Rook City Irregulars

Other Games SotM Game Engine
1

I wanted to try a thematic battle, so I figured I'd take the most Rook City-ish heroes up against the chairman.

I decided that the Rook City team would naturally consist of Wraith, Mister Fixer, and Expatriette.  I also added Absolute Zero (he was injured in a Pike lab explosion, and he has a batman-villain feel to him) and Nightmist (she's an occult detective, so I figure close enough). 

Five heroes should be pretty easy, but the Chairman is pretty tough, and this team has some weak heroes.

 

The first match was in Rook City, and the five heroes got stomped.  They managed to flip the Chairman, but spent most of their time dealing with underbosses and thugs and never did significant damage to either boss.

 

The second match was in the Block, which is a much friendlier environement.  Also, luckily, the Warden came out on round one, which kept the environement deck largely contained.  However, the fight ran long, eventually cycling the Chairman's deck.  It was a close fight, with only Absolute Zero and Nightmist standing by the end.  The MVPs were Wraith, who used a combo of Utility Belt, Targetting Computer, Razor Ordenance, and Throwing Knives to be the primary damage dealer and Absolute Zero, however, turned into a self-healing damage monster by the end.  Mister Fixer and Expatriette never quite found their groove.  Nightmist was solid, but spent most of her turns self-healing, but she stopped the Chairman from playing cards a few turns, which helped a lot. 

 

The final match was in the Pike Industrial Complex.  This one was interesting because Mister Fixer was the strong point of the team. He got the Pipe Wrench and Monkey Fist in the first draw, and with the nemesis bonus, he just wailed on the Operative.  He also drew a Grease Gun and Salvage Yard later, which was fantastic for letting people hammer on the Chairman with impunity.  Wraith was a damage engine again.  Nightmist did useful support (Mistbound is amazing), and had a solid game.  Expatriette got a combat shotgun out early, and did consistent damage, but never really got going.  Absolute Zero spent the entire match flailing about, barely accomplishing anything, (particularly when a vat converted all of his damage to Toxic for a while), but he did manage one fantastic card: Subzero Atmosphere.  When a late game prison break landed and pulled all five underbosses out of the trash, none of them could summon thugs.  As a result, the heroes were saved from taking a pile of Hired Gun damage.  Mister Fixer and Wraith then finished off the Chairman, and Expatriette and Nightmist finished off the Operative.  All five heroes were left standing, but all have single digit hit points left.

2

With Mister Fixer and Expatriette, they have absolutely fantastic potential when they're not left with a bad hand.  They have very little power to deal with that (short of Fixer's Toolbox, should you draw it).  If you're without the hand you need, you'll probably need another hero dedicated to helping you with card accelleration.

Also (I say this without condoning or condemning), saying the team has some "weak heroes" may have just re-opened one of the smelliest can of worms this forum has ever faced.  Brace yourself!

3

That's a good point.  I guess I should qualify that with saying that by "stronger" or "weaker" I mean more of a probability of performing well rather than an absolute measure of performance.

There two main factors I see with hero performance.  First is the odds of pulling a strong hand, and having a good card for the scenario at hand.  Second is how many villains they're well suited towards (frex: Haka and Omnitron-X are great against the Matriarch, while Wraith and Nightmist can have a hard time dealing with lots of little pecking threats).

So, if the two best assets against the Chairman are damage reduction and AoE attacks, the team I've listed will be troubled.  Most of them have some means of AoE, but none really specialize in it.  Wraith can hide, Nightmist can sometimes redirect, and Expatriette has her flak vest, but those are all much more action-expensive than the damage reduction available to Bunker or Haka…

 

One thing I will say: Absolute Zero might night be the purely strongest hero, but he's a lot of fun to play.  Once you get him rolling, it's really satisfying.

4

The most important thing when dealing with the Chairman is having a way to deal with the Hired Gun hitting everyone for 8 damage, and Nightmist certainly brings that to the table.

5

 

How so?  She can discard a couple cards and redirect the damage to herself back on the Hired Gun, but does that stop the damage from hitting anyone else?  I assumed the hired gun does damage to all players simultaneously, and if multiple heroes have counter attacks (Omniton's ablative armor, Ra's fire shield thing, or Wraith's combat stance) then the Hired Gun still hits all of them, but gets overkilled with backlash damage…

6

Nothing happens simultaneously, you choose the order when told to do multiple things at once.  If the first damage resolved is to NightMist who then redirects it back at the Hired Gun and kills him, he won't get a chance to damage each of the other heros.

7

This. It is an important distinction to note that the rulebook states that there are no "true" simultanious actions. If something were to happen simultaniously (like dealing damage to all hero targets), the player chooses the order the damage is dealt and goes down the line one by one.

8

Ah, and the wording on Gunman says "each" rather than "all."

It makes narrative sense.  He's a guy with a machine gun - take him out and he stops shooting. 

 

That makes Nightmist a really solid choice against the Chairman. Expecially since she can redirect the damage to the Chairman, so the Chairman both takes the damage and kills the Gunman.

 

9

Each or All. There would be no difference in how it resolves. They both mean the same thing as far as the mechanics of this game goes.

And Nightmist can only redirect the one instance of damage. She coulnd't redirect to that 3 damage to the Chairman and still kill the Gunman. You would have to pick (and usualy, the Gunman is a better choice when the Chairman is above like 10 health or so)

10

The Chairman's retaliation damage would hit the Gunman, though...

11

Good point!