
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:58 pm
Hello folks,
I've been struggling for a little while now to come up with my go-to solution for how to deal with the fact that the Shaltari have a permanent AA Battery net over, effectively, the entire game.
AA Batteries are one of the strongest ground assets, priced by the game as equal to three infantry, and only from ships who place themselves in dire danger to do their jobs. For most races, it requires a major tempo hit to place one; it's a Bulk Lander that isn't dropping a trio of Infantry who can then fight your opponents on the ground, or seize objectives. I often don't deploy Batteries, not because I don't want them, but because I simply can't afford to if I want to win a fight on the ground (I play PHR, and lean on Troopships quite a bit).
That Shaltari can effectively get an AA Battery passively, for no strategic cost, troubles me. Let's be honest, that player was going to have a Voidgate near that Cluster, anyway. This is one of the major sins of game design: Power Without Gameplay. By playing the game the way you were going to in the first place, you de facto get access to one of the most powerful effects in the game.
This really bothers me. Am I the only person who thinks this is the greatest strength of the faction? I'm not really upset by the Scan, or Sig., or Shields, though they're all really strong. It's that they passively make you not get access to the thing that allows you to win the game, by not doing anything. Aside from taking unholy volumes of Echoes and just accepting that I have to not actually get much of anything on the ground for the first half of the game until I can clear out the Voidgates, what does one do about this?
I've been struggling for a little while now to come up with my go-to solution for how to deal with the fact that the Shaltari have a permanent AA Battery net over, effectively, the entire game.
AA Batteries are one of the strongest ground assets, priced by the game as equal to three infantry, and only from ships who place themselves in dire danger to do their jobs. For most races, it requires a major tempo hit to place one; it's a Bulk Lander that isn't dropping a trio of Infantry who can then fight your opponents on the ground, or seize objectives. I often don't deploy Batteries, not because I don't want them, but because I simply can't afford to if I want to win a fight on the ground (I play PHR, and lean on Troopships quite a bit).
That Shaltari can effectively get an AA Battery passively, for no strategic cost, troubles me. Let's be honest, that player was going to have a Voidgate near that Cluster, anyway. This is one of the major sins of game design: Power Without Gameplay. By playing the game the way you were going to in the first place, you de facto get access to one of the most powerful effects in the game.
This really bothers me. Am I the only person who thinks this is the greatest strength of the faction? I'm not really upset by the Scan, or Sig., or Shields, though they're all really strong. It's that they passively make you not get access to the thing that allows you to win the game, by not doing anything. Aside from taking unholy volumes of Echoes and just accepting that I have to not actually get much of anything on the ground for the first half of the game until I can clear out the Voidgates, what does one do about this?