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Donner's Tactics Strategy Guides #7: Citizen Dawn

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Donner
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Donner's Tactics Strategy Guides #7: Citizen Dawn

Citizen Dawn

                Citizen Dawn is a strong support character with some DPS tendencies.

Builds:  DPS, Support

                Best Power Cards:  Return with the Dawn, Luminous Leadership, Blinding Blast

                Worst Power Card:  Devastating Aurora

 

                Strengths:  Flexible attacker, able to find solutions to most any situation

                Weaknesses:  Takes two turns to cycle out citizens with Return with the Dawn. 

                Works well against:  Ra, Tachyon, Bunker

                Weak against:  Beacon, Omnitron-V, Operative, Baron Blade

                DPS Build:

                                Blinding Blast

                                Searing Lance or Devastating Aurora

                Support Build:

                                The rest of her cards

                Commentary:

                Citizen Dawn has quite a lot of options.  Most of them, however, revolve around Return with the Dawn and the citizens she can choose.  Devastating Aurora is a powerful ability, but is often used in bad situations.  It should not be used if there are any enemies in the radius that are nearly dead, and it shouldn’t be used if it puts Citizen Dawn in a position to be vulnerable to retaliation.  Citizen Dawn is highly dependent on having line of sight to her allies, which means they need to avoid cover or stay close to her.  Don’t underestimate the abilities of her citizens other than Citizen Truth.  Blood, Sweat, and Tears is the only citizen with 3 actions, and they can give Attack -1 or Defense -1 to enemies within line of sight as an unlimited action.  This can counter Legacy or a Bunker Omni-Cannon strategy very quickly.  If you can keep Citizen Spring safe, the whole team can regain up to 3 health a turn just by staying in her and Citizen Dawn’s line of sight.  Hammer and Anvil have the best defense of any citizens, give their allies defense tokens on a surge, and can hit everyone in radius 2 of them, making them great middle of the battlefield fighters.

                Tips:

                Blood, Sweat, and Tears and Blinding Blast can give a target up to 5 Attack –1 tokens in one turn.  Make it 4 Attack - 1 tokens and Blood, Sweat, and Tears can make a 7 die atack against someone.  Or, if you'd prefer, 3 Attack - 1 tokens and a 6 die Aimed attack.

                Spring and Healing Light can heal all allies in line of sight for 3.  Proletariat, Tachyon, and Legacy can all really use this.  Add Beacon to the team for another point of healing to everyone (4 total, for those keeping score!).  Great against teams that can't field stronger than 5 or 6 dice attacks.

                Beacon and Brisk Effulgence allows all allies to sprint twice.  Once on Beacon’s turn, and once on Dawn’s.

                Hammer and Anvil are a great all-around Citizen to have on the team.  They give allies defense tokens and have a good attack.

                A first turn Devastating Aurora can really take the wind out of your opponents' sails, especially if they have someone like Absolute Zero or Omnitron-V on their team.  Be careful around Bunker or Tachyon, however, as they can get back up swinging.

                When using Devastating Aurora, be sure you aren't helping the enemy team.  Low-health targets in the blast will end up healing to full (Tachyon loves this!).  However, since each one will have to get up one at a time, that'll give your team time to focus on one before the others can help them out.

                Key Citizen Info:

                Citizen Truth has the strongest team defense, but once he goes down, his defense is gone.  He requires line of sight and being within 3 hexes of those he's defending.

                Citizen Spring's healing is unlimited and is to all targets in line of sight.  If she doesn't have to move, that's 2 health to everyone.  But she is easy to take down as Tachyon, Unity, or the Visionary, so be careful.

                Citizens Hammer and Anvil have the strongest defense value on the team, with 4 defense and 7 health.  They also give defense tokens to all their allies in line of sight.  Their attack is strong at 5 dice, but is a Radius 2 Area attack.  This could hurt the team, or could synergize REALLY well with the Tachyon/Baron Blade redirection combo.

                Citizen Summer has the strongest base ranged attack of all the Citizens, at 6 dice.  But, she gets out-shined by Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

                Citizen Winter's ranged attack can slows targets, making it useful against Tachyons who like to Light-Speed Barrage or against already relatively slow heroes like Omnitron-V and Bunker.

                Citizen Dare's attack can hit two targets, but if it isn't Aimed, it will likely be low damage dice.  Dare has the highest move value of all the Citizens.

                Citizens Hack and Slash can get very strong defenses and very strong attacks.  The defenses come every round, but the attacks are only if they keep attacking.   Be careful with them when around Baron Blade.

                Metlarcturus had this to say about Hack and Slash: It may be worth mentioning the burst damage potential of Citizens Hack & Slash. If you see a clump of enemies, dashing into their midst could get you a 6- or 7-dice attack. Spawning them in the middle of the clump may get you an aimed 6- or 7-dice attack. Hack & Slash can also thrive against Proletariat, distracting him and building up Attack +1s before unleashing on one of Prole's allies.

                Citizens Blood, Sweat, and Tears have the most actions of any Citizens.  They can also give one target an Attack or Defense - 1 token.  This action is unlimited and is a great way to negate any one character's token build-up.  They have an attack with a single miss chance that gets stronger the more - 1 tokens the target has.  Combine this with Blinding Blast for the strongest attack Citizen Dawn can make in one turn.  Note that this attack strength is dependent on Blinding Blast hitting its target.  Add Visionary to the mix for more Attack - 1 tokens to everyone.

                Citizens Assault and Battery have the most health of any Citizens.  They can either do an okay area attack that could hurt their allies, or a good melee attack (6 dice, automiss on 3 values).   It is best to aim that melee attack if you can.

                Citizen Autumn is like a mobile Stun Bolt with only one miss die and a strong attack when aimed.

                Only Citizens Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter have mobility.

                Countering Tips:

                Pushes can cause Citizen Dawn to lose sight of her citizens.  If she has Citizen Truth out, this can make her vulnerable to attacks.

                Defeating citizens does not give any victory points.  Instead, avoid them and target Citizen Dawn herself, if possible.  This is especially important because if Citizen Dawn goes down, so does the Citizen.  She is the lynch pin....or the Mainstay.

                If a citizen is defeated, it will take Citizen Dawn two rounds to pull out another one. 

                Be careful of building up tokens around Citizen Dawn.  One Devastating Aurora can take them all out.

                Citizen Dawn’s attacks tend to miss on 5, 6, or 3 and 4.  Hit her from long range to minimize the strength of her retaliation.

                Keep to cover to force Citizen Dawn or her citizens to close on you to attack.

Edit:  Added some more notes.


"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

phantaskippy
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I understand listing characters that can move enemies as her weakness, but it only ruins a few strategies, and Dawn has many.  B/S/T do great against those characters, as well as a good number of different builds.  

Donner
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The character's they're weakest against aren't necessarily characters they are going to fold to.  It means those characters counter a lot of their strategies and thereby put them in a tougher position.  In Citizen Dawn's case, a lot of her strength requires line of sight and/or begin within a certain number of hexes of characters.  All the pushers can prevent her or her Citizens from having those advantages.  I find the four I listed to be slightly better when dealing with Dawn than the others.  Your mileage may vary.


"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

metlarcturus
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It may be worth mentioning the burst damage potential of Citizens Hack & Slash. If you see a clump of enemies, dashing into their midst could get you a 6- or 7-dice attack. Spawning them in the middle of the clump may get you an aimed 6- or 7-dice attack. Hack & Slash can also thrive against Proletariat, distracting him and building up Attack +1s before unleashing on one of Prole's allies.


"To such simple minds, my advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic!"

Donner
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Noted!  Thanks!


"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett