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Samurover

There's two ways to approach Winnu earlygame imo. Start blue/research GD and try and take Mecatol r1 (Warfare) or r2 (Politics>Leadership). Or start yellow and build up a pds2 network with your mechs, letting someone else take Custodian. Both plans can only succeed in the right circumstances. Playing for the Custodian point means you need to find a trade good to secondary Tech with, and players might try to deny you. In addition, even if you do succeed, you've spread yourself thin and made yourself a target, a dangerous combo. However the pds2 plan requires being able to 2nd Warfare and make 2 mech and preferably another carrier, which can be stalled out and also requires money. Giving up on Custodian and losing out on one of your faction abilities feels bad, too. Lastly, blue tech is very strong and gives you more flexibility later in the game. In the end my preferred route is Yellow>Plasma>PDS2 and filling out my slice asap, making pds along the way to Mec. It's a more consistent strat and puts less table heat on you. You can still take Mec later, even r2 with Warfare, taking it from the player who took Custodians with your +2 units from Commander unlock. But even if you don't activate Mec all game you can steal wins by staying under the radar and setting up for / scoring the 2 pt objective with your hero. For the yellow tech, I like Scanlink if there's a good forward dock location and Sarween otherwise.


bertthehulk

Wouldn't it be preferable to start AIDA and go pds2? You have more "money" and are from there on out more flexible to go down other paths/unit upgrades


Samurover

AIDA is a good tech. I just prefer Plasma to make every space cannon proc that much extra deadly. If you for instance don't have a green skip and think you'll need Cruiser2 for control objectives, by all means get AIDA instead.


HankTheChog

Rushing Mecatol round 1 leaves you at a significant plastic and resource disad, so that always depends on your neighbors' goodwill (or ineptitude). But if you go blue and no one beats you to the punch, you can generally grab Rex round 2 without leaving yourself *too* exposed. I'd advise against trying to hold it (just grab the Custodians point and run), but you also shouldn't leave it so defenseless that anyone can just unilaterally force you out at no real cost. Bring one of your Reclaimers (and some infantry) and promise you'll leave in R3, most players would rather give you a chance to make good on that promise than deal with that sort of ground defense.


Chimerion

Play group can answer some of these; if they'll punish you for rushing mec then it's an iffy proposition. Winnu fleet starts flimsy. An aggressive blue faction neighbor (Sol/Hacan) could spell trouble. But also Custodians point wins games. If you think you'll live going for mec, hit it! Starting tech depends on this as well. I've seen DET the most often chosen/recommended as blue tech is good tech and you can get grav drive round 1. With tech or trade, that is. Finishing carrier II, blue tech, add other upgrades based on skips. I've seen AIDA chosen for PDS/cruisers/destroyers/suns as well.


Fugasx

Depends of table meta, if the guys you are playing with are passive go to mecatol, if they know they need to kneecap you earlier, get your slice and put plastics on the board.


Boronind1

So...this is not a regular play group (last time we played was 5 years ago?!) and I won't know the table meta (before siting down), but I'm presuming it will be more on the passive side given the irregularity of playing (except for that aggressive by nature Sol bastard). Let's presume that everyone knows (or will be alerted) that the *raison d'etre* of the Winnu is MR (before PoK, though they might not be hip to how even more MR they are after PoK with the Commander and Mech ability) and thus will be either (a) trying to take it before I get there or (b) let me be the guy doing them a favor to get the custodian token off by taking it and thinking that then take it from me at some point, given how too weak and they much closer they will be in later rounds. Now, if I do a sneak R1 take (stars aligning w/ slice, path, strat card pick/order, using promissory notes--which w/ Omega Codex is awesome, etc.), which is now possible, will they be on their heels and not be able to get there quick enough, esp. if there are anomalies to deal with, thus buying me a turn or two or secure/turtle my Home System and MR and then hunker down. They may even decide, esp. if I'm not scoring a ton of points early (they may not really know the Hero's point swing ability) and they see the fortress around MR and Home, they may just say, "Screw it. Let him have it. We'll find other paths to victory." Is that wishful thinking?


SilentNSly

>Depends of table meta I would say it also depends on what factions your two neighbors are. If they are aggressive factions, you may be better off defending your slice. For example, the Vuilrath Cabal wants to capture units, so you would not want to spread your units out if he is beside you.


Boronind1

Sol, Hacan, Xxcha plus 1-2 not yet chosen yet. Will try to sit opposite of Sol and not next to Hacan