Donner's Tactics Strategy Guides #14: Unity

Other Games Sentinel Tactics
#1

Unity

                Unity is a strong support and dps.  She excels at attacking while staying safe in the back lines.

Builds:  DPS, Support

                Best Power Cards:  Reconfiguration, Swift Bot, Champion Bot

                Worst Power Card:  Cryo Bot

 

                Strengths:  Stays in the back line while attacking the front line.  Flexible, with a lot of options.

                Weaknesses:  Low health.  Has to use a single bot if she plans on ranged assaults with reconfiguration.  Bots can be detrimental to allies when destroyed.

                Works well against:  Ra, Absolute Zero, Tachyon

                Weak against:  Ambuscade, Omnitron-V, Wraith

                DPS Build:

                                Reconfiguration

                                Swift Bot into Raptor Bot

                Support Build:

                                Turret Bot or Stealth Bot

                                Champion Bot

                Commentary:

                                Unity is a backline hero with good damage capabilities.  She can also increase her team’s damage dealing capabilities.  She can turn okay heroes into power-houses.  She is a bit like Baron Blade, having solutions to most problems.  However, she has to either be close to her allies to swap bots effectively or use reconfiguration, which can hurt her allies.

                Tips:

                Start the game with Turret Bot nearby if you’re facing Tachyon.  Start with Swift Bot if you’re facing Ambuscade. 

                Go, Bots! is unlimited and allows your bots to repeat actions you can normally take once each turn.  

                If Unity is dropped by an adjacent enemy, you should come back up with Champion Bot.  Move Champion Bot behind the target, then use an aimed Arcing Shock to take them down.

                Arcing Shot has near-infinite range.  Use Swift Bot to get behind a target at long range.  This shot ignores elevation blocking as long as the bot and Unity still have line of sight to each other.  That means it can hit lower elevation targets regardless of line of sight.

                Use Swift Bot’s action to move 3 hexes and then attack, then reconfigure her to Raptor Bot, ending with an attack from Raptor bot.  This makes 3 attacks against the target.

                When using Reconfigure, make sure your bot is on the same elevation as the target to maximize Volatile Parts damage.

                Chaosmancer suggests the following:  Another cool trick is to take advantage of the fact you can choose not to block attacks. Run bots into AOE's, AOE (Area of Effect) attack hits the enemy, allow the bot to explode and hit the enemy again. It slows down powers but if you're doing enough damage it is worth the trade-off

                Bots:

                Raptor Bot: The strongest attacker at 5 dice, 1 automiss.  Great for reconfiguration combos from Swift Bot.  If left alone, can make up to 3 attacks in a round!

                Swift Bot:  The fastest bot.  Works well as the initial bot for Reconfiguration combos.  Also a great bot for long range Arcing Shocks.

                Champion Bot:  Makes nearby allies stronger.  Amazing for ranged teammates and Proletariat.

                Cryo Bot:  Has an alright area attack.   Can be comboed with Champion Bot for a triple explosion on an adjacent enemy or two.

                Turret Bot:  Has the strongest defense.  Good zone controller, but enemies may target him instead of risking the hazard spaces.  Works very well with the Operative or Omnitron-V.

                Stealth Bot:  Gives adjacent allies cover, but doesn't have cover itself.  However, its Volatile Parts explosion is usually not as deadly as whatever attack destroyed it.  From Phantaskippy:  Set Stealth Bot just inside cover so now it extends cover for its allies.  Citizen Truth and Stealth Bot make great moving cover.  Use Brisk Effulgence to keep everyone together!

                Countering Tips:

                Champion Bot and Stealth Bot both need to be near Unity’s allies to help them.  Destroying the bots may cause damage to the adjacent allies.  This is especially effective against Stealth Bot as the adjacent heroes all have cover, but Stealth Bot does not.

                You can use an enemy Stealth Bot to block line of sight to an enemy from other of the enemy's allies, if you can push Stealth Bot around.

                Turret Bot only deals damage if you stay in the hazard zone.  If it is blocking your path, just take it out.  Any bots destroyed can’t be used by Unity for two rounds unless she uses Reconfigure. 

                Unity can only have one bot out at a time if she’s using Reconfigure.  This leaves her vulnerable to attacks from mobile assassin characters like Ambuscade, Omnitron-V and Tachyon.

                Citizen Truth and Legacy are great defenses against damage from Unity’s bots.

                Champion Bot has to be within 2 hexes of allies to increase their damage.  Consider pushing them or him away to remove his buff.

                From Phantaskippy: Omnitron really counters Unity well, seperating bots, using the AoE vs. Stealth Bot and Rocket Jump to get past Turret Bot or close to Unity.

#2

Sitting Stealth bot just inside the trees lets you extend cover to allies and makes enemies move adjacent to SB to attack it.

Truth+Stealth Bot is awesome, use brisk effulgence to keep everyone together and moving forward.

Omnitron really counters Unity well, seperating bots, using the AoE vs. Stealth Bot and Rocket Jump to get past Turret Bot or close to Unity.

#3

Another cool trick is to take advantage of the fact you can choose not to block attacks. Run bots into AOE's, AOE (Area of Effect) attack hits the enemy, allow the bot to explode and hit the enemy again. It slows down powers but if you're doing enough damage it is worth the trade-off

#4

Excellent!  Noted.  Thanks!

#5

Wait, what?!

Dear god, a billion and one possiblities just fought for space in my mind about how to abuse this.

#6

 

Yep, the defender assigns their defense dice to block attack dice. If you, as the defender, want to look at your 6,6,4 against the attacker's 1,3 and say "whelp I guess I don't assign any of these dice", then you can.

 

Notably, the attacker doesn't have that same decision point; attack dice are all sent to the defender (after removing automisses and checking range, of course).

#7



Omnitron may not push Unity's bots, as Interpolation Field explicitly says characters, which the bots(and citizens, incidentally) are not.  However, pushing any characters getting buffed by champion bot is a reasonable strategy, as well as pushing characters out of stealth bot's cover.

I do agree that Omnitron does a good counter to Unity (rocket jump not triggering turret bot  :stuck_out_tongue: ) but Interpolation Field needs to be played fairly and correctly to give her a fighting chance.

#8

I am almost 99% postive that Omnitron can push Bots. If he can push Citizens, he can push Bots. And he can push Citizens.

(Plus, I think Interpolation Field says "enemy" and not "character". At least according to the art Proofs in the PT forum. Don't have my cards with me right now to verify)

#9

According to my box of cards, it says both enemy and character, as opposed to BB's Teleporter saying Character and Ra's Drawn to the Flame saying target.

The glossary defines a character as something with both a character panel(Actions,Defense, Move) and power cards, and the bots and (deployable) citizens do not have power cards. Otherwise, there is nothing in the competitive roster that counts as simply a target.

#10

In official tournaments held by GtG, Omnitron has been able to push Citizens. It has been a key element in using Omnitron V as a counter to the Citizen Truth centered team comps. 

You are correct that it says "enemy character", but I think the intent of the card is to extend that to all enemy targets, not just characters. However, maybe Paul or Luther will stop by and give a ruling either way. I agree with you that this is not totally clear.

#11

QFT

#12

Sometimes QFT means "quoted for truth" and sometimes it means "quit F***ing talking". Not quite sure which one you are going with here  :stuck_out_tongue:

#13

Why not both?

#14



Yeah, I agree, especially in between "Seasons", it would be nice to get this ruling solid, as I'm sure that tournament snap-judgement rulings can be glossing over how rules were designed in favor of expediency of matches/quickness of play, as long as neither team contests the ruling in the moment.

I would hope that this would either be errata'd to be worded more clearly, or they would state that it is worded correctly and their tourney rulings were slightly wrong. Especially before the roster doubles in size, offering this more versatility if any and all enemy targets are valid.

 

#15

I have never heard of the second.  I meant "quoted for truth".

#16

We have a number of abilities that say one thing and are ruled another.  Despite not wanting to have errata, GtG keeps creating it but not making it public.  It is an annoying part of an otherwise great game.

#17

The correct definition of "character" was stated upthread -- Citizens and Bots aren't characters. As written, Omnitron can't push them. If there's been errata to the contrary, I'm not aware of it. It sounds to me like an incorrect interpretation at the tournament level was made.

#18

That seems like an odd ruling to me.   Why should the bots and citizens be treated differently for interpolation field?

edit: Go to about 10 minutes in this video  http://youtu.be/kwzk-aVfH-E from the first tournament and you'll see Turret Bot getting pushed by that power.    Even before he made the move Christopher mentioned that was an option.   

#19

 

Bots and citizens (and Baron blade turrets and Omnitron drones and decoy projection, etc) aren't characters. They are targets, and they are allies (if they're on your team), but they're not characters. Characters have character panels and power cards and are selectable as your avatar in a skirmish or scenario; you can't play as just Stealth Bot or Citizen Dare.

 

It's important from a design perspective that that distinction exists, so that there can be abilities that don't scale in unanticipated ways. The number of characters in a battle is a relatively static number, but the number of targets can vary wildly.

 

As to Interpolation Field specifically, my best recollection as to why it says "characters" and not "targets" is that it was excessively strong in some scenarios. But regardless, there's not an "exception" for bots and citizens; it's just what the card says

 

EDIT: I'm not disputing that there have been circumstances where the power has moved bots. I'm just saying, that's not what the card says it does. You'd have to ask Christopher about that one.

#20

I understand what you're saying but it seems like the deciding factor should have been whether the target has a natural move value not a character panel.   Doing that would prevent use of the power on stationary hazards.  Regardless, based on what you stated it would mean throughout the season this has been played wrong and would seem to me what caused Omnitron V to be banned a lot.