Defeating Every Villain

I currently have very little to do, and thus have decided to attempt to defeat every Sentinels villain I own (everything excluding Vengeance, Ambuscade and Miss Information, plus a couple of fan-made ones) on advanced before every hero gets incapacitated. I've also decided (albeit three games in) to keep a log of this challenge.

Game 1 - Citizen Dawn VS Fanatic, Unity, Omnitron-X, Haka IN The Ruins of Atlantis

This one started out okay; Unity had some trouble getting bots, but Omni had plenty of stuff and the other two were both holding their own. With four Citizens down, it was tense, but then Haka pulled out Savage Mana and started Citizen-nomming.

Then the Kraken ate a fifth Citizen, and all hell broke loose. We struggled valiantly on, actually managing to avoid That Card and its associated heartache (I later discovered that its two copies were the bottom two cards of the deck), but in the end the onslaught of Citizens proved too much for our heroes, and they perished. Score one to the bad guys.

Game 2 - Kismet VS Expatriette, [Fan-Made Hero], Bunker, Ra IN The Realm of Discord

I can recall little of this game, but the heroes won quite handily. Go heroes!

Game 3 - La Capitan VS Tempest, Ra, [Fan-Made Hero], Legacy IN The Final Wasteland

This is the game that inspired me to start logging these, because it was a whitewash. Round one saw Imbued Fire and Inspiring Presence enter play, which along with Galvanise meant a +3 damage for everyone (except Legacy) by round 2. Tempest dropped a couple of Vicious Cyclones as fodder while tearing apart La Capitan's minions with his Squall, before boosting his damage slightly with a Grievous Hail Storm; Ra Scorched Earthed to smash some minions, then got out his Staff; the fan-made hero gave Tempest a damage boost for a round and boosted his own damage quite a bit, all whille repeatedly stabbing Cappy; and Legacy played Flying Smash and Thokk! to break lots of things. Tempest and Ra played Ball Lightning and Fire Blast on round four to end it - poor La Capitan didn't even get to flip.

Game 4 - Plague Rat VS Ra, Absolute Zero, Chrono-Ranger, The Wraith IN The Block

Plague Rat's first play in this game is an Infection. On Chrono-Ranger. Tee hee. Ra starts burning things, AZ starts burning himself, and Chrono plays The Ultimate Target. Wraith, for her part, Throat Jabs.

Afflicted Frenzy means the CR is dishing out rather a lot of damage now, not all of it good. In terms of damage to Plague Rat though, Wraith is currently matching him, with Razor Ordnance and Micro-Targeting Computer in play. Oh, and a Prison Riot is making the environment look really rather dangerous now...

Three of our heroes our putting out great deals of damage now: Ra drops a Scorched Earth to great effect, a now-infected AZ is splashing damage all over the damn place, and the Wraith has lots of sharp knives to throw. Our dear Chrono-Ranger, on the other hand, is entirely failing to draw the cards he needs to turn himself into a damage-dealing machine, and is thus just slowly dying of his infection. At least the others dealt with the Riot, preventing Char from burning him to death.

Round 4, and the Rat's on his last legs now, but so are AZ and CR. The former dies at the start of his turn, but with his dying he inspires Chrono-Ranger to take one last shot at the Rat, plinking it to death. Game four goes to the heroes, but at the cost of Absolute Zero.

Fun! How are you choosing hero, villain and environements?

Spiff's Randomiser, which is a fun and useful thing. In particular, it lets me untick heroes and villains as they get knocked out, which is nice.

How are you adding the fan-made heroes to it?

I'm using promo heroes in place of them in the randomiser.

Now I'm curious on what are these fan-made heroes?

Look up The Cauldron on BoardGameGeek. They're pretty cool; they work quite well and the art is similar to Adam's.

oh yes actually I know about them, but just concerned with the balance when mixed with the official cards, from what was said on the thread it seems to be playtested minimally with official set. Glad to hear that it worked out fine.

Well, I don't know if they're perfectly balanced, but they're fun! Anyways, I now have Vengeance (:D), so they shall be added into the mix now... This does mean I now need to randomise environment by die roll though, since I now have all the environments plus one.

Game 5 - Citizen Dawn VS Ra, [Fan-Made Hero], [Fan-Made Hero], The Naturalist IN Rook City

So, having been trounced once by Dawn, we're now fighting her again in the hardest environment in the game. Oh, goodie. And she's starting with Truth and Anvil. This can only end well.

Well, the Citizens do get dealt with fairly handily, but now we have four in the trash... The Naturalist is getting pretty well set up for tanking, but otherwise things look ready to go bad at a moment's notice. Battery is the next one out, which is okay, and Twisting Back Aleys brings out a Return With The Dawn which, while annoying, buys us some leeway to stop her flipping. Of course, it also plays a second Twisting Back Alleys, which in turn plays a Devastating Aurora, but you can't have everything. You also can't have cards in your hand, according to Blinding Blasts and Citizen Tears.

This is rapidly turning into a lost cause. Truth is back, the field is plastered with villain ongoings, and Dawn has 50HP while the rest of us are on single digits. The Naturalist goes down a round later, and the others are not far behind.

Game 6 - The Matriarch VS [Fan-Made Hero], The Sentinels, Bunker, K.N.Y.F.E. IN Pike Industrial Complex

So, two new heroes here. At least I get to try them out in a nice, easy, low-pressure situation...

Well, so far Mainstay and the fan-made hero are doing rather well at bird-tanking, though a Checmical Explosion means Mainstay is looking rather the worse for wear. Still, that's why we have healers, right? [Aside: I think Team Communication may be a contender for best card in the game. I mean, wowzers. Plus Unique Capabilities rivals Impromptu Invention. Man, I like the Sentinels.] 

We're now getting to the point here every hero has damage reduction, and a Biomemetic Plasma Vat is providing more damage reduction, and everyone except Mainstay and the fan-made hero are on full health. That said, The Matriarch is on 67, and Huginn and Muninn have just shown up... Along with lots of birds. Ow.

VAT EXPLOSION. OW OW OW OW OW.

What follows is an incredibly tense game of trying to keep everyone alive and hoping Matty doesn't play Darken The Sky. Two Sentinels go down and are raised again, and Bunker charges his Omnicannon... In the end, we're lucky. The sky never darkens and we inch out a victory.

All the more reason to actually try them out and well get your own input in as far as balance is concerned. I see it as an open source project the more people that give feedback the more those decks will be tuned. That said I am waiting for the semi-complete stamp before printing and brobably will be commenting more after.

I have done this. It was fun. Only villains I still have to beat on advanced promo gloom and promo spite as well as the v5. Haven’t had a chnce for the first two but I have lost to the v5 twice.

Game 7 - Spite VS Mr. Fixer, [Fan-Made Hero], The Scholar, Nightmist IN The Wagner Mars Base

A part of me really wants to try to take down Spite pre-flip, but I have the Scholar and Nightmist on my team. Clearly, I'm meant to be tanking. Also, his very first card play is Omicron... The heroes play pretty conservatively, as would be expected, saving victims where they can and generally preparing for the flip. There's a Forced Entry at one point, but apart from that it seems to be fairly plain sailing.

Then Spite flips, and... Meteor Storm. Huh. So all that victim-saving was for nothing... Fantastic. Anyway, he destroys it in short order, and then the beat-down starts. Fixer gets out Bloody Knuckles, the fan-made hero is dealing damage every time Spite does (which is a lot), The Scholar is juggling four Elemental forms, and Nightmist... well, I'm not very good at paying Nightmist, but she seems to be doing okay. Spite fights on, in his eminently predictable way, but the heroes seem to have things under control, and sure enough the game ends with the serial killer vanquished.

Game 8 - Gloomweaver VS Tachyon, The Scholar, The Wraith, Parse IN The Ruins of Atlantis

Right, so no fewer than three of my heroes deal mostly in melee and projectile damage. Guess this is going to be a relic-breaking game then.

Our setup is fairly slow, so the zombies get to hang about for a while, and we get Ronwayed to boot, but pretty soon the field is clear. Plus, Parse has Extrasensory Awareness, which should allow us to trash any Relics before they even enter play. The environment is being a tad annoying, but it's nothing we can't deal with.

Pouch Of Bones is the first relic to pop up, unfortunately entering play after a shuffle rather than being harmlessly discarded, but it's a fairly tame one as long as it doesn't spend too long out. Grimoire of Curses appears later the same round, banished by Parse, and a friendly neighbourhood Kraken starts chowing down on the Pouch. A Leaking Room and two Profane Zealots slow us down somewhat, but the Drum hits the trash a round later, and things are now looking very good for the heroes. Two Lightspeed Barrages later, Gloomweaver is out.

What does it mean to be "Ronwayed"?

I believe in this case, a wild Cursed Acolyte has appeared, ready for some skull cracking!

Because the Cursed Acolyte is Ronway, in case that wasn't clear. Like the Broker is Arenson's lovely wife. 

Game 9 - Apostate VS Expatriette, [Fan-Made Hero], Parse, The Sentinels IN The Ruins of Atlantis

Apostate opens with a Profane Summons, which is annoying, especially since it brings out the Runes of Malediction and the Corrupted Effigy. I mean, it could be worse, but it's not ideal. Expat has crap, but can't draw because of the Tome of the Unknowable; pretty much ditto for the fan-made hero. Parse has Reveal The Flaws, though, which is incredibly useful, as is a Telekinetic Wallop from The Idealist and a Hallway Collapse.

Apostate's next play is a Remorseless Provocation followed by an Apocalypse; not nice, exactly, but something we can deal with. Expat does double-draw this time, as do the fan-made hero and Parse. Not The Idealist though; she's feeling positively stabby!

Apostate's next trick is an Imp Pilferer; not the best play just after an Apocalypse, unless your opponent has relics, which we don't. The Orb of Delirium comes after that, which is less than dangerous when it's the only relic on the field... The damage from Fallen Angel is useful, but still not much, and his health is getting lower and lower. It's over not long after that.

Also, the Deupty is Arenson himself, I believe. And the Profane Acolyte is erm...AWP-something (I think? Err sorry I can't remember your exact name now :(). And the guy being zapped by Apostate in Remorseless Provocation is PWatson. And probably a whole bunch of other people are in cards I can't remember right now.

Anyway, about Apostate...when the Orb is the only thing out that's nice...but if the other relics are ones that aren't too bad (the gauntlets or something), it's okay too because those other relics aren't in danger of getting anyone killed too quickly, and if anyone has any AE damage they can target other relics as well as the Orb and thus hit the Orb multiple times via the redirection, whittling it down faster >:).

Yeah I used a shock rounds combined with obsidian fields and inspiring presence to kill the orb as well as almost killing 2 other relics one time. It was awesome

I think the wiki has some of the currently-public references. At least if folks have said it's okay for it to be public. Just look for the card and it'll have the person.

Unfortunately, Profane Acolyte isn't listed, though…

We killed Ronway twice tonight. It was awesome. 

Game 10 - The Vengeful Four (Baron Blade, Fright Train, Proletariat, Friction) VS [Fan-Made Hero], The Argent Adept, Nightmist, Chrono-Ranger IN The Wagner Mars Base

I'm not much of a Nightmist fan, but man is Planar Banishment useful against the Vengeful Five. Aside from that, very little happens in the first round, save for some heroes getting damaged. Round two brings a Vengeful Assault, however, and grows Prol's clone army to five men strong. Then, Villainous Weaponry. It's not looking good for our heroes... Nightmist retreats into Mist Form, just before a Synergy Surge happens.

The first card it plays is Old Tricks - New Allies. Ow. The Crackjaw Crew, The Radioactivist, Sneaky Sidestep, Unstoppable Momentum, Defensive Formation (which will stop Prol from suiciding), and Friction finishes off with a Blinding Surge, destroying Mistform. Owww.

We rally, as best we can. Villainous Weaponry breaks, and we manage to lower a Proletariat's health to 1 so that the main guy can kill himself. If Nightmist can Mistform again, perhaps the others (with the help of an Oxygen Leak) can kill themselves also... She makes it in, with a Starshield Necklace in play, which is promising. For now.

Friction offs the first hero; Fan-Made is out. Chrono and Argent follow quickly, taken out by the Oxygen Leak. Just Nightmist now... Nightmist with a gun, apparently. Fan-made can boost her damage by 1, Argent can boost hero projectile damage by 1, and Chrono can let Nightmist deal 1 target 3 projectile damage.

The Self-Destruct Sequence is a bit of a problem, admittedly... Also Choke, who destroys the Starshield Necklace. And, eventually, Blinding Surge, leaving Nightmist standing against three of the Vengeful Five. But then, Oxygen Leaks tear through, destroying the villains and leaving Nightmist alive on 3HP.