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.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dystopian Wars: Basic Statistics

When comparing units, one of the first things we usually care about is their damage output. Of course, that doesn’t tell the whole story, but it’s always useful to know how much you can expect your units to do. I’m not particularly good at statistics, so I threw together a little program to validate these (plus I couldn’t figure out sustained with statistics alone). Result Multipliers Repairs: 0.33 Defense Dice: 0.5 Obscured (Dice don’t explode): 0.8333 Heavy Hits count as Hits: 0.8 No Modifiers: 1 Reroll Blanks: 1.16 Devastating: 1.2 Sustained: Between 1.27 and 1.2, depending on dice pool size. Reroll Blanks + Sustained: Between 1.405 and 1.366, depending on dice pool size. Fusilade: 1.33 Fusilade + Sustained: 1.5 These are multipliers on the expected successes per dice. You can multiply these with each other if more than one applies, except for sustained with other reroll effects. I think I covered the relevant ones there, but if you know of any others feel free to let me know
Read more

Starting Out: Imperium

Image
Trains, Zeppelins, and Giant Robots. Or maybe you’re just a fan of traditional warships. Either way, the Imperium has you covered. The lists I’m suggesting are leaning towards good lists, but fairly balanced in playstyle for new players. I’m not aiming to go all in on one particular aspect. This was written for the 3.05 Orbat. Overview The Imperium strikes me as a Jack-Of-All-Trades Faction made up mostly of specialists. Most of your unit choices are good at one specific thing, while also being at least decent at assaulting. You can bring an answer for anything, but then again a list can only fit so much. Scandinavians are a bit different. All of their ships mount a lightning cannon in the front, and are ridiculously good at assaulting. Even their merchant ships. Especially their merchant ships. They’re more suited to a rush in play style. Offense : Strong at close and medium range, with good assault. Scandinavians lean even more into close range and assaulting. Defence: T
Read more

Starting Out: Enlightened

Image
 So you’ve decided to join up in the pursuit of science, progress, and turning whales into research assistants. Below I’ll be doing a quick overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the faction, followed by going through the various options available for starting with the Enlightened. I’m going to be suggesting what I think is a strong 1000 point list with the contents of the box. I don’t believe in dumbing down anything for new players, but I’ll list how complex I think it is, from a new player’s perspective and ease of understanding. Enlightened to tend to be on the complicated end overall though. I’ll try to keep things simple, but no promises. This was written for the 3.03 Orbat, and updated for 3.04. Lists have not been updated, though point costs have stayed relatively close, so there shouldn’t be any huge issues. Overview Shooting: Enlightened have some of the strongest ranged weapons in the game. The Particle Beamer has you covered for pretty much everything, and our h
Read more