Gladiatrons and Abusing the Cyberclaw

[Bothi]

[Please Rate, Review, and Enjoy]
Hello everyone, Bothi here and this will be my first strategy article focusing mainly on the use of Gladiatrons, Major x17, and the special 'Cyberclaw'.
[NOTE: This works best with multiple Gladiatrons, but just one squad works fine too, especially in smaller games.]

If we take a quick glance at the stats of the Gladiatrons-

Spoiler Alert!

MOVE 5
RANGE 1
ATTACK 2
DEFENSE 3

...And those of Major x17

Spoiler Alert!

MOVE 5
RANGE 1
ATTACK 4
DEFENSE 3

We can immediately see that, while not having the greatest Attack or Defense in the world, boast an average/on-par Move Rate. This alone will not be enough to win wars, but their special moves, CYBERCLAW/MELEE DEFENSE 1 and IMPROVED CYBERLAW/ MELEE DEFENSE 4 show some promise.

The Gladiatron's CYBERCLAW keeps Small and Medium figures adjacent, which greatly helps the Gladiatron, which only has a Range of 1, and gets a one-die boost when defending against said adjacent figure.

Major x17's moves function in an almost identical nature, except for the fact that his IMPROVED CYBERCLAW also effects Large figures, and gains a 4-die boost when defending against adjacent figures.

This is a great combination of moves, but is useless when used alone, considering their very low Attack and Defense scores.

To keep these controlling figures alive, I recommend having one or more flying figure(s) in your army that can use DEFENSIVE AURA. The most common figure that knows these moves is Raelin the Kyrie Warrior.

This flying unit will be able to easily reach a central location early in the game due to its ability to ignore elevation, and once it get to its central point it can easily buff your Gladiatrons' (and Major x17's) defense. Be sure to keep this figures DEFENSIVE AURA within reach of your Gladiatrons and Major x17.

My final recommendation for this tactic would to fill up the rest of you army with (preferably hard hitting) ranged figures. Mimring can take great advantage of this tactic, as it can spam FIRE LINE SPECIAL ATTACK on a group of enemies stuck in a Cyberclaw. Ranged squads are also nice, especially when coupled with a unit with ATTACK AURA, so you may hit hard, multiple times a turn.

SO, a recap-
1- Move a Flying figure with Defense Aura to the middle of the Battlefield.
2- If possible, also move a figure with Attack Aura to the middle of the Battlefield.
3- Trap enemies with Cyberclaw.
4- Shoot enemies.
5- Win.

[vikinglad]

One specific ranged squad that is popular to use with the Gladiatrons is the Blastatrons. I am surprised this wasn't mentioned here. You should give them a try together, if you haven't already.

[Bothi]

Originally Posted by vikinglad

One specific ranged squad that is popular to use with the Gladiatrons is the Blastatrons. I am surprised this wasn't mentioned here. You should give them a try together, if you haven't already.

I have tried the Blastatrons with this, but the problem I found is that you need to swarm a single enemy with many of your Gladiatrons to hit hard, but something with a steady, medium or high ranged attack, like the Airborne Elite or Marro Warriors allows you to send each Gladiatron after a specific key unit.

[infectedsloth]

Originally Posted by Bothi

I have tried the Blastatrons with this, but the problem I found is that you need to swarm a single enemy with many of your Gladiatrons to hit hard, but something with a steady, medium or high ranged attack, like the Airborne Elite or Marro Warriors allows you to send each Gladiatron after a specific key unit.

I think your seriously underestimating the Glad/Blast combo. Last year for the Gencon main event two of the top 4 armies featured the glads and blasts combo, also the last two gencon Vydar general wars armies featured the glad/blast combo. It should be noted that in the last two years no army playing just blasts or just glads have placed and Major x17 has not placed either.

You assert that the you need to swarm a single enemy with glads in order for your blast to be able to hit hard, but with just one adjacent blast they already have the same attack as the glads, and with there high range and battle field control with the glads, you can assume height advantage most of the time. If your just using the glads/Major x17 to tie up figures for your range units then rats will always be the better option (unless your playing against stealth flyers) they have disengage, scatter and a higher attack form range all this for half the points.

[yamissflash]

Originally Posted by Bothi

[Please Rate, Review, and Enjoy]
...

and IMPROVED CYBERLAW...

I rate it a spelling hilarous, and boy did I enjoy it! +rep!

[Carnival Man]

I played Gladsx2, Blastsx2, Q10 & RotV Raelin a few times last week against different armies each time. In each match I never had to put an order marker on the Glads. The 120 pts. of Blasts always took out more of my opponent's points than Q10 did in all 3 matches. I really don't see a use for their 2 attack, but with Cyberclaw & Bacon grease giving them a defense of 5 they do stop all of the other strongest common squads long enough for the Basts to do heavy damage.

[Tristopher54]

(First post!) Gladiatrons are great and all, but I prefer deathreavers. While glads don't give your opponent a choice, most people won't disengage from rats anyways.