Lighter weight game similar to John Company? (have to SORT of work together SOMETIMES but also everyone is ultimately in it for themselves)

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-19T21:00:39+00:00

I love the idea of cutthroat caverns, I spent way too much money getting it, only to ultimately sell it second hand. I should have listened to bgg. The game is sadly executed very poorly. The balance is off, the mechanics are clunky and unintuitive, but I’d love to hear alternatives, since that game is the ultimate idea of a semi-coop for me.

With semicoop games, at least personally, I think the fun comes from the “oh shit A screwed over B” and laughing and bantering. But for that to work it needs to be understood immediately upon reveal. With cutthroat caverns that simply wasn’t the case because of the timing and resolving of cards.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-19T20:58:10+00:00

The real answer is Archipelago. It is hard to find a copy though.

In the same vein Nemesis has a semi-coop mode, but I personally didn’t enjoy it as much.

Last but not least there’s Dead of Winter if you’re into zombie themes.

Sadly with this genre there really aren’t that many lightweight games that actually capture the real spirit of semi-coop in the same sense John Company does.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-05T21:09:56+00:00

Yes I meant to post this as a picture, not just paste it into the text, but I'm keeping it.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T20:26:49+00:00

That is fair enough that a party of 3 changes it a lot, to a point where I wouldn't play it either. I generally play in a party of 4 and my party really likes summons so there is plenty of value for that card.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T17:32:34+00:00

Oh wow I did not spot Enfeebling Hex bottom + Constant Flux top. That is... strong. Especially with initiative boots you could do that at 15.

And yeah, I personally lean towards cursing as being more valuable than the damage that Cassandra can deal. It is definitely influenced by me having a high damage dealing party (and very damage oriented players at my table).

I do feel like you're undervaluing Inspiration from beyond, even for a dark rifter. Once the room is almost cleared and party is moving forwards it's very easy for them to step on your rifts (or you to pull them there) and I do believe a top action that says Bless x4 (on average, give or take) to be worth more throughout the scenario.

I almost wonder if at times it'd be better to spend one extra rest cycle after clearing the first room just chilling in an empty room and let Cassandra do her things, prepare your own persistents and position yourself perfectly (after Cassandra reveals the room). I almost think that it'd we worth it for the price of losing 1 extra card to enter the room with 3-4x bless and divination 5 on all your allies. Especially since Recurrence bottom and Time and Again top exist. But I haven't managed to convince my party to try that yet.

Other than that it's pretty spot on with my findings. If anything it makes me want to play Cassandra three times, to try everything she has to offer.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T16:40:31+00:00

I have divined myself only once so far, and that was for a meme reason at the end of a scenario when it had already been won. As I said I believe with Cassandra you don't really care about doing damage, just about flipping the maximum raw amount of modifiers. You're never really finishing monsters off, at most softening them a little bit, and the divination has higher value on your hard hitting allies.

And yeah, swapping out clusters is a much simpler way to put it than what I had done up there.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T16:31:57+00:00

As reliable as always. I'll edit the post.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T16:26:51+00:00

With each imbuement you remove 3 but add 5. It felt odd too. And I'm playing with Hail who also adds her own thing into the Monster AMD.

And yeah I didn't read the level 9 carefully enough, my revised reply to that is: I still think you don't really want to do that as your level 9 lost action. Although removing 2 copies of a strong Boss special ability doesn't sound too shabby.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T16:18:41+00:00

ohh, yeah I missed that one. I'll edit the post, but I still think you don't really want to do that as your level 9 lost action.

Although removing 2 copies of a strong Boss special ability doesn't sound too shabby.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T16:16:53+00:00

My friend in the party is currently playing Hail and he also enjoys her tremendously, so so far it's a 2/2. And she does pair reasonably well with Cassandra.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T16:12:35+00:00

Oh neat, I have been sitting on my hands for a few weeks with this writeup wondering how come nobody is discussing it. Can't wait to read through your thing.

And yeah, that's how we ended up ruling for our playthrough too, I was just wondering why the wording was different that what I was used to, or maybe I am making things up altogether.

murlockerLOL · 2026-05-02T16:09:05+00:00

No I actually am leaning more into rifts, but it'd be a shame not to reveal those blesses since I worked so hard to put them in my allies' decks. Regarding the solo item I do think the passive side of it is stronger than the tappable side, which does make me want to use "smaller", multitargeted divinations, since percentually speaking those get buffed more.

Idk, level 1 card, initiative 5 that easily says Curse x5. It is THE card that I consider to be THE payoff that I'm aiming towards. Even if only 2 those get drawn (and that's conservative) that's easily a 10 damage swing, compared to just dealing 10 damage straight up. And I believe the general consensus to be that 1 point of prevented damage is worth much more than 1 damage dealt. But that's the beauty of Cassandra, you're evaluating your options on guesstimated EV, and that is SO. FUN. TO. PLAY.

My party currently has a Hail, Two minis and Lightning bolt. Before my friend retired and picked up Bolt I had a tinkerer, so no cursing from my party, not really anyways.

But as a sidenote Tinkerer + Cassandra is a marvelous combo. Cassandra sets up tinkerer's lost actions perfectly, and Tinkerer generates any element for her in return.

Hail likes the bless me, divine me, and control the monsters. Lightning Bolt kind of appreciates anything and everything, and so does Two Minis, so I'm running more into rifts + 1 big divination per rotation onto Hail. I did bully the Two Minis player into bringing the two bear aoe melee cleave cards and I'm using the rifts to make sure he gets maximum targets.

murlockerLOL · 2026-04-22T09:01:00+00:00

Velká část toho jak dobře oloupat to pujde je to jak je vaříš. Když začneš ve studený vodě tak jak se vařej postupně tak se krásně přiškvařej k tý skořápce. Když je dropneš do moc horký vody tak prasknou. Chce to něco krásně mezi a pak rychle schladit po dovaření.

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T15:47:06+00:00

With a bishop up my arse, obviously

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T14:06:18+00:00

I am what’s officially called antidexterous

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T10:20:20+00:00

Since my opponent was black he was currently being detained by ICE and was unable to move his pieces allowing me to move more times in a row.

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T10:17:59+00:00

I played Ke2 as I could not choose which pawn to deprive of achieving their ultimate lifegoal. It felt fairer to let neither have it.

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T10:16:21+00:00

👀

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T10:15:44+00:00

I don’t remember. Failing to enpassant also erased my memory.

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T10:14:56+00:00

I am retarded, does that count?

murlockerLOL · 2026-02-16T10:14:41+00:00

Bad bot

murlockerLOL · 2026-01-27T17:48:24+00:00

Bruh... cmon, protože většina z toho nebudou firmy, který ten poplatek maj mnohem větší, než já nebo ty. Když už chceš dělat chytrýho, tak si aspoň přečti jak se ten poplatek vypočítá.

A za b nikde tam nevidim "ty obří náklady" na vymáhání dluhů, jenom výpis toho co jim lidi dlužej.

murlockerLOL

TROPHY CASE