The Book of Zelrig

[Einar Gen.]

The first time I played him, I sent him out first thing and kept placing all my O.Ms on him until he, um... fainted. (No, I don't play Pokemon.) Any way, he toasted half my opponents' army before he, um... fainted. =)

[ThrasherDarkrai]

Originally Posted by ariealaviator

I think your right on here. While he can be devastating when he does this it's not guarantied that he will cause any damage and then he is in a very vulnerable state. I think he is best kept at a distance and used to intimidate your opponent and to pick off any clumps of common squads that end up in a bunch while the rest of your army goes to work as well.

I disagree. The BEST usage, in my mind, is to send Zelrig out first. In no other situation in the game are you actually going to have as good of an opportunity to hit a clump. Using Zelrig is all about control - you need Zelrig to have the board under his claw-tips for him to be able to do real damage. If you send him out mid-game, then it will be harder for him to have such a foothold on the map then he would otherwise. Really, the best part about Zelrig is that if you send him out early, you can move from one perch to the next, strafing around the map and nuking people as they come close. You're robbed of that opportunity by sending him out late.

[ariealaviator]

Originally Posted by Bloody the Marro Stinger

I disagree. The BEST usage, in my mind, is to send Zelrig out first. In no other situation in the game are you actually going to have as good of an opportunity to hit a clump. Using Zelrig is all about control - you need Zelrig to have the board under his claw-tips for him to be able to do real damage. If you send him out mid-game, then it will be harder for him to have such a foothold on the map then he would otherwise. Really, the best part about Zelrig is that if you send him out early, you can move from one perch to the next, strafing around the map and nuking people as they come close. You're robbed of that opportunity by sending him out late.

I see your point but what if he gets killed early without doing any damage? Then your army is left sitting in your starting zone while your enemy has taken control over the field and any possible glyphs. Also, if he can't reach the starting zone soon enough the enemy units will be spread out already and he is in harms way all by his lonesome. Don't get me wrong it is probably going to be the most used tactic and can be very effective but I think he will have penty of oppurtunity to pick off commons during the midgame and your opponent will have to worry about him and all your other units.

[Soul Shackle]

It seems that, ironically, the unit with the most to fear from Zelrig is a unique hero. That's right - the Marro Hive has no unit to fear more, not so much for its own sake, but for the sake of its little common spawners sitting on those TWELVE hexes adjacent to it. Yikes!

[drumtooth]

Originally Posted by ariealaviator

I see your point but what if he gets killed early without doing any damage? Then your army is left sitting in your starting zone while your enemy has taken control over the field and any possible glyphs. Also, if he can't reach the starting zone soon enough the enemy units will be spread out already and he is in harms way all by his lonesome. Don't get me wrong it is probably going to be the most used tactic and can be very effective but I think he will have penty of oppurtunity to pick off commons during the midgame and your opponent will have to worry about him and all your other units.

I think the best strategy is a combination of both of yours. Send him out early and wreak as much havoc as possible, and as soon as he starts to take heavy damage, move in your other units. He will survive longer and will still be able to take out more units. The tricky part is trying to figure out WHEN to place order markers on your other units. If you place them too late, Zelrig will bite the dust. And if you place them too early you can miss some potential oppurtunities at frying some commons!

[Einar's puppy]

If you can do well at guessing your opponent's markers, you can run the board with him.
BATTLE REPORT

I lost initiative. Automatically, he moved his Sujoah right at the big guy, causing a bunch of squadies to be spread out and out of M. fire's way. sujoah caused all but two wounds on zelrig with her stinger, and next turn was zelrig. he took the leaving wound, and was able to grab a glyph, intercept order marker. He lost his #3 marker on Dund (big loss for him ) and then he majestically burned two squads of anubians, deleting his second marker. Zelrig than went again and was able to burn a whole in the other commons, and then on his third turn he flew over and attacked Sujoah normally, and was able to put two wounds on her from height.

if you can detect the markers, you can win, in any game, but I did it with Zelrig here. though it stands to be mentioned that next round sujoah killed zelrig, then dodged Nilf's attacks, then kiled him, took the next turn free, and killed Crixus.

[phantomclone]

One card I use against Zelrig is the Venoc Vipers, they have 0 defense anyhow, so they are already fearless, plus you can spread them out and still get 3 attacks a turn on zelrig due to Frenzy/ and 7(9) move. Given, it's a little risky, but with a low cost-per figure, you can afford to swarm him until he falls, and it's even easier with Mittens. Same with any Frenzy card really.

[Aldin]

I like the Vipers against Zelrig. Their speed and immunity to water barriers make it hard for him to play keep away. They get no benefit from bunching up. If all he gets is a single three dice attack versus one of them at range he's sure to fall to several squads even if frenzy doesn't kick in.

I think though that Zelrig is a paradigm changer. Armies that used to have common squads gathered in the start zone need to consider the possibility that they might face Zelrig. All it takes are a couple of well-played Zelrig armies at tournaments
to change what winning armies look like.

In some ways I think Theracus/Sir Denrick is the perfect Zelrig counter. They can come adjacent to him before he can wreak havoc on your commons, neither is particularly vulnerable to Majestic Fires and not only does SirD get an attack boost, but if Zelrig tries to leave he takes THREE dice from the passing swipes (including Theracus). And in a 500 point army there's still room for 2x4th Mass, 2xKoW and Raelin.

~Aldin, fired up

[Boozehammer]

Originally Posted by Kinseth

i actually think its a bad play to move him up quickly and smoke out several of their units fast in the starting zone. Chances are they will have some ranged squad moving first and Zelrigs 4 defense vs any tourny worthy Ranged squad isnt that great.

You have to kill 185 points fast to make it pay off.

I agree with this. If used at all, (s)he needs to be carefully protected, not rushed out. I still think the Airborne Elite work best for the potential of a 1 round knockout of squads.

My playtesting showed Zelrig not making his points attempting the rush n' fire.

[Einar's puppy]

I've only not got Zelrig's points back in one game. It was on Marr highway (a.k.a the impossibly long map in the BOV.) The starting zone blitz works well for me, but he's not limited to it. I got him to get his points back against krav, tealord, concan, kelda, saylind, and realin. His explosion attack is useful even not against commons. I always have good luck with him, and my opponents kick themselves for that tons of commons army. (10x zombies o.O, 5 vipers 3 or 4 Aubriens, 2 deathstalkers aand marrden hounds) He does especially well against rats. Sure, he might not kill his points worth against them, but the IGPV will make up for it. They can be brutal on your ranged figure, so destroying a bunch early is great.

[ron3090]

First off, this is the BEST sculpt I've seen in Heroscape yet. Second, he is not game-breaking.

He only has 4 defense, for one thing, and that means he's weak against high attackers. Just send Drake in or snipe him with Zetacron. Also, his 6 life doesn't last as long as expected. So in this instance, he's an excellent meta-mappper, but in a regular game, he's just a squad-killer.

On a side note, I want to find out who sculpted Zelrig and have him autograph some part of my body.

[EagleOne]

I played my first games with Zelrig yesterday and he wasn't always able to take out his points worth, but he definitely caused a change in strategy. It was a longer map so I only put order marker 2 or 3 on him to get him out there in close proximity, without being in range, but I also moved out some rats and Q9 to make sure that I could remain in competition for the board. The second round I dumped all 3 order markers on him and let him "burninate". Killed all of my opponent's Aubriens in two shots in the second game.