Can’t touch this dooo do-do-do, do-do, do-do – Hammer Time!
Excuse my hypetrain MC Hammer impression. But this is just so awesome.
Disclaimer: In all my 4.7 posts, I am very much open to that I might be wrong!
That’s part of the beauty of this game after all, and in general just in sharing any kind of hobby – to discuss all our thoughts about it.
Also, some that I have written may very well be coloured heavily by stuff that other great people have already discussed elsewhere, and in all such cases I can only bow and thank them for their wisdom. 😀
Hammer
Card 4.7 above and 4.6 below, click to enlarge
Hammer has always been one of my main captains, and I enjoyed playing with him even back in the days when he was slightly below average. This rework really puts him on a whole new level though!
The very best thing about this rework is that despite big changes, he really feels like Hammer in this version. The stern and unforgiving taskmaster, perfect captain for a Masons team.
His playbook is more or less the same, and he retains much of his sinature stuff like Knockback, but the similarities almost ends there! He can now spend influence from other nearby teammates AND make them charge in for out-of-activation shenanigans. His inf stat is changed to take this into account, but he can still get huuugely satisfying activations with this toolbox. It affects so much of how to play him, and his team around him.
Add to that the fact that his legendary is finally changed to a pulse and not and aura, and he feels just perfect.
I’ve had the privilige of playing this version of him already, and with the ability to make others charge in unexpectedly, it makes for really difficult situations for the opponent to evaluate and prepare for. As an example, I sometimes use Mallet as a battery, to just make a pop appearance with his reach when absolutely needed. And in this version of Hammer, Mallet can retain that function and still get used to smash in a hugely effective charge – basically out of nowhere.
I’ve also seen vHarmony extend the charge range before Hammer sends someone in, that basically made one whole game already there on turn 1 when that happened.
Another super fun janky trick is to use the charge to setup a snapshot goal. Think about it, and expect if you’re going to Adepticon or any other event soon. Even though traveling to the US for Adepticon is out of the question for me, I’m hoping to get to use it at Steam and Fury in Finland in just a few weeks!
Lastly, one thing that some will miss but I will not – Hammer lost Stoic. I will not miss it because even though Marbles is one of the best mascots in the game I just love playing Wrecker and the fact that he couldn’t push Hammer was always so anoying. So even that feels like a buff to me!
Hammer Time!
Tower
Card 4.7 above and 4.6 below
The main change to Tower is his playbook I think. This man is a beast now! The fact that he loses Tooled Up makes a huge difference in how to use him, but I really think overall he’s been heavily buffed.
His activations are just so much more interesting and effective now, if he gets a full stack of influence. On the other hand, I’m not sure how often he will get that – but I fully expect it to feel rewarding when he does.
The funny name Quoining on his new Character Play refers to a masonry technique of stabilising corners of buildings. Mechanically in Guild Ball it gives Tower the ability to gain Protective Instinct that for example lets him double up together with a ball holder if you’re trying to hide the ball.
I’ve also seen it used offensively, to charge several models into a scrum with active Quoining on Tower, he really does protect the others when forcing the enemy to deal with him before the others. New Tower makes a fearsome pair with Granite, as you can imagine. Well, Granite is always to be feared regardless, but still.
Knockback plus momentous Push on coulmn1 just like Hammer, that can easily be overlooked, but is really quite strong in itself. If you bring Hammer, Wrecker, Tower, Brick, Granite, Mallet – the opponents models will just never ever get to stay where they intended to be. With this New Tower and his boosted efficiency, I feel like a full knockback team will be able to wreak a lot of havoc in enemy lines. Might not be the strongest way to utilise them, we don’t know that yet – but sounds like a janky fun kind of beatdown-denial game that I want to try.
Join the discussions on Discord or Facebook, and share your thoughts!
Get a game in with some updated models and take a picture! 😀
Wrecker could always push Hammer.
Stoic is “may ignore first push” so you lost stoic for the turn if you let Wrecker push him closer to your opponent.
Ah that’s true! I might’ve played that wrong once or twice. But still I think it feels good that Hammer’s power budget was spent on other stuff 😉