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Pilot Operations Manual - Grey Hammer

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Foote
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Pilot Operations Manual - Grey Hammer

Pilot Operations Manual Volume 2. Grey Hammer

Quick Glance

Signature Card: Contra-Maegeir Bomb

Mobility: Low                               

Scrapping Power: Very High          

Purchase Power: Medium            

Upgrade Speed: Slow                   

Flagship Survivability: Low           

 

"To bomb, or not to bomb, that is the question - whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the lazers and Opp Boosts of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of Technovores, and by opposing end them" 

 Grey Hammer is the B-52 Bomber of the Strike Force squad and he is a force to be reconned with. He has so many ways of dealing massive energy damage outside of engagments that there are few opposition ships who can stand in his way for long, and even Flagships quiver in fear at the sight of a Contra-Maegeir Bomb. As simple as it sounds, Grey Hammer comes with some pretty tough choices. Do you unload as quickly as possible? Or do you save the payload for the Flagship or an emergency? To bomb, or not to bomb.

Primary Mission Objectives:

Your primary objective is simple: Deal as much energy damage to the Opposition as possible.

His Smart Bombs and Contra bombs are his primary way of doing this. Smart Bombs recycle when they would be scrapped but Contra deals more damage but are one time uses. In comes Explosive Repurposing. Now, if you have Explosive Repurposing in your opening hand, that kinda sucks as its basically a dead card. But ER is where we are going to generate a lot of damage from. ER is best used on either your Bombs or on other Techs with scrap effects to get the most bang for your buck. Figuring out the best ways to weave all these damage dealing abilities together will be key to victorys. 

Training Example: You have a Contra and a Smart Bomb installed from the first round. Your hand in the second round includes Explosive Repurposing, Bombardier's Aptitude, and your other Smart and Contra bomb. Repurpose the Contra to deal instances of 3 and 2 energy damage. Then Aptitude to tack on another 2 since you scraped Contra. Then install your 2 other bombs and trigger those 3 during [B] Icon activation. Thats 15 total energy damage you just did before the engagment phase of the 2nd round.

This is the potential power of Grey Hammer. Straight up, single targeted, unadulterated Energy damage.

One of the interesting choices you will have to make early is whether you are going to save your Contra bombs for the late-game Flagship run, or if you are going to unload everything as early as possible to gain control of the table early. This will depend largely on which Opposition you are facing, when/how the Flagship deploys, and if you are playing on Elite Mode. For me personally, if I have the ability to scrap an Opp ship now, instead of later, I do it no questions asked. If I can use a Contra early to scrap extra ships I will. But you do have the option of waiting, and its a very viable option to for Hammer to try and force the Flagship out earlier than normal in order to blow his load when its at its full potential.

Station Cards and Manipulation Options:

Grey Hammer is a Tech whore in the same vein as Basileios. It doesn't ever really matter what tech you buy like most other ships, as the Hammer has ways of utilizing even the fringe techs through Explosive Repurposing. Anything with a Scrap effect is of double priority for Hammer, as he can gain even more use from Repurposing those Techs.

Energy Techs: Energy is not a primary focus for Hammer players, but you will need a healthy amount in order to still scrap your engagment targets. Techs that grant bonus energy to your ship panel are great for Hammer since the techs you install don't stay around for very long usually. Things like Energized Ordinance are great for Hammer. Pick up a cheap Scrap-Shield for some easy protection and try building your low starting Weaponry. 

Non-Energy Techs:  Hammer can buy up fringe techs not many ships would really want but have nasty Opp sides like Cloaking Drive and OSC Waypoint Plotter and make use of them. Ordinance Replicator is almost always a better choice for passive energy gain for Hammer than Rush-Thrusters will be since Hammer will most likely be engaging the weaker ships of each sector due to below average energy gains. And Keller Upgrade Unit is an expensive but quality purchase. Internodal Mine is incredible when paired with Bombidiers Aptitude.

Boosts: Hammer will want to buy boosts sparingly, and only when its absolutely nessesary for Station Manipulation purposes. Though Boarding Party is never a bad choice given Hammers love of Techs, and Desperate Measures falls nicely in his thematic wheelhouse as long as you have ample shields to spare.   

Manipulation: You are not going to have  ton of money to spend each round, especailly once the Contra Bombs come out of your deck. But Hammer has Maker's Eye which decreases all Tech prices in his sector by 10. Thats huge as it allows Hammer easier access to the more expensive Techs while still being able to grab 2-3 cards. But try to not buy any more than that. You still want to see your Smart Bombs and Repurposing quite often, and deck bloat will drastically slow down Hammer's damage output. You will probably want some assistence picking up Boosts like Harrasing Assault that you would rather not have but need to buy if its in danger of flipping.

Opposition Intel:

The Syndicate: Smuggler's. Kill. Them. Quickly. They are the biggest immediate threat in the Syndicates deck. If you have the bombs to do it, scrap it before the [R] icon has a chance to trigger. The Flagship can be brought out almost anytime you want. Remember the Training Example above? Well, if you could pull that off in the 2nd round, it might be a decent idea to force Cryoshade out in the 2nd round Battle Phase and start to unload as much as you can on it. It has such low starting weaponry that you could very well bring down its shields just enough to really damage it off the bat. This early zerg option is much easier done in lower player games as it would start off with less energy, but its something to keep in mind that Hammer, when fully loaded to the gills, could easily strip the vast majority of its shields in one swoop.

Nyotan: The bounties on the Technovore Servants should not be overlooked for Hammer. But Harbingers will always take priority early especially on Elite Mode. When playing against Nyotan, there are a plethora of different ways to tack on extra energy damage to the Flagship, so saving your entire payload for him may not always be the best option. Try using your bombs as early as possible to wittle down the table before you start playing cat and mouse with the Dragon

Singularity: As per usual, Alpha Primes are key targets to be destroyed before the Flagship arrives. If you can't outright scrap them, the shields at the very least of all the Primes need to go. Nothing will make your life more difficult or the game take very long as a Flagship that absorbs 20+ shields from every Prime around. Don't let that happen.

Technovores: Technovores present an interesting challange for Hammer. They destroy and eat all the techs he wants to buy and whats on his ship before he can repurpose them. Luckily you will have a focus on scap effect techs. Also, when the Hive-Master starts eating your techs to put under his card, you can always choose to scrap Smart Bombs, which will recycle instead of going under Hive-Master. Great way to deny the Spiders their payday. Swarms make great scrap targets in overrun sectors to buy you time.

UFGD: Bomb the Scouts ASAP. UFGD forces have pretty high energy values, so you will need to prioritize your personal energy a little more so that your bombs can be focused on scrapping targets other than the one you are engaging.

Strike Force Team-ups:

Flagship Support: Hammer will rarely do well as your Flagship engager since you will be scrapping a lot of the techs and energy you buy. You will want to teamup with someone whos focus is on Energy gain to directly assault the Flagship. Vigilance, Wrath, Basileios make perfect partners for when the Flagship is a foregone conclusion. Marots Folly, Tharendim, and the Conclave could fill this role in a pinch and have ways to do it well, but come with some drawbacks for doing so.

Station Manipulation Support: Hammers does not provide consistent station manipulation because of his particular aversion to Boosts and so-so buying power. Your best station manipulators are Wrath and Marots Folly, who both possess the movement and purchasing power to be incredibly effective at dictating exactly whats going to flip in the Aftermath. Conclave and Vigilance lack extra movement but all boast significant bankrolls to effect the sector they are in. Claw has the movement to manipulate hard to reach sectors but will rarely have the bankroll to buy anything on a whim.

Scrap Support: Hammer already excells at extra scrapping power, but teamates who can help pile it on can get you wins without a Flagship kill and are very useful for securing Elite Mode wins post Flagship. The Claw and Tharendim are you're best teamates to up the scrap rate. Claw can reposition Opposition ships and outright scrap others regardless of its total energy. Tharendim just needs shields to be low enough and can scrap normal Opp ships regardless of total energy as well. Warbeast is not very far behind  and can even exceed Hammer in total energy damage done, but Warbeast likes to spread that damage out to multiple ships in crowded sectors where as Grey Hammer prefers to hammer down single ships at a time.

Zalrus9
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Hey! Thanks so much for making these! I cannot wait to apply these when my copy eventually arrives!


"An artist's responsibility is to be irresponsible. As soon as you start to think about social or political responsibility, you've amputated the best limbs you've got as an artist."

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Donner
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Aye!  These are awesome!


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McBehrer
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Gray Hammer*


McBehrer is the sole winner of this game... And McBehrer, I would step carefully should you find your way down dark alleys. More than one vote said simply, "McBehrer must die."

McBehrer confirmed to be Biomancer!
-- Trajector

Ronway
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Pydro
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It should be an "e", but there shouldn't be an "'s".


Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
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BlueHairedMeerkat
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Clearly, the dwarves are British. (Probably Scottish.)


“You gotta have blue hair."
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Foote
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Zalrus9 wrote:

Hey! Thanks so much for making these! I cannot wait to apply these when my copy eventually arrives!

Thanks I'm glad you enjoyed it. I can't wait for people to start getting their copies and hearing other perspectives on the game and characters. Hopefully these can be springboards for other ideas. 

McBehrer
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well whatever. The point is, it's not a hammer that belongs to someone named Grey.  It's a hammer that IS grey. Grey Hammer. Not Grey's Hammer.


McBehrer is the sole winner of this game... And McBehrer, I would step carefully should you find your way down dark alleys. More than one vote said simply, "McBehrer must die."

McBehrer confirmed to be Biomancer!
-- Trajector

Foote
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McBehrer wrote:

well whatever. The point is, it's not a hammer that belongs to someone named Grey.  It's a hammer that IS grey. Grey Hammer. Not Grey's Hammer.

Either way, it still hammers

Fixed most of them