Factions 101

[The Founder]

I previously did one of these for Sectors, and Secret Techs. Time to try my luck with the major Factions/Races.

Weapons Tech Groups:
A lot of how a faction plays is already decided by the Weapons groups. Most units will use either of them. Racial techs usually refer back to them. They can even decide how easy it is to apply the Secret Techs debuff with other units, and thus the general viability of some secret techs.

Arc:
- the only thing it is really strong against is vehicles. None of the Wildlife is likely to have any effective vulnerability.
- You can not change it to another damage channel. "If once you go this path, for ever will it Dominate your destiny."
- If you encounter resistances, you need the debuffs to get the resistance down and hope the enemies is not immune to Status effects as well. Or pick a entirely different unit, wich is usually not an option.
- Decent Stagger options
- Good ways of stunning the target
- 2 retaliation/proximity shields
- The primary AoE Option is bouncing attacks: Up to 2 units within 2 tiles of the original target. If hte original unit is hit, there will be no bounces.

Biochemical
- melts armor
- poison, slow, immobilize and Blighted Infection status effects
- status effects fail against mechanicals. can swap into Arc for maximum damage.
- has a rare anti-psionic option

Explosives
- dvar only group. Others get it, but got no upgrades
- almost entirely Area of Effect
- attacks with much increase AoE
- Ranged only
- A lot of Stagger
- Blinded, Burning and Immolate debuff options
- mod to increase range by 1
- Can be turned into Electric, Fire and Friend Save attacks
- has the Nuclear Option, literally.

Firearms
- only bleeding, stagger and concussion side effects
- can be turned into burning and Arc attacks
- reliable damage with few resistances
- AoE option via fire mod. But generally those AoE on Kinetics falls into Explosives
- has a mod to increase range by 1, a rare buff.
- Ranged attacks only (melee is a seperate group)

Laser
- Options for Burning DoT, Stagger, Blindness, Charred
- can ignore or take of Shield and Armor
- a Powerfull instant kill mod at the end
- while wildlife is still an issue, Laser has more vulnerable units and ways to deal with it then Arc
- very high damage, single target attacks
- few AoE or repating attacks

Psionic
- all psionic attacks ignore armor. With the Melee attack ignoring armor and shields.
- a number of secret techs have active weaknesses towards Psionic attacks and debuffs
- weak against vehicles and mindless units, but works on Ethereal ones
- can be changed to Fire and Biochem channels
- all attack mods also boost Buffs with a proper counter effect
- generally many buffs and healing options
- can disable units via Catatonic, Insanity or outright Mind Control. Also has Broken mind.

Pseudo Groups:
A few attacks do not fall neatly into the above categories.
Kinetic Triangle: Kinetic Damage is split over Firearms (ranged, singletarget), Explosives (ranged, AoE) and Melee.
Melee: There are only very few Kinetic melee mods/buffs, but most stuff in the other tech group works fully on the melee version of the attack. They also put targets into Melee overwatch and make it hard for the enemy to use Area of Effect attacks
Plasma: Primarily a Promethea thing. Plasma or Fire uses the Thermal Channel like lasers. They always burn to Imolate tragets, but are considered a different group for mods.
Bows: Bows have less range (usually 5), but they ignore "cover and unit (in the way) penalties".

General Unit rules:
As a general rule, most T3 and T4 units are:
- Elite, requiring an extra Barracks
- large targets or fliers, wich limits their ability to use cover
- as slow as 24, but with some 32 options among T3.
- mechnical, if that is applicable

General Attack rules
Ranges: 7 is the normal "ranged attack range". If you take a random unit with ranged attack, it is propably Range 7.
9 is Reserved for Snipers and Artillery and usually requires a full action to use. 5 is used for shorter range guns that often have some secondary effects. 3 is reserved for grenades and similar throwables. 0 and 1 are generally for melee and self-target attacks, but there is the odd Unit Based AoE attack
Single Action abilities can fire only one shoot per turn. While they pack a punch and the unit can keep 2 action points for movement, they are very vulernable/luckbased when they have poor accuarcy. However with very poor chances, the lucky hit will hit with all the more force.
Generally those attacks are not worth improoving via mods.
Repeating attacks are arguably the best attacks. They only pack about 1/2 the punch of a singel action per hit, but can fire up to 3 times per turn. Movement trades off firepower for position. Many attack rolls means a high change for a average, predictbale result. At the same strenght they are also much more likely to apply Debuffs, but sometimes get weaker strenght to compensate.
Area of Effect (AoE) usually need a full Action, meaning the unit has to stay stationary. But there are a number of cases where this does not apply. Getting into position has to be done the previous turn. And then the unit has to survive. They offer about repeatable amounts of damage in one attack, but they do affect many units. They can be worth modding for debuffs in particular, as they can affect many units.
Sniper attacks are usually on infatery units. They get Range 9 and kick like a Bombardon.
Artillery: A proper artillery has 2-9 Range (meaning a minimum range), takes a full action to execute, has 1 turn cooldown, does AoE damage, staggers and Demolishes cover. Note that there is a bunch of unit taht seemingly take the Artillery spot, but got a repeating Range 7 attack instead.

Amazons
"Lay down your weapon and dismount that Dinosaur!"
- Biochem and Laser group
- purely biological army - not a single mechanical unit.
- defenses are very shield heavy and range is shortened, making them somewhat vulnerable to melee
- Their basic units use bows, wich have shoter range (5) but ignore cover and similar penalties.
- visual aquity does offset the bows short range somewhat and can buff normal weapons on heroes even further
- Everything that is not infantery is either a Animal or Mounted unit
- 2 Units that count as plants for extra synergy with Growth, but are fire vulnerable as a result
- the biomancher is arguably one of the strongest supports, having a heal and 2 Active Abilities on cooldown
- They only have a single melee unit, but that one is not bad
- have issues incorporating Mechanical units
- got a mod to turn off flanking and a Regeneration mod

Assembly
"We are not quite the Borg. Reassembly is not futile."
- Firearms and Arc Damage
- Firearms usually limtied to single or full action
- Entirely Cyborg Unit Roster, allowing them to benefit from most biological and mechanical 3rd party mods
- Strong melee, in particular using the "Assimilation" on hit regeneration
- No shields, but strong armor and extra arc resistance
- Scavenge part allows selfheal after each battle, making attrition ot a viable tactic
- a selfheal and resurgence mod near the end of the tree
- some odd Biochem options mixed in

Dvar
Russian Space Dvarves
- Firearms and Explosives Group
- Barely any repeating attacks, but a lot of Single Action ones
- strong mechanical focus
- decent single action melee attacks
- aside form their secret tech, none of their units have any shields. But they do feature strong armor
- the Baron is not a Elite unit and the Bulwark and Baron are mechanical and heavy, but not large targets.
- no ability to cleanse debuffs, very minimal buffs
- trenchers in reinforced trenches are nearly impossible to dislodge
- short range having barely any Range 9 units
- the Ultimate unit is rather weak in combat, with doubtfull strategic usability

Kir'Ko
- Biochem and Psionic Techs
- Strong melee options
- rather weak and shortranged ranged attacks
- purely biological unit roster
- very early regeneration mod
- swarm shield allows bunching up of units and is even used in several Hero skills
- numerous options to buff damage

Vanguard
- laser and firearms group
- about as bad in melee as Syndicate
- strong mechanical and drone focus
- can build units very quickly
- weak but servable early selfheal
- the colonizer has a weapon

Syndicate
- Arc and Psionic weapongroup
- A lot of mechanics - inlcuding both supports and even some secret tech units - focus around fielding masses of Indentured.
- If you get other species Units, those often can be turned into Indentured units via a mod
- Indentured units are immune to morale effects in both directions and resist psionic
- about as weak in melee as vanguard
- a large amount of fliers and floaters, with pretty high speeds
- no second ship, as the floaters seem to cover this
- no healing or support options for mechanical units
- a number of options to cloak or camouflage units and even full stacks
- espionage bonuses

 

[Frank327]

I'd like to make a few comments:

- I don't think the Amazons have a heavy range focus. They have 3 units with melee attacks. In contrast, none of the Vanguard have a melee attack.

- I don't think bio attacks are particularly weak against mechanical units, only the special effects don't always apply.

- Just being pedantic, explosive isn't always AoE. The prospector has a single target explosive attack.

- It's worth mentioning that Assembly has many ways to resurrect including on a no-mods specialist unit and inherent in the T3 melee unit.

 

[PhoenixG]

While Syndicate doesn't have the tier 3 ship, their tier 3 tank is floating and can act for that.

 

[Promethian]

It is worth noting that Firearms has a mod in its tech line that increases range by 1. That is a huge benefit.

Its better to think of the Assembly's biochem mods as a strong morale debuff. They merely do the debuff on the biochem resist channel. Its a great combo with Psynumbra.

 

[The Founder]

- I don't think the Amazons have a heavy range focus. They have 3 units with melee attacks. In contrast, none of the Vanguard have a melee attack.

They got one very Fragile one - the Lancer. No idea who else you might mean. Tyranodon and Shrike both have a single action one, but I mentioend how little those mater.
Meanwhile the Vanguard do have 1 unit - the Valkyrie summon.
So at tops they would be equal.

But I did say "heavy" as in "not quite as extreme as Vanguard or Syndicate".

- I don't think bio attacks are particularly weak against mechanical units, only the special effects don't always apply.

Oh right. I was still thinking Mechanical got Biochem resistance like they do to psionic.

- Just being pedantic, explosive isn't always AoE. The prospector has a single target explosive attack.

Good point. I guess I have to downgrade it to a mostly then.

- It's worth mentioning that Assembly has many ways to resurrect including on a no-mods specialist unit and inherent in the T3 melee unit.

You mean Reassemble on the Reverse Engineer and Hero Skills? That is a in combat revive.
The resurgence mod can be appleid to everyone, reviving the entire as long as you win.

 

[Frank327]

I'm surprised you think the Lancer is very fragile. 50 HP is solid for T2 and with the grounding harness it has 2 armor and 2 shields and stagger resistance. In defense mode it has 2 armor 4 shield.

If you add Arborean Sentinels to the party to buff, the Lancers in defense mode have 2 armor 7 shields. That's pretty much T4 levels of defense and with ranks they get more health and eventually evasive.

 

[McNought]

Syndicate:

It's worth mentioning that Syndicate is handicapped regarding healing. They have nothing to boost regeneration on the strategic map, no regeneration mods and their healer isn't great. Worst of all, they have nothing to heal mechanical units while most of their good stuff is mechanical. For Syndicate offsetting that disadvantage is probably the main consideration for choosing a secret tech.
Having the Autonom faction on the map is a blessing, due to the mechanical regeneration mod.

 

[Arilou]

One thing with laser and biochem that should probably be mentioned is that they have a lot of ways to debuff resistance. (especially lasers via their end game operation and the promethean secret tech can get up to truly obscene -resistance)

 

[beckermt]

I'm surprised you think the Lancer is very fragile. 50 HP is solid for T2 and with the grounding harness it has 2 armor and 2 shields and stagger resistance. In defense mode it has 2 armor 4 shield.

If you add Arborean Sentinels to the party to buff, the Lancers in defense mode have 2 armor 7 shields. That's pretty much T4 levels of defense and with ranks they get more health and eventually evasive.

I found voidtech amazons quite melee capable. The Echo Walker offers another damage channel (kinetic) and can walk though cover. The Lancers can be given walk through cover and are harder to hit. Suffers massively against fliers, but those are generally few and far between.

Late game? No idea.

 

[The Founder]

I'm surprised you think the Lancer is very fragile. 50 HP is solid for T2 and with the grounding harness it has 2 armor and 2 shields and stagger resistance. In defense mode it has 2 armor 4 shield.

I defenitely remember the Lancer having "Exposed Flanks", wich was a major issue for any unit that tends to have it's back to half the enemy army. It no longer has that with the 1.006 Beta, no idea when it was lost.

Of course the Amazons also had the Primal Awareness Amplifier, wich currently disables flanking for that unit. Propably why EF was removed.

Syndicate:

It's worth mentioning that Syndicate is handicapped regarding healing. They have nothing to boost regeneration on the strategic map, no regeneration mods and their healer isn't great. Worst of all, they have nothing to heal mechanical units while most of their good stuff is mechanical. For Syndicate offsetting that disadvantage is probably the main consideration for choosing a secret tech.
Having the Autonom faction on the map is a blessing, due to the mechanical regeneration mod.

I'll add the part of poor support for Machines, but it really seems like Indentured seems to be their core Meta.

And I had teh Autonom on the 2nd Vanguard Mission, when I was forcefull purifier. I could add the "Immolation matrix" to the mix, for super-burning.

One thing with laser and biochem that should probably be mentioned is that they have a lot of ways to debuff resistance. (especially lasers via their end game operation and the promethean secret tech can get up to truly obscene -resistance)

The debuff is "only" -5. The same region as many others I found.
Plus it is secret tech. Promethean needs such a debuff way more.

 

[The Founder]

I found voidtech amazons quite melee capable. The Echo Walker offers another damage channel (kinetic) and can walk though cover. The Lancers can be given walk through cover and are harder to hit. Suffers massively against fliers, but those are generally few and far between.

The Amazon Echo Walker does not seem particulary strong. A single action 17 attack vs the Lancers 12 Repeating Laser. At best the Amazon Echo walker attack is like a Melee version of the Laser Lance Shoot.
Only the Amazons and Dvar got single-attack Echowalkers, wich is a bit of an issue with a Secret Tech that needs to apply debuffs that badly.

Of course the Beta recently changed the meta, making the DI debuff cleansable, but in turn setting all durations to "till end of battle".
But in any case, that would fall under Secret Tech and I did not go that deep into detail for Secret Techs.

 

[Arilou]

The debuff is "only" -5. The same region as many others I found.
Plus it is secret tech. Promethean needs such a debuff way more.

The thing is that they stack, Promethean has at least 1-2 ways (outside of the doomsday op) to debuff thermal resistance in addition to Starlight Projector.

EDIT: Biochem can get something like -5 (3 from bio maceration, 2 from parasitic infection) as xenoplague, while laser-promethean can get -5 from Starlight Projector, -3 from Incineration Strike and another -5 from PyrX fumigation protocols for a total of -13 to thermal resistance (you can get even more with some other stuff) It's why laser tanks can do such ludicrous damage numbers.

 

[Arilou]

The Amazon Echo Walker does not seem particulary strong. A single action 17 attack vs the Lancers 12 Repeating Laser. At best the Amazon Echo walker attack is like a Melee version of the Laser Lance Shoot.
Only the Amazons and Dvar got single-attack Echowalkers, wich is a bit of an issue with a Secret Tech that needs to apply debuffs that badly.

Of course the Beta recently changed the meta, making the DI debuff cleansable, but in turn setting all durations to "till end of battle".
But in any case, that would fall under Secret Tech and I did not go that deep into detail for Secret Techs.

Lancers have their Charge bonus, which massively benefits single-target attacks, as do the Echo-Walkers. Same thing with the flanker bonus (which is much easier to get for a 1-shot attack than a 3-shot one)

 

[The Founder]

The thing is that they stack, Promethean has at least 1-2 ways (outside of the doomsday op) to debuff thermal resistance in addition to Starlight Projector.

EDIT: Biochem can get something like -5 (3 from bio maceration, 2 from parasitic infection) as xenoplague, while laser-promethean can get -5 from Starlight Projector, -3 from Incineration Strike and another -5 from PyrX fumigation protocols for a total of -13 to thermal resistance (you can get even more with some other stuff) It's why laser tanks can do such ludicrous damage numbers.

Again, most of those are secret technologies.
I mentioned it has a easier time debuffing resistance then Arc. That should be enough.

Lancers have their Charge bonus, which massively benefits single-target attacks, as do the Echo-Walkers. Same thing with the flanker bonus (which is much easier to get for a 1-shot attack than a 3-shot one)

While you are very unlikey to get flanking or charge with 3 attacks, 2 attacks still is plenty strong and can get both bonuses reliably.
I will settle for one attack (because one attack is better then 0), but I prefer 2. And 3 just happens if the enemy is still around next turn. Otherwise it is time for another charge attack.

 

[Promethian]

The Amazon Echo Walker does not seem particulary strong. A single action 17 attack vs the Lancers 12 Repeating Laser. At best the Amazon Echo walker attack is like a Melee version of the Laser Lance Shoot.
Only the Amazons and Dvar got single-attack Echowalkers, wich is a bit of an issue with a Secret Tech that needs to apply debuffs that badly.

Of course the Beta recently changed the meta, making the DI debuff cleansable, but in turn setting all durations to "till end of battle".
But in any case, that would fall under Secret Tech and I did not go that deep into detail for Secret Techs.

The thing is repeating melee is only useful a turn after you have put your unit next to the enemy. Otherwise those stronger single hits are better. Also their melee overwatch is stronger. Since most combat is decided within a short number of turns that better alpha strike when moving in is a big deal. Also the Amazon and Dvar Echo Walkers do the debuff at 8 strength vs the usual 4. No option for multiple stacks in a single attack but the odds of getting a stack are quite good.

Also I am not under any kind of impression that Voidtech relies on its debuff. Its just a very nice side perk to the crazy stuff their units do. Do you love the drone because it abducts enemies and pulls your units to safety while healing them? Or do you love the drone because it causes the debuff? yah.

 

[The Founder]

The thing is repeating melee is only useful a turn after you have put your unit next to the enemy. Otherwise those stronger single hits are better.

Unless you manage to get 2 hits in. Wich is quite doable.

I know tha single action does more damage, if all you get is a single action.
But once repeating get's a second attack in, it will usually pull ahead. And you can add a better chance to apply debuffs from mods.

Otherwise those stronger single hits are better. Also their melee overwatch is stronger.

True.
Personally I just never used Melee Overwatch for the damage. Stuff like staggering the enemy is usually way more interesting and those happen on weak attacks just as likely.

But that only maters if the target was not killed in the first 2 attacks anyway.

Also I am not under any kind of impression that Voidtech relies on its debuff. Its just a very nice side perk to the crazy stuff their units do. Do you love the drone because it abducts enemies and pulls your units to safety while healing them? Or do you love the drone because it causes the debuff? yah.

Without mod the Drone actually does not cause the debuff. It got a default arc attack and needs the mod to just apply it.
Mostly this is because it is a specialist, so dealing damage or even just shooting the enemy is really not it's purpose.

And yes, teh debuff is usually pretty important, even if Voidtechs one might be the weakest:
1. Stack: Resistance is reduced
2. Stacks: Stagger resistance is reduced
3. Stacks: -20% damage
4. Stacks: Unit starts teleporting at random, throwing enemy plans and cover use into disarray.

 

[Promethian]

@The Founder

The abduct does the debuff but once a unit is that kind of out of position a debuff isn't really relevant anymore. So point to you.

Still. Echo Walkers the debuff is just the cherry on top of being a double melee with double melee overwatch.

The Rift Generator is about its unresistable unit quarantine and its AoE position disruption. Its primary repeating attack is nice but its also only a 4 strength to apply the debuff. I'd say this unit is more about the direct effect of its abilities than its debuff. There is no reliance on the debuff. Its all nice to have on top of the crazy stuff the units already do.

 

[beckermt]

The Amazon Echo Walkers work like this:
You walk up (lol through cover and up and over ramps and everything) to the enemy (leaving 1 Action Point), use Quantum Echo and place your clone behind your enemy. Attack with the Clone, flanking. Attack with the original, flanking. Cackle gleefully.

They are very strong. Dimensional instability barely gets a chance to be applied, since they kill things so fast.

 

[Sarmatian]

I really love lancers. Amazon Echo Walkers are nice but I found lancers more useful.

 

[The Founder]

@The Founder

The abduct does the debuff but once a unit is that kind of out of position a debuff isn't really relevant anymore. So point to you.

Still. Echo Walkers the debuff is just the cherry on top of being a double melee with double melee overwatch.

The Rift Generator is about its unresistable unit quarantine and its AoE position disruption. Its primary repeating attack is nice but its also only a 4 strength to apply the debuff. I'd say this unit is more about the direct effect of its abilities than its debuff. There is no reliance on the debuff. Its all nice to have on top of the crazy stuff the units already do.

One thing about the whole Voidtech debuff is interesting:
The mod either gives units a 4 Strenght Chance. Or it addss +4 if the attack already that debuff.
I have not seen a similar pattern anywhere else. It is always a flat chance, regardless if the unit already has the chance.