Antihero First Access

Fast-paced strategy with an (Oliver) Twist. Bribe, blackmail, and assassinate your opposition. · By Versus Evil

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Strategy

A topic by Versus Evil created Dec 13, 2016 Views: 2,257 Replies: 8

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Versus EvilDeveloper8 years ago

Hello

This would be a good place to share helpful strategies for those starting out! I've got a few tips I'll share off the bat:

Thugs! Their guard feature is handy, but upgrading your gangs can be the difference between winning and losing in close games.

Traps from the Saboteur are extremely useful if you can get them early enough to deter your opponent from scouting around the map. Depending on your starting buildings around you, an early Saboteur can make for a pesky early game.

Assassination Contracts can be the easiest to get, but be sure to be smart about how you "earn" those victory points. Don't let an injured target stay alive if you can help it.

tgb8 years ago

I learned the hard way that the AI will routinely finish an Assassination Contract that I started.

timconklingDeveloper8 years ago

Depending on where I start, I'll often forego urchins on turn 1 in exchange for either Scouting or Gang. It slows your economy down slightly but the extra aggression can pay off quickly.

0piate8 years ago

I've been facing a guy who is making lots of thugs and ramping them up early. Not being able to one shot a 4 health thug (ever) with your thief makes that seem like a really strong strategy! Time will tell though.

timconklingDeveloper8 years ago (1 edit)

The strategy may in fact be too powerful! Thugs have actually been nerfed a couple times already - it used to be that they guarded a tile until they were killed, and that guarding thugs wouldn't count towards thug-tax on subsequent turns. This made them ridiculously overpowered, but I'm strongly considering the following changes to the next version:

Thugs start with 1 health; alcohol upgrades get them 2 and 3 health
2nd-level Strangefellows upgrade gives all Thugs AND Gangs +1 health

This would bring thugs more in line with where I think they ultimately need to be, and would also make the 2nd-level Strangefellows upgrade much more compelling (as it is, I rarely see players continuing to upgrade the Strangefellows after sticking 1 urchin in it).

0piate8 years ago (1 edit)

That seems to be a good plan. From a gameplay perspective I feel like an opponent that abuses thug strategies (especially if they had a strong start) can shut down their opponent and make it very hard to come back. What if increased thug health was at 2/3 urchins in the Strangefellows? I'm guessing you have a reason for not having a 1, 2, 3 upgrade path for everything though.

ardonite8 years ago

I had a player put Thugs on both sides of my start point, which feels a little cheap. I probably could've avoided it, but I generally prefer designing to prevent base-camping (maybe if there were 3 directions of movement from all start points?)

Toastgeraet7 years ago

Hi there,

I am still a beginner, but i think it can't harm to throw my 5 cents in here. Feedback on the following tactics is appreciated. Hope it will help some you, too.

I think speed is very important in this game. By that i mean your very first actions, which are unfortunately also the ones that are most influenced by the random number generator. Every action (even lifting some fog of war) should be made in mind with its purpose. Ideally every action benefits the following as much as possible. It's not easy to explain for me, so let me give you an example:

A basic way that a follow-up action is influenced is a basic could be your first move where you scout a Trade House, so that you then are able to infiltrate it. Not much leeway for creativity here. (Of course there are other first move tactics...)

At the latest in your second turn it might be worth considering which district to scout. Maybe you want to scout a district that allows you to reveal a policemen in the same turn, which you can then pick off with your gang to level it up. The important part here, is not wasting an action point of your Master Thief. You will want to discover this guard as a side effect of an action that is supposed to advance you to another goal. Those are very scarce and very vital in the early and mid-game.

Another aspect not to underestimate is economy. Make sure you get income (Lanterns and Gold) as early as possible and if you can manage it, disrupt the enemies economy without spending too much resources. (e.g. buy the saboteur and bomb their Trade House). Every round you get income lets you expand more quickly. Orphanage is great to get early in the game, because it reduces the cost of your income generators (urchins). Also put one urchin in each church you find. Do not underestimate this one coin per round - if you can keep this church for more than three round, that has paid off and later you can skim a victory point.

I could go on but i really need to get to university and work on my bachelor's thesis. Hopefully, i can write more soon. Enjoy your thievings.

Versus EvilDeveloper7 years ago

Good info! I've found that there are quite a few differences once you get to turn 3 against humans and the maps do play a large role in what happens too.

Economy is a thing I feel like a lot of people take a while to learn and Antihero is more akin to an RTS in that fact. Good points here for sure!

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Antihero First Access

Strategy