Board & Card Games Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who like playing board games, designing board games or modifying the rules of existing board games. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
It seems to me that the red army in Neuroshima is the most powerful one, it has more tough and shield tiles than any other. On the other hand, it is very limited in movements.
When playing one-to-one game against Moloch, what strategy should one choose to win?
As far as I can say, the best way is to move often and to destroy it as early as possible before it gets to use the nuke.
Please take a look at following topics on bgg:
- Occupy hexes where Moloch would want to place his shooters. You don't even need useful fighter there: sacrificing your module to occupy that nice spot behind Moloch HQ is perfectly reasonable. This will not only save you at least 2 hp, but also make Moloch place his good units in bad positions. Always keep best places shut from the enemy (this applies to fighting every other army as well, they just favor other positions).
- Continuing previous tip, place some fast (3-initiative at least) guys nearby, but not adjacent to Moloch HQ, and target Moloch shooter spots. Moloch will have to waste turns neutralizing your units before he can safely attack you.
- If Moloch HQ is in the center, place a shooter directly behind HQ, but in the corner. It will kill shooters and, if there are none, damage HQ.
- Use meat shields. Put your units between your HQ and Moloch shooters. Sometimes deflecting 2 damage is best use for a unit.
- Move. It isn't easy for Moloch to adjust it's aim since it doesn't have many Move tiles. If Moloch HQ is in the corner, you'll probably have plenty blind spots where HQ-enhanced shooters won't reach you.
- Play Battle carefully. After each battle you will lose your shielding units, and your HQ and important guys will be unprotected. On the other hand, each time you don't play Battle, you risk losing your perfect setup to bomb.
Units to watch for: Bomb, Net Fighter, Push, Cyborg, Hunter Killer Storm Trooper
For example, try to make Moloch player initiate a battle (or generally, to play offensively):
Never, never, never initiate a battle as Moloch. Never. You will only get the pieces around your HQ killed on your turn, and your opponent can then fill them. Let them battle, and then refill them yourself.
Against Moloch its best to place the NeoJungle HQ in the middle, you can use the HQ's ability without the need of building long supply chains. Put as many units as you can adjacent to Moloch's HQ to prevent its bunkering, also to make the most use of your castling, and as long as the airstrike is in the deck, scatter your units, mix it with Moloch's. You have three netters; place them on the borders to make the airstrike equally bad for your opponent. Use the two Nightshades against the HQ, don't waste it on units. If nothing else, there are plenty of Slicers, buffed up they can do plenty of damage.
Handling Air Strike:
FlameBird: I still don't think you can do much against the Air Strike; simply targeting your HQ will always get some good stuff destroyed.
Midaga: I think you have to learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. There's only one nuke in there, you can anticipate it, it's bad for Moloch too, it creates room on the board for you, you should wish for it. Also, you have the Small Bomb, which is much more useful, as its precision strike lets you do relatively more damage.
Versus Moloch, Outpost's HQ can dance to dodge Moloch's augmented ranged shots, while Moloch sits still for Outpost's repeated ranged shots. As long as Moloch's nuke remains unplayed, Outpost can use move and battle tiles liberally, to keep unit density low; that's Outpost's normal game plan anyway.
And this one on Neuroshima Hex! Strategy Blog:
If you have ranged units, try using them to attack Moloch’s base from a different direction then your base. Doing this will ensure that Moloch cannot both address this unit and attack your base at the same time. Also, if the Moloch use a soldier to attack this unit, odds are they will never get a move to turn that soldier onto your base. Remember that moving away from Moloch units will likely make that unit kind of worthless. Also remember that pushing Moloch units can accomplish the same thing. Avoid clustering your units if possible. They have a freakin’ airstrike. Never just leave the Gauss gun pointed on your base. Address it.
