Most Broken Cards in the Game

[Evincar2001]

Good call on Great Ambition. I wouldn't hesitate to call it the most broken action, although Gathering Forces is pretty close. The major difference is in the price. Ambition at only 50 gold is very easily accessible in the early portion of a game, so much so that it becomes a scramble to see who can acquire the most. Example: In a 4-player game, the player who nabs 2 of the 5 copies is very likely ahead. Same with 3 as opposed to 2 in a 2-player match. Pretty degenerate, really.

The single most broken card, though? It's already been mentioned, and I'm surprised that Hero_guy doesn't agree, and that, in my opinion, is the Gatling Gun. An acquisition of Gatling Gun not only has a high potential of "winning a game by itself," but it's also very good at completely changing a strategy on the fly, and for good reason: it's just THAT insane.

Example scenario: I'm playing a 1v1 game vs. a friend using Premiere set Jill (explosives, etc.). He's playing Premiere set Barry. Our pool is pretty balanced with solid actions, Flashbangs, the Broken Butterfly... everything either of us could want. My first explore nets me the Gatling Gun and I toss the explosives plan out the window immediately, only occasionally nabbing a Flash for extra explores, and proceed to rip the mansion a new one with this weapon that, according to one person, "isn't broken."

That, in a nutshell, is a broken weapon. When your character's strengths and abilities no longer matter and you can simply win on the back of a card that has no balance to it whatsoever. I'm not sure if you just haven't played with the weapon enough, but feel free to play 1 or 2 or 50 more games with it. Maybe then you'll understand how insane it is.

Sorry for the long rant, but man, that weapon makes my blood boil. I just really wished everyone realized the disgust that card brings to the table. There's a reason why I've removed it from all of my mansions accordingly, you know?

[WailingJennings]

Cards that usually single-handedly ruin my play groups sessions in order of annoyance:

1. Hunter (Nightmare)
2. Gatling Gun
3. Laser Trap
4. Having Nightmare Ada

Pretty much nothing else annoys me and most of my friends as those 4. There are plenty of situation where cards are silly, useless, or due to their timing (special weapons) make the game kind of lame or unbalanced, but I'd say the 4 cards listed above are the only ones I truly hate. I would add Flamethrower to the list for partner mode as being way too obnoxious.

I'll admit Gatling Gun is the most unbalanced card, but I just hate Hunter the most because their was no good reason to make a card that situationally rapes 1 person so hard usually. I feel less awful about 1 opponent mowing down the mansion with a minigun then being removed from the game completely through the actions of my opponents for playing well lol

[Branden Travis Sprenger]

I really like Hunter (Nightmares)..it helps other players catch up to the leader also puts the fear back into exploring.

[Evincar2001]

I don't necessarily mind the new(er) Hunter. Sure, he's rough, but the potential to punish someone way in the lead is hardly a bad thing. Plus he can always brick (two players tied for 1st), and GenCon Wesker loves him.

I also don't really understand all the negativity pointed towards Nightmare Ada. In fact, I firmly believe she's the worst of the three Adas. Her level 2 is strong, sure, but she's a glass cannon until she reaches 10, and hitting level 2 is hardly an autowin.

Finally, come to think of it, I've considering cutting the special weapons altogether with the release of Mercenaries. Really, the other weapons that any of those given piles consist of are perfectly fine (except for the Full-Bore Machine Gun, but the Assault Machine Gun is awful anyway), and I'm not really convinced that removing them would unbalance the rest of the piles. Although, Flamethrower and Magnum stock would go up considerably. Hmm...

[WailingJennings]

I meant Outbreak Ada. Sorry.

[WailingJennings]

I really like Hunter (Nightmares)..it helps other players catch up to the leader also puts the fear back into exploring.

So you have never been in the lead by 2 or 3 points with an 80 health character who has died once, has 20 damage on them, and then had another player double flip both hunters on their turn and take you out.

Not to mention waiting for the game to finish when you were so abruptly killed.

Any good game design would dictate that such a massive NPE should never be allowed to occur.

[Branden Travis Sprenger]

So you have never been in the lead by 2 or 3 points with an 80 health character who has died once, has 20 damage on them, and then had another player double flip both hunters on their turn and take you out.

Not to mention waiting for the game to finish when you were so abruptly killed.

Any good game design would dictate that such a massive NPE should never be allowed to occur.

That is just horrible luck. How many times has that happened?

You can always just remove 1 of them from the deck.

[Evincar2001]

I meant Outbreak Ada. Sorry.

Fair enough. Outbreak Ada is definitely insane, but she's also kind of pool dependent, although not by very much. Her strength lies in the number of Actions in the community that provide draw and additional actions. Yeah, with a pool of Escape/I Have This/Ambition/Fierce Battle, she's almost unstoppable, but Mind Control is actually a pretty solid silver bullet against her as well.

Despite all this, she's still top tier, without a doubt, though I'd rank her a step below Luis and Billy (pre-Mercenaries).

[dolphinsays]

im pretty partial to premier leon. no one wants handguns so you cant really keep him from his weapons.
and if there are silver ghost or standard sidearms in the game he doesnt even need ammo to hit high damage.
the relative low costs of handguns also means he doesnt really need the bigger ammo cards either

[WailingJennings]

That is just horrible luck. How many times has that happened?

You can always just remove 1 of them from the deck.

It only happened once, but that's one more time than it ever should have when it is possible and could easily had been forseen in testing.

Yea I could just take out gatling gun, hunters, great ambitions, etc etc etc when we all play but I am not the kind of guy to go through and start taking cards out. I'd prefer to just use all the cards and them be designed more carefully. I know the second I start picking what cards get banned everyone will chip in their 2 cents and debates over what gets used will overrun actual play time.

On the bright side, I am really excited about the skill that let's you ignore infected text :P First pick everytime and bring on the hunters! lol