Age of Wonders: Planetfall - Dev Diary #65: The Oathbound Faction

[Snorro Soliman]

After watching the stream I'm kinda wary about Curse of Fatalism: 3 turn cooldown to ensure an enemy unit is hit by every attack and affected by every malus for two turns sounds really powerful. I understand that Oathbound are mostly melee and some weak range units, but what's stopping you from getting range NPC units or units from other races? Even in the stream, Tom mentioned that the paragon soldiers have a chance to stun when overcharged and with fatalism, the stun is ensured. This can easily stop a tier IV unit for a few turns with a Tier I unit.

I do share some of this concern. Especially if it is used at the ' top of the round' in conjunction with ranged units.
Then again, setting this up would require considerable investment on the Oathbound player's side; you must build specifically for wardens (which I expect will not be a ' top tier' ranged unit for its cost) or get another faction good at ranged strikes (Vangaurd for example) or invest in native units (such as Paragon). Specializing in this way might give this player a strong tactical game centered around the Curse, but is also counterable on a strategic level.
For example, the stacks used in the stream are extremely slow, hampered by difficult terrain. The Augur itself is not, but is probably (as said above) not a strong massed floater unit.
The concern that the use of the curse leaves no tactical counter (such as removing the debuff through operations, abilities or counters) remains. On the other hand, it does not influence action economy or movement and might be resisted outright(which consumes the Augurs move and repeating attack with it).

 

[Ridixo]

New DD?

 

[Triumph Jordi]

New DD?

Gentle reminder that Winter Time is a thing and ours kicked in last weekend
A new Dev Diary will be up in about half an hour

 

[Ridixo]

Gentle reminder that Winter Time is a thing

There, here neither summer or winter time are things. Thanks in any case

A new Dev Diary will be up in about half an hour

Where is the Voidtech when you need it?

 

[Triumph Jordi]

There, here neither summer or winter time are things. Thanks in any case

Okay, there are way more countries that stopped using it than I thought. I would totally prefer 'Winter' time to become our default

 

[Snorro Soliman]

Gentle reminder that Winter Time is a thing and ours kicked in last weekend
A new Dev Diary will be up in about half an hour

Living in the Netherlands(no not the cool 'Nether' but the one that means 'this stuff should be underwater' ) I acknowledge this. Enjoyed an extra long sunday because of it

 

[Ridixo]

Living in the Netherlands(no not the cool 'Nether' but the one that means 'this stuff should be underwater' ) I acknowledge this. Enjoyed an extra long sunday because of it

The Netherlands are not something sexy? Me whole believes are a lie
Just kidding, i already know that Netherlands may become Atlantis any minute :/

 

[DragonZee]

Okay, there are way more countries that stopped using it than I thought. I would totally prefer 'Winter' time to become our default

Isn't it so that EU wants to eliminate daylight saving time entirely?

 

[Triumph Jordi]

Isn't it so that EU wants to eliminate daylight saving time entirely?

That kinda depends on which country. Tbf the biggest issue is that as EU they'd want one 'universal' choice which means there's a lot of discussion on Summer Time vs Winter Time especially when considering the more inland countries.

 

[Draxynnic]

I do share some of this concern. Especially if it is used at the ' top of the round' in conjunction with ranged units.
Then again, setting this up would require considerable investment on the Oathbound player's side; you must build specifically for wardens (which I expect will not be a ' top tier' ranged unit for its cost) or get another faction good at ranged strikes (Vangaurd for example) or invest in native units (such as Paragon). Specializing in this way might give this player a strong tactical game centered around the Curse, but is also counterable on a strategic level.
For example, the stacks used in the stream are extremely slow, hampered by difficult terrain. The Augur itself is not, but is probably (as said above) not a strong massed floater unit.
The concern that the use of the curse leaves no tactical counter (such as removing the debuff through operations, abilities or counters) remains. On the other hand, it does not influence action economy or movement and might be resisted outright(which consumes the Augurs move and repeating attack with it).

Cleanses might well be the counter there. Your Oathbound enemy uses Curse of Fatalism and piles a lot of inflicts onto one of your units. Assuming your unit survives, you hit them with a cleanse and get rid of all of those inflicts. Cleanses generally either remove everything or remove everything that's a valid target for that cleanse, so you'll get a lot of value out of cleansing.

The bigger issue might be combining Curse of Fatalism with something that's an instant removal effect, like a Ravenous's Devour, Plasma Disintegrator Module, or to keep it within the race, the Exemplar's Onslaught attack. These sorts of attacks are generally fairly lategame choices, though.