INWO Deck - Alternative Government? Excellent, Dude!

by James Eddleman

Introduction

Ever since Assassins! arrived, I've been trying to use its Special Goal. This is not as easy as is seems because Clone Arrangers is a popular group in my neck of the woods. And when it comes out its not too long before its Cyborg Soldiered or Necronomiconed, making it tough to count your Secret groups double. So, my strategy was to boost other Secret groups and kill/capture Clone Arrangers later. I also added Hail Eris with W.I.T.C.H. and Hackers just in case it failed. I almost won with this, but I was stopped, drat! :( Anyway, at this point I noticed I had 50+ power! And _ALL_ of it was global! Well almost all. Can you say 'Power For Its Own Sake'? I knew you could. Then someone posted a question about Libertarians inheriting doubled power(which it can't) for a Bavaria Deck, and this deck was born. Besides Libertarians, Lyndon LaRouche inherits power and (netrep confirmed) you can _double_ the power that they inherit. It's not often that these two get doubled, but it is a backup in case your other violent groups get destroyed and you are forced to take control of other players' groups. Disclaimer: the games I play in normally go to 12 groups. Therefore this deck may not be as effective when playing to 11. It looks like it will, but I give no guarantees.

The Deck

Illuminati

Groups

Resources

Plots

Strategy

Lead

Rosicrucians

It is VERY valuable for any deck to be able to look for plots. Besides who would guess someone who leads with a Power 1/1 group is going for Power? And if you do bounce, you just slowed someone else down. If you bounce, go for Fiendish Fluoridators, it has that all important science action to power Frankenfood for Texas. (Frankenfood adds any alignment to a place, alas there is no card that adds Fanatic to a group so this will have to do.) After that NSA, WITCH or one of the power inheritors.

Leading with Clone Arrangers

Whatever you do, don't go for Clone Arrangers, it's far too obvious for Illuminati. ;) Seriously, leading with this group is a controversial subject with me. I figure anyone who has this card will lead with it if they see the Society on the table. However, if you know no one else has it, or you feel no one will choose it for their lead, then by all means go for it. Cyborg Soldiers stands a good chance of showing up in your first set of cards and once linked, the Clone Arrangers will be difficult at best to get away from you (as long as you keep a token on it.)

Game Strategy

I always hate this part. Strategy depends so much on the cards you draw. Rosicrucians and Crystal Skull do help with plots but this deck really depends on the groups you draw and how you intend to win. You have two ways of winning, with Power for its Own Sake or your special goal. If you manage to be able to lead with Clone Arrangers or think you have a good chance of controlling it, go for the special goal. Otherwise you will probably be better off going for power.

If you plan to go for you special goal, get out your Secret groups first and then boost them any way you can. If you don't have very good groups, or happened to draw all of your resources, bring out Nephews of God as soon as you get it(start rolling low!) and/or spend Illuminati tokens to get more groups.

If you plan to go for power, still bring out a Secret group or two, lull your opponents into a false sense of security! Let them worry about how many Secret groups you have that are worth double. This will distract them from how much power you have. (Thank Aaron for that Bermuda idea!)

Remember the Society's special ability: global power for all your Fanatic groups and you _may_ treat the Fanatic alignment as the same as any other Fanatic. Whichever way you plan to go for the win, you may want to wait to place a doubled Texas under Libertarians. If you add a Fanatic alignment to Texas with Frankenfood and place it under one of your Secret groups, you have 12 global power to aid any attack made by that Secret group. This is a good way to go after Clone Arrangers if you need to. Make NSA Violent. Make a Cyborg Soldiered, Fanatic Texas a puppet of the Fiendish Fluoridators. Attack with Fiendish Fluoridators with a Jihad, aid with Texas (and any other puppet of FF) and aid with NSA using a Martial Law. You've got (in order, not including NWO's) 13 + 12 + 15 = 30 plus your agents makes it 40. The resistance would be at most 28 (with good polls). No other groups may aid or oppose your attack except Secret groups or Illuminati or groups that have a special ability that allow them to. This includes your power structure so be careful. Also, the only bonuses that count from non-Secret groups are those that are the master or puppets of the originating Secret group or the Secret target. Again, it would be a good idea to have another powerful Fanatic, Criminal or Violent puppet of Fiendish Fluoridators. CIA (with the other Cyborg Soldiers) for instance.

General Tips

On your first turn bring out a resource, no one can cancel/interfere with you on your first turn. If you have it, Flying Saucer is a good first choice. Once you have it out no one can stop you from bringing out resources unless they take Flying Saucer away from you. It's so nice being able to bring out resources and not have anybody be able to stop you!

When you bring out Libertarians or Lyndon it would be a good idea to move a group under them to boost their power to keep Cthulhu types from salivating over you.

When you take over Texas be sure to remember you can put 'This Was Only a Test' underneath it and not count it towards the five plots in your hand when its not your turn (I forget this repeatedly.)

Another thing I sometimes forget is NSA's special ability. Use it to look at your top plots to see what you are going to discard if you use Flying Saucer.

If OMCL and/or Nuclear Power are in the game, bring out Blivit. Blivit makes you immune to Nuclear Power and has an action that can cancel OMCL.

If you lose your Goal card you're going to have to go after Clone Arrangers. You do have an agent after all. :) You will probably have an easier (and get help) time attacking to destroy if Clone Arrangers is controlled by the player in the lead.

Use Charismatic Leader to boost Fiendish Fluoridators (if you lose your Goal card) or WITCH to get you closer to you 50 power.

Going for Power Tips

If you can't get CIA out, make Libertarians or Lyndon Violent and you can double the power they inherit.

End of the World will hurt you as much as help, so it's good to have Cliper Chip out if/when you play this.

If Phone Phreaks are in the game try to save the Are We Having Fun Yet if it tries to move a group or simply destroy it as soon as possible.

End Game

If going for power, you're going to need at least one group doubled, have Texas controlled by Libertarians and, NSA or CIA controlled by Lyndon. Play your NWO's to your advantage and move groups as necessary. Play only the NWO's that you need to reach 50. Someone may replace one or play Sweeping Reforms or cancel one. Whatever you do, do not play Chicken in Every Pot. Save this in case someone plays Interesting Times (see 'Disadvantages' section.) Save an End of the World in case someone plays Don't Forget to Smash the State. Try to get to 56 power that way if someone manages to destroy a Cyborg Soldier you can still win.

Reasons for certain cards(beyond the obvious)

Disadvantages

Bavaria

The Bavaria deck I occasionally play against has plenty of Violent Criminal groups including Texas, CIA and Clone Arrangers. If you play against this type of deck prepare yourself for a tough game. I haven't tried this yet but I'm thinking of replacing Texas with California and using an Assertiveness Training to make it violent so I can double its power. I would use New York but it's in the Bavaria deck as well.

Goldfish Fanciers

(Ugh!) Usually played by a Shangri-La Deck. Gives immunity to Fanatic groups. Very devastating. If this comes out _destroy it_ with a doubled Texas BEFORE you Frankenfood it.

NWO: Interesting Times, Option (a)

Spoiler: the only goal that counts is the number of groups controlled, no goal cards, no special goal, no double groups, nothing.

In my opinion, the single most devastating card in Assassins. Especially if no one has any more Blue NWO's. If this comes out and you have lost Chicken in Every Pot, you may be toast. You don't have enough groups if you play to 12. You do have enough power to take what you want, but expect HEAVY resistance because its easy to see how close you are to winning. Of course you could add in Partition and take out the other Texas if you play to 11.

Lack of Plot cancelers

This deck played pretty well even without them, but that was a four player game. You could probably take out one or maybe two +10 cards or the two Brushfire Wars and add some more in without affecting the deck too bad.

Other Options

Replace something with Death Mask. Link this along with Cyborg Soldiers to WITCH and with the End of the World gives you 8 global power you can add after the dice have been rolled to any attack on or by a Fanatic group, i.e. you can roll on a two. Boost WITCH to 6 first and you've got 14 to add!

Add Grave Robbers. If your Illuminati group plays with a lot of resources use this to look through your group deck for Flying Saucer.

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