Antihero

What was your last message in-game Ron? I missed it when the game was over.

It was just that I almost toyed with you even further by oversight. I had hired a couple of thugs to help ensure that my gangs would survive another turn, forgetting about the church.

@Goatgoatgoat: What’s the logic behind when an Estate spawns something? In my current game, one hasn’t spawned anything for a few rounds. I hope I’m just imagining it.

Estates spawn their first item between turn 3 and 5 (these are game turns, so “turn 3” is player 1’s second turn). Once they’ve been burgled, they respawn in 3 to 5 more game turns. (Which means that, if you grab an Estate burglary, its next spawned burglary is twice as likely to appear on your opponent’s turn than on yours.)

Phew! I wasn’t imagining it! :-)

Thanks for the details!

Finished up a game with @Otthegreat , my double gang later in the game really worked out well for me.

Yeah, I got double-ganged by The Ron Who Likes to Play With His Food.

Yeah I didn’t stand a chance in that one.

If you can get to double gangs and dispatch your opponent’s main gang then I think it’s pretty much a given that you’ll win. It’s so difficult to deal with the sustained attacks against any player who knows how to place thugs well. 1-3 damage dagger and two 1-4 gang attacks each turn will make mincemeat of thugs and henchmen. Add the eviction damage to your infrastructure and your enemy’s coin income and you’re on the road to ruin.

I agree. I’ve mostly avoided double gangs up to now because of the research and coin investment, but now I’ve seen what they can do.

@Goatgoatgoat I just beat @gruntled and my girlfriend raised a fair point: why does the victory screen show Longfinger when you’re playing as Ava (or whoever)? Just a small thing but thought it was worth mentioning :-)

I had two early assassinations and managed to snag the first bribe. After that it was just a case of stockpiling lanterns for another bribe and making sure the nearby churches were in a position to blackmail with a couple of urchins. That gave me quite a few options that Ron wasn’t able to counter.

Only because we don’t (yet) have proper victory/defeat illustrations for anyone else. (Interestingly, you’re actually the first to mention this. I’m sure others have noticed it as well, but the general lack of outcry has meant that it’s more towards the bottom of my todo list :)

Sometimes I forget how quickly the 5 VPs needed for Big City can be had if one player gets both of the 1st two assassination targets. I also forgot to make sure I had enough gold to place an urchin in the orphanage after evicting all your lot.

@Goatgoatgoat - I know gold is ‘normal’ in games, but copper or silver would seem to fit the theme a lot better. I bet I could convince a lot more than one lousy urchin to work for me for a gold coin :)

I totally agree. Alas, at this point it’s probably too late to change it, as there’s a bunch of art that I’d rather not re-do. (Also, “gold” belies the game’s roots as a high-fantasy orcs-n-elves affair; when I started prototyping it 4 (!) years ago, I was using ripped Warcraft 2 and 3 art, and the gold just stuck.)

@geggis , another good game, the map was in my favor once again. ;)

Had to work my way around the back of all them guards to get the final kill. :p

Aye, another lordkosc shower! Bank, church, two tradehouses and the orphanage right on your doorstep. Even the Strangefellows was closer to you but that didn’t get a look in this game. Still, I’m happy that I was able to pull four VPs out the hat. I milked the two estates near me as much as I could!

@Goatgoatgoat will the upcoming trap changes make the little ‘trapping’ marker more consistent? The current game I’ve got going with @Otthegreat has had a few instances where he’s trapped buildings that are visible to me but at no point did I see the trap marker to indicate that he had done so. In the past I’ve just put it down to me not being observant enough but in this particular case he’d trapped his bank (and I saw the trap marker) but I then forgot about it and ended up stunning an urchin. On the next turn I watched his turn over three times and saw nothing, but when I moved my urchin back in he got stunned again. It’s not the first time I’ve been suspicious about these trap markers not appearing but this has been a more solid example of it (seemingly) not working.

Also, will there be any adjustment to the way games end so that players can catch what their opponents have said in chat? I’ve missed so many post-game messages!

All this noise has convinced me that this is worth looking at. Do any of you vets want to comment on the current state of balance of the game as we draw near to release?

I don’t think we’ve discovered any dominant strategies here so far. Map variance and certain random elements shake up the way you approach each game and sometimes a configuration of henchmen, buildings and assassination targets can really screw you or give your opponent the leg up, but as far as player decisions go I’d say it’s pretty balanced.

Antihero’s been in a great place since I started playing it which is why I’ve stuck with it-- and I usually avoid games that are still in development. As a bite-sized async TBS multiplayer game I think it’s a cracking little game though.

The only real OP thing in the game is @lordkosc. He’s the cat that gets all the cream.

My active game pool is down to 4 players, anyone want an invite?

Mine has slowly dwindled too. Who else is still playing?