Abyssina vs. Cult Allegiance boxes

[blaink]

My friend and I have played two games using the one commander allegiance starter boxes, him with the Cult of the Burning Man and I with Abyssinia. He did add adjuncts to his two units of Warped. Both games have been very one sided in his favor and I feel like I am missing something. I can get Prince Unathi to glory very easily, but getting any other unit to glory has been a real struggle, while his units are all gloried within a few turns. The adjunct in his Warped units keep me from taking advantage of his shaken and removing his adjuncts hasn't been possible. The Cult can alpha strike very easily, so I did set up differently in the 2nd game, which seemed to delay the pain one turn. I understand the idea of using a tome to glory using a prototype asset, but a lot of stars seem to have to line up for that to happen. Is this just not a great match up with the given starter boxes? Maybe if we play another few games, something will click, but any tips are appreciated.

[solkan]

Two big questions:

1.  Are you playing using the scenarios, stratagems, and everything?

2.  Is it the contents of the allegiance starter box plus free add ons on each side?

 

[TheGreg]

Used right cotbm is a total pita to fight, there's not much wiggle room in a single commander battle with the boxsets,  I wouldn't leave home without unathis mine control device, make sure you tow around the bossman for extra tactics tokens, they are gold,  arguably more important than cards in hand.

[blaink]

On 11/7/2018 at 2:18 AM, solkan said:

Two big questions:

1.  Are you playing using the scenarios, stratagems, and everything?

2.  Is it the contents of the allegiance starter box plus free add ons on each side?

 

1. Yes

2. The Cult player has room for an adjunct in each Warped unit plus assets his commander. The Abyssinia allegiance box only has 1 scrip extra, which I used to give Unathi the mine control device. 

In the second game, I dropped the crow runners and used the Bathoso Cav and added an adjunct to one unit of Mehal and another asset to the Prince. Same outcome. I couldn't even get the Mehal or Bathoso to flip to glory. The other player would always cheat just enough to keep them from flipping and never had a high tome in hand on a prototype. Seems a little strange that Cult can flip so easily while Abyssinia seems much harder, at least in these few games. I'm sure against the right target, it would be easier. 

[SAYNE]

The glory mechanic is part of the balance factor as well I imagine. Abyssinia has statistically the best units, and also the most expensive which tends to mean fewer of them overall. If it was easy to flip them to glory, they would have such a statistical advantage (gloried Mehals have armor what, 9?) They would be practically impossible to deal with. It's probably the biggest counter play Abysinnia has, since they're adept at Range, Melee, Survivability and action economy. The only thing stopping them is sending more units to hold them off and PTFO. Or preventing them from glorying , since it's the hardest allegiance to do so, so they cannot take advantage of their insane stats. I hope you keep playing. Perhaps try switching armies for a game?

[Clement]

Getting to glory on Eureka! Triggers can be rough, especially on Prototype attacks since the versatile ones have badish stats.  Trying to land A Resounding Success is only technically easier, since it can be kind of card dependent, but your opponent can't cheat you out of it like he did.  Some things I've found help a lot:

1) Inspiration tokens.   Get them from either a Stylish Monacle (likely won't be possible in a starter game though) or even just the Focused Effort order.  The ranged attacks on the Mehal are pretty long, so it's not hard to spend a turn getting some tokens together to help really hammer home the high numbers when you need them.  Cult has the ability to give you shaken tokens to get rid of those, but any tokens you're getting are tokens they aren't using to go to glory, so it's worth it.

2) Machinations.  It's super expensive, but it makes those A Resounding Success triggers much easier to get a hold of.

3) "Roll the Dice".  Our starter box has a good number of easy ways to force prototype actions.   In the allegiance box games, you can have Unathi mashing the Field Test button (and drawing cards) and use the Overclocked Strategem to just keep trying.  Eventually they will run out of cheatable cards and you will get lucky.

4) Which prototypes are you using?  Into Cult I'd probably give Shock Batons a serious looking at.  A Squad of Mehal with Shock Batons can attack a frankly alarming number of times with the Prince backing them up and Field Testing going on (6 i think?).  As an added bonus, the shock batons are accurate, so can easily scalpel out the Madmen.

[solkan]

I think the biggest thing Abyssinia has going for it to help get units to glory is the card draw mechanics on the engineers and rail gunners.

I’m expecting my first “starter set plus extras” list to be

• Prince Unathi + two assets (probably Metal of Honor (2) and another (1)).
• Crow Runners + Engineer (7)
• Mehal Sefari + Engineer (10)
• Rail Gunner (2)
• Rail Gunner (2)
• Toughness (1) to put on the Rail Gunners.

Really, the Metal of Honor asset for 2S looks like it would be nice on Unathi, to get more Inspired tokens.  Especially with a gimme action like Radio Controls with its “two or better to succeed”.  

 

[spooky_squirrel]

Accurate strikes help with getting that Adjunct out of the squad, a lot. So I definitely recommend the Shock Batons.

Look at any actions you can do that aren't opposed. Barring that, look for ways to stop your opponent from cheating or modifying the results. Keep card pressure on them as much as you can.