Line of Credit I could understand in a way. It best defines usury. However Congregation and Excommunication are indeed rather awkward as crimes. Vivaldi Bank is another awkward one, especially since Location cards have been introduced.
It is a Slander with damage instead of gaining coins or a 1 damage better Payday (without gaining excess coins).
I fail to see how that is "busted", also at 6p it would never see any play.
I agree on those 3 (Excommunication, Congregation and Line of Credit).
However I disagree regarding Slander and Hysteria. Maybe defamation was not the right term, however the degree of lies, especially for Hysteria, makes it/them (a) lawless crime(s).
Maybe it will be a location with the new expansion and crown tokens. There is even a proposition to make it so somewhere in this thread.
But then all SY specials will be crimes. This paints a picture of Novigrad criminal overlords being quite stupid not to have legitimate facades, at least as moneylending or church activities. Or banking.
You twisted your own point. They have. And they also have a lot of money spread over all of Novigradian businesses (especially the church). Dirty Money - dirty business. Making even the most harmless hand-to-mouth vending a crime
Okay, I can see Hysteria being a crime as unrest/riots provoking activity. Maybe I was just too eager to see some non-crimes. But Slander - a crime in a world, where witch hunting is legal, welcome and supported? Maybe to Geralt, but to no magistrate.
Fabian Hale:
To my mind he´s the worst of all these new SY cards. He is a 4 + bounty + intimidate for 8. If you compare him to Kurt who is a 6 for 6 + bounty or purify option you see that playing him only makes sense if there is already bounty placed.
Regarding his second option: He can be at max a 13 for 8 + Intimidate. But then you need both empty pockets and a valuable opponent target with high body (best > 9). Then he might be like a Sigi Reuven with no huge deck building rules and 3 provisions less. One can assume that on average he maybe finds a 5 base power target. So he would then be a 9 for 8 + intimidate. Actually you still need a high bounty opponent unit and then you have the incentive to let this unit live for another round including the negative effects of this opponent unit.
To sum it up, he made see play but competitive probably only in witch hunter decks including Tamara Strenger.
To my mind he´s the worst of all these new SY cards. He is a 4 + bounty + intimidate for 8. If you compare him to Kurt who is a 6 for 6 + bounty or purify option you see that playing him only makes sense if there is already bounty placed.
Regarding his second option: He can be at max a 13 for 8 + Intimidate. But then you need both empty pockets and a valuable opponent target with high body (best > 9). Then he might be like a Sigi Reuven with no huge deck building rules and 3 provisions less. One can assume that on average he maybe finds a 5 base power target. So he would then be a 9 for 8 + intimidate. Actually you still need a high bounty opponent unit and then you have the incentive to let this unit live for another round including the negative effects of this opponent unit.
To sum it up, he made see play but competitive probably only in witch hunter decks including Tamara Strenger.
Syndicate is not Novigrad though.
Syndicate is not even limited to Novigrad ... the SY location is from Wyzima.
Non-criminals in the faction are actually people coerced (Coerced Blacksmith) or used/directly connected to the criminals (Vivaldi Bank, Townsfolk, Walter Veritas).
Fair point actually. Congregation would at the very least be a meeting/recruiting for thugs for a criminal organization.
I know its too soon, since we have only seen the SY cards so far, but i predict SY will be dominant, or shall i say, keep being dominant.
Why?
1. Its already the faction with the strongest deck, due to the buffs of the latest patch, and unlikely those cards will get nerfed on the 8th June.
2. Its support to a hypercontrol archetype, and control is usually favoured and more competitive than "pacifist" strategies.
3. Even though we havent seen the other new cards, we can see the theme they will have on the expansion page. NG will go some form of deck manipulation, NR will go some weird stuff with orders/charges, ST will go spells, MO will have some crone/organic theme, SK will go rain/weather.
Most of these wont be control, SK will be but rain/weather isnt as hard to play around as bounty. Maybe only ST will be able to face SY, if the spell stuff is unitless.
Why?
1. Its already the faction with the strongest deck, due to the buffs of the latest patch, and unlikely those cards will get nerfed on the 8th June.
2. Its support to a hypercontrol archetype, and control is usually favoured and more competitive than "pacifist" strategies.
3. Even though we havent seen the other new cards, we can see the theme they will have on the expansion page. NG will go some form of deck manipulation, NR will go some weird stuff with orders/charges, ST will go spells, MO will have some crone/organic theme, SK will go rain/weather.
Most of these wont be control, SK will be but rain/weather isnt as hard to play around as bounty. Maybe only ST will be able to face SY, if the spell stuff is unitless.
hahahahaha, mate, you've completely missed the point.
No, this idea of Syndicate having their hands in everything is great. And exactly that was my original point. SY should benefit from non-crime activity (because they corrupted it all to some degree), but marking some actions as crimes just makes no sense, imo this works against the "shadowy hand" concept.
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Maybe they're just trying to counter your extreme cynicism by sticking to the letter of the expansion title?
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Twist was probably not the right word. Just depends on the point of view. Officially it's no crime. But you as the player - you/we know the metagame here. Everything is a crime. And to be honest the Novigradian church is a currupt and selfserving organization second to none of the other Syndikates.
To be honest I do not share your fear. From the all revealed cards i consider none of them to be OP. The witchfinder is a strong card but also rather expensive. Vigilantes can be a nice engine. Hysteria is definitely a considerable option for bounty decks. Fabian Hale is from a price value perspective definetly questionable. Playing him somehow incentives you letting high body units alive (and if they have a strong order, passive ability this is really counterintuitive) if you have no allied Whoreson´s Freakshow.
I think witch hunter focused strategies will be somehow as competitive as dwarfs are now. Playable but not dominating. Furthermore I see all of this new cards best synergizing with the witch hunter focused strategy. Maybe some people playaround with Witchfinder + Igor + Townfolk and maybe some people use the Witchfinder in control heavy deck to get the most of their Freakshow.
Not only Novigradian, I'm afraid.
But what I'm talking about (this time gameplay-wise), is that adding a second category of special cards does faction good in terms of diversity. Compare SK and MO speciais to the other factions, where one category includes almost every card (Tactics, Nature, Warfare, Crime). Maybe this expansion could do this? "Religion" could be this second keyword for SY, for example, making corrupt hierarchs and dark alley cutthroats go separate ways.
Question: Will the new 26 cards be able to drop through basic or faction kegs or will they not be included in kegs at all till November?
Question/Observation: Will there be a balance patch along with the new new expansion because from what the Syndicate cards look so far are quite broken already.
Question/Observation: Will there be a balance patch along with the new new expansion because from what the Syndicate cards look so far are quite broken already.
They are confirmed to be in Faction/Ultimate Kegs, so if you miss a good portion of cards for a specific faction it might be worth it.
I think I have enough scraps for the first episode. I guess they will stick to the pattern of one of each color plus whatever the 2 neutrals can be but I'll try my luck with the kegs first because its around 8000 scraps so every little helps
It is confirmed to be 1 of each rarity for the factions so you need 2*30 + 2*80 + 200 + 800 = 1220 Scraps for each faction, i.e. 7320 + whatever the Neutrals will cost, however I cannot image they want to release legendary neutrals only.
I will definitely open kegs on June 8th, trying to get the new cards. Even if i have enough scraps to craft everything, for now and for the next sub-expansions.
Opening kegs is part of the fun of a new expansion, i even wake up early for it like im a child again and its Xmas morning, even though i will get all cards anyway its still fun to open the damn kegs and try your luck.
Opening kegs is part of the fun of a new expansion, i even wake up early for it like im a child again and its Xmas morning, even though i will get all cards anyway its still fun to open the damn kegs and try your luck.
Definitely! Guess I will buy a 100 neutral kegs cause it's the only relevant "faction" where I still miss more than 5%. Not much hope to find the new cards, but expansion day is expansion day. I usally buy 100-150 exp-kegs and craft the rest from scraps. At least it will be something like it.
Agreed, I am also enjoying to open lots of expansion kegs when a new expansion drops.
That being said I guess this time one would have to wait until October for that, which makes it feel somewhat tempting to just stop playing myself until then.