So to give you a little backstory I tried to convince my fiance to play multiple card games, ranging from MTG to Yu-Gi-OH to Pokemon etc. etc. Needless to say she hated all of them and when I said "oh hey I got this awesome new card game" she was a little leary. I don't blame her. I've watched videos of people playing it and I thought it would be something that she enjoys so I convinced her to sit down and play with me. It was just the 2 of us and she didn't want to control another person so we ended up having 3 heroes. The setup we used was Baron Blade non advanced, Me playing Legacy and Ra and her playing Fanatic(she read the backstory of all the female superheroes and picked one she liked the most). As the game progressed she got more and more used to the point where about halfway through she was like "its the villains turn now" and "its enviroment turn now" for enviroment we had the dinosaur one whatever that one is called. Despite how complex Fanatic was she really enjoyed the game, saying "shes kindof weird about dealing damage to herself, but I would definately play it again." Gameplay with those 3 heroes was really enjoyable against baron blade, He got to about 10 or so cards before he flipped and we had the tension of "lets get him before he wins!" not to mention the enviroment screwed us of any equipment cards we may have had. It was a huge success to introduce her to this wonderful game. She even wants to try other Femme Fatale heroes and see which one she likes the most. If you have a new player I would highly recommend this setup to get them introduced to the game, Legacy is a super easy character to play and it doesn't take much thought even for a new player to play him. He literally just buffs the team, restrains the villain and deals a little damage here and there. Ra is a straight up damage dealer, feels like your playing a Fire Lightning deck from magic except with more helpful spells than just burning the place up. Fanatic is a little weird to play, but given how my fiance played her she's pretty flexable, most of the time when she drew she got a card that locked down an opponent or let one of her allies do another power all at the expense of Fanatic's life. Fanatics sword is abosultely amazing for new players coupled with legacy she was dealing a good 8 or so damage a turn due to Legacy's buffs and she felt good doing it. She also had a card that reduced damage coming in or makes her opponent get delt the same amount of damage. Very good first game and I highly recommend it for new players, sense of urgency was there and Legacy almost died. but the other two healed pretty well and didn't really have much of a problem.
Awesome Setup for New Players
Baron Blade in Insula Primalis is largely regarded as the ideal first game, it seems. Fanatic is not a hero generally recommended for newbies, however; kudos to your sweetie for figuring her out right away.
Welcome to the forums!
I've played six games with my daughter. She played Tachyon once, then Wraith twice, but she loves Fanatic and player her three times.
Thats because Fanatic is the best there is!
In my experience, a lot of players would not understand at first why it's advantageous for Fanatic to hurt herself. Also there are a lot of incremental tactical decisions that go with cards like Sanctifying Strike and Holy Nova, and cards like Zealous Offense or Divine Focus give you a lot of potential to misunderstand how they work (like missing the non-character part of ZO, or playing it on a turn when it instantly destroys itself and having to be told to put it back into your hand and play something else...a new player likely has a limited tolerance for that sort of admonition). I would definitely always start by letting them play someone like Legacy, and me play someone like Fanatic, rather than the reverse, unless i know them well enough to be sure they would find him boring. Even then, I'd probably point them toward a 2 rather than a 3; Bunker is intricate and fun, but doesn't have the counterintuitive moments that AZ or Fanny does.
I tend to hand new players characters with heavy, reliable (or at least semi-reliable) nukes. Fanatic is one of them. I find that nuking is one of the most satisfying parts of the game.
Not everyone thinks that self damage in counter-intuitive though. Thats not an inherent aspect of the mechanic. I think a good deal of people have more than enough witts about them to put the pieces together. Her self damage is pretty straight forward honestly. AZ, not so much. But I wouldnt ever just assume someone else isn't mentally capable of piecing it together themselves. That attitude tends to manifest itself as elitism.
Tachyon has a nuke, plus she's just tons of fun, letting you play all those extra cards. Her only weakness is a limited card flow; if Visionary or Argent is in the game to feed her cards, she's just the awesomest awesome there is. I consider her an excellent newbie hero, possibly second only to Ra in that regard.
Glad you both had a great time playing your first game! There are three more (awesome) female heroes in the expansions that I'm sure your wife will look forward to, and plenty coming in the Vengeance expansion next month.
I've found that successfully getting players into the game comes from a few aspects:
- Choose a hero you think fits their playstyle. If your friend hates being the support character in other games, chances are he won't like it in this game either. Some people just need to be the one dealing all the damage to have fun. They'd be better off picking Tempest or Ra. If someone likes to be a Jack of All trades, Wraith is a great option.
- Don't tell them what to do. Make sure they understand the rules and definitely guide them if they make a decision that isn't legal, but let them choose their own course of action. Don't say "Oh, well you have this card, so you'll want to play that card because your deck contains this other card and you can search for it in order to bring out that first card, etc." It gives them the impression that the game isn't about tough choices and instead is about playing the "perfect" card every turn. It also makes you seem like a control freak. Yes, you may lose the game. Baron Blade may smear your team into the ground because your friend "should have" played this card or that card. But they'll have more fun losing and making their own decisions than being quarter-backed through the whole game.
- Avoid Megalopolis on the first time. There is a lot that ceases gameplay (can't play cards) that ruins the flow, especially when they're learning new rules and getting used to the phases.
- Play a second game immediately upon ending the first. Now your friends will have a full grasp of the rules and getting into another round right away will keep that momentum flowing. Don't allow them to judge Sentinels based on their first game; think of that as a practice round. Game 2 is when it gets real. That's when they'll start looking for combos and start voicing their input to help everyone make good plays. Feeling like they're actively contributing and better understanding the mechanics will make them love the game even more.
Great advice!
Agree with Danmarshall14 on everything he said.
I tend to go Blade/Primalis then Voss/Wagner. It is a step up in difficulty, and shows pretty much all the basic mechanics Sentinels has in two games.
Baron has a great thematic feel to him, that rush to save the earth is awesome, and the "How dare you thwart my plans!" side is fun. Then Voss is great for just smashing things as much as you can to try and get to the boss.
Fanatic is just a great hero, she is easily accessible enough (although I tend to avaoid Legacy because she ends up just exorcising everything for massive damage) I love the thought of Fanatic Legacy though, Fanatic flying in destroying everything while Legacy stands in the background cheering, "Go Helena, smash another villain!" She has all kinds of possible combos and complexity, so she has great replay value, you can do great with her without understanding all she has to offer, then when you really understand her deck she's just an insane engine of destruction. She also has the best backstory of pretty much any comic book hero ever.
I really like Silver Gulch. What villian do you think would work well with Gulch as a first time play?
Any of them!
Just be mindful of incoming lightning damage. Those broken water troughs are highly conductive.
I think The Chairman can work well there thematically... if you just reimagine some of the outfits.
La Capitan works well with the timey-wimeyness too.
Omnitron because, well giant evil robot can fit anywhere...
Since Silver Gulch is essentially the Guardian of Forever environment, pretty much everything works there. I particularly like using Ambuscade there against Bunker, Expatriette, and Chrono-Ranger. Gunslingers galore!
I realise I'm bringing this thread back from the grave a bit, but does anyone have a suggestion as to a first-time player friendly villain from the Rook City and Infernal relics set? I've just got it as an early birthday present and would like to play a game using some of the new stuff, but one of the players has never played before and another hasn't played many games so I don't want anything too complicated. (It'll be a three hero game if that makes a difference). Would Apostate, Plague rat or Gloomweaver be reasonable choices?
Gloomweaver is the easiest in my opinion. Unless you're playing the new promo version.
We use Plague Rat for demos all the time. I agree Gloomweaver would be another good choice.
For environments, though, I'd recommend Pike Industrial. The Tomb of Anubis would probably work, also, but it's probably more deadly - at least in my experience. The stats might say something different… 
Original Gloomy is definitely the easiest. Rat can either pound you into a fine paste or have his arse handed to him on a plate (the latter is fairly likely if Chrono Ranger is in the party - I've never lost a game against Rat when playing ol' Jim :)). Similarly, Apostate can be pretty easy or he can mess you up with a badly-timed (for you) Profane Summons, or with an Apocalypse that you don't have the means to deal with before it goes off. Playing Fanatic when you have damage buffs against him can be pretty good fun (actually, the same goes for Chrono Ranger versus Rat) :D.
Environment-wise, I tend to find the Realm of Discord isn't too bad (though possibly not for a first-time thing as it has plenty of cards which alter the game state). The Tomb of Anubis isn't too nasty either, unless it manages to get a whole bunch of cards out (quite likely to happen if fighting the Matriarch). But a few at a time can usually be managed okay. Pike isn't too bad but it can have its painful moments if certain cards come up together. Stay away from Rook City if you want an easy game - it's the worst environment of the lot ;).
Of this set, Gloomweaver is the most newbie-friendly, followed by Apostate and then Plague Rat. Stay away from Spite - he's far less difficult than the other Rook City villains, but he's rather boring and frustrating and definitely does not make a good first impression. Akash'bhuta is not difficult, but her high HP can be daunting to newbies who don't yet know about her Primeval Limbs essentially being separately-targetable parts of her own HP. The Ennead are strange, potentially quite entertaining, but a number of otherwise-strong cards are useless against them because they have no non-character-card targets, so they're another one that's not ideal for one of your first few games. The Matriarch is extremely dangerous, though solvable. And avoid the Chairman at all costs, until your group consider themselves experts and are ready for a HUGE challenge.
For environments, you unfortunately have very few good choices. Pike Industrial can be dangerous, but is the safest of the four by far. Realm of Discord is all over the map and throws you way too many curveballs to be a good starting point. Tomb of Anubis is extremely deadly, and Rook City is worse; steer clear of both of these. If you're able to buy, I would definitely recommend picking up the environment mini-expansions, Silver Gulch and the Final Wasteland; they will help a lot, as neither is incredibly dangerous (though certainly both can pose a threat). Mostly, though, all the easiest and most innocuous environments are in the Enhanced Edition.
Thanks for the advice everyone! I didn't see any of the replies before we played so we ended up fighting Apostate in the Realm of Discord (that was the first environment I played in myself and I didn't remember it being too bad) which was interesting enough to lead to tactical discussions without become overly complicated to manage. (New person was playing Tempest, less experienced player was playing Fanatic and I played Fixer which worked really well as I got the irreducible damage style in my starting hand and then got a tool and Harmony in the next 3 turns).
We played Baron Blade in Insular Primalis after that so I could have a go with the Argent Adept without getting too confused as well (with others playing Tachyon and Expat).