Monday, December 31, 2012

For Whom the Bell Tolls (A Touch of Evil)

During my trip to Kuhmo, we got to play A Touch of Evil twice with three players.

Here is a short summary of both games.

This was also the first time ever I got to play with The Coast -expansion.

However, first game was against the oldest foe in the book: The Vampire.

And, the game took six hours. Six. Hours. That blood-sucking bastard truly was the master of deception and avoiding combat.

Heroes that investigated mysteries involving residents of Shadowbrook were The Scarlet Shadow, Sara the Bright Witch and Thomas the Courier.

Game started a little on the wrong foot with Scarlet Shadow, since he got to play like 2 rounds, and then spent like 4-5 next turns knocked down. Drowned Dead sure are a nasty bunch for an unequipped hero!

Thomas didn't fare much better, though he got to play actual hero turns. The only hero who actually found anything useful from Location decks and killed minions was Sara, the Bright Witch.

Shadow Track moved excessively slowly, and during multiple times it could be moved back up a little.

However, the Vampire had an army of Evil Elders at his disposal. They were pretty much the reason why Heroes didn't want to start a Showdown.

But behold! Heroes are almost Screwed by a Suprise Showdown from cooperative chart, when Vampire attacks with about 16 dice (or more), scoring hits on 4+, thanks to Laying in Wait mystery card. Sara, the Bright Witch manages to pull herself through the fight, however... with one Wound remaining. What was achieved during that sorry encounter was, though, that most of Evil Elders that didn't have Darkest Secret (which were, by the way... Lord and Lady Hanbrook! Sounds like vampire aristocracy to me...) were killed.

Soon (about 45 minutes...) after this, the final confrontation happened at Monastery. Vampire did have impressive amount of Wounds, and still respectable amount of Fight Dice, but still, Sara the Bright Witch and Scarlet Shadow single-handedly dispatched the ancient beast.

A keg of gunpowder did help there, though. Also, Scarlet Shadow had the event card that made every roll of 1 count as two hits against vampires. He also had the gunpowder keg.

Boom, bye bye, Vampire!

Though to be honest, the Vampire got killed during last Showdown Fight Round where it was possible, barring good rolls. All wound prevention effects had been used, as well as all additional fight dice, except for "If I just could reach..." card for the gunpowder keg. Thomas, who had the card, was about to die, though, if Vampire would've only given him a stern glare.

Victory for the heroes!

Game 2:

Still, no fighting against villains from the Coast -expansion. Heroes were against the Reaper, which came with Hero Pack 2.

Heroes drawn were Harlow Morgan the Inventor, Doctor Edwards and Jack Sp... I mean Fellows.

And if those three learned anything, it was the fact that do not challenge death itself! Game was absolutely brutal.

How so?

Well, two Grim Spectres spawned. Next mystery phase three mystery cards were drawn. Cards were The Horror, The Hour is Late and Ominous Overture. So, for every Grim Spectre a die was rolled to see if additional mystery cards were drawn. Every Mystery Phase Shadow Track dropped by one. If 1 was rolled for movement, a mystery card was drawn instead of Event. Cooperative Mystery Phase Chart was rolled twice every round.

Bravely the Heroes managed to get rid of all of those cards, but it cost them 12 investigation, as well as one Daybreak -card.

After that courageous but futile fight the Shadow Track started an amazing speed-run towards 0. Jack Fellows was pretty much the only Hero that got anything useful done, and who could actually fight the Grim Spectres.

Marked for Death killed three town elders, and the rest were fleeing in flocks.

Once the Shadow Track was in the red zone, Heroes had to start looking for Reaper's lair. It was in Town Square, Coast.

Villain was rolling only 6 dice for its attacks, but thanks to Reapers rule of always scoring two hits for each succesful roll, it was a tough fight.

After first round of Showdown had passed (and all heroes miraculously survived!), Harlow Morgan was rolling a whopping 1 die for combat, and Doctor Edwards two or three. So everything pretty much rested on Jack's shoulders. And he really did well, dropping Reaper down to 9 wounds.

Also, game did not end because all heroes died. Game ended, when Reaper killed Reverend Harding, which made Shadow Track drop too much.

By this time Harlow Morgan and Doctor Edwards had already died.

Jack Fellows survives, maybe to avenge other fallen heroes!

No comments:

Post a Comment