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Zeal's Proposed Houserules - Rook City

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sonofzeal
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Zeal's Proposed Houserules - Rook City

General philosophy

I believe each deck already has its strengths and weaknesses, and I think that's a good thing - no deck should do everything, every deck should do something, and what each deck does should be different from what other decks do.  I also believe it's important for the playing field to be roughly fair overall - while different decks are going to shine at different times and in different ways, nobody should feel that their chosen deck is stacked against them or forcing them into irrelevance, just as no deck should be a surefire win regardless of opponent.  Finally, I believe it's important in houseruling to keep faithful to the fundamental nature of the deck - changes should be simple, straightforward, and the minimum necessary to alleviate the issue.

I'm starting with Rook City because the community generally seems to agree that Rook City was a high point for villains, but a low one for heroes.  Two of the Rook City villains were tougher than anything faced in the base game, and the two heroes rank bottom on the statistics project for win-rate.  There's various factors that might be involved there, but there's definitely a solid case for Mr Fixer and Expatriette falling short of their peers.

 

 

Mr Fixer

 

Why he needs fixing

I realize Mr Fixer is controversial, with many people saying he's weak to the point of uselessness and others saying he's excellent and just needs someone who knows him well enough to unlock his true strength.  While any character gets better with familiarity and expertise, Mr Fixer's detracters have a solid case.  His base power is weak, his cards that buff it conflict with eachother, and he has very little to do besides his base power.  His damaging one-shots are laughable - how would Ra, Tempest, Fanatic, Wraith, or Parse feel about a one-shot that does two damage and nothing else?  Grease Gun is fantastic, but it's only one card.  And the irreducable damage shtick is novel but situational at best, and generally inferior to simply having enough damage to go through the DR directly.

I've seen Mr Fixer do well a few times.  Driving Mantis can be excellent against the Chairman where there's a lot of retribution damage coming through on hero turns in increments of two.  Jack Handle is fantastic against Plague Rat (though, in multiple attempts, I've never once seen it actually show up when playing that combination).  And Alternating Tiger Claw really carried its weight one game against Iron Legacy.  But there's heroes like Tempest who simultaneously do more damage (Lightning Slash + Chain Lightning vs Charge), are more durable (Otherworldly Resistance + Elemental Subwave Inducer + Cleansing Downpour vs Driving Mantis), and have more utility (Cleansing Downpour + Ball Lightning + Reclaim from the Deep vs Grease Gun), all with an objectively better base power.

Every deck can have its moments if the cards come together.  And every deck can do well with ideal team support.  But Mr Fixer just doesn't benefit as much from that support as other, more reliable heroes do.

 

The fix

Allow him access to both his base "Strike" power, and his Dark Watch "Bitter Strike" power, as desired.

 

Why this might work

Mr Fixer's defenders usually claim that he's a utility character instead of a damage dealer.  However, almost literally three-quarters of his deck (all but 11), and both his base powers, are about dealing damage, and five of the others are search or draw effects to let him do damage on future turns.  If he's not attacking, he's not doing anything.  And his most iconic and unusual effect, Riviting Crane's negation of damage reduction, is incompatible with his own card to get around damage reduction and requires him to brute-force his way past it.  

Mr Fixer might be a utility character, but he's a damage-enabled utility character.  Having "Bitter Strike" to push through enough to trigger Riveting Crane or Tire Iron, or just to clear the board when necessary, is invaluable.  However, it undermines his and ally's board positions, and DWMF is often going to be passing his turn or simply laying down yet another Tool Box while biding his time.  Letting him alternate freely with "Strike" offers both consistency and strength as needed.  He needs to be able to attack each turn to contribute with several of his utility effects, and he needs to be able to apply significant damage when necessary to push through some of his others.

 

Why I'm not sure

This requires owning the promo.  It also creates a mechanic that doesn't exist in the rest of the game, even if it's a simple one.

 

 

Expatriette

 

Why she needs fixing

Mr Fixer might be a damage-enabled utility character, but Expatriette is much more of a pure damage-dealing character.  Her guns give her consitent damage, her ammo give some extra boosted damage (effectively acting as a wonky sort of one-shot), and her Unload card gives her a nice late-game burst.  In terms of game-flow, she functions most similarly to The Wraith in that the bulk of her cards are about enabling her "power" phase, but the comparison is unflattering.  The Wraith can frequently be seen doing 5 damage to a single target and 3 damage to three targets, on top of her Play phase for the turn.  Even giving her an extra power each turn, Expatriette is doing 4 to a single and 2 damage to three targets.  Doubling up her power phase still leaves her lagging behind a hero that isn't even considered a primary damage dealer, who often finds better things to do with their turn than dealing damage!  Ammo cards can boost this somewhat, but an effective one-shot for a simple +2 damage from Hollow Point is a little bit insulting.  Liquid Nitrogen and Shock Rounds have their place but are generally far inferior if you compare them to similar damaging one-shots, and incendiary rounds are just pathetic.  The fact that they get played at all, asside from the relatively rare situation where damage type matters, is a testament to how lackluster her deck can often be.

 

The fix

On ammo cards, replace "After that power is used, destroy this card" with "at the start of your turn, you may return this card to your hand".

 

Why this might work

This makes her damage potentially quite powerful, especially when using Pride and Prejudice.  Their ability to hold more ammo than other guns, and the search feature to get them into play, hinted at them being her signature.  However, since she only gets one play a turn unless she forgoes shooting, the situation where their benefit comes up is rare, and without Legacy or another "+1 damage dealt" ally boost, it was usually better to use the Shotgun (less damage reduction) or Assault Rifle (for an extra hit).   Even with this rule, it's not like Pride  (w/ Hollow Points and Shock Rounds) + Prejudice (w/ Hollow Points and Liquid Nitrogen Rounds) is an overpowered combination given that it takes six cards in a deck with very limited draw and and search.   Her average damage will still be lower than the Wraith's in most cases, but with sufficient time to prepare, it turns her "unload" from a decent spike of damage (11 damage to one, 3 damage to two more, 1 to the rest) into something that can actually rival the burst damage from Fanatic, Tachyon, Haka, Bunker, or Chrono Ranger.  Quick damage on the early turns, plateauing at reasonable levels, with a nice spike to look forward to late-game when you can Unload - that feels like a healthy state for her.
 

Why I'm not sure

The play dynamic seems reasonable, but it leaves "Reload" as more or less a dead draw.  It also dimishes the thematic "feel" of loading a special round for a specific shot.  I've also considered giving her two powers a turn (as mentioned above, this still leaves her merely decent on the damage charts), or doubling the effect of all ammo.  I've seen various attempts to modify or replace her base power in a way that works, too, but none have really clicked.

 

 

 

The Chairman

 

Why he needs fixing

By the time the heroes get their first action, the Chairman can have six targets in play.  The second turn, those could be joined by six more.  This wouldn't be so bad for the Matriarch's Fowl which die to a stern glance, but any game where the Chairman flips an Underboss during the play phase is likely to swiftly spiral out of control.  Heroes just don't have the damage output on those early turns to handle the flood, especially since merely killing Thugs accomplishes little and there's more Underbosses straight on heir heels.  Fortunately, there's a simple fix....

 

 

 

 

The fix

Separate Underbosses into their own pile during setup.  Until the deck flips, the Operative plays Underbosses out of that file instead of searching the deck for them.

 

Why it works

It leaves the central mechanic of the deck intact, but helps smooth out the early game.  It'll still be rough, but won't swing quite so hard towards hopelessness in the first couple turns.  The Chairman is plenty tough on an easy draw, and fortunately there's a simple way to limit the chance of a bad draw.  Plus, it removes some unnecessary searching and speeds gameplay along.

 

Why I'm not sure

While individual players have a major stake in their hero, and it's important for everyone at the table to feel like they contributed to the team, it's much more acceptable for villains to be known as weak or powerful going in, and nerfing them can remove some of the satisfaction of victory.  A game with this rule is also entirely possible without, but I'm not sure how I feel about stacking the deck like this except that I don't like feeling that I've won or lost before I even pick up my first hand.


PePe QuiCoSE
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You could also put the Underbosses in the trash with the Thugs and have The Operative fetch from trash.

Related, you'll find that boardgamegeek to be a community a lot more interested in this kind of topic than this forum. There are several variants posted for Fixer and Expartiette that could be of your interest. I don't think though that exactly what you have proposed has been though.

sonofzeal
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PePe QuiCoSE wrote:

You could also put the Underbosses in the trash with the Thugs and have The Operative fetch from trash.Related, you'll find that boardgamegeek to be a community a lot more interested in this kind of topic than this forum. There are several variants posted for Fixer and Expartiette that could be of your interest. I don't think though that exactly what you have proposed has been though.

Thanks, I've now posted it over there.

I'm leery about putting Underbosses in the trash, though, for two reasons - it makes an early Brain Burn that much more swingy, and it removes the "lull in the storm" you currently get when you've finally dropped them all.  The way it currently plays, you have to focus on the Underbosses for the first however-many turns, and then get some respite to focus on the Chairman/Operative unless a Jail Break comes out.

Finally, if the purpose is to limit early-game swings, how'd you feel about drawing a Jail Break on turn 1 or 2 under your proposed change?  His deck's now pretty thin, so odds approach 40% for a Prison Break one of those two turns.

PePe QuiCoSE
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oh, right forgot about Jail Break.

Trajector
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I don't agree with your assessment of Mister Fixer, because you seem to be considering all his cards individually rather than considering how they work with each other. For example: Yes, his power is "objectively worse" than Tempest's - but if you have a Jack Handle in play, his power is the same as Tempest's. Yes, Charge does 2 damage and that's not as much as a Fire Blast's 5 - but if you have Dual Crowbars in play, you get to deal one target 3 damage and a second target 4 damage, which is more total and potentially more useful if you have a miniony board. I agree that Mister Fixer is situational, but it's his ability to modify the effect of his otherwise lackluster power to fit the situation that makes him awesome. For a fun time with him, try playing him against Kaargra Warfang. He's beastly when he gets a few titles.

You have some interesting ideas about Expatriette. I also wish her ammo made more of an appearance in a game. It seems like of her two major builds (lots of guns + Unload and lots of ammo + Speed Loading) my decision often comes down to how her deck was first shuffled rather than tactical choice. Being able to recycle ammo more reliably would make it more valuable. I only wonder if it would be too valuable...

The Burning Stickman
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Fixer's also a beast if he's against a villain or in an environment that makes him hit himself. Either give him Dual Crowbars and use the second hit to clobber someone, or Jackhandle and lay out the hurt on everyone else.

For fun, play Proverbs and Axioms with Jackhandle out. Fixer then does the whole board at least 3 damage, then can hit them again.

JimmyTheCannon
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mwc146 wrote:

Fixer's also a beast if he's against a villain or in an environment that makes him hit himself. Either give him Dual Crowbars and use the second hit to clobber someone, or Jackhandle and lay out the hurt on everyone else.For fun, play Proverbs and Axioms with Jackhandle out. Fixer then does the whole board at least 3 damage, then can hit them again.

 

Yeah, I used Proverbs & Axioms on Fixer in the Iron Legacy one-shot with Dual Crowbars out. That was fun.