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Hmm, only getting in about two scenarios a week across two different groups, so sure, sign me up! As for the starting heroes, we're going to end up with an interesting set of three if the three top vote getters go in regardless of "role." I suggest Mindthief/Cragheart/Spellweaver, but so long as we don't get Scoundrel/Tinkerer/Spellweaver anything should work fine. (I am very curious to see how Mindthief/Brute/Cragheart get on.) One comment about the Reddit guides and descriptions: they often aren't great, they don't take into account the full party, and most obnoxiously, they don't seem to register that while you have to select a permanent new ability card when you level up, that's added to your deck of available ability cards from which you may choose. In trying to optimize the "perfect set of cards" to take into every scenario, they miss that selecting the right combination of cards for a given scenario based upon enemies, victory conditions, and so on is a key part of the game.
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Dec 20, 2018 00:25
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So to clarify something that's obvious from the available rules, reputation grants either a discount on purchasing items (when positive) or an extra cost (when negative). It's hard to say whether money you gain by picking theft options like the one here makes up for the reputation hit. The rules explain two uses for money: you can purchase items from Gloomhaven merchants, and more items will unlock as the town's Prosperity increases; or at some point (not yet), we'll get the ability to add enhancements to abilities. The discount/extra cost applies only to items, not enhancements. Mindthief PQ: The Fall of Man. Seems like sentiment a rat would have, however amusing the thought of the Mindthief killing undead with a giant axe. Cragheart PQ: Goliath Toppler. Note that if we unlock the same character more than once, the repeat unlock turns into a random scenario unlock and a random item design (unlocked for sale, not in our pack). Brute PQ: Zealot of the Blood God. There's no way not to meta this choice, unfortunately. As has been said, this quest works pretty well with the Brute and is miserable with a few other characters. I have mixed feelings because exhausting (running out of hp or cards before the scenario ends) is easy to do unintentionally if you're new to the game, or difficult to do as you get better; it takes a fair amount of skill to exhaust as the scenario ends, but learning to do so helps teach a very effective way to play the game. (In most scenarios, exhausting one character costs the party nothing at all, though you usually lose a scenario if all characters exhaust.) It's very easy to fall into the mindset, "don't die," when exhausting isn't death and doing so, while risky, can allow you to be more effective.
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Dec 20, 2018 16:39
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namad posted:Even if what you say is true, the way the game is balanced, the first characters are likely to retire at almost the exact same time they reach lvl9, assuming they're ignoring their personal quest (If they focus it down more like 4/5). So we might get to see the card played once, in one combo. Whereas if the mindthief had appeared later, and started at level 4, it could've hung around lvl9 for ages! Hopefully this thread is super successful though and after 50or60 missions we just create a second mindthief! Also @OP I hope you remember to remove 1 checkmark box from each level of town prosperity. (The first edition of the game had town levels go up too slowly so the second print run of the game removed one checkmark box from each town level on the prosperity tracker). Well, the game is designed for you to get to level 9 before retiring if you deliberately don't play the way the game is designed. Ideally, you have one character with a PQ that will take a long time who will hit L9, while other characters retire sooner. The idea is for groups to build for synergy across multiple scenarios and then to change part of the group to force players to reconsider how they play their characters to meet the new dynamic. Really, that mechanic is at the heart of the game: relative simplicity of concept (like action cards) made complex through an extremely wide range of potential combinations and circumstances. Things like the Reddit guides tend to focus in on the obvious, self-contained combinations that work, but honestly, there's a whole lot of range to be seen. I can't discuss specifics yet, but I've seen one class played four times by three different players, and it played radically differently in terms both of what it accomplished by itself and the degree to which it interacted with or enabled other characters. A game which finds a way to make the "optimal" approach constantly in flux is a game that can hold the interest of any player interested in being even vaguely optimal. I advise keeping the BG choices secret, as players shouldn't know. One of the most amusing things in the game is when somebody suddenly does something inexplicable and you realize it's BG-related. (In one scenario, after killing my third enemy I announced "I'm done killing things" and the rest of the group had to work around that.) It's another way to introduce uncertainty and a shifting dynamic, while forcing players to try out different approaches. Always long-rest with your character? Well, for this scenario you now have to try getting along only short-resting!
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Dec 20, 2018 20:42
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The proposed changes to starting items are good, though I think there's a case to be made to keep the Brute's minor healing potion and buy him a stamina pot at L3, though the Cragheart has a little healing to offer. A few general party tactical notes: The guards have ATK 2, but that means their potential damage range is between 0 and 5 hp of damage. The Mindthief has 6 hp at full health. Do not underestimate the lethality of these enemies. (Also, remember you can lose a card for the rest of the scenario instead of taking damage.) The Brute will want to be up close, while the Mindthief wants to dart in and out and the Cragheart has options. Do not undervalue the different ways of control available to these characters. The Mindthief has reusable stuns, for example, while the Brute has a disarm and the Cragheart immobilize. The initial action economy is not in your favor. The Cragheart has beefy hp and can afford to steal some focus from the Brute. Coordinating initiative will be useful to spread focus and protect the Mindthief, although I'm unsure with turns this frequent whether you'll have the time to pull off any finesses. Some procedural matters for That Italian Guy to think about: 1. Please provide monster stats for the whole scenario prior to the start. It's impossible to select cards properly without knowing them and they are known at set-up. That means all monsters that will appear, not just the monsters in the first room. 2. Think about what players should know about the map. There's a lengthy discussion in the Gloomhaven Games thread about what you set up at the start of the game; I was convinced by the argument that, except in a few specific scenarios that clearly indicate otherwise, you set up all the map tiles (A3a, I2b, etc) at the start. Arguably, there's precedent for setting up terrain at start, too, and only withholding the monsters until you enter a new room. Knowing how much real estate a given scenario has matters for initial card selection, especially later in the game. 3. Players must know what the scenario objective is before selecting cards. A few scenarios demand entirely different card selections and would be very frustrating to play without that knowledge. 4. I have my doubts about not having a two stage system where players put down their cards, then see what the monster actions are and decide what to do. The Mindthief has 6 hp and can make multiple attacks in a round. There's a card in one of the monster action decks in this scenario that will nearly kill the Mindthief on his turn if he executes a multi-attack focused on a guard enemy like the six in this first room. Your current system all but demands that players know all the cards in the action decks and give you contingencies based upon each set of significant variations, while punishing them severely if the wrong card comes up. This problem is only going to get worse as the campaign progresses.
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Dec 21, 2018 17:33
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Reik posted:If you didn't know, the Bandit Guards were set to level 0. That means you're playing level minus 1, not level plus zero as was indicated. And didn't the level 1 bandit stats get posted? I do see that the archer/bones stats are L0. (No elite stats?) It is so strange seeing Living Bones without shield. That's a fine choice--we lost our first game on normal and then played the first two scenarios on "easy" when learning the game--but this first turn would have gone much differently with L1 guards.
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Dec 22, 2018 15:48
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I suggest not describing looting 1 coin at the end of your turn by standing on it (the default loot action) as "loot 1" given that that has a specific meaning for the game. Either call it "loot 0" and report how many coins are gained, or don't use the word "loot" to describe the end of turn looting at all. Also, Perverse Edge is a ranged attack even when used against an adjacent target. You appear to have given it the +2 bonus granted by The Mind's Weakness to melee attacks only.
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Dec 23, 2018 15:49
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And there's the card that could have dealt 4 damage to a Mindthief programming two attacks whose player didn't include a contingency for it. In normal play, you just choose not to attack guards with retaliate 2 if you aren't willing to take the hit. I'd vote B for dealing with late orders. I'd also suggest trying the next scenario with the slower two-stage structure, as much to see what it does for That Italian Guy's workflow as anything else. Gloomhaven gets pretty complex pretty quickly when you're administrating everything yourself. When new enemies appear, will their selected action card be indicated? I realize the app makes that harder because it does the math, but someone will want to count cards in the monster action deck and it's helpful to have that information in the text instead of having to reverse engineer from the screenshot.
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Dec 24, 2018 16:33
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Piell posted:I think the reason to want to go to 2 stages is that there are some enemy actions that can massively change what you might want to do - see here with shield/retaliate, but there are also things like disarms or summons. In those cases, the player might want to derail their planned action entirely, but unless that player knew the enemies possible actions ahead of time there's no real way to make an alternate plan for it. It's also pretty crucial with ranged attackers, most of which hit hard but some of which move slowly; knowing what they are doing allows you to stay out of range some of the time. It also matters in the event of a few enemies that can pull a multi-attack card with no movement; you might not want to run up and hit two with an AoE melee attack and then get your face bitten off, but if they instead pull a no-attack card you absolutely would. In my experience, people want to fail or succeed on the basis of their own plans and not the LPer's independent decision about what best accomplishes the general objective. Then again, I'm not looking at years of my life to finish a Gloomhaven LP.
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Dec 25, 2018 01:27
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namad posted:Can he recover the cards from the current turn right after he discards them? or can he only use items before his end step phase in which his current turn's cards are actually discarded? The rulebook (at least first edition) doesn't clearly specify this issue. As far as I'm personally concerned either ruling is fine, but should probably be consistent. The discarding happens immediately upon taking the action (unless the action specifies that the card remains active/in-play or is lost), and you can use a stamina potion on your turn subsequent to taking your two actions. See the posted rules, pages 17 (for discarding) and 18 (character turn). Obviously, a card played this turn that remains active until the end of the round cannot be recovered unless you choose to discard it and end the active effect. And yes, you may push 1 if after the first hex of the push you have no valid hex for the full push 2 (or higher) to execute.
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Dec 28, 2018 00:42
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SalTheBard posted:Is that a treasure chest behind me or just generic obstacle? Neither: it's part of the map tile. If you look closely, you can see it is a treasure chest someone broke into and looted already.
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Dec 29, 2018 16:20
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Zurai posted:Yeah, this is supposed to represent an extremely stressful and exhausting experience for the characters -- one of the things which catches a lot of new players by surprise is just how quickly you can run out of cards (ie "become exhausted") just by not paying too much attention to your loss cards and your rest cycles. By the end of a scenario the characters are generally intended to be bruised, battered, and just physically unable to press forward for much longer. Also while there are coin tokens on the floor, the actual act of looting is rifling through the corpse's pockets, breaking open furniture to find hidden compartments, etc -- there generally aren't just discrete piles of "LOOT HERE" laying around. Also, in-setting it makes sense that the exhausted adventurers have no idea how soon enemy reinforcements may show up. Given later events in the campaign, it's reasonable to expect that there's lots of lethal things that tend to hang around these adventure locations and that they will kill you dead if you don't bug out. The decision not to have permadeath would seem to undercut that, but in fact if you assume that these PCs withdraw the moment their lives might be in danger then it makes sense that they don't take chances on grabbing all the loot whenever possible. Scenario 1 on regular difficulty with new players almost certainly leads to an initial loss. With at least one experienced player to warn about common newbie mistakes, it's not too difficult, but it's also substantially easier on Difficulty -1. It's well-designed with the expectation that new players end up having to lose a few cards to damage and are going to take longer than this group did to clear rooms; I'd estimate an expected additional 3-4 turns plus associated damage would normally be expected. My first play with three new people (Brute-Scoundrel-Mindthief) we lost at Difficulty +0 and then won at Difficulty -1. My third play with two new players in a separate group (Spellweaver-Scoundrel-Cragheart) we played at Difficulty -1 and it was too easy. (I suspect part of this is the Cragheart just being very effective at low level/gearing.) The amazing thing about the game is how well most scenarios scale up. Play scenario 2 with L7 characters and it will be almost as challenging as it is at L1, with the big difference being that you have had a lot more money to put into your character. I suspect a few of these early scenarios don't hold up quite as well (1 & 4, in particular) on replay, unless you're using unlocked characters you'd previously only been playing at high levels and are hitting the learning curve hard. If you want to get "gamey" about it, Gloomhaven allows you to gain GP and XP from a failed scenario and you can repeat as many times as you like, so in theory you could replay a first room again and again and get infinite coin and experience. That's not against the rules of the game, just the spirit.
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Jan 2, 2019 21:17
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I think that could reasonably be called a good start. The only question on turn 2 is who will go through the door. Waiting a round to go through is certainly possible (figure out who goes last as there will be loot), assuming nobody took the battle goal of always having an enemy out.
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Jan 7, 2019 21:17
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Some Numbers posted:Opening a door at the end of a round is almost never a good idea. Even if you have Aggressor, it's better to just leave the door closed and not attack the last enemy. That's frequently untrue. Frankly, the attitude about opening doors and the need to go invisible when doing so is usually driven by a few bad experiences people have early on. The key is to have plenty of movement left after opening the door so that you can pick your spot to stand. Room full of ranged attackers? Run back around the corner and force them to move toward you. Room full of melee enemies close to you? Pull back and kite them through the door one at a time. Room full of melee enemies some distance away? Lure them forward and then the whole group can jump them the following turn. Because you get to see what the enemies in the room will do before finishing your move, you can decide what's best to do at that point. If they are all putting up shields and not moving, you can lay into them safely. Rooms often have only two kinds of monster, and usually are pretty big if they have 3-5 kinds. Barring a battle goal or a scenario that you lose if even one character exhausts, it's foolish not to spend hp as a resource to accomplish goals, just as it would be to finish a scenario having used none of your items. Saving time is often more valuable than remaining undamaged. That's not to say that waiting doesn't have its uses, especially if someone is low on cards and needs to rest or if a character is suffering from poison or other conditions that need a turn to get cleared via healing. But the group's spent a single turn and lost 1 hp; they have plenty of juice left. There's other considerations here, too, including the likelihood of a monster pulling a really powerful card that's useless because you ran back into the original room, versus getting a card that's really handy. If the scenario has several monsters capable of summoning more monsters, do not open doors until everyone is ready to rush through if you don't want to run the risk of giving them another turn in which to summon. In this scenario, the boss is the only summoning monster and there's no chance you could stop him from summoning if you all burst through together because he has boss hit points.
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Jan 8, 2019 01:41
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xiw posted:oh my god, we've been playing a year and we have been drawing the card after finishing the door-opening turn so you gotta decide where to stand before you see what the monsters do I admit that I had to go double-check the rules to make sure that we hadn't been playing that wrong for nearly a year. If the boss goes late or doesn't move at all, he'll body-check the corpses for at least one turn. Don't overvalue killing both archers as the regular one doesn't inflict much damage at this level, though it's probably not worth trying to keep them alive so that they can clog up the room with more traps. Note that the trap in H4 means that the corpses, when they do clear that room, can move one corpse down the K3-J2-I1 path and then have to go all the way around the room if that corpse gets blocked; you can decide either to kite all the corpses by moving back and allowing them all to line up along that route, or you can deliberately block one for a turn or two and force the others to separate out. (This tactic is a little less effective in that the corpses sometimes don't move at all.) The big lesson of scenario 2, besides the Boss and summoning mechanics and another rule that's been mentioned in spoilers already, is how to use the monster movement and focus rules to manipulate how the monsters go and limit your exposure to attack. Any character with jump movement is especially effective in that way, though the Mindthief's high mobility can accomplish much the same.
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Jan 10, 2019 02:30
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Reik posted:I feel like it's a dangerous cycle when you play a class that doesn't generate a ton of exp. You don't get in to the habit of spinning your xp dial every turn, and when you finally do play a card that generates xp you just forget. One of the big jumps in skill level, I think, is playing a new character and working out how to deal with a potential mismatch between the cards you're finding effective in play and the cards that grant XP. A few classes are downright automatic, but most of the rest require some very careful play to maximize your XP gain while remaining useful through the whole scenario.
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Jan 10, 2019 22:45
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Reik posted:Why not short rest? It sucks not refreshing your boots, but if you don't have a good turn you don't have a good turn. Seems reasonable to me. Still plenty of time left. I think the only real threat now is that the boss gets off several summons in a row and drops too many skeletons to deal with. The Cragheart is well-provisioned to deal with these corpses at range and the Mindthief could probably afford to "tank" and shank one of them that's separated from the pack. Those traps are going to remain helpful. As the Brute, I'd be tempted to go after the treasure via jump after the boss is dead; with correct positioning you can get one of the corpses to chase after you and then kill it.
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Jan 13, 2019 20:20
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Zurai posted:Yep. The other difference between summoned and spawned, for our home viewers, is that summoned enemies require an empty space (nothing in it at all except an actual empty tile or an open door, pressure plate, or corridor overlay) adjacent to the summoner and will fail if there aren't any (in this case there are plenty of options), while spawned enemies just require an unoccupied space (no standees or minis in the tile) nearest to wherever their spawn point is and will keep looking until they find a qualifying space. Two errors in these corrections: 1. Spawns require an empty hex, not just an unoccupied one: "Whenever a monster is spawned, it is set up on the map at its spawning location or the nearest empty hex to that location." (Pg 34) Spawns just keep looking for an empty hex until they find one, while summons need a hex adjacent to the summoner and fail if they can't find one. 2. Monster summons must be placed close to the player characters. "Summoned monsters are placed in an empty hex adjacent to the summoning monster and also as close to the enemy as possible." (Pg 31) The Gloomhaven rules are pretty good but rely on you paying very close attention to specialized language. "Empty" doesn't look as important in those two quotations as it actually is, for instance.
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Jan 14, 2019 16:36
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One thing to remember when playing the Cragheart is that, even if you're focused on ranged attacks, your tankiness makes throwing rocks and then getting in enemy faces effective. You even have movement that deals damage to those you end adjacent to! Using yourself as an obstacle in conjunction with any you're putting out is also extremely effective. One of the best things about being able to create obstacles and then use them as weapons against enemies is that you can first block their ability to get where they want to be, and then clear the obstacles out of the party's way. If you work closely with a character who can drop traps (the Tinkerer is your guy in the starting six), it's possible to do things like channeling foes through a single-hex opening that keeps getting trapped, or to allow one or two enemies to close and then force the others to go 6+ hexes out of their way to join the fight. In the rare instance where you're running away from the monsters, dropping obstacles behind you is amazing, too. Most classes have a few sets of worries: how do you deal with Shield, how do you deal with a high-damage melee foe, how do you deal with a long-ranged attacker, how do you deal with a high hp boss? The Cragheart's only potential weakness is that he doesn't have enough big damage single target attacks to be able to take a boss out in 2-3 turns; a few other characters (like the Scoundrel) can do more than 10 damage to a single foe in a turn should they need to do so. You get some solutions to that problem at higher levels, although they only make you viable against bosses, not supreme. But in addition to doing the thing only you do in a way that's extremely effective, you can also do much of what other characters do, just not quite as well. Arguably the best well-rounded class in the game. The only other problem I can see is that you benefit from a wide variety of items but will have some trouble looting enough to buy them, especially as enhancements can be crazy good for you, too. XP gain is fine although a new player may need to get the hang of element generation and usage to meet the curve. This is also one of the few classes where you can viably go with the same hand regardless of the scenario and enemies. That, plus its newbie-friendliness, makes a it a good choice for a new player joining a campaign at any point, and you can learn almost all of the basic mechanics playing it.
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Jan 15, 2019 20:29
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Well, the specific flavor text is "Before a Cragheart is exiled, however, they earn their name by having their chest cavity marred and shattered, forever reminding them of their inadequacy." I always got the impression that that meant that the chest smashing was entirely involuntary. Yes. Their people clearly don't want to run the risk of the exile being able to do things that the game may reveal to us later but which I can't discuss right now. Those who know from past play will know what I mean almost immediately.
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Jan 16, 2019 01:03
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Note that it is also possible to prevent damage by losing two cards from your discard. This is almost always extremely bad, but for a Spellweaver thinking about getting all her lost cards back it can be a viable option. Using the odd loss card to reduce incoming damage is indeed valuable, but remember too that in many scenarios, using a loss card can also reduce the amount of time it will take to win. That is good for everyone, not just you.
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Jan 19, 2019 03:38
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Reik posted:I don't know how much time it takes to maintain this LP, so I don't know how big of an ask this is, but how would you feel about after scenario 2 finishes, starting a second party using the remaining 3 characters? We could have the groups alternate days, so when group A is picking cards, group B is revealing cards and putting in their orders, and after scenario 2 I believe it's almost assured that we will always have 2 scenarios available to choose from. While that might be faster, it is difficult to follow what is going on when you aren't playing, so shifting back and forth between two scenarios would be even harder to follow as a non-participant, IMO. I'm also in favor of not overloading That Italian Guy; I'd rather finish the campaign in twice the time than see it end with burnout in half the time.
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Jan 22, 2019 21:02
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Reik posted:Without getting in to spoiler territory, I just don't know what else I'd put in the Mindthief's hand slots. A Warhammer is only solid if you've got a multi-target attack. Maybe a Piercing bow to turn Empathetic Assault in to a "delete target high shield enemy within range 4" option? Depending on how large the group is, picking up a shield can be useful if only to lower the odds of having to lose a card to damage. There are some other viable options for the hand slot but they are all spoilers.
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Jan 24, 2019 18:52
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OK, let's talk Inox for a moment. I'll be vague about the Shaman for now because we've not seen their action deck yet. Inox are mainly noteworthy for being tough. Our weakest enemy will have 6 hp, and the elite guards have 10 hp plus retaliate, which means they take a lot of killing. The Shaman and Archers don't have exceptional range, so there's no fear that they'll plink away from an unreachable position: only the L1 elite archers have a base range that keeps them more than a default move away (barring obstacles). While these bruisers aren't as slow as Living Corpses, on average they can't catch up with a PC who default moves away from them. That gives us the option of engaging one of the two sets of guards and then rotating toward the ranged attackers and the rear doorway, forcing the second set of guards to pursue us. I'm bringing the card that adds obstacles to the map, so if we want to kite in this scenario I can make that easier to do. Obviously, that only works well with the guards, who can't fight back at range. First turn thinking: If we decide to wheel around the side, I'd rather aim for the A column to avoid the hazardous terrain on the other side. I'm planning to set up in D9, go slow, and hurt a guard fairly well; if you two are fast enough and engage one pair of guards, I can pull the other set (probably taking one hit) and weaken them, then escape the following round, either hitting them again or doing cleanup on the pair you engage. But I can revise my plans if we want to try something else. Those ranged attackers most probably can't engage past the 7 row this turn.
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Jan 26, 2019 17:33
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Elephant Ambush posted:I recommend waiting to see the results of the road event and your battle goals are before picking the cards for your hand and planning a first turn strat. Those 2 things may have a huge effect on your decisions. You didn't receive a PM setting the deadline for the end of today. (We have already chosen our battle goals.) I'm guessing we'll be given a chance to modify our plans if the road event matters.
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Jan 26, 2019 20:54
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dwarf74 posted:Dude, we came super close to losing it. My Cragheart was the last one standing. My only play was in casual mode with three characters who were pretty high level. It'll be interesting to compare that experience to this one.
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Jan 27, 2019 03:17
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Ripley posted:Makes sense. If I can have F8 to stay out of range of the archers, I can help chip down guard 3. All yours. He'll probably end up with somewhere in the 2-5 health range depending upon modifier pulls. Given that we're taking a lot less incoming fire than expected, I am probably going to drop the rock on the same guard; 1 point to the Brute seems like a reasonable price to pay for a chance of killing him outright. My alternative is to half-kill guard 2. Removing one guard is better than hurting two guards. Next turn: I anticipate running up to E6, slowly, so guards 4 & 6 will be drawn towards me before I move. If we can kill guard 2 next turn, and you two can run into the north end of the chamber, I can drop an obstacle in F5 and force guards 4 & 6 to go the long way around to get to us. It'll be a little dicey with the spawning guards, unless somebody wants to slip around to open that door, but we're going to be attacked by the archers by turn 3 for sure in any event.
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Jan 27, 2019 18:14
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Ripley posted:Not sure. If we wanted to go ham, I could get to the north side of the room as well and smack an archer or two, but that probably means leaving Rocky behind and then taking too many hits. The archers are likely to be able to target us this round either way, though, I guess. I'm inclined to suggest that you both finish guard 2 this turn. I'll be moving fairly quickly, though I may not beat the Shaman and Archers, and I'll run upward and end up in E6 while softening up the ranged attackers. I will also draw their fire this turn. For obvious reasons, it'd be great if you two could then close with the archers the following turn (so they don't pincushion me). Depending on how far the guards move, I'll either support you against the shooters or I'll immobilize a guard and set up to drop a rock in F5 and force them to go the long way around. We're going to have a lot of guards on us quick if door 1 doesn't get opened. With the spawns happening at the start of the round, they'll move out of the way, so if the Mindthief can slip past and get that door open while invisible, that might work out OK. If we don't have to move very far and we don't have many rounds of play, we can afford to lose some cards to get the job done (we mainly being the Brute and I).
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Jan 28, 2019 20:31
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Looks like I'd have been better off with the slower initiative! If I follow my original plan I'll get hit by both archers and one guard, and they could all win initiative on me again in the following turn (1 in 4 chance for the archers, who might also trap F4 and F3, plus possibly the shaman). Rocky can tank, but it'd be painful. Two other options: 1. If I tornado guards 4 & 6 and play keep-away and Bullwinkle goes to G7, only one archer can shoot us and guards 4&6 can't reach us until the following turn. Downside is the Mindthief could easily lose 3 or 4 hp from the single arrow. 2. I could also tornado 4&6 and engage them outside the archer's range. I can almost certainly kill both the following turn, or I could get into the C4/D4 area and prevent the archers from escaping. I like this a little better. In fact, if I move 0, only one guard can engage me and they'll be out of position for next turn. The main problem there is that it leaves the others exposed to archer fire next turn. There's also the chance of a miss or -2 mod leaving guard 2 alive. I am inclined to go with the original plan and demonstrate what risky play looks like. Depending on how bad the damage ends up being, I could either disarm the ranged attackers the following turn or go for maximized damage, but I'd be relying on the Brute to draw fire and the Mindthief to get door 1 open quickly. Option 2 means minimizing incoming damage and keeps guards 4&6 away from the rest of the group.
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Jan 29, 2019 17:26
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OK, I'll go with the safer path, then, and I'll still be in good position to be on the other side of those totems next turn. Not planning on changing my current position; Brute to G7 would avoid a guard hit that's not otherwise necessary. EDIT: I will be going on a fairly high init number next turn but will be able to get into the C4/D3 area via a jump. Alternately, I can repeat my initial plan for this turn and end up in E6, possibly muddling five enemies as early in the round as I'm going this turn. Narsham fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Jan 30, 2019 |
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Jan 30, 2019 00:10
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Reik posted:Since Splinter is stunning Guard 2, you don't have to kill her this round. Bullwinkle could boot up to F4 and skewer the Shaman and an Archer and Rocky could boot up to E6 and Dirt Tornado both archers and the Shaman. That has a good chance of killing one archer, and the other one will be muddled for their attack on Bullwinkle. This would expose Rocky to a single Guard attack, but that's only 2 damage. That would also still kill Guard 2 if Splinter draws a +1. I'm game if Ripley is. The Brute will take two Attack 3s at disadvantage and I'll take a single Attack 2. I'll add a contingency to my orders.
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Jan 30, 2019 01:53
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Ripley posted:Would it be worthwhile to wall off the southern guards with boulders at this point and send them the long way around? I am inclined to outrace the two guards behind us and block off their progress. That does mean Splinter needs to move quickly (my fastest card is 29 init). If I move to F4 or G5 and immobilize Guard 4, they'd need their +1 move card to attack me. The following turn, I can use a push card to guarantee F5 is a valid boulder spot, and drop the rocks. Once those spawning warriors get cut off, we should probably plan to let the enemies in the room beyond come to us.
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Jan 31, 2019 01:30
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Oh shoot, I missed that. Then it's between me almost definitely killing the archer and Bullwinkle having somewhere around 2/3rd odds of killing it and Rocky having a follow-up if necessary. Yeah, kill the archer and you can go faster than the remaining guards next turn to open door 1 and go invisible. I can 100% block off the two guards behind us next turn. I'm a little concerned about the three guards we'll face up here with two of us being poisoned. All my healing is being played right now. I'll immobilize one of the guards up here (guard 1), while will leave you with only two guards to worry about next turn. If the guards move 2 or 3 next turn I'll have to use my push to set up the barrier, but if they move 0 or 1 I can help out up here.
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Jan 31, 2019 16:15
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Reik posted:It might not be a bad idea to just double tap heal Bullwinkle this round if he stays put and disarm the two guards by you next round. That leaves him fighting three or four guards next turn, and me fighting two. If I stick with the plan, and he moves, then I'll get hit by one guard next turn and Bullwinkle can engage one or two. I'll still have the disarm AoE as well as Dirt Tornado in reserve.
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Jan 31, 2019 20:07
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Phelddagrif posted:I should point out that you don't HAVE to open the door ASAP. The goal is to kill 15 enemies, and it might be easier and safer (though, more boring) to take down a steady stream of normal guards, rather than hunting for whatever unknown enemies might be waiting for you in the other rooms. 1 guard per turn materializing on top of us is pretty bad. Even if the next room is packed with archers, we can duck around the corner and they'll take at least 2-3 turns to engage us.
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Feb 1, 2019 01:27
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OK, the guard deck just reshuffled and with Splinter invisible this turn, they have a 50% chance they can't attack either Rocky or Bullwinkle. The Move 2/Move 3 cards and their Move 1/Range 2 attack can hit us. I am tempted to suggest that Bullwinkle long rest to get rid of the poison. If the 50% bad stuff happens, I will short rest to get my healing back; otherwise, I can probably proceed with a disarm, though it will be slow. I will block F4 (if possible) and F5 this turn, making my current spot fairly safe (again, unless the guards get their ranged attack). I have plenty of cards to lose to damage if the worst happens. If I have to lock myself in becaus a guard is in F4, I can jump out after a short rest. (F5 will be clear via push.) My healing is all range 3, so Bullwinkle is in reach.
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Feb 1, 2019 16:16
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OK, next turn planning: The fastest the guards can go and attack is on 30. Bullwinkle can beat that. Barring a miss, he can kill the injured guard nearest to us. 4&6 will have to go the long way to reach us. 2, spawning in at C1, will be blocked by 3. 1 is immoble. I can use a push 2 on guard 5 to shove him through that bramble into B3, which means he'll end in C4. That makes guards 1&3 the only ones nearby next turn, and 1 is dead next turn before acting. With rocks in F4 and F5, Bullwinkle could shift to G4 if necessary to minimize his risk. Splinter could move into F2 if that's needed to keep guard 3 from attacking Bullwinkle. I am leaning toward a long rest next turn to get both my items and my healing back; if the turn after next isn't too threatening, I could heal 4 Bullwinkle and heal 2 myself. This is obviously contingent on what the enemies inside the next room are up to. But my other good options are all AoEs and I'm not going to have good targets for them. My fast heal card is init 29, so the turn after Rocky's rest is a good go-slower turn.
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Feb 2, 2019 16:50
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OK. There's a single guard action (init 30, move +1, attack -1) that could cause trouble. If I long rest and somebody kills the 2 hp guard, Bullwinkle will be safe in G4 and I can apply up to Heal 6 to him on the following turn. Blocking G4 also forces the guards focusing on me to turn around and head for that hazardous terrain; Bullwinkle can then vacate G4 the following turn and they will switch directions again. The archer we want to force through one of the traps if possible. Because of the movement difference between archer and shaman, we can probably get them to split up and whoever goes in for that treasure can manage the shaman then. If Rocky takes another rest cycle before we open another door for more targets, we can probably heal up to full. If my count is correct, we only need to find one more victim to win. Keep in mind the init 15 shield/retaliate card. It's probably only a big deal for Bullwinkle, but it might justify using the dagger before moving.
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Feb 3, 2019 15:51
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Omobono posted:I don't think this works. Enemies ignore paths going through hazards when determining focus if there's non-hazardous paths available, so they would simply focus Bullwinkle. OK, that's right based on the example on Page 31 (Tinkerer is closer than Brute but only can be reached through traps). I remembered the words of "one of these hexes as the only way that can focus on a target" to be for each target, but it's for ANY target at all. Those guards still have a long way to go.
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Feb 4, 2019 02:11
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Zulily Zoetrope posted:Well, I wasn't counting on the archer to act quite so fast, but bright side, I can totally kill him dead afterwards. That sounds good. Next turn I will drop my full Heal 6 on Bullwinkle so he can keep stabbing, and then provide ranged support until our next rest. We're at no risk of exhaustion from cards, so if necessary I can take a hit or two to pull heat from Bullwinkle. (But I'm more likely to immobilize a guard or two.)
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Feb 4, 2019 16:20
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 17:34 |
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Given that Rocky has ranged attacks and high init numbers, I think healing up the Brute this turn makes the most sense. Worst-case is guards 3&5 cornering him, but assuming Bullwinkle moves fast enough, F2 and killing guard 3 means only one guard attacking this turn. Next turn I can move up and either immobilize a guard or deal some damage. Looks like a lucky skewer might kill both 3&5!
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Feb 5, 2019 15:59
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