Baron OP?

[OmegaOm]

He seems to win most times he plays, what do you all think?

[noctilucus]

In human multiplayer matches or against the AI?

I haven't played more than a few online multiplayer matches, but against the AI, I don't have that impression. He's definitely among the stronger characters but not overpowered.

FWIW, in human matches it seems he's ranked 2nd tier out of 5 tiers for strong players (based on statistics from 300 games), middle tier for all players (based on 1000 games)

[Dead by GayGhoul]

Yes he is. In my opinion Baron and Tessia are broken.

[Trolleur_Durden]

Baron Harkonnen and Tessia Vernius are both S tier with only Rise of Ix, but it's far from meaning autowin.

[Combostyle]

Yes, he is the strongest by a wide margin

[Trolleur_Durden]

Messaggio originale di Combostyle:

Yes, he is the strongest by a wide margin

No, not by a wide margin. Baron is somewhat unreliable due to the random nature of intrigue cards. Some games you will indeed get very helpful intrigues which will accelerate your dash towards the finish line, but some others, you will get much less interesting, or even useless intrigues. Even worse, sometimes getting some intrigue cards can lead you towards a losing strategy, the most obvious one being incentivized to involve yourself into fights you should avoid because you got a couple of combat intrigue cards. Baron is also very reliant on being in the first or second starting position, 4th spot Baron is pretty underwhelming against people who know how to shut you down. And last but not least, he's at odds with the other top tier character in Ix, Tessia, because they both rely a lot on influence tracks and alliances to get a fast victory, so they both tend to counter each other. So all in all, he's far from being an instawin.

[marttini7]

This topic made me think about a question regarding 'changes' in perennial aspects of the game... if the 'digital' version must follow 'physical' version, then no changes can be started from 'digital' first? As we can see, everything is managed by DireWolf (whether being inventions or adaptations), so they could decide to reform Leaders (making things more balanced), no matter if it should be "static" at a first sight.

Sometimes i like to play Ilesa, just for "fun" or even for betting. Her ability to recatch a card after putting it aside, make people a little bit confused about how it works, and probably the majority of them just turns "scared" to play with her. I mastered very well how to use that passive ability and gave me some wins... you just need to observe firstly, what card you would like to play FIRST, then put your second choice aside.

Even then, the game consider Ilesa to be "three points" of difficulty... this doesn't care at all. But by seeing Steam achievements related to her, it's clear (from the percentage of conquers) that people mostly don't choose her!

[Trolleur_Durden]

Ilesa is one of the weirdest leaders for sure, and clearly not the easiest one to play. Her passive skill is extremely good and gives her various benefits through the whole game, like being able to rush Swordmaster by Smuggling twice or getting an early 2 spice cost tech like Memocorders or Minimic film by setting aside a dagger. On the other hand, her ring is extremely situational and should definitely not be activated on every opportunity. All in all, she's clearly above average, despite not being OP. It's one of the few leaders with whom I managed to do a 6 turn victory.

[Cp†. Smoker]

The trasher dude is way more reliable and stronger IMO. As stated, Harkonnen relies too much on rng. Getting to trash a card every round is very effective.

[Ancient Toaster]

Baron is pretty OP but Tessia is actually broken

[Trolleur_Durden]

Messaggio originale di Cp†. Smoker:

The trasher dude is way more reliable and stronger IMO. As stated, Harkonnen relies too much on rng. Getting to trash a card every round is very effective.

The main issue with Armand Ecaz is that in order to trash a card, you must send 2 agents to non-faction spaces. Which means that early game, you will need to choose between playing Diplomacy and/or Seeking allies and trashing a card. And should you buy cards with faction access (which you definitely should), it becomes even harder. In other words, you need your Swordmaster asap in order to be able to trash reliably, but alas, Armand is one of the worst characters when it comes to getting Swordmaster, having no built-in advantage to do so.

[Angry Owl]

yeah, i agree with Trolleur_Durden, Armand does have conditions to fulfill in order to make reveal trashing happen (also his Ring depending on the row).

I find Tessia more annoying to play against than the Baron.
Having to hit Hardy Warriors and 4-deploy feels too cheap of a requirement to get 2 bumps sure, but at least it's a one-and-done thing. Yet Tessia gets rewarded throughout the game for doing what players do anyway - getting faction friendships. Her ring pushes it even further. Kinda wound't mind her nerfed.

The Dev's probably have their hands full already, but I wish they could lean into the Digital-ness of the game more, get a beta branch going, throw in some wacky changes/community feedback (perhaps ask the designers to do one more pass over).

[Ancient Toaster]

I consider the ability to trash a bonus rather than trying to play my turns around it, as Armand.

That being said he's not broken or OP at all. Compared to Tessia nobody is. She can play the game without even trying to build a decent deck.

Manta does a very good tier list of all of the leaders and Armand is a solid B tier leader and I agree with that.

[한쿡]

Everyone has a different favorite character.

I think each character has its own strengths and weaknesses and the balance is better than you might think.