Best Race/Secret Tech combos?

[BlackDragon]

Just wondering what people's opinions are. It's certainly clear that some combinations are better than others, offering strong synergy, while others just seem to work cross-purpose. Like, Xenoplague just works a lot better for Amazons than for Dvar, in my experience.

Likewise, the Celestian and Psynumbra techs, with their strong focus on Psionics, seem to be well-suited for two races that inherently use psionics themselves - the Syndicates and the Kir'ko... though whether one combo or the other is better is harder to say. I'm also not so sure who works best with some of the more generic options, like Voidtech or Promethean. And I haven't really tried the new(ish) Heritor tech yet, so I'm curious what people think of that...

[CrUsHeR]

Well, the obvious synergies are obvious.

In some cases, the at first glance suboptimal combos still get some significant advantages.

Example, Psynumbra Amazons get the by far best Initiates, who use psionic roots instead of just the default despair spell. And you have a doctrine for all your biochemical and melee attacks to apply poison, making it cheap and easy to get negative morale on targets for the Sadism doctrine. Where you also gotta keep in mind that the standard Broken Mind alone isn't enough when your enemy has morale buffs to counter.

Or the Vanguard doesn't seem all too great with Voidtech due to lacking Arc- and Melee mods, but their Phasewalker gets an additional "dimensional instability" explosion effect when creating his mirror image. And of course the jetpack is always a huge advantage for all infantry.

[sandman25dcsss]

Amazon Xeno, units snowball

[CrUsHeR]

And I haven't really tried the new(ish) Heritor tech yet, so I'm curious what people think of that...

Heritor are pretty much self-contained, i.e. you can play them exclusively with their own tech tree and skip your racial- and weapon tech.

Drained are created from casting a spell on eliglible enemy infantry units and then killing them, so they are basically a "necro" army similar to Xenoplague. The Drained can be your immortal cannon fodder, or possess the strongest unit you can utilize. The insanity is that you get access to all unit mods from Drained/Possessed enemy units without researching them.

While the Siphoners can restore APs of your heroes and other killing machines. But they are also very deadly sharpshooters with the proper mods. Their only downside is that the AI has no idea how to use them, which means you constantly lose siphoners in auto-battles, requiring you to play all battles yourself.


A very big plus is that all Heritor units are floating, so if you can get your hero into something flying/floating until you get him into a High Lord or better, you have a massive strategical advantage. Because harsh terrain (ruins, mountains etc) or water no longer slows you down.

Oathbound Heritors also have a truly huge advantage because of their access to Entropy weapon mods. Though researching those comes at the cost of getting all the ST techs done early.

If you combine several early obtainable Entropy mods, everything you hit deals almost no damage is is slowed, so you can very comfortably control the battlefield.
And the ultimate Entropy mod is the most devastating AOE (Maxwell's Puzzle Box), which is so good that you no longer need specific units in your armies.


Assembly Heritors in turn get all the boons for Cyborg units, and all the Heritor units are Cyborgs. Also the Reassembly module is always the best for auto-battles since you can no longer lose units as long as you win the battle.

[BlackDragon]

Hmmm... interesting. A lot to chew on there.

Still, one question remains: For your money, which secret tech has the best synergy with each race? So far, the only clear-cut 'Best in Show' declaration I've seen is Xeno the Amazon Plague, and MAYBE Oathbound Heritors?

[CrUsHeR]

Assembly + Synthesis / Voidtech


Cyborgs are just great, because they got a higher basic status effect resistance than everyone else. The Assembly cyborgs also get free +2 arc resistance on top.
Also most mods for biological units can be used by them, same like most mods for machine units.

The disadvantage is that they *can* be affected by practically all attacks and operations, because every offensive ability either affects "biological and cyborg" or "machine and cyborg" units.



For Synthesis, there is a common misconception that they are "only good against machines". But in fact they are top-tier against everything, and they can mop the floor with anything machine-like.

First off the "Integrated" mechanic, meaning that all cyborgs and machines are always Integrated for Synthesis players for the purpose of their defensive Secret Tech operations. This is obviously a strong advantage for Assembly, because all their units are Cyborgs.


Hackers as their cheap spammable T2 unit are nothing less than amazing. With 2-3 or more of these in every army, you can clear practically everything.

1) Scrambling Virus - staggering chain lightning which jumps to up to 2 additional targets, and can compromise machine and cyborg units (lose arc + stagger resistance)
Add the Impact and/or Stun module for maximum effect.

2) Haywire Daemon - machines and cyborgs are disabled for 2 turns, or staggered (works best if compromised already).

3) Reconstruct Daemon - use on dead machine/cyborg units to create a new unit.
Can be used at 7 range to distract or just get more firepower. Best advantage is that you can prevent your enemy from resurrecting their units, because it destroys the corpse.

4) Hasher SMG - worth mentioning that their base attack deals more damage and is more accurate than comparable units. In particular the hero version with 14 damage should be a Tier IV item, though you get it for free at game start.



Network link - looks bad on paper, but can be terrific. In particular if you go into long battles, like city sieges.

1) Defensive Turret - strong repeating platform for Firearms mods. So the unit can be either a sneaky supporter, or hammer the targets with fire burst / concussion ammo.

2) Reset Save State Daemon - dispels friendly target and heal for 15hp / 2 turns

3) Data Integrity Enforcement - extends duration of all "Daemon" effects, on friendly and hostile targets. So the more Synthesis stuff is going on, the more useful this gets.

4) Upload AC Data - resets cooldowns on friendly target. While this shows as "can only be used once per battle", it actually gives you a new ability to use on any corpse. This resets all of the Network Link cooldows, including AC Data itself.


Avatar - Generally more useful if your enemy has a lot of machine/cyborg units. Stagger Immune. Can be used in all-floating/flying armies. Same like the Network Link, It is a regular Machine unit with -2 arc resistance so it goes best with one of the two arc resistance mods.
All its abilites work exactly as in the tooltips, so again you have the obvious arc and machine synergy with Assembly.


Then you have the various "spells", like Skirmish Subroutines which fixes the problem of Assembly normally not having access to stagger resistance.
In particular the Society 2.0 doctrine is amazing, because Assembly normally has problems with colony happiness when they build their Overdrive Reactors for cosmite production.

Or you should try giving the Malware Daemon to all your units. In particular if they already have a stun module. Now your army of 6 is an army of 12.

[CrUsHeR]

And of course: Voidtech Assembly.


Echo Walker - Well...

Did you ever build like 3-5 of those, equipped with Gravity Pulse Grenades?
Each of them counts double, including their grenade throws. So one echo walker can throw two pulse grenades, and so on. Best and cheapest method to staggerlock groups of enemies, and apply Dimensional Instability.
They also get ignore overwatch at prime rank, which includes melee overwatch from much more dangerous and expensive T3/4 units.

Normally their business is kamikaze, but with the Arc Retaliation and Reassembly Modules, they can make for pretty cheap spammable units all the way through.
Good thing is that the AI knows very well how to use them in auto-battles, in particular with the GP grenade tactic.



Phase Manipulator - IMHO the best unit in the game. The cosmite costs for the optimal mods are pretty high, though.

1) Flying unit, mindless, fast movement, arc weapons with 7 range. This means for an army with only Phase Manipulators, you take both the Stun- and Extension modules, and stunlock everything. Reassembly Modules can be added for the ultimate auto-battle army.

There is practically nothing the AI can do against this. Worth saving all your cosmite for, because as soon as you have a flying hero with 5 modded Phase Manipulators, you can clear all the structures on the map with lightning speed. If possible try to get an Imperial Dragonfly as vehicle for your hero.

Likewise useful to defeat other players, because you can fly so fast to their HQ after killing their commander.


2) Abduct & Evacuate. Ha, ha, ha. Funniest thing in all strategy games.

So if your enemy is just waiting in cover, you fly forward and Abduct one of them.
Then evacuate the guy who did the abduction. The rest of the army can now kill the target sitting alone in the open.
If it doesn't work on first try, just evacuate out of range and repeat the next turn.

You can also do other amazing things with this, like flying on top of an enemy unit, then using Evacuate on e.g. your melee Hero or Wrecker. That way he gets into melee range with no action points used.

Oh and did i mention that Evacuate is about the only healing spell with a cooldown?
This also makes the Phase Manipulator one of the best support units.



Rift Generator - pretty fun with the Dimensional Rift, but nothing to write home about. Phase Manipulators, and other units like the Reaver do a much better job for this price. Can be a decent hero vehicle, because it makes you Mindless and thus immune against a large amount of effects.


Another thing is that Voidtech mods allow to actually utilize less interesting units.
For example the Wrecker with the Phase Drive teleport is actually amazing.
Or the Quantum Avatar mod can drive your enemy crazy, because all repeating attacks are interrupted on the first hit by teleporting the attacker away.

[Neput 234]

It would probably be easier to list sub-optimal combinations, than the other way around

Amazon / Kirko / "Bio" heavy faction/race with Synthesis secret tech, due to lack of mechanical / cyborg units that would be "integrated" by default ( other than "city garrisons" ).

Vanguard / Dvar / "Mech" heavy faction/race with Xeno-plague secret tech, due to "unit type mod" restrictions. ( Cyborgs and some Battle-suits can have Xeno-plague mods )

The rest of secret techs have at least one or two "good" mods + units combos to be considered useful.

Things get a bit more complicated when NPC factions ( like Psi Fish for example ) are factored in.

[Raga]

Vanguard Xenoplague or Assembly Xenoplague.

First boosts only heroes and infantry but provides a lot of melee units the race is missing.

Second can affect all of their units and provides a lot of hp boost and regeneration sources.

[BlackDragon]

That actually brings up a specific question... namely, the Vanguard and Shakarn. I have a hard time really finding any good synergistic matches for either of them, since NONE of the secret techs use the same damage-channels as them - that is, Firearms, Lasers or Sonic. They're also both chiefly focused on ranged combat, and while there are some techs that provide specific advantages for melee-units (Moving through units with Voidtech, spreading the Xenoplague), there isn't really any that focus on aiding ranged units.

Using Xenoplague with Vanguard to specifically COMPENSATE for their lack of short-range options as Raga suggests is an interesting approach, but it'd make for a rough start in spreading the damn thing for sure. And also, the Xenoplague is just extremely potent in general, so there's no shortage of races that it synergizes with BETTER. Similarly, Xenoplague-Assembly sounds great, but there's LOTS of good ways to synergize with the Assembly due to their dualistic nature...

So, basically... what works well with Vanguard or Shakarn? And for that matter, what about some of the secret techs that haven't really been mentioned yet, like Prometheans? They, too, seem an odd one out, since no races have any particular affinity for Plasma damage, which is all THEY do. Any good synergies I'm missing?

[Syrris]

Synthesis: The Vanguard ae machine-heavy, which means auto-integration, and Targeting Daemon Shell is worth putting on their biological units for the attack boost anyway.

VoidTech: This is really a 'pairs well with everything' secret tech, and it's no different for the Vanguard or the Shakarn. They don't need damage-type matchups for the operations or dimensional instability to work, and Echo Walkers provide a solid melee option early on. (Also, don't discount the utility of being able to walk through things for ranged combatants...)

Promethean: both Laser and Plasma weapons apply and play off of Thermal status effects, so while you can't generally equip mods for one on the other, laser-based and plasma-based units do provide some mutual support.

I don't have much experience with the other combinations.

[CrUsHeR]

Last things first: Promethean.


I personally don't like playing them. It already starts with their T2 unit (Purifier) being not good at anything. If their plasma bomb even hits, it has no stopping power or other effects than Burning. Which is particularily stupid because the Prometheans are pictured as the "Anti-Xenoplague" faction, but they can't even stop a Pustule in its track.



However, because Empire Mode is the true game nowadays, i always have one Promethean hero in every empire roster.

1) Colonize Everything: Because of their early doctrine operation, you can settle all sectors with hazards and volcanic terrain. This is a huge advantage on some map types. Likely you'll still be winning the map with racial units, though.

2) Melee Heroes: Because melee heroes get Resurgence for their whole army at level 11, you basically only want those. As it happens, Promethean heroes are excellent at melee because of their Phoenix Surge.



There also are nice gadgets like the mod for hazard immunity, obviously you want that on maps where 50% of all sectors have hazards on them.

Generally the Prometheans have a slight synergy with anyone using Laser weapons, due to mutual burning effects with Plasma weapons. So Shakarn, Vanguard and Amazons are a good pick if you really want to play Promethean.

[CrUsHeR]

Shakarn: Best.

Seriously, i would rank them as number 1 in the fun/effectiveness ratio. Perhaps a draw with Assembly, due to their combo of arc + resurgence being hard to match by anything else.


As mentioned, Empire Mode is >the< thing. And all empire maps are either Continents, or Islands. Only exceptions are maps where oceans are replaced with lava or void.
And since all Shakarn units have water walking, they have a massive advantage.

Every other empire has to research the water tech first, otherwise they cannot cross water at all. Having that, your army has to run to the shore, then it doesn't have APs to embark. Next turn embark, out of AP again. And so on. Then you have the water creatures and ships, which are absolutely deadly for embarked units.

Shakarn do not embark because they are amphibious. It only costs 4 AP to walk on water tiles, and the water creatures are just like normal critters for them. This is also because of how their army works.


1) Raiders: The best standalone T1 unit in the game.

You just need the first Sonic mod on them (Deafening Amplifiers), then run up to the enemy and use their Omni Rush in melee range. They have Fast Movement by default, and the Omni Rush has 3 hex range, so it should be easy to take several targets at once into crossfire.

The basic effect is stagger and 4p concussion, and with the Deafening mod you always have either these effects, or at least Disorient. Though you obviously want to add more mods, just mix and match with anything you like from Sound or Laser categories. An obvious choice is the Hard Light Systems with +1 stagger level.

The third mod could be something defensive from your Secret Tech, like Phasewalk, Guardian Daemon, etc.

So this T1 unit costs about 15 cosmite with three highly effective mods, while a naked (and useless) T2 unit already costs 10 cosmite.
But an army with ~3 raiders in it can easily go face to face with T2-4 units. Of course you can make them even more dangerous with more expensive mods, but there are other options than only Raiders.


2) Infiltrator: People don't like them.

Just so much that it gives some tactical freedom, to mimic whatever best enemy unit you can find. Example a Psi-Fish Hunter is an excellent choice, and you can re-use that as long as you want. Or perhaps something from your own secret tech.
There also is the advantage that the Infiltrator doesn't die when shapeshifted, but teleports away and loses the shapeshift first.

The actual disadvantage is that they can never use any mods, in case of Synthesis/Voidtech/Xenoplague it means that they can never benefit from your ST mechanics.
So you generally don't want to spend resources on building them.


3) Deadeye:

Stagger resistant semi-sniper. Mostly benefits from combining Laser- and Sonic mods.
Can be a lot of fun when experimenting with various mods and tactics.
The Omni Cannon is also amazing for Shakarn heroes, likely you don't want to replace that any time soon.


Well just so much about their possible starting units. Everything else Shakarn is amazing, from the Sleeper Agents to the Tactician.
Their mods can be (ab)used for a lot of crazy things, like the Reverb chain explosions.

Basically you want to play them highly offensive; on the first turn you get into dodg-ey positions where your units can't be hit and summon your sleeper agents, in the second turn you charge in with Raiders to stagger/stun/disorient everyone.


For Secret Tech options, you can try all of them. I personally love playing Shakarn Synthesis; while their Hackers don't get Arc mods, they can just use something like the Portable Scanners, then their Chain Lightning applies -2 resistances instead, giving your Raiders a better shot.

Another tip is to get the Enhanced Limb Augments from the Therians, then your entire infantry army gets Fast Movement, which makes quite a difference both in tactical battles and world map navigation.

Quite frankly, there are so many toys and gadgets for Shakarn players. It is easily the most diverse and fun faction in the game. Worth spending some time to figure out things yourself.


Edit: and almost forgot to mention their affinity for Covert Ops. Infiltrate Operation Center actually allows you to research the racial tech of any other player.

[BlackDragon]

Hmm... good points. Though, I can never quite divorce myself from the THEMATIC implications of a given combo, and I gotta say, Promethean Amazons is one of the strangest. :P "We must defend this green world and all its teeming lifeforms... by BURNING IT ALL TO THE GROUND! YAY NAPALM!"

I can see why some would not like them, but I rather admire their singlemindedness. EVERYTHING they build is all about the burnination, and gets advantage from it. Set units on fire and then hit them with greater accuracy and damage! Set the GROUND on fire and enjoy regeneration and improved defense while standing on it! Burn things up close with flamethrowers! Burn things at a distance with firebombs! Burn the eyes out of an entire enemy army with a tactical nuclear strike! And then finish up by burning the entire planet with your PyrX superweapons.

I'd mostly played them with Dvar so far, an obvious sort of combo - though it does work pretty well, since Prometheans also have a lot of DEFENSIVE boosts, and Dvar are defensive in the first place, making for some very tough units. Combining them with Vanguard or Shakarn sounds intriguing though... combined with a certain cosmetic-pack, it gives me an idea. Might add a new Promethean Vanguard Commander to my Empire, with inspiration taken from the classic Apocalypse Now... :D *plays Ride of the Valkyries*

[CrUsHeR]

Vanguard: Meh.


I don't find them effective. In particular the early expansion phase can feel like "hard mode" compared to others. Quite similar to Syndicate in that aspect.

Sharing one property with the Dvar, they only have two non-machine units in their roster. Which means all your powerful units are easy targets for Synthesis, Heritor, or just any Assembly player. There is no way to get rid of the -2 arc resistance, so any anti-machine attack almost always works.


For example the Gunships are really good, with the right Firearms mods and a Pilot hero, they work pretty well to sweep the map. Problem is the same as with all their other units, that Vanguard has no way to efficiently heal their machines, not even having a hero skill for that. So your best hope is to get either healing module from Assembly/Autonom.

The production bonuses are irrelevant, because when you are 5-10 turns from your next colony, and you cannot heal your units or replace dead ones, the whole "war of attrition" thing doesn't really work.

From me a thumbs down, no need to analyze all their units/mods and such.

[Raga]

In case of Vanguard Xenoplague I take female melee hero and name her Sarah Kerrigan. Then Infested marines are very thematic :)

As for army composition I use pustules (with hp and melee upgrades are not bad for start) and marines for support. Plague pods which heal and damage/stagger enemies at the same time are nice. For harder hitting usually use hero with bikes (all round awareness eliminates the flanking penalty, and plating with two laser upgrades deal nice damage. Aoe attack with no cooldown is also nice). Another hero with laser shotgun fills the gap. I move to heavier vehicles only out of boredom.