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Newbie Question: To Split or not to Split?


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I just started playinmg this game on Android and really enjoy it. But I am very new and was hoping to get advice?

 

How do people split or not split their parties? And when?

 

I have been totally splitting my 3 character party to try to close areas as quickly as possible.

 

But that seems to me to not be in the spiriti of the game? It might be more fun (and a better tactic) to keep your party together to leverage each others strengths and capabilities?

 

I know this is a baisc question but curious what folks tend to do as I am new...Thanks!

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Glad to hear that you are enjoying the game.

 

I typically split my party completely to cover as much ground as possible. However sometimes I'll bunch up at the start to get a particular location closed, such as locations which make banes harder to defeat (I don't want to face the villain there) or locations which require banishing a card to close (I'd rather close these permanently than temporarily).

 

The exceptions to splitting up are characters who have powers which aid others at their location, such as Valeros and Lem. I'll quite often have these characters accompany another character, and optimally I'll have them accompanying each other!

 

I've no idea if what I do is the most efficient way to play, but it seems to work fine for me.

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I'm afraid that there is no simple answer to that question... because there is so many variables that should affect your strategy and gameplay.

 

First of all, there is a matter of your party size: generally, you need to split your party the more characters you have (playing with 6 character party spliting is a must) since you'll want to temp close some locations if you encounter a villain early. Remember, you always have 30 turns, regardless of the size of your party.

 

Second, there is a matter of which characters are in your party... some like Merisiel or Harsk have to be alone in order to use their full powers while others like Valeros and Lem want to be with someone else to use their full powers.

 

Then there are locations... there are several (Garison, Waterfront, Warrens) where you don't want multiple characters due to location power. Also, with locations you have to take into account what their "When closing" check is so you don't send someone who will have a hard time passing the check there (one check you never, ever want to fail is a check to permanently close a location!).

 

Finally, there are Villains and later on Henchman to take in consideration. If a Villain have a power to force everyone at location to make a check or take damage you generally don't want your party in same location. On the other hand, some Villains have multiple checks to defeat so it's easier if you don't face them alone. Some even get a bonus if you're the only character at the location making it harder to beat them.

 

Also, if this is your first encounter with the game you might want to read Strategy articles on Paizo's homepage which you can find here:

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/tags/adventureCardGameStrategy

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Thankls for the help. What both of you say makes total sense. I like the game because it is so varried and you have to do different things at different points.

I am a "traditionalist" and my party is a rogue, fighter, wizard, cleric and paladin. Nothing too funky. :-)

Thanks!

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  • 3 weeks later...

On the other hand, some Villains have multiple checks to defeat so it's easier if you don't face them alone.

 

I don't understand this part. If you have two characters at the same location, and the vilain has multiple checks to defeat, you can have both characters fighting the villain, one per check? I usually had to always do all the checks with a single character. And other characters (on the same location or not) helping with blessings.

 

Thanks

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I don't understand this part. If you have two characters at the same location, and the vilain has multiple checks to defeat, you can have both characters fighting the villain, one per check? I usually had to always do all the checks with a single character. And other characters (on the same location or not) helping with blessings.

Yes.  If the Villain has multiple checks, the character that encountered the card must take one of the checks, but is allowed to pass one off to another character at the same location.

 

There should be a little checkbox button in the top-middle of the screen if the game detects another character is eligible to take a check.  

 

If you press the button, another character will take the first check, and the encountering character will take the second.

 

If the encountering character does the first check, the checkmark button should still be there when it is time to attempt the second.

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So, my "default" is to split, but there are a lot of caveats to that, hence the quotes, for the same reason Ripe said.  I'll give a few examples

 

1)  Card hand off - I had a team that had Valeros, Seelah, and Kyra on it (and some others - for our purposes that doesn't matter).  I almost always start them together.  Simple reason - Seelah and Kyra don't always start with a weapon to fight, but Valeros does.  Having them together means I can dump a weapon to one of them, more likely.  I find I do this with a character who is carry a card they can't use (looking at non-magic users who have to carry magic card, RAZNAK)

 

2)  Powers make a LOT of difference, as was discussed - Valeros and Lem usually go with someone, while Merisel and Harsk not so much.  I am having a very interesting time learning how to play Raznak..

 

Anyway, the point - because at a very high level, you have to assume you'll have not enough time, and more locations, that you'll have to have the part split, it makes a LOT of sense to split the party.  BUT, there are many times where the party split doesn't make sense

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  • 3 weeks later...

I fall squarely into the 'split the party' camp, and the reasoning is this: In most cases, each team member can solo the opening node, or, get blessing support from someone else if they get into trouble. On my current team (my 'B' team, if you will) I have Seoni (FF), Kyra (SW), Selena (Formal) and Merisiel (no kit). Merisiel operates best as a solo scout because of her Evasion skill, so I'll place her in nodes that let her close on a Dex/Stealth check. Seoni I'll start anywhere with 3 or more spells, Kyra and Seelah will both go to zones with Blessing Discard or that have a high number of blessings in the location, since they easily pull them down and then dump them to continue their exploration.

 

If you are looking for a better cooperative group, you want to run Lem, Seelah, Lini, Valeros and Harsk (or any number of that group in any combination) since they all have inherent buffs that make them either direct support (Lem, Harsk, Valeros) or easier to support in that configuration (Seelah, Lini). Additionally, Seoni's blessing buff that converts all Phantasm blessings into d12s is exceptionally powerful and I have her them almost exclusively.

 

So for my A team, I run an alpha strike setup where I put Lini on point to activate Animal Support (reveal an animal companion for 1d4+4 at max), with Valeros in the same zone (Teamwork) with Lem in the same zone (Bard Song) and then Harsk off-site for sniper support. That combo grants around 4d4+16 on a single combat check at max, roughly, before anything else is added in. In the interim, Lini can solo almost any node once her animal friendship power is up and running, Harsk is a straight combatant and take down most threats on his own, Valeros recycles his own weaponry on discard and Lem gains Solo Performance under the virtuoso tree, so that squad does very well either split or cooperative. That's the whole reason I put them together.

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