Advice for First Game with New Players

Hey everyone,

  so I watched all the video reviews, read the rulebook, and put in an order for my very own copy of the enhanced edition of SotM (with Ambuscade and Unity along for the ride).  I've never played it but it just seemed too cool and too fun to pass by.  While I'm happily awaiting the new editions to ship, I was wondering if I could get your thoughts on making the first game as fun and exciting as possible for me and my friends.  In other words, what advice do you have for making sure SotM makes a good first impression with a group of casual gamers?  Specifically, is there a good villian/environment combo to start with?  And what hero works well for a first play through (to get people acclimated to the game without overwhelming them and hopefully having some synergy and a good chance at victory)?

From what I've been able to figure about the game, I was thinking of the following:

Villain: Baron Blade

Environment: Megalopolis

Heroes: Ra, Legacy, Wraith, Visionary/Tempest

I figured Ra would be a great choice for my friend who isn't too familiar with card/synergy games (not overly complicated and he'd have a blast being the one burning everything up), Legacy and Wraith would be fun thematically for those in the group with some superhero roots, and Visionary or Tempest just seems like a great choices for keeping everyone alive and kicking - I would hate for someone to get annoyed with the game from the start because they got incapacitated early in the game and just watched the rest of us play.  Of course, people will be more excited to play with the character they think is cool, but it wouldn't hurt if I had some idea of the hero choices and team arrangements that wouldn't work so well.

Anyways, what do you think?

 Looks pretty good,  BB is definitely a nice introductory villain.   Personally I would go for Insula Primalis instead of Megalopolis.   It's a judgement call, but Megalopolis has several cards that stop the standard flow of the game:  IE:  heroes can't draw cards, heroes cant use powers....    Insula Primalis typically just deals damage.   And seriously,  who doesn't like dinosaurs?  Nobody.

Ra is probably the most straightforward hero and a shoe-in for  a new player who wants to have fun and deal damage, a great choice.

Legacy probably helps the team more than any other hero;  but I would make sure that the player who selects Legacy knows this.   Despite his phisique and the fact that he is often compared to Superman or Captain America, he is a "helper-hero"  and does not deal a lot of damage himself.   I have had new players find themselves dissapointed when selecting Legacy because they thought they would be busting heads and they discover that Ra is much better at the whole damage thing.   Also for good or for ill, the player being Legacy will need to remember that BB is Legacy's Nemisis,  so +1 damage for each other.

Wraith is another good pick, plenty of damage and utility, a strong all around hero.    Only hitch is that with Impromptu Invention they might not know what to look for, might be overwhelming the very first play.

Visionary is one of my favorite heroes, but I don't think she's good for a first-timer.   Visionary is more nuanced than most of the other base game heroes, she doesn't do much direct damage, she is all about control... and the best way to get the most bang for your buck with a control hero is to know the game and the cards well.

Temepst is a good pick for a first-time player,  he is very similar to Ra in some respects, able to deal a lot of damage, which is fun for new players.  He also has a fair amount of tools at his disposal which makes him pretty good in just about any situation. 

If you're reconsidering any heroes, Haka is a very straightforward choice,  powerful, and with a lot of HP.     Fanatic is another good choice who is reasonably straightforward and works well together with both Legacy and Ra.

Disagree on Fanatic. Her tendency to damage herself to power her abilities confuses new players, and some experienced ones, at first.

Omnitron is also a good starting villain.

Insular Primalis makes a better environment, IMO

The 'official' set of easy to play characters is: Haka, Legacy, Ra, Tempest and Wraith. All of these are straighforward to play and don't need a complicated card strategy. Absolute Zero, Argent Adept and NightMist are considered complicated to play owing to the need for combos to make them effetive.

 Only Sacrosacnt Martyr actually hurts her...     Don't use it if you don't want to.      Unless you count like, Embolden, Divine Sacrifice, and Divine Focus,  but really you can avoid using those too if you want.     Legacy has abilities that hurt him too (Heroic Interception, Take Down).    And Fanatic is so great with Legacy on the team..

I always let new players play Wraith, she's easy to understand and she does a little bit of everything plus she's always doing something, she will always at least use her innate power. The first time I played I used Ra and he didn't pop the way Ra should just because of a bad draw and I wound up not doing a damn thing before the boss was dead other than pinging him with my innate power, then at the suggestion of our good friend Christopher (who happened to be in the same hotel lobby we were playing) I used Wraith and fell in love with the game, if it wasn't for wraith I'm not sure I would have bought it. I would also advise against Legacy for first timers, he's easy to use but he can be so boring when every other hero is beating up the boss and he's just buffing players. He's a great character and I love playing him now but that first game you want a damage fest with lots of cards being played.

One thing we learned in doing demos at cons is that Insala Primalus is a far better environment than Megolopolis for new players - awp832 nailed it:

• Far fewer cards that shut down the game, like "Players can't play cards" and "Heroes can't use powers"
• There are dinosaurs, and everything is better with dinosaurs! :wink:
• Obsidian Fields generally help the heroes, making the players feel more powerful and making the heroes better at doing damage.
• Cards like Volcano result in interesting choices.

• Ra
• Fanatic
• Haka
• Tempest
• Expatriette

We never use Wraith for new players because the choices often require knowing information on cards that aren't readily available. We want folks to be able to make their own decisions, not base their decisions on what the person helping them says is the best option.

We don't use Visionary because she's a manipulator and requires very subtle decisions. (Also, my personal opinion is very few people are sucked into the game because of heroes like her, so we're better off having them play folks like Tempest then trying out Visionary later.)

Legacy is great for the person who knows what they're doing in / running the game, as he'll help everyone else out. It also allows them to introduce the Nemesis rule when going against BB - and to consistently apply it to remind them of it.

Fanatic's attitude is a lot of fun for some folks, so she's always good to include in the choice pool.

If you have it, theYoung Legacy promo card makes Legacy a much less boring choice as the base power enables her to do damage every turn. Granted you're not quite as awesoem a team player, but it's probably more interesting for a first timer.

I've been teaching at least one new person a week here at WKU, it feels like, and honestly, I have no problem bringing new players in against a level 2 villain like Ambuscade or Spite. We do make sure to give the new person an easier hero (our first warning is always "Don't pick Absolute Zero, NightMist, or Argent Adept"), but most people catch on pretty quick and don't exactly need a tutorial level.

I suppose it does depend on the audience. Most of the interactions I've been having are with folks I don't know, so I don't have a feeling for their level of understanding for game mechanics, in general. The two folks I knew whom I introduced to the game at GenCon wanted to play Bunker and AZ (and I think it was against the Chairman) with three other folks who were new to the game. I had no issues with that, as they are great at breaking mechanics, so I knew they'd handle it fine. (And they did - and they won!) So yeah, if you know folks well enough, play to their strengths.

And I agree that other villains definitely work as intro villains, especially folks like Ambuscade. I don't play Spite with new folks primarily because he is such a dark and frustrating villain with lots of disparate things going on; I'd rather introduce them against someone like BB, Ambuscade, or Plague Rat, someone who shows them interesting stuff and opportunities.

• BB does a good job of showing a little of everything, as he has ongoings, devices, minions, powerful one-shots, etc.
• Ambuscade forces interesting and challenging decisions, and his trap mechanic is very entertaining.
• Plague Rat shows some interesting ways the villain can mess with the heroes and forces interesting and challenging decisions.

And… That's enough avoiding work for the day…

I'm seriously impressed; thanks for all the advice!

It looks like Insala Primis with Baron Blade will be our first scenario, and the first team will be between Ra, Haka, Tempest, and Fanatic. If I'm feeling bold and have enough time to flip through her deck, I might give Unity a try; always loved Forge and The Sentinels Sidekick app certainly piqued my interest when it listed all of her bots (champion bot, turret bot, RAPTOR BOT!).

Also, congratulations for making me even more keen for picking up Rook City and Infernal Relics in the near future

Well ... _I_ wanted to give advice, but everybody took mine already! *pout*

Harumph. I'll just say that I've seen people really enjoying playing their first time with other decks, too. My sister is not a gamer, but enjoyed all the card playing she got to do w/ Tachyon. I've seen a couple of people enjoy Bunker. In both cases it helped to have someone coach them a bit.

Oh, and this is ancillary to the original question, but one of the highlights for me at PAX was the woman who sat down and said she wanted to play a magic user. I handed her Nightmist, she grokked the deck immediately, loved it, and did extremely well.

A funny thing happened when I introduced a new player to Expat. He thought that her guns REQUIRED ammo to be shot which confused us at first until someone else at the table figured out why he wasn't shooting every turn.

Hello all... I like the advice aswell and will be keeping it in mind. I do have a question though people keep saying to absolutely not to pick absolute zero, night mist, and argent adept. While I will defer to those more knowledgable about the game I do have two questions about that.

1. What exactly do they do that make them bad choices?

2. Would you still advise this aswell for advanced gamers who have a decade or more experience in TT/CCG gaming?

I ask because one of the guys I'm going to be playing with for the first time tend to choose things based on "this looks/sounds interesting" and I want to be able to give them a heads up on what they are getting themselves into if one of them decides to pick one of these three regardless of suggestion.

The thing with Absolute Zero is that there are a lot of numbers to keep track of, and newer players would have trouble keeping up with it.

You have to track the damage types, his current HP (changes a LOT), his buffs (he has several) a couple ongoings that deal damage, how much fire damage he takes each round (for coolant blast), how much cold damage he does during his turn (for Thermal Shockwave; this includes any damage from his ongoings and one-shots, as well as damage dealt because of the modules). It's very overwhelming for a new player. A NEW new player should stay away until he's played several other games and learned the mechanics and nuances and stuff. TCG vets will want to not do him their first game, but after that their gamer instincts will take over for them.

I can't speak for AA and NightMist (NEXT WEEK I CAN'T WAIT) but they are similarly complicated, but in different ways.

In addition to McBehrer's thoughts, AZ and NM both damage themselves. A lot. Treating HP as just another resource is something many folks don't understand and/or aren't comfortable with.

NM also has the random aspect that her cards have spell points on them that she can use to fuel her effect, either by discarding (so she knows what's going to happen) or by revealing the top card of her deck (so she usually doesn't know what's going to happen). The randomness of the latter situation can also put off many folks.

AA has many, many options / permutations available, in addition to having to search his deck and/or trash for Instruments, for which he needs to know and understand what Melodies, Rhythms, and Harmonies he has available… Yeah, he's convoluted, but he has more options available to him than any other character in the game (so far). In addition to that, Arcance Cadence revleas 5 cards from his deck so he can put one in the trash, one in his hand, one on top of the deck, one on the bottom of the deck, and one into play… His turns can take a while - especially when he reveals an Arcane Cadence with an Arcane Cadence!  (And yes, we've chained 3 and I believe there are 4 in the deck so it's possible to chain 4.)

Having said that, I recommend that new players not play these three for one over-riding reason: with their complexities, I don't think they accurately represent the game in general. They are more complex than the norm, so I don't want to set expectations (good or bad) that they are the norm. But that's just me.

While Zero can be powerful, he is also slow to start and can get screwed more easily than any other hero.  Not being able to do anything is fun for nobody, and if you want to play Zero you need to recognize the risks.

I dont personally have much sucess with Nightmist either.  Nightmist is probably the best character in the game for not dying.   Her support spells are top notch (Planar Banishment and Mindbind) But its so freaking hard for her to actually do things in the damage department.   Her damage is always random, so you basically always overkill and harm yourself more than you needed to, or don't deal enough damage to take down your target.   She's also a particularly slow starter.

I've played a lot with AA now, and while he is an extremely good character, he pretty tough to get a handle on.   Most of his cards are tagged melody, harmony, or ryhthm.   Harmony and rhythm cards have primary effects and secondary effects, melodys only have primary effects.  So you could use the primary effect of any of these cards as your power.   Or you could get an instrument out.   The instruments combine stuff.  Like.. using the primary effect of a rhythm and the secondary effect of a harmony.   Or using two melodies, or using a melody and a secodary from a harmony.   My wife swears that from a musical perspective, which instrument goes with which stuff makes sense.   The horn is primary melody, secondary harmony.   The drum is primary melody, secondary rhythm.   To me,   I have to read the card every single time, and am hoplelessly lost as to what does what.  

Ahh thanks for the replies. Now if I am asked why it was suggested not to play X character in your first game I game give a much more solid reason than "Some people on the forums said it was a bad idea"

Nightmist is very powerful when you get a handle on her, but it's hard to know what cards to play when. It took me a few games to get good with her. The thing is with her that you're always juggling your cards and your hit points. Almost all of her effects require her to spend cards or hit points. A very frequent thing you find yourself doing is spending hit points for cards so that you can discard a card to gain hit points.

Perversely, she's actually more powerful in some respects when she has a damage penalty, or when she can't deal damage.

I had a very silly game earlier today where me and my brother were taking on the Advanced Ennead in Insula Primalis, we took down Nuit, and then the Ennead Incapacitated all three of the heroes who weren't Nightmist, who then proceeded to take down all eight surviving members of the Ennead, with the help of some friendly dinosaurs*. She had some real trouble the first time Mist Form got blown up, but made it through in the end. The whole thing wouldn't have been possible if Nightmist wasn't able to heal damage while being unable to play cards or use Powers.

That reminds me, the Ennead is not a very friendly bunch of enemies for newbies. Too many weird effects and implications for every card.

* A typical Environment turn went along the lines of: Nephthys is hit by a T-Rex. Three Raptors pull down Nephthys and Incapacitate her.

I kinda feel the same way about all three of the level three heroes; they have exactly two modes. They're either:

A) Amazing, fun to play, and a huge help to the team

B) Can't get the right cards, and are a complete crutch to the team, pretty much dead weight

And recently, it seems like Unity has been falling into these categories too. Every game we have her, she's always the first to die, and usually, it's pretty fast. Anyone else have this problem?

Though in Nightmist's case, the problem is usually she has to focus all of her attention on healing herself, and can't get around to a point where she's safe to help others. And even if we do make it to that point, she usually doesn't have enough cards to discard/use. But that's assuming she falls into category B in that game.

I find Nightmist and Argent Adept very useful, pretty much all of the time.  Absolute Zero... does fall apart sometimes.

For Argent Adept, it's the matter of his songs.  Even if he can't get elaborate combinations of them going, most of the Performs are very much worth a power phase, especially Sarabande of Destruction, Alacritous Subdominant, and Inspiring Supertonic.  That should get you to the point where he'll get out some modest three-card combo, and he'll start tearing things up.  Well, letting other people tear things up, but still. 

Nightmist hasn't disappointed me yet.  She's complex, to be sure.  I'm sorting through my thoughts for my next guide.  But she is easily far more effective than Absolute Zero's bad games.

It's not that I don't understand Nightmist.   It's not that she doesnt usually preform better than Zero, even on a bad day.   But I have a few very serious issues with her.

AA is pretty much always great as long as you know what you're doing with him, which can take a few plays.

Unity...    I feel Unity is the most OP hero in the entire game right now... easily.    Even surpassing Visionary.  Doubly (tripply) so if AA is on the team with her.     Bots are immune to equipment wipe,  which means very few characters (if any) are more resilent to stuff shutdown than Unity.   She might lose a supply crate or modular workbench,  no big deal.  Valuable Construction Pylons should pretty much be used on the turn you play them, so you wont lose one of those.   She has so... much... card drawing in her deck.   So much.   Supply crates, brainstorm, heck even Inspired Repair does the trick.  Flash Forge is amazing.

You go find yourself a Swift Bot, and then maybe a stealth bot and a raptor.   Get those out and you'll be pretty much set up for life.  Swift Bot garuntees obscene amounts of card draw, stealth keeps the other bots alive, and raptor dishes out 4 damage a turn purely with that setup.   I have had Unity's Army deal over 60 damage in a single turn before,  and the sick part was that she dealt another 60 the next round too.

When the WORST card in her deck is Hasty Augmentation,  you know there's something very strange going on.   

We share a love for Visionary, so try thinking of Nightmist like that.  Don't try to force the damage issue - lord knows Visionary was never very good at it.  Instead, focus on her tanking capability via Starshield Necklace, Mistform, and Amulet of the Elder Gods - which is, coincidentally, her best source for damage.  Stay alive, and continue to benefit the heroes with those outstanding support spells and Astral Premonition.  There's plenty of fun to be had without touching an offensive spell.  (Though I love Heedless Lash.)

I wouln't call Unity overpowered.  She's very strong, but the bots are vulnerable to global damage.  Most villains do that more than they do equipment wipes.  She's basically subject to a different set of circumstances that wrecks her offense.  She can build an army of epic proportions, but those Raptor Bots are easy to kill, and Stealth Bot can't be everywhere at once.  Of course, any villain that doesn't kill the Raptors deserves what is coming to them.

Yeah, Unity is definitely not overpowered for us. She does have the potential to be extremely strong, yes, but my group usually has games where her bots get destoryed before she can build up a lot of bots at once. And like I said, she (for some reason) ends up taking a serious amount of damage, usually dying, every game.

Never play as Unity against Plague Rat. It will only bring you misery.

I'm not sure whether or not I think Unity is overpowered, but I think that she is 'swingy', as I think has been mentioned or alluded to earlier. From what I've seen she tends to do little or A LOT, depending mostly on what cards she gets, but a fair bit on how much damage is being done to all hero targets or to the lowest hero targets.

Someone above commented on the utility of her only playing equipment when she's ready to use it, thus reducing the likelihood of Unity losing her equipment to other effects. This seems blindingly obvious in retrospect, but I don't think it had occurred to me.

Last night we broke out IR for the first time. Unity's bots were doing 47 damage per turn, automated. No tricks, no one shots, just 47 damage per turn on their own. Akash played three of her Living Rockslides back to back very early, and thus there was almost no AOE going on, and the bots just demolished her. I felt a little bad for the newbies in the game, because it was absurd.

To any villain with AoE though? You're in trouble.

Thats exactly what I'm saying.   I dunno, maybe I've had several back to back absurdly good games with her,  maybe the luck is just on my side...   But I dunno...

I will give you Plague Rat,   Unity would have trouble against PR because of the global irreduceable damage.    But General global damage attacks?   Eh.   Platform bots have DR1, and most "global" attacks deal 2 damage.  So a platform bot can actually soak 2 such attacks before going down on the 3rd one.   I'll skip over Bee Bot, Raptor Bot and Stealth Bot for now and come back to them later.....  now all the rest of her bots have 6+ hp,  meaning again, they can tank 2 global hits and be KO'd on the 3rd hit.   That is without Inspired Repair or any other healing effect taken into acount.

Bee Bot is pretty much there to die, so losing it isnt a big deal, and the ease of which it is destroyed is actually a perk.

Stealth Bot has 5 hp and DR1, which makes it the most durable bot there is, although its going to be taking damage.    Heroes?  Screw em.   Use the Stealth bot to keep your other bots alive,  the Heroes can take the damage...

Raptor Bot.   Raptor Bot is the only bot that is actually pretty vulnerable to Global attacks.  With 2 hp and 0 dr.   However this is offset by the fact that it does far and away the most rediculous damage.  And its damage (thus its usefulness) is based on how many other bots you have out.   Are you going to play the Raptor first?  Of course you're not.   You're going to wait until you have like  4 other bots out and then play it, minimizing the amount of time it can be destroyed.  If you can play it at the same time as Stealth Bot (not too hard with Robot Reclaimation and Flash Forge) then so much the better.

Whoa, I've never seen Unity get that ridiculous. For us, it's always a challenge to get 3 or 4 bots out in play at once. But 47 damage per turn? You must have had every single bot in play.

I second this. Unity is absurdly powerful. If you can keep her bots in play, the Raptors and Powered Shockwave will pretty much trivialize any villain.

Well, I've never had her in a game where she's been a real powerhouse. In my book, Ra is still the hero that can become the most absurdly powerful. But I guess it just depends on the games we've played.

Also, since apparently we're discussing the new heroes, I really like playing as Nightmist. I expected Argent Adept to be my favorite, but so far he's been pretty meh for me. I played all 5 of the new villains with him on the team every time, and every time I kept being amazed at how apathetic I was to him. Not only did I find it very difficult to get a combination of instruments and songs that were effective, but when I did (Rhapsody of Vigor, the rhythm that lets someone play a card, and the drum) I just did that every single turn, so he got boring and repetitve. Maybe I'm just missing something (like I was the first few times I played as Haka) but as far as I can tell he's not my favorite.

Nightmist, on the other hand... MAN I love her. Master of magic lets you heal when you play a spell, the one amulet lets you heal at the end of your turn, and the other amulet lets you deflect the damage you deal yourself from the spell to someone else. And then the spells usually either do a bunch of damage or just have a powerful effect. I can barely think of a couple cards I almost never use (Elder Tome, Scouring Mists, Mist form) but even they aren't BAD. I've just never had low health (multiple instances of healing) and usually have a decent amount of cards in my hand so I haven't had a reason to use them. I don't really like Scouring Mists, though. It's like Sonic Vortex. I'm not a fan of "Do X targets 3 damage" cards. I'd rather have something like Heedless Lash that deals one target a bunch of damage.

The sad thing is? I didn't. I was missing at least one, possibly two or three. But I know we didn't have Turret Bot out, and think I was mising a bee bot or two.

Well, if Unity has every bot in play, then her maximum damage, assuming no external buffs, and nobody killing Bee Bots or hurting Cryo Bot for simplicity, is 64.

Turret Bot and 3 Platform Bots at 4 each (thanks to Champion Bot) for 16.

Three Raptor Bots with 14 bots out, for 16 each (thanks to Champion Bot) for 48.

That's seven sources of damage, so Ra and Legacy can add a bunch to that.

...for doing nothing yes.   If she plays say, Powered Shockwave, (or two, thanks to Swift Bot...) that can add a lot.  Brainstorm can add small amounts of damage too.   

But thats just for lolz,  I usually find that if you get enough bots out to make Powered Shockwave really good, you're dishing out so much damage with bots that the shockwave is almost superflous.    Though it did let me knock Omnitron down from 5 hp at the start of Unity's turn to -57 by the end of it once.

Argent Adept can do some crazy stuff with Inspiring Supertonic and Telamon's Lyra. The Harp lets him add continuous no-cost self-healing to that combo. Counterpoint Bulwark on the highest HP and lowest HP Hero is a strong play. Also, out of turn card play for Unity, Mr. Fixer, Fanatic and Nightmist is really really strong. And out of turn powers + Absolute Zero can be awesome as well. And he can let any Hero put one card from their discard pile on top of their deck, draw it and play it all on his turn. (Requires Inspiring Supertonic, Counterpoint Bulwark, Inventive Preparation, Telamon's Lyra, Xu's Bell and one of the many copies of Vernal Sonata you will doubtless draw every game.)

As for Nightmist, I really like the Tome of Elder Magic. It's a lifesaver when your health does go really low, which does happen the odd game, as you can add to your hand size, which redirecting the damage from using your base power doesn't let you do.

Can you actually stck Tome of Elder Magic and use two of them at once? My friend plays Nightmist and would like to know.

Tome of Elder Magic is limited, so only 1 copy can in play. Plus you need a way to use two powers, such as Fanatic playing Embolden on NightMist.

You can have two in play at once, but you can't use both their powers as one power use. If you have something letting you use an extra power on your turn, like Fanatic's Embolden or the Pillars of Hercules, you can use both power uses to use both Tomes of Elder Magic, but you can't then use another power.

Is this a recent rule because our Tome of Elder Magic just says "Equipment, Relic" are Relics all limited or can you just play one of each relic?

Nope, Ronway is just wrong this time out.

But he is right about needing the ability to use two power in a turn.

Oh, my mistake, I had thought that it was a limited like the rest of her relics. In that case, if both were in play along with a way to use an additional power then both Tomes can be used.

Edit: Wow, who did I tick off to have two folks immediatly want to jump in and say I was wrong?

I believe Ronway has it wrong. Relic has no innate effect, it's just there so other things (eg. Call Forth) can refer to it.

It's just such a rare occurence that we thought we should acknowledge it 

Plus, you did ninja me…

Also, since we're apparently resurrecting a year-old thread, I would like to retract my earlier statement; Argent Adept is now in my top 4, leagues-above-the-rest favorite heroes, alongside Nightmist, The Sentinels, and Setback. As I suspected, it just took me a while to get used to how his combos worked. Once I got them down, I realized that he is a support-class POWERHOUSE.

on a slightly related note, I'd like to give everyone a friendly forewarning not to write Setback off right away. At first glance, he seems to live up to his name all too well, but... well, he's in my top 4 for a reason. He's a total, game-saving badass under the right circumstances (which USUALLY seem to pop up whenever I play with him. Huh. Lucky, I guess.)

It's not everyday we get to turn it around the other way and declare that you are wrong.

Plus, you know, you were wrong.  It's an event worth remembering.

Years from now when we are anticipating the release of an expansion that turns every hero into teenagers that each have a superpowered pet we'll look across the nursing home table and say, "Hey, you remember that one time when Ronway was wrong, that was a hoot!"

RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG RONWAY WAS WRONG

And Ronway, you know we all do this because we love you, right?

I would recommend Insula Primalis over Megalopolis for a first game; Megalopolis does have Rooftop Combat, which shuts off the Enviro deck for several turns and thus reduces distraction, but it also has the immensely frustrating Hostage Situation and Paparazzi cards that stop the new player from being able to do both their phases, which they still need to understand (especially which order to do them in).  Insula is fun and not terribly dangerous (usually); it should give the players some idea of what the Environment is capable of, without actually taking the game over the way Wagner Marsbase and Metropolis can.

Baron Blade as first villain is spot-on, although Omnitron might be a viable alternative.  Definitely play the other one in the second game, unless your players are already showing boredom after the first one.  (If they are getting bored, bust out Citizen Dawn!)  Ambuscade is also an easy villain who looks much less impressive after the first few games (along perhaps with Gloomweaver and Spite; pretty much all the others are hard enough that you should save them for when the players are getting used to the game.)  Your hero choices are also good, with the exception of Visionary...she is definitely a more advanced option.  Tachyon is very grokkable and tons of fun, because of how many extra card plays she gets; Haka is also reasonably straightforward.

Visionary, Bunker and Absolute Zero are good heroes for you to play during those early games, so that new players can see what the more sophisticated heroes are capable of, but don't have to suffer the potential frustration and cognitive load of playing them right away.  Also: under no circumstances should a new player be allowed to play Unity.  While immensely powerful and fun, she's easily the most likely to frustrate a player who hasn't wrapped their brain around the game yet...all the cards you're not allowed to just play are likely to force the player to spend their first turn or two just drawing two cards, and then they're not really learning or accomplishing anything.

Why Fanatic exactly?  I can't think of a card from her deck which is especially interesting out of turn.  Also, if you're mentioning Mr. Fixer because of Overdrive, then you really ought also to mention Expatriette with Unload, which requires a Gun in play but is vastly more powerful if you have several of them.

Ra is far from the most powerful character.  About his best play without external aid is Flame Spike into Blazing Tornado and Drawn to the Flame (if there are enough Ongoings to make that effective), which is nothing compared to what Absolute Zero can get with a really good run on Thermal Shockwave or Coolant Blast with an Isometric Transducer down.  Ra's advantage is not being superlatively powerful, but just being easily able to attain the amount of power he does contain.  No hero is easier to pilot, which makes him perfect for learning the game, though most players seem to lose interest in him once they're used to the fancier and more complicated heroes.

Fanatic has at least a couple cards that are good out of turn; Prayer of Desperation, for one, and Zealous Offense for another. Also, Smite the Transgressor.

Also, Ra can become an absolute BEAST once you stack up his buffs. his Solar Flares are stackable, btw. Also, using Drawn to the Flame against enemies with lots of targets (Voss, Ennead, Dawn) or lots of ongoing cards (Plague Rat, DAWN) allows him to stack up the damage REALLY fast.

You're right that both essentially give an extra Power use when played out of turn compared to when played in turn, but for Expatriette, playing it out of turn basically lets her use her worst attack an extra time, while Mr. Fixer gets to play his best attack an extra time. Also, out-of-turn Overdrive can let Mr. Fixer stack up a -3 damage penalty on someone with Hoist Chain, or absolutely murder someone with Bloody Knuckles.

And Mr. Fixer has more Overdrives in his deck than Expatriette has Unloads in hers, plus he can use Salvage Yard to effectively play them again.

Mr. Fixer also much prefers to play Grease Gun  out of turn than on-turn, for the same reasons Fanatic prefers to play Prayer of Desperation out of turn.

In my view, the strong Expatriette-Argent Adept comboes are letting Expatriette draw more cards so she can get better use out of Speed Loading, and letting her play multiple RPG Launchers in a single turn, or RPG Launcher + Flak Jacket.

Note that with some damage buffs (easy enough for him to get), there don't even need to be any villain ongoing cards in play for Ra to still nuke everything nicely ;). Scorched Earth is the same story, and you can do both in one turn with absoltely no external help :).

Also Drawn to the Flame isn't limited. So you could Flame Spike into two Drawn to the Flames which can be pretty horrendous with buffs and the right target.

Ooh yes, good point. That versus the Ennead would be pretty damn amazing (but I expect that's kind of the point, given their status toward each other) :D.

That's true only because Fixer has only one attack.  And it's not usually very good.  My favorite trick with Expat is to have both Pride and Prejudice in play (admittedly difficult, but far from impossible with Quick Draw and Arsenal Access, compared to Fixer's odds of finding a particular Tool), so Unload allows you to use two powers - one of which is both Pride and Prejudice, and the other lets you play a card.  (If you played a second Unload this way, would you get to use two powers again, or does "you may use X powers this turn" fail to stack?  I can see an argument for saying that the second card counts you as having already used up all the options it gives you.)

So, does the nemesis rule count as a +1 bonus to 0 damage, or do you need to have another such bonus to make it damage at all, to which Nemesis then applies?

A second Unload wouldn't do much, since you can't use a power twice anyways. The only use I could see is if you have extra powers from the Tomb of Anubis.

You don't need an additional boost to get the Nemesis bonus damage.

This usually isn't worth it. If you have a card to play, it would be much better to play it during you play phase, then use Load to play Unload. This way, if the card is a gun or ammo, you would still gain something from it. If the card isn't a gun or ammo, then there is no practical difference if you play it before or after, unless you have an ammo you specifically don't want to go off this turn, EDIT: It would also make  difference when you play Flak Jacket if the enemy has a counter-attack.

Um…duh?  You can play one card with this trick and then another one on your play phase.  If you have lots of cards in hand, this is totally useful.

Scenario 1:  Granted an out-of-turn play, Expat plays Flak Jacket.  On her turn, she plays Hair-Trigger Reflexes, Loads an Unload, and then fires Pride and Prejudice as her one remaining power for the turn.

Scenario 2:  Granted an out-of-turn play, Expat plays Unload, fires Pride and Prejudice, and Loads a Flak Jacket, and fires Pride and Prejudice.  On her turn, she plays Hair-Trigger Reflexes, then fires Pride and Prejudice again.  Profit!  (Thanks to Matchstick Man for pointing out that the order matters.)

then use Load to play Unload.

If you do that, Loading the Unload counts toward your total powers for the turn, so with P&P in play, you only get one more.

If you use P&P then you have used 2 powers, if you have only P&P in play Unload does not allow you to use P&P and then Load, only Load and then P&P

Pride does not give you an extra power use in the same way that Unload does , it allows you to use Prejudice but it still counts as a power use for purposes of 'counting'

My mistake. I didn't read it carefully. I didn't realize taht we were talking about using it out of turn.