Well after a few weeks of Gears of War & Elder Sign,I'm finally
ready to get down with F&G.
We're playing Jacques Moreau & Sharon Hunter against the Mob.
The Mob being Franco Fedicci & Vanessa Love with HQ in Chicago
& a hideout in Paris,the Brise de Mer,Corsica Mafia.
Our Fluff is that the Mob double crossed Jacques & high jacked
a load of Tomb plunder they were suppose to fence for him.
Jacques has sworn revenge & has enlisted Sharon to help
him with promises of exclusive pictures of Mob activities &
ancient treasures.Sharon has engaged a Professor of
Archeology at the Univ.of Moscow to provide background
on anything she & Jacques recover.
The Mob however has become interested in the ancient
antiquities black market & is using it's contacts with
criminal organizations across the world to find such
undiscovered treasures.
Currently Franco is in Manchuria looking into rumors
of The Ring of The Sacred Stone,lost since the Ming Dynasty.
I got everything set up today ,the components are beautiful
& there are a lot of them.I think I got all the rules down but
I know the first Game will involve a lot of reference to
the rule book.
I'm using the co-op with the advanced rules,so there is a lot to
keep track of.I hope to get a turn in tomorrow but I expect
we'll take at least a week to finish this one as during week days
we can usually only a turn or two a night.
OD
Jacques learning,through his contacts,that Franco is in Manchuria
trying to obtain The Ring of the Sacred Stone leaves Cairo &
arriving in Manchuria attacks Franco.
Franco takes 3 hits giving Jacques 3 glory before laying low.
Jacques then attempts to recover The Ring of the Sacred Stone
himself but encounters an Ancient Trap & fails his Lore Rolls & is now trapped
in an underground room filling with sand.
Sharon meanwhile looks around New York & finds a Secret
Weapon giving her a 38 Revolver.
Franco still lurking around Manchuria finds Forbidden Knowledge
which adds 2 wounds to his total.
The Bris de Mer the Paris Corsica Mafia add 1 Fortune to
the Mob's bankroll.
Vanessa Love slips into the Steppes following Franco
information on another Asian Artifact,the Amulet of Hades.
Franco in spite of having to work around Jacques continues
his search for The Ring of the Sacred Stone and makes
some progress (2 Dangers markers) although he picks
up another wound.
Vanessa also makes progress in her quest for the Amulet of Hades,
getting 2 Danger markers & a wound.
Our 1st complete turn-it plays smooth enough but it's a lot
to keep together.The Rule Book due to the Basic/Advance/Competive/
Co/OP tends to send you to several places to check out things,
but we were able to find out the answers we needed.
All 4 of the Artifacts are located in Asia(Stepps,Manchuria,China,& the
Jungle area below China -forgot the name) so Sharon is rather
out of the loop over in NY.
I had Jacques head for a showdown with Franco mainly due
to my background Fluff-he seems like a man that would
want revenge formost.
The 2nd Turn
Jacques rolled 1 on Movement which resulted in
"Expanding Influence"so the Mob got a thug in Moscow
& Chicago.
Sharon moved to Venice but it "Was Just Another Day"
Jacques now resolved his Cliffhanger succeeding with
2 Cunning +5 Rolls to get 3 Glory & 1 Danger.
He decided to press on for The Ring of the Sacred Stone
but fails to sneak by Franco & resulting in 1 round of combat.Jacques got 1 hit
& thus 1 Glory on Franco but took 2 wounds in return.
Jacques now had a Cargo Plane Mishap but succeeded
with a Cunning +6 Test,giving him 3 more Glory.
Again choosing to press on he again fails to sneak
by Franco resulting in 3 rounds of combat.
The combat however only last 2 rounds,Franco
takes 6 hits leaving him with 1 wound left & Jacques
with 6 more Glory but he is KO' d Jacques.
So the Glory for the Cliffhanger & The Cargo Plane Mishap
plus the 2 dangers are lost & he's back in Cairo.However,
He only had to give up 1 Glory
The Villain phase saw 'Dark Powers"which could
cause problems in the future.
The Brise de Mer add 1 Fortune for the mob and
another Mob thug appears in New York
then Franco obtains The Ring of The Sacred Stone.
This moves the Villain Track to 4 .
Vanessa now tries again to obtain The Amulet of
Hades picking up another success but getting 2 wounds.
Jacques recovers & learns of a new Artifact
"The Helmet of The Dark Fire" reported to be in the
Australian Outback.
In a first Game I try to engage with every system
just to see how it works.This turn it was mainly the
Press On function.
We're still checking the Rules & again I find the organization
of the Rule Book a bit lacking,you do have to check
several places to get the info your looking for.
I was just looking at The Mob Tactics Board & realized
I saw nothing in the Rule Book concerning using
them. I finally figure they had to be triggered by a card
so that's where I finally found it.
The Game is cool & once you get familiar with the rules
it will flow a lot smoother.I'm just waiting to encounter a
Temple as I still don't really grasp their rules.
4th Turn
Jacques recovered heads for The Steppes & fights Vanessa
Love,she is KO & Jacques takes 2 wounds & gets 2 Glory
for his hits on Vanessa .
Sharon also travels to the Steppes & together they
attempt to secure the elusive Amulet of Hades.
They are involved in a Car chase and Sharon failed
her agility test & they are in the Cliff Hanger "Over the Cliff"
Franco picks a +1 to his search thanks to The hunter Event.
The Bris de Mer the Paris Corsica Mafia add 1 Fortune to
the Mob's bankroll.But no other Mob actions are encountered.
Franco in spite of his wounds travels to the Australian Outback
seeking the Helmet of The Dark Fire.He almost gets it but
is still 1 Danger short.Vanessa recovering is delayed.
A rather quick turn,this time we tried out the 2 Heroes
working on the same Artifact & used Sharon to take
the Agility Test as she had the higher # in that skill
but it didn't matter she failed.
So far the Villains have had the better rolls of the dice,
at least we stopped Vanessa who was 1 Danger away
from getting The Amulet of Hades.
Franco has 1 wound left & out of the 6 search die
you would think that a least one would be a 1
& KO him-but alas he got 4 Dangers so he's
1 away from picking up The Helmet of the Dark Flame.
So far the Heroes have 11 Glory & ZERO Fortune.
Turn 4
Jacques rolls an Event "Just a Scratch"
As to the Cliffhanger-"Over the Cliff" Jacques
handles easily getting 3 Glory & a Danger.
Pressing on Jacques succeeds in "Occupied Territory"
getting 3 more Gory & a Danger.
Still pressing on Sharon succeeds in "Perilous Bridge"
getting 1 Glory & 1 Danger.
Still Pressing on Sharon auto overcomes" Poison Food"
getting 1 Glory & The Amulet of Hades worth 4 Fortune
(our first Artifact).So 19 Glory & 4 Fortune.
The Villains get "Dark Mystery" & the Brise de Mer
add 1 Fortune for the mob .Then another mobster
appears in Paris.
Vanessa recovers & is now Ready.
Franco tries for The Helmet of the Dark Fire
and gets the final Danger but is also KO'ed.*
This gives the Mob another Artifact & as it has
the skull Icon from now on "Dark Mystery" will
apply to our Heroes.
Thus the Villain Track is now at 6.
The End phase sees 2 new Artifacts surface:
-The Mask of Atlantis in the Andes
-The Valley of the Damned in Egypt(We have a Temple!)
The Game continues to go quicker as the rules get
familiar.Now that a Temple is on the Board I'll
have to make the effort to understand that sequence.
We did home rule the Danger Cards as one directed
us to sneak aboard a U-Boat but we were in the middle
of the Steppes so we decided to just discard & redraw.
*I could not find anything about what happens if a Villian gets
an Artifact at the same time he/she is KO'ed? But if this
happens to a Hero it does say they keep the Artifact
(unless they have to give it up as part of the KO penalty.
So we allowed Franco to keep The Helmet of the Dark Fire.
OD
Turn 5
Jacques moves to The Indonesia Jungle and
in spite of the difficulty manges to find the location
The Orb of The Pale Moon.
Sharon goes to China in search of The Eyes of Poseidon.
Jacques Cargo Plane has some problems but he gets
safely through it (3 Glory & 1 Danger)
Pressing on toward the Orb he encounters the Riddle
of Nardu which he fails & the trap springs on him-Cliffhanger.
Sharon trying for The Eyes of Poseidon falls into Quicksand
but her agility saves her(3 Glory & 1 Danger).
Pressing on along an Alpine Trail her Agility fails her
and she goes Over the Edge-Cliffhanger
Th Mob using it's vile tactics bump off Sharon
ally the Russian Professor.
The Bris de Mer the Paris Corsica Mafia add 1 Fortune to
the Mob's bankroll.
But at least no new mobsters show up.
Franco recovers & Vanessa goes to Egypt to find
The Valley of the Damned (gotta read those Temple
Rules now! ).....To be continued
Ok I think I've got them.
Vanessa gets 3 Dangers getting 3 Fortune but
has to place a Collapse Marker & she rolls a 1!
(about time those pesky mobsters had some bad luck)
So she get 4 wounds(her max is 5) & she is delayed.
The Temple in the Valley of the Damned has crumbled
but word comes of a find beneath The Steppes, a Temple
"Tomb of the Ancients.
Oh-just realized we playing Artifact Fortune wrong
for the Heroes.We gave them the Fortune right away
not realizing you have to sell them in a City to get
the Fortune.As we only have 1 Artifact we just
put the 4 Fortune back in the pile.
OD
Hi OD I've read all this it sounds very filmic! It sounds like a fantastic adventure but I must admit it also sounds complicated
Keep doing the report I will read all of it!
Actually it's not all that complicated,we're playing with all the Bells on as a first game so
it just has a lot to keep track of.The Rulebook does make you work some,I guess that's
more due to our doing a full co/op with advanced rules right out of the Gate.
If we had just started with the basic Competitive game & got those rules down
before adding stuff it would have prevented some of the having to check several
sections to get an answer.
After a few turns things fall into place & we're trying to try out all the options
to see how they work.The Temple stuff in the Rulebook sort of threw me at
first (they even have Flow Charts posted up on BGG) but when we finally got
a Temple in the Game & seriously checked the rules it fell into place.
One thing that will require some checking on throughout the Game are the Villain
Event Cards which can remain in play.These Cards trigger some nasty things in
certain circumstances.If a Hero gets an Artifact with a certain Icon,or they roll
a certain # in movement bad things can happen.We're starting the 6th turn & have
2 of these Cards in play.
The Game is very filmic & I have to contain myself from one of my massive
story session reports & just keeping this a turn by turn record...Oh well
The Brise de Mer is total fluff ,the Mob Outpost rules give the Mob 1 fortune
each Villain phase,so as the Outpost is located in Paris I googled up
the actual name of a French criminal organization.
OD
Turn 6
Sharon initiative is 6 & Jacques is 5 as both are involved
in Cliffhangers they can't move but a 1 roll would have
triggered an event & as the Villains holds an Artifact
with a skull Icon it would have triggered an instant Zombie
Attack.
Sharon extends herself although the effort cost 2 wounds
so she can roll 5 die for Agility (3 for her cunning skill+2
for the 2 wounds) to overcome "Over the Cliff" & succeeds
getting 3 Glory & 1 danger.
Pressing on she encounters a Maze of Caves but
makes her Lore Test & figures it out so 3 more Glory
& 1 Danger .This gives her 3 Danger & the Eyes of Poseidon.
Jacques struggles with the Ancient Trap extending
himself by taking 2 wounds so he can roll 5 die for
his Cunning test...and FAILS(not even close)He is
KO'd.Fortunately friendly natives find him & he returns to
Cairo to recover losing 5 Glory .(plus all the Dangers
& the 3 Glory involved in The Pale Moon Artifact Quest)
Vanessa Love becomes Tenacious via a Villain Event.
The Brise de Mer add 1 Fortune to the Mob but no
additional mobsters appear.
Both Franco & Vanessa are now ready to challenge
our Heroes.
A rumor surfaces of a Temple to be found in th
Caverns of The Monkey God deep in the Steppes.
Well we picked up another Artifact & tried out out
the Extend Mechanic that lets you trade wounds
for additional dice in a Cliffhanger or escape Test..
Another Correction The Tomb of The Ancients is
in Germany not London (I corrected the Turn 5
post).I looked at the bottom of the Location
Card that gives random cities & not the Top
which gives Artifact Locations.
OD
Turn 7
Sharon gets initiative & heads to Hong Kong to sell
the 2 Artifacts she has recovered.
Jacques moves into Persia.
Sharon City Event is ROBBED-she has to roll for each
Artifact she has & fails both rolls.So no Fortune.
She does manage to hire a mechanic.
Vanessa Love acquires the Hunter Skill giving her
+1 to search.
The Brise de Mer add 1 Fortune for the mob brining
the Villain Track to 9 but no Mobsters appear.
Franco moves to Germany & Explores The Tomb of
The Ancients.He rolls 4 dangers & avoids a Temple
collapse .This gives the Mob 8 Gold + 3 for the Temple
which cause the Villain Track to 15 & THE MOB WINS!
Jacques will need to wait for his revenge.
That was a shock ,knocking off a Temple is really
worth while,it's more Fortune plus the Temple is worth
3 Fortune.
Losing the Heroes Artifacts just as they were ready to
be cashed in hurt but it did not make a difference
as the Mob would have won anyway.
This was a learning Game but one of the main things
we learned was the dice liked the Mob better.
We'll have to see how we do against the Nazis.
OD