The Other Side: The Hat Man

Wyrd Miniatures zeigen eine Vorschau auf den Hat Man für The Other Side.

Waldo’s Weekly – Enter the Sandmen

This week, Waldo has come to the office in his pajamas every single day. The normally hyperactive little imp has been dozing off during the day. We thought we’d all get some peace and quiet of our own, but even deeply sleeping Waldo has continued his antics, swiping all the pens, removing every “w” from the office keyboards, and drawing an image of the same figure on every available surface:

Originally concepted as part of the Homefront campaign, the Sandmen are a Syndicate that represent Nytemare’s influence on Earth. Blurring the lines between falsehood and reality, the Sandmen invade the dreams of the unwary and pack a myriad of Abilities that allow them to reshape the battlefield through confusion and control. Offering their services to both Malifaux and Earth Allegiances, this first and only universal Syndicate plays both sides of Earth’s conflict, to an end known only by their master.

The Sandmen Allegiance

Unlike other Allegiances which grow stronger over the course of the battle, Sandmen units are roughly equally powerful whether they are in Glory or not. Instead, their units shift between roles depending
on whether they are awake (and sleep deprived) or asleep and under Nytemare’s full control. In game, this is represented with Shaken and Inspired Tokens. While Shaken, Sandmen flip out of Glory. While Inspired, they flip into Glory. Carefully managing these Tokens to ensure your units have the right Abilities on the right Turn is key to mastering the Allegiance.

The Sandmen were designed as a Syndicate rather than a full Allegiance. As such, their Allegiance Abilities trend toward supportive effects useful to any Allegiance. The most prominent of these Abilities is Sleepwalking Smugglers, which allows any Sandmen unit to gain a Tactics Token whenever a nearby enemy gains a Tactics Token. To make the most of this Ability, the Sandmen aim to bog down the opponent’s Commanders with cheap, durable Sleepwalkers to smuggle away the Tactics Tokens they
generate when a Commander activates. They can then leverage their Tactics Token advantage into a Victory Point lead, or purchase more Stratagems than their opponent can.

The final Ability on their Allegiance Card, Peer Into Dreams, is only available when the Syndicate is taken as the Primary Allegiance, not as an Envoy. It allows the Sandmen to use Stratagems from any Allegiance.
Since the pool of units available to the Sandmen is so limited, players who choose them as their Primary Allegiance must rely on this Ability to combine Stratagems in creative and unexpected ways to gain an
edge over their opponent.

You can take a look at the full Allegiance Card below:

Interestingly, this design features a new Allegiance Card layout. Waldo said it “came to him in a dream.” We’re rolling with it for now and if our recurring nightmares are to be believed, expect more information
soon.

The Units

The Hat Man is a Commander effective at controlling and manipulating friendly and enemy units, though not both at the same time. While not in Glory, the Hat Man can remove good cards from the opponent’s deck. While in Glory, he can remove bad cards from your own deck. Players will need to choose which strategy they wish to attempt: cripple the enemy’s forces and leave them vulnerable to follow up attacks, or bolster your own and set up an immense high Penetration Flip. Either way, the Hat Man excels at orchestrating impactful Coordinated Strikes.

That however, is probably not the first thing that caught your eye. Players experienced with The Other Side will have immediately noticed two peculiarities about this Commander. Firstly, The Hat Man has a
Tactics Value of 0. Players will need to make use of the Allegiance Ability Sleepwalking Smugglers and The Hat Man’s Soul Siphon trigger to make up this deficit. Though lacking in resources on Earth, one thing the Sandmen have in abundance is the ability to persuade others to join their cause. The Hat Man exemplifies this by having the highest Scrip Value in the game at a whopping +30, allowing this Commander to field more units than any other Commander. Commanders who unknowingly align with
The Hat Man’s goals tend to discover unexpected reinforcements, or find that requisitions are filled with unexpected ease. When chosen as an Envoy, this extra Scrip is often used to purchase more units from a
player’s Primary Allegiance, and is therefore perfect for players with large collections who wish to field more of their units at once.

The Sleepwalkers make up the bulk of the Sandmen’s forces… and most of them don’t even know it. The perfect sleeper agents, by day, the Sleepwalkers are ordinary, law-abiding citizens. Discovering whether
someone has just had a bad night’s sleep, or is now a compromised agent of the Sandmen, is no easy task. Orders implanted into their thoughts while asleep surge forth at opportune moments, causing urges to steal a sensitive document or delay important shipments. Many will often wake up in the most unusual places, with no recollection of how they got there and a soulstone tucked into the pocket of their nightgown.

On the table, the Sleepwalkers serve as a cheap but effective early game road block. Camouflage allows the Sleepwalkers to begin the game nearly anywhere. This Ability allows the Sleepwalkers to dictate the
pace of the battle from the very first Turn, whether by deploying near an enemy Commander to take advantage of Sleepwalking Smugglers, deploying near an Objective Marker to quickly reposition it with
It Was All a Dream, or just to get in the way and physically block the opponent from advancing. Their low stats mean that if their opponent wants to Kill them, they certainly can, but the Sleeper Agents Ability
ensures that doing so will drain an opponent’s resources and leave them little ability to kill anything but the Sleepwalkers.

While in Glory, the Sleepwalkers shed their defensive cover and gain a myriad of useful effects to allow them to swing the battle in Nytemare’s favor, whether that means using Don’t Mind Me to dislodge an opponent’s control over a particularly well-defended Objective Marker, or sacrificing themselves to Kill a high-priority target. Though rare, Sleepwalkers also have the Ability to convert others to their cause, further increasing their Company’s Scrip advantage. But be careful! While in Glory, the Sleepwalkers are much less resilient. Deciding when exactly is the proper time to act is key to utilizing this unit to its full potential.

The Stratagem

The Sandmen Allegiance has only a single Stratagem, but the threat of it is enough to dramatically adjust the way their opponents play the game:

Invade Dreams allows the Sandmen to apply a debuff to a chosen enemy unit, ever-so-slightly influencing the battle in their favor, for example, Vivid Hallucinations punishes enemy Fireteams for grouping up in a tight, defensive formation.

The right debuff at the wrong time cripples an enemy unit by preventing them from scoring the Operation. Simply purchasing the Stratagem and holding it in your hand causes your opponent to constantly fear when, where, and which of the three negative Assets you’ll choose to apply to them, allowing you to get into their head and force them to play around all of your potential angles of attack. The Sandman Syndicate (Hat Man and the Sleepwalkers) will first appear in the upcoming May Tribe
release on MyMiniFactory. Tribe members will receive them as part of that release, with a standalone purchase available through the MyMiniFactory store in June.

Waldo’s finally tired himself out. While we put him to bed and try to ignore his rambling sleep talk, we’re going to take the opportunity to clean the office, find where he hid all the missing “w” keys, and keep an eye out for anyone who looks a little too well-rested. Let us know what color you’ll be painting their nightgowns, and whether or not the call of the Sandmen will encourage you to paint them during the ToS Painting Challenge!

Quelle: Wyrd Miniatures