Overwatch

A defensive talent that allows certain classes of Templar and Sentry Turrets to protect an area via ranged attacks, that will occur during the enemy turn if triggered. These attacks will raise a templar's heat level, but do not impose an AP penalty.

Using Overwatch
Overwatch Talents are available to Soldiers, Neptunes, and Sentry Turrets. Overwatch Talents allow a Templar to cover an area, preparing to lay down defensive fire against any enemy that tries to enter the watched area. The successful use of Overwatch Talents is critical in defensive maneuvers, holding ground and protecting Tact Points.

Overwatch ends your Templar’s turn by setting AP and MP to 0. Therefore, before you set your Overwatch for the turn, be sure to complete all other actions and movements your Templar needs to take.

Overwatch does its work during the enemy’s turn. Any enemy who tries to enter the area covered by the Overwatch Template is subject to an Overwatch attack. All Overwatch attacks roll accuracy and damage and can miss and have their damage soaked by armor as normal.

Protected and Cleared Tiles
When your Templar lays down an Overwatch Template, the 9 tiles under the Template are claimed as protected by that Templar. Whenever an enemy starts moving into one of these protected tiles, your Templar is given the chance to make an Overwatch attack before the move is completed. Therefore, you will see your Templar firing on enemies that are not yet inside the Template.

After a Templar fires on an enemy moving into a tile covered by an Overwatch Template, the tile is considered cleared. Regardless of the result -- if the attack misses, the enemy dies or survives, the tile is cleared. This means that it is no longer protected by Overwatch and that no Templar will fire if another enemy attempts to move into the same turn. Therefore, if multiple enemies are charging through a single Overwatch Template, the first may clear enough tiles so that those that rush second or third may not take any defensive fire.

The cleared list of tiles is reset every turn. Therefore, if you want to keep Overwatch on an area for multiple turns, do not give any orders to your Templar and all of the tiles under the Overwatch Template will be considered protected again on the next enemy turn. In this case, the Templar will end their turn with full MP and will dissipate Heat at a higher rate.

Overlapping Overwatch Templates
Only a single Templar can claim a tile. If two Templars place their Overwatch Template so that one or more tiles are overlapped by both Templates, only one of the Templars will claim the tiles and be able to make Overwatch attacks against enemies moving or spawning into it.

This does not mean that overlapping Templates is pointless. There are many situations where a tile or two of overlap can allow you to get the best protection of the target area.

Line of Sight, Range and Overwatch
Your Overwatch attacks can be blocked by Line of Sight. If the target that is moving into a protected tile is currently out of your Templar’s Line of Sight, your Templar is unable to fire.

Your weapon’s range does not affect Overwatch attacks. Range effects where you can place an Overwatch Template, but once it is placed any tile under the Template is considered within range for Overwatch attacks.

Overwatch Effect on Enemy AI
Whenever a Templar makes an Overwatch attack against an enemy, that enemy aborts their movement plan. This may mean that the enemy will take a new path, stop moving altogether, or make a new plan based on the latest state of the battlefield.

Spawning into Overwatch
Enemies that spawn into tiles covered by an Overwatch Template are considered moving and therefore your Templar will make an Overwatch attack against the newly spawned monster. As is the case whenever an Overwatch attack is made, the tile is considered cleared for the rest of the turn and further attacks would not be made if another monster spawned into the exact tile or another monster tried to move into the tile. These rules also apply to monsters such as the Brood Mother that can spawn additional monsters during the enemy’s turn -- those spawned monsters can also be hit by Overwatch attacks.

Accuracy and Damage with Overwatch
When an Overwatch attack is made, your Templar rolls an attack roll with Weapon + Attribute + Skill part of the normal attack dice pools. No Talent is used for Overwatch attacks. However, Overwatch imparts a Buff on your Templar, which increase accuracy and damage and is taken into account whenever an Overwatch attack is made. All other Buffs work as normal during Overwatch attacks, imparting their full bonus.