Is army selection all there is to a good strategy?

[Ghostship]

Is there a link section to general concepts of play?

Army selection and synergy get a lot of talk.

But what about:
-awareness of range
-attack or defence strategies that use terrain and make use of the rules like needing to stop upon entering water?

Maybe it's covered. Please excuse me. I bought a bunch then couldn't find adults locally who played. That and social anxiety.

[Dad_Scaper]

Interesting. I think there are some players in Ottawa, did you look in the Events & Meet Other Scapers subforum? Don't be shy, I'm sure they're an excellent crew. @wriggz , do you know anything about Ottawa 'Scapers?

There is a lot of material about strategy on this board. There's a whole subforum for it, even. Also if you want to play online, there's a whole subforum for that, too, and I bet you'll find a bunch of people who will talk through a game with you, if you're interested. You don't have to sign up for a tournament or anything, just play.

[wriggz]

Play online!

It is great for the introverts among us.

If you want to read more, check the link in my thread, or follow the links in the Thread stickied in this very sub form. That library has tons of articles of varying weight. Anything written by @Jenik, @Kroc or @dok is a safe bet, with some other gems as well. @wriggz wrote a bunch too.

Finally the Official Unit Strategy Guides are awesome. Some are a bit dated, but still great reads.

As for Ottawa, I recommend moving to Toronto. Better Hockey team.

[lefton4ya]

as I noted on the gencon. 2011 thread the best army does not make a guarunteed winner. check my link below to the new here? link to wriggs index to best threads for strategy.

[Owlman]

No:

Placement of figures, Bonding, special powers, and of course dice rolling all play the part of strategy. Ultimately, though, the dice will decide your fate, which is one of the best parts of the game, IMO.

[The_X_Marker]

Hopefully without causing a debate between dice and skill, against an equal skilled opponent, dice mean more, while against someone with less skill, it is skill that means more in my opinion. The dice just tell you what did or didn't happen, it is up to the player to be able to act in a way that maximizes their ability to respond to good and bad dice rolls.

As for the original post, It is hard to strategize things that you sometimes don't control, such as the board. If you knew the board, you can strategize around it, but most tactical and strategic threads are tournament inclined where maps are randomly selected. In that regard, there was quite a bit of talk about height and how important it is in some situations and the basic jist is that you should always strategize in a way that allows you control of the highest point in the board and have a way to grab glyphs if you need to.

You would have to explain what you mean by "awareness of range" though.

[Aldin]

In a sense, everything is determined by the roll of the dice. In practice, the number of dice you roll has a lot to do with army selection and strategy. Given a roughly equal amount of total life between the two sides, the player who rolls the most dice is probably the one who wins. So any strategy that increases the amount of dice you roll - using range and height, terrain and placement - is going to increase your chances of victory. Likewise, army selection that maximizes the efficiency of Order Markers in generating dice rolls matters quite a bit.

Here's a quickie list of some "important things I learned by playing":

1) Height is a big, big deal and the figure on height has a huge advantage.
2) Range can buy you height - as long as you outrange your opponent.
2a) A range of 7 often outranges an opponent.
3) The more times you attack in a turn, the more opportunity you give your opponent to whiff defensively.
3a) Four member squads attack a lot.
3b) Four member ranged squads attack more.
3c) Four member common squads can still attack a lot even after they start losing people.
3d) Bonding squads attack a lot.
4) An attack of 4 has a good chance of causing damage.
5) A defense of 4 has a good chance of preventing damage from an attack of 3.

~Aldin, experientially

[Dad_Scaper]

Originally Posted by The_X_Marker

Hopefully without causing a debate between dice and skill, against an equal skilled opponent, dice mean more, while against someone with less skill, it is skill that means more in my opinion. The dice just tell you what did or didn't happen, it is up to the player to be able to act in a way that maximizes their ability to respond to good and bad dice rolls.

This is correct. Or, as @dok puts it (paraphrasing), skill minimizes the effect the dice will have.

[chas]

Also, as a beginner, you may be assuming a basic 'Kill 'Em All' scenario. Scenario design is also a big part of this site. And of course, the Victory Conditions of the game you are playing certainly will be a huge factor in your strategy too!

They can include Points Killed, Treasure/Equipment Glyphs Held or Exited, Terrain Objectives/Purple glyphs Occupied, A Particular Enemy Defeated/Killed or Rescued, and many more used in custom story type games (rather than tournament style). Examples abound in the Official rule book scenarios. In my group, the New York City Gang of Four, we each take turns creating new scenarios in almost every monthly game.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

I agree with @chas that other victory scenarios are very good for increasing the in-game skill of HeroScape, rather than just army drafting strategy.

Also, I think making it a scenario rather than just a deathmatch opens up how creative you can get with map-making, which is always fun.