Team Planning: Hannibal

It is time for the third post of this series, where I take an Aristo I like, and try and build a team around their abilities and synergies. As always, my ability to write lists is far faster than my ability to play games (generally 1-2 a week), so some of these ideas are untested (at the time of writing anyway) – so I would really appreciate any feedback you have, internet land. But hey, at least you get to read some Aristeia whilst on the bus or in bed or something, and isn’t that the important thing?

So, it’s time to get into the military, be convicted of a crime you didn’t commit, and flee to become a soldier of fortune. It’s time for Hannibal!

I really like Hannibal. He has great cards (more on that at the end), and whilst his attacks are sub-par – on paper at least – and he has no switches, programmed strategy is superb. Allowing out of activation ability use can really allow you to change your plans mid turn, and activate a model out of sequence which can allow them to kill a target before they have acted, or get some use out of them before they die themselves.

It allows any action use that isn’t a move. More on that shortly.

Coordinated assault is a weak attack, one red dice with range 1-4 is not worth taking normally, but if multiple people can see a target it can rapidly become very dangerous indeed. It is unlikely that the whole team will be able to see a target, but even if a couple of them can, a red and two orange dice attack, that can be done twice in an activation is going to kill a lot of targets.

Pointman allowing Hannibal to add one orange die to any of his allies’ attacks as long as he can see them can add to this aggressive output, on average adding a point of damage to each attack roll.

Looking at his card then, he seems very dependent on line of sight, and he likes allies who have actions that cost 2 or less. Unfortunately it doesn’t allow a move. Hang on, I have an idea.

I am a fan of Bixie, Maybe it’s due to the fact that her rope launcher thingies remind me of Attack on Titan. Maybe it’s her lack of legs. Who knows. Either way, she seems to fit in with this A-grade – Team I am building here.

The problem with Bixie, is that she has 3 energy. That is not a lot of energy. In fact, it is the lowest in the game. This seems to be a balancing factor due to the fact that she is extremely mobile, and can move over blocked spaces.

Hannibal will help with this. With programmed strategy he can make Bixie throw out a celestial wind out of activation. This can be used to keep her safe – she is pretty fragile – or allow her to cover a lot of the board and into a scoring zone. Pointman will make her celestial wind more likely (in her activation) to score an extra action point, though if she is flying all over the board her target might be out of line of sight of Hannibal.

I think giving out the marked condition helps this team a lot, but relying only on one action giving it out feels a little weak, also this team could do with some state removal.

It is time to wheel out Eclypse again. I originally wasn’t going to, but I keep on coming back to her.

She seems to fit well with Hannibal. Black lightning isn’t a bad attack, it only costs 2 energy, so he can make her use it in his activation, and it can give out marked as a switch. It also becomes a lot more reliable for damage with Pointman.

Moon cycle helps the team deal with any states we want to remove, but also can be used aggressively to re-impose marked that was flipped to blue. Penumbra can be used to keep either Bixie or Hannibal safe. She is also not that slow herself, so can move to where needed relatively easily. Her ability to have lots of in game options has made me a real fan of her, and I use her in a lot of my games.

Currently the team has average damage output, but relying on marked targets and Hannibal to finish the job doesn’t feel like it is a perfect strategy, especially. as he isn’t hugely hard to remove from the Hexadome. For my fourth pick, I think i need someone who can really take a model out, quickly and efficiently.

Major Lunah is an extremely efficient killer. Her ability to remove targets from the Hexadome is well known, and she benefits from this team. Pointman can add another orange die to her roll, allowing her to roll the maximum amount of orange die allowed (three, if you can’t remember) without having to spend any cards at all.

Programmed strategy can allow Lunah to slow down a model potentially before they have activated, making it hard for them to move to a new scoring zone. She loves having the marked state on the board, as she use her 8 hex range to threaten almost anywhere.

Now for the cards.

Code <Dive> is pretty much what this list is about, allowing the team to make attacks at any target, whenever they want. It makes Major Lunah even scarier (if that is possible) and will also allow Bixie to move even further across the board, or allow her (or Eclypse) to mark a target early in a turn.

Benediction of Zhurong seems like the perfect card for Bixie, as and extra action point for her seems too good to pass up. Guided by the spirits allows her to mark targets she can’t see, and move without caring about that line of sight rubbish. Also, it lasts the whole round, so if Hannibal goes after Bixie, she still doesn’t need line of sight for her targets.

Bailey’s Bead is pretty obvious, allowing marked to be given to a target without having to roll dice of spend action points, crucially it isn’t tied to Eclypse’s activation. Luxumbra makes up a little for this list not having much in the way of displacement.

Holographic sight can make coordinated assault and celestial wind significantly more threatening. Oh, who am I kidding, it makes every single ability in this list better. The same goes for ricochet. Neither of these cards are tied to Major Lunah, and again, allows Bixie, Hannibal or Eclypse to use their attacks better. It also near-guarantees pointman being able to add a die, or coordinated assault being able to a red and three orange dice.

Finally, Code <timeout> allows you to use all these cards twice! Perfect.

I had some problems writing this list, due to how flexible Hannibal is. Other Aristos seem to fit very well.

Wild Bill, with his ability to draw tactics and use them for higher damage, seems to love the cards that Hannibal has, such as Code <timeeout>.

If higher mobility is wanted, I can see Murtair being useful, with programmed strategy allowing super jump to surprise opponents, and allowing Murtair to use his energy in his turn for a higher damage Bite.

When she is released, Fiddler seems to fit also. She has access to marked, Remote activation works with programmed strategy, allowing her to spread her Jackbots out and threaten a lot of the board.

Anyway, that is enough for today. If you have any feedback or comments, let me know and follow me on Twitter @Ihexadome

Bye!