Pathfinder Team-Up

Amy joined me last night for a Pathfinder Adventure Card Game scenario. We played through the first chapter of the introductory adventure -- my third go-around with that scenario, each time with a different character. This time I was Harsk, the dwarf ranger, while Amy played the elf thief Merisiel. These characters make for an interesting team because they're at their best when traveling alone. Merisiel gets a combat bonus when she's the only hero at her location, and Harsk (an expert with ranged weapons) can give a combat bonus to an ally, but only if that ally is at a different location from his own. Given their special abilities, we spent most of the scenario split up, exploring separate locations.

Our play styles turned out to be different, as well. I tended to try to close locations as quickly as possible so as to trap the villain in one place, whereas Amy was interested in "farming" the locations for possible boon cards (treasure, allies, weapons, etc.) even when she knew the master villain wasn't present. We had time plenty of time for additional exploration because of a remarkable event that happened on the very first turn. As I was explaining the rules to Amy, I flipped over the first card of the first location, and there was the master villain himself! He escaped, of course, because the game doesn't allow you to win on the first turn, but spotting him so early in the scenario allowed us to narrow down his next hideout. When we finally got around to taking him on, we had both incurred a fair amount of damage -- Harsk and Merisiel both have their strengths, but defense and healing aren't among them. Still, we took out the bandit lord without too much difficulty and now we're ready to move on to the next scenario!