Mauve Manticore #9

Lovely work from all involved, these were definitely three highly polished levels. If I was smart, I would've written the names of each level and designer down. I am not smart.

Level 1: caused the most problems, until I got an idea how Case's deck drops. Then it was a matter of sniping the pods from afar, and encumbering the grubs and letting his terrain attacks take care of them.

Level 2: enjoyed this level the most, even though I sailed through on my first try. Looked bad early on, until a string of big attacks dropped in turns 3-4.

Level 3: a couple of restarts until I worked out a path through (and that the mage and servant were safe behind bars - the first game, I teleported him out and straight into the bony arms of that armoured skeltal). Even so, I scraped the stabby dude through the throngs of undead by the skin of his teeth while his mates died horribly on the stairs, and he was down to 1HP by the time he took the necro out. Would probably still be playing, if not for a timely defensiveness.

Once again, thanks to the designers for giving the rest of us something to play with. Your time was well spent.

 

Hear hear! I liked all of the adventures.

Level 1: De-Bugging by @LeisureSuitLoli
This was the most difficult level for me, requiring 2 or 3 restart before I finally got it. I felt that I needed to get a bit lucky with Rocket Dashes, but I think being a bit more patient and learning the deck and map better will make this easier. I'm not a huge fan of solo figure scenarios, but I still I quite liked it. The map layout was good.

Level 2: Gravestorm by @Dargenom
This felt the easiest for me. I really liked that there were exactly three player-controlled characters, making this suitable for co-op. I hope that in the future, some of MM issues would be entirely with 3 player parties to encourage MM co-op play. Nice theme and excecution!

Level 3: Necromania by @Xayrn
Quite tedious, but I still liked it. Managed to barely complete it with my first try. That was mostly because I've lurked on the custom scenario boards and picked some hints along the way. I liked to play with all those powerful monster only cards!

 

Anyone else shoot their servant on Map3?

 

I teleported a zombie in to keep him company. That is before I realized he was more useful covering the skeleton spawn point.
Mauve Manticore #9, map 1.

Mauve Manticore #9, map 3.

 

I love how my small playful romp of a map got squeezed in between two solidly difficult maps. I had to replay Loli's map seven times before I finally snagged a win!
In hindsight, my level could have been more difficult, but I was going for a quick and dirty skirmish rather than some huge intricate challenge. I'm glad people got just that from it!

 

Just fixed a bug with the VP goal on Dargenom's Gravestorm, not sure when it'll be in the game but yeah.

 

I noticed that during my run. What was the cause?

 

I'm curious too, since in the old days if one player starts the battle at their VP goal, they'll win when one of their own chars dies, and that's not happening now.

 

Thanks @LeisureSuitLoli @Xayrn @Dargenom !

 

I was wondering about that. What is gary's VP count supposed to be? My original 6, or 2 so you lose if one of your characters die?

EDIT: Actually, if possible, changing Gary's VP count to 2 would make the level slightly more difficult, since the feedback so far agree it's a tad bit on the easy side. Do it Flax! You know you want to make your players squirm!

 

I actually included it intentionally because it seemed less brutal than the maps people complain about in past MMs. I changed the goal back to your original 6

 

Tough MM this time around! Man Map 1 is giving me grief. Have come close only to have bad luck spoil things 20 minutes in a couple times now. Seems like keeping a pocket rocket dash is about your best strategy. Otherwise, the grubs will eventually get a crazy movement round and corner you. Had thought waiting for invisibility was enough to dash in for damage and dash out but I get trapped more often than not.

Will have to try harder!

 

So the inverted bell curve of difficulty was intentional, that's awesome.

And I agree with those people, a lot of the Mauve Manticore maps are pretty damn difficult. Although, we gotta have some difficulty left in the game since most of the campaign maps were made easier since the beta. I remember Lord Stafford's L shaped tunnel of difficult terrain, those were the days. The frustrating but rewarding days.

 

I think the general trend with mauve manticore is that level 18 missions and quests should remain the frustratingly hard content, and that mm shouldn't be as hard as it has traditionally been. I've been thanked for making mm7 and mm8 easier than past issues and I like thanks

If you want more difficult content, stay tuned for upcoming news...

 

Thanks, Flaxative!

 

The first one was a bit challenging and overly luck based (although that's what you get with lots of laser stuff). The second one was great, although probably *too* easy (just keep knocking them back). The third was challenging but fair... I only wish the big guys didn't respawn. If the giant skeletons didn't respawn I could definitely seeing it be perfect level of difficulty... but since they keep coming back unless you get lucky blocks when near it is tricky... especially when you're planning to get up to the boss and then he tosses down rough terrain preventing you from even getting in position for a Teleport Other.

EDIT: Also, is there a reason why MM's give such crappy chests for finishing them? I'd expect at least a Gold if not Epic considering how hard some of them are...

 

Yes, the reason is that they give the same loot as other adventures.
Now that I have more tools for tweaking this I may ask Jon about changing the loot tables for MMs but don't expect much. MM is about the gameplay not the reward.

 

The big skeletons were the easiest part of that map! Once you put them in their boxes you can forget about them. It's the small skeletons that were a pain, since only one of your fighters could hurt them. Sure, you can keep most of them in another box, but that ties up one of your chars and there's still one in front of you.

 

They give less... normal adventures give guaranteed Rare on first finish, don't they?

Assuming you draw a Teleport Other. I never drew one until 20 turns in or so.

 

No. They give the same as all adventures. Nothing guarantees rares except loot fairy, quests, MP chests, and purchased chests. (and some adventures might have specific rare items as first time loot)