Recently I have been playing Bunker a lot, so I decided to write a guide on how I see him. I uploaded the file instead of copying it to the forum, bcause it is 19 pages long and formatted to Word. Besides talking about every card in his deck, and a detailed analysis of each Mode in every possible way, I also did a number of calculations showing that waiting for Bunker to have the "perfect" setup actually caused him to lose damage, not gain.
Basically, the guide comes to do 1 rule: Do as much damage as possible. If a move won't increase your damage output, then it probably isn't worth it.
EDIT: Noticed some typos, so I uploaded a new version.
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
Pydro
Thanks for this! I plan to look into the tome today.
Can I say somethin' about destiny? Screw destiny!.... 'Cause destiny is just another word for inevitable, and nothing's inevitable as long as you stand up, look it in the eye, and say, "You're evitable!" Fred Burkle
Your analysis is completely spot on if you have the right cards, and a very good guide and primer to what to do if you don't have the right cards. It also reflects some of my own experiences with him as a workhorse of the party. He does steady damage throughout the game if you can get his guns/grenades/cannon/etc out, and you've created a great guide to some of the options at his disposal.
I do feel like he can get especially stuck against enemies that steal/destroy stuff (as he has limited recovery and no deck-searching). In a long-term game he usually does very well, but against enemies where you need to respond pronto in order to survive, Bunker can end up in a difficult position IF he doesn't have damage dealing cards ready to go.
Good guide. Helping people understand how to play Bunker is a big step.
He's still going to be weaker than others in most matches, and players need to understand that you don't build a team around Bunker, because he doesn't like to receive help once he gets going.
You did a great job of highlighting Bunker's main weakness, even with the perfect hand of cards Bunker can't utilize them all as well because he can't get them to the field fast enough, and Turret is so big to him and it shuts down him using one-shots or getting more equip in play.
That said he isn't as bad as a lot of people (even me) make him out to be. I house rules Bunker a little bit, just to speed him up a bit and give him potential to play cards in turret (make maintenance give the option to heal or play a card even through turret).
I love the guy, but our group gets a little disappointed with his Mode cards. It would be nice if he had the ability to heal in Recharge Mode, for instance.
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
We expiramented with several options to improve Bunker
Destroy upgrade mode: play an equip, or pull an equip from deck to hand (gives him a pull from deck that he is missing)
Destroy Recharge mode: put a Mode card from hand or trash into play
Turret Mode: We've had three options we've tried:
Destroy one equip to gain +1 damage till end of turn. Alternate suggestion was an option to destroy Turret, and any other equipment you want, all cards destroyed this way go under omni-cannon. The third was to discard a card and put Turret back in your hand. The visual of the second version is awesome,turret bunker morphing itself into the cannon, but I'm not a huge fan of the power level. The first one is the most popular.
The recharge to upgrade switch is nice, and upgrade is big to pull equips
Maintenance Unit: Give option to heal or play a card (even in turret) This is big, goes a long way to bring him up in the order of heroes, lets you play turret early if you have Maintenance out. I like the idea of it too, that even in turret mode he can break out new weapons with this unit equipped.
The first rules aren't big changes, lets you recycle mode cards and pull equips, two glaring issues of Bunker, the MU boost makes him a really strong hero, able to continue play while keeping Turret out, not as high a cost for losing a gun to equip destruction.
As for healing in recharge, restoring 1 hp/turn instead of the DR would make sense.
Just finished reading the whole document. Very impressive. I've definitely been given a new perspective on Bunker, and cannot wait to play him with your information in mind.
I especially appreciate your straightforward, unbiased presentation in the whole piece. It was frank and in-depth without being judgemental or insulting of others' playstyles, while still encouraging the reader to really grasp a strong understanding of how to best utilize Bunker's deck in a variety of situations.
I wonder what would be unearthed with an in-depth guide for some of the other heroes, especially considering the notorious "Ruling 15" from Ronway's discoveries at Kantcon.
Ra, God of the Fun
Draw, God of the Sun
The Matriarch's Psychic damage is her forcing a gratuitous amount of Snapple facts about birds into a hero's brain.
VERY interesting. I did not expect to learn much, as I feel pretty comfortable w/ my understanding of Bunker, but there were some real eye-openers. In particular, the calculation about going into Turret mode vs. taking an extra turn to put down grenade launcher was a big surprise.
Under Full Effect of Modes, 'Upgrade Mode' is listed twice.
There's a sentence that starts with 'with No Mode'. Should be capitalized
"Utility: ... about" should be "Utility: ... output"
There's a sentence that ends "... of target". It should probably be plural and have a period.
Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel
Fixed. THANKS!!!
Edit: Thanks again!
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
Grenande Launcher?
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
Sorry, I meant gatling gun, not grenade launcher. I have been enamored of the idea of going into Turret mode w/ Gatling Gun already in play, but your chart showed that waiting that extra turn is often the wrong choice.
Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)
If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel
A point of clarification: When Bunker is in Turret Mode, can he use his base power to draw? I'm assuming not.
No, you are correct. The only way Bunker can draw in Turret Mode is through Ammo Drop, because Ammo Drop specifically allows card draw when a Mode would block it.
"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"
- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
But it's okay for an effect to put a card into Bunker's hand as long as the word "draw" isn't involved. Not sure whether anything that works for other heroes exists, so Bunker might not get any help, but if a Traffic Jam or Swarm of Scarabs prevents anyone from drawing, Visionary can still use Foresight to add a card to her hand every turn.
"Is there beauty in a forest, if no creature stops and calls it lovely, now and then? Isn't that what 'sapience' is for?"
--David Brin, "Brightness Reef"
Best I found to bypass the whole bunker turret syndrome is to use O-X's power on him. It's not a draw but the player will be thanking you when you get him Plating, Ammo Drop or equipment you don't have out yet. A riskier bet is using scholar's don't dismiss anything... Then again if they are chained you could set up your card without it being disturbed by draw.
Today I had a player express the opinion that, playing heroes like Mr. Fixer and Ra, he didn't really have any choices to make; it was just lay down a card, hit whatever needs to be hit, the end. I encouraged him to look at some of the more complicated heroes before giving up on the game; I showed him the Visionary and the Scholar, and then I said "One more to look at, he's not as powerful as those two, but he does give you some choices to make", and I handed him Bunker. He checked him out, and then got curious about Unity and looked at her, deciding she wasn't his style, but Bunker was the one he was specifically interested in trying next time.
So for at least one person, the amount of extra work you have to do to get Bunker moving is an asset. Just thought I'd throw that out there.
"Is there beauty in a forest, if no creature stops and calls it lovely, now and then? Isn't that what 'sapience' is for?"
--David Brin, "Brightness Reef"
My mother tried 3 heroes (Tempest, Wraith and Visionary) each time complaining that there wasn't much choice in what to do each turn- there was always one really obvious card to play each time rather than her having to try and weigh up the pros and cons of different cards (her main dislike in co-op games is being told "we need you to do this this turn" by the more experienced gamers in our family) but she also enjoyed playing as Bunker because there wasn't an obvious strategy and she didn't end up doing the same things every turn (although admittedly I let her redraw her first hand because the first time she got turret and upgrade mode, the card that let's you get something out the trash and something else that wasn't useful at the start of the game)
Just to be clear, do you mean "sequentially" or "in the same game"?
I would love to get a draw like that some game, as it'd give me an excuse to use Initialize (at least if the fourth card was a Maintenance Unit or something, something you can actually play even if it doesn't do anything). I believe the one time I actually got such a hand, I was playing promo Bunker. Typical....
"Is there beauty in a forest, if no creature stops and calls it lovely, now and then? Isn't that what 'sapience' is for?"
--David Brin, "Brightness Reef"
I mean sequentially, my mother isn't that good at games! (I was playing two heroes and she played one each game). She did actually enjoy the first two games (Her as Tempest vs Baron Blade followed by her as Wraith versus Omnitron) enough to order a copy of the EE core set the next day.
True, I rarely end up using Initalise myself, but she hadn't had many good cards come out when she played Visionary the game before so I wanted to make sure she would be able to contribute to the game as it was only her fourth game. (Especially with me playing two heroes as that ends up making me dominate the game more in the first place)
Glad to hear you were so successful inducting Mom into the game. Will we see her around these forums, by any chance?
"Is there beauty in a forest, if no creature stops and calls it lovely, now and then? Isn't that what 'sapience' is for?"
--David Brin, "Brightness Reef"
I doubt it, she's not one for chatting on the internet.
One of my players pretty much exclusively plays Bunker - I can't actually remember him playing another hero, but that doesn't mean he hasn't though.
He just thinks he's cool, loves the power suit and shooting things.
Just assume I'm always doing that.
Damn it, Ronway!
I put "A Look at Bunker" into a googledoc, so people don't have to download it (although the formatting didn't translate well).
I also needed a little distractions, so I wrote up some thought on Upgrade Mode (becuase 19 pages on Bunker wasn't enough).
Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.
-Robert E. Howard, "The Tower of the Elephant"
I love the idea of an on-destroy effect for Modes. It would give me more of an incentive to change things up, since I usually feel that once I've settled into a mode, it's too easy to get stuck there. I mean, once you've got a good weapon out and you're in Turret mode, you're not drawing anything new, so you're not seeing what you're missing, so I tend to spend the whole game doing the same thing, which isn't too interesting.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
We made a simplified version that we've found to be really powerful, mainly because the others were a bit complex.
At the start of your turn, you may return a mode card to your hand, if you do you may play a mode card.
This simply lets you switch modes out without using a card play to get the new one in play. Returning it to your hand is arguably too good, and sometimes we leave it as destroy, but that isn't nearly as fun. Leads to great combos like: Return Recharge mode to your hand, play upgrade mode, then play omnicannon and Gatling, switch back start of your next turn. Then when ready, switch out recharge for upgrade, play flak or grenade launcher, then turret mode.
It really elevates Bunker's deck mechanics, and makes him crazy fun to play. It also improves EoW bunker, since any duplicate mode cards are ripe for discarding.
It's what I use too it made the difference between finding bunker almost unplayable to an enjoyable experience if only because you can finally use upgrade mode without needing it out for very long to be effective. I don't find the return to your hand too good as you need all three modes to be able to access every parts of play:
Turret being the only one that allows powers
Upgrade doesn't allow enough draw to fuel itself
Recharge allows to get the ressource you need for the other two
Even with that you still need to plan with your teammates as you usually wont be able to do all in a turn.