So the great Pandora experiment has reached half a dozen
games played, and at this point I thought I’d jot some thoughts down to reflect
on it.
I went into this knowing full well that it would require
some serious play style adaptations. For most of this year I’ve been playing
Arcanists who are one of the more forgiving factions. They have ways to score
schemes coming out of their proverbial. Practiced Production makes most of them
so easy I’ve actually started a thread on the Wyrd forums asking the games
developers to look at it. The Arcanists have at least 3 tools for pretty much
every occasion and as long as you bring the right tool and don’t play like a
complete dickhead (there’s my problem right there…), any of those 3 will
probably do the job.
That’s not been my experience with Neverborn so far. I’ve
made some real clangers. Using a buried Bandersnatch to try and score
Accusation for example – the model is buried, so it doesn’t engage anyone. They
just remove the condition and carry on, whilst I thump my head against the
table. And between Fears Given Form and Misery it is far too easy to
accidentally kill a model, either yours or the opponent’s, and cost yourself
Frame for Murder or Set Up.
There have been some amusing moments courtesy of ‘Panzer
tech’, weird ideas I like to use to throw people. Rougarou Pinball was an
experiment in Arcanists courtesy of Cojo, but actually works pretty well in
Neverborn with Barbaros and Tooth. Using Wisps and Poltergeist to drop 3
Paranormal markers a turn (they project a 3” bubble that requires a TN15 WP
duel or gain slow – why would that be bad around Pandora…) was funny, and may
actually have a place in certain circumstances.
But things are starting to mesh. Pandora has won 2 games,
drawn 1 (it was 4-4 after I cost myself both schemes – I’m counting this as a
moral win) and lost 3, and I understand now what she does and what she needs.
Of herself, on her card, she doesn’t do an awful lot. She needs enemy models to
mess with. Use their damage tracks against them. Make them take duels with
nasty consequences if they fail. Get those infamous auras in the right place.
Joel Henry was spot on right when he said that she’s plutonium – being near her
is very bad for your health.
Pandora excels at blocking your opponent and clearing out
their weaker models. What’s new for me is that I need my crew to deal with
opposing heavy hitters as well as having point scoring capability, as opposed
to sending Lady Justice, Marcus, Ironsides, Sonnia or Rasputina to remove the
threats like I’ve always done. It’s a completely different way of building a
crew.
My game last night was a crushing defeat at the hands of
Joel but the chat after the game and some emails flying around has given me
some new ideas, and I’m looking forward to trying them out at the English GT
this weekend down in Essex. I expect to be lower to mid table at best, and my
tiny brain will probably implode day 2 with overwork, but I’m gonna give it a
go!
No comments:
Post a Comment