AOA: Playing The New Factions

[Rÿchean]

CVN to the rescue! Thank you Craig!!!

[chas]

I didn't post this thread in the Strategy section because we have so little information so far. But I expect we will be getting a few more reveals that we can discuss during the campaign, and perhaps after. Everyone should feel free to discuss anything new here regarding play mechanisms and what you think of them.

['Scaper94]

Originally Posted by Encarmine

DESIGNER'S NOTES - DAY 02 FACTION POWERS

THE CAPTAIN’S WAY - POWER OF UNIQUE SQUAD
At the start of the game, choose one Unique Captain you control to be their chosen assigned Captain. While within 4 clear sight spaces of their chosen Captain, roll one additional defense die against attacks from non-adjacent figures. Before taking a turn with ("The Monster Slayers"), you may first take a turn with their chosen Captain or a Dawn Raider hero you control.

(Emphasis mine.) Since the current Killian Vane draft isn't a Captain, I wonder if the wording for The Captain's Way has been altered to read "...choose one Pirate Hero you control..." instead. Otherwise, KV3 is just his own design (based on the current information we have).

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by 'Scaper94

(Emphasis mine.) Since the current Killian Vane draft isn't a Captain, I wonder if the wording for The Captain's Way has been altered to read "...choose one Pirate Hero you control..." instead. Otherwise, KV3 is just his own design (based on the current information we have).

While that’s possible, is Killian not a Dawn Raider Hero?

[chas]

Aha! Thanks. Well, it will probably be a while until we get a look at even a draft rulebook, but you may be right. Or they could still change him to a Captain.

Is this power only for that Monster Hunter squad or for all Pirate squads?--we have two so far.

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by chas

Aha! Thanks. Well, it will probably be a while until we get a look at even a draft rulebook, but you may be right. Or they could still change him to a Captain.

Is this power only for that Monster Hunter squad or for all Pirate squads?--we have two so far.

I believe we have 3, but we don’t know anything about the other two’s powers.

['Scaper94]

Originally Posted by boromir96

While that’s possible, is Killian not a Dawn Raider Hero?

Yes, he is a Dawn Raider Hero so he would qualify for the turn bonding. It just seems odd to me that, at the moment, he doesn't qualify for the Captain bonus.

[chas]

You're right, we have 3 Pirate squads.

[Good Pig]

Been thinking more about the ruin walls. A lot of the competitive maps use the FOTA columns with no caps on them to prevent perching for dragons and other flying and especially ranged flying figures. Makes total sense, but the uncapped castle columns are more functional and don't look super great IMO. These new stackable ruins should really replace the uncapped castle columns as LOS blockers and they'll look much better.

[orgsbane]

Originally Posted by Good Pig

Been thinking more about the ruin walls. A lot of the competitive maps use the FOTA columns with no caps on them to prevent perching for dragons and other flying and especially ranged flying figures. Makes total sense, but the uncapped castle columns are more functional and don't look super great IMO. These new stackable ruins should really replace the uncapped castle columns as LOS blockers and they'll look much better.

Yes! This is something I’m surprised isn’t being talked about more. A single AoA set should be able to make great tournament maps with all these LoS blockers and jungle trees.

[caps]

Yeah, I'm really eager to see how just this one set affects the tournament map scene.

[Blue Trails]

Originally Posted by 'Scaper94

Yes, he is a Dawn Raider Hero so he would qualify for the turn bonding. It just seems odd to me that, at the moment, he doesn't qualify for the Captain bonus.

Couldn't "Dawn Raider Hero" have been a placeholder for an undecided, uniform factional class? There are many suitable classes for the Dawn Raiders, such as Pirate, Buccaneer, Raider, Mercenary, or even Dawn Raider itself, and we've seen no indication of a faction designation on the prototype army cards; therefore, there could just be a class-based division of Dawn Raiders into Captains and Pirates. We could expand on this idea by declaring Vane, Bonny, and Bok-Bur-Na to be our lower-ranking or "plain" pirates and leaving the Widow and the Admiral as our Captains (technically, the Vorid Air Captain could share that class, but this is unlikely due to the Dawn Raiders' promised tight synergy ties). These last two units also happen to be those that explicitly or implicitly buff their fellow Dawn Raiders.


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Speaking of our Jandar-following friend, I took a few minutes to mock up a card for him in the X-2 creator, complete with proxy sculpt. Surely I can't be the only one looking to sneak him into home games, right?