Right now, Proletariat is my favorite character in the game. That'll change soon with Setback showing up (and Mr. Fixer!).
Proletariat
Proletariat is a strong melee fighter that is hard to kill.
Builds: DPS, Tank
Best Power Cards: Defensive Sacrifice, Overwhelm
Worst Power Card: Hammer Sweep
Strengths: Survivability, surrounding enemies and taking them down, pushing enemies into hazard spaces.
Weaknesses: Without his defensive cloning abilities, Proletariat can go down fast. Also vulnerable to area attacks. Lacks mobility.
Works well against: Wraith, Legacy, Citizen Dawn
Weak against: Tachyon, Bunker, Visionary
DPS Build:
Overwhelm
Sickle Formation or Tactical Flanking
Tank Build:
Defensive Sacrifice
Shared Burden or Overwhelm
Commentary:
Shared Burden and Defensive Sacrifice make Proletariat nearly invincible in the early game. In mid game, swap out Shared Burden for Overwhelm and go to town on your enemies. If Proletariat ever reaches 3 clones, an Overwhelm into Duplicate will restore him to maximum clones. Beware of not having at least Defensive Sacrifice or Shared Burden on Proletariat. He becomes extra vulnerable to area attacks and can drop quickly, otherwise. I suggest saving the Overwhelm, Tactical Flanking combination for a final round attack (when you know Proletariat will not get any more actions). It gives extra dice to his attacks, and the vulnerability from not having a duplication power is much less. Use your duplication as a way to get across the map. Duplicate over large elevation changes to reduce the movement cost to get past it.
Tips:
If Proletariat would be dealt 2 or more damage from an attack and you have Defensive Sacrifice and/or Shared Burden in play, roll the defense dice. If they can’t stop the attack completely, stop none of it and duplicate or remove a duplicate instead.
(Unconfirmed, but cool) Duplicate, then Overwhelm to a Duplicate to get 4 clones out quickly. Possible rules issue: Can Proletariat use an action with Overwhelm that he’s already used before? If so, we’re golden and there’s a lot more tricks up Overwhelm’s sleeve.
Build chains of Proletariats between targets and hazard spaces. Then use an Overwhelm assault to push the target into the hazard spaces. The push on all of his attacks makes him great friends with Ra and the Operative.
Use Hazard spaces to create Proletariat duplicates. With Shared Burden, it costs one health, but not an action, and gives you another clone to work with.
Beware of getting boxed in with no-where to clone when you have Shared Burden. One failure to duplicate and Proletariat goes down. Likewise, don't have 1 Proletariat and Defensive Sacrifice. If you take 2 or more damage, regardless of your health, Proletariat goes down.
Keep a clone out of combat just in case things go badly in the field. With Defensive Sacrifice, you can take out the attacked clones and still survive. Also, if that clone is near Champion Bot, all other Proletariats have + 2 dice to their attacks.
Beacon can give Proletariat extra actions for Overwhelm or Duplicate (or both!).
If you need to, swap out Overwhelm for Regroup and Recover. One clone down can be two more health for survival purposes. Just make sure to duplicate right afterwards to get your numbers back up. If some of your clones are in a really safe place and you need to heal more than two health, use Overwhelm and Regroup and Recover. You may end up losing an extra clone if you were at 6, but you'll be at full health if you had at least 3 Proletariats.
Avoid grouping Proletariats against Bunker unless you have Tactical Flanking and Overwhelm and are attacking him this round. Likewise, avoid lining them up against Tachyon or Beacon as they'll run or laser beam through them. Although, a line of 6 makes it difficult for Tachyon to use Hypersonic Assault without using The World Stands Still.
Plan your Overwhelm attacks so that your mandatory pushes don’t push the targets out of range of your other Proletariats.
Against Ambuscade’s Rigged Explosives, use Proletariat as a mine sweeper. Clone from the explosions or destroy clones if needed.
Overwhelm and Dodge can give Proletariat up to 6 dodge tokens. Save it for when you know they want to take you down.
If you need to, you can surround an ally with clones to prevent enemies from being able to close on them for melee attacks. Visionary is amazing for this maneuver, as she can adjust the die rolls for all the clones protecting her. Just watch out for those Area attacks!
I usually play very defensively, so I wouldn't play Tactical Flanking and Overwhelm until I am trying to get the very last incapacitation of the game.
Countering Tips:
If Proletariat has Defensive Sacrifice and is low on clones, focus him down. Likewise, if he has Shared Burden and has a high number of clones, focus on him. One clone too many or too few and he goes down.
Proletariat is weak against large numbers of small attacks. He doesn’t get extra defense dice and his clone abilities only work if he takes 2 or more damage from an attack. Ra and Tachyon excel at multiple small attacks.
If you can, line up area attacks against multiple Proletariats at a time. Even if Proletariat has Defensive Sacrifice, each clone you destroy is one more he’ll need to create on his turn. If he has Shared Burden, he’s still taking damage from the attacks.
Visionary and Champion Bot can drop a radius 6, 5 die psychic maelstrom that can devastate Proletariat.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Sorry for the late post, but... how do area attacks work against multiple clones?
Does each clone get hit by a single AoE attack? (This seems to be the case, based on the comments above that Proletariat is vulnerable to AoE.)
If yes, then do you make a different defense roll for each one?
Thanks!
Avid player, playtester
It is a bit complicated.
1. The area attack is made. Each target in the attack will be hit.
2. One attack roll is made. Attack + 1 token dice are rolled against individual targets.
3. Each target (in the attacker's choice order) makes a defense roll against the attack.
4. If Proletariat can put out clones to mitigate damage, that happens, but the new clones do not get attacked by the area attack.
Number 4 was the comlication part.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett
Thanks!
Avid player, playtester
Actually, we had a few other questions come up:
1) Shards. The shards give the holder Attack +1 and Defense +1. So if two Prole clones are each holding a shard, do they get them individually? Do 1 of each attack & defense token (no matter how many clones have shards) go into a shared pool? Or does each clone get 1 of each token, and then they go into a shared pool?
(If they can each be targeted individually for cumulative damage, it seems like they should get shards invidiually as well.)
2) The character card says "They all share one set of Actions, Defense, Movement, and Health." We're not sure what a "set" is. We understand the Actions and Health. (We think.) But as a group, do they roll once for Movement and split it up? And if they're Area-attacked, do they split up the 3 defense die among participants against that single attack?
Or does each clone get that much Movement, and that much Defense?
Avid player, playtester
As an update to your guide:
You can not Duplicate --> Overwhelm: Duplicate. Overwhelm is limited to an action you have not used yet.
Start with #2: All Pro's are treated as 1 hero. If one Pro on the map uses a move action, they do not all do it (because thats what Overwhelm is for as a power card), but because Pro used the action and can't use it again, only one of the targets actually moves. They are all Pro, and all share actions. So In a way they ALL have that movement you rolled and all have that defense value, but keep in mind Pro doesn't get unlimited actions (other than his innate Hammer attack).
If multiple Pro's are hit with an AoE attack, they all roll the defense die individually per target. They share a health pool though so watch out. Nothing gets "split" between all your Pros on the map.
With that said, on #1, since they all count as 1 hero, all pros would incur the combined penalty of the shard.
They all share a pool of tokens. If Legacy gives 1 hero two Atk tokens, you wouldnt get two tokens for each copy you have, since you only count as one hero. You are one hero who just happens to have multiple targets.
Thanks!
But if they are getting tokens because they are individual "targets", it seems like that would increase the # of tokens in some manner.
i.e., 3 clones that have shards get more total tokens than 1 clone with a shard.
Just like 3 clones that get hit take more total damage than 1 clone that gets hit.
Normally, yes, we understand that if a clone took a Dodge action, then it would go into the pool. Because 1 action = 1 dodge.
But the shards seem to... individualize" clone receipt of token? Just like they get individualized when hit by an AoE.
Avid player, playtester
Our reasoning, for what it's worth, was this:
If a Shard inflicted 1 damage on its holder, then if three Prole Clones were each holding a Shard, Prole would take three damage total. Right?
So... shouldn't Prole get three A+1 and D+1 tokens if three Prole Clones are each holding a Shard?
We couldn't see why damage gaining would be different from token gaining, in this specific circumstance.
Avid player, playtester
This is correct. Each would get their own token, meaning Proletariat would have a total of 3 attack + 1 and 3 defense + 1 tokens.
"Deja-fu? You've heard of that?"
- Lu Tze, Sweeper, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett