General or No General

[Retlaw]

I like playing themed armies, so a lot of time that does lead to one general armies (but not always).

Of course I also like smaller point armies (500 and less), so if you try to work in any synergies in a small army (e.g. bonding), you'll probably end up with one general.

[1Mmirg]

Originally Posted by Bloody the Marro Stinger

I too focus on synergy most of the time. I rarely limit myself to one general unless I'm using a specific army, as other people have said.
Oddly enough, Utgar and Jandar seem to work wonderfully together, which is odd, because the two shouldn't be working together from a storyline standpoint...

I've mentioned before that this has to do with this emphases of each general. I'll see if I can find the longer post, but for now I'll simplify it to say that Utgar often is about heavy hitting special attacks (think Line of Fire, Stinger Drain, etc.) and/or a multiplicity of attacks (think swarming orcs or zombies). Jandar is often about defensive abilities (Raelin/Kelda) or boosts to other units (Finn/Thorgrim). So these work well together--someone like Mimring really needs the defense of Raelin.

Of course the other generals fit in here as well (Marcus is a great booster as well) and Jandar and Utgar have got plenty of units that do the opposite of their general trend: the orcs buff their own, and Nilfheim has one mean special attack (and a multiplicity of them). But in my experience it is the fact that some generals have specialists that makes an inter-general army so feasible and fun! The old Rae/Q9/rats is all about picking highlights out of each general.

Since this is a war game and many units (especially earlier ones) have non-general specific powers, it is no surprise that, as Rev put it, if you gather a motley crew of fun/effective units together (theme=they are all warriors), they will, with a little effort, be a great fighting force.

[Revdyer]

This is partly in response to 1Mmirg's excellent post.

I think that because we are limited (and I am glad that we are) to 5.1 generals (someday it will be 6.0 and I'll be happy indeed), Utgar gets all the "baddies." In some ways this is lamentable, because I see a difference between the Marro crowd and its variations and the, for want of a better term, Horror group (Vampires, Zombies, Shades). The Horror folks somewhat lessen the impact of what 1Mmirg has discerned about Utgar's hard hitting offense.

Not only is Utgar offensive but bad, and Jandar defensive but good, Vydar has the techno neutrality stuff going, and Ullar the elven-woodish suspicious of everyone else thing, Einar is the (mostly) Asian mediator of it all, and Aquila is yet to be defined, really. But the coolest thing, the really, really coolest thing of all, for me, is that they can all team together, on occasion, and come up with a synergistic whole that is greater than the parts thereof.

Now that makes for a great gaming experience!

[rym]

I don't think I could think of a better way to sum that up than what you just did Rev. As always, you state it so easily, yet perfectly. Thanks again.

[damja]

When we are playing for fun (not that we don't always play for fun) we will sometimes play general-specific armies. We have actually gone as far as to create a campaign system (with some success) where each player was assigned a general to use for the entire campaign.

If we are being more competitive we will mix things up a bit. One of the guys I play with regularly can be nearly guaranteed to bring Krav+Raelin, while another always brings and army that is comprised of multiple common squads - usually with bonding - to maximaize attacks.

[Revdyer]

Originally Posted by rym

I don't think I could think of a better way to sum that up than what you just did Rev. As always, you state it so easily, yet perfectly. Thanks again.

Thanks, rym. I do love this game.

[grizz]

We always play using general-specific armies. I think the only time we didn't was when we first started playing and didn't have enough figures to do this.

[dyerseve]

I was like Grizz, only mixed it up when I first started. I think the general specific armies really adds to the depth of the game, the wholistic strategic of it all.

Usually what I have is one army of each general already put together. I match them as best as possible (all valiant, blast/glads etc.) so each army is as powerful as possible. Then when the play group comes over, we roll the 20 and pick a pre-made army.

Guess what army has won the most so far?



Ullar - hands down.

[darktrooper889]

Originally Posted by DarkBladeCB

In casual play, I find it really fun to play themed armies. Even in the division of "Utgar" I tend to play "Orcs" or "Marro" or "Undead." I find this to be visually interesting and a sort of challenge to piece together the best possible themed army. I don't really have any friends, so I sit in my room and think about Heroscape a lot, instead of going out to parties and stuff. I am not a very cool person. So I dream about themed Heroscape armies and the pieces I wish I had. Sad life.

But if I'm trying to make the most competitive army, I can't say I'd end up so restrained by theme.

This is exactly my predicament!

I, too, also like general themed armies.

btw, I love the new choices of fonts!

[Jaz1597]

We always play general-themed armies as well, but we've played so many games that we finally had to come up with a little d20 chart to randomize who plays which general. It's actually a pretty nifty system...

[Garet Jaxx]

Here is what happens at my house.
"I call ullar."
"No, you got ullar last time."
"Fine, then I get Einar."
"Don't touch the samurai or I KILL YOU!"
"Fine, then I get Vydar."
"Wait, you can have the samurai, I want Q9."
Thought 'ha ha, reverse phycology wins again."
Talk "Fine be that way."
"I get the orcs."
"Thats ok, everybody esle already used them."
"Yeah, they are probably all tired by now."
Dad enters "I want to play Heroscape. I call Jandar."
"Nobody wants Jandar!" We shout.

My point is, who needs a 20d, we have the shotgun system.
"Lets go to buy some Heroscape."
"Shotgun!"
"Dang it!"
Very simply, either the fastest person gets to pick first.

[Einar's puppy]

Originally Posted by darktrooper889

This is exactly my predicament!

I, too, also like general themed armies.

btw, I love the new choices of fonts!

Got room for one more on your bandwagon?
Seriously, yesterday 2 of my 3 freinds came over (Really shocked me) and the whole time when we were playing SSBB, or around the world (Basketball game) or fuseball(Is that how you spell it?) I would ask " Yeah this is fun! Letsgo play heroscape! I really want to try out my new samurai army!" I got the no response a lot.

I love the fonts too...