Before we get into it, I feel it is a good place to explain exactly why the Helleniki are my favourite cohort (apart from just having beautiful models, because I love the Morituri models just as much). I am a history student at university and my main field of study is Ancient Greece and Rome, putting the world of Arena Rex in a real spot of interest to me. In particular though I love Greece and the tales throughout, and so a Greek warband that touches on so much of their rich history is something I could never resist.
Starting off with the Cohort Benefits, the Helleniki have 2 passive ability and 1 tactic
Ekstasis is the main faction ability working off their sense of heroism and the phalanx. While they are in base contact with an enemy they can reroll an ATK dice, and while in base contact with a friendly they can reroll a DEF dice. It's consistency at its simplest and makes you more reliable, while also staying thematic and forcing positioning play
Hubris is a fairly straightforward ability that gives Helleniki the option of taking damage to add favour dice to their next attack or defence. It’s a great extra level of resource management that can really swing things in your favour and possibly even act as a form of damage reduction should you be successful in your defence (2 damage for the possibility to remove 2 successes= well worth it)
Heroic Challenge as a tactic is pretty good but it is costly at 2 Favour. Basically you shift both a friendly and enemy gladiator 3” towards each other, although they can’t be affected more than once a turn. It’s a good way to pull things out of position while also possibly getting your own things in a better position (useful for Ekstasis) although I don't really find myself using it too often
The model will always raise eyebrows but it is very
historically inspired and he works great in game. Antaeus is a wrestler with
all that entails (his high defence and non-existent armour shows that) but his
real tricks are in controlling a section of the board. He has 3 pushes to start
his tree (or optional damage, but his pushes are what I take him for) with a
40mm base and his special rules play right into the push/control playstyle.
Hip-Toss lets him spend a Favour to be displaced by the opposing model whenever
he attacks or defends which means he is unlikely to be pushed into hazards
often if at all, but also he can line up perfect attack runs to set up pushing
the opponent into hazards and still benefit from Ekstasis on the attack. My
main use for him is to shove enemies into pits, but he also has the advantage
of Enervate to stop opponents removing fatigue unless they are in a clear turn
which messes with the activation order of an opponent in huge ways. He has a
stack of health as well, but if you can get someone with a high-damage tree he
will fall fairly easily.
Argos is kinda weird for me in that he never wins games by
himself, but he is solid enough I will always take him in my cohorts for what
he brings. He can get to absurd levels of armour with Shield Wall and his stats
are all around good considering this and his damage tree is pretty good but
what I really take him for is Tactician:Phalanx. This gives the cohort another
tactic to use and it lets you move around a lot better, plus Argos can use it
during his activation for a Fatigue instead of a Favour which opens up a lot of
positioning options
I’ll be honest, Daphne is not a model I have got uses for. I
haven’t put her on the table but I don’t really see all that much that makes
her worth taking in my cohorts over other options with more specific synergies
(Prophet is amazing but not necessarily always worthwhile) and her stats aren’t
something that grabs me in a big way. I see some uses for her, but I just think
she doesn’t fit into my list style at all.
Dimitrios is someone I always used to take by sheer
necessity, but now that the starter set is out I find him being edged out by
options there. He is fairly un-subtle overall with good stats all around (and Telesto
as a mount which I will mention below) and Feint is a good ability as a
resource drain, I just prefer taking someone like Krios now who is even more of
a drain.
Krios is really amazing. He has decent stats, a great damage
tree (2 4s on the bottom!) and 2 amazing special rules. Taunt is the simplest
way to dictate engagement and force target priority on an opponent (use it to
bodyguard things like Archidamos or Antaeus) and Anchored flat out stops him
being shunted around by opponents which in turn means he can’t be affected by
hazards of the non-living kind. There is the downside of not being able to
follow up on pushes or benefit from Heroic Challenge, but that’s something I’m
more than willing to take considering the rest of his kit
One of my favourite sculpts in the whole range because of
how unique it is (taking inspiration from the lesser-known Minoan society) Phaedra
is also a great model. Her damage tree is mainly based around pushing and a
little bit of damage, plus Momentum for extra follow-up and ignoring push
resistance for bigger based models so she can get things around really well
like Antaeus (but slightly different). Overall her and Antaeus are very similar
offensively, but Phaedra is a far better tank. Def 1 Arm 2 is pretty average,
but with 16 boxes (equal highest in Helleniki) and Bronzed means she can flat
out stop damage when she chooses to which prevents big spikes.
The titan/beast/mount for Helleniki, Telesto is really
interesting in how it works and can be really great but it’s an odd model and I
like my proper gladiator options more. Affinity and Mount are fairly standard
rules across the game, letting Dimitrios mount it and also preventing Dimitrios
from being hit by Wild attacks, but otherwise you’re looking at some really
interesting tricks. Atk5 is pretty average for a mount, the other stats being
good as well but its damage tree is phenomenal and Divinity is really useful
for a crew that can generate a lot of Favour as it keeps Telesto in the game
longer without needing a clear turn (although with him being a beast there are
times you want to become fatigued to trigger Wild)
My favourite model in the cohort alongside Archidamos, Theophania isn't all that much of a damage dealer or control piece but she at supporting and putting your opponent into awkward positions when deciding who to attack. She herself is pretty good defensively and has a way to generate Favour off of failed attacks against her, but her main trick is Interdict. This lets you be displaced by the target when she declares an assist provided she is engaging either the defender or the attacker and is mainly used to put her in base contact to trigger Ekstasis but can also be used to edge her around so she is getting into/our of engagements with enemies to open up her options. She works best with the models in the cohort that can either draw attacks easily and act as a tarpit (Krios or Antaeus) or need someone to help assist them (Archidamos) but really can be used effectively with most of them. Argos also has good synergies as you can displace her to trigger Shield Wall to greater effect.
Putting it into practice
Overall Helleniki have a ton of great models and they can work in any number of combinations, but my personal favourite for a 6 model cohort is this
Theophania
Archidamos
Antaeus
Krios
Phaedra
Argos
The intention for this list is to stay real close to each other, using both reaction moves and Argos' Phalanx to keep formation so as to maintain the defensive benefit of Ekstasis as much as possible but also to keep the special rules of each model going (Argos, Theophania, Krios especially). As mentioned above Krios is your main defensive piece but ideally will always be getting killed first (because he uses Taunt to keep the opponent hitting the rest) while Archidamos, Antaeus and Phaedra run interference and mess the opponent around however they can. Theophania should mainly be assisting combats rather than initiating them (but she's still a great fighter when you need her) and Argos is mainly there to help out and use Phalanx to move things into position
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