Operation: Establish Dominance [v0.3.5] [Artisnal Depravity]

Defend

• AJ can prep defend from 3 squares away, enemies can prep defend against aj from 2 squares away.
• Defend is a queue. Once an enemy has a defend in queue against aj, it stays there until she attacks them (or defeats them with a grapple)
• (the risk) Every grapple attempt against any combatant with a defend in their queue instantly succeeds (and removes the defend from their queue)
• (the payoff) Every attack against any combatant with a defend in their queue instantly fails, and triggers a counter-attack for chaingirl and Aj
• Enemy mobs always take an action if they are within range to do so. So if a mob moves adjacent and does nothing, that means they just queued a defend against you.
• Because AJ has a counter-attack against all mobs, Defend can work like a third attack action if you use it wisely.
• pro tip: AJ’s ability to escape grapples depends on her having a turn before the grapple gets too deep, so use defend against enemies just before her in the turn order, or the ones at the very bottom of the initiative stack. Any enemy that takes its move 3 or 4 turns before AJ’s is generally safe to fire defend against. Its also safe to queue defends when the number of enemies left is <=4.

Attack

• Attacks are free with respect to energy.
• They have the same chance to hit as a grapple, unless the enemy is defending, in which case they always fail
• Chaingirls can attack from 2 squares away.
• Attacking a chaingirl who has queued a defend results in a reversal-takedown (dangerous)
• Attacking a thug who has queued a defend just results in a miss (safe)
• pro tip: AJ has two actions per turn (to start), if you aren’t sure whether a chaingirl has a defend queued, attack her on AJ’s FIRST ACTION, that way you’ll have an action remaining to escape the counter if the chaingirl is defending.

Grapple

• Grapples cost 1d4+4 energy to use
• Grapples have the same chance to hit as an attack, unless the enemy is defending, in which case they always hit.
• Grapples eat AJ’s entire turn to escape. So being grappled can give other enemy units a “free” movement turn, and result in aj being overrun
• Chaingirls can grapple from 2 squares away
• pro tip: Save your grapple attacks for enemies you KNOW are defending (eg.. enemies you have observed move into attack range without making an attack or grapple attempt)

Maneuver

• AJ starts with 4 moves per turn, Thugv1: 3 and chaingirl: 2. Movement is her most powerful early-game advantage.
• pro-tip: use movement and the map to minimize the number of enemies in attack range. Fight with your back against a wall, or from within alley ways. Attack and then move away.