We have reached the top 2 abilities in Factions: Battlegrounds!!

We have reached the pinnacle! Abilities play a big part in Factions: Battlegrounds, from providing a temporary nuisance to breaking the game wide open. Most of the top 10 list showcases abilities that can have a definite impact on the outcome of battle, but our top 2 fall into that gamebreaking category (when used at the right time!) To know how we got here, check out the rest of the top 10 abilities posts- Top 10 Abilities #10-#8 , Top 10 Abilities #7-#5 and Top 10 Abilities #4-#3.

#2- EXECUTE

(Baazaria- Kichwavore Ravager)

(Eliminate an adjacent wounded enemy unit. Cannot be used on a ranged attack.)

There is a theme with the top 2 abilities- and that theme is MURDER! Execute is a lethal ability that totally ignores the health attribute as well as any sort of defensive buffers. Got 1 damage on a Kraken Overlord or Monstrous Umuthi? That’s all you need- just move to an adjacent space and activate Execute. Execute is the ultimate high-reward ability, and when Execute is well-executed (see what I did there?) on a high health, high victory point target, it’s pretty much game over. The mere presence of Execute on the board can cause your opponent to move their big time monsters very cautiously… which puts a ceiling on the havoc those big monsters can wreak by not being able to confidently head straight into combat.

Why does Execute fall slightly short of being my best overall ability? A couple of reasons. The first being it is a single use. Therefore, it is not foolproof. As a general, you need to determine the best time in the game to utilize it. While a lot of times it will be obvious, other times it might be used too early or too late, limiting it’s power. The second reason is that it requires 2 pre-existing conditions- which in a dynamic battle are not always gauranteed to happen. The first being that the target enemy is Wounded, which is sometimes easier said than done. The second being that the unit has to be adjacent (in melee position) to the Wounded unit. There are essentially 3 steps to pulling off Execution– it has to be unused, the target has to be Wounded, and the unit has to be adjacent. This makes Execute a ruthlessly powerful ability, but juuuust a little too limited in terms of how often and easily it can be pulled off for it to be #1.

#1- SLAYER

(Baazaria- Asanbosam Assassin)

(Moonshadow- Assassin Squad)

Eliminate an enemy unit within the range of this ability if the targeted enemy’s Prowess (Attack attribute + Health attribute) is 7 or less. Counts as a ranged attack.

As promised, more murder. Slayer is my top ability in Factions: Battlegrounds. While sort of similar to Execute, it does not, admittedly, have the pure power potential of the #2 ability. On the surface, it also might seem more limited because of the Prowess requirement. What makes Slayer the top ability in the game in my opinion is that it is a ranged attack. That opens up a LOT more access for you and puts that much more pressure on your enemy. In my gameplay experience, Slayer can be pulled off much, much more often than Execute because of the fact that it is a ranged attack. In this case, the range shrinks the board from both sides, making your unit have to move less to track down and use Slayer on an enemy and decreasing the amount of spaces your enemy has to work with to stay out of range. The Prowess requirement does cap it a bit, but it absolutely wrecks pretty much any key spellcaster or captain. I have also found that a solid, important target with a Prowess of 7 or less is just as common to come across in a game as a wounded gigantic monster.. if not more. In the end, I went with the ability that is easier to implement while still having game changing capabilities.

That completes our top 10 abilities countdown!!! We have an exciting series coming up in a couple of weeks– which is a bit of a surprise. Can’t wait to reveal it!