The Snowmen: The Great Intelligence

Previous Episode: The Snowmen: The Latimer Residence

Strax in casual wear at Lv.20

Next Episode: March of the Cybermen

Game version played: 2.5

One more Snowmen level to go, and it has a Rare Drop. It’s a Red-framed portrait of a Sontaran in a butler suit. Bless me it’s Strax.

Strax is of course the non-terrestrial third of the Paternoster gang, played by Dan Starkey, but then Mr Starkey must have played 90% of New Who's Sontarans. Strax must have been a popular character because the show resurrected him, literally, for The Snowmen. I’ve spoken of my affection for this character in various posts and my love of Sontarans generally in Doctor Who Legacy – Tutorial. Before we talk about Strax as a potential team member we’d better try and win him.

My Team was 11th Doctor at Rank 2, Madame Vastra, Porridge and Rory Williams at Lv.5 and Jenny Flint at Lv.6. I have 1 empty space as I only have 4 companions to choose from. The Snowmen: The Latimer Residence is a TV level with Yellow and Black Time Fragments to win.

So where are we this time? We land in a chamber floored with a carpet that would go a treat in my minimalist steam-punk dining room. There is also a big sphere of energy on a raised dais, surrounded by energy pylons behind a control panel. That is a nice carpet.

Wave 1 is the three Yellow Snowmen again. Ponderously slow they inflicted no damage before I melted them. It was a shame to get the carpet damp but what can you do?

Wave 2 is more intimidating, Three Big Blue snowmen. They used a combination of the Black Ice power and straight forward attacks. They lasted for four rounds but I remained unscathed. I did get a Yellow fragment but that lovely carpet was by now looking rather the worse for wear.

Wave 3 is the Boss wave. On the left we have a small Blue Snowman which we haven’t seen before, and on the right a glowing glass pyramid. The 11th Doctor isn’t happy to see the pyramid and identifies it as the Great Intelligence (GI). The battle started with me frying the Snowman which ruined the carpet completely. What a downer. The GI took only minor damage.

They're mounting up

In the next couple of rounds I took 80 points of damage (pah!), but with the help of Jenny’s Smoulder power I got the GI down to about 40% of his total. Then Vastra and the 11th Doctor started to flash and I knew I’d won. I let Vastra go first and her Riposte did double the usual damage, 300 points of Yellow against the Black GI. It hurt but did not finish the villain, so the Doctor concocted A Fast Plan and inflicted 500 points. That comfortably bested the GI and won me another Time Crystal. Unfortunately there was no sign of Strax so that’s 0 out of 2 hits on the Rare Drops.

Booty for the level was good otherwise. I got a Time Crystal and a Yellow Fragment, plus I won No More Blue I for defeating 10 Blue enemies. That’s 9 out of 56 achievements. I also got enough experience for Porridge and Vastra to get to Lv.6. I gave Porridge extra HP, and Vastra more ATK.

Well I didn’t get Strax, but you may have been lucky or replayed until he dropped. If so how does he stack up as a possible member of the TARDIS team? Well the Commander is Red, as is the 10th Doctor and Jenny Flint. With Strax that’s at least three Red characters That my be enough to play a few levels with Red only and score some of the Exterminate Red achievements. It would be an odd team with just two healing characters and a converter but it could be fun.

Healing character are those equipped with a Heal power. With Strax, Rory and the 10th Doctor you could have three candidates for your team. In my main game I play with just one Healing character. If you have a vacant slot in the team then it makes sense to add Strax alongside Rory rather than leave it empty.

Now you may also have the Adipose (Yellow) in your TARDIS, and other characters if you’ve spent some Crystals. So winning Strax might mean you have to choose between your companions, probably between Rory and Strax. If not now then later in the game.

So Rory versus Strax, Human versus Sontaran, nurse versus nurse. Which way to go? Well Rory is the only Green character you’ll have without Crystal investment, but you have Red already well covered. Surprisingly Rory also starts with higher stats than Strax in all abilities, another win for Mr Pond.

Their Healing power is identical in all but name, called Bandage for Strax and Stand Firm for Rory, so that’s a draw.

What a lovely carpet

Where Strax does win out is in his experience track. Strax is on track 1, the quickest of all whereas Rory is on track 3 (there are 6 in total). This means that Strax, given equal opportunity, will get to higher levels faster than just about everybody. Rory does have a head start so it would take a few adventures for Strax to overhaul him, but he would catch up quicker than you may think.

So one reason you may choose Strax over Rory is if you are prepared to have a slightly weaker team now in order to get a stronger one sooner.

I’d go with Rory mostly due to the colour benefit. If I had won all of the Rare Drops up to now then my team would be, The 11th Doctor, Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Porridge, Rory and the Adipose (Yellow). The Yellow Adipose would be good support for Vastra and I’d pick Rory over Strax.

My team isn’t quite large enough yet but it isn’t holding me back. For others the team building will now be getting interesting. The game moves on again.