by clarbri85
"Sound trumpets! Let our bloody colours wave! And either victory, or else a grave!" - Edward, King Henry VI - Part III, William ShakespeareGame 1April comes ominously - we have so few cubes to put so many places that we're all desperately afraid of a first-turn plague cube (or more!).
Our Initial, Shaky SetupLuckily...Characters PlayedPretty Boy Floyd - Administrator
Duke Cleatus - Farmer
Joe Dirt - Laborer
W0FU - Radio Operator
From the Journal of Pretty Boy Floyd, Brockway Administrator, April 13th, 71 AFExtremely mixed emotions on this night. So much has gone so well these past few weeks, and so much so horribly. Let us start with the bad - Los Angeles is decimated, forsaken by our new leadership, and both it and Santiago are overrun with plague carrying rats. The Hollow Men are tearing down our supply centers as soon as we can get them torn down. Despite my earliest promises, Duke keeps being put in harms way - I had to act quickly to get her out of plague ridden cities. If I hadn't...it's possible we may have lost her. And yet...
We've discovered Doomhaven in the Pacific, and with it, literal tons of fresh supplies to spread throughout the grid - for the first time in a couple of months, I'm filled with hope. We may be able to help our new connections after all. Additionally, we found new equipment to help facilitate the production of new supplies. And an experimental inoculation against the plague. I'm wary of it, however...if it's truly successful, then why wasn't it distributed? Questions for another day.Well, we never really came close to winning this one, but we completed the thing we needed to do - we found the Haven, and with it 15(!!!) supply cubes we get to add to the stockpile at the beginning of every game. We needed those in the absolute worst way.
We're Saved!We also have the Innoculate free action (which lets us remove Infection Cards or Player Cards in the discard piles, as long as they're the city we're in...up to 30 of each, to be put back in Box 6, assuredly for some sinister purpose later) - we do innoculate Los Angeles, and use Lockdowns on Cairo and Lima.
That's about it for the good news. Duke searches in Santiago...revealing that it's infested! And plague continues to outbreak, ensuring that Los Angeles falls down to 0 population - Tripoli and San Francisco lose population as well. Pretty Boy Floyd has to pull Duke out of the fire two turns in a row before she gets further exposed.
Rats and CrapLA FallsAt the end of the game, we throw the Outrider ability on W0FU (letting him Recon for one fewer card), and raise the populations of Lagos and San Francisco.
And then, on the cusp of losing four in a row, we head into...
Game 2Cubes, Glorious Cubes!Characters SelectedPretty Boy Floyd - Administrator
Duke Cleatus - Farmer
Joe Dirt - Laborer
W0FU - Radio Operator
From the Journal of Pretty Boy Floyd, Brockway Administrator, April 24th, 71 AFJoy. Unbridled Joy. Finally, a few weeks where nothing has gone wrong, and our luck has turned around completely. We've scouted the rest of Africa, connecting Johannesburg, Kinshasa and Khartoum to the grid. Based on information we've found, we're certain that the Jade Lab is somewhere in Johannesburg. We've also found Satellite Towers that should allow us to transmit data more effectively.
Our supplies have lasted well enough to keep things largely safe, and I found a Scout in Mexico City that has already been hugely useful. We've got a foothold back in Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires is recovering. Chicago and Lagos are also starting to bounce back. For once, I can rest my head easily tonightOh my goodness, did our luck ever reverse itself. On the second turn, we build a Supply Center in Lagos, thanks to both Jacksonville cards with Foundations on them being able to be shuffled around (Pretty Boy started with one, and Joe Dirt drew one on his turn and was able to swap it with a Rationed Event). W0FU started with two unique yellow cards, and drew another on his turn. We had enough unique yellows on the board to do the recon...unfortunately, the last card was LA, a city that we could do nothing in. Fortunately, I draw the Rationed Event that lets us repeat one already played, so W0FU gets the Recon done early.
Toto ApprovesWe drop a supply center in Chicago, and things start to get a little rocky - San Francisco and Bogata both get plague cubes, and then more plague cubes. Thankfully, on the last few rounds, we get another round of luck; Drastic Measures lets us remove two plague cubes, and the last supply center will be built in San Francisco, keeping those plague cubes at bay. Unfortunately, Mexico comes up, getting a plague cube. All looks lost, but then Pretty Boy searches Mexico City, finds a Scout, which lets him discard to get the Herbalist from Lima (removing the plague cube in Mexico). An Epidemic is drawn, but Pretty Boy also draws One Quiet Night, letting us sail into the last turn, removing the plague from Bogata, searching San Fran (vindicating me, since I said that they wouldn't have made Lima the only way to find the Haven), and plonking down the final supply center.
We really needed that win, and I'm looking forward to May!
until December, that is. Searched a ton of cards but never those ones. Needless to say, we didn't get the characters that came with those labs.
