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And this is meant to be a short game! I'm glad we didn't choose the long mode or we'd be here for months. Whilst I'm having a great time abusing my position of power, it does kinda take some of the fun out of it when I'm probably the only one still having fun.
I've been stuck in long boardgames before where someone has clearly run away with it, and everyone else just wants it to end already. Fun for one person, not so much for the rest.
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
My first play of a board game I never expect to win or even do well, just treat it as a learning experience. This is dragging on a bit though, it's true.
I tried to make it relatively well-rounded, with a decent income and good starting legion. The idea was to be able to increase wickedness or intellect for the +1 order depending on what tribute I got and what seemed most useful.
Rank: Marquis of Hell (6 points)
Objective: Lust (-3 points)
Attributes:
Martial Prowess - 2 (6 points)
Cunning - 1 (2 points)
Intellect - 1 (2 points)
Wickedness - 1 (2 points)
Charisma - 3 (14 points)
No perks.
Total = 29 points
I got lucky with the flame tribute at the start (every turn seemed to give me a 2 or 3 flame card) so I boosted Wickedness to 4 quite quickly, then starting pumping points into cunning. With the +1 order place of power I've been taking 2 or 3 tribute demand orders per turn ever since. On a normal turn (when that damn event wasn't in play), I've been picking up 12-18 tribute per turn.
Current Attributes:
Martial Prowess - 3
Cunning - 4
Intellect - 1
Wickedness - 4
Charisma - 3
I took lust on the basis that I wanted the extra points - I wasn't expecting to start right next to the objective! Oh, and some of my combat cards are dummy cards.... but not all of them :P
Huh. I never really bump martial beyond 1. I just don't think it's worth it. You need 5 to get the +1 order instead of 4, and all of the other bonuses need lots of money but your income is hobbled by putting stuff into martial.
I just went with 1 in everything, 4 in cunning, 2 in charisma. I was going to see if I could make a ton of tribute from demands and stealing, but honestly the stealing payoff barely pays off the ritual cost, if that.
Guess who went full martial and still only has two order slots...
It worked out great last game and I had full order slots by the end! But I realise that mainly came from snagging some nice stat boosting items early on. Also the game's usual propensity to give you exactly what you don't want in tribute seems to be in full force this game.
Eh, I'm not excited about that so much since every target I'm worried about beats me for melee. I was more digging the infernal twice trait of my praetor.
Yeah it was a move of desperation. Do or die time. No way is anyone catching up in prestige before the clock runs out. It was a runaway game of Jeopardy that could only be won by punching Alex Trebek then turning to murder the other contestants.
Hmmm...one more artifact and I think my legion could have taken Pandemonium.
If it helps, you win both the *ballsiest move* and *holy shit** awards.
And kudos for turning what was becoming a fairly boring endgame into complete panic.
BigBadWolf on
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jakobaggerLO THY DREAD EMPIRE CHAOS IS RESTOREDRegistered Userregular
Yeah, doing a crazy all or nothing dramatic offensive is a way cooler answer to being behind than whining about game balance or concocting elaborate conspiracy theories about me being a Xanatos gambit level mastermind.
This is all going according to plan *sinister maniacal laughter*
For those of you following at home who aren't playing - the reason for our panic is MrBody has excommunicated himself and made a simultaneous move on the Strongholds of both myself and JamWarrior.
State of play from last turn (turn 40):
Red: BigBadWolf (Me)
Green: Jam Warrior
Yellow: Jakobagger
Purple: MrBody
Those big blue arrows? Those would be the clear open paths to our respective strongholds. JamWarrior's only legion was destroyed by the Angelic Host. And whilst I have 3 legions in the vicinity, MrBodys' Disciples are frankly terrifying.
Shit Getting Real This Turn (41):
Even with 4 legions vs 1, I'm still not sure it will be enough...
Funnily enough the beast is plan B. I panicked and bought it, but I don't think I'll need him in the end.
I'm surprised you didn't buy him pre-excommunication! A tag-team of your Disciples and the Beast supporting each other would have been nearly unstoppable.
Funnily enough the beast is plan B. I panicked and bought it, but I don't think I'll need him in the end.
I'm surprised you didn't buy him pre-excommunication! A tag-team of your Disciples and the Beast supporting each other would have been nearly unstoppable.
Couldn't afford him and the cost of rituals, or even the extra order to buy him from the bazaar.
Can't look at the turn until I get home. It didn't even take The Beast to kill my legion? That's depressing.
What I should have done is just wait one more turn so the turn order would have had me go first.
I basically used a -8 infernal combat card on my Slaves, then attacked your Disciples directly. The +5 melee support bonus from the Legion of Maw gave me 18 Melee! The infernal stats cancelled each other out, and neither of us cared about ranged.
You were a bit unlucky in that the Battle Advantage gave you +3 Ranged, the one stat you didn't care about.
As I said, the Beast was mainly if I'd completely miscalculated - then the support bonus it gave my stronghold should have given it a chance to survive.
You can make -8 cards with a 2 martial rating??????!!!!!
I just can't get over how you could afford all those legions, increasing all those attributes a bunch of points, and fling around rituals/cards for each one like they were confetti.
I didn't help that I thought legions had to be adjacent to support each other. I was hoping the combat advantage would give me the edge if the beast attacked me phase 1. If I survived that, no other legion except your bodyguard could hurt me and I was hoping I could freeze them with another deception ritual again and grab your stronghold.
I had to double-check before attacking, but combat support is based on the hex of combat. So legions of the maw only gave support if I attacked first as they were adjacent to your Disciple.
I also had 3 charisma and was spamming demand tribute 2 or 3 times a turn. Between 12 and 20 tribute a turn
Also, Rituals that stop or alter movement only effect units that hadn't moved. Since I moved before you, I moved my slaves first every time and your ritual had no effect.
-Only the beast could kill me in the 1st phase.
-Pray that I get lucky and beat or at least survive against the beast phase 1.
-My phase 1, march to kill the legion of maw, then march back.
-No one else can reach me this turn.
-Next turn I go before Wolf, move beast or bodyguard out of the way.
-Rush stronghold.
In the end, excommunication was the only way. It was a guaranteed loss to sit back and wait for the conclave vote. Better to take a chance to rule in hell than serve in...uh, hell.
That was pretty much what I assumed you'd do. Although in your position there weren't any other options than to rush the Stronghold as fast as possible and hope to get lucky. Thanks to the position of the mountains (I really love those mountains!) there was only one path you could take so I knew exactly where you were going. It was close though! You had me scrambling through the rule book working our the exact rules for turn-order and combat support.
I did think about loading my weakest legion with the Orb of Oblivion and suiciding it against you! Quick thought - does it work against Places of Power as well? ie. load it to a weak legion and attack Pandemonium... What happens with Pandemonium destroyed?
Combat cards can be ridiculously powerful for the cost. My -8 infernal card cost 2 flame and 2 of the circle. Although there are rituals, events and praetors that negate them. Plus they're a one-shot item. I think pretty much every battle I fought, I figured out how they could damage me and created a combat card to prevent it.
I do wish to file a complaint against the RNG map maker for that crazy ideal defensive setup you got. Totally protected by mountains on 2 sides, a chasm on a 3rd, plus the garden of infernal delights right next to you not to mention mountain mobility. It was Afghanistan there.
Not to say you didn't make a lot of smart plays, but geez o lord that map setup.
Posts
I've been stuck in long boardgames before where someone has clearly run away with it, and everyone else just wants it to end already. Fun for one person, not so much for the rest.
Rank: Marquis of Hell (6 points)
Objective: Lust (-3 points)
Attributes:
No perks.
Total = 29 points
I got lucky with the flame tribute at the start (every turn seemed to give me a 2 or 3 flame card) so I boosted Wickedness to 4 quite quickly, then starting pumping points into cunning. With the +1 order place of power I've been taking 2 or 3 tribute demand orders per turn ever since. On a normal turn (when that damn event wasn't in play), I've been picking up 12-18 tribute per turn.
Current Attributes:
I took lust on the basis that I wanted the extra points - I wasn't expecting to start right next to the objective! Oh, and some of my combat cards are dummy cards.... but not all of them :P
I just went with 1 in everything, 4 in cunning, 2 in charisma. I was going to see if I could make a ton of tribute from demands and stealing, but honestly the stealing payoff barely pays off the ritual cost, if that.
It worked out great last game and I had full order slots by the end! But I realise that mainly came from snagging some nice stat boosting items early on. Also the game's usual propensity to give you exactly what you don't want in tribute seems to be in full force this game.
And can I just say that your disciples are frankly terrifying!
Infernal Burst - When dealing melee damage, add your Infernal attribute to the damage. So that's an additional 9 points of damage. H**y f**k.
Hmmm...one more artifact and I think my legion could have taken Pandemonium.
And kudos for turning what was becoming a fairly boring endgame into complete panic.
State of play from last turn (turn 40):
Red: BigBadWolf (Me)
Green: Jam Warrior
Yellow: Jakobagger
Purple: MrBody
Those big blue arrows? Those would be the clear open paths to our respective strongholds. JamWarrior's only legion was destroyed by the Angelic Host. And whilst I have 3 legions in the vicinity, MrBodys' Disciples are frankly terrifying.
Shit Getting Real This Turn (41):
Even with 4 legions vs 1, I'm still not sure it will be enough...
I'm pretty sure I know how my ploy is going to be blunted.
By not submitting your turn?
The tension is killing me! Win or lose you've certainly livened up the endgame.
I'm surprised you didn't buy him pre-excommunication! A tag-team of your Disciples and the Beast supporting each other would have been nearly unstoppable.
And is a big ouch.
9th token finally drawn! Every turn now could be the last.
Wait... what happened to the Illuminatus? And suddenly the Slaves of Jam Warrior are back? An all round good turn for Jam Warrior!
Couldn't afford him and the cost of rituals, or even the extra order to buy him from the bazaar.
Can't look at the turn until I get home. It didn't even take The Beast to kill my legion? That's depressing.
What I should have done is just wait one more turn so the turn order would have had me go first.
You were a bit unlucky in that the Battle Advantage gave you +3 Ranged, the one stat you didn't care about.
As I said, the Beast was mainly if I'd completely miscalculated - then the support bonus it gave my stronghold should have given it a chance to survive.
I just can't get over how you could afford all those legions, increasing all those attributes a bunch of points, and fling around rituals/cards for each one like they were confetti.
I didn't help that I thought legions had to be adjacent to support each other. I was hoping the combat advantage would give me the edge if the beast attacked me phase 1. If I survived that, no other legion except your bodyguard could hurt me and I was hoping I could freeze them with another deception ritual again and grab your stronghold.
I had to double-check before attacking, but combat support is based on the hex of combat. So legions of the maw only gave support if I attacked first as they were adjacent to your Disciple.
I also had 3 charisma and was spamming demand tribute 2 or 3 times a turn. Between 12 and 20 tribute a turn
You can't be regent when excommunicated and thus never get first turn, precisely to stop such sucker punching shenanigans.
Though you can of course still time it so you go before a specific target.
-Only the beast could kill me in the 1st phase.
-Pray that I get lucky and beat or at least survive against the beast phase 1.
-My phase 1, march to kill the legion of maw, then march back.
-No one else can reach me this turn.
-Next turn I go before Wolf, move beast or bodyguard out of the way.
-Rush stronghold.
In the end, excommunication was the only way. It was a guaranteed loss to sit back and wait for the conclave vote. Better to take a chance to rule in hell than serve in...uh, hell.
I did think about loading my weakest legion with the Orb of Oblivion and suiciding it against you! Quick thought - does it work against Places of Power as well? ie. load it to a weak legion and attack Pandemonium... What happens with Pandemonium destroyed?
Combat cards can be ridiculously powerful for the cost. My -8 infernal card cost 2 flame and 2 of the circle. Although there are rituals, events and praetors that negate them. Plus they're a one-shot item. I think pretty much every battle I fought, I figured out how they could damage me and created a combat card to prevent it.
Not to say you didn't make a lot of smart plays, but geez o lord that map setup.