Expatriette, Fanatic (alt version), Tempest and M. Fixer against the organisation.
Before we could start drawing cards, Croocked Cops and Hired guns were on us. -1 to our damage +1 to them
We put some cards down for the second round and manage to kill the croocked cop and one hired gun (2x -3 HP because of that).
Then the environment played us another -1 to damage...
To make it short it was a slaughter, when we managed to kill a card it hurt us a lot, and it was really hard to hurt them with all thoses -1 that kept popping.
To add insult to injury, the last 2 cards of the organisation deck where the prison break that put back in play the only underboss we managed to kill.
Frankly if Fanatic cant get his hand on the "Kill every card in play" in her starting hand, I just cant see how you can survive this kind of onslaught. Especially as Vilain card put Environment card in play and Environment cards put Vilain cards in play... On average we had to battle with -2 to our damage, +2 to theirs and 4 Damage for every one of their cards we killed.
Well, Rook City is probably the toughest environment to fight in - it has a lot of cards that help the villains, unfortunately :(. If you tried it in a different Environment, I expect that alone would help you somewhat. Someone with deck control is also helpful against the Chairman (Wraith, Nightmist, Visionary…) to try and stop them bringing out horrible cards (yay for Prison Break :P). If you have someone who can nerf enemy damage (Tachyon, Wraith, etc), that'll help too, especially if they get out stuff such as the Muscle, Enforcers, Hired Gun, etc. Buffing your own damage (Legacy, Ra…) is, of course, also very helpful :). If you can squish the Operative early on to stop the risk of being flooded by Underbosses, that will also be most helpful…though of course you need to beat at least three of the five in order to flip the Chairman and be able to start thwacking him.
From your description, I think playing the same team but in any environment but Rook City would probably have turned out better results :).
Yes, I think you are right that the environment was very very damaging here.
I suppose I should also stop choosing Heroes at random and try more to build a synergetic team.
What I think hurt the more is that with the +1 damage dealt to heroes since the start, destroying any vilain card become very costly very fast. I should have done something against the Operative damage.
Given the heroes and environment I guess that a lose was all that I could have expected after all.
Yeah, don't worry about it - if you never got your arse totally kicked, you'd never get any satisfaction about returning the favour, eh?
That team you picked would have been a good one, otherwise. Tempest is good all round - he can deal out regular damage (Squall, Electrical Storm, etc), and can destroy Environment cards (Flash Flood). His Genebound Shackles (+2 damage to villain target with the highest hp) are very useful too :). Plus he has stuff like Reclaim from the Deep, which lets heroes loot their trash. Meanwhile, Expatriette, Mr Fixer, and Fanatic are all good damage dealers - Fanatic takes great advantage of any damage buffs she can get (from, for example, Obsidian Fields in Insula Primalis, or from Legacy or Ra), and also has the kick-arse card of Divine Retribution. Having her keep an Aegis of Resurrection in play can help a lot too, if you're taking a lot of damage (instead of Fanatic dying when reduced to 0hp, the Aegis is Automatically destroyed and Fanatic goes back uo to 10hp). Also, Tempest isn't the only one who can destroy Environment cards - Expatriette has her RPG Launcher, which deals damage as well so is very useful :). Mr Fixer can be a fairly versatile fighter, if you can get the right cards out - you can mix and match his various tools and styles depending on what's going on, and getting Harmony out is always good (+1 damage if he has both a Style and Tool card in play). He's capable of both increasing his damage and redirecting damage dealt to him. He can also let heroes loot their trash with his Salvage Yard card (I expect Expatriette would find that most useful if she had a lot of ammo and stuff there as Salvage Yard lets you loot all your equipment from the trash, I believe).
All that aside, you could play with a really good hero combo against a pretty easy villain in a fairly generous environment and still get your arse kicked if the right cards don't come out. Just keep trying and eventually you'll get it :). Last night, for example, the two of us got beaten by Plague Rat. I was Mr Fixer (hoping to redirect Infection damage by use of a certain tool/style combo) and my boyfriend was Bunker. We got our arses kicked. So we had a rematch. I played Mr Fixer again, and my boyfriend was Legacy. That didn't work - all the damage buffs we were getting meant that I couldn't redirect my Infection damage (Driving Mantis Style means you can redirect damage to a target of your choice, but only the first time you get hit that turn, and only if the damage is two or less). Yeah, we ballsed that one up pretty good as well. Finally, we had another rematch earlier this afternoon. Again, I was Mr Fixer, and this time my boyfriend tried as Fanatic. And this time we finally managed to get the bugger - Divine Retribution was the finishing blow (Fanatic had 6hp left so the attack dealt 24 damage), but I'd been whittling him down the entire game by redirecting my Infection damage onto him >:). Good times!
We never managed to get our best cards in play, and with the -1 to our damage dealt, Tempest, Fanatic and Expatriette weren't dealing a lot (1-1 to every target isn't that much, 1-1 radiant + 1-1 melee wasn't a lot better). We didn't draw environment killer either.
I dont think Genebound Shackles would have helped at all, in fact I probably wouldn't have played it, because as soon as the Operative is at 34HP it become useless until I flip the Chairman.
I have a bit disappointed hy Mr Fixer for now on. After setting up tool+style+harmony he is more or less done, with no more power to use and only a few one-shot. I understand his versatility but it really depend on card draw and in fact isn't as versatile as Expatriette by exemple. Because once he changer his combo he cant go back to the old one, while the others heroes usually can still choose wich equipment/power to activate. Or did he put his cards back in hand and not trash them ?
Mr Fixer takes his old tool back into his hand when he plays a new one, but the styles go to the trash. Conceptually this is backwards, as a martial arts master should be able to switch fighting style at any time, but he can't carry a bunch of weapons with him all the time and still be effective in combat... But whatever, it is what it is.
i agree with you, I find very few games where I change Fixer's set up after he's got three cards down. The situation (multiple vs single targets, type immune vs reduction, etc) doesn't tend to change very much within a single game, so I find he's only swapping if he put down something early just to have it, and then later the style he really wanted comes along. Other than that, it's only when his stuff is destroyed that he is forced to play more. He can fit into any team against any villain, but I find he tends to only have one real role in any given fight.
You can also get equipment back (as can everyone else) with Salvage Yard ;). And can get a free play of Overdrive too, if there was one of those in your trash as well :).
I just had my first "easy" victory against the Organization a few minutes ago, with Bunker, Expatriette, Mr Fixer and Haka, in Megalopolis. I was very lucky with the environment and the villain deck (damaging thugs only appeared when the team was ready to dispatch them, damage bonuses from environment only once every underboss and thug were in the trash, no prison break at the end !). Fixer had the jack handle ( the tool that attacks every target) from the start, and used charge/overdrive a lot. Haka did not shine at all, the only interesting thing he did was shaking the ground, but at the very best moment : just before a "small" prison break.
At the end, when Expatriette finished the Operative with a last minute Unload on a rooftop, all heroes were between 14 and 17 HP - I was really surprised to see the chairman fall so easily this time. Especially because I had already lost two times against the chairman today, with other teams - and both time in less than 4 rounds
