Expedition to the Sky Citadel experiences

My party of three human warriors just emerged from cyberspace after having hacked and slashed their way into a strange metal castle and back. It was quite the ride! All of it was perhaps surprisingly doable with warriors only.

The party equipped a lot of movement and powerful attacks. This seemed to be effective enough for everything from mosquitoes to teleporting monstrosities, from invisible spiders to floating eyeballs and walking mailboxes. A sharp blade fits nicely into any being, it seems.

I had to switch items a bit in a few adventures but a couple changed items per warrior was all it took. The old faithfuls never ceased to serve and protect. The only EttSC items I ended up using during the whole journey were a single Boarding Laser per soldier to deal with the stingers in one battle.

An interesting jaunt to be sure! What was your tour in the Heavenly Fortress like?

 

I just completed my run as well. Had a lot of fun. Lost 2 battles total (Monstrosity 2 & BOB 1). For Monstrosity, PTD, TPG, and SCT I ran two warriors (elf & human) and a priest (human) with an emphasis on mobility and varied damage types. I swapped a lot of Genetic Engineering and Radiation Bombs onto the priest as I went, because I found those very useful. I equipped Lizard Hide Boots on TPG for the 2x Leap @ minor token—flight helps a ton with getting around the swarms!

In BOB & Throne I ran two wizards and a priest, all dwarves. For BOB my items were all control, basically—lots of Path of Knives, Wallbuilder's Staves, Roots, wind attacks, etc.. For Throne I ran a pretty straightforward Blesscano strategy. In QD I got lucky and pulled Gusts on one wizard and Winds on the other, making for a quick victory on victory terrain.

 

My first playthrough was with 1-1-1 party of elf warrior, human priest and dwarf wizard. Didn't modify my party between adventures, because I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. IIRC, I only upgraded 2nd Duality Mace into Nimbus Blade when I got the level up. I relied heavily on Impenetrable Nimbus, Volcano and control cards.

Detailed info below, might contain some spoilers:

Spoiler

I really enjoyed all of these new adventures. IMHO, they were challenging enough, but not to the point of frustation than some of the lvl 18 AotA adventures. My first struggle was with PtD #3 (Reactor Core) trying to manage the numerous spiders and the nasty rad attacks.

I was delighted about the Spawner's Leathery Hide making the cowardly Volcano-tactics useless. The invisible Stingbug swarms made maneuvering really challenging in TPG #3 (Tween Deck).

I really liked the concept of the Rumbling Mutants. The Captain in TMM gave me chills and scary flashbacks from the Elder Mind adventures, but luckily it fell quite quickly both times. The QD drafting of TMM #3 (Throne Room) was really cool and challenging and this is where I suffered my first loss. On the second try I got great control spells and lots of healing and managed to beat it.

Second loss came in SotCT #1 (Dimensional Rift), where I was too confident to move my elf warrior toe to toe against the Cyber Brute. After that I was more cautious and didn't need any more restarts. I was happy that the last battle of SotCT (The Sanctum) and the whole Citadel adventures wasn't too hard. I really liked the Cardstock II / PvP vibes of that one.

Below is my build. Next time I'm going to run and try EttSC items that I'm slowly accumulating.

Spoiler: My party

Urist McMagician
Level 22 Dwarf Wizard

Heartripper
Mordecai's Staff Of Magma
Ring Of Appropriation
Ring Of Appropriation
Ring Of Appropriation
Runestone
Forceful Robes
Captain Cedric's Boots
Perfect Toughness
Electroporter Novice
​

1 x Squeamish
1 x Force Bolt
1 x Wall Of Fire
3 x Gusts Of War
1 x Dimensional Traveller
1 x Spark Inductor
1 x Force Cone
2 x Flanking Move
1 x Rusty Armor
1 x Resistant Hide
1 x Spark Generator
6 x Telekinesis
4 x Volcano
1 x Winds Of War
6 x Punishing Bolt
1 x Team Walk
2 x Toughness
2 x Flash Of Agony
​

[SRC] typo
Level 22 Human Priest

Nimbus Blade
Duality Mace
Purging Pauldrons
Aegis Of The Defender
Mouse Boots
Shielding Token
Shielding Token
Shielding Token
Advanced Flexibility
Novice Ablution
​

2 x Purging Burst
2 x Touch Of Death
3 x Consuming Spear
1 x Cautious Sneak
1 x Polearm Slash
2 x Defender's Block
1 x Weak Chop
1 x Fiery Stab
10 x Impenetrable Nimbus
2 x Flanking Move
1 x Lifesaving Block
1 x Chop
1 x Strong Bash
2 x Holy Presence
1 x Slowed
1 x Purge
1 x Unholy Frenzy
1 x Thickened Mail
2 x Leadership
​

Look ma, no hands!
Level 22 Elf Warrior

Double-edged Sword
Double-edged Sword
Bejeweled Shortsword
Gauntlets Of The Giant
Ichabod's Buckler
Captain Cedric's Helm
Sticky Slippers
Cautious Mobility
Frenzied Slicing
​

2 x Elven Maneuvers
1 x Defender's Block
1 x Wild Run
3 x Powerful Hack
2 x Backbiting Strike
2 x Frenzy Aura
4 x Impaling Stab
2 x Reliable Mail
2 x Immovable
2 x Officer's Harness
2 x Vicious Thrust
4 x Dancing Cut
2 x Slicer
2 x Potent Stab
1 x Scouting Run
1 x Powerful Bludgeon
1 x Reliable Hide Armor
2 x Wounded Block
​

 

I like to do each adventure at least once with a 1/1/1 party, before moving to a more specialized War/War/Pri or Wiz/Wiz/Pri, as necessary.

This particular 1/1/1 is Human Warrior, Elf Wizard (I know, I know) and Dwarf Priest.

Warrior started out with Focused Crushing and Pulverizing Bludgeon, moved to Obliterating Chop as necessary. Wizard was Wall Of Fire and Runestones/Ring Of Appropriation, with Akon's Amulet thrown in as necessary. Priest was there to vamp, heal, and toss out an Impenetrable Nimbus or a Purge from time to time. Ran through the adventures on Monday, and they were a lot of fun -- the new mechanics are definitely different, and all those handicaps are something.

Difficulty level wasn't as high as AotA, and I'd like to thank the devs for ensuring that Leathery Hide is not a player accessible card . Phase Shift+Rumbling Charge is brutal, as well.

Didn't have too many EttSC items prior to the runthrough, but I did get to test out Auto Block (don't remember which shield. Also, it's very cool that Reflect Missile is finally player accessible). I also dropped the EttSC weapon with Anvil Strike and All Out Attack, (Laserstick)I'm looking forward to running that.

I can't wait to take Force Field for a spin, particularly in some of the 1 HP quests.

 

I did it 1/1/1 (damage elf warrior, nimbus human priest, smoke/control dorf mage). Smoke was a poor choice, because there are so many cone attacks. I mostly just ended up Nimbus-baiting a bunch. Control was good for pitting the robots against each other. I don't think I lost any maps.

 

So when are going to see, a succesful Cit Nudie Run ??

 

I've already done a kind of Nudie Run on the test server (this was a campaign build equivalent to the released one):

"I'm playing through the EttSC campaign with the default premade level 18 party and no other items than what I get from the chests (the launch week free Citadel chests included). I deleted all other items from the test account before starting and I'm also not buying any items from the shops."

I should note Heartripper dropped for me at the end of the first EttSC adventure. Needless to say, it saw heavy use.

@Mr. Magnifico also completed EttSC the same way, earlier than I did.

 

Thoroughly enjoyed my first play through of EttSC with a 1/1/1 party (high damage human warrior, lava/control dwarf wizard, nimbus elf priest). I wasn't tracking my losses since many of them were due to disconnections, but the battle against the flying swarms was definitely the one I found hardest.

I thought the introduction of new enemies, cards and mechanics was well paced and the difficultly was mostly well judged. I'd also like to complement whoever did the art - I thought the art for both the boards and the cards was excellent!

Additional thoughts:

Spoiler: Other Things I Particularly Liked

• The story and dialogue.
• The Adaptable card.
• The implementation of security cameras and turrets - I spent a lot more time thinking about positioning in these modules than any other.
• Robots that I can lure into shooting each other
• Radiation effects (mostly - it was weird getting Massive Chop from radiation poisoning)
• New damage types - no more battles where I throw Resistant Hide on my wizard and laugh at the AI... I had to use Impenetrable Nimbus instead

Spoiler: Minor Criticisms

• The last module felt considerably easier than the other five.
• The cyberspace boards looked cool but I found that they made seeing the green LoS overlay difficult.
• While interesting and fun, the drafting mechanic was in the final battle of a module. Maybe the cards that you're offered are taken from a small selection but it felt like it would have been better that this was first battle of the module. Then there is no penalty for retrying, thus mitigating the problem of getting rubbish decks.
• With the exception of the flying swarm battle, it felt like I didn't need to put much thought into changing my items. This was in contrast to the high level AotA adventures where I used quite different decks against Rust Creatures, Trolls, Storges, Mind Flensers and Blitzkenripper. This may simply be because I have better items now. I certainly have more Impenetrable Nimbuses (Impenetrable Nimbi?)!

 

That would be Ben, who has done all the art in the game so far.

 

!@#$ stuck on the final battle

 

Still two adventures to go...I'm rationing them a little. So far, it's wacky fun. Ordinarily I'd prefer a little less randomness to my cards, but I've put those feelings on hold to embrace the madness of erratic damage and radiation juju. I was going to wait to reply here until I was done with the whole set, but I just had something amusing happen that I didn't want to forget to post - I found the Hidden Bandit at The Metallic Monstrosity.

Did you know those crazy robots were hoarding gems and earrings and a bottle of Goblin Champagne? Who would have thought?

Anyway, I'm definitely enjoying having new Major Power Token items to equip, since I've long had high-level builds that were wasting a token or two because I preferred lesser items in their slots. And speaking of Major Power Tokens - my main party is now Level 22. Mmm.... It took all of my self-control not to immediately equip my fighter with 3 Bejeweled Shortswords. In fact, I may succumb to that temptation later on, at least for a moment.

 

I keep forgetting the team is larger than just the 4 people (plus the team's mascot, Scarponi (*epilepsy warning)) we see on the forums and in-game :X

 

It was refreshing to replay the new singleplayer maps after testing them out earlier! I used a dwarf warrior, a good ol' vamp elf , and an elf wizard! I felt that the wizard and priest were very useful, (savage burst was quite effective), and the warrior was mildly useful, being able to quickly take down single opponents, but faring badly against swarms.

╔═════════════════ ೋღ☃ღೋ ════════════════╗
║~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Repost this if you are an elf power activist ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ║
║~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ who only associates with elf wizards ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ║
║~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ who don’t need no balance changes ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ║
╚═════════════════ ೋღ☃ღೋ ════════════════╝

I'm definitely enjoying the new laser orientated weapons, but at the same time the luck-based theme of laser cards is definitely going to make more people complain and gripe about multiplayer. Because it's not like people complain about multiplayer at all or anything

Overall, an absolutely fantastic update, thank you @Jon , @Flaxative , @Farbs , and my fellow testers!~

 

Hurray for Ben Lee!

 

Me and Sirsrsly 2 person co-oped thru the EttSC he was an Elf Warrior, I was a Dwarf Wizard, was a really fun experience, there were moments that a purging priest would have been nice

Spoiler

That map with the triple duels like level was quite difficult with 2 people, basically had to both win out 1v1s and then sit on the VP

Also loved the QD integration, that came out of no where, was also quite dificult with 2 people

Overall it was a great experience, and if you guys haven't tried it with 2 people, I highly suggest you do. Also hurray for more racial quests!!

 

Just finished the race/class specific quests (took me awhile, since I had to level up a third Human Wizard). I think that was the toughest of the six (Elf Priests, however, was cake. All vamps, all the time)

Anyone finish the 1 HP quests yet?

 

I finally got around to getting the expansion this weekend. I went through it with my original party of Human Warrior, Dwarven Priest, Elven Wizard. The only fight I had trouble with was the second one with the Brain Captain. Stupid untargetables. Anyway, I tried to use as much as I could from the expansion when they dropped. I'm a huge fan of most of the new cards and items. I also appreciate that these adventures weren't like the last couple adventures of AotA. I'll never play those again, but I expect to level a bunch of guys up through the new stuff. Got my 2nd party set up to run through them soon. (Elven Warrior, Human Priest, Dwarf Wizard)

 

I've been having fun with my basic farming team of wiz/wiz/priest (all dwarf). Accelerate time, consecrated groud and soothing darkness make for some interesting choices. Lots of armor removal and purge for all those adaptable mutants of course.

Does accelerating thought trigger with accelerate time? Hmm...

 

Accelerated Thought and Unholy Energy, yes, same as Soothing Darkness or Healing Blessing. Well for a moment i thought Mind Worm might have gained extreme power in the context of accelerating time, but it isn't affected. Don't know how i would have felt about it.
I just remembered Arcane Curse, what happens with that?

 

Guess it should make you discard a random your oldest , non-Arcane-Curse card. Not that I tested it though