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[Man of Paper]

Bishop

The Bishop is a humanoid construct made of durable metacrystal. It moves at a brisk walk, and can communicate out to moderate distances. It has a complex intelligence allowing it to identify where it should best position itself. May direct other constructs and share information. Emits an aura that repairs and maintains like-colored constructs.

[NUKE9.13]

I was going to propose an almost identical Bishop unit myself.
Well, I don't want to do a Queen or King unit. And while there are dozens of alternative chess pieces, I think it would be safe to branch out into other board games.

Tophat
A construct designed to construct, the Tophat consists of a small horizontal circle with four legs and two arms. It can extrude blocks of metacrystal, which it can either feed into a Gate to speed up the generation of other units, or assemble into simple fortifications (or other simple structures). It has no offensive capabilities.


Edit: So, since Blue didn't do a theme Shift, I wrote one we could do next turn. It's sort of a reference to an Arms Race that Andrea ran a long time ago.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shift: Atlantean Mercenaries
Ever since their home continent was sucked into an interdimensional rift, the Atlanteans have offered their services as mercenaries to various Entities. They take payment in the form of Firmament (which they need to prevent their homeland from dissolving into nothingness), which can easily be produced by breaking down Metacrystal.
Atlanteans are living, breathing humans. They commonly wield Orichalcum arms and armour (reminiscent of classical Greek styles), sometimes enchanted with magical effects. Different mercenary companies tend to have bitter rivalries, meaning they will happily fight each other should they find themselves on opposing sides.

[Kashyyk]

Diamond
A construct in it's entity's color, made from thin sheets of hardened metacrystal with a floor reminiscent of (and thus causing the name) Diamond. It also has four low walls, enough to protect a standing occupant whilst allowing them to reach out and over as it hovers a foot or two in the air. Up to two Pawn/Knight sized constructs may ride a Diamond, with one commanding its movements.  This mobile and protected platform can be used to rapidly move passengers, or more likely, crush enemy constructs beneath it.

[Man of Paper]

Pawn Upgrade: En Passant A basic skill-based upgrade for the Pawns that slightly increases speed and emphasizes flanking and breakthrough actions without the need for direct input from a Rook.

[NUKE9.13]

See, I'd rather do more utility-focused units, cos I figure we can Shift in a theme that allows for much more effective combat units next turn. I mean, I guess we could technically also shift into a supportive theme, but... shut up, your face is a supportive theme.

[Kashyyk]

The Tophat is probably the best design at the moment, as it lets us out scale them in production.

Of course any combat or support shift we do has to at least appear neutral, by dint of the "you can't target one side" rule.

Edit: A Shift to seed the Battlefield with "Resource Nodes" that we then immediately design something to harvest and use would be a fun way to play that, and add a strategic angle to the Battle Phase beyond "who can get more stabby first".

[NUKE9.13]

Of course any combat or support shift we do has to at least appear neutral, by dint of the "you can't target one side" rule.

To be clear, I meant a Shift that introduces more potential design space, as suggested in the core thread:

The bad news is, this makes Designs using materials that aren't metacrystal a bit difficult.

The good news is, you can Shift the game. If you want more things to work with than metacrystal, all you have to do is Shift that.

Such theme Shifts wouldn't favour one side, as both sides would be able to design units in the newly unlocked theme.

[Quarque]

Adding a bishop to the arsenal is an obvious but classy move, I want it.
I do think the description needs "Colored according to the color of the faction it belongs to." because every piece so far has it. And something about damage. Being a healer is cool and all but a Bishop should also have some means of applying brute force. How about:

Bishop v2

The Bishop is a humanoid construct made of durable metacrystal. Colored according to the color of the faction it belongs to. It moves at a brisk walk, and can communicate out to moderate distances. It has a complex intelligence allowing it to identify where it should best position itself. May direct other constructs and share information. Wields a metacrystal giant wrench that it can use to deal moderate damage or repair like-colored constructs.

[NUKE9.13]

I don't think a Bishop should have offensive capabilities. Better to specialise in healing- not only because that makes it more likely to be a good healer, but also because ideally it won't ever be in combat, making combat strength a waste of Metacrystal.

Anyway, votebox time. As mentioned, I prefer doing support units this turn, and more combat-focused units next turn in a newly unlocked theme, thus my votes for the two pure-support proposals.

Bishop: (1) NUKE9.13
Tophat: (1) NUKE9.13
Diamond:
En-Passant:
Bishop v2:

[Kashyyk]

Ah yes, I forgot about the early game extra designs. I fully support the Tophat, because something-something Logistics. However, I do want an offensive unit too, hence the Diamond. A Shock unit like that should be very effective on this flat and empty plane, and of the other terrains available, it'll still serve in some capacity. This should be a good way to steal some early Score Percentage.

Bishop: (1) NUKE9.13
Tophat: (2) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk
Diamond: (1) Kashyyk
En-Passant:
Bishop v2:

[Quarque]

Spoiler: counterargument (click to show/hide)

but also because ideally it won't ever be in combat, making combat strength a waste of Metacrystal.

The notion of a healer staying out of combat is idealistic, in my opinion.

Healers without self-defense mechanisms often become strategic liabilities. Such units must navigate the frontline to provide support, risking exposure to enemy attacks. That almost requires a special ability like flight or invisibility for evasion to work well. The consequence of losing a valuable healer to say, a stray pawn is a significant setback.

On the other hand, a healer equipped to handle skirmishes enhances its survivability and operational flexibility.

[Man of Paper]

Bishop: (2) NUKE9.13, MoP
Tophat: (3) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk, MoP
Diamond: (1) Kashyyk
En-Passant:
Bishop v2:

Counter-counter-counterpoint, or something:

We have a mob, flanker dps, and dps tank(?). We should get a healing main before we start doing any other cross-class stuff. Get the Medic before the Engineer (although in this case I'm voting to get both). A "split class" also has to deal with split attention - to continue the team-based fps analogies, giving average players Mercy in Overwatch vs Moira (when I played five years ago). All other things being equal, the mercy is going to provide more healing output so that the focused dps and tanks can do their things, while Moira is going to be looking at the enemy team as much as her own.

In a turn or two, when we have greater thematic flexibility from shifts and have the very basics covered, I'd be more than happy to do more functionally complex units. Strategically though, I feel like we're better served to make these basic crystal idiots, well, basic, until we get some support for "alternative development". Paladins or Clerics would be great if we pulled DnD or fantasy something, or hell, even to pull back to overwatch, an Ana-like sniper with smart bullets what heal friends and hurt enemies.

[Quarque]

basic crystal idiots

have a vote for making me laugh

Bishop: (3) NUKE9.13, MoP, Quarque
Tophat: (4) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk, MoP, Quarque
Diamond: (1) Kashyyk
En-Passant:
Bishop v2:

[Crystalizedmire]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bishop: (4) NUKE9.13, MoP, Quarque, Crystalizedmire
Tophat: (4) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk, MoP, Quarque
Diamond: (1) Kashyyk
En-Passant:(1) Crystalizedmire
Bishop v2:

I want our most plentiful piece to have an improvement.

[Quarque]

actually agree, plus removing spoiler tags

Bishop: (4) NUKE9.13, MoP, Quarque, Crystalizedmire
Tophat: (3) NUKE9.13, Kashyyk, MoP
Diamond: (1) Kashyyk
En-Passant:(2) Crystalizedmire, Quarque
Bishop v2: