Nothing I can do to salvage this one, GG! Had a couple of really busy days there, hence the delay responding.
I thought my plan mostly worked ok, though my hand size hurt me again, limiting my initial Garrison turns. Free Speech was really good at keeping me alive but I couldn’t sustain it.
Musketeer change obviously made no real impact, kept hoping to be able to use him but it never seemed to work out. Honestly that’s probably a good sign for it not being super broken vs Purple.
I’m game to try another as P1 Blue if you’re up for it? Any of the other changes you think we shoud try?
For what it’s worth I actually thought the threat of the hasty damage from musketeer affected my play quite a bit! You can read through my thoughts for a couple turns where I had to patrol more conservatively because of it
I’m game to play another, that felt pretty close so maybe we run out back no changes right now and reevaluate after
That’s great if it forced some different patrolling! Psychologically it was quite nice to know I had a hasty option available even if I didn’t get the chance to use it.
I was thinking towards the end of that game that main thing I would like is to do some work on making Bigby and Law tech II slightly better so that I have more options. I don’t think Peace or Truth are well suited to play vs Black so maybe an improved Law would work. I’ll keep thinking about that and we can discuss after our next game.
Speaking of which, GLHF
P1T1
StartingHand Workers
STARTING HAND
Traffic Director
Building Inspector → Worker (I still say this is unplayable vs Black)
Lawful Search
Bluecoat Musketeer
Arrest
WORKERS
Building Inspector
NextHand
Spectral Aven
Jail
Manufactured Truth
Reputable Newsman
Porkhand Magistrate
Discard
Bluecoat Musketeer
Arrest
Lawful Search
Tech 0 card(s)
Get Paid - ($4)
Worker - ($3)
Oni - ($1)
Traffic Director - ($0)
I really like that musketeer buff of yours. Probably it’s too strong against nullcraft, but this Oni start effectively neglects a proper imp start for black, which is huge. Thanks for testing these things out!
Options are to play Jail and go passive, play Aven and MT then trade Oni to kill Jandra, or delay Tech I to midband Oni and murder Jandra. Actually I don’t hate that last one. Got to watch about being low on units but Elite Training will be a real threat and I get three soldiers next turn if I max Oni. Boot Camp and Elite Training are both fine. Worst case I can Max Oni and Boot Camp a soldier of mine, or Newsman or sth.
I also thought it made some narrative sense with the flavour text (“downed man”-> not flying, “following orders” → needs paid) and the art since he doesn’t have as much of a blunderbuss style musket as Careless Musketeer
P1T3
Tech StartingHand Workers
TECH
Scribe (card draw, synergy with Oni spells)
The Art of War (part of my win condition)
STARTING HAND
Reputable Newsman → Discard
Jail
Lawful Search → Arrest
Boot Camp
Spectral Aven → Worker (liability vs Sickness + Orpal, anti-synergy with Oni Spells)
WORKERS
Building Inspector
Porkhand Magistrate
Spectral Aven
NextHand
Bluecoat Musketeer
Elite Training
Manufactured Truth
Lawful Search
The Art of War
Tech 2 card(s)
Imp Discard
Get Paid - ($6)
Lawful Search, draw a card, look at your hand - ($5)
Worker - ($4)
Tech I - ($3)
Maxband Oni, Soldiers - ($0)
Oni readily kills Imp, takes 2, you get 1g
Float ($0)
Discard 3, draw 3, reshuffle, draw 2
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader: Soldier 1/1A [Sparkshot]
Elite: Traffic Director 2/1 [Untargetable]
Scavenger: Soldier 1/1 [Sparkshot]
Technician: Soldier 1/1 [Sparkshot]
Lookout: L8 General Onimaru 4/3 [Frenzy 1, Resist 1]
In Play:
*
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 5
Deck: 5
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 7
Thoughts
Well his hand would have been perfect to neuter with Newsman, shame that he’s just been discarded!
My best plan is still to build Tech I + Maxband Oni, use Oni to kill Imp and patrol him in Lookout. That way my hand recovers and I make board clearing as awkward as possible. He’ll most likely be at Tech II on his following turn, unless he goes all in on maxband Orpal + Sickness but that seems high risk for him given the likelihood of AoW in my deck. I think TD is best in Elite so he’s can’t be sniped with StW. Hopefully means some supporting cast survives to help Oni next turn.
Jandra + Tech up looking pretty good, we’ll go with that and tech up. Could get hit by Arrest but probably won’t hurt too bad. Grabbing Doom Grasp as insurance and Abom as… extra crowd control
Bluecoat Musketeer
Elite Training
Manufactured Truth
Lawful Search
The Art of War
WORKERS
Building Inspector
Porkhand Magistrate
Spectral Aven
NextHand
Scribe
Reputable Newsman
Boot Camp
Jail
Discard
Scribe
Insurance Agent
Manufactured Truth
Elite Training
Lawful Search
The Art of War
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid - ($7)
Manufactured Truth, TD to Jandra - ($6)
Bluecoat Musketeer, shoots armour off Jandra - ($3)
Elite Training on Soldier and pseudo Jandra - ($1)
Elite and standard Soldier trade with real Jandra, 3x Sparkshot kills Orpal, levels whiff
Oni readily breaks Tech II, your base to 18
Pseudo Jandra and remaining Soldier break Tech I, your base to 16
Skip Worker
TD reverts at end of turn, keeps Elite Training till my next upkeep
Float ($1)
Discard 2, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite:
Scavenger:
Technician: Bluecoat Musketeer 1/2
Lookout: L8 General Onimaru 4/3 [Frenzy 1, Resist 1]
In Play:
Traffic Director 2/1A [Untargetable, Anti-Air, Sparkshot]
Soldier 1/1 [Sparkshot]
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 1
Disc: 6
Gold:
Gold: 1
Workers: 7
Thoughts
Not often I’ve managed a double tech break on Frozen! I didn’t even need to use AoW either. Only real decision is whether to Worker or not, given that I have a floating gold it’s only really a question of hand size and cycle speed. I think Lawful Search is too useful right now and self cycling, so lets skip and stay at four cards.
Did we really decide a unit can get multiple “stacks” of sparkshot and do this?? I vaguely remember discussing this before but don’t remember how or why this would have been concluded…
from the database: https://www.codexcarddb.com/ruling/sparkshot/
Sparkshot does stack. A unit with 2 instances of sparkshot will get to deal 2 damage to an adjacent patroller or 1 damage to each of 2 adjacent patrollers. — sharpo, 09/16/16
Jail → Worker (Needs lots of ancillary pieces to be good)
Scribe
Reputable Newsman
Boot Camp → Arrest
WORKERS
Building Inspector
Porkhand Magistrate
Spectral Aven
Jail
NextHand
Insurance Agent
Manufactured Truth
Boot Camp
Free Speech
Tech 2 card(s)
Get Paid + float - ($8)
Newsman, choose 2 - ($6)
Bootcamp Vandy, draw - ($5)
Oni breaks HH, your base to 14
Worker - ($4)
Tech II Law - ($0)
Musketeer hits Tech I to 4HP
Float ($0)
Discard 2, reshuffle, draw 4
Board Info: In Patrol:
Squad Leader:
Elite: Traffic Director 2/1 [Untargetable]
Scavenger:
Technician:
Lookout:
In Play:
L8 General Onimaru 4/3 [Frenzy 1, Resist 1]
Reputable Newsman 0/3 [2]
Bluecoat Musketeer 1/2
Buildings:
Base HP: 20
Tech I HP: 5
Tech II HP: 5 (Law)
Economy Info: Cards:
Hand: 4
Deck: 7
Disc: 0
Gold:
Gold: 0
Workers: 8
Thoughts
This turn I want to cycle at least one card to maximise my draws, so I should play at least one of Scribe or Boot Camp. It also means I can decide between workering Jail or Arrest.
I have the “control” options of Jail, Newsman and/or Boot Camp on Vandy so Oni can break Tech I or HH. I think I probably want to take the risk of boot camping Vandy and breaking his HH as its really disruptive and makes his next turn much more predictable. Presumably he would ideally do something like “cast Dark Pact, cast StW, attack with Vandy, play Tech Is, boost Hoodie if you draw it”
If I break HH, play Newsman to block StW and patrol TD in Elite he would need to draw and boost 2xHoodie and play StW to be able to kill Oni with Vandy. Thankfully that costs a minimum of 12 gold and he only has 11. Untargetable really is powerful vs Black.
After that opening I will be left with 5 gold so I can Worker+Tech II or Worker+Scribe+HH. I think I’m probably best trying to get ahead on Tech as I’ve already teched in one Insurance agent and it makes sense to add a second for more card draw and gold generation. I should be able to cycle really rapidly with all the card draw in deck (6/11 cards if you count Insurance Agents) but I’ll be reliant on Insurance scams to get above 8 gold to spend. That means my other teched card needs to be chosen really carefully.
Sensible options would be: Second AoW, Free Speech, Injunction, a disruptive Tech II card. JJ is definitely the best Tech II unit but it won’t be an immediate impact and it’ll be too expensive without Insurance scams. GotG really sucks vs Black, Constable is way overcosted and while Censorship Council is pretty good vs Black, I need to be careful I don’t run out of patrollers.
On balance I think Free Speech is probably the best card to Tech. Quince plays really well with Justice Juggernauts and it lets me maintain a block on spells while potentially using Newsman for insurance scams.