500pt Utgar Force - How should I improve it ?

[Adam Souza]

I've never played competitively. We usually play recreational drafts.

I'm trying to stick with 500pts of Utgar forces

Arrow Gruts 40
Swog Rider 25
Krug 120
Blade Gruts 40
Grimnak 120
Cyprien 150
495pts

I figure by placing my markers on the Gruts I can use them as cheap decoys while Krug and Grimnak get activations through bonding. Cyprien is included because I've a knack of rolling 20s while using him. The swog rider is just so used to following the arrow gruts around I think he thinks he's one of them.

I figure although they're ranged abilities are weak, having 3 heavy hitters on the team will force my opponent to concentrate on, and I'll manuver in the other 2.

What could I have done better ?

[King of the Marro]

Normally when using common squads you'll want at least 2 sets of them. So if you have the extra squads then you might try:

Blade gruts x2 - 80
Arrow gruts x2 - 160
Krug - 280
Grimnak - 400
Ne-Gok-Sa - 490
Isamu - 10

...but if not your build works too...

[GromBloodboy]

It would be even better that if instead of Ne-gok-sa, he took 2 Swogs and another set of Arrows. Let arrows go first, and finish the game with the blade gruts. The arrows aren't reliable for finishing because you have to position them just right to maxamize their power, and you will usually have to chase someone around the board in the end.

[nyys]

Yep, multiple commons is the way to go. Cheap commons (like the Gruts) I try to take a minimum of 3 squads (with Rats being the exception to that).

To fit those extra squads in I think I would take Krug out of this army and add at least one more Arrow Grut and Blade Grut Squad, with the last 40 points either going to a 3rd of the above or another Swog and some filler.

That or eliminate one of those two squads all together. Its tought to play Blades and Arrows together even if you have multiple squads since the Gruts main ability is to attack with vast numbers.

Couple suggestions:

Arrow Gruts x4
Swog Rider x2
Krug
Mimring
Marcu Esenwein
500pts - 21 Hexes

With that army you maximize the Arrow Gruts bonding abilities with 4 units (2 Swogs, Krug, and Mimring), and you have plenty of them to sustain your assault.


As for the Blade Gruts; I prefer Heavies since the Blades die in droves, and with that in mind.

Blades x5
Grimnak
Cyprien
Eldgrim
500pts - 24 hexes

Plenty of staying power with that many Blades, all while Grimnak keeps pace with bonding, and then bring in Cyprien for clean-up.

Could also lose a squad of Blades and Eldgrim to get Nerak in there and provide more defensive support.

--

Of course I say all this realizing that you may not have all that stuff to field those armies.

[killercactus]

Everyone's already suggested multiple commons, but nobody really explained why. I think the reason in this situation is 3-fold:

1) By drafting only one squad of a common, your opponent only has to kill one of them to reduce the power of an Order Marker on them. For example - if I kill one Blade Grut in your army, an Order Marker now only gets you 5 attacks (3 Gruts + Grimnak + Chomp) instead of 6 (4 Gruts + Grimnak + Chomp). And it only gets worse from there.

2) You can't effectively use these commons as cheap decoys, because they're going to be the ones with Order Markers on them, and ther aren't enough to survive and protect those markers. For example - if you put your 1 and 2 on the Arrow Gruts in hopes of activating Krug and I win initiative, my squad of [insert ranged or melee bonding squad here] can and will target the Arrow Gruts on turn 1, knowing that they're weak defense isn't likely to hold up, and if I kill them all you lose turns this round. Strong players will target your units that have OM's on them, especially if they think they can wipe them out this turn. Multiple commons goes a long way to ensuring that doesn't happen and you keep your turns.

3) A bit of an extension of #2 - with only one squad of each, you'll find yourself with some agonizing decisions about where to place your Order Markers. "Do I activate Blades, Arrows, or Cyprien this turn?" "I want to activate Grimnak, but what if all of my Blades die? Should I give Grimnak an OM himself?". Questions like that can be avoided altogether by using multiple commons and sticking to just a couple places to put OM's in an army.

Having said all of that - if you want to play Utgar Orcs, I'd focus on one of the 3 Orc Common squads and build around that. Good armies can be made from all 3 of them at 500 Points, though the Heavy Gruts are probably the most "competitive". Staying all Utgar at 500 Points, I like these 3 options:

Grimnak - 120
Tornak - 220
Heavy Gruts x4 - 500, 18 hexes

Grimnak - 120
Ornak - 220
Tornak - 320
Blade Gruts x4 - 480
Marcu - 500, 22 hexes

Krug - 120
Mimring - 270
Swog Rider x4 - 370
Arrow Gruts x3 - 490
Isamu - 500, 22 hexes

If you want to play Cyprien and are willing to go outside of the Orc realm, I like this Utgar army at 500:

Cyprien - 150
Sonya - 195
Marro Stingers x5 - 495

Like nyys said, you might not have the units to build these. Without multiples of Commons (except Stingers x2 and Nagrubs x2 from SotM), you can build this:

Tor-Kul-Na - 220
Marrden Nagrubs x2 - 280
Marro Stingers x2 - 400
Iskra Esenwein - 450
Rechets of Bogdan - 500

[Adam Souza]

Thank you all for the advice. I see now the power and wisdom in using multiples of common squads now.

At the moment I don't have multiples of Gruts, but wave 1 is pretty easy to get right now, so I will remedy that in the near future.

[King of the Marro]

I'm assuming you don't have SoTM?
I just realized that if you do...

The Best Defense is a Good Offense
Marro Stingers x2 - 120
SBN - 280
Nagrubs x2 - 340
Cyprien - 150
Isamu - 10

or

Tanks
TKN - 220
Nagrubs x2 - 280
Marro Stingers x2 - 400
Ne-Gok-Sa - 490
Isamu (This guy appears a lot haha) - 500

or

Misfits of Awesomeness
Cyprien - 150
Sonya - 195
Marro Stingers x2 - 315
Krug - 435
Marro Warriors or (Me-Burq-Sa) - 485
Isamu (I just love this guy) - 495

*Please note that these armies aren't supposed to be super competitive but would merely be fun to use.

[The Truth]

Well, were it me, I'd try a bigger useage of Heavy Gruts and Nerak (full name: Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider). They are not as popular but by no means bad.

Heavy Gruts are like the Blade Gruts, only they have 1 more attack and defense and 1 less move, and they cost 30 more points per squad (70 total). Nerak is a 50-point orc hero who enhances orc warriors' stats by adjacency, and is also powerful on snow tiles (provided you use a map with snow).

[Adam Souza]

I have
7 ROTV
1 SOTM
All the uniques from waves 1,3,4,5,6,7,8
2 VW
2 RTTFF
1 Arrow Grutz
1 Sword Grutz
1 Swog Rider
1 Nerak
2 Ornak
Heroes Of Laur
Heroes of Lindesfarme
Marro Drones x3
Minions of Utgar x4
Wolves of Anubis x2
Massachussetts 14th x1

I'm in the process of gettng some more common squads.

Literally, my purchasing method was based on how cool the models looked, since I had no idea what any of them did before buying them

I own a decent amount of scape, I just really never played all that much untill recently. Now I'm trying to play catch up.

[killercactus]

Runa - 120
Minions of Utgar x3 - 450
Marro Warriors - 500



(I actually like this army much more with the Airborne Elite instead of a Minion squad, but kept it all Utgar).