3 Skulls and 2 Shields

[Velenne]

A core mechanic of the game itself that I realized on day one was the bias toward offense. This just happens to be right up my alley and has likely contributed to my continued interest in Heroscape. As time goes by, I find myself more and more drawn to the aggressive attackers.

• So what I'm hoping to create is the most aggressive army we can field. I define aggressive as being able to overwhelm your opponent with brute force.

• No defensive screens, but able to bust through them.

• Range, well, you just can't live without it (as of this pre-Jungle era posting anyway). Getting the most bang out of each Order Marker.
• Let's stay between 450-600 points.
• Oh, and no Marvel.

Last weekend I had great success with this one, but only because I was Dice Jesus:

3x Aubrian Archers - 210
Syvarris - 100
Kyntela Gwyn - 20
Mittens - 120

= 450. Lead with your Aubrians, natually. Once they're gone spend no more than 2 OM's getting Kyntela into position and then get Syvarris up next to her. If you did well with the archers, that should set you up. Mittens is an awesome cleanup unit or early glyph taker.

I also love:

3x Minions - 330
New Drake - 170

= 500. This army requires that your opponent worry about Drake. Don't just send two waves. Spend your first two OM's getting Drake onto a glyph or right in the middle of the map and then keep it mixed up.

And finally, another swarm army:

SBN - 160
6x Minions - 300
Venocs - 40

Pretty self-explanatory.

Can you beat these? By all means, try...

[Jexik]

Hmm, I like this one:

Nilfheim 185
AE 295
2x Minions of Utgar 515

I think of Nilfheim whenever I think of offense, or whenever I think about making an army really. I like Cyprien a lot too- he's great at dodging rat screens, but can be frustrating when he fails his d20 rolls.

[playa1]

I will still think (until I see the army soundly defeated) that Chompy + Heavy Gruts makes for an awesome offensive army.

Chompy 120
Blade Gruts x 4 400
Tornak (in case chompy goes down early so you can still bond) 500

If you absolutely need range (which orcs do not have, you can try)

Chmpy 120
Blade Gruts x 2 260
Mimring 410
Q10

[playa1]

I will still think (until I see the army soundly defeated) that Chompy + Heavy Gruts makes for an awesome offensive army.

Chompy 120
Heavy Gruts x 4 400
Tornak (in case chompy goes down early so you can still bond) 500

If you absolutely need range (which orcs do not have, you can try)

Chmpy 120
Heavy Gruts x 2 260
Mimring 410
Q10 560

Although I've never tried. I would assume that the loss of simplicity with order marker placement might make this one lose momentum

[Velenne]

The AE are one of those really tricky units to get good with. I'm just not a fan of that grenade attack anymore since I've found that in order get the chanceto use it to its greatest effect, I end up losing a soldier or two. I think their range and attack stats are their greatest strengths, so I prefer to drop them back and snipe. Great army though. I loves me some simplicity.

[Velenne]

Great first army, playa1!! I've noticed that Chompy acquires a big red target on his scaly chest the moment he leaves my starting zone so having Tornak is a must! I try to move them together so I can get the uber-beefy +2/+2 with the occasional grut. Orcs just shouldn't be that good.

[UranusPChicago]

Sweet discussion!

Let me whip up some mad scientist queries on my Heroscape database and see what I come up with...

[UranusPChicago]

This might bring tired head to some of you, but databases is what I do...

Here is the code that I used in finding which units have the biggest bang for the buck attackwise. Let me explain the code...

	SELECT TOP 20 unitname as 'Attack Top 20', life, [move], range, attack, defense, pointvalue, 
		CASE
			WHEN HeroFlag = 'False' THEN CAST(pointvalue as real)/CAST(attack as real)/CAST(NumberOfUnits as real)
			ELSE CAST(pointvalue as real)/CAST(attack as real) END as attvalue
	FROM Unit 
		INNER JOIN [Set] S ON Unit.SetID = S.SetID
	WHERE attack > 2
		AND S.OfficialFlag = 1
	ORDER BY AttValue

I wanted to figure out what units paid the least for each point of Attack that they have. I did that by dividing each units PointValue by its Attack value. If it was a Squad, I then divided that number by the NumberOfUnits in the squad. Last, but not least, since we were wanting heavy attack power, I eliminated units with Attack values less than or equal to 2.

Here is the resultant set...

Attack Top 20                  life   move   range  attack defense pointvalue  attvalue
------------------------------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ------- ----------- -------------
Isamu                          1      6      1      3      1       10          3.333333
Tarn Viking Warriors           1      4      1      3      4       50          4.166667
Roman Legionnaires             1      4      1      3      2       50          4.166667
Sacred Band                    1      4      1      3      2       50          4.166667
Venoc Vipers                   1      7      1      3      0       40          4.444444
Marcu Esenwein                 6      7      1      4      1       20          5
Rechets of Bogdan              1      6      1      3      3       50          5.555555
Marro Drones                   1      6      1      3      3       50          5.555555
Warriors of Ashra              1      5      1      3      3       50          5.555555
Heavy Gruts                    1      5      1      3      3       70          5.833333
Knights of Weston              1      4      1      3      4       70          5.833333
Dumutef Guard                  1      6      1      4      4       25          6.25
Dzu-Teh                        1      5      1      4      3       75          6.25
Kozuke Samurai                 1      5      1      5      3       100         6.666667
Marro Stingers                 1      5      5      3      3       60          6.666667
Armoc Vipers                   1      7      1      3      3       65          7.222222
Obsidian Guards                1      4      1      4      4       100         8.333333
Swog Rider                     1      8      1      3      3       25          8.333333
Shaolin Monks                  1      6      1      3      3       80          8.888888
Wolves of Badru                1      6      1      3      3       80          8.888888

Statistically speaking, low cost, mid to high attack (>=3) figures and units will give you the most fire power for the cost, though because of synergy limitations, it may not give you the best or strongest army.

[Hero Hot Hatch]

There are many combinations out there that will deliver brute force: MacDirk Warriors + Alastair, Templars when played well to get Galloping Charge on Utgar units, even the new GRs, etc. You'll have to play them against each other. One great army in the wrong hands is worthless so you can argue all that you want back and forth and the results of this particular thread can only be settled in the battle field.

[Hero Hot Hatch]

Originally Posted by Jexik

Hmm, I like this one:

Nilfheim 185
AE 295
2x Minions of Utgar 515

I think of Nilfheim whenever I think of offense, or whenever I think about making an army really. I like Cyprien a lot too- he's great at dodging rat screens, but can be frustrating when he fails his d20 rolls.

Minions will rock in dense jungle no doubt just like they do in the mountains.

[Velenne]

Originally Posted by Hero Hot Hatch

There are many combinations out there that will deliver brute force: MacDirk Warriors + Alastair, Templars when played well to get Galloping Charge on Utgar units, even the new GRs, etc. You'll have to play them against each other. One great army in the wrong hands is worthless so you can argue all that you want back and forth and the results of this particular thread can only be settled in the battle field.

All of that goes without saying, TripleH. That's really the rule of this whole section of the forums. What we're trying to do here is put together our ideas for the best brute force army.

Originally Posted by UPC

Statistically speaking, low cost, mid to high attack (>=3) figures and units will give you the most fire power for the cost, though because of synergy limitations, it may not give you the best or strongest army.

As I move down that list, the only ranged squad I see is Stingers. I'm personally reluctant to use the A+ units (that's another discussion, people, another discussion), which surprises me a great deal. OTOH, many ranged units will receive the benefit of a height advantage. UPC, does your database have the capability of distinguishing between units with a range of greater than 1?

Otherwise, it looks to me like the best bet is still the Legos when I consider synergies. Marro Drones would probably be next on my list. Here's a 600 pointer I've been wanting to try from the EI thread:

Originally Posted by Moosman

2x EI 280
3x Romans 150
Marcus 100
MBS 50
Total: 600

[Jexik]

Originally Posted by Velenne

As I move down that list, the only ranged squad I see is Stingers. I'm personally reluctant to use the A+ units (that's another discussion, people, another discussion), which surprises me a great deal. OTOH, many ranged units will receive the benefit of a height advantage. UPC, does your database have the capability of distinguishing between units with a range of greater than 1?

Well, I'm guessing that it doesn't take into account Wait then Fire, or height. Technically speaking, both the Minions of Utgar and 4th Mass wouldn't be in his data set at all since he cut out all units with an attack value of 2. Special powers certainly mess with this.

As for the Stingers, I just got reminded of an army that I saw at the Austin, MN tourney. Delivermanxas played 3x Stingers, Krav, and Nilfheim. He went 4-0 against some pretty stiff competition until he lost to spider's Glads/Blasts/Raelin army in the last round. Certainly a pretty offensive army. (It was a 470 point tourney.)