At its heart, the Euclid is a carrier. With 8xTFT capacity, Combat Launch and Double Decker, the thing from another world is one of the best equipped carriers in the game. Capable of launching two squadrons of four Covenant drones a turn, and firing all weapons at the same time, the Euclid will be raining fire on the enemies of the Covenant all game long.
And now I hear you cry "But Seb, it's a Dreadnought, not a Sky Fortress. Why does it have drones?". Well kiddo, the answer is thus: It's both. This thing does everything. And more, if you want to pay the price for upgrades. Seriously, you can spend as long working out your upgrades for this thing as your opponent will spend trying to kill it. Despite being equipped with a long list of MARs, weapons and generators, the Euclid has space for more. Let's start with the basics: Extra generators. Although it's already equipped with an Amplified Shield Generator with Inventive Scientists, it can also choose from either a Mine Controller Generator (12"), or a Target Painter (Telescopic Zoom 16") for 20 points. With this, you can either have this thing trailing mines around, or paint up a tasty target for all the weapons and drones, from range band two. Next up, Combat Coordinator. There are two options here, and you can choose one for 10 points. First up is Combat Coordinator[CoA TFTs, Acrobatic Pilots, 8"]- because all those drone bombers you have hitting on 2+ from the Target Painter needed to negate 1/3 of all AA hits against them, just to make sure. The second choice you have here is Combat Coordinator[CoA Robots, Ferocious, 8"]. Because those Prussians have lorded it over us with their Fausts for too long (Or at least, since the last release batch). But then, what good is a robot upgrade without robots? So, for a grand 50 points, the Euclid can carry a full squadron of Colossus small robots, using Combat Drop(CoA Colossus Robots, 4). Even in a naval battle, take the robots and drop them on an island somewhere to snipe enemy smalls and mediums. And if your opponent takes time killing them, all the better- they get none of the points unless the Euclid is dead.
The most interesting upgrade you can take, though is the 10 point Heroic Commodore upgrade. Priya Kumar has a couple of interesting abilities. The first allows her to buy Sturginium Boost for any Medium or larger model, for 5 or 10 points per model, respectively. Note the lack of restriction on it being on the Euclid, too. Yet another upgrade. Her other ability is the real stinger, though. Ever thought that there should be a way to weaponise the lunatic cackling that comes to any good Covenant commander? Fusion Cascade is what you need. Any capital model Priya kills with the Euclid's energy weapons (and you'll love those when I get to them) on the turn this ability is activated is considered to have Combustible Cargo. That's right. If you ever wished you could have more explosions from your giant lasers, she's got them for you. So it's only a once per game ability- how many battleships (and cruisers, and... yeah. Lots of things) are you going to kill in one activation?
So, what are these hilarious energy weapons? For a start, there's an Energy Turret, with 10AD at all ranges. Nice, but fairly standard. And nothing compared to what's coming next. There's a 16AD Particle Accelerator. Oh yes. On a flying dreadnought. Those of you who read my post about the Capek and the box theme will know why this is great on the Euclid. I'll come back to those later for those of you who weren't paying attention. Finally, there are two 6AD rocket batteries. Eh, guess they'll do. Might annoy some smalls, but since rockets have a habit of doing nothing at all, it feels more like they're there just because two guns isn't enough for a dreadnought.
Now, a dreadnought isn't a dreadnought without some survivability, and the Euclid has it. DR7, CR11, with 10HP. You might say that isn't that much for a dreadnought, but with the 3d6 + reroll of the Amplified Shield Generator, the toughness of this model shoots up. Along with 10AP, 8AA, and Electrical Defences, which should make the Euclid a tough prospects to board, it also comes with Experienced Engineers, so even if it does take some negative effects from enemy fire, it should do a good job of shrugging them off. Other MARs include Limited Availability(1500), because one of them is already a scary prospect, and Radio Network, because it's so big it might as well count as another squadron.
Finally, we need to talk about the manoeuvrability of the Euclid. It moves 8". Yeah. A dreadnought moves 8". And it has Hit-and-Run, and a 360-degree movement, as well as Low Level Flyer, because we need to make sure that Particle Accelerator is where we want it. For a dreadnought, this thing has some utterly insane mobility. This is the crux of the matter: this is not a dreadnought like any we've ever seen before. It's a highly mobile, high-finesse piece of kit, that can go where it needs to go, drop some of the coolest toys the Covenant has on its opponent, and, because all its weapons are at least Redoubtable, keep doing that until it finally drops out of the sky (if it ever does). The capability of this vessel, when used correctly, is massive. It can hop in and out of range, equip itself with exactly what it needs to accomplish its mission, and make your opponent tear his hair out trying to stop it.
I would compare it to other vessels in it's class, but the only one that comes close is the Epicurus Sky Fortress. I'm a big fan of the Epicurus, but this is a different beast entirely. I've found the Sky Fortress effective when paired with something else big, and it generally becomes the less important target compared to the battleship that's advancing down the flank with it, so it can continue to reliably pick off smaller targets and drop drones on things. The Euclid, though... is not going to do that. It's not going to be the lower priority target. There's nothing big that can keep up with it. While the Epicurus sails gracefully, the Euclid is going to do a jig, jumping around enemy vessels, and being where the the opponent would really rather it wasn't, where it can't be pinned down and they can't get a grip on it. In short, the Euclid is going to be a right holy terror.
No comments:
Post a Comment