My most anticipated event at Gen Con 2023 was the 7th Sea : City of Five SailsWorld Championship. I heard about the game while looking through the Gen Con event list for tournaments, and I had managed to get about 10 games in before Gen Con and another 3 Friday night. Posted a bit about the game here.
I went into the tournament wanting to play a Castille/Soline deck because it seemed like the weakest faction so I felt challenged to make it work. Played some games against my good friend Tom Dixon the night before the event, and it just felt frustratingly underpowered. So, I switched to Eisen/Kaspar because I was super excited about exploiting Unsavory Salve, and Eisen seemed reasonably powerful overall. Was a bit worried that everyone was going to be playing Eisen, but I was pleasantly surprised to see it was tied for the least represented faction (with Vodacce/The Don) for my hipster self. I was also very surprised with how underwhelming Unsavory Salve turned out to be.
Gen Con 2023 Top Eisen Decklist
This is the list I ran for the tournament. (There are 6 changes I made after the event):
Generally speaking, I intended this to be a midrange deck that could win with any of the three victory conditions. The major idea I wanted to experiment with was shrugging off challenges while pushing through small amounts of damage at a time, not necessarily focusing on initiating challenges myself. I wanted only-parry cards (ex. Regroup) to end duels (if you send no threat back, the duel ends), and I wanted to use the guns (ex. Polished Flintlock) to whittle down characters.
Unsavory Salve’s ability to erase a threat and turn it into a wound had me salivating over the idea of achieving both of those goals at the same time. Specifically, it could turn Appealing to the People, Breastplate, and Kaspar’s Panzerhand into 3 or 4 parry cards, that inflicted an unblockable wound and ended the duel, effectively erasing the value of my opponent’s Engage Action (challenge). Even getting an unlucky Opulence Gamble could at least end the duel and deal a wound. Important remainder though, you can only trigger one Technique per combat round, so you can’t use 2 Unsavory Salves to cancel 2 Thrust (ex. Tending the Wounded). In addition, if your weapon is destroyed or stolen, you lose the Salve.
Lastly, we packed 15 attachments into the deck to have an attachment density greater than 1/3 to make Otto likely to draw a card off his ability. Throwing Knives were primarily included to hit that threshold and to help enable Last Word.
For those of you who clicked and are new to the blog, I will let you know that I can go on for quite a while about very intricate strategic ideas. Welcome!
*courtier bow*
While there is only 1 leader to choose from, Kaspar is strong with his big butt (9 resolve) and his ability to recruit at 4 influence. The former lets him refuse challenges he doesn’t want, and the latter lets him recruit strong Mercenaries with minimal card disadvantage.
Approach
Otto‘s straightforward. Muster him round 1 of every game to draw an extra card each turn.
Rena was included to shield my weaker characters/mercenaries by allowing for multiple intervenes a turn, even while engaged.
Daniella gives an extra challenge to any reasonable merc I recruit, even while both are engaged, which also lets me get additional value from attachments.
Terrell can potentially net me a bonus card if he gambles into an attachment. (One of my most underrated cards.)
Rosine can engage characters and really hurt sorcerers, 5th include.
Midnight Shipment and Let’s Haggle, I included them initially to put out extra city cards that I could pay for, even though I was thinking lowest initiative went first. Finding out the night before that it was highest initiative was a major boon.
Armed and Marshaled seemed great as I have a ton of attachments and engaging a character is great.
Song of Eisen seemed okay, but it was Eisen specific and getting back a merc to buy later seemed reasonable in addition to the Renown.
Faction
Dark Gift, Otto enabler. Once per day extra mobility or healing seems great. 3 riposte is nice.
Kaspar’s Panzerhand, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve combat. 4 parry is strong, but while all of the effects seem powerful, likely too expensive/situational to equip often.
Langschwert, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve enabler. (Another incredibly underestimated card.)
Polished Flintlock, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve enabler, Last Word Enabler. Inflict unpreventable chip/finishing damage.
Unsavory Salve, Otto enabler, see above.
Breastplate, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve combat, wanted to equip it to help mitigate damage.
Matchlock Musket, Otto enabler. Inflict unpreventable chip damage. (Underestimated)
Throwing Knife, Otto enabler, Unsavory Salve enabler, Last Word Enabler (underestimated)
Uppman’s Jacket, Otto enabler. Maybe have the +1 Influence be relevant
Last Word, unpreventable wound in combat even if bad RPT and possibly push people around (underestimated)
Move Along, issue additional challenge even while engaged
Press the Advantage, almost cut this card due to the 2-cost. Maneuver against an engaged enemy felt overcosted, but I figured I would hold onto them for the ability to engage and send home an enemy in case I happened to build up cards in hand.
Bleed Out, finish off a character weakened by chip damage
Not Today, panic added the 2nd copy over 2nd Uppman’s Jacket Friday night to protect against potential shenanigans like Yevgeni or Heroic End, which scarred me early in my playtesting against myself.
Uneventful day 1. Day 2 The Don left unguarded and engaged. Challenge once (accepted) get some damage in leaving him at 3 health. Well-Equipped to En garde and challenge again, can’t be refused or death. Follow up with Matchlock Musket or Fight Through the Pain combat card to push more threat than can be blocked.
Unremarkable day 1 and 2. On day 3 I have 3 renown to opponent’s 4. 3 renown on the Docks, 2 on the Grand Bazaar. I get greedy and try to control both the Docks and the Grand Bazaar to win that day. Soline player adeptly dances around and uses trickanery to gain control of the docks and threaten victory. I attempt to use a combination of Claude de la Roche, murder, forced interventions, Press the Advantage, Dark Gift and a Regroup to take and hold the Docks with less overall influence (Last Word in reserve with a Polished Flintlock on the board to enable). Night of Drinking and Taunt hold me off. I’m left with just an En garde Rena equipped with a Throwing Knife at the location, in addition to a bunch of other engaged characters with random attachments including a Duckfoot Pistol.
I think I’m beat. My opponent knows I’m beat. It looks like a Renown win for him, but I go into the tank (think about all of my possible lines for an extended period of time). Eventually I come out of the tank and use Last Word to push my opponent’s engaged Carmella Vanessa Salvaggi off the location (since her once per day is still available). Then Rena, equipped with a Throwing Knife, challenges Soline with 2 wounds. My thought is that if Soline refuses, I do 3 wounds and can then use my Polished Flintlock and Duckfoot Pistol to finish them off. Right before initiating I realize that Duckfoot Pistol can’t hit leaders, so if my opponent refuses the duel, my opponent wins, as all of my characters are engaged out, I only have 1 card in hand, and I can’t do the last wound to finish Soline. Having no other paths to victory, I initiate the challenge anyway and hope my opponent makes a mistake and accepts.
My opponent accepts the duel. He immediately gambles into Robbery to steal Rena‘s Throwing Knives and bring her back down to 2 combat for restricted hostilities. Soline takes 1 damage going to 3 wounds (4 resolve remaining). I gamble, Rena survives and puts out a decent amount of threat, but we are once again at a point where if my opponent just takes the 2 damage they win. Instead, he gambles into Life in the Canals. After thinking about it for a while, my opponent decides to draw instead of making me discard my last card (since I still had a gamble left). Soline takes 1 or 2 more damage.
I play my card in hand for combat afraid of my opponent flipping a second Life in the Canals and making me discard. He defends enough to stay at at least 2 Resolve. I use my last Gamble, he defends and goes down to 1 Resolve. Seeing I am out of Gambles (Soline’s -1 Finesse), all of my characters are engaged, and I have no cards in hand. Opponent offers me his hand to shake for his victory. I calmly ask if he passes. Confused he does a quick scan of the board and says he passes. I activate my Polished Flintlock to shoot the engaged Soline, and then offer my hand.
Assassination Victory. 2-0
This was one of the best examples of “playing to your outs” I have had in any game. Instead of conceding after failing to disrupt the guaranteed Renown win that we both devoted a ton of time to working through, I ran through all of my options until I found a possibility. Then, even though I knew my opponent could survive it, I forced him to play perfectly again (without having perfect information of my hand), after perfectly rebuffing my Renown assault just before. This surprised him and made him claim he made a mistake previously which he dwelled on. Finally, after the relief of surviving the duel and thinking I was completely out of the game, he relaxed and passed. He ended the game with Improvising in hand which could have been used on the Fight Through the Pain in my discard pile to heal his Soline back to 2 Resolve due to the stolen Throwing Knives.
Day 1, I just barely managed to fend off a turn 1 Domination victory. I have been using Midnight Shipment and Let’s Haggle all tournament and have taken the first action on almost every single day so far. This enabled me to effectively blank my opponent’s muster of Cirilo Naucriparos as I beat him to the single strong Merc flip from the city deck.
Over the next couple days, I continue to get my pick of Mercs from the city deck to the point of having to send one to the locker on day 3 or 4. While doing so, I also manage to pick off and/or whittle down his characters while generating a 5 to 2 renown lead. My opponent concedes.
This was also the first round with the story-based game alterations. In this one, Eisen was in control of the forums, so anyone had to win a pressure by 2 to take control of that location for the day. It was a fun addition, but I do not remember it having much of a gameplay impact. Due to the concession, we agreed Eisen was in control of it, as I had the character power to do it.
Having just seen and discussed the Vodacce turn 1 Domination potential last game, I was particularly on my guard to make sure I did not succumb to it. Guaranteed turn 1 Alcee and Angelo is pretty scary.
This was the second round with a lore-based gameplay modification. In this one, the Crystal Eye was added to the Grand Bazaar first, in addition to the random City card added on the first day. I wanted to chase the story reward, but Captain’s Coatspawned on the Forums, and I was way too scared to let Vodacce have it. (I also think the card on the Docks was either weak or irrelevant, Siren’s Scream?) Due to this, I opened with Let’s Haggle, still out initiativing Plans within Plans. I sent Kaspar to the forums to guarantee my opponent didn’t get Captain’s Coat. He went to the Grand Bazaar to get the Skull. I used my City Action on Let’s Haggle to have Kaspar take the Skull without the -1 discount. I then went on to take the Coat later.
I do not remember if my opponent sent any character to claim the Coat at a later time, but if not, I regret spending the 3 cards to pick it up, after initially denying it to the Don. While I still wanted it to enable me to still parley with characters and/or initiate challenges while leaving my claim action available, the 3-card cost was expensive when combined with the Skull putting me on 1 card on the first turn. This most likely hampered my ability to play some of my strong cards later in the game. At minimum, I think I would have preferred to at least draw an opponent’s character to the location if he got greedy enough to try to take it. In the end, it was Shoddied before I ever used it, netting me -1 card advantage for no benefit (aside from denying it to my opponent which was probably worth it, since it can be very hard to kill off a Vodacce’s characters).
The next mistake I made was getting too comfortable not being challenged. For my first 3 games, I was definitely the combat aggressor. So, in this game, I equipped a Matchlock Musket to Otto without really thinking. I had other actions to take which had higher priority (no idea what they were), and then one of Vodacce’s characters came and snuffed out Otto denying me a bunch of potential value and effectively causing me to lose 2 cards in hand for nothing, one of which being Musket which I have come to value tremendously for combat (especially with Terrell in after Gen Con games).
Things were starting to look up in day 3? as I got to recruit Maryam Benu Pleroma, an excellent fighter with some protection from shenanigans. No protection from the non-targeting Veronica’s Guile Maneuver though which hurt, as sending her home prevented my own shenanigans. I also want to take this moment to thank the Judge staff for answering all of the rules questions throughout the entirety of the event, especially as there were a bunch of new players without a ton of experience (like myself, although I probably had more games under my belt than the majority of players there). All of you judges were great and excellently dressed in character.
In the end, things were looking quite good, I was either about to win or still in good shape, but a well-executed combination of getting Alcee killed and then bringing her back with Bravos to reclaim the last location secured the win for my opponent.
Thinking back on it further, I am convincing myself more and more that actually paying for the Coat (if my opponent didn’t move in to buy it) was a mistake. Those 3 cards could have been a paid Press the Advantage, Move Along, Well-Equipped, Appealing to the People, or even Last Word, Regroup, Stratege to either kill/engage Alcee or at least mess with the influence math to prevent the location from being retaken; although, who’s to say if I would have had the discipline to hold onto one of those, probably not. I will now though. (If I see a potential line for my opponent to kill Alcee, while having at least 2 cards in hand, with a location that just needs someone to initiate a challenge to steal it back.)
Renown Loss. 3-1 (don’t think it was a Domination loss, but might have been)
This was the matchup I was most worried about because I was afraid of getting smushed. However, I had a plan. Assassinate Yevgeni.
In my 2nd game testing against myself, I ran Yevgeni into Odette and Yevgeni came out with 3 wounds over multiple rounds to Odette’s 0. It made me realize that a protracted duel with Yevgeni (using a seemingly more standard/defensive dueling strategy that I have since abandoned) was actually a liability, and the best way to sideline a Ussura player was to make Yevgeni unable to fight.
Day 2, Sigurd Ulfsen flips up, the best anti-Ussura city deck card in the game. Utilizing Sigurd to protect Maryam (now equipped with a Langshwert) from getting initiated on, I chase Yevgeni down and inflict 8 wounds onto him while only taking 5 (propped up by the Cuirass). After Day 2 I have 1 Renown at most to my opponent’s 3 or 4.
Day 3, Yevgeni dodges Maryam, so I go after a different character with her. Opponent does a sick Sunder on my Cuirass instantly causing Maryam to die to her 5 wounds before I can send threat back to finish them off. From here, however, my focus on hunting Yevgeni and his crew while preventing Yevgeni from initiating challenges on my major players has begun to pay dividends. I am able to come back from my Renown deficit investment (with some help from my opponent’s refusal to capture the Docks so Ussura won’t get framed for the murder of a Musketeer [story-line effect, also made all damage at the Docks lethal, which did not come into play].
Day 4, I collect enough Renown to win the game.
Renown Win. 4-1
Game 6 (Top 16): Opponent Didn’t Show
Unfortunate as I would rather play than get a free win, but it happens. Got some sweet promos.
Interesting to note the top 5 was all Vodacce (with only 9 Vodacce players) except for me as Eisen in 3rd. I was also the only Eisen in top 16 (only 9 Eisen players as well). Overall a very balanced distribution of factions which surprised me.
After seeing the crazy movement capabilities of the last Castille player, I am cautious and deliberate not to open myself up to any mistake-punishes. My opponent and I both agree that Castille is overall weaker and the Castille player must punish mistakes to win, so he is very deliberate to not miss any. Translation, we both took a long time to think through our moves.
Day 1. Castille gets off to the better start gaining control of the 2 Renown Grand Bazaar and the 1 Renown Docks. No one controls the Forums with 1 renown on it. I have the ability to use Midnight Shipment‘s City Action to move Ravenna Destine in and claim it (since I recruited both her and Adelheide Schmidt from there), but if I do, Soline can reaction in, claim it, and win with Domination. So I hold and hope my opponent gets greedy, forgets about Midnight Shipment‘s City Action, and moves in to claim it. He does. I Midnight Shipment over to the Grand Bazaar and split the influence 2 to 2 (also avoiding Domination loss).
Day 2, I refuse to accept a good thing. He has control over the Grand Bazaar, I have the forums with equal Renown on both. He’s at 3 cards in hand with a bunch of characters up. I have 8 with Kaspar at home and a bunch of engaged characters. He passes. Not wanting to discard, I equip Kaspar with Dark Gift. Opponent passes again. I agonize over whether I should accept, but I get greedy and send Kaspar to the Docks to try to claim another Renown instead of taking my 3 card advantage into day 3. He passes, and I get even greedier.
I say, “whelp, will see if this loses me the game,” and I activate Kaspar’s Engage ability to find a merc (since I think only Takama Siad was available that day). I flip Vladislav Novikoff…against a non-dueling deck…a character with no influence…when 1 influence was all I cared about…sadness. Of the remaining mercs in the deck, I had a 7 of 11 chance of hitting a character with influence, but those odds probably weren’t good enough to risk not claiming the location, especially since only Maryam of those weren’t just awful for me (Kalla Forsberg would have been okay, usually solid for me). My opponent then acts, and I am forced into burning 4 of my 6 cards to hold him off while playing around Makepeace Botwighte. I do manage to hold it with a lethal challenge that gets intervened in by the last En garde character, but before that I forget about Makepeace and Dark Gift my engaged Kaspar in having him take Eko Sorridi damage +1 more from something else for leaving, just for him to be sent home. Around this time we get a warning that time will be called shortly.
Going into Day 3, I know the game won’t wrap up before time is called, but I do not remember the tie-breakers/order. I vaguely remembered something about wounds, so I quick try to heal while holding my opponent off from claiming the high Renown location. Time gets called. We have equal renown. No one controls any locations. The Castille player has more total influence and wins the game.
Timeout Influence Tiebreaker Loss 5*-2
It is unfortunate that the game was called on time but completely understandable as we were both taking inordinate amounts of time to think through our moves. That being said, it was a great game with a lot of interesting decisions to make and good learned lessons, honestly no hard feelings. Going first each day also protected me from the Adaptable Domination win that my opponent accidentally revealed to me before realizing he wasn’t the first player.
Post-Tournament Deck Thoughts/Card Analysis
Major takeaways from the event were
Always going first with Midnight Shipment and Let’s Haggle in addition to occasionally the others was incredibly powerful for getting to all of the Mercs/attachments from the City Deck I wanted
The City Action on each of those and Armed and Marshalled were all incredible/unexpected by my opponents
Turn 1 Domination is real and scary especially as I’m a value deck
Whiffed 8 times trying for an attachment with Otto, want more attachments
Rena did work, although Langshwert was the true hero
Fight Through the Pain is one of the best cards in the game, supports overwhelming-force combat ideaology (briefly send as much threat as possible, ideally 2 or 3 above your restricted hostilities)
Otto, added in 2nd copy of Uppman’s Jacket and 2 copies of Corpse Speak almost exclusively to raise the odds of hitting with Otto to get an extra card to discard to costs. Due to all of the whiffing, he was very underwhelming a lot of the times, but I haven’t given up on him yet.
Rena, did not use her Engage a weapon to intervene ability once, but wrecked some face with her 3 Combat 3 Finesse when she had a Langschwert equipped. Throwing Knives was also a reasonable 0-cost way to get her up to 3 combat.
Daniella, came in only a couple times when I had strong mercs. Strong in those situations though. Okay duelist against pacifist factions. Is the only user for the addition of the Corpse Speaks.
Terrell, didn’t particularly shine in the tournament but in post-tournament games has been a major standout. Being able to play Musket from hand followed by Panzerhand without losing either after the duel is incredible. 5 resolve is major as well.
Rosine, considered using her to help me prevent the domination victory, but basically never particularly felt like bringing her out as my combat was doing so well. Ultimately cut her for Phillip Hase
Phillip Hase, the movement reaction on equip feels so good to have in my pocket. The 2 influence feels nice too. (And another 3 combat character is always appreciated with the amount of combat I initiate.)
Midnight Shipment, fantastic. The “I go first” card (highest initiative) that can flip up another strong card to take (or get taken). The movement City Action is also fantastic for catching people off-guard, like sending your newly recruited Merc off to fight an engaged character.
Let’s Haggle, fantastic. Effectively a second “I go first” card. Attachments are generally great to flip up for combat based decks as well. The ability to snipe the attachment while not on the Grand Bazaar is quite nice, as is the discount to maintain card advantage.
Song of Eisen, I keep it for the almost guaranteed Renown gain but rarely play it.
Faction
Corpse Speak, attachments 17 and 18 for Otto reliability. Will be played very infrequently for its effect, however, there are quite a few reasonable Risks worth having Daniella replay.
Kaspar’s Panzerhand, great with Terrell. Might be nice against Montaigne, but I have yet to spend 2 to equip it, and I doubt I will often…ever?
Langschwert, one of the best cards in the deck. The ability to throw an extra threat in your challenge and then to stack another on your haymaker follow up is enough to kill a lot of characters. 0-cost too. So good.
Polished Flintlock, only came down once, but I was giggling about it for a couple days afterwards (maybe played twice). With Opulence upped to 2-of, it seems quite nice if I only have to spend 1 card for it. The threat of 1 more damage is definitely worth it and having another Last Word enabler is great.
Unsavory Salve, never played it. Somewhat afraid of Shoddy, but mostly I fought factions where I didn’t want the duels to end, no Montaigne opponents, and I was hunting boar. Stays in the deck as an attachment for Otto though. Likely gets pushed out as new attachments become available.
Breastplate, never wanted to play it in combat unless to potentially fend off a final strike. Never wanted to use 2 cards (itself + 1) to equip it. Otto fodder.
Matchlock Musket, oh man I think people are sleeping on this card. The 5 threat is absolutely incredible as it allows you to overwhelm an opponent’s dueling defenses. It seems like a lot of people are enamored with cards that give 3 Riposte/Parry (I was too), but if you play a Musket with a Langschwert charge on a 3 combat hero, there 3 defense becomes literally meaningless. Turns their Appealing to the People into an Opulence. I did this to so many players and they just stared at it until they realized they just lose to it. The fact that Terrellcan play this for free is incredible. The fact that Otto pulls it is great. The fact that you can also equip it to finish off a wounded card and then keep pumping out damage is delicious but generally its secondary function. This is the poster child of overwhelming-force combat. It isn’t about surviving your opponent’s threat with Riposte/Parry on your Gambles, its about surviving with Resolve and killing them almost instantly, even if it costs a card from hand. (Then you can gamble after to mitigate some of the return threat.)
Throwing Knife, quite reasonable at enabling Rena and other “equipped” effects like Well-Equipped. The extra thrust can matter too and if it inflicts a wound, it is a better return-on-investment than all of my other unpreventable wound inflictors like Bleed Out.
Uppman’s Jacket, Otto fodder. Not a bad card and the +1 Influence can certainly matter, but Kaspar’s 4 on recruit is usually enough.
Fight Through the Pain, one of the best cards in the game. For the same overwhelming-force reasons as Musket, it trades the valuable attachment tag for a wound heal that happens after restricted hostilities. So, if someone Musket+ Langschwerts me with a 3 combat character, as long as I don’t die, this effectively has 4 Parry, in addition to the 5 thrust. Chef’s kiss. Even though I brought it for the action heal, I would be hard pressed to ever not save it for combat, but it can get you above the 3 health threshhold to enable one round of surviving combat or refusing duels etc. Bring me all of the cards that effectively negate R/P defense.
Iron Reply, meh. Haven’t gotten into many situations where this can just finish off a character. Next card I would cut if I have to. Considered running New Strategies over them, but I don’t want to completely cut off the Renown win.
Last Word, 0-cost enemy movement is so helpful in so many ways. Move out a possible intervener. Push out influence to enable a claim. Send someone over to your smasher, etc. This card did so much work for me and no one ever saw it coming.
Move Along, great, additional challenge to kill a character or send them home engaged for 2 total cards.
Press the Advantage, I still never want to pay for this as combat card, unless I’m about to get an Assassination. But, the ability to engage and send someone home is so strong, especially since I frequently have a card advantage with Otto (post attachment increase) and Kaspar’s 4 influence recruit.
Regroup, decent movement tool. Usually don’t want to be the one ending duels. It stays for the movement.
Stratege, a wanted more movement after seeing the Vodacce/Solines out there. Never played it in the tournament … or after yet…However, since it is not a “City” Action, it could even move my engaged characters out of home, so I can follow up with Well-Equipped or Move Alongs!
Appealing to the People, if it lets me En garde, it is solid, but the requirement to control the location is not meaningless. 3 Parry isn’t terrible against those final gambles.
Bleed Out, finishing off a character is worth 2 cards. 1 Riposte 3 Thrust isn’t bad either.
Not Today, cut entirely as I was the threat, not the threatened. Did save Otto from a Yevgeni once though. Not worth including… probably
Opulence, deck contains a bunch of 2 cost cards and I am frequently chasing down city cards. With the deletion of Not Today, the odds of flipping two terrible gamble cards for maintaining a duel are acceptable
Shoddy Craftmanship, why kill the attachment when you can kill the character? (Cut)
Tending the Wounded, used once to heal 4, was okay. 3 parry is fine, other cards are better. (Cut)
Conclusion
I really enjoyed the game, and the distribution model lets me mess around with whatever deck I feel like without having to chase down cards etc. Really enjoying the game, the festival/judges were great, story is a definite plus with a cool writer, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the overwhelming force doctrine maps onto the other factions.
