Antihero Units

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 11 Jul 2017

Master Thief

These are the three default Master Thieves that can be picked from, each being purely cosmetic. The Master Thief begins each turn at the Thieves Den, and retreats to it after your turn is finished. Because this unit doesn’t remain on the board, it’s your only investment that your opponent can not directly remove. Thieves will start the game with two action points, zero damage and the ability to scout paths and buildings.

Urchin

Unlock: 1 lantern (Cooking)

Cost: 3 gold

Uses: Fills buildings to gain their bonuses, captures objectives on some maps.

Overview: Basic unit, allows you to generate resources outside of your thief and gang. Can capture VP’s on most maps and if you own/upgrade the orphanage, they can evict one urchin as well. Not much else to be said.

Thug

Unlock: 2 lanterns (Brewing)

Cost: 3 gold, plus 1 gold per Thug owned on map (doesn’t include Thugs that are part of gangs)

Uses: Guards 1 tile for 2 turns or until killed, or joins a gang permanently to boost health by 1.

Overview: Early game unlock, but mid game costs. Thugs have their uses, but ultimately aren’t worth buying often. The tree the unlock sits in benefits only thugs by giving more health, so it’s not a required buy for something more valuable. Costing 3 gold plus 1 for each you already have out or bought this turn is a huge expense early game for something with no return. If placed as a guard, the largest benefit you get is eating an action point or forcing playing around it. Monetarily though, you end up with the net loss more times than not. If the opponent kills the thug they get kill credit, meaning their gangs level up, they get gold for the kill, etc. So you’re spending 3 gold to eat an action and give them at least 1 gold for that action. The other option of this unit is to buff the health of your current gang. This generally sounds better than it is. Unless that Thug is for sure going to keep your gang alive, you’re just throwing away 3 gold that could have been saved to counter your gangs untimely demise.

Gang

Unlock: 1 lantern (Gang), 6 lantern (Second Gang)

Cost: 3 gold

Uses: Attacks units or evicts buildings. Starts with 1 damage/gold per kill/urchin evicted, scaling upwards as unit levels up from killing or evicting.

Overview: The most important unit next to the Master Thief. Maps are very RNG based, sometimes you’re dealt both trading houses and a bank, others you get all of the estates, either way, the gang allows you to play around what you’re dealt. The gang is also one of the hardest units to use efficient and effectively. Only receiving 1 upgrade a turn, you have to plan ahead with the gang which requires map knowledge and assessing your opponents playstyle. Knowing where and when to strike also plays a huge roll in the early game, not making an action is bad, but dieing for the action you took can be far worse because of how the unit ramps up.

Saboteur

Unlock: 3 lanterns (Explosives)

Cost: 3 gold

Uses: Scouts/loots fogged buildings, traps for 2 turns otherwise. Takes 1 gold from opponent and gives it to you if trap is triggered. Traps remove all actions of the unit that hits it, stunning them, Master Thief included. Stunned units can be passed through.

Overview: All game unit and the most versatile unit in your kit. Sitting in the second tier of the Skullduggery skill tree, this unit can be unlocked by turn 3 or 4. On top of the early unlock, the unit only costs 3 gold and in return offers map knowledge as well as 2 gold or 1 lantern back. There’s not much in this game that offers that much bang for your buck. That’s only half of this units ability, the other allowing you to eat your opponents actions, secure objectives, guarantee evictions. Hitting a well placed trap by your opponent can cost you the game alone. For example: If you take an objective and there’s an estate with jewelry in it that your opponent would likely need to take to stop you. Instead of trapping the objective you could trap the estate. Your opponent could clear it with their gang and attempt to take the jewelry first eating all of their thieves action points. Then on your turn, you have the objective and the free gold from the estate.

Truant Officer

Unlock: 5 lanterns (Truant Officer)

Cost: 7 gold

Uses: Evicts all urchins in a single building.

Overview: The cost to unlock and buy this unit warrant late game class, but its value as a unit diminishes the longer the game goes on. Thankfully, since it sits towards the bottom of the Sneakery skill tree, its available to buy fairly early depending on the game. If you can get a well timed full evict off, while not spending lanterns you can’t afford, it can cripple your opponent by denying them crucial resources. More often than not, this only happens when your opponent doesn’t own the bank and is over spending on their turns. As for defensive play, its a good counter to your opponent filling a church before they can confirm a match win.

Assassin

Unlock: 5 lanterns (The Sisters)

Cost: 8 gold

Uses: Deal 6 damage to any single unit, secures VP’s and counters thug’ed gangs.

Overview: Mainly a late game unit to secure kills and finish the match. During mid-game however, keeping 5 lanterns on the end of your turns income is useful as well. The knowledge that you have this ready will either keep the opponents leveled up gang away from you, or punish them if they don’t.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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