This was a very fun Mauve Manticore. The difficulty level was just right, I really had to think for some parts and managed to complete everything on my first try. The prizes were good too. King of the Jungle by adajon This was a fun survival scenario, if a bit luck based. I managed to survive with 2 hp remaining. Just sit in one corner and hope for the best I guess. Fiery Breath and Four-Headed Bite are particulary good against those pesky spiders. Guarded by Death by Vlamona This was really interesting. At first I had no idea what to do. I started off by using some laser attacks on Case and got Meltdown, combined with Blooming Ground meant most of the zombies were in trouble. I liked that keeping the zombies alive could help you as Roulette would have a higher chance of hitting the opponents rather than your team. I also liked that there were plenty of ways to counter Negative Energy Being and Doom, such as Genetic Engineering, Destructive Purge and Warp Run. Very well-designed. Cult Initiation by Maniafig This was also a really well designed scenario. Everything on the Blood Priest had a purpose, Open Wound to stop the Chupacabras from healing, Bad Luck to reduce the chance of the Tsastii's armour from triggering, and the healing spells and Martyr's Blessing to support the rather fragile Blood Disciples. I had a lot of fun playing this. Thanks to all the scenario makers for another great MM, probably one of my favourites thus far.
Personally I found the Cult Initation easiest when I exploited the big figure with inadequate range by attacking it and then quickly returning for heals and then after a while attack it again and so forth, using open wound and hemorrhage to prevent the enemy's priest from healing their Tsastii. Though this strategy is really slow.
King of the Jungle Yeah this one is very RNG based. Hole up in the corner and hope you draw the right drawbacks. Made it first try with 1HP; drawing Walpurgis on the last turn nearly did me in. Guarded by Death Best of the three simply because it rewarded strategic play more than the other two. Leave as many of the zombies alive as you can. Hole up in the top alcove and use the geo's acid to block the zombies, then pick off the three deathies as they lose NEB (or you bump the attachment). Good times. Cult Initiation Fun but probably needed a VP under the enemy priest with a large star requirement, say 10. Otherwise it's too easy to hang back and only attack the big goober when your crazy blood dudes are fully healed and packing plenty of blind rage and run, team. As always, I always appreciate the effort that members of the community put into MM. Cheers.
Battle 1: King of the Jungle by @adajon Dead at the start of turn 4. Dead at round 6. Dead at round 6. Victory, mainly because AI kept randomly passing and ending turns prematurely. I'd like to see the VP requirement lowered to 5 rounds. The board is simple but very beautiful. Very nice use of decal doodads, although shadow is missing under the trees. Battle 2: Guarded by Death by @Vlamona Ok, hopefully the first battle was the only RNG one.... Oh my... Zombie Roulette! At least this gives you three controllable characters, so there actually is some meaningful choices. My own Laser Sprays and some enemy damage killed the Geomancer, but still I managed to win on the first try, so I don't think it's that bad. Nevertheless, I really don't like fighting against Death Elementals, so I doubt I'll run this again. Battle 3: Cult Initiation by @Maniafig The pre-battle text was great! The map is pretty plain and could maybe use some more decal doodads. Lost the first time, because I thought the Chupas would respawn and I rushed to block the spawn points. Those decals are a bit misleading, IMHO, since they're used in some previous MM scenarios to mark re-spawn points. On second try I lost 3/4 Disciples to Chupas, so killing the Tsastii was quite tedious. Managed to win on round 16 or so. I quite liked playing with underused characters, despite the fact that their decks sucked pretty hard.
Bug with hydra charging: Map 1, my 2x2 hydra charged 5 squares top-left against the wall, took 5 dmg. I think my hydra charged into himself and got his heads tangled. Tried the map again. Charging top-left direction 1 square, not against wall, took 1 damage. Both times, no enemy were at the end to bump into.
Map 1: This is now the most frustrating map in the game, I think it took me 15 tries to beat it. So very many cards that will kill you: Loner, Walpurgis Night, Large Weapon, Fright, Meltdown (which is bugged for large figures)... Map 2: This was fun, an early Radiation Bomb gave one of the zombies Zombie Form. Geomancer is a bit fragile, but putting my backs against a wall let Defender's Block stop the Roulettes while I sniped the elementals. Map 3: Fairly easy, but a bit tedious at the end. I only lost one disciple to the chupas, and drew so many Open Wounds and Hemorrhages that the enemy could never heal.
The truly absurd thing for me about this MM is that I first tackled it with an alt account and managed to sail through on the first try for every map, which left me with a distorted impression of how hard it was to beat. For my real account it took me 9 tries to beat map one, 4 tries to beat map two, and 2 tries to beat map three. Yeeargh. My favorite bit about map 2 had to be using Blooming Ground to duplicate the Healing Beacon to kill a Death Elemental. Very cool.
I am surprised so many people liked map 1 and 2. Maybe it is just my personal dislike for RNG-based maps. Don´t get me wrong, I like a bit of RNG,and not every scenario has to be beatable 100% of the time, but that hydra and death elemental scenario was just a pain (at least for me). I thought, current MM-maps were beyond that. I liked the 3rd map though.
Yeah, King of the Jungle is actually a true RNG fest, but I like the big monster vs horde scenario. This time I won on second try thanks to a lucky Panic. If this wasn't on the first map I could see a mob with pitchforks asking for the gold spent on retries back (I'll probably be among them, it took me way longer on the test server). Guarded by Death is nice, you have all the tools to dispatch the enemies and keep yourself alive, though I can see how an unlucky Roulette or a bad starting draw could make this almost unwinnable. Cult Initiation is continuing the new Manticore's trend of an easy third map, without VPs for the enemy you can easily finish this with no casualties (I'm not complaining!). Well designed, I actually liked the old rpg approach "kill the dungeon mobs and take your time healing/preparing, who has ever heard of a boss charging you".
Am I the only one who won each scenario first time and didnt draw a single walpurgis in the first one?
