What about the ECB? ...or: How balanced is TOS?

[extremor]

Hello fellow Burning Man worshipers,

I may be too unexperienced with TOS but I'm gonna ask this question anyway since I really am disapointed about the fact, that the ECB can´t use portals individualy and have to stick together as a unit when using a portal. look at me...   I'm reminded of the old GW:Warhammer Fantasy Battles days: best models=worst stats.........Grrrrrr!!!!!

 

1. What do you think about the ECB? Or to specify the question:

a) regarding their speciality (good hunter for Titans and Commaders, flexible positioning) and their weaknesses (no melee attack while in normal mode, pillars being very hard to setup and easily countered by the opponent)

b) compared to other expensive units like electrocutioners, steel legion or royal rifle corps?

c) regarding the "strategic concept" of the CotBM? Do they fit or are they overspecialized in most lists?

d) regarding their cost? Are they really worth 10§?

 

2.  Do you think TOS is a balanced game? What do you think of extreme builds/lists like horror-milling-abuse?

3. Would you agree/disagree if I say the ECB are over specialised or overpriced? Why?

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[DeleteAccount]

Having faced them a few times, they are a disgusting unit, portals not letting them spread out nilly willy is one of the things stopping them from not just doing death triangles with no effort whatsoeverer. They aren't just titan hunters, they destroy commanders and destroy any unit that happens to have an Asset attached (against Abyssinia you can easilly go with Str6 against a unit of Electrocutioners for example). Their melee action accessible in glory removes other units from glory just by the mere act of hitting and they are Mission BEASTS that utterly break scenarios like Supply Cache in half by their mere existance.

To clarify, in Supply Cache, if you have initiative, you deploy after the enemy Supply Cache's are placed, get to remove both of the enemy tokens without any sort of response from the enemy outside of very specific gimmicks like Crow Runners running to interfere, Infiltrators deploying explicitely to body block or Gibbering Hordes increasing their deployment by enough to be able to body block their Matkers and then Chain Activate Adeodatos and get out without any sort of consequence or retaliation.

They are a disgusting unit and the only reason I don't despise them more is because Rhinos are even more disgusting.

Also, no I don't think The Other Side is balanced. Cult feels over turned as well as Abyssinia and pure Gibbering Hordes and Kings Empire are underwhelming, though King's Empire with Abyssinia enovys suddenly becomes one of the most dangerous things on the table, period.

[Aner-Dyfan]

I find cult are one of the easiest to get units into glory, hordes are easier, but they suffer from placement and losing a fireteam in the process. As such the lack of melee attacks portrait side does not concern me, and then the melee attack they do get is amazingly potent, being able to flip enemies from glory is so very good.

Electrocutioners are arguably the best unit in the entire game when in glory. Rifle corp are really nice, but suffer from the hardest to flip to glory. In both cases, ECB can remove that power with a punch. Also ECB, like with all Cult, have amazing mobility with portals. Independent movement is so very useful allowing multiple angles of attack, or playing the objective. And it's the objective which wins the game. You can easily operate on 3 objective markers an activation, this can turn the tide of a game instantly. Also they can leave 1 fireteam in an engagement (tieing the enemy up) and the others don't care in terms of the objective, whereas almost all other units can't move on unless take a hit or discard a tactics token.

I find that ECB have a real fear associated with them, the +1Str per asset hurts Abyssinia loads (engineers and prototypes on many units) but also getting larger bonuses vs commanders (with potential accurate trigger) and titans, and even if not the Str4 is good anyway. In addition to that, positioning them as if to setup Knocking Down the Pillars of Reality can terrify people. Random forces get thrown into melee with them or a truly excessive amount of force is used to shut them down, or you just force movement. All can be used to your advantage (clearing portals, preventing actions or preventing reinforcement tokens via Inspired Effort) In terms of KDtPoR dealing huge amounts of damage? No, it won't do that, unless your opponent lets you, at which point they deserve it.

Worth 10script? Absolutely. One of the few ranged units of Cult, and has one of the best ranged attacks. It's so good in fact that they are the only squad I really consider when taking hordes with cult envoy (Rhinos too if I could)

Is ToS balanced? Unfortunately not. There are some really broken combos and nasty builds out there. Horror-milling is not one of them imo, that's just how you use them. However Rhinos or Eels with toughness, those are just disgustingly powerful units. As an aside, ECB are one of the better units for killing toughness Rhinos, as have a Str5 hit on them.

Edit:

Seconded for the Supply Cache, not actually faced them on such (thankfully). But I have had enemy Infiltrators remove 2markers turn 1 in a game I was playing and that cost me the game, ECB are infinitely worse since doesn't require the tokens close together and yeah, they can escape unharmed if you are the attacker.

[DeleteAccount]

22 minutes ago, Aner-Dyfan said:

 

Seconded for the Supply Cache, not actually faced them on such (thankfully). But I have had enemy Infiltrators remove 2markers turn 1 in a game I was playing and that cost me the game, ECB are infinitely worse since doesn't require the tokens close together and yeah, they can escape unharmed if you are the attacker.

Quick note, Infiltrators shouldn't be a problem since they deploy before the variable Markers, so they should be deployed and then you should be able to places your markers very much away from the Infiltrators. It's only the ECB who break Supply Cache in half. Infiltrators though are amazing at setting up multiple explosives on the first activation, though you can also deploy to be in a good position to move in and remove those markers.

[Aner-Dyfan]

Ah made a mistake then when playing that game then, since placed them before. So yeah a mistake which cost me that game, but still makes me scared about ECB, since they are allowed to do exactly that!

[DeleteAccount]

50 minutes ago, Aner-Dyfan said:

Ah made a mistake then when playing that game then, since placed them before. So yeah a mistake which cost me that game, but still makes me scared about ECB, since they are allowed to do exactly that!

Yeah, I didn't notice the first time I played that and it seemed very unfair (with Infiltrators). ToS has a lot of subtle little things like that.