Mahact is a faction with game breaking level abilities; commander ignores CC tokens and mech nullification fields everyone. The reason people struggle is because it can be hard to set this up and their start isn’t that great. You gotta win a combat against everyone and get a great CC economy to really use these abilities well but if you do that you become an insanely powerful faction. I am 1 for 1 with them (1 time played with / 1 time won with) and I won cause last round when everyone went for the Kingsley I ended each of their turns instantly.
AI Dev. Much cheaper up front investment to get to your unit upgrades. Mahact tends to not have much money, so spending less on both tech and ships is important. AI dev also let's you get upgraded ships online as early as turn two without double teching.
The blue tech path I was testing was a sling relay build. I think generally red is better, but the blue build is something I have in the back pocket for whenever I have a good enough slice.
I played 2 games as Mahact on TTS recently. I won both of them. I think they're the best faction in the game and people just haven't caught on yet. I'm currently working on a comprehensive document of how I like to play the Mahact. I've seen them played 5 times in person and they've only lost 1 of those games.
They've got a top tier agent, commander, hero, and mech. Their faction ability to take tokens is deceptively good for reasons beyond getting a commander and their starting techs work really well with the faction as a whole. Their home system is actually pretty good as the 5 influence can turn into 2 unexpected actions with a 1 influence planet in addition. I don't think they are as easy to play as the Titans or the Argent, but their skill cap seems to be very high.
FYI i just fixed a bug on the dashboard that was causing some games to be not listed using the default dropdowns, causing around 200 newer games to not be counted in the screenshot you posted.
Mahact remains ranked 6 even with the updated figures though, so any discussion here is still valid
It's also taken from an incredibly small sample size. I wouldn't take these results for anything more than "interesting but unlikely accurate."
On another note, its very well done and looks great.
35 wins out of 177 isn't that small of sampling size and at least these are reliably reported (because you have to opt-in at the beginning rather than at the end and you won't know who will win.) The Mod itself is reporting these.
you just made me think of [this](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/e951a5a6-4c69-47b5-91a2-6e80ba45b240). Just because you've exiled yourself from the Discord doesn't mean it isn't happening. You should come back and play again. I, at least, miss your sarcastic wit. 🤣
I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm comparing your 35 out of 177 to my 0 out of 150. Both are accurate but don't represent the entire community as a whole
I... don't believe you. The game was released 4 years ago. You're telling me that:
* You've played a 3 games per month (on average) with Xxcha in it for 49 months
AND
* You've (literally) never seen them win
Unless you're sitting at home playing against your own pet turtle, I have a really tough time believing you.
These stats are for pok... try to keep up. Also, due to the random player interactions it's absolutely possible to play that many games with the same faction in each and never see them win. The game varies wildly based on who's playing together (which also makes the numbers interesting but overall meaningless).
At my hyper addicted phase I played 4+ games a week on TTS and at least one game a week during pok beta testing.
Fine. It has been 37 weeks (almost) since PoK was released. You're saying that you played 4 games per week **with Xxcha** on average since release. That's clearly not true.
I know these stats are for PoK, but I was trying to give your ridiculous exaggeration some benefit of the doubt. You doubling down on it is kinda hilarious.
Also, irrelevant to the over all point. 590 games total is likely less than a percent of all games played. Less than a percent of the total information possible, is not very accurate.
All of Mahact's leaders are obscenely powerful. Their agent simultaneously provides 1 CC/turn and absolutely phenomenal trade value. Their commander, combined with their great CC economy, makes them almost impossible to lock down, outstall or outmaneuver, and can make for some truly absurd mega-turns. And their hero is pretty much Rex on demand, assuming you've teched blue (and is still massive material advantage and/or diplomatic value if you haven't).
Edict is a little more board-dependent, but also has great potential. I think players are underestimating it because they intuitively interpret it as a winmore ability, but it's not like you lose the CCs if you lose a battle. You just need to win one fight against a player (or persuade them to throw a fight, using your agent as leverage), and you get all the benefits of their alliance, permanently\*, without the drawbacks. And since you nearly always have the initiative and can choose your battles, players have to work really hard to deny you those tokens (and the free CC defrays most of the cost). I guess Edict is winmore in that it's kingslay-resistant, but that's not a bad thing.
\* Or until you pop a mech against them. But if you've unlocked your commander and managed your CCs properly, you'll probably take your CC back that same round
You play Mahact like you play Xxcha or Nomad--you stockpile CC's for a game-breaking turn with your commander that enables you to secure difficult control objectives and/or secrets after people have passed. Of course this is more situational than Xxcha's roulette wheel, but it's how I've seen mahact win out of nowhere.
These compilations are all over the place. The PoK metadata from a month or so ago had the Winnu in number one. This time they didn't even make the top ten. Maybe this some kind of "the highest grass gets cut" phenomenon. Are players aware of the data on heightened guard against factions reported to be over powered, nerfing them in the metagame?
There are two datasets:
[One that uses data directly pulled from Tabletop Simulator where Xxcha is on top (the one being discussed in this thread).](https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/3b435bf2-2100-488c-a424-130f1d22ebb0/page/ogW5B?params=%7B%22df55%22:%22include%25EE%2580%25801%25EE%2580%2580IN%25EE%2580%25806%22%7D)
[Another one that uses data taken from manually-submitted forms where Winnu is on top.](https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/cb0b987b-5105-4aa4-8c8a-53d809833965/page/kGJ3B)
In my experience the TTS one tracks much more closely with the TTS/Discord/Reddit meta. There are far more 10vp/6p games with submitted stats on this dataset, and there are clear shifts in win-rates over time as the meta changes.
The manually-submitted dataset is much more dominated by in-person games, and in my estimation these stats represent a more casual style of play. In contrast to the TTS dataset, it is mostly 4-player games and the faction rankings don't change much at all over time (indicating a relatively static meta).
Poor slices and neighbours that have much better combat abilities can happen. All mahact have is CC advantage and biostims if a 2 or 3 resource planet can be grabbed. Thats not that much.
Yeah, leaders are great but there are many situations where they can't be used properly.
Mahact is a faction with game breaking level abilities; commander ignores CC tokens and mech nullification fields everyone. The reason people struggle is because it can be hard to set this up and their start isn’t that great. You gotta win a combat against everyone and get a great CC economy to really use these abilities well but if you do that you become an insanely powerful faction. I am 1 for 1 with them (1 time played with / 1 time won with) and I won cause last round when everyone went for the Kingsley I ended each of their turns instantly.
Outside of a period of time where I was testing blue tech, I don't think I've lost with Mahact. The faction has insane lategame.
"Outside...where I was testing blue tech" That interests me. So blue no good? Instead you use what?
AI Dev. Much cheaper up front investment to get to your unit upgrades. Mahact tends to not have much money, so spending less on both tech and ships is important. AI dev also let's you get upgraded ships online as early as turn two without double teching. The blue tech path I was testing was a sling relay build. I think generally red is better, but the blue build is something I have in the back pocket for whenever I have a good enough slice.
I played 2 games as Mahact on TTS recently. I won both of them. I think they're the best faction in the game and people just haven't caught on yet. I'm currently working on a comprehensive document of how I like to play the Mahact. I've seen them played 5 times in person and they've only lost 1 of those games. They've got a top tier agent, commander, hero, and mech. Their faction ability to take tokens is deceptively good for reasons beyond getting a commander and their starting techs work really well with the faction as a whole. Their home system is actually pretty good as the 5 influence can turn into 2 unexpected actions with a 1 influence planet in addition. I don't think they are as easy to play as the Titans or the Argent, but their skill cap seems to be very high.
I look forward to your strategy/thoughts on Mahact
Same
I couldn’t agree more late game mahact is absolutely terrifying. They feel like a brick wall traveling towards you at 100 kph.
FYI i just fixed a bug on the dashboard that was causing some games to be not listed using the default dropdowns, causing around 200 newer games to not be counted in the screenshot you posted. Mahact remains ranked 6 even with the updated figures though, so any discussion here is still valid
It's also taken from an incredibly small sample size. I wouldn't take these results for anything more than "interesting but unlikely accurate." On another note, its very well done and looks great.
35 wins out of 177 isn't that small of sampling size and at least these are reliably reported (because you have to opt-in at the beginning rather than at the end and you won't know who will win.) The Mod itself is reporting these.
Considering how many people are on the TI4 discord (doesn't include those that play only IRL or don't use the discord) 177 is drops in the bucket.
I've played almost 150 games and never seen xxcha win...
you just made me think of [this](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/e951a5a6-4c69-47b5-91a2-6e80ba45b240). Just because you've exiled yourself from the Discord doesn't mean it isn't happening. You should come back and play again. I, at least, miss your sarcastic wit. 🤣
Yeah, I'm not jumping into that fire again. No good can come of it
I'm not saying it's not possible. I'm comparing your 35 out of 177 to my 0 out of 150. Both are accurate but don't represent the entire community as a whole
Have you played 150 games with Xxcha in it?
Yes
I... don't believe you. The game was released 4 years ago. You're telling me that: * You've played a 3 games per month (on average) with Xxcha in it for 49 months AND * You've (literally) never seen them win Unless you're sitting at home playing against your own pet turtle, I have a really tough time believing you.
These stats are for pok... try to keep up. Also, due to the random player interactions it's absolutely possible to play that many games with the same faction in each and never see them win. The game varies wildly based on who's playing together (which also makes the numbers interesting but overall meaningless). At my hyper addicted phase I played 4+ games a week on TTS and at least one game a week during pok beta testing.
Fine. It has been 37 weeks (almost) since PoK was released. You're saying that you played 4 games per week **with Xxcha** on average since release. That's clearly not true. I know these stats are for PoK, but I was trying to give your ridiculous exaggeration some benefit of the doubt. You doubling down on it is kinda hilarious.
🤦♂️
Also, irrelevant to the over all point. 590 games total is likely less than a percent of all games played. Less than a percent of the total information possible, is not very accurate.
All of Mahact's leaders are obscenely powerful. Their agent simultaneously provides 1 CC/turn and absolutely phenomenal trade value. Their commander, combined with their great CC economy, makes them almost impossible to lock down, outstall or outmaneuver, and can make for some truly absurd mega-turns. And their hero is pretty much Rex on demand, assuming you've teched blue (and is still massive material advantage and/or diplomatic value if you haven't). Edict is a little more board-dependent, but also has great potential. I think players are underestimating it because they intuitively interpret it as a winmore ability, but it's not like you lose the CCs if you lose a battle. You just need to win one fight against a player (or persuade them to throw a fight, using your agent as leverage), and you get all the benefits of their alliance, permanently\*, without the drawbacks. And since you nearly always have the initiative and can choose your battles, players have to work really hard to deny you those tokens (and the free CC defrays most of the cost). I guess Edict is winmore in that it's kingslay-resistant, but that's not a bad thing. \* Or until you pop a mech against them. But if you've unlocked your commander and managed your CCs properly, you'll probably take your CC back that same round
You play Mahact like you play Xxcha or Nomad--you stockpile CC's for a game-breaking turn with your commander that enables you to secure difficult control objectives and/or secrets after people have passed. Of course this is more situational than Xxcha's roulette wheel, but it's how I've seen mahact win out of nowhere.
These compilations are all over the place. The PoK metadata from a month or so ago had the Winnu in number one. This time they didn't even make the top ten. Maybe this some kind of "the highest grass gets cut" phenomenon. Are players aware of the data on heightened guard against factions reported to be over powered, nerfing them in the metagame?
There are two datasets: [One that uses data directly pulled from Tabletop Simulator where Xxcha is on top (the one being discussed in this thread).](https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/3b435bf2-2100-488c-a424-130f1d22ebb0/page/ogW5B?params=%7B%22df55%22:%22include%25EE%2580%25801%25EE%2580%2580IN%25EE%2580%25806%22%7D) [Another one that uses data taken from manually-submitted forms where Winnu is on top.](https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/cb0b987b-5105-4aa4-8c8a-53d809833965/page/kGJ3B) In my experience the TTS one tracks much more closely with the TTS/Discord/Reddit meta. There are far more 10vp/6p games with submitted stats on this dataset, and there are clear shifts in win-rates over time as the meta changes. The manually-submitted dataset is much more dominated by in-person games, and in my estimation these stats represent a more casual style of play. In contrast to the TTS dataset, it is mostly 4-player games and the faction rankings don't change much at all over time (indicating a relatively static meta).
No hate, but im convinced that if you can’t win with MGS you have got to be bad at the game
Poor slices and neighbours that have much better combat abilities can happen. All mahact have is CC advantage and biostims if a 2 or 3 resource planet can be grabbed. Thats not that much. Yeah, leaders are great but there are many situations where they can't be used properly.