Unless I missed it somewhere, I'm disappointed that the Chrono-Expatriette/Fanatic cross wasn't used in game. Though it might be a bit confusing with beating Hellion/Evil Fanatic to gain Seraph/Apostate Fanatic.
Although I know the joke would be dated terribly fast, I'm slightly disappointed none of Lifeline's cards has the flavor text "Will you stop asking me if you can phone a friend?"
Finally received my ultimate collector's case and found everything in tip-top condition. Seeing the box firsthand confirms how much love went into designing and crafting the thing!
Unfortunately, as others have already commented, the box is far too large - it would fare better, I think, to be taller (with more drawers) instead of deeper. In an alternate universe, I envisage a case made up of three boxes vertically-stacked (like a tiffin carrier). First tier for heroes, environments, rules and tokens. Second tier for normal villains, oversized cards and their decks plus oblivaeon content. Third for team villains, oversized cards and their decks.
Wishful thinking aside: Luckily most of our SotM games are at my place! Now I just need to find a shelf...
Also, I don't sleeve my cards and you'll be surprised how much extra space you're left with when the cards are unsleeved. Logistically-impractical as it may be, this is one of the times when I wish there's a box design for sleevers and another for non-sleevers!
Something that we were confused on last night with the scions. I do not have them in front of me but some of them said something like: This scion does damage to each of the heroes with the highest number of rewards. Does this mean if we have a tie in rewards all of hte heroes take damage. I feel like this may be a misprint or I am reading it incorrectly and it should just be the highest and not each.
Yes, but rather than "<This Scion> deals X <type> damage to the hero with the most rewards", they read "<This Scion> deals X <type> damage to each hero with the most rewards."
The wording leads me to think if two heroes are tied for the most rewards they both take the damage.
I’m not 100% sure on this one, but I believe the “each” is there do to the Sentinels having 4 hero Character Cards. I believe it indicates that all 4 Sentinels would be hit if they have the most rewards.
But then I feel like it would be each character card in a play area. That each hero feels like if there is a tie then it would have to be on everyone that falls in the tie. Would be nice to get a quick clarification from Christopher on this one
But then I feel like it would be each character card in a play area. That each hero feels like if there is a tie then it would have to be on everyone that falls in the tie. Would be nice to get a quick clarification from Christopher on this one
Does anybody know what the card art from "Maria Helena's Plot" is referencing? The coordinates are in the midde of a lake in Levittown, Pennsylvania, and a quick internet search doesn't turn up any big bad events that occured December 17, 1923. Any ideas?
I said four as an absolute minimum - I agree that you're likely to get far more, my point was that I thought it had been officially stated by Christopher that you were only going to see a handful in any one game and that's been far from my experience as I've never had less than six and, like you, have had all ten before. I was just wondering aloud if that had been changed during development or whether there was potentially a bit of a balance issue, as I think the game would be slightly more manageable time-wise if you were only seeing a small number of scions.
The existing way is also ridiculous. La Comodora and The Harpy can do damage an outrageous number of times per turn - I think The Harpy can damage a single target ~20 times in a single turn, so any damage bonuses are huge for her, let alone a bonus that could be +12 or more.
The other balancing act for the shard is pretty much that if a Scion or Oblivaeon is in the same zone as the shard during Oblivaeon's turn or the battlezone's villain turn, all the heroes are probably going to die horribly.
Unless the folks at the other end of the table were mis-reading the card, the one I'm remembering targeted the Hero play area (emphasis mine) with the most rewards, and then damaged everything therein. However, maybe we're talking about different cards.
my very first game I saw about 6-7 scions before I even got out of the first page. This was made worse because we kept hitting scions who would die to only be immediately replaced. So I learned that scions dieing before the page turn is always gonna be bad.
We never finished that game. But we are gonna give it a second shot here in a bit.
I'm curious how these games are lasting so long, unless there's something I missed somewhere, the only way to move the tracker backward is: during form 1, break OblivAeon's shield, or OblivAeon destroys the environment; Phase two, you beat OblivAeon or he destroys the environment; Phase 3, you beat OblivAeon or he erases a hero from all timelines.
Perhaps I need to look at what you get for beating Scions.
New game mode, a lot more strategy to consider (should I give up a phase to swap battle zones? If so, which one? Do I deal with the current threats or go after a mission instead?) There's a lot to track on the board and remember at any time, especially the first couple of games and you're still learning all the new cards/mechanics and making sure you're catching everything.
2-3 hours is a reasonable length after playing it a lot, and I think some playtesters got there consistently after a while. But honestly, I've played games that went 2-3 hours without making any meaningful progress.
Are people still playing with old rules? You don't give up a phase to change zones anymore, it's free at the start of your turn. Doesn't even cost you your mission/incap step.
Looking at the shields, a lot of them look quite easy to do in a couple of rounds if everyone coordinates. The environment-dependent ones could be tougher, but most of them look quite controllable. I haven't played yet myself, though.
I did play a few games with some of the new heroes and environments, though.
Dark Watch Harpy, Fugue State Parse, Heroic Luminary, and Akash'Thriya vs. Grand Warlord Voss in the Maerynian Refuge. Although I should probably call that Fugue State Parse and the Maerynian Army vs. Voss, with a bit of help from Harpy. We managed to get all three Squall Guards and the Lightning Dome out (wasn't even a bad shuffle; a lot of the intervening cards were milled by Akash), and that's 9 automatic damage a round to Voss if he has no minions. 15 with Targeting Arrow, because that happened twice in the four rounds the game took. And of course Parse prevented Forced Deployment. So Harpy killed off the minions, and did pump out a lof of damage, but it was hardly necessary. Luminary's Triple Cross did help with the initial rush, though.
La Comodora: Black Spot, Fugue State Parse (she refuses to play anyone but Parse), vanilla Luminary, and Blood Mage Lifeline vs. Challenge Kismet in Champion Studios. Kismet is really too easy to get much of a feel for; between Parse and Lifeline, she gets shut down pretty hard. Although Blood Mage's power is really bad against her.
Super Sentai Idealist, Fugue State Parse, Luminary, and Benchmark vs. Challenge Omnitron in Mordengrad. This was notable mostly because of how it ended. It's Parse's turn. Omnitron is at 2 HP. She looks over at Luminary and his robot army. She looks over at Benchmark and his full stack (9 hardware, 9 software). She shrugs. "Idealist, play the bottom card of your deck." It's Hedgy Hogs! Omnitron escapes a barrage of lasery death by being cuddled spikily instead.
Thoughts, in no particular order:
The Maerynian Refuge has the potential to be the most friendly environment in the game. There's some annoying stuff, but it's mostly either neutral or benign.
Heroic Luminary suffers from Expatriette Syndrome: She'll probably get some devices, but if she doesn't, she's pretty useless, and she doesn't have a lot of good ways of digging for them.
At first, playing The Harpy, I tried to balance Magic and Bird so I could make use of whatever cards I drew. But more of her deck wants to push things over to Birds, so it was hard to get Magic stuff. And she was plenty effective without it. Eventually I stopped bothering and went with 4-5 Birds, and just let her be a machine gun. It worked pretty well but it felt like it was defeating the purpose.
Akash'Thriya has a crazy long setup time! By the end of the game she had just barely started playing seeds from the environment. At least she isn't as vulnerable to ongoing/equipment destruction, but she takes the long game to a new level. She doesn't have that many HP; she was only highest HP for 2 rounds.
Luminary's Doomsday Devices are also a lot like Expat's Unload. They look good, but the chances of one going off before the end of the game aren't great. La Comodora was even helping him mill his deck. He still finished with about 10 cards in his trash, both games. (Heroic Luminary only had 3.)
La Comodora indeed has severe upkeep problems. Parse and Bottom of the Ninth gave me extra cards that I had to just sacrifice. She's a lot like Scholar, only less straightforward and with less card draw. How is it he got upgraded to a 3 complexity when she's a 2? Makes no sense.
Idealist, holy cow, she can be a damage engine! I had multiple opportunities to bring out Karate Robot, and it deals a mess of damage. I did need Super Sentai to eat the Monster of Id (which was in my starting hand), but I almost never used it, Karate Robot or Stabby Knives were always better.
Benchmark is almost too complicated for a normal human to handle. If Scholar, the Sentinels, and Nightmist are 3's, he's a 4. Conceptually he's not that hard, there's just so darn much to keep track of. The person who played him read all his cards in advance and is normally our #2 strategist after myself, but he was totally overwhelmed and I had to keep reminding him of everything he could do (and was obligated to do).
