Cratos 1 - Son of a @#$&%!!!!!

[Tomeeboy]

I'm about to the point where I want to take the Culdcept CD out and break it in half! I know, blasphemy, but I'm really getting that frustrated with this tournament. I've been stuck on Cratos 1 for the entire week and CANNOT win. Anyone who says the computer doesn't cheat should watch me try to win the first round of this tournament, it's ridiculous. I've tried different decks and strategies, but no matter how well I do, I eventually lose every time. If I see the computer skip past another chain of four consecutive level 3+ territories I'm going to throw up... oh, and I like it even better when Selena and Pickett choose to hit me with every spell they have, even if I'm in last place and losing by 3000G. It's also nice how they can land on every tower and castle, enabling them to use the territory command about every 2 or 3 turns... and don't forget the "1" you roll every time you think you'll make it past a spot, or how the computer magically knows to level up the one land you're going to land on next turn. Don't even get me started on how they look at your cards and know exactly what you have and what you're going to use in a battle.

The last game I played was especially frustrating... I had a great start and was destroying them (had Selena saying "This is terrible", or whatever she says when losing)... I was using a mostly green/red deck (some yellow and blue for Damphir and Yeti) and had some big chains of high level territories. I had around 8000G when the other two were around 4500G. I just needed to make one more lap to raise the last 1000G I needed. Well, I guess my luck just completely ran out because I pretty much hopped from high level territory to high level territory (not mine). Most of their high levels were also red or green spots so I had saved the Damphir and Yeti in my hand for emergencies, along with some defensive and offensive items. In what would have been my last lap, I landed on a total of 4 high level territories, 3 green and 1 red. How many times do you think the Damphir and Yeti cards came through for me? Yeah, ZERO (and yes, I used them every time). The fourth spot I landed on put Selena over 9000G one turn before she passed the castle and won.

Is the rest of the tournament somehow easier? or do I get to do this crap all over again if I finally manage to win the first round? I'm pretty sure that in an attempt to make the AI seem smart in this game, the developers basically enabled it to cheat or occassionally have extreme amounts of luck. Just like what the developers of racing video games do... ever play a racing game where the AI crashes or something and you get a huge lead over it, but then it magically catches back up and is right on your tail? However, when you crash, you can't catch up with the AI to save your own life. Feels like the same thing with this game, except a little more extreme... instead of the AI being able to catch up when you have a huge lead, it just pounds you into the ground right from the start. Very frustrating

[Tomeeboy]

Hm.. Selena & Pickett must read this message board, I think they finally decided to give me a break... I gave it one last try before throwing my PS2 through my television and finally won! Beat them really bad too... After 38 rounds, I finished with 11815G, Selena had 1495G, and Pickett had 2163G. They deserved every bit of it too! I'm sure a lot of luck was involved though... I managed to place a Boggart (2x toll fee) very early on and leveled it to 5 right before Selena landed on it, and that turned out to be the startup funds I needed to go on a leveling spree She took the spot later in the game with a penetration item, but it was already too late (thankfully, I was sweating it a bit).

They did manage to get some revenge on me with the reward though... only cards that stand out as being useful are Death and Backward... no good creature cards

[Chingis]

Congrats on your hard won victory! Hang in there, I remember my first trial at Cratos with Selena and Pickett and they wiped the floor with me. As you get more cards, you will find that you have a much larger variety of strategies to choose from (obviously ;D) and can counter a lot of the "luck" in the game. I would care to venture that every Cepter goes through tough spots and feel the same frustration at some points - mine was the first time I played Balberit and Ryvern, and to this day, every time I beat one or both of them, I always nod quietly and say "paybacks a bitch"
Anyway, good luck with the rest of the game.

[Daimaoh34]

I feel your frustration, as I too was stuck on Cratos 1 for the longest time. It probably took me 6+ tries before I even got close to winning, and a few more tries to finally triumph.

Don't know if this is any consolation, but after I beat Cratos 1, I went on a winning streak of about 9 wins or so against story mode characters (both in story mode and versus mode), so hopefully the same goes for you too.

[pietyvamp]

I was lucky enough to obtain two copies of Old Willow and two copies of Kelpie by this point and used them to punish the rat and the brat. Anytime they actually had the money to pay the cute little seahorse from hell they immediately ran into the pickpocketing tree which they couldn't beat neither. So imagine that situation with two four chains and the magic drain traps set at lv 5 each lol. They died very quickly needless to say.