[Swords of the Skull-Takers] 23 Days To Kill
Gregor Hutton:
I was at WarpCon in Cork, Ireland over the weekend and I got in some Sword of the Skull-Takers in UCC's Old Bar. Two games, one of 7 days and nights, the other of 23 days and 22 nights.
In the end I managed to get a Worldly Victory for my 40K Space Marines against the skull-taking Space Orks (and while I had the journal of the dead character from my first game it didn't actually help me get the victory).
So, I'll post up my APs in the next few days: first up is Leman Russ (7 days), then it'll be Apothecary Rygel Daxxor (6 days) who chained into his former NPC Sister Syn (16 days) who chained to the victorious Pedro Cantor (1 day).
I was a bit unlucky in that it could have been quicker if I'd gone with Leader as Daxxor, the way the cards fell. Poor Leman Russ was quite unlucky though. The Major Boons need a bit of tweaking here and there, and testing.
The interludes were good, and I made use of 2 of them as Sister Syn in lasting 16 days.
Gregor Hutton:
So, first up on Saturday was Leman Russ.
Quote
I am Leman Russ. I am a Fighter. The Space Orks have landed and have over run our lines. My Space Wolves are scattered, my communicator is out and I need to survive. Praise Be The Emperor. Yesterday I saw my marines beheaded by the wild skull-taking Ork scum. They will be avenged.
Day 1: Successful exploration and Gamble. Got the Temperance card.
Night 1: No attack. (Good colour here in my diary as I drew the 5 of cups and a multi-mouthed creature that I interpreted as a drunken ork squealing and singing. I decided that I easily killed it.
Day 2: Unsuccessful exploration (started out right, went wrong)
Night 2: 1 attack, now Shaken (even with a re-flip).
Day 3: Unsuccessful exploration.
Night 3: No attacks.
Day 4: Successful exploration and Gamble. Got the Luna card (which can be combined with Star and Sun to give a Cosmic Victory).
Night 4: 1 Attack. Got Hurt and then Greviously Wounded.
Day 5: Disastrous Exploration, now at Death's Door. I figured that the supplies I was trying for were booby trapped. Damn Orks!
Night 5: 1 Attack. Discarded Temperance to Survive an injury at this point.
Day 6: Successful exploration, got the 2 Wands and used it to Heal back to Greviously Wounded (but as written I think it can't be used until the next day, which sucks, and I'd have to give up a day of exploring to heal one wound).
Night 6: 2 Attacks. Ork Boss with a PowerGlove puts me back at Death's Door.
Day 7: Unsuccessful exploration.
Night 7: Dead on first attack.
So, the headless corpse of the Space Wolves leader is lying in a hole with the Luna card. I resolved to avenge Leman's death later in the convention.
I'd like to see Wands used at any time to heal (much like Elixir in my favourite computer game of all time Halls of the Things. Or maybe a Healer Class that can do that to themselves and others?
Joe J Prince:
Cool, thanks Gregor.
A healer class sounds pretty good.
Russ could have discarded Temperance to avoid taking a wound - he seems to be hoarding two kinds of victory cards.
Maybe space wolves are just pansies - I want to see how Sister Syn got on for her 16 day stint!
Do you have the ability to scan your journals (again)?
Gregor Hutton:
Oh, I should have said I was playing with version 0.3
I want to get into my tactics a little here for this first game before I head into the Apothecary's go. I was purposefully not using the Temperance card to leave open the options for different victories (Temperance: Spiritual, Luna: Cosmic). Rather than use either to avoid a wound at first, I was considering the possibility of leaving both with Leman Russ for a follow up character to gain when they encountered his headless corpse. Or for an NPC to have when they switched to the main character. I didn't get any NPCs as Russ (and NPCs are now something I see as vital to success) so maybe I should have had an Interlude to search for an NPC card I liked in the deck rather than avoiding one measly wound.
So, I went through a few rounds where I thought giving up one of the two victory cards was not optimal. I could have used one for an Interlude but that would invalidate a type of victory and if I searched for an NPC it wouldn't re-set the Attacks. If I used it to re-set the Attacks it wouldn't necessarily yield an NPC. Using it for avoiding Injury seemed less than it was "worth". In the end I relented, used it, and then regretted it.
So Russ died and I resolutely left Luna unused and with his corpse.
I resolved to do better in a follow-up game!
Gregor Hutton:
After taking my index cards of play through to Glasgow last night to show Joe, I have now left them in my bag at home. So, Rygel Daxxor will have to be posted tomorrow.
I did get to ask Joe about some questions I had, so I'll put the answers here while I remember them!
The World card is currently a bit strange. It gives you +1 cache ... but then uses up that +1 cache itself. I played with it as not counting towards my 5 cards and it functioned as a "free floating" victory card (i.e. it could be matched with two other victory cards of a particular type to complete that victory type).
Do Barricades carry over if you "chain" play when an NPC becomes the PC? Joe seemed to think "yes", which was how I played it.
Healing seemed a bit of a pain. I had to spend a day finding the healing card and then spend a day using it to Heal (in the meantime, the threat has increased by 2). I'd prefer Healing cards to be played at any time to heal.
And I'd forgotten what a barren run Sister Syn had until after her second Interlude!
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