Madame LaHaque
Stats :
Sniper Calvary Type
Light-Class Toon
12 Energy, 1 Energy per square movement
Detonating UAV
Description :
The closes one could get to The Bride in Kill Bill series, Madame is a deadly toon that has multi roles in the battlefield. LaHaque is also a great stand alone toon, able to flank, attack, guard point/passes and delay advance. A great asset in 14pt games where her self support and multi-roles will come in handy, she can also deploy a UAV that can be pilot to move 6 squares around the battlefield. The UAV with 150HP will require 1 Energy to detonate dealing a fixed 57 Dmg with a knockback effect. Default weapon is a highly useful Botherer SR with 69 Dmg at a max range of 8.
Strategy :
Madame is the only toon in the game with high mobility and a long range assault capability. This makes her very useful in hit and run tactics in the early stages of the battle to soften opponent toons. Madame is a fragile toon with a HP pool of 200, however most of the time she will be at a fair amount of distance away from opponents if she is wielding a sniper rifle. Sniper toons on the opposite team will be of the greatest threat to Madame. Be caution of knockback possibilities and take cover at every end of the turn to ensure Madame’s survival. Madame is a sniper toon, but she lacks the firepower punch, thus she needs team support to execute a kill. She deals the most damage with the Botherer SR a massive 140Dmg, however it is difficult to take two shots as she would have to be standing still. Positioning other toons to contribute firepower should be a vital concern.
For Madame RAD commanders can go with three kinds of weapon setup/roles:
High Damage dealer - HSR Range 8
We all love the HSR that deals a whooping 89Dmg with a knockback effect, however it has a hefty 8 Energy requirement for each shot. Currently Madame is the only toon that can wield HSR and still have a fair mobility of 4 movement squares. Other toons can hardly perform well on their own with the HSR as it severely limits toon mobility. The HSR is not a really strong weapon, and the Dmg/Energy ratio is hardly impressive compared to other similar sniper rifles available. What HSR has within its bag of tricks is however the psychological scare effect and a useful knockback effect. Even veteran commanders know well it isn’t easy to recover from a 89Dmg shot. It would take time to heal that much HP (assuming single medic within team) and now that the hurt toon has lost a huge chunk of HP, one tiny mistake can be fatal. The knockback can be used to knock opponents out of cover or even to simply delay advance into objective area or in some cases even knock toons out of objective area denying a turn of rocket capture.
Medium/Static Damage dealer - Botherer SR Range 8
Any fools who venture into your kill zone is an easy prey for Madame with botherer. Since taking two shots will require Madame to be static, one can use Madame’s Ghost abillity and quickly position her at a good vantage point (with wide area sight coverage and in cover) for static assault and defense. Madame can remain at the position while being invisible to pick off any toons who advance. Her cloaking ability can act as a deception as opponents might think that Madame is rerouting to another flank while she is actually standing still ready to pounce on any unfortunate prey. If static firefights is not to your fancy, Madame can still navigate 6 squares around the map to attack opponents. 6 movement is frankly a lot and will allow Madame to reach opponents at a great distance while still having energy to take secure cover.
Medium Balanced Build Damage Dealer - Otto SR Range 7
With a Otto equipped Madame can deal slightly more damage of 80 compared to one shot Botherer while still having a good 4 movement flexibility. This setup is ideal for team orientated battles where high mobility of Madame is not required. Team members are positioned in the way where they can provide firepower to deal a large amount of damage to make a kill. With this setup Madame can also use shoot & hide tactics to maximize damage potential. Although it deals 9 Dmg less (after two otto shots) than HSR with equal 8 energy requirement, Otto does however allow the flexibility to have 8 squares movement and deal 40 Dmg. This would be impossible to achieve with the HSR. Moving more than 4 squares may be important especially when opponents uses up-close & personal tactics to negate the damage potential of SR. With the Otto, Madame can retreat a good amount of distance, take one 40dmg shot at her attacker and take cover, effectively avoid being drawn into a close range combat. While standing still Madame can still deal 120Dmg, although this may be even more difficult to pull off due to Otto’s range being 7 one less than Botherer SR.
I do not recommend using melee, SMGs or pistols for Madame, but then again it is down to personal preference and in some situations it maybe useful.
UAV -The Bothersome Fly :
The mechanical buzzing, the large camera eye bearing resemblance of a compound eye, the mobility of 6 movement and a decent above average explosion damage of 57, you better hope this bothersome fly is on your side. The UAV has no second attack option other than self-detonation, yet it isn’t weak to the point where opponents can completely ignore it. It has a decent mobility and detonation deals a knockback at point blank allowing you to deal a follow up attack on any toons knocked out of cover. Treat the UAV as a toon itself, taking cover and foreseeing its survival till it can sacrifice itself for a greater cause. Secure cover is not needed as UAV suffers no knockback from any abilities. If the opponent happens to use toon abilities to kill your UAV it would be to your advantage as they will be wasting the skill. So no secure cover is needed, taking cover will be good enough to ensure survival while tempting any weak-hearted to waste precious skills on killing the ever bothersome and pressuring UAV’s advance. Caution is however needed if they are multiple snipers on opponents team as they can deal a significant amount of damage even if UAV is in cover. The UAV is fairly simple to master, but there are some tricks one can execute with it.
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Blocking and delay advance at narrow one way alleys. Also useful for blocking opponents UAV. Useful for blocking maneuvers to trap opponents(however will not last many turns with 150hp).
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Detection aura. Mediocre bonus as it may be it can still come in handy in tight situations with a detection range of two.
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Delay advance. Opponents will not advance hastily for the concern of being in range of self detonation by UAV. Since the UAV has good mobility to constantly advance and take cover every turn, you can exert a good amount of pressure on your opponent. It is by far the most amazing way to harass your opponent. No shooting involved, just advancing forward closing the gap. Virtual harassing.
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Radical movements. Gives the possibility to detonate and destroy your own Deployable Cover to allow you to gain the line of sight for offense or maneuvering. Detonate beside own toons to provide movement at cost of hp. (best example with Juan where static offense is high but the situation requires one square movement)
Due to the array of possibilities of Madame and her UAV she is a very fun and stand alone toon to have on the battlefield.
Tiny Bugs known :
- Hovering UAV WILL trigger mines.
- Quick animation cancelation of UAV deployment will sometimes result in NO UAV being deployed. Simply undo move and deploy again.
Three megans?? woah, i wasn’t gonna let them run amok wrecking havoc… clumping together just made it even more tempting to do a triple kill >.< my bad… no hard feelings