Challenge Mode discussion

So, now that the new villain Challenge Modes have been out for a while, has anyone had any success stories or fun encounters they would like to share? Or just general discussion of them? How do people like them? Are they fun? Too hard? Not hard enough?

Personally, I think they’re a great way of injecting some extra difficulty into scenarios that may otherwise become stale or too easy, and they’re a fun challenge for an advanced player like myself.

What do you think?

I totally agree though the Akash Butha challenge was a long and painful three hour game and that wasn't even on advanced. I been having the idea of running random pbf games in challenge mode for a while but I don't know if there would be interest.

Ambuscade's Challenge is brutal, we lost on the 3rd or 4th round. He could potentially get a string of traps at the start and wipe the party.

We've tried Ambuscade and GloomSpite/ZombGloom.  Ambuscade absolutely wrecked us.  His lack of ongoing and equipment destruction is no longer an issue when he's cycling through his deck faster than Tachyon.  By the end of that fight we had dealt 5 damage to him and he had almost every device out.  We kept trying to destroy his devices to slow his damage but he has several cards that shuffle his trash into his deck.  Combine that with almost all his one shots letting him play an additional card and then getting more cards everytime a trap is revealed on top of the deck (i.e. every freaking villan turn)...it was too much.  His damage output wasn't Iron Legacy levels but it was close.

The Gloomies were tough.  GloomSpite is a pain and hurt us pretty badly.  By the time we beat him, we were pretty close to dead.  We got Gloomweaver to flip to his Rotten God side but the massive AoEs finished us all off.  Although in retrospect I think we did not handl GloomSpite all that well.  It was only the second or third time we've fought him.

We've tried a few, but the one I remember most clearly is Cosmic Omnitron.

Wow.

He started with all components in play (ouch) doing a shedton of damage before Cosmitron even played a card, and we were dead in about turn 3. We just couldn't stop him doing about a million damage each turn, it was insane.

It would probably be more reasonable to ignore the Hx2 thing for his setup, but use it all the rest of the time.

So far the only ones I've attempted but not beaten on advanced challenge mode are The Dreamer and Ambuscade. Blade was a chump with a well-timed Brain Burn, the Ennead was surprisingly fragile vs. Ra, and Apostate never got a single demon, so he might as well have not even been in challenge mode.

Kismet never even got to burn us, because we were so quick about it, and a game we played against the Matriarch -- which we never DECLARED to be advanced challenge mode, but retroactively it basically ended up that way -- saw a total of 2 birds, a Muninn we never destroyed, and a Carrion Fields (that we did destroy, but wouldn't have mattered anyway because 2 birds) hit the table.

Let's see if I can recount how the challenges went with my group.

Baron Blade-Surprisingly hard. Just have to beat him down very quickly.

Voss-Not too bad.

Omnitron-Not bad either. The components were blasted fairly quickly anyway.

Apostate-We got lucky here. He only played one demon, I think.

The Matriarch-This was tricky, since everyone was vulnerable. We had to play a ton of damage cancelling cards.

Kismet-This was ridiculous. I think we played in the Block. Not sure if we won that game, but that's the WORST place to fight her, as we discovered. Inconceivalbe Obstruction ALWAYS goes off. We started with that and Lady Luck. Ouch.

The Dreamer-This was no harder than the regular game. All we had to do was constantly redirect environmental damage to us, and make sure there was no AoE from heroes.

Ambuscade-God, this was difficult. The thinner his deck gets, the more dangerous he becomes.

GloomSpite-We squashed them with an OP team, just to see if even that was enough. We might try this again with a more fun matchup. I think it's always justified the first time around, just to know what to expect with challenging villian games. Our team was Team Leader Tachyon, Legacy, Tempest, Scholar, and PW Haka. I think the lowest HP was Tachyon with 9.

I personally think switching Omnitron and Cosmitron's challenges works better.

That way with 5 heroes you can survive the first round.

I'll join the chorus getting my ass handed to me by challenge Ambuscade.

Challenge Kismet was defintely tougher, but still manageable. It may be my default setting for her now.

Challenge Regular Gloomweaver ended up not being a challenge because he didn't draw a relic until very late in the game. Need to give him another shot.

Yeah, I'm going to agree that switching the Omnitrons around would probably be better... in fact, I may just do that...

In challenge mode cosmitron, are the automaton drones mini epes?

No, because EPE's trigger at the start of the round, not the end.

I've only fought Cosmitron so far; my strategy basically consisted of flipping it asap and then making sure it was never able to deal damage again. (It worked :D)

So what I’m hearing is they are more dangerous

Yes, yes they are.

Apparently my group was quite lucky against Challenge Mode Ambuscade. He only had one turn at the end where he got to play a ton of cards at once. The trouble for us was the cloaking device. It came out at the modt insane times. It was timed almost perfectly to when he had no devices out he would immediately get Vanish, then a trap then a device. By the time he was finally vulnerable we had lost Fanatic.

If Tempest hadn't had Into the Stratosphere in his hand to knock his shield away so that we could finish him off (Ra and Tempest) in that last turn we would both be wiped out next turn. He had his explosive launcher back on the field ready to wipe us out, both at 3 hp, yikes, I think he had like 9 hp at the end.

Man, challenge Akash is a grind. We played random heroes against her (non-advanced) in the Time Cataclysm, and ended up with the Adept, G.I. Bunker, DarkW Expatriette, and Wraith. Essentially, we ignored her brambles (they contented themselves with the Adept) and carapaces (Panzerbuster = lifesaver) and slowly, slowly chipped away with shotgun blasts and batarangs. That game gave me a new appreciation for the chains that Akash can put together--at least twice, she brought out four or more Primeval Limbs in one turn. The battering from the rockalanches and tree-fingers was brutal, as were the surprise Entombs the environment deck pulled out for her.

Argent Adept got buried pretty early on, but his incap ability to boost all hero damage of one type was great because of all the projectiles everyone else was flinging around. Expat went down hard, but Heavy Plating, Smoke Bombs, and Stealth kept the other two hanging on by the skin of their teeth. At the beginning of the last round, Akash had 3 HP, Bunker had 2, and Wraith had 1. She pulled an Entomb, and Wraith finished her off with some Razor Ordinance.

I love regular Akash; she's a nice straight-forward smash-fest that I like to use for new players. Challenge Akash, even with the high consistent damage of Bunker, Expat, and Wraith, was like actually fighting a mountain. Still, quite a thrill at the end.

So, not to necro the thread (although it’s mine, so I will if I want!) But I would like to update, saying that I have officially beaten every villain on advanced challenge mode. I have a list of the hero teams and environments that I used for each fight, if anyone is interested.

Probably my most interesting was Wager Master, who lost during setup. He played New Deal (any hero with an even number of HP hits themselves for 3), a Wageling, and Losing to the Odds in that order, so we won before h the end of his first turn.

I'd be curious to see the list of matchups used for advanced challenge mode.    Do you list the environment used as well?

My group has done a few. La Capitan's is fun, and a nice way to escalate her, without the headache that is her advanced. Apostate's was fun as well. He was pretty intense on Advanced + Challlenge. A welcome change.

We did Gloom+Spite, our team was savage post build up. With everything we had in play when the swap occured, we just pummeled poor Gloomy to death post haste.

We tried Ambuscade 3 times before the absurd chains left too many bruises to go back.

edit: Oh! And Ennead, man, that is a fun fight. We haven't tried Advanced and Challenge yet but woo! It is a circus, even on normal+challenge. So many things happen. Ra has a really, really rough game here. >.> <.<

Yeah, but it is awesome when he starts punching.

The Ennead was my first A/C game, and Ra obliterated. The trick is to take out Set and Atum first. The extra, guaranteed card plays aren’t as brutal as they are normally, since they all only activate once per turn, but taking out Set and getting the extra hero card plays is crucial.

This reminded me. Will the digital sentinels ever have a challenge mode as well as advanced rules? Because that would be really cool

I currently believe that’s that plan
That the mode will be added when they can
But the expansions come first
And their schedule’s filled up to burst
Busy, every last woman and man

Is that any different from non-challenge mode advanced/normal?

I know some people prefer not to take out set first when not doing a challenge mode game just because they don’t like the mandatory extra villain play, even though the heroes benefit more than the villains.

Some people just hate fun I guess.

Do the heroes benefit more as you say?

I'm not sure it's always that way

The Ennead get a whole extra turn

While the heroes must learn

How to deal when they only can play.

And plays aren't just positive, anyway.
Just ask a Style or Tool, or End of Days.

Corner cases.

And yes, it is different from non-challenge mode, in that it is practically mandatory, as opposed to one of many valid options normally.

The thing is, Set WILL play an extra card and deal damage every turn on challenge mode. Killing him doesn’t stop the play, but it does stop the damage and gives the heroes a play, too.

I’ll get my list here in a second, now that I have time.

Ok, here we go. In the order of the sheet, not the order of victory. Most of these were done on the first try; only Ambuscade, Gloom Spite/Gloomweaver, Miss Information, Mad Bomber Blade, and Progeny took multiple attempts.

A recurring theme for me was using Parse to prevent "that one card," Crono-Ranger for massive damage output, and making sure to have some sort of tank and/or damage prevention handy, like Tachyon, Wraith, or the Scholar. Then I picked other heroes to fit the situation.

Baron Blade (Decoy Impulsion Beam): Legacy, Chrono-Ranger, Visionary, Parse (environment not recorded. Probably Dok'Thorath.) Really easy fight, tbh; all I had to do was a Brain Burn right when he flipped, then tore him apart with Chrono.

Citizen Dawn (Solar Retribution): Omnitron-X, The Scholar, Team Leader Tachyon, Chrono-Ranger, Parse @ Silver Gulch. The Scholar Tanking and Parse preventing Rainbow Death were key here.

Grand Warlord Voss (Hostile Takeover): Legacy, Parse, Sky-Scraper, Chrono-Ranger @ Dok'Thorath. Legacy and Sky-Scraper dealt with crowd control and damage prevention, Parse kept a watch for the flagship/dreadnought, and Chrono focused down Voss.

Omnitron (Redundant Systems): Parse, Best of Times Chrono-Ranger, Rook City Wraith, Adamant Sentinels, Infinite Scholar @ Final Wasteland. The plan was to Unforgiving Wasteland the bots, but we never actually got to execute it. I did have some fun with Best of Times shenanigans, though.

The Chairman (Checmical Immortality): Sky-Scraper, Prime Wardens Haka, Parse, Omnitron-X @ Final Wasteland. See Omnitron for plan, and success thereof. Omnitron-X was a pretty good tank, allowing Haka to stuff all of the minions in his pants. We took out the Operative first, and then the Chairman. Also, this is the fight that Compulsion canister was MADE for.

The Matriarch (Carrion Wasteland): Prime Wardens Argent Adept, Sky-Scraper, The Sentinels @ Enclave of the Endlings. This was the worst Matriarch fight ever. We got 2 birds, total. TOTAL. Got some Carrion Fields, Muninn, and quite a few Darken the Skies and Horrid Cacophonies, but by the time she actually started playing birds, it was far too late.

Plague Rat (Noxious Stench): Guise, Argent Adept, Super-Scientific Tachyon, The Wraith @ The Realm of Discord. I don't honestly remember this one too well, except that there were probably lots of Hypersonic Assaults and Throat Jabs involved.

Spite (Strung-Out Maniac): Adamant Sentinels, Chrono-Ranger, Rook City Wraith, Desperate Naturalist @ Time Cataclysm. Human Shield + double Stun Bolts + Neurotoxin Dart Thrower + TK Thump. Do the math.

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