Hi so I have a question about the function of the saboteur.
I was playing a game where I had my queen on its way to an outpost I already had, Paricia. Paricia currently had 104 drillers and a handful of specialists including a saboteur. One of my enemies had another outpost nearby, Vintgar, which carries 184 drillers. He proceeds to send his drillers to Paricia, seeing that my queen is on its way to this outpost I suppose he figured he would be all set up to capture my queen upon its arrival.
However, I figured I would just send my saboteur to redirect his sub, to buy myself enough time for my queen to get to Paricia and hold up or move again or whatever, basically to just survive.
I send out one sub with 0 drillers and a saboteur to intercept my enemy's 184. But something odd happens.
When my saboteur meets with the 184 instead of the 184 turning back around and heading to Vintgar, it just rolls over my sub with my specialist. Then my specialist becomes captured by my enemy and heads to vintgar. And most odd is that as it heads to vintgar the sub goes from carrying 0 drillers to 1.
Like a driller just mysteriously appeared from nowhere...

And then his 184 move into combat with Paricia winning obviously. Then my queen arrives, is captured, and I am eliminated...

I don't get why any of this happened I know it might sound like a very noob question but any way this can be cleared up for me would be greatly appreciated thanks

The enemy sub might have a revered elder on it, rendering the saboteur useless. OTHERWISE, its most likely a bug.

niverio wrote:The enemy sub might have a revered elder on it, rendering the saboteur useless. OTHERWISE, its most likely a bug.

or there may be a 1 driller sub in front like he stated

Yea... I actually look closer now and I see I single driller sub leading his 184 sub.

...
Now I think about how that works, and it seems obvious but now I am wondering actually how useful saboteurs can really be..:/

Really actually a lot of specialists would succumb to that tactic

All you'd have to do to counter his move is send 1 driller in front of your own which would kill his 1 driller sub then the saboteur would hit the right sub.

But then doesn't it just become a battle of attrition then? Whomever sends the most subs with 1 driller in front is the one who will be successful in either activating or circumnavigating the activation of a specialist.

It's nothing against the game I am still loving it and learning the mechanics as I go but it's just something I am noticing I guess

It can be, but the defender would always win unless he ran out of drillers. If I want to get past a base with something like a saboteur or DA on it, I like to send 2 attacks both of which will take the base on there own so they are only able to deflect 1 attack, not the other.

bunker_900 wrote:But then doesn't it just become a battle of attrition then? Whomever sends the most subs with 1 driller in front is the one who will be successful in either activating or circumnavigating the activation of a specialist.

Sending a 1 driller sub in front is just a trick that relies on you not noticing it. If you want to seriously counter a specialist that takes out large subs (saboteur/double agent/sentry) you need to split up your forces evenly into as many subs as possible so your opponent can only deal with one of them.

high commander jay wrote:Sending a 1 driller sub in front is just a trick that relies on you not noticing it. If you want to seriously counter a specialist that takes out large subs (saboteur/double agent/sentry) you need to split up your forces evenly into as many subs as possible so your opponent can only deal with one of them.

It's a bit more than just not noticing it. For example a fair play would then be to launch the 1d sub further ahead, but that's just wrong.
Say A is attacking B, and B defends with the saboteur.
B wants A to regain control of his army as late as possible, therefore he wants the saboteur to meet the army as late as possible. Therefore he wants to launch the saboteur as late as possible, just before the army sub hits, and that's after the chump blocker 1d is smashed on the defender's shields.
Therefore the 1d must be sent only the minimal interval or 10min in advance of the sub.
This strategy can win an outpost that has only a saboteur and shields, but done incorrectly, the saboteur wins.
Also the defender has an easier job in destroying the chump blockers. You only need one army to smash through the singles.
E.g. A sent 100d and 30x1driller chump blocking subs. B has to only send one 30d sub to wreck the blockers, then the saboteur. Or, if B has a general, just send the saboteur, of course.