So it did one of these for the Sector System before. As I recently gave some tips regarding some secret techs, I thought I should write it down better.
With all those Options from Racial Mods and Secret Tech, it can be hard to get a handle on the options. I will mostly focus on early game options. Lategame options are powerfull by default but it is those early techs that get you to invest into them.
For AoW 3 players: Basically the Secret Tech is what the "class" used to be in AoW. You got techs, Spells, Units, Leader Skills, etc.
Buffs and Debuffs: Usually the secret techs, has at least 1 Primary Buff - something you want to have on all your units - and one debuff - something you want to put on as many enemies as possible.
I do count a unit being "tagged" as belonging to the secret tech like that.
Units: Each secret tech has at least 3 unique units, but some go higher.
Some of them barely scratch T3, while others have an actuall T4 Ultimate unit (one with Cosmite Upkeep).
So the Unique unit focus of each of them varries widly.
Racial Variants: The unit you get can varry a bit based on the Faction whose Colony you built it from. Amazon Secret tech units get their forest walk to not slow down the army. Assembly ones get Cyborg, Assimilate and Scavenge Parts.
But it can be more relevant, like get tripple or single strike attacks or even turning a infantery unit into a mounted one(Amazons).
Generally this is limited to Infantery or Infantery like units. However this is not a absolute: There are racial varianst of Secret Tech Vehicles, while some biological units do not get a racial variant.
Mods: Mods can vary wildly in power too. Some secret techs operate mostly via mods, some have barely anything good. There is always at least 1 option to apply the Secret Tech Debuff and Buff via mods.
Opeartions: Secret Techs can also hold power in their operations - some have very strong tactical and/or Strategic Operations. Some, not so much.
The Doctrines: While most of Secret Tech stuff can be found on the Miltiary tab, the Doctrines are generally not. Those seem to be mixed into the Racial Doctrine line on top of the social tree.
Hero Skills: The Heroes in this game are preset and each is assigned a secret Tech. This dicates some of the skills they can pick via skillpoints.
For the commander, the starting Secret Tech is used.
Celestian
Or "as legally distinct from the light side of the force as it needs to be".
Buff: Enlightened
Debuff: Soulburn
Overview:
- Getting Enlightened is trivialy easy; every mod and even some abilities/operations grant Enlightened.
- Soulburn is harder. There is a operation, but the priamry way is propably the Shield of Remorse mod. Wich unfortunately requires the unit to be damaged (being attacked is not enough).
- Very good Unit Morale
- the only blindspot are mindless units
Units:
Pretty good on the support side, with a Melee option
- The Lightbringer is a Melee unit and the only proper combat unit in this secret tech. A good option to get that soulburn into the enemies, if you got nothing better to sacrifice.
- The Star Guide is a healer/support. It does not need to hide behind any racial, T2 support unit.
- The Ascended Teacher is a Star Guide on Steroids and among the strongest secret tech units. It is classed as a T4, Elite and Ultiamte unit. It can only be summoned via a Strategic Operation, wich costs a lot of influence.
Mods:
Decent
- You want Tenets of Tranquility on any unit that does not have another mod to make it enlightened. But on some of those units that already are Enlightened you want it too. It is stagger resistance with Moral Debuff removal.
- Shield of Remorse belongs onto any unit you expect to take damage. It is your primary way to bring soulburn onto the battlefield. So put it on Short Range, Melee or just general Frontline units. However sometimes you want it on the others too, so they are not focussed down as the easy target. Remorse is a seperate subbuff, that shares simialr limitaions and breaks morale.
- Tenets of Healing works good Support units, to give them a second heal
Operations:
Aside from the staple opeartions for Soulburn application and a lot of healing, there is a lot of operations that target cities.
Promethean
"Nuke the site from the ground while watching - it is the only way to be sure."
Buff: Pyrx Absoprtion Panels
Debuff: Burning or Immolated (wich is burnign squared)
Overview:
- it is very easy to burn your own people, as the mod to counter it is pretty late/expensive
- it is very easy to debuff the enemy.
- Every damage channel short of melee and Arc has a mod that turns them into a Flaming attack that applies Burning.
Units:
Either strong or weak, depending on who you are and what you face.
- units are very mechanical heavy. Depending on the faction this can be really good (Dvar) or rather bad (Kirko, Amazons)
- very heavy on single action attacks, rather then repeating
- Dvar get +20% Damage, even on vehicles
- Amazons and Vanguard get a Repeating attack on their purifier, with higher damage potential
- no real melee options
Mods:
Not a strong suit, unless you first burn the world
- Purification field is more of a Cleanse, then a heal.
- Thermal Targetting Relay. Can be very good (basically +30% damage), if you got burning/immolation application in your army. Without that, it is not that good
- Pyrx Absoprtion - the important Buff to not burn yourself - is only avalible in a Tier 2 mod
Psynumbra
"Come to the Dark side - we got cookies."
Buff: Dark Elation or Sadism might count
Debuff: Broken Mind
- unless the enemies has some way to block Morale Debuffs, they basically fight near 50% fumble chance.
- you barely have anything that could be considered a buff
- Catatonic and even Panik on higher tiers
Units:
- The Echo of Despair is a melee/suicide unit that is created from killing own or enemy units (suffering from Filled with Despair).
- Whisper of Discord is a pure scout. It has none of the normal combat gimiks racial scouts get
- The Initiate is a strong ranged unit
- The Malictor is a Support/Ranged Skirmisher Hybrid. A decent, bouncing attack and 2 active abilities
- The Herald of Oblivion is a strong melee unit. Note the option to summon a temporary unit
- Kirko get +10% Psionic Damage
- Syndicate has "Fueled by Servitude"
Mods:
Not a strong suit
- Mark of the dark sun seems nice, but requires management and the combats tend to end before it can take effect
- Consuming Gaze is a decent heal + damage/debuff combination
Operations:
Awesome offense especially against cities Happiness and Unit Morale, but little defense/support
Synthesis
Buff: Integrated
Debuff: Compromized
- Do not make the same mistake I did, They are not weak if the enemy lacks Cyborg and Mechancal. They instead get extra offensive strenght agaisnt those. They are plenty strong on their own,
- Integrated is both mandatory to make any use of the Secret Tech, but also does not provide any easy way.
- strong offensive vs Cyborg and Mechanical
- strong self buffing, regardless of who they face
- compromized stargger resistance and arc resistance, making them easy prey
- can outright take over enemy cyborg/mechanical units
Units:
- Hacker. Do not let their name fool you. Their weapon and AoE attack pack quite the punch against everything. They are just that much stronger against Cyborgs and Mechanical
- Network Link. This unit is focussed on supporting Integrated Units, not attacking
- Avatar. Pretty strong, bouncing offense. Mind Control and support
- Assembly, Paragon, Autonom and all Vehicles get integrated for free
Mods:
Every unit should be integrated. But wich specific mod you pick for that is another mater
- You can choose offense or defense, by picking the proper Deamon Shell
- Total Network Integration is borderline OP: Immunity to Stagger and all Status effects (inlcuding DoT effects), and a battle revive to top it off. Note that I do not know if that battle revive is limited to "once per combat" like all the others
Operations:
- Decent enough with self buffing integrated units
- Strong offense only vs the right targets
Voidtech
Timespace is your plaything
Debuff: Dimensional Instability - all 4 levels of it
Buff: Aside from units being tagged as Voidtech (wich makes them immune to some effects) there is nothing. However Stagger impact is rather common or usefull.
- Dimensional Instabilty is pretty good at disrupting the enemy - Resistances and even Movement. But only on enemies that do not die
- it's strenght is taking out all the things to tough to quickly kill
- no healing, cleanse ot other defensive options short of the quantum avatar. This technology is pure offense
- pretty shield heavy
Tactically it is a odd tech, as despite being offense heavy it seems to thrive on drawn out fights:
- Nearly every ability has a cooldown, 2-4 turns. Similar to regeneration, the longer the fight drags out, the geater your lead will become as stuff comes off cooldown again
- It takes a lot of attacks to apply all 4 Stacks of Dimensional Instability. Wich means you are having issues killing the enemy. Wich is not that bad, as dealing with tough enemies is Void Techs thing
- the 2nd Stack of DI reduces Stagger resistance, turning Immune to a mere resist and resist to nothing. You do need stagger impact (especially high Impact) to utilize it. But once you do the enemy will loose actions from every attack, wich is a good second thing to killing them
- The Stasis Pocket Inducer gives you a 2nd way to take the enemies moves, that not stagger resistance can cover
- Dimensional Desync is the way to to take out whatever is the thoughest enemy. Or enemies, if you bring Multiple Rift Generators.
Units:
- Echo Walker. This is a Melee unit. Good if you lack it, but no ranged/anti air attack It also has the ability to create entirely disposeable Duplicates.
- Phase Manipulator. A specialist with a heal that has a cooldown (wich is very rare), an option to move the enemy (even rarer). The only downside is that it's weapon do not use kinetic or apply DI by default
- Rift Generator. Dimensional Desync is one of the most powertfull abilities in the game. It is a irresistable, non-dispelable debuff. You can take out the strongest enemy unit for 2 turns, without them getting anything to say on the mater. Beyond that it is a artillery with increased cooldown time.
Mods:
Not a really strong part.
- Phasewalk allows Melee units to get into position and stay alive, even in front of the enemy.
- Void Augmentation gives everyone the Chance to destabilize enemies or improves the chances of attacks that already do a notch
- In order to utilize Dimensional instbilities Stagger reduction, you need (Heavy) Impact. That means the Kinetic Triangle of Melee, Firearms, Explosives - and oddly lasers and electric.
Operations:
- very strong and varried Strategic Opeartions, Doctrines and Sustained Uperations
- not that many tactical options
- very offense heavy, with a lot of stuff movement and action points related
Xenoplague
Buff: Ferocious Determination
Debuff: Parasitic Infection
- very strong for and against Biological Units, but useless for and against Mechanical units
- a very odd Unit creation mechanic
- Ferocious Determination blocks Morale effects and Mind control
- strong damage and healing
- very few options. Might even be slighly underpowered
Units:
- you can not normally produce the units. Instead you get them by infecting enemies
- units start as very weak pustules, that need to be evolved. However if multiple "charges" of Biomass are around, a unit might spawn and evolve past pustule at the same time.
- evolution is way faster then Metamorphsis ability (XP based), but can still be a hassle
- able to reinforce the army anywhere on the map, via infecting and killing enemies
- depsite 100% biological, no racial variant anywhere.
- unless you already have a army of Xenoplague units, you will have issues infecting the enemies. And only the Plague Lord is really good at infecting enemies. So operations are needed to bootstrap the infections
Mods:
- Xenoplague Parasite is the only easy way to get teh unit tagged as being Xenoplague. You can of coruse skip it on Xenoplague units. You will use it early and continue to use it until you get Parastic Symbiosis, wich adds regeneration
- Plague Pods are a grenade, that additionally applies the Debuff and does not hurt (and isntead heals) Xenoplague units.
Not a lot of other options - 2 Support abilities and a Ultimative Mod. But those two together can do a lot of damage to the enemies.
Operations:
- You get the essentials
With all those Options from Racial Mods and Secret Tech, it can be hard to get a handle on the options. I will mostly focus on early game options. Lategame options are powerfull by default but it is those early techs that get you to invest into them.
For AoW 3 players: Basically the Secret Tech is what the "class" used to be in AoW. You got techs, Spells, Units, Leader Skills, etc.
Buffs and Debuffs: Usually the secret techs, has at least 1 Primary Buff - something you want to have on all your units - and one debuff - something you want to put on as many enemies as possible.
I do count a unit being "tagged" as belonging to the secret tech like that.
Units: Each secret tech has at least 3 unique units, but some go higher.
Some of them barely scratch T3, while others have an actuall T4 Ultimate unit (one with Cosmite Upkeep).
So the Unique unit focus of each of them varries widly.
Racial Variants: The unit you get can varry a bit based on the Faction whose Colony you built it from. Amazon Secret tech units get their forest walk to not slow down the army. Assembly ones get Cyborg, Assimilate and Scavenge Parts.
But it can be more relevant, like get tripple or single strike attacks or even turning a infantery unit into a mounted one(Amazons).
Generally this is limited to Infantery or Infantery like units. However this is not a absolute: There are racial varianst of Secret Tech Vehicles, while some biological units do not get a racial variant.
Mods: Mods can vary wildly in power too. Some secret techs operate mostly via mods, some have barely anything good. There is always at least 1 option to apply the Secret Tech Debuff and Buff via mods.
Opeartions: Secret Techs can also hold power in their operations - some have very strong tactical and/or Strategic Operations. Some, not so much.
The Doctrines: While most of Secret Tech stuff can be found on the Miltiary tab, the Doctrines are generally not. Those seem to be mixed into the Racial Doctrine line on top of the social tree.
Hero Skills: The Heroes in this game are preset and each is assigned a secret Tech. This dicates some of the skills they can pick via skillpoints.
For the commander, the starting Secret Tech is used.
Celestian
Or "as legally distinct from the light side of the force as it needs to be".
Buff: Enlightened
Debuff: Soulburn
Overview:
- Getting Enlightened is trivialy easy; every mod and even some abilities/operations grant Enlightened.
- Soulburn is harder. There is a operation, but the priamry way is propably the Shield of Remorse mod. Wich unfortunately requires the unit to be damaged (being attacked is not enough).
- Very good Unit Morale
- the only blindspot are mindless units
Units:
Pretty good on the support side, with a Melee option
- The Lightbringer is a Melee unit and the only proper combat unit in this secret tech. A good option to get that soulburn into the enemies, if you got nothing better to sacrifice.
- The Star Guide is a healer/support. It does not need to hide behind any racial, T2 support unit.
- The Ascended Teacher is a Star Guide on Steroids and among the strongest secret tech units. It is classed as a T4, Elite and Ultiamte unit. It can only be summoned via a Strategic Operation, wich costs a lot of influence.
Mods:
Decent
- You want Tenets of Tranquility on any unit that does not have another mod to make it enlightened. But on some of those units that already are Enlightened you want it too. It is stagger resistance with Moral Debuff removal.
- Shield of Remorse belongs onto any unit you expect to take damage. It is your primary way to bring soulburn onto the battlefield. So put it on Short Range, Melee or just general Frontline units. However sometimes you want it on the others too, so they are not focussed down as the easy target. Remorse is a seperate subbuff, that shares simialr limitaions and breaks morale.
- Tenets of Healing works good Support units, to give them a second heal
Operations:
Aside from the staple opeartions for Soulburn application and a lot of healing, there is a lot of operations that target cities.
Promethean
"Nuke the site from the ground while watching - it is the only way to be sure."
Buff: Pyrx Absoprtion Panels
Debuff: Burning or Immolated (wich is burnign squared)
Overview:
- it is very easy to burn your own people, as the mod to counter it is pretty late/expensive
- it is very easy to debuff the enemy.
- Every damage channel short of melee and Arc has a mod that turns them into a Flaming attack that applies Burning.
Units:
Either strong or weak, depending on who you are and what you face.
- units are very mechanical heavy. Depending on the faction this can be really good (Dvar) or rather bad (Kirko, Amazons)
- very heavy on single action attacks, rather then repeating
- Dvar get +20% Damage, even on vehicles
- Amazons and Vanguard get a Repeating attack on their purifier, with higher damage potential
- no real melee options
Mods:
Not a strong suit, unless you first burn the world
- Purification field is more of a Cleanse, then a heal.
- Thermal Targetting Relay. Can be very good (basically +30% damage), if you got burning/immolation application in your army. Without that, it is not that good
- Pyrx Absoprtion - the important Buff to not burn yourself - is only avalible in a Tier 2 mod
Psynumbra
"Come to the Dark side - we got cookies."
Buff: Dark Elation or Sadism might count
Debuff: Broken Mind
- unless the enemies has some way to block Morale Debuffs, they basically fight near 50% fumble chance.
- you barely have anything that could be considered a buff
- Catatonic and even Panik on higher tiers
Units:
- The Echo of Despair is a melee/suicide unit that is created from killing own or enemy units (suffering from Filled with Despair).
- Whisper of Discord is a pure scout. It has none of the normal combat gimiks racial scouts get
- The Initiate is a strong ranged unit
- The Malictor is a Support/Ranged Skirmisher Hybrid. A decent, bouncing attack and 2 active abilities
- The Herald of Oblivion is a strong melee unit. Note the option to summon a temporary unit
- Kirko get +10% Psionic Damage
- Syndicate has "Fueled by Servitude"
Mods:
Not a strong suit
- Mark of the dark sun seems nice, but requires management and the combats tend to end before it can take effect
- Consuming Gaze is a decent heal + damage/debuff combination
Operations:
Awesome offense especially against cities Happiness and Unit Morale, but little defense/support
Synthesis
Buff: Integrated
Debuff: Compromized
- Do not make the same mistake I did, They are not weak if the enemy lacks Cyborg and Mechancal. They instead get extra offensive strenght agaisnt those. They are plenty strong on their own,
- Integrated is both mandatory to make any use of the Secret Tech, but also does not provide any easy way.
- strong offensive vs Cyborg and Mechanical
- strong self buffing, regardless of who they face
- compromized stargger resistance and arc resistance, making them easy prey
- can outright take over enemy cyborg/mechanical units
Units:
- Hacker. Do not let their name fool you. Their weapon and AoE attack pack quite the punch against everything. They are just that much stronger against Cyborgs and Mechanical
- Network Link. This unit is focussed on supporting Integrated Units, not attacking
- Avatar. Pretty strong, bouncing offense. Mind Control and support
- Assembly, Paragon, Autonom and all Vehicles get integrated for free
Mods:
Every unit should be integrated. But wich specific mod you pick for that is another mater
- You can choose offense or defense, by picking the proper Deamon Shell
- Total Network Integration is borderline OP: Immunity to Stagger and all Status effects (inlcuding DoT effects), and a battle revive to top it off. Note that I do not know if that battle revive is limited to "once per combat" like all the others
Operations:
- Decent enough with self buffing integrated units
- Strong offense only vs the right targets
Voidtech
Timespace is your plaything
Debuff: Dimensional Instability - all 4 levels of it
Buff: Aside from units being tagged as Voidtech (wich makes them immune to some effects) there is nothing. However Stagger impact is rather common or usefull.
- Dimensional Instabilty is pretty good at disrupting the enemy - Resistances and even Movement. But only on enemies that do not die
- it's strenght is taking out all the things to tough to quickly kill
- no healing, cleanse ot other defensive options short of the quantum avatar. This technology is pure offense
- pretty shield heavy
Tactically it is a odd tech, as despite being offense heavy it seems to thrive on drawn out fights:
- Nearly every ability has a cooldown, 2-4 turns. Similar to regeneration, the longer the fight drags out, the geater your lead will become as stuff comes off cooldown again
- It takes a lot of attacks to apply all 4 Stacks of Dimensional Instability. Wich means you are having issues killing the enemy. Wich is not that bad, as dealing with tough enemies is Void Techs thing
- the 2nd Stack of DI reduces Stagger resistance, turning Immune to a mere resist and resist to nothing. You do need stagger impact (especially high Impact) to utilize it. But once you do the enemy will loose actions from every attack, wich is a good second thing to killing them
- The Stasis Pocket Inducer gives you a 2nd way to take the enemies moves, that not stagger resistance can cover
- Dimensional Desync is the way to to take out whatever is the thoughest enemy. Or enemies, if you bring Multiple Rift Generators.
Units:
- Echo Walker. This is a Melee unit. Good if you lack it, but no ranged/anti air attack It also has the ability to create entirely disposeable Duplicates.
- Phase Manipulator. A specialist with a heal that has a cooldown (wich is very rare), an option to move the enemy (even rarer). The only downside is that it's weapon do not use kinetic or apply DI by default
- Rift Generator. Dimensional Desync is one of the most powertfull abilities in the game. It is a irresistable, non-dispelable debuff. You can take out the strongest enemy unit for 2 turns, without them getting anything to say on the mater. Beyond that it is a artillery with increased cooldown time.
Mods:
Not a really strong part.
- Phasewalk allows Melee units to get into position and stay alive, even in front of the enemy.
- Void Augmentation gives everyone the Chance to destabilize enemies or improves the chances of attacks that already do a notch
- In order to utilize Dimensional instbilities Stagger reduction, you need (Heavy) Impact. That means the Kinetic Triangle of Melee, Firearms, Explosives - and oddly lasers and electric.
Operations:
- very strong and varried Strategic Opeartions, Doctrines and Sustained Uperations
- not that many tactical options
- very offense heavy, with a lot of stuff movement and action points related
Xenoplague
Buff: Ferocious Determination
Debuff: Parasitic Infection
- very strong for and against Biological Units, but useless for and against Mechanical units
- a very odd Unit creation mechanic
- Ferocious Determination blocks Morale effects and Mind control
- strong damage and healing
- very few options. Might even be slighly underpowered
Units:
- you can not normally produce the units. Instead you get them by infecting enemies
- units start as very weak pustules, that need to be evolved. However if multiple "charges" of Biomass are around, a unit might spawn and evolve past pustule at the same time.
- evolution is way faster then Metamorphsis ability (XP based), but can still be a hassle
- able to reinforce the army anywhere on the map, via infecting and killing enemies
- depsite 100% biological, no racial variant anywhere.
- unless you already have a army of Xenoplague units, you will have issues infecting the enemies. And only the Plague Lord is really good at infecting enemies. So operations are needed to bootstrap the infections
Mods:
- Xenoplague Parasite is the only easy way to get teh unit tagged as being Xenoplague. You can of coruse skip it on Xenoplague units. You will use it early and continue to use it until you get Parastic Symbiosis, wich adds regeneration
- Plague Pods are a grenade, that additionally applies the Debuff and does not hurt (and isntead heals) Xenoplague units.
Not a lot of other options - 2 Support abilities and a Ultimative Mod. But those two together can do a lot of damage to the enemies.
Operations:
- You get the essentials
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