Aeon Trespass Odyssey

So the main baddy from Cycle 3, the God Helios, spontaneously resurrected themselves a couple of sessions ago. Today I fought him – he was slightly weakened but still very powerful. Most of his level one AI cards resulted in an Obol draw just for being hit (50-50 chance of death). Most level two AI cards resulted in incineration (i.e. instant death). When you wound him, he nearly always teleport away, making it hard to keep hurting him.

In the end I managed to take him out with the loss of only one Titan. But the rest were out of fate and at the very limits of survivability.

It was nice to use this model again, as I’d only needed to get him out the box once before.

Not much to say about this session. It was a routine battle against a primordial, which I was able to despatch without too much trouble. A level three attack did turn half my equipment into gold and killed a Titan, but that was right at the end and I promptly finished the primordial off. I think I should finish the cycle in another two sessions, which is conveniently exactly half a year of playing.

This gaming sessions was the final showdown with this cycles pursuer primordial. It played out much like the normal battles, except there was a lot more terrain and it’s curse ability, which I have been ignoring, was more powerful. Given it had been upgraded, I thought I’d better play with it. Basically, one Titan began with the curse. The cursed Titan could not attack and was unlikely to be targeted by the primordial in return. Passing on the curse to another Titan gave the original Titan a small buff. Once every Titan had been cursed and it couldn’t be passed on again, all Titans die and I loose. So it essentially acts to limit the duration of the battle and means I only ever have three Titans that can fight.

Despite the curse, I managed to win pretty quickly. A very lucky critical on a level three body part really helped. In the end I only lost one Titan to an unlucky hit that inflicted the Death 2 state (i.e. the Titan automatically dies after two rounds).

In this session I gained a doom token, triggering progression to the final doom card and progressing the bad side of the main story.

Midas (yes, the Midas who’s touch turns everything to gold) came and offered me a deal whereby he’d use his money to solve all our problems (ending cycle 4 and unlocking cycle 5). I was actually tempted, as it would allow me to start cycle 5 next week and I’d stand a chance of finishing both cycles in 2026. But the completionist in me didn’t like it, and I don’t trust the game designers. I suspect if I took this option I’d be allowed to start cycle 5, but with the rest of my game resetting or some other penalty.

Anyway, I turned Midas down and he turned out to be a fraud. The Babelian Lunacy attacked again, killing Midas and taking me into a repeat of last week’s battle. I decided to take what I’ve learned from last week and try my best to win it without killing the primordial.

I was very careful to only attack from outside just enough to fully open up the eternal staircase and the vantage points. When a level three body point came up, I ensured the titans in the staircase attacked it. That meant I wouldn’t inflict a wound but could still progress up the staircase. All was going well – I’d got one titan on to a vantage point but hadn’t got a second even at the start of the staircase yet. Then I got really lucky. A critical hit allowed me to teleport the second titan on to a vantage point immediately. Then the third primordial attack targeted both titan’s on the vantage points. It did a lot of damage, but both survived and got a free bonus attack (see photo). These bonus attacks allowed me to get my two wounds from a vantage point and thus win the scenario.

This session was a scheduled fight with the main enemy of the cycle, the Babelian Lunacy. Having killed it last time round, it now is always level 2. This made every location harder to wound and introduced a time mechanic where each round it destroys four terrain pieces (restricting mobility and ending the game once the terrain pieces run out). Had I been playing with friends, we would also have been forced to all speak in a different language for the battle (that’s the sense of humour/difficulty the game designers have).

Know that I know actually dealing 12 wounds and killing the Babelian Lunacy only makes it stronger in future battles, I realise this battle is virtually impossible. To win, I’m supposed to unlock the full endless staircase (requiring I inflict four wounds), then get at least two Titans to the top of the staircase (requiring two or three wounds inflicted each), then deal a further two wounds from the top. I.e. Inflict 10 to 12 wounds without inflicting 12 wounds. Also by the time you reach the top you’re likely to have wounded most of the level one and level two body parts, so you’re on to wounding level three locations which do two wounds at a time.

Needless to say, I lost. I did ten wounds getting my Titans in to position and then struggled to wound the remaining level three body locations. In the meantime I had Titans dieing one by one.

On the plus side, I reckon I’ll be finished with this cycle in four more sessions, given I believe I have four more fights to win to end the story. That will mean I’ve finished cycle four in six months and will have exactly six months left to play through cycle five.

This session was relatively story heavy, so I’ve focussed on showing you the cycle map as it currently stands. I started just north-west of the centre. I then explored the north-west area, headed down to the central south region, then headed up the eastern side of the map.

I’ve now got to the point where I can schedule the final battle with the pursuer three turns in the future at any point. The final campaign battle is set on a tile in the north-east. Once I finish exploring the area I’ll travel to it and end the cycle. I can also schedule in a re-fight with a re-incarnated Helios god (the final battle from cycle 3), which I’ll do soon.

Not much to say from this gaming session. This was a “routine” battle with one of the regular primordials of the cycle. By now, my Titan’s have decent weapons and armour, and I’m up to speed enough with the rules that I’m able to handle these battles fairly quickly and with minimal risk.

In this session I not only gained enough progress tokens to trigger the next part of the main story line (I know now where the final boss fight will be), but I also gained enough doom tokens to trigger the next negative story progression. This turned out to be a full blown market crash in the economy. I think the authors of this game cycle were heavily influenced by 2008!

This culminated in my fifth battle with the “main boss” primordial. As it was the fifth battle, in order to win I essentially had to do so much damage that I’d almost certainly do 12 damage and kill it outright. It was a tough fight, and I managed to get a couple of my Titans on to the vantage points which allow me to actually wound the level three body locations. By this point I’d done nine wounds. Each level three body locations counts as two wounds when they’re taken out. So if I could wound once more I could call it a victory, but if I held out for a second I’d win and also kill the primordial.

The problem was that by doing so many wounds the Primordial was now doing level three AI cards each time, which are very severe attacks. One of my Titans went from unharmed to dead twice over in a single hit. But then the awakening mechanic (on death there’s a one or two in ten chance of being possessed by a god) which I’ve previously complained kicks in so rarely that it might as well not exist – happened. My titan turned into the embodiment of Hephaestus. This interrupted the Primordial’s attack, then gave the Titan a bonus attack with which I wounded my first level three body part. Then it was immediately my next turn and I wounded another level three body part.

Awakening may trigger very rarely, but it does feel awesome when it does!