We need to talk about Into the Breach

SuperflyTNT wrote: Buy Fallout Tactics instead.

That game is awesome.

ugh, clicking on Matt's link is a real rabbit hole. I starting reading article after article after article. Which is weird cuz I don't PC-game at all.

Anyway, Matt's review of Twilight Struggle digital board game was awesome. It really made me miss that board game like crazy.

Got the "lucky" achievement with the Random Squad by winning without spending any Rep. (Did it after 2 islands of course). I had a team of the punching guy from the first team, and the rocket and jet mechs from the dust squad. It was basically my dream. Lots of control with the ability to sock guys for 4-5 damage. I find I do best with the guys that work strictly linearly. Lightning guy and any of the artillery that cause massive cross shaped shenanigans take me a bit longer to unpack and use effectively.

Wow! That's a tough one Jexik!!!

Brilliant, brilliant game. It’s like the Platonic ideal of game design. Beautifully crafted at every level. I’m going to be playing it for the foreseeable future.

Can’t really see it getting old because of the procedural angle — no two missions play out the same, and there are often multiple solutions to a given turn. It’s a puzzle game but the genius of it is that the puzzles are procedural. There are no predetermined solutions, only a variable toolkit and a series of constantly reconfiguring obstacles.

Yeah, game is scarily good.

Even the plot makes sense, to the extent that time travel games ever can.

I'm definitely addicted to smoke. I beat the 3-identical-mech challenge with the Rocket Mech from the Rusted Hulks, and completed some other challenges with the duo Jet + Rocket mech + whoever = Win. The rocket mech is just nuts. It's one of the few ranged units that just does 2 direct damage, which makes it ideal for destroying psions. With the push built in, it can even take out those spitting guys or scorpions early game in 1-shot, or push all kinds of stuff into water or other hazards. It seems like pushing _back_ is the best direction to push, at least for the way my brain works and to defend buildings. Since the Rocket Mech is great out of the gate, it allows you to pump a bunch of cores into the Jet, which becomes very useful when you extend its range and moblity, and later its health and damage. And yes, Camila is great in the jet, being immune to getting grabbed lets me put her right in the front every time, while putting the ranged mech way back. I'm finally starting to think more about my placement and get to understand the AI's priorities, which I think really helps deal with missions. Usually that first turn sets the tone.

I think direction moved utility all depends on map alignment. I think there are two important qualities to a into the breach map: 1) if there is water/acid/fire you can knock people into (or fucking TELEPORT THEM INTO, that science mech in the fire group is RAD) 2) how many discrete lines n/s or e/w have no building in them. If you run into a map setup with evenly spread out buildings, it can be really difficult.

I played like 15 hours of this and loved it. I'll come back to it, but I went back to Stellaris for now.

Any tips on using the lightning whip mech? He doesn't have much killing power, and is basically unusable in some scenarios with the chain damage which can destroy the train, earthmover, or other friendlies.

Haven't used it much, just bought that team. But my first recommendation is to upgrade the reactor to make it chain with buildings, it is key.

One thing that I think is a slight annoyance is that certain teams are simply bad or almost unable to do certain mission types. The flame mechs and the dam destroy mission is a nightmare. The flame mechs do damage almost solely through fire and the teleport, neither of which can do any damage to the dam. You have to be super lucky and creative to get that rep.

Agreed on the Flame Behemoths and the dam missions, also hard to hit the "Kill 7 Vek" VP with them. On future runs with them I will try to work around that by choosing regions that don't have those requirements.

I just wrapped a 3-island win with the Behemoths that came down to insane Rube Goldberg solutions on that last level. Super satisfying!

I'm trying to decide what to do next in the game, I got the 1st squad down pat with a 2-3-4 island win. Fire was next with 2 and 3 wins. Maybe go for 4? Or maybe mix it up by trying the rust or laser squad?

What is the best early upgrade with the rust squad, for those who were doing well with it? I didn't do well the last time I used them.

Gary Sax wrote: Haven't used it much, just bought that team. But my first recommendation is to upgrade the reactor to make it chain with buildings, it is key.

One thing that I think is a slight annoyance is that certain teams are simply bad or almost unable to do certain mission types. The flame mechs and the dam destroy mission is a nightmare. The flame mechs do damage almost solely through fire and the teleport, neither of which can do any damage to the dam. You have to be super lucky and creative to get that rep.

I played a little more with this team again this evening, and I'm still at a loss with the lightning mech. The building upgrade is 1 energy and the damage is, I believe 2 extra energy, so it takes some time to get him to even do 3 damage.The real problem, however, is the chain, which causes a huge amount of collateral damage. Any levels with ice blocks, ally tanks, or other items make this problem even worse. It's pretty annoying. I've gotten to the final island twice with them, but I don't seem to get the killing power necessary to power through all the elites. Any spiders or blobs just throw the match down the drain. Maybe time to try another team for awhile.

Yeah, some just click and some do not.

Played some with the laser team tonight. It didn't feel very natural but I scraped out a 2 island win. It is amazing to feel how important all that push in squad 1 is. Laser squad *should* feel more raw dangerous but it isn't because the prime mech laser does no push, so even if it deals 3 damage you often have not solved the problem of your opponent firing. By contrast, with squad one, the punch does two damage but often clears danger simultaneously.

Gary Sax wrote: What is the best early upgrade with the rust squad, for those who were doing well with it? I didn't do well the last time I used them.

Put your first reactor point into the Repulsor, to give it the self-shield. That allows it to get in the fray and start blocking spawns. Look for good passives or 1-shot abilities to give as its 2nd skill. The Rocket mech is so good that you really don't need to upgrade it all except maybe its movement. Should happen naturally from XP though. I said it a bunch, but the anti-smoke and web pilot is great on the jet- it allows you to start your jump in the smoke. Sure, you can jump out of the webs naturally with the jet, but being able to fly around first is great. (If your camila is already max level from a previous run or you're a couple islands deep, she can be really good in the repulsor too). Put the most reactors into the jet, because it gains a lot from extra health and mobility, as well as getting that +1 Range on its bomb drop. The angles and flexibility it will offer you are insane. To get the 12 smoke damage achievement though, you're going to have to upgrade that passive smoke ability (which starts on the Rocket but can be moved elsewhere), and usually get the extra range on the bomb drop.

I've unlocked all of the teams now, and most of them feel pretty awkward in some way or another. I've had more success with randoms or the gimmicky 3-of-a-kind custom teams.

I kind of hate the lightning team, but I think the Hook mech has armor for a reason... to create a big cluster of a group hug in the middle of the map for your lightning guy to zap, while boulder guy snipes whatever. As awful as the Lightning team is on the terraformer and land mover, it's GREAT on dam missions. Your hook mech can get kills all day and the rock or lightning guy can blow up the dam in one shot. I wonder if you can get the 10-chain achievement (by blowing up some objectives) and then rewind time and still get it? Probably, lol!

Gary Sax wrote: Played some with the laser team tonight. It didn't feel very natural but I scraped out a 2 island win. It is amazing to feel how important all that push in squad 1 is. Laser squad *should* feel more raw dangerous but it isn't because the prime mech laser does no push, so even if it deals 3 damage you often have not solved the problem of your opponent firing. By contrast, with squad one, the punch does two damage but often clears danger simultaneously.

I like them better than lightning, but again, I think I like the linear movement guys. Their science guy is pretty handy with his shield that can protect two buildings, and the charge mech is great if you can get the armor pilot or boost his health. Feels a lot like the prime punchy guy from the first group.

Ice team is blah. Aegis Mech is pretty cool. Hits hard and flips guys, while being tough. But the ice thing seems useless (it freezes itself and others, so that 4-use achievement is harder than it looks), and then the other one is Brute that's similar to the first team's guy, but it fires behind itself too. It can just be hard to find the right places to use them without messing yourself up. It's one way to break your guy back out of the ice, but it's still awkward.

The fire team is neat but as you guys noted, bad at some objectives, the acid ones were especially hard to get because burning and acid seem to overwrite each other. If you're up against regenerating psions, you're SOL. Although maybe upgrading the ranged mech to +2 damage is a good early upgrade? That'd mean you can't drop fire on your own building anymore though...

The Unstable team is neat- their damage is off the charts, and even with Abe (armor pilot) in one of them, you're liable to get someone killed or have a lot of collateral damage. (if you haven't gotten these guys, both their Prime and their Brute do self damage with every attack, and cause lots of knockback. Their science guy has a passive that heals a mech for every kill they score, and has an acid gun that deals no damage but causes knockback). They're like every 80s cop movie with mechs added. I used a trio of their little acid guy, rust jet, and fire teleport man to get the flying achievement. Because their damage is so high, they're probably a good candidate for the "don't upgrade your weapons until the end of the 3rd island" achievement. Extra health and movement to start, and maybe bring along the pilots that take energy.

Yeah, I honestly didn't get the +2 damage for the fire artillery because if anything it felt like a disadvantage.