First, thanks for the great video and walking through your thoughts as you play - I find I play the game too quickly sometimes, so the slower pace is welcomed. Sparing Power is a great tactics card for planning battles and goes well with timing your level up to store something that you'll need later but don't want to draw immediately. I typically save this for 2nd-3rd night play.
The thing you overlooked with Foresters is that they are only level 1, with 4 armor. So they can take a hit of 4 damage and it only costs 1 heal to fix them up again. If you can find a way to give them resistances they can be amazing meatshields - taking hit s up to 4 without being hurt and up to 8 for just 1 heal point.
Hopefully it means you are just getting comfortable with the process! I talk to myself all the time (a consequence of spending a lot of time alone, I suspect)
Love your runthrough. Could listen to your voice all day. One thing just to clear rules as I am totally new to Mage Knight is, when you moved away from the enemy, you were still in their space for them to be aware of your presence. Should you have had combat first? I just want to understand the rules. Good work......well done.
I'm no expert (I have played and won this game a few times though), but wouldn't it have been better to either A) take two wounds into your hand from the gargoyle, or B) use your guardsmen to deflect the damage rather than to block and have him take a wound, to be able to defeat both enemies in the attack phase (5 fire attack takes out the gargoyle, attack from either of your units + 2 attack from a wound takes out the orc)? I would think that not having to waste an extra turn on defeating the enemy would have been worth taking the extra wounds to you or your unit (I prefer taking wounds into my hand in this situation), especially since you have the skill that lets you play one sideways per turn for 2 of anything.
Just thinking out what I would have done in the same situation, not trying to flame you or anything :) I think that for you with that skill in this game having wound cards in your deck isn't a huge detriment, and since you have a healing card in your deck anyways you might as well take some wounds. Just my thinking :)
***** When I first started playing, I was constantly getting KO's with wounds so I found myself playing it "safe". Now that I've played some more, I need to get over my wound fear and take a few into my hand. You are totally right there. Especially with Arythea as her abilities let her heal and use wounds. I find now my carefully pace means I tend to run out of time on the scenarios. But there is always next time, right?
***** Technically the guard did not 'take a wound' - she played the wound sideways, and it should go to her discard pile. While it's true Arythea can 'handle' wounds they are NOT healed as they stay in the deck. Even with her cool abilities I think they can be a problem if they build up too much. I would have used the guardsmen to block the Orc, then taken 2 wounds from the Gargoyle. Then in the attack phase use 5 Fire on the Gargoyle, and the Crossbowmen plus a sideways wound would finish off the Orc. Both units activated, 1 wound to the discard with another in-hand, but both enemies killed.
***** Solo McLaughlin Adding to these comments: the play made in the video was wrong. You get wounds in the assign damage phase of combat, which is AFTER the block phase. Sou you couldn't have used your wound sideways to generate block. Chris, I'm not sure what you mean by the B option... The guardsmen didn't take a wound...
Orion3T In your suggestion, the attack from the Crossbowmen is not needed. Fire attack 5 targeting both enemies: 4 kills the gargoyle and 1 extra for the orc (2 to go). The next attack (which should probably be the wound played sideways so not to spend the unit) will target only the orc, so there is no physical resistance, 2 is enough to finish him off.
I nearly mentioned this in the previous video, where you had run your deck out about 8 cards faster than you needed to. But held off. as I couldn't quite pinpoint a specific example without going right back to your choice of tactic (I'd have chosen planning). Anyway, I feel you are actually rushing a bit - playing too many cards on your turn. Sometimes the best thing is to take a turn to build up better crystals and cards rather than rushing in. For example in this case the Dummy had played twice, discarded quite a few white cards, and drawn only 6 cards. So it was being kind and playing slow. You used 4 cards on your first turn, and are about to enter a big battle and probably use all 5 cards. Leaving just 7 more for the whole night. Personally, I would have stayed in the village another round - play Crystallise to get the white crystal. The next turn you can power Mana Draw from your crystal and still have a mana from the source, and you would also have drawn a new card so would have 1 more card in hand for the battle. You could even have plundered the village if you were feeling evil, allowing you to hopefully be more efficient during the battle. (Edit - as it turned out, the replacement card would have been rage. Which would definitely have helped with the battle I think! Either saving a unit activation or avoiding a wound)
Doesn't going first also guarantee an extra hand/play during that specific day or night? You get one extra round after the dummy player finishes, so having gone first that day or night means that you've already taken your turn that round, and get an extra one at the end. Possibly useful for hoarding some specific cards through multiple draws for a better combo hand (which may take more time). That seems more of a gamble, however, and probably less useful in most cases than the other cards available to choose from.
One other mistake you made. When you used 3 movement to go to the mine you actually move onto it. You can only interact with a mine if you are standing on it. You didn't need to generate more move again on the next turn or retreat from that space.
I just got Mage Knight The Ultimate edition, and your videoes makes me really inspired to play my first game! ❤
I can see where the units you recruit are critical to solo success. Nice commentary, gave me a few ideas for my attempt at this!
First, thanks for the great video and walking through your thoughts as you play - I find I play the game too quickly sometimes, so the slower pace is welcomed. Sparing Power is a great tactics card for planning battles and goes well with timing your level up to store something that you'll need later but don't want to draw immediately. I typically save this for 2nd-3rd night play.
I had never thought of using Sparing Power to store a newly acquired card after leveling up. That's brilliant! Thanks!
The thing you overlooked with Foresters is that they are only level 1, with 4 armor. So they can take a hit of 4 damage and it only costs 1 heal to fix them up again. If you can find a way to give them resistances they can be amazing meatshields - taking hit s up to 4 without being hurt and up to 8 for just 1 heal point.
I am really enjoying your "stream of consciousness" style of play. I enjoy this game, but am not very good at it, so seeing other play throughs helps.
You know, at first it felt a bit odd to be chatting away to an empty room. But now I find it quite natural. Wonder what that says about me.......
Hopefully it means you are just getting comfortable with the process! I talk to myself all the time (a consequence of spending a lot of time alone, I suspect)
Love your runthrough. Could listen to your voice all day.
One thing just to clear rules as I am totally new to Mage Knight is, when you moved away from the enemy, you were still in their space for them to be aware of your presence. Should you have had combat first? I just want to understand the rules.
Good work......well done.
I'm no expert (I have played and won this game a few times though), but wouldn't it have been better to either A) take two wounds into your hand from the gargoyle, or B) use your guardsmen to deflect the damage rather than to block and have him take a wound, to be able to defeat both enemies in the attack phase (5 fire attack takes out the gargoyle, attack from either of your units + 2 attack from a wound takes out the orc)? I would think that not having to waste an extra turn on defeating the enemy would have been worth taking the extra wounds to you or your unit (I prefer taking wounds into my hand in this situation), especially since you have the skill that lets you play one sideways per turn for 2 of anything.
Just thinking out what I would have done in the same situation, not trying to flame you or anything :) I think that for you with that skill in this game having wound cards in your deck isn't a huge detriment, and since you have a healing card in your deck anyways you might as well take some wounds. Just my thinking :)
***** When I first started playing, I was constantly getting KO's with wounds so I found myself playing it "safe". Now that I've played some more, I need to get over my wound fear and take a few into my hand. You are totally right there. Especially with Arythea as her abilities let her heal and use wounds. I find now my carefully pace means I tend to run out of time on the scenarios. But there is always next time, right?
***** Technically the guard did not 'take a wound' - she played the wound sideways, and it should go to her discard pile. While it's true Arythea can 'handle' wounds they are NOT healed as they stay in the deck. Even with her cool abilities I think they can be a problem if they build up too much.
I would have used the guardsmen to block the Orc, then taken 2 wounds from the Gargoyle. Then in the attack phase use 5 Fire on the Gargoyle, and the Crossbowmen plus a sideways wound would finish off the Orc. Both units activated, 1 wound to the discard with another in-hand, but both enemies killed.
***** Solo McLaughlin Adding to these comments: the play made in the video was wrong. You get wounds in the assign damage phase of combat, which is AFTER the block phase. Sou you couldn't have used your wound sideways to generate block.
Chris, I'm not sure what you mean by the B option... The guardsmen didn't take a wound...
Orion3T In your suggestion, the attack from the Crossbowmen is not needed. Fire attack 5 targeting both enemies: 4 kills the gargoyle and 1 extra for the orc (2 to go). The next attack (which should probably be the wound played sideways so not to spend the unit) will target only the orc, so there is no physical resistance, 2 is enough to finish him off.
I nearly mentioned this in the previous video, where you had run your deck out about 8 cards faster than you needed to. But held off. as I couldn't quite pinpoint a specific example without going right back to your choice of tactic (I'd have chosen planning). Anyway, I feel you are actually rushing a bit - playing too many cards on your turn. Sometimes the best thing is to take a turn to build up better crystals and cards rather than rushing in.
For example in this case the Dummy had played twice, discarded quite a few white cards, and drawn only 6 cards. So it was being kind and playing slow. You used 4 cards on your first turn, and are about to enter a big battle and probably use all 5 cards. Leaving just 7 more for the whole night.
Personally, I would have stayed in the village another round - play Crystallise to get the white crystal. The next turn you can power Mana Draw from your crystal and still have a mana from the source, and you would also have drawn a new card so would have 1 more card in hand for the battle. You could even have plundered the village if you were feeling evil, allowing you to hopefully be more efficient during the battle.
(Edit - as it turned out, the replacement card would have been rage. Which would definitely have helped with the battle I think! Either saving a unit activation or avoiding a wound)
the tactics that let you go first are useful when you play 'the lost legion' expansion solo.
Ah. The Lost Legion. I have it but it sits on my shelf and mocks me. I am not yet worthy...
Doesn't going first also guarantee an extra hand/play during that specific day or night? You get one extra round after the dummy player finishes, so having gone first that day or night means that you've already taken your turn that round, and get an extra one at the end. Possibly useful for hoarding some specific cards through multiple draws for a better combo hand (which may take more time).
That seems more of a gamble, however, and probably less useful in most cases than the other cards available to choose from.
One other mistake you made. When you used 3 movement to go to the mine you actually move onto it. You can only interact with a mine if you are standing on it. You didn't need to generate more move again on the next turn or retreat from that space.
more playing not talking ....