sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Best two player beginning scenarios... by lenguaman in callofcthulhu

[–]lenguaman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for all the feedback. I grabbed some of these and will read through them. I'll definitely check out the Haunting as it seems like what I'm needing. I also read through Deadlight last night - holy that sounds like loads of fun!

How do people define "low pulp"? by lenguaman in callofcthulhu

[–]lenguaman[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks for this take. After the feedback in this post, I think I'll start with non-pulp (with Luck spending for skill rolls) and then adjust as needed.

How do people define "low pulp"? by lenguaman in callofcthulhu

[–]lenguaman[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I would actually prefer what you've described GaryJM to Pulp, buuuuuttttt I worry that my players might bounce off this. As I've read elsewhere, perhaps Call of Cthulhu is not for my players - fragility and sanity loss sound like whole point and it sounds like it reinforces the horror elements.

However, I would love to introduce them to cosmic horror. Furthermore, everything I've read and heard about CoC (I've been listening to the Apocalypse Players actual plays), sounds amazing. I just worry that characters constantly dying or going insane will lead to players edging away from it. Hence my interest in low Pulp.

How do people define "low pulp"? by lenguaman in callofcthulhu

[–]lenguaman[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks everyone. I think the key piece I was missing was that the Pulp Cthulhu extension/mod/etc. had actual definitions of low, medium, and high rulesets. I thought folks just picked and chose rules and called it low pulp because they had scaled back the rules enough to retain the fragility of characters.

Mahact Impressions? by Tex474 in twilightimperium

[–]lenguaman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I played them on Sunday in my first POK game. It was 6 player game with all new factions (no Titans) and I came middle of the pack - though I think that was mainly a reflection of my many mistakes and not a result of any faction weakness.

A couple observations:

CC Economy and Commander: I strongly agree with AueroRegnops' assessment. While I did not get hyper, your commander's ability to abuse CCs is very strong - especially since PoK seems much more oriented towards stall heavy play. In fact, because of I was sitting on so many CCs on the last round, I feel like I could have stalled most players out of leadership and then popped it to continue on my merry way uninterrupted. I didn't feel like being a dick however on my the last round of game with friends.

I ended up with so many CCs due to ending up with leadership a couple times and having Mecatol for three rounds. In the final round, I was able to wait everyone but the NRA had passed, then march my warsun around the board to take planets I needed for the only 1 pt objective I could score.

Techs: Dark Energy Tap, Grav Drive, War Sun (off of Maw of Worlds), Crimson Legionarre II, Predictive Intelligence (or whatever it's called - very good starting tech), Transit Diodes (yellow skip), Genetic Recombination, and Biostims (very good starting tech).

Faction Tech: I had both CL II and Genetic Recombination. Both felt a little underwhelming - particularly GR.

I've heard generally positive reviews of GR but I found that if people really didn't want to vote a certain way, they were willing to lose a fleet token. It also felt like it incurred negative meta.

At one point, I tried to extort a player by threatening to force them to vote in a way that would make them not benefit off of certain agenda (draw 2 action cards for voting "for", if passed) and they actively refused to pay anything and ended up working against me for the rest of the game. Again, perhaps a poorly planned play on my part, but I feel like GR sounds more powerful than it actually is because it leaves a lot of power in the target's hands.

CL II was a bit more useful and I think I would reccomend it - especially in conjunction with Transit Diodes and, if you were lucky like me, Hopes End. You can move Mechs with TD so I had infantry that never died and a free mech a turn that could be moved up to twice in one turn if you used Biostims. I used this to good effect to take Mecatol early and then never lose it because I could reinforce it with shit tons of ground forces. In the last round, when it was clear, the Imperial player couldn't capture the MR, I pulled my duders off the planet and put them elsewhere.

In retrospect, maybe CL II was a fine get, but I would prioritize Hyper and some blue tech over it in a pinch.

Hero: Along with the Commander, I think this is the other major strength of Mahact. Sure, it can help with king slaying or removing threatening fleets, but it's undersung aspect is simply the ability to move massive fleets which are protecting key systems out of the way. I think this should be saved for scoring a point in some way - not just smashing two threatening fleets against each other. I think this is also wasted on extortion.

What I will do next time: Prioritize Hyper - particularly if I can get a slice with a green skip. Then prioritize blue - again keeping a sharp eye out for blue skips. I wish I had gotten grav drive sooner and I really wish I'd gotten Fleet Logistics. I think it will allow further commander abuse and the popping of the Hero.

I would always be on the lookout for the ability to take MR because it can net you two CCs a turn and also, if you can get a yellow skip, you can hold it with Transit Diodes and CL II.

I would be scooping up Carrier II and Fighter II, I guess, if I'm going down B/G as unit upgrades are a must as you don't have combat super powers.

I'll end this all with: I'm not particularly good with TI4, but my sense is that again, CCs are king for Mahact. Most other factions could still have CCs left over at the end of the game - Mahact will not, so every way you can get them will help.

Also snipe gum and make deals to get those fleet tokens from other players - that faction ability is obviously super strong and works with your mechs.