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Just finished Mission 5. Great Game! Some gameplay questions. [SPOILERS]

hawkzero··1 votes·2,572 views

I've scoured the boards here as well as the one on BGG and I didn't see the anyone ask these questions. We just finished Mission 5 and wanted to make sure that we played the mission properly.

Q1. Minion Movement. Which minions move first? I know usually it doesn't matter and I didn't find an explicitly answer to this. On this mission though, we ran into an oil slick situation where if Minion A moved first the bomb would've been hit, but if Minion B moved first they would've blocked Minion A's movement to the bomb. They were equidistant from the bomb. But we didn't know how to play it out even if they weren't.

Q2. Deliberating before drafting phase. Since M5 got pretty tense (after lava over runs the first two repair pads), we ended up deliberating and planning a lot prior drafting. "I need a repair", "Save me a swap", "I can do x,y,z this turn; can you handle a,b,c" etc. It seems a bit cheater-ish but also adds strategy. Wanted to hear input on this since the game feels like it should be pretty fast paced.

Q3. SPOILERS here. For Mission 5, the lava pushes the Mechs and also the bomb. We exploited the map so that we had 1 Mech behind the bomb and 1 Mech in front of the bomb (maybe not necessary), so that the lava pushes the Mech and indirectly the bomb on to the last repair pad to win us the game. The Mech hit by lava would take damage but not the bomb. The front Mech can't be pushed off the page so it stops the bomb exactly on the repair pad. Is this a legitimate strategy? (Even without the front Mech, the bomb would land on the repair pad before it blows up but this depends on Q3b.)

Q3b. For our win condition in this scenario it depended on how the lava moves. Is it 1 row at a time or all movements (4) all at once? If it's 1 row at time, the bomb reaches the repair pad first and we win, if its all at once the bomb would overshoot the repair pad (does the mech in front block it from going off the board?).

Q4. It feels like if you get pushed/move into the lava, you should take damage but we didn't see anywhere that explicitly stated this.

Great game so far. The unofficial FAQs and these boards have helped a lot in answering some of specific game play questions.

3 Comments

Sexpanda1 votes

Hey there, I'll try to answer your questions :)

  1. In some Missions there is a preferred direction in addition to the rule that minions move towards the bomb. The minion that would move closer to the bomb in the preferred direction moves first IMO. So if minion A would move in "red/yellow" direction and minion B in "blue/green" direction then would minion A move first because it's moving in the preferred direction.

  2. There is the hourglass if you need some "pressure" for deciding but I don't think planning isn't allowed since it makes you interact more and think about every single thing that could happen. Me and my friends in particular don't play with any time limit in the Drafting Phase simply because it's very intense discussion based when we go into deep strategy. It's up to you what you like.

  3. Sure it is. The other thing coming with such a strategy is that you kind of "cheat" your way around the "don't ever let the lava touch the bomb"-rule. It's definitely a legitimate strategy to close the mission. Never the less it's kind of your decision whether you want to try it the other way 'round too.

  4. Lava moves its full movement in one shot. No single space movement here as you described it. So as I remember correctly there is no way your strategy in 3. would work simply because of the fact that lava moves in one shot and you need the bomb to be on the repair pad after a certain phase (Player Phase I guess). So to sum it up: Your strategy is valid for all movements BUT not for the last one where you need to place the bomb on the pad.

  5. Sounds right to me to take damage from the lava if you are pushed into it. In future missions there will be lava spaces on the board from which you will take damage from. So yes, you take one damage if pushed into the lava. ;)

Hope you have fun playing all the other missions, Sincerely, Panda

hawkzero1 votes

Cool! Thanks for the reply.

Q1. Makes sense.

Q2. We were deliberating before drafting so technically it was before the Hourglass kicks in. But it sounds like from the theme of the reply; there's no hard rule and essentially however you want to play/whatever you choose into to make things more fun for yourself. I'm good with that.

Q3/4. Thanks for the clarification, it definitely felt a lot more fun knowing we came up with a pretty sneaky exploit strategy. We must've missed it but we didn't realize that the bomb had to be on the final repair pad at the end of the Player Phase. I remember reading that the game ends immediately once the bomb reaches the pad so we interpreted to mean either by player or lava.

Q5. It definitely makes sense to take damage if you run into/get pushed into the lava wall.

Thanks.

Sexpanda1 votes

No problem! Q3/4. You have to look exactly at the finishing condition. So if it says that the game ends immediatly when the bomb reaches the repair pad then you need to define what's immediately for you. If it's specified there is no room for discussion but if there is no valid information about the term immediately then I would say your strategy doesn't work because lava doesn't move in space but in one shot, so it would overrun the repair pad. But that's just my opinion..... If you think the lava pushes the bomb over the repair pad and then the game ends it's up to you to decide if your strategy is a legitimate way to end the game. I don't know the answer and until no Game Designer confirmes either side it's your decision IMO.

Greetings ;)

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