gg! I really did have to spend that money, but I didn’t have either The Sisters or the Truant Officer researched yet. I didn’t want to invest too heavily in gangs either because your thief could just kill them instantly. You really boxed me in on that one!
I have, but not quite to that extent. Usually my games are over before one side is able to plant multiple 3 health thugs/turn. I think it does mean that the leveled up dagger is pretty much essential at this point, not only to take out thugs but also help against gangs and assassination targets. Sometimes thugs will block off part of the map, but usually I can either find a way around or something useful to do elsewhere.
Also, if anyone has just picked this up and wants to play some games, feel free to invite me. I’m otthegreat over there too. I won’t be able to play this weekend but will be back Monday.
I managed to secure the bribe (and deny him of it) and got 6 coins to buff with charity on the next turn for a possible gang and assassin run on the contract – I was only a few coins off being able to win this turn! He’s definitely going for a masked ball VP now because I’ve seen him mopping up the masks, so I hit the mansion with a trap.
Again, I’m not sure there’s a way out of this kind of situation with thugs. All it will take is for him to put another one down and block me in and I’ve got to then spend 8 coins on an assassin to get out. If I’d gone with a truancy officer on his Strangefellows that would cost me the bribe, and I’d still have to spend 3 coins on a gang to help my +2 dagger take down a single 3HP thug. If I’d gone for a +3 dagger that would have denied me the bribe again, and still cost 3 coins for a gang to finish off a 4HP thug.
I’m pretty sure this is gg but it’s annoying how one simple and cheap strategy locks the entire game down. It’s not helped by this particular map being just a tad unbalanced. I mean, just check out his henchmen fortified bank that I’ve not been able to get to. It’s been like that since very early on!
In future games I’ll be pushing daggers and thugs some more while keeping a closer eye on the Strangefellows.
To squeeze them into a readable space on small phones. (I did most of my testing on a non-plus-sized iPhone; keeping the original layout required shrinking things down to a size that wasn’t really desirable.) Also to break your muscle memory :)
Can we have a game on The Agency where the bank, Strangefellows and orphanage isn’t on your side of the map for once kosc? On our current game you’ve got a church as well and the +4 coin per turn is killing me! I’m not having a good run with map balance at present!
Yeah, I had real difficulty trying to balance keeping money coming in (committing to burgling OR taking charity and denying myself of upgrades/bribes) and preventing you taking control of the whole map (via the trading houses and Strangefellows). The Strangefellows was a hotly contested building this game because we both knew that max thugs would make it very difficult for our opponent.
As you’ll remember, I took the bank and orphanage off you and fully upgraded them, but I couldn’t afford a saboteur for the orphanage so that was quickly taken back, and the bank was trapped but you had enough money to brute force through it and clear them out anyway. It was so nice to have some coins for a turn! +3 coins felt like:
I made quite a few jewellery thefts but they’re an awkward money stream for a few reasons: one gang or thief action to kill the guard, one action to take the jewellery and possibly 3 coins to check for traps. The thing is, you can’t afford to leave the jewellery there for your opponent and hiring a saboteur means you wipe out any gains. If you hit a trap, you lose an additional coin too, as well as bump the cost of saboteurs up for the rest of the turn. A bank and church though… easy money, easy life. I mean, look at that screenshot above! Look at the concentration of money saving/making buildings! I’m very happy with how this game turned out given the circumstances!
I was wanting to make a break for the bribes several turns ago but I just couldn’t afford to and trapping the agency building was too much for me as well.
I was hoping on that last turn that you’d just fall short of being able to fill the church – I knew it’d be a reach for the assassination either way. I started laughing when I saw the row of urchins appear knowing full well you were avoiding the 1 coin trap penalty!
Send me another invite! ;-)
@Goatgoatgoat Last night I noticed a major exploit if it can be reproduced (I didn’t have enough time or battery life to check but will check later). I was playing against Lordkosc on Android and had made a few moves but hadn’t ended my turn yet. I’d been dwelling on this turn for a while between other activities so my phone kept falling to sleep. For whatever reason, possibly down to the battery hitting 15%, the game froze so I had to quit out. I plugged my phone in to charge and fired my PC up to finish the rest of my turn, only, everything had been reset so I had to do all my moves again knowing exactly what was where and what would happen. In this instance, it’s not like I could have optimised my moves any further (and not that I would have either, despite the temptation being high, haha) but I can imagine this undermining a lot of games if certain folk catch on.
