Friday, March 13, 2015

Various Faith and Fear Previews [Doomtown: Reloaded]

I'm a big fan of Doomtown: Reloaded, partially because I was a big fan of the original CCG, and partially because it's such a great game.  I figured I'd take a look at the few spoilers released so far from the upcoming Pinebox (similar to a Deluxe) Expansion, Faith and Fear.

We know that we are getting a new Outfit card for each faction, so thankfully we do have a spoiler for the new 4th Ring one- Oddities of Nature (spoiled on run4games.com):


I always find myself struggling early game with Ghost Rock in Fourth Ring, and starting the game with one fewer Ghost Rock definitely sucks.  However, the Noon ability on this card makes getting that income back pretty easy... but again, the original Outfit card was ALSO easy to get Ghost Rock from as well as card cycling.

So really, the benefit is going to come down to how legitimate Abominations are post-Faith and Fear. Booting an opposing dude while producing Ghost Rock is a pretty damn good ability as is, since you'll have Abominations floating around Town Square anyway to get the extra influence, and being able to Boot opponents there will limit their actions, shut down some game plans, and will generally be annoying.  If you have enough manpower (Abomanpower?) there, they aren't likely to try to waltz through Town Square anyway, which will leave them vulnerable upon trying to get to your side of the board to contest deeds.

Abominations have pretty good bullet ratings so far- The Ghostly Gun and Tyxarglenax are Stud 2, and even the weakest of the Abominations is a Draw 1 (for 2 cost and no upkeep), so having them around in Town Square will actually be pretty scary.

Summoning can get some more into play for even cheaper... yeah- I can definitely see this working.  Now we just need to see what support for this is in the Pine Box!


From here.  It's already dangerous enough to cheat in a shootout.  Do we need more awful experiences when we cheat??  The 8 of Spades is pretty helpful- many of the cards with that suit/value aren't ones I use a lot, and although this effect isn't as back-breaking as say, Coachwhip, but it is a nice replacement for like a Bottom Dealin'.  You'll have the ability to choose either cards that are necessary for their hands' success, or hopefully cards that seem to be vital for their deck, which would generate you Ghost Rock.  I could see this seeing some play.



This card seems to have limited utility.  First off, it's competing with Coachwhip and Ambush, both fairly popular cards, in the suit/value slot.  Second, there are two uses for this card- first, to try to Boot your opponent's dude to stop abilities, and second, to try to send certain ones home.  In the first case, you're looking at Booting, say, Wendy (stud 2) or maybe a Remy, but who else is used that this really effects?  Getting Wendy booted isn't going to be terribly easy, although modifiers will help.  I don't know.  I feel like I'm unlikely to start a shootout if I have Wendy and am facing a 3-stud somewhere, and if you started it, I've already used Wendy.

In the second case- normally I'd want to send home their best shooter... but I'd need to have a higher bullet rating than them, and at that point, why not just shoot it out?  Alternatively, I could send home a ton of weaker shooters, but then I'd be leaving my posse booted and unable to capitalize on my victory.

To me, it will be useful in only very specific cases, and that will probably mean it won't be included in my decks.

Finally, we have Maria Kingsford:


Great art!  And I should mention that there are great stories for Maria and Swinford Finds Trouble on the Alderac web site.

I think we'll be seeing a very strong Sloane Huckster theme coming once this box is out (I mean, stating the obvious, I know).  We've had a few pieces so far (Jonah, Morales), and combined with them, they have a very solid core of Dudes that want to get bounties, get into fights, and throw around a lot of Hexes.  She's also a great value, at only three Ghost Rock, so could easily be in a starting gang, working to get the board set up for Sloane to dominate and win mid-game.  I can't wait to see what else comes out for them, but a Sloane Huckster deck will definitely be on my list of decks to try out!

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