Friday, 5 November 2021

Combos

This Bastionland Editorial was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site a week after its original publication.

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Units in Project 10 are defined entirely by their two traits, of which there are currently 14 in the game.

Order matters, as the second trait provides no benefit if the unit is Shaken, having taken 4 of their total 7 damage. 

So is every combination viable? Probably not, there are certainly some that offer redundancy in their benefits, but nothing outright impossible.

Still, it sounds like a fun experiment, so let's break out the d14s!

Long/Brutal

Used this combo to represent hard-hitting missile troops in my Feudal and Industrial lists, but not currently used in my fantasy lists. Pretty straightforward one here. 

Focus/Volatile

Volatile is mostly used in my fantasy lists for Verminkin and Fungal Fanatics to represent their powerful but unpredictable special weapons (poison globes, warp fire, fanatics, squigs) so it's strange seeing it alongside the trait that offers a unit more reliability and can represent anything from sheer weight of numbers to elite training. Perhaps this would work for a very lightly armoured, hard hitting unit, or unstable demons that might blink out of existence. 

Cavalry/Monster

I use the inverse of this combination for Rhino Riders and Crushers in my fantasy lists, though it can feel strange not to be able to attach your general to these units. This configuration is particularly annoying to a general, as even when you no longer benefit from the Monster trait you still suffer its negative effects. As monsters that maintain their speed while losing their fighting prowess, perhaps we're looking at something more like a pack of giant rats, or even a dedicated pack of warhounds. 

Loose/Artillery

Nothing like this combo in the current lists, only the Mercenary Cannon Carts (Artillery/Chariot) come close. It might look like an odd combo, but being able to get your artillery piece up onto a hill early on can be decisive. The biggest issue here is that when this unit becomes Shaken they lose their artillery attack, and their Loose trait prevents them from Regrouping. Worse still, as Artillery they are broken if they take any damage in melee, so what do you even do with this unit once they're Shaken? Perhaps they could represent a very fragile unit of light cannons. They sound incredibly precarious, but think they could be useful in the right situation, namely if you need to get a cannon through some rough terrain and onto a hill really fast. Definitely feels like you'd rather have Artillery/Cavalry or Artillery/Chariot nine times out of ten, though. 

Impact/Flier

Inverse of the traits for Eagles and Harpies, though this combination is also present in the three-trait big bloody demon that I'm calling the Deathbringer for IP reasons. Him and the Spirits (Volatile, Flier) are the only two units to have Flier as a secondary trait, meaning they can lose it in battle. The former representing the fact that the Deathbringer just isn't going to get worse at killing, and the latter being a sort of waning power dragging the spirits down to the ground. You could use this to represent some sort of drop-troops that leap across the board early on only to fight on foot once things get started. Perhaps something those sky-dwarfs would have?

Worth noting that in writing this editorial I've encountered issues that have prompted me to tweak parts of the game here and there, showing that this sort of experiment is often more useful than you might think. 

6 comments:

  1. Impact/Flier

    some kind of balloon-mounted cannon?

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    1. Impact doesn't allow shooting attacks, but provide a bonus the turn you charge a unit. Artillery/Flier would probably be closer to a balloon-mounted cannon.

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  2. kinda funny that a flier/chariot can't cross rough terrain by flying over it tbh

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    1. Yeah that one's a weird interaction. Probably needs to be thought of as two separate modes of movement, and needs some reworking of the rules from me.

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    2. I think that "treats Rough terrain as Impassable" would fix the interaction, since Fliers can still ignore Impassable terrain.

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  3. I like the versatility of the Artillery. You can really create some cool combos Volatile/Artillery and Focus/Artillery could make for some really interesting units.

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