by MrOrruha
Going to get two warnings out of the way immediately:
1. Spoilers abound.
2. This is going to sound like a major whine-fest, which is appropriate, because it is. I'm going to be venting my frustrations, but ultimately will be seeking feedback and suggestions. I have read on these forums frequently that many people found this iteration of Aeon's End to be the easiest of the bunch, and my experience with Legacy has very much been the opposite. Getting through the campaign felt painful at times, and often downright unfun, which defeats the purpose of even playing, as well as causing a bit of resentment on my part for what otherwise is my absolute favorite game.
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About the players:
[o]My fiance and I have been playing Aeon's End since I received the first edition Kickstarter, and have played through every iteration since then, including all expansion content, numerous times. This means every nemesis from base, War Eternal, and New Age has been fought multiple times, with varying success (Gate Witch is a monster). Admittedly, very few fights have been done on Increased Difficulty, let alone Extinction Mode. With two mages, our win rate is fairly high.
This experience leads me to believe that we are quite competent players with a firm grasp of the basic game rules.[/o]
About the mages:
[o]My mage:
Starting hand: 4 Crystals, 1 Unique (Gain 2$ that can only be used to gain a gem, and if you have 1 charge or less, gain a charge.
Starting deck: 4 crystals, 1 Spark.
Breach positions: I: Open. II: 3 o'clock. III: 6 o'clock. IV: 3 o'clock.
Equipment 1: When you open any player's breach, you may destroy a card in your hand or discard pile.
Equipment 2: Once per turn when you focus or open a breach, deal 2 damage.
Ability: Gravehold gains 5 life, and if you have 4 or less life, gain 2 life.
I built my mage around the concept of early economy, as well as supporting, through high Aether generation to deal with Powers, as well as frequently charging up to mitigate both Gravehold and player damage.
Note: I do feel I made my mage too much of a support, and this caused us to not have enough frequent damage to deal with how many Minions the campaign threw our way, or to deal enough damage to the Nemesis.[/o]
[o]Her mage:
Starting hand: 3 Crystals, 1 Spark, 1 Unique (Cast: Deal 1 damage. Gain 1$ that can only be used to gain a spell, and you gain 1$.
Starting deck: 3 Crystals, 2 Sparks
Breach positions: I: Open. II: 9 o'clock. III: 9 o'clock. IV: 6 o'clock.
Equipment 1: When you cast two or more spells during your casting phase, gain 1$.
Equipment 2: Sparks you cast deal 1 additional damage.
Ability: Cast all of your prepped spells that cost 4$ or less. Each of those spells deals 1 additional damage, and you deal 3 damage to a minion.
She built around being the offensive mage, dealing with minions and ultimately laying most of the hurt into the nemesis. However, her ability to get many spells early was crippled in Chapter 5, and this impacted her offensive strategy.[/o]
With that backstory, we now get into the meat of the whine-fest: how Legacy gave us immense trouble, resulting in an eight month hiatus before returning to slog through the end of the campaign. Because of that hiatus, my memory will be fuzzy on exact details for the first five chapters, but I will be referencing card text often where necessary.
Chapters 1-3:
[o]The Maelstrom fight was obviously very cool thematically, and obviously very easily won. The Bladius fight was similarly easily won, if not the most interesting mechanically. I
really enjoyed the Spawning Horror fight, and am very much looking forward to fighting him in the normal game sometime. That said, we again won during the first fight.[/o]
Chapter 4:
[o]I don't remember the Fungal Mesh fight whatsoever, or even the outcome. I had been dutiful about recording the first three chapters conclusions on the back of the rule book (all wins), but there are blank spaces in every chapter following that. I can only assume we lost twice and then moved on.[/o]
Chapter 5:
[o]While again, I don't remember exact details of the Haze Fiend fight (other than losing), I do know that I found it to be absolute bullshit that so many of our crystals were flawed by the end of it. My mage had three of my eight flawed, and she had five of her six flawed. If you look at our mage mats (especially hers), you can see how devastating this would be for future chapters.[/o]
Chapter 6:
[o]And now we have caught up with the current day. I don't recall our first fight against Deathmind, because it happened eight months ago - this is the point where we quit out of frustration. After playing through New Age several times and using its content across the other base games, we decided to return to - and hopefully finish - our Legacy campaign.
We got stomped in our second fight against Deathmind. It wasn't even close - very little damage to the Nemesis, while also being unable to keep the bridges intact.
Supply:
[o]Gems:
Soothing Torporene (3): Gain 2$ or Silence a minion.
Conductive Grit (3): Gain 2$. Gain 1 pulse token. Or you may lose 1 pulse token. If you do, gain 3$.
Gilded Marble (6): Gain 3$.
Relics:
Geophage (3): Gain 1$. You may destroy a gem in hand.
Infernal Mirror (5): Any ally gains 1 charge. Any player gains 2 pulse tokens. If you do, cast any player's prepped spell. That spell deals 1 additional damage.
Spells:
Force Transfusion (4): Cast: Deal 3 damage. If you have 3 or more charges, gain 1 charge.
Breach Communion (4): While prepped, once per turn during your main phase you may gain 1 pulse token. Cast: Deal 2 damage. You may lose 2 pulse tokens. If you do, deal 3 additional damage.
Arcane Salvo (5): While prepped, once per turn during your main phase you may place a relic you played this turn or a relic in your discard pile on top of your deck. Cast: Deal 4 damage.
Breach Collision (7): When you gain this, you may place it on top of any player's discard pile. Cast: Deal 5 damage. Gravehold gains 1 life.[/o]
Basic Nemesis cards (this will apply to all remaining chapters):
[o]
(1: Minion; Evolved) Skybound Leviathan (9 Health): Persistent: Gravehold suffers 2 damage. Any player discards a card in hand.
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Came out early and killed our tempo for awhile. 9 Health is a lot to chew through early on. And worse when numerous minions are in play (more on this later). Also, Gravehold damage was something we couldn't keep up with, but we lost because of player damage.
(1: Minion; Evolved) Spine Reaper (4 Shields, 2 Health): Persistent: Unleash. Any player suffers 2 damage.
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I HATE Shield minions. I dreaded seeing Cauterizer in base Aeon's End, and now it feels like 75% of the minions have Shields. This is, in my opinion, one of the worst Minions to fight, and although he is evolved, he should not be in Tier 1. Early on, it is difficult to hit a single minion with 5-6 spells, and there was never just one in play. The idea of having time/spells to strike the Nemesis became laughable. Oh, and he was Unleashing every turn he was still alive. Hate hate hate this minion.
(2: Minion; Unevolved) Humming Hive (2 Shields, 7 Health): Persistent: Any player suffers 2 damage. Evolve.
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Do not like this one for the same reasons as Spine Reaper, but we were able to deal with it more easily due to less Shields, stronger spells to chunk through the higher Health, and no Unleash effect. Still just unfun to see come into play.[/o]
Nemesis-specific cards:
[o](
1: Attack) Mind Feast: Gravehold suffers 4 damage. Unleash until Sever Link has one power token.
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With our awful luck, this came out within the first turn, and set the precedent for how the rest of the fight was going to go.
(2: Minion) Cortex Jailer (X Shields, 4 Health): Immediately: This minion gains one shield token for each Bridge token in play. Persistent: The player with the lowest life suffers 2 damage.
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You either let the Bridges fall to a low quantity intentionally to mitigate this (or unintentionally, as Sever Link and frequent Unleashes will do this for you whether you like it or not), or have to deal with a ton of Shields. [/o]
And there's nothing else, because we didn't make it past Tier 2. Player damage from the aforementioned minions became too much, and Gravehold wasn't sitting pretty by the end either.[/o]
Chapter 7:
[o]I like the idea of the Maelstrom: Risen fight - I would have liked the fight itself had we the unbroken Crystals to get enough spells to deal with the too-often board state of 6-10 minions on the board. It was almost laughable how completely we were destroyed. Gravehold was reduced to half health before we got into Tier 2, and our mages were pretty hurt as well. Oh, and Shielded Beacons - how lovely. We did make it to Tier 3 on the second fight, but lost when he got all his Beacons out.
Supply:
[o]Gems:
Soothing Torporene (3): Gain 2$ or Silence a minion.
Conductive Grit (3): Gain 2$. Gain 1 pulse token. Or you may lose 1 pulse token. If you do, gain 3$.
Gilded Marble (6): Gain 3$.
Relics:
Geophage (3): Gain 1$. You may destroy a gem in hand.
Infernal Mirror (5): Any ally gains 1 charge. Any player gains 2 pulse tokens. If you do, cast any player's prepped spell. That spell deals 1 additional damage.
Spells:
Sparking Siphon (3): When you gain this, gain 2 pulse tokens. Cast: Deal 2 damage. You may lose 1 pulse token. If you do, any player gains 1 life.
Breach Communion (4): While prepped, once per turn during your main phase you may gain 1 pulse token. Cast: Deal 2 damage. You may lose 2 pulse tokens. If you do, deal 3 additional damage.
Bending Beam (5): Cast: Deal 2 damage. If this spell was cast from an opened III breach, deal 3 additional damage.
Pyro Geist (6): When you prep this, deal 1 damage. Cast: Deal 1 damage. Deal 2 damage. (Effects that modify damage affect both instances of damage this spell deals when cast).[/o]
Basic Nemesis cards (this will apply to all remaining chapters):
[o]
(1: Minion; Evolved) Skybound Leviathan (9 Health): Persistent: Gravehold suffers 2 damage. Any player discards a card in hand.
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Came out early and killed our tempo for awhile. 9 Health is a lot to chew through early on. And worse when numerous minions are in play (more on this later). Also, Gravehold damage was something we couldn't keep up with, but we lost because of player damage.
(1: Minion; Evolved) Spine Reaper (4 Shields, 2 Health): Persistent: Unleash. Any player suffers 2 damage.
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I HATE Shield minions. I dreaded seeing Cauterizer in base Aeon's End, and now it feels like 75% of the minions have Shields. This is, in my opinion, one of the worst Minions to fight, and although he is evolved, he should not be in Tier 1. Early on, it is difficult to hit a single minion with 5-6 spells, and there was never just one in play. The idea of having time/spells to strike the Nemesis became laughable. Oh, and he was Unleashing every turn he was still alive. Hate hate hate this minion.
(2: Minion; Unevolved) Humming Hive (2 Shields, 7 Health): Persistent: Any player suffers 2 damage. Evolve.
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Do not like this one for the same reasons as Spine Reaper, but we were able to deal with it more easily due to less Shields, stronger spells to chunk through the higher Health, and no Unleash effect. Still just unfun to see come into play.
(3: Minion; Evolved) Maddening Eidolon (4 Shields, 7 Health): Persistent: Unleash twice.
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Oh, look, more Shields. This guy resulted in one board state that had two regular Minions and all ten Beacons. Game over.
(3: Attack; Evolved) Sacrifice: Unleash 4 times. Or, Gravehold suffers 4 damage and any player suffers 4 damage.
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This was a death sentence. We either lost immediately due to too many Beacons, or let one of our mages fall to the player damage (and at this point, Gravehold was very much in single-digits of health).[/o]
Nemesis-specific cards:
[o]
(1: Minion) Whipping Vines (7 Health): Persistent: If this is the Assault turn, any player suffers 2 damage. Otherwise, Unleash.
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Not a fun Minion - at least he doesn't have Shields! Still, we had to deal with him quickly, which meant that the Beacons got out of hand. This resulted in us losing later, as there were just too many Beacons in combination with the Basic Minions.[/o][/o]
Chapter 8:
[o]Although we were emotionally drained by how the last several fights had gone, we were delighted to find out that there was a final chapter hidden underneath the insert. The fight being against Xaxos himself was even more delightful - we had been making fun of Xaxos through the entire campaign for acting too much like that one guy who gets waaaay too drunk at a party and starts making everyone uncomfortable.
I am so looking forward to fighting Xaxos in the basic game. I love the mechanics of him having his own spell deck and breaches to prep to, and having a means of dealing with his prepped spells (even if it is in no way cheap to do so).
Anyway, we lost the first fight, but managed to just scrape a victory together on the second - although, it was a fairly hollow one, as we cheated slightly: we gave ourselves BOTH benefits of Insight 13 (add +1 damage to your third breach, OR lower the cost of your ability to 5 charges instead of 6.
Supply:
[o]Gems:
Soothing Torporene (3): Gain 2$ or Silence a minion.
Conductive Grit (3): Gain 2$. Gain 1 pulse token. Or you may lose 1 pulse token. If you do, gain 3$.
Arcing Silicate (4): Gain 2$. Gain 1 pulse token. You may lose any number of pulse tokens. Deal damage equal to the number of pulse tokens lost this way.
Relics:
Geophage (3): Gain 1$. You may destroy a gem in hand.
Adrenal Batteries (7): Gain 2 pulse tokens. You may lose 4 pulse tokens. If you do, open any player's closed breach. Then, gain a spell from any supply pile that costs 5$ or less and prep that spell to any player's opened breach.
Spells:
Sparking Siphon (3): When you gain this, gain 2 pulse tokens. Cast: Deal 2 damage. You may lose 1 pulse token. If you do, any player gains 1 life.
Breach Communion (4): While prepped, once per turn during your main phase you may gain 1 pulse token. Cast: Deal 2 damage. You may lose 2 pulse tokens. If you do, deal 3 additional damage.
Bending Beam (5): Cast: Deal 2 damage. If this spell was cast from an opened III breach, deal 3 additional damage.
Pyro Geist (6): When you prep this, deal 1 damage. Cast: Deal 1 damage. Deal 2 damage. (Effects that modify damage affect both instances of damage this spell deals when cast).[/o]
Basic Nemesis cards (this will apply to all remaining chapters):
[o]
(1: Minion; Evolved) Skybound Leviathan (9 Health): Persistent: Gravehold suffers 2 damage. Any player discards a card in hand.
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Came out early and killed our tempo for awhile. 9 Health is a lot to chew through early on. And worse when numerous minions are in play.
(1: Minion; Evolved) Spine Reaper (4 Shields, 2 Health): Persistent: Unleash. Any player suffers 2 damage.
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I HATE Shield minions. I dreaded seeing Cauterizer in base Aeon's End, and now it feels like 75% of the minions have Shields. This is, in my opinion, one of the worst Minions to fight, and although he is evolved, he should not be in Tier 1. Early on, it is difficult to hit a single minion with 5-6 spells, and there was never just one in play. Oh, and he was Unleashing every turn he was still alive. Hate hate hate this minion.
(2: Minion; Unevolved) Humming Hive (2 Shields, 7 Health): Persistent: Any player suffers 2 damage. Evolve.
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Do not like this one for the same reasons as Spine Reaper, but we were able to deal with it more easily due to less Shields, stronger spells to chunk through the higher Health, and no Unleash effect. Still just unfun to see come into play.
(3: Attack; Evolved) Sacrifice: Unleash 4 times. Or, Gravehold suffers 4 damage and any player suffers 4 damage.
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Her Mage fells to this, and Gravehold got beaten within an inch of its life. Barely was able to come back with Malestar's Gift.[/o]
Nemesis-specific cards:
[o]There were only two cards that almost lost the game for us:
(3: Power) Final Form: To discard: Spend 10$. Power 2: Xaxos: Ascended Concentrates 4 times. Shuffle Xasos; Ascended's spell deck.
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This went off, because even with my economy-driven character, I had to pour every resource into focusing breaches for extra damage on the Nemesis, and purchasing new spells to kill said-Nemesis. He had a game-ending set of spells prepped to his breaches by the end, and it was only Turn Order draw luck that enabled our victory.
(3: Minion) Prelatus of Death (24 Health): Persistent: Xaxos: Ascended Concentrates. Cast the top card of the spell deck.
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Yeah, there was no way we were fighting this thing when it was the first card to come out in Tier 3. He got off one cast, but we were able to chain-Silence him to enable continuous damage on Xaxos.[/o]
Again, victory aside, I really did enjoy this fight very much. I'm eager to fight him again in the basic game with normal mages[/o]
Final thoughts:
[o]Firstly, if you managed to read through everything I posted, thank you for taking the time to do so. I understand that 90% of this incredibly long post has been exclusively for helping me vent my frustrations. It did feel a bit good to type everything out, and I am actually eager to hear feed back.
I'm convinced my "support" mage may very well have been built to be under-tuned for the Minion-heavy board state the campaign so frequently threw at us. Her mage was severely crippled from Chapter 5 on due to all of the flawed Crystals, but we did try to set up around it. I have no idea what strategies others were employing to make Legacy feel like it had the easiest set of Nemesis or the strongest mages in the game. From Chapter 4-5 onward, it never felt like that to us.
I do have a Reset Pack (in addition to having two unused mage playmats, with which I can try to salvage another campaign from without breaking into the Reset Pack), but after the slaughter of the final few chapters, I have a lot of reservations about going back through the campaign. At least, not without first understanding what could make future play experiences more enjoyable.
Thoughts?[/o]
