I decided to replay the MMs to revisit a few of my favourites, and thought it would be good to give a shoutout to the creators. So, without further ado, my countdown of the ten best levels. #10 25.2 Silverwood Camp by youthpastor A gorgeous map, interesting characters and a mob that keeps you on your toes (watch for those vicious thrusts into a couple of all out attacks that will destroy all your hopes and dreams). Attempts to win: 1. #9 23.3 Capture the Tomb by Jaer Sure, it’s not perfect, but of all the MMs, this has the most potential to be a new fixed deck league. Replace a couple of the tombstones with other undead mobs, make the victory points a little more understandable, then roll the dice on teleporting your mobs onto the enemy board while holding enough in reserve to counter the enemy lich's teleportation. Attempts to win: 1. #8 3.3 (Supplement) Desecrated Sanctum by Kalin Look at that map! Look at it! All three of these biteyboyes vs evil things levels are fun, and not nearly as hard as you remember, but this one is the funnest, and really kicked off the trend for MM designers to showcase what they can do with a limited tile set. Once you dispatch the demons/imps, your doggoes will lunge at and then jump back from the mantis (dice permitting) like a pack of hyenas taking down a particularly gnarly buffalo. You can almost hear David Attenborough’s narration: “Although the hell mantis is a formidable foe, with a carapace of fearsome spikes, it is now alone and already doomed ...” Attempts to win: 1. #7 19.3 Trapped in the Tomb by youthpastor This MM tickles my fancy for large scale battles, and shows the potential of a version of Card Hunter as a tactical small unit wargame. Add a zoom feature, a mini map and some unit cohesion/rallying cards, and Card Hunter could rebirth as a Warhammer Fantasy you could play without selling several of your children to fund. Hard mode: everyone comes home alive. Attempts to win: 1. #6 9.3 Necromania by Xaryn This toughie has it all: a gorgeous tileset, resurrecting opponents, dangerous mobs, puzzle elements and various strategies to win (i.e. the door belongs to the AI, so if you don’t station someone outside it to delay the armoured skellies, they’ll come piling right on out and pepper your angus as you get bogged down in the respawing zombies). Attempts to win: 3. #5 15.1 Firepower by adajon42 Adajon42 completed his journey to the dark side by constructing this absolute pig of an MM. Not only are you fighting one of the toughest regular opponents (security robots and a respawning laser cannon) with the weakest team (four servants), but your guys trip on the regular and draw hands full of weak strikes and energizes, and you have to beat the clock to orchestrate 160 points of damage on the robots. Like the caverns of chaos, you will try again and again, only to win easily as you’re about to defenestrate your keyboard. Attempts to win: 6. #4 8.3 Monsters in the Closet by Scarponi Forget the stunning mapboard with the clever use of shadow overlays to simulate the stairs leading down to the first floor; this is the one level in all of Card Hunter that will make you completely identify with the monsters you are playing – four cute-as-a-button baby wyverns whose nightmares have taken a very real form. Although it’s not that difficult, keeping all your babies alive is the hard mode, which is not that easy when you’re facing a tough and unpredictably mobile sharkbear. Attempts to win: 1. #3 5.1 Melvelous the Magnificent and the Malicious Maze by Kalin The original puzzle MM, and still as tricky as a tricky thing locked up in a chest full of tricks. Attempts to win: 1 (I cheated, thanks CT5). #2 4.3 Break Out – Outbreak! by Sir Knight One of the most exquisitely balanced MMs out there, here your lone human guard is running the gauntlet along a corridor as zombies burst from the adjoining rooms. Managing to parry and pirouette past them is only the first part of the battle, as you have to wait several turns on the VP beside a door, presumably fumbling with a huge ring of keys to find the important one that lets you get off the map. An OH&S issue right there for the Dungeon Safety Officer to tag. And, unlike the movies, these zombies are hard to take down – most need four of your precious attacks, but occasionally you can luck out with a powerful hack and take one down in two hits. Attempts to win: 3. #1 3.3 Binding of Xanthicius by Inkfingers This took me literally 20 tries and a substantial quantity of pulled hair the first time I played it, and I have to admit I wasn’t looking forward to a replay. Perhaps it was because I started Card Hunter as a defensive player, and this is one map you don’t want to be defensive on, with Xanthi spewing torrents of acid at your heels, various imps and demons nailing you from the front, and a tight time limit for a win. There is one path to victory, and that’s charging the imps. Bad draws or losing one of your fragile elves will doom you, but a bit of luck and a timely contagion will see you through. Attempts to win: 1 (lucked out with contagion into nimbus round two, and good attacks on the war).
Glad to see The Designers' Den guild makin' their waves across Cardhuntria. $:^ J EDIT: I'd forgotten 1.5 of these, and upon your reminder, remembered enjoying those 1.5 all the same -- showing just how much your list stood out in my mind, too. (And there are plenty more that still stick out to me!) Yep, good stuff. $:^ } Makes me wonder if/when BM might release any more hefty MMs with supplements... $F^ J
Thanks so much! I enjoyed those too. I remember hating @Kalin dog supplement at first. But that MM taught me some very important strategy. MM has taught me so much for multiplayer and single player: zone of control, spawn points, line of sight, passing to draw into your cards, etc. I hope we get some new MMs soon. I and others have made many that haven't been produced yet, that still could be. I was working on the hard mode of dwarf tomb that you spoke of, but this time riffing off of critical role's final battle in season 1. Sadly, I cant find the file! It was another epic battle with the player controlling 3 gnome inciters, 2 lords, an ogre berserker, a lizardman cleric, and 2 elf wizards (still missing: a mind flenser, and a bear,) versus the duergar: 10 gnome spearmen, 2 javilineers (basilisks), a flenser, and a mp dwarrior and dwizard standing in as king and queen. Some day! Why don't you try your hand at crafting one?
my personal favorite was Necromania, because you got to play three extremely overpowered characters, but still had to plan carefully as they weren't utterly invincible. You had to coordinate them and once you got inside you can breathe a sigh of relief!
