By Zach Shephard

Assaulting is one of the most important, fulfilling things you can do in life. Sure, you could douse the flames of a burning orphanage or save an infant that’s been trapped in a well, but do these accomplishments give the same kind of satisfaction you’d receive from running a post-apocalyptic war machine over a group of enemy infantrymen?

With assaulting being as important as it is to our growth as human beings, it’s not the type of thing we should take lightly. We can’t just go around assaulting anything that looks at us the wrong way; we’re not monsters, after all.

So how does one make a well-planned assault in AATCG? There’s much more to it than simply clicking on a highlighted mission. There are many decisions to be made and many factors to be taken into consideration, so let’s go over a few concepts.

REASONS TO ASSAULT

There are two primary motivations for assaulting: completing missions and wiping out enemy units. If your deck is geared towards winning via mission completion, then your reason for assaulting is obvious – it’s your primary means of emerging victorious. Sometimes, however, your deck will be built to pummel your opponent with armies of units. Why is assaulting important in this case?

Because a single enemy unit can ruin your combatants’ attack.

When your units raid from a mission, they must engage in close combat with enemy units present, if there are any. In the event that your opponent has no units present, your raid instead gets to go straight for his vehicle. With this in mind, it would be ideal to clear the path for your units before they start their raid.

Assaulting can do just that.

When you assault a mission, you engage in close combat with the enemy units there. This is your chance to wipe those units out before your combatants begin their raid, giving a clear shot at the opponent’s vehicle. And always remember that the unswerve phase comes immediately after the assault phase – this means there’s almost never a good reason not to go ahead and swerve everything you’ve got in order to gain damage and accuracy bonuses on the assault.

Motivation for assaulting is one thing, but how do we determine which mission gets assault? I’m glad you asked.

CHOOSING THE MISSION

Selecting which mission to assault is partially determined by your goals in the game. If you’re trying to win via mission completion, you’ll need to take into account where your opponent has maneuvers stashed already – there’s no sense in assaulting a mission that your opponent is just going to complete on his turn. For example, let’s say there’s a 40-difficulty mission on the table, under which your opponent has a 20-speed maneuver stashed. Your opponent also has a 20-speed maneuver in play. We can safely assume that your opponent will be completing said mission on his next turn. With that in mind, there’s no reason to assault it unless you can complete it immediately.

Other factors to take into account when selecting a mission to assault are gametext and unit presence. The game text of a mission can often make your decision for you, either because it provides a reward you can’t live without, or has a detrimental effect you’d rather avoid. For example, if your vehicle is hurting for armor, you probably won’t want to assault Alleycrawl Pursuit, which damages each player’s vehicle whenever it gets assaulted.

As far as unit presence goes, you won’t want to assault a mission if the units there are going to do damage to your vehicle from which you can’t recover. Always be sure to take a look before you dive in headfirst.

Now, the real question is: what if I don’t want to assault? What if my opponent has an army of minions at each mission, just waiting for me to wander into their webs? In this case, one must try to avoid assaulting, by all means necessary.

BYPASSING THE ASSAULT

Assaulting may be mandatory when you have an unswerved maneuver at the start of your assault phase, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t avoidable. The key here is planning in advance. Try to figure out on your opponent’s turn whether or not you’ll want to be assaulting when your turn comes around. If you should decide you won’t want to assault, you need to adjust for that. What this means is swerving all of your maneuvers on defense, even if it’s overkill – you just want to ensure those maneuvers are swerved so you’ll be incapable of assaulting when your turn comes around.

Bypassing this phase of the game certainly requires planning in advance, but making a well-orchestrated assault requires even more foresight. When choosing to make a move on a mission, it helps to make your decision on your turn preceding the assault.

PREPARING FOR BATTLE

When assaulting a mission, as noted earlier, you must engage in close combat with the enemy units there. You will have the option to swerve your vehicle and certain gears for accuracy or damage – if they’re unswerved and ready, that is. With this in mind, during your main phase, try to think about how your assault will go the following turn. Sure, you could swerve your vehicle to engage in close combat with the enemy vehicle, but this means that yours isn’t ready for when it takes on units during your next assault phase. Be careful what you swerve on your turn, because you never know when you’ll need it on your next assault.

And there you have it – basic tips on how to go about assaulting. To wrap things up, let’s review a short list of things to keep in mind regarding assaults.

• Assaulting can be used to destroy enemy units before your army raids, making a clear path to the opponent’s vehicle.
• When choosing which mission to assault, take into account units you will be fighting, the game text of the mission you’re going for, and how many maneuvers your opponent already has stashed under it.
• You can avoid assaulting on your turn if you swerve all of your maneuvers on your opponent’s turn.
• Think ahead! Don’t swerve your vehicle and gear ahead of time if you think you’ll need them for your next assault phase.