Death Angel: Space Hulk Card Game Solitaire

I'm a fan of the board game, clearly, and the Death Angel box says 1-6 players. So I thought I’d give it a go, one player. I’ll try to rope the boys into some multi-player games, but the single player experience, as with so many games, is alright if you can’t find a friend.

When masturbation’s lost its fun you’re fucking lazy.

But I digress. Death Angel plays like this: depending on the number of players in the game, there are 6-12 marines in play, assembled into a single line called the formation. The top half of the line faces left at start, the bottom right. Facing is important for firing, line of sight, etc. The marines are delineated into two-man combat teams, with each team comprising a basic storm-bolter type marine and a special weapons, sergeant, or otherwise extraordinary combatant. The teams are basically set up as:

Sergeant Lorenzo with the Power Sword, and backup dancer Brother Deino.

Sergeant Gideon with the Thunder Hammer and Power Shield, and backup dancer Brother Noctis.

Brother Zael with the Heavy Flamer, & fly girl Brother Omnio.

Brother Leon with the Autocannon, & extra from the “Thriller” video Brother Valencio.

Lexicanum Calistarius, the psychic “Librarian”, and wingman Brother Scipio.

Brother Claudio of the Lightning Claws, and some guy named Brother Goriel (fun fact: Goriel is latin for “gibs of God”).

The game starts in a standard location of a Space Hulk depending on how many marines are in play, as defined by starting location cards. All games begin in the Void Lock, though they are different depending on how many marines are in play. Each location has different “terrain” features, like the door card, the corridor card, the ventilation shaft, etc. These features are essentially genestealer spawning points. Each location also has a left- and right-side blip stack, which defines how many bugs can spawn on each side of the location. If, at the end of any phase, a blip stack is empty, the marines move onto the next location, staying in formation and with any ‘stealers in the formation staying as well.

Each game moves through several locations, as defined by the first location card, but randomized a bit: there are 3 of each number location and each game moves through 4 or 5 locations (starting to a random #1 type location, then to a #2 type, etc to #4 type location and marine win conditions), and therefore the various locations the marines can move through have several permutations, enhancing replayability.

So the marines get set up in their formation, and then the genestealers get spawned a bit to get the ball rolling. The spawning points are conveniently in front of the marines at the game’s start, but as the game progresses things change and it gets hectic and dangerous. Then the marines get to choose their actions for the round, based on their two-man combat teams. Each team gets to choose to either Move/Interact with the environment, Support their fellow marines, or Attack the bugs. The team cannot choose the same action two turns in a row, so if Lorenzo’s team Attacks on the first turn, they must Support or Move/Interact on the second turn. And so on.

Each team has special cool little stuff they can do with their action choices: Leon’s team’s support card is called Overwatch, and at the end the turn the Overwatch card is played, any marine can burn a Support token (generally gained by choosing the support action) to take a shot at a bug; Lorenzo’s team’s attack card is called Lead by Example, and once this turn, while attacking, if Lorenzo or Deino kills a bug, they can add a support token to any marine. And so on. So there’s actually a lot of cool shit going on for these teams, and they’re asymmetrical in this way: even while choosing standard actions they’ve got a lot of special, exception-based text working for them.

So, each marine squad chooses a card to play (discussed with other players if playing with multiple players), and they’re resolved in a particular order: each card has an initiative number, and they are resolved in ascending order. For the most part, support actions take place, then move actions, then attack actions. Attack actions for marines go like this: the marine attacking rolls the die which comes with the game, and if a skull-side of the die shows, a Genestealer of choice in the marine’s range dies. The die is special. It is a six-sided die enumerated from 0-5, and there are skulls on the 1, 2, and 3. So a marine essentially has a 50/50 shot at killing a bug on his attack turn.

Assuming the marines have not eradicated all the bugs currently against them after their action cards resolve, the bugs get a chance to strike back. The bugs attack as a swarm, with each pile of genestealers attacking the marine closest to them. The marine defending from the swarm rolls the die, and if it shows a number equal to or less than the number of Genestealers attacking his marine, the marine dies. So a basic 1-bug swarm in the beginning of the game kills 1/3 of the time, not counting those rerolls. If the game’s gone on a bit and there are 4 bugs in the stack, they’ve got a 5/6 chance at killing their foe. Don’t let 5 or more Genestealers gather in a swarm.

Support tokens can be spent for rerolls in either attack or defense, but only against bugs facing the marine. Don’t let them behind you.

I played a one-player game with random teams. The one-player scenario starts with 3 teams. I got Leon, Lorenzo, and Calistarius. I shuffled the guys up and they were pretty well spread out, with Leon at the top of the formation, followed by Lorenzo’s backup dancer Deino, then Calistarius’ guy Scipio, then Calistarius, then Lorenzo, and finally Valencio, the “Thriller” extra from team Leon.

The game went incredibly well for me. It took a long time, as I had to stop and consult the rules a bunch, but several factors seemed to work in my favor: My support token rerolls always were used to save a marine’s life in defensive spots, Lorenzo’s support card allows him to use his power sword to fuck up Genestealers while defending, Lorenzo’s move card lets him get Genestealers off the board and back into the blip-stack from whence they spawned, Leon’s Full Auto Attack card lets him roll three attacks during his combat action and he has the largest range of any marine, and Calistarius’ support card essentially holds a swarm in stasis for a turn.

There’s a lot of ways in which these abilities came together to buy me time when I needed it. The team was strong and I blasted my way through the starting Void Lock location to the randomly chosen Teleportarium. The second location had some weirdness to it, but I ignored all the special text and just mowed through bugs to get to the third location, and then quickly on to the fourth and final location, the Genestealer Lair. My victory condition was to kill the two Brood Lord Genestealers, which could have been difficult in some other game, but in my game it was easy. The board was already cleared of bugs, and since the Brood Lords need other Genestealers to hide behind in order to be resilient, I had a lot of opportunities to end this one easy. I finally did. No marines dead.

I decided to play again a few days later. I pulled up different teams at random. This time I got Lorenzo, Gideon, and Claudio. The two close-assault marines and Lorenzo, with no heavy weapons and no psyker to lay down the psionic assault.

It didn’t go well.

At first it was okay, but Gideon’s backup dancer Noctis got surrounded early, and one of the bugs behind him managed to kill him. That was a drag. Then Lorenzo’s pal Deino bit the dust too. I fought off some of the swarm, but they seemed immune to my bullets and without Leon’s deadly autocannon I was feeling the hurt. The bugs had moved away from Claudio (at random, per the rules), and this was really bad for me, as Claudio can do some damage with his Heroic Charge attack action (kill three bugs within range one of Claudio, then roll the die, on a 0 Claudio dies as well) to help even the tide. But the bugs were all too far away for him to make much difference.

When marines die bad shit happens: the formation shifts. Because the “location” and “terrain” cards are an abstraction, a dead marine means shifting the formation up or down so that the marines are in a single line again. This can merge stacks of Genestealers into even larger swarms, and worse yet, in the later throes of a game it can merge terrain cards (spawning points) together, making huge and untenable swarms of Genestealers arrive in single locales. Losing the first marine isn’t so bad, but it’s the beginning of a slippery slope: each further death seems to exponentially reduce the chances of marine victory. When down to one or two marines, those guys are almost certainly surrounded by bugs, spawning points, and moments from a die roll with a good chance of death.

Gideon bit it next, which was a damn shame, because I didn’t get to test his mettle much. Further, when he left I had lost an entire team so I had one fewer action card to choose during my turns. After that I got some ground back with Claudio’s aforementioned Heroic Charge and Lorenzo’s Intimidation move action, which moves a die-roll worth of Genestealers off the board and back into the blip stacks. But the next turn saw four more bugs spawn on either side of Lorenzo, and since I couldn’t just do the Heroic Charge/Intimidate thing every turn, I had to try something else. I went with support tokens, as both Lorenzo and Claudio have good support bonuses, but while doing this Claudio’s buddy Goriel died.

With just Lorenzo and Claudio into the final stretch, I again pushed a bunch of bugs around and cannonballed Claudio into a pile. That didn’t stop the xenos from killing Lorenzo in the madness, however.

Claudio made the final location (the Launch Control Room this time), but the Control-panel based win condition required a lot of perseverance and more turns than I had. A stack of 7 Genestealers ended the marine game shortly thereafter (they couldn’t lose).

As I hadn’t played Zael’s team yet, I waited another night and gave him a go.

This last time I had Zael, Leon, and Claudio. This seemed like a hot combination. The two heavy-weapons marines have some of the strongest attack actions, and Claudio’s Heroic Charge has demonstrated its usefulness: even if he dies he’s taking three bugs with him.

In theory it was awesome. In practice I rolled badly. Leon the autocannon marine died before the marines left the Void Lock. He failed to kill the swarm in front of him with his many many attacks, and then died despite having a support token to reroll for defense during the ensuing Genestealer counterattack. Sad. Losing Leon hurt a lot. Zael and Claudio fought off the swarms that killed Leon, and things leveled out for a while. Then I lost Valencio, Leon’s buddy. That sucked, as I had one less action card to play then and so my options were low.

The Genestealers spawned a lot in the third location, the Genetorium, and Zael couldn’t handle the swarm (I rolled poorly for his incredibly powered Flamer attack). Losing the third marine really hurts in a one-player game: the last three guys will find bugs all over them in no time. I managed to kill a bunch of them with Claudio’s cannonball Heroic Charge, and moved to the final location, the Toxic Pumping Station this time. This final location is all about killing bugs: the marine victory hinges on exhausting both piles of blips and then killing all the bugs in the formation. This is a totally doable goal.

But again I rolled badly, and then Goriel died. Then Omnio. Claudio cannonballed again to crush a bunch of bugs, but unfortunately 4 were left in a stack in play, which means that during counterattack Claudio needed to roll the 5 to live. Didn’t happen, but victory was in my sights at least: one blip stack was exhausted, and there were only 3 cards left in the other, so if Claudio had been able to stay alive another few turns I might have been able to pull it off.

Two losses, one win. It’s surprisingly fun, and the various combinations of teams and locations help with replayability.

The three final locations, I’m afraid, are all that there is. So the marines’ win conditions are either: kill all the bugs ever (Toxic Pumping Station), kill the two Brood Lords (Genestealer Lair), or move/interact with the environment a lot while fending off the bugs (Launch Control Room).

The toughest might be the Genestealer Lair, as the Brood Lords are beasts, but in my game I’d gotten lucky and killed all the bugs before even facing the Lords. And the Lords are nothing without their pals. The Launch Control room seems the most difficult for a whittled-down squad of tired marines: the marines have to activate the control panel multiple times to ensure a decent chance at victory, and then again to actually try and win. All while fending off the villainous aliens.

Overall, I like the game a lot solitaire. But then, I like Space Hulk a lot. If I can sucker my pals into playing with me I’ll post some multiplayer playthroughs.

-Merlin out

Hulk IV and VTES

Robb and I managed to plan a game night recently. It started off with more Hulk and then evolved into VTES. Robb wanted to play the 6th Hulk mission again, with me as the marines. He thought he'd made some serious mistakes that cost the marines the game, and that it was a totally winable scenario. We'll see.

Mission VI: Alarm Call (again)

I placed Zael first, instead of Lorenzo. This was because I thought I'd need the Flamer to clear the halls of bugs early on. I also used some of my placements to block entire sections of the Hulk, as sleeping marines block movement. I neglected to mention this to Robb again, and I actually had assumed he didn't know that, so that was a total dick move on my part. It was a night of many dick moves on my part, really.

Robb put Lorenzo far far away. Then we placed the rest of the marines, and I used my last two to put guys in front of doorways to keep too many bugs from slipping in behind me. I ran Claudio o' the lighntning claws and Calistarius the Librarian to rescue Zael ASAP. The bugs filled the halls around us. Then the marines dashed across the final hallway to rescue random marine 1 and then Lorenzo, who was in the farthest room. One of the marine win conditions is that they rescue 3 guys before bailing. All that went down. I used Claudio as a stop-gap marine in the end hallway. I was hoping that he'd be able to maul a few bugs while the rest of the rescue went on. Alas. He took the third close assault on the chin and went down in a heap. Lame.

After waking the final marines, I had to make sure Calistarius and at least two other doods got off the boat. This looked difficult. The hallway near the exit was teeming with Genestealers, just as it was during our other play of Mission VI. I used Zael and my vanilla marine to slowly push down toward that hallway while waiting for Lorenzo and the Librarian to catch up. Eventually those guys caught up, but they brought a world of Genestealers right behind them, and I managed to really suck at rolling kills with Calistarius' psychic storm power, so I was burning psi points to little gain.

Robb and I had independently come to the conclusion that the force barrier power was where it was at by this point. I used barriers to cover my ass and Lorenzo managed to kill the last bugs crawling at him as he caught up to Zael and Calistarius. However, I'd lost the vanilla marine by this point.

So, at this point I looked at the board. Robb had like 6 bugs behind my guys but several squares away, and there were something like 10 in the two branches of the final hallway just "off-screen". Zael blasted a flamer burst down the hall to keep them busy, and then ducked down a hall to let Calistarius run closer for the final push. It was Calistarius, then Zael, then Lorenzo in the final rush. I made some poor rolls and Robb got a bug up in Calistarius' face, but i dropped a force barrier to block that hallway and had left a smoking ruin behind me with Zael to gather the troops.

If the librarian died in close assault the game would be over. Robb had one roll. We tied. I spent one of my final two psi points to kill the Genestealer, and then prepared for the final push. Calistarius rushed across the deadly hallway, and Zael cooked the intersection behind him to block the bugs. Then Zael and Lorenzo moved up, just out of Genestealer reach.

I counted my guys, and then I counted how much movement I needed to win. IF I drew six command points AND I used my last psi point to regain a command point, I would win. Otherwise, Lorenzo would probably be left with his back to a hallway full of close assaults.

I drew the six.

Marines win! But damn, just barely. Brutal mission.

Mission VII: The Artefact, or Get Some Shit and Leave

Robb and Devin took the marines on this one, and I filled the hulk with bugs. The mission was pretty straightforward: move across the hulk, get the mcguffin, and then return the mcguffin to the marine entry squares. It looked rough, but the marines did have Calistarius and Claudio to back up Lorenzo's squad. Robb and Devin decided that Lorenzo, Zael, and Calistarius should go get the artefact, while Claudio and the three basic marines tried to stem the tide in the entrance of the ship.

The plan went pretty well at first. The advance team made a lot of progress. Their progress was slightly hampered by the fact that I drew 18 Genestealers in the first two turns, and revealed them so as to spread them all over the hulk. Claudio once again proved a victim early, as my bugs killed him in his very first close assault. Unfortunately, Claudio's backup, Brother Goriel, was an absolute crack shot, and on Overwatch he managed to kill something like 8 Genestealers before I got him. That was huge.

I got one more marine in the front of the boat in the late game, but Robb and Devin had managed to get the artefact and move it far closer to victory than I would have liked. I managed to flank the librarian twice, but the bastard was lucky in close assault and he didn't waste too many psi points fending off the bugs. That was a damn shame, and it proved my undoing.

In the final throes of the game Lorenzo, who was carrying the mcguffin, passed it off to Calistarius, who made a mad dash for the entry and then placed a force barrier in the way of my Genestealers to keep them off of him. I conceded victory, as there was no way I'd get to him before he stepped into a victory square.

The marines win again, although to be clear, Lorenzo and Deino probably weren't going to survive the pile of bugs I had accumulated in the hulk by that point.

Marines rating: 3.5. Genestealers rating: 3.5. Lots of fun and villainy.

Alayna arrived soon after the second Hulk mission so we decided to play some VTES, having four players.

I'm really starting to hate four player vtes. It feels like the games are decided by turn 5.

Game 1:

Devin (Hermanas Menor)--->Me(Eyes on Africa)--->Alayna (Jaroslav bruise/bleed)--->Robb(Saulot is a Fakir)

Things went pretty well, since Devin went first and therefore his little sister machine wasn’t a whole turn ahead of me. I had Homa down and managed to get a ready minion by the time Devin had two sistahs to fire at me. Better yet I got a Blood Shield on Homa, so they did a little less damage to me.

While this was afoot, Alayna and Robb got out Jaroslav and Saulot the hard way. Then Robb started the slow train to getting Fakir al-Sidi up with Saulot and transfers, and Alayna got Tyler.

Devin and I locked into a two-player struggle, with him getting all four of his opening hermanas up and getting them some blood via hunting. I got up Kisha Bhimji in addition to Homa, and managed to call a Neonate Breach past Jaroslav to plink Alayna for 1 and Devin for 4. Devin was miffed. But then, his deck has little answer to pool attacks, and lots of minion threatening. He dropped Fame on Kisha and then tried to rush with Oppugnant Night, but I had a ridiculous amount of wakes in my hand and Homa stepped in front of the rushes. He finally decided to bleed instead, which I bounced at Alayna.

Alayna’s gameplan seemed to be bruise/bleed, which is always dubious. In this case she had combat cards she couldn’t play because no one would fight her, and no bleed boost. Robb did as many would when Jaroslav is bleeding them for one: he took the bleeds. Tyler’s arrival complicated things, but by then Robb had Fakir up and anarched out (because his deck doesn’t have enough moving parts without anarchy) to defend.

Saulot and Fakir actually discarded a lot of Sense Death, instead Saulot got a Phone and proceeded to bleed for 3 each turn. Devin took these faithfully, tapping out to try and hurt me and then taking pool damage on the chin. I never quite understood the “full left even if I get ousted” mentality, but his deck looked like a cannonball that never really fired. He’s trying to go Lilith’s Blessing on his empty sisters, but he never actually has Blessing in play early enough for it to make a difference, and there’s enough other masters in the deck he’s always doing something else. One turn he dropped Agent of Power on one of his girls, then they did a Sanguine Instruction chain to hook up with superior wo-Man-love all around.

It was hot.

The game broke in Robb’s favor, as Devin didn’t have much answer to Saulot’s bleeds at zero stealth, and I wasn’t drawing any of my damaging votes, instead relying on toolboxy bleed such as Kduva’s Mask, Ancestor Spirit, and Ancestor’s Insight. Still, I wasn’t making much of a dent in Alayna’s pool before Robb rounded the corner. He’d played Minion Tap on Fakir and then gotten up Lord Ephraim Wainwright to round out his crew. I played Sudden Reversal on his next Minion Tap, and Jaroslav played a Burning Wrath on Saulot to cook him (no anarch, no prevent?).

But Alayna was still only bleeding for two per turn with Tyler, and Lord Ephraim was reducing that with Detect Authority quite easily. Without much pressure Robb recouped his lost pool, bought another Saulot, and started grinding on my already-beat-up-by-sisters minions. Kisha was Famous for the second time, and she took a dirt nap from whence she would never return. My game was sealed, and Robb beat Alayna in the head’s up.

Robb 4 VP, GW

Game MVP: Saulot is pretty strong.

Game 2:

Robb(Nergal+Unnamed Baali)--->Me(Huge G2-3 FoS Eternals)--->Alayna(DoC)--->Devin(G2 Salubri Marionette bleed)

Devin seemed upset that I drew an early Eternals of Sirius. He was more upset when I played the second in as many turns, and downright scowling when I played my third. BY turn three Sutekh, the Dark God and Nefertiti graced my ready region. That was awesome. Now what to do with them? That’s the rub.

Meanwhile, Robb got out Nergal, Alayna got up Sashiya and Aimee Leroux, and Devin got up Matthias. Soon after Devin got Miriam Benyona as well, and Alayna used her Wider View to pick up Yseult.

I bled with Sutehk every turn, and that seemed pretty good. Nergal bled me for 4 with his first action, and that actually stung a bit. I’d accelerated my ready region, but my pool was still aching for a Villein, which I hadn’t drawn in all my Eternals-playing. I did have a Pentex Subversion, however.

Very early on, after that first bleed and before Alayna had dug out Yseult but after Devin had gotten Miriam, I decided to Pentex Subvert poor Nergal. Robb scowled and pissed about me backousting him, but hey, he’s playing Nergal, right? I was hoping Devin would bleed him for a few and keep him honest while I dug for more poolgain.

Robb did what most good players do: he begged for crosstable assistance. This was good play on his part. Alayna eventually decided (after Robb had suggested it several times) to use her 2-cap, who couldn’t call Lily Prelude anyway, to try and remove Pentex. This took me by surprise. I knew Robb had been sort of jokingly mentioning that she should help, but I’d never considered that she might take him seriously. I was pissed. I became an asshole. I asked her why she was actually listening to Robb? I ranted. I may have frothed a bit. I certainly recall calling her action retarded.

I felt bad later. It was an overreaction. She’s a newer player. Though Robb does assure me that she is beyond suggestion and actually plays better than he does, she is not and does not. She sometimes does things without weighing the consequences, and therein lies my frustration. For you see, Alayna couldn’t give me a cost/benefits analysis of having me backousted instead of me backousting Robb (that’s what my Pentex play boiled down to in the end). I’m convinced she was better off with me as a predator instead of Nergal, while Robb is convinced that allowing Devin (her prey) a victory point is a worse play.

We only got one side of the story, as I had a wake to block her attempt at destroying Pentex (which Robb felt should make me stop my bitching immediately, but that isn’t the case. . .) and my vitriol (and logic, to be fair: I explained that removing the Pentex the first turn it sits actually bleeds me for 2+whatever Nergal bleeds for next turn) either convinced or cowed her into not taking any more actions to remove it.

So, probably good on me, then, despite the douchebaggery? Still not sure. My venom wasn’t the result of calculated social engineering, so. . .

Anyway, the game devolved quickly. Robb later told me he had a Horde down, but was reluctant to pull it up, instead going for the unnamed, which is a whopping 20 pool of infernal vampires. His allegations that I backousted him were starting to ring a little more hollow.

I bled for two with Sutekh and Nefertiti, but it seemed wrong that I had a fistful of stealth and wasn’t moving cards fast enough. Alayna drew her Conductor and good stuff and mugged Devin but good. Devin stole the unnamed and gained two pool via Spirit Marionette. Then Miriam bled with her Pulse of the Canaille.

Robb looked at me and gave the “hope you’re happy, because you’ve backousted me” speech. I nodded and said that I was aware, but that I’d allow him to remove the Pentex now (he said he didn’t have stealth. . .?), as I’d drawn a Villein. He did, and I regained some pool, bleeding for a bit with Sutekh as well.

Alayna was keeping up with my meager bleeds quite handily. She called a Benefit Performance every turn, and sometimes with a Voter Captivation. So she could ignore me at her leisure. She ran out of forward moves on Devin, though, and he slipped in to oust Robb with a Spirit Marionette bleed from Nergal.

Robb gone, I managed to draw a Mokole’ Blood, which is an important card for my deck, as it allows a giant snake to get four Snake Drive from my deck and put it on himself. Sutekh promptly did so, then untapped and bled. Then he untapped and called a vote of KRC. Passing the vote was a bear, as I wasn’t cycling well enough to draw push, but I did manage to hit my prey for seven that turn with Nefertiti’s bleed.

Alayna was actually a little low on pool. She regained a few with a Cap, and went full bore into Devin. He tried to block some with Matthias but the Lure of Sirens was too much for his third eye, and all those actions went through. Lily Prelude is incredibly strong.

I had a chance to oust Alayna, and I almost danced for Joy when Devin bled me for four with Matthias using a Pulse and Spirit Marionette, as I was going to have Nefertiti Lost in Translation the bleed to my prey for an oust, but alas, I’d forgotten that Alayna put Narrow Minds into play early, and Nefertiti couldn’t afford the bounce.

Ousted. Damn. I had a chance at least.

In the head’s up Devin steadily lost ground to Alayna’s bloat and brutal vote damage, and they tied in the end.

Alayna: 2 VP, Devin: 2 VP, no GW.

Getting Sutekh, the Dark God into my ready region for any game is a secondary win condition for me, so I was a happy guy, but I still feel like an asshole.

;)

-Merlin out

Hulk II (or III, really): The Tyranids Strike Back

I managed to get back over to Robb’s for some games. There were fewer games than I wanted to play due to unforeseen circumstances, but sometimes this happens.

Robb’s daughter is apparently a Settlers of Cattan fan, and she asked us if we’d play a game with her. I’d never played before, so it was something of a trial by fire. This was especially so because the game board was randomized, and not set as the booklet suggests for newer players. Still, I managed to get a win after a long and grueling game. I found I was begging for sheep most of the game, and trying to avoid the phrase “and 8, we all get wood”. It’s pretty cool, overall, but I’ve never been a big fan of “monopoly” style trading in games. Never played the Succubus Club, if you know what I mean.

And I think you do.

After that, Robb had to go fix a flat tire. When he got back with Alayna we played mission six from the New Space Hulk Mission Book.

Mission VI: Alarm Call

I’d looked at the mission prior to going to Robb’s, and was surprised at a lot of the details. It is, in effect, a rescue mission. The librarian (psychic powerhouse) marine and the lightning claws marine start at the entry point awake and ready to rock. Sergeant Lorenzo and his squad of marines (Sarge, 3 basic marines and Brother Zael of the heavy Flamer) are dispersed throughout the rooms of the hulk, unconscious. The win condition for the marines is that they must awaken at least three other marines, and then the librarian and two other marines must escape at the exit point at the far end of the hulk.

That’s tough. I was thinking that the librarian must be a real badass if he can handle that kind of pressure. Even worse, the Genestealer player takes turns placing the unconscious marines, so when Robb placed Lorenzo nearest to the active marines, I placed Zael at the farthest end of the hulk, near the exit. So the heavy Flamer was effectively neutralized most of the game. To top it all off, I started with two blips and then two reinforcement blips, so 4-12 bugs move onto the board on the Genestealer player’s first turn. It’s an uphill fight for the marines.

The librarian is known as Lexicanium Calistarius. He plays differently than any other marine. He’s got a storm bolter, so he can do anything a vanilla marine can do. He also has a force axe for close assaults. He’s a combat veteran, so he’s plus one on his d6 for close assaults, but he can also spend X psi points to increase his close assault by X after the dice are rolled. So as long as he has psi points he kills any Genestealer who rushes him. He can also use psi points to do one psychic power per marine turn: for 1 psi point he can gain a command point, although there are stipulations to this. For 2 psi points he can drop a psychic force barrier on a square within 12 squares of himself, no line of sight needed. This barrier prohibits movement and firing through the square until the start of the next marine turn, when it goes away. For 3 psi points he can psychic storm a foe or a section within 6 squares of himself, no line of sight needed. If there is only a single target, it dies on a roll of 2 or more on a d6. If there are multiple targets in a section, he rolls a die for each and kills on a 4+. Marines are not affected by the storm. Calistarius only has 20 psi points to spend as he will during the course of the game. When he’s out, he’s out.

The lightning claws marine isn’t nearly as good as I thought he was. Brother Claudio only gets 2d6+1 to his highest die roll. I thought (and it used to be) that he got 2d6+2 to his highest die. It’s rough. Dude is nuts to go toe-to-toe with Genestealers.

Robb immediately made a break for Lorenzo, because it’s great to have a Sergeant to redraw command points once per turn. We screwed up the rules a bit, and Robb might have gotten an extra edge early on when we forgot that one of the nearby doors is jammed, and Robb opened it normally, and then later closed it to stem the tide of bugs. Ah well, turns out he needed the help.

I drew poorly from the Genestealer stack early on, only getting 1’s and 2’s for my opening blips the first 2 turns (six blips but only nine bugs). I decided to flood the opening corridors as best I could and hope I could kack a marine before they could wake up a bunch of reinforcements. I had to play crafty to avoid the librarian’s psychic storm, so I revealed many of my blips early so that I could spread the bugs out over multiple sections.

Robb managed to draw a ton of command points, and combined with the mistake we made with the jammed door, he managed to wake up Lorenzo by the end of the second turn, which was nuts quick. After that Robb had great command points due to redraws several times, and it really helped his game. I pushed a ton of bugs in the surrounding corridors, and several of them fell to Calistarius’ storm bolter, but Robb was in full doubles-rollin’ gun-jam mode, so I got a lot of bugs in little corridors nearby, ready to spring at the first sign of weakness.

I also tried to murder Claudio and his lightning claws, but it turns out he does okay, even without Robb putting him on guard for a reroll during close assault.

Robb didn’t use any psi points early on. I thought this was actually strong play. I would have been tempted to shoot my wad and try to mug Genestealers with the storm early, but it didn’t go down like that.

After getting Lorenzo good and rescued, the board was ugly for the marines. I had moved a bug to within a square of the Sarge, and there were several in adjacent hallways menacing the librarian from around corners. Also, Claudio was facing a rush of two or three bugs from the other side of the hulk. The marines were surrounded on three sides.

Robb marshaled his guys and finally started using the psychic friends network. Calistarius shot his way through a few bugs in the hallway and pushed his way into the next room with an unconscious marine. Then he put a barrier in the hallway outside, keeping my reinforcement bugs from coming in at his back (and because of the layout, Lorenzo’s and Claudio’s back as well). That was a good call. Lorenzo turned and ran down the hallway just out of range of a Genestealer rush. Claudio managed to claw his way through a few more Genestealers I had on his side of the hulk.

I had my work cut out for me, but now I was only drawing 3-Genestealer blips, so my reinforcements were coming in droves. I started moving blips in on the lower entrances, away from the entry points I had used in the early game. My plan was to flood the exit corridor and mid-to-late game areas with bugs, making any hope of escape difficult at best. I also still had a few bugs ready to charge in near the front entrances. I pushed two Genestealers down toward Lorenzo, but he was just out of reach. I put one right on his back so that he would have to do something about it, and then hid another just around a corner.

Robb decided to make a break for it. Lorenzo turned and shot that bug to bits, and then backed down the hall and went on overwatch to cover himself. Calistarius woke up the next marine and then kept on moving to the next entrance. Claudio went to kill a bug I had hiding in a side-corridor, and he did so. His side was facing the next wave, however, which meant I had an extra close assault against him. Calistarius put a force barrier up to keep a nearby blip from rushing out at him from a side entrance near the long end game corridor.

However, in so doing he did not nuke that blip. Maybe I bluffed him by not revealing it, but if he’d decided to psychic storm that particular blip instead of block it I would have lost (well, over an 80% chance for me to lose them) three Genestealers who later all become fodder, but who made Robb waste marine actions to kill them. The noblest of self-sacrificing four-armed mutant death machines, really.

I rushed a pile of bugs at Lorenzo, but he kacked them all, including slicing the one I got into close assault range with his power sword. Clutch roll for the Sarge. Claudio and is lightning claws had run out of luck, however. There were two bugs in range of him, and while the first was eviscerated, the second managed to maul him. This meant that I had open corridors in the back through which to funnel more bugs at Lorenzo.

Lorenzo turned and woke up yet another marine in the middle, fulfilling part of Robb’s victory conditions: wake up three marines. Now for the “get the librarian and two other guys out of here” subroutine. In light of this, Calistarius and his newly awakened marine escort did something I thought they wouldn’t: they went to rescue the final two unconscious marines. To do this they had to charge past a hallway quickly filling with Genestealers from both ends. Robb used another force barrier to keep the same group at bay (I’d revealed them and spread them out a bit by this point), but I’d put something like 6 Genestealers and another 3-blip in the very end of the hallway near the exit.

I used my turn to strategically move that ridiculous pile of bugs all over the exit-corridor, making sure to space them out so that Calistarius wouldn’t wreck my eventual advance. I moved some bugs into the area around Lorenzo’s back, forcing Robb to do something about them.

Lorenzo turned around and shot up one of the Genestealers, but he was going to get close assaulted again. Robb then ran Lorenzo’s newly awakened marine escort across the hall to wake up Zael of the Flamer. Meanwhile, Calistarius and the other marine woke up the last, then the librarian turned around, shut the door to the room, and went on overwatch. I had three bugs able to reach him that turn. Shit was getting ugly. Robb placed a force barrier counter to protect Lorenzo’s back, but as he did so I noticed that the marine timer stopwatch app on my iphone was at 3:52, which is much longer than the marines are allowed.

Robb made a case that he’d meant to do it earlier and such, but I told him that in the interests of sometime Genestealer victory we had decided to adhere strictly to the time limit. No barrier. Bad shit happened after that. There was a Genestealer in the final corridor close enough to get to the marine who’d woken up Zael, and it managed to kill him. Lorenzo managed to fend off several close assaults, but at the end of the turn he was standing with a Genestealer both in front of and behind him, and more were closing on both sides. Worse, Calistarius jammed on his first or second overwatch shot, so I got two bugs into close assault with him. Robb rolled terribly, which in game terms means I made him spend a _lot_ of his psi points (four per assault) to kill the Genestealers and stay alive. That was a huge blow to Robb’s game, because losing nearly half of his supply of psi points meant that Calistarius was rapidly becoming another guy with a Storm Bolter, which isn’t good with bugs filling the halls. He still had six or so left, but he was getting low.

Lorenzo somehow saved himself from the mess he’d found himself in by turning around and shooting the bugs I had coming in behind him. The two marines with Calistarius shot through all the doors and killed the Genestealer in the adjacent room with Zael. Zael moved up and torched the endgame hallway, killing a Genestealer. Robb had Calistarius put up another psychic barrier to protect Lorenzo from one angle, and cleared the jam and closed the door again, shooting a Genestealer down the hall in the process. Things were nasty by this point.

I counted the models I had on the board around this time. There were five marines left alive, but there were no less than 15 Genestealer models and 3 blips on the board, and they were all over the hulk. In his effort to protect Lorenzo, Robb had left some space for me to get at Calistarius again, and I made him use another 2 psi points just to tie in a close assault with one of my bugs. I then filled the corridors behind Zael and Lorenzo (and in front of Calistarius) with bugs. Zael was looking at a big pile of bugs waiting to rush him as soon as the first fire burst died down.

Robb actually made a break for it with Calistarius around this time. His two support marines had moved into the room where Zael had been asleep, closest the exit. Robb used all his command points to run the librarian to join them and get out of Genestealer reach. Zael torched a hallway again and Lorenzo fought for his life still in the room.

When the dust settled Robb and I looked at the board and there were something like 3 bugs able to get at Zael and Lorenzo from behind. Robb had been doing well in close assault to this point, but his luck ran out. Zael and Lorenzo went down, and with only three marines left and Calistarius out of psi points Robb conceded the game. There were a ridiculous amount of Genestealers in the exit hallway section by now. I think I outnumbered the marines 6 or 7 to one at the time of concession. Most of the 22 Genestealer models were in play.

Tough mission for the marines. Robb and I have been texting back and forth about strategy. He’s convinced that a few stupid mistakes cost him a whole lot of trouble. I tend to agree. The marines can win, but they have to be played rather precisely or they don’t stand a chance. Originally I felt that not using psi points early was a wise move, but then when things got hairy Calistarius had to use half of them in close assaults (it didn’t help that Robb was rolling 1’s and 2’s for close assaults on the librarian). Going for the last two marines was almost certainly folly. Of course, the Genestealer player starts with a crapload of Genestealers compared to other missions.

In previous missions, the Genestealer player might get two blips per turn, but he doesn’t also start with any. Further, the marines often had two squads when the Genestealer player did get a lot of blips, or had relatively simple win conditions. The more complex the mission objectives, the more likely the bugs will overrun the marines.

I played the bugs quite conservatively this mission. Instead of filling corridors I spent a lot of time moving them just of their own rush range, but nearly totally out of harm’s way, and in directions which the marines would find inconvenient to deal with (marines can only fire forward in a 90 degree arc, so directly right or left isn’t good for them). If I’ve got a Genestealer down a hallway lurking a bit, the marines had to turn to kill it, and then turn back. If Robb wasn’t getting results on his shots he was getting mugged.

Marines player rating: 3.0 Genestealer rating: 3.5 lots of bugs and lots of ways to go about this mission.

We played some Duffin Draft and double Duffin Draft with Alayna after the game, but it still felt meh with only 3 players, and Robb and I kept mugging each other and then Alayna would win. It was sorta lame.

Robb got two Heart of the Cheater in those 9 packs (only five 3rd Ed, too), but that card isn't so good in Duffin draft.

-Merlin out

Halloween Games

Robb, Devin and I got together late on Halloween to play some games. We managed to get in a mission from the New Space Hulk, and then Devin talked me into playing some “extra work” VTES, wherein one person plays two decks crosstable to simulate a four-player game, even though there are only three players available. More on that later.

Space Hulk Mission V: Decoy

Devin and I each got to play a squad of space marines in this scenario. Robb played the bugs, as is his specialty. The marines start in two entry corridors on one end of the map, and must traverse to the other side, to a designated exit point. The game ends when there are no more marines left in play: all of them must be dead or escaped. At that point the marine player rolls a d6, and if the number rolled is less than or equal to the number of escaped marines, the marines win. Otherwise the Genestealers win.

Devin took Lorenzo’s squad: Sergeant Lorenzo with the power sword, Brother Zael with the heavy Flamer, and three vanilla marines. I took Gideon’s squad: Sergeant Gideon is the Thunder Hammer/power shield marine, Brother Leon packs the Autocannon, and then there’s three mostly vanilla marines. One of them has a chainfist for cutting open doors. If Devin and I could get six of our ten marines out the escape hatch we would win.

Robb started the game with five blips (which seemed like a lot). There was some contention here, as the mission stated he starts with three and gets two reinforcements per turn. We didn’t argue and he's mostly right, I checked the rules today. It made for a tense game. Also, we actually played with a timer this time. I downloaded a stopwatch app for my iphone (two really, the first was shit) and we timed the marines’ turns to three minutes.

Devin hadn’t played in a while (decades. . .) so we had a lot of discussion about best practices throughout the game. There was no conflict, however, which turned out great for us. Devin and I plotted our first turn so that Brother Zael would be able to fire flames down either point of Genestealer entry near where the marines start. While Devin was doing that, I moved my squad out and lurched most of them down toward the middle of the map, Gideon in the lead.

Robb did as we expected and put a bunch of bugs at our back, near the entry points, as well as a blip on the far side of the map, near the exit. Robb’s general strategy this game was to put big blips (2 or 3 Genestealers) near where the marines were, and to put smaller blips (1 and occasionally 2 Genestealers) near the exit area. This is an old strategy of his that aims to keep the smaller blips (1’s mainly) unrevealed for as long as possible, in order to maximize the number of 3-bug blips drawn per turn by keeping the 1’s out of the bucket. It’s sound.

Brother Zael opened a door blocking his path of fire and nuked the first series of bugs near the entry point. Another marine, with a storm bolter, killed a few bugs coming in the other entry point nearby, and then went on overwatch to shoot anything that moved. The rest of Devin’s squad moved down the hallway toward the middle section. Meanwhile, my squad split, with Brother Leon of the Autocannon and dude-with-chainfist joining Devin’s squad in one corridor while Gideon and two others took an alternate route.

I wanted to test something. Gideon has often been derided (by me) as being a victim. This is because in old hulk rules, the Thunder Hammer marine never did a goddamn thing for me. He has no ranged weapons, he can’t dance, and he can’t go on overwatch. Furthermore, when a Genestealer player is rolling dice AT ALL, the marines are losing a guy 90% of the time. The rule of the game for marines is “for the love of the emperor don’t let them get close”. Gideon and his Thunder Hammer are anathema to that paranoia.

However, in new hulk, Mc Thunder Hammer is a Sergeant, which gives him an additional +1 to his close combat die. Furthermore, he can go on guard, which is essentially close combat overwatch. When on guard a marine can reroll a close assault die after seeing what the Genestealer player rolls. This is hot. So the game math went from Genestealer player 2d6 (3d6-1d6 for power shield) vs 1d6+1 for the Thunder Hammer victim, to Genestealer player 2d6 (3d6-1d6 for shield) vs 1d6+2 with a reroll if the Sarge is on guard. This is a big difference.

I wanted to see if it paid off. So I marched Gideon down to a doorway, the only doorway by which Genestealers could get at the marines in the middle section (an entry point was 8 squares away), and I plopped him there on guard. I hedged my bets by placing another marine on overwatch behind him while the third in that section joined the rest of the marines making a break for it.

Meanwhile, Zael and the overwatch marine near the start of the board were fending off Robb’s horde quite handily, to the point where Robb decided that he needed to concentrate on Gideon and the exit point. I think that around this time there were like 5 blips (maybe 3 blips and 3 Genestealers? Robb was revealing the big ones to put the chits back in the pot) in the exit section, most of them down a hallway which was going to be a bear to take.

Robb threw a half-dozen bugs at Gideon, but the Hammer/reroll kept fending them off. Admittedly I got pretty lucky: Robb had me with a 6 on one of his close assault dice twice, and Gideon managed a 5(+2) on the reroll from being on Guard both times.

While this was going on, Devin had moved Brother Deino (a vanilla marine whose valor has earned him a proper name) down to the homestretch toward the exit. He blew all the doors he could see off their hinges, so that Robb would at least have to reveal any more blips that came to get us from this direction. Deino then sat on overwatch four spaces from the mass of bugs in the hallway nearby. Lorenzo, Leon of the Autocannon, and three other marines bunched up behind Deino.

Robb kept tossing bugs into the entry point near Gideon, but they took two turns to get to him, so he made a very slow retreat, the marine covering his back also making similar progress. Zael and the entrance guard marine both slowly backed toward the exit, as no more bugs were coming to menace them, but Devin wanted to hedge their bets. Robb decided not to reveal his bugs in the exit-hallway slaughterhouse yet.

All eyes were on that hallway. I told Devin we had to run a guy up there to stir things up. We drew a bunch of command points, and Deino rushed forward, turned and shot the first Genestealer he saw, shot twice at another to kill it, and shot again. He moved forward with his last shot, into a hallway with another two bugs, but he had done his job. Leon was behind him with the Autocannon, and now I moved him up and put him on overwatch. Leon could cover all points of Genestealer entry on the endgame sections from there.

On Robb’s turn Deino bit the dust, but the charging Genestealers were all mowed down by Leon’s Autocannon. There was just a couple bugs left in the back 40 now. Leon reloaded his gun and moved to an adjacent hallway section the next turn. We didn’t have enough command points to put him on overwatch again, but he was safe from Genestealers and could take one shot during Robb’s turn. Lorenzo ran down the hallway toward the exit, with three other marines behind him. Robb still had two Genestealers in the back rooms coming their way.

Meanwhile, Robb made another attempt at Gideon, who was slowly backing into the endgame sections. Gideon managed to crush two more bug skulls. Robb said something about me calling the Thunder Hammer marine an asshole all the time, and that he was kicking ass today. I said that the guard feature is a big improvement on the old rules. I haven’t seen Brother Claudio on guard yet; he’s got the Lightning Claws, which are 2d6+2. . .I wonder how that stacks up. We’ll find out in later missions.

Robb tried to get Leon and his Autocannon to blow up. After reload, the AC can nuke if the marine rolls triples on his three attack dice. I came awful close but never quite nuked. Robb tried closing the door to shuffle blips into the back hallways, but I used our last command point to shoot the door with the Autocannon.

Zael and entry guard were getting close to the middle now. Robb saw that we had four marines (Lorenzo one of them) poised to exit in the next round or two, unless he crushed them. Devin ran Lorenzo down the hallway, turned him at the corner and shot at a Genestealer, and missed. He fired again and missed. He fired again and missed. He fired again and killed it, but there was another two squares away. Devin used our last three command points (extra moves for the marines player to disperse as needed) firing at that Genestealer. He missed every time.

So then Sergeant Lorenzo was two squares from a hungry bug without a way to take a shot. Devin and I wrote him off and put the other three marines (and Leon, covering the entries) on overwatch so that they had a shot at Lorenzo’s killer. More bugs came toward Gideon in the rearguard, but would not reach him until next turn.

Robb said later that the turning point in the game was when he rushed Lorenzo, did a close assault, and Lorenzo managed to win because of his +1 Sergeant bonus and force-a-reroll parry ability from the power sword. Devin and I fist-bumped. Four marines escaped in short order, including Sergeant Lorenzo. Meanwhile, Leon ran out of autocannon ammo savaging all of the Genestealer reinforcements. After that I had him rush toward the entry point so that Robb would have to lurk blips for a turn before coming at us from there.

I put Leon on guard. It didn’t help. Two marines dead. Robb made a last rush at Gideon in the rear, which would have been significant as Gideon was our last Sergeant in play, but the Hammer stood strong.

Zael and the rearguard had caught up, and after Leon was dead Zael tossed a Flamer blast into the entry point near the far end of the map, which blocks all models from entering that section. Zael proceeded to cover the area in flames while the rest of the troops poured toward the exit. After we drew enough command points to kill the last two Genestealers hiding in the final hallway, Robb conceded defeat: at least 6 marines would escape.

Robb was wondering what has changed in the rules to allow the marines to win. There’s a couple things that are small changes that make a big difference. One is the guard function for the close assault marines. That was huge this game. Normally I would not advocate standing toe-to-toe with a Genestealer for any reason, and quite honestly, allowing the Genestealer player to roll dice is bad play on the marine player’s part. However, that gamble (and it is a gamble) can pay off big. It did with this game.

Two is the fact that marines can now unjam their Storm Bolters (which jam if the marine player rolls doubles while on overwatch) for just one action or command point, and if on overwatch the marine stays on overwatch. In old hulk rules the marine would have to spend a command point to unjam and then another two to go back on overwatch. That was brutal.

The overall feel of the game is intact: the game is at its most tense when there is a marine on overwatch, able to take a shot (indeed, must take a shot) every time a Genestealer appears in his line of vision within 12 squares, and the bugs rush at him. He has to roll a six on one of his dice to kill it, and he has X shots, where X is the number of squares the bug must close before getting next to him. It seems like overwatch has only failed us of late when it isn’t fatal for the marine, i.e. when the bugs are too far away to reach the marine during a rush.

Still, the game is a lot of fun, though perhaps moreso for the marine player than for the genestealer player. Mission rating marine player: 3.5 Genestealer player: 3.0

VTES: Multideck format

Robb and Devin, being antisocial, have cooked up a variant, or perhaps expanded on a variant that a dude named Tom McNulty once played with us. That variant is standard VTES, except one player plays more than one deck at the table. To try and minimize in-game knowledge and collusion, the player who is playing multiple decks at a table should have their decks be crosstable.

Oftentimes, it goes like this: Robb(DeckA)>>>Devin(DeckB)>>>Robb(DeckC)>>>Devin(DeckD)

If DeckB got ousted, Robb and Devin would then take turns playing one of Robb’s decks so as to limit the unfairness of one player playing two decks. The player(s) playing multiple decks need to play to win, and hopefully they can use a measure of objectivity to assess and play their turns.

On Halloween, I volunteered to be multiple-deck guy, because the only deck I’d brought lacked reaction cards. I find it easier to be objective (and play multiple decks) when I’m not reacting a lot. I had brought a G4-5 Morlock variant of the “Zombo Combo” Baron Samedi Cemetery/Corpse deck. Devin tossed me a huge Eternals/Followers of Set deck to play as a second deck.

The game went thusly: Me(Samedi)>>>Devin(Hermanas Love Lilith)>>>Me(Eternals of Nahkthorheb)>>>Robb(DoC agro-vote)

I popped up Morlock on one side of the table and Amenophobis on the other. Devin got a Hermana Menor turn one, hunted the next turn and popped two more, then got a Camera Phone with the one while the others hunted. Amenophobis bled for a few while I pushed beads to Cagliostro. Robb got Yseult and called a Lily Prelude to thump me for 4. Then he got Antoinette.

Morlock did his thing, getting a corpse and freaking into a cemetery, and then freaking and bleeding. Robb’s vote made me cautious, and I declined transfers (silly, really) instead of pulling some off the down guys. I wanted to get Abebe out, and I should have.

Devin bled the Fos deck for 5 with the Phone and a Walk of Elvis. Then he popped another sister and hunted with his empty two. He cursed not having a Lilith’s Blessing yet.

The Fos bled for a couple, which Robb ignored, and then it got Cagliostro. This, as it turns out, is subpar for a Nahkthorheb deck. Devin assured me that there were six Nahkthorheb in the deck (there wasn’t) and that I’d gotten a bad draw (I had, but there were only four N). Not having the extra actions was killing me, and discarding Corruption cards was pissing me off. What the hell are Corruption cards doing in a deck? Didn’t Revelation of Ecstasy re-wallpaper them?

Robb bloated with the new DoC bloater vote and got up the two-cap daughter. Morlock spun his wheels a bit. I dropped another Cemetery and thought again about bringing up a minion, but pulled two back this time for sure.

Devin bled for a bunch with a Hermana and the Elvis Walk, but because he had to front-load it I blocked with Cagliostro. My Hermana deck has Increased Gate tech, so I figured the Form of the Serpent in my hand was actually to get back to close and knock a sister into torpor with hands for one. After Devin dropped the Signpost, I realized that Cagliostro’s snake form could save him a lot of hurt. Caggy ran away.

Devin still bled for a bit, and got another sister a cellphone. Then he got Hermana number 5.

The FoS deck had too many actions and stealth to not have a multi-actor like N up, so I knew it was only a matter of time before it was ousted. The game had broken the way many four-player games do, only I was playing both of the disadvantaged decks. Cagliostro got a Perfectionist and a Heart of the City, while I left up Amenophobis to block a frontloaded bleed from hell.

Robb mugged Morlock but good on his next turn, dropping another Lily Prelude and then a Reckless Agitation. That was enough to oust the Samedi deck. At least my life was getting simpler. Robb started influencing Sashiya.

Devin put an Oppugnant Night into play and proceeded to crush DoC like it was the thing to do. Robb threatened to transfer out. I laughed at him, as telling Devin he’ll only get 2 Vps and a GW instead of 3 isn’t much of a threat. All the Daughters were in torpor except the 2-cap when the FoS went, but they didn’t have much to do. I bled Rob for some and finished my turn.

Robb rescued Yseult and got out Sashiya. Devin beat up Yseult again. Then he bled me for a lot, knocking the FoS deck down to 4 or 5 pool. I stayed untapped to attempt some blocks. Robb bloated with votes and rescued Yseult again.

Devin ousted me with bleeds the next turn. Robb hurled invectives at me because now he couldn’t play his Reckless Agitations. I told him I was sad for him.

At that point I went to play my guitar. Robb told me he managed to vote Devin off the table before Devin drew and played another Oppugnant Night.

Robb: 3VP 1GW, Devin 1VP

Game MVP: Conductor

-Merlin out