Travis R. Chance
United States
NYC
New York
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So I played my 5th game of Android last night, a 4-player game where 3 had played prior. Everyone, but Floyd was picked. I opted to play Flint with the hopes of finally finding Parsons (oh, and I did!!!). We explained the rules, various strategies, etc. to the new player (who was Louis) and jumped in feet first.
Now, I won't do the blow-by-blow, but rather talk about some strangeness that occurred. This was an unusual game for a few reasons:
1.) Two suspects were killed very quickly compliments of the Hit token Conspiracy pieces coupled with Rachel blasting through her deck 5 or 6 times and capitalizing on the a-bit-too-hands-on bountyhunting. One suspect was my guilty hunch, Mark, that was covered in evidence, including the ol' Surprise Witness/Perjury combo; the other was Eve, who Caprice happened to be obsessed with--ouch!
2.) Very little in the way of Dark cards/interaction between players took place. Not a single memory card was used against me (Flint), due largely to me knowing how to avoid the situation. At one point I went to the moon because Louis had a stranglehold on leads, moving them from an adjacent district's edge and puttering in his crap car back and forth (compliments of Conspiracy pieces letting him manipulate leads).
The lack of TAKE THAT made the game not nearly as fun, for those of you out there that do not like this portion of the game.
3.) The Louis player quickly started on the puzzle bingo strategy, racking up points. At one point Louis just sat in Haas-Bioroid for three straight turns, getting VP Haas tokens (with the bonus of the Director Haas event that makes it so you get a Haas token each time you use the location--once per turn, of course). He ended up scoring 63 points, his first game.
I drew 8 dark cards to try and slow him down, but they were so terribly specific that I was only ever able to play one. This is def a strength of this character: the dark cards not always eligible to be played against him. I found this to be a problem in three other games, all of which Louis won handily. He is just so... average compared to the others, not really as susceptible to those big-ass swings (good or bad). In the world of Android, that's a leg-up, in my opinion.
4.) Next on the weirdgenda, Noise ended up being guilty at a score of -2, as the Vinnie was was -7, and young master Haas was -4. I suppose I just haven't played enough games to see this pop up, but this was in fact pretty funny I thought.
What wasn't funny was Louis getting his guilty hunch off, which was enhanced by a less-than-stellar plot resolution which upped this by an additional 5 VP.
5.) The last bit of strangeness was that I drew 8 puzzle pieces, but only got two bingos. Why? Because I drew two elbows and two straight lines at points that diverted my ability to bingo. Admittedly, I missed a chance to bingo (no real excuse here, I just blanked as I was more preoccupied with cutting off more alt. VP paths). I even managed to rotate two pieces of evidence to try and place the last three puzzle nuggets, but, alas, one was one of the aforementioned elbows, the other being a dead end into a Haas-Bioroid VP bump.
I am still of the opinion that the conspiracy is a little too powerful, even if everybody has a crack at it. The issue is bringing in new players/players dabbling in mechanics and making it easier for the aggressive conspiracy seekers. Due to this, and the steep learning curve, and I cannot say this about any of the other 50 plus games I own, I almost do not want to play this with anybody new at all. It's a huge time sink, and exhaustive as Rules Lawyer. Most games I am eager to share, teach, and encourage, but, Android, although I love you like a monkey in a velvet waistcoat, I don't enjoy drafting new players into the mix.
I know this was a weird one, but I felt like sharing. Congrats to Nathan, the novice Louis player. I mean, hey, at the friggin' least PARSONS WAS FOUND!!!
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Wes Fabulous
United States
Portland
Oregon
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Action Phase wrote: 3.) The Louis player quickly started on the puzzle bingo strategy. At one point he just sat in Haas-Bioroid for three straight turns, getting favors (the Director Haas that status token was out and active from an event card, making this a one favor net loss for 5VP--it was gross, bro.). He ended up scoring 63 points, his first game.
Was he activating the location more than once in a turn?
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Travis R. Chance
United States
NYC
New York
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No. Once a turn, three turns in a row. He loaded up on light cards, and had a glut of favors, and just churned out VP. He just hung out there, not moving. It was weird, yet cool, yet sucked.
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Evan M-D
United States
Los angeles
California
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That does sound like a weird game. The part that surprises me most is how Louis and Rachel went through so many light cards when hardly any dark cards were being played. I mean sure, Louis's good mood helps, but still, they must've been discarding a lot to pay for those costs.
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Travis R. Chance
United States
NYC
New York
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Tons of discarding. Like, more discarding than anything else. I was even tracking costs to make sure no one was cheating. Weird-to-the-ness.
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Nicola Bocchetta
Italy
Milano
MI
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Sorry, I don't get the first part of your 3rd point. Can you explain better? I suspect a hole in your ruling... but I'm confused.
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Travis R. Chance
United States
NYC
New York
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Louis sat at Haas Bioroid, using the ability once per turn for three consec turns. the Event that had Director Haas out and granting a Haas favor token was in effect for these turns, meaning that, effectively using the location (once per turn) cost one favor instead of two (as you immediately get one back).
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Evan M-D
United States
Los angeles
California
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Wait, if it was the "Director Haas is touring the facilities" event, then it should have been even more point-giving (but less weird) than that; instead of getting a Haas token and a Haas favor per turn, Louis should've gotten two Haas tokens (the terminology is annoyingly ambiguous, but Floyd is the only one who can get Director Haas favors).
Of course he could only continue doing that for as many turns as he could pay the full cost of a society favor and a street favor (plus four time, including the twilight card cost). Being Louis, I suppose he might actually have been able to produce all six favors; if so, he would've been able to scoop up all the Haas tokens.
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Travis R. Chance
United States
NYC
New York
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Not that card. I read it multiple times, but don't remember the name. Pretty sure I wasn't missing something. What started him hanging out at Haas was a Dark card where he could not follow any leads. So he went there, activated the location, did some math, and hung out for some time.
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Aswin Agastya
Indonesia
Semarang
Jawa Tengah
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Yeah, at least you did find Parson :)
Sometimes I feel being experienced or reading the tip sheet sort of ruining the game since most of the wild cards won't come out. FFG suggests baiting people to their weak spots, but when too many players are involved, this is difficult to do.
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Posted Wed Feb 8, 2012 4:03 pm
