Hi All, As we gear up for the next big releases for Bot War, namely the Atlantican and Hivelord faction guides, I would like to give you all a little history and preview of some of the new Hivelords stat cards and talk about the intentions behind the Hivelords.
History –
The Infesters themselves are the final corrupted form of what happens when a Bot rejects the cleansing influence of the One. Of all the factions in the Bot War the infesters have little thought. Well outside the basic needs of feeding. They do hold a slight lean for destruction too in accordance with the laws of nature that everything is degrading.
When first designing the faction I always had the vision in mind of the swarm and of death. An endless tide of essentially dead creatures swarming brave defenders. I often try to think of how players would feel facing them and beating them and try to make the rules capture or accentuate these feelings. In that, I kind of failed with the Infesters. I have the impression talking to many Infesters players that they kind of play them like expensive weaker Deceivers, which was not the intention at all for this faction.
Development –
With the Hivelords, I have decided to really lean into the whole swarm/undead idea a lot heavier. The Infesters are the faction that can field the most units. The Hivelords continue to be this. But depending what Hivelord you choose, the force could look very different. The regular Infester warriors and the Queen are still in the list. But these are really intended for support. The idea is that first a Hivelord is chosen, then the rest of the list is built around that choice. I have decided to allow multiple Hivelord choices in the same list but originally did not have it this way. Time will tell if it was a good choice. Personally, I think the points and theme is enough to dictate a single choice anyway without making it a hard rule. I am always reluctant to remove choices.
Playing Hivelords –
I think the different Hivelords make for some really fun and different lists for the Hivelords. Most often the Infesters have been criticized for the lack of viable list choices, namely the clones list is the most competitive. But now I see several viable and powerful lists for the Hivelords. I see them also playing quite differently as well.
Mothroc is very aerial based. Surrounded by Swarms and Buzzers,a Mothroc force is a dangerously fast. The Summoner on the other hand is super slow. Relying instead on summoning Bot zombies which spring from the ground everywhere to attack its enemies, pretty terrifying! And the Maggot who we all know. Vomiting forth Larvae from its massive tunnelling bulk to attack its foes. But what happens to those Larvae after? They become HAtchlings, platoons of mini maggots that are deadly in close combat.
Summary – As you can see from this glimpse, the Hivelords breath some fresh perspective on the Infesters and should be a real force to be reckoned with in the Bot War meta game.
Cheers,