It would be egregious of me not to include a pun. So there.

Why play the Griege?

Maybe because like in Starcraft: the Terran are the Brawnen, the Protoss the Naroran, the Griege is the closest thing we have to the Zerg.

Yet in the lore the Griege are also meant to be something academic instead of a hive mind. They have cocooniversities that lecture about source, and that i imagine have their own sporting and social clubs. They enter the story in a heroic fashion to save the Grovetenders from a 3 way beat down. In most scenarios you will see them friendly with the Grovetenders or neutral at worst.

In the solo books, you see them analysing the other factions philosophically, asking ethical and moral questions - not unlike how you might expect some war based academic institution to discuss opponents.

Does this aspect play out mechanically? Ehh…not really. It's hard to convey that kind of intelligence. But otherwise they do play exactly like how you might have expected a bug-based faction to play. And they have a Queen, who the whole faction will suffer if she’s taken out - as expected. In that sense, they nailed that design.

If anything, I hope these factors enable you to enjoy playing the faction - win or lose. Sometimes the backstory can help enrich your experience. They’re not meant to be icky, sticky, disgusting buzzing mindless creatures. Instead, think highly intelligent, organised, almost-corporate, and reasonably respectable, lead by their Queen Echri. Representational justice for the six legged exo-skellies!

That said, I’ll start this guide as why you might enjoy playing the Griege. Then I’ll provide an analysis of each major category: Faction Unique Mechanics, Heroes, Minions, Spires, Advancements, and General Strategies. This assumes that you have at least read through the reference sheet for the faction and that you have it handy.

I iterate here as I do with my other guides: these are my experiences and analysis extrapolated in an opinionated manner. There will always be exceptions, and it is fun is understanding the base guidelines and finding out the exceptions for yourself. My thoughts may differ from yours through experience and that is perfectly fine. I hope that this guide inspires you to get better and provokes you to come up with your own and possibly different strategies, so that we can have more and better Griege players.

Let’s now get into the aspects of Griege is unique that no other faction can take advantage of, so that you might be swayed into choosing them.

Firstly evolution - the primary way to promote minions.

It’s a general rule of thumb that the slower your minion is, the better to bring the enemy to you. Under the covering fire of your spires, you fight on your own territory, then go to steam roll the enemy after their invading forces are wiped out. It's also generally better to have your forces together because one minion at a time tends to be overwhelmed quickly.

• Remember: when you’re evolving, at the start of your next turn, place 1 chip on TOP of the chip. Then count the total chips. If your larvae deploys round 1, and goes onto a sourcewell on that same round, then it will emerge round 3.
• You will likely need to have access to clear open source wells. This leaves opportunities enemies to build over if they have influence. One counter to this is earthscapes off the hex group so enemies can’t influence that easily.
• If using Evolution die, it is hard to account for what the larvae will evolve to. Remember evolution die does not roll into burrowers or damp skitters.
• Misleading CP field. With +1CP advancement, you might seem to be fielding 12 cp worth of minions. But you can actually field much more. With 2-3 hives or advancement, you can field additional 3 larvae (6cp) which can evolve further. Say 1 skitter, 1 geckweb and 1 mugwump, that’s 13CP of promoted minions!
• It is also possible to evolve mugwump/skitters and geckwebs, and then throw them into the field via tunnels later in the wave.
• Because of the general delays of evolve, Units will spread out and be susceptible to gangups. As such, minions generally cannot be grouped as easily.
• Minions evolving can still be sniped by heroes - and will retaliate if not killed. Burrowers burrowing are an exception. It’s hard but possible to use this as a lure, likely in conjunction with tunnel sniping.

Secondly Tunnels

which allow for strategies no other faction has available to them: tunnel sniping and hero refreshing. I'll get into the mechanics of these later.

Finally market

The Griege has some very unique interactions with the common folk - consuming them or using them. Academic studies maybe? The splice mechanic is potentially insane, and I talk about that at the end.

There are some limitations to playing the Griege, which may not be obvious.

• There is no source cap expansion, which means they can’t build up and splurge at the end game like some factions can.
• 4 chips for faction spires. May need to supplement with market spires.
• No fortress spire space, thus they’re somewhat reliant on unit defence.
• Only 3* options for anti-air. Thus they do benefit from latest Harbinger chip upgrades.

Let's talk about Tunnels

You have 4 available chips, and using more will eat into your toxic fumes options. You will likely never need more than 2 toxic fumes chips, so you can safely dig twice. Question is, where should you dig?

Assuming that the best use is Echri popping out to consume a hero, and that the hero is hanging somewhere along the battle line. Echri's effective movement is 3. So she can Deploy out of the fortress and move for 3. Therefore you want the first tunnel 6 away from the fortress, so that it doesn't overlap from the fortress. The second tile can therefore be 3-6 away from that, making it so that you have great coverage along this line. You will need Ocjab to move twice for the first chip, and possibly move twice again. Not a big deal if ocjab cannot make it back from going behind enemy lines. If you are going a heavy transfiguration route where Larva are not abundant, don't be afraid to add that 3rd or 4th tunnel chip.

Now that you know this, you DON’T need to dig the tunnels immediately in wave 1 or 2. In fact, you can easily have a skitter dig the tunnels for you in the middle of battle when they least expect it. Having say a damp skitter or geckweb in evolution pit delays their deployment while a skitter advances. Just before the clash, the skitter leaps and digs a tunnel. Now you have a new reinforcement point to attack from. Time that with a hero that returned through tunnels 2 rounds before, and you have an ambush. It’s a surprise move than can change the field very quickly. Placing your tunnels early takes away that surprise element. You can also keep several tunnel options open for additional range of your ambush. The more you understand the different ways to use tunnels, the higher value Ocjab and unpromoted skitters have. Of course, if you ultimately don’t invest in the tunnel tree, then their value is reduced. At the same time it can be a sleight of hand tactic to dig a few tunnels on the board with no upgrades leading enemies into false sense of security around them, and then in the wave 3 build phase upgrade them for immediate effect.

Anyway, the concept of digging a tunnel mid movement phase - and having a unit pop out of the tunnel within the same phase - I’m going to call tunnel sniping. When I analyse units, I’m also going to include how suitable they are for tunnel sniping. For minions, this usually means they started in the evolution pit.

Also note using tunnels: When units move off the fortress gate they may do so adjacent to one of the Tunnel Access chips in play. The amount of progress they made uses the fortress gate hex as the hex they started from. Means they virtually can move any direction after emerging from a tunnel because the final hex would be compared counting from the fortress.

Just remember that source wells are not “non-path hexes” and cannot be tunneled. You can’t deny a spire being built on a source well. You can however deny movement for a flying unit or an enemy hero that could otherwise avoid toxic fumes.

Ocjab can also go out of the way to dig a tunnel and have the Griege approach from another side - a potential win condition. For the most part I'll be discussing tunnels along the battle line, as the Griege minions have a lot of defensive traits, and in that sense skews towards defending your position rather than attacking from out of position.

Minions

• The Griege have a very interesting unit roster - significantly different from base game factions. Every minion has different roles. Notably, most traits favour defensive strategies. That being said, Cloudspire generally favours the attacker. A battleborn vs. battleborn will defeat the other as the attacker, taking 2 damage (1 retaliation and 1 attack).
• Your minions have a lot of defence capabilities - toxic secretion, toxic fumes, quick counter. Therefore consider to use your minions defensively - which in itself requires some lateral thinking. Much of its value is dependent on the enemies moving to you instead of you moving to them. It’s also a tough balance because the high CP minions don’t have a lot of health. In general - most abilities are timed BEFORE or AFTER movement, which means you cannot trigger them after attacking. Choosing to attack often forfeits the ability. It is best that they have supporting units to attack from different sides as they generally lack the range capacity.
• So it’s considerably at a disadvantage to adopt aggressive playstyle where most abilities are inactive on your turn. For these reasons, I believe it can feel punishing if you are out of position and the faction feel weaker/underperforming.
• Timing the clash is very important and therefore use evolutions to slow your advance, and tunnels to catch up. Most promoted minions have additional movement in order to catch up to the battle. Also note that most minions reach 2+ damage after promotion (exception of burrower).
• And finally, toxic secretion from landmark minions don’t hurt your Griege units. They’ll still hurt market units you buy (so will your own Griege fumes).

Larva. At base it’s fundamentally better than battleborn because of toxic fumes. But evolution requirements levels out promoted battleborn in terms of ease to field them. Toxic fumes chips - Positioning the larva at a chokepoint is beneficial so that toxic fumes damage all minions running over it. You can also send an early larva at the frontline with hive or tunnel and make the enemies trample all over the toxic fume chip, weakening them by the time they get to you. While Larva are generally the backbone of the early waves, their evolution potential as well as Hive spawning keeps their presence on the board even until late game. Don’t sleep on a 2 damage minion to wear down opponents.

Tunnel Sniping: Not ideal candidate. They will promote on round 2 when skitters haven’t really gotten to position - just 4 hexes out of the fortress. It's a different matter if they evolve into a different minion. More on that later.

Burrower - their burrow ability means it can bypass some roadblocks or even spire fire. It can essentially move 3 and burrow - so 4 hexes, then move 3 the following turn - 7 hexes of range without it being vulnerable to spire fire in the first turn. The assault and 4 health makes it almost certain to get value from hitting a spire. This is one of the few minions with “offensive” capability in that aspect. They can also regain health back if they survive attacks before burrowing. Take note that because of their high movement, if at the forefront they will generally advance ahead of their team and be taken by the enemy alone more often than not.

Tunnel Sniping: Not ideal candidate either. You generally want a unit that can’t burrow in your evolution pit. Mobility to reaching enemy spires is not their weakness.

Skitter: It has two different roles between it’s unpromoted and promoted. Unpromoted, a skitter can move, dig a tunnel, and then initiate tunnel snipe. It’s movement is crucial - being 2, means that in round 2 it will only have moved 4 hexes. By round 3 it would have moved 6 and you’d be pretty much at the front lines - the sweet spot for tunnel sniping. Promoted Skitter is the only “cheap” ranged unit at 3CP. Yes it requires evolution, but at 2 damage it does outpace other faction range units for the same CP.

Tunnel sniping: They’ll emerge round 2, but their range is their versatility. 2 damage 2 range is very decent especially if you have something defensive at the forefront (ie. Ekul).

Geckweb: 4 CP minions sit in a weird space in cloudspire. 1 more CP and you get some heavy artillery (bishop, ogregrowth, royal talon) and 1 less CP is a baseline tier 1 minion. 4CP minions usually serve a utility space (architect, aegis, conduit). With 1 attack, you're kind of missing out if you take a Geckweb instead of 2 Larva. Two Larva would have 2 attack and 6 health total, instead of 1/4. While neat, it's very hard to get big value out of toxic secretion because you would need the enemies to go around you instead of meeting them at a chokepoint. And at worst it's also possible to have the geckweb move right up to the enemy for an attack nullifying its ability. With 1 attack it's not going to kill, and the lack of range units means it has trouble getting support to create a void in front of it. For these reasons, I value an unpromoted geckweb to be very hard to use well, and easily a waste of Cp if not piloted right. This is what I mean by punishing out of position.

Tunnel sniping: is a totally different matter - they are so good! 4 hp means they will evolve from evolution pit on round 3, ideal time for a clash. With 2 damage you have better chance of killing the target, creating a void for the enemy to move into. I would still try to pair it with a hero as 3 damage is the minimum you need for creating a void, unless you sent a scout larva to put a toxic fumes chip at a chokepoint. Regardless, you can maneuver to make use of the void. A promoted geckweb with toxic secretion is an ideal defensive position spearhead. It’s toxic secretion takes out 1 health, and it’s quick counter takes out another two, meaning it can potentially wipe out a basic 3 hp unit with no damage. Geckwebs are a good choice on the evolutionary pit and pitching them into the heat of battle. Note this could be countered by grouping, condensing their exposure to anything toxic.

Dampskitter: 6cp for 4/2/3? If you thought punishment for a Geckweb out of position was bad, damp skitter is doubly so. Every other 6cp minion it competes with has more health, and often more attack. In a 2 player game, the flying could possibly take your enemy by surprise. But in 3+ players, someone's going to have anti air, and the damp skitter is a juicy target. Be really careful about where you position your damp skitters. Unpromoted they can't compete with a royal talon. However there is one fact that sets it apart from the talon, messiah, forsaken, grizzled oak - griege can potentially field both of them at once! Getting the +1 CP upgrade could be a hail Mary tactic to get two flying heavy units past the enemy lines. Might also be combined with the splice tactic mentioned later. Their mobility and flying give them range for taking out spires/landmarks and then sit on them for evolution. Damp skitters are not candidates for the evolution die, so choosing them are fine for the deployment. Heirs are a flying faction and people against them plan for air defence, whereas Griege are generally not perceived as such - use that to your advantage - if the enemy has particularly not prepared for much anti-air. Damp skitters are the type of unit to enable a win condition.

Tunnel sniping: as mentioned with geckwebs: 4 health is perfect for tunnel sniping! But this time they pop out with 3 attack! They really should be able to take out anything in the front line and with quick counter, you can position them appropriately if there'sa range unit threatening them. There's an Heirs tactic that involves purchasing the air current transporter advancement and then deploying the the royal talon off a spire deep in enemy territory. Anyone who has faced/used such a tactic knows the devastation flying can cause: and in this instance they can fly in any direction coming out of the tunnel! Very versatile and deadly.

Mugwump is another minion with 2 different roles. Unpromoted is a pure glass cannon: 3/3/2 is extremely squishy for a 6 CP minions - not what you'd generally expect. Yet they are the only minion that has range AND 3 attack covers a big area. The number of 3+ attack unpromoted minions in the game is few: forsaken, messiah/nightrous/lightrous, water, false messiah. However you have to be very careful - Attacking with it means it’s vulnerable for the turn. You would have to wait till next turn that you can use burrow. Granted, having burrow allows you to control when to promote because you can select any non path hex and choose to do so any round, but you've given up the opportunity to attack that round. At the mid-late stages in the game 3 damage is not hard for the enemy to do, especially with an upgraded hero. In general I would not recommend purchasing this chip without a tight strategy that would keep it alive, ie. Using it to kill off the enemy lurking near you tunnel. I wouldn't advise treating it like a normal dispatch: a range unit behind a melee frontline. The opportunity cost for losing it is too much. Promoted 5/3/3 has a unique ability no other faction has - Recruiter. However it needs careful positioning if you're to make use of it, and very much some setup. Sadly it loses range and turns it into a melee minion. Its hard to pilot for Recruiter to work - you need a revealed landmark minion to trigger (means either your hero revealed it and it's probably off the main mark route, and both you opponents left it alone) and you need mugwamp promoted - two difficult variables to line up. If you do line it up, it can very well swing the battle. The added health is definitely beneficial, but you’ll find it runs out fast. The absolute ideal situation would be for it to pop out of tunnel and land near an enemy hero + revealed full health landmark unit and kill the hero, then next round burrow next to the landmark unit, then next round recruit the landmark for a combined attack. But understand this is very situational to realistically rely on every game as the winning condition. Not saying it's unfeasible, but mileage will vary depending on the actual landmark minion being recruited. You'll definitely need to make intentional setup actions to make good use of it - which may be quite odd and therefore telegraphing the enemy of your intentions. Remember Griege don't have any means of revealing landmarks except normally, so you would be revealing the landmarks by heroes and choosing not to attack. So Traxxyrs will always have taken a hit from your hero, and all landmark units will have taken a hit from your minions if revealed by minions. For example, you reveal a landmark unit you're intending to recruit with your mugwump. Because the exploration happens after movement, you will have the attack step and the unit will take a beating. That means you are recruiting a damaged unit. Just for your consideration if you're planning to go this route.

I would say for the purposes of this guide you’re better off planning for a recruit straight away with burrowing and pathing, or just send a promoted Mugwump in there for heavy damage. This is not uncommon when there is a random chance for larvae to evolve into Mugwump through the evolution die and no prior plans for recruitment. Another counter is that when you move the landmark unit off the source well, enemy factions have an opportunity to limited build right on the source well, threatening the Mugwump. With that high damage, your Mugwump is better off killing heroes and minons that dealing damage to spires.

Tunnel sniping: Evolving it comes out a bit early - on round 2. meaning if it pops out it’ll advance ahead of the pack. It doesn’t have any defensive ability, so it's not going to last at the front line for long. Your usual priority is to take out the Hero. You're really weighing up the cost of taking out their hero vs. The 6 cp that you spent, thus it's got to be a high value hero. This applies to both promoted and unpromoted. It is unlikely it'll clean up the enemy forces, it just means it'll last a bit longer if promoted and will usually take a unit or two down with them. It is expensive to be a unit that is not a win condition, but a welcome evo die rolled.

Heroes

• Generally cheap and worthwhile to get. Movement range of 3 is huge, as movement is not a stat that heroes can upgrade. Don’t perceive their heroes as big and tanky, but more hit and run. Tunnels give Griege heroes a very interesting edge. In addition to tunnel sniping, Griege heroes can enter into tunnels to return to the fortress, and then be deployed within the same wave, possibly to through same tunnel (Using the fortress advancement 3.3). This usually means they're inactive for two rounds (1. return, 2. inactive, 3. Redeployed) but they can come back full health and ready for tunnel sniping. I call this process of returning to fortress to gain health - Refresh. This is crucial for Griege heroes as none of them gain a health upon levelling up.
• Assuming that your hero is might have been damaged and out in the field at the end of the previous wave, so you send your tired hero back into the tunnel in the first round. Round 2 they are inactive recovering. Round 3 they are ready to deploy, the magic Round for tunnel sniping. Therefore try to have your heroes within range of a tunnel at the end of a wave, even if you haven't bought the upgrade yet (you can do so in the build phase). Griege heroes also have the added benefit that they can be added to the deployment stack on any of the following turns. So they can actually lie in wait, not just emerging 2 rounds after going in.

Ocjab has great movement compared to most heroes, and a flexible option for digging the tunnel. Ocjab's value seemingly diminishes mid to late game outside of his high movement. And that's why it's worth understanding tunnel sniping. 3 move is huge with control over where the tunnel is placed. His Burrow ability can keep him alive, but reverting back to 1 damage doesn't quite cut it. Promoting Ocjab means losing Dig, and as we can see, it’s got value across all your units. I tend to favour tunnel sniping using Dig by skitters. At worst, his death might give enemy factions source and an upgrade, but Griege do have tools to target heroes and Griege’s other heroes are cheap. Just don’t lose the other heroes.

Tunnel sniping: Ocjab is better to initiate the tunnel sniping more than doing the actual sniping. That said, unpromoted he can easily Dig before movement and then go into the tunnel - a very nifty disappearing trick. It does line up for a tunnel snipe. With a damage upgrade, it’s not too bad let him stick around unpromoted for a decent snipe. You always have skitters as options to fall back on.

Ekul 4/1/2 for 3 cp is a deal - for the cost of a Burrower/Skitter. A fully promoted Ekul loaded up with attacks/spikes is like…untouchable. (except to range and spires). Ekul can hold the line for an oncoming wave and defines the defensive aspect of Griege units. It’s skills of Capture is a bonus, and Evasive helps longevity, but either way eventually you're going to want to refresh via tunnels. To elaborate further, Quick counter has specific strategic conditions. You want to be mindful of the available path hexes next to Ekul - if 2 or more, they can be damaged beyond the first retaliate. Ekul will still take full retaliation damage if it attacks, so be mindful of what it does not kill. Positioning is very important since it does not have much health, and you want to position Ekul away from spires since it doesn’t have anything to handle them.

Tunnel sniping: Ekul has almost the same stats as an unpromoted geckweb. Still, with an attack upgrade, it can vastly improve tunnel sniping to 4 damage, as most minions it is supporting wll have 2 damage. The biggest improvement for promotion is having 3 slots and 3 movement. With enough movement, it’s possible for Ekul to refresh more than once in a wave, while the enemies get tired out.

Echri 5/2/3 is a very unique hero, tied directly to the fortress (not counting the graft). Echri costs 5 cp and therefore can come out as early as Wave 2 with a Larva, but there is a hidden cost in -5 fortress points. She’s a huge big target (10 source). Be very careful about her health, because again, she doesn’t gain any from promoting. At the same time, enemy heroes have to be careful around her, as she can effectively remove a 2 health hero even if they have fortification upgrades. Losing her on the battlefield to give a 10 source boost to the enemy is usually enough to decide the game. But if used wisely she can take out the biggest threats of the enemy team. Note her consume has to be used before/after movement and not after an attack.

Tunnel sniping: Echri is the epitome of why any hero with 2 health lurking near tunnels are in danger. She hard counters Wyvanke (which is a pain for many factions), consumes before spires fire, and she can get through any number of fortification upgrades on the hero. It’s very hard for enemies to pull off 5 burst damage, so if you keep Echri in a cycle of sniping and refreshing, you can take down the key threats in their assault. Unfortunately she is reduced to 2 movement when promoted, so she cannot return to a tunnel 3 spaces away next turn if you Consume + attack. If you are uncertain of Echri’s survivability, one sneaky tactic is to Burrow immediately after consuming - as the two abilities are different they can be triggered. This keeps her inactive/invulnerable from spires/attacks, and she can return to the tunnel when she emerges from her burrow. You do lose her promoted side, but remember everyone is going to be gunning for a 10 source target. The act of emerging to strike from tunnels and immediately going to an invulnerable state, and then going back to tunnels first thing is hard to counter, and usually makes the enemy play more defensively/conservatively with their heroes. Of all the chess anaologies that Cloudspire has, Echri is most certainly your queen - the most dangerous piece and the most precious.

Spires

• Griege have a low numbers of spires - 4 maximum unless you buy market spires. Note you have no fortress spire positions. I find you might do a combination of spires + leaving open source wells for evolution. But this is also susceptible to opposing spires taking over. You have to be mindful of who can build spires over the source wells you desperately need.

Brood Nests effectively give 2CP per wave, as well as giving one attack. They are very resilient, as it usually requires a 2 damage assault minion to make it vulnerable. Having one early one keeps on giving you CP for the rest of the game. Building a Brood Nest in wave 2 will effectively give you 6 CP over the course of the game provided it survives. Try to pair up with an open source well so that you can waltz the spawned larva over to evolve. Every hex group has 2 source wells. One tactic is to buy earthscapes and place 2 of them on your hex group so that you have exclusive access - 2 open wells and 2 Brood Nests. Remember the Larva are placed adjacent to the Brood Nest at the start of your first turn, so unlike Tunnels, they cannot traverse backwards. So the open source wells would either be adjacent of forward from the Brood Nest for this to work.

If enemies put heavy pressure by advancing with spires in your territory / source wells (that are rightfully yours!), deploying from tunnels dug halfway does mean that any upfront spires the enemy places in front of your fortress is wasted (except for siege towers). This may be relevant because you tend to have open source wells for evolution. It might mean being more aggressive, but rendering their investment in advance spires a waste of source. Just remember that your fortress is underground so it effectively has Camouflage - only adjacent units/spires can hit it.

Hive is the standard air defence spire. 1 damage for one range is not bad to place on the centre isle, and you can put a fortification / attack upgrade as the third option. You really have 3 options for anti-air: Promoted skitters, Hive spire, and Quick Counter. It’s so satisfying to take out a damaged Royal Talon with Ekul’s Quick Counter. Just remember that your spires will underperform compared to other factions. This is CLOUDSPIRE. Some factions are the SPIRES. You are the CLOUD! A toxic cloud of numerous bugs that’s hard to reach and hit.

Fortress Advancements + Win Conditions

I’ll introduce a term here, "Win Condition" - One of the end game strategies to build for.

• From my strategies written, it’s quite clear I value Tunnels. 10 source (2+4+4) is generally doable in a wave, and you can also spread it out across waves. As mentioned before, you can setup a favourable situation for tunnels even before buying the advancements. E.g. During the build phase where is Ocjab 5 hexes away, purchase the tunnel advancements, and then in the Onslaught phase can move 3 closer to dig a tunnel that pours minions into a tunnel snipe. That said, I do not believe Tunnels to be a "win condition", just a tactic in how to weaken the enemy forces.

• I like the Evolution Pit because it’s reliable and times your 4 health minions for a tunnel snipe. 3 Source is cheap for what it does and it’s common for a wave 1 purchase. Down the line, Evo Purifier gives you more source: which depending on your strategy… is not all too reliant on. Yes more source is always better, but you’re not spire hungry during the onslaught phase for limited build options. You’re generally building up for your win conditions, which may be the next advancement. It’s nice to have more source but you can win games without it.
• Evolution die - this is potentially a win condition. Not because of secret ability of unit, but because of the potential it brings to your late game attack. If you felt Griege minions were generally lacking in power - this may be why. The potential for 3 free Larva - either from Brood Nests or Hatchery Advancement - to evolve into your higher Tier units for free gives you possibility to flood the board with potentially more CP value than any other faction. I want to iterate that it is totally possible to buy earthscapes in waves 1-3, hold them until wave 4, and place them all down in consecutive late turns in the build phase so that you have exclusive source wells for this end condition. With 2-3 hives or advancement, you can field additional 3 larvae (6cp) which can into 1 skitter, 1 geckweb and 1 mugwump, that’s 13CP of promoted minions! On top of your 11-12 CP! Long live the SWARM! You have defended long and hard for this. You want to avoid taking away options from your Evolution die, so you either stick to maximum 1 skitter + 1 geckweb + 0 Mugwump in your deployment stack, and/or keep to Burrowers and Dampskitters. In conjunction with your tunnel sniping capabilities, you should be a force when flooding the board. Of course, it’s also possible you don’t get what you want, but you should always be getting something. It feels so satisfying to get a free Mugwump.

• It is possible/likely you will feel underpowered in the first few waves. The Larva Hatchery line starts off with a defensive mechanism to absorb hits, worthwhile for early aggressor factions and a must if you are reducing the Fortress with Echri. Slightly different to evolution die - it provides 3+ HP to your fortress, and always retaliates for 1. The difference is they give the enemy different rewards if killed. Also note the damage doesn’t carry over. An attacker with 2 attack will hit twice to kill the Hathery minion and not deal any damage to the Fortress. Once killed though, the Fortress is now vulnerable.
• Down the line is another win condition =Cocoon Surplus gives +1CP. An option to hit 12 CP is not available to many factions. You can now field 2 Damp skitters - 2 flying beasts of doom if the enemy does not have the capacity to tackle Anti-Air. I try deliberately to AVOID deploying damp skitters in wave 1-3 so that the enemy doesn’t have a chance to test out anti-air in their previous waves. If you’re able to field lots of Larva from Brood Nests, this is a way to sneak by the enemy while drawing their fire to the main line. If you’re feeling risky, instead of tunnel sniping tactics, you can combine this with Splice tactics which is far more source hungry. It takes 8 source to get here, so not a big investment. Expanded Hatchery gives you the option to deploy a single Larva for no CP for 3 source. It’s effectively a reliable Brood Nest without the attack, fortification, and source well usage. It’s nice but I don’t think it’s essential given your options. Getting this early means you’re getting a lot of other things late, and while the math seems good, you could just spend 4 source for a Brood Nest for the same thing without any upgrades. The only thing is your Larva starts in your Fortress, which can pop out of tunnels.

• Are you ready for the craziest win condition? I don’t think you’re ready. You know those cool traits on Markey units - Heroes and Minions - imagine what you could do if you could slap them on any Minion, belonging to yourself or your enemies? What if Dampskitters have range 2? What if Larva have Summon Hero? The possibilities are endless. You generally will need to build the following by the end game: Gateport (2+3), and Hive Altar (3+3). One builds up your market chip supply, the other uses it. Depending one what you get will show you what to pivot to. You’re generally going to want good talents, but some bad talents you can use against the enemy. Since Larva are the only minions chips you have 3 of, it’s not a bad choice to apply the trait to 3 minions. But you might also want to reinforce other minions to ridiculous levels if you have 2 of them. Hence you might have 2 Damp skitters but 2 Geckwebs aren’t bad choice either. You should be trying to get two units from the market - one to consume for Fortress HP and one to splice. Don’t be afraid to hold onto one for the talent late game.

Splice Key talents

• Anarchy - make the enemy roll each turn once deployed
• Anti-Heirs - prevent Heirs deploying a type of minion
• Anti-Brawnen - prevent Brawnen deploying a type of minion
• Camouflage - Maybe for promoted Burrowers to get up to spires and use their assault. Also can make damp skitters near invincible.
• Range # - Very scary to add onto your flying dampskitters. This could very well be your win condition. Also nasty if all your larva have Range.
• Armoured - Increase durability
• Leech - Increase durability
• Channel/Healing - Increase durability and gain source.
• Armored/Entropy - Increase durability, but careful you don’t destroy your own units.
• Improve - Potentially insane if many minions have this. This also works well for the newer upgrades. Best if you have a centre isle spire.
• 6 Tracker - Teleport very far away! Preferably right next to spire
• Summon Hero - Pay source to summon enemy hero then gang up on them. Usually spells doom for that hero.
• Reap - If you need more source. Usually you might hit the cap though.
• Magic-Like Missile - Absolutely devastate the enemy, pinging from afar once per turn, especially last wave when you don’t need source as much.

Other Situational Fortress Advancements

• Queen’s Chambers - I generally don’t find this as impactful despite how powerful Echri is. I find Survival to be a luxury, and gaining back 1 health per round to be too slow. For her to get Quick Counter is 12 source and that’s a lot of investment - probably by Wave 4 if she’s done very well leading up to it. Yes with assault she could be the one to take down spires/fortress but I just don’t find her tanky enough to do that. Again, your mileage may vary.

I talked a LOT about tunnel sniping and refresh, but that’s not all the Griege can do! I’m sure there are other ways to play the Griege but I thought I’d share a thorough analysis on what they can do and hopefully inspires you to try them out in your own ways.

Finally are some Do’s or Don’ts that I think are pretty universal.

Don’t: Build willy nilly when it comes to spires.

Every faction has 8 “spire” chips. However, only 4 of your chips are Hive/Brood Nest which means you have strictly less spires available. While spire longevity generally depends on player count you usually won’t hit your limit of 6. Nonetheless you can’t afford redundancy. Buying market spires are definitely attractive.

Also, you don’t want to fill up every source well with spires leaving no room for your evolutions. Most factions have spires occupy a source well for defence, while source wells serve a very different purpose for you - minion promotion.

Don’t: Neglect your heroes

Your minions are generally squishy - it comes with the bug theme. Your heroes aren’t that strong either, compared to Kram, Jaelana or Bydra. What they do have is the capacity to come in and strike from afar, and this should be in conjunction with your defensive capabilities. Their potential dangerous range with upgraded tunnels is unmatched with any other race.

Do: Understand how to use tunnels and evolution. They’re your unique faction mechanics. Best learn what it’s capable of. Both have a wide potential to increase your capacity for damage.

Don’t: Send your market purchased units into toxic filled landscape. Your Griege minons are exmpt from toxic fumes and toxic secretion and can use tunnels, but market units will suffer! Instead, splice them or consume them.