Urban Architects

## Overview

Everyone's heard of the pretty pretty cityscapes around the Beautiful Castle, the magnificent parking lot on Rhodes Plaza Mall, the Gooey-Gloomy Old English style of the town of Innsmouth, the very 70’s architecture of the Mean Streets and the Funky Town… But no one asks themselves: “Who thought of making this? Who designed it?”

We've been here all along.

From Smashopolis’ Superb Suburbs, we're the absolute best city planning team. We're always Working After Hours on our Pending Projects for the Smash Up world. Thinking about new improvements to the bases while you keep making your normal smashing life. And now we've joined the fray. We might not look as intimidating to you, but remember:

We built these cities.

Urban Architects is retroactively one of the 8 factions featured in Downtown Smashopolis.

The Urban Architects faction specializes in breakpoint manipulation; they play actions that have different effects depending on the breakpoint of the bases they're on and can also move between the bases to spread and converge.

Other factions from the same set: Circus Performers, Comedians, Engineers, Illusionists, Jazz Band, Journalists, Rappers.

## Details

* **Name:** Urban Architects
* **Author:** CaptainCosmic
* **Complexity:** 3.5/5
* **Version:** 1.1
* **Last Updated:** December 26th, 2023

## Cards

Imgur album here.

The Urban Architects faction has the usual 10 minions and 10 actions. It has a total minion power of 30, or an average of 3 per minion. Among its actions, there are:

* 1 Play-on-minion action: Geo-Expertise.
* 5 Play-on-base actions: Fascinating Street, 2x Magnificent Power Lines, Superb Suburbs, Well-Done Well.
* 4 Standard actions (0 that affect one or more minions): 2x Civil Engineering, Pending Projects, Working After Hours.
* 0 Actions that directly increase a minion's power.

### Minions (10)

* **1x Arch-Architect (5):** Special: After this base scores, you may move one of your other minions on each base to a base with a breakpoint other than its starting breakpoint.
* **2x Modeler (4):** Talent: Transfer one of your actions played on a base to another base with equal or lower breakpoint OR move one of your minions to a base that had its breakpoint changed this turn.
* **3x Topographer (3):** Reduce another base’s breakpoint by 3 until the start of your next turn OR draw a card.
* **4x Resident (2):** Ongoing: During your turn, after one or more bases’ breakpoints are changed, you may move this minon to one of those bases to give this minion +1 power until the end of the turn.

### Actions (10)

* **2x Civil Engineering:** Reduce a base’s breakpoint by 3 to increase another base’s breakpoint by 3 until the start of your next turn.
* **2x Magnificent Power Lines:** Play on a base. Ongoing: After a minion is played or moved to here, place a counter on this card. Talent: Reduce or increase this base’s breakpoint by 1 for each counter on this card until the start of your next turn.
* **1x Fascinating Street:** Play on a base. Ongoing: If this base has a breakpoint of 20 or less, this card gains “Talent: Move one of your minions of power 3 or less to or from here”; otherwise, you have power here equal to the number of non-base your cards here.
* **1x Geo-Expertise:** Play on a minion. Ongoing: Once per turn per base, after a base’s breakpoint is changed, place a +1 power counter on this minion.
* **1x Pending Projects:** Look at the top three cards of the base deck. Return them to the top and/or bottom of the base deck in any order.
* **1x Superb Suburbs:** Play on a base. Ongoing: If this base has a breakpoint of 20 or less, once per turn, after one of your minions moves to or from here, you may move another player's minion of power 2 or less to and from the same bases; otherwise, you may play an extra minion of power 3 or less here on your turn.
* **1x Well-Done Well:** Play on a base. Ongoing: If this base has a breakpoint of 20 or less, at the end of your turn, if you have a minion here, draw a card. If this base has a breakpoint of 21 or more, at the start of your turn, place a +1 power counter on one of your minions here.
* **1x Working After Hours:** Search your deck and/or discard pile for an action that can be played on a base and play it as an extra action.

### Bases

* **(15) Complex Dept. Complex (4 2 1):** This base’s breakpoint is increased by 1 for each other card here.
* **(18) Placeholder Place (4 2 1):** When this base enters play, place four counters on it. This base’s breakpoint is increased by 1 for each counter on it. After you play a minion here, you may add or remove a counter to/from this base.

## Clarifications

* **Resident, Modeler, Geo-Expertise:** These abilities are also activated when an effect that reduces or increases a base’s breakpoint expires.
* **Superb Suburbs:** Both minions move from base A to base B, they cannot interchange bases.

## Strategy

### General

This faction is driven primarily by their twos and fours. Residents can build up temporary power multiple times per turn, while Modelers arrange the board in preparation for an efficient turn.

They find support and burst with their three dual actions. Their breakpoint manipulation can be used to shift modes of these actions, in addition to the normal acceleration/stalling of a base.

The dual actions have more burst potential on higher breakpoints, which encourages critical analysis of what will be their true purpose throughout the game.

Arch-Architect is a very peculiar minion, in that it offers a ton of value but it's very difficult to set up efficiently.

This can be a very explosive faction, but it needs careful planning to achieve that goal. Knowledge of the base deck and assigning roles to the different bases in play is key to Urban Architects’ success.

### Partner suggestions

Urban Architects can be described as a movement and play-on-base faction. Pairing with more of those elements will make an easy to use combo. Certain other factions can benefit from Architects' toolbox or support it on many levels.

#### Published

* **Rockstars:** The card draw they provide is pivot to get the better Urban Architects’ cards. The BP reduction can lead to an efficient Rick Roll play. Turn Up to 11 provides a permanent BP change, which is handy for Arch-Architect’s ability.
* **Skeletons:** Being able to bury Topographers is very useful as they can build even more power in Residents than the usual Civil Engineering/ Magnificent Power Lines expiration times in phase 1. The extra +1 power counters some of the Urban Architects’ actions give are very handy for an efficient burst with Skeletons. Gravetenders provide card draw which is very useful to UAs.

#### Custom

* **Selkies:** These two factions are very similar, Giving Selkies more ways to manipulate breakpoints makes it easier for them to cascade into solos. Resident is very similar to Manatee Maidens and Topographers are a lesser version of Seawiches. Modeler can make any of them converge after doing their job. Sealie Queen and Arch-Architect can make a domino effect triple score if set up correctly.

## Author notes

* The art for this faction was made with Dream AI.
* The font used in the card names is Ruler & Compass.
* The card Pending Projects contains references to many other custom factions made by different authors:
	+ Chimeras by Lonan.
	+ Jazz Band by Berryl.
	+ Nobles by SirErrant.
	+ Selkies by ludichrisness.
	+ Sketchy Housing by Onassi.
	+ The Godfather by CaptainCosmic.
* Feedback and ideas for this faction were given by ludichrisness. Thank you!

I really like this faction. It was developed in a relatively small period of time from a stroke of inspiration. It started as a state machine faction and it slowly (and very naturally) acquired its movement identity. I wanted a faction that didn't delve into new mechanics and a twist on the existing ones, I think it worked out very well.

This faction is a symbolic celebration of a job that I admire a lot, I hope I've made it justice. And I hope you enjoy playing it!