Recap: The Spreading Pestilence
The Horned Rat has infested the Badlands
You know what’s awesome? Chaos in the Old World. It is hard for me to get enough of this fantastic game. I absolutely love the asymmetrical nature of the game, with each faction operating completely differently yet all still being well balanced. But that wasn’t the only game played this week; I also got in some Glory to Rome, where a strong vault strategy ended up victorious.
Chaos in the Old World. This week marked my first ever play through as Nurgle, the Lord of Pestilence. His cards and abilities are definitely among the most evocative. His cultists are known as Lepers, and his big bad dude is known merely as The Great Unclean One. Sick. Unlike some of the other powers, a dial click victory is not very viable for Nurgle, so he must concentrate his approach on a point victory.
The great thing about Nurgle is that, at the beginning of the game, he seems so unassuming. He can’t get many dial clicks, even as opponents rack them up. Even if he dominates a region or two, he receives only a handful of points: a far cry from the fifty needed for victory. Like all disease, everything seems OK at first.
Each turn, Nurgle adds a little bit more corruption to some of the most prominent regions. Once those regions are completely ruined by corruption, Nurgle swoops in for a mass of bonus points. In our game, I was able to have two regions ruined on the same turn, and have the most corruption in each, for massive points. What had appeared to be feeble turned in to a crushing mass of points and a victory.
I enjoyed my play of Nurgle and would love to play him again. But now that my group knows a little more about Nurgle strategy, I think I’ll be facing a much bigger challenge next time around.
As much as I enjoy this game, I cannot get over the goofy artwork.
Glory to Rome. My group cannot get enough of Glory to Rome. It hits all the right notes in a card game. It has a viable, but non-dominating “take that” action. It has several different resource types. It has action and hand management. It has kingdom building. And it has several potential victory paths.
This time, I decided at the beginning of the game to try a strong Vault strategy. My opening hand of cards did not point me in any other direction, so I went for it. With my opponents seeing my strategy, and others using most of their stone (and therefore merchant) cards to build, getting my own merchant actions was difficult. More than once I simply used a jack to make it happen.
The vault strategy proved remarkably effective. By game end, I had about eight influence (mostly from cheap buildings) and six cards in my vault. Those cards netted me two bonuses as well for a total of twenty-five points at game end. I was a little shocked at the effectiveness of the strategy – especially since I built only four buildings. It’s definitely something that will remain on my radar in future plays.
Also played. Thunderstone Advance, Nuns on the Run.
