Advanced Mode

General GTG General Discussion
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Since Christopher asked for more discussion about Advanced Mode… here it is! Who plays on advanced mode?

I do, all the time, and I guess I kind of thought that everybody else did too. But that’s probably assuming a bit too much, so here are some of the challenges that I’ve noticed on advanced mode vs regular.

Omnitron: Actually his advanced mode is kind of my favorite, thematically. I like the idea of the villan going into “attack mode” or “defense mode”. This strategy is kind of different, but I remember a game though where the Heroes would all attack him when he was on his +1 attack side, and switch over to attacking environment targets (Insula Primalis, I think) when he was in his +1 defense side. It was actually kinda neat. Of course you can just power through his armor if you have the right stuff, but sometimes its easier just to avoid dealing with it if you can.

Blade: Blade’s main challenge in Advanced mode comes from his initial side, you have to blow up his defense platform quickly and start hitting him pretty hard and pretty fast. This makes some heroes like Zero a little less good because they take a bit to get going. It’s also often wise to avoid attacking some villan targets so they don’t go into the villan trash. Visionary becomes a little nicer to have around because she can remove cards from the trash. Once he flips, +1 defense doesnt change play much, you just have to power through it.

Voss: IMO, this guy seems like the greatest difference between Normal mode and Advanced mode. Voss on advanced mode is hard… maybe harder than Dawn on Advanced mode. His initial side: heroes do -1 damage, can be devestaing. It shuts down the initial powers of Zero, Tempest, and Fanatic. Everybody else gets hurt badly too, though maybe not as badly as those three, with Fanatic and Zero being probably the worst for wear of the whole lot. If you also have a Gene-Bound guard (or 2…) out, your damage can get massively reduced really quickly. His flip side is no picnic either, he plays 2 villan cards a turn, which means he’s getting to Forced Deployment that much quicker. If you draw Forced Deployment mid to late game and you don’t have some sort of plan ready to deal with it, it’s usually a game-ender.

Dawn: Dawn’s initial side isn’t that big of a deal on Advanced Mode. Citizens deal +1 damage (including herself) which hurts, but it’s nothing like the -1 hero Damage from Voss’ advanced mode. If you use the strategy of “dont let her flip over” than her advanced mode isn’t astoundingly harder than her normal mode. This usually requires Visionary, but can also be done with Haka, or Tempest. But if she does flip, you’re in for some trouble. Immune to damage until she has 5 citizens (4+herself) out. Now it’s all about target selection. Kill the citizens that deal big damage like Hammer or Battery, leave the citizens that you can deal with (maybe Spring or Assault) alone.

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I really enjoy playing on Advanced Mode, but most of the time I’ve been playing I’ve been teaching people how to play the game. Because of that, I haven’t played that much Advanced Mode, yet.

With Omnitron, I just feel like the battle goes on forever as you wade through his 100HP. I like his flavor the least of the villains too because the flavor doesn’t change enough for me from side to side.

I agree that the hardest part of fighting Baron Blade is his starting side. I think anyone would. Although I might suggest that the slow starting heroes tend to have a lot of potential for damage once they get going, so I wouldn’t count Absolute Zero or Bunker out in a Baron Blade fight anymore than I would in any other villain’s fight.

I totally agree that there is more difference between Normal and Advanced Modes with Voss than any other villain. I don’t think he’s harder than Dawn on advanced mode, though. He does have some potentially game ending cards, like Forced Deployment, but what fun would it be if the heroes always win?

Lastly, Citizen Dawn, I’ve only been able to beat her on Advanced Mode when I’ve kept her from flipping. And that hasn’t always been a successful strategy for me either. Even with deck control, there is a lot of chance involved in keeping her on her initial side. With that said, I love taking a team of heroes up against Citizen Dawn on Advanced Mode because I’ll probably lose more than I’ll win, but it’s usually a great fight.

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I mentioned this in the “Epic Moments” thread, but during GenCon we managed to beat Adv. Citizen Dawn after having flipped her. We used her invulnerable side to let her play both Devastating Auroras, had Tempest keep us healed, then charged Omni-Cannon with impunity.

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Geez, I’ve never played Voss on Advanced Mode. That seems pretty devastating to Absolute Zero. Legacy would be a good counter to that though.

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I’ve played Dawn, Ominitron, and Voss on Advanced Mode but not Baron Blade yet. Most of the SotM games I’ve been playing recently have been with people who’ve never played before, so you have to go easy on them, at first :P.

I kind of root for Blade and would like to see him win by destroying the Earth with his terralunar impulsion beam once.

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Oh, it’s MUCH more likely on Advanced mode. To the point of being a serious threat. I’ve seen it happen twice so far on Advanced mode when I was playing, and I like to think I’m fairly decent at the game.

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Closer games are more exciting.

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Advanced mode Baron Blade brought the moon down to the Earth four times last night. I attempted four different hero matchups to no avail:

1. Legacy - AZ - Visionary - Thought it'd be a fun challenge while learning two heroes that I haven't played much. That was a mistake.

2. Legacy - AZ - Tachyon - Losing so badly the first time made me think, "It wasn't AZ's fault." Nope, it was my fault.

3. Legacy - Tachyon - Wraith - Actually did worse without AZ this time around.

4. Fanatic - Tempest - Haka - Prime Wardens are undefeated in my household. I know each of their decks and strategies inside and out. Figured where the Freedom Five fails, the Prime Wardens flourish, right? Wrong. Got Blade down to 10 HP before he mooned us all.

Looking back at it, Blade on advanced mode probably requires four or five heroes worth of damage. He only managed to kill one hero over the course of the four games, and that was a Lead From the Front Legacy death. I'm going to try again tonight by running the Freedom Four in a recreation of the comic. Still, advanced Blade, much more difficult (and fun).

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Well, last Tuesday, we managed to defeat Baron Blade (he had 10 cards in his trash before flip) using only three heroes (Ra, Expatriette, and Tempest) in... uhm... somewhere...  Didn't have too much trouble.

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I haven't tried EE Blade on advanced yet, and I think he's different now, right? Instead of discarding one card, he discards two?

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The proofs show (H) minus 2, which, in a three player game, would still be 1.  I have my cards away from me now, so I can't say for sure.  If it's not 1, then we played wrong.

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Well H-2 is still 1 in a 3 player game.... but it is still one more than without advanced !

Beat him yesterday on a solo 4 player run, me took a bashing and he put 16 cards in the discard but didn't survive to his Starting Phase.

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Well, it finally happened for me. I just beat Baron Blade on advanced mode with four cards to spare before he flipped. It was life imitating art as the Freedom Four managed a victory at the Ruins of Atlantis. The Wraith's Infrared Eyepiece keeping the one-shot cards (especially Hasten Doom) on the bottom and the villain targets on the top was the key to victory. That, and Bunker hitting Turret Mode with both weapons online within four turns.

Perhaps tomorrow night Mad Bomber Blade (on advanced mode) will take the fight to the streets of Megaopolis to seek his revenge ...

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I only own the original game, and the expansions. Advanced mode makes my wife cringe, as we have been utterly destroyed on normal mode a few times by Grand Warlord Voss and Citizen Dawn. Then again, we always “randomize” the setup so we never pick the perfect team for the fight.

Come to think of it, our battles with the expansion villains have been far easier, so perhaps with the “H - X” mechanic makes advanced mode beatable by a random team.

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This is a hell of a thread necro, but we seem to be going with it.  :slightly_smiling_face:   It's a topic I'm into, anyway, so here are my thoughts.

I play advanced almost exclusively.  If I'm playing with a new player (or a particularly fussy friend) I might dial it back to basic, but only if the villain is exceptionally tough on advanced.  (The vast gulf between basic and advanced Ennead comes to mind.)  And even then, the team can often deal with it.  When I play alone or with my wife, the team is almost always random.  We're cooperative gaming veterans, used to playing all manner of difficult games together, and we are usually successful.

Some villains get way fiercer on advanced mode.  As the OP stated, Voss becomes a powerhouse that becomes quite difficult to negotiate.  Flip him and endure two cards and a bunch of damage a turn for an easier time hitting him?  Keep him on side A and power through at minimum 3 points of damage reduction?  It's not always easy to answer.  The Ennead is on another level entirely - they become a series of relentless, connected, killing-and-healing machines.

Other villains aren't too much worse on advanced.  Apostate, for instance.  All you have to do is put somebody who can kill the Tome (or doesn't mind skipping a draw) at the front of the line.  If Apostate slaps you with the Rune or the Orb turn one (or both!) … well, those are generally the games I lose. 

I don't think the Chairman or the Matriarch are particularly harder on advanced.  They're just that tough.  When I replay lost games against them in my mind, I inevitably conclude that we still would have lost that game in basic.  (I fully accept that this is probably denial.)

Since the original post was from before any expansions came out, perhaps awp would like to give his opinions of the villains that have come out since? 

 

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We never play Advanced because, IMO, the Advanced rules don't make the villains any more interesting, just more difficult to bring down.  Plus, my gaming group (the family) are more interested in a fun night of light-hearted villain bashing than in banging their heads against an Advanced villain.

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Yeah, that's pretty much us, also.

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My view is similar to Spiff... thank god for "advanced mode" because it keeps the Villains from being impossible on normal.

One of the worst things a game designer can do is listen to the 10 guys screaming "this is too easy" while not noticing the 1000 who think it is just right in terms of difficulty. This company is smart in giving the game a built in slider for both the regular and "I have a spreadsheet" crowd.

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/agree.  I'm glad Advanced mode exists.

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I'm glad you guys like it! That was really the exact inspiration behind "advanced mode"