One other thing I've noticed during play which is a good tip for all classes: do not assume that Gary does not make mistakes. The reason I say this is there have been a number of times where I have, for example, just turned a section of tile under a yellow dragon into lava. I know the dragon does not have fire immunity and on Gary's turn, he passes. Normally, I would assume he has passed because he does not have movement cards left and cannot leave the tile. 'Ah Ha!' I say, and promptly cast Wall of Fire under the remaining three tiles of the dragon. 'Bwahahaha' I chortle and then choke on it as Gary plays the fly card he had (unrevealed) in his hand the whole time and the dragon leaves the area. On more than one occasion I've seen the AI make a bad decision or pass when he shouldn't, and if I don't take advantage of it I may just regret not ending the turn right then and there. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a planned component, but the AI does make mistakes. Watch for them or you may regret it.
Gary used to be completely predictable, which was interesting but ultimately less fun. A while ago we gave him the ability to bluff, which is the behaviour you're seeing here. He may not always bluff intelligently, but he'll keep you on your toes!
That... is cool. It certainly threw me for a loop on more than one occasion which I guess is its intended purpose. Well played Gary, well played.
This can not be said enough so if I'm repeating you should read it anyway. Movement is King That doesn't mean stack your deck with move cards, that means the few movement cards you do have will present the most important and game affecting decisions ever. Letting your enemies close on you means you get to hit first before they can attack and it means you still have a move card, and hopefully they don't, so you get to decide when the attack exchange is over and break away. Positioning can hugely affect how many enemies can get into an are preventing you from becoming surrounded before the turn is out. getting caught in terrain effects sucks so try and have a way out saved in your hand. These are only the most obvious/easy to describe examples, and all I can currently come up with without using in depth analogies. Movement is everything, learn it & live
Effectively shuts down single target/LOS magic and ranged attacks (but not cones or bursts that would extend into the smoke). On some maps it makes the encounters very easy. For maps that have a lot of difficult terrain a smoke bomb creates a high speed path to wherever you need to go, as it temporarily removes difficult terrain. It is also useful for removing damaging terrain if you find yourself in a pinch. Not sure how I feel about smoke removing difficult terrain. Changing the texture and/or alpha value would allow one to see both smoke and the terrain below. But that would a bunch more work for the programmers, require more tile checking, and may not look good.
This is advise to live or die by! Because, movement is indeed King, and card advantage is a close second. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for experience; but I'll try to share my understanding of card combinations and the flow of combat. Now, some of what I'll address has already been mentioned, and so it's probably important. There will be time when either Gary or another opponent will pass when they are able to continue playing. This strategy allows them to stockpile their cards and gain a card advantage. Waiting until an opponents has played out most or all of their move cards gives the power of mobility. This enables them to navigate the battlefield and position themselves to strike. Even if a character has an Obliterating Hack it won't do any good unless they are within range to use it. So, maintain a safe distance! It may also interest you to know that if an opponent's using this strategy you may find that passing in response may stop their scheming, or at lease make them think twice before trying it again. Step is my personal favorite keyword. Step cards allow you to ignore encumbering effects (currently, although this is a bug that will later be fixed). Not only are they a useful combat tool for moving closer, and even attacking with a single card, but also can be used to escape from imminent danger from attacks or terrain, such as lava. Edit: It is worth mentioning that encumber stacks reduces a step cards movement value. Meaning that a Cone Of Cold, for example, will reduce Dancing Cut from a move 3 to a move 1. While using an attack with step that is 2 or more you can avoid your enemies blocks by positioning yourself diagonally behind them when you attack. For example: if you use this method you can play Vicious Thrust without triggering their blocks by sidestepping around them repeatedly. You can also avoid blocks by flanking an enemy and alternating your attacking character. Another way to handle blocks is to use your weak attack triggering the block, followed by your strong attack. Also note that this can backfire and if your weak attack is not successfully blocked. Many encounters or matches will come down to who can control the victory point location(s). Without the ability to push your own or enemy units around you may find yourself unable to control the victory point location(s). By far the two most useful movement to me are Violent Spin followed closely by Team Run. Violent Spin not only allows you to move, but also anyone adjacent to you at the beginning of the move. While many push cards allow you to move someone off of a coveted victory point location, this one immediately allow you to move in and occupy it before your opponent has the chance to reclaim it. Team Run and other ally movement cards grant multiple characters action off of a single card. Additionally, ally movement cards ignore the effects of encumbering attachments on those allies. Don't get pushed around if you don't want to! Enemies will try and push you back especially if your trying to occupy a victory point location. By placing yourself between an enemy and blocking terrain you can prevent them from pushing you around. Learn the terrain types and use them to your advantage! Blocking an enemies line of sight with a pillar or rock can save your life! Armor provides an essential element of randomness to the game. Like many aspects of the game their are two extremes of armor usage. At one extreme you have high armor values and lower probability, while at the other end you have lower values and more certainty. I personally error on the side of caution and would rather have either Reliable Mail for it's sure fire 2, or Resistant Hide for it's prevention of all Acid, Poison, Electricity, or Fire damage. Blocks are the most random aspect of the game. With so many different block, which trigger off of many different things it's hard to determine what blocks to use. Duck and Perfect Block are obvious front runners for most powerful blocks, but they generally require a Brown Talent and are hard to come by. So, I opt for something a little less pricy and stick with blocks that stop what I find disrupts my party the most. Parry is cheap and has one of the highest probabilities of triggering. It only prevents melee attacks, which are the highest damaging card type. Not only does this successful block prevent all damage and effects when it blocks a melee attack, but it also let's you draw a card to replace it! Secondly, cards that deal little or no damage can be the most devastating. Whirlwind and Enemy Whirlwind have surely caused more well laid strategies to be blown away then any other card (pun intended)! So, having blocks like Weak Block or Flimsy Block can save the day! Keep is the most powerful keyword! The ability to use a card effectively repeatedly multiplies the cards value and usefulness. Cards like Arcane Aura, Arcane Shell, and Quick Reactions can quickly earn their "keep" in your hand (pun intended). Traits are amazing not only for their abilities, but once played you immediately draw a replacement card. The more traits you have the more you will be able to cycle through your deck to the powerful cards your hoping to draw. I caution against using to many different traits if your actually expecting any of your attachments to benefit your characters. When deciding what cards to put into your deck remember that their is a limit of three attachments per character and that if you add another the oldest one will be removed. Enemies will take advantage of this fact if you use to many beneficial attachments. This attachment limit can also work to your advantage if your enemy has beneficial attachments, you can cycle these off with your own detrimental attachments, like burn cards. Buffs can mean the difference between dealing damage or not. Mass Frenzy is generally considered to be the best buff, benefiting your entire party! However, I find that Unholy Well is equally as devastating. I don't know how many times I've turned a Fireball from dealing 4 damage and 2 burn to multiple enemies, into dealing 8 damage and 2 burn using Unholy Well, overshadowing even strong melee attacks damage wise. Even a weak penetrating attack can deal massive damage when buffed by cards like Blind Rage, or Righteous Frenzy.
I'm no master at this game... but today I've been abusing Wall Of Fire a lot. It has saved me more often than anything else. Lava tiles are devastating! All you have to do is read your opponent's movement capabilities properly and 10 damage to up to three folks is possible. If you play it right, you can box in a d00d and plop lava tiles down in every spot he can go to. (unless he teleports or something) Sure, Gary will bluff you a few times but the strategy has paid off many a time for me. Really, fire in general is pretty good in this game.
Dealing damage is a necessary component in securing victory over your enemies. Although, a single attack which deals a massive amount of damage like Obliterating Hack is great, a solitary successful bock or even armor such as Only Bones makes such a card quite ineffectual. So, something to consider is total damage dealt. Although, a Strong Hack (average rarity) deals 8 total damage, a Chop (average rarity) deals 10 total damage, even if that damage is dispersed. Additionally, the amount of damage can be increased substantially by the use of attachments. Take for example: a Strong Hack , Unholy Frenzy and a Righteous Frenzy together deal 13, where as a Chop, Unholy Frenzy and Righteous Frenzy together deal 18 damage! This illustrates the value of cards which target multiple enemies and how stacking attachments can really pay off. Another fine example of cards which affect multiple enemies is Firestorm and Fireball, which have the ability to hit large groups of enemies for massive amounts of damage. This is especially true when combined with cards like Unholy Well, which work on any damage dealing attack and not just melee!
I'd usually prioritise Strong Hack above Chop in multiplayer, since I try to focus my damage and knock out a single enemy as quickly as possible. This reduces the opponent's draw by a third, and reduces their positional options. In the campaign you're often fighting huge groups so this can be less effective, but in multiplayer it can have a huge effect. Conversely, I find it helps to cycle my characters through the front line and take damage evenly.
A slightly subtle tip which is probably obvious, if you have drawn multiple trait cards on one character that need to be played, it's worth paying attention to the order in which you play them. E.g. if you have Dropped Guard and Mind Leak, play Dropped Guard first - it'll stop you drawing an armour/block card and immediately having to discard it (similar cases apply). Common sense, but I'm more sensitive to it at the moment because I'm going through the drawback card challenges and find some of my decks stuffed with attachable traits ^_^
I've come to the realisation that drawbacks are not quite as big a drawback as they appear. Some have pretty nasty effects but in the end most also draw a replacement card for you. This makes them a semi-legitimate means of card cycling to produce a more compact deck that runs through itself more quickly so you can reach your power cards faster. Just a thought.
That's even a loading tip! (some of them are pretty ok, some less so - like superstitious, loner et c)
Well, Loner works if you find a use for it (I can think of one) - otherwise not so much! At least that I have figured out this far.
Well, specifically in regards to Martyr's Blessing. For example on a no talent, Vampire's Blade, the Loner is offset wonderfully by the life steal of the Touch cards.
Don't sell off your duplicate staves yet - you'll get more weapons slots and more wizards later When you have more than 3 adventurers, the extras hang out in the keep. It can be handy to have some lower level adventurers for re-doing earlier adventures. "Move", "Slide", "Push", "Discard", "Reveal", "Stop", "Halt" and can all contribute to trapping your enemies on terrain effects, where they belong. Or you can just wait until they run out of cards.
...and yet the Adventurers MP starter pack includes a dwarf fighter armed with Chops, Chops and more Chops.
Hint: Vale of Evil out of the Tower of Terror adventure is an absolute insanely hard battle. Bring lube.
Three clerics with Word Of God FTW! But seriously melee attackers looks not rly strong after what i've read here. Wizard with walls do more damage while keeping at safe distance from melee. Even needing to size the waypoints, which seems to me like more encouraging warriors as they can stand some beating after taking these, do not make warriors look preferable. A pity cuz i prefer warriors.
