Mauve Manticore #9

Don't think we need spoiler tags for a thread specifically designed to talk about it... :-P

And I did that, I never drew armor until I was at only a few life (and the Shredding Strikes made quick work of that due to "lucky" rolls). Only had the dwarf left so I had to hold onto a Teleport Other. I couldn't really delay as the stairs were blocked and the caster dropped rough terrain. If I wasn't constantly moving I would have died.

I retried and beat it easily knowing to not kill the Giants (just TP one and kill the last when I could get to the caster), but with poor draws it was just brutally difficult. Granted, that's the way with many maps -- I just think having the Giant Skeletons also respawn was a bit over kill.

 

I almost lost because I didn't realize respawn happened after start-of-turn effects. I thought the Fireball was there so I could set up lethal Burning on the giants the turn my warriors arrived, then oops they're back and at full health. Fortunately the AI made stupid movement decisions and one survivor slipped by to the teleport square. All in all, that third map felt like too much of a slog for Manticore. I guess the litmus test for me is "If I have to try again, will I be changing my strategy?" My misunderstanding could have easily sent me back for another 30 minutes of repeating the same approach, which I probably wouldn't have bothered doing.

I had fun overall though, especially on Map 1.

 

I wonder if the third map would be too easy if the dog boy started next to the warriors (so he could block the door).

 

I will say that you're only 'supposed' to fight one skeleton on the third map. The wizard has 4x Teleport Other in her deck, and in the very worst-case scenario you'll draw all of them by round 15, which is enough to cage the two Tvericus and teleport a warrior to Alet Zhav.

 

Hi all, sorry for the necro but I'm playing my way through these and I had a question about the 3rd map. I have no clue how the spawn points work and/or don't work. Is there a rhyme or reason to them???

 

Each group of enemies has their own spawn points. When an enemy spawns it appears on a random unocupied spawn point that belongs to his group. The spawn points are also where the enemies appear at the beginning of the game.

 

Thank you. That makes a little more sense. Before I figured out teleporting to cover the far zombie spawn point I would sometimes see them spawn at the big circle, and sometimes far away, but I'm guessing blocking a few of them "rerolls" the RNG decision point. I guess I'll have to get through the zombies before teleporting the second big skeleton.

 

Quite a bit late, but hey, that's about how long it took me to work my way up to this MM.

After spending three days on Map 3 and cussing/ranting for about half the time, I... still am nowhere close to beating it. At all.

The strategy I've been sticking with is leaving one of my characters to lobby the armored skeletons at the start. I set all of their cards up for maximum mobility to make a quick getaway back to the zombie pit once the other heroes have advanced. In theory, I'd move the servant out of his cage via teleport and lock in the two big skeletons by the same process. After spending ten thousand days heading across a staircase (war flashbacks of SM64 begin), I'd bring over my good stabby companion over to Alet Zhav and probably take at least two turns trying to kill him, since that's just my luck with the cards.

This is the theory, anyway. Now, here are the issues:
1. Can't get past the zombie pit without dying. There's too many of them, and the move cards the characters have are absolutely useless when trying to navigate around them.
2. Not enough crushing cards. When I eventually need to take over my third hero to support their dying comrades from the armored skeleton gate, they gain very quickly. Couple that with the stall-tactic masters that are the zombies (and that one out-of-place armored skeleton at the end of the stairs), and getting boned seems like an inevitable thing.
3. The teleport gag was very clever, and I gave myself a little pat on the back for figuring it out eventually. However, the zombies take their sweet time leaving that one spawn point, and I'm generally reduced to having to use another teleport just to hurry them up. At the same time, my heroes are probably trying to fight their way through the zombie swarm, and if they aren't coming back nigh-immediately in the same spot that they're killed in, they're showing up right where I tried teleporting away the previous one.

My closest attempt was with the stabbing hero down to 1 health and everyone else dead. Big guys were caged, entire rest of the map was just about to leave the staircase. Then, for the first time that I'd seen him attempt any attacks, Alet Zhav threw down a Cave In. In what was not my most proud moment, I began screeching like a banshee and I tossed my laptop against a wall. (Okay, not really. I mean, I did one of those things. Take your pick.)

... Anyway, any suggestions on how to actually not die miserably each time? Am I supposed to leave someone to block the skeletons and just believe in the heart of the cards/git gud during the zombie slumber party? Should I be making more use of the servant or something else I'm overlooking? I've spent a good sum of money reviving my party on this level.

Sorry if this is long and out of place. Not really a forum-goer.

 

If you have the chance to kill an enemy at the end of a round, don't. They'll just respawn. Wait until the beginning of next round and kill them, they you can move further.

 

Can't beat the first map also the eggs almost all the time block the entire damage and my own cards most of the time don't block any damage.