So I'm just wondering if there was something I missed. The strategy that I've been using with my characters is "Burn through the location decks as quickly as possible." This strategy works well most of the time and it has only utterly failed me once... against Black Maaga. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult this scenario would be for individuals who don't power through location decks. I literally cleared all of the locations out in 14 turns (with a bit of help from Black Maaga).
The problem I have is this: This is the only scenario that I have seen where character stats and deck build mean absolutely nothing in the face of the villain. Random d4 rolls dominate the scenario and there is absolutely no way around that issue. The closest thing that you can do to overcoming that mechanic is exploring locations faster than the dice can eat them for Black Maaga, and even after 14 turns and burning through 30 location cards by myself, I still didn't defeat the encounter. And it wasn't because my characters failed, it was because... random. You don't even get an opportunity to fight Black Maaga in the scenario, even though he has a combat check and a bunch of rules printed on his card.
So all I can do at this point is wait 16 more turns and then lose. I didn't run out of time, I didn't fail to defeat enemies, and I didn't even move slower than Black Maaga. It's like playing tic-tac-toe against a random number generator and letting it pick 3 spots before I even get to go. I'm disappointed in this scenario, because it takes no time at all to finish since it chews through cards without encountering them. Unless other members of my playgroup refuse I will strongly suggest taking a bye on this scenario when we get to it. It just isn't worth the short amount of time wasted on it. And the reward for success is basically not worth bothering with anyway.
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I loved this scenario personally. Its a change of pace, which is nice every so often. There is some randomness, but that is true in all the scenarios. If all the henchmen and villains are on the bottom of the locations in a typical scenario, that might be a tough one to defeat. But there is still some strategy to it.
And I think character stats and deck building do mean something. Charisma is going to be a key stat. Cards that let you explore are going to be key cards in your deck. The Crown of Charisma is going to be a welcome item. Spells that let you manipulate the deck will be a godsend. This isn't the first time we haven't fought the villain. Local Heroes has no villain.
What character(s) were in your group?
First, realize the the score between you and Black Magga is only counting allies you acquired and put under the scenario card vs. allies she ate. Black Magga might eat other cards too, but non-allies don't help her win the scenario.
Second, when you select the random location for Black Magga to eat from each turn, empty and closed locations are still possibilities.
Third, there is no advantage to closing some of the locations, so don't waste your efforts trying.
Now, in terms of strategy. Here is what I did:
First, team up and get some locations empty quickly. If she eats from an empty location she gets no cards. This is counter to the usual strategy to spread out, but since there will be no fleeing villain there is almost no advantage to spreading out. For example, if you are 4 character party and you have 2 empty locations, there is a 2/6 or 33.34% chance Black Magga will be getting a big bite of nothing.
Second, prioritize the locations that have the most allies. You can't know exactly how many because of the setup instructions for the scenario, but a location that starts with 0 allies can have at most 3 from the random shuffle. One that starts with 3 allies can have at most 6 from the random shuffle. So still prioritize locations that list the most allies.
Third, using blessing and allies to explore as much as possible on each turn. If you have an armor in hand, its probably better to fail a combat check against a random monster than waste a blessing to defeat it.
Fourth, track the locations. I've got a sheet here to help with that. In particular pay attention to how many blessings, henchmen, and allies you've encountered in each location. Do this math (Encountered Blessing - Location Blessing) + (Encountered Allies - Location Allies) + Henchmen. If that formula totals 3, there are no more allies left in there. It won't be perfect because Black Magga might eat cards before you see them, but it still might reveal to you that a location is empty of allies.
Fifth, examine and stack the deck as much as you can. Use Spyglass, Augury, Scrying, Harsk's power, Shalelu Andosana, Brodert Quink, whatever you've got. Get the allies on the top and the other stuff on the bottom.
Post your party make up and maybe someone can offer some more specific strategy.
And FYI - the reason Black Magga has all those powers and a combat check is so you can build your own scenario and use her as a villain.
I use Seoni and Kyra (spec'd for melee) So I have a crap ton of blessings. I did focus on the locations that have higher numbers of blessings and a few allies. Plus, I toss them liberally and Cure them back into the decks with Kyra.
As I said, I went through 30 of the 48 cards myself in 14 turns. And even though I did so Black Magaa still got 7 of the 10 available allies and there was not a thing I could do about it. There is literally no way to fight against the mechanic in this scenario. I might consider it a refreshing change if the mechanic involved weren't so one-sided and entirely random.
Wow, so she got 7 allies in 18 cards? That's nearly 40% allies in what she was eating.
My wife and I play doubles in a 4 character group and Black Magga got a ton of cards. But once we switched to ganging up on the locations, she started eating at empty locations. We beat her by 2 allies I think. Also failed to acquire one. We have Ezren stacked with Augury, Scrying, Haste, and Brodert Quink. And of course he can blow through the Academy. And Sajan has the Crown of Charisma.
Sounds like you just had bad luck in the shuffles of the decks. Try it again, odds are you should have more success.
I have not played this scenario, but the biggest problem I see that people have with it is they only do random open locations. These points needs to be stressed:
* when you select the random location for Black Magga to eat from each turn, empty and closed locations are still possibilities.
* team up and get some locations empty quickly. If she eats from an empty location she gets no cards.
I mentioned that above. And it doesn't seem like that was krynvus' problem. He just go unlucky. He average above 2 cards per turn and got about 63% of the cards in the locations. Black Magga just got a disproportionate number of the allies. She took 70% of the allies despite only taking 37% of the cards.
I did focus on the locations that have higher numbers of blessings and a few allies.
Can you clarify what that means? In order of greatest to least allies the 4 scenarios you'd have would be Village House, Turtlebeck Ferry, Academy, Woods. Only Village House and Turtlebeck Ferry have blessings on their lists with only 1 a piece. So I don't see you'd be able to prioritize blessings in the locations.
This would be my strategy:
Start both characters at Village House. When attempting a check to acquire an ally here, I would really consider recharging a non-exploring card to automatically acquire them. That frees up your hand on reset to bring in more blessings or allies. Once (Encountered Blessing - Location Blessing) + (Encountered Allies - Location Allies) + Henchmen = 3, both characters should bail for another location. I also might bail after I've gotten 5 allies even if there could be one more there. If I've gotten 4 allies but the equation doesn't equal 3, but Black Magga has taken a considerable chunk of cards from the location, I'd also consider bailing. That is subjective though.
Next head to wherever Black Magga has eaten less, Turtleback Ferry or Academy. There is only 1 ally difference in the location list and Academy can grant you a free exploration. Plus you have a chance (though its a small one) to acquire Augury or Scrying or Haste if you don't already have all of them. Again bail, once the equation hits 3 or get a feel that its unlikely any allies could be left in the remaining cards due to how much Black Magga has eaten.
At this point, I'd take note of how many henchmen I've seen, how many extra blessings and how many extra allies to try to figure out how many of the random cards from the scenario I've already encountered so I can know how many more random allies might be out there. Again, some of them might have been eaten, so its not going to be perfect, but it might reveal that the three random cards in the two locations you've been to so far have been blessings and henchmen, so the Woods could be stacked with allies.
But all the strategy in the world isn't going to make up for the the possibility (however unlikely) that the allies are all on the bottom of the decks and that Black Magga is eating in just the right spots to get them. There is some randomness in it, just like in all the other scenarios. It might be more obvious in this one than in other ones, but regardless when the randomness is totally stacked against you, it can be almost impossible to win. So just rebuild and try again.
I did focus on the locations that have higher numbers of blessings and a few allies.Can you clarify what that means?
When you use a strategy that burns through locations quickly, focusing on locations with blessings first helps. Immediately after gaining a blessing you can discard it to explore again. It also happens that the two locations with the most allies in this scenario also have blessings. Those are the two I hit first.
It does sound like there was a very bad case of luck here. I had a good luck situation when my wife and I played with 6 characters. We got 12 of the 18 possible allies and black magga only got 4 (we missed two of them). Black magga ate as many henchmen as allies in our game. It was pure luck that we won by such a high margin but not that we won. We used sound strategy and planning. We attacked the easier locations first, focusing on the academy, general store, and the ferry early (focusing on the ferry allows you to stack up there without having everyone there at the same time, leaving at the end of the turn).
I would say to try again. Sometimes luck isn't with you even with the best strategy. It is the nature of the game that there is some element of luck.
I haven't played this one yet, it is the next up on what my wife and I will be playing. I was setting it up this morning and read the card. My memory of it is that the card specifically refers to "Decks" and not "Locations". This would lead me to believe that there would have to be a Deck at the Location for it to be randomized.
However, it would not care what kind of Deck was at the location. So things like General Store that create decks after they are Closed would still be targets, but Locations without Decks would not have the option to be randomized.
I might be off base, but that is what I thought I read this morning when I looked at it.
Others have thought the same, but empty decks are still decks. See this thread.
The abuse of the English language in this game hurts my soul.
Thanks for the link Hawkmoon.
Played this tonight and got 9 to Magga getting 5 Allies. Seemed extremely easy.
Took my solo group through Here Comes the Flood tonight after winning it on first try a few weeks ago in my spousal doubles group.
Black Magga kicked our tails in my first attempt tonight. She ate 3 allies when she took a 4 card bite out of the Village House on the first turn and it was downhill from there. She took multiple bites of 3 or 4 cards and seemed to have an uncanny knack for avoiding the location decks I had emptied.
Second time though we got her good. Valeros was fortunate enough to draw the Crown of Charisma in his starting hand and though she again immediately struck the village house, this time it was only for 1 card. And she did have some repeated rolls of 1 or 2 and kept going back to empty or ally-less location decks (guess she can't cast augury like we can. Only sad thing was there were no allies I wanted to keep in our haul. Oh well.
@Keyshia: Did you finally put this one in the win column?