This has been an issue with the Mindless Ones forever and it is now an issue with the AIM minions (at least IMHO). Playing the “Introducing Negasonic” today and having three waves of AIM minions take forever to place their tiles and then reconcile them on every turn had to be one of the most boring things I have done in this game in a long time.
It wasn’t difficult to eventually beat them but it took an excruciating amount of time to complete. There was a lot of waiting , waiting and waiting with no game play at all. I know some people might like to watch the tile placement and reconciling so if there is any way an option could be on there to turn it off or have it all done it once, it would be greatly appreciated and make the game way more fun.
I’d go further and say that both new sets of minions - AIM and Sentinels - have overly complicated powers that take far too long to resolve. I barely even understand what’s happening most of the time.
I don’t think minions need to be as simple as the original set - place countdown, wait for countdown to expire, something happens - but the more recent ones like Mindless Ones and Symbiotes still have easily-understandable passive moves that lead to a satisfying gameplay loop when you can spot what’s happening and short circuit them. These AIM guys might as well be causing random board chaos (like Boss Carnage) every turn. They seem designed to counter certain high level play strategies, like special tile spam, that not everyone will be using.
I like the new guys. AIM and Sentinels. I think they are a nice welcome addition. Sure, they might have strats that only high level players will recognize, but this game is going on its 7th Anniversary – you probably want baddies in the game that long time vets can appreciate and battle appropriately.
BUT, let’s be honest – that doesn’t happen. If you’d been in the game that long, you just “meta” them. Sure, there are some players that march to the beat of their own drum. But that’s not the majority. Most of the time, a given player will use their strongest option, because it gives them that “Victory” screen quicker, which leads to resources/rewards. A player doesn’t even have to be so active to believe it’s “meta” – they just have to know that their chosen tactic will win, and they’ll use it. It’s not hard to play for long enough and realize that Carnage and Medusa are like peanut butter and jelly… I guess this is a long way around for me to say that you don’t have to be a forum-goer or the like to realize what’s strong and useful in this game.
So, back to the goons. Yeah, they’re complicated. Yes, they need a slow-down. And yes, I like their abilities. I believe they are complicated for a reason… and it’s okay to not understand them. We don’t have to! We just destroy them. Strange still works fine, Kitty and Okoye based teams work fine, and Thanos-based fun works fine. The only time we have to even come close to thinking about them is Shield Training… and if they cause you THAT much of an issue, we all know a stun user or two that fits the bill perfectly. Add in supports that remove enemy special tiles, and it’s all a problem in your past.
That’s a long response to OP’s without mentioning his actual problem… the minions are taking too long to resolve and place per turn. Especially since some players are using hacks to speed up the game play to get better placement.
If you want to shorten matches with Mindless Ones, just use Dr. Strange. Honestly, the master of mystic arts was tailor-made to take them out quickly and efficiently. (He works wonders with symbiotes, too.)
Mindless ones are such prolific spammers (and I get that they’re slower than other goons), but with Dr. Strange’s yellow retaliation you can be taking the Mindless Ones out during their turn. Just boost Strange’s damage. If I can bring two I like to use Kitty/Rocket. If I can only bring one, I take Okoye and hunt for early TU tiles. You don’t even need 5strange - his 3-star version will do.
So while the Mindless Ones are spamming their antics, you’re blasting them off the board. Viola. Match over.
Negasonic’s ‘destroy tiles’ passive coud actually be more useful if it’s doing so one at a time, because any activation may trigger a cascade. Although I’m not sure on the math if a 1x3 tile destruction will be more or less likely to cause additional matches than a 3x1.
Negasonic destroy one tile at time. It will freeze any potential match 3/4/5 until all the destruction is done. Use 5Storm’s black power and you can see how it works. This can be good or bad, just like MEH’s random tiles swapping. It’s good when it gives you free matches; bad when it also destroys/ruins your free matches.
Sorry… was responding to OTHER’s responses. People seem to have a problem with the actual goons themselves, not just the “slow placement”.
I DID “Like” the OP’s post… I support it. And there’s enough of you saying basically the same thing. I figured I’d throw my hat in on the sub-discussion regarding AIM/Sentinels being good for the game overall.
Hacks? I’m not surprised. Not in this age of gaming.
