Weekly One Shot #156 "Villainy 201"

Games SotM: The Video Game
1

Miss Information vs. Benchmark, Rook City Wraith, and Super Sentai Idealist in the Dok'Thorath Capital.

This is completely trashing me. In theory, this team has the tools to deal with Miss Information. Damage from all 3 heroes, recurring Ongoing destruction from Idealist, heroes who are fairly resilient against equipment / ongoing destruction (Benchmark and Idealist). Plus Rook City Wraith to find friendly rebel cards.

In practice, everyone takes a ton of damage rapidly. Miss Information flips rapidly with 3 heroes, but still by the time it's stabililized everyone's down to 4-5 HP. Not that I make any real progress from there; each time I've lost, Miss Information has been at full health.

The Rebel HQ does come out quickly, but the Freedom Fighters don't help enough, and can't hurt Miss Information herself. Idealist has a bit of an early problem because it takes her a long time to draw any Concepts. The Fragments do damage to Miss Information's initial two damage dealers, the "Cat in a Tree" and "Diplomatic Envoy," at least.

I seriously don't know how to play this one.

2

That....was...one... nail-biting... Mint! Won with the very skin of my teeth with Benchmark and Wraith at 1 both and Idealist at 2, and I don't think I've ever cursed the absence of Benchmark's HP-regaining hardware louder (drew the damn thing on Benchmark's last turn, the 3rd last card in his deck). Stunbolt is *absolutely* key here to remove Miss Information's retaliation damage, and you'll want *at least* one Mega Computer out too to help with the environment. Also, keep Monster of ID out, you'll need the extra damage. Idealist was pretty much on permanent clue-destruction duty while building up her Karate Robot for the final monster blow needed to bring Miss Information down, but dear god this was tense!

3

Near Mint after a brutal first game, then liberal rewinding the second, with 19/0/0, though at one point it was 3/0/0

Basically Benchmark is a boss if hes completely built up and thats the only thing that saved me.

Ill try to give my advice for this one, but dont remember enough of the specifics to really help.

First, you must absolutely murder the first two distractions to come out. They do too much damage if they survive more than 3 rounds. Thats not to say they wont come back out due to her shuffling, but still. I used Wraith's base to cycle the environment more than any other power she had, which helped avoid a couple of Military and Minions that would hurt me and nothing else. Idealist blew up environment and ongoings pretty much every round, which meant she couldnt really get set up to start Forming the Head in any meaningful way.

What did finally work was allowing Benchmark to get set up with a few cards, most especially with the Reinforced Chassis. That, combined with Smoke Bombs every time I could get them, helped reduce the incoming damage enough to level off eventually. I built up from there as much as I could, destroying every clue I could before she popped it to make the heroes hurt themselves, but eventually the Wraith and Idealist dropped. Thats when Benchmark really became The New Standard TM

The hardware and software that reduced damage taken, increased healing taken, and made the next damage dealt to a target irreducible and increased by 2 were key, though Countermeasures helped as well to take out pesky environment cards. Wraith healing Benchmark for 2+1 per round, on top of his reduction of 1, and ability to discard a card to regain 1+1 hp when hit, meant any damage that hit him actually healed him. Idealist fed him power uses which I used to make M.I. actually start to take damage from the invironment, or draw 2/discard 2 to feed the Inferno Missiles once I got to that point.

At the end, it took something like 15 rounds of plinking away, but Benchmark had healed up to 19, M.I. was down to 7, and I had built up to 6 irreducible damage. I hit M.I., she retaliated, and countermeasures took her out.

~Komori

4

Ah, I’ve only played a practice game so far and the HP-regaining hardware was the first one Benchmark got (followed by the one that increases HP gain and then his armor) so he was set.  Tactical Communicator was also really useful considering I hardly ever use it.  Idealist also started with Monster of Id in hand and Wraith had to dump her hand early so Stun Bolt was pretty much all she was doing.  Ended with Idealist and Wraith down, but Benchmark over 20.  Interesting to see that the actual one-shot seems much harder.

5

Near mint for me. Like above I had benchmark do the bulk of the lifting. Once he was fully set up, he basically healed his way from 7 to some value towards victory. Lost VG idealist relatively early on and used a combination of smoke bombs and benchmark's redirect to keep wraith safe from further damage so she could do her deck control thing. 

6

Got it on my fourth try. Fine, 9 / 7 / 7 HP at the end.

The main difference this time was being a little more efficient in getting rid of the two Miss Information threats, the cat and the envoy. This time, I took both out AND the military squad in round 3, which meant I was only at mid-teens when the damage stopped flowing so fast. This let me survive long enough to actually stabilize things.

I found I used Rook City Wraith’s base power a lot less. Instead I went more offensive with her - Improptu Inventtion -> Micro Targeting Computer + Throwing Knives was a better play on round 2 to start doing real damage to the threats on the board. I think I only used her base power once, during the first round. After that it was all knives and stun bolts. Stun bolts on Miss Information are very helpful if they have the extra oomph from the targeting computer to get through her damage resistance.

What really stablilized the board was Armored Chassis + Smoke Bombs + Stun Bolt. That’s -2 to -3 DR, depending on how things go. Benchmark also had Intervening Path Calculator, but almost always Smoke Bombs did the redirection.

Benchmark did most of the damage. Many of his usual attacks were ineffective against MI’s 2 DR, but Tactical Communicator + Shunt Energy is 6 irreducible damage a turn, once you’ve got hardware giving an extra power play. Countermeasures was really handy for taking out environmental threats without having to use the Floaty Head.

Idealist mostly blew up ongoings or environment cards with Giant Floaty Head, but started doing damage toward the end. Monster of Id + Sound Beating is 2 damage (after DR), and I did that a couple of times. Idealist did the big finish with 5 cards under Giant Karate Robot + Better Punching for irreducible damage, but didn’t really need that much firepower because Benchmark had whittled her down to 3 HP.

 

7

Near-mint on the first try. (I rewound because I missed the fact Benchmark had to destroy an Orbital Bombardment before things went screwy. Then I rewound a bunch more times because the Idealist is a puzzle.)

The team stabilized in the single digits with 2 Megacomputers, Smoke Bombs, Infrared Eyepiece, Reinforced Chassis, and Giant Floaty Head. These cards made it very difficult for the heroes to be harmed, and they were able to take out the boss at their leisure. The method I chose was Tactical Communicator + Stun Bolts, plus one huge Karate Robot hit.

8

Near mint.

 

Same as others, once Stun Bolt and Smoke Bombs are out and Benchmark gets set up, it is very hard for the heroes to take any damage. Rebel Headquarters, Freedom Fighters and Defiant Looters were out almost the whole game...just for added chaos.

 

Idealist went down relatively early, but she then on her incapped side made sure Orbital Bombardment didn't happen, and when she didn't need to control the environment, she let Benchmark use Tactical Communicator so the Freedom Fighters could get in on the fun of shooting Miss Information!

 

Benchamrk 5HP, Wraith 7HP (due to a Suture Self on the last turn), and Idealist 0HP.

9

I'm sorry, people are stabalizing how?

10

I had a lot of trouble with this one, so I understand. Here’s what worked for me:

Don’t play any equipment or ongoing cards round 1. Miss Information’s just going to destroy them. Once she has two clues (round 2), she’s going to flip next round so you can get that stuff.

Focus entirely on maximum damage until the first two threats (the cat and the envoy) are gone. Which means that round 2 your best bet with Wraith is Improptu Invention to get Targeting Computer + throwing knives into play. That’s 8 damage a round right there to the threats. If you’re dealing single-target damage, shoot the Envoy, since the multi-target attacks are going to get rid of the cat.

If you have to discard your hand to get rid of Explosion in the Lab, discard Wraith’s. Benchmark and Idealist need the cards more.

Idealist’s priority is Giant Floaty Head to get rid of clues. Sure, Miss Information will destroy them for you, but she also triggers self-inflicted damage on all heroes when she does, and you want as little of that as possible. Nasty stuff like Orbital Bombardment is another Floaty Head target.

Beyond that,  you want Armored Chassis, Intervening Path Calculator, and Smoke Bombs. This is 1 to 2 DR, depending. It’s 2 DR reliably if Benchmark’s HP is the same as Wraith and Idealist (best case) or lower. Attack targets Idealist, Smoke Bombs redirects and reduces it by 1, Benchmark is either the new target (if all HP are the same) or steps in front of Wraith with the Path Calculator if he’s not, and the chassis takes off another 1 damage.

Stun Bolt can also add 1 DR if Wraith has one in hand.

2 DR completely nullifies the Envoy and the Old Lady, and reduces the Cat’s damage to 1. Miss Information doesn’t do damage otherwise if you destroy her clues as fast as she plays them.

That leaves the environment. Specificially, Thorathian Military, Gene Bound Ravagers, and Orbital Bombardment. If Benchmark has Countermeasures in play - which I found easy to get with cards that let you dig through your trash for software - he’ll kill off wounded Torathian Military or Gene Ravagers before they can hurt anyone else. Doing 2 points to them usually isn’t too hard. If nothing else Idealist can get rid of them with Giant Floaty Head, but only if there isn’t something more important (a Clue or Orbital Bombardment).

 

11

Near Mint. Got it on the second try with a couple of rewinds after a poor first go. Still managed to lose Idealist without her doing much, but in the second game I just focused on getting a few damaging one shots instead of digging for concepts. Her extra power usage ended up from incap I usually used to shoot Miss Information with Stun Bolt again. Turned into a bit of a slow grind where I didn’t take any more damage (Wraith at 5 and Benchmark at 6) and Benchmark steadily started to heal up over the course of the game while the heroes slowly chewed through the damage reduction. Actually finished her off with Counter Measures which was quite satisfying!

12

Countermeasures is quickly becoming my favorite card.