Bored Games are Rad

I've been playing, uh, lots of warmachine to prep for the MI cup.

I did play one game with Charlie, but I got my teeth kicked in by Harbinger.

Then we had a board game night and we played King of Tokyo for a while, then 3 5-player games of Small World, which I'd never played. It's awesome. I won the first on accident. Then Brice, and last William.






I bought the app later the next day on iPad. It's also rad.

Last night Robb came over and we played some games again. We played a game of Death Angel and lost in the final location (real close).

Then we played a game of Letters from Whitechapel with my wife and I managed to get away with it (I played Jack). It was a sweet game.

So yeah. I'm ready for the cup?

-Merlin out

Terra mystica seems rad

Robb and I managed a game of terra mystica last weekend. It turned out to be a sweet game. I hope to play it a bunch and rate the various races on offer.



We played the two-player suggested setup. After playing I feel that the game might even play quicker than we did the first time. Now that we know all the actions it should be way easier.

I won of course. Honestly the first game would've taken much less time if Robb hadn't agonized over how he could win. It's a tutorial game! Settle down. Anyway, it's a great civilization building game with what seems to be plenty of replay ability.

-Merlin out

Dunwich Horror Expansion

I got the dunwich horror expansion for Arkham Horror and I like it, I think. It's got a bunch of rad cards and new concepts, but I played several games of it one-player while out of town on business and I'm pretty sure the game with the expansion is not for single player anymore.

I feel I can keep up with most aspects of the game, but with the expansion there are now 15 dangerous unstable locations. That means every turn there's a chance a new location will spawn a gate, and since 8 gates on the board means game over, the clock is running fast. If I ignore the gates in dunwich (for the purposes of counting open gates for the game-end conditions) it might make the game work better.



As it was I was doing very with with Joe Diamond, the private eye, but the 8th gate opened. I had sealed 2 and was well on the way to a 3rd. In a normal game that would be all 10 unstable locations accounted for--very rare. With the expansion the clock is too fast.

It's still a lot of fun. I like the new encounter cards and the new other worlds a lot.

-Merlin out

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Arkham horror fest

I've played 4 games of arkham Horror and 1 of high command since my last post. Those games are pretty sweet.

Devin and Robb came to my place for some games a week or so ago and we played arkham horror. I remember we played against Ithaqua, who's not the toughest ancient one. I was Darrell Simmons, who is awesome. I might need to revise his rating. I can't remember Robb and Devon's characters. We kicked ithaqua's ass pretty handily.



I'm Darrell Simmons, bitch!

The game was memorable because I kept Darrell's retainer for most of the game, which made me rich. I got a lot done with that cash. Also choosing two encounters in town was an incredible boon.

Then we played a game of high command, and despite the fact that we didn't really have a core strategy Devin and I did well. He wound up winning by 3 points, but we were 10 or more points ahead of Robb's cryx. I played each of the final 4 turns as if it were my last, but the fact that the game went the full length hurt me; while I was doing well Devin was buying VP cards to stuff into his deck.



Khador wins!

Robb came over last Friday for a game of AH and some music stuff. I was again Darrell Simmons and he was Mandy Thompson (who gives a reroll). We kicked ass again, though it was a close game versus Azathoth. Robb told me he'd never beaten Azathoth before, but I don't think I've ever failed to do so. He's got a 14-token doom track for chrissakes.

Notably, we had to defeat two of the worst rumor cards to win the game, All Good Work Undone (or something like that) which removes all elder seals from the table if left to pop(eff), and the one which adds doom tokens randomly. Those made it tight be we pulled it out.

By the end of this game I was saying "I'm Darrell Simmons, Bitch!" Because I was having my second good run in two games with him.

Then my power went out and and I wound up staying with Robb for two nights with my son. We played two mor AH games, a loss vs Nyarlathotep and a win vs Yog-Sothoth.

The Nyarlathotep game was doomed from the start, as Robb and I pulled Sister Mary and Dexter Drake, two of the worst characters in the game IMO. We managed to seal 4 gates before he awoke, and we had plenty of clue tokens to fight the final battle, but Dexter was cursed and was devoured quickly, and sister Mary isn't the stalwart for that fight.

Then we had a great game with Harvey The Professor and Mike the Gangster versus Yog-Sothoth. Robb started with Monterey Jack and got an elder sign from the Curiositie Shoppe turn one, then stepped into a gate intent on sealing it. His first encounter in the Other World sent him lost in time and space, and it turns out Yog-Sothoth devours anyone lost in time and space.

So Robb drew Harvey next after losing his first character on the second turn. Harvey started with the necronimicon, which as it turns out turns Harvey into a beast. He's the best spell caster in the game and reduces all sanity loss, so after getting like 7 spells from the necronimicon Robb was a beast. Harvey killed like 27 toughness worth of monsters and sealed two gates.

Mike had an arsenal of weapons and a bit of luck, and I sealed 4 gates and killed 10 toughness in monsters. The witch house got a gate early and we kept drawing witch house gates after, and so had many many monster surges from it. Stupid witch house. We killed two brutal rumors this game as well.

-Merlin out


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MOAR Games!

It's been an awesome week. In addition to all my other games, Charlie and I played two games of warmahordes on Thursday.

Game 1 was hexeris2 against Charlie's kreoss1 in the scenario destruction. I went first and ran up, Charlie moved up as well. Then I decided I had an angle to feat and maybe spell kreoss to death with hexeris, and that seemed better than letting kreoss feat on me.

So I did. I moved up my bonded razor worm, got my nihilators out of the way, had my will breaker cast puppet strings on hexeris for insurance, moved up my gladiator to rile up extra fury, then charged a nihilator in the back with hexeris. My first boosted hellfire hit and did 8 damage. I feated and missed my second one, but I rerolled the low dice with puppet strings, hit, and rolled at least an 11 to finish the old man on the hill.

I had a back up plan to keep me safe in case I failed, but when Charlie and I played it out kreoss' feat assassinated hexeris camping 2 despite my agonized denying him focus. Stupid choir.

Game two was an ugly, haley2 v severius1 match in the scenario close quarters. I was trying a troop heavy, spellslinging Haley list. I went second. Charlie moved up and put defenders ward on his errants and eye of menoth on severius.



I had eiryss strip defenders ward with her arcane interference bolt. Then I put deadeye on the nyss hunters and deceleration up. The nyss managed to kill 5 errants. Everything else advanced.

Severius moved up and jammed me a bit, getting a good ashes to ashes to burn 6 nyss (boo!). I reacted by feating and turning his warjacks around with TK and domination. I got some more errants off the board and some of his support pieces as well.

He didn't get to do a lot on my feat turn, but he could counter feat. He did, but in so doing left severius vulnerable on a hill. My guns and a stab from thorn brought him low.

Then Saturday we all went to Charlie's for housewarming games. We played 3 games of munchkin with all the expansions, then a frustrating game of super dungeon explore, then a game of super munchkin.

I've played a lot of munchkin, but never the base set, always the weird "other" sets like munchkin Cthulhu. It was pretty rad. At one point I realized I was playing a high, dark Orc warrior on a wolf with a flaming, blessed sledgehammer. That was rad.



Super dungeon explore is a board game with cool miniatures that seeks to emulate the video game Guantlet. There are monster generators that spawn critters endlessly while the heroes attempt to kill the generators and get treasure. I know, it seems like a home run!

However, the game is incredibly difficult for the players, and I've never seen the Consul/GM lose. The monsters inevitably swarm the players and crush them. It's super super super hard.



So after playing that for a while we just gave up and played more munchkin.

Overall a good week for games. I'm jonesing for more arkham horror honestly. I love that game.

-Merlin out


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Ketchup post

I've played a lot of games of late, but I haven't been writing about it.

I went to a war machine "random list" tournament and went 2-2, though one of those games was in-hand when I lost it to a Hail Mary. It was okay.

Ray came out and my nemo3 murdered his testament of menoth. It was a good game. On my last turn I was about to NOT win when ray suggested I just kill his caster and I did. My dice tried to fuck me but in the end they got it done.

I then played a game of Space Hulk with Ray, and my gene stealers managed to get sergeant Gideon in the end, though it was close. He would have done better if brother Leon had not rolled trip-6s to self destruct on overwatch.



At Robb's wedding we played a game of VTES and I lost quite badly, as my predator had little pressure early and made me play a 1-minion game. It was rough. My deck seems good on paper but rarely performs well.



Then we played even more VTES, with Robb, devin, and the eskimatt meeting me at Robb's for two more games. I won the first with a ventrue breed/boon deck, mainly through being a bully and back ousting Matt.

Then Robb handily stomped us with a silly imbued deck, as he cannot help himself and continues to build imbued decks from a set of 60 cards on spite of the enormity of this game.

His deck seemed fine, but his victory rested some in the play of the rest of us, who all played bad combat decks and blew each other up around him. The mortals calmly stepped over the carcasses of the fallen, and Robb got his last two VP on the back of Devin (his PREDATOR) playing a dragonbound that would NEVER HURT HIS PREY, only himself (ha!) and me, his predator.

Ah well.

I'm not bitter about that or anything. That game was in the tank already.

Then we roped Alayna into playing 5-player Arkham Horror, and in spite of drawing the dread Cthulhu (who is a complete asshole) we kicked that game in the nuts over the next 3 hours, placing a 6th seal on the board with only 6 doom counters on Cthulhu and a terror level of 1. The town didn't even care. "Dread Cthulhu, you say? Ah well, life goes on."

Charlie is coming out tonight for more warm achine, and then he's having a games night at his place Saturday as a housewarming. What an awesome few weeks its been for games!

-Merlin out


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Arkham Horror Breakdowns

I played two more solitaire games of AH! Yesterday. This was mainly to say I'd played or seen played all the investigators and against all the ancient ones.

I lost both games, but I had 5 seals on the board, so pretty close to winning the game on oth counts. Gloria, the author investigator is pretty awesome despite looking ho-hum, while the flashy Drake the magician is nowhere near as cool as he looks.

I want to give some general ratings to these idiots who delve too deep and the creatures they strive to prevent eating reality. I'm going to break them down into some categories:

Bruisers:

All of these characters start the game with good stamina scores and guns. They kill cultists and zombies like nothing else, but struggle against top-end otherworld squiggle-heads because their maximum sanity and will aren't as good. They're min-maxed fighters. They are all lots of fun to play, with good starting equipment and money to burn.

Mike McGlen, the Gangster starts with a Tommy Gun and rarely loses stamina. He's a lot of fun to play because he gets to bully low-level mooks, but his game isn't too deep. Points for having the best Fight skill in the game. Rating 3.0.

Monterey Jack, the Archaeologist has a strong stamina, is good at finding relics, and begins the game with a .38 and a bullwhip. Awesome. One of my favorite games was with Monterey. Low sanity can be crippling. Rating 3.5.

Joe Diamond, the Private Eye begins with a .45 and a lot of clues, which is good. Joe's also got the best speed skill in the game which can be terribly important for evading monsters or getting to the right gate to close it. My game with Joe was short but he seems pretty strong. He also has the best maximum sanity of any of the Bruisers. Rating 3.0.

Explorers:

The explorer characters are good at choosing their fights more carefully than others, and when the stakes are as high as they are in Arkham and worlds beyond, choosing fights is way good. They tend to have some money, which is necessary at times for sanity and stamina regeneration, or for picking up a useful item. They're all fun to play.

Darrell Simmons, the Photographer doesn't start with much, but he has a steady if unstable income that can go a long way. He gets to draw two encounters at locations in town and choose the one he likes, which is amazing. Other than that he's a bit blah. Robb actually played him in a game we won, so I haven't had the pleasure but he looks good if not great. Rating 2.5.

Kate Winthrop, the Scientist actually possesses most of the tools to be a great spellcaster: starts with spells, a decent Lore skill, and a good maximum sanity. Gates can't open on a space she is at either, which can be an amazing ability in the late game. She starts the game off with a wide variety of items, some decent cash and 2 clues as well, so she's got a leg up on some. It's also nice that she can't be jumped by gates or monsters, which is a concern many investigators have to deal with. Rating 3.0.

Gloria Goldberg, the Author also has the tools to be a great spellcaster, but her Lore skill isn't as good as Kate's. She gets to draw two other world encounter cards while adventuring on other planes and choose her encounter, which is huge. H U G E. The other world encounters run the gamut from pointless to game-breaking (in a good or bad way), and getting a pick of two is nuts. In my game with her all my other world adventures had positive or nil outcomes, which is awesome when the possibilities include being Lose in Time and Space, Devoured, or Cursed. She's way good. Maybe the best in the game. Rating 4.0.

Wizards:

The three wizard characters excel at spellcasting in one or more ways, though I'm not too big on one of them. They all have some cash at the beginning of the game, and either start with lots of spells or have ways around the sanity loss good spells incur. They're fun to play, but spells are actually a bit random in their usefulness, so it can be challenging.

Dexter Drake, the Magician is a bit of a trap. He starts the game with a powerful attack spell, two random spells, and a good Lore skill. However, his maximum sanity is only 5. Unless he can mitigate the sanity loss of casting his awesome spells he's going to have trouble. Find a healing stone or some whiskey and you might be all right, but it's an uphill climb. And hope you get good spells or you're in trouble. Rating 1.5.

Carolyn Fern, the Psychologist doesn't seem to be a spellcaster on the surface: she doesn't start with any spells. However, she has an amazing sanity-restoring special ability and a Lore skill as good as Dexter's. Buy her some spells with her $7 and get 'casting. She's terribly slow, so try to get her a map or something ASAP as well. Rating 2.5.

Harvey Walters, The Professor has the best Lore skill in the game. He reduces all sanity loss by one. He starts with two random spells. If you want to play a wizard character, play Harvey. He's really good at it. He might be one of the best characters in the game, but for the randomness of bad spell draws. Rating 3.5.

Materialists:

These three characters all either manipulate items decks or have tons of cash to throw around, or both. All of them are fun to play because of how well equipped they can be, but being subject to the randomness of the items decks can sometimes suck.

Bob Jenkins the Salesman is pretty straightforward. He's got money and starts with a bunch of stuff. Depending on what he gets he can be pretty amazing, and since he starts in the store, with money and a common item special he can dial in some more goodies. Robb played as Bob and bought a gun straight away in one game, and it paid dividends. Points for having the highest possible Will skill in the game. Rating 3.5.


Jenny Barnes the Dilettante starts with the most money and gets more every turn. She also has a little of everything from the items decks, but aside from raw materials she's a bit bland. She can get a lot done with her cash but she's a bit slow and doesn't have a specialty. Rating 2.0.

Ashcan Pete the Drifter only has a dollar at the start, but he's the only investigator to start with an Ally, his dog Duke. Pete has a lot of clue tokens. He has a special that allows him to look at the bottom of several items decks and draw from them when he would draw. That's pretty amazing. He's got the best Sneak skill in the game. He's slow, and being poor isn't great in this game, but he's got some chops. Rating 3.0.

Jacks of All Trades/Support Characters:

The next two characters don't do much particularly well themselves but instead support awesome characters well. This can be important. These characters are great in a support role but aren't super great by themselves.

Vincent Lee, the Doctor regenerates his own or another character's stamina each turn. That's good but his own fight stat is so terrible that he's not a great combatant despite this advantage. He has some spellcaster traits with spells and a decent Lore, but his will is low and his maximum sanity is only average. He's rich, which is sweet. But overall he supports other characters better than running solo. Rating 2.0.

Mandy Thompson, the Researcher is an average investigator with middling skills who has an amazing special. Once per turn she can allow a reroll of all failed dice for a particular roll, whether her own or an ally's. That's nuts good. Aside from that she's not inspiring or particularly adept, though her basic stats allow her to succeed at many things. She is good, but not great. Rating 3.0.

The Masters of None:

These last two characters don't really have awesome special abilities, and in my experience they struggle a bit because of it. They aren't terrible, but they aren't particularly good either. One of their worst traits is that they are both poor, starting with $1 or $0, which can make sanity and stamina recovery difficult.

Amanda Sharpe, the Student is a skill monkey. She starts with 2 skills, which is more than many characters. Skills tend to give flat buffs to whole skill areas. They're good. In addition she draws extra skills when drawing from the skill deck (which rarely happens in-game unless you have the money for classes, which Amanda doesn't). Overall her special doesn't come into play often, and she's not particularly good at any skill trees without skill buffs. Rating 1.5.

Sister Mary, the Nun is an anomaly. She plays differently than all other characters. She can't get lost in time and space. She starts with a cross and holy water (the cross is best against undead and not great versus anything else). She has the best Luck skill in the game. She starts the game blessed. She has two spells, a decent Lore, and a high sanity.

Yet, she doesn't quite gel in my experience. Her awful will and fight stats hurt her abilities to thwart monsters. She's not fast or sneaky. And she's broke. So when things go south she can't pick herself up. Rating 1.5.

The mythos entities at work in the game range from tough to ridiculous, as any good CoC antagonist should be.

I'm going to rate them based on how tough they are to beat in AH!

Nyarlathotep is actually easy to deal with if you game for the final battle. A single investigator with a tommy gun and a dozen clue tokens practically can't lose in the final battle with him. He's flavorful and fun but he's a bit of a pushover. On the upside, playing against him allows for a lot of expiration not allowed against more stressful ancient ones. Rating 2.0.

Cthulhu is ridiculous. He makes cultists more difficult. He reduces all investigator sanity and stamina maximums by 1. He regenerates doom tokens during the final battle, meaning single investigators can't win. He's nuts. Rating 4.0.

Shub-niggurath is pretty nuts. All monsters are tougher. In the final battle investigators without monster trophies die. Not many investigators will have enough monsters to fight her for her 12 turns of doom tokens. Rating 3.5.

Yig is one of the lowest-doom ancient ones. Cultists are fierce. The final battle comes quicker but it's easier. Rating 2.0.

Ithaqua is middling. Cultists are tougher, and investigators need to be wary of their movement. High stamina investigators should win the final battle without much planning. Rating 2.0.

Yog-Sothoth makes gates harder to close and seal. Further, Yog eats gate trophies which are hard to accumulate in mass. It's an uphill battle for the good guys. Rating 3.5.

Azathoth is pretty straightforward. Not a lot of specials here. If the final battle begins the investigators simply lose. Nothing to game for there, but Azathoth sleeps deeper than the rest. Rating 2.5.

Hastur is off the chain. While the antagonist gates cost 8 clues to seal (which is A W F U L). During the final battle the difficulty of combat against him is equal to the terror level, which is bad. Cultists become harder to fight. He eats sanity during the final battle, so maybe Harvey could hang, but most everyone else is boned. Rating 4.0.

Arkham Horror is a fun game. I'm still enjoying it. Probably done with recaps. Maybe some house rules to follow. . .

-Merlin out


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Arkham Horror Explosion

So I played some Arkham horror at the beginning of the year, but I haven't played in a while. The wife and I invited Robb and Alayna over for dinner and after decided to give it a go.

The ladies didn't particularly enjoy themselves, but Robb, being an old Call of Chthulu stalwart, liked it enough to want to play again over the weekend. And again.

So, we played a four-player Thursday and won handily. Robb and I then played a two-player and were doing okay, then Alayna joined us as she returned from work and we won quite handily. Then Robb and I played a two-player and lost terribly.

Then it was already out so I played two single-player games Sunday. I lost the first by just a hair, and "won" the second (though I think I was playing the Final Battoe incorrectly). Then due to the texts I was sending Robb on my single player games he came over for another shot at the title. We won that two-player handily.

That's a crapton of Arkham Horror. General observations:

Each character plays very differently. Physical combatants like Mike the Gangster are awesome at killing Cultists but their sanity maximum makes it impossible for them to fight, say, The Hound of Tindalos or Shoggoths. Magical characters do great as long as they get good spells, which is a coin toss at best. Utility characters can be great at either but rarely excel without work.

Get a weapon early. During one game on turn one Robb's salesman character went to the general store and bought a .45. Totally worth it. Also it's an interesting beginning to a story: scene one, salesman walks into an army surplus and buys a gun. That was cool on a few levels.

Fishing for items from the stores in general is good. The unique items deck has some ridiculous stuff in it and it should be rifled through whenever possible (curiositie shoppe for those). The healing stone and elder signs are fantastic, potentially game-breakingly good items.

Always sealing gates instead of merely closing them is a good policy to adopt.

Rumors are terrible. Get rid of them.

Starting with 3 clues is way better than starting with none. One of our worst losses was with two characters who begin the game clueless.

You can game for the final battle sometimes. For instance, Nyarlathotep eats clue tokens and then investigators without them. So an investigator with 11+ clue tokens and a decent weapon (say a Tommy Gun) almost can't lose to Nyarlathotep. Most Ancient Ones are tougher. . .

I haven't played all the characters or against all the ancient ones. Maybe I'll try to get in a few more games and rate both sets according to the ancient method.

-Merlin out

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Location:My House

Board Games on the Road: Arkham Horror

I actually got this last Christmas, and I hadn't played it until recently. It's a big time-sink, and a massive game. Luckily, it can be played single player, and since I apparently like single player games from Fantasy Flight Games, I decided it was time.

I'm traveling a bit for work here and there, and since I'm spending some time alone in hotel rooms I thought I should direct that time toward the blog and gaming. To this end I'm going to try and play some single player board games here and there during my travels.

Arkham Horror is an investigation and horror game based on the writing of H. P. Lovecraft. I'm a fan of his work, and the RPG community that's grown around his mythos is impressive. In the game, the players take the role of distinct investigators who must stop the otherworldly entities from devouring humankind.




The set up for the game took a long time. There are over a dozen different decks of cards, another dozen types of chit or counter, and some large cardstock pieces that represent the investigators and the Ancient One, one of eight mythos entities that represent the games antagonist element.

I played two games during an overnight stay. It took about 45 minutes to set up the game for the first time, but I imagine that it will be significantly easier and could be streamlined further by packing the game away in an organized fashion.

Game one featured the investigator Michael McGlen, the Gangster, pitted against the Ancient One Shub-Niggurath. McGlen has a high stamina, starts with a Tommy Gun (one of the more powerful mundane weapons), and takes less damage during combat. Shub-Niggurath makes her creatures more difficult to kill as well. So it was a toughness battle.




Each turn the game has several phases. Each investigator gets to move, do some encounters, collect clues, and so forth. They may even step through gates to Other Worlds. The last phase of each turn is the Mythos phase. During this phase gates open, monsters spawn and move, and additional clues and effects happen.

Each turn a gate will open at one of the dangerous locations on the map unless an elder sign token is on the location drawn, or a gate already exists there. If there's already a gate there, monsters pour out of the gates already on the board.

Here's a list of bad things that will awaken the Ancient One and force a difficult final battle:

Too many gates open on the board (8 for single player).
The Terror Track is filled (starts at 0 and advances every time there is an overflow of monsters).
The Ancient One's Doom track is filled (each time a gate opens a doom token is added)
There's more but I'm forgetting some. . .

To seal a gate requires 5 clue tokens, a successful check against the gate, and requires that the investigator has explored the other world to which the gate leads. It takes at least 3, sometimes 4-5 turns to seal one. A single-player experience seems to require the player to aggressively seal 2-3 gates ASAP to keep the ancient one from awakening due to the amount of gates on the board.

Mike did okay sealing his first two, but by then a Rumor Mythos card had popped up. Rumors are bad effects which linger until a specific condition is met. In this case the Rumor had a 33% chance to increase the Terror level. Mike had to get two gate trophies (seal gates for trophies) to stop the rumor. He did manage it, but by then the Terror track was almost full, and he'd been Cursed as well. Being Cursed is all kinds of bad.



So Shub-Niggurath woke up and ate Mike.

The Rumor card really did him in. It was fun, but difficult.




I played another game as Bob Jenkins, the salesman. Bob's special ability gives him extra items. He also starts with a number of items. I happened to draw two Elder Sign unique items (two of the same unique item?) which I thought was pretty awesome. Bob managed to seal two gates right quick and had saved up enough clues to do a third. He'd also managed to get a Tommy Gun during character creation, so he was tough.

However, a number of difficult monsters have Physical Resistance or Immunity, which makes fighting them without spells terribly rough. A Rumor popped up that put a pile of monsters into Miskatonic University, and if the pile ever grew to 8 (it gains one per turn) the terror track would max out and the final battle would begin.

Thing was, the Ancient One against Bob was Azathoth, and there is no final battle with Azathoth. He (it?) just destroys the world.

Bob spent several turns trying to prune the monsters at Miskatonic U while creatures and gates continued to spawn (because the game doesn't stop while you're dealing with a Rumor). Eventually the list of monsters at the University was just filled with ghosts and spectral beasts who didn't give a shit about Bob's machine gun. The number grew to 8 after a fire vampire knocked out Bob's last stamina and he wound up in the hospital. Azathoth destroyed the world.

So that was cool.

Overall, it's a fun game, but it has some trouble at the single player level. Perhaps since it's co-op, I will try it again and control 2 or more investigators at a time. I'm sure this will change the game in a number of ways, but hopefully it's a bit less challenging.

Perhaps it's meant to be super-challenging? The Lovecraftian mythos doesn't have a lot of rays of hope going for it. Maybe the difficult choices in the game are meant to represent the inevitable decline of humankind as Elder Gods and Things From Beyond encroach on our world.

Flavor-wise, it certainly gets an A. Gameplay-wise, it felt a bit like a gate-sealing grind, with so many additional complications that it felt impossible to win. I know that solitaire games tend to be brutally difficult, but Arkham Horror is the toughest I've played.I'd give it an overall grade-point (on the community-college 4.0-0.0 scale) of 3.0.

There's a stripped-down version of the game available, called Elder Sign. There's also an iPhone game just released called Elder Sign:Omens. I picked it up, and I'll talk about that soon.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

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