Every faction has actions. Some have many, some have few.
Respectively it changes the way people play with their forces, or it defines the way a monster is played.
Planet Eaters have the fewest Actions available to them, mostly available from buildings set on the field such as the I Chomp NY Monuments, the Privateer Press Building and the Harbinger Comet Shard.
With the lack of actions they have no need to change their playstyle. With Attraction on the Harbinger Comet Shard is a low priority ability. If you have action die you weren't going to use, just trade it for a Power die.
Easy peasy.
Lords of Cthul have the most Actions available currently. Not only from the buildings, but from units and monsters as well.
Bleed, Telekenesis, Extinguish, Sacrifice, Summon. These are but a few of my favourite things. Adding in the Actions from secured buildings, it brings the total up to Nine. Nine Actions, eight of which are available to units. This is excluding Mogroth, whose Mega form adds another one: Sprint.
So how do I choose from this cavalcade of single dice options?
It's not easy, that's for sure.
Each action is beneficial. They are worth the die that could've been used to move a unit onto a Power Zone, or thrown into a Slug Squad Salvo.
However, some are more situational than others.
The most situational I find is Extinguish, coming standard with Spitters and as an optional extra for Mega Ancient Osheroth with all of his followers.
Extiguish: Replace one adjacent Hazard with Rubble.
Prevent up and coming damage? Heck-to-the-yeah.
As coming standard with a Spitter, they can fire off into a dangerous building that your monster may be tossed into. With a Spitter just up ahead, they remove the hazard and Voila: two less potential damage and a bit of rough terrain.
Personally, I think I've used this action about four times since I started playing with them.
Less situational is Telekenesis: Move one unit within 2 spaces to an adjacent space that it may legally occupy.
Telekenesis can be used to disrupt a lot of things from making an easy kill to breaking down someones defences with but a flick of a limp wrist.
A few figures have Telekenesis. Cthugrosh, Ancient Osheroth and also the Task Master.
The taskmaster is infamously known to be quite useless in my eyes. Mind you, I have been using him against forces with Flight or High defence. On paper, he's really quite good. With 3*1 on his brawl with a Fling trigger adjoined, he may kill two figures with a sturdy punch to the face and a hammerthrow. Too bad his punches are like throwing squids into your face. While unnerving, it doesn't really work to the best benefit. With Telekenesis, he can move a nearby unit into a hazard, instantly removing the figure if it can suffer from hazards.
Cthugrosh and Osheroth make different use of Telekenesis. As mentioned, with the flick of a limp wrist they can break down a monsters defences.
This is true, while a little embellished.
A street term used commonly for the following technique is Screening, where a player moves a unit adjacent to a monster to prevent an enemy monster aligning for a Power Attack.
Telekenesis gets around this my moving the unit out of the way so that the monster can step into place, or move if he's already close enough, and power attack his opponent into oblivion.
Situational, but mostly beneficial for a monster turn.
Sacrifice comes third on the list, where removing an adjacent unit restores a health point to your monster. Once again this attends the Galas of Cthugrosh and Ancient Osheroth like Harajuku Girls around Gwen Stefani, an inquiring member for the Lords of Cthul. (She always wants to be in the cool crowd, you know.)
On a side note: I'd like to see a Morpher monster made of Try-Hard Celebrities. "Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga and Jessica Simpson: Form up into MECHA-STREISAND!"
Sacrifice is barely deemed a situational ability. When in the situation of low health during your monster turn, sacrifice is a good trade off. Grunts are a good choice. Unless it's a Meat Slave. In which case, you better have a good reason to Sacrifice a Bleeder!
Speaking of Bleed, this action is a more ritualistic ability where any haemophiliac or even hypochondriac will reserve 3 action die to restore a health to their monster every unit turn.
I have found myself reserving said action die quite a few times, especially when my monster is still on full health (mostly because he has just lost form from a Crystalline Building).
Lastly is Summon.
Bring one Faction Unit from your reserves into play adjacent to this figure.
The day I stop using this is the day I stop playing Lords of Cthul.
Cthugrosh, Ancient Osheroth's Morphers and the Tower of Corruption sport this accessory without shame or dignity, reproducing like a Roman Catholic family from Monty Pythons "The Meaning of Life".
This action is always considered into calculations. The ability to control where you spawn a figure, and cheaply to boot, is a game changing effect.
Cthugrosh can use it to spawn a Meatslave to screen him from opponent monsters; Ancient Osheroths Morphers and Cthugrosh can summon a Cthulubite into play to take advantage of Weaken; The Tower of Corruption can summon an Elite Spitter to help with a combined attack against another unit that will turn into another unit thanks to Transmutation.
So many applications and so many chances to apply.
So that is my order of priority with Actions of the Lords of Cthul.
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