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Various players rank the Mayfair Powers
Mike Kelly wrote:
>
> At times I have heard of strong powers referred to as Brutes, weak
> ones as Wimps, and there were some intermediate classifications. I
> haven't had enough opportunities to play CE to classify all of the
> aliens myself. What I would greatly appreciate is a list of the
> aliens (Mayfair edition please) with a ranking of 1 (wimp) to 5
> (brute) of their stand alone play strength. Assume a six-player,
> single-power game. I realize that with over 100 aliens this is alot
> of work, so even if anyone (everyone?) posted just of list of aliens
> they consider 5's and a list of aliens they consider 1's it would be a
> huge help to me. The idea here, for me anyway, is that when playing
> primarily with new people it would be best if all the aliens were
> chosen from a subset of the whole in which all the aliens were
> approximately equal in power.
>
> Thanks, Mike
1=Worst, 5=Best
Gerald Randy Mugsy Aaron Jonathan
Katz Simcox* Fuegi Daggar
Amoeba 2 3 3 2.5 2
Anomaly 2 3 2 3 2
Anti-Matter 4*G1 5 5 2 1
Aristocrat 4 5 n/r 5 5*J2
Assassin 5 3 4 3.5 4*J3
Assessor 5 n/r n/r 5 n/r
Aura 3 1 2 2.5 2
Berserker 4*G2 3 n/r 3 4*J4*G2 again
Boomerang 3 1 2 3 2
Bully 4 3 n/r 4 4
Busybody 2 1 2 n/r 3
Butler 3*G3 n/r n/r 3 n/r
Calculator 3.5*G4 3 3 2 1*J1
Cavalry 3 1 4 4*A1 4
Changeling na/ n/r 5*M1 3 5*J3
Chosen 4*G5 1 2 4 1
Chronos 5 1 5 2 3.5
Clone 5 1 4 3 3.5*J10
Connoisseur 5 5 5 5 4*J2*J10
Crystal 3 n/r 2 3.5 1
Delegator 3 n/r 3 3.5 4
Demon 2 3 4 4 4
Deuce 4 3 3 3 3
Dictator 5 5 5 5 5
Diplomat 4 5 4 4 4
Disease 3.5 3 3 4 2.5
Doppelganger 5 3 4 4 4*J10
Dragon 1-2*G6 n/r 2 n/r n/r
Empath 5 3 3 3 3*J4
Ethic 5 n/r n/r n/r n/r
Extortionist 5 n/r n/r 5 n/r
Filch 4 1 3 3 3.5*J10
Filth 4 3 5 4-5*A2 3.5
Force 1-5*G7 5 4 5 n/r
Fungus 5 3 5 4 4
Gambler 4 1 2 2 2
Ghost 4 3 3 3 3
Gnome 4 5 n/r n/r n/r
Gorgon 3 1 2 2 2
Grief 4 1 3 3.5 2
Grudge 3 1 2 3 3
Healer 4 3 4 4 4*J10
Hurtz 2 n/r 2 1 n/r
Industrialist 5 3 3 3 3.5
Insect n/a n/r 3 3 3.5
Judge 4 5 4 5 n/r
Laser 4 5 4 3*A3 2
Lloyd 1 n/r 5 1 n/r
Loser 5 5 1 3 2.5
Machine 3 1 4 3.5 4*J7
Macron 3.5 3 4 1*A4 1*A4 again
Magnet 3 1 2 5 4*J4
Mesmer 5 1 5 3.5 4*J5
Mind 4 1 3 3.5 3.5*J5
Mirror 5 3 3 2.5*A5 2*J1
Miser 2 1 2 3 3.5*J10
Mutant 4 1 3 2*A6 3
Negator 3.5 1 1 4 3.5*J5
Obverse 4 3 4 2.5 2*J2
Oracle 5 1 2 3.5 3.5
Pacifist 5 5 5 4 4
Parasite 5 5 5 5 5
Pavlov 3 3 3 2.5 2
Pentaform n/a 3 5 3.5 3
Phantom 4 3 3 4 2.5
Philanthropist 4 n/r 4 3 4
Plant *G8 n/r 5 4 5*J6
Prolong 1 3 4 2 2.5*J7
Prophet 2 3 1 3.5 4
Queue 3 n/r 2 n/r 1
Reincarnator n/a 5 5 3.5 4*J3
Reserve 5 1 1 3 3*J7
Schizoid 5 1 4 4*A7 4*A7 again
Seeker 4*G9 1 2 3.5 3.5*J5
Serpent 1-3*G10 1 1 4.5 3.5
Silencer 5 1 3 5 5*J6
Siren 1 3 1 3 2.5*J8
Skeptic 1 1 1 1 1
Sniveler 4 3 4 3 4.5*J3
Sorcerer 5 3 3 4 4*J4
Spiff 2 3 2 3 4*J3*J2
Sting 3 1 1 3 3*J7
Subversive 4 1 2 4 4
Symbiote 4 3 3 4 3*J9
Terrorist 4.5 1 1 4 5+*J3!!
Trader 5 5 5 3.5 3.5*J10
Vacuum 5 1 4 4 2
Vampire 5 5 5 4 4.5
Virus 4*G11 5 4 5 4.5*G11 again
Visionary 3 3 3 4*A8 4
Void 5 3 4 5*A9 2.5*J11
Vulch 5 1 3 5 4.5*J7
Warpish 5 5 5 4.5 5
Warrior 5 3 3 3 4
Will 3 1 2 3 5
Witch 2 5 4 5 5*J3!
Worm 1 3 2 1 1
Wrack 4 3 1 4 4*J3
Wraith 4 3 3 3 2*J12
Zombie 5 1 3 4.5 4
n/a = Not applicable. No specific rating given. Mentioned but not rated.
n/r = No rating given. Power not mentioned at all.
*G1 Allies can gang up on you. You can be stuck with high cards. Otherwise a 5
*G2 Treating Compromises as Attack 15s raises it from 2
*G3 Blasphemy on my part, I know :-)
*G4 Chance of backfire lowers it from 4
*G5 You're going to lose anywhere. Might as well try your luck
*G6 Depending how often players spend Lucre.
*G7 Depending whether or not players actually bother to pay you Lucre for
your power or just agree to never use you
*G8 Works with any power Strength 3 and up, too powerful for lower
*G9 5 if you ask the right questions
*G10 Depending on your persuasiveness
*G11 Allies gang up on you. You can be stuck with little tokens in
challenge. Otherwise 5
*M1 Changeling picks power in multipower game
*A1 In less than 6 player game would go down a notch.
*A2 In general, a 5. However, if it causes nobody to ally with you goes down
1-2 notches.
*A3 Makes compromise-compromise deals impossible. Too random.
*A4 Perhaps the only power I think may be worse to have than to not have.
Can never get more than 1 reward. In a game with something like
Assassin, can get bases wiped out trivially. Only is of any use
defensively.
*A5 Too random. Lucre and reinforcements can make it worthless when both
players play 9/19s or similar.
*A6 Depending on the game and how it is used can be very good or worthless.
*A7 With reasonable house rules on what are legal Schizoid conditions. If you
basically let anything go (player must be naked to win for example),
it is a 5 as conditions are so impossible to guess no one but Schizoid
can possibly win without zapping Schizoid.
*A8 Why do the rest of you rank Laser higher than Vis when Laser is Random and
Vis is not?
*A9 Primarily so good because of the fear factor it generates in one's
opponents and potential opposing allies.
*J1 All of these powers-- calculator, mirror, etc.-- are variations
on the same theme: second guessing your opponent. Your opponent and
you start guessing what cards you'll play and if you'll use flip cards/
signs/digits, etc. and, unless you're a good guesser, it comes down to
not much more than a 50/50 that you'll win. If you're good at guessing
or reading your opponents, crank it up a notch or two.
*J2 Slips down to 2 or 3 if there's a hand-stealing power like Trader or
Mutant in the game; they'll always grab for your hand.
*J3 Not necessarily powerful, but so much fun that it rates higher than its
brute force might give it.
*J4 Any power which can force your opponent's card into a compromise, and
emotion control edicts: beware the berserker's power, where
compromises turn into 15's.
*J5 Crank it up a notch if used wisely.
*J6 A true "oh-my-god-head-for-the-hills" power. Fear it.
*J7 Give it an extra 1 or 2 if assisted by a card-gaining power.
*J8 Crank it up a notch or two if you've got a good offensive power like the
virus or deuce.
*J9 Would be better except that symbiote tokens can't hold bases alone.
Any token-removing powers will ignore symbiote tokens and kill
bases by removing all your primary tokens.
*J10 Card-gaining powers like this one can make card-burning powers like
the Deuce, the Reserve or the Prolong really vicious.
*J11 Generates too much animosity to be effective. Other players WILL gang
up on you and band together for mutual protection. Plus, the best
part of this power is available to anyone: the Void Wild flare.
*J12 Too cumbersome to be worthwhile; any power with that much fine print
is annoying.
Notes.
>From Randy Simcox:
This is what we play with. A few of the powers have been modified by us
to make them more to our high standards so if it looks like it shouldn't
be in a certain group, it's probably a modified one.
(This seems like it just has to be the case for some powers like Vulch and
Silencer he has listed as Wimps(1). Also, note that he only rated powers on
a basically 1-3 scale so all his rankings are 1, 3 or 5. -Aaron)
>From Aaron Fuegi:
I nowadays mostly play a modified Eon version so am unsure of some of the
Mayfair powers. Those I am not sure of I left unrated. Also, as the original
post suggested, I have assumed a 6 player single-power game. Power selection
method was not specified but I am assuming a method which results in a
reasonably powerful game (example: deal 3, choose 1) for the purposes of
powers like Plant and such.
>From Jonathan Daggar:
I never play with lucre, so I left those considerations out. I did,
however, figure in the likely way people will react to your power, thus
the void(2.5) rates much lower. I also figured in how much fun they
are to play, thus the terrorist(6) and wraith(2) rate differently.