New to A Touch Of Evil

[munkymuddface]

Finally got around to playing my first games of ATOE this weekend. Had an absolute blast! I played with a few of my D&D gaming buddies, so we got into our characters and really gave them personality on our turns. There was four of us, three of which were new to the game, so we started with the basic rules set.

In the first game the villain was The Vampire. Heroes were (random) Anne Marie, Karl, Isabella Von Took, and Heinrich Cartwright (my character). The sun tracker was a little slow, so we all had plenty of time to wander and gather items. I was the first to get a Lair card, for free a skill challenge at the Windmill. I was sitting pretty, and had an amazing combo ready for the first round with the Vampire. After stopping to pick up the musket from the shop, I got to the Lair, paid the cost to start the show down, and then... Isabella played "I Think Not!" and cancelled my showdown.

Next turn, Karl started a showdown. I was sitting on two Escape cards, first chance I got I tried to cancel the Showdown. The first one failed, so was forced to use the second, which was successful. Next was Isabella's turn. With the rest of our resources tapped, she was able to fight without interference. With plenty of Investigation at her disposal, she was able to cancel out the all of the wounds for the Vampire, and eventually won.

My amazing combo that did not see the light of day:
Items:
Abandoned Keep - Old Carving +1 Cunning
The Olde Woods - Woodsman's Overcoat
The Manor - Cross
The Manor (Party Invitation) - Holy Water
Windmill - Wooden Stake +1 Combat
Town Item - Book of Town History +1 Cunning
Town Item - Musket +2 Combat
Events: Brilliant Deduction and Intuitive Hunch.

So the first round would have been:
Combat: 2 + 2 (musket) + 1 (Stake), pop the stake for another attack using cunning.
Cunning: 6 + 1 (Carving) +1 (Book) +2 (Brilliant Deduction), pop the carving for another attack using Spirit.
Spirit: 4 + 2 (Intuitive Hunch).
21 fight dice that first round. It should have been amazing. Sigh.

The second game we decided to use the Advanced rules. Went pretty smoothly. Now, I dont know if the game knew we were playing with the rules or if it was just the different villain, The Spectral Horseman, but that second game was pretty brutal. The Heroes were the four that did not get used in the first game: Inspector Cooke, Katarina, Victor Danforth (my Hero), and Thomas.

The second mystery card to be played was The Hour is Late. So the Shadow Track was moving quickly, but there was loads of Investigation to be had, especially for the Inspector. Thomas got knocked out six times through out the game, so he was very poor for much of the game (I had no sympathy as it was the same person who A screwed me over with the showdown, and B won the game). It did not help that there was a minion in Town Hall, so as soon as he stood up he had to fight.

As the game before, we all tried our hands at the show down in the same round. First was Katarina. She was pretty poor and was not ready at all. Her biggest weapon was the powder keg, but she missed with ALL of her dice (a turn later, she realized she hits on 4+, so maybe some would have hit...). Next up was Victor, with the Runic Amulet I had decent power, however, it did not take long to knock me out. Finally, the Inspector took his shot, with some hot dice, he was able to take out the Villain in one round.

All in all, a very fun game with excellent mood and character. Can't wait to play it again, hopefully soon!

[mqstout]

Good to see someone trying ATOE. How long did the games last for you?

[Old Dwarf]

Great we add another AToE fan.

OD

[munkymuddface]

The games took 2+ hours each. We started the first game around 730 and finished the second around midnight.

One buddy said he might like it more than LNOE... I'm not quite ready to pass that judgement, but it was vey enjoyable. Totally different feel, which is nice for a change of pace.

[thegamelord]

Welcome to the AToE world!

[vikinglad]

Von Took is a bit overpowered in the basic game because of the ease of getting investigation. She would have had a much harder time in the advanced game.

The horseman is brutal with his rides to town hall. We are 50/50 against him, playing co-op always.

[Pfr_Fate]

I might be the one in the wrong here, but aren't you allowed only one attack per Showdown Round (as in: choose either Combat, Honor, Cunning, or Spirit)? Cards may allow you to substitute one type of attack (usually you must use Combat) or add to whatever type of attack you chose.

If that's true, then Munky would have to use Combat unless he opted for using the Stake for Cunning or the Carving for Spirit (if those cards allow one to substitute a type of attack for Combat

Am I wrong?

[gavindowning]

The two items he's referring to specifically say that one can do an extra bonus attack.

What he describes above is totally legal (or would have been, had he been allowed to make it)! That's almost as impressive as the one time we managed to get Anne Marie to be carrying literally every single book in the game. It took some creative wrangling to make it legal, but she was carrying all three of the books from the Manor, both books from the Inn, as well as the three Town item books (one of which is purchased at the Monastery), and the single book from each other location. (It required both Party Invitations to get the two extra Manor books, as well as the Magistrate's Mandate to have the character from the Keep who can carry an extra item, and he carried the extra Inn book). It was insane. She managed to utterly destroy the Unspeakable Horror in a six-person co-op game all by herself, as she had 29 fight dice (13 books at +2 combat per, plus one book giving an additional +1 combat).

We joked that she dropped a bookshelf on the Horror to kill it.

[vikinglad]

Knowledge is Power! I love Anne Marie. She starts out slow, but she is usually great for the showdown. Dropping a bookshelf on the villian is a hilarious way to interpret that power.

[munkymuddface]

Pfr - I think you may have been thinking of the cards Tools of Science and Runic Amulet that allow you to use Spirit or Cunning in place of Combat.

The cards in my combo, the Old Carving and Wooden Stake, each have a discard ability allowing for an extra free attack using Spirit/Cunning instead of Combat. So they add to the current Fight Round when they are used, but since they are discarded, they are one time bonuses.