Game Basics

Aristeia 101: The Chemical Brothers

The Chemical Brothers is a two-character expansion for Aristeia that came out in 2019. Bachman and Hammerhead are both Poison loving fiends, but play in very different ways.

Bachmann to manage States, yours and theirs

  • Bachman manipulates states, taking them upon himself and redistributing them as he sees fit.  Obviously, keeping negative states (except for Poison) off of Hammerhead is a great way to support his brother. Similarly, putting  or keeping negative states on Hammerhead’s targets is the other.
  • Maybe less obvious would be making use of his Switch to soften up targets for Hammerhead, or even taking out low Health Aristos with Poison. Loading up Hammerhead with Poison isn’t necessarily bad either! Storing Poison on Backman for later use on Hammerhead is quite doable.
  • Tactics:
    • Side Effects is obviously a debuff for enemies. However, it CAN be used on allies since its only “choose a character” and NOT “choose an enemy.” In this case, should Hammerhead be about to go to the infirmary but will have a load of Poison or other potentially desirable States (Focus, +Initiative, etc)? This would allow him to come back with all of those states. This would be a head-start for him given Meta-chemical Frenzy grants him automatic successes for Battering Ram and Agility rolls!
    • Viral Outbreak is an upgrade to Inoculate, giving it no Line of Sight requirement and not needing any rolls. Loading up Hammerhead with this would be pretty easy, and could be quite safe depending on position in the Hexadome.
    • Transfusion is an upgrade to using Sample and Inoculate. Note that the range is 1 to 5, not 0 to 5, so at least one target must have a State you want to transfer. Getting negative states off of Hammerhead, removing buffs from targets, getting a buff from a friendly target you need on someone else… its easily doable here.
    • Absorption is a good tactic, but not that Hammerhead’s Overdose imposes Poison on him. So, this is not necessarily a good tactic to use before Hammerhead tries using it.

Hammerhead to Score and Position

  • Hammerhead can push opponents around, get past them, and generally terrorize the other team. This also helps him protect his brother if need be. Note that Battering Ram has you displace the target then place yourself within range 1-2 No line of sight needed. You do NOT have to be adjacent to the enemy at the end, so using him to block line of sight on Bachmann is quite doable as is knocking the enemy out of position.
  • Getting through the enemy’s defense towards a scoring zone helps the team, and draws attention away from Backmann as well. Keep that in mind!
  • Tactics:
    • Using Contagion when you can’t get rid of all your Poison tokens is useful. But, you can effectively Bank the tokens on Bachmann if he is within range. This prevents damage from hurting Hammerhead, then allows Backmann to place them back on Hammerhead later.
    • Forbidden Substances explicitly mentions Bachmann on the card, and instead of 2 Poison you’ll get 4 Poison tokens for Hammerhead. No clever thinking here – it’s a very direct card.
    • No Defense doesn’t directly help Bachmann, but is good for the overall team by helping make sure Hammerhead’s turn isn’t wasted. Also, it’ll help Hammerhead clear off Poison tokens.
    • Wall-Breaker is an upgrade for Battering Ram, and is worth thinking of how the additional Range and lack of Line of Sight requirement may benefit you in scenario play and bodyguarding characters.