by Blueskew
VaultBoy wrote:
mfaulk80 wrote:
Choosing to ignore the search to temporarily win isn't a bad idea as long as your group sets up and plans to achieve that search the next game.
Except it doesn't in October. We completed every search in the month it was available except October's. I don't think October's search would've even been doable in our play. We couldn't draw the cards necessary since they got shuffled to the bottom of the deck. The turn I pulled the final card needed, the next player pulled the last epidemic. Unfortunately, the last epidemic probably showed up as early as it could as well, leaving mostly CODA cards left to mock us as we finished out our turns for a win.
We even made sure to end our October win to make the search easier. The military base we put in city zero was made a starting base as an upgrade, even though we knew it may be a bad idea given one of the goals was to burn the bases.
I don't have a problem with the story for Bravo Team. It works as a catch-up mechanic and the missions do put adequate emphasis on the searches. But, if players only get one month to complete a goal...[o]with a pretty hefty end-game penalty[/o]...then it should be mandatory.
Exactly this to the letter. Our city zero was in the last 5 player cards. We beat all of the other searches first round, then failed here. To make matters worse, we had an option to fail by running out of player cards or to complete on the final round and we completed.
A mandatory on Patient Zero would have been an elegant solution or moving Bravo back one month (more likely start searches a month earlier given the mechanics). I think that the designers likely figured that folks that failed to get Zero would be playing a second time in that month, but we got just one shot at the search and then "won" out to the biggest game end loss, more than all our other losses combined. At that point, we would have been better served not searching at all, taking the easy way out of each month, and saving ourselves from the other negative effects that occurred as a result of the search mechanism resource/card burden.
Still, a wonderful game that both of us enjoyed immensely. The unlocks went very smoothly in comparison to our Risk Legacy experience. A great spin on the original and I'd love to pay to play another plot line in a few years.