I ordered the game receintly and im trying to get a better understanding of the game and trying to make it the most fun for my self and my wife does anyone have any suggestions on what to do for the most enjoyable experience with this game.
I need to sell her quick or she will just want to play a new game.
Welcome to the forums! I can’t wait to hear the responses!
For your first game with her, I recommend giving new players a choice between Ra, Haka, Tempest, the Wraith, or Tachyon. Give short bios for each (e.g. "Wraith is Batman, Tachyon is the Flash, Tempest is an alien who controls thunderstorms, Haka is a Maori who smashes things, and Ra kills things with fire"), and go into more detail as players show their interest. Choose either Baron Blade or Omnitron as the villain. I recommend starting in Insula Primalis. That said, I've found that it's fairly safe to let the new players choose the environment - nine times out of ten they will choose the environment described as "Dinosaurs!" on their own. Definitely avoid Megaopolis (too many cards that say "players can't" on them).
Try and choose your hero(s) based on what characters/mechanics you think that your wife might find interesting (e.g. if she likes complicated puzzles play AZ. If she likes support and tanking, play Legacy)
Be careful not to play the game for her - give advice about the things she wouldn't be aware of (Lightspeed Barrage, Haka of Battle, etc) and comment if she makes any drastic mistakes, but otherwise avoid providing unsolicited help (if she asks, then feel free of course). Let her handle her own health.
That’s funny; most of the time the people I teach want Atlantis. But that’s also fine, when the krakens have mobile defense platforms to bat around.
My fiancee and I regularly play two heroes each, everything open-handed. We have a great time all around!
I agree with everything Arcanist said. Though I would also consider Legacy a viable option for new players. He's fairly simple to play, as long as you don't mind taking a support and tanking role. I'm assuming the only heroes you have are the ones in the base game.
If one or both of you are sticklers for the rules (like I am), I'd recommend having a way to settle rules disputes. Some of the cards are ambiguously worded and in the groups I've played with arguments over the rules have gotten to be a drag. Here's a list of official rules clarifications if you want to use those: http://www.spiffworld.com/sotm/files/sotm_rules_and_clarifications.pdf
This will also be my first game.
What about playing more then one character or starting with characters already knocked out but you get their effects. It's three Heroes minimum right?
Three hero minimum, five hero maximum.
In two player games, one or both players play two heroes.
I suggest playing Baron Blade in Insula Primalis and put two of his 3 Mobile Defense Platforms on the bottom of his deck. Then, put one Velociraptor and one Obsidian Fields on the top of the Insual Primalis deck. This gives a quick boost to DPS, showcases a bit of Dinsoaurs! and prevents Baron Blade from going full-defense with his MDPs (Mobile Defense Platforms).
If you choose your heroes from Wraith, Ra, Haka, K.N.Y.F.E., Legacy, and Tempest, you have close to the demo setup we use for cons. High damage-dealers with not too bad of buildup time (except Legacy, who is the one the demoer usually plays to support the damage dealers). The games tend to be fast and not too complicated.
It's possible to play and even win sometimes with just two heroes. The official achievement list even has an achievement for it. It's just more difficult, and probably not recommended for new players, unless you don't mind losing a few times before you figure it out. Also, if you do this, I'd recommend steering clear of Insula Primalis and the Ruins of Atlantis.
I think that it's partially the way I introduce them.
"Megaopolis, which is Metropolis (from Superman)
Wagner Mars Base, which is… a Mars base,
Ruins of Atlantis, which is under the sea, and
Insula Primalis, which is dinosaurs."
When pitched like that, it encourages the players to pick "dinosaurs". But Ruins of Atlantis would be my second choice. In some ways it's actually better because it can add a little bit more difficulty to an easy villain (which they need if you have 5 players), and I think there's a bit more variety in effects.
Legacy's not a bad choice - I almost included him as well. But he's often a bit more passive, which can make him a bit less fun depending on the personality and play style of the player playing him. Exercise your judgement when deciding whether or not to include him.
If you have Young Legacy (and you can find printable versions of the cards online) then I'd definately include her (which would require included regular Legacy as well), as adding her atomic glare makes her active enough to appeal to a broader set of play styles.
Actually, given all the demos we've run over the years, Insula Primalis turns out to be the best of the EE environments. It doesn't shut down the heroes, it has critters that can sometimes help, and the Obsidian Fields are all kinds of awesome for a basic, first game.
I think that CharType was referring to two-hero games specifically. Which I can neither confirm not deny, having zero experience with two-hero games.
No, I was talking about games in general. I've played games in it before and it's been brutal.
I'm surprised that you find it the easiest EE environment. It's rated a difficulty 3 on the wiki whereas Megalopalis and the WMB are rated 2, and looking at the deck, I would think it would be worse. You're right that it doesn't shut down the heroes the way some Megalopolis cards do, but I would think that it's high damage to the heroes unless you take penalties (e.g. Primordial Plant Life, River of Lava) would be worse. As far as cards that can sometimes help, I'd say it actually comes out behind the other two environments. Plummeting Monorail, Oxygen Leak, etc.
I think IP would be even worse in a 2-player game though. Lots of threats that need to be dealt with fast or they'll hurt you a lot, and few resources with which to deal with them with. An Enraged T-Rex could start bringing the hurt pretty quickly.
Megaopolis is up there with Rook City in terms of difficulty a lot of times. I've had better luck with Ruins of Atlantis and Insula Primalis from the base set then Wagner Mars Base or Megaopolis.
Insula Primalis can be brutal, but Megaopolis is more frustrating for a new player, I think.
The big reasoning behind the conventional wisdom of "don't use Megalopolis for a first game" is that players are still learning what they CAN do. Megalopolis has cards (like Hostage Situation, Traffic Pileup, and Papparazzi on the Scene) that specifically PREVENT players from doing things that are otherwise a normal part of their turn. It interferes with the learning dynamic.
I'm going to third the suggestion of using Baron Blade as your introductory villain. He's the most straightforward villain in that he only flips once per game, introduces the flip mechanic, and introduces the nemesis mechanic if Legacy is also in the game.
For a 2-player game of rookies against Baron Blade, I'd suggest the following:
Baron Blade
Player 1: Play Legacy
Player 2: Play one hero (pick from Ra, Wraith, Haka, Tempest, Bunker. KNYFE is also good if you have her, but I'm assuming you don't)
Player 1: Play one hero (pick from same list as above)
Insula Primalis
If one of you focuses on running Baron Blade & one of you focuses on running Insula Primalis, that spreads the work out pretty evenly.
Dont play Megaopolis as your first game. This is sound advice.
So if me and my wife like this game what expansions should I look to get in what order?
That will depend on what you want to get from your expansions.
The Rook City/Infernal Relics combined box probably has what are overall the hardest villains in the game in the form of the Chairman, the Ennead on advanced mode, and the Matriarch. Progeny from the Wrath of the Cosmos expansion is probably up there, but I haven't had the chance to play against it. The two heroes from Infernal Relics are also the most complicated heroes out to date. However, I love, love, love the environments from Infernal Relics.
Shattered Timelines has my favorite hero so far (Omnitron-X), along with what I consider to be an interesting environment in the form of the Block. There's a lot of love for Chrono-Ranger in the fan community, but I have yet to grok him.
Vengeance should wait, although it has another really good introductory hero in the form of KNYFE. (Sorry, Christopher, but I refuse to type out the periods.)
I own but haven't been able to play much with Wrath of the Cosmos.
All of them right away. Or, if you're looking for particular difficulties (easy enemies, medium enemies, hard enemies) we might be able to recommend particular expansions. Or if you want particular heroes...
A description of what you'd like would help, is what we're all saying.
Oh, and welcome to the Multiverse. ;)
Bang for my buck and completeness of the game there are quite a few games out there that need certain expansions to feel like a complete game.
As well which ones do you get the most for your money, in terms of more playability.
I would say buying the combined Rook City/Infernal Relics would give you the most bang for the buck. If you are buying everything straight from GtG website I would recommend buying multiple things in one order instead of buying one at a time since that saves you money on shipping.
Hey there, welcome to the forum :).
For a first game, I shall join all those who said to fight Baron Blade in Insula Primalis, with Legacy and any of Ra, Wraith, Tempest, and the other straightforward heroes who were mentioned :).
In terms of which expansion to get, they all have replayability - every deck does, I would say. That's how come we've all been playing it for so long…well, that plus it's co-operativeness. I'm not even particularly intereted in superheroes :D.
Rook City is probably the hardest in terms of villains and environments. All the villains are varying types of brutal (though one or two can become relative pushovers if you bring certain heroes against them). Of the two environments, one is generally considered the harshest upon the heroes out of all environments in the game, while the other has some annoyances and can be painful but on the whole I would say isn't nearly as bad (especially if you have environment destruction). The heroes are a martial artist mechanic guy and a woman who uses many many guns.
Infernal Relics is my favourite out of all the expansions, possibly because of the magic theme but also partially because the decks are just cool anyway. The villains are generally not too bad (although the Ennead, a group of nine Egyptian-gods-who-used-to-be-archaeologists, like Ra, are reportedly one of the most difficult fights in the game if you play them on Advanced). The environments are similarly so and I find quite interesting. The two heroes are rather toward the more complicated side of things, one in particular but he also happens to be my favourite in the game - he's kind of like a DnD (or EQ) Bard, using music and song to support his teammates and let them do All of the Things. The other hero is an occultist investigator who investigated a bit too much occult and is partly made of mist - she summons relics and casts spells and involves a lot of self-harm and self-healing to do a wide variety of stuff.
Shattered Timelines is probably my second-favourite expansion. The villains tend to vary between not-too-bad and omg-that-was-a-massacre depending on card luck, and one in particular is probably about hte toughest in the game. Certainly games against hium are unlikely to last longer than about fifteen minutes, whether you win or not (and generally speaking, you probably won't because he really hurts). The environments aren't too bad. The heroes are two that I really enjoy playing - a time-travelling cowboy sheriff guy who, once he gets set up with a few cards (which he can do within a couple of turns if he gets luck yon the draw) is epic at focusing down single targets, even without external damage buffs. The other is a diferent kind of time-traveller, a future version of Omnitron who installed an empathy drive into himself to try and understand how the various heroes help each other in order to keep defeating him (so he can in turn defeat them) and promptly realised "oh crap, I've murdered so many innocent people…this must never happen", then time-travelled back to try and destroy the first incarnation of himself. Anyway, his cards are basically heroic (and therefore somewhat toned-down) versions of the villain Omnitron's cards, and I find him pretty versatile and pretty good fun :).
What's next…oh yeah, Vengeance…that one changes things up a bit in terms of villains. Instead of getting four individual new villain decks, there are five…but they're all a team. Fed up of getting his arsed repeatedly kicked by the Freedom Five (and others), Baron Blade has put together his own team, the Vengeance Five, to try and get…well, vengeance ;). Each of the five is nemesis to one of the Freedom Five and has other nemeses (to other heroes) within their decks. You don't necessarily fight all five of these guys at once, though - when you set up a game, you fight H of them. So you'll only fight against all five decks if you have five heroes present. Then play alternates between villains and heroes (and the environment on the end, as usual). The heroes in this expansion are a good mix, I think. My probably-second-or-third favourite is in this deck, a guy who can shapeshift into any of three different African animals which provide him with different effects. There's also an archer, a Scottish lady who stabs things with energy blades, a team of four heroes (who have 11-14hp each and have one of their number capable of rezzing the others if they go down, but if they all go down then they're officially Incapped), and a guy whose power seems to be bad luck…as in, literally, he has really bad luck and it ends up in various people (usually himself or the bad guys) getting hurt :D.
Then there's the most recent expansion, Wrath of the Cosmos, which has some really difficult villains, one of which is pretty interesting in that the set-up is that you're in a giant arena thingy and you can earn Titles for doing certain things, and you don't win by defeating the villain but by earning Favour Points for basically beating up enough bad guys that the audience decides you're the best :D. I haven't had as much time to play Sentinels this last few months as I have previously so I haven't played this expansion so much. The heroes are pretty cool - one can change her size and has three character cards to show that (you switch between them as you change size). The other summons up energy construct things and plays them on his allies to give them a variety of bonuses and extra abilities and stuff :).
Upcoming in a few months or so is Villains of the Multiverse, which contains no new heroes but has a bunch of new villains who have the same grouping mechanic as the Vengeance ones (and can be mixed and matched with them). These ones aren't part of a team like the Vengeance Five, they're all separate in terms of story.
If you end up liking the game, you'll probably end up getting all of this stuff anyway :D.
Don't forget the mini-expansions:
Heroes:
Unity - A technopath that makes golems out of metal to beat things up.
Scholar - A laid back guy who can change himself into different elements with the Philosopher's Stone.
Villains:
Ambuscade - An actor who's career ended when he was scarred. So he became a hunter of heroes.
Miss Information - The Freedom V's secretary from an alternate timeline. Blames them for her death in yet another timeline?
Wager Master - A villain made of all the possibilities that didn't happen (I think). He's...odd.
Environments:
Silver Gulch 1883 - The Old West.
The Final Wasteland - One possible end of the world scenario
Omnitron-IV - The 4th incarnation of Omnitron - Now an environment!
For shame Donner, you forgot the best hero in the mini expansions Guise!
Oops! I did!
Guise - Think Deadpool/Ambush Bug. If you don't know who they are, imagine a hero who knows they're in a comic book and who does crazy things like a cartoon character might.
Guise: a fourth-wall breaking shape-changer who is more interested in showboating and goofing around than being a useful teammate.
That's it exactly! And I guess that means it comes across in the cards very well, too. :D
He is most certainly a useful teammate. I agree with the rest though.
Just because he is doesn't mean it's his focus.
I'll concede to that. A lot of fun to play as.
Fixed that for ya!
By the way, jvirtue, I’d definitely get the Rook City/Infernal Relics pack first. It will add a huge amount of variety to your stable of heroes and villains.
After that, it depends on your preferences. Personally, I’d get Wrath of the Cosmos next, then Shattered Timelines. Then get Vengeance for the heroes and environments. Definitely pick up Silver Gulch at some point because it’s super fun.
I don't play air guitar which means I get to keep that equipment card for the rest of the game 
You don't really get to keep the equipment card for the rest of the game. The game will not continue until you play the Air Guitar.
So here is newb question I'm playing a game just by my self with three Heroes vs baron blade.
grappling hook works vs all cards in the environment deck or just the non creatures?
All the cards in the environment deck. If a card only works on creatures it would say "environment target" not "environment card"
To work on non-creatures it would have to say "destroy a non-target environment card"
Yes, they can be used to one-shot T-rexes and Anubis.
All cards in the environment deck are environment cards (same with hero cards in hero decks and villain cards in villain decks). A target is anything with hp. Some environment cards are targets because they have hp. Anything that affects an environment card will affect any card in that deck. Anything that specifies an environment target can only work on stuff that has hp. The same applies to hero and villain decks, with the slight addition that the main hero and villain cards (the ones with their name and hp total and stuff) are character cards, which are still targets, they're just special ones - you can recognise character cards as they have a different card back to the others in their deck. Some things can't affect character cards, while some things can only affect character cards.
Man I have been playing the game slow as I have time around the house, you need to get things online fast cause things come quickly I think most characters have already taken over 10 damage from the cards played or inplay and Blade has taken nothing.
Im using Tempest, Wraith and Legacy
I'd suggest getting Wraith's Infrared Eyepiece out ASAP -- it'll keep Blade from playing the really nasty cards like Devious Disruption, The Price of Victory or Hasten Doom. It also helps you with card draw in getting the rest of her stuff out quickly. One of the nice things about Wraith is she can do control and damage if you get utility belt out, so do so as soon as you can.
You'll soon learn that Infrared Eyepiece is the second best card Wraith has (the first being Impromptu Invention). Deciding what card the villain plays next (and which cards he won't play for a long, long time) is often worth more than even hugely damaging powers.
For Tempest, it depends more on what you have in your hand. The good thing is, he can damage everything, so he should be good at keeping the minions and such in check, especially if you can get something like Grievous Hail Storm or Localized Hurricane out -- with Legacy's buff(s), they'll do some serious damage. He's also good for healing if you can get Cleansing Downpour out.
Between Tempest and Wraith, you should have environment and ongoing destruction more or less covered, as they both have a few cards for it.
Legacy should focus on buffing and supporting the others. Drawing cards, boosting damage, stopping the villain from playing cards or buying a round of invincibility will do wonders against Baron Blade, especially on those rounds when Infrared Eyepiece reveals two really bad cards. Alternately, you can focus him on tanking -- Lead from the Front, Superhuman Durability, Fortitude and Next Evolution are amazing for that kind of thing.
There’s often a slow buildup…at some point, usually there is a big swing to the heroes’ favor after they hit a critical mass of available capabilities.
That doesn’t always mean having a ton of ongoing cards out, though. For example, in Tachyon’s case it means having a big trash.
Eyepiece becomes a much more valuable card the more you know what to expect from the villain. I've notied that when introducing to first time players to the game deck control is rarely used because they don't know what they want to avoid yet (unless you tell them but getting hit with the unexpected is part of the fun), it gets used more as they get more experience with the game.
For the original post, how experienced is your wife with games? You mentioned she would want to move onto something else, does that mean you guys play lots?
If so I've found that using the easier heroes can be a drawback, as some of them have an obvious best thing to do and can feel like they are on autopilot. While some of the more complex heroes have so much they could do it becomes overwhelming for a new player, I try to start most people familiar with games off on a Level 2 complexity character and I play Legacy (for the damage boost mostly). For users unsure about the game like my wife I went with a level 1 (Wraith).
Yeah Ive been trying to play the game on my own to get a feel for it, and so far seems like im getting my ass handed to me and the game doesnt seem as fun as I thought it would be but maybe when im playing with my wife it might improve
I'd say the first few times against a villain or using a new hero can be rough as you don't have a good strategy down yet. Once you are more familiar with cards in a given deck it helps a lot. Playing with another person also helps to keep track of what's going on.
This is actually a time where I can heartily endorse Sentinels Digital (whether for tablet or Steam). It helps tremendously with seeing how things interact, and can play much more quickly than getting all the decks out.
That said, for now my recommendation is to pick a scenario and stick with it until you can beat it fairly comfortably - especially if it's one of the Baron Blade/simpler heroes/environment scenarios suggested above. That'll give you some time to get used to how the different heroes work.
I really dont want to spend an extra 10 bucks on an app to track things
While there is an App to track things (Sentinel Sidekick), Sentinels Digital is the full game (up until the Infernal Relics expansion).
I didnt know there were two seperate aps Ill have to look into it.
It should be noted the base app only includes everything in the Enhanced Edition set. Any of the expansions or mini packs have to be paid for separately. Though they have a season pass which saves you some money once they have what's in that pass released.
Playing with more people does help, especially when you are new to the game. Keep things simple, and it will start to click. There is a lot of good advice in this thread to listen to.
Also, you can find people playing the digital version on YouTube. Look for Handelabra Games. Watching some of the play might help things click, too.
Out of curiosity, when you’re playing on your own, how many heroes are you playing with?
The basic three
Tempest
Legacy
Wraith
Ah, the Cleansing Downpour team.
Tempest + Legacy is a really good combo. I have had games where tempest was hitting everything for 4 damage from electrical storm, and then an additional 5 from grevious hail storm. With that combined with genebound shackles, Tempest becomes insane
Yeah Tempest gets the crap knocked out of himself early and its hard to recover. Ill try more tonight
Ra is another good one to pair with Legacy, even more so if you're in Insula Primalis. If you have Flesh of the Sun God out and the Volcano shows up, you can (most of the time) just laugh evilly to yourself and await an easy win >:). Otherwise there are just All of the Damage Buffs and something like Drawn to the Flame can utterly wreck everything even if there are no villain ongoing cards out (because zero plus X equals X).
I know I am kind of late to this, but hey:
jvirtue, I just got into this game a few months ago - I purchased the digital game to see how I'd like it and then bought the entire physical game. While the digital game is good and I like it (but haven't played it much lately), I like many of the additional options in the card game. What I found when playing the card game was that it was stressful to keep track of everything by myself and while I had fun, I had approximately 10x as much fun when I finally played the game with other players (which is why I haven't played a lot of the digital game much - it didn't have multiplayer until the multiplayer beta started yesterday). A lot of the issues that come up playing alone are resolved by having multiple players, simply because 2-5 brains are better than one. :)
A lot of the fun also comes from variety - exploring the different hero, villain, and environment decks.
Anyway, I don't regret a single dime I've spent on this game. It's definitely become one of my favorites.
Well, there are a few villians that just work better on the physical than the digital. The Matriarch comes to mind with all the choosing and options you need to make
Yeah, it's easier on the physical game to just go, "Okay, Heroic Interception is out, and none of these guys are targetting Legacy, so we can skip this bit" than having to sit through each instance of
Bird 1 does 1 damage
Who does he attack first?
Bird 1 attacks -- Wraith is Immune
Bird 1 attacks -- AZ is immune
Bird 1 attacks -- Unity is immune
Repeat up to Bird 17.
I had a game against her that had both carrrion fields, stealth bot, and twist the ether on her. When she got a darken the sky, I used expatriettes hairtrigger reflexes, and finishing that took forever, because every time a bird died, redirect all one damage to stealth bot, then twst the either to reduce it by one, then redirect it to stealth bot, then do that for every other of the 15 birds out
Unfortunately I don't know how you easily resolve it since there are cases you might want to damage a hero instead of redirecting damage. I know it's on their to review further but it may be a while.
This is all true but I think overall the video game tends to be better for solo play than the tabletop game because it doesn't lose track of stuff, at least not when it's working properly.
But yeah there are definitely situations where the tabletop game is much less tedious.
Digital version has a definit advantage in regards to keeping track of the math, it just can get tedious when it comes to all the choices. Perhaps adding a few options when certain powers are activated? Like when Legacy activates Next Evolution to absorb *example* attacks while Lead from the front is out, you can check a small prompt box th have him absorb all damage of that type.
Though that could be a real tough thing to program, I'm sure. I know nothing of that kind of thing. :/
I don't think that the programming is the hard part of that sort of thing. The tricky part is finding the balance that provides maximum automation without reducing the player's ability to do finely control their actions when necessary.
And I believe that they do plan on improving these things, but at the moment it takes second fiddle to multiplayer and the next expansions.
Hmm…maybe have the prompt come in at the start of every round?
Yeah. I wouldn't expect them to impliment something like that any time soon. Still plenty of things to iron out when it comes to multiplayer.
It is hard to consider all possibilities when a player want or do not want that to happen. For example you may want Legacy to absorb all fire damage except the one directed to Absolute Zero (and in some turns you DO want to take it instead of AZ).