Tundra Orcs

[KCU Master 2007]

Since getting Summoner Wars in yesterday, I have played 5 games (granted, 4 have been me against myself, but still a game) and I have noticed a common trend...the Tundra Orcs win. I was wondering why that is and got to looking at them and this is what I came up with.

Units
Grognack - He is the Summoner that I have been able to get the most use out of because of his Walls of Ice Shard ability. Using that in tandem with a strategy I'm working on allows him a 50% chance at a free wound on, usually, 2 or more units. Lesser commons are instantly destroyed building your magic to summon your pricy champions. The 6 life is enough for him to survive should you opponent break through to him and 4 power is enough to severely wound champions.

Blagog - Expensive to summon, but well worth it. Even with his Reckless hinderance, his 5 power is enough to get anyone trembling, especially other summoners should he get close. I was slightly concerned that being Reckless would hurt his usability, but I was very wrong. This guy is the can opener of the Orcs.

Ragnor - The cheapest and weakest of the Orc Champions. His two attack puts him on par with many commons but his ability to frenzy 33% of the time gives him a solid chance to quickly help build magic for yourself by destroying opponents commons and allowing him to put a hurt on champions making him just dangerous enough for your opponent to have to deal with him...and his 5 life doesn't really go anywhere fast.

Krung - The most expensive summon in this point of the game, however he also is more limited in his use. His 3 power is good, but pales in comparison to both Blagog and Grognack. However, he is good at handling swarms of commons. 9 life takes a long time to drain and the potential to hit multiple targets at once allows him to also quickly build your magic back up.

Smashers - These guys are powerful and, typically, take at least two turns to destroy. Being able to summon a common with 2 power is good...it having 4 life just makes it that much better. However, because they are Sluggish they are easy targets for your opponent.

Fighters - Weaker, common versions of Ragnor but still very useful. Only 1 power means they are best suited to quickly kill off opponents common squads and their Frenzy capability means they have a decent shot to kill two in one activation again, building your magic to summon out your powerful Champions to do the heavy lifting.

Shamans - Extremely expendable. Their two power is good, but Unwieldly Magic keeps they weak by making them have to hit on both dice they roll. While not impossible it hurts a lot. This always makes them an easy burn from my hand to summon the more capable Smashers and Champions.

Event Cards
These are what can really break your opponent.

Ice Wall - These play very strongly into my personal strategy and also greatly enhance his Walls of Ice Shards. These weaker walls can quickly and effectively block opponents from getting to your summoner or even think about it really. They are susceptible to Dwarves though.

Freeze - The second most useful Event Card the Orcs can throw at you. There is nothing more frustrating than summoning an expensive Champion and it immediately being frozen. Couple that with constantly destroying their remaining commons forcing your opponent to have to summon more commons to protect their summoner, often times leaving them without the magic to unfreeze their champion for quite some time.

A Hero is Born - This, like the Shamans, has it's uses but can typically be burned to build magic.


When all of these powers come together, the Tundra Orcs are a VERY formidable force to deal with.

[rym]

Good analysis, KCU Master, but my results were a little different from yours. :(

The Precise ability of the elves just eats the Fighters and Smashers left and right. However, as I posted elsewhere, I realized too late how awesome the Walls of Ice Shard is, and didn't take advantage of it until too late.

I tell you this, though. I'm itchin' for a rematch and can't wait to prove just how awesome these guys are.

[Grungebob]

In the countless games of SW, I have played with the Orcs, I do not consider them to be as powerful as suggested. They do not dominate from what I have experienced.

[KCU Master 2007]

That may be...these are just first impressions.

[Hogg]

This is my favorite faction so far.


The Precise ability of the elves just eats the Fighters and Smashers left and right.

Sluggish should make Precise useless. It doubles up the same effect.

I dominated a game with these guys last night too. I can't wait to play again, I thought they were awesome.

I used Freeze on a common unit that in my opponent's forward wall which stopped him from summoning anything close to me for a turn or so. He eventually killed his own unit, because summoning another was cheaper than unfreezing it.

I thought the shamans were pretty weak though and cant wait to get another set and increase the number of fighters in my deck. I thought the ranged units were kind of weak in all the factions except the dwarves though, so I might just not know how to use them right.

[Grungebob]

I played Orcs three times today. I lost twice and barely eeked out a win once.

[Quintaton16]

I think what's likely happening here is players taking advantage of the Orks, ease of tactics. From what I can see, the Orks seem the least skill-oriented team to play, so they should have the advantage in a game where the opponent is still figuring out what is clearly a very tactically complicated game. Gbob can tell you what it's like playing against really good players, and I think we'll see more of this kind of play when some people start getting the hang of Elves or Goblins

[Hogg]

I think what's likely happening here is players taking advantage of the Orks, ease of tactics. From what I can see, the Orks seem the least skill-oriented team to play, so they should have the advantage in a game where the opponent is still figuring out what is clearly a very tactically complicated game. Gbob can tell you what it's like playing against really good players, and I think we'll see more of this kind of play when some people start getting the hang of Elves or Goblins

I think you're right. I just had them go down against the dwarves.

[Grungebob]

I think what's likely happening here is players taking advantage of the Orks, ease of tactics. From what I can see, the Orks seem the least skill-oriented team to play, so they should have the advantage in a game where the opponent is still figuring out what is clearly a very tactically complicated game. Gbob can tell you what it's like playing against really good players, and I think we'll see more of this kind of play when some people start getting the hang of Elves or GoblinsVery astute. The Orcs do have a more straight forward style of play, but they are the most luck dependent as well.

Colby made a good point at BGG today. He pointed out that I was playing the Orcs too conservative and not balls to the wall like they are supposed to be played. In SW, each faction plays exactly like their general personality. Elves reward patience and precision, Orcs reward recklessness, Goblins reward crafty resourcefulness, and Dwarves reward defense and courage.

[pixlepix]

It is my belief that everyone has one fraction they play well.

[KCU Master 2007]

Got in another game today. I played Orcs vs. Dwarves today. The Orcs didn't draw many wall cards and when they did it was most Ice Walls. Each time they were able to put a wall the Dwarves were in a good position to knock it down via Besiege the Walls or with Engineers. Once the dwarves got two heros out (Baldar and Thorkurk) it was all over.

I still really like the Orcs though, their reckless, all out attack play style seems to play to this game very well.

[Grungebob]

What was funny about yesterday is during one game, I sat down and explained the game to this one kid. After about 5 minutes we started our first turns. On my first turn an Orc fighter runs forward and basically Fury'd all the way down the battlefield until he was adjacent to the kid's summoner. I smacked his summoner for one wound before my fighter lost his Fury. The kid looks at me after just 5 minutes and says that he has just noticed a glaring flaw in the balance of the game. WTF? Well thanks for that genius! Whatever.

So anyway after the game he said he liked the game but that he felt the game was "facetious". I didn't respond. I bet that kid had been waiting a week to use that word.

While the game is easy to learn and teach it is not shallow nor "fecetious". Playing a few times will reveal more of the balance, and we have not even started with the deck building metagame yet.

[Truth]

What was funny about yesterday is during one game, I sat down and explained the game to this one kid. After about 5 minutes we started our first turns. On my first turn an Orc fighter runs forward and basically Fury'd all the way down the battlefield until he was adjacent to the kid's summoner. I smacked his summoner for one wound before my fighter lost his Fury. The kid looks at me after just 5 minutes and says that he has just noticed a glaring flaw in the balance of the game. WTF? Well thanks for that genius! Whatever.

So anyway after the game he said he liked the game but that he felt the game was "facetious". I didn't respond. I bet that kid had been waiting a week to use that word.

While the game is easy to learn and teach it is not shallow nor "fecetious". Playing a few times will reveal more of the balance, and we have not even started with the deck building metagame yet.

That kid came back the next day with his dad in tow and his dad said that the kid didn't have enough good to say about it. The kid played another game, told me how it was the best game at the convention and was on his christmas list, he then proceeded to hang out for another hour and watch other people play. :P

[KCU Master 2007]

That kid came back the next day with his dad in tow and his dad said that the kid didn't have enough good to say about it. The kid played another game, told me how it was the best game at the convention and was on his christmas list, he then proceeded to hang out for another hour and watch other people play. :P

Where you able to get your head back through the door? ;)

Seriously, that's great to hear. I haven't been able to not play this game since getting it. I'm trying to get a few others to play a couple games but no luck yet. I'm exposing my family later this week when I go in for Thanksgiving. With any luck they'll have it on their Christmas list as well.


we have not even started with the deck building metagame yet.

I think this is what I'm looking forward to the most (I already have the game after all, so can't look forward to that anymore).

[Grungebob]

That kid came back the next day with his dad in tow and his dad said that the kid didn't have enough good to say about it. The kid played another game, told me how it was the best game at the convention and was on his christmas list, he then proceeded to hang out for another hour and watch other people play. :PSee now this is just exactly what I am talking about! First impressions seemed to be different than his lasting impression: That this is a deep and engaging game with simple mechanics anybody can learn. It's more like chess than anything but just a boatload more fun. Oh and "kid", if you read this, just know that I absolutely enjoyed the game we played! You have a very good mind for strategy! I imagine you will do well with the Phoenix elves considering you were quickly making use of their most devastating power combos after just one play.

[Hogg]

Playing a few times will reveal more of the balance, and we have not even started with the deck building metagame yet.

I'm curious about deck building. Right now I'm getting ready to order several more starters so I can change the common units around some. I don't like the ranged units as much and want to play with more fighter types.

Looking at the custom deck building rules it looks kind of restrictive. The number and types of event and wall cards are fixed, as is the starting setup. The things that are changeable are the champions, but you have to have 3, and the commons. I'm dying to see what new commons and champions come out in the expansions.

I think Truth said he has to sell 1,500 units before they release any expansions. I'm in for 7. The rest of you guys need to hurry up. :D

[Truth]

I'm curious about deck building. Right now I'm getting ready to order several more starters so I can change the common units around some. I don't like the ranged units as much and want to play with more fighter types.

Looking at the custom deck building rules it looks kind of restrictive. The number and types of event and wall cards are fixed, as is the starting setup. The things that are changeable are the champions, but you have to have 3, and the commons. I'm dying to see what new commons and champions come out in the expansions.

I think Truth said he has to sell 1,500 units before they release any expansions. I'm in for 7. The rest of you guys need to hurry up. :D

The build rules are a little restrictive. That's why I came up with the Free Build alternate for those who would want that kind of thing. The rules are restrictive on puropse, it allows me as a designer to better foresee possible combonations so that things don't get carried away, like they can in some CCGs.

[paradox22]

The rules are restrictive on puropse, it allows me as a designer to better foresee possible combonations so that things don't get carried away, like they can in some CCGs

I like that thought process. I'd much rather have restrictive build rules than have a broken game due to a combonation that somehow slipped passed playtesting. :D

[Hogg]

I like that thought process. I'd much rather have restrictive build rules than have a broken game due to a combonation that somehow slipped passed playtesting. :D

Yeah, good call on keeping the balance in check.

[Jexik]

I've been playing the Tundra Orcs more, and I'm really liking them. Beat up on the Goblins twice last night. I've been tending towards building my Shamans, summoning Fighters when I need a third front-liner, and summoning/reinforcing nearly every Smasher I get.

Their champions are pretty tough, and I like that Grognack is a total beast as well. I had a game last night where I had Grognack, Krung, Ragnor, and Blagog all out at the same time. I didn't go straight for the Summoner like I sometimes do, but was rather plopping Smashers down adjacent to my opponent's wall and just making a hard overall push. I like that Ice Walls give you a lot of flexibility in your summoning spots- you can often have almost the whole front row covered, although if I have 3 solid walls out, I might Build the Ice ones.

They were the first faction I played way back at GenCon, and they're shaping up to be my favorite now too... although I wouldn't be surprised if this changed again later.

[XCoconutMonkey06x]

Wow, you got Krung out? I envy you! I tend to only end up getting 1-2 champs with no Krung :( Sounds like you have one hell of a beat wall!

[Lord_AndraK]

Originally when i played Orcs vs Elves the Orcs won hands down.

however very quickly we both became more experienced and the elves suddenly smashed the living daylights out of the orcs and continued to do so.

But... the after playing the orcs vs the Dwarves & goblins a few times we started using more clever tactics with the Orcs and the orcs have claimed 2nd place in our games with a defensive rush style.

So i have actually found the orcs to indeed have a easy concept but tricky playing style.


(sorry bit long that)