How many of each common squad in casual play?

[GIBraag]

Hi all,

Having read many great articles on this site about the units and their power rankings, I'm still left with the question how much is enough. Apart from Wave 9, I have most common squads twice. Three, however, seems to be thought of as the sweet spot.

My question is: is that the sweet spot to stay competitive in tournaments vs armies that also use more than two of each common? Or is it the sweet spot to make the squad worth its points when compared to uniques?

More broadly: in a non-tournament setting, where you and your opponents play with your collection only, would you have as much fun with two of each squad or would the game flow a lot better with three?

As an aside, in the "max 2 of each common unit" (playing 400-500 pts) scenario, would you feel one common high-point squad (Templars, Minions) can be enough? Or would you shell out the $ to get a second copy of each and every squad you already have?

As a second (and final, I promise) aside, if you feel squads are fun/balanced at 2x, How would you feel about a third of each if they are very low-cost (say less than 50 pts each)? Would it be unfair to have three squads of Orc Archers and only two Roman Archers?

Thanks!

[Unhinged Manchild]

Eh, I suppose it's really personal preference. I believe x3 of pretty much all commons is a good sweet spot if you play games of around 500-600 points. You make a good point about the high point cost squads(perhaps anything 110 or more,) though, you could feasibly get away with x2.

I also suppose it depends on what kinds of tournaments you play in. My thought of a standard tournament would be the "pre-make your army and show up and attempt to spank everybody that gets in your way with that army," and I would absolutely grab x3 or possibly even x4 of some of the cheaper squads, as you mention.

Casually, x2 is fine, in my own opinion.

Real life cost ($$$) is what can really stink when it comes to buying multiple commons, though. You need to feel you'll get your money's worth.

[GIBraag]

I don't play in tournaments. Just against my friends and son. We use my collection. So far we've not played much, but now that my son is growing a little older, I hope HS will hit the table a lot more often. Basically I'm debating whether to fork out another $500-$1000 to get every common unit to 2-3 or stick to the 1-2 I have now.

In any case I'm sticking to Classic HS and will pretend Waves 9 and 10 never happened.

[Cavalier]

For casual play like you describe, I would focus on what units you think are cool. Like elves? Bulk up on them. Don't like Spartans? don't even bother getting 1x.

Even in casual play 3x of most commons just play better. Except zombies... more like 6x

Also, don't overlook the power of proxies. If those Aubrien Archers are too pricey, get some generic Elven archer minis instead.

[Sherman Davies]

Originally Posted by GIBraag

In any case I'm sticking to Classic HS and will pretend Waves 9 and 10 never happened.

Waves 9 and 10 were both Classic HS waves.

[wriggz]

I like playing heroes a lot so most of my games feature 2 commons squads if I'm running them at all. That said it is nice to have more depending on preference. I'm happy to have 5x zombies and 4x 10 but would never see the need foe 3x template or grok. Also I use aubriens as a small strike force and I'm not a fan of gruts so I only have a couple of eash.

[TREX]

The biggest thing to do, is research which ones you will like by browsing through the threads or playing with them. Ones you like, buy a couple squads, ones you don;t, don't worry about it. I have a couple of just about all of them . Some I've never really played with cause I don't have many. Greeks for example. I only have one squad of them, so they never see the table. With commons, you get more out of your order marker with more of them. 3 groups of a common squad is the sweet spot in my opinion. some are more fun with more, some with less.

[GIBraag]

Originally Posted by Sherman Davies

Waves 9 and 10 were both Classic HS waves.

I know. But they are so expensive that I'm going to pretend they never existed (especially Blackmoon's Siege - the only classic Wave that I have nothing of).

[wriggz]

This: Collection Guide

[GIBraag]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

For casual play like you describe, I would focus on what units you think are cool. Like elves? Bulk up on them. Don't like Spartans? don't even bother getting 1x.

Even in casual play 3x of most commons just play better. Except zombies... more like 6x

Also, don't overlook the power of proxies. If those Aubrien Archers are too pricey, get some generic Elven archer minis instead.

The possibility of proxies is an interesting one.

I have a ton of D&D minis that make for excellent proxies - heck, a lot of them even got used 1-on-1 in HS D&D. And yet I still bought 2 Squads of Aubrien Archers recently for $40 total, just because they are authentic HS. It just bugs me to have this fantastic landscape with 90% of the minis having the same cool green/brown base and 10% having the small black D&D bases. It's a disease, I know, but I'm sure I'm not the only one on this site who suffers from it. It's funny, because I have no qualms about using my D&D minis with Descent (though that's because the original Descent minis are unpainted).

[GIBraag]

Originally Posted by wriggz

This: Collection Guide

Yeah, that's one of the fantastic guides I mentioned in my OP. However, it doesn't state if the author had cutthroat tournament play in mind or was just talking about HS in general (where you'd only face off against others playing with the same restriction of 2 max of every common).

[Unhinged Manchild]

Originally Posted by wriggz

I like playing heroes a lot so most of my games feature 2 commons squads if I'm running them at all. That said it is nice to have more depending on preference. I'm happy to have 5x zombies and 4x 10 but would never see the need foe 3x template or grok. Also I use aubriens as a small strike force and I'm not a fan of gruts so I only have a couple of eash.

This is a good point... I love having a horde of zombies especially (I can't remember if I have x5 or x6, but certainly more than my usual x3.) Speaking of gruts (and low cost squads in general: rats, spiders, ashigaru, vipers, etc.) if you do like them, strongly consider getting 3-4 copies, they get wrecked fast and usually require the sort of "horde" deployment.

@TREX made a good point, too. Research a little and figure out which ones you like the most, and get more copies of those squads if it seems necessary for them to be effective.

Of course you might be like me and have some weird OCD and want more copies of everything even if you rarely use it. I have x3 templar and x4 groks yet I don't think I've ever used more than x2 at once in any of my games. Maybe one day I will do a game full of nothing but the mounted units, lol.