For a standard format tournament, i have found the best Honour level to be a total of about 20, but try to not go lower then 18 or higher then 22.


When you start to go below 18 Honour, your figures generally wont be as able to hold off figures of a higher Honour level.  You can not score VPs if your figures are constantly getting killed.

If you go above 22, you start to get the problem of you may not be able to kill your opponents figures fast enough before they get the required amount of VPs to win, unless you are both at the same point cost.

At 20 points, you get a good balance as you can play a Epic figure and support, or a comparable amount of 7-8 honour figures.




The Horde faction is focused mostly on high damage, and has a good mix of high cost (8-10 Honour) and low cost (4-7 Honour) figures, it also has the best healer in the core set which is Lotherin (has built in heal ability). It also has lower defense stats compare to how much damage it deals. Its the smash your opponent faction


The Alliance faction is focuses mostly on support and good defense stats. It has a overall lower damage output then the Horde, but makes up for it in better survivability. Its the keep your figures alive faction


The Monster faction is a mixture of both good attack and good defense, the drawback is Monster faction figures generally have a higher point cost because of the stats they have. A good low Honour level (in the 19-20 range) will focus mostly on comboes and synergy, as alot of monster figures have abilities that support or enhance monsters of the same type.

Such as the teleport a allied Sea Creature up to 2 squares when a Bloodscale Wavecaller gets a criticle with its Water Attack, or how the Skeletal Priest heals 1 damage to all skeleton allies when it gets a criticle when using Necromancer's Fury. It also has good abilities that suppliment other figures, such as a Harvester Golem and a Enraged Fire Spirit taking advantage of both damage auras.


You can make a high damage Horde party at around 18-19 Honour while doing the same with a Monster party is around 21-22 Honour for example.



But because the monster faction has a good balance of offense and defense, you have better luck with a high honour monster party then a high honour horde or alliance party.





Best Epics per faction:


Horde:

Warchief Thrall

Warchief Thrall has a brutal 4 tick, 1 range, 9 damage melee attack that subtracts a tick on Thrall if a criticle is rolled. It also has an ability that gives all adjacent Horde allies +1 Melee and Magic Damage. He is also a Shaman which means he can use the Chain Lighting and Healing Wave action cards.



Alliance:

Highlord Bolvar Fordragon


He has a low damage Melee attack as far as Epics go, but on a criticle hit it gets +X damage where X is the amount of damage another ally has taken. He also deals 1 damage to each adjacent enemy on ticks 5 and 10. Since Bolvar is a Paladin he can use many of the most powerful action cards, which a high amount are Paladin action cards



Monster:

Archmage Arugal


The Archmage has the best control ability with a 3 Tick, 3 Range, 7 Damage Magic attack that can add 2 ticks to all figures (including dead ones) if it gets a criticle hit.

It also has the You, too, Shall Serve action card where it can take control of of a enemy figure and take a turn with it, but only on ticks 9 and 10.