Is the Bombshell special?

[Harti]

First of all, I'd like to say that your very detailed and constructive analyis amazed me and got an instant +1.

Somehow I both agree and disagree with you, metalsquid. There's some good points you're mentioning - but then again there's also something contradictory about them:
When you mentioned the weak nature of an unshelled Bombshell, you're validly stating that it takes a lot of effort to get the Bombshell safely from one place to another. Within the "inconsistency" section you're, however, criticizing the fact that there's an exception to the rule that a special only has 1 action.
Back in beta where I used the Scallywags in roughly 70-80% of all my 130 games, the Bombshell indeed only had 1 action. You could unshell-move or move-shell, but not unshell-move-shell which was awful. We found that this was largely disadvantageous and proposed unshell-move-shell to OML.

What I also brought up back then was the idea of having it work like the Artillery in Advance Wars, with either moving or firing once per turn, dropping the requirement to guard it in its shell first (which I found somewhat distracting as a turret mode Bombshell is the only unit with a shield sign indicating the health).

Being able to move the Bombshell, then enable turret mode and still shoot is probably too powerful of an idea. Especially on small maps where it is easy to shield your Bombshell with some of the predeployed units around, it can safely lurk around shortly behind the center of the map. The opponent won't be able to destroy it, so they're probably using a defensive stance against it. Here's the twist: If you were able to (unshell-)move-shell-fire within one turn, you could harass or destroy large portions of the opponent's defence with (4) 3 wit only AND have a Super Sniper with 4 health on their side of the map! This is actually nuts if you ask me.


I do agree with you on the fact that the Bombshell isn't really good at creating threatening offensive stances but it's really great at defending your property if you manage to set it up in a somewhat central place with many obstacles or pits (cp. Glitch).
The Bombshell has won a massive amount of games for me. Granted, I prefer the one-shot Specials which are good at messing with their opponent's defenses, too, but you can't deny that a Bombshell surrounded with Soldiers and maybe a Heavy or two is a solid start.


Furthermore, in Outwitters it is easier to defend than to prepare an organized attack, which is why the starter team is the Scallywags with their Bombshell.
I can't tell you how often I was about to think "good game" when suddenly a Bombshell appeared out of nowhere to successfully prevent me from destroying their little amount of remaining units and forced me to retreat which cost me a fair amount of wit, too. And my unit advantage was gone shortly after as I spent all those wits on retreating while they began to push.

I agree that the other Specials are far more straightforward and consume less wits on usage but then again, there's a 50% chance you end up playing on a small map which the Bombshell really shines on if you abuse its strengths to the fullest (e.g. exploring what units are hiding in FOW) and try to cover its weaknesses.

In games against the Adorables, I'd highly recommend putting two of them close to each other so in case Mobi picks off your shields one by one and some units manage to destroy your first Mortar Cannon, you can one-shot most of those units with the remaining one.


It's possible to get to Master League and higher with the Scallywags only, most games are decided before it comes to lategame Specials anyway.
And if you really begin to feel that you're treated unequally, you could as well consider to get the Über Pack at $3 which is an awesome deal for such a great game.

Maybe you've got some better or more balanced suggestions on how the Bombshell should work?