OverDrive Locker Room – Introducing Big Mech

Welcome Coaches to the OverDrive Locker Room! This is the place to come for exclusive sneak peeks at the players you’ll be battling it out with in the arena. In each blog we’ll be taking a closer look at the background, stats and tactics for each player. Today we’re having a sneak peek at the newest Rivals Pack – Big Mech versus The Bug, which will take the available roster up to 12 players!

Check out the tips and tactics for the other Players in the core game: Brank Reborn, Skarathron, Karadon, The Spawn and Dozer. Plus, don’t forget Rivals Packs Tigrax versus Shadow and Gnaw versus Alpha Simian. Oh, and if all this has piqued your interest in OverDrive, then you can now download the free rules from the Mantic site here.

BACKGROUND

Big Mech was found rusting in a warehouse at DGB headquarters, following years on the sidelines of the DreadBall circuit. After giving it a fresh lick of paint and an improved (more violent) artificial intelligence chip, Big Mech has become a regular and destructive sight in OverDrive. Rumours that the AI chip malfunctioned seasons ago and Big Mech is now controlled by a goblin pilot are regularly dismissed by the DGB press office – even if spectators have witnessed ‘engineers’ occasionally passing SlurpyBurgers into the cockpit.

STATS AND TACTICS

Big Mech’s stats are fairly middle of the road – a decent move, pretty good Strength for Slamming and average Agility when it comes to Dodging. As a result, you can rely on some fairly decent damage output when Slamming and you don’t have to worry too much about it getting Slammed from behind, because you have a 50/50 on each Dodge roll.

However, it’s really the Abilities where Big Mech begins to shine, particularly in the Standard game mode. This is thanks to Big Mech’s Focused ability, which grants a +1 when targeting any opposing Player in the Active Strike Zone. This means that when Big Mech runs into a Slam, it will be rolling a tasty five(!) dice.

What’s more, Big Mech is hard to shift from an Active Scoring Zone due to his Solid ability, which means he cannot be pushed back due to a Slam. This means that heavy hitters like Dozer or Brank will have a bit more difficulty moving Big Mech if it’s planted in the scoring zone.

If you’re playing in a League (or a tournament that allows Coach Abilities) then you should certainly consider upgrading Big Mech with something like Extra Padding (which gives Big Mech an additional health point – taking it up to six) or Engineering 101 (which allows you to potentially regenerate a health point each Rush). Of course, a combo of both those abilities is particularly nasty, as it’ll mean Big Mech has 6 health and an opportunity to regenerate HP too.

Finally, let’s talk Big Mech’s OverDrive ability: Power Surge! Big Mech breaks one of the fundamentals of the game because it can immediately make a second activation as though an Action Token had been played on it. This is great for when you want to finish off an opponent that’s only on one health or you need to run twice in order Steal the flag or Pass the Bomb to an opponent.

Big Mech is a really interesting player that can be boosted with Coaching Abilities and is perfect for taking out opponents in scoring zones. In our next blog, we’ll take a look at The Bug! Plus, tune in later this week when pre-orders will go live for The Bug and Big Mech.