Blood of Gruumsh
The Orcs are here! Grab your d20 and start building Borderlands. Part I of a 3 part arc featuring the miniatures in the new set is here. And so are the stats for nine of the ten minis...
WoTC has released all-new minis in the Blood of Gruumsh set, and that means ten new stat cards to liven up the DDM scene. This first installment of the Orcs lists nine of them, we’ve tried to take them in some interesting directions.
For example, the War Druid is the first Orc to have a line attack; a jet of acid that makes combustible things catch fire. The Orcbound Owlbear is Orc-trained battlefield fodder that fights best when the Druid is close by. There are Orc Rangers that are trained to hunt men, and an Orc Chieftain who is smart enough to know when an underling has a good idea. There are slaver orcs that are professionals, who fight more like they belong in civilization, and Wereboar Mercenaries that drag along a little mascot boar.
Did I mention the Ogre lord that reliably does 30 damage and has ridiculous resilience? I probably should, since he is one of my favorite ogre sculpts ever. This guy may not be current canon, but he is dead-on! Kudos to Peter Lee on this set !
UPDATE: I've now enabled this link to go straight to the Deluxe Blood of Gruumsh release!
(so some of the following text may be a little dated).
Some of these creatures will certainly make it into your warbands. I’m looking forward to seeing these new sculpts in play on the table. Did I mention how much I liked the Ogre?
Still, you will notice that one miniature is missing. The Orc Cleric. That leaves a lingering question.
Is this miniature just a resculpt, or do we have new, unique stats for him?
Tune in next week to find out.
Comments
7 July 2011
38 min 47 sec
Cool stats!!! Thanks guys
Might see what I can do with that Ogre
7 July 2011
2 hours 9 min
Orc Druid is a new / different figure and has new / different stats than old Orc Druid.
The Orc Cleric is a new figure, why would it not have new stats? Therefore, new stats please.
Thank you.
27 August 2011
22 min 17 sec
Thanks for all the work! It's always fun to try something new.
7 July 2011
2 hours 9 min
Orc warbands have kinda suffered in DDM 2.0. The Eye of Gruumsh and Orc Champ just did not cut it and there was little support to help them out. And with all of the "effects" out there melee based warbands really struggled. It looks now like the Orcs might just be able to field a "competitive" warband that has some punch to it.
My review of the new stats.
BOAR - Not too bad for pt cost. Against similar 10 pt figures can do some damage. Speed 8 or something like "surge" sure would have been nice.
ORC RANGER - Actually decent. Great in a fun warband.
ORC BARBARIAN - Actually very nice for point cost with abilities. +12 for 20 dam with cleave is solid for 17 points. I was hoping this might be a cost 4 point orc piece (needed), as we really have a lot of similar orcs.
ORC CHIEFTAN - This piece is ok. Nice and very useful Champ Powers. Decent HP, ATT, DAM. As an Orc Chieftan though this bad boy should have been much tougher. He won't last long in combat and likely will not get many chances to use Keen Critical with these stats, especially with all the effect in the game.
ORC DRUDGE - Another ok piece. Love the new abilities. +15 att for 15 damage is really good. My only issue: Minor Mace at +11 vs AC is terrible. The Orc Drudge will rarely get to use this unless there are other creatures in the warband that can stun as the Drudge will likely die or be under an effect before it can use.
ORC WAR DRUID - Seems ok, but underwhelming. Champ Power is nice, but needs to be Champ 2 or 3. Warband building is nice. And new Line attack is very nice (would have been nicer at line 10). Other Powers are ok. Also, why not make poison touch same as for other Orc Druid and give it a new basic melee attack? In the end we have an Orc ruid at 27 points, what makes this one much different? I would have rather seen a "real" Orc War Druid at like 35 to 38 points that has some punch to it.
ORCBOUND OWLBEAR - Me likey. Looks very solid for 30 points.
VAGAR OGRE LORD - This piece looks nice and should see some play. But at 1/4 the cost of your warband its stats are too low, even with 110 hp. With the low stats this guy could spend the game under an effect and be easily hit by other mid pt range stuff. He is an OGRE LORD for crying out loud and should be a beast in combat with higher AC and somewhat higher stats. There really are better figures in the point range. Should have been costed closer to 40 points. Also, why is Vagar, Ogre Lord, a Giant? Should he not be an Ogre?
WEARBOAR MERCENARY - I like this piece and it looks decent. 60 hp at cost of 18 is nice. Its hard to tell though where it fits in a warband at cost of 18.
Some nice new stats and figures. The I see that might see some play is the Ord Chieftan. And we can still hold out hope for the Orc Cleric. All in all, its nice seeing some new figures and some new stats.
Thanks again Tried.
12 January 2010
1 day 7 hours
Translation: Only a couple of pieces are broken.
20 May 2012
3 hours 53 min
Shall we assume that no changes will be made and we'll end up with "just" a couple of broken pieces instead of a whole lot of broken pieces?
7 July 2011
4 days 16 hours
I like the new look and stats .
So which ones do w think are broken?.
7 July 2011
38 min 47 sec
If powerful charge +5 stacks with the Wild Elf Warsinger... this would be a great addition, but I'd still go for the hunting cougar.
War druid with a helm of command, and maybe add some other champion replication power could be pretty brutal.
Question for the group:
Vägar kills a creature with a critical, does he get the cleave before, or after his return to the start area?
Can this occur
1) Vägar crits a creature and kills it
2) Uses cleave on creature 2
3) War Druid uses addition hit
4) Another commander replicates it
5) Gets moved back to the start area due to the crit
12 January 2010
1 day 7 hours
No, for better or worse, he is placed there as soon as he damages another creature.
It disrupts the cleave, unless, of course, there is an enemy creature next to him in his start area.
7 July 2011
5 hours 1 min
I only see steps 3 & 4 as no go (only 1 immediate per creature's turn), otherwise all good.
And yes, Powerful Charge stacks with WeW, and yes, still always rather have the HG.
Edit: added the other immediates as being no-no.
7 July 2011
5 hours 1 min
Perhaps "whenever" instead of "when" would have been more appropriate to distinguish that it is not voluntary?
Edit: Naah, not necesssary, "When" is good and dandy.
27 August 2011
22 min 17 sec
tried, how about some epic or semi-epic stats for a couple of the orcs? Like the fantastic job you guys did with the Feymire set for GenCon 11. I'd welcome stats for the new orcs as well as some of the older orcs like the Cleric of Gruumsh, Eye of Gruumsh, and Orc Champion. Thanks.
7 July 2011
2 days 6 hours
Good job-0-it DDM Guild!!