WH40K: Rogue Trader - Grand Strategist Mechanics Breakdown

greetings everyone hope all of you are having an absolutely fantastic day the new version of out catch Rogue Trader beta that was released to content creators came with a couple of new classes without a doubt I get the most questions regarding Grand strategist so even though I plan a comb through the mechanics of the original archetypes as well I thought some of you would appreciate starting with this one first Grand strategist is all about controlling the battlefield to buff your party members while debuffing enemies and doing some decent damage in between Queen honestly I love this archetype and I think alcat did an amazing job of making the mechanics very layered but also very rewarding if you understand them before we peel back to layers let me remind everyone that here at slard gaming we focus on RPGs and more specifically crpgs you can find builds guides and live streams for games like panf find and Wrath of the righteous balers Gate 3 and pillars of Eternity if that kind of stuff interests you be sure to hit the like button and subscribe so you don't miss any future content all right so to select this class you need to First have 15 levels of either operative or officer that probably sounds like a lot of levels but they come fast and furious in Rogue Trader so you'll reach that shortly at the end of act one as you level up this archetype lets you increase the fellowship willpower intelligence and perception characteristics this all lends very well to a range character but you can absolutely use this archetype for a Melee character if you prefer the skills you can increase our persuasion Commerce demolition logic Tech use lower Imperium and lower zenos the Keystone feature of this archetype is combat tactics this feature ensures that your grand strategist always acts first in combat unless you have an officer with the seiz the initiative Talent which for whatever reason has priority over everything else combat tactics gives you the ability to place three areas a front line backline and rear the front line area G gives a percentage bonus to armor equal to five plus twice your intelligence bonus and all enemies suffer a percentage increase to damage from any Source equal to five plus twice your fellowship bonus I have never increased Fellowship for Pascal but this still results in all enemies within the area taking 9% more damage which is fantastic obviously the armor increase makes your Frontline significantly tankier as well the rear area provides a percentage bonus to range damage and over penetration equal to five plus twice your intelligence bonus penetration allows your shots to go through enemies and hit other enemies behind them potentially letting you take out multiple folds with one shot at this point in the game Pascal provides a 177% increase to both stats which is absolutely a massive boost you'll also gain a percentage increase to critical hit chance equal to five plus your fellowship bonus this is only 7% for Pascal but honestly that's still pretty nice finally the backline area provides a percentage B bonus to cover efficiency Dodge and Dodge reduction equal to 5 plus twice your intelligence bonus cover efficiency measures how good the cover actually is at protecting you from rain shots so all the way around this makes your soft targets tankier again you automatically go first you have unlimited range to place all three of these areas and all of them cost zero action points to place bananas you could only place all three areas at the same time during your first turn on subsequent turns only one of them can be created or moved and these areas cannot overlap regardless this feature is huge for buffing your entire party while debilitating enemies unfortunately it's paired with an ultimate ability that's not nearly as impressive taking hold allows you to choose one of your combat tactics areas and the Allies inside get an additional turn with one action point and two movement points at the start of your next turn for every enemy who is killed within the the area your party will give one additional action point up to three and two additional movement points up to six the problem is unless you heavily focus on melee combat your enemies will often times not be inside of your tactic areas instead they are great for buffing the defensive abilities of softer targets who are using guns or psycher abilities to devastate enemies from afar even if you decide to use the areas on large groups of enemies that still means most of your party members won't be there this heroic Act is by no means useless but there are a ton of situations where it won't be all that helpful the desperate measur version of this will reduce your action points to one until the end of combat yikes all right now let's dive into the abilities this archetype provides Killzone strategy is applied to one of the tactic areas you have deployed and for one round all enemies are forced to roll any successful dodging parest against all attacks enemies who suffer damage and have less wounds than double your intelligence and fellowship bonus added together will immediately die no question this is a great option when you use a tactic area on an enemy group especially since it only costs one action point overwhelming strategy applies to one of the tactic areas you have deployed and for one round forces enemies who are attacked to pass a willpower test or Allies gain covering covering causes enemies to experience a penalty deistic skill equal to five plus twice your intelligence and fellowship bonuses added together along with a 25% penalty to rate of fire and a penalty to weapon skill equal to five plus your intelligence and fellowship bonus added together mainly enemies have their movement points reduced by three and ranged enemies will try to get into cover personally I don't like this because enemies have to get hit first for it to be activated and it doesn't work on stronger enemies who you really want to have debuffed stronghold strategy applies to one of the tactic areas you have deployed and for one round allies in the area gain a percentage bonus to armor equal to half of three plus your intelligence and fellowship bonus they also cannot be over penetrated gain immunity to injuries and the prone effect and they gain a bonus to deflection against area tax equal to your intelligence and fellowship bonus divided by four all at the cost of one action point so absolutely I really like using this in the Frontline area to ensure the party members taking the most heat get some extra protection Blitz strategy allows you to select the tactics area and all allies within a range of sales equal to your intelligence and fellowship bonus added together will immediately move to that area this movement doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity or spin movement points it could be an interesting way to make the heroic act more effective but personally I still don't like it because positioning is a big deal and I would not want to draw my entire party out of position especially not to stand together where enemies can use nasty area of effects on us combat Locus strategy let you choose one tactic area and all of the bonuses are doubled for one round the disadvantage is is that all other tactic areas are discharged and cannot be used on that turn this could be super nice if you want to really blow up some enemies by changing that 9% extra damage to 18% but I don't like removing the other tactic area so I skip this trench line strategen let you choose a tactic area and for one round all allies get a percentage bonus to cover efficiency equal to five plus your intelligence and fellowship bonus added together allies can also roll any fail characteristic test and cover in the area doesn't suffer damage if you have a lot of party members who utilize cover this is definitely nice my party only has a couple of characters that consistently hang back so I skip this all right that's all the abilities for this archetype so let's move into the talents point of Interest causes all of the combat tactics bonuses to be increased by a percentage amount equal to half of your intelligence and fellowship bonuses added together this is only triggered if the area hasn't been move for two rounds absolutely you want to pick this up there are a lot of fights where you'll need to reposition quite a bit but there's also a lot of fights where you don't have much room to move and have to buckle down wherever you start so this will help you diversion zone is triggered when you use a strategy on the rear area and for one round makes allies within the Zone the lowest priority Target for enemies unless you get killed or stun there's no reason you cannot use a strategy every single round and this will all but ensure your softest targets are completely ignored absolutely pick it up Crossfire zone is triggered when you use a strategen on the Frontline area and gives allies a percentage bonus to dodge against other Ally attacks equal to 10 plus twice your intelligence and fellowship bonuses added together nope I'd rather just avoid Friendly Fire entirely so I skipped this enduring zone is triggered when you use a strategy and grants all allies in the area a bonus to deflection against the next melee hit they suffer equal to your intelligence modifier this isn't all that great by itself but if your Frontline characters are already stacking deflection this will help them mitigate even more damage and absolutely you should pick it up stirring zone is triggered when you use a strategy and gives all allies a plus one bonus to movement points this ability stacks and if most of your party is melee characters I definitely think this is worth it if more of them fight from range and don't need to move around as much then I would skip this adjusting Frontline is triggered when there are more enemies than allies in the Frontline area and gives allies in the area a percentage bonus to dodge and Parry equal to half of three plus your intelligence and fellowship bonuses added together if there are more allies than enemies then your allies in the area receive the same percentage number as an increase to damage if you use the Frontline area consistently then this is a no-brainer personal Zone gives the entire party that is within a tactics area a bonus to perception and Agility equal to half of three plus your intelligence bonus even if you heavily invest in intelligence the bonus isn't all that large and I would skip this strong point is triggered when you use a strategy on a tactics area for the second time in the same turn and refund your action point this is definitely worth it as you should be using using strategems multiple times every turn and getting an action point back helps ensure you have enough AP to attack personal combat zone gives allies the ability to reposition the combat tactics area they are currently in for one action point no I leave this to my grand strategist and skip this Talent critical zone is triggered when you use a strategy on the backline area and gives allies a percentage bonus to critical hit chance against enemies that are protected by cover equal a half of three plus your intelligence and fellowship bonuses added together the bonus is in a crazy amount and often times your party won't have access to cover so I wouldn't prioritize this but if you have a talent to spare or you want to Stack critical hit as high as possible pick it up dashing zone is triggered when you use a strategy on on tactics area and gives allies in the area the ability to move one cell without provoking an attack of opportunity there are a bunch of other ways to accomplish this so I would skip this Talent supporting zone is triggered when you use a strategy on a tactics area and gives you the ability to use all officer abilities on allies in the area regardless of distance I think it's stronger to take operative instead but if you prefer to start with officer this is a talent to consider as many of that Arch type's abilities are of a shorter range if you are unable to use voice of command on the target strategic Perfection is triggered when you use a strategy and gives you a stack of this effect at six Stacks the next strategy applies the benefits of all the strategy you know and then the stacks are removed absolutely you'll want this because some of the fights are long brutal encounters and you'll use a dozen strategems easily improved strategy is triggered at the start of combat and gives you one unknown strategy that can be used for zero action points until the end of combat obviously there are some other talents you should prioritize first but this is really nice and definitely something you should pick up sniping Zone provides each Ally in your rear area a percentage bonus to critical hit chance when they have no enemies in a five cell radius equal to half of three plus your intelligence and fellowship bonuses added together the bonus is small but it should also be very easy to trigger so might be worth picking this up shooting gallery zone is triggered if there are no enemies in your backline area that causes the first attack in a turn may byy an ally to cost one action point less absolutely you want this anything that helps your action economy is very welcome disputed zone is triggered when an enemy is in the same combat zone as you and applies a penalty to their Dodge and Parry equal to half of three plus your intelligence and fellowship bonuses if you are a Melee character this should be very easy to trigger and worth picking up iic offensive is triggered when an enemy is killed in your Frontline area and increases the bonuses of all tactic areas by one until the end of combat for sure you should grab this as melee enemies will regularly check into your Frontline area and never check out rest Spike Zone increases the healing allies in your rear area received from medic kits by an amount equal to five plus your intelligence and fellowship bonuses and they also receive the same amount in temporary wounds in addition medic kits cost one action point less personally I didn't pick this up because I don't count on my front line being completely overrun but depending on the difficulty you play it might be really helpful inescapable zone is triggered when you use the Kill Zone strategy and it poses A-5 penalty on rerolls enemies attempt to make I think this archetype has a lot of great talent options so I skip this and makes them Dodge area attacks without movement along with making them immune to all types of force movement otherwise when an allly Dodges in area effect such as a grenade they have to physically move out of the impacted area which potentially pushes them out of the tactic Zone this is interesting but it will only apply to one tactic area so I skip it daunting zone is triggered when an enemy must pass a willpower test due to overwhelming strategy and applies a penalty equal to 5 plus twice your intelligence and fellowship bonuses I don't like overwhelming strategy so therefore this doesn't appeal to me either opening strategy allows you to use the first strategy developed in a turn a second time for zero action points there's no strategy I am interested in using twice on the same turn so personally this is unappealing but it might work well for you overcoming zone is triggered when you use stronghold strategy and causes allies who should have received an injury to instead receive temporary wounds equal to your intelligence plus your fellowship bonus nah just use proper tactics and don't let your party members get blown up finally blurred Locust is triggered when you use combat Locust and allows one of the areas it removed to be recreated immediately I had seen this before working on this video and it's actually very compelling let limiting yourself to just two tactics areas isn't really a big deal I would recommend picking this up that wraps up all the information I have regarding the grand strategist I'll continue covering the game up through its release so again let me know down in the comments if there's any particular videos you want to see hope all of you enjoyed this video take care

Channel: Slandered Gaming

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Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 09 2023