Atlas : Carrier of the Sky [BG KSE]

To be honest I don't see Atlas becoming a very popular choice. Why? Because of his second power, which actually is a penalty: discard an aditional card when you activate Atlas.

His main power though is a 7 dice range 1 (area?) attack that weakens all non-flying (enemy? all?) units on the board: -1 attack, -1 defense 1- movement. Which more or less invites his opponents to draft a lot of flying units, which in turn makes Atlas' skill a bit redundant, except for the opponent's God (unless he/she drafts Typhon).

A bit disappointing for such a great sculpt.

Do you need to pick Atlas in the beginning?

Shifare wrote:Do you need to pick Atlas in the beginning?

Rulebook, p.27: "Recruitment in a 2-player game:
a. Each player has a budget of 12 Recruitment points to spend during his draft. The first player is determined randomly (highest result on a die roll). Each player chooses a God, starting with the first player. As a reminder, the Gods do not cost any Recruitment points.
b. Recruiting Other Units (Heroes, Monsters, Troops) Starting with the second player, each player in turn recruits one unit by spending the corresponding cost up to the limit of 12 points"
So yes.

It's fortunate that my favorite titan also happens to be the free titan.

I think the discard card thing won't be too bad if you have someone in your army who either helps give you more cards in your hand or someone like Sysiphus who you might not even need on the board so you could just discard his activation cards.

I also believe this penalty disappears once Atlas absorbed some omphalos.

And he is freakishly strong of course.

Fists of the titan ability needs to be described better though. I assume it does damage to one target and then gives a debuff to all non flying enemies on the board untill his next turn.

It doensn't even say that Atlas only weakens enemy non-flyers.

Now that isn't such a bad thing as his turn ends after his activation anyway ... of course his own units won't move outside his turn .. but his own non-flying units still get a -1 defense (and retaliation) penalty during his opponent's turn.

Let alone in a 2 vs 2 .. his ally won't really appreciate this!

PS there's actually not that much flying units: Bellerophon - Gorgon - Stymphalian Birds - Caucasian Eagle - Harpies - Griffon - Sphynx - Herald of Typhon - Manticore - Typhon - Chimera - Icarus

As written it's everyone. Your units get -1 Def, and their units get -1 Atk. And vice versa when retaliating. I paid notice to the enemy having a huuge -1 Mov penalty, which cause all sorts of trouble.
What Atlas basically does is limiting the opponent to flying and ranged units. You can take one good pick from that selection and now the opponent has very few units to play with.

If playing with the core box this is available: Bellerophon - Gorgon - Griffon - Icarus

Getting Bellerophon seems key for him then, since he is good at slaying all monsters and can hit flyers easier than others.

However I feel like he might be a bit less favorable than other titans.
Obviously he is strong, but all his powers seem to be hold against his player at least partially. All other Titans just have powers which make them stronger or really useful. Except for minor aspect obviously.

Morten Brandt wrote:As written it's everyone. Your units get -1 Def,  and their units get -1 Atk. And vice versa when retaliating. I paid notice to the enemy having a huuge -1 Mov penalty, which cause all sorts of trouble.
What Atlas basically does is limiting the opponent to flying and ranged units. You can take one good pick from that selection and now the opponent has very few units to play with.

If playing with the core box this is available: Bellerophon - Gorgon - Griffon - Icarus

Yes it seems that Atlas gets relatively weaker the more expansions with flyers you have ...

Today (20161211) confirmed by Benoit that his Fists of the Titan power is indeed an area attack ...

I'd still like to know if its the area he is in or around him too considering that that debuff goes for the entire board.

Rhalius wrote:Getting Bellerophon seems key for him then, since he is good at slaying all monsters and can hit flyers easier than others.
I'd still like to know if its the area he is in or around him too considering that that debuff goes for the entire board.

Bellerophon - perhaps not the whole key, but definitely a great part of it!
Good find, as most flyers are monsters anyway .. just hope the Atlas player doesn't take him first!

And don't forget Diomedes, the Gods & Titan killer. He won't be affected by Fists of the Titan at all.
This guy seems to get more useful by the day!! Where would we be without the Heroes of Troy Box?

And Atlas' area attack only has 1 range and takes place in 1 area only.
Indeed a bit confusing as the ensuing effect affects the whole map.

Atlas along with Bellerophon, Diomedes and the Gorgon might be a near unstoppable force. The gorgon is a flyer who can petrify after all.

Diomedes will effectively be stronger because everyone else would be weakened by Atlas. And Bellerophon can deal with any pesky flying monsters on the opposite team.

Diomedes looks to be a solid top tier draft.

I am not convinced with Atlas (to play - the mini is fantastic - except that I would have preferred a stone skin effect rather than flesh).
I believe the way to pick is one of his main weaknesses : picking Atlas is done first so the opponent will focus on flying units to counter him.
However, let's not forget that he has Force of Nature and Range 1. So on round 2, he can move 2 areas (roughly center of the map), take a tree and throw it up to range 2 for a 10-dice attack (covering about 70% of the map) then crushing enemies in an adjacent area with his fist (7-dice attack) both of these with no retaliation. (and no AoW)
So who knows, he may be the juggernaut we believe he is...

Telgar wrote:However, let's not forget that he has Force of Nature and Range 1. So on round 2, he can move 2 areas (roughly center of the map), take a tree and throw it up to range 2 for a 10-dice attack (covering about 70% of the map) then crushing enemies in an adjacent area with his fist (7-dice attack) both of these with no retaliation. (and no AoW)
So who knows, he may be the juggernaut we believe he is...

I don't think so ...  

His Fists is a Special Atack, so instead of his normal attack. He can't do both in the same turn.

Right ! I didn't see the lightning symbol !

Atlas "mini" is breathtaking. I cant wait to have.

I belive that when his stats were created the other Titans werent created yet. Maybe even wasnt supposed to do the Titan expansion. Then to balance his stats they included the flaw Bearer of Heavens but kow, with the other 4 Titans and none with a disadvantage i really belive they should change that hability.

Compared with Kronos... Kronos is much better and the cost its the same (+2 RC) +1 activation +1Aow card, no flaws...

Even with this handicap i like Atlas and probably I'll play it from time to time if possible in a team with Prometheus