SotM Weekend - Villain Beatdown!

I am officially declaring this weekend, SotM Weekend! Our goal is to get 200 points by the end of the weekend. We get points equal to the difficulty of a villain by defeating them. SImply put you name in the column with the villain you defeated, and the spreadsheet will add everything up for you.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AidOKG-M_yQmdGlzdUU3ZGdIb3h1Z08yQlJBTkdwNWc&usp=sharing

We have until Sun, November 3rd, 11:59 PM CST. The clock is ticking!

NOTE: I used the offcial difficulties, if anybody think I should change them, just say so. Also, if anybody know the difficulty of the villains in advanced mode, I will add those too.

Choose any heroes in any environment, just beat up on thsoe villains. Please post you game experiences in this thread, while posting your name in the spreadsheet.

Do games from the forum count?

Also, difficulties definitely could use adjusting.  Though I'm a relative newbie with just under 50 games behind him, I suggest the following.

> * Ambuscade is probably a 1 unless on Advanced and possibly even then, since one side of his advanced text does nothing in about half of matches.  He spends so much time getting blank plays off of his Traps that it's quite uncommon for him to pose a serious danger.

* Gloomweaver is almost never deserving of a 3; again, his advanced text is frequently irrelevant on one side, and he often won't flip to the other side anyway, since he has an alternate win condition built in for those seeking to defeat him.

* Some particular matches should be adjusted based on how well the villain and environment synergize.  Offhand, the ones that I know are likely to be worth a +1 are Omnitron in the Ruins of Atlantis and Akash'Bhuta in the Final Wasteland.  Rook City is probably worth a +1 difficulty to nearly all villains (maybe a +2 in the case of the Chairman; all those extra villain card plays go especially far when you start out with ten cards in the trash).  I'm tempted to say the same of Time Cataclysm and Tomb of Anubis, but I haven't tested those as often so I'll assume I was just unlucky.

* Advanced status is usually worth a +1, but there are some villains where it's especially nasty.  I think advanced Kismet is quite possibly more difficult than regular Iron Legacy, for instance; she might be a "low 3" on regular and a "high 4" on Advanced, but I think it might be reasonable to bring her up to a 5.  Citizen Dawn is another really mean Advanced version; she stays indestructible on her flip side much longer, and you have to leave the Citizens alone the whole time you're waiting for her to flip back, which with bad luck can be a very long and painful wait.  I'd very likely put her advanced version on a par with those of the 4-diff villains, though her regular mode is definitely easier than theirs.

* It might, but I stress again only might, be appropriate to adjust difficulty up a point if you have only 3 heroes, and down a point if you have five.  There would again be exceptions for specific villains - if they have a lot of H effects, they're probably balanced in all cases.  Omnitron really suffers against 5 and has it easy with 3, for instance (his components-destroyed value isn't dependent on H, nor is the number of targets he attacks), but Miss Information is nicely self-balancing, with large numbers of relevant H values (from the damage she deals to the number of Clues needed to flip her).  The Dreamer is a relatively rare instance of a villain that actually seems to be harder with more players (since the time needed to end the game is directly a function of H), and a few others might function this way as well, such as if they mostly deal damage in instances of H-2 to the highest HP heroes, rendering it easier for a single player to "tank" for the entire party.

* Ideally a comprehensive difficulty adjustment should account for the strengths and weaknesses of particular heroes, but such advanced analysis is certainly beyond the scope of a short-term project.

Regardless of whether these adjustments are made, I will definitely be participating.  Probably only have time for H games in such a short timeframe, though.  (As usual, H is a number from 3 to 5.)

Sure, forum games, count.

When I actually first posted it, I had AMbuscade and Gloomweaver lower, but I decided to go with the official stuff, and ask what people wanted.

The same thing for advanced, since nothing was official, I didn't put anything up. If people have an idea (like yours), then I will gladly add it.

For the purposes of this weekend, I think it would be too difficult to keep track of villain-environment combinations and number of heroes. For the first event, just choose what you want where you want.

Also, we can add the promos if somebody has the numbers for them.

Well, I'm going "camping" for the weekend. If we get any games in (which is honestly not likely, but I'm going to try), I'll log and report when we get back on Sunday.

I think using the official difficulties is more, well, official, but it really doesn't matter too much to me.

I guess I'm your first assassin.  Took out Ambuscade on Advanced, which as I said before doesn't really improve his difficulty above a 2 even if most villains would get such a bonus.  I actually forgot the game was advanced for the first couple rounds, so I dealt him a bit more damage than I should have; I refunded him 3 HP and called it a day, but he never did any healing, and at the end of round 5 he was down to 5 HP and didn't Vanish on his next turn, so I figured I was justified in calling it.  (The highlight of the game was when Mr. Fixer was tied for highest-HP hero with Haka, and had to work out how to deal exactly enough damage to Ambuscade that he'd also be tied for the same HP value, so that a Rat Beast who attacks the "second-highest non-environment target" would be able to hit Ambuscade instead of a hero for 3 damage.  Charge would have dealt too much damage and Strike alone not enough, so he had to play Bloody Knuckles and get to the exact "sweet spot", resulting in at least as much damage to Ambuscade as if he'd attacked all-out, but protecting the hero team by putting himself at risk.  It was very Zen.)

I wasn't 100% sure how you wanted the data inputted - I guess it's just "enter the difficulty number (listed in row 3) in the 4th cell under the villain's name (which is actually row 5)"?  So I put a 2 under Ambuscade; if someone else beats him, they would replace it with a 4, and then a 6, and so on?

I actually have the spreadsheet count how many entries there are under each name, then multiply that by the difficulty rating. This way people can just post there name down the list.

Ah, okay.  Welp, tomorrow I'll see whether I can add Iron Legacy to the list with the aid of my "easy" Environment.  And more games will come, including a "themed" Halloween game on Friday using Nightmist and the Tomb of Anubis.

Question: the Episode 16 Kismet game started before you posted the OP, but is still ongoing.  If it finishes by the deadline, can we count it?  And if so, whose name would it be under?  Should we just put "Forum" since it was a team effort?

Sure, it can count, and Fourm would be fine for the name.

Well, I managed to win a brutal two-round fight against Iron Legacy - he started with two Galvanised cards, which is not what you want... Chrono-Ranger, Fanatic, Expatriette and Ra pulled it off though (all without ever dealing 5 or more damage in one hit...)

That is an impressively fast victory.  Probably close to a record.

I wonder if this event would get an official endorsement from GtG...

Consider it officially endorsed! Also, in my opinion, count all Advanced modes as giving DOUBLE POINTS!

The tiny Christopher in my head now talks like a monster truck rally commercial.

Also, I need to get on this.

Thanks Christopher!

Foote has the right idea. If you defeat a villain in Advance Mode, just put your name in twice.

Ambuscade on advanced is really the only way to face him. He goes from punching bag to legit villain encounter. There was like 4-5 face-up traps in the deck, 2 Reactive Platings at one point, and a Rocket Launcher that did not want to be destroyed. 

Whew!  I think I've done my contribution to the project:  in honor of the holiday, I played advanced games against each of the Infernal Relics villains and managed to win each.  The Ennead in Pike Industrial is *not* to be trifled with!  Eeep!

Advanced Ennead in any environment is not to be trifled with.

Not trying to argue with Christopher as such, but I definitely don't feel as if all, or even most, villains are twice as hard on Advanced.  +1 on average (+0 for some weak villains, +2 for some especially nasty ones) seems about right to me.  I steamrolled advanced Akash'bhuta the other day for instance; she's not really "harder" so much as just "interesting" that way.  La Capitan's Advanced text barely matters in a lot of games (she destroys extra Ongoings and Equipment at the start of the game, when few of these have been played yet…and then she redirects damage away from her but only after she runs out of stolen cards and then only once per round).  Ambuscade has been mentioned - him on Advanced is definitely not equal in difficulty to The Chairman on regular.  And Gloomweaver Advanced is literally no different pre-flip unless you have a melee or projectile hero (nevermind that Gloomweaver being a 3 is pushing it in the first place; he definitely isn't worth 6 when Ra, Nightmist and O-X beat him up).

Interestingly, while my game in that environment with that villain was admittedly not on Advanced, it proved to be fairly easy.  Legacy loves a Cyclohexane Vat, and things that damage all targets do a nice number on the Ennead, since they're not much tougher than heroes.

La Capitain destroys a card at the begining of every villain turn on advanced. Are you arguing that an effect that happens every round "barley matters"?

On her flip side, its the first instance of damage that would be dealt each round. So it happens the first time you try to deal her damage regardless of whether she has cards still under her or not. So you are misplaying that slightly. The wording of "first time" is what gives it priority each round over the effect that removes cards under her.

Also Envisioner, I highly recomend trying Ennead on Advanced. It is certainly one of the hardest Advanced mode fights avaliable in the game. 

That was exactly my contention.  On turn 1, you definitely don't have an O/E in play.  On subsequent turns, you probably avoid playing them so as not to get them destroyed, and in the process you utterly neuter Plunder, which is otherwise one of her nastier cards.  Or, if you do play O/Es, everyone puts one out, and only one is destroyed each round, speeding her toward flipping to her less dangerous side.  I would give her a +1 on Advanced, no more.

On her flip side, its the first instance of damage that would be dealt each round. So it happens the first time you try to deal her damage regardless of whether she has cards still under her or not.

That is the exact opposite of the last ruling I heard on the subject.  Her Advanced text is at the bottom of the card, so by RAW, it happens last, after the damage has been prevented by removing a card.  I think this is lame, and if it's been changed I'm glad of it.  But it's still only one attack per round - annoying if you have a powers-based heavy hitter like Haka in position 1, certainly, but otherwise fairly manageable.  (If it were the first damage every turn, as per her misprinted oversized card, that would be entirely a different story.  I would buy that version being worth at least 4 victory points, no question.)

Villains might not be twice as hard on advanced, but they are at least twice as awesome.

shrug - welp then, I guess mark me down as having contributed 4 points instead of 2 when I mopped the floor with Ambuscade.  I didn't find it especially awesome (actually I forgot it even was an advanced game at first), but who am I to quibble with the designers.

Maybe the OP could edit the spreadsheet to have an "advanced?" column next to each villain which doubles the value, so we wouldn't have to enter our names twice?

Christopher didn't say they're "twice as hard".  He said they're worth "double points."  That's not the same thing. 

And if you haven't played La Capitan on advanced yet, you're in for a real treat--be ready for a beating!

I got a beating the first time I faced her, and that was on regular.  I've since come to conclude that it wasn't Cappy herself that was hard there, so much as the Time Cataclysm where I was fighting her…that one seems to be second only to Rook City in how much difficulty it adds to a fight.  It particularly combines nastily with her deck, since it was giving her an extra villain card play each round when she already had three.  It was my first time with either of them, so I didn't know how hazardous the pairing was, and we had allowed it to happen in the hopes of getting extra cards.

Sincen it is double the points, the easiest way it to put down your name twice.

Yeah, Time Cataclysm can be rough. I ran two demo games there in Essen, and in one of them it was really awful. Fortunately, it was with a bunch of guys who really wanted a challenge, so it was perfect :)

Speaking of a challenge, my third game against Iron Legacy turned out not much better than my first two.  The first game was four heroes and we got completely destroyed, and the second was the turns-out-not-quite-legal Freedom Six battle, in which a dead Tempest almost completely ended IL with his "everybody's immune to one damage type" incap ability, but IL got a card that deals non-melee damage before the two surviving heroes had regained any of their demolished HP.

This time, I again had Tempest, along with Fanatic and the Scholar.  Fanatic died first, as she usually does in my games (6 out of 9 times I myself have played her, with 5 of them being game losses; she's really not my character), and then Tempest went down, at which point it again actually looked like he was going to single-handedly neutralize his killer - this time, it was by letting Scholar constantly re-loop his two copies of Expect the Worst, negating all incoming damage and healing 2 HP each turn.  Unlike in the previous games, this version of IL had not started on 2x Armored Fortitude, and so with a little better luck on the opening hands, the heroes might have been able to take him down in a couple rounds…unfortunately, he got the time he needed to stabilize, eventually getting those Fortitudes, and earlier than that a Final Evolution that turned off most of the heroes' ability to damage him.  So it eventually came down to a standoff between IL and Scholar, each one invincible to each other (and to both of the Block's warring factions), and eventually I gave up because Scholar has no Ongoing destruction and thus could never actually hurt IL, whereas IL could conceivably kill Scholar after he reshuffled his deck, and no longer had an EtW in his trash for Tempest to return to his hand.

So unfortunately, I wasn't able to add any points to this challenge.  But I did get to enjoy an amusing mental image:  the uptight iron-clad enforcer of "Justice" and the chillaxing Dude in a bathrobe who's mystically impossible to touch, just staring at each other forever in seething disapproval of their respective lifestyles and aggravating invincibility, while the entire Block erupts into chaos behind them without their noticing.  They are just perfect exact opposites, aren't they?  The irresponsible hero who takes nothing seriously, and the guy who went around the bend because the only thing he cared about was destroyed, one trying to impose a psychotically twisted ideal of Justice on the world at any cost, and the other just trying to keep the peace and protect innocent people.  It's almost mythic, apart from the Scholar's costume. 

Lets play a mini game. I call it "Fishing for Tumbleweeds". 60% of the time it works every time. 

I decided to make it a bit mroe interesting and fun.

Points needed for a...

Minor Beatdown: 100

Major Beatdown: 200

Mega Beatdown: 300

I can't wait to get on this.  Since it is basically a beat down contest I will be using that as an excuse to run the most overpowered teams I can against their unwitting villianous victims.

It is open season on Evildoers, if only my son would fall asleep. . .

Alas I'm 0 in 2 tonight...my second face-off with Advanced Warlord Voss went even worse than my first.  Though it wasn't really him that defeated me, it was Pike Industrial.  Turn 1 Irradiated Vat, turns 2 and 3 Trisolvent Vents, and the latter finished us off.  Pity; these were all my best friends against The Ennead....

And my third attempt at a contribution today has also failed, even though it would only be a measly two points according to the listed difficulties (which I think are extremely wrong in her case).  It was La Capitan, but I wasn't even on Advanced (and I'm not sure I'll ever dare to be).  She is beatable; I know this from games in Silver Gulch and The Block...but any Environment which grants card plays seems to exponentially increase her difficulty.   The three heroes managed to sink the ship and kill most of the crew once, but within a round, the ship came back and even more crew came out, and the heroes went down one by one.

Again, Atlantis rather than the Villain gets the credit...it's historically been one of my favorite environments, because extra card plays are awesome for the heroes and usually not unbearable for the villain.  But not only does Cappy get triple mileage out of extra plays, with nearly all her cards doing several different things...it's not even funny how hard Atlantis was determined to screw me this game.  Round 1 Hallway Collapse was negated by her healing so it only hurt the heroes, round 2 Font of Power was somewhat helpful to both sides, but round 3 Pillars of Hercules absolutely sent Cappy into overdrive, and round 4 Leaking Room was just insult atop injury.  It ended up with Omnitron-X and a huge pile of cards in play (most of them NOT components, since I was holding Self-Sabotage rather than Singularity - the two cards are not precisely balanced with each other) standing alone against a shipload of about four crew, shrugging off much of the damage with Ablative Coating but still being whittled down gradually with hard hits and non-physical damages, and Maria Helena's Revenge hurting him for the few targets he did manage to kill, until he managed to get Battle Forged low enough in one round that a pair of Krakens could kill them both at once, thanks to the MHR psychic damage when BF died.

So, my second utterly ignominious defeat against Cappy, who always seems to explode out the gate very strong, possibly stall in the midgame, and then snowball again into utter unbeatability with a single Raiding Party or All Together Now.  You need to be able to press for the win when you're at the "sweet spot", with Ship and Crew largely wiped out, and a single card at the wrong time utterly dooms you by bringing an overwhelming force out of nowhere.

Game 1:

Visionary, Legacy, Tempest, Fanatic vs. Iron Legacy Advanced in Insula Primalis.

Iron Legacy falls on round three, Fanatic and Tempest nuked the crap out of him in round three, he didn't get to flip.

Game 2:

Visionary, Mr. Fixer, Expat, Argent Adept vs. Akash'Bhuta Advanced in Final Wasteland.

Longest game ever.  Removed eight of Akash's targets from the game, all her damage was gone, but the destruction cards got to be annoying pretty quick.  War of atrition went to the heroes as Adept could outheal Akash's damage.  I shouldn't have removed the targets, just killed them normally and we probably win faster, but with higher chance of losing the game.

Favorite moment was Fixer playing Bloody Knuckles and whacking 9 targets with Jack Handle/Crane, then Adept using Alacritous and inventive to let Fixer play Overdrive, and then Salvage yard.  Hitting 5 times with Jackhandle/Knuckles in one round, clearing the board of limbs and env. cards while recovering a ton of cards from the trash. . . Epic.

Game 3&4 The Chairman advanced refuses to do anything but crush me.  I seriously have a history of stomping the Chairman, looks like I was due to regress to the mean.

Game 5:

Visionary, Fanatic, Haka, Adept vs. Dreamer Advanced in Wagner Mars Base.

First round End of Days and Adept with Sonata.  Wagner played Meteor Storm first round, it was still out when the game ended at the start of round 4.  It was not even funny, exactly four hero cards were played, 2 powers used, and the entire game had 5 damage dealt (all first villain turn).

Well, the three musketeers of Omnitronks, Mr. Fixer and F6 Tempest were turned over twice in succession by advanced Cosmic Omnitron, in Wagner Mars Base then Insula Primalis - not very helpful to the quest I know, but I do like a challenge! In both games we had Cosmitron on the ropes before it pulled out a terrible chain of cards that hammered us flat like jelly tent pegs (with a particularly impressive chain of drones in the second game that nearly overwhelmed us, only to then launch both bombs to render our resistance laughable).

I'm up for some more pain so will have another bash this weekend - this time I'll crank it up to Rook CIty or Pike Industrial because why not?

This challenge doesn't adjust point values for tough Environments, so if you want to contribute to the cause (yeah, I'm one to talk, I know), there's no real advantage to suffering through Rook City.  Pike Industries might well help you; in my experience it makes all games shorter and more violent, so it's greatly to the heroes' advantage against lower-HP and less-aggressive villains; my only defeat there was by Grand Warlord Voss on Advanced, since he's extremely tough and his minions dish out a lot of pain, which the Vats amplify while not affecting him much.

I played one of my favorite scenarios twice. Legacy, Visonary, Ra, Argent Adept, Expatriette, in Insula Primas vs (Advance) Voss.

1) Find Hair-Triggered Reflexes.

2) Pump it up as much as possible, which every hero deck and the environment can do.

Are there official difficulties for Bomber Blade and Cosmitron? They're both significantly harder than their standard versions.

The Sentinels Sidekick app (which is officially licenced by Greater Than Games) has them both listed as lvl.3 Difficulty. 

The Sidekick App is telling the truth. Whenever the Handelabra guys have a question about something like that, they always check. Anything on the Sidekick app is official (unless we miss something, which is always possible but not likely :) )

I added the Promos to the end of the list.

I can't actually tell whether you won or lost there…did you play End of Days again and kill all the Projections, or did you somehow get ganked by the Self-Destruct Sequence?

Tried the advanced dreamer in time cataclysm. I got royally whupped the first time, and almost halfway through her second side the second time. Shopping Spree with Stealth Bot was an interesting combo: one damage to all projections and redirecting and absorbing all the rest of the damage? Pretty handy even if it didn't end up being enough! I may try that again soon with a three hero team. And hope Legacy gets his next evolution/lead from the front combo to absorb all that psychic damage on her other side. OUCH.

Quite frankly, Cosmitron should rate a five in my book   but five times zero is still the same as three times zero If I get squished again I'll just take on Gloomweaver to make myself feel better.

Maybe even go Advanced Gloomweaver! There is no difference between normal and advanced really. But it'll earn you DOUBLE POINTS!

First round end of days, everyone else drew cards The one power use was visionary using Enlighten, Fanatc drew EoD then.

second round she is flipped but Meteor storm prevents her five projections from doing anything, Adept plays Vernal.

Third round Dreamer has 8 projections out, Visionary uses enlighten again, Fanatic plays End of days and bam, game over with no heroes dealing damage at any point.

I shouldn't have posted the result and made a trivia thread asking how you could win a game without any damage being dealt.  Of course Gloomy you can do it too with the relics and Adept.

I 

Third time's the charm! Took on Advanced Dreamer in the Time Cataclysm with Legacy, Argent Adept, and Wraith! That was a close one, but not how you might think.

So I dropped a Combat Stance as fodder for the Dreamer's ongoing-destroying flip, figuring I could save an Inspiring Presence by doing so. The Environment pulls out… Fixed Point! "Ha ha!" I think. "I don't have to destroy anything!" The Dreamer flips, paralyzes Wraith so she can't play cards, and puts out a few projections, deals damage to everyone… and then Wraith, boosted by both Galvanize and Inspiring Presence, flips out and deals 4 damage to Dreamer through the combat stance.

Whuh oh. "THAT's not sustainable," I think to myself.

Things get worse as I realize… FIXED POINT IS STOPPING ME FROM DESTROYING THE COMBAT STANCE. Even if she could play cards, Wraith's grappling hooks are useless against her finely trained instincts in the midst of this temporal anomaly! Oh crap! Argent Adept could play a Cedistic Dissonant and get rid of the Fixed Point… but Wraith is still paralyzed and couldn't use her grappling hook to wipe out her combat stance in time to save the Dreamer. My hopes pretty dashed, I proceed with the turns just in case some miracle comes up.

Legacy's got nothing. He plops down a motivational charge, galvanizes (because it's not like it will make a difference with the Dreamer at 2 hp) and draws… a heroic intervention.

Light bulb goes on over my head.

Argent Adept uses Alacritous Subdominant to let Legacy play Heroic Intervention! Boom! Wraith (And Argent Adept) are immune to damage! Wraith won't get hit, and thus flip out and murder the Dreamer! Hooray! She lives for now, and the next round Argent Adept talks Wraith into knocking some sense into herself via a grappling hook to the face.

I just found it highly amusing that Legacy's Heroic Intervention was more about protecting the villain from the hero than vice versa.

(Anyway, with +2 damage from Legacy and +2 damage from the microtargeting computer, Wraith's Throwing Knives went on to cull the Dreamer's projections without much further difficulty. 6 more points for the quest!)

So, side benefit of having a city-wide power outage this morning/afternoon:  I played some more Sentinels! 

Victories over Voss, Dawn, and La Capitan put us over the "Minor Beatdown" mark!

Wow! Minor Beatdown and it is still Friday!

Trying to help with the effort.  Six games played today, and maybe some more tomorrow.

#1: Iron Legacy @ Ruins of Atlantis vs. Chrono-Ranger, Tempest, Absolute Zero, and Bunker.  (LOSS)(solo)

Everyone but AZ incap by end of Round 3, and AZ goes down in Round 7.

#2: Iron Legacy @ The Block vs. Tachyon, Fanatic, Bunker, Absolute Zero. (LOSS)(solo)

Heroes flattened by end of Round 6.

#3: Citizen Dawn @ Time Cataclysm vs. Omnitron X, Tachyon, Tempest, and Chrono-Ranger. (LOSS)(solo)

Hard fought, but RISE prevailed.  Took about 19 rounds.

Foote turned up to play about then - and things improved.  We also added a third player partway through game #4.

#4: Omnitron @ Insula Primalis vs. Absolute Zero, Chrono-Ranger, Ra, and Team Leader Tachyon* (WIN)(3 players)

Omnicron goes down in Round 6.  First time I've played with one of the Promo cards and I had fun with TLT.

#5: The Dreamer @ Pike Industrial Complex vs. Redeemer Fanatic, Tempest, and Bunker (WIN)(3 players)

Game went down close to the wire.  Tempest was incap, but got a key Immune: Toxic going for the final couple of rounds with heroes winning in 8 Rounds.

#6: Gloomweaver @ Tomb of Anubis vs. Redeemer Fanatic, Omnicron X, and Absolute Zero (WIN)(3 players)

I farted around with AZ not very efficiently while Foote diligently built a huge tableau for Omnicron-X.  It took approximately 23 rounds to complete with the Environment deck cycling and the Villain Deck actually empty of cards.

Three wins for the Google+ crew tonight - Omnitron, Voss and Kismet on advanced. Unfortunately the arrival of the Ronway cursed us and we then lost to the Matriarch.

This is a fun idea, and I'll try to get a face-to-face game in tomorrow as well.

Well, I nicely broke my losing streak today, and make a ridiculously excessive 6-point contribution by beating advaned Gloomweaver in a Halloween theme game.  (There are only two "spooky" heroes, Nightmist and Wraith, so I had to settle for Mr. Fixer as a not-especially-un-spooky third; naturally the environment had to be Tomb of Anubis.)  He made me work for it, and the Advanced part actually mattered since I'd picked appropriate heroes....Fixer got Grease Monkey Fist, so he had no problem, but Gloomy lived for probably 2 rounds longer than he would have if Wraith could have used Inventory Barrage, and he also got to ignore a Swinging Blades trap in the environment.

I then went on to my second fight against the Ennead (no longer Advanced this time), and have firmly convinced myself that they are among my favorite villains of all time, possibly even my single favorite.  The heroes were the "Stop Hitting Yourself" Party - Nightmist, Absolute Zero and Fanatic.  And despite the fact that AZ and Fanatic have gotten killed in more than half the previous games I played them in, this time they were absolute rock stars, with the usually amazing Nightmist being largely irrelevant.  AZ ended the game on 4 HP and Fanatic used Sacrosanct Martyr to put herself down to 1; both would likely have died, leaving Nightmist to finish the fight solo, if not for both Sherrif Pratt and Roger Hayes working together to put down Set, who I had wisely left for last.  There was something rather poetic in that.

So as of today, I've played Sentinels exactly 54 times - three times the number of both heroes and villains which currently exist.  That hardly means I'm done, of course; I'll see about getting an actual social game in tomorrow if I can, and on Sunday I can easily do two or three more solos.

I have a feeling that we'll have Major Beatdown by the end of today, while getting a healthy start on Mega Beatdown.

Oh no, the dreaded curse of Ronway has returned.

Run, Run for your lives!

Legacy, Ra, the Scholar and AZ just managed a munificent victory against Advanced Ennead; at the end of the game Ra played Scorched Earth, for eight damage, then Scholar played Don't Dismiss Anything, and Ra revealed another Scorched Earth... It was beautiful.

The Grasshopper (age 8) and I got in two games, beating Ambuscade in Insula Primalis and getting creamed by Cosmitron at Wagner Mars Base. He played Unity both times; I did Haka and Absolute Zero in the first game, and Bunker and Tempest in the second. The fact that Bunker started with two Adhesive Foam Grenades and two Maintenance Units did not help our efforts.

Had an auto win today. Haka, Ra, Visonary against Apostate in Megalopolis. It was advanced, not that it mattered much.

EDIT: Same team against PLague Rat in Insula Primas. First turn Flesh of the Sun god and Volcanic Eruption with Twist the Ether a little bit later. I was waiting for Imbued Fire, but the game ended before that.

Team Leader Tachyon, Dark Visionary, Nightmist, and Golem Unity just wiped the floor of Pike Industrial Complex with Advanced Matriarch. It wasn't even fair. Twist the Ether on Matriarch and Nightmist. Nightmist played 3 Twisted Oblivions. Tachyon fed cards to Unity, so Flash Forge brought all of the good bots and a couple of pylons. Visionary stacked Matriarch's deck so she only ever played one fowl card (a couple of useless one-shots the first round didn't hurt). Muninn had -7 HP at the end of the game.

MAJOR BEATDOWN!!!

Game 6 was a loss to Matriarch advanced in Tomb of Anubis Vis, Tempest, Ra and Nightmist.  Really bad timing on darken the skies.

Game 7 We got revenge with Visionary, Expat, Fanatic and Scholar.  The high point was Scholar throwing 2 keep moving to pull 2 flesh to iron and then playing alchemical redirection, so that we could survive not clearing the 11 fowl in play with 2 obsidian fields out.  He then died when we cleared the field (Matriarch dealt 13 instances of 5 damage, and he had 13 health.)  We won the next round, Smite the Transgressor with Sacrosanct Martyr and 2 obsidian fields out, 15 damage through 1 reduction is pretty good.

I taught the game to three new people today; it was the ultimate newbie match, Baron Blade in Megalopolis, so it contributes only a single point toward the challenge, but hopefully it brings in new folks to the hobby.

The forum players, including myself (barely; I spent half the game in Recharge Mode and never once did damage), have just taken out Advanced Kismet.  Dear OP:  Your spreadsheet lists Kismet at difficulty 2, but she's a 3 in the Shattered Timelines character supplement.  Please revise.

Mine says that she is a 2.

I have both a physical copy AND a download from the >G website, which both agree that Kismet and Dreamer are 3s, with LC at a 2.  I for one believe LC is a 3, and Kismet is maybe only really hard on Advanced, but according to the official downloadable file, she's more than a 2.

Well, mine still says 2, and this is the first time I have heard that it changed. Once I get a confirmation that 3 is the correct number, I will change it.

I'll confirm that the version currently posted as PDF lists Kismet as a 3 and La Cap as a 2. (Iron Legacy as 4 and the Dreamer as 3, if it matters)

This is very odd, I wasn't aware there was more than one printing of Shattered Timelines. My printed Character Supplement has Kismet as a 2; I bought it directly from >G on August 7 this year. Where did you get your physical copy? Does anyone else have a physical copy with Kismet as a 3? (Obviously this difference is minor, but I want to know if there are more differences.)

The Sentinels Sidekick app lists Kismet as a 3. Keep in mind that app is official. 

I know. I checked it as well as the online pdf. However, regarding the app, they might have just checked the newest rulebook, and only asked questions they weren't sure of (e.g. what is the difficulty of the promos).

I am not denying that it says 3 in those, I am just really puzzled as to why. In the PT forum, when the proof came out, there was no discussion by anyone about this. There has been no discussion anywhere (that I can find) about this. Either people saying it is wrong, or GtG saying it is. So, there are two options: 1) It was a mistake in the reprint. 2) GtG made the decision to change it. It could very well be #2, I just want a confirmation (and reason) on that. With no previous discussion, or GtG saying it changed, it just seems off. In fact, if any villain should be changed, Kismet wouldn't be my first choice.

In honor of Sentinels Weekend I decided to throw down Mad Bomber Blade for the first time ever.  (I've been saving it)

Game 8 went with Visionary, Expat, Fanatic and Scholar in Megalopolis after they did so well vs. Matriarch last night and they won, but just barely.  Two living force fields in the first two rounds was rough to overcome, and I misplayed death ray to hit all heroes instead of highest (would have probably caused Visionary to live), but overall really cool mod to Blade.  I'm going to try him advanced.

Game 9 on advanced actually went better, even with a Hasten Doom/Consider the price of Victory to start the death ray side, and the Environment having just played  Hostage situation, so no cards in play 7 in the villain trash and can't play cards.  Not a good start.

Fanatic had used Twist the Ether, Embolden and Sacrosanct Martyr to nuke down Blade's first side, so she was in bad shape and died pretty quick, the Scholar was a boss with taking those huge death ray blasts (the last one was for 12 damage) partly because of Fanatic's incap heals.  Expatriette did her steady normal damage.  Great match, I really love Mab Bomber, I need to get his card now.

Attended a FLGS sponsored gaming marathon for charity yesterday.  Taught SotM to two who have not played it before - one of whom purchased the Enhanced Edition and Shattered Timelines* later in the evening. 

Three low value wins, but wins just the same.

#1:  Legacy, Ra, and Bunker vs Baron Blade @ Insula Primalis (WIN)(3 players)

Learning game with 3rd player coming in and taking over Legacy in Round 3.  Probably most valuable play was Legacy playing Danger Sense since he was a T-Rex target for the rest of the game pretty much.

#2: Scholar, Tachyon, and Fanatic vs Ambushcase @ Wagner Mars Base (WIN)(3 players)

New player took Scholar and sort of had fun working out how to use him.  Ambushcade never got cloaking device out and so it was a straightforward slugfest for 10 rounds.  Tachyon pretty much finished the deal with a Lightning Reflex - Barrage (x2) combo for 22 points of damage.

#3: Fanatic, Tempest, and Unity vs Omnitron @ Ruins of Atlantis (WIN)(3 players)

Player with Unity did not have much luck.  Got up to five golems out and then a couple of environment attacks wiped them out.  End of Days got played to clear out both of Omnitron's explosives and also that annoying Adaptive Plating Subroutine, and which also cleared Tempest's extensive tableau.  Omnitron was hurting by then anyways and Fanatic finished the robot off with a 23 point Wrathful Retribution.

• • If anyone is still looking for a copy of the Infernal Relics expansion The Games Keep in West Chester, PA has at least one copy still available.  No copies of Rook City unfortunately.

Just wanted to remind everyone with all these games being played, try to get as many as you can submitted to the statistics thread.

Just got done putting in all nine from the past two days. 

And I should get a few solo games in today while watching football.

I stand corrected.  My physical copy does indeed show Kismet at 2.  But the download version and the app are up to date, so they must have been changed after ST went to the printers.

Only 29 more points, woohoo! I leave it to the rest of you to complete it.

Well, I've been planning to spend all day playing all day, and am now finally starting.  Let's see how many games I can get done in just under six hours.

Hopefully, it won’t be another 7 hour game. If it is, you won’t make it.

Well, just this minute, I finally finished the game in question.  It was Advanced Citizen Dawn, so 6 points for the win, but goddamn did I ever work for it.  Haka's first-turn Rampage led to Dawn flipping on round 3, and then right when she was about to unflip on round 8, Marsquake came up at the worst possible time, killed two of the Citizens that Tachyon had bruised with a Sonic Vortex (in preparation for needing to kill them fast when Dawn unflipped), and led to another 2 turns of delay.  And then, after resolving the damage from Marsquake, I proceeded to Dawn's turn, dished out a bunch of damage to the hero team, and then remembered that Haka had a Ground Pound in play and had to figure out exactly how much HP to put back, after Legacy (with a DR 1 that only one other hero had, thanks to Argent Adept) had been redirecting damage with Lead From the Front in order to keep Nightmist alive, and had died in the process, so I had to un-kill him, get his trash and hand back out of the deck, and put all the heroes' HP back where it should have been.  (And now that I think back, I even screwed that up, because while I was rewinding the damage from the villains, I also rewound the damage to heroes from the Marsquake, which is not a target and thus was not prevented by Ground Pound...rather appropriately.)

Had it not been SOTM Weekend, I would have conceded in disgust after a snafu of that order, but instead I got as close to straightening it out as possible, and continued slogging through the game.  Despite Nightmist having been down to 2 HP at one point, the heroes managed to turn things around, and there were no casualties apart from the accidental death of Legacy (who would have had 1 HP after the Marsquake, but enough healing had flown around that there was some hope of him surviving, though I'll never be quite sure how it should have turned out).  In the end, Tachyon and Haka cleaned up all the Citizens in one round after Dawn unflipped, and then killed Dawn herself one round later...but that was probably the hardest game I've ever played, and even with only 3.5 hours to go, I am totally not up to doing another one right away.  I may have time to finish at least one more, but not until after I take a break.

EDIT - I forgot to mention she also played That Damn Card about halfway through, plus we constantly had to discard cards to Citizen Tears and Blinding Blasts...it was an absurdly frustrating bout. I should have known better than to play five heroes against Dawn for the second time, because my last such matchup was comparably prolonged and difficult for exactly the same reasons (albeit in a less heinous environment).

Got three solo games in this evening.

#1 : Omnitron in the Final Wasteland vs Unity, Omnitron-X, and Chrono-ranger (WIN)(Solo)

11 Rounds.  Omnitron was successful in beating down Chrono-ranger and Omnitron-X build-ups, but was brought low by Unity's Golem Swarm.  Turret Bot was up early and survived the whole game.  Eventually topped out at five golems (Turret, Leader, Stealth, Raptor, Bee) and was benefiting from a Chrono-ranger bounty as well.

#2 Kismet at Insula Primalis vs. Legacy, Bunker, and The Wraith (WIN)(Solo)

6 Rounds.  Wraith started the game with 2 Improvised Equipment cards in hand and thus was pounding on Kismet or the Talisman from the get-go.  And she kept adding equipment from there.  Bunker got Turret-mode going on the last turn with Flak Cannon and Grenade-Launcher.  Legacy did Legacy things and Inspired Presence and Galvanize was running most of the time.  And the Environment added an Obsidian Field for the last round as well.

#3 Ambushcade at Wagner Mars Base vs. Legacy, Chrono-ranger, and Fanatic

10 Rounds.   Ambushcade was holding his own with Reactive Shields and Cloaking Device keeping the heroes at bay while the environment cards played havoc with equipment and hands.  Then about Round 7 or so Fanatic essentially nerfed him with Zealous Offense.  Used it for one round to allow Chrono-ranger to plink two sonic mines, then afterwards used it to make Ambushcade and one other device essentially useless for damage.  With Galvanize going and Chrono-ranger bounties going the three of them tore up Ambushcade and the odd device using one-shots and weaponry.

You either haven't inputted your points yet or already did so before I did, Oaktree.  The spreadsheet is still showing 18 points to go.

I think I put them in before you did.

Just an hour and half left, with 10 points to go. Will it make it to Mega Beatdown?

I've solo'd Voss and Cosmitron, so there's another 6. Both times were with Legacy, Wraith, Unity, Tempest, and AZ (in that order) in Megalopolis, for the ease of switching between games.

MEGA BEATDOWN ACHIEVED.

Took out Miss information (adv.) with Visionary, Fanatic, Haka and Young Legacy, Fanatic threw retribution at 1hp (had been milling her deck like crazy once we figured out it was our only hope) she died to retribution damage, then Haka savage mana haka of battle to finish her off.

The game before with the same team we ROFLStomped Chairman Advanced, Brain Burn first round and Young Legacy getting lead from the front and Next Evolution out meant a bad day for the Chairman.  Fanatic got Martyr and Embolden and Visionary put twist the Ether on her, it wasn't a slow death.

It also means we defeated every single villain this weekend.

GREAT JOB, EVERYONE!!!

Welp, my second game of the evening had the advantage of being MUCH faster.  I was better prepared to deal with the Matriarch than ever before, but I didn't luck into any of the cards that would have enabled me to survive the Birdageddon; I was just starting to get the game under control when all the heroes ran out of HP except Visionary, who had 2 left.  The incap abilities of the fallen heroes were spectacularly unhelpful, and she didn't draw a Telekinetic Cocoon or anything, so there was no way for her to accomplish anything before dying, and I conceded rather than give Matty the satisfaction of killing her.

You must be in a different time zone; I still show two hours to go.  This is probably a DST issue…the time was specified as being CST, so something wasn't lined up the way I thought it was.  Good thing you ended up not needing my points.

Magnificent.  I was less help than I hoped to be, having lost four of the eight games I played since the challenge was announced (not counting the Kismet forum game which had started earlier).  But it was still lots of fun to participate.  And heck, I might play once more tonight just for the heck of it, though I no longer feel compelled to.

I'm too tired, having trouble telling time.

Mazel tov, everyone!  

Envisioner wrote:

Magnificent.  I was less help than I hoped to be, having lost four of the eight games I played since the challenge was announced

Down goes Baron Blade advanced, so that is every hero advanced defeated as well.  I went 9-3 for the weekend, but I was really stacking my teams with exactly the right heroes.   

51 points for me, I'm pretty pleased.

This was a lot of fun, and a great excuse to break out some powerful teams.

83 points for Google+, at least I hope I counted right. I'm slightly disappointed, I was hoping for over 100 points, so that way it would of achieved Minor Beatdown... Oh well, maybe next time.