Mauve Manticore #6

Tips, they are needed. Anyone have any for battle 1 of Mauve Manticore #6?

 

Maybe this video from CT5 offers some pointers? I haven't watched it myself so I don't know for sure.

 

One useful tactic is to attack the enemy which is by itself with all of your characters. Once it's dead it's a lot easier to deal with the rest.

It should be possible to not go to the victory points at first but instead concentrate on killing the lone enemy. The enemies are not very eager to go to the victory points if the human player doesn't go there first.

While employing these tactics, it's a good idea to save any special cards which will allow getting quickly past the difficult terrain surrounding the victory point area. Once the enemies are at a numerical disadvantage, rush the victory points and kill one more in the melee which will develop. Then the only remaining enemy won't easily be able to stop the human player from winning.

 

I try and hold on to the priest's Accelerated Thought and Impenetrable Nimbus until I draw a Contagion so I can put that on all my characters.

I don't believe Riptide (the Axe) has any step attacks or stabs, so you can usually safely move within two squares without being threatened. I try and kill Blackhammer and Whorl as quickly as possible because your party lacks the damage output to counter Greater Heal the same turn, and Punishing Beam is just a nightmare.

 

Took me like 10 tries to get past the first battle, whew. I agree with Jarmo that focusing on the lone weapon will make the rest much easier, also staying out of range of the wizard staff will make your life much easier until you stack some blocks or nimbus to weather his many sparks/beams

 

For me, it went better if I could Frost Jolt Whorl with my first card. Sadly, it wasn't always possible.

 

I've beaten all the other mauve manticores with a reasonable amount of trial and error, but this one is no fun at all. I've tried so many times and haven't beat it once.

 

well it took over 20 attempts, i finally got past it. the other 2 maps were super easy in comparison. I'm never playing mm6 again, its just too frustrating.

 

Were the tactics suggested in this thread of any help?

 

Well done @haho - I haven't managed to beat the first battle yet. Completed every MM except this one and find it as frustrating as you - hopefully one of you expert players will post another vid to help out...I've watched @CT5 's vid and it looks like good opening hands are required, so I'll just restart 'til I get a good one.

I'm going to try to beat it tonight!

 

from what I've seen, it seems pure luck. i had a -slightly- more positive outlook if the axe was isolated across the other side by itself. I'd usually try to rush kill that one, or whichever is isolated from the other 2, but the axe seemed to have a greater chance of being isolated. Also, you'd have to be lucky and NOT have the hammer heal the isolated one you're rushing. Then, if i could manage to kill that isolated one w/o any of my guys dying, i felt a -little- hopeful. But sometimes (lots of times) either one of my guys would die, or it would not cooperate, and would fly away towards the center, or get healed. at which point, my guys's didn't have as much mobility to catch up to the center of the map. the slow crawl up to the center usually did me in.

here is a rough example of what I normally would attempt. I can't say how good/bad the strategy was since it seems that a lot of luck is involved. Depends on what cards you're dealt, and where your characters are placed, which is also random. But in this example, for my first turn I'd move my elf to this square. hoping to bait the axe to move closer. depending on how many movement cards I have, I might also be able to do a little damage to it as well. if the axe gets too close i retreat, hoping it won't fly off towards the center.



it is important to keep your wizard at least 3 square away since i think the axe has some 2 square melee attacks. you need to get your other 2 guys in there asap to engage the axe.

i think if they had less flying cards it might be a little easier to manage, or if my guys had some more mobility. their huge mobility advantage made it hard/annoying to deal with. Or, they could keep their mobility and give the wizard more acid cards or something similar. Probably just replacing rockfall with a card that makes a 3x3 lava square would work wonders. You'd be able to use those to temporarily keep the other 2 enemies off the center of the map while having more time to deal with the isolated axe.

not sure, i think i just got extremely lucky. i was down to 2 people, both with less than 5hp. i think the whorl staff was the last one left, and I suspected had an attack card, but for some reason decided to sit there and not take one of my guys out. if not for that I'm almost certain i would have lost. I actually won not by killing it but by collecting the last star needed to win.

 

I finally beat it! Took about 20 retries for the first battle and around 8 for the third, but I made it...just feel I deserved more than a common and 3 uncommons in the final chest!

 

^ hah i felt the same way. maybe they should flip the order, make that first one last and give out a better reward for beating it. the other 2 were so much easier in comparison.

 

No, you definitely don't want the hardest map last, because then you will have to dump gold into retries (to get the same lousy chest).

I might recommend going after Whorl first, even if he's on the side with 2 enemies. Those blasts of his just do way too much damage, and you can't easily dance out of the way (as you sometimes can with the other two).

Remember to bait attacks with Nimbus when your draw permits.

 

well I did say get a better reward for beating it. i'd rather beat 2 of the maps, get -something- for the effort than bashing my head against the first map over and over and over

 

If you want random 2-item chests, you can play literally any map and get that

 

you have your opinion, i have mine. but hey, what do i know. oh, well i do know i won't play mm6 again in this state. and a shame too since the other two maps are actually more fun that the first one.

 

Made an account specifically to comment on this thread.

It took me a while, but I can now "reliably" beat Mauve Manticore #6 without having to revive. I use "reliably" in quotes, since it still takes me 3 or 4 tries on average to get past the first battle, which is much more difficult than the second and third battles.

Despite the initial frustration, the first battle is actually a lot of fun to play. In the beginning, I fell into the trap of overly relying on a single strategy to beat the first battle. There are many ways to beat the first battle, but everything will depend on the cards you pull. If you're only thinking about using a Nimbus/Contagion combo to muscle through to the victory squares, then the nine times out of ten you don't pull the combo, you will fail. You must alter your strategy based on the cards you draw. Unfortunately, as with all the missions, a string of bad draws will doom you, no matter how well you play. I've never won the first battle by a wide margin; it was always down to the last turn, so getting useless cards after committing to a strategy/position is like a death knell.

Before I discuss specific card tactics, I will discuss some general strategy that is relevant regardless of your hand. As others have mentioned, the trick is to avoid traversing the blocked terrain toward the victory squares and instead concentrating on killing a single enemy in open terrain. The party has relatively low HP, so you must play very defensively. Aggressively rushing toward the center or sending characters off to do 1v1 combat will almost certainly fail. There is a low margin of error, so you cannot play sloppily. When the battle starts, your characters are randomly placed in a wedge formation, and the enemy characters are placed to the right and left sides of the map. Randomly, there will be two on one side and one on the other. Attack whichever side Whorl is not on. If Blackhammer and Riptide are on the same side, then usually Riptide will fly toward the victory squares while Blackhammer will stay behind, so you will be left to deal with one enemy. If Riptide comes back, then it's not difficult to stay out of range as all its attacks are range-1. The key to the initial phase of this battle is to STAY OUT OF RANGE OF THE ENEMY'S ATTACKS. This is especially true for the Elf Wizard character, as she has very low health, and if you lose any one of your characters before killing one of the enemies, then the battle is essentially over. Whorl's Punishing Beams, in particular, have a range of 6 squares, so always be aware of how far away Whorl is. If you find that any of your characters are within range, then move them away. Sometimes, strategically passing your turn to wait for the enemy to move, and then moving after the enemy has moved is advisable. Blackhammer has range-2 melee attacks, and Riptide has range-1 chopping attacks. This should go without saying, but avoid placing multiple characters around Riptide, and protect your characters by moving them away from enemies before they attack, especially if there is a possibility that they will be hit and killed. AVOID SLOPPY PLAY. Avoid leaving characters beside enemies unless you know you will be starting the next round. If the Elf Priest is drawing healing cards, then they should be used sooner rather than later. Don't be afraid to use Team Heal, even if you're only healing one character, especially if that character is in the red. If the Elf Priest is drawing vamp cards, then move her into range of the enemies. At this point, only the Warrior (and Priest, if attacking) should be taking damage. If played well, the Elf Wizard should not be taking any damage at all. The Warrior has several strong attack cards (some of which may get parried, so if you suspect the enemy has Parry/Parrying Strike, try to draw them out with weaker melee attacks), so you should be able to take down an enemy within a few rounds, even if the enemies manage to get healed. The Warrior also has several stepping attacks, which can also be strategically used to move the Warrior into attacking range or out of the attacking range of the enemy. While this is happening, if enemies enter the victory zone, then the Elf Wizard should use area control cards (lava/acid/sliding/etc) to either remove enemies from the victory squares or make sure the enemies are taking damage within the victory zone via lava or acid. The other cards (surges and rockfalls) should be used at your discretion to either kill the enemy that the Warrior is fighting (depending on how much help he needs) or to dish out additional damage to enemies in the center zone. Once the situation becomes 3 vs 2, then it becomes much easier. Continuous sniping from the Wizard should have gotten one of the remaining two enemies to ~15 health. Move in to engage the enemies in the center. The Warrior's flying armor and Elf Mobility helps to move over the blocking terrain, as does the Wizard's Teleport Self (avoid using the card, as having it in your hand for the passive effect is much better). Continue dancing around the remaining melee attack enemy (Riptide/Blackhammer) to avoid being hit, as both have some ridiculously high-powered attacks. Focus attacks on one enemy; you may lose a character at this point (which may be problematic if the enemies have managed to control the victory squares for >3 turns), but should still have enough firepower to take down the remaining enemy HPs. Using this strategy, I've won the first battle ten times with an average of 3 tries per success:
1 try - once
2 tries - twice
3 tries - three times
4 tries - twice
5 tries - twice
>5 tries - never

Also, know your enemy:
http://wiki.cardhuntria.com/wiki/Blackhammer
http://wiki.cardhuntria.com/wiki/Whorl
http://wiki.cardhuntria.com/wiki/Riptide

Make sure you know what cards the enemy may potentially have, and don't lose a character due to sloppy play.

I was going to mention some specific card tactics, but this post has already gotten longer than I intended, so I'll revisit it in the future, if it seems players are still struggling.

 

Made an account to say that MM#6's first level and MM#9's first level are unbelievably difficult and unbalanced. I've tried a solid 20 or 30 times on both of them and consistently end up getting screwed by a ****ty dice roll.

The worst was when I managed to beat Blackhammer and Riptide and have all three of my characters alive only to get ****ing 100-0%'d by Whorl in one turn.

I love the other Mauve Manticores, but these ones seem to be entirely luck based, even when I'm playing meticulously and strategically.

Am I supposed to hate these levels? These aren't fun or challenging to me, they're just unpleasant. After several hours of spamming "regroup," I'm ready to say I'm done with these levels and I will not be revisiting them or attempting to beat them.

Congratulations to whoever designed them, you beat me. I give up.

 

Did you read the rest of the thread? People figured out how to beat it.