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[A Drowned Kernel]

Villain goes first though.

[theorel]

The alarm klaxons started blaring, and red lights flooded the Mess Hall, where the heroes had gathered for lunch.
Seconds later a young intern runs up to the heroes, "The director needs to speak with you in Operations."

In Operations there is a flurry of activity, all around a 3D holographic map of the base.  Red lights showing problems in one section, the director yelling out orders to get it sealed off.
"I'm so glad you're here.  There was an issue in the biology labs.  Something got out, it appears to be spreading infection.  We've sealed it off as best we can, but if it gets out, everyone on the base could be in danger."

Searching through the bio labs, you find an area of destruction, test tubes broken, chemicals spilled everywhere.  At the center you find a mass of some fleshy substance, with glowing green puss oozing out of it.  You hear a scratching sound from behind, when the Plague Rat jumps into your midst.

Villain Turn
There are no Start of Villain Turn Actions.

Playing Villain Card.

Rolled 1d24 : 10, total 10

[theorel]

Noxious Bite
The Plague Rat bites Argent Adept (Lowest HP) for 5 Toxic Damage.

We have to play an Infection on someone.  Infection will: increase damage dealt by that character by 1 (Plague Locus), and cause them to deal themselves 1 (2) irreducible toxic damage at the start of each turn.

End of Villain Turn, Plague Rat deals 2 irreducible melee damage to everyone.



EDIT: misread card

[A Drowned Kernel]

The bite targets the hero with lowest HP, actually. That would be me.

Fanatic seems like the best target for the Infection, she's got a lot of offensive power and can heal herself. I also am pretty good at healing myself but can't make much use of the increased damage.

[A Drowned Kernel]

Also H is 4 since we have 4 heroes.

[theorel]

Hmm...yeah, misread the lowest HP thing, but why did I make H=2?  I have no good excuse.

Yeah, Damage +1 is pretty nice for Fanatic's base power.

Fixer will also be able to make decent use of it I think, since I understand he tends to super-charge his base Strike power.  I'm not sure how effective he is at healing.

[A Drowned Kernel]

I think Fanatic and I are the only ones with much healing power, Fanatic can heal herself and I can heal everyone.

How should we resolve group decisions like this? Wait until everyone's had a chance to chime in?

Also you'll get the hang of it, I'm so glad you're running this

[XerxesPraelor]

I'm fine taking it so I can heal myself. I'd prefer to have everyone but me have similar health, though.

[theorel]

At least in this instance, I think it'd be good for everyone to check in.  (since we have hero selection, game starting etc)
In general, probably having the player effected by the choice at least accept it would be nice.

We could be a bit predictive regarding some of this also.  For example: we'll be playing more infections as times goes on.  So hashing out an order of which heroes to play them on might not be a bad idea, or really just having it as an ongoing conversation.

It might also be good just to discuss some general strategy before we start our turns I think?
Like: how much effort do we want to put towards destroying the Plague Locus?

[A Drowned Kernel]

I think we want to kill it as quickly as possible, we don't want him to be healing 4 a turn if we're all infected.

For infection preference I propose Fanatic -> Argent Adept -> Mr. Fixer -> Tempest.

I can wait until DSell checks in before taking my turn.

EDIT: Also keep in mind that the Locus increases the ongoing Infection Damage- it increases the damage output of the Infected Hero by 1, which includes the damage they deal to themselves.

[theorel]

That sounds reasonable to me.

Some random thinking-out-loud stuff:
Infection removal...How much effort should we put towards removing infections?
-If we remove an infection everyone takes 4 damage (5 with Plague Locus).
-If we wait until he flips, each player can spend a power and remove the infection by taking that damage themselves.
After he flips: each (infected) player takes 2 damage each turn.

Plague Rat has a bunch of other ongoing effects that seem bad.  If we leave infections alone until he flips, we can concentrate Ongoing removal on those.
Ongoing Removal:
-Argent Adept has a melody (2 copies) which removes Ongoings.
-Tempest has a one-shot (2 copies) that removes 2 ongoings.  Also, into the stratosphere (3 copies) can delay an ongoing for a turn (including an infection)
-And Fanatic has a one-shot (2 copies) that can remove an Ongoing.
-Ooh, and End of Days.  End of Days could be a nice way to take out all of our infections at once after Plague Rat flips.

So, that seems to me like pretty limited ongoing removal, except AA's melody, which is nice.

In other news:
The environment has limited Equipment/Ongoing destruction...I think this means that we can get some nice stuff going on with our Ongoings and Equipments.

There's also the Self-Destruct Sequence.  I'm thinking that we should have 1 environment removal card available at all times just in case?  I have Flash Flood and can keep it until we have another one (like AA's melody mentioned above).

[A Drowned Kernel]

I think you're right that we unfortunately need to focus on destroying ongoing effects other than the infections. Hopefully I can get some healing going pretty quickly, we're going to need it.

As a general strategy note, don't be afraid to spend the early game building up ongoings and equipment rather than using one-shots. The villain can dish out a lot of damage but as they say in Magic the Gathering the only hit point that really matters is the last one.

[Dsell]

Hello hello! Thanks for waiting. First off, hi everybody, I'm Dsell Mister Fixer, it's nice to be playing with a couple of you for the first time.

I am fine with what's been proposed so far. The only card I have in my hand that seems super useful is a style card that lets me redirect damage anytime I take 2 or fewer damage, which seems fantastic for infections. I could get it into play this next turn and be second on the list to take an infection? Redirecting 2 damage to the Locus or the Rat King himself (which should I do?) seems pretty awesome. I don't even think it would ever be worth losing the infection.

Edit: I'm sure there will be a lot of other uses for that ability as well, so keep it in mind. Looking at the Plague Rat's deck, Afflicted Frenzy, Vicious Onslaught, and Ravage (after the plague locus is destroyed) may be good opportunities to make me a damage redirector, so we should be mindful of my HP.

[XerxesPraelor]

Good idea; this is my first time too, by the way.

I can't tell if people think we should get rid of the plague locus or not, though. I like the effect it has on my power for now, but I can see a reason for getting rid of it. I just worry it might distract us from fighting the plague rat himself.

[Dsell]

As far as the plague locus goes, I suppose I could go either way actually. If I'm infected with the locus around I can do 2 damage to any target each turn. Without the locus I just do 1. The extra damage is nice, too. But there are other sources of damage that I think I would be able to redirect if the locus was gone. On the other hand, there are cards in my deck that allow me to reduce damage to myself by 1. So it's a toss-up for me.

[theorel]

You can also redirect the Plague Rat's 1(2 with Locus) irreducible damage he does to you each turn.  Which is cool because it's still irreducible.

Regarding the locus...It's dealing 1 damage to everyone each turn from the rat, +1 more if you're infected.  + it's healing the rat for 1 damage / infection card out.  Which means if you're doing 1 extra damage to him from your infection card it's negated, 2 becomes 1 etc.

Anyways...I'm not sure how high we need to prioritize killing the locus...but I think we do want it dead at some point at least because 2 irreducible damage/turn could get out of hand.

[theorel]

So, yeah, fixer keeping Driving Mantis in play seems to make him a good Infection target...but for now we'll start with Fanatic, since that seems to be the consensus for first target anyways.

Current Game Summary:
Spreadsheet

Plague Rat   Damage +1   
HPs:   85/85   Highest HP Villain Target
      
Ongoing:      
Infection,       
Targets:      
Plague Locus   13/13   Lowest HP Villain Target
      
Argent Adept      
HPs:   17/24   Lowest HP Hero Target
Hand:   4   
Discard:   0   
Deck Remaining:   36   
Ongoing:       
      
      
Tempest      
HPs:   24/26   
Hand:   4   
Discard:   0   
Deck Remaining:   36   
Ongoing:       
      
      
Fanatic   Infected, Damage +1   
HPs:   28/30   Highest HP Hero Target
Hand:   4   
Discard:   0   
Deck Remaining:   36   
Ongoing:       
      
      
Mr. Fixer      
HPs:   26/28   
Hand:   4   
Discard:   0   
Deck Remaining:   36   
Ongoing:       
      

[A Drowned Kernel]

I'd say we should focus on killing the locus, we're going to want it gone at some point and sooner is better than later.

My turn:

Play: Inspiring Supertonic (Ongoing, Harmony, PERFORM: One player may use a power now. ACCOMPANY: The Argent Adept regains 2 hp.)

Power: Vocalise (Activate a PERFORM text) on Inspiring Supertonic, select Fanatic to use a power.

So xerxes can use his power during my turn, I'll let him decide what he wants to hit.

Draw:

Rolled 1d36 : 1, total 1

[theorel]

We can take the locus out this turn if we want to...
I'll be doing 1 damage to it with my power, regardless of what else I do.
If Fanatic hits it with her power twice (now and on her turn) that'll be 8 damage (9 total)
Fixer can do 3 more (1 normal, 2 deflected)
And Fanatic could Holy Nova (which seems reasonable to do while the Locus is in play).
Or I could do Chain Lightning, and then some of that damage could be redirected at the Rat.

The danger is if we get Villainous Weaponry, then Fixer can't deflect.

Something to note is that there is really not much to take damage other than the rat.  The Locus is there for now, and there's the potential for weapons from the environment deck (3 of them).

The advantage to taking out the Locus early is that it slows down the game.  Right now we're taking 2 damage/turn, 4 if infected.  If we take down the locus it drops to 1/turn, 2 if infected.  I could heal that every turn if I get out Cleansing Downpour.  Given the limited Ongoing/Equipment removal, I think we can really benefit from a slower game, taking time to get ourselves set up and then hammering out the rat late with big plays.

[A Drowned Kernel]

Also a rules note: AFAIK Mr. Fixit's turn, the environment turn and the villain's turn all count as separate for the purposes of his style, so he can redirect damage on each of those (and on our turns thought it's less likely that he'll take damage then).

[XerxesPraelor]

Yeah, that makes sense. I'll attack the locus.

[Dsell]

Also a rules note: AFAIK Mr. Fixit's turn, the environment turn and the villain's turn all count as separate for the purposes of his style, so he can redirect damage on each of those (and on our turns thought it's less likely that he'll take damage then).

My card only allows me to redirect the first instance of damage.

[theorel]

Also a rules note: AFAIK Mr. Fixit's turn, the environment turn and the villain's turn all count as separate for the purposes of his style, so he can redirect damage on each of those (and on our turns thought it's less likely that he'll take damage then).

My card only allows me to redirect the first instance of damage.

Right, but as ADK notes it's the first instance each turn.  Which includes Environment, Villain, and Player turns.
I'll note that there are some rules which are most clearly spelled out in the glossary, this is one of them.

Just to cover a few rules that seem to be commonly missed/misunderstood:
-a ROUND is the Villain turn, followed by each player turn, followed by the Environment turn.  (A turn is each of those parts.  Or if you'd prefer [from the Glossary] A turn is the portion of the game during which all the actions associated with a given deck take place.).

-You may only use each instance of a power ONCE per turn.  (So if you're allowed to use 2 powers, they have to come from different cards, which generally means they have to be different powers...).

-When resolving Start of Turn/End of Turn stuff, it goes in the order played.  If an end of turn action plays another card with an end of turn action, the newly played card will activate that turn.

-When resolving "simultaneous" stuff, it goes in the order the players want.  So, for example if you have a card which says "whenever you are dealt 5 or more damage reduce it by 2" and another which "reduce  all damage dealt to you by 1", then when you take 5 damage you can first reduce it by 2, then reduce it by 1 more.  (This was changed at some point, so if you look around you'll see places which say that you need to go in order played for these as well.)

-If a deck runs out, you reshuffle it, but only when you need to DRAW from it (not when you need to REVEAL from it).  So, unlike dominion, "search" cards will not result in a reshuffle.

Oh, one more quick note specific to Fixer, and Overdrive.  Overdrive allows Fixer to use Strike twice on the turn it is played independent of any power activations.  So, if he plays Overdrive during, say, Argent Adepts turn, he can strike twice during that turn.  If he plays it on his own turn, and had another power available somehow...he could use that other power and THEN strike twice.  However, if he strikes first then that uses up his "power" activation also.  If Fixer manages to play multiple copies of Overdrive he can still only strike twice, not 4 times (i.e. it isn't additive).
Hopefully that's all clear enough...I saw lots of questions on forums about Overdrive as I was reading over the rules forums.

[theorel]

Alright, so Fanatic deals 2 melee and 2 radiant damage to the Plague Locus.->9/13HP

Tempest
Start! Nothing

Play! I'll play Chain Lightning.  Dealing 4 lightning damage to Plague Rat, and 3 lightning damage to the Plague Locus. ->81 HP Rat, 6HP Locus

Power! Use Squall, dealing 1 projectile damage each to the Rat and Locus. ->80HP Rat, 5HP Locus

Draw!

Rolled 1d36 : 7, total 7

[theorel]

Oh, End! Nothing.

Ooh, Cleansing Downpour...that'll be nice.

Fanatic's turn.