Bypass in Competition

[moonsammy]

Hey everyone! I was playing in a tournament yesterday and nearly found myself with an opportunity to use Bypass effectively in a competitive tournament. Before yesterday, I would have argued that Bypass is almost never a useful gear in competition, and I suppose I would still argue that its scope is exteremly limited, but anyhow, here's what happened:

The tournament was 450 Constructed and I brought the following:

DF Faction Pride (add +1 to AV)
DF Merc Recruit Card

"Buford" Neanderthal
-Lex Corpuz (Double Damage if >3 over target's defense)
-Rapid Strike

DF Shock Troopers x3 (in formation)
Merc Special Forces Team x3 (in formation)

Granted, this army has its holes, but my main focus here was that I wanted to take out an enemy mech in one attack from Buford using the pilot ability coupled with Rapid Strike for a possible 20 damage depending on Buford's heat dial. Now here's the army of the guy (It was Calvin, Mike) that I nearly bypassed:

BR Solitaire
-J.P. Millhew
-Decoy

BR Solitaire
-Selene Petros
-Decoy

BR Saxon x2
--BR Oni BA x2 (each Saxon carrying one)

CNC Savior Repair Vehicle

BR Cavalry VTOL

It was the final round of the tournament so we were each forced to play the only cards we had left. I played Monsoon and he played Subzero Temperatures (Yikes!). The wind up was, his undamaged Solitaire shut down and needed two turns to start up. Immediately after it shut down I moved my two remaining (but injured) Merc Special Forces Teams into base with the Solitaire. Each of my infantry had two clicks of life left which meant that they were each on their one click of Bypass.

My next turn I gave my faction pride to one of the SFTs and he push captured the shutdown Solitaire. At the end of this turn, my token dropped off of the unpushed SFT. Unfortunately, on his turn, his Cavalry VTOL killed my unpushed SFT so I wasn't able to Bypass, but I couldn't help but be surprised to find that I had found myself in a position where my best possible move had been to Bypass a unit. Not only would I have gotten a brand new BR Solitaire, but my SFT that had captured the mech couldn't have held it long anyway, and my infantry in general was pretty much doomed due to Subzero Temps.

So I guess Bypass can be a competitive option even against solid competitors sometimes. Anybody else ever used Bypass in competition?

[baw]

In all my games.. I have only seen bypass used once... I can't imagine every building an army around bypass and I can't imagine it being that useful without a specially built army.

I can't even remember the last time I saw a capture.. They are few and far between.

[X-Sythe]

bypass units have their benefits and place, but with so much damage out now, a bypass army is not going to be effective. ;D

[Zxqueb]

There is one other good reason to keep a bypass unit or two on hand: to protect yourself from being captured/bypassed yourself. Remember, you can bypass your own piece to get it back from your opponents capture team.

Z