What's the best way to play DW7000
 

So I like all the deathwalkers and zetian gaurds. I ussually have great success with DW9000 and DW8000, but I can almost never make DW7000 worth playing. The few times I have had an success was when I hid him until my opponents moved into a cluster and then ran him out for big damage and when I have used X17 to hold units in place. But there has got to be some sort of strategy!

So any ideas, or known "best way to use DW7000" would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the help in advance!

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

You'll find an old strategy guide for the DW7000 here. I wish I could tell you more, but I don't have one. lol

Welcome to the site!

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

Ultimately I think you just have to accept that in many (almost all, in fact) situations DW7K is going to have a tough job justifying his 100pt price tag. That's no reason not to play him. Like you, I love the Deathwalkers and DW9K and DW8K see lots of play, and DW7K pops up occasionally.

The most success I've had with him is in a nearly-all-valiant 4th Mass army. For example:

Deathwalker 7000: 100
Concan: 80
4th Mass x5: 350
Total: 530pts, 22 hexes.

Charge out with DW7K to kill what you can, ideally getting a self-destruct in at your opponent's biggest hero. Then, usually, you're left with a very powerful all-valiant army against whatever your opponent still has (which will probably be worth more points than yours).

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

DW7K is the one unit we house ruled.
You can decide to set DW7K to explode upon destruction. Then Jotun can use him as a grenade.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

We came up with a warlock who can teleport explosives (including DW7k), and gives +3 to the roll. It works for us. :explode:

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

I think the only way to get his points back is never draft him in the first place. That's just me though.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

I have always thought that DW7K would benefit from house rules. If DW7K had Ghost Walk and Disengage (like Agent Carr), DW7K could be an effective assassin. I could also see treating DW7K as a common hero (which thematically makes sense since he blows himself up).

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

The sad truth is that there's not much of a good way to use him, other than the obvious "don't let yourself be forced into situations where you have to SelfDestruct on units that aren't worth it".

However, using C3V/SoV units such as the Zettian Infantry, Hopiltron, and DeathCommander Mark3 help him significantly. At least you won't have to waste OMs on him.

~TAF

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

Use Zettian infantry and don't think of him as a walking bomb, use him to sneak around and target enemy ranged units, he's tough to kill and most people will fear his explosion. If you get too bogged down, blow him up, he bought you time to set up your infantry and other big borgs, and if he can take a few down with him, all the better. He still is a bit pricy, maybe consider using Delta+ pricing for him (I wanna say he's around 80 or 90 points on D+). Not tournament ready but still cool and funny to use.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

The little 7k is best used against ranged squaddies trying to hold position. Stealth Dodge makes it obnoxiously difficult for them to kill him, provided you're lucky, and Self-Destruct bypasses defense and hits multiple adjacent targets, making hilltop pods more dangerous.

Sometimes, the threat of eating a walking nuke can cause people to play sub-optimally, such as moving their ranged when they'd be better off camping, or putting them too far away from the action, but the more experienced your opponent is, the less likely that is to happen.

For my anti-ranged unit, I usually go with Drake or the Krav, depending on the map. More reliable, less cripplingly over-specialized.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

Heh, I finally got to play a game with the DW7000 and my brother wasn't even fazed by him. :lol:

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

On this note again, he also works well with Beorn Boltcutter, whose upgrade power is probably least likely to fall off DW7K, since it's so easy for him to block attacks. And a +1 to attack and move makes him 7 move, 4 attack, which is both fast enough to get in past ranged units, and strong enough to kill them easily. Pair him with the Zettian Infantry, and your enemy will have to fight a war on two fronts, and in the end, if things look grim, just blow him up, you'll have distracted your opponent, and given time for your slower Borgs to grab good position.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

The best way to play DW7000 is to run straight at a group of enemy figures and blow yourself up. Or as an expensive meat shield. That's about it...

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

From the strategy guide that Sir Yeshua so kindly provided:

"The typical way to use Deathwalker 7000 focuses on Self Destruct: the player runs Deathwalker 7000 into a crowd of as many units as possible, and sets off the bomb. They are then disappointed when Deathwalker fails to do as much damage as it theoretically could.

This is an extremely important point to grasp, and is essential to successfully using Deathwalker 7000: Self-Destruct is NOT the primary ability of Deathwalker 7000. The most important power of Deathwalker 7000 is actually Stealth Dodge, and Self-Destruct is merely a bonus power. Most of Deathwalker 7000's strength lies in Stealth Dodge. With its high maneuverability, Deathwalker 7000 is capable of avoiding most melee threats (interestingly, playing with an emphasis on Self-Destruct encourages players to seek out melee threats, which are by far the most threatening to Deathwalker 7000), which allows it to close in...on the ranged units. Ranged units tend to have low defense and low attack. They can do little against Deathwalker 7000, even with a special attack, as it approaches, and when Deathwalker 7000 gets close enough to engage, the ranged units are as good as dead. Deathwalker 7000 is especially useful against squad units, who do not have the life to survive and retaliate."

I highly suggest you read the rest of the strategy guide...

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

:word:

DW7K Is not as bad as some people assume.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

Not sure if that was directed at me, but I've read the strategy article. All of them, in fact, and I disagree.

His primary power created by the designers is his self destruct power. Not that his Stealth Dodge ability should be ignored, it's great, but he's designed to blow himself up. It's not a good idea to waste a 100 point, 1 life Hero IMO engaging multiple units (i.e. 3-4 or more) and just sitting there. A 7 defense can be cracked relatively easily, at least in my experience. Especially when the Hero has only 1 health point.

Sure, on occasion, I'm sure some situations will call for D7K tying up someone, smacking Syvarris, or being a meat shield sometimes, but his main function is to cause as much damage as possible by charging a crowd of figs and going KA-BOOM!

(Also great to have a fig sit on the Glyph of Lodin, if possible. Could be the difference between big damage and little to none.)

Best Way
 

Best way to play him is with Hoplitrons who can move him up and have him be a threat. If the opponent focuses on him, awesome. If they don't then you can divebomb him in or sneak him and launch an attack on a useful ranged figure like a Krav agent. If there's no Hoplitrons, you kind of have to waste order markers on him to even make him a threat.

The fact is that DW7K is kind of a bad figure. One bad roll from a melee attack and he's toast (he's basically immune to range). If he blows up, there's a 15% chance he does nothing. He doesn't have disengage so it's very easy to tie him up and keep him away from what he actually wants to kill. And he's 100 points for a very swingy power.

The best way to use him is to not as there are MUCH MUCH better places to put your points and there is hardly any build where I think he is a superior option. That said, I've brought him to a tournament before (S18 of online Scape) and won a game with him (although admittedly he didn't do much but while my opponent was busy trying to kill him, Hoplitrons annihilated Q9.

~Dysole, KA-BOOM KA-BOOM

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

If you want DW7000 to be worth, you have to self-destruct him. There is no way he will be worth 100 points and all the turns you invested in him by just blocking a few figures (usually cheaper than he is), using his normal attack and running around. He's a very bad blocker because he's very expensive, has one life, and is a single figure, so you can't block much.
If you don't have plan on self-destruct him, don't put OMs on him, it's not worth at all.

In fact you have to do both in the same game to unleash DW7000 true power, you start to block with 1 or 2 OMs then you switch to a high firepower unit, making DW7000 a non-priority target at all, so there high chance he will survive, and then when you see the opportunity BAM SECRET ORDER MARKER you run DW7000 towards the target and you go kaboom.

This scenario is hard to pull-off but it's the only way a DW7000 will worth his points against a decent opponent.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

@Dysole , I totally forgot that he could play with Hoplitrons, Maybe I'll have to throw a game down with him with them. Dust him off and what not.:)

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

But even then, you're not guaranteed to get your points back, which is precisely why Dysole says he's a bad figure and not worth drafting. And I agree. I do think he can be a nice counter to the Krav, though in the early game and so I agree with the strategy guide on that one.

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

You know... it would be an interesting idea for a tournament to GIVE every army a DW7k in addition to whatever else it mustered. How much do you build around having him/facing him? It certainly has the chance of bringing out an interesting strategy or two.

~Aldin, explosively

Sorry
 

I'd just have like 3-4 Black Wyrms and then whatever else I wanted.

~Dysole, thinking we'd see lots and lots of rats as well

Re: Sorry
 

Any autwounder for me. Braxas, Greenies and more! Rats would be great, because they can stop the bomb from killing anything to valueble. Autowounds and meat shields would be the meta. That does sound like a great idea, though.

Correction
 

7k does not have disengage. If he did he'd probably be Sudema level.

~Dysole, who still loves the figure

Re: What's the best way to play DW7000
 

New Custom

Dorothy
Unique Hero
Dreamer
Loyal
Medium 4
Life 1
Move 5
Range 1
Attack 1
Defense 1
Cost: 40

Oilcan: All friendly soulborgs have Stealth Movement
Protagonist: Whenever Dorothy would receive damage from any attack or special ability, click your heels three times and roll the 20-sided die. On a result of 2+, ignore the damage and place Dorothy back in Kansas.

~Aldin, wanting to go home

Re: Correction
 

Whoopsies. I remember reading that someone would add disengage if they could. Turns out they couldn't.