Pete recounts a game of The Resistance: Avalon played Tuesday 5 November.
We ended the night, like many a recent NoBoG evening, with a
game of The Resistance: Avalon - the Arthurian themed reworking of Don
Eskridge’s The Resistance. This occasion would provide a triumph for the forces
of good and a right trashing for the evil minions of Mordred.
With seven being the number of players (it might have been
nine, but for Robin dashing for a bus and Nicky preferring to make an early
break for home to putting up with all the smack talk) we looked at the balance
between good and evil and decided that the three minions of Mordred [evil
spies!] would need a bit of a handicap to prevent anything similar to a recent
3-0 mauling in the favour of evil. We decided to play with Oberon [a spy, but
he is not known to, and does not know the other spies] in addition to Merlin,
Percival and the Lady of the Lake to really stack things in favour of good. We
did not, however, account for the fantastic good fortune to come which would
seal a rapid and crushing victory for the brave and valiant loyal servants.
The Introduction
Having had a couple of recent games which were somewhat
ruined by certain information being missed or accidentally revealed during the
set-up, I have taken it upon myself to perform a particularly thorough and
highly patronising version of the introduction to the game. We used some
dubious finger counting method to determine that Bondy should take the first player
crown (putting myself in position three). I looked at my secret role card and
saw that I was Percival, I took a moment to compose myself and then began my
awkward diction.
When I opened my eyes to see who Merlin was, it was none
other than my good friend Rich sitting immediately to my right in position two.
I tried very hard to maintain my composure while finishing the intro talk and
(as I always do, no matter what my role) immediately proclaimed myself as “not
a spy” then proceeded to question the others at the table starting with Rich.
He said that he was also not a spy, to which I responded that he must be
telling the truth as I know him well enough to know if he is lying. I asked
everyone else and made some wild accusations based upon nothing as I am not
particularly adept when it comes to discerning a tell, but hoping that perhaps
someone might accidentally give something away.
Round One
It was time for Bondy to propose the first mission and,
through a twist of luck, we managed to persuade him to send myself and Rich. We
seem to have settled into a bit of a pattern of voting down the first few
mission proposals as it is believed that it is better to try to get as much
information as possible by seeing who sends who and who votes for what
proposals - the belief being that more information can only help the good guys
[as long as Merlin doesn’t give himself away] - so I voted to reject, even
though I was on the mission and knew that both myself and Rich were good.
When the vote was revealed it showed all rejects, which I
declared was the perfect result: if there was a spy on the mission then at
least one of the spies would have voted for it; no-one accepting the mission
proposal meant that the spies didn’t like it. Rich, knowing full well that we
were both good, agreed to send us two again. The vote and the mission passed.
Round Two
Now it was my turn to set the mission. I argued that the
first one was almost certainly two good guys and then put forward sending Clive
sitting to my left along with myself and Rich on the grounds that he was the
most convincing at claiming not to be a spy. I actually had no idea, but wanted
to test out if Clive was a spy by watching Rich’s vote. Rich voted reject but
everyone else voted to accept so I took this to mean Rich was telling Percival
that there was a spy on the mission - confirmed by how the spies had clearly
all voted for it as well. Regardless, the mission went ahead but bizarrely it
passed.
With all the talking I’d been doing, Richard (position
seven) chose to use the lady of the lake on me and confirmed that I was good. I
still didn’t know for sure he wasn’t a spy, but at least it gave me the LotL
card to use next and it drew suspicion away from me.
Round Three
With the previous mission passing, and the same number of
people required (three), everyone on the table was arguing for sending the same
people on the next mission so Clive duly obliged and the vote was passed, but
this time the mission failed! Now I knew that Clive was a spy but I couldn’t
work out why he had passed the second mission.
Now I was able to use the LotL card to check another
player’s allegiance and I chose Fletch, not least because he was the next
person after Clive. He showed me a blue card and the game was all but won for
good.
Round Four
With me having already been confirmed as trustworthy, I was
able to tell everyone convincingly that Fletch was also good. It was also
straightforward to point out that, only one out of Rich and Clive was a spy but
the fourth mission required two fails for evil to win. By sending the same
three of us again along with Fletch, we were guaranteed a win for good and this
is what happened. The spies voted against the proposal but it passed and the
mission succeeded with one fail.
The Assassin
I was insistent that only the Assassin should reveal his
character card to preserve the unlikely but hilarious possibility of
accidentally assassinating Oberon. Bondy revealed the assassin card, the spies
conferred, I joined in pretending [badly] to be Oberon, accusations were cast
on all the good guys except Rich and finally Fletch was brutally slain. The
loyal servants had walked it.
The Truth
Player 1: Bondy - Assassin [evil]
Player 2: Rich - Merlin [good]
Player 3: Peter [me] - Percival [good]
Player 4: Clive - Oberon [evil]
Player 5: Fletch - [good]
Player 6: Sam - [evil]
Player 7: Richard - [good]
On reflection, the set-up helped us, but the spies may have
handed us the game by a) proposing a mission with no spies on it and b)
allowing a mission with a spy on to pass. However, I can understand Bondy
proposing two good guys in the thought that the first mission is always
rejected; it might have been a good way of alleviating suspicion on himself
later. Ultimately we were very lucky to end up with both Merlin and Percival on
all of the missions. I don’t think we will stack things so heavily in favour of
good next time.
[Re-published from Pete's post on BGG - Resistance is Futile...]
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