I finally got to sit down and play Shattered Timelines yesterday with Vyolence and a few others. Our first game was Omnitron X, Chrono Ranger (Vyolence), Team Leader Tachyon, and Scholar (me) against the dreaded Dreamer in the Time Cataclysm. Things started out ok, the Whipicorn, Toy Maker, Dark Hero and the giant spider. OX let Scholar play the top card of his deck, which dealt damage equal to the number of villain targets (5 projections plus Dreamer) so the Dark Hero disappeared, which allowed CRanger to doll out damage to the projections. Tach was limited due to not wanting to damage the Dreamer, but things weren't too bad. Until the Dreamer woke up. At that point, she was wailing on everyone for 3 damage and play two extra cards. Scholar did pretty well to build up with a turn of two "Keep It Moving" (find and play an Element, then play another card) followed by the one that lets players put the top card of their deck into play, which let him flip "Get Out of the Way" (1 dmg to all non-hero targets, heal scholar that much), which let him wipe the board due to the Energy Element out. Which placed two projections under Dreamer, six more to go. Then the Dreamer played more stuff and Omnitron died to the enviornment, then Chrono Ranger to Dreamer's 3 damage, and TLTach to a projection.
Dun dun duuuuunn!
Scholar liked playing extra cards, playing another of the top cards of his deck on OX's turn, which found him the last "Keep It Moving", which let him play the gain two draw two out of his hand as well. On Chrono Ranger's turn, Scholar killed a projection with the damage equal to targets. On TLTach's turn, Scholar drew five cards and ended the turn... then he discarded three cards on his turn to keep his elements, and Prepared for the Worst (reduce all damage to 0 and heal 2 at start of turn). Dreamer was angry and threw another four projections into play and they all tried to pound on Scholar, but he was prepared. Now the Scholar was ready to be done, on O-X's turn, he dealt damage equal to targets and killed a projection. On Chrono Ranger's turn, he did two and then prevented any damage (which killed another projection (Skeleton thing) and then he healed himself and destroyed another projection on TLT's turn. On his turn, he was no longer Prepared and gained three, did three and ransacked the last projection. Then he ended his turn, and Dreamer was saved.
So we did another game, this time with Argent Adept, Freedom Tempest (Vyolence) and Omnitron X (me) against La Capitan in Silver Glutch (because pirate ships frequent the desert so often). The description of this game is best described in this quote:
"Oh look, a robot with a lot of guns and lasers. WHO'S PLAYING THAT MUSIC?! GET HIM!! That thing has one arm! KILL IT!! Look, it's that robot again, I wonder what it's doing with those lasers."
Omnitron X never took more than 5 damage in the same turn, it just got ignored most of the time. Tempest began the game by playing Cleansing Downpour and was on healing duty most of the game. Adept took most of the time to just allow other heroes to play cards and healing himself. Omnitron X played component after component, with recycling Resets many times. The only crew members to stay on the field for more than just one turn were the initial ones that were gained, which made most of the cards La Capitan do little to nothing. The environment played the Explosive Wagon (which made all of Omnitron X's attacks better), followed by the Sheriff (who kept shoting La Capitan and her ship). The game ended with Omnitron X at full hp, Adept at full HP and Tempest at 6 hp.
Sometimes things just go your way during a game.
After you left for the night we did one more with Elemental Wrath AZ, Engine of War Bunker (me), Expatriette, and Chrono Ranger vs. Iron Legacy in The Block.
IL starts with -1 damage/healing, Vigilance, Heroic Redirection, and a Galvanized in play. His first card is "Former Allies," which forces us to all discard a card and then lets him play another card. Unfortunately, and as I outlined in a Rules thread, that card was Rule From the Front, which did five damage (thanks to nemesis issues) to both Bunker and AZ and then made us all discard down to a single card in hand. Oh, and then of course he wallops the entire board for four, meaning that AZ and I are minus 10 hp before we even got to play anything. We're pretty sure we're boned here but might as well go ahead anyway.
AZ's card is Fueled Freeze, which eliminates all of the ongoings we can destroy and ices for four, plus another three from his innate power.
My card is a Grenade Launcher for another three damage.
Expatriette has an Arsenal Access that turns up a Tactical Shotgun. Four to the face!
I don't remember what CR had (maybe Danny-Boy), but The Block took pity on us and threw up its Defensive Forcefield to buy us some time.
This basically continues for a couple turns. We never let IL flip back, but it was all we could do to hang on and keep parity with the 5HP he's regaining every turn. Chrono Ranger stuck whichever bounty gives everyone +1 damage against its target on him, offsetting his innate DR, but wasn't able to do much other than plink away. The Block thus far is a non-factor, with the Warden and a Lock Down not adding much to the proceedings.
AZ is the first to fall (perhaps not unsurprisingly, although he never actually damaged himself this game unless it was Legacy's card causing it). Turns out that his "target deals itself 1 cold damage" power is pretty neat when IL has out two damage pumps (the old Infection clause still works!). Expat has been working that Shotgun all day, finding a Flak Jacket that sucks up a 7-point blast from IL before donning a new one. Ranger gets his hits in when he can, including crucially getting rid of Final Evolution with a Temporal Grenade, but things are looking grim.
That's when the Prison Riot happens, and we get one of the weird Time inmates, a Rogue, and of course Char. Great. (Two FILTER Agents are discarded in the chaos.)
Actually... that might just be our ticket to victory...
Legacy takes no notice of them and incapacitates me before working over Expatriette some more, destroying her backup Flak Jacket. AZ makes IL self-freeze again, and I remove the Demoralizing Presense. Expat and Ranger are still shootin', and then the inmates wake up.
Well, ok first the Warden kills the weird guy, but then the Rogue takes him out. Char then deals 6 damage to the board.
That's when the second Riot happens, getting the last two inmates (and dumping the remaining Agents into the trash).
And they look angry.
Legacy is still too distracted by the bullets flying at him, and finally does something about it, leaving both heroes helpless. Expat has another Access, though, which digs up an Assault Rifle, which is better than nothing. Ranger isn't able to do much but hang on, and he eventually falls when Char does his 8-damage rampage (thanks to 2 Rogues). Expartriette is down to 3hp...
...but Legacy only has 1, which makes him the second-highest non-Inmate target. With the entire environment deck exhausted (and all of this happening during the Environment Start phase), the final inmate does a ton of damage to Iron Legacy and ends his tyranny.
I'd like to think they quietly returned to their cells after that, but it's not like Expatriette could have stopped them from doing anything else.
Gaming Unplugged columnist (and video game reviewer) at Snackbar Games
Those games sound just dreamy! It has been far too long since I've played a game of Sentinels with another person, when I feel the narrative reaches out a bit more. Here is to Shattered Timelines arriving, thus forcing the gang back together, even if for only one evening! Even though, I guess I don't have any available evenings this month...we'll work something out, I guess.
Yeah, good game descriptions! Every new bit of info sounds exciting!
I fall up the stairs.
"Right, Left, Right, Left! Chu! Chu! Chu!