Dystopian Wars: Mercenaries

 

Now that all Mercenaries are released, let’s see what they can give us!

This is intended as a primer for someone not previously involved in the faction that the mercenaries come from, a general overview as well as some more nuanced interactions. If there’s any particularly strong choices I intend to call them out, as well as the things you should probably skip.

Rules

First, let’s go over the shared base rules

1) Pick one of the possible Mercenary Fleets to take

2) Take ONE of those battlefleets

The Mercenary Patrons allow you to take multiples of your faction’s Mercenaries, as Main Battlefleets, but you cannot then take a different Mercenary from another faction. All Mercenary lists will not be the focus of these posts, though of course some things will be universally applicable.

Several mercenary fleets share buffs that trigger when you are ahead on victory points. These rules check during the Check for Victory Step in the End Phase. This means that these abilities never apply during Turn 1, even if your opponent brings a Patron and you start with a lead of Victory Points.

Overview

Explanations:

  • Scions of Jutland SRS: 20” range means their SRS don’t cover everything you usually take SRS for

  • Honorable Eclipse Company Anti M1 AoE: while HEC can bring a quite decent Template weapon, it’s Point Blank and Aft only

  • Deep Strike: Catchall for Unexpected/Submarauder like abilities. I am not counting Forward Deployment abilities here.

  • Black Wolf Deep Strike: Their only option here is the Anastasia, which you don’t want to take.

  • Nautilus Deep Strike: The Guinevere has Unexpected Arrival, but generally shooting from turn 1 is preferable

Links

Closing

If anything is unclear or you’d like to spend way too much time arguing about boat game minutia, I’m usually reachable on the Discord. My analysis is based on expected hit calculations, as well as sims when I feel motivated. Usually these values track fairly well, with the sims occasionally revealing an option is better than expected. If you’re interested in the raw data, let me know.


This was written for the Fortune & Glory Release in October/November 2023.


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