Ugggggh. Millennium Blades started showing up on online shops. I want it more than I've ever wanted a board game. But I could literally never get it to the table, because the only group hardcore enough to play something like Millennium Blades I have is also the same group with the guy that won't play English-dependent games. And with how few copies of L99 games reach my country, within a week it will be out of stock forever.
My policy on kickstarters is that once I've backed them, I purposely forget about them and treat it as lost money. Then when it arrives, it's a nice surprise!
So basically, it's like gambling with delayed gratification? Like spending a bunch on lottery tickets and then randomly finding them a year later when going through your old jacket?
I like to think of them as presents to my future self. And, like presents, some are awesome and some turn out to be sweaters in disguise.
No big twists here. We completed the Immunologist's checklist and have pretty much entered endgame as far as we can tell. Everything that isn't Box 8 or the remainder of the Legacy deck has been opened, and by the time we would be eligible to open Box 8 at this point we will have finished playing (two losses in November, two losses in December) so it's not even relevant.
Winding down, but we still have some steep hills to climb from the looks of it.
Sigh. Another misplay recorded for posterity.
We somehow completely miss that LA's outbreak at ~46:00 should have chained into Lima. This would ultimately have caused Mexico City to outbreak on Lima's subsequent burst as well, pushing us to 7 total outbreaks instead of 5. Fortunately neither Chicago nor Miami would have been the 8th and final outbreak, as the MC outbreak would only have pushed them to 3 each. Game still won, but much closer than we had thought. I will fix Mexico City's panic level when we start our November game.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
I'm starting to feel like an FFG shill, but I know there are a couple of fellow Lord of the Rings LCG fans here.
New Éowyn in an upcoming saga expansion:
Never really got into the saga sets, but daaaaaaamn.
I'm starting to feel like an FFG shill, but I know there are a couple of fellow Lord of the Rings LCG fans here.
New Éowyn in an upcoming saga expansion:
Never really got into the saga sets, but daaaaaaamn.
That's a really strong Tactics questor (not surprising that Eowyn is a strong Questor, since she's in a lot of Spirit decks, but a Tactics version? Wow!), especially considering the other Tactics Rohan cards and the relative lack of questing characters for Tactics. Her one-shot ability is strong, but it's the combinations with other Rohan-specific gear and characters that make her interesting. I think she'll be in the core of a lot of Rohan decks.
+1
GuibsWeekend WarriorSomewhere up North.Registered Userregular
Ugggggh. Millennium Blades started showing up on online shops. I want it more than I've ever wanted a board game. But I could literally never get it to the table, because the only group hardcore enough to play something like Millennium Blades I have is also the same group with the guy that won't play English-dependent games. And with how few copies of L99 games reach my country, within a week it will be out of stock forever.
This is causing me physical pain.
I know, I have the same dilemma. Games looks amazing but the chances of getting it "out" often is very low.
Ugggggh. Millennium Blades started showing up on online shops. I want it more than I've ever wanted a board game. But I could literally never get it to the table, because the only group hardcore enough to play something like Millennium Blades I have is also the same group with the guy that won't play English-dependent games. And with how few copies of L99 games reach my country, within a week it will be out of stock forever.
This is causing me physical pain.
I know, I have the same dilemma. Games looks amazing but the chances of getting it "out" often is very low.
It is a pretty excellent parody. I've played it once, and all of the aesthetic choices are spot on and great. Your currency consists of wads of bills, rather than single pieces of paper (so you have a stack of green bills that counts as $1, a stack of pink for $5, etc.). That's genius. Each card back is designed to look like a pack of CCG cards, so you're literally buying packs just for the one rare/good card in a pack. That's genius. You end up with piles of cards flying everywhere, during the deck building phase, as people scramble to build a deck, keep their collection separate, and oh shit did I just sell the deck I was building instead of my trash binder rares? That's genius. All the names of the cards are great, riffing on Yu-Gi-Oh, megaman, Sailor Moon, Gundam, etc.
The tournament gameplay is a fun puzzle. But I don't know if it would hold up to really repeated play? I found it pretty long for what it is, even with the stopwatch governed window for deckbuilding. I mean, I had a great time, but I'm not sure I'd be able to sustain interest once the charm/novelty of the thing wears off.
Sometimes you just need that game that was something you love, and love to play, but only get it out once a year or two due to what it is or your particular gaming group.
::looks over at Fief::
0
HedgethornAssociate Professor of Historical Hobby HorsesIn the Lions' DenRegistered Userregular
I'm starting to feel like an FFG shill, but I know there are a couple of fellow Lord of the Rings LCG fans here.
New Éowyn in an upcoming saga expansion:
Never really got into the saga sets, but daaaaaaamn.
Well, there's a way to cheese a lot of the existing "boss-fight" quests. (Suggested house rule: the player must shout "No man am I!" when performing Eowyn's action.)
Also, I'm rather surprised they decided that those stats were balanced on what is effectively a 6-threat character; even if her special action didn't exist, a 3 HP hero with stats of 4/1/1 would be a tempting inclusion in quite a few decks at a cost of 6 threat.
Shadowstar Corsairs arrived today, I had won a Kickstarter pledge for it in a BGG contest. I think it gives Terra Mystica a run for its money in heaviest game box in my collection. 30 page rulebook though, urgh, that usually translates into 'yet another game I like but no one else will play it'
Shadowstar Corsairs arrived today, I had won a Kickstarter pledge for it in a BGG contest. I think it gives Terra Mystica a run for its money in heaviest game box in my collection. 30 page rulebook though, urgh, that usually translates into 'yet another game I like but no one else will play it'
Speaking of Kickstarters, I'm kind of eyeing the Epic Resort expansion Villain's Vacation to replace a couple of deckbuilders and intro games in my collection. Looks like a fun little deck build/worker placement combo.
Players compete to build the best resort for attracting fantasy heroes and tourists looking for fun and relaxation. The more you attract, the more likely monsters will attack!
Hire and train your workers, build and upgrade your attractions, and convince your battle weary heroes to fight just one more time so without letting too many tourists get eaten! Gain Victory points by upgrading attractions and giving Heroes the rest they need. The highest scoring player when all monsters are defeated is the winner.
Picked up Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn today. I was looking for something a bit lighter than Netrunner because my friends tend to go full poopsock hardcore theory crafting and I just have the core box + a couple of expansions and play just for fun. (Also, the problem of both players having Runner decks they want to play.)
Shadowstar Corsairs arrived today, I had won a Kickstarter pledge for it in a BGG contest. I think it gives Terra Mystica a run for its money in heaviest game box in my collection. 30 page rulebook though, urgh, that usually translates into 'yet another game I like but no one else will play it'
Rulebooks should always be 30 pages or two.
Oh I totally agree but if it takes more than a few minutes to learn, then I'm lucky to even finish a first game with my group, who vastly prefers simple & quick, never mind play it ever again. I pretty much just play solo at this point cause of it.
Unrelated but the Pathfinder Adventures tablet game came out today for IOS /Android. It's pretty good! Free to start but I haven't decided if it's worth sinking money into it as I own the existing content already, but the convenience of setup is so nice... I will say that the tutorial is not great, to the point that I don't think you would know everything you need to know without having played the physical version before. Always online too, which is kind of shitty. Also shitty is they pulled the 'we'll sell you game coins but not in the denominations you'll actually spend'. Example: the character add on pack is 10,000 gold, but you purchase gold at either 9,000 or 20,000 amounts. Bulllll shiiiitttt. You can earn gold in game though but it just rubs me the wrong way.
Half-Price Books is selling - and presumably buying - hobby games now.
Probably not as lucrative a way to thin your collection as the BGG market, but quick and easy and probably slightly better than donating stuff to Goodwill, as I have been doing.
The one I stopped at didn't have anything I absolutely had to own, but it was an interesting enough selection to be worth browsing. Will probably take the time to check out others in the future.
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
Half-Price Books is selling - and presumably buying - hobby games now.
Probably not as lucrative a way to thin your collection as the BGG market, but quick and easy and probably slightly better than donating stuff to Goodwill, as I have been doing.
The one I stopped at didn't have anything I absolutely had to own, but it was an interesting enough selection to be worth browsing. Will probably take the time to check out others in the future.
The local HPB has had board games and PnP RPG books for a while now, but of course what they actually have is a crapshoot from week to week.
Honestly I haven't been back in a while because I find the best way to save money is to not even go. I did get an opened but components-still-sealed copy of Horus Heresy for $25 there!
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Finished all ten cases in Sherlock Holmes. That was a whole heap of fun. It simultaneously made me feel clever and stupid at the same time.
Are any of the fan made modules any good? Are there any similar games I should keep an eye out four.
Also managed to play Eclipse for the first (and second time) over the weekend. First game, with 3, I was a definite loser, I blame pirates being on 3 of my four exits while everyone else seemed to get planets. Second game (four players) I was a convincing second. If I had challenged the player in first we would have weakened each other to the point where third and fourth would have walked over us. The player boards are genius, if not fiddly, and the balance of spreading far enough, but still having influence chips to take actions is a great brain burner. Having said that, playing this with even one AP prone player makes it a little bit painful time wise.
You need to be fairly aggressive with discarding hexes when you explore in early game Eclipse. The loss of the action is often much less of a drawback than having a lemon hex eating your influence and getting in your way.
Picked up Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn today. I was looking for something a bit lighter than Netrunner because my friends tend to go full poopsock hardcore theory crafting and I just have the core box + a couple of expansions and play just for fun. (Also, the problem of both players having Runner decks they want to play.)
The cards are absolutely gorgeous.
The whole design is beautiful.
That's part of the reason I actually think I might get this to the table, since my wife will probably be interested enough by the art to try it out.
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Since "superhero day" coincided with board game night last night, we had to get a Sentinels game in.
(Prime Warden) Argent Adept, (promo) Southwest Sentinels, and (original) Wraith took on Apostate in Pike Industries.
That last bit was the important part.
Apostate started with the 4hp pendant that increases his damage and reduced damage to itself by 2. Annoying, but nothing we couldn't get rid of. First environment turn saw a Toxic Chemical vat (all damage toxic and +1). Then Apostate played the card that digs out the next H-1 relics from his deck. These turned out to be the Tome of Damnation (whenever a hero draws a card, play the top card of the villain deck; when destroyed, return Condemnation from the trash) and Runes of Malediction (all relics take 2 less damage, when destroyed return a bunch of demons from the trash). Urgh.
The next environment turn saw the second Toxic vat, putting all damage at +2. While that hurt, Apostate wasn't actually dealing that much damage as only his base power and Condemnation were active and I was using Idealist's TK Thump to reduce his output as much as I could. Apostate played a big demon on his turn, and we kept clawing our way through relics without setting off destroy triggers.
Next environment turn: Cooling Vat. This says whenever a hero plays a card they take a cold damage. But it also says that at the end of the environment turn every target takes 1 cold 1 toxic and 1 other type of damage i don't recall (energy?). Combined with both Toxic Vats, though, that meant it was dealing every target nine damage that turn. The good news is that this wiped out a bunch of relics and the demon, but anyone who is familiar with the Southwest Sentinels knows that their starting HP ranges from 12 to 15, and since both Adept and Wraith were taking the "highest HP" hits from Apostate they were in a similar range, so immediately we were all in single-digits and things looked grim.
Then Apostate plays the demon that returns some relics when he dies. OH, COME ON!
Adept takes a hit from the Cooling Vat to play Cedistic Dissonant, sacrificing his Harp to get rid of the vat before it destroys us any more than it already has. Wraith has found her Stun Bolt so between that and Idealist we're keeping Apostate's damage mostly under control but this is getting ridiculous.
Of course that's when the vats explode, dealing 5 damage to everyone. This wipes out Adept and the entire Sentinels team, leaves Wraith at like 3hp, and we're pretty sure we're just boned.
Apostate summons up another pair of relics (gauntlet that triggers off him doing melee damage and the Orb that redirects all damage done to other relics to it) and then punches Wraith down to 1.
Argent Adept uses an incapacitated power to redirect the next damage that would be dealt to Wraith. I happen to have one that can let a hero recover 2HP, which brings her back to three.
And that's when things get weird.
The environment card is the Bio vat that reduces all damage and heals everything for 1. On Wraith's next turn she tutors up Smoke Bombs, which are a flat -1 damage when there's only one hero standing (because they are both the lowest and the highest HP). Between the vat, the stun bolt, and the smoke, it's basically impossible for Apostate to damage Wraith, and she is accumulating an ever-expanding layer of damage redirects from Adept in case anything does. Meanwhile the Bio vat and the Sentinels' power is letting Wraith claw her way back up to double-digit HP while she is slowly but surely using her various weaponry to keep relics and demons under control, and when the relic-returning demon eventually dies we are able to pick ones that aren't threats (the pendant and Condemnation).
Meanwhile the environment has been spitting out useless Rats, since the Bio vat reduces their damage to zero. Occasionally Apostate tries to go for Oblivion (his deck's equivalent to Fanatic's End of Days) but fortunately the Sentinels have the ability to destroy an Ongoing before it can blow up all of Wraith's gear. At this point Wraith is also nailing Apostate with a series of Throat Jabs so she can use damaging weapons while he gasps for air.
Inevitably the rats mutate and get stronger, but at this point Wraith's HP is higher than anything that comes out of Apostate's deck (and again, there are like half a dozen redirection shields on her just in case anything gets through her DP) so they start gnawing on demons and relics for us.
Eventually Wraith gets Apostate to flip, destroying a relic, and then the vats blow again, killing a bunch of stuff (including all the rats) and hitting Apostate twice thanks to Adept's redirection shields. Apostate's play (with 2 cards left in his deck) is the second relic-returning demon. Wraith is able to damage Apostate enough to flip him again, leaving him with 1hp and no relics in play.
Then the second mutagen pops up, returning all four rats to play.
They swarm him for the impossible win.
Vyolynce on
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Since "superhero day" coincided with board game night last night, we had to get a Sentinels game in.
(Prime Warden) Argent Adept, (promo) Southwest Sentinels, and (original) Wraith took on Apostate in Pike Industries.
I haven't been keeping up... Are they actually called the Southwest Sentinels now (to avoid confusion)? Or has it always been this way, and I just haven't noticed? My deck just says "The Sentinels". The promos are the ones from the pre-order of VotM?
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Since "superhero day" coincided with board game night last night, we had to get a Sentinels game in.
(Prime Warden) Argent Adept, (promo) Southwest Sentinels, and (original) Wraith took on Apostate in Pike Industries.
I haven't been keeping up... Are they actually called the Southwest Sentinels now (to avoid confusion)? Or has it always been this way, and I just haven't noticed? My deck just says "The Sentinels". The promos are the ones from the pre-order of VotM?
From what I can tell, "Southwest Sentinels" is the title of their first appearance. It's probably equivalent to "West Coast Avengers" or a Teen Titans variant. They obviously become the Void Guard by the events of Oblivaeon.
And yeah, these are the Villains promos. Idealist has 12 hp and TK Thump (1 psychic damage and reduce damage dealt by that target by 1), Writhe has 13hp and Shroud (the next time a target would be destroyed, put it on the top or bottom of its deck), Mainstay has 15hp and an ability that deals 2 melee and makes the next damage that target would take irreducible, and Dr. Medico has 14hp and can heal the Sentinels for 1 and draw a card. I might be off by 1 or 2 hp on the non-Idealist characters but they're all 13-15 while she's definitely at 12.
I cannot wait until these guys get individual decks.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
Pyramid Arcade hit the 100k stretch goal for 30 extra pyramids, and is creeping up on the final stretch goal which will add rules for like 5 more games (Icehouse, Zendo, some other ones I forget). So I backed it. Pretty excited to get my hands on that thing.
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Since "superhero day" coincided with board game night last night, we had to get a Sentinels game in.
(Prime Warden) Argent Adept, (promo) Southwest Sentinels, and (original) Wraith took on Apostate in Pike Industries.
That last bit was the important part.
Apostate started with the 4hp pendant that increases his damage and reduced damage to itself by 2. Annoying, but nothing we couldn't get rid of. First environment turn saw a Toxic Chemical vat (all damage toxic and +1). Then Apostate played the card that digs out the next H-1 relics from his deck. These turned out to be the Tome of Damnation (whenever a hero draws a card, play the top card of the villain deck; when destroyed, return Condemnation from the trash) and Runes of Malediction (all relics take 2 less damage, when destroyed return a bunch of demons from the trash). Urgh.
The next environment turn saw the second Toxic vat, putting all damage at +2. While that hurt, Apostate wasn't actually dealing that much damage as only his base power and Condemnation were active and I was using Idealist's TK Thump to reduce his output as much as I could. Apostate played a big demon on his turn, and we kept clawing our way through relics without setting off destroy triggers.
Next environment turn: Cooling Vat. This says whenever a hero plays a card they take a cold damage. But it also says that at the end of the environment turn every target takes 1 cold 1 toxic and 1 other type of damage i don't recall (energy?). Combined with both Toxic Vats, though, that meant it was dealing every target nine damage that turn. The good news is that this wiped out a bunch of relics and the demon, but anyone who is familiar with the Southwest Sentinels knows that their starting HP ranges from 12 to 15, and since both Adept and Wraith were taking the "highest HP" hits from Apostate they were in a similar range, so immediately we were all in single-digits and things looked grim.
Then Apostate plays the demon that returns some relics when he dies. OH, COME ON!
Adept takes a hit from the Cooling Vat to play Cedistic Dissonant, sacrificing his Harp to get rid of the vat before it destroys us any more than it already has. Wraith has found her Stun Bolt so between that and Idealist we're keeping Apostate's damage mostly under control but this is getting ridiculous.
Of course that's when the vats explode, dealing 5 damage to everyone. This wipes out Adept and the entire Sentinels team, leaves Wraith at like 3hp, and we're pretty sure we're just boned.
Apostate summons up another pair of relics (gauntlet that triggers off him doing melee damage and the Orb that redirects all damage done to other relics to it) and then punches Wraith down to 1.
Argent Adept uses an incapacitated power to redirect the next damage that would be dealt to Wraith. I happen to have one that can let a hero recover 2HP, which brings her back to three.
And that's when things get weird.
The environment card is the Bio vat that reduces all damage and heals everything for 1. On Wraith's next turn she tutors up Smoke Bombs, which are a flat -1 damage when there's only one hero standing (because they are both the lowest and the highest HP). Between the vat, the stun bolt, and the smoke, it's basically impossible for Apostate to damage Wraith, and she is accumulating an ever-expanding layer of damage redirects from Adept in case anything does. Meanwhile the Bio vat and the Sentinels' power is letting Wraith claw her way back up to double-digit HP while she is slowly but surely using her various weaponry to keep relics and demons under control, and when the relic-returning demon eventually dies we are able to pick ones that aren't threats (the pendant and Condemnation).
Meanwhile the environment has been spitting out useless Rats, since the Bio vat reduces their damage to zero. Occasionally Apostate tries to go for Oblivion (his deck's equivalent to Fanatic's End of Days) but fortunately the Sentinels have the ability to destroy an Ongoing before it can blow up all of Wraith's gear. At this point Wraith is also nailing Apostate with a series of Throat Jabs so she can use damaging weapons while he gasps for air.
Inevitably the rats mutate and get stronger, but at this point Wraith's HP is higher than anything that comes out of Apostate's deck (and again, there are like half a dozen redirection shields on her just in case anything gets through her DP) so they start gnawing on demons and relics for us.
Eventually Wraith gets Apostate to flip, destroying a relic, and then the vats blow again, killing a bunch of stuff (including all the rats) and hitting Apostate twice thanks to Adept's redirection shields. Apostate's play (with 2 cards left in his deck) is the second relic-returning demon. Wraith is able to damage Apostate enough to flip him again, leaving him with 1hp and no relics in play.
Then the second mutagen pops up, returning all four rats to play.
They swarm him for the impossible win.
I find Apostate to be an extremely under-rated villain; one of the most difficult, in my opinion. The only time I've been able to beat him in live play (as opposed to online) was when The Block environment spit out that inmate who does a horrible amount of AOE damage which just ate up his artifacts.
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Since "superhero day" coincided with board game night last night, we had to get a Sentinels game in.
(Prime Warden) Argent Adept, (promo) Southwest Sentinels, and (original) Wraith took on Apostate in Pike Industries.
That last bit was the important part.
Apostate started with the 4hp pendant that increases his damage and reduced damage to itself by 2. Annoying, but nothing we couldn't get rid of. First environment turn saw a Toxic Chemical vat (all damage toxic and +1). Then Apostate played the card that digs out the next H-1 relics from his deck. These turned out to be the Tome of Damnation (whenever a hero draws a card, play the top card of the villain deck; when destroyed, return Condemnation from the trash) and Runes of Malediction (all relics take 2 less damage, when destroyed return a bunch of demons from the trash). Urgh.
The next environment turn saw the second Toxic vat, putting all damage at +2. While that hurt, Apostate wasn't actually dealing that much damage as only his base power and Condemnation were active and I was using Idealist's TK Thump to reduce his output as much as I could. Apostate played a big demon on his turn, and we kept clawing our way through relics without setting off destroy triggers.
Next environment turn: Cooling Vat. This says whenever a hero plays a card they take a cold damage. But it also says that at the end of the environment turn every target takes 1 cold 1 toxic and 1 other type of damage i don't recall (energy?). Combined with both Toxic Vats, though, that meant it was dealing every target nine damage that turn. The good news is that this wiped out a bunch of relics and the demon, but anyone who is familiar with the Southwest Sentinels knows that their starting HP ranges from 12 to 15, and since both Adept and Wraith were taking the "highest HP" hits from Apostate they were in a similar range, so immediately we were all in single-digits and things looked grim.
Then Apostate plays the demon that returns some relics when he dies. OH, COME ON!
Adept takes a hit from the Cooling Vat to play Cedistic Dissonant, sacrificing his Harp to get rid of the vat before it destroys us any more than it already has. Wraith has found her Stun Bolt so between that and Idealist we're keeping Apostate's damage mostly under control but this is getting ridiculous.
Of course that's when the vats explode, dealing 5 damage to everyone. This wipes out Adept and the entire Sentinels team, leaves Wraith at like 3hp, and we're pretty sure we're just boned.
Apostate summons up another pair of relics (gauntlet that triggers off him doing melee damage and the Orb that redirects all damage done to other relics to it) and then punches Wraith down to 1.
Argent Adept uses an incapacitated power to redirect the next damage that would be dealt to Wraith. I happen to have one that can let a hero recover 2HP, which brings her back to three.
And that's when things get weird.
The environment card is the Bio vat that reduces all damage and heals everything for 1. On Wraith's next turn she tutors up Smoke Bombs, which are a flat -1 damage when there's only one hero standing (because they are both the lowest and the highest HP). Between the vat, the stun bolt, and the smoke, it's basically impossible for Apostate to damage Wraith, and she is accumulating an ever-expanding layer of damage redirects from Adept in case anything does. Meanwhile the Bio vat and the Sentinels' power is letting Wraith claw her way back up to double-digit HP while she is slowly but surely using her various weaponry to keep relics and demons under control, and when the relic-returning demon eventually dies we are able to pick ones that aren't threats (the pendant and Condemnation).
Meanwhile the environment has been spitting out useless Rats, since the Bio vat reduces their damage to zero. Occasionally Apostate tries to go for Oblivion (his deck's equivalent to Fanatic's End of Days) but fortunately the Sentinels have the ability to destroy an Ongoing before it can blow up all of Wraith's gear. At this point Wraith is also nailing Apostate with a series of Throat Jabs so she can use damaging weapons while he gasps for air.
Inevitably the rats mutate and get stronger, but at this point Wraith's HP is higher than anything that comes out of Apostate's deck (and again, there are like half a dozen redirection shields on her just in case anything gets through her DP) so they start gnawing on demons and relics for us.
Eventually Wraith gets Apostate to flip, destroying a relic, and then the vats blow again, killing a bunch of stuff (including all the rats) and hitting Apostate twice thanks to Adept's redirection shields. Apostate's play (with 2 cards left in his deck) is the second relic-returning demon. Wraith is able to damage Apostate enough to flip him again, leaving him with 1hp and no relics in play.
Then the second mutagen pops up, returning all four rats to play.
They swarm him for the impossible win.
I find Apostate to be an extremely under-rated villain; one of the most difficult, in my opinion. The only time I've been able to beat him in live play (as opposed to online) was when The Block environment spit out that inmate who does a horrible amount of AOE damage which just ate up his artifacts.
Yeah Char was instrumental in one of our rare victories over Iron Legacy too. That was a weird one.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
0
AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Got my Amazon order in today. So far just looking at Sentinels of the Multiverse and kicking myself for not checking it out earlier, it's really sweet.
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Since "superhero day" coincided with board game night last night, we had to get a Sentinels game in.
(Prime Warden) Argent Adept, (promo) Southwest Sentinels, and (original) Wraith took on Apostate in Pike Industries.
That last bit was the important part.
Apostate started with the 4hp pendant that increases his damage and reduced damage to itself by 2. Annoying, but nothing we couldn't get rid of. First environment turn saw a Toxic Chemical vat (all damage toxic and +1). Then Apostate played the card that digs out the next H-1 relics from his deck. These turned out to be the Tome of Damnation (whenever a hero draws a card, play the top card of the villain deck; when destroyed, return Condemnation from the trash) and Runes of Malediction (all relics take 2 less damage, when destroyed return a bunch of demons from the trash). Urgh.
The next environment turn saw the second Toxic vat, putting all damage at +2. While that hurt, Apostate wasn't actually dealing that much damage as only his base power and Condemnation were active and I was using Idealist's TK Thump to reduce his output as much as I could. Apostate played a big demon on his turn, and we kept clawing our way through relics without setting off destroy triggers.
Next environment turn: Cooling Vat. This says whenever a hero plays a card they take a cold damage. But it also says that at the end of the environment turn every target takes 1 cold 1 toxic and 1 other type of damage i don't recall (energy?). Combined with both Toxic Vats, though, that meant it was dealing every target nine damage that turn. The good news is that this wiped out a bunch of relics and the demon, but anyone who is familiar with the Southwest Sentinels knows that their starting HP ranges from 12 to 15, and since both Adept and Wraith were taking the "highest HP" hits from Apostate they were in a similar range, so immediately we were all in single-digits and things looked grim.
Then Apostate plays the demon that returns some relics when he dies. OH, COME ON!
Adept takes a hit from the Cooling Vat to play Cedistic Dissonant, sacrificing his Harp to get rid of the vat before it destroys us any more than it already has. Wraith has found her Stun Bolt so between that and Idealist we're keeping Apostate's damage mostly under control but this is getting ridiculous.
Of course that's when the vats explode, dealing 5 damage to everyone. This wipes out Adept and the entire Sentinels team, leaves Wraith at like 3hp, and we're pretty sure we're just boned.
Apostate summons up another pair of relics (gauntlet that triggers off him doing melee damage and the Orb that redirects all damage done to other relics to it) and then punches Wraith down to 1.
Argent Adept uses an incapacitated power to redirect the next damage that would be dealt to Wraith. I happen to have one that can let a hero recover 2HP, which brings her back to three.
And that's when things get weird.
The environment card is the Bio vat that reduces all damage and heals everything for 1. On Wraith's next turn she tutors up Smoke Bombs, which are a flat -1 damage when there's only one hero standing (because they are both the lowest and the highest HP). Between the vat, the stun bolt, and the smoke, it's basically impossible for Apostate to damage Wraith, and she is accumulating an ever-expanding layer of damage redirects from Adept in case anything does. Meanwhile the Bio vat and the Sentinels' power is letting Wraith claw her way back up to double-digit HP while she is slowly but surely using her various weaponry to keep relics and demons under control, and when the relic-returning demon eventually dies we are able to pick ones that aren't threats (the pendant and Condemnation).
Meanwhile the environment has been spitting out useless Rats, since the Bio vat reduces their damage to zero. Occasionally Apostate tries to go for Oblivion (his deck's equivalent to Fanatic's End of Days) but fortunately the Sentinels have the ability to destroy an Ongoing before it can blow up all of Wraith's gear. At this point Wraith is also nailing Apostate with a series of Throat Jabs so she can use damaging weapons while he gasps for air.
Inevitably the rats mutate and get stronger, but at this point Wraith's HP is higher than anything that comes out of Apostate's deck (and again, there are like half a dozen redirection shields on her just in case anything gets through her DP) so they start gnawing on demons and relics for us.
Eventually Wraith gets Apostate to flip, destroying a relic, and then the vats blow again, killing a bunch of stuff (including all the rats) and hitting Apostate twice thanks to Adept's redirection shields. Apostate's play (with 2 cards left in his deck) is the second relic-returning demon. Wraith is able to damage Apostate enough to flip him again, leaving him with 1hp and no relics in play.
Then the second mutagen pops up, returning all four rats to play.
They swarm him for the impossible win.
I find Apostate to be an extremely under-rated villain; one of the most difficult, in my opinion. The only time I've been able to beat him in live play (as opposed to online) was when The Block environment spit out that inmate who does a horrible amount of AOE damage which just ate up his artifacts.
Yeah Char was instrumental in one of our rare victories over Iron Legacy too. That was a weird one.
He does hit like a truck, it's true.
Honestly, the most enjoyable games of Sentinels for me have usually been the ones which only barely stay on the rails, lately. I think it's because of all the time I've logged in the app.
So... Star Wars Rebellion is definitely a game, that you can play on a large table. Its defining feature seems to be that it feels like a long game, which shouldn't come as a surprise, since it is a long game. You just happen to feel every minute of it. Arguably it's the reason why it's called "epic" on the box, but I think it's actually just a side effect of some of clever little mind tricks the game's design plays on you, to get you thinking like the rebels or the empire respectively.
Take the turn number track for example. The rebels' marker starts at space 14 and the "game" starts at turn one, pushing forward with each turn. If the turn order track ever reaches the rebel marker, the rebels win. Naturally they can work towards fulfilling objectives, to push their marker down, thus shortening the time it takes for them to win the game. But it's small, incremental steps and the distance of 14 spaces makes it seem like a long and ultimately pointless struggle. The game wants you to feel like you're carrying shopping bags to stop a tank, but it's more like using a spoon to dig through a mountain. It also doesn't help that your deck of objectives is stacked in such a way that the early objectives seem ludicrously difficult to achieve; and the death star remains invincible until turn 4 or 5. As the rebel player(s) you will eventually get opportunities to turn the tide, but holding on until then can be an exercise in frustration.
On the other hand, the way that the empire can quickly take control of a system by simply landing a ground unit on it, while rebels need to devote a leader and a successful mission to turn a system to their side, just hammers home this feeling of futility as the empire gets to quickly and repeatedly churn out new units, every other turn and comb through the galaxy, looking for the rebels' hideout.
While this does accurately evoke the general feel of the movies, and the remixing of certain pivotal moments of the original trilogy ("Han blows up the death star!", "Leia gets frozen in carbonite!", etc.) adds a nice layer of same-but-different Star Wars flavour, the game itself is ultimately one of attrition. Every turn that the rebels survive gets them closer to victory, while the empire needs to first spread out to find the base and then come down hard on the revealed hideout to squash the rebellion once and for all. Meaning that they are torn between two conflicting strategies while time runs out. (It also leads to these nice moments, where the empire player(s) will leave rebel units stranded on some distant planet, because they can't be bothered to kill them as they need to move their fleets elsewhere. Like I said, there are great bits of design ingenuity in this game that effortlessly make you think and act according to your designated role.)
But, it's a long game and it feels like it. We were playing the team variant, which allowed for each side to engage in some tactical discussion and chit-chat at least. I can't imagine the dreary silence and intense concentration that would characterize a two-player game. I doubt I'd have the stamina or the interest to sit down to play this game one-on-one. The team variant also includes a needlessly rigid turn order, which in our case led to one player basically only participating in 1/3 of each turn, as he'd ended up with notably fewer leaders than I did. Which meant that after two or three of his actions, he'd watch me assign my leaders all over the map and twiddle his thumbs while I'd play out the round. The team variant feels unfinished and somewhat tacked on, which is a shame. This game would be brilliant, if more effort had been put into the team variant.
Which is not to say that it's a bad game. I don't think it is, but the exciting part (sending leaders on missions in an attempt to fill objectives, or keeping them on standby to make life harder for whatever it is that your opponent is trying to pull off this turn) is mixed with a somewhat dull and archaic dice-chucking, plastic minis battle that's artificially pumped up with card effects. It's oddly reminiscent of TI3's combat, actually and while I love Twilight Imperium, the combat is still a pile of rotten monkey doo doo. It's dumb, dull and too long. I wonder who was responsible for including it in this game.
tl,dr: Star Wars Rebellion does its setting justice as far as I can tell (or care), but the team variant is awkward and it's something of a long slog towards the finishing line. Great if you're into that kind of thing; a little tiresome if you're not.
Unrelated but the Pathfinder Adventures tablet game came out today for IOS /Android. It's pretty good! Free to start but I haven't decided if it's worth sinking money into it as I own the existing content already, but the convenience of setup is so nice... I will say that the tutorial is not great, to the point that I don't think you would know everything you need to know without having played the physical version before. Always online too, which is kind of shitty. Also shitty is they pulled the 'we'll sell you game coins but not in the denominations you'll actually spend'. Example: the character add on pack is 10,000 gold, but you purchase gold at either 9,000 or 20,000 amounts. Bulllll shiiiitttt. You can earn gold in game though but it just rubs me the wrong way.
Haven't played the physical game before, but I decided to give the app a go. I think the game did a decent enough job of telling me what I need to know to play, I'm 3 for 3 on missions so far. I do have a bit of trouble assembling a party of characters, but I think that's an interface issue that might be related to the fact I'm playing on a pretty small phone rather than the tablet that it's probably designed for. I'm also a little unclear about where it seems like there are two or three variant skill trees for each character, but I don't know how to pick one, so I think it's giving me a default/lower powered version.
Not sure what I think about the deckbuilding aspect, specifically between one mission and the next. I got some new cards for my deck, but most of them seem like sidegrades or even downgrades. And then I can't even keep most of those cards in my deck, because I guess I have to reset my deck to the specific card types as specified by the character. Maybe I could try to tailor my choices to try to help with the next mission, except that I don't know what the next mission is or what types of cards it would require, but I can't go back and change my mind later, I have to decide which cards to keep NOW and any others are lost forever. And it seems already like there's some potential for "if you don't have the right cards available, you're just hosed." As an example, one of the missions had a poison trap as the "henchman," which my cleric character really couldn't deal with, and it dealt a ton of damage on a failure. Fortunately my second character was the thief who had some tools that could trivially overcome them.
All that without getting into the f2p bit, which I really don't understand. You can buy treasure chests of cards...but those just unlock additional cards that you might possibly encounter during an adventure. Meh?
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FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
The SENTINELS' "Wrath of the Cosmos" expansion has been out in the videogame version for about two weeks now. I notice how the later expansion villains are all about doing lots of damage very quickly, which really puts the slooooooooowly developing heroes like Absolute Zero, Bunker, and Nightmist at a heavy disadvantage.
The SENTINELS' "Wrath of the Cosmos" expansion has been out in the videogame version for about two weeks now. I notice how the later expansion villains are all about doing lots of damage very quickly, which really puts the slooooooooowly developing heroes like Absolute Zero, Bunker, and Nightmist at a heavy disadvantage.
I hate to tell you this, but Absolute Zero and Bunker are at a heavy disadvantage regardless of what villain you're up against. :-P They are the bottom of the barrel on the Sentinels Statistics project.
The SENTINELS' "Wrath of the Cosmos" expansion has been out in the videogame version for about two weeks now. I notice how the later expansion villains are all about doing lots of damage very quickly, which really puts the slooooooooowly developing heroes like Absolute Zero, Bunker, and Nightmist at a heavy disadvantage.
I hate to tell you this, but Absolute Zero and Bunker are at a heavy disadvantage regardless of what villain you're up against. :-P They are the bottom of the barrel on the Sentinels Statistics project.
Mostly because too many villains (and even a few environments) have the ability to completely wipe out hero equipment. Although that doesn't affect Wraith, oddly. Possibly because she's so OP she just rebuilds in like two turns.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
+1
FairchildRabbit used short words that were easy to understand, like "Hello Pooh, how about Lunch ?"Registered Userregular
The SENTINELS' "Wrath of the Cosmos" expansion has been out in the videogame version for about two weeks now. I notice how the later expansion villains are all about doing lots of damage very quickly, which really puts the slooooooooowly developing heroes like Absolute Zero, Bunker, and Nightmist at a heavy disadvantage.
I hate to tell you this, but Absolute Zero and Bunker are at a heavy disadvantage regardless of what villain you're up against. :-P They are the bottom of the barrel on the Sentinels Statistics project.
Mostly because too many villains (and even a few environments) have the ability to completely wipe out hero equipment. Although that doesn't affect Wraith, oddly. Possibly because she's so OP she just rebuilds in like two turns.
Yup. The later expansions sped up the heroes so much that quick, fast damage and sudden waves of Ongoing/Equipment destruction were the only response they could think of to keep the game challenging. Notice that the AZ Variant gives him a respectable base damage Power to try to make him somewhat less useless.
The SENTINELS' "Wrath of the Cosmos" expansion has been out in the videogame version for about two weeks now. I notice how the later expansion villains are all about doing lots of damage very quickly, which really puts the slooooooooowly developing heroes like Absolute Zero, Bunker, and Nightmist at a heavy disadvantage.
I hate to tell you this, but Absolute Zero and Bunker are at a heavy disadvantage regardless of what villain you're up against. :-P They are the bottom of the barrel on the Sentinels Statistics project.
Mostly because too many villains (and even a few environments) have the ability to completely wipe out hero equipment. Although that doesn't affect Wraith, oddly. Possibly because she's so OP she just rebuilds in like two turns.
It's also because so many card draws for those characters are "trash" draws that are repeats of their other equipment or are otherwise redundant (keep drawing those worthless Mode cards!). It's like being mana-screwed in Magic: the Gathering.
Wraith also has Infrared Eyepiece, which easily allows you to shove equipment destruction to the bottom of the deck.
There are ways to make a "mode changing" character right. The Naturalist is a prime example.
The SENTINELS' "Wrath of the Cosmos" expansion has been out in the videogame version for about two weeks now. I notice how the later expansion villains are all about doing lots of damage very quickly, which really puts the slooooooooowly developing heroes like Absolute Zero, Bunker, and Nightmist at a heavy disadvantage.
I hate to tell you this, but Absolute Zero and Bunker are at a heavy disadvantage regardless of what villain you're up against. :-P They are the bottom of the barrel on the Sentinels Statistics project.
Mostly because too many villains (and even a few environments) have the ability to completely wipe out hero equipment. Although that doesn't affect Wraith, oddly. Possibly because she's so OP she just rebuilds in like two turns.
Yup. The later expansions sped up the heroes so much that quick, fast damage and sudden waves of Ongoing/Equipment destruction were the only response they could think of to keep the game challenging. Notice that the AZ Variant gives him a respectable base damage Power to try to make him somewhat less useless.
No... three of the four villains in the base set (which also includes both Bunker and AZ) have these sweepers. They're not a new thing. If anything, later villains focus more on damage and only destroy H-2 or whatever instead of everything like Blade, Omnitron, and Dawn can.
AC:NH Chris from Glosta SW-5173-3598-2899 DA-4749-1014-4697 @vyolynce@mastodon.social
Tabletop Day at my Barnes & Noble was a hit, in fact they underestimated demand and had to bring a second table out. It was only 2 hours though so we didn't even get through half the games available but we all had a great time and I hope they stick to running it monthly. We started with a large group and played Superfight, which was actually quite fun, I think it's the only 'party' game I've enjoyed but we played it enough that I don't really need to play it ever again. Then a bunch of people who had come as a group had to leave, so those of us who were left played Machi Koro, which immediately got put on my must buy list. So easy to teach! My son won a game book as a prize so that was just icing.
Had a friend over for some tabletop day gaming. Played Kemet, Notre Dame, Biblios, Nations Dice, and Rocca Town. All in all a pretty solid days gaming. I quite enjoyed Notre Dame, though it definitely didn't seem like it would have been fun with 2. The card drafting and board play both didn't seem like they would translate well to 2p, si probably not one I would try to track down my own copy of (especially for OOP prices). Nations Dice was pleasant enough, but it was in a weird middle ground of too much setup and bits for a filler but not enough going on mechanically to be very interesting beyond that. Personally I don't see myself ever reaching for it over Roll For The Galaxy, which fills the same kind of time frame and dice chuckingness with a much more engaging and interesting game.
Played some games, entirely coincidently on tabletop day.
Tried out Exploding Kittens. My official review is that it's 'awright'. It's sorta like uno, sorta like Rummy? But with weird art and lots of take-that. But it was pretty quick and kinda funny in the back and forth.
Got another play of The Contender, the political debate party game. Still very fun. I think I might personally still enjoy Snake Oil better because it's more freeform, but this is very good.
Also got another play of Burgle Bros. I had gotten kind of worried about this game because the first standard game I played with it was pretty easy - but this game was MUCH harder and more intense. We had a lot of trouble getting everyone up to the second floor because of a combination of the floor layout, the stairs up leading to a deadbolt, and the first floor treasure being the painting, which couldn't go through the service duct. We actually got the painting up to the second floor, but then an event caused me (with it) to crash back down to the first floor. And then another event made another player jump to my space, which is really what screwed us at the end. The other two players got to the roof with the other loot, but we just couldn't get off that damn first floor again! By the last turns, all 3 guards were at 6 speed, which there's really just no working around.
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This is causing me physical pain.
I like to think of them as presents to my future self. And, like presents, some are awesome and some turn out to be sweaters in disguise.
Sigh. Another misplay recorded for posterity.
New Éowyn in an upcoming saga expansion:
Never really got into the saga sets, but daaaaaaamn.
I know, I have the same dilemma. Games looks amazing but the chances of getting it "out" often is very low.
PSN: Guibs25 | XboxLive: Guibs | Steam: Guibsx | Twitch: Guibsx
It is a pretty excellent parody. I've played it once, and all of the aesthetic choices are spot on and great. Your currency consists of wads of bills, rather than single pieces of paper (so you have a stack of green bills that counts as $1, a stack of pink for $5, etc.). That's genius. Each card back is designed to look like a pack of CCG cards, so you're literally buying packs just for the one rare/good card in a pack. That's genius. You end up with piles of cards flying everywhere, during the deck building phase, as people scramble to build a deck, keep their collection separate, and oh shit did I just sell the deck I was building instead of my trash binder rares? That's genius. All the names of the cards are great, riffing on Yu-Gi-Oh, megaman, Sailor Moon, Gundam, etc.
The tournament gameplay is a fun puzzle. But I don't know if it would hold up to really repeated play? I found it pretty long for what it is, even with the stopwatch governed window for deckbuilding. I mean, I had a great time, but I'm not sure I'd be able to sustain interest once the charm/novelty of the thing wears off.
::looks over at Fief::
Well, there's a way to cheese a lot of the existing "boss-fight" quests. (Suggested house rule: the player must shout "No man am I!" when performing Eowyn's action.)
Also, I'm rather surprised they decided that those stats were balanced on what is effectively a 6-threat character; even if her special action didn't exist, a 3 HP hero with stats of 4/1/1 would be a tempting inclusion in quite a few decks at a cost of 6 threat.
Rulebooks should always be 30 pages or two.
The cards are absolutely gorgeous.
Oh I totally agree but if it takes more than a few minutes to learn, then I'm lucky to even finish a first game with my group, who vastly prefers simple & quick, never mind play it ever again. I pretty much just play solo at this point cause of it.
Unrelated but the Pathfinder Adventures tablet game came out today for IOS /Android. It's pretty good! Free to start but I haven't decided if it's worth sinking money into it as I own the existing content already, but the convenience of setup is so nice... I will say that the tutorial is not great, to the point that I don't think you would know everything you need to know without having played the physical version before. Always online too, which is kind of shitty. Also shitty is they pulled the 'we'll sell you game coins but not in the denominations you'll actually spend'. Example: the character add on pack is 10,000 gold, but you purchase gold at either 9,000 or 20,000 amounts. Bulllll shiiiitttt. You can earn gold in game though but it just rubs me the wrong way.
Probably not as lucrative a way to thin your collection as the BGG market, but quick and easy and probably slightly better than donating stuff to Goodwill, as I have been doing.
The one I stopped at didn't have anything I absolutely had to own, but it was an interesting enough selection to be worth browsing. Will probably take the time to check out others in the future.
The local HPB has had board games and PnP RPG books for a while now, but of course what they actually have is a crapshoot from week to week.
Honestly I haven't been back in a while because I find the best way to save money is to not even go. I did get an opened but components-still-sealed copy of Horus Heresy for $25 there!
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
SENTINELS is easily my favorite game of the past five years.
Are any of the fan made modules any good? Are there any similar games I should keep an eye out four.
Also managed to play Eclipse for the first (and second time) over the weekend. First game, with 3, I was a definite loser, I blame pirates being on 3 of my four exits while everyone else seemed to get planets. Second game (four players) I was a convincing second. If I had challenged the player in first we would have weakened each other to the point where third and fourth would have walked over us. The player boards are genius, if not fiddly, and the balance of spreading far enough, but still having influence chips to take actions is a great brain burner. Having said that, playing this with even one AP prone player makes it a little bit painful time wise.
The whole design is beautiful.
That's part of the reason I actually think I might get this to the table, since my wife will probably be interested enough by the art to try it out.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Since "superhero day" coincided with board game night last night, we had to get a Sentinels game in.
(Prime Warden) Argent Adept, (promo) Southwest Sentinels, and (original) Wraith took on Apostate in Pike Industries.
That last bit was the important part.
The next environment turn saw the second Toxic vat, putting all damage at +2. While that hurt, Apostate wasn't actually dealing that much damage as only his base power and Condemnation were active and I was using Idealist's TK Thump to reduce his output as much as I could. Apostate played a big demon on his turn, and we kept clawing our way through relics without setting off destroy triggers.
Next environment turn: Cooling Vat. This says whenever a hero plays a card they take a cold damage. But it also says that at the end of the environment turn every target takes 1 cold 1 toxic and 1 other type of damage i don't recall (energy?). Combined with both Toxic Vats, though, that meant it was dealing every target nine damage that turn. The good news is that this wiped out a bunch of relics and the demon, but anyone who is familiar with the Southwest Sentinels knows that their starting HP ranges from 12 to 15, and since both Adept and Wraith were taking the "highest HP" hits from Apostate they were in a similar range, so immediately we were all in single-digits and things looked grim.
Then Apostate plays the demon that returns some relics when he dies. OH, COME ON!
Adept takes a hit from the Cooling Vat to play Cedistic Dissonant, sacrificing his Harp to get rid of the vat before it destroys us any more than it already has. Wraith has found her Stun Bolt so between that and Idealist we're keeping Apostate's damage mostly under control but this is getting ridiculous.
Of course that's when the vats explode, dealing 5 damage to everyone. This wipes out Adept and the entire Sentinels team, leaves Wraith at like 3hp, and we're pretty sure we're just boned.
Apostate summons up another pair of relics (gauntlet that triggers off him doing melee damage and the Orb that redirects all damage done to other relics to it) and then punches Wraith down to 1.
Argent Adept uses an incapacitated power to redirect the next damage that would be dealt to Wraith. I happen to have one that can let a hero recover 2HP, which brings her back to three.
And that's when things get weird.
The environment card is the Bio vat that reduces all damage and heals everything for 1. On Wraith's next turn she tutors up Smoke Bombs, which are a flat -1 damage when there's only one hero standing (because they are both the lowest and the highest HP). Between the vat, the stun bolt, and the smoke, it's basically impossible for Apostate to damage Wraith, and she is accumulating an ever-expanding layer of damage redirects from Adept in case anything does. Meanwhile the Bio vat and the Sentinels' power is letting Wraith claw her way back up to double-digit HP while she is slowly but surely using her various weaponry to keep relics and demons under control, and when the relic-returning demon eventually dies we are able to pick ones that aren't threats (the pendant and Condemnation).
Meanwhile the environment has been spitting out useless Rats, since the Bio vat reduces their damage to zero. Occasionally Apostate tries to go for Oblivion (his deck's equivalent to Fanatic's End of Days) but fortunately the Sentinels have the ability to destroy an Ongoing before it can blow up all of Wraith's gear. At this point Wraith is also nailing Apostate with a series of Throat Jabs so she can use damaging weapons while he gasps for air.
Inevitably the rats mutate and get stronger, but at this point Wraith's HP is higher than anything that comes out of Apostate's deck (and again, there are like half a dozen redirection shields on her just in case anything gets through her DP) so they start gnawing on demons and relics for us.
Eventually Wraith gets Apostate to flip, destroying a relic, and then the vats blow again, killing a bunch of stuff (including all the rats) and hitting Apostate twice thanks to Adept's redirection shields. Apostate's play (with 2 cards left in his deck) is the second relic-returning demon. Wraith is able to damage Apostate enough to flip him again, leaving him with 1hp and no relics in play.
Then the second mutagen pops up, returning all four rats to play.
They swarm him for the impossible win.
From what I can tell, "Southwest Sentinels" is the title of their first appearance. It's probably equivalent to "West Coast Avengers" or a Teen Titans variant. They obviously become the Void Guard by the events of Oblivaeon.
And yeah, these are the Villains promos. Idealist has 12 hp and TK Thump (1 psychic damage and reduce damage dealt by that target by 1), Writhe has 13hp and Shroud (the next time a target would be destroyed, put it on the top or bottom of its deck), Mainstay has 15hp and an ability that deals 2 melee and makes the next damage that target would take irreducible, and Dr. Medico has 14hp and can heal the Sentinels for 1 and draw a card. I might be off by 1 or 2 hp on the non-Idealist characters but they're all 13-15 while she's definitely at 12.
I cannot wait until these guys get individual decks.
I find Apostate to be an extremely under-rated villain; one of the most difficult, in my opinion. The only time I've been able to beat him in live play (as opposed to online) was when The Block environment spit out that inmate who does a horrible amount of AOE damage which just ate up his artifacts.
Yeah Char was instrumental in one of our rare victories over Iron Legacy too. That was a weird one.
He does hit like a truck, it's true.
Honestly, the most enjoyable games of Sentinels for me have usually been the ones which only barely stay on the rails, lately. I think it's because of all the time I've logged in the app.
Take the turn number track for example. The rebels' marker starts at space 14 and the "game" starts at turn one, pushing forward with each turn. If the turn order track ever reaches the rebel marker, the rebels win. Naturally they can work towards fulfilling objectives, to push their marker down, thus shortening the time it takes for them to win the game. But it's small, incremental steps and the distance of 14 spaces makes it seem like a long and ultimately pointless struggle. The game wants you to feel like you're carrying shopping bags to stop a tank, but it's more like using a spoon to dig through a mountain. It also doesn't help that your deck of objectives is stacked in such a way that the early objectives seem ludicrously difficult to achieve; and the death star remains invincible until turn 4 or 5. As the rebel player(s) you will eventually get opportunities to turn the tide, but holding on until then can be an exercise in frustration.
On the other hand, the way that the empire can quickly take control of a system by simply landing a ground unit on it, while rebels need to devote a leader and a successful mission to turn a system to their side, just hammers home this feeling of futility as the empire gets to quickly and repeatedly churn out new units, every other turn and comb through the galaxy, looking for the rebels' hideout.
While this does accurately evoke the general feel of the movies, and the remixing of certain pivotal moments of the original trilogy ("Han blows up the death star!", "Leia gets frozen in carbonite!", etc.) adds a nice layer of same-but-different Star Wars flavour, the game itself is ultimately one of attrition. Every turn that the rebels survive gets them closer to victory, while the empire needs to first spread out to find the base and then come down hard on the revealed hideout to squash the rebellion once and for all. Meaning that they are torn between two conflicting strategies while time runs out. (It also leads to these nice moments, where the empire player(s) will leave rebel units stranded on some distant planet, because they can't be bothered to kill them as they need to move their fleets elsewhere. Like I said, there are great bits of design ingenuity in this game that effortlessly make you think and act according to your designated role.)
But, it's a long game and it feels like it. We were playing the team variant, which allowed for each side to engage in some tactical discussion and chit-chat at least. I can't imagine the dreary silence and intense concentration that would characterize a two-player game. I doubt I'd have the stamina or the interest to sit down to play this game one-on-one. The team variant also includes a needlessly rigid turn order, which in our case led to one player basically only participating in 1/3 of each turn, as he'd ended up with notably fewer leaders than I did. Which meant that after two or three of his actions, he'd watch me assign my leaders all over the map and twiddle his thumbs while I'd play out the round. The team variant feels unfinished and somewhat tacked on, which is a shame. This game would be brilliant, if more effort had been put into the team variant.
Which is not to say that it's a bad game. I don't think it is, but the exciting part (sending leaders on missions in an attempt to fill objectives, or keeping them on standby to make life harder for whatever it is that your opponent is trying to pull off this turn) is mixed with a somewhat dull and archaic dice-chucking, plastic minis battle that's artificially pumped up with card effects. It's oddly reminiscent of TI3's combat, actually and while I love Twilight Imperium, the combat is still a pile of rotten monkey doo doo. It's dumb, dull and too long. I wonder who was responsible for including it in this game.
tl,dr: Star Wars Rebellion does its setting justice as far as I can tell (or care), but the team variant is awkward and it's something of a long slog towards the finishing line. Great if you're into that kind of thing; a little tiresome if you're not.
Not sure what I think about the deckbuilding aspect, specifically between one mission and the next. I got some new cards for my deck, but most of them seem like sidegrades or even downgrades. And then I can't even keep most of those cards in my deck, because I guess I have to reset my deck to the specific card types as specified by the character. Maybe I could try to tailor my choices to try to help with the next mission, except that I don't know what the next mission is or what types of cards it would require, but I can't go back and change my mind later, I have to decide which cards to keep NOW and any others are lost forever. And it seems already like there's some potential for "if you don't have the right cards available, you're just hosed." As an example, one of the missions had a poison trap as the "henchman," which my cleric character really couldn't deal with, and it dealt a ton of damage on a failure. Fortunately my second character was the thief who had some tools that could trivially overcome them.
All that without getting into the f2p bit, which I really don't understand. You can buy treasure chests of cards...but those just unlock additional cards that you might possibly encounter during an adventure. Meh?
Mostly because too many villains (and even a few environments) have the ability to completely wipe out hero equipment. Although that doesn't affect Wraith, oddly. Possibly because she's so OP she just rebuilds in like two turns.
Yup. The later expansions sped up the heroes so much that quick, fast damage and sudden waves of Ongoing/Equipment destruction were the only response they could think of to keep the game challenging. Notice that the AZ Variant gives him a respectable base damage Power to try to make him somewhat less useless.
Wraith also has Infrared Eyepiece, which easily allows you to shove equipment destruction to the bottom of the deck.
There are ways to make a "mode changing" character right. The Naturalist is a prime example.
No... three of the four villains in the base set (which also includes both Bunker and AZ) have these sweepers. They're not a new thing. If anything, later villains focus more on damage and only destroy H-2 or whatever instead of everything like Blade, Omnitron, and Dawn can.
Tried out Exploding Kittens. My official review is that it's 'awright'. It's sorta like uno, sorta like Rummy? But with weird art and lots of take-that. But it was pretty quick and kinda funny in the back and forth.
Got another play of The Contender, the political debate party game. Still very fun. I think I might personally still enjoy Snake Oil better because it's more freeform, but this is very good.
Also got another play of Burgle Bros. I had gotten kind of worried about this game because the first standard game I played with it was pretty easy - but this game was MUCH harder and more intense. We had a lot of trouble getting everyone up to the second floor because of a combination of the floor layout, the stairs up leading to a deadbolt, and the first floor treasure being the painting, which couldn't go through the service duct. We actually got the painting up to the second floor, but then an event caused me (with it) to crash back down to the first floor. And then another event made another player jump to my space, which is really what screwed us at the end. The other two players got to the roof with the other loot, but we just couldn't get off that damn first floor again! By the last turns, all 3 guards were at 6 speed, which there's really just no working around.