Card Of the Week/Month Discussion: Overwatch

[Shaolin Yautja]

Card Name: Overwatch
Set: Premiere
Rarity: Common
Text: Permanent. Character may rotate to attack during the Movement round (with +2 to hit if he has Tactics). Discard this card when the character moves or rotates.
Combat Pool Costs: N/A
Resources: N/A
Restrictions: N/A
Quote: Anything comes through that door, you drop it where it stands.

This is one of those cards that allows you to attack outside of the regular Combat Round. Great for hit and run tactics, pre-emptive strikes against a target or opponent. Because sometimes, you just have to attack early instead of waiting for the Combat Round. Or is better of staying away from attacks that happen in the Combat round.

No combat pool costs.

The "Plus 2 To Hit" bonus offered to any character with Tactics using the attack still counts toward the limitation and the rulings of one character may only benefit from one Event that increases a character's ability and thus it's not cumulative with another Event that increases that same character's "To Hit".

The only question I can think of right now is can this card stlll be played after the turn's Movement round is over, such as after Combat resolution occurs, or after search resolution occurs? And then use the attack effect in the following turn's Movement round instead?

Overwatch can become countered by the event Not So Fast though.
And if the character using Overwatch has Tactics then Look Sharp can also be used to counter it.
End of The Line could also work, but that's only if the opponent delays declaring the attack any time after Overwatch is played and had been resolved.

Any other thoughts, questions, comments, feedback or input?

[whiteumbrella]

I vastly prefer the wording on Anticipation, if only because it's much clearer and doesn't lead to timing nightmares like Overwatch can. In all honesty, Anticipation should have just been named Overwatch, which would have counted as errata, and removed the need for the clunky "only three copies total of Anticipation and Overeat in a deck" that cross-over Scenarios have to print to make it not-ridiculous.

[doctordolemite]

Overwatch is definitely one of my staple cards in my Predator deck. I use it all the time. I like to sometimes combo it with disengaging attack ;-)

[Shaolin Yautja]

Jul 3, 2018 5:50:00 GMT -5 doctordolemite said:

Overwatch is definitely one of my staple cards in my Predator deck. I use it all the time. I like to sometimes combo it with disengaging attack ;-)

That's good if you need to move into another adjacent location quickly, and since it says move to 1 location, outnumbering effects are redundant.

For Predator, I think you're gonna need this card when dealing with an Aliens deck . Especially when it's an opponent that constantly likes to run away and Hive locations. And running away is easy because of their hive movement ability from the Breeding Chamber and since you only have one character when playing as a Predator, it would be completely impossible to chase them all down on the battleground when groups of Aliens at hiving at multiple locations at once.

Don't know about Predator Packs as I haven't had the time to play test them yet.

I guess the only other option is to damage the Breeding Chamber or to catch up to them with a card like Stalking the Queen.

It troubled me most when I played against my friend and he realizes this, he would split up groups of his Aliens and all hive at the same time, and since I only have one character I could only chase one down at a time to attack, and if I didn't have any means to attack them before they run away (remember, because Aliens move after Predator), then I'd have to wait until the Combat Round before I can declare any attacks. Any time I get too close, he'd move as far as possible and begin Hiving another location and repeat until he either won or the game is tied in Countdown (all 30 turns are up and nobody met any victory conditions).

But once I put in the Overwatches, it seemed to have helped significantly, especially if he lost 2 or 3 groups of his Aliens.

And also because as a Predator you're outnumbered, other species aren't, and thus it's more possible for them to run away if you have no means of any pre-emptive strikes.

And there aren't too many things that permits free attacks for Predators, at least, not immediately. The only ones I know of are You Want Some Of This?, Kill And Kill Again, Keep 'Em Down, but the conditions must be correct for them before you can legally play them.

Speaking of You Want Some Of This?, that was the main reason my friend got so irritated by me killing all or severely injuring most of his bugs in a single Combat Round that he rather avoid direct confrontation altogether and avoided my Predator in Combat Round.

[Shaolin Yautja]

predfang Anything you want to add to this discussion?

[predfang]

I would include overwatch in any deck I could because I think it’s a staple regardless of species. It obviously gives ranged opponents a tremendous advantage by allowing them to to take preemptive strikes, but I have also found it useful in allowing Aliens to speed up Breeding a bit by allowing you a chance to kill a SC just prior to the Aliens Mature step instead of waiting to do that during combat and having to wait another turn to get that CB token.

[Shaolin Yautja]

Jul 17, 2018 7:28:00 GMT -5 predfang said:

I would include overwatch in any deck I could because I think it’s a staple regardless of species. It obviously gives ranged opponents a tremendous advantage by allowing them to to take preemptive strikes, but I have also found it useful in allowing Aliens to speed up Breeding a bit by allowing you a chance to kill a SC just prior to the Aliens Mature step instead of waiting to do that during combat and having to wait another turn to get that CB token.

Right! You always want to grow and expand your hive and Alien Warrior groups as quickly as possible, because to Aliens that's like the same as the Predators and Rogues/Marines arming up and loading up on weapons and ammo, and all gearing up for the big fights.

One other thing I can think of speaking of pre-emptive strikes is by using Overwatch to attack a Predator early as an Alien is ideal, especially if you have a decent size Alien Warrior group of 4 tokens or more, and if you know your opponent runs You Want Some of This? and/or It's Just The Cat in their deck.

That way you force them to either respond and waste those cards earlier in the game. Once the run out of IJTC, they can't completely rely on surprise attacks anymore, and it's better they spend a YWSOT on your single Alien Warrior group than in your Hive at the Breeding Chamber. Get what I mean?


It's just process of elimination. Using Overwatch with an Alien Warrior group to attack a Predator can always provide a distraction and diversion, and you can split up your other Alien groups and starting hiving locations and a single Predator can't do a whole lot about this.

I remember how my friend got so annoyed with me annihilating his hive with You Want Some Of This? and a massive To Hit Bonus and sometimes he just didn't have any or enough Malfunctions, since I generally run 2 Plasma Casters for this, if he used it on one, I can still YWSOT? on the other Plasma Caster and all his bugs are killed all simply because they had remained at the same location in the Breeding Chamber and MUST attack my unhidden Predator (Sharpeye typically).

So he adapted to this and changed his strategy to run away and hive away at multiple different locations at the same time. Then things change over time, because I realize I need to have Overwatch to eliminate some of his Aliens before he can completely hive locations.

In a 3-way or 4-way match however, things might be different, but I've yet to play the game that way, mostly been playing 1 vs 1.

[Shaolin Yautja]

"Question: Say the aliens player captures a character in the movement round (let's say with Overwatch), does that character then mature into a chest Burster in the following mature aliens phase (which comes immediately after the movement phase where the character was captured, or does he have to stick around in the Breeding Chamber for a full turn?

Answer: During the next Mature Aliens round (as on p. 4. This might seem a little unfair, but it keeps things simple. 3/12/98"

I was about to review and ask about this ruling regarding Overwatch.

But it does seem like that if any supporting character had been killed with an Overwatch during the Movement round, then they become a Chest Burster during the mature Aliens phase in the same Movement Round, because it would be considered as the upcoming or next mature Aliens phase.

If I'm wrong, please correct me.

Either way Overwatch is a staple card for most decks as you want to be able to attack early and make preemptive strikes and strategic planning.

Predator needs it most and should avoid regular combat in the normat Combat Rounds as much as possible. And in case Aliens try to run away and split up trying to hive all locations for their alternative victory condition.