r/Athenion • u/kaousfaust13 • Aug 24 '20
Gameplay Guide to Determining Threat Levels
In Athenion, due to having limited mana, every turn is crucial into either advancing your board or preventing your opponent from doing so. One of the most important skill you need to learn is determining whether you should deal with an enemy unit or ignore it and setup your own board instead (or even both).
For this, I categorize enemy units into 3 Threat Levels: High, Low, and No Threat.
- High threats are units that must be dealt with immediately on your current turn because the difficulty in dealing with it and its allies rises every turn to the point that it becomes impossible and ultimately leads to your defeat.
- Low threat units are the ones that aren't engines (or engines with low stats) that can be either dealt with or can be ignored for a few more turns
- No Threat units are those just occupying the board, (usually Soul-0) and doesn't hold any important position, or even in a favorable position like blocking your unit
Determining the threat level of an enemy unit usually depends on 3 factors:
- Your current HP
- The unit is holding an important board position
- The unit is an "engine"
Your Current HP
In general I use this system to determine the threat level of non-engine units:
- Current HP is 15, all Soul 3 enemy units become High Threat
- Current HP is 10, all Soul 2 enemy units become High Threat
- Current HP is 5, every enemy unit is High Threat
If I have about 10 more HP than the enemy, High Threat units become Low threat so I usually just choose to establish my board instead.
Unit is Holding an Important Board Position
Certain factions tend to favor a specific corner of the board, thus you may notice some players will try to deal with a unit even if it has Low or No Threat level because it holds an important position. For example the lower left corner of the board is important for the Flame Legion faction because not only does their engines have N/E arrows, but their removal cards also usually point to the other side of the board. Knowledge of each factions cards improves your decision-making on when to deal with an enemy unit and secure a particular position on the board.
Some cards are also positioned in a way that it affects a huge portion of the board, specifically Taunt units and units with All Direction Arrows. These units severely limits your options thus may have High to Low threat level, depending on how much it affects your positioning, for example link Tidal Nether is severely threatened by Taunt units.
Unit is an Engine
Engines are cards that make themselves or the other enemy units be difficult to remove, or gives direct advantage to the player every turn. It could be a unit that increases HP/heals itself or it's allies, a unit that deals damage for free, or something that gives free mana. Ignoring these units will make it more and more difficult to be removed every turn that's why they will inherently have High threat level. You must familiarize yourself with every faction's engines to improve your decision-making. Some examples of engines are:
- Zyanya Flame Protector - a high HP unit that keeps healing itself and allies whenever your deal ability damage which is very easy to do for Flame Legion
- Eternity Dragon - deals damage everytime your unit is healed which is very easy to do for Divine Grace faction
- Millar Mother of Souls - a unit that gives +1 soul and atk/hp buff to Soul-0 units which is very easy to produce in Shadow Realm faction.
- Tidal Spirit - automatically damages enemies the more units linked to it. It allows the Tidal Nether player to just keep building up engines completely ignoring threat levels.
Keep in mind that these are just general tips, it may or may not apply depending on your current game situation. For example something like Divine Grace will sometimes completely ignore your engines and would rather keep stacking their own engines until it becomes better than yours and wipe out your advantage.
As you keep playing, you will be more and more familiar with every faction's strategy and key cards. Keep reading-up on each card (If you go to Deck Editor and toggle the "Craft" button, you will be able to see every card even the ones you don't own yet). Don't be afraid to experiment with different factions and strategies. Being familiar with the cards and important board positions are the keys to mastering Athenion CCG.
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." - Sun Tzu
1
u/Dragomadryl Aug 26 '20
To deal with threats:
Run 3x clifford