From: dvc@eagle.hr.att.com (David Van Cleef)
Subject: Re: MCE review
Originator: news@cbnewsb.cb.att.com
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 16:35:54 GMT

>>>>> On Tue, 29 Sep 1992 17:51:08 -0400 , "Joseph E. Beck" <jb8n+@andrew.cmu.edu> said:


>JDL> Doppelganger: Incredibly powerful now. gets to pick cards. should
>JDL> probably be punted or weakened.

DVC>Didn't find this so.  Tends to mean that you'll always be out-powered
DVC>card-wise, but there are lots of other factors in winning challenges.

JEB> But...Doppleganger tends to be *superior* card-wise.  Sure, everyone
JEB> us has 7 cards, Doppleganger probably doesn't have that many.  But how
JEB> many cards are *useful* at a given time.  Doppleganger can decide he
JEB> doesn't need any challenge cards, and swipe a couple of edicts/flares
JEB> from his opponent (i.e. doppleganger gets 2 very good cards).  And as
JEB> an added bonus can look through the persons hand.  We saw the power
JEB> once and that was enough.  It's like mind (only works when you're the
JEB> main player though) but you get 2 cards too.  Gross.

Excuse me?  The version I saw didn't have the ability to look through
hands.  Just to ask the person for his highest attack card and
compromise.  Has this been changed in the production version?

>JDL> Gorgon: any tokens sharing a base with him can't move. I dislike this
>JDL> power because it doesn't really help the player holding it, and tends to
>JDL> make everybody hate him.

DVC>Has the ability to tie lots of resources up.  We liked this one,
DVC>although it won only an average portion of its games.
JEB> But who will ally with you or make a deal with you?  No one wants to
JEB> have their tokens immobilized (obviously).  It's just 1 extra reason
JEB> for them to not side with you.  It's kind of similar to Macron in
JEB> that it has *very* negative side effects that you can't turn off.

Best way I've found to play this power is to attack bases with
multiple peoples' tokens on it.  The defender goes screaming into the
warp and the others are frozen.


>JDL> Prophet: no change. Another power to consider putting controls on
DVC>
DVC>Why?  The fact that the power is used before playing cards makes the
DVC>power self-balancing.

JEB> Self-balancing?  Yeah, prophet gets 4 bases very quickly and then
JEB> everyone else has to keep throwing challenges to stop him from
JEB> winning.  Sounds like loads of fun.

We'd start throwing challenges at 3 bases, plus there are lots
of other ways to screw him over.  Attack his bases, throw evil flares
and edicts at him, etc.  The same thing you'd do to anyone with 3 or 4
bases.

JEB> As we say around here, the Chosen card should have a different
JEB> description under it:
JEB> "You have chosen to be pathetic.  You have chosen to be puny.  You
JEB> have chosen to lose to game..."

We've pretty much the same opinion of the Chosen.  I don't think it's
won a single game.

>>You only need Machine/Wrack to be almost unstoppable.  Put 1 token in
>>the cone, and make the deal "base for a base".  If they accept, great.
>>If they refuse put your token (and one of theirs) in the warp.  Take
>>your next challenge, *remove a token of your from the warp*, and
>>proceed.
>
>        This is one of those power combinations that seems unbeatable in
>theory, but there are probably lots of ways it could die in practice.
>(cf. Seeker-Gambler).

JEB> Sorry, I don't think your combo even stands a chance against
JEB> Machine/Wrack.  Sure, you're mondo in combat, but we never fight.  I'm
JEB> wrack.  And once it's my turn, the game is over.  We were discussing
JEB> ways to stop it, and the only think we came up with was Healer-Sting
JEB> (barring cosmic zaps, of course).  Healer-Zombie can force a draw
JEB> with it.  The problems is that machine keeps going until he runs out
JEB> of challenge cards, and wrack never uses any challenge cards.  Also,
JEB> the only way to stop wrack from working is to cosmic zap it.  It's a
JEB> neat little cycle.

Organization: Sophomore, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA