[Let's Play] Battle for the Ancient Robot: Mikael

[Beroli]

I require confirmation. Zanleer has 8 hit points before you move to square D3. Do you choose to have him die here?

[Dogopolis]

Definitely not, i thought this one was taking him down to single figures, I lost track sorry. Give it to Kan-Tal.

deaddmwalking, once (if?) we get back to the outer universe I want to beeline to Azure preferably by visiting already empty stars, we need healing.

[deaddmwalking]

I'm good with that. Sorry about the miscalculation. I was also thinking Zanleer would be down to 6. Let's go with Turkey-Coma as a justification.

We'll give the damage to Kan-Tel and head to Wine next unless something pops up to change our mind.

[Beroli]

You have your original robot part, the Indigo Star robot part, the Xanthous Star robot part, the Golden Star robot part, the Orange Star robot part, and the Maroon Star robot part; the Cybrtrons have their original robot part, the Lavender Star robot part, the Silver Star robot part, and the Ebony Star robot part. Ten robot parts are currently owned.

In the Wine Star system, Mikael does 4 damage with each attack, Kan-Tal does 10 damage, and Zanleer does 5 damage with each attack.

Flying near the spaceship, you decide that it must have crashed here centuries ago! The plant growth in the area almost completely covers it. You notice, however, a spot cleared free of vegetation near a ramp leading into the ship. Should you take the time to investigate?

The Burgundy Star system has a small (size 2) Earthlike planet with inhabitants who are part protein and part robot. You have been to the Orange and Maroon systems.

Land and explore the spaceship?
Go to the Burgundy Star system?
Go to the Orange Star system?
Go to the Maroon Star system?

[Dogopolis]

Investigate.

[deaddmwalking]

Land and explore.

[Beroli]

The ship is huge, even by Earth standards. Arriving at the main ramp, you see several robots standing near the entrance. You assume they are guards.

Climbing cautiously up the ramp, you discover to your relief that the robots are shut down! Breathing more easily, you move to enter the spaceship.

Red lights flash! Horns honk! You've tripped an alarm! Instantly the robots switch on, their weapons training around on you! Meanwhile you can see from the spaceship's entrance that some kind of gas begins to emerge from the ship's internal vents. You have only seconds to decide what to do.

Run into the ship to escape the guardian robots?
Fight the guards?
Rush back to your ship and go to the Burgundy Star system?
Rush back to your ship and go to the Orange Star system?
Rush back to your ship and go to the Maroon Star system?

[deaddmwalking]

half vote for rushing in. Fortune favors the bold.

[Dogopolis]

OK lets rush in.

[Beroli]

The cloud surrounds your body and, to your horror, comes right through your space suit! As its energy attacks your nervous system, you fall to the ground unconscious.

Waking later, you find yourself in the presence of a giant robot.

"We are the Vreen. We have healed all your wounds and those of your crew. But we demand a price from our services! Give us one part from your Ancient Robot or you will be a prisoner on this planet forever."

They are not bluffing. You must either choose a piece of the Ancient Robot to give up (you cannot give up your original piece) or immediately lose the game. In the plus column, all of you are restored to your maximum hit points.

After you choose a Robot part to give up, you leave.

Go to the Burgundy Star system?
Go to the Orange Star system?
Go to the Maroon Star system?

[deaddmwalking]

Indigo gives 10 hit points, and that seems the most replaceable. Getting healed here wasn't the worst thing that could have happened, all things considered. I think giving up a piece of the robot isn't terrible - there are more to be had and we were never going to have them all.

Burgundy was next on our list. I think that's a worthy part and better than the one we're losing by a fair margin.

[Dogopolis]

I'm thinking abandon Orange. It's a once per battle thing and only the least amount done in the round we use it. I think it's better to keep our robot bulked up, compared to that. I'll leave it with you, half vote.

Definitely on to Burgundy regardless.

[deaddmwalking]

I buy that logic. I didn't read through all of the parts before deciding. It's one of those things where if we have it, our opponent will not want to launch 3 devastating attacks in the same round, but they could launch 2 and one piddly one. Given that it's the smallest attack and it's easy to game I agree. Let's give up the orange part.

Then on to Burgundy.

[Beroli]

The strange cyborg residents of the Burgundy Star System prove much more intelligent than your sensors initially indicated. They are telepathic, and when they learn of your quest, you discover that they are descendants of the Ancients who built the Robot!

They will make for you a duplicate of one of the Cybrtrons' Robot parts. Will you choose the Lavender Star robot part, the Silver Star robot part, or the Ebony Star robot part?

[Dogopolis]

ebony is strictly better than silver. I think the 10 attack every round is better than an extra 13 hp, I lean towards Lavender.

[deaddmwalking]

Assuming that Lavender allows TWO attacks per round with the cosmic beam, I'm all for it. That's a better than average attack and there are more opportunities to add more hit points.

[Beroli]

Lavender adds one attack. Your Ancient Robot currently has zero attacks and thus is unable to fight. If you choose Lavender, it will become able to participate in fights; if you do not, it will remain, as it currently is, unable to do so. If you gain more parts which add attacks then it will have more than one attack per round.

[deaddmwalking]

Sorry, I was thinking we already had the Lavender part and it was duplicating one of the parts WE already had.

Yes, getting an attack that we don't have AT ALL is good. We should do that.

But in the event that it were ever possible to get a second lavender part, would they theoretically both work at the same time?

Vote for lavender duplication.

[Beroli]

It would, yes.

As you turn to leave the planet, you are confronted by five new arrivals: aggressive-looking robots!

Mikael Hit Points: 44/44 Mikael Attacks: 4/4/4, physical
Kan-Tal Hit Points: 36/36 Kan-Tal Attacks: 10, physical
Zanleer Hit Points: 35/35 Zanleer Attacks: 5/5, energy
Earth's Ancient Robot Hit Points: 22/22 Earth's Ancient Robot Attacks: 10, energy

E-Ben Hit Points: 26/41 E-Ben Attacks: 4/4, energy
Siss Starburner Hit Points: 16/16 Siss Attacks: 5, energy
Steeldon Massdon Hit Points: 14/14 Steeldon Attacks: 3/3, physical
Cordon Hit Points: 13/13 Cordon Attacks: 4, energy
Cybrtrons' Ancient Robot: 25/25 Hit Points Cybrtrons' Ancient Robot Attacks: 10, energy

The final battle has begun! Do you wish to make any indications about how to distribute damage now, and how do you wish to use other abilities you have? Your Ancient Robot can negate one successful energy attack each Combat Turn (you can simply prioritize negating the most damaging energy-based hit), and can repair itself in lieu of taking any other action that Combat Turn three times during the battle as long as it has remaining Hit Points. If it reaches 0 Hit Points it will be out of the fight.

[deaddmwalking]

I like our odds. Can you confirm - if our robot repairs itself does it repair itself FULLY? Ie, if it has 1 hit point left will it go to 22 hit points if we have it take no other action?

If that's the case, we essentially have a 63 hit point 'reserve'.

We have a potential 46 hit points of damage (not counting doubles) per round against 94 total hit points for our enemy (not counting regen from their robot).

They can potentially do 33 hit points of damage each round (not counting doubles) and we can ignore 10 of that if we don't need to regenerate the robot. We have a total of 137 hit points (not counting regen).

I think we should always* negate the highest damage energy attack. That should be their robot's energy attack unless it misses; it could be almost any other attack that doubles. *If our robot is in single hit points (less than 10) and no energy attack does at least 10 points of damage, we should regenerate during that round.

Like in D&D, 'concentrating fire' is most advantageous. We should therefore divide damage as evenly as possible keeping in mind that we might have a 'big attack' that connects. I think we should try to apply damage first to the robot until it is low, then Mikael until we're at about 50%, then Kan-Tal until about 50%, then Zanleer until about 50%. We'll regenerate the robot the first time no attacks do more than 10 damage, so hopefully before that 50% margin applies.

We can then repeat the sequence hopefully regenerating before we're at 25% hit points across the board.

If we have to have anyone die, it should be Kan-Tal first. Obviously 10 damage is pretty good, but with a decent chance of double damage, having 2 attacks for 5 points each is probably more average damage. Beroli, can you give us the rules on miss/hit/double damage so I can double-check my gut feeling?

I think that covers all my thoughts. I'm certainly happy to consider other tactics. If there's a chance that there are 'special attacks' that we don't know about (like something that did 5 damage to everyone) getting everyone low could be bad. I'm working on the assumption that the information above is complete and that there are no surprises (generally a bad practice in real war but acceptable in tactical games where the rules are known in advance). So with the information we have, I feel pretty good about the strategy outlined above. We have to hope that we get approximately the same 'luck' as our opponent. If they roll 2x better than us, it'll end up being really close, but I think they have to be closer to 3x better to win outright.... With fair dice that's pretty unlikely....

[Dogopolis]

I've go to go to work so can't analyse fully. I'll say ddmw's plan seems solid and am willing to endorse it 100%

[Beroli]

I'll tell you right now that there may be surprises. I've told each of you the other's basic attacks and hit points, but I haven't told them that your Ancient Robot can heal itself or negate energy attacks; if E-Ben has an item that will inflict damage to your group, that is a thing I would not have told you.

1-9: Miss
10-17: Hit
18-19: Miss unless it's Mikael or E-Ben, Special Result if Mikael or E-Ben
20: Hit for double damage

[deaddmwalking]

Okay, plan as outlined is still pretty solid. To hedge against surprises let's keep the robot above 11 before we try to do the healing thing. Everyone else we keep above 50% if possible. The robot will regenerate as outlined above. If we get to ~50% for the fleshy members of the group and we haven't had a round without a 10+ energy attack to negate, I'd like to revisit the strategy.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are a couple of 'rebound Team Earth attack back on itself' but hopefully they're pretty limited. By the time we're down 50% I think we'll have a pretty good idea of whether a change in plans is necessary, but I think we can afford to stick to it up to that point.

[Dogopolis]

I am still happy to go with that plan.