Hopefully, I will be able to post here with quite a few plays :D
Points so far: 120 SP
2-11-2012: 4 player game, 20 SP for Finish Him!
3-11-2012: 2 player game, 75 SP for Two-Man Army
4-11-2012: 3 player game, 15 SP for Heavy-Hitter
7-11-2012: 3 player game, 10 SP for A Father's Legacy
Date: 2-11-2012
Players: 4 (1 new)
Heroes: Absolute Zero, Fanatic, Ra (new player) and Haka (me)
Villain: Omnitron
Environment: Ruins of Atlantis
We had 1 new player in our midst. He had heard the game being mentioned in several podcasts and forums and he had gotten curious. We let him choose, and he picked Omnitron as the villain and Ruins of Atlantis as environment. He had troubles picking a Hero, so we gave him Ra, which is a nice damage dealer and easy to understand and play. One of my friends wanted a support hero, and I adviced him to go for Fanatic. My other friend wanted to play something more complex this time, and took Absolute Zero. I had heard that Haka isn't a very popular hero, so I decided to give this poor guy some play time.
The game was pretty easy and straighforward. Last time, we played Omnitron wrong, and this time we made up for it. I still think that even though Omnitron is easy to defeat, he's a bit fiddly. I don't like him much for that reason. My friend who played Absolute Zero thought this hero was indeed complex, and somewhere halfway through the game the proverbial light bulb appeared above his head and he got enthusiastic. The person who played Fanatic had that lightbulb AFTER finishing the game, when he flipped through the deck. He didn't think that Fanatic was the best support character however. I really liked Haka, and I don't get why he's so impopular. He's easy to understand and play, and can do a bit of everything. The new player who played Ra had no troubles playing him.
The combination of characters was great for Omnitron, since we all had different damage types. Useful for when Adaptive Plating Subroutine in Omnitron's deck comes into play. We also had some help killing Omnitron's devices by one of the environment cards: The Kraken. At one point, we even decided not to kill off The Kraken because he was being so helpful :D All in all, with the combinations we had, it was rather easy to kill Omnitron. His HP went down fast, and my friend who played Fanatic somehow managed to chip off a massive amount of damage in the last stages of the game. By the time it was my turn, he only had 1 HP left, and I dealt the killing blow (20 SP for Finish Him!).
Looking forward to getting my copy of Rooks in the mail, so we can move on to villains with difficulty 2. We're not confident enough to take on a difficulty 3 :D
Date: 3-11-2012
Players: 2 (1 new)
Heroes: Legacy (new player) and Tempest (me)
Villain: Baron Blade
Environment: Insula Primalis
Reading about how difficult a 2 player games seem to be, I just had to try. Victim: my boyfriend. He hadn't had the chance to play yet, so he was new to the game. I figured we would summon Baron Blade and meet him at Insula Primalis with his nemesis Legacy (my boyfriend) who would be backed up by Tempest (me).
He 'got' the game quite quickly. We weren't doing so well in the first few rounds, but that seems to always be the case in this game. Once we managed to build up a bit, and get some of the nasty stuff out of the way, we were rolling! When Tempest gave Baron Blade the final blow about 45 minutes later, we were both down to less than 10 HP. It was doable. Quite easy even, after the first few rounds. Which makes me wonder whether we had played it right. For instance, we had 2 Obsidian Fields on the table, and we added 1extra damage for each ('increased all damage dealt by 2'). Need to look up a few things here before next play.
Legacy and Tempest vs Baron Blade are THE team I would attempt a TWO-MAN ARMY with (though I'd probably try in Megalopolis).
Date: 4-11-2012
Players: 3 (1 new)
Heroes: Fanatic, Haka (new player) and The Wraith (me)
Villain: Omnitron
Environment: Megalopolis
We had a friend over, who was willing to try the game as well. Since he was new, we made another go for a difficulty 1 villain, and we had our friend chose. He chose Omnitron and he wanted to face him in Megalopolis. He liked the Maori warrior background of Haka, and chose Haka. I went for Wraith, and my boyfiend took Fanatic.
The first rounds went a little slow, and my friend found that the rules were simple, but he complained a bit: "There's a lot of reading...". It got better after some rounds, and he started to get into it. He also wasn't too happy about the fact that he couldn't play cards some times, or use powers, because of the environment cards. I think that I will not chose Megalopolis again with new players, because of this.
On to the game... Omnitron really doesn't seem to be a big challenge. We chipped him down slowly and gradually, and in the last round, he had little over 20 HP left. I managed to do quite a chunk of damage with Inventory Barrage: 14 damage. Our friend gave the killing blow.
While discussing the game with my friend I started realising what exactly the extra appeal of the game is. It's story driven, and if you get into the story, it really adds to the enjoyment of the game. Also, after a few plays, knowing the mechanics, and having played against a few different villains and with a few heroes, you start 'meta gaming'. At least I do. I start thinking about the mechanics of certain villains, environments and heroes, and I start thinking about what combinations might be great or fun or challenging. The more I'm playing the game, the more I like it. I'm really looking forward to get my copy of Rooks in the mail, so I can start trying those difficulty 2 villains!
Ra, Ab' Zero, and/or Legacy in Insula Primalis, versus anyone who can't destroy your stuff. Get the right cards out and you can let the volcano and the river of lava do all the work :D.
Hmm, need to try that next time. Sounds fun 
Legacy immune to damage from the environment.
Ra immune to fire damage.
Absolute Zero capable of twice dealing cold damage based on the amount of fire damage taken, of which one of the cold damage can be self inflicted, allowing a recovery of at least the amount of fire damage taken.
Interesting. Just watch out for those alternate win conditions, and those other tricky villains yet to come.
Yep, JayMann, that was my logic - volcano AEs everything, but Legacy and Ra are immune, and Ab' Zero can heal off it (as long as the initial fire damage isn't enough to kill him before he can heal, of course). I'm sure that's very satisfying against, say, the Chairman or Voss or anyone else with lots of minions, especially if said minions are out at the time :D. I'd say the same for the Matriarch but if you're playing with more than two people (yes, I know, you're technically supposed to play with at least three heroes anyway), that could be quite painful…
Well, there is one villain in particular which I believe does not destroy your equipment, but having a volcano out for even one turn would result in instant game loss, even with all that prevention set up. You just haven't seen this villain yet.
Lol well of course, I can't account for villains who haven't been released yet ;). Also, the volcano plan wouldn't work against, say, Omnitron or anyone else who can destroy all your stuff. Though I can't say I'm too keen on a villain who can insta-kill like that…unless there is a way to see it coming and have some chance to prevent it, like with Voss's minions or Baron Blade's Terra-Im…err…thingy beam.
If only that is what is happening. Let's just say that (currently) leaving a volcano in play (or, really, just letting it play) can trigger this villains alternate win condition.
You, sir, are a dasdardly one…
Hmm, so presumably this villain is capable of winning by either having fire damage dealt, or by Environment cards being played/left in play...
Nope.
(In this case, the cases you gave are not the alternate win condition. However, in order not to have constant guessing until the correct condition is stated, I shall not confirm or deny any other guesses, so that I can still keep my integrety.)
Lol fair enough. I wasn't expecting to get much more revealed anyway, seeing how you playtester chaps aren't supposed to let slip anything until the Big Boss Guys say you can ;).
Date: 7-11-2012
Players: 3 (1 new)
Heroes: Haka, Fanatic (new player) and Legacy (me)
Villain: Baron Blade
Environment: Insula Primalis
Another new player introduced. And the third player had played it once before, but he didn't like the game much. The first time he played his superheor crew was shredded by a difficulty 2 villain, but he was willing to give it another shot. So I wisely chose something easy again: Baron Blade. The player who had played it once before went for Haka. He really liked that character from last time. And the new player chose Fanatic. I went for Legacy.
This combo of 3 heroes easily defeated Baron Blade. I think we got him down in 6 rounds or so. I'm really hoping to be able to play something more challenging next time.