Thread for MM #26 praises / curses and advice. Battle 1: Let Them Eat Cake by @Maniafig The writing is strong with this one, as expected from Maniafig. If you take down the Human Priests first, the battle becomes a cakewalk. This might've been better reward at the end of the MM issue, since I found both later maps harder. Battle 2: Culinary Conclusion by @Frostguard This reminded me about Irate Interview from MM #17. Clumsy makes drawing the necessary combo a bit awkward, but the cat-and-mouse game remains fun. Battle 3: A Little Big Step by @DipperPynes Clever and devious, I liked this very much! Although two back-to-back scenarios, where you have to wait for the right cards was perhaps a bit too much.
Yay, a new MM! 1. This looked like it was going to be easy from the start. You have the numbers to outflank the supreme blockers that you're matched up against and if you move your slices right, you can storm only the enemy. Furthermore, you can snipe anyone low enough on health with a frosting cannon. Did anyone else realize how incredibly powerful Leadership is with multiple units? You get to switch out your cards for each mob! That's incredible cycling power to be remembered for future MMs. You can and also should leadership out your edibles, your main weakness in this deck...although its an emerald card. Speaking of, edible only works for enemies, you can't eat your own cake. I thought I might even be able to spawn cake slices in this scenario but I guess the lesser werecake was chosen. Anyway, it was fun, thanks. 2. This was a tough wait for someone who plays as impetuously as I do. Thanks for teaching me patience once again Frostguard. Also, the Boulder's AI is serenely sentient. I would bring up my chef with toughness, he wouldn't strike. Then I'd bring up my chef without toughness and he'd use his last card to flatten him. Be careful! 3. Many congratulations for Dipper Pynes who really improved his mapmaking skills over the years. Thanks for sticking to it. Dipper should inspire anyone who doesn't think they can make a map or story or MM to go ahead and give it a try even if English isn't your native tongue. Well done.
Woo, new MM! Battle 1: Let Them Eat Cake When I tried MM on the test server yesterday it was actually the first time I ever lost this map, I didn't think it was possible before that. It's not a very difficult map overall, the Priests and Batford should be prioritized since they can drag out the battle and support allies respectively while the Geomancers are next since they're poorly defended. I prefer to use the Werecake to deal with the Men-at-Arms and the Cake Slices to deal with the Guards to prevent triggering Parries or wasting big attacks on Blocks. The Cake Slices and Frosting Storm provide some risk/reward since Cake Slices can wind up helping the enemy with Morsels (or prevent them from acting, it's not a Free Action after all!) while Frosting Storm can be greatly useful for fishing out blocks and dealing a ton of damage. I suggest keeping the Cake in the centre of the screen so all Cake Slices can Scuttle out of Frosting Storm reach. Fun fact: Edible is emerald quality so that the AI always tries to keep it at the end of the turn, you're encouraged to discard it as often as possible in this map though! Credit to Marie Antoinette for inspiring the flavour text in this map. Battle 2: Culinary Conclusion I strongly approve of the continued adventures of what little remains of the Garcotto Quintuplets. The map is indeed similar to MM17, though with a new take on how to deal with Flatten and Giant Boulder with Staggering Chop and Toughness rather than Sundering Strike and Taunt. Having two Garcottos as well as two Servants does a nice job of speeding things up once the player finds the solution and also provides a safety net should anything go horribly wrong. A well-executed puzzle map overall! Battle 3: A Little Big Step A nice relief after a map where you're being chased by a boulder, patience and planning ahead is the key to success. I like how after destroying the second phylactery things gradually become easier as the player figures out what to do while the final phylactery works as a sort of boss requiring both Sundering Strike and a way to get around the difficult terrain. Muscle through can be very valuable for pushing phylacteries off their victory squares as well as jumping the gap to the final phylactery. I look forwards to the next MM, and congratulations to BlackVoidDeath for the winning AA submission!
My thoughts on each, since 2 of these battles in particular really got to me in all the wrong ways. Those two battles, I'll be marking with red text. Also, keep in mind that these opinions come from someone who hates Mauve Manticores with a passion [regardless of who made them], mostly because they have a tendency to be way more luck-based than skill-based. Let Them Eat Cake seems just as overpacked and overstuffed as most large MM maps, but, paying attention to my 2nd try of this map showed that Jon has reprogrammed this particular Werecake so that it can never ever spawn [and yes, I'm aware that this is the 60 HP Normal Werecake and not the 70 HP Hard one]. The Werecake doesn't even have Cut the Cake, let alone Made of Cake [and both Normal and Hard Werecakes run both], suggesting that Jon had the time to reprogram an enemy boss just for use in this one battle, which makes me wonder why he couldn't just make one new main Campaign mission every 2-6 months, considering he has the time to do something as seemingly troublesome as reprogram an enemy boss for use in one fight. Culinary Conclusion's only real problem is that you have to keep passing turns and/or sacrificing Servants if Staggering Chop and/or Toughness simply refuses to show up at anywhere other than the bottom of both decks. Were it not for the Servants, this map would be just another.....wait. A Little Big Step. I thought Hammer Time from MM22 was stupid because of forced randomosity mixed in with cards NEEDED to beat the Death Elementals [this is the example I was about to use, btw]. I thought One Step Forward from MM25 was ridiculous, what with being forced to draw handicaps to discard things NEEDED to beat it in time, but, this takes it to an extreme that was never needed at all. Even if you draw the damage you need to defeat a Phylactery, and move to the next red VP, Ancient Statue can put a monkey wrench in your whole plan, especially if you can't get back to a red VP when said monkey wrench is thrown at you. The fact that this battle alone took me 53 Rounds to complete [mostly because the Phylactery at the end is a Hard one, creating an Ancient Statue as its Racial card instead of just having one in its deck] isn't just ridiculous, but, **LUDICROUS**, and quite frankly, no Rare item in the game is worth torture like this, even if BVD made it. So, there. Another MM come and gone, and another MM I absolutely loathe. Now, can we all bug Jon to stop making one of these every single month, please [Campaign would love you long time if you did]?
That ramble about the Werecake is completely false. This version of the Werecake has existed ever since AI was released and is used when the Werecake spawns in the top floor of the Caverns of Chaos. I used that version of the Werecake on purpose since it's the only version that comes with the Frosting Storm card. I doubt Jon even looked at this map beyond maybe giving it a pass when Flax picked it for MM. Also, it is possible to move to the phylactery at the end of the map and move back using Muscle Through, I've done it in the past. There's no forced randomness. Nice red and bolded text though, but work on your facts before assuming the teacher's role next time.
I used to, but I've lost my passion over time. Getting even more jaded, I suppose. It's a personal preference thing on my part, but I'm happy to have them in the game for those who do enjoy building and playing them.
I just consider the MMs a poor man's expansion pack, or a poor man's added content. The key to enjoying them is having low expectations. I know that's what I need you to have as you consider my submissions.
I loved to play these. The creation of pre-generated player characters from monsters and such is awesome. Mauve Manticore is one of the greatest ideas ever in online gaming. The Cake one took my cake for sure. It is a real fun food fight. Not to difficult and not to hard. The Boulder of Doom is one heavy opponent. Full immunity and some 50damage cards made my eyes pop out at first. The story text made me laugh a lot. Last hopping run was also nice. Took a while getting favorable cards but aside that it was rather simple. There I was a bit disappointed. However I still liked it. Keep up the awesome work you all!!!
I super enjoyed these. One of the best MMs I remember playing, even if (or maybe because?) it was on the easier, relaxing side. $:^ J First insane battle was insanity. Btw, I started off a lot more expendably with my Slices since I didn't realize they didn't respawn, ha ha ha. Still, beat it all right. Second had hilarious tactics, making ultimate sacrifices to safely whittle IT to rubble. Third was certainly fun, planning out how to Attack/Slide each "jar" while cycling the deck to achieve that plan. Glad to see such well-planned out mayhem and puzzles based on strategy, not encumbered by unavoidable random defeats!
Btw, I just can't seem to wrap my head around this. When -- not if, because I simply pass until I collect my next winning hand, pass pass pass -- when I draw the damage I need to defeat a Phylactery and move to the next red VS (for the first two jars), Ancient Statue is 100% in my plan; no monkey gets in my wrench at all. If I do not have the means to destroy it even if its armor would succeed every time, then I have not drawn the damage I need to defeat it. Mayhaps you believe MMs rely too much on luck because you rely too much on luck when playing them? $¦^ J Dunno, just a thought. ~ After all, there's no encroaching enemy deathtrap time limit on this map. And the two jars near each other? I waited to Muscle Through 'em both off the VSs (mostly for the fun of it, ha ha ha). Chopped and such at my leisure. It was like, each jar presented its own little mini-challenge to prep for, then execute. (Others have already commented how the "boss challenge," the Hard jar, really tested patience and planning without requiring a luck-or-die situation, thus I'll step right on by that.) Damage needed, movement needed, armor accounted for, when not if, no wrecked plans. $:^ , ...sorry you didn't see it?
