Well, I just got my Cacaphony AP - very nice, overall - and I was looking over some of the power cards from the pack, notably Bloodbath , which I am planning on incorporating into my Agency deck (who wouldn't, given how strong Agency is in the Combat Phase ?).

However...while reading over it, a question immediately came to mind.

The wording of the card says

" Action : During all (Combat) struggles this turn, the player who wins this struggle [any and all Combat Struggles that might take place in the turn - additional clarification here is mine] ...may wound an additional character committed to that story for each (Combat Icon) he won the struggle by."

- The question that comes to mind right away are...

1.) do you (the guy who wins the combat Struggles)...get to CHOOSE the characters that must receive the extra wounds.

2.) do you get the option to shove multiple wounds on a single enemy. Example...you win the Combat Struggle by 3-wounds....you get to "wound an additional character for each Combat you won by ...." - which in this case is +3....so could you throw all 3-extra wounds on a single enemy with Toughness, in an effort to take them out ?

3.) how is the actual amount of "Bonus Wounds", granted by this card, actually calculated ? The card lacks wording which says "note that you must win the Combat Struggle by at least 2-icons to get any benefit from this card" ....

SO...to "win" the Combat Struggle (or any other Struggle, of course) you have to have AT LEAST 1-more of that Icon than your opponent does, when you actually Resolve the story. So...BY DEFAULT you would already be "up 1-Combat Icon" - meaning you would have won the struggle by +1. A "on the face of it" reading of this would suggest you would naturally get to inflict 1-Wound (chosen by the opponent per normal rules) for winning the Combat Struggle naturally...THEN....assuming you had played Bloodbath before you committed your characters (per the rules for when you can play Bloodbath) .....would that mean you got to inflict *ANOTHER* wound thanks to Bloodbath ?

This would suggest that you could do some hellacious damage with Bloodbath, with very little effort. You win the Combat Struggle by +1 ....thanks to Bloodbath, you end up getting to inflict 2-Wounds..... if you win by +2 ...you get to inflict 3-total-wounds ?

Thoughts on all of this, or observations which I might not have noticed at first glance ?

I think you've got it right - and that explains the card name, "Bloodbath"!

As far as I know you have it correct. This works in many ways just like the Halflings do. But that it's at every story, and not character specific.

Note: I'm I'm not sure why you added your emphases since it says the same thing the card does.

* emphasis was for clarity's sake - because I wanted to be sure to focus on the distinction between the "normal" wound you always inflict when you win a Combat Struggle (by whatever amount of Icons) - compared to any potential (additional) wounds you are getting to do from Bloodbath.

- I'm curious though, that neither of you seemed to think there was any restriction on it ...so you think (as I have, so far) that YOU (the person playing Bloodbath) - actually get to "Choose and Wound" - whichever characters you want, with those "bonus wounds" .....and you can freely "stack" the extra wounds on anyone you wish ? (normally the opponent gets to choose who is wounded ....first.... and this would still be the case, even when Bloodbath was played....but after the opponent assigns that "normal wound" - you are okay with me being able to direct any and all "bonus wounds" to whoever I want, dividing them in any way that I want ?).

I just want to be sure I (and my friends) interpret this card correctly, since it is clearly one of the more powerful (potentially) ones they've put out in a while. The only weakness/drawback to it is that you must play it "up front" - so your opponent knows it is active before they decide to assign blockers...

The wording as written does say to wound an additional character. The difference with Halflings (where the loser chooses which to wound) is that halflings says the loser must receive additional wounds. If I recall (and this is 100% from memory so I may be wrong) the rulebook also refers to the loser receiving a wound and not the winner wounding. So yes, I think the winner can pile on wounds etc.

(Where I was confused with your clarification is it seemed like you were trying to clarify that it was "any and all" combat struggles. I didn't see that you were trying to make a clarification about the wounds.

Rosh87 said:

1) Actually I think the defender gets to choose which additional characters are wounded since Bloodbath doesn't say the active player gets to choose (this is the way the Halflings were clarified, too).

2) I'm not sure if in the case of characters with toughness, the defender would be allowed to choose the same character several times. The wording here is a bit more specific than the Halflings version.

3) I don't see any ambiguity here. If you win because you have the same number of combat icons than the defender but you have more 'Fast' characters committed, you don't get to wound an additional character. If you have more combat icons, you get to wound that many additional characters (assuming there are that many additional characters).

Personally, I think, you will rarely wound any additional characters with this card. Since you have to play it in your own story phase before committing any characters, it's main purpose lies in the threat of wounding additional characters. If the defending player doesn't see any way to win the combat struggles, he simply will not commit any characters. So, to see some actual additional wounding, you'd have to surprise the defender in some way, say, by adding 'The Cats of Ulthar' after the defender has committed.

Right (Jhaelen) - the way to make it work would be to use it in conjunction with a "Surprise" ! - factor card, like Cats - or Intervention, or something to that effect that instantly can boost a characters Combat Icons (Event cards) - but opponents will generally be fearful of such a thing and might not send someone in ...period...if they think you have such cards in your hand.

However...it's interesting that you think it would NOT allow the person who played Bloodbath (and won the Combat struggle, of course) - to choose how the wounds get assigned....yet the others above us (in the thread) - think opposite, seemingly. This is a pretty big distinction since allowing the player to CHOOSE who gets wounded...and potentially how many times, when assigning the Bonus Wounds, makes Bloodbath go from "maybe useful now and then...maybe" - to "potentially very useful" and drastically changes how powerful it is, overall.