Best and worst new squads?

[SquareDildo]

What are your first impressions? I've tried three so far.

Arachnophiles seem midrange. The artillery is great if it works, bad if you can't hit properly. Moderately difficult to play, but manageable. Ricochet Rocket does a lot of heavy lifting. My favorite upgrades are +1 damage for the artillery and Shield Self for the Slide mech. I got Ally Immune for the ricochet rocket but ended up not benefiting from it. The best shots are those where you hit two enemies anyway so damage is better, and if you use a spider as a proxy it was probably not going to do anything useful anyway.

Bombermechs have some very fun toys, but seem hard to play. The Pierce mech gives me Zenith Guard flashbacks, but it's not as bad. It's more flexible, pushes, and can still hit like a truck at a distance. Bomb Dispenser is challenging to use with the extra bomb and the upgrade is very expensive. Force Exchange is super powerful, but bombs deal low damage and even destroy civilian buildings. They're more useful for spawn blocking and as an exchange target. Also unlike most artillery mechs, the dispenser can't deal with targets over water (unless you can exchange it with a scorpion). I had the most trouble with Bombermechs and it was the first time in a long while that I was unable to do a perfect island (and even lost a pilot!).

Mist Eaters are the easiest out of those I've tried so far. Similar to Rusting Hulks, but feel better and easier to use. Being able to consume dust instead of damage over time is a good tradeoff versus Rusting Hulks. It's simple to just enter a cloud when you need to shoot something, you get healing, and mosquitos are countered hard. The artillery is good out of the box and deals high damage. 2 out of 3 mechs are flying!

[carrotboy]

Is Zenith Guard considered to be a poor squad. I tried playing them and they are significantly harder than the smoke ones and rift walkers

[SquareDildo]

Originally posted by carrotboy:

Is Zenith Guard considered to be a poor squad. I tried playing them and they are significantly harder than the smoke ones and rift walkers

Zenith Guard is relatively inflexible. The laser mech doesn't push and must go up close for high damage, it also damages buildings easily. It has the notorious Charge Mech which damages itself as it attacks. Two attacks and you're forced into repair unless you have upgrades or other tricks. The Defense Mech (shield and pull) is good. So I guess the squad is good on difficulty levels Normal and Beginner, but Alpha Vek are hard to counter with just raw damage. Hazardous Mechs also do self-damage, but in that case it feels like you're getting a lot in exchange (and you get a healing method).

I had experimented with custom and random squads before the Advanced Edition. The hardest squads were those without artillery. That might explain my difficulty with Bombermechs - in some ways they feel like they lack artillery. In many turns it's hard to get value out of the dispenser, so in future runs I'll try to prioritize blocking emerging Vek with bombs. They get out of hand quickly with this squad (especially flying ones), and +1 early damage from a bomb may not be worth it.

[Depili]

I found the arachnophiles and the bomber squad the easiest of the new squads by far. Zenith guard requires it's own tactics but is perfectly viable on hard, haven't tried on unfair yet. With the laser early on you just have allow for occasional building damage early on and be really good on your positioning on baiting the vek to move where you want them to.

For overall hardest squad (pre-patch on hard) it was clearly blitzkrieg for me, the squad is just so lacking in movement at the start and the damage hard to get on target with very little in terms of enemy manipulation.

[Playerjjjj]

Arachnophiles are absolutely starved for damage, which is a serious problem given they rely on kills to power their gimmick. The ricochet rocket is powerful but it can be hard to use in confined spaces. I think it needs a "building immune" upgrade far more than "ally immune."

Cataclysm seems like the most solid all-rounder squad. Good damage, good displacement, and being able to create chasm tiles is an incredibly powerful ability once you get it rolling. It'll 1-shot all non-flying bosses, for example. The only real flaw is the seismic mech's low starting damage, but you can fix that with a single core and/or running Kai.

Mist Eaters seem really good. I need to play them more to really build an opinion. Control shot is incredible, especially on maps with insta-kill hazards. I wish the Steel Judoka had it (which goes for a ton of the new equipment. God that squad feels obsolete). All the denial you can pump out of the artillery mech is great as well, as is built-in smoke immunity.

Bombermechs are incredibly complicated. Easily the hardest squad in the entire game to play well. Between the bombs and the exchange mech, they have one of the best control kits. The pierce mech is a little hard to use but improves once you realize you can shoot through bombs, buildings, and just about anything else. They're a little lacking in damage, however, which can start to hurt later in the game.

[Azure_DragonX]

Not a big fan of how gimmicky all the new squads are. The bombermechs only have one actual bomb unit that does a paltry 1 damage. Basically just used it for blocking the whole game. Having to shoot through something first was really annoying. Cataclysm I felt had potential.

I didnt unlock the mister eaters or fire squad at first because I figured they would be gimmicky too like setting your own units on fire or the mist eaters would have healing because they took damage when they attack or something. Having now unlocked the fire squad their main dmg dealer does 1 damage. So does the artillery. I mean come on. Im not sure I even want to try them. I seriously loved this game in the past, had all achievements but this patch just feels a little too gimmicky and "hard mode". I just want to have a cool flame thrower guy and not some weird gimmick where I've got to setup a shot where the enemy is on a forest tile on a tuesday and has been poisoned first and is facing left.

[Depili]

Bombermechs are all about the exchange mech, which is hands down the most powerful one in the game, even better than the teleport mech from the base game. The bombs are usually best used without blowing them up...

Arachno-squad also has really powerful enemy manipulation and the spiders are just awesome, as they push and can be used to body-block enemy movement or to block emerging vek.

[Alpro]

For the new squads, big fan of the Bombermechs here, but i like the others too. I think the Heatsinkers are my least favorite. For classic squads, i hate Blitzkreig and my favorite is any squad that isn't Blitzkreig. Big love for Flame and Judo.

[Hollow]

I only beat normal with all the new squads so I'm pretty casual.
Favorite: Bombermechs
Least Favorite: Heat Sinker
Power Level: Cataclysm > Heat sinker > Mist eater > Arachnophiles >= Bombermech

Bombermechs took me a few tries to learn, but once I realise how Bombling Mech is the centre of this squad and how the bombs are better used to block vek and setup positions, they become very fun to play. Every turn I have to think hard on how I can get the most out of the exchange mech. Seeing everything playing out like domino at the end of your turn is quite satisfying. By the end of my last perfect run with them, it was hilarious, veks almost cannot spawn because how much I actively block them, It's like you are playing blizkreig Boulder mech but the boulders can also move after being fired, and you can get two of it. I can block 5 spawning a turn and that often leave me with two whole turns doing nothing.
My pilot recommendation is to put Chen Rong or Archimedes on the Bombling Mech. They can setup the bombs then move on to block veks. Then probably Henry or Camilia on the pierce machine since it really needs good movements to setup a shot.

Heat sinker has great damage potential, but the prime weapon is really not fun to use. It's like you are given a machete when situations often require surgical knife. They can output amazing damage once upgraded, but they really struggle with positioning allies safely since most of their push do damage or inflict burn. If Into The Breach is about killing as many veks as possible, then heat sinker will easily be one of the most competitive teams while still above the awkwardness of Zenith and oh lord Blizkrieg. I would recommend not to upgrade the push on quick-fire. I rarely hope to have the push when I don't have it, but almost always regret having it when I do.
My pilot recommendation is to put Kai Miller on the prime and Morgan Lejeune on the quick fire, Kai will really improve your experience early game with the prime. Morgan can almost stay boosted from get go with careful setup from the napalm machine.

Mist eater is just another fog team. Fog teams to me are some of the easiest to use. Their damage is not as high as it seems for most of the game, but they have great enemy manipulation through fog and the control mech. Overall not bad.
My pilot recommendation is to put Abe on the brute. Early game without fog upgrade and HP upgrade, the thruster mech can be a bit inconsistent, Abe helps make that a no issue. But his usefulness will wear off in mid to late game.

Cataclysm is pretty OP, it is the only new squad that can potentially kill a boss level vek on the first turn regardless of pilot choice assuming it's not a hornet. The key piece is the Drill mech. To use this team to its full potential you need to create tons of pitfalls. All three mechs deal great damage.
My pilot recommendation is to put Kai Miller on the ranged at the start but move her to the Drill mech later on. Early on you somewhat needs the ranged a bit more, but once higher tier veks start to show up you really need the drill mech to create pits for instakills.

Arachnophiles is....weird. Especially how the science machine cannot fly is really really awkward. This squad's damage output, even fully upgraded is not that amazing. The Bulk Mech is a bit awkward to use in tight spots, the slide mech is kinda meh before the shield upgrade. The spiders are OK I guess. Instead of inflict ACID I would rather we just have enough fire power to kill a vek. They really start to struggle once you get a lot of high tier vek all spawning at once since your ranged cannot kill them fast enough. It's definitely important to reserve spiders for later use instead of just immediately sacrificing them.
My pilot recommendation is to put Kai Miller on the Arachnoid Mech. You really need the Arachnoid Mech to consistently create spiders or else the firepower of this squad really start to suffer. Also Prospero on the science mech because the fact it cannot fly severely limit what it could do.

[SquareDildo]

Is killing boss Vek in the first turn such a huge deal? I recently did it with Mist Eaters. Two of my pilots got Opener ability (first action is boosted). Modestly upgraded plane mech deals 3 damage by itself. The other Opener pilot is in the artillery mech and deals 5 damage in the first turn + 4 smoke when you factor burning damage. The plane also has Missile Barrage, which now deals 3 damage to all enemies (!!!) if used as a first action, and my science mech has Gana so even more initial damage. I got used to the sight of an empty board :-).

[LaChouette]

Originally posted by SquareDildo:

Is killing boss Vek in the first turn such a huge deal?

It does mean you're able to deal quite a lot of damage if you can kill it on the first turn while also preventing other Veks from dealing damage (or got very lucky with Vek placement). It is not that much of a deal, though, I think most squads can do it with the right pilots.

[Hollow]

Originally posted by SquareDildo:

Is killing boss Vek in the first turn such a huge deal? I recently did it with Mist Eaters. Two of my pilots got Opener ability (first action is boosted). Modestly upgraded plane mech deals 3 damage by itself. The other Opener pilot is in the artillery mech and deals 5 damage in the first turn + 4 smoke when you factor burning damage. The plane also has Missile Barrage, which now deals 3 damage to all enemies (!!!) if used as a first action, and my science mech has Gana so even more initial damage. I got used to the sight of an empty board :-).

The reason I singled out cataclysm in that regard is because to them it's not a damage race as they can insta kill through falling. With other squads you need to push for the damage per round in order to achieve this, with cataclysm as long as you get lucky with vek placement, you can instakill the boss with just 2 mechs and little upgrades.

[Veritas]

Bombermechs are pretty strong at moving vek in ways you normally can't and they have good damage, but they sort of suck at solving things "conventionally" at first. That's easily remedied by finding new equipment. I'd say the bombermech's bomblings kind of suck after island 2 though, but it's a strong squad overall.

Arachnophiles' gimmick requires a lot of kills and this squad has absolutely low, restrictive damage and a terrible science mech. I'd say they're extremely weak on island 1 and 2 and very reliant on good equipment additions. weak squad with poor scaling using the weapons they start with.

Mist Eaters are extremely powerful. CC and damage and vek move all from the start, with good damage upgrades and a flying science mech with an excellent weapon. Probably the strongest new squad. I'd almost say they're stronger than Rusting Hulks but idk, they both are strong for similar reasons.

Heat Sinkers start off pretty mediocre but they scale really well and Boost is completely broken. The brute mech is restrictive at first but most of the brute class weapons are very strong and made busted by Boost, and the napalm mech can eventually get a way to deal direct damage to leverage Boost too.

Cataclysm is a difficult squad to play, but they are very strong. It's just one of those squads where playing turn 1 or 2 wrong can have massive repercussions for the last 2 turns

[Duke Leto Atreides]

Best

1- Mist Eaters is like easy mode. You can spawn smoke all over the place and it heals instead of blocking your mechs. Upgrading the smoke artillery to 4 squares makes this team nearly invincible.

Good

2- Cataclysm. Great all around.

3- Bombermech. Exchange mech is a lot of fun and like the Arachnophiles, spawning units always help.

Bad:

4- Arachnophiles. Spawning extra units that can deal one damage and push is awesome, but the low initial damage without a boosted pilot or early upgrade hurts. The slide mech should also have been a flying unit.

5- Heat Seekers. I hate the dispersal mech. This squad has no range or mobility. I feel like the Napalm or Quick Fire mech should have floating ability to fix this.

*edit: After several more games as Arachnophiles, I knocked them down to bad. My initial positive impression was due to having the perfect pilot. On a fresh start, they are lacking.

[SquareDildo]

I'm playing with Heat Stinkers, and they're starved for mobility, especially the Dispersal mech. The whole squad has zero flying units, and two units with 2 HP. They feel like slow glass cannons, despite above average movement points. All mechs are sensitive to direction too. If there's a bottleneck or obstacle in the middle, they're struggling. Did I mention they have no artillery? That rocket mech is direct fire and actually a Brute.

Bethany (Shield) in the Dispersal mech is good, because if you face enemies head on you may be unable to avoid damage and with 3 walking speed it's hard to go around. But Henry Kwan (go through enemies) or Prospero (flying) may be even better. Or Camilla Vera, because it's a Prime mech that can't deal with scorpions webbing it (!!). It can only defeat Leapers and dies to Alpha Leapers.

[Saint of Grey]

Heat sinkers are god once you get fire upgrade on the dispersal mech. And some range on the napalm mech. Fire everywhere, boosts everywhere. Very iffy before that point though, which means your entire first island experience will be a bit precarious without a decent pilot to help out one of the mechs.