So about the CM modules

Maybe if there was a way to utilise these super-hard modules to unlock a monthly or yearly legendary item shop...

Might increase player interest (banging head against a wall does hurt, but on the other hand; sweet loot).

Plus a legendary chest...

Gotta be some ideas somewhere

 

I just finished the fourth battle of the second module.

I used a 1/1/1, all dwarves.

I loaded the priest up with Purging Burst, as much healing as I could muster, and one Doom. They also had 2 Arrogant Armor cards in their deck.

My wizard's arcane item slots were filled with anything that gave me Flash Flood, and he also wore Korenchkin's tactical tunic.

My warrior had 2x blocking mace and the parrying buckler to allow him to block hits from the priests and muscular zombies. He had Arrogant Armor as well.

Battle plan:

Keep your characters together, and slowly move them away from the werewolf. Use flash flood to keep the werewolf from getting to you while you use purging bursts and big attacks to kill the priests and shade, or to remove the various curses that the enemies throw at you. Arrogant armor will protect you from Too Horrible, allowing you to spring all the priest's blocks before laying in with the powerful attacks. When you get your Doom card, use it on the werewolf, while continuing to keep it at bay with flash floods and bashes.

Edit: another way to deal with shades is to sling low damage magic attacks at them to trigger their absorbing block. Note that when they have NEB up, absorbing block does 8 damage to them.

 

Everyone seems to be afraid to co-op these modules, so I haven't done them yet. But what I've seen from the first two maps, they look fun.

 

Alrighty. I actually played these on Wednesday but didn't get to the point of writing this until now. I'm not sure if this is going to help anyone; but I hope that at least someone's going to find it useful.

First of all... I honestly expected worse. Especially after seeing the reactions. Shades aside, I think this expansion is actually quite fun! Even the shades would be interesting puzzle enemies, but I do agree that Wail is a little too frustrating, especially in battles where you're already at a huge disadvantage. Limiting its range would sound fair to me, thematically as well; it'd take away from the puzzle potential, though. But all three battles with them were doable. In fact, I replayed them today to check if I didn't somehow get ridiculously lucky and if I did, I did twice, so here goes.

I thought I'd list a few strategies here as well. I used a dwarf warrior, wizard and priest (not out of strategic consideration but because they're the three characters I got when I started playing); here's what I did. Needless to say, spoilers galore!

General considerations
- Violent Spin is your friend in almost all of the battles.
- Fire wizards work surprisingly well in the majority of the battles you're going to fight.
- Cards like Inspiration are good when you're up against Shades.
- You can still exploit the AI's dumb moments to wreak havoc and diminish their card advantage.

How to deal with Shades
- Fire wizards are really good against them. They have Negative Energy Being, sure, but they have Creature of the Night as well, as well as Hover, and they like to use Unholy Energy on themselves or each other; it often takes only one fire attack to push off that Negative Energy Being, rarely more than two. And if they block it, they take instant damage. What's not to love?
- Purging Strike is, obviously, very helpful when you're fighting them. Violent Spin is an excellent card throughout the expansion, so I recommend Nova Axes for most fights against them. Laser Thrusts can help you get a surprise attack from behind before they put up the Negative Energy Being or after you removed it.
- Wail is a pain, but there are a few ways to mitigate the harm. I find that Inspiration is a powerful tool. It stays in your hand, and allows you to draw more cards. If the rest of your equipment has ample cycling, there's a good chance you'll get an attack or two.
- If you get Wailed at while fighting other (powerful) enemies, Violent Spin can help you disengage.

The Spreading Blight
The first battle isn't very dangerous. If you hold out on the victory square, it shouldn't be very hard to win while killing a Vigilante or two. I don't think that bothering with the crossbowmen is very fruitful, they come with a lot of evasion. Since you're heavily outnumbered, Obliterating Chops are a good way to go here.
The second battle is more difficult; not only you're outnumbered even more than in the first one, there's no victory square and they have an Inquisitor, who can really mess up your plans. She doesn't have much in the way of attacks, but she can heal more than two Evensong priests on steroids, and purge your valuable attachments, so don't rely on them too much. It might be tempting to try and rush her down, but that's usually suicide. The Vigilantes hit really hard, and you might expose yourself to the crossbowmen as well. I find that it works best to stay back, injure a few of them lightly (fire does that well), which will usually trigger the Inquisitor's instincts to waste her heals on them, and then you can hit them with the heavy damage. Killing one or two will probably clear up the battlefield enough that you can safely go after the Inquisitor; still, chops are good here, Violent Spins might help you escape, and Laser Thrusts let you seriously wound or even kill Vigilantes or go after the Inquisitor herself.
The third battle is against two curiously strategic-minded werewolves and is much easier. Pack enough cards to get rid of their armour and they go down really quickly, whether you use fire or melee (or, as in my case, both). Watch out for their All-out Attacks (fortunately so far they've never been smart enough to use the War Cry first), and you're set up.

Svitlana's Inquisition
The first battle is probably the easiest one in the entire expansion. Area-of-effect fire damage absolutely decimates the townsfolk, who will probably spend the first few turns panicking all over the battlefield. Once they're done, they might howl every once in a while, but a spare Boiling Armour should help in case a Monstrous Hide comes up. The spiders might have been a nuisance when you were half the level you are in these adventures, but now you're much more powerful, so don't worry about them too much, either.
The second is much more interesting. The Afflicted Guards come with much armour and Missile Blocks, so it might be best to keep your wizard's best shots for Teadora herself and defeat the guards with your warrior (watch out for Swarm of Bats, however; they'll use it almost absurdly badly against ranged attacks, I've seen one that used it to dodge one of my wizard's attacks, moved into the middle of a Meltdown lava field, but not out of my wizard's line of sight). You should be able to kill practically all of them by the time Teadora arrives; Laser Thrust helps a lot as always, and terrain works, because they tend to discard their armour. As for fighting against Teadora herself, I can recommend triggering her Shifting Blocks until she enters a form that's beneficial to you (Zombie or Ethereal, Vampiric if you have good armour) and keeping her in that by only attacking her from behind from then on. Watch out for the Obliterating Hacks and you should be fine.
Then comes the third one with the first Shades you'll encounter. This might be tricky, but again: Violent Spin. (Seriously, that thing is so good here.) It helps you close the distance to the Shades, it helps keeping the zombies away (don't bother killing them, they come back). Fire does well against the Shades, heals are flexible in that you can use them to stay alive or to damage them, and don't get discarded by Wail. While not that much of a necessity yet, I find that Arrogant Armour and Mystical Wyrmhide help a lot against Afflictor, but with that Martyr Blessing becomes nearly useless; Inspiration, on the other hand, can get you attacks after they're discarded, and doesn't get hurt by Arrogant Armour.
The fourth battle might be the hardest fight in this expansion as far as my opinion's concerned. I recommend equipping more Violent Spins here, Pergop's Slippers or Zachary's Boots, even; some control on the wizard helps, too, but isn't really necessary. What you want to do here (or at least what worked for me) is going against your instincts and ignoring the Shade. I went for the werewolf first; it's the most dangerous, and unlike the zombies, it is very mobile, so keeping it away is much harder. Destroy its armour, go at it with the best you've got (unlike most scenarios, best attacks first, because they don't have blocks and you might get Wailed), have a few blocks and heals and you should be good to go. Use the Violent Spins to keep the zombies away and to disengage if you do get Wailed. Once the wolf's down, there are multiple options; I went for the zombie priests, but if the Shade is foolish enough to get close to you, it's better to destroy it second. It's less important to focus on one target at this point. Fire destroys practically all the other enemies easily, without needing much support.

Assault on Castle Mitternacht
First battle is rather simple. Boots of Safety, Nimble Strikes, a few Telekineses, and you should be set. I changed my wizard for this time around, switching to True Silvers and control on the arcane items, as spirits are completely immune to fire as long as they have Ethereality in their hand, which they will; he stayed that way for the rest of the module.
The second is tricky. Teleportation is handy as well, and my advice is, actually... Don't prepare for the Skeletons too much. My warrior had two Laser Thrusts and a Frenzy Aura, and that's enough. They are going to be the last enemies to fight, and alone they won't be able to kill you (and more importantly, they can't heal); until you're ready for them, they shouldn't be very difficult to keep away. Still, I found that an Ancient Grudge or two on the wizard can speed the process of killing them up. I focused on the Shade at first, with Greater Heals; if it doesn't have Negative Energy Being attached, you might shoot a Silver Bolt or two at it if you want, otherwise you can begin exterminating the ghosts. (Once one of the spirits doomed my wizard, who had Mystical Wyrmhide at the time - so that problem took care of itself while I could begin preparing for the skeletons.)
The third one I found much easier. It's worth bringing a Boiling Armour or two, and boil Yurik if you can while Jovana is playing the Walpurgis Nights. Forms draw no blocks, and Yurik is the real danger; Jovana likes to use her Swarm of Bats to teleport to you after she's done using up almost all her cards, and shouldn't be hard to take out. Yurik comes equipped with a load of blocks, Nimble Strikes, Feinting Strikes and draining attacks. They both use Swarm of Bats atrociously badly as defense, often staying in the range of even your melee attacks, so use that to your advantage. All in all, I don't think it's very hard; don't bother with any of the other enemies, kill the two of them and you'll be done with it, the Blight is over!

Feedback
- I've completed them a second time, and I have to say that once you know what you're up against, they aren't horribly hard. Still rather difficult, and a few of them a little more frustratingly luck-based than I feel they should be, but doable with some patience.
- It's a bit of a shame we can't use Daylight in these modules, I feel it'd be thematic (even if objectively not very powerful). I know it's a really far-fetched idea, but what if it'd react to Creature of the Night as if it were a Form card? (Earlier I thought that Creature of the Night could behave as a Form for all cards that check for it, but that'd probably make Flaring Torch overpowered.)
- When a zombie blocks an attack from a wizard with Too Horrible, and that wizard has Mystical Wyrmhide on, the card isn't attached to the zombie but is discarded instead. I don't know if this is a bug or intended.

Random fun facts
I noticed that a few enemies have cards they don't seem to ever use, and I didn't see mentioned here.
- Spirits have Greater Spell Skill.
- The Inquisitor has Disenchant.
Both are really nice touches and it's nice to see those cards on creatures where they also fit thematically!

Spoiler

You'd think that being Frozen Solid keeps you safe. Think again.

 

Hi everyone, long time listener, first time caller. I survived Castle Mitternacht 2! This came after dying so many times and rage-quitting in the face of so many Wails that my girlfriend had to close the laptop and stuff it under the bed. I took a deep breath, got a healthy 8 hours of sleep, booted one more time over breakfast, and finally trounced the bloody blighters. Here's what finally worked:

I ran out a 1-1-1 human wizard, human warrior, dwarven priest--not because it's necessarily ideal, but because I'd made it that far with that build, and couldn't bear the thought of punting and starting over fine-tuning a priest-priest-priest build, which seemed to be the consensus best buy. I had a human flame mage, a dwarven heal priest, and a human warrior loaded with Sundering Strikes.

I ran out a bunch of gizmos I rarely use:
The wiz used Glowing Rings, for the teleport self + weak card to push off NEB + wall of fire to hotfoot the skeletons
The dwarf used the Glowing Laser Baton; healing rays allowed her to poke the shade and patch boo-boos at the same time, plus it comes with some good whomp. (Ironically, I didn't even have a second one the first time around, since I ignored it at useless common, and had to beg Skarl to sell me one back, along with my gramp's silver cigarette case I pawned for grad school.)
The warrior used Petochl's Sword, because I've been too cheap to spring for Sundersong... With Sundersong, I could probably put Bejeweled or another favored whomper in this slot, but then again with all the Wailing it seems best to overstock.

The first secret to victory was dumb effing luck: the shade drew neither Wail nor NEB its first turn. Also that's the second secret. Really, that's the main thing--but unlike every other team I ran out, this one could actually take advantage of the luck. The shade planted himself in the window between the priest and wizard's cells, and kept pot-shotting the priest and turning his butt to the mage, who set said butt on fire. He drew NEB the next turn and one Absorbing Block later, poof. After that, the priest teleported over to the warrior chamber and the two whomped on the denuded skeletons, and the remaining ghosts were a somewhat-simple mop-up job. (The mage did get Doomed--ironically, before he even drew one of the bajillion teleports he was holding and join the fight against the skeletons, <3 U DEALER.)

More generally, I like this build because it re-assigns duties in interesting ways. The armor removal is all on the warrior, with the priest holding the kill cards; the anti-NEBbing goes to the wizard [ETA: in a later run-through, the Ember Spray turned out to also be handy in pushing off Dooms]. As thoroughly as this scenario damaged my relationship, kudos to the builders for making me rethink a lot of my CH habits.

Anyway, here's the build:

Spoiler

Krist
Level 24 Human Wizard

Red Flame
Charring Staff
Glowing Ring
Glowing Ring
Glowing Ring
Asmod's Telekinetic Chain
Meztis Wyrmhide Robes
Boots Of Safety
Subtle Positioning
Electroporter Initiate

2 x Vanguard
1 x Subtle Parry
2 x Mystical Wyrmhide
2 x Telekinesis
3 x Instant Burn
3 x Ember Spray
1 x Devastating Spark
5 x Teleport Self
5 x Ember Burst
1 x Healing Dash
5 x Wall Of Fire
1 x Spark Generator
2 x Stone Spikes
2 x Flame Spit
1 x Telepod Jaunt
​

Kurdt
Level 24 Human Warrior

Petochl's Sword
Petochl's Sword
Troll's Ire
Emperor's Plate
Aegis Of The Defender
Outgrown Helm
Blinking Boots
Subtle Positioning
Howling Lycanthropy

8 x Sundering Strike
1 x Ill-fitting Armor
1 x Subtle Parry
2 x Vanguard
1 x Mimetic Armor
2 x Defender's Block
1 x Solid Mail
2 x Arrogant Armor
2 x Lycanthropic Form
3 x Howl
4 x Feinting Strike
1 x Weak Chop
2 x Blind Rage
4 x Strong Hack
2 x Telepod Jaunt
​

Courtney
Level 24 Dwarf Priest

Glowing Laser Baton
Glowing Laser Baton
Old Saint's Armor
Beacon Shield
Boots Of Safety
Epigenetic Eraser
Purging Charm
Purging Charm
Superb Stoutness
Focused Piety

2 x Enervating Touch
1 x Genetic Engineering
3 x Altruism
2 x Purge
1 x Healing Pulse
1 x Flaring Torch
1 x Reliable Hide Armor
4 x Healing Rays
2 x Arrogant Armor
4 x Laser Strike
2 x Duck
2 x Shield Block
1 x Teleport Self
1 x Destructive Purge
1 x Healing Dash
2 x Purging Burst
1 x Gene Therapy
4 x Radiation Bolt
1 x Telepod Jaunt
​

 

Update: ran the build out a couple more times to see how it fared. Looks like they can beat the CM2 maybe 50% of the time (at least once I was on the verge of closing it out when traveling curses and armor fails RNG'd me to death).

 

Congrats! Always so satisfying to get past that map that's knocking you all over the place! Seems like you found a pretty decent 1/1/1 build for that map. And it's always fun to discover uses for new items/cards.

PS. Glad to have you join the forum conversations! Just fyi, the stack of cards icon on the formatting bar will tag specific cards, but it's the green orb next to it that will tag items. None of your item tags work because they're tagged as cards. Unfortunately the wiki can't tell the difference.

 

Thanks for the heads up--tagging fixed! It's not just the new uses that are satisfying, it's realizing the items which allow those new uses are right there in the junk drawer. Glowing Ring and Glowing Laser Baton are the heart and soul of this build, and until yesterday they were just junk commons I never thought twice about. I'm now pretty sure this map can be handled without any legendaries. E.g., having Troll's Ire was marginally useful for card cycling, but really I'dve been just as well off with a White Katana...

 

My feedback: I have taken my time completing the modules compared to others due to RL concerns… I now have all of them completed, plus the no party death quests. I must say, that I really enjoyed them, so many thanks to Blue Manchu. Some of the battles are pretty hard at first but they are no tougher than I remember some of the AotA and EttSC battles being first time around. A lot of them are puzzles that you need to think through for a while and get a dedicated build for; they are hard, but in a good way because they are all beatable with a bit of strategy and creative deck building. I now have a party that works fairly well for each individual battle. I stuck with 1-1-1 because it is most flexible and that is what I have done for all the other modules. I am happy to share if anyone is interested...

I had a few troubles when Svitlana #3 and #4, when the shades first show up, first time I toughed it out with Violent Spin and a few Nova Axe similar to @Frostguard did (his description is really god btw). But I found it inconsistent and needed a few retries. For the no deaths run @Flaxative ‘s hints were perfect and it makes both of these battles MUCH easier. It is all about controlling the space and taking the enemies one at a time when you are ready for them. I didn't find Wail as annoying as some people seemed to - it is a (somewhat blunt) way to increase the difficulty with an OP card to make up for AI limitations. But you can play around it to a certain extent.

By far the hardest was Assault #2, I think I discovered similar solutions to most other folk: teleport on all characters. Silver/control wiz, heal priest etc Ancient grudge is also useful as this one can go one for a while… Assault #3 was always a bit random for me – if at least one of my chars draws Arrogant Armor/ Mystical Wyrmhide turn 1 then I find the battle easy, if not then I struggle as all you end up with are a bunch of random form cards and it comes down to how well you use them, it can be easy to get rushed sometimes by Yurik and his pals.

A few of other points:

• Arrogant armor / wyrmhide are really useful for a lot of the modules with Shades/Jovanna
• Spirits do not seem to know how to use Greater Spell Skill at all, I don't think that I have ever seen it used? It just sits in their hand, if used, it could make their grudges a whole lot more threatening, very quickly.
• I feel like I should give the AI hard modules another chance now? I liked the regular ones but found the hard ones a bit of a chore. It is the only place that I never do loot fairy when it goes there. Coming back as a better player with better items might make them more enjoyable...
• Only complaint would be that I wish that there were more modules but I understand that it is pretty small team at BM, more SP content is always welcome though!

 

Finished CM modules 1 & 2. For module 1, I went with the all-dwarf 1/1/1 setup, and it was straightforward. For module 2, I went with the all-Dwarf priest-priest-wizard. There were times I wished I had brought a warrior in place of one of the priests, especially in 2-2, but the second set of heals really set me up good for 2-3 and 2-4. I only needed to buy a continue once (two wipes on 2-4), and won 2-4 on the next try. For 2-3 and 2-4, the wizard had ...

Spoiler

10 Flash Floods

... which really helped control the fights. On 2-4, I got a bit lucky ...

Spoiler

I got a Flash Flood in the opening hand, which let me pin the zombie priests in the central chamber right away, which buys a few rounds to better get set up for the horde. After that, the Flash Floods were mostly used to keep the werewolf away until the end of the fight.

I Ducked a Wail, which was really useful at the start of the next round, and is probably a third of the reason why 2-4 went so smoothly the last time I played it. I lost one priest, but by then the shade and a zombie priest were gone, and a muscular zombie was down to 2hp, so the rest fell in fairly short order afterward.

Module 1 was quite good in my book, although the 3rd map felt too open -- a little more difficult terrain in the center would've helped that. The doggies were almost, but not quite, too much of a grind to be fun.

Module 2 was appropriately hard, but not as ridiculously gimmicky as the AI hard modules are. 2-2 was particularly a grind for me; it was mechanically difficult to wait out the bat-based teleports on the guards, as the AI often ended the round when I would try to wait it out by passing early in the round after moving one or two characters away from them (I kept one priest in the thick of things to tank the hits with Adaptable). The zombies on 2-3 were not enough of a nuisance to merit further mention; the shades were a bit of a pain, but two heal-laden priests burned them down quick enough. Wail and the mass-discard-curse felt appropriate. I liked 2-4, and the particular combo of mobs felt appropriately difficult, but due to the strategy I used above, it went relatively smoothly for a high-level module. The zombie priests' special block is something that I would love to get my hands on. I'd be willing to go back to it if I had a good reason--and if it were not for 2-2, I'd be willing to do the module after the EttSC modules when working on leveling characters up to 24. I will probably never do the quests, however, unless they guaranteed multiple legendaries.

I'll report back after I deal with module 3, but I wanted to get these thoughts down before they slipped away.

 

Good day, Card Hunters!

Finally got around to playing sweet new Castle Mitternacht adventures yesterday, was able to complete them in a couple of evenings. After reading through everyone's feedback, my own "strategies" seem a bit silly . For instance, I never thought of using Arrogant Armor or fire attacks as a counter for Negative Energy Being.

Like Frostguard, DJFatkid, and mckeen, I managed to stick with my starting party (Human Warrior, Human Wizard, Elf Priest) just for old times' sake. They braved many dangers together, and thus nothing would dare to stand in their way!

The Spreading Blight
Going into these adventures completely blind (apart from hearing rumors of their difficulty), I was expecting to fight vampires and werewolves right off the bat. Imagine my surprise when my party, loaded with silver attacks, was greeted by a retinue of very non-monster-like soldiers and inquisitors with immunity-granting badges! It worked out, though, for at that point my foes appeared as nothing more challenging than just some high level mobs in great numbers (boy was I in for a surprise ).

Third battle was probably my favorite from the whole expansion. The werebros fight was refreshing, scary and hard, but did not feel unpredictably unfair, especially once you party comes prepared. Not wanting to get destroyed by some unfortunate War Cry + All Out Attack combo, I went for Cushioning Armor (doesn't work against armor-piercing attacks, though), Force Field, and Impenetrable Nimbus as my line of defense, plus Inquisitor's Strike and Sundering Strike as my weapons of choice.

Svitlana's Inquisition
I was prepared for the worst, but was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the first two battles went.
And then, I met Shades.

I agree with Maniafig on this. I'd say that my problem with Shades is how much they resemble Death Elementals - they are both extremely nasty, annoying enemies that need to be dealt with quickly and are very tricky to eliminate due to NEB. It was quite fun to learn how to deal with them in 2-3; it was not that fun to deal with them and a horde of other deadly and I mean deadly foes at the same time. It was also frustrating at times to be "fighting" against multiple copies of Traveling Curse hiding in my deck at the end of battle (with all my characters badly wounded) rather than breathing a sigh of relief at the thought of being close to victory.

I figured that purging NEB would not be a reliable option because of the fact that I could lose all my attacks at any point. Instead, I turned my usually aggressive Priest into a healing elemental, gave my Warrior as many copes of Parry as I could find (along with some silver attacks in 2-4), while my Wizard flooded more terrain with water than ever before in his life (both in 2-3 and in 2-4). In my third and successful attempt at the last battle I decided to focus the werewolf first while keeping the priests trapped in the crypt itself. I would say I got quite lucky with my Inquisitor's Strike draws. The party then dispatched of the fiendish Shade, smashed the zombies, and finally carefully disassembled the priests who were already low thanks to small favors from Traveling Curses.

Spoiler: Highlight from my first attempt

"Bad dog! Now, go and think about what you did!"
As I happened to still have my Flash Flood from previous battle, the idea of blocking priests in their own chamber immediately came to mind. What I discovered later was the option to throw the werewolf in there too! It almost worked, but I took so long fighting the Shade that I ran out of health (love Traveling Curses).

Assault on Castle Mitternacht
I would like to thank the developers for giving us a chance to take a breather in the first part of this module . More importantly, it gives you ample time to figure out how Spirits work. I thought about going for the teleport strategy, but instead decided to go for the long, "intended" route, just because I was enjoying the process.

I was fortunate to beat the second part of the module on my first try. Turns out, you just kinda need everything you typically need in a battle - heals, attacks, blocks, armor removal. In a glorious moment (see highlight) I managed to take out one of the horrifying Skeletons first, then went for the Shade who spent most of its time sitting in the middle of the map, then for the rest of the group.

Spoiler: Highlight #1

I can totally picture it:
"Oh no! My buddy is in real trouble, that skeleton means business!
But I've got no spells left, I only have..."
*face expression becomes that of a determined maniac*
"Watch out, evil - here comes WIZARDRY!"
*launch*
*the door bursts open, followed by an explosion of ice and bones*

And don't worry about Priest on the right - he got out from that horrible nightmare thanks to the wonders of A.I.
After walking right up to the entrance, that skeleton on the right figured:
"You know what? That lava looks pretty dangerous, I'm not getting paid enough for this. I better go see how my buddy is doing down in the other hallway."
And off he went. Here I was, plotting an elaborate rescue involving Telekinesis...

Spoiler: Highlight #2

Not even close. Nope.

The final battle was, of course, a bit of a random-fest, which felt somewhat relaxing after the previous fight (but I was still scared to death of making a wrong move). After reading previous comments, I think that I got a little lucky as Yurik did not have Arrogant Armor in his opening hand. He got sucked into the madness of Walpurgis Night along with his minions, then charged towards me, armed with somewhat useless cards. My Priest, however, managed to snatch two copies of Impenetrable Nimbus from his deck before going through the metamorphosis. This rendered Yurik helpless against characters with eight or so cards in their hands. The rest of the fight took a while, though - Jovana took out my Wizard, and I had to patiently wait for an opportunity to strike and fight through her vampiric attacks.

So, how was it?

Honestly, Castle Mitternacht reminded me of that initial "I love this game but I also hate it" feeling I had when going through the campaign for the first time. Yes, this time around I know a whole lot more about the game, and I have a much better collection of items, but my enemies' power has risen tenfold. And for that wonderful experience I would like to thank the development team, you really made me think about every move longer than I ever had to, which was awesome!

What I did not like as much were (surprise) Shades that were added into already complicated fights. Specifically, their Traveling Curses (for reasons explained above) and global effects that affect every character no matter how well they are hiding. There were multiple times when I thought to myself "Well, I guess I have no power over this, let's hope I don't draw that Curse next round". My strategy was far from perfect, but I do still feel like I tried my absolute best in terms of decision making, yet my hopes were often thrown at the mercy of A.I., card draw, or some other unpredictable factor.

Overall - I still had an absolute blast as I always do with Card Hunter's SP content, would love to play more of this! It just feels like this time around there were less of "wonderful discoveries of cool new cards, mechanics, and NPC's" and more of "hey, there's a whole bunch of intentionally tough enemies, go get 'em!".

Definitely looking forward to having more adventures in the future!
10/10 would get eaten by a werewolf again.

 

I've finally been making time to play through Castle Mitternacht. As usual, my first run through is with my original 1/1/1 adventuring party, avoiding spoilers as much as possible. I'm only done with the first two modules, but I'm about to level up some, thus I thought I'd post my party's stats and decks as-is to say this is exactly what I used to complete these adventures. If anyone's stuck, including with all the advice I'm sure is already posted in this thread, perhaps my insane efforts can make a difference. ~shrug~

Spoiler: The Spreading Blight

The first time I came to this, I beat the first battle, then kept the same deck and lost on the second battle thrice. I was tired at the time, thus I walked away without spending 15 gold. When I returned some days later, this was the deck I used for all three battles. I know some things could be more efficient, but it worked, and hey, I didn't even have to swap out equipment.

Spoiler: partyanddecksbbcode

Spoiler: valiant warrior: Will

[SRC] Will
Level 21 Human Warrior

Hu La Houp's Vicious Circle L – thanks, @Lucky Dice!
Riptide E
Manhunter E
Xander's Mail L – totally replaceable; just combo'd Officer’s+Chain because boots...
Parrying Buckler U
Impeccability L – thanks, Aloyzo and community!
Eadrik's Boots L – mainly wanted the Vspin; Chain+Officer’s was extra
Superb Command U – wanted blocks, but AoA + multi-hit attack isn’t bad!
Advanced Crushing L – overspent

countering the Inquisitional swarm (and their blasted Lucky Charms!) – despite Warding Lance, stacking the indirect damage is still very nice

2 x Ready To Strike
5 x Berserk Spin
1 x Impetuous Slash
3 x Unnerving Strike
2 x Startling Strike

2 x Violent Spin

4 x Parry
2 x Subtle Parry
1 x Block, Soldier!

2 x Reliable Mail
2 x Leather Harness
2 x Officer's Harness

other nice things

2 x Pressing Bash
1 x Strong Bludgeon
1 x Sundering Strike
1 x All Out Attack
1 x Lunging Thrust

2 x Crusher
​

Spoiler: wizard who's ironically a dwarf: Quinn the Stout

[SRC] Quinn the Stout
Level 21 Dwarf Wizard

Heartripper L
Staff Of Chask E
Luke's Iron Hand L – because Vengeance
Ring Of Appropriation E
Ring Of Appropriation E
Rod Of Palver Pree E – I have Asmod’s, but a little more terrain damage/control probably wouldn’t hurt me
Cape Of Dark Magic R – Spell Skill + trait + escape the onslaught = winning!
Vampire Knight's Greaves L – totally replaceable, I had a to spare
Lucky Toughness C
Focused Electromancy R – good-bye, Lucky Charms!

9 x Punishing Bolt – man, they draw a lot of cards $;^ } – however, fwiw, I inadvertently overheard someone else advising this in World or something

8 x Telekinesis – because Vengeance
2 x Gusts Of War

1 x Hot Spot
1 x Stone Spikes

3 x Spark Generator

1 x Hover
1 x Spell Skill

2 x Pushback Parry
1 x Parry
1 x Lucky Charm
1 x Toughness
1 x Reliable Mail

1 x Sparkling Cloth Armor
1 x Swarm Of Bats
1 x Escaping Run

1 x Slowed
​

Spoiler: holy priest: Solstice

[SRC] Solstice
Level 21 Human Priest

Healing Hand Mace E
Healing Hand Mace E
Sanctified Shroud C
Parrying Buckler U
Cursed Gumshoes C
Shielding Token R
Shielding Token R
Shielding Token R
Inspired Command R – overspent
Novice Piety U


6 x Impenetrable Nimbus
6 x Team Heal
2 x Sacred Shroud
1 x Minor Heal
1 x Investigate

1 x Sprint
1 x Shuffle, Team!

3 x Parry
1 x Subtle Parry
1 x Lifesaving Block

2 x Altruism

4 x Mighty Bludgeon
2 x Sundering Strike

1 x Inspirational Thinking – more for role-playing purposes than anything: she intends to never use Unholy cards, but when times get really rough, (like these adventures,) some items come with tempting cards she generally discards, thus it’s nice to be able to draw three cards and toss an Unholy if it comes up (especially a handicap) $:^ ]
3 x Consuming Spear
1 x Demonic Revenge
​

Spoiler: Battle 1

Solstice sat on the Victory Square while Will tanked nearby and Quinn took potshots when the opportunity arose. Only once did Solstice feel the desperation to Sap someone as a finishing blow; very appropriately, a Demon got Revenge on her soon afterward. $E^ b As you might garner from my block choices, I mostly ignored the Silver Crossbowmen. You might also note, I have no Nightling nor Silver damage cards, and overall as few attachments as possible. Amazingly, RtS repeatedly failed on me; lost a lot of free damage that way. Fright is such a saving grace here!

Spoiler: Battle 2

My party grouped up mostly in a corner (but not totally trapped in) for different reasons. Easier to avoid Crossbowmen los, easier for Will to be Ready and surrounded (muah ha), and easier to isolate the Inquisitor, sometimes letting her have one ally target so as to not only heal herself. (Again, yay, Fright. ~nodnod~) This time, RtS came through for me; in particular, I recall it taking one Vengeance user from max to zero in one Move! lol

Spoiler: Battle 3

I considered swapping out my gear, but figured, eh, we'll see. Ohhh wow! These are some tough werewolves! $:^ b Bearing Immunity to Riptide and Hu La Houp was quite the surprise. Swinging a Mighty Bludgeon for only 6 damage was rough, too. They built up their armors rather quickly, and it was maybe 3-5 rounds in that Solstice drew a Sundering. If I'd had to do it over, I would've swapped Lucky Dice's Vicious Circle for Sundersong or maybe The Inquisition, and perhaps Riptide for Blocking Mace. I'd likely give Quinn some Acid and Silver magic, too.

Whoops! Typed about 3,000 characters over the limit. Gonna have to split this into two posts. $:^ P

I'm genuinely enjoying the CM expansion. Yes, it's hard, but it doesn't feel like my battle with the Troll Tyrant (lol). It's more like Acquisitions, Incorporated. Go in, enjoy the painstaking attention to flavorful detail, solve the puzzle, and if perchance you died a horrible death, return (likely with a new deck) and beat the tar out of it (even if it takes a good number of endurance rounds ha ha ha ha). $:^ b

 

Continuing my solutions in the event it might help someone...

Spoiler: Svitlana's Inquisition

For this adventure, I used different decks for each battle.

Spoiler: Battle 1

I began with the same decks I used in the first adventure, and hey hey, I won. $:^ J

Aside from the sadness of the townsfolk's blight and demise at the heroes' hands, this battle was hilarious! $E^ D ~panics~ "AaaAAAAaahh!!" ~dies~ "ArrooooOOOooo..." $:^ P

Spoiler: Battle 2

I went into this with the same decks again but lost. Captain Teadora is no joke. Regrouping, the party came up with this:

Spoiler: Will

[SRC] Will
Level 21 Human Warrior

The Inquisition E
Whirling Flail C
Grimsong's Scythe E
Inquisitor's Coat C
Parrying Buckler U – btw, I own three Black Cat Bucklers, but this party retains their own flavor $;^ b
Impeccability L
Inara's Boots L
Superb Command U
Novice Slicing U – because Weak Chop on the Flail ~shrug~

6 x Inquisitor's Strike
1 x Vengeance
3 x Sundering Strike
2 x Strong Hack
2 x Vicious Thrust
1 x Powerful Bludgeon
1 x All Out Attack
2 x Weak Chop

2 x Ready To Strike

2 x Inspiring Armor
1 x Reliable Mail
1 x Inquisitor's Badge
1 x Chain Harness
1 x Block, Soldier!

4 x Parry
2 x Escaping Run
2 x Slicer
1 x Large Weapon – sure is a lot of open area in this battle $;^ J

1 x Slowed
​

Spoiler: Quinn the Stout

Same deck! (No changes.)

Spoiler: Solstice

Same deck! Sorta! (Only swapped out one Healing Hand Mace for Gauixl's Sacred Maquah.)

Spoiler: tactics

I quickly determined that I needed to ignore the vampire infestation and transform the good captain asap. A Lycanthropic Form is easier to deal with than those Obliterating Hacks, erg, ha ha ha ha... Kudos to BM for making Shifting Block her default card! Wowee, nice flavor there. (I could go on and on about these first two adventures' flavor!)

Spoiler: Battle 3

I entered with the previous battle's decks and of course lost. Just seeing what I'm up against, even with Karen warning about Heals. Ha. $}^ J Nice prelude there, heheh. Changed up for this:

Spoiler: Will

[SRC] Will
Level 21 Human Warrior

The Inquisition E
Brutal Flail C
Sturdy Torch C
Bern's Untouchable Mail L – better than Nimbus!
Magnetic Shield E
Helm Of Preparation E
Gumshoe's Gumshoes R – since we can’t always play Moves $;^ J
Superb Command U
Focused Dervish R

3 x Arrogant Armor
3 x Investigate
1 x Absorbing Block
1 x Block, Soldier!

3 x Wind Dancer
2 x Catch Arrow
1 x Quick Reactions
1 x Parry

6 x Inquisitor's Strike
2 x Mighty Hack
2 x Sundering Strike
2 x Flaring Torch
2 x Purging Strike
1 x Vicious Thrust
1 x All Out Attack
2 x Bludgeon
1 x Stab

1 x Ready To Strike
1 x Dodge
​

Spoiler: Quinn the Stout

[SRC] Quinn the Stout
Level 21 Dwarf Wizard

Silverwood Staff Of The Magus E
Silverwood Staff Of The Magus E
Ring Of Appropriation E
Ring Of Appropriation E
Rod Of Palver Pree E
Rod Of Palver Pree E
Meztis Wyrmhide Robes L – better than Nimbus!
Gumshoe's Gumshoes R – since we can’t always play Moves $;^ J
Lucky Toughness C – overspent
Superb Electromancy U

2 x Mystical Wyrmhide
3 x Investigate
3 x Parry
1 x Toughness
1 x Lucky Charm

4 x Punishing Bolt
4 x Inquisition Bolt
3 x Stone Spikes
2 x Hot Spot
2 x Inquisitor's Strike
1 x Obliterating Spark

6 x Telekinesis
2 x Gusts Of War

2 x Spark Generator
​

Spoiler: Solstice

And now for something completely different... (Expecting a lot of Greater Heals, were you? lol...)

[SRC] Solstice
Level 21 Human Priest

Inquisitor's Morningstar C
Inquisitor's Morningstar C
Axamander's Ringmail E – better than Nimbus!
Magnetic Shield E
Gumshoe's Gumshoes R – since we can’t always play Moves $;^ J
Epigenetic Eraser R – overspent
Epigenetic Eraser R – overspent
Epigenetic Eraser R – overspent
Venerable Positioning E – Delegate + trait + block, okidoky
Beginner Corruption U – because yet another D. Purge (but Curse is to be discarded because Unholy)

one unused !! - and thanks, @Founder! $:^ ] $:^ ]

2 x Arrogant Armor
2 x Catch Arrow
1 x Absorbing Block
1 x Wounded Block
3 x Investigate

3 x Genetic Engineering
3 x Gene Therapy

6 x Destructive Purge
4 x Purge
1 x Misguided Heal

4 x Inquisitor's Strike

1 x Delegate

1 x Blight
1 x Vanguard
2 x Superstitious

1 x Curse Of Fragility
​

Spoiler: tactics

As you might garner from my choices of blocks, I mostly ignored the zombies. Mostly. There were times when it was advantageous to deal with one or more, but most of my efforts were to take out those Shades. I know Evensongs and/or Medical Kits might've been the more obvious choices, but where would that leave my other two characters? Besides, this was more fun. $;^ b

Clearly, the most important aspect of this battle is attachments -- keeping the party safe from incoming enemy attachments, and stopping the enemy from enjoying their own attachments. As for my wizard's legendary robes, amazingly, I only drew one Mystical Wyrmhide, and the first attachment a Shade threw at him was Dastardly Curse, and Quinn missed the roll!! and of course lost the blasted card very, very shortly afterward, eerrgg. $}^ J Meanness!

Just be forewarned, if you go the route I took, remember that Gen. Engineering and D. Purge can give those massive "heals" on Absorbing, but Gene Therapy for whatever reason is Projectile Radiation, thus you can aim for the block, but Shades won't actually Absorb for health; nevertheless, Shades will take Gene Therapy's heal as usual, yay, and removing the block can be good before hitting with other stuff, including the warrior's Purging Strike, or Flaring Torch to push off NEB, or just any number of the options my decks' toolbox offers.

I read a little bit of people's posts here just now, trying to avoid anything re: the third adventure of course, but I saw some discussion re: any party make-up being viable. If one means decks, then no, I'm glad it takes specialization to make things work -- and we should be used to that to some degree or another ever since dealing with Amorphous Body and Only Bones. However, if one means character-race combinations, then sure, I believe any should be viable. I already figure if I brought an elf wizard through here, Elvish Insight x2 would do wonders -- potentially hit Absorbing Block + NEB *without sending damage* and potentially reveal what's coming (thus how to avoid it). (Even triple wizards could try to hit Absorbing and/or "burn off" (muah ha) attachments, then set in with Instant Burn and Accelerate Time and such. Just theorycrafting there, though. Obviously, Wyrmhide would help, too.) Also, I figure Push The Button and Pull The Trigger items would counter Wail more-or-less like my choice of Delegate did, except you can stack those Laser Assists, you wouldn't require an ally, and you'd guarantee some sort of Attack.

Spoiler: Battle 4

I once again brought the previous deck, and once again lost. I paid my 15 gold, tweaked what I needed, and once again beat it on my first try. Pretty much with all of the Svitlana's Inquistion adventure.

Spoiler: Will

Same deck! Nearly! (I only swapped Helm of Prep for Bellowing Helm for War Cry x2.)

Spoiler: Quinn the Stout

Same deck! Nearly! (I only swapped Lucky Toughness for Advanced Resilience because oh wow War Cry, Desperate Block, Antimagic Skin is about perfect. I overspent a on this Dwarf Skill.)

Spoiler: Solstice

Same deck! (No changes!)

Spoiler: tactics

Not too much to say here. Too Horrible is probably the most awesome block I've seen. It's not that the undead priests actually do something to stop you, such as parrying your melee attack or catching your arrow to gain the advantage, no, no. It's that your own characters find it so awful to attack one of Joleph's own while staring them in the face, they .. they just can't do it! $E^ D lol I love it! ... but! If your characters can first just let out a bellowing war cry to gather all will and stoutness and carry through -- or if your characters can just show such arrogance, or drape themselves with protective mystical hides, that aside from a momentary pause can still nevertheless face those zombies -- then surely enough, they can go down pretty quickly. They'll probably go down more quickly than the Werewolf or Shade can arrive. $;^ b For that matter, War Cry x3 (more if you want to stack using a different party make-up) helps against Shades, too, depending on circumstances. I came close to losing this one, but I eventually prevailed. Did you know if an enemy Traveling Curse hits your Sacred Shroud, you don't heal? Yeah, that's annoying. I still haven't gotten around to reporting that as a bug...

I really was surprised to not deal with any Spirits, though. The lead-up was totally there. (Maybe next adventure and I just haven't gotten there yet? Still, this adventure had the mechanical lead-up.) The funny thing is that at one point, (I think during Battle 3,) Solstice gave Engineering to Quinn .. who obtained Ethereal Form. $;^ b So um, at least I got to see a Spirit then? lol

I hope to have time for Karen to GM me through this campaign expansion later this week. Busy busy.

 

The fray was joined. The joints were frayed.

Spoiler: Assault on Castle Mitternacht

This was a weird adventure, that's for sure.

Spoiler: Battle 1

Soooo, I went in with the same decks I used in the last battle of Svitlana's Inquisition. I won. ~shrug~ ... Finally saw my Spirits! $:^ ] Ohhh wow, they got the unnerfed Boost-not-Armor Spirit armor in hand instead of as an attachment! Well played, BM, well played... It's a good thing they really have no idea how to use Ancient Grudge and Boo! -- as 100% expected after years of playing vs. the GMs now. Anyway, Solstice and Quinn the Stout took out one of the first Reinforced Doors and just kind of hung around there exorcising the ground floor while Will (with one of Quinn's TKs) slowly made his way through the next door, unto the staircase, to hunker down and clear that path to the next level. And to demonstrate how simple this was in the end, I'd like you to know that Quinn drew both Wyrmhides round 1 or 2, and then learned -- before either armor even got used -- that Spirits have Acid Pool. $F^ |

Question, though: Why do Spirits never, EVER use Greater Spell Skill? (That's not rhetorical. I'm really curious.) Talk about a major gaff slipping through playtesting... (Cowardly -> Inq Bolt reveals four G.S.S. cards in hand -> Spirit refuses to play any of them, ever.)

Meanwhile, the inclusion of Mikhail was wonderful! $E^ D

Spoiler: Battle 2

Easily the most difficult battle in the expansion. I had to come in here with three (or four?) different decklists before I landed on a good balance vs. Melee + Magic + attachments (+ NEB!) + Blocks + Armor + crazy movement advantages... talk about a killer treat! I never really felt like the losses were unfair, except of course once when the Shade was 1 HP from dying with Unholy Energy and no NEB (yes!!!), and then it played Doom on Quinn, and Wyrmhide rolled a natural 1! Critical failure! Very end of round, ugh. Solstice only had maybe one Destructive Purge in that build, thus he went down three rounds later. That felt like utter garbage right there.

Anyway, my winning party:

Will
Level 21 Human Warrior

Spoiler

Sundersong L – skeletons!!
Vibrant Pain L – important for Impassable Terrain, shifting enemy Block facings, and ~shudder~ Doors
Blocking Axe U – $;^ J
Bern's Untouchable Mail L
Parrying Buckler U – tactic being for Will to hunt skeletons
Angry Jack's Helmet E – btw, nice to see that RtS is not the answer to everything $E^ J
Gumshoe's Gumshoes R
Superb Command U – I got one Sunder+AOA! whoo! heheh
Focused Dervish R – yay, traits … plus, Blocks when not Arrogant

6 x Nimble Strike
5 x Sundering Strike
1 x All Out Attack
1 x Able Bludgeon
3 x Clumsy Chop

4 x Parry
3 x Flimsy Block
3 x Arrogant Armor
1 x Block, Soldier!
1 x Reliable Mail

3 x Investigate
1 x Walk, Team!

3 x Wind Dancer
1 x Blind Rage

Quinn the Stout
Level 21 Dwarf Wizard

Spoiler

Heartripper L
Chask's Relief E
Ring Of Appropriation E
Ring Of Appropriation E
Armorbane Pendant C
Armorbane Pendant C
Meztis Wyrmhide Robes L
Gumshoe's Gumshoes R
Tough Resilience R
Traveler From The North R

6 x Punishing Bolt
3 x Inquisition Bolt
2 x Dissolve Armor
2 x Gusts Of War
2 x Memory Loss
1 x Freeze
1 x Stone Spikes

2 x Mystical Wyrmhide
2 x Lucky Charm
1 x Toughness
1 x Antimagic Skin
1 x Hardy Mail

4 x Telekinesis

3 x Investigate

2 x Dimensional Traveller
2 x Combustible
1 x Creature Of The Night

Solstice
Level 21 Human Priest

Spoiler

Blackhammer E – wow, this guy’s great here $:^ b
Blackhammer E – yeah, that’s how great he is here $E^ b
Axamander's Ringmail E
Magnetic Shield E – non-skeletons...
Gumshoe's Gumshoes R
Medical Kit C
Shoddy Healing Token R – always hilarious
Oquith's Choking Incense L – skeletons!!
Venerable Positioning E
Beginner Corruption U

4 x Sundering Strike – skeletons!!
2 x Potent Stab
1 x Destructive Purge – note, this is the ONLY purge card in her winning deck
1 x Radiation Bolt

4 x Misguided Heal
2 x Greater Heal
2 x Impetuous Heal
2 x Wings Of Faith – I even killed the Shade with one of these puppies $;^ D

3 x Investigate

2 x Arrogant Armor
3 x Cause Fumble
2 x Catch Arrow
1 x Absorbing Block
1 x Wounded Block

1 x Delegate
1 x Vanguard
1 x Blight

tempting cards Solstice doesn’t want to use

2 x Enervating Touch
1 x Curse Of Fragility

They're built to generally be able to take care of themselves one way or another while separated, but also to be able to gradually unify and synergize. A threefold cord is not easily broken. $:^ ]

Spoiler: Battle 3

Despite Karen's warnings that this would be the most difficult by far, um, ~shrug~ nah. Beat it first try – using the same decks from Battle 2 – and I never even got to draw any of my Arrogant Wyrmhide defenses. (Which, btw, ever since Shades were introduced, the party gets trained to equip anti-attachments, thus it's likely a person would draw it vs. Walpurgis the first time one entered this final battle.) Ontop all that, the vampiric counts mostly don't know how to use Swarm Of Bats. I was able to squander their movement just by flinging junk Form cards at them, and of course they were willing to stay in range / line of sight instead of evading the hits.

Btw, I remember Flak somewhere saying the counts are elves, and I can see their tell-tale ears, but since they lack "Elf" in their other/race/class descriptors, I imagine Elvish Insight would expose all their tricks and their manners (barring that hilariously annoying little piddly Missile Block of course). I find their probable susceptibility to Elvish Insight odd, no matter how Dark-Elf they're supposed to've become. $F^ J

I hate to say it, but I'd wanted this final battle (especially with Karen's pre-battle multiple lines of build up speech!) to be a lot more challenging (even despite a couple people blabbing about stacked Walpurgis in World Chat -- thankfully, they insinuated it was only you vs. Jovana, thus at least the villagers were a pleasant surprise). The difficulty was anticlimactic, and unfortunately not in any perceived artistic, ironic way. I suppose some Quests will make up for it more than enough (and I mean literally more than enough, I'm guessing too much, ha ha ha ha,) but .. eh. ~shrug~ Quests aren't the actual main storyline battle. If anything, the "hard part" was merely justifying the role-play of a non-Unholy party getting inundated with Unholy cards created in-hand. ("Ummmm, they struggle with their Forms but succumb to the cravings during the heat of battle? I dunno." ~plays Ethereal Form's Curse of Fragility hoping only to knock off Missile Block .. but misses and attaches anyway, w/e~) I suppose instead I could've just packed purges and lost repeatedly until I round-1-topdecked some anti-Walpurgis armors, but .. ~shrug again~

Spoiler: AFTER the final battle

I guess Karen's final words on the matter do help the party's feeling concerning "we won but with too many unwanted effects." ~nod~ Which, btw, Gary's comment about the contradictory reward items was priceless and exactly what I'd wondered throughout the expansion. $}^ J Kudos, BM, ha ha ha ha.

Aaaaand now I guess I'll look through the various CM posts and read what other ppl did and stuff. $:^ P

EDIT:

Spoiler: re: cards enemies don't use

Yeah, I almost forgot, it was cool to see the Inquisitor's big huge awesome super card -- but disappointing that she never used it. I guess I just didn't think that much of it since it was a one-off (and the pre-battle warnings scared me re: Inq Strike thus I wanted to minimize my attachments aside from Nimbus .. ha, thanks BM for including Purging Strike in their decks btw $}^ J ntm the elf's D. Purge) -- as opposed to Spirits' glaringly obvious G.S.S. stacking and ignoring-for-everything-in-the-world...

 

cool

 

I really hated these maps. Not as bad as I dislike the pvp of this game, but almost on that level. Especially considering the lame rewards for beating (in several cases) very difficult maps.

The only tip i can give to people, which probably isn't very helpful, but is curse of fragility (and I suppose bad luck) can trigger the damage component on absorbing block, which came in handy with those pain-in-the-butt shades. I doubt I'll ever play these maps again b/c it just isn't worth the cost in time and gold to keep playing and hoping for a good draw the first couple rounds. some of the maps took me 8 attempts each. not worth the pain.

 

nice

 

Mitternacht Module 2.......

I use dwarves. Fighter/Cleric/Wizard - their hitpoints make longevity possible, moves don't handicap them much in these boards, war cry is essential, dwarven cry is fantastic.

1st Board:
People don't seem to have a problem, so it doesn't seem like there are needed. I pretty much use the same build for this one as I do the second one, just less nimbus and more heals.

2nd Board:
I have my fighter move up and use nimbus. Make sure you make them use up those bat swarm moves before you do any attacks. I use lots of firewalls on wizard and boiling armor. Once the peons are dead, I attack from behind to avoid the shift blocks, or activated them to get her out of werewolf or vampire form. Ground effects help, sundering strike, purging strike, boiling armor, war cry. Spread out. The boss often doesn't have a ton of moves, so once positioned properly, it's easier to avoid the shifting block altogether.

3rd Board:
Arrogant armors and wyrm hide. Usually have five or six flash floods on the wizard. Put it in the entryway to keep zombies out. The shades always come out, especially if they don't have line of sight. I also use the purging mace and an additional purge item on my cleric. I also equip all medical kits on my cleric. If the shades have negative energy, you can purge it. If you can't, use the heals. If you don't have either, rad bolts work well. If they're blocked, then the shades take damage from their shield. If they don't block, then they're only healed for two and they get a handicap card. This can still be a hard board if the cards don't fall correctly, but with this mix, I've won most of the time. Nova axe works great for fighter as it can purge or do damage as necessary. Violent spin on nova axe also can be quite helpful for facing. Holding Dwarven Cry in reserve will allow you to regain attacks after a Wail is used.

4th Board:
Fighter.... Nova axe, something with Sundering strike, shield with three auto blocks, arrogant armor, racial skill with war cry and dwarven cry. It's nice to have boots with some kind of heal. I've gotten in a position where it's just me and the werewolf and I don't have hp to heal. Basically I build it so that if it gets down to just you and wolf, you can run him around and still get the win.

Cleric.... Purging mace, auto block shield, medical kits, an additional purge item, another weapon with a lot of heals (I use Evensong or the Healing Hand Mace) I equip a cleric skill with healing rays. Same racial item as fighter.

Wizard... 5 or 6 flash flood cards, same racial as other two, gusts of wind and TKs, wyrm hide, boots with some healing, firewalls.

Strategy........
The wizard is the cornerstone for this battle. Do NOT let them die. You need to get a flash flood or two in the first couple rounds. Even with 6 I have been thwarted with bad draws, but whatever. In the first round if you get a flash flood, wait for the wolf to commit to coming towards you. It's important to note that there are only a couple of squares to stand in that give you line of sight to close off around the columns, and an enemy or your own character can hinder that. So learn it and be mindful of that. Once you get close, wall off in between the columns to make him rethink it and go back the other way. You'll be moving through the priests, which is tough until you get your armors. Damage them as you can, but don't worry about being base to base and being blighted. Most handicaps are manageable for a round or two. The key is to get into that center room. I usually end up killing the priests on the way or as they follow me in. Once you're there, you've gained the advantage. Once you have arrogant armor, attack the priests at will. Their block/stun won't still. Between blocks and heals, it will be rough, but you can survive. Once you're in the middle room, flash flood the entrance. The shade can't help himself and will teleport in. He'll be close to you, so you can use purge, heals, attacks and his own block to defeat him. Battle cry can defeat his blocks if needed. If he doesn't have negative energy, but has blocks, use melee attacks to soak them up. They don't heal from a melee attack even if they block. Dwarven Cry is a great card to keep in reserve. Once the Shade uses Wail you can do the Dwarven Cry to get attacks back.

Try to let the zombies in one at a time between flash floods. Once the shade is gone, time is on your side, you don't have to worry about Wail taking your attacks. Use rounds to stock flash floods, heal up, and choose your cards. It's nice if the wolf is last as he's the hardest base to base. If you manage to keep him outside, you can use purge to get rid of the card that let's him keep an additional card. Or boil his armor. With luck, you can actually burn him with firewalls without even getting to you. If not, make sure you have heals and some good attacks. It should be noted that this wolf has no blocks, or at least I haven't seen one.

This one is tough regardless. I have been playing a long time and have access to most epic and legendary items, usually in duplicate and triplicate, and it can still go poorly. However, this strategy is fairly consistent, and with all of the traveling curses in the mix, a bad draw can kill you, but it can also kill them.

In closing..........

I hope I'm not too far down in this thread for people to see it. This has been a winning strategy for me. I enjoy a challenge from time to time, but recently, all the new quests have been treasure hunts and extremely difficult. I feel like this is a mistake. I feel like the Mauve Manticore's already provide puzzle-y, difficult quests for people. I would just enjoy more normal quests. I beat the treasure hunts, but they're so difficult and frustrating that once I get the item/satisfaction/win, I NEVER play them again. There's a place for adventures where certain cards and only a few builds are necessary, but with the last two, that's all there's been.

Cardhunter, this is a great game, but can't we just have more normal content? Still high level is fine, so we can flex our muscles with our cool legendary cards we have, but why all the crappy/impossible/cheating enemies? I just want more normal content. And you know what, I wouldn't mind more normal stuff just level 10-20, honestly. Just my thoughts. Feel free to rip this to pieces. This is an internet forum, afterall.

 

yawwn.. been a year or so since I posted here so please bear with me in case I make a blooper.
I read most of the posts here concerning CM and I am glad that most can beat the first part easily. Sadly not me. The first map is hard but manageable by holding the winning square long enough.
Then I get stuck. Even after some 20 , yes 20 attempts to beat that inquisitor, her die hard henchmen and those ultra uncanny archers I finally just give up.
Game favors itself way over me, the player, by giving me my worst cards in my deck each turn around (or unfitting for the situation) and to 80% (no I am not exaggerating here) win any dice roll.
I tried out most of the strategies used here. My problem seams to be a minor one at that stage that I am stuck at so there is not to much to read on that part save to get rid of the Inquisitor as fast as possible. .
Nothing works at all. Only 2 times did I even manage to kill the Inquisitor and that was the only feat in those games before my demise.

To test and see if I had gone dumb somehow I played through the Metal Monstrosity with the same characters ( Human Fighter, Dwarf Wizard, Elf Cleric all lvl22) and see there.
Rather easy run without even getting anyone killed in any of the boards. Got some nice golden chests from that and went back to CM just to get stuck on the second map again and again.

Evaluating the posts here lets me believe that this champaign gets even tougher. That is a grinding drag. I am all for a few new not so die hard adventures in future installments.
Casual players like myself that do spend money for this fantastic game can only get so much joy out of playing the available builds before to much frustration in eventual impossible fights take over.
Maybe a few new low level quests would be just right for the non fanatic enthusiasts out there.
May the cards be with you all and cheers to the developers.
* will check in here in time in case I get helpful replies....

 

Monstrosity is a very easy module, which is why I use it to level up extra characters (I recently sent a level 4 elf warrior through it).

CM is intended to be very difficult. For the map you're stuck on, I use Doom for the Inquisitor, and Path Of Knives for everyone else (best map in the game for that card). Ready To Strike is handy here too. Then load up on silver attacks and armor destruction for the map that follows it.