who like the game and know the rules, but don't know/care enough about all the interactions to draft intelligently. This allows for pick-up-and-play.

I used the original Project 500 as a template, and made some modifications. Some armies, such as Elf Wizards and Samurai Peasants practically build themselves, while others are a bit less cohesive. Regardless, every army should feature both range and melee, high-powered units should be balanced by low-powered ones, and, where possible, the army should have a theme.

I've used all every figure up through wave 9, including promos. It is a simple matter to add a Wave 10 army of 3x Granite Guardians and 2x Quasatch Hunters if desired. I kept it to 36 armies though for ease of randomization, and because I do not have those figures.

There are only 4 units that do not appear in armies here: Obsidian Guards, Dzu-Teh, Marro Drudge, and Dumutef Guard. These can optionally be substituted point-for-point after armies are selected. However, they are too terrain specific to warrant inclusion in an army at all times.

You will notice next to the point value of each army that there are two numbers. The idea with those is that you can roll a red d6 and a black d6 to randomly assign armies.

You will also notice that the first 10 armies are highlighted in pairs. These pairs can be squished together to make 1000-point (or 1015-point I suppose) thematic armies that should play reasonably well against each other also.

I am open to any suggestions for rearranging in ways that make more sense, and this is by no means the only way it could be done. If anything stands out as glaringly too weak or too strong, it may be worth bringing up if you have a fix for the issue. However, some armies being stronger than others is a necessary evil for expediting a casual game of 'scape, so it's not worth being overly picky about. Hopefully someone else will find this useful when playing with a group of new players as well. Thanks!

[happyjosiah]

PLEASE DISREGARD THIS POST. IT SHOWS SOME OF THE CHANGES AND PROCESS OF BUILDING, SO IT IS HERE FOR POSTERITY, BUT THE FINAL LIST IS FOUND IN THE INITIAL POST.



I've been tweaking these a bit and made some changes:

For some reason, Marcu was left out of the last list. He has been added.

Valguard replaces Marcus in the Roman/Greek army which lets him work better than with the Tarn Vikings, lets Parmenio use his discipline conversion, and frees Marcus up to join the Einar dragon army supporting the redcoat soldiers.

Zetacron has been worked into the repulsor/sniper army with his omnicron brothers.

The valiant army now has 3 squads of 4th mass and only one squad of templars. I don't normally like to have only a single squad of a common, but it's an expensive squad and the army is better for it sidelining one of the knight squads. I am open to rearranging this further to try to incorporate both squads back in, if there is a way to do this.

The Jandar dragon army has been renamed Nilfheim's Ninjas and is a bit more thematic.

I am open to suggestions for more evocative army names as well. Some of these are a bit boring.

I've also decided to list the full armies below:

Elf Wizards
Ulginesh 150
Emiroon 80
Arkmer 50
Jorhdawn 100
Chardris 90
Kyntela Gwyn 20
1-1 490

Elf Warriors
Acolarh 110
Syvarris 100
Warriors of Ashra x3 150
Aubrien Archers x2 140
1-2 500

Samurai Army
Hatamoto Taro 130
Kaemon Awa 120
Tagawa Samurai 120
Tagawa Sam. Archers x2 130
1-3 500

Samurai Peasants
Kato Katsuro 200
Kozuke Samurai 100
Ashigaru Yari x2 80
Ashigaru Harquebus x2 120
1-4 500

Monkeys and Agents
Laglor 110
Nakita Agents 120
Gorillinators x2 180
Agent Carr 100
1-5 510

Vydar Agents
Agent Skahen 120
James Murphy 75
Braxas 210
Krav Maga Agents 100
1-6 505

Marro Warlords
Ne-Gok-Sa 90
Me-Burq-Sa 50
Grok Riders x2 260
Marro Dividers x2 100
2-1 500

Marro Swarm
Marro Hive 160
Marro Drones x4 200
Tul-Bak-Ra 130
2-2 490

Knights
Sir Gilbert 105
Sir Dupuis 150
Sir Denrick 100
Knights of Weston x2 140
2-3 495

Jandar Kyrie
Concan 80
Sentinels of Jandar x2 220
Raelin (SotM) 120
Thorgrim the Viking Champion 90
2-4 500

Sting and Crush
Wo-Sa-Ga 135
Marrden Hounds x2 180
Marro Stingers x2 120
Raelin (RotV) 80
2-5 515

Marro Hivelords
Su-Bak-Na 160
Marrden Nagrubs x4 120
Tor-Kul-Na 220
2-6 500

Monks and Agents
Shaolin Monks x2 160
Master Win Chiu Woo 140
Microcorps Agents x2 200
3-1 500

Romans and Greeks
Valguard 110
Parmenio 90
Roman Legion x2 100
Sacred Band x2 100
Roman Archers x2 110
3-2 510

Deathborgs
Deathwalker 9000 140
Zettian Guards 70
Warden 816 90
Deathstalkers x2 200
Isamu 10
3-3 510

Valiant Army
Sgt. Drake (SotM) 170
Templar Calvary 120
4th Massachusetts Line x3 210
3-4 500

Einar Dragon
Zelrig 185
10th Regiment of Foot x3 225
Marcus Decimus Gallus 100
3-5 510

Vipers
Venoc Warlord 120
Venoc Vipers x4 160
Armoc Vipers x2 130
Elite Onyx Vipers 100
3-6 510

Robots and Warriors
Omnicron Repulsors x2 80
Omnicron Snipers x2 200
Zetacron 60
Sgt. Drake (RotV) 110
Tarn Viking Warriors 50
4-1 500

Hard-Drinking Rabble
Alastair MacDirk 110
MacDirk Warriors x2 160
Sir Hawthorne 90
Finn the Viking Champion 80
Eldgrim 30
Guilty McCreech 30
4-2 500

Orcs and Beasts
Mimring 150
Krug 120
Arrow Gruts x2 80
Swog Rider x2 50
Gurei-Oni 100
4-3 500

Orcs and Witch
Ornak 100
Brunak 110
Kee-Mo-Shi 130
Nerak 50
Blade Gruts x3 120
4-4 510

Heavy Orcs
Grimnak 120
Tornak 100
Heavy Gruts x2 140
Sudema 140
4-5 500

Vampires and Shades
Cyprien Esenwein 150
Sonya Esenwein 45
Iskra Esenwein 50
Rechets of Bogdan 50
Shades of Bleakewood x2 200
Marcu 20
4-6 515

Vydar Robots
Major X17 100
Gladiatrons x2 160
Blastatrons x2 120
Dund 110
5-1 490

Q Brothers
Q9 180
Q10 150
Deathwalker 7000 100
Izumi Samurai 60
Otonashi 10
5-2 500

Ullar Heroes
Sonlen 160
Saylind 80
Theracus 40
Moriko 110
Morsbane 100
5-3 490

Wolves
Khosumet 75
Anubian Wolves x3 225
Wolves of Badru x2 160
Deadeye Dan 60
5-4 520

Utgar Kyrie
Taelord 180
Minions of Utgar x2 220
Runa 120
5-5 520

Nilfheim's Ninjas
Nilfheim 185
Shiori 60
Kelda 80
Kumiko 80
Ninjas of the Northern Wind 110
5-6 515

Einar Kyrie
The Einar Imperium x2 280
Empress Kiova 90
Deathreavers x2 80
Marro Warriors 50
6-1 500

Giant and Giant Bugs
Jotun 225
Sujoah 185
Fyorlag Spiders x2 80
6-2 490

Gladiators
Spartacus 200
Crixus 90
Retarius 90
Capuan Guards x2 140
6-3 520

Dragon and Zombies
Charos 210
Zombies of Morindan x4 240
Johnny "Shotgun" Sullivan 65
6-4 515

Dwarves and Shooters
Migol Ironwill 110
The Axegrinders of Burning Forge x2 140
Airborne Elite 110
Deathwalker 8000 130
6-5 490

Protectors and Natives
Protectors of Ullar x2 220
Atlaga 90
Mohican River Tribe x2 140
Brave Arrow 50
6-6 500

[happyjosiah]

[happyjosiah]

This has been updated. Please see the above post. Thanks for everyone's help in offering suggestions!

[boromir96]

That's a very convenient chart. Great for when you don't fell like drafting. The only problem? I can only play one of those armies. ONE!

[ibechief]

This concept is amazing. Even though they might not be able to utilize all of their bonding and synergy a new player would love that there are premade options out there.

[happyjosiah]

Originally Posted by boromir96

That's a very convenient chart. Great for when you don't fell like drafting. The only problem? I can only play one of those armies. ONE!

Hmm, let me guess.

Well, if it's NOT Elf Wizards, it should be. That army is super-cheap to get and really fun.

Marro Warlords is also pretty easy to make, possibly you are only missing Me-Burq-Sa?

Deathborgs should be cheap and easy. Seeing Red isn't awful.

But in any case, hopefully you can tweak this somewhat to get a few pre-mades of your own.

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by happyjosiah

Hmm, let me guess.

Well, if it's NOT Elf Wizards, it should be. That army is super-cheap to get and really fun.

Marro Warlords is also pretty easy to make, possibly you are only missing Me-Burq-Sa?

Deathborgs should be cheap and easy. Seeing Red isn't awful.

But in any case, hopefully you can tweak this somewhat to get a few pre-mades of your own.

Yup, Elf Wizards. Those 2 are both pretty cheap, I just was never impressed with the Stalkers or cavalry, so I never got them. I have a nice collection, with at least 15 common squads that I have 3-5 of, but they're newer cheaper ones, and all these armies seem to use commons from waves 2-4 6-7 and 9-10.

[bunjee]

If you post the excel file here on Scapers, it would be available right now

[Typhon2222]

Awesome! What a great idea, and beautifully executed. So smart.

Happyjosiah, you don't mind if I provide the link to the GoogleDocs version of your awesome spreadsheet, do you? This is just such a handy resource, and your GoogleDoc version makes it effortless to use.

[happyjosiah]

Good idea thanks!

[bunjee]

Thank you! That will make it easier for me to fuss with when making play plans!