Are you ready to try to select the Hero you would like to play as? Or if playing two player solo, ready to select two complementary Heroes? (use two copies of the chooser chart)

Print out one CHOOSER grid for each Hero you want to choose. Then just mark it up as you wish! Circle the important things. Cross out things that don’t matter to you. Add more criteria to the bottom.

When choosing, remember that you likely won’t get everything you want in any ONE Hero. What they told us at my main job (while I was working … I am retired now) can put a perspective on this! This is how we were to look at managing a project … considering THREE aspects:

1. SPEED: how quickly do we want to complete the project
2. COST: how little funds do we want to invest in the project
3. QUALITY: how well done do we want the project to be

Now … with those three criteria in mind … here is the KEY to managing a project based on those three criteria. The KEY can be summed up in just TWO WORDS:

CHOOSE TWO

You won’t be able to accomplish the project if you aim at all three aspects simultaneously! You could aim for SPEED and COST and realize that this would mean lower quality. Or you could aim for COST and QUALITY and know that this means it would take longer. You only get TWO!

With that in mind … when choosing a Hero … Choose Two (or maybe Three) criteria that are most important to you regarding your Hero. Then see which Heroes in the list meet THOSE TWO (or three) criteria and choose between them!

Here is a good sized chart that I fit onto ONE PAGE to help you narrow down the criteria while choosing your Hero:

=> Choose Me Chooser (PDF)

Here is a reduced size image of that full sheet so you know what it will look like as you use it:

Wow … I hadn’t realized that 3/4ths of our Heroes could attack more than one enemy in one action! But, going through the stack of Action Cards, there they were … the Dirty Dozen!

1. Adryel
2. Antathys
3. Bassilus
4. Eradicator
5. Gia
6. Melithys
7. Memnon
8. Qorox
9. Sigyn
10. Talya
11. Tarira
12. Xalia

Melithys

Melithys sounds kind of reckless. She has TWO Action Cards that damage multiple characters each. And, yes, I said “characters”, not “enemies”. Her damage goes to everyone near her, including other Heroes (so take care to look around to see where the damage will go).

Leviathan Blade damages TWO characters (enemy and Hero alike) that are within a range of 2 in a diagonal or orthagonal line from you. The 2 damage can be increased by the die roll or by a red boost.

Shrapnel Grenades damage all characters in a 3×3 grid around the square where the grenade explodes. The 1 damage is unblockable (and can’t be increased by dice or boosts).

Continue reading “Dirty Dozen (12 Heroes that damage multiple enemies in one action)” →

How nice that one of our Heroes has an Action Card titled “Self Sacrifice”… placing the good of others before himself. Yes … that’s our guy: Qorox!

So in our list of Hero Groupings … I decided to make a group just for him … and am calling it ABSOLUTE ZERO (thus the last comes first in our counting order since zero comes before 1).

0. Qorox

Self-Sacrifice

Qorox – this is an EFFECT card. While it is on your cooldown track it is in effect! If an enemy is about to attack another Hero but  Qorox ALSO is a valid target, that enemy will attack Qorox instead of the other Hero! The other Hero is NOT attacked! Plus a nice side benefit to this card is that each time the card slides to the left, you gain 1 shield and 2 movement (yes, you get to move during a “not my turn” moment!)

Look over the full set of Hero Groupings:

• ZERO => Absolute Zero (Placing Others Before Self)
• ONE => Invisible One (Cloaking)
• TWO => Move Through You Two (can’t block or stop them)
• THREE => Jumping Three (Jumping Jehoshaphat)
• FIVE => Favored Five (Healing Heroes)
• SIX => Long-Range Rest Repeat (Two Turns In A Row)
• SIX => Super Six (Longest Range Weapons)
• SEVEN => Secret Seven (best Hacking Heroes)
• EIGHT => Excellent Eight (Speed Runners)
• TEN => Terrible Ten (Unblockable Attack)
• TWELVE => Dirty Dozen (Damage Multiple Enemies in One Action)

Enemies canNOT block or stop these two Heroes from moving! If an enemy is occupying a square in front of them, they just say “I will move through you!” … and they DO!

1. Xalia actually moves through the occupied enemy square
2. Melithys pushes them out of the way first, then moves through the square they used to be on!
3. Bonus: Vera (technically FLYS OVER them)

Dodge and Bolt

Xalia – She is not blocked by enemies. She does not have to sidestep to walk around them. She can just walk through the same square that they occupy, but only if she has at least TWO moves left (ie, she cannot end on the same square as an enemy). Note: she cannot walk through a square occupied by a fellow Hero or non-enemy character (only enemies)! However, she CAN end up with quite a good move (up to 7). She begins with a move of 1 square, but rolling THREE dice likely gives a substantial move since both the “move” icons AND the +1 and +2  results add to her movement! Only the “shield” icon does not add to her movement!

Continue reading “Unstoppable (Move Through You Two)” →

The REST is the KEY!

The key to using the weapon again SOON (on your next turn).

The key to SOON is the number in the top left of the Action Card. It specifies what cooldown slot the card can be placed on.

Remember: At the end of your turn you get a free rest action which slides all cards on the cooldown track slide one slot to the left and the card that was in the 1 slot slides off the track and immediately goes back into your hand.

If you play a weapon Action Card that can be placed on the 1 slot of the cooldown track, the free rest at the end of your turn brings it right back into your hand to use again the next turn. However, no weapon with a range of 5 or more can be placed in the 1 slot (so it can’t automatically be available again on your next turn).

So… how can there be Long-Range weapons that can be used two turns in a row?

Well, you get two actions on your turn. If one of your actions is to REST, all the cards on the cooldown track slide 1 slot to the left! And your free rest action at the end of your turn also slides the cards 1 to the left. Combining the free rest action with taking a rest as one of your two actions, means cards slide to the left TWICE… thus cards in slot 2 WILL slide to the left twice and immediately go back into your hand! Note: of course, the 2 slot must be empty in order for you to play the card there:)

To be included in this list of Long-Range weapons that can be used two turns in a row, the card must be able to be placed in cooldown slot 2 (so it can repeat) AND have a range of at least 5 (to be considered LONG-Range). Range 3-4 weapons are medium range weapons:)

SIX Heroes made the cut to be included in this list:

Gia, Eradicator, Memnon, Sigyn, Tarira and Xalia

If you’d like to actually use your Long-Range weapon frequently, this is your list:

CSS-701 Proton Blaster

Gia – This is an example of an Action Card that allows you to place it in any cooldown slot! That is what the X in the top right means. However, the lower the slot you place it in, the less damage it does! But, it does have a default range of 5 and thus will qualify for a two turn weapon card if you play it in slot 1 or 2.

Continue reading “Long-Range Rest Repeat” →

Every Hero had at least one of their Action Cards updated from the prototype to the final cards that will be in the game when released! Two of the card updates were significant enough to change the RANKING for both the Hacking Heroes and the Long Range Weapon Heroes!

The Hacking group was six heroes and now is seven heroes (Sigyn, Jastin and Bassilus joined while Memnon and Eradicator dropped out):
=> Secret Seven

The Long Range Weapon group lost one Hero (Tarira dropped out):
=> Super Six

First, here are the NON-hacker Heroes (ie, they only can hack via their Basic Interact card): Antathys, Melithys, Qorox and Tarira. If these are the only Heroes in your game, you will have a rougher time with hacking because only the Basic Interact action will be available!

Note: See also the original Hacking article now called => the Secret Seven

Note: Hacking is important! Of course you want to hack into a terminal or network … but you also will need to open LOCKED DOORS by hacking, which is imply drawing one interact token from the bag. You need THREE MATCHING COLOR interact tokens to be successful (white is wild, but don’t draw two white in one action of you fail that attempt). This is possible with all the hacker Heroes, though it is easier for some of them:) However, most of these Action Cards go into cooldown slot 2, so using 1 rest action will let you use the card again on your next turn.

There are TWELVE Heroes with a hacking special action, so you might like to have at least one of these on your team! I highly recommend that at least one of the players uses one of the following Heroes:

Continue reading “Updated Hacker Specialists” →

The updated front page of each Hero’s Dossier now includes their focus … summing them up in one or two words … what they are best at! When choosing a team for a new campaign, maybe try to include heroes that each have a different focus? Want a “tank” on your team? Yeah, there are three that are summed up in that way! To help give a better overview, after listing what a Hero has as their focus, I will also include inside (parentheses) their personality type, focus (for rerolls), shields and scars allowed:

1. Adryel: Generalist (Cautious -> 5 / 2 / 6 )
2. Antathys: Close Combat / Tank (Dominating -> 2 / 5 / 12 )
3. Bassilus: Tech / Support (Cautious+Supportive -> 2 / 3 / 9 )
4. Eradicator: Combat / Tech (Dominating -> 3 / 4 / 9 )
5. Gia: Stealth / Tech (Supportive -> 6 / 2 / 6 )
6. Hiro: Ranged Support / Generalist (Inspiring -> 4 / 3 / 8 )
7. Jastin: Versatile Support (Supportive -> 5 / 2 / 7 )
8. Laelia: Ranged Support (Cautious+Inspiring -> 3 / 3 / 8 )
9. Melithys: Offensive Close Combat (Dominating+Inspiring -> 2 / 3 / 12 )
10. Memnon: Tank / Tech (Supportive -> 4 / 3+ / 9 )
11. Qorox: Tank (Inspiring -> 3 / 5 / 11 )
12. Sigyn: Tech / Close Combat (Dominating -> 3 / 3 / 8 )
13. Talya: Ranged Combat / Tech (Very Cautious -> 5 / 1 / 8 )
14. Tarira: Ranged Combat / Close Combat (Very Dominating -> 2 / 4 / 10 )
15. Vera: Fast Support (Inspiring -> 4 / 3 / 8 )
16. Xalia: Close Combat (n/a –> 5 / 4 / 8 )

In all my playthroughs, Vera was my favorite … and, yeah, “fast” is a good way to view what she is good at (though her Jet Pack Action Card was updated from the prototype to be a tiny bit less cool:). With my play style, FAST moving was a good Hero to have on my team! Let’s use Vera as an example of how the front of the Dossier now provides a focus summary of the Hero:

Her FOCUS is the last item in her Dossier summary!

Here is an updated look at the Dossier envelopes for all 16 Heroes (yes, you can see the tape I used to tape the updated front page to the black envelopes … I think they will be black in the final game and now that I have made my own black dossiers, I think they are much nicer in black). You should be able to zoom in on each one for a closer look (but it does get blurry when zoomed… I might do each individually later)!

Let’s face it … you will be seeing your character’s miniature through mission after mission. You will be moving that miniature around the map. Maybe you just want your Hero to have a miniature that you really like! So … go ahead … choose your Hero based on their miniature!

Here is a quick view of each of the 16 Hero miniatures rotating to see all sides:

Continue reading “Choose Your Starting Team (part 2 your favorite mini)” →