ackmondual
United States
Virginia
-
In whatever situation, or combination, just be specific, unless you're being generic. first section are my observations of strategy, while the next one covers my opinions.
My experiences were 1p games on an Ipad, and that's mostly high it still is. One 4p game IRL* (messed up many rules though, but playing the Ipad version smoothed those out)
key
I'm lazy by nature, so I'll use abbreviations and acronyms....
fight = excorcism (it's so long to write out, and I'll probably end up spelling it 3 different ways, with none of them the correct way)
ghost = ghost card
TT = Tao Tokens
YY = Yin Yang (token)
STRATEGY
one side vs. the other....
Yellow
Tao Mark
+If going against a single ghost, works for all Taoists
+If that penalty that prevents you from using Tao Tokens is in effect, then at least this will still work
+don't need to coordinate sharing TT
+won't eat up a TT from supply from other Taoists or the Prayer Circle
-TT can be used on ANY ghost of the matching color
-need to wait until it's yellow's turn again to reassign the Tao marker, say should a bigger threat appear
--Addition to above, timing can be off from when Wu Feng first enters
free TT
Pros and cons of each other are more or less inversed here.
+more flexible in where each TT can be used on other ghosts of the same color (e.g. a player before u manages to kill a ghost you were gonna)
++even moreso when you can share them
++If you ended up NOT needing to use the TT, hold it in your possession for until you need it in another fight.
-Unless you can share TT, it'll only work when yellow is the one excorcizing
-useless if the bad effect that prevents you from using TT is in play
-if you're force to discard TT(s) (e.g. ghost effect, curse die), this option can hit you harder
Blue
2/2
+if you've got sides or especially a corner with ghosts, but lackluster village tile, then you'll be using this to fight twice.
+any village tile that can be spammed will be good... most notably, the Buddha spot, but sometimes, other spots too if conditions are right (e.g. Graveyard, Tea House)
-You're at a disadvantage if a good village tile is where you fight alot (e.g. Buddha temple in corner and you're unable to defer fighting to other players)
1+1
+good for villages with a more "one-shot" utility
+can do some "zaney" combos, like fight a ghost, then switch the color at the Prayer Circle for a next player's turn
-anything you want to spam, then that'll not be possible (see 2+2 above)
Red
you fly anywhere
+If another Taoist is occupied and better at his current location (e.g. need to be in range to use a village, or go fight specific ghosts), better you go instead
+Can activate ANY village tile.
move someone else +1
+if someone's much better suited to perform a task (e.g. blue and his ability, green and his extra power with dice, or someone who just has many TT
+defer future task to another player rather than having to do it now.
green
gray die + no curse die
+can help you tackle more units of resistance at once, (e.g. ghosts with 4-strength, or when fighting 2 ghosts), especially if a die or 2 is being held hostage
-In theory, if you roll poorly, you're stuck with that... no other avenues of flexibility
-Can't meta-game the Curse die
reroll any die, including curse die
+In theory, if you roll poorly with all dice, you may end up rerolling all great results, so I believe you can count that as having 2 rolls
+In more rare cases, you may WANT TO roll the curse die (e.g. hoping to roll a ghost to speed up Wu Feng's arrival; kill off a Taoist so his neutral board is better for the good guys)
-more overall uncertainty to deal with
--you roll something bad on the curse die, reroll, and can end up getting an even worse result
--rolling one way may let you kill 1 ghost, but rerolling may now only let you kill the other ghost instead
My picks
one side vs. the other....
Yellow
With fewer players (1 to 2p), I would personally go with the "pockets" power. With more players, it seems like the tao mark is generally the better choice.
Blue
I'll want more plays before I decide between these 2, as honestly, all I do is toss a "mental coin". It's truly 50/50 for me at this point.
Red
Of course, if you play 1p games, you can only choose the former (you fly anywhere) ability. With lesser players, I'm inclined to go with the former. With the latter, I'd say it's a tossup even at the higher player ranges.
Green
I like more stability, so I'm a fan of the former power (+1 gray die and don't roll for curses).
-
Joe Rogers
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
-
I love playing the yellow Taoist with deep pockets. For some reason, I always think I have a better chance at wining.
-
Pol Michiels
Belgium
Brussels
Brussels
-
ackmondual wrote:
+In more rare cases, you may WANT TO roll the curse die (e.g. hoping to roll a ghost to speed up Wu Feng's arrival; kill off a Taoist so his neutral board is better for the good guys)
I don't get this. Drawing an extra ghost I might see the use of, but if green rolls the Qi loss, it's green who loses Qi, not some random taoist, and I rarely see a situation where it would be better to have someone die. Take into account the fact that you might roll "Haunt tile", or "lose all tao tokens", it just doesn't seem worth it to roll the curse die, even with a reroll. In fact, I only ever feel like a roll of the curse die is worth it when playing White Moon, to move Su Ling around to a nastier ghost.
Our favorite powers for 4p:
Yellow: A toss up, both have their benefits, as you stated. I have a slight preference for the prayer strip, since everyone can enjoy it, and it helps you take out one important ghost per turn.
Blue: This depends on the village setup. If a lot of good village tiles are on the corners, 1+1. If not, 2/2. Both are really good. Everyone loves playing blue in our group, and he generally gets the best kill counts, usually only approached by Yellow if he goes with the tao token per turn.
Green: Here, our group has no question. Gray die+no curse die. It makes the green lands a dumping ground for tormentors until we can beat them for the YY token, and +1die or reroll dice odds are not far apart. Also, Green can take out all those right-stone curse ghosts without a hassle. Love this power.
Red: the odd one out, but we really do prefer the move other power. It helps getting other monks where they need to go to use their powers most effectively. That being said, few people want to play red in our group, since he gets so few flashy moments of glory.
-
-
Boscrossos wrote: Red: the odd one out, but we really do prefer the move other power.
That's not odd at all. I'd guess the move-other power is probably better than move-self even in a 2-player game, but it's far and away better in a 4-player game. No question.
Both versions give one free move to one player.
Every other player is better equipped to do stuff than you (on balance), since they all have their own powers to draw upon. On top of that, moving at two different times is more flexible than moving twice in a row, because a player can take an action at one location, and then red can move them to another location where they can share tao tokens--there's no equivalent trick available when red moves himself.
But most importantly, having 3 options for which player to move is just way more flexible than having 1 option. Any given player will only need to move one space per turn a lot of the time--but with 3 choices of who to move, you can usually pick someone who will really benefit from it right at that moment. That's huge.
The two powers are not even close.
-
Ryan James
United States
Garden City
Michigan
-
I just finished a game of this with my wife (only our third play), and we beat the ever-loving snot out of the game with the following:
She was the Blue Player and had the 1:1 ability. This was the greatest thing ever. She basically just camped on top of the tile that gives you two tao tokens every turn, and built up an armada, then she would use her other turn to sleigh any ghosts around. The kicker was that that tile was a corner tile, so she occasionally got to murder two ghosts in one shebang using ONLY tao tokens in some instances!
I was the yellow player with the enfeeblement token, and that also really seemed to swing the game in our favor.
It was SO easy, but I feel like if she didn't have that power, and didn't continually get the tao tokens every turn, we would have gotten destroyed like we did our first two play throughs. It's really ALL about the tao tokens. If you ever have to rely on rolling TWO of one color to exorcise a ghost, you are at a severe disadvantage.
This game is great 
-
|
|
