Final Showdown - X-Cutioner's Song

Finishing up this week's session reports on my solo Legendary campaign (as described here). This campaign centers around the content in Dark City. I decided I would limit my choices of heroes to exclusively the Dark City options.  Last time, the Mastermind was able to narrowly defeat me, and I didn't want a repeat of those events, so was excited for this last chapter.

Scenario 4 & Final Showdown: X-Cutioner's Song
Mastermind: Apocalypse
Villains: Four Horsemen and Streets of New York
Hero Villain: Hulk
Henchmen: Phalanx + Mr. Sinister, Mephisto and Kingpin Mastermind cards

**Note, I screwed up and forgot to add the phalanx henchmen, which I believe made this scenario harder, as the hulk hero cards were more common.

For this scheme, a hero set (The Hulk) is mixed into the villain deck. and the hero is captured like a bystander (there are no bystanders mixed in). This makes the villain harder (+2 attack). Defeating the villain does gain you the hero, so the Hulk was a nice addition to my setup. The scheme twists KO all the captured heroes (Hulks). When 9 non-SHIELD heroes are KO'd, you lose. To make matters worse a lot of the baddies KO cards. A lot of them have a "other players reveal and KO" actions in fights - in this version of playing solo, "other players reveal" means flip over cards from the hero stack - which is a guaranteed KO. I also got a nasty surprise when I attacked Apocalypse...

My hero setup was: Angel, Bishop, Cable, Domino, and Colossus. Turns out that Colossus and the Hulk played well with each other - I was generating a ton of attack pretty early on. Angel was doing his thing and I was drawing a ton of cards and it felt like things were going to be easy. I was wrong.

The Masterstrike cards with Apocalypse basically force you to put any non-SHIELD starter cards back on your deck. At least three time I basically had 0-1 cards left in hand. Wasted turns are never good. Then, I got more bad news. The first time I attacked Apocalypse, three heroes got KO'd. Ugh. I had to hope that crap wasn't going to happen the whole time. The second time I attacked Apocalypse the card revealed said that if it wasn't the last Mastermind card, rescue six bystanders and put the Mastermind card back in the stack! I got this card THREE TIMES. If my heroes had taken advantage of the number of bystanders I had, I'd have finished in record time as I had at least 25 bystanders rescued very quickly.

Unfortunately for me, this is what actually happened - I pulled a hand and ended up with 27 attack. There were two cards left in the Apocalypse stack. I pulled the card I wanted (ie, not the one that had to be last) and that card KO'd two heroes from "other player's hands". That brought the KO total up to nine and I lost the scenario with 15 attack left, which would have taken out the last card and won the scenario. So very close. Frustratingly close.

My deck ended up a mix of Colossus, Angel, Hulk and sprinkling of Domino. Maybe 1 each of Bishop and Cable. Interestingly, I did not end up with more than 1 card of cost 5+. Being able to draw a lot of cards that were doing between 3-6 attack each was plenty of offense. Colossus is a great hero if you have the ability to mitigate wounds. He will generate a lot of them, so you have to be careful if you use him in certain scenarios.

The campaign ended up being a 2-2 affair, but was fun. Working against Masterminds and villain stacks that I'm not used to playing while managing hero rosters is a pretty decent way to play Legendary solo. If you are interested in the solo rules - check it out on BGG.

Marvel Legendary continues to impress me each time I play it. The schemes are taken from major story lines and somehow have managed to capture the essence each time. I'm probably going to plow forward with creating my own four scenario campaign based on the Civil War set next. I'll detail it out so that others can play along if they want. Until next time - make mine Marvel!

Be sure to check us out at PunchBoard Media!

Dark City - The Mob Takes Over

Continuing this week's session reports on my solo Legendary campaign (as described here). This campaign centers around the content in Dark City. I decided I would limit my choices of heroes to exclusively the Dark City options.  After the first two scenarios I had to sit down and figure out who I wanted in the last scenario and who was left that I could put together for a reasonable group in the third scenario. I settled on the group of Punisher, Blade, Daredevil, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler for the third scenario

Scenario 3: Organized Crime Wave
Mastermind: Kingpin
Villains: Streets of New York and Emissaries of Evil
Henchmen: Maggia Goons + Mr. Sinister and Mephisto Mastermind cards in the villain deck

I don't think I've played this scenario before, but let me say, it was interesting and challenging. And it beat me. The crime wave is represented by the Maggia Goons. When one comes out, you draw another villain (which is harsh since the solo campaign rules have you draw twice anyway). Scheme Twists? When a twist comes out, any Maggia Goons in the city escape and any goons you've defeated are shuffled back into the villain deck (its like their lawyers keep getting them out of jail). You lose when five goons escape.

I got VERY lucky and most of the twists came out when there were no goons in the city. I did not get lucky late in the game, when I had a chance to win. Before I could defeat the last Kingpin card, I got a string of six goons in a row that just was the end.

The Kingpin, Streets of New York villains, and the Maggia Goons all were bribable, which is an interesting twist - essentially you can use purchase power to take them out. That makes it sound easier, but if you are using your stars for taking out a villain, it means you are not adding to your hero deck. On the flip side, it makes the heroes that are available a little more flexible.

I will also say this - if I had had Ghost Rider as a hero set, this scenario would have been pretty easy. Being able to KO villains from my defeated villains would have ELIMINATED the Maggia threat (or at least reduced it).

Anyway, here are my quick thoughts on the heroes I had available to me:

• Punisher - He needs to be with other "tech" heroes to really shine. I didn't buy much of his cards as a result. In fact, my decks have been very tech thin so far. He had some interesting cards for thinning decks if there had been more tech.
• Blade - Blade felt a little generic. Like a non-special medium hitter. I saw one or two interesting cards, but only his "big" card was great for me (not sure his big card would have been as great in a multiplayer game - you got attack equal to the number of villains in your defeated pile. Solo, I was getting like 7-9 (since the goons kept getting taken out) at a time. Multiplayer, that might have been more like 4-6
• Daredevil - Daredevil has some interesting cards where you can get more attack if you know the top card of your deck. He has a card that lets you buy a card to the top of your deck, so his cards play well with others when you know the top card and/or can draw.
• Jean Grey - She seems geared to rescuing bystanders and supporting other hero combos. I didn't go for her cards much at all in this setup.
• Nightcrawler - another middle weight attacker who's Teleport ability gives you some flexibility (teleport lets you set that card aside for use in your next hand as an additional card). I was also able to leverage the other cards as combos to make his attacks much better. He definitely needs attack and support in your deck to really shine.

One more scenario to go in the campaign. I'm going to go with Angel, Bishop, Cable, Domino, and Colossus - hoping for a better outcome next time.

Be sure to check us out at PunchBoard Media!

Legendary: Dark City

As you know, I loves me some Marvel Legendary. Not only do I love the system, as an old school Marvel comic fan, this game lets me play out some of my old favorite story lines (ish). Whatever, this game is a lot of fun for me. Because of Legendary DXP (the reskinned, app version of the game) I have a strong familiarity with the base game schemes, villains, and of course the heroes.

Since I'm on a solo kick for the game, I started up the second campaign (as described here). This time, the campaign centers around the content in Dark City. Dark City was one of the first expansion sets for Legendary and it brought a lot of content to the game. With that in mind, I decided I would limit my choices of heroes to exclusively the Dark City options.  The heroes here pretty much fall into three groups: X-Force, Marvel Knights, and X-Men. I have played with the cards from the set before, but not with any regularity, so for the first chapter of the campaign I randomly picked a set of heroes and ended up with a split of X-Force and X-Men in Wolverine (X-Force), Cable, Domino, Iceman, Prof X

Scenario 1: Capture Baby Hope
Mastermind: Mr. Sinister
Villains: Marauders and MLF
Henchmen: (Phalanax) - it was supposed to be Maggia Goons, but I put the wrong set in, oh well.

It took me a minute to get a handle on where I needed my deck to go with unfamiliar cards, but once things settled in, things were humming along. I snagged the big Cable card and by the end, I was pretty much just playing my whole deck. Results: 64 points, 7 villains escaped, 2 (of 3) twists happened... So I got out alive and just in time. Hero thoughts:

• Wolverine (X-Force): meh. Lots of draw more cards and feels like the cards really have to combo to work well. If you can thin out all the SHIELD cards, his cards get better.
• Cable: he packs a wallop (like you'd expect). I'm pretty sure I'm going to line him up for the last scenario
• Domino: She brings a lot of cheap flexibility to your deck (she can be either attack or recruit for most of the card) - also more draws. She isn't a big hitter, but makes your deck better with most of her cards. I'll probably use her with Cable in the last scenario
• Iceman: He needs to combo off other cards to excel. I never was in love with the cards I saw. I'll probably use him again in the third scenario
• Prof. X: better than I thought he was going to be. His cards were interesting and I need to play him more to decide how to best utilize what I saw.

I ended up deciding to keep a Wolverine card for the campaign (meaning he isn't available for the remaining scenarios. 

Scenario 2: Transform Citizens into Demons

Mastermind: Mephisto

Villains: Underworld and Four Horsemen

Hero Villain: Jean Gray

Henchmen: Phalanx + Mr. Sinister Mastermind card

I decided I needed to play out some Marvel Knights this time, so randomly picked three of them (Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Elektra) and then rounded out the deck with two X-Men (Bishop, Angel) and my  Wolverine card. 

In this scheme, each twist adds 5 bystanders to a pile (goblins that can be "rescued" for 2 attack each). The problem with the Goblins is they added 1 attack each to the Jean Grey "Goblin Queen" cards. You lose when 4 Jean Grey cards escape. Well, I think I ended up having something like 18 cards in that stack pretty quickly, meaning that taking out the Goblin Queen wasn't going to happen - the attack was better spent going after the Mastermind (Mephisto). My deck started humming at exactly the right time and I gathered 22 attack and killed knocked out two Mephisto in the same round to end the game. Result: 32 points, 5 villains escaped (2 Jean Grey).  Hero thoughts:

• Bishop: another big hitter. His cards work well if you can KO cards. If you can thin, he's a good choice.
• Angel: I have experience with this set and yeah, he is overpowered. You can really get your deck draws going crazy and rescue bystanders a lot. He works well for most deck compositions
• Iron Fist: an interesting mix of cards, most cheap. Not quite sure he'd work with all decks, but he played really well with Elektra
• Elektra: Not sure what to expect, but she played well with all the cheap cards I had access to and was a heavy hitter for me.
• Ghost Rider: Mixed bag for me. His good cards seem to rely on you burning captured villain cards. I picked up a couple of his cards, but usually preferred other options

I ended up keeping a Ghost Rider card since I didn't figure I'd care about re-using his set of cards.

Next up: round three - one of the harder ones to put together. I can't pick heroes I just used nor do I want to use any that I want to use in the last scenario (one of the key points of the campaign is that you cannot use a hero set in back to back scenarios). So for round three, we might end up with the left-overs. See you next time.

Be sure to check us out at PunchBoard Media!

Still Legendary

During the month of June (2017), I discovered something new (old). A user on BGG had created a modified solo system for Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building game. First off, let me just say, I really like this game. It is one of my top 10 games. I enjoy non-generic deck builders (i.e. not Dominion) and this has been the best I've played.

Yeah, COVID helped me rediscover it again. In looking back at what I played, I realized that all I did was play the base set's solo rules rather than the modified version of the solo play by Sky Zero. Well, I replayed the first campaign - base set only. The results? A desire to play more. Also, a realization that my experience with the Legendary DXP app on my tablet made me a much better player (with the base set at least).

For those not familiar with the campaign structure, basically it is 4 pre-selected consecutive scenarios. You play with a two player setup, but only manage one hand. Heroes come in at the start of each round and push one out (much like the villains in the city track). You also do two draws on the villain deck each round. Between scenarios, you choose a new team of heroes - you can't use a hero set in back to back scenarios, which makes managing your 5 heroes each turn a little interesting as you gear yourself for the final scenario. After each scenario, you can buy 1 card (3-4 cost) and use it to replace a card in your starter hand. The trick being - once you buy that new "starter" card, you cannot use that hero again during the campaign. You have to plan a little. Not knowing the heroes as well this time around, I have to hunt for the cool combos while not taking someone out I'll need later.

I have to say I found the first campaign really easy. Here are the results.

Scenario 1: Midtown Bank Robbery
Mastermind: Red Skull
Villains: Hydra & Skrulls
Henchmen: Savage Land Mutants
Gambit, Rogue, Hawkeye, Storm, Deadpool (random)
62 points - no villians escaped

Scenario 2: Negative Zone Prison Breakout
Mastermind: Magneto
Villains: Brotherhood and Masters of Evil
Henchmen: Hand Ninjas and Sentinel + Add Red Skull Mastermind card to the Villain Deck
Spider-man, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Thor, Wolverine (random, except Wolverine)
I carried one Gambit card in my starter deck
66 points - 7 villians escaped

Scenario 3: Replace Earth's Leaders with Killbots
Mastermind: Dr. Doom
Villains: Enemies of Asgard and Radiation
Henchmen: Doombot Legion + Add Red Skull and Magneto Mastermind cards to the Villain Deck
Cap, Storm, Cyclops, Deadpool, Hawkeye (I picked this setup),
I carried Gambit and one Nick Fury card
74 points - 6 villians escaped

Scenario 4 & Final Showdown: The Legacy Virus (12 wounds)
Mastermind: Loki
Villains: Enemies of Asgard and Spider Foes
Henchmen: Savage Land Mutates + Add Red Skull, Magneto and Dr. Doom Mastermind cards to the villain deck
Hulk, Wolverine, Rogue, Black Widow, Iron Man
83 points - no villains escaped, only1 wound taken!

The Legacy Virus scheme can be rough if a lot of scheme twists hit early, but I ALWAYS had a tech in my hand when it came up and pretty much avoided wounds altogether. Honestly, knowing the cards made it really fast and kinda easy. Black Widow is crazy overpowered when you can grab bystanders left and right. Team her with Rogue and not sure many scenarios would be hard to beat.

I'm going to move onto the second campaign, which is Dark City stuff. My plan is to limit my hero choice to ONLY the Dark City expansion. This should make the first couple of games interesting as I learn about the heroes and their strengths. Don't get me wrong, I've played with some of them in the past, but not extensively like I have with the base set. As much as I enjoy the game, I know I'll enjoy learning more about cards I've had but not used on a regular basis.

Be sure to check us out at PunchBoard Media!

COVID Quarantine == Online Gaming

We are all in the same boat right now. Bored in Quarantine. I'm one of the lucky ones - good job (software engineer) that wasn't really impacted. I just picked up and started working from home. In fact, I got an added benefit - at my office, traffic to "game sites" is blocked, but obviously, not so much from home. 

Not that I'm spending all my time playing games, but it is a nice distraction to have an async game or two running. I have been mostly playing and learning games on Yucata.de, but have been spending some time on BoardgameArena.com too now.

I enjoy Yucata.de for the large number of games that keeps growing. It is also free. The games themselves can vary wildly in the UI, but generally are well done and rarely have I had issues with the platform or users.

Without further ado, I thought I'd share what I've been playing on Yucata.de since the start of all the COVID craziness:

• Can't Stop - one of my favorite distractions (I have logged over 900 games on Yucata.de alone)
• Thurn and Taxis - a decent Euro that we overplayed and which I always lose at to my friend Nathan
• To Court the King - another "distraction" game that I always lose to Nathan
• Guildhall - I quick new one I learned to play with fellow PBM'ers Eric B and Brandon K. This is a card game - something of an engine/combo game that was interesting, but probably has a limited amount of life/replayability
• Cacao - a tile laying/worker placement (your workers are printed on your tiles). Interesting, but not great depth. Certainly a bit of a luck factor, but works well for async as it is purely tactical.
• Glen More - One of Nathan's favorites (he always wins). I cannot figure out how to do well - it is just one of those that I can't quite grok how to play well
• Thunderstone - I love Thunderstone and the Yucata.de implementation is well done.
• St. Petersberg - I play this like every other year and as soon as I start playing, I recall why I don't play it. The base game is completely uninteresting - they choices are fairly obvious and luck of the draw early on heavily influence the outcome.
• Castles of Burgundy - one of Feld's best games and one that I really enjoy. I do ok, but haven't played enough to feel like I'm good at the game.
• Pompeji - total luck fest and a ton of take that! This one is fast, so a play every so often is ok, but this is much more fun face-to-face
• Vikings - another new one to me. A tile laying/drafting game. Nothing heavy, but another good tactical async game for the queue.
• Vinci - I like Vinci, especially as an async game. This is another mostly tactical game that is more interesting (to me) than a lot (you choices seem to matter more). 

Because of COVID, I was finally introduced to boardgamearena.com - another site where the games can be played async (but also live). BGA has also has a wide variety of games (and with some overlap!). BGA seems to have a nicer interface (generally), though it seems to have less or stricter "undo/reset" options than yucata.de's versions. At BGA, I've been playing:

• Can't Stop - what can I say...
• Taluva - I love this 3D tile laying sucker. I also don't like it except as a 2-player knife fight.
• Hive - This is such a good tense little abstract and the implementation on BGA is top notch. I haven't played in a while, so it was fun to revisit this. 

There are a bunch of good heavier games that I need to review the rules on that I want to play and or learn on BGA. Still just a matter of time. 

Regardless, it has been nice playing a little bit. COVID has been hard for everyone and its been nice to re-discover a distraction or two.

Don't forget to check out the rest of the gang at PunchBoard Media!