u/kierco_2002

i've heard all sorts of things about CoB now that it's getting into people's hands, but one thing I haven't really seen is if the XP is comparable to past full campaigns or if they give you extra because it's so short?

Been out of stock everywhere since release. This is the first restock I've seen that hasn't instantly sold out. Might mean other retailers could be getting them alongside Children of Blood this week.

First off, the Heroes. Echo and Daredevil are both A-tier in my opinion. They're extremely versatile and will be able to play any aspect. Echo may even be S tier the more we play her and discover further shenanigans with her event recursion. She does require all of her upgrades out to truly shine, but really Improvisation is the card that makes her stand out. It makes her feel like an evolution on Gamora. Daredevil is a tricky character to pilot, but very satisfying, and is uniquely capable as a thwarter while staying in alter-ego. His sense deck makes him feel a lot like an unrestricted Dr Strange (although Daredevil's cards aren't nearly as powerful), and you may find in a turn the best option is just to play your entire sense deck.

The basic and aspect cards that come in them are fine. Nothing overwhelmingly strong or anything that feels like a new staple. Echo introduces a new meta-style of protection by having cards that are better when you have no allies in play. She also has Innate Reflexes, the first of the new "starter" stat boost cards that we'll see in Jessica Jones. Those will likely be commonly seen in most decks that care about stats. Daredevil's Justice cards introduce the Discount keyword: play for a lower cost if you meet the trait requirements. They're mostly just applicable to his traits, but some can be used by select already-released heroes (Jen Walters is an Attorney, Greer Nelson has Police, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Bucky, and Maria Hill are all spies, just to name a few). It'll be interesting to see more of those going forward.

Now for the campaign: It's actually one of the more streamlined campaigns to go through. You basically mix and match 5 villains+scenarios before getting to the big bad at the end. There are only a couple things to do in between scenarios and the upkeep barely takes any time. You're rewarded for beating a scenario and punished for failing, but it never feels cruel or unfair. Your campaign will also get harder if you don't do certain scenarios at certain times, so while it's completely flexible, there is some level of direction the game puts you in (though it in no way is a linear story).

The majority of the villains, except for the final one, don't come with their own main scheme. Instead, you pick from the available incomplete ones that comes with it's own encounter-set-like deck. Because of this, each time you play a villain from this box it will feel very different. Each of these main schemes adds a lot of elements that make it unique an memorable, and I found it much better than the registration/Resistance main schemes of Civil war that were ultimately forgettable.

It does however showcase a growing concert I have with MC in that schemes no longer feel like progressing through a story. The majority of Main Schemes in Agents of Shield and Fear No Evil are just 1 stage with a high threat threshold, and if you fail that you lose. The schemes in Civil War at least have 2 stages, but they're just so generic it almost doesn't matter. It's not exactly a modern development, as many scenarios from previous boxes have just one stage (looking at you, Sinister Motives), but still makes me long for the days of Hela and Thanos.

The Villains: There's some good, some not so good. Because each doesn't have their own main scheme, they at least have a lot of variety when paired with the various modulars. That's a plus.
Bullseye and Electro are probably among my favourites. They can be TERRIFYING as they're often able to get extra boost cards, so taking an attack may be more devastating than you were hoping. It really makes you tweak your play style. Hammerhead is solid. His gimmic isn't anything revolutionary but he's good and tough. Typhoid Mary was very disapointing. She flips between her two forms, but realistically all it does is pump her sch or atk by a point depending on which side she is on. Other villains have done the multiple forms much better. She has an alternate win condition, but realistically it's still just damaging and thwarting as usual. Purple Man has potential, but he's an utter cake walk unless you draw an influenced minion or give him a boost that is from his encounter set. If you go a few rounds without anything from his set then you'll just steamroll him. Kingpin is a solid final boss. His first half you can't damage him, so you'll be just thwarting schemes and removing minions, but then when he progresses to his 2nd phase he hit's like a truck. With him it feels like you're able to stabilize the field until you're ready and then flip him over and take on what feels like an epic finale.

The Encounters: Nothing too sensational here. The encounter sets are all street-level treacheries and minions that can be added fairly easily to most scenarios.

The Modular Main Schemes: The most unique thing to come out of this box and an evolution over the modular scenarios from Civil War. Each one feels different and shakes up traditional gameplay flow and can be used with the 5 Underling Villains from this box (but can't be used outside of them). I think they're a neat idea and look forward to seeing something similar in the future (though as mentioned above, I would likely to see them progress over the 1 stage, and ultimately I still prefer the feel of villains having their own story).

Overall I think this is a fantastic box and worth it alone to get Echo and Daredevil. Probably the strongest release since Age of Apocalypse.

I do a lot of tent camping/birding and I'm starting to get tired of my regular haunts so looking to branch out. I'll be returning to Presqu'ile Provincial Park the week after labour day when kids are back in school, parks are a bit quieter, and it's a good place to catch migrating warblers and shorebirds. I've got some extra days to spend on camping this year, so I'd like to try out some other campgrounds along the 401 corridor there rather than stay in one place.

Darlington looks promising from a habitat perspective, but it sounds like highway noise is an issue. Sandbanks I've heard is very popular but it seems most just go for the beaches. Looking at their reservations it's still very full in the more popular campgrounds, which is a bit of a surprise. The campground itself isn't necessary a birding mecca, but there's of hotspots up in prince edward county, so it would be neat to explore (Historically I like sticking around the campgrounds as much as possible though.)

Any suggestions on other parks that may be worthwhile? I'd especially like to hear from anybody else who's into birdwatching. Thanks!

Following Gencon this past weekend, I expected a flurry of info to come out after folks either picked CoB up early or had the chance to demo a scenario. Things are oddly quiet, though.

Anybody have a chance to try it out?

I've heard people do Iron Man sessions, playing a whole 8 scenario campaign in a day, but I assume that means skipping a lot of the story reading/ already having an upgrade path in mind/ going for the fastest exit in a scenario.

I'm sure we could do half of Dream Eaters in a day no problem, but are any of the other chapter 1 campaigns doable? I know Hemlock technically has fewer scenarios than others, so on paper it seems the next best option, but I feel the preludes would also bite into a lot of time.

The people I would play with know the game but not as well as me, but they'd definitely want to hear all the story stuff so we couldn't really leave out anything.

New burger place opened in the Westridge plaza a few days ago. It went into the tiny store next to booster juice that had the failed Pizza Port not long ago.

Google reviews seem promising but I always take those with a grain of salt since they're almost all 5 stars and you never know which could be paid-for reviews.

Outside of the chains, is there any hidden gem in the area for fried chicken?

Canada is no stranger to product delays and short stock, but these new starters have been basically unavailable since release, unless you pre-ordered.

Is this a international thing? or are we alone in this.

Current setup is a budget-friendly Canon R10 with the 100-400mm lens. I'm doing photography purely for my own enjoyment.

In ideal conditions I'm happy with this kit however in low light and overcast days it's terribly hard to get quality nature shots. Getting into a better lens requires a much bigger investment than I'm ready to fork out, but recently I saw the R8 has gone on sale for about $1500 CAD. My R10 is in pretty good shape, and in a perfect world I think with it's original kit lens and an extra battery I could probably sell it second hand for around $1000.

Going from APS-C to full-frame I know i'll lose a bit of distance, but maybe its worth it for the better low-light performance I've been seeking?

Conversely, it's about $300 more to get the R7. Would going to that instead be worth the extra cost?