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.

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