Unit Strategy Review: Greater Ice Elemental

[wriggz]

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Unit Strategy Review
Unit: Greater Ice Elemental
Author: wriggz

Perhaps the coolest heroes to be summoned to Valhalla, Greater Ice Elementals are an imposing sight to behold. Covered in razor sharp ice their devastating blows freeze the blood of all who bear witness to their devastating attack just as quickly as they freeze all water around them. However, they are after all made of ice, which can be a delicate as a snowflake when confronted with hot metal death. Let’s explore how to best deploy these walking glaciers, and send chills down your opponent’s spine.

Analyzed Statistics:
Life: 4 – Below Average
Move: 5 – Average
Range: 1 – Melee
Attack: 6 – Deadly
Defense: 4 – Average*

Ice Cold: All same-level water and ice spaces that that Greater Ice Elemental is on and adjacent to are considered normal Ice spaces. Medium Tactical Advantage:

Ice Spikes: All figures moving into engagement with that Greater Ice Elemental may receive one wound. Sub-reliant, Semi Reliable on ice.

*Cold Healing: At the end of turn if this Greater Ice Elemental is on at least one snow or ice space, remove one wound. High Tactical Advantage

In-Depth Analysis:
As with all strategy articles, we use Agatagary’s guide to rate the figures, based on chess pieces.

Pawn Class: (expendable, units that can be useful, but are not worth enormous trouble to protect)
Bishop Class: (more useful than a pawn, but still somewhat expendable)
Knight Class: (units that are interestingly powerful and can have a significant impact on the game in of themselves. It is advisable that they be kept alive, but if absolutely necessary they may be sacrificed)
Rook Class: (units that almost inevitably have a significant impact on the game, and whose death should be avoided as much as possible)
Queen Class: (devastatingly powerful or important units that should be protected at all costs)

Class: Knight
At 130 points fielding even one Greater Ice Elemental is a considerable investment in your army. With an impressive Attack of 6, there are few figures that can stand toe to toe with the icy behemoth, meaning he will greatly affect how your opponent will place figures. With the unique ability to create ice bridges and a handy healing power a Greater Ice Elemental should factor greatly in your general strategy, if not dictating it entirely. For these reasons, while you should be willing to get Big Icy a bit dirty, as a Knight class figure temperance is warranted.

Threat Range:
5 Move + 1 Range = 6

Survivability:
A Greater Ice Elemental can be tricky to keep from melting with his relatively low Life of 4. A few solid attacks and poor luck with on defense rolls can leave you with a puddle of water before you get a chance to capitalize on his 6 base Attack value. With an average Move of 5, being double spaced, and a preference for staying in or near water, Greater Ice Elementals are not terribly maneuverable. This leaves it vulnerable to multiple ranged attacks, which can quickly use up its pool of 4 lives.

At first glance Cold Healing looks like the solution, since you can replenish one Life each turn. However, this is where the Ice Elemental becomes map dependent. For aesthetic reasons most map builders place water on a lower level than surrounding land tiles, if they place water at all. This means that in order to get the full use of Cold Healing you have to give up height advantage to your opponent’s figures. As a double space figure it can be even harder to find a watery oasis of healing, and may mean giving up further board control.

Further supporting a Greater Ice Elemental’s survivability against melee figures is Ice Spikes. With a 30% chance of wounding heroes and destroying common figures entering engagement on land and 40% on while on snow or ice, with a bit of luck a Greater Ice Elemental won’t have that many attacks to defend against.

With Greater Ice Elementals survivability is all about balance. Deciding when to give up height advantage for the promise of healing or moving onto water in the hopes of destroying common melee figures with Ice Spikes will help increase a Greater Ice Elemental’s staying power. Making a plan at the beginning of the match to force the battle to take place where your Greater Ice Elemental will be the most use is the key to victory.

Offensive Ability:
Jotun and Su-Bak-Na are the only official figures with a higher base Attack (only Mok from C3V), and only a hand full of others can match the Attack of 6, usually at far greater cost. An attack of 6 is sufficient to break through the most resilient of defenses; however as a normal attack it can be circumvented by powers like the Deepwyrm Drow’s Hide in the Darkness, or Ninjas of the Northern Winds' Disappearing Ninja. As melee-only single attackers, Greater Ice Elementals are ideal for slugging it out with high life heroes, since extra attack dice are usually wasted on pawn class figures.

When it comes to melee squads offence is all about good defense. As previously mentioned Ice Spikes has the power to take out multiple common figures with a few good die rolls regardless of defense. Powers like this can be terrifying for high defense squads like the Minions of Utgar or Sentinels of Jandar, thinning their ranks before they get a chance to attack.

Tournament Readiness: Medium-Low
While Greater Ice Elementals have the attack power to take out big Heroes and a defensive ability that can thin out melee squads, the weakness to multiple ranged attacks means that only the brave would be willing to field a single Greater Ice Elemental in a tournament, let alone multiples. Additionally, the lack of synergy with other units and map dependence lend Greater Ice Elementals more towards a draft format. The one exception is melee heavy Heat of the Battle matches where Ice Spikes could be devastating.

Strategy:
Like any heavy hitter it is rarely a good idea to rush Greater Ice Elementals out into battle to face the full force of your opponent’s army. Insteada Greater Ice Elemental requires development in the early game and is often best saved for cleanup. Before placing your first order maker you should decide how your Greater Ice Elemental will best support the rest of your army.

When drafting support for a Greater Ice Elemental, your priority should be accounting for its weakness against ranged squads. Squads with defensive powers that work against ranged attacks such as the Goblin Cutters and Phantom Knights are excellent choices for tying up and taking out troublesome ranged squads. This allows a Greater Ice Elemental to focus its considerable attack power and upon melee squads or tough heroes. Karv Maga Agents are an obvious counter draft to ranged squads, working well with a Greater Ice Elemental backed by Raelin the Kyrie Warrior.

Combat Engineer
A Greater Ice Elemental’s ability to change terrain is one of the most creative powers in the game, and potentially one of the most misunderstood. Certainly powers like Cold Healing and the Ice Troll Berserker’s Cold Regenerate rely on the presence of ice, but what about other figures? Ice bridges allow them to take advantage of the Greater Ice Elemental's powers. It is not uncommon for maps to have rivers or bodies of water designed to slow down the development of your ranged figures, blocking hills or glyphs. This is when moving up a Greater Ice Elemental to create an ice bridge can be an innovative and surprising strategy.

When paired with shock troops or even bread and butter squads, having a Greater Ice Elemental act as a bridge can quickly speed up board control as your forces ford rivers with ease. If you leave your X maker on your Greater Ice Elemental, it may even take pressure off your weaker ranged attackers as your opponent targets the perceived threat of an Attack of 6. With a Defense of 4, a Greater Ice Elemental will be able to weather a few attacks, and when you do get around to activating it, can heal any incurred wounds. As long as your Greater Ice Elemental remains in the river you can continue to move up reinforcements and protect figures in you start zone as your opponent is unlikely to risk ice enhanced Ice Spikes in order to utilize your bridge.

Ranged Squads best supported by a Greater Ice Elemental:

Spoiler Alert!

Aubrien Archers, Gorrillanators, Marro Stingers, 10th Regiment of Foot, Mohican River Tribe, Tagawa Samurai Archers

Using Ice bridges with elementals is of special note. While Ice bridges are invaluable to the Fire Elemental by negating Negative Element, the Water Elemental is blocked form using Water Mastery and Water Tunnel. Both are worth consideration when playing an elemental heavy army.

Guard Dog
If there is no strategic value in creating ice bridges or after the strategic value has depleted there are other uses for your Greater Ice Elemental. It is important to resist the urge to treat the spiky construct as a shark and rush him head long into battle, instead using Ice Spikes to protect key figures or maintain board control.

When it comes to key figures there are few that rank as highly as Raelin the Kyrie Warrior; however Kurrok the Elementalist in an elemental build would also qualify. In these cases it is important to note that while a Greater Ice Elemental is a large sculpt it has a narrow waist that doesn’t greatly block line of sight. By placing Raelin or another key figure behind a Greater Ice Elemental you can still benefit form line of sight powers like Defensive Aura or Master of the Elements, while protecting these figures from melee attacks. In this configuration the spaces occupied by a Greater Ice Elemental are completely blocked, the spaces adjacent to both a Greater Ice Elemental and the key figure are protected by Ice Spikes, leaving only the 2 far spaces open for your opponent to attack from safely. With the ever present threat of an Attack of 6, your opponent will think twice before targeting your key figures with a melee attack.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a key figure in your army a Greater Ice Elemental can create a threat pocket in bottlenecks or on hills. Placing a Greater Ice Elemental in key map locations creates an area of 8 spaces, up to 4 spaces wide where your opponent has to risk Ice Spikes to cross or occupy. This can force your opponent to take detours or attack from suboptimal positioning. At 130 points a Greater Ice Elemental is an expensive decoy, but if it allows you to solidify your ranged figures on height or destroys foolish figures with Ice Spikes, it may be worth the investment. Furthermore, with Cold Healing, getting a wound or two before the end game is perfectly acceptable.

Last Snow Storm of the Season
Once either your or your enemy’s ranks have been thinned out it is time for the Ice Elemental to come out of hibernation. If it has taken any wounds before this time, utilizing Cold Healing is a good idea, unless it leaves you open to more wounds that you can heal. By the endgame hopefully only partial squads or single attack heroes remain, so its Defense of 4 should hold up long enough to get the most out of Cold Healing. This is when the 6 Attack dice can really come in handy since defenders often survive to the end game, and you will need the heavy attack to take them down. With so many dice Counter Strike is less of a concern and even high life heroes can fall after a poor defense roll. Few units can last in a game of attrition with a Greater Ice Elemental especially if the map features some good healing pools.

Optional Strategies:
Against the Spiked Wall
One of the more risky maneuvers to attempt with a Greater Ice Elemental is to use it as a spiked wall to "throw" figures against. This is possible whether the figure is summoned, thrown or otherwise placed adjacent to it. For example Jotun can throw and Shurrak can Knockback, and Drow Chan Fighters can Chain Grab figures into the spikes thus increasing your odds of inflicting wounds. While it can be difficult to set up, Warforged Soldiers can Tactical Switch opponents into the spikes. If a Greater Ice Elemental is already set up protecting a key figure or map location, this strategy may become easier to execute.

Glyph Trap
It is not uncommon for map designers to place glyphs in low lying areas, including placing them in water. In these cases a Greater Ice Elemental can become a decent glyph holder since it can heal on each turn. Moreover if you opponent’s army is melee only this will force your opponent to risk Ice Spikes in an effort to plow the walking ice storm off the glyph. Normally it is better to hold a glyph, but in the event that the glyph offers no benefit to your army, standing beside the glyph can create a tempting bit of cheese which will hopefully destroy a few figures.

Units to Avoid:
Multiple Range Attacks
As previously mentioned with a pool of only 4 Life, any unit that can produce multiple ranged attacks can quickly melt the icy construct. This includes special attacking Heroes like Major Q9 and Major Q10 or squads like 4th Massachusetts Line and Marro Stingers. Cold Healing and a Defense of 4 simply cannot keep up with repeated attacks. With low maneuverability ranged attackers will likely be able to gain height advantage and it is not possible to tie up the attackers to get the most out of a Greater Ice Elemental’s huge attack.

Isamu
Special mention goes to the tricky ninja with regards to Greater Ice Elementals. With 1 Life and 1 Defense the 6 Attack is wasted on Isamu, and Vanish has a 60% chance of ignoring all wounds. Worst still because Greater Ice Elementals follows Jandar, Isamu can hit for 5 Attack. Even inflicting one wound more than makes up for Isamu’s points and can lead to a total loss in the endgame when these clean up figures reign.

Fen Hydra
With the ability to ignore Ice Spikes, Slither over water, and attack 4 times in one turn, at 120 points a Fen Hydra can make short work of a Greater Ice Elemental for 10 points less. It is best to utilize the rest of your forces before letting these titans duke it out.

For additional information see: The Book of Greater Ice Elemental

[mtl1998]

I liked this a lot. I don't usually have games where my GIE performs very well. Maybe this'll help. What do you think about using the Nakitas to help with the GIE's vulnerability to ranged attacks? I was surprised not to find it in the guide.
Edit: they just happen to bond with a certain suggested ranged figure you mentioned. Icing on the cake.

[wriggz]

The Nakita's are a great addition to a Ice elemental, But you are definitally putting all your eggs in one basket.

130 GIC
120 Nakitas
250 Total

Rounding them out with maybe 180 points of Gorllianators leaves 70 points in a standard 500 and would be trouble for Melee Squads, Ranged Squads, and the GIE could deal with any beefy heroes.

[mtl1998]

I guess the Majors (units to avoid) could ruin that army..

[wriggz]

I'm fairly certain (excluding the Iron Golum) the majors are on every Units to avoid list.

[mtl1998]

Originally Posted by wriggz

I'm fairly certain (excluding the Iron Golum) the majors are on every Units to avoid list.

True

[Maklar the Silver Prince]

Read this review this morning, and it inspired me to buy 2 of the packs the GIE comes in. For the Ice Elemental of course, none of those dinky little lizardmen or drow...

Nice looking review!

[Taeblewalker]

It's good to see us working on these again. I remember it was around eight years ago that we were particularly active. Time flies!

[TheAverageFan]

Good review for one of the least appreciated Uncommons out there. I don't think Isamu is a huge threat with Ice Spikes, but for a measly 10 points I guess he's worth the risk.

Not the most tourney-ready of figures, but I can say that when using a Melee army, these things can be brutal. It's true what you said about utilizing range with a GIE--this guy's meant to play defense I think.

~TAF, whose favorite sculpt in Heroscape is the GIE

[mtl1998]

Its interesting that the GIE is meant to play defence with only 4 defense and 4 life.

[Marro_Warlord]

Originally Posted by mtl1998

Its interesting that the GIE is meant to play defence with only 4 defense and 4 life.

Well yes, but he also has regeneration. What I think he is (in my opinion) is an order marker sink that defends. You'll need healing for him to be affective.

[raXas1516]

Great review! Now I just need to get some GIE's myself!