For quite a while, Lords of Cthul players have suffered a little when it comes to blast attacks. Yes we have Spitters, with an elite that has a magnificently useful ability. Yes they have an awesome ranged attack, at a decent range.
But we don't have explosion
You don't?
We don't have chain reaction
You don't say!
We don't have spotter!
And THEN!?
And then along came Cthulubite...I'd like to credit George Jones for not having a choice in the use of his song "Along came Jones". Ah, what a classic.
High flyin' Cthulubite
Slow flyin' Cthulubite
Doom Bringin' Cthulubite
along came big, scary Cthulubite
Returning to the story. We now have the Cthulubite. This creature creates disaster to anyone within range.
To start, he's a flier. Flight is about as useful as it is dextremental, as the amount of anti-air effects are increasing now adays. The Cthulubite makes up for that with a very high Def Stat of 4. Only one other unit in the Lords of Cthul has a Def stat that high: The Taskmaster.
But we won't go onto that subject here.
Flight allows a great amount of maneuverability. Move over buildings, stop on hazards and impassable terrain, etc etc etc. Granted, it won't gain cover, but in my style of play it hasn't needed to.
The next ability on the sidebar is "Distract". I'm not a fan of this ability, but I won't deny it's usefulness.
For example, I had a game against UncleBiggins the other day. He started off pretty bad, and I was mauling his martians something chronic.
Somewhere nearing the end of the game, his power base was torn apart by an Elite Snatcher, a Shadow Snatcher and a Cthulubite in that order along a straight line.
His retaliation was reasonable: Spawn a Marauder and try to take out all three at once by combining with a couple of Vanguard. The only problem was the Shadow Snatcher in the middle. Cloak requires figures to be within two spaces to be able to target them with blast attacks. Within two spaces of the Shadow Snatcher means you have to be within two spaces of the Cthulubite. Within two spaces of the Cthulubite means you lose a b-die on your attacks.
He put in the effort anyway, throwing his four A-die into the attack. With a roll of three strikes, he eliminated the snatchers but not the Cthulubite.
Good times.
The next ability on the list is "Weaken". I made mention before that I don't have Spotter, and since I make quite a lot of blast attacks, it's good to have an ability to lower someone's Def for ranged attacks.
Weaken kicks that up a notch by allowing weaken to lower a figures Def for ALL attacks. This makes him a great choice for Summon from Cthugrosh or Ancient Osheroths Morphers when they have an action to use and want to go for another activation.
Obviously, it also gives units a boost to their attacks. Another game with UncleBiggins, I was playing against his Tharsis-5. Tharsis-5 had two damage left to drop him out of form.
So, I sent a massive Spitter Slug Squad at him. Two Grunts and Two elites teleported through to the other side of the map with a Cthulubite in Tow. A Def 4 Monster targetted by Two attacks of 2 A-die and 4 B-die each? ~75% chance of hitting.
To boot, the Cthulubite added into an attack as well, increasing the second attack to a 83% chance along with taking out two more units within range.
Which leads us to the Cthulubites final ability: Multi-shot.
Multi-shot: When a target figure is hit, compare the roll to the Def of two units within range. If the roll is equal or higher, those units suffer a point of damage.
This ability was around last season. Two Monsters had it before it was Erratta'd, when you could choose two enemy figures within range. "Enemy Figures" was why it was Erratta'd. Not only could you target units, but you could target Monsters with the additional attacks.
UncleBiggins again, has Multi-shot on Phobos-7. He would always be firing off a shot at a low Def unit with quite a lot of dice and then when he has made sure he has rolled high enough to hit my monster, he would deal the point of damage. If not, then he would choose another unit to destroy.
Risk? Obviously none what-so-ever. Always a profit with multi-shot.
The Nerfing? Oh yes. Well that came about when Series 3 brought forth Morphers. With the previous Multi-shot wording, you could target Three Morpher Figures and deal 3 points of damage. The only requirement was that they were within range of the attacking figure.
Phobos-7 and Nova ESR were devastated to hear that their advantage had been taken away from them. Phobos-7 with his seven space range and Nova with her Weapon Master Multi-shot which deals four damage without trying.
So the Erratta came and it was brought down to units only.
I was happy. Not only would Morphers become more viable, but I finally have a way of attacking multiple units with a single attack. Other factions have Explosion, or Chain Attack, or even Flak.
I have Multi-shot. And I use it well.
UncleBiggins is making a regular mention here, and well deserved too. He's become a victim to some of the biggest points I've made here.
On the last game we had, we were playing Danger Lake. Not a particular favourite map of mine, but following a ritual of mine of "pick a map, any map" and spreading them out like a deck of cards, we submitted to the scene. It's better than the other side, a widely despised map in my group.
To my right were the smaller group of buildings, while to my left were the five buildings that "mark the spot".
UncleBiggins had placed an Imperial State building on his side of the Node Row, and I opposed with a Government Building.
His first turn involved a Despoiler and a Saucer moving up to the Node Row and securing the two structures. Good move. A Saucer on the Negative Zone, a Power Pod on a Power Zone and a Despoiler to help secure the two.
Good start.
My retaliation came only to fuel UncleBiggins' hatred for my Flying Terror.
An elite Spitter and a Cthulubite advanced into Blast range of the Saucer and weaken distance of the Despoiler. Two action and Two boost made for a great denial of Power Dice, as I needed only Two strikes to Eliminate them all.
That is the fear and aggitation that spreads from Cthulubites.
Tough as Nails and hits like a Brick Outhouse.
He's a handyman that can rebuild that Outhouse too, just so you can hit something else with it.
What more could you want?
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