|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So apparently, my putting scouting at the top of the list of important party roles in the character role thread has caused some discussion. This thread is to discuss details regarding the scout role in the game.
So what exactly is scouting?
Scouting in PACG is anything that allows players to look at the cards in a location deck without encountering them.
Why is scouting important?
To find the villain, of course! Well, ok, sometimes you want to know in advance what type of monsters are where, so you can send the appropriate hero to deal with them. If Merisiel doesn't have a magic weapon, she's better off evading the shadow that can only be defeated with magic, and calling in Seoni to blast it for her. Or if you spot a boon while scouting that would be perfect in someone's character deck, then you know what character to send to that location with the proper skills to acquire it.
But the most important way that scouting aids in overall party success is by finding the villain, so the party can plan your attack. Once you know where the villain is, your group can plan what locations to focus on first. Close a couple of the easier locations, then position people at other open locations with the proper skills to temporarily close them. Then, one or two heroes confront the villain directly, those other open locations are closed to prevent escape, and victory is assured!
That's a whole lot quicker and easier than just exploring randomly, hoping to run into the villain when you have the firepower to beat him and the right people with the right cards in place elsewhere to cut off his escape. The more information you have, the more effectively you can plan your attack.
So how do we scout?
There are three main types of scouting, though there is some overlap. In order from least to most effective, they are:
1. Evasion
Explore a location, then evade what you find there. This can be done using Merisiel's character power, items like Caltrops and Holy Water, spells like Sleep, Invisibility, and Sanctuary, or other methods that I'm probably forgetting right now. In most cases, the card you evaded get shuffled back into the deck after evading, though Sanctuary is a notable exception, and the best of the bunch in this group because of it. The end result is that you find out what one of the cards in the location is. See above for why that's a good thing.
So why do I call this the least effective form of scouting? The cost is pretty high. You use an exploration without eliminating the explored card from the location deck, which is a bad thing. In many cases, you also have to spend a card from hand. And if you have a lot of those cards in your deck, then that's cards you're not spending on other things. I'd rather have Detect Magic or Detect Evil over Invisibility or Sanctuary, which brings us to our next scouting method.
2. Peek at the top card
Spells like Detect Magic and Detect Evil, Harsk's character power, Seelah's character power (sort of), the ally Shalelu, and probably other cards allow you to look at the top card of a location before exploring and encountering it. Once again, you find out what one card in the location deck is.
This has two advantages over the "explore and evade" method. One, the card stays on the top of the deck when you're done looking at it, unless you're Seelah looking at a boon. Since you know exactly where it is, you can plan exactly what to do about it. Second, you don't have to explore to see the card, so you can save that exploration, possibly moving and exploring a different location instead. Again, more information lets you plan your attack.
And that brings us to the best form of scouting:
3. Multi-card peek, usually with rearrange
Cards like Augury and Spyglass let you look at more than one card from the top of the location deck, and at least partially stack the deck. There's also the Mayor ally card that you can banish to look through an entire location deck, but then you need to shuffle it afterward. Finding out multiple cards at once in a location deck is great information. And needless to say, the ones that let you control where to put back the cards after looking are a great way to set things up to help yourself and your team. There's no downside in terms of needing to explore before doing this, though as with all of these scouting techniques besides the character powers, there is a card cost. But given the advantage of being able to literally stack the deck in your favor, it's usually a small price to pay.
So that's my overview of scouting. I'm sure I left out cards and powers that relate to this. This isn't meant to be totally comprehensive, just an overview. And some scouting methods overlap in their technique, like the Sanctuary spell that fits into both #1 and #2, because it requires starting with "explore and evade", but lets you leave the evaded monster on top of the location deck, so you know exactly where it is.
So that's my overview of scouting. I'm sure I left out cards and powers that relate to this. This isn't meant to be totally comprehensive, just an overview. And some scouting methods overlap in their technique, like the Sanctuary spell that fits into both #1 and #2, because it requires starting with "explore and evade", but lets you leave the evaded monster on top of the location deck, so you know exactly where it is.
Hopefully, this is useful information to help you plan your attacks in the future. Good luck, and have fun storming the castle!
Something to add to this is the idea of who is at that location with you, and moving locations.
Harsks ability to Scout (look at the top card of the Location deck at the end of his turn) is great provided the party then sends in the character who can best deal with that card.
Also consider what effect one method of scouting has on other players at the same location. There is little point in playing Detect Magic right after Harsk has Scouted.
Furthermore, to me scouting includes reading the Location cards before deciding where characters will go. No point sending Seoni to a location that requires Survival 9 to close. Nor should Valeros go to the Academy.
You know, I've played Harsk through about a dozen scenarios and only remembered to use his scouting power ONCE.
Must put a big yellow post it note on my character sheet or draw some glasses on his standee...
My house rule is to flip the card he scouted face up; I'm gonna experiment with simply purposely moving to a new location every turn so I can keep a couple cards scouted at any given time. I think this ability is a fun way to keep the game feeling like a co-op rather than hoping the right people get the right skill checks.You know, I've played Harsk through about a dozen scenarios and only remembered to use his scouting power ONCE.
Must put a big yellow post it note on my character sheet or draw some glasses on his standee...
thats a good house rule.
We always have a very good look at any cards that have been scouted, and talk about how best to deal with them. I think failing the first few scenarios has helped us to focus on working together.
It's more that I just completely forget that he has the ability to look at the card. I'm ok with remembering the cards after we've scouted them. Then again, I've only had to do it once so far!