Let's build on the Syndicate!

[kitsuneae]

If you could add things to the Syndicate factions to flesh them out more, what direction would you go? What would you add?

Factions: Cut-ups, Crownsplitters, Blindeyes, Salamandra, Firesworn, Tidecloaks.

A quick run-down of Syndicate factions as I understand them. Please forgive any mistakes.

Salamandra is made up of augmented/mutated people. They see magic as a great tool for doing crime. They seem to avoid the other factions thus far.

The other factions work together to some degree ("Collusion" card).

Tidecloaks are Skellige gone bad. They took up residence in Novigrad looking for more gold and now are cat burglars.

Blindeyes are informants and drug dealers. Street level people. Weak at first glance but a lot of influence if you are willing to listen.

Cut ups are brawlers who run the Arenas. They just love violence. It doesn't help that their old leader (who was into art on top of being sadistic) is now gone and the new leader is out for kicks now his overbearing dad is dead.

Crownsplitters are dwarves who got sick of Mahakam and it's rules. Their leader is actually pretty mellow as long as you're not racist and keep your word. Being dwarves they like a good drink and a fight. Because of this they apparently get along with Cut Ups as long as they aren't racist. ("Bloody Good Friends" card).

Firesworn are a very large and influential religious sect. They hate all magic and magical creatures and spread hate and fear about them. These people would kill Geralt if they got the chance because he isn't human. They don't care: not human = bad. All magic = bad. Faith = good. Salamandra = a good reason to kill more magic users and a good example of why they're right. They employ the witch hunters.

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My ideas are below. What's yours?

Salamandra: If sticking with damage, a salamandra version of Yennifer would be epic... he'd require a tribute but could swing like she does hitting the highest troops (plural!) every turn. If we were to expand this, let's add locking cards?

Tidecloaks: They should get some of the Skellige graveyard play in respect to their roots. Perhaps steal and reuse bronze cards (special cards included!) from the opponent's graveyard? Pirates is pretty weak right now as there any many decent cards for it in Syndicate. Perhaps have them all be spliced purple/orange.

Blindeyes: Perhaps a gold card can disable the ability of a random card in the opponent's hand as a preemptive lock? Perhaps a card could reveal but not play a card in your opponet's hand? Maybe you could turn a low point unit on your side into something more useful like a "Sly Seductress"?

Cut-ups should lean into their brawler habits. Perhaps the ability to duel with a gold card? Or maybe One card that focuses all damage onto themself so nobody else can be targeted until that guy dies? We'll call it "Willing Target". Maybe even have an "arena" card that is effectively a form of weather that causes various effects when specific kinds of cards are played?

As to Crownsplitters: I love Bloody Good Friends. We should explore the alliance between these two factions more with cards that do cool stuff if you have cut-ups and crownsplitters together. Novigrad Justice is awesome as it thins the deck a bit. More fun stuff like this, please.

Firesworn is doing fine, though the ability to turn cards valued 3 or less into more firesworn (while boosting them!) could be cool. Call it "conversion to the faith" if you want. Also the ability to do something based on how many firesworn you have could be neat. Perhaps gain coins or deal damage times the number of firesworn you have? Also, I think witch hunters should be Firesworn. It seems weird they aren't.

 

[Duhad]

As a lore note, Salamandra are from Witcher 1 and their main gimmick is mutations, not magic. They mostly connect to the other gangs in that they are the people who came up with and distribute the drug 'Fisstech' which the rest of SY use for poison/sell for money as its basically fantasy cocaine. As of the current timeline they are mostly dismantled, though if you want to justify them being part of SY in lore, you can say either its from before Geralt shut them down or remnants of the gang joining up with the newly founded Syndicate under Sigismund Dijkstra.

Also Firesworn are actually largely seen as a legitimate religion, Radovid and a fair bit of the Northern Realms follow the the Sacred Fire, but they are part of SY since their religious leader is SUPER corrupt, regularly attends bloody arena fights put on by Whoreson Jr. and throws Firesworn zealots around like goons. They are still HUGE racist a**holes though in addition to hating magic so... Ya.

Anyway random more dumping aside...

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Salamandra I feel should push further into being the poison archetype for SY, though I would like it if they got to play with more of that risk/reward self poison stuff! Their whole thing is playing with mutagens to make super humans so have them poison their own tropes to make them stronger or tougher as a nod to that. Like maybe a card that adds poison to an ally, but also shields them so they become much tougher, but also gain a new vulnerability? That would fit their MO of reckless experimentation pretty well TBH.

Tide Cloaks main mechanic in Gwent is Hoard so I would like to see more done with that. Their are a few okay hoard cards right now, but it feels like more could be done their outside of just buffing. Maybe they can having something where if your like, hoard 5 you gain a coin each turn so that their is a weird balance of needing to keep coins to spend coins?

Blind Eye's I feel mostly just need a little more to justify their leader ability. Most of the worth while tribute cards are BIG expenses where knocking 1 coin off hardly maters so... Maybe some more cards like the Renegade Mage? Bronze core cards that make it worth while to run King of Beggars old power to make them feel more like what they are meant to be, little people punching well above their wight class due to having a network that allows even the smallest person to play a big role in a larger operation!

Cut Ups are SY's damage boys and SY has sort of been slacking in the non poison damage department recently so maybe that could be nice? A few more ways of dishing out bleeds and straight damage to pull them back into the control meta? I donno.

Crownsplitters are boosty boys and for now they are fine... Not sure what I would add their save just putting more decent bronze dwarfs into the game so that NG Justice can see play in SY again. Its a decent card post change so its not going to bust the meta if it can draw something decent from your deck.

Firesworn are wonderful and I LOVE THEM! Honestly I think their is so much that could be done with them and I want it to be so! More ways of generating zelots, more ways of using zelots to make big plays happen! Right now their are 3 swarm styles, Elves, Zelots and Drones. Drones have Kiki Queen and a Organic cards, Elves have Iorveth and that new lady and Zealots have the Flame and the Procession of Penance... And of these three bugs and elves are played pretty regularly, but Zelots very rarely are and even when they are, its almost never with their own flavor cards, just generic board buffs. That's sad. Zelots deserve better! Also Witch Hunters should be Firesworn yes.

 

[4RM3D]

As of the current timeline they are mostly dismantled, though if you want to justify them being part of SY in lore, you can say either its from before Geralt shut them down or remnants of the gang joining up with the newly founded Syndicate under Sigismund Dijkstra.

Interesting lore tidbit (the whole first paragraph, not just what I've quoted). Gwent doesn't really follow the conventional lore, in favor of making the game easier to balance. There is a separate thread discussing this. So, I am not going into that particular aspect. However, I do want to point out one little thing regarding what you've said: "As of the current timeline they are mostly dismantled [...]". It's interesting because Gwent also doesn't have a timeline. There are many people (cards) in Gwent who are already dead in the lore, for example. My point being, the timeline doesn't really matter as long as it fits thematically.

 

[kitsuneae]

Salamandra I feel should push further into being the poison archetype for SY, though I would like it if they got to play with more of that risk/reward self poison stuff!

Blind Eye's I feel mostly just need a little more to justify their leader ability. Most of the worth while tribute cards are BIG expenses where knocking 1 coin off hardly maters so... Maybe some more cards like the Renegade Mage?

Thanks for the lore corrections! I didn't play through Witcher 1 so I didn't know. I went ahead and fixed my post to help players get a better feel for things.

I like the idea Salamandra of playing with poison. Perhaps you could even pay to prevent them from getting poisoned while still giving them a boost or the ability to swing for damage? No tribute = they are poisoned from inferior materials used. This would give the old tribute reduction ability more use.

It could also be used for Blindeyes... both the tribute and the poison. After all, a broke dude on the street won't be able to use the good stuff but if you give him the good stuff maybe he'll be OK? Also, maybe there could be more effects that run based on how many Blindeyes are in play? Passaflora is a good start, but more could be done with it.

I agree the Firesworn is currently the most viable Syndicate faction. They work surprisingly well, even in seasonal. It's literally the only Syndicate setup I have managed to make work in the Bear season so far as Nilfgaard can't do much to mess with it. Also those witch hunters are useful.

Interesting lore tidbit (the whole first paragraph, not just what I've quoted). Gwent doesn't really follow the conventional lore, in favor of making the game easier to balance. (...) It's interesting because Gwent also doesn't have a timeline. There are many people (cards) in Gwent who are already dead in the lore, for example. My point being, the timeline doesn't really matter as long as it fits thematically.

I feel that Gwent seems to be slowly making it's own lore of sorts via the cards.

For example, the Collusion card. Until that card was added I saw the Syndicate as just a collection of thematic "criminals" who all work in the same area. The Salamandra are not included on the Collusion card therefore one could see them as "not part of the main group, just lumped in as criminals". Same for "Bloody Good Friends" hinting that Cut Ups and Crownsplitters actually do get along... in a weird sort of way. It's why I mentioned these cards as "references" towards the flavor Gwent seems to be painting in for them when I made my post.

The lack of timeline is pretty neat as it allows anyone to appear, living or dead. Both Whoresons on the board, anyone? It's fun to be able to chase themes and see what comes out. The differences between Gwent and Witcher is part of the fun as Gwent becomes it's own little world of sorts. I like seeing things develop over time.

 

[Duhad]

It's interesting because Gwent also doesn't have a timeline. There are many people (cards) in Gwent who are already dead in the lore, for example. My point being, the timeline doesn't really matter as long as it fits thematically.

True, though given Syndicate as a faction (the 5 core Novigrad gangs coming together to form 'The Syndicate') seem to have been formed after Sigismund Dijkstra fled into hiding leading up to the events of Witcher 3 (given Jr. is still doing crimes, Cleaver is alive and the Tide Cloaks hold the docks rather then the Crownsplitters I would guess its taking place before Witcher 3) which would likely put it somewhere between Witcher 1 and 3, probably closer to Witcher 2.

Obviously like you said the game has no actual set timeline that everything is happening in, we have cards from the Battle of Brenna, lore figures from way back in history and Jan Calveit who I think is a future Emperor who won't take power till well after Emhyr is dead... Well ya, no set timeline. But it feels like SY has a fairly set point in which the five gangs united and Salamandra is not involved with that since they are likely no longer functional by the time the Syndicate forms.

But hey that's just a 'best guess'.

I like the idea Salamandra of playing with poison. Perhaps you could even pay to prevent them from getting poisoned while still giving them a boost or the ability to swing for damage? No tribute = they are poisoned from inferior materials used. This would give the old tribute reduction ability more use.

I love that idea honestly! That's a SUPER good idea! Buff an ally and either pay a tribute or have them get poisoned as a result of low quality ingredients! That is so clever!

Ya and as you said I think that would ALSO work amazingly well for Blindeyes, though maybe with less poisoning and more damage like, "Give an ally 3 armor then damage them by 2. Fee 1, just give them the armor." So its like your going to a back alley armor smith who's work will just fall apart right away unless you pay a little exstra (or know the right name to drop when placing your order) in which case he makes sure your actually being taken care of. That would fit the flavor of Blind Eyes really well in contrast to Salamandra, all while keeping an over all SY theme of, "Fee, get a safer version of this cards benefit."

 

[kitsuneae]

Ya and as you said I think that would ALSO work amazingly well for Blindeyes, though maybe with less poisoning and more damage like, "Give an ally 3 armor then damage them by 2. Fee 1, just give them the armor." So its like your going to a back alley armor smith who's work will just fall apart right away unless you pay a little exstra (or know the right name to drop when placing your order) in which case he makes sure your actually being taken care of. That would fit the flavor of Blind Eyes really well in contrast to Salamandra, all while keeping an over all SY theme of, "Fee, get a safer version of this cards benefit."

Name dropping and greasing palms for armor. That's adorable and perfectly in theme!

Perhaps to follow the name dropping, having certain gold Blindeyes in play could also help lower tributes or give positive effects but only on other Blindeyes. This could be used to create a combo engine for the faction where they stack off each other. They're all like "I'm with ___: cut me a deal! He's right over there by the way..."

Meanwhile a similar principal could be used for Cut Ups only instead of boosting/armor, they randomly damage enemies or cause bleed whenever more of their faction appears. Let's pretend that knifing a guy is their version of waving hello.

It could be made stronger: the gold cards in question offer the benefits to all Syndicate members, however, when their own personal faction hits the board they get better effects because they're brothers in arms. I'm not sure if that would be broken, though. We already see some faction play in Scoia'tael with the Elves/Dwarves/Dryads stacking as well as Harmony to encourage cross-faction play.

 

[Duhad]

I imagine going too hard on that theme would likely get kind of busted, but I COULD see gold cards for each of the gangs that work as engines, pinging when their boys come to back them up...

Like you could have a Blind Eyes union boss who recuses the price of tributes by essentially ensuring that the gang is working together right.

Have a Cut-Up bruiser who throws out pings or bleeds anytime one of his mates joins in.

A Crownsplitter armorer who boosts his fellow dwarvesas they are played (also giving more value to NG Justice in SY).

Tideclocks are getting a leader ability that already reduces hoard, but hey, can always make more! Have a first mate or another captain who knows how to cut a deal and reduces the hoard requirement by another two coins.

Finally the Eternal Fire could get someone who's like proselytizing to the people, all while actually helping to run the churches croup back room deals by spawning a zelot every time a crime is played! That might seem like allot, but its not all that far off from the piggy with intimidate two, just less point stacking.