Played a game of Witcher: The Old World board game.
I played the Manticore school, while other Witchers were Griffon school, Bear school and Cirella who had travelled to past because of reasons.
Ciri was the underdog of the early game. Bear started fighting monsters early on thanks to some lucky stat ups from encounters, and Griffon seemed to steal all the quests the notice board, raking in upgrades as well. Manticore kept low profile, just travelling around - even to Skellige - getting stat points wherever possible. Just as I was going to challenge Ciri to a duel, she also went to Skellige, robbing me of that option.
Instead, Manticore Witcher went to kill a Foglet. For some reason all the monsters were bunched up at top-right corner of the map. Drowner, Werewolf and even a Nekker had been there. Ciri had started ramping up her stats and victory trophies, while Griffon and Bear had got themselves involved in some Scoia'tael terrorism.
Those damn other witchers even managed to wake up Dagon. Monsters started dropping like flies - Dagon included, by the Bear school witcher.
After Manticore school witcher killed Drowner and was level four, thus closest to victory, Griffon witcher attempted to cause an accident to delay my progress. But it was a happy accident, Manticore witcher was victorious, although somewhat depleted in potions.
So, I reached three trophies first by meditating on my specialty. However, after her slow start, Ciri had become the top contender. Bear and Griffon were only at two trophies.
School of Manticore was in a hurry to prove themselves. There was a Penitent nearby for me to attack, but that thing was in Skellige and I didn't want to risk water routes especially when Dagon was still awake. Fortunately a Rock Troll spawned within walking distance.
I had my trump card with me that had really messed up Griffon's attack over Manticore. A +2 shield card with "take it back to hand" if it had red or yellow combo. I was quite confident that my stat-maxed and specialty meditated witcher with full arsenal of potions would kill that 19 health troll.
Buuuut.... the first attack dealt around seven damage to me, and the discarded cards were some of my best. I did my best, and hoped the +2 shield I managed to combo would let me endure long enough. BOOM! Another seven points of damage or so. Soon enough Manticore witcher was humbled, and Ciri was free to win the game.
She was in the same space as Manticore witcher and the Rock Troll. However, looking at Manticore witcher's badly mauled, unconscious body, Ciri ditched the idea of winning by killing a monster and instead attacked Griffon witcher to claim victory.
It was a close fought duel. Ciri was able to deal immense amount of damage with her combos, but this exhausted her quickly, too. Griffon, too, was able to play like a five card combo - but that one had two take back cards involved. Soon enough neither witcher had cards in draw deck. Thanks to those armor providing take back cards Griffon was able to stave off Ciri, much to my amazement.
Yay! I had a second attempt at Rock Troll. And this time I had the first turn, and able to combo to my heart's extent. Again the troll did nasty initial damage, but remaining fight rounds were a lot more manageable and the beast was slain.
Victory!
I really liked the main card system of this game that elegantly reflects often neglected stamina in hero-centric systems. If you run around the board and initiate combat after trekking multiple locations, your first combat round is going to look sorry as you're out of breath. Making powerful combo attacks is also draining your survivability in combat faster than delivering quick, low effort blows.
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