Welcome back to another Warcry Heroes episode of Optimal Game State. Today we’re looking at the final Grand Alliance, Destruction.
Destruction has all the Orcs, Goblins, Trolls, and Ogres.
There are 5 warbands within the alliance, the Bonesplitterz Rangin Rukks who are the Savage Orks, The Gloomspite Gitz Sneaky Skraps who are the Goblins, the Ogor Mawtribes Wandergluts who are the Ogres, Kruleboyz Killamob who are the Swamp Orks, and the Ironjawz Krushamob who are the classic Orks. There is also the Gobbapalooza Goblins which count as additional fighters for the Gloomspite Gitz but as additional allies for all the other destruction heroes.
We can immediately see that this is an aggressive alliance. Like the Death grand alliance, there aren’t a lot of heroes so the numbers tend to skew but we can see a big spike at 7 damage, and 3 heroes doing 12+ damage which is impressive. Wounds have that typical spike at 20 but we’re also seeing a similar amount at 30 and a number at 40 which will be nice and chunky.
Movement is almost all at move 4, with about 6 heroes at move 3, 8, and 10 each. So the majority of this faction is going to be plodding along with the baseline 4 move.
Strength and toughness are as expected typically 4.
The damage plot is very aggressive. If you want, you can have a look at the previous hero articles and look at the damage plots there. Out of all of them, this looks closest to the Chaos heroes but with less heroes. I’ve marked a few notable jumps, the Ardboy Boss, Savage Orruk Morboy Boss, Orruk Megabooss, Crusher, and Tyrant all look very interesting.
Looking at the top 5 damage dealers we can see they are dominated by the Ogors with only the Orruk Megaboss getting a look in. These are all over 30 wounds with two in the 40s. All damage is on average 10 versus T4 or better with all apart from the slower Megaboss at move 4. Of course all of this comes at expensive points with theses heroes taking a quarter to a third of your over all points.
For context, the top Chaos hero does 11.67 damage, the top Order hero does 9.33 and the top Death hero does 7.33, so the Destruction heroes are head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to damage.
Four of these heroes are from the Ogor Mawtribes warband and they all have the hero and brute rune marks. The brute runemark in this case was used to distinguish between the Ogors and the non-Ogors in the warband like the Frost Sabre and the Gnoblar.
All the Ogors have a reaction [quick bite] that can be triggered when they are attacked, if there are no crits, then the attacker takes 3 damage and the defender heals 3 damage. Pretty reliable and a decent effect, with these big heroes though, you’re more likely to save the action to attack back.
They also have a double [On the Mawpath] that will increase their move by 3 for their next move action which is super big. These are move 4 fighters, so you’re almost getting a free move action out of it. Extra mobility as a double is always nice to see.
Finally, the brutes all have a charge effect [Bullcharge], which is a triple that does damage equal to the value of the triple to a nearby enemy after a move. It’s nice that this is reliable damage. If you know you have an enemy on 4 wounds and you see a double 4 in your pool, you know you can add a wild dice to that and guarantee an easy kill.
In addition to the Brute runemark, all these Ogors are heroes and they all can access the double [Might makes Right]. This is one of my favourite abilities on a big damage dealer and if they kill an enemy, this double gives them an extra move or attack. A bonus action for a double is amazing, and as all these heroes are absolute beat sticks it’ll be easy enough to trigger it and you’ll get maximum value with that action.
Alright, lets look a little more in detail at the fighters.
The top of the pack is the Tyrant, at 315 this is a super expensive model and you’d normally expect to see this with a mount. Damage is top tier, this is actually low level Monster type damage and is the highest damage any non-fighter. Against T4 it’s joint first place, against T5 the Tyrant is alone, and against T3 fighter’s it comes in at 3rd place behind the Stormfiends. So this is a lot of kill. In addition, that melee is coming with a reach of 2 and 42 wounds with toughness 5, so this is a lot of fighter to kill. On the off chance that move 4 isn’t enough to get you into melee, there is a ranged attack although with an average of 2.6 damage it’s not that exciting.
The extra runemark is Champion which gives access to the triple [Bully of the First Degree] which lets you give a nearby friendly a bonus move or attack at the cost of a small amount of damage. The ability range is quite tight at 2 inches, but a bonus action for a triple is great and this ability is looking for a low value triple which pairs it quite well with [Bullcharge] which is looking for a high value one.
Next up we have the Crusher at a 70 point discount. A lot simpler with 10 less wounds and toughness 4. The melee attack is still great, the slight drop at T5 is down to 10 average damage which is still an insane number. The Bulwark runemark opens up the Double ability [Ironfist] which is a class throw ability, 2 dice with 3 to 5 doing 1 damage and any 6s doing dice value damage. The range is only 1 inch though. It’s an option if you didn’t have the triple for a [Bullcharge] and couldn’t get to the target in one move with [On the Mawpath]. If you do manage to get an attack, this ability needs at least a double 3 to beat out the generic ability Onslaught,
The Gutlord at 280 is somewhere in between and doesn’t have any extra abilities. He does have reach 2 and is a little better against T5 targets than the Crusher doing. her and the Gutlord does have T5 so might be a bit better at killing enemy heroes.
The Orruk Megaboss is the cheapest in this list at 225 and with good reason as he has move 3. At 35 wounds and T5 he’s gonna be tough to take down and that 10 damage across the board would be top tier in any other alliance.
To make up for the slow movement he does have a double [Charge] which will give him a bonus move towards a nearby enemy and the triple [Waaagh!] which will add have the ability to the move of nearby fighters, including the Megaboss.
You’ll typically be fishing for this turn 1 when you’re double moving and a triple 5 or 6 will double the move of the Megaboss giving you almost a bonus turn with them which is massive, and that’s ignoring the benefits the ability will give to other nearby fighters.
He also has a slightly better version version [Mighty Waaagh!] with range 9 but it’s a quad instead.
The last hero is the Icebrow Hunter who is the same price as the Gutlord but comes with 8 more wounds, a ranged option which is slightly better than the Tyrants at 3.33 average.
The extra runemark is Scout, which opens up the double [Lead the Skal] which will give a nearby beast a bonus attack action. That’s a little limited though with only Frost Sabre for Ogor Mawtribe or Squigs for Gloomspite gitz as beasts in the faction.
Okay, lets shift that to the most efficient rater than raw damage. So these are the destruction heroes that give you the most bang for your buck. First up we have the Crusher who we mentioned before. We can also see the Gutlord in third place and the Orruk Megaboss in 5th place, so all three of these are insanely high damage but also pretty cost effective.
The two new options are both from Orruks, although one from the Ironjawz and the other from the Savages. The Ardboy boss with Ardboy Choppas, like the Megaboss he has the [Charge] and [Waaagh!] Abilities but not the quad. Damage is 7.33 which is fantastic, especially for the cheap 135 points. That’s the damage bracket where many of the bespoke heroes for the Chaos warbands sit which is a healthy place, it’s also the top level damage for the Death faction heroes so it will get work done. So it is a budget Megaboss, but that’s no bad thing.
If we strip out the two Orruks and their move 3, then we get two new options, the Tyrant and the Fellwater Troggoth. Seeing the Tyrant again is reassuring, as it suggests you’re still getting good value for your points. Although it should be said there are only 50 heroes in total to pick from, so it’s all relative.
The Fellwater Troggoth is particularly interesting though, as this is a Thrall and not a hero, so you can have up to 3 Thralls in a matched play game and they do not conflict with your hero selection. Unlike the Thralls in other factions, this Troggoth is a big massive bruiser. We’ll get into Thralls a bit later.
A quick look at the wounds plot. For the most part, the fighters are chunky. A few of the ones we’ve already spoken about have been marked and are particularly good value.
Trying to factor in wounds I’ve got this line up. It’s still heavily favouring good damage which is why we’re seeing so many familiar faces, but this does also highlight how great these fighters are for wounds as well.
The new addition is the Brewgit from the Gobbapalooza. This is a particularly interesting warband as it’s not really a warband at all. These fighters, 5 in total, are considered to be normal fighters for the Gloomspite Gitz and Allies for every other destruction faction. The one we’ve got on this list is the brewgit. Cheap at 70 points with relatively decent damage and wounds. 2.66 damage and 12 wounds isn’t very impressive compared to the rest of this list but it is decent, for a fighter around the 75 mark you’d hope for 9 wounds and 3 avg damage so this fighter is favouring wounds slightly.
Apart from average stats, the Brewgit also has a particularly interesting ability a double called [Loonshine Potion] this lets you pick a nearby fighter and give them an extra 3 dice to their next attack. The more damage a fighter does, and the less dice they roll to do it, the more damage this ability will add. It also frees up the target to use another ability stacked with the [Loonshine Potion] so if you have two doubles you have the Brewgit use the potion and the target use Onslaught to get another dice. Alternatively, you could have the Brewgit take a wait action first, and then a normal action later letting you use [Loonshine Potion] twice to give a total of +6 dice when your fighter gets around to attacking.
Dropping the 3 move works gets use another Gobbapalooza fighter Scaremonger and the second Thrall Rockgut Troggoth.
The Scaremonger has slightly better damage and wounds than the Brewgit, his ability is a triple that gives a nearby target +3 move for the round. Great effect, but alas a triple. On the plus side, as a Gobbapalooza he’s just another fighter for the gloomspite warband.
The last spot is the Rockgut Troggoth which is 10 more expensive than the Fellwater Troggoth, has 1 more toughness, and slightly more damage. Apart from that is basically the same.
The next section we’re going to go into is the Fighters with Fly. Manoeuvrability is big in the game and a fast fighter with fly is going to be able to get where they need to be. Preferably, we would like that to be a big damage fighter so it can solve problems for us.
With Destruction, our options are limited. The only heroes with fly in the game are these three gobbos on squigs. We have the Squid Hopper Boss, the bounder Boss, and the Loonbose on Giant Cave Squig. These are all pretty expensive with the cheapest at 245. You are getting fly and at leats 8 move though along with a chunky 20 or more wounds.
These three are ordered in damage efficiency with the Squiggling Hopper boss coming out at top at 255 points for 6.66 damage. If you want max damage, you’re looking a the loon boss. Notably the Loonboss and Bounder Boss do both have reach of 2 along with a slightly higher toughness of 5 although they do lose the extra 2 move.
All of these have the same rune marks, so they all share the same abilities. The double [Backstabbing Mob] can only be used if they’re beside a friendly but it will give them +1 attack and +1 strength for the turn making it a slight upgrade to Onslaught. The triple [Stab ‘Em Good] will give an extra attack to nearby friendlies, but as it’s visible only the fighter using it won’t benefit from it. The triple [Madcap Destruction] is kinda fun giving an extra move, but the distance is random and you roll another D6 and double it to work that out. It does have a nice bonus of doing damage to a nearby enemy equal to the value of that D6. It’s random, but you can rely on at least a 2 inch move.
So, some nice abilities but largely you’re looking at these guys for their raw speed and damage. Interestingly, none of these are considered mounted, so presumably the Squigs are in charge.
If we drop out of the fly category and instead just took for fast fighters this is what we get. Remember, Destruction does not have any heroes in the move 5 to 7 bracket. We’re immediately into mounted fighters with 8 and 10 speed. Apart from the Squig all are mounted, and come with the usual issues. Depending on the terrain, that could mean nothing or be a disaster.
Top of the list we have the Savage Boss Maniak. This is a half naked Ork riding a boar. Move 10, great damage, lots of wounds. As a Savage Ork, he has similar abilities to that of the Ironjawz. [Charge!] is a double that will give an extra move towards a nearby enemy and [Waaagh!] a triple that gives nearby friendlies half the value of the triple as a bonus to their move. As a mount, the Savage Boss Maniak also has a charge like ability [Tusker Charge] assigning dice value damage to a nearby target at the end of a move.
In the second slot we have Skalg, an Ogor riding a Mournfang, whatever that might be. Leader, Brute, and Mounted runemarks so as Ogors go pretty vanilla. Very similar to the Tyrant but with lower damage at 10 but far better move at 8.
The Gore-Grunta Boss with Pig-Iron Choppa is basically the Megaboss on a pig. The Ferocious runemark opens up the Triple [Gore-grunta Charge] ability, just another charge variant. Like the Savage Boss, the [Charge!] and [Waagh!] options are still there.
The Killaboss gives us a first look at the Swamp Orruks. The Gnashtoof I think is some sort of Rat of Unusual size. Damage is great, 28 wounds and 5 toughness means this fighter will be hard to kill while the 8 move will have it zoom across the board.
The Warrior runemark will open up the double [Venom-encrusted Weapon] which will increase hits and crits by 1, as this fighter has 5 dice that will be a healthy amount of damage increasing the average by 2.5. Unlike some variants of venom, this one will last for the full activation so you can get two attacks out of it.
There is also a double unique to this fighter, [Bone-crushing Bite] where you roll dice equal to half the value of the ability and do 3 damage for each 3+. So you’ll be rolling 1 to 3 dice with each dice on average doing 2 damage.
So a double 1 or double 2 will be best used on Venom, a double 3 or 4 will be best used on Venom when you get two attacks, and Bite will be the preferred option with a Double 5 or 6.
Looking at just the move 10 fighters, we get an extra Savage Boss on boar, weirdnob on boar, and two spider riders. The Savage Boarboy Boss has the exact same abilities as the Maniak but a little less damage for a points discount.
The Scuttleboss comes with Reach of 2 and a decent 6 damage. Along with the usual gobbo abilities, the spider riders come with a Triple [Spider Bite]. This is similar to [Bone-crushing Bite] but instead of a double it’s a triple, instead of rolling half the dice you get to roll all them, and instead of 3+ it’s 4+. While this is trickier to get a decent number of dice on a triple, and the damage is 1.5 per dice, it does peak out at 6 dice doing on average 9 damage.
The Maniak Weirdnob also has reach and as a mounted savage Ork hero gets the same abilities as the Boarboy Boss. The Weirdnob also has the ferocious double ability [Weird Squig] which will add 1 to missile attacks. To go along with that the Weirdnob has a range 7 attack which will do on average 3 damage to T4. As the attack only has 2 dice the extra dice from the ability will bring the average to 4.5
Last, in 6th place as there are only 8 who quality for this we have the Spider Rider Boss. 60 points less than the Scuttleboss with half the damage and 8 less wounds. You do get a ranged attack as an option with average damage of 2.
As we move over to the Ranged damage, a few reminders for myself for context. One of the big advantages of the ranged fighters is they usually don’t have to move to get an attack in and often can double attack where a melee fighter will only be able to get a single attack.
The top ranged fighter in the game is the Judicator for the Stormcast Warriors with 6.66 damage and the most efficient is the Grundstock Thundered for the Karadron overlords who has 6 damage for 130 points.
The top damage of the ranged section is dominated by the Ogors. These are all expensive with he cheapest 215. We’ve already mentioned some of the generic Ogor abilities, so they have a double that gives them +3 to their next move, a Triple charge like ability, and a double that gives them an extra move or attack after making a kill.
Each of the Ogor fighters here have an additional runemark opening up a new ability. The Butcher has the Mystic runemark which gets him a double that heals up to the value of the ability.
The Firebelly has the Frenzied runemark which gives a quad [Fire Breath] doing ability value as damage to nearby enemy fighters.
The Thunderfist has the Destroyer runemark which gives another quad [Thunderous Blast of Hot Metal] that will add 3 to the strength and the attack dice of the next missile attack. That doubles the dice before you even factor in the strength, so that’s like an extra action but you’re looking for a little more as a quad.
Last from the Ogors we have the Icebrow Hunter with the Scout Runemark which gives access to [Lead the Skal] a triple to give an extra attack to a beast.
All the Ogors are pretty chunky and have good melee damage, the ranged attack is a nice bonus option to have and the damage is decent enough that you might be better off using it for two attacks rather than move and attack.
The 5th option we have is the Fungoid Cave-Shaman doing on average 3 damage up to range 7. The mystic runemark gives this Shaman a triple [Magic Spore Maws] with a chance to do damage to all nearby enemy fighters.
Switching over to damage per points, things shift. Unsurprisingly damage is down but so are points. The top is the Hobgrot Boss doing 2.66 ranged damage for 70 points. It’s only got 8 wounds and 3 toughness and the range is a bit lacklustre at only 5.
With just the Hero and Warrior rune marks, there aren’t any special abilities opened up but as this hero is so cheap, the Kruleboyz Reaction [Kunnin’ Trap] is a great option. It’s a little tricky to activate, as the target needs to move and end up within 3 inches of the Hobgrot and you need another fighter within 3 inches of the Hobgrot who can attack the target. If you can make it work though, trading an Hobgrot Boss action for a Megaboss attack is a great deal.
In second place we’ve got the Fungoid Cave-Shaman who we’ve just talked about.
Then we have the Webspinner Shaman. Almost identical to the Cave-Shaman with the only difference being the runemark. Rather than mystic the Webspinner has the Priest runemark which gives a double [Speed of the Spider God] which unfortunately only works on fighters with he Destroyer runemark, but does give any of those +1 Move for the round. In the Gloomspite Gitz the spider riders have destroyer.
For the Savage oaks it’s Arrow Boys, for the Kruleboyz it’s the Pot Grot, and for the Ogor’s it’s the Thunderfist. So there are options, but nothing that really stands out. Then we have the Butcher and the Firebelly, but again this might be an indication of the small pool of ranged heroes rather than actual efficiency. Notably though, the Hobgrot Boss is one of the most efficient ranged damage fighters in the game along with the non-Hero Hobgrot Slitta. So maybe there is a ranged list there somewhere.
Next up we have the Thralls. In a matched play game you can have up to 3 Thralls and they do not conflict with the number of heroes you can take. So this is nice bonus. Thralls are grand alliance specific, so any of the Destruction warbands can run the destruction thralls but cannot use any of the other thralls.
Destruction have two Thrall options, both Troggoths and quite similar in most regards. We’re looking at high damage, lots of wounds, and a double [Troggoth Regrowth] that will heal them up to the value. They are both expensive at 175 and 185 points. As the Troggoths have so many wounds and hit so hard, I doubt their reaction is ever going to be worth it, although it’s nice to have the option.
The Fellwater Troggoth does have a double [Noxious Vomit] which essentially is a thrown attack. You roll dice equal to the value and for each 5+ you get to do some damage. So you’re looking at on average 1 hit per 3 dice. The damage is D3 through, which is nice and you can split the targets if you choose or dump all the damage into one fighter. In theory you’re getting 0.5 damage on average per dice rolled. Just using Onslaught is going to get the Fellwater Troggoth 1.8 extra damage so you’ll need at least a double 4 if you’re in melee to get actual value out of it, but with range 6 and the ability to resolve it across multiple targets it’s a nice option to have.
Out of the four alliances, Order don’t have any thralls and Chaos and Chaos have relatively cheap fast fighters who aren’t doing a lot of damage. Destruction flips that with these big guys. In a faction with Orruks and Ogors they’ve got competition but they’re perfect support for the Gloomspite Gitz and to a lesser extend the Kruleboyz who don’t have as many big killer options.
Up to now we’ve been looking top down, working through the numbers and trying to find the fighters that appear to be interesting gout of that. There is however another way of approaching this, first looking for the abilities of interest and then which fighters can use those abilities, so more of a bottom up approach.
The first ability we have to look at is the Double Mesmerise from the Boggleeye Gobbo. This is that classic net ability. It’s limited in range by the value of the dice and it only works on a 3+ so it’s not super reliable, but it’s only a double and from a relatively cheap 70 point model. This is a Gobbapalooza model so Gloomspite gitz can take it as a fighter. The other fighter option for them is the Stabba with Barbed Net which is cheaper at 55 with half the wounds. The Stabba’s ability is almost identical but fixed at range 3.
Also from GOBBAPALOOZA we have the Brewgit who I really like. This little guy as a double can boost the next attack of a nearby friendly. If you have two doubles you could wait with the Brewgit and give someone +6 attacks! Depending on the fighter, that’s likely to be some insane value.
Next up we have the Waagh ability which just requires a leader from either the Ironjaw or Savage Ourrk warbands. The ability is exactly the same. Here I’ve picked out the Morboy Boss and Megaboss as we’ve seen them already. This is especially big for the Ironjaws who have a few 3 move fighters. A triple on turn one will let that deployment group get a lot of extra movement. The range is only 6 inches though, so you’ll have to be careful with your initial movement as the fighter using this will need to limit their movement to make sure friendly fighters get the benefit.
Both warbands also have a Quad variant of this which sets the bonus to 3 and increases the range to 9 which is pretty big. You might even be able to boost two deployment groups with this ability. It is a quad though, and while you can pretty reliably get a triple turn 1 you can’t say that about a quad making this ability very cool but a lot less reliable.
Heading back to the Orruks, there is actually a net option for the Brute Boss if he takes the Boss Claw. This triple [Da Grab an’ Bash] is likely to be used at the end of an acitviation where this scarey fighter didn’t take down an enemy. No range or reach means the target is going to get to hit back, but the Brute Boss has Toughness 5 and 30 wounds so they’ll take a while to get through that. As an added bonus, if you do roll a 6 the Brute gets to attack as well which with 7.5 average damage is pretty big.
This next one for the Boltboy Boss is a bit niche but I really wanted to see how big an impact the double [Aimed Shot] would be. The most used damage ability is the double onslaught but it’s only melee, so any ranged ability is always worth examining. The average ranged damage for this fighter feels low but is actually mid range, remember the top ranged damage in the game is 6.66 so while 3 isn’t great it’s not terrible and the range of 15 is fantastic. The ability essentially doubles the damage, turning one attack into an average 6 damage so with a double and two attacks at range 15 this fighter is able to put down an average of 9 damage which is decent.
Last but certainly not least, we have the Tyrant. Outside of a Monster, this is the top damage you can get. This guy is hard to kill with 5 toughness and 42 wounds and even has reach of 2 on his melee keeping him save while attacking. The only real down sides are the expensive price tag of 315 and the 4 move. The generic Ogor ability [On the Mawpath] helps with that giving +3 for the next move as a double.
There’s move though, this fighter also has two fantastic abilities. The first, a double [Might Makes Right] gives him an extra move or attack when, and with the Tyrant it really is a when not if, he gets a kill.
He also has the Triple [Bully of the First Degree] which will give another fighter a small amount of damage to give them an extra attack or move. It’s pretty annoying you can’t use it on himself, but it is an extra action and those are always important.
And that’s the lot. Destruction really have some of the nastiest fighters in the game.
They do cost lots of points though, so you have difficult decisions to make. A destruction list often seems to be two or three nasty fighters supported by some cheap fighters like Gnoblars or Goblin Netters. You can do a super elite warband of all chunky killers, and while you’ll be limited in numbers it is super fun to play.
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