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Omnitron's Scenario: Drones

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Fanboy50Y
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Omnitron's Scenario: Drones

We just got our copy and tried out Omnitron's scenario, and we have two rules questions.  Non-character targets aren't discussed anywhere in the rulebook, so we weren't sure how they play.

  • Do Omnitron's drones get their actions automatically on Omnitron's turn or does the player have to use the activation action on the Drone Deployment card? (We played it the latter way)
  • Why do the drones have an incapacitated side? Going off the rules for companions (which we realize aren't exactly the same, but that's the closest thing we could find in the rules) they should be removed from the board when they hit 0 health.

In our first run, the drones were essentially a non-issue.  With only 2 actions, each of Omnitron's turns boiled down to:

  1. Deploy a drone next to a scenario token, or move if that wasn't possible due to line-of-sight.
  2. Flip/claim that scenario token before the heroes have a chance to destroy the drone.

It didn't feel like Omnitron had any other options if he wanted a chance at winning the scenario, especially with the scenario token power taking up half his turn.

phantaskippy
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Latter way is correct, Omni takes an action himself or gives a drone a turn.

Drones have a full health and a damaged side, flip if they take 1 hit, just makes it easier than tracking health for all of them.

Fanboy50Y
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Thanks for the quick confirmation.  It's good to know we didn't completely misread the rules.

We're still wondering how Omnitron stands a chance at winning his scenario, especially against heroes that can take more than two actions per turn like Tachyon and Bunker.

McBehrer
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Tactics sequence gives you an extra action, and if you use the drones smartly you can use them to attack the heroes, which distracts them and forces them to choose between attacking YOU and getting swarmed by drones, or taking out the drones and letting you do your thing. You still have access to all of your power cards, after all. Plus you get more turns than them, so you get to do a lot of things.


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

SiraRaven
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We also kind of ran into the problem that it ended up being hard for Omnitron to win as long as the heroes just focus on attacking him.  We had Tachyon, Absolute Zero, and Bunker going against Omnitron, and there was really no reason for the heroes to attack the drones.  The worst that could happen was the drones incapacitating us, and all that means is that we lose a card temporarily and any tokens.  Since the Omnitron player could only flip 1 token per turn, all we had to do was go up and just wail away at Omnitron.  Were we missing something?  I guess if she had realized how strong Bunker's one-shot that uses 4 Attack+1s is, she might have sent more drones after him, but it was still a little weird that the best strategy for us was to just totally ignore the drones, since incapacitation seems to matter so little.

Foote
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Fanboy50Y wrote:

Thanks for the quick confirmation.  It's good to know we didn't completely misread the rules.We're still wondering how Omnitron stands a chance at winning his scenario, especially against heroes that can take more than two actions per turn like Tachyon and Bunker.

It's a little harder for Omnitron to win the second scenario but easier for him to win the first. But it is by no means impossible. (Hint: EMP drones are your friends!)

phantaskippy
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As Omnitron I have won a match where the Heroes did just that.

The keys to winning that scenario are:

1.  Abuse the places where your drones can reach 2 markers.

2.  Make the heros bunch up and EMP-Flechette them.

3.  Repair drones, +1 action and plating.  You can be really hard to kill, and healing 1hp a turn makes it rough.

4.  Start moving around at key times.  Rocket Jump should be used sparingly.  Save it for a key moment when they gang up on you, then boom, you are gone and hopefully have a turn before they can hit you again.

5.  Don't play against Bunker.  There is nothing you can do to stop him.  None of your attacks can damage him reliably enough to incap him before he drops you, you can't stop his token engine and without Plating you die instantly, and if he is used well you can't even get out of sight/range.  His defense buff for allies makes them hard to incap as well.  Seriously, a well played Bunker unbalances every Omnitron scenario.  With plating you are slightly tougher than Bunker, but have nowhere near his offensive output.  He gets a free aim and attack+1 token's galore.  It is crazy.  I was facing an aimed Omni-Cannon every other round, and an aimed Micro-Rockets every round.  You cannot win against that.  You have to stay up top and hope his movement rolls suck so you get some time before he starts destroying you.

Foote
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phantaskippy wrote:

5.  Don't play against Bunker.  There is nothing you can do to stop him.  None of your attacks can damage him reliably enough to incap him before he drops you, you can't stop his token engine and without Plating you die instantly, and if he is used well you can't even get out of sight/range.  His defense buff for allies makes them hard to incap as well.  Seriously, a well played Bunker unbalances every Omnitron scenario.  With plating you are slightly tougher than Bunker, but have nowhere near his offensive output.  He gets a free aim and attack+1 token's galore.  It is crazy.  I was facing an aimed Omni-Cannon every other round, and an aimed Micro-Rockets every round.  You cannot win against that.  You have to stay up top and hope his movement rolls suck so you get some time before he starts destroying you.

Bunker's movement in the environment really hinders him. One bad movement roll and you have a lot of time to get away from him. You can always Disintrigration Cone him as well. You have much better movement than him on average. Use it.

SiraRaven
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Oh okay, interesting.  She did have the card out that added an extra auto-miss # (don't remember the name), but once we incapped her once, that was the card we got rid of. cheeky And she did kill us a bunch with her EMP drones...but it really didn't make a difference.  All incapacitation did was make me lose a card, which made no functional difference to my ability to beat up Omnitron.  Bunker did seem a bit OP, though, so we I guess we got lucky on picking him.  And she never used a Repair Drone to heal herself, so that also probably would have helped her a bit.  Thanks for the quick response - looking forward to trying the scenario again!! laugh

phantaskippy
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With even 1 defense+1 token Cone isn't likely to do anything to Bunker.  You're going to take 4-5 dice, rarely ever 6 with disintigration, and if you aim that means you are standing next to Bunker for more than one round.

If I'm bunker I'll take that every day of the week.  You can't cone Bunker and get far enough away to matter, and your cone isn't going to match his damage output.  It is a losing fight.

If there are more than 2 players his move restricts him, but with 2 heroes vs. Omnitron that doesn't buy you much advantage at all, as your move is worse.

With the terrain of the map you also can't hide from an elevation 4 bunker.  Outside of Bunker vs. Omnitron in a 2 hero match this scenario seems pretty good.  Bunker is just insane.

Foote
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Bunker is still hindered by his movement. And you can pick away a little at him with drones if need be. Bunker isn't an unanswerable problem, it's just one you have to game plan around, like any other hero.

phantaskippy
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The 2 actions gained for incapping a hero is nice, but it doesn't bring you any closer to winning, since you can't use it to Assimilate.

Your best use of those 2 actions is generally to go after the heroes with another EMP drone, and try to keep the pressure on them a bit more.

Bunker's 4 defense and 6hp makes him crazy hard to take out, and Omnitron doesn't have any way to boost his own damage, which is solid but nothing to match what Bunker throws down.

No other hero can throw down damage and toughness like Bunker.

lutherbellhendricksv
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How were you facing an Omni Cannon every other round when Omni-Cannon is a One Shot?

McBehrer
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Exactly what I was going to say. If you never kill him, he can only omni-cannon you once.


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

phantaskippy
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Well that would make a difference.  I swore my copy did not say One-Shot on it.  But I checked and it is there, and thinking about it I can remember when that change went through and Turret took away dodging and I was all "I'm cool with Bunker."

I need to stop disagreeing with anyone until I triple check to see that I didn't do anything wrong.  

McBehrer
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I disagree.


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