I can immediately see uses for the Imp Familiar, and Ring of Curses works fantastically with him. That gives you nice control options and reasonable damage options.

The Orc Sergeant seems harder to use effectively because there isn't a discount ring that works with him on a ton of spells you would want him to cast, and the range of attractive options is more limited. The main options that seem decent are Defend, Standard Bearer, and Fortified Position (and I don't really like Standard Bearer or Fortified Position in many lines of play). Well, and maybe Battle Orders. The thing is that you don't really want to cast Battle Fury or Flank Attack on a creature until right before it attacks. Same with Charge, Perfect Strike, Piercing Strike, Power Strike... Running into a Tanglevine or other control spell after already casting a command on a creature is just horrible. So while I think Gurmash can be useful, it will take a lot more thought to get him to pull his weight. You can basically cast whatever curse enchantment you want with Sesyrix, and it works great.

Brace yourself seems pretty good too.  I pretty much agree with all of this, though.  I've seen sersyrix be played well, even by a novice player.  I've been playing for more than 2 years now and I'm struggling to get Gurmash to fit into a strat.  My point isn't that I'm "omg so gud" but I think it's pretty obvious one has more immediate strategic value than the other.

Sleep, block, fumble.

I found during play testing that he is more of a mid-game play. You get Construction Yard out and some mana built up on it then, you can bring him out. My problem was I always had a hard time using him in a support role vs. using his attack. My goals were to use him to buff Talos but never managed to make that happen.

This is kindof what I'm thinking, that he's mid game.  He doesn't seem to fit in early, but I feel compelled to try to play him early because of his channeling...

@ Toxziq - Really glad you enjoyed it, thanks for the feedback.

@ Arlemus - I don't think that is what Boomfrog is suggesting (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here Boom).  I think he is referencing adopting an aggressive posture to bait out the opponent and see how they react so that you can devise your own plan. 

I borrowed the term "vision" from League of Legends to speak about this.  If we assume that the effective range on 90% of spells we will be casting or attacks we will be making is 0-2, then anything within 2 zones and LOS is effectively within range or within our "vision".  That what makes the sprint to center play so aggressive, I have vision over 10 zones leaving my opponent only their 2 corners out of range.  That means if they move, they are susceptible to attack unless they sprint up to the opposite corner, which is extremely inefficient.  So we are effectively limiting them to their own starting zone without us able to interact with them without yet another double move action. 

In Boom's example our opponent may have already played out their economy/passive opening so coming out as the aggressor can potentially change their follow up play for turn 2.  We would then have the option of retreating back to develop our economy (thus the feint) or continue to press the gas and go all out aggro based on what we see.   You need mobility for this to work so a turn 1 [mwcard=MW1E05]Cheetah Speed[/mwcard] could certainly be an option if you aren't one of the Beastmasters.

Makes more sense now.  The problem with doing that is you give up a turn of action/mana generation, effectively setting yourself behind 1 turn.  Doing that against a spawnpoint/mana generator/etc opening already puts you into a losing position (their economy is ahead of yours) and the only thing you might've made them do is play armor or w/e earlier. 

Maybe if it causes them to overreact and be inefficient "feinting" could be ok, but I think at best it would only make up for the ineffeciency of starting your economy late.

I'd like to see this thread be more about concrete openings, aka Turn 1= blah, Turn 2=blah, etc.  We already have way too many theory craft threads and this thread could have the potential to give newer players solid openers to try. 

given the way she talked about it, I think he may have meant pentagram but got it mixed up with Gate to Voltari. He was talking about it like it with the spawn point but it's not so I think he meant pentagram.

hm?

while this is true, I still think mana flower is a reasonable fallback option for a seedling pod that has been left behind. Mana flowers do best when they're away from the action. So if you have a seedling pod with 5 mana on it and the action has moved elsewhere you might as well convert it into a mana flower.

QFT

Veteran's Belt with 4 armor can still be pretty annoying for an opponent to deal with.

Right, but I think my point was that it takes too many actions to get there in your current build.  You also have to overpay not only in actions but also in mana to get that armor.  Obviously harshforge plate is great, but if you only need the armor part you're paying 3 mana over what you need to (5 for rhino hide).  You also have no way to remove corrode so once the inevitable acid ball(s) come the vet belt might not end up doing very much anyway  .  I mean, I wouldn't set my armor up that way but I guess it's only a few points...soo...

I think people underestimate goblins and orchs. Gurmash is a must-include for this and if you mix in goblins and orchs with your dwarves they aren't as awful as they appear. Sure 1 Goblin Grunt or Slinger isn't great but I am using other creatures.  Keep in mind that this build emphasizes using lots of command incantations. You wouldn't enchant a Goblin Grunt since they are so squishy but as long as you are sure a Grunt will survive to attack then you can't go wrong pumping them up with temporary buffs.

I'll be the last person to say that slingers or goblins suck, believe me.  I've had slingers be the MVP's of several games, especially with the new errata to garrison post.  Grunts are what they are, never had a problem with them.  Butchers are my favorite creature in the game so you couldn't really get me to like them more.

I know your build utilizes a lot of commands, that's kindof par for the course with the Warlord.  My point was that goblins and orcs need help outside of commands to make them viable all game, while just about everything dwarves lack can be made up for with incantations (I said this above  ). 

This is because dwarves, being heavily armored naturally, scale much better than orcs and goblins.  They also have innate access to additional dice (sweeping), piercing (with the ATC), and strong defenses (Panzer).

Orcs and goblins don't, so to scale against more powerful creatures, higher armor, etc, they need buffs and they need to be more numerous (for the WAHH  ).  Buffs you don't currently have, which is why it concerns me  .  Buffs in the form of Standard Bearer (dice + armor), Fortified Position (armor), and Armory (piercing + armor).  I don't think it's a coincidence that the designers made Armory give piercing and armor, considering those are exactly what goblins and orcs needed to be more viable for longer.

I disagree about Dwarves not needing buffing. The whole point of buffing your dwarves is that you make them stronger. Defend on Dwarf Panzergarde and Power Strike on Dwarf Kriegsbiel before he uses his sweeping can be pretty effective imo.

Yeah, if you look up I said they don't need buffing "outside of incantations."  In other words, they do need commands...that's why I made it a point to add that clause at the end  .  Also, the point about the Kriegbiel with power strike sortof implies you think he gets the melee +2 for each swing, which isn't the case.  I mean, it's good but it's not really any better because it's sweeping.

I may swap out 1 heal for group heal. Have to see which will be more effective. I didn't think to include it because I tend to spread my creatures out, especially now since Garrison Post works with Barracks and not just your mage.

Up to you I guess.  At 9 mana even hitting 2-3 creatures with it is pretty great (10-15 dice of healing), and I wouldn't really consider 2-3 creatures in a zone grouping up really.  Also saves kills 2 actions with 1 stone, lol.

If I ran more enchants then Monolith would be less desirable. I don't want to be starving myself of any mana if possible. 1 or 2 mana can really make a difference in the end. I realize Standard Bearer and Fortified Position are great spells but if I included then I would have to take Monolith out, especially since Warlords only have 9 channeling.

Monolith is really only an answer to enchantment stacking, and even if you're paying 1 or 2 a turn to keep your enchants up you're enchantment crazy opponent should be paying double that easily to justify playing the Monolith in the first place...

I don't feel like I need attacks outside of having to deal with flyers. I have got Goblin Slingers and Anvil Throne Crossbowman to deal with fliers. Wand + Hurl Rock is there for backup, and if I am not going to use Rune of Power on Helm of Command or Horn of Gothos I would like to at least have SOME way to use the rune. Attacks aren't really that necessary if you have enough creatures. Creatures are better in the long run.

Creatures are definitely a better investment than attacks, totally agree (usually).  My point was that certain attacks provide good utility for low cost.  Going in without a way to extinguish now that Adramalech Warlock is out and all your conjurations have +2 flame just doesn't seem like a good idea.

If you like to space out your creatures like you say, though, the Horn would probably be a nice thing to have.  You could also drop a few of those commands for space for a Helm.  Do you really need 4 power strikes and 4 defends? 

In fact, I'd say the only thing I wouldn't want to bind the Rune of Power to for your build would be an elemental wand for the exact reason you said (creatures>attacks).