Villain Profile: N.I.M.

This week we continue our exploration of the villains in the Realm of Runes Card Game. Today's villain adds a healthy dollop of science fiction to the typical fantasy goulash that makes up the bulk of Realm of Runes. What happens when a party of adventurers goes toe-to-toe with a futuristic war machine? Today you get to find out!

N.I.M.

N.I.M. is a combat robot, and all of the quirks of its gameplay emphasized the cold, calculating ruthlessness that you would expect from such a foe. If you're expecting it to pull its punches or fight fair, you'll be sorely disappointed. Whereas other villains only use a number of their henchmen based on the number of characters your party has or keeps most of its henchmen randomized in a deck, N.I.M. uses all of its henchmen every time.

The henchmen in question represent N.I.M.'s important systems. Most of these do not activate on their own, but they do have Hit Points and can be targeted separately from N.I.M. itself. In fact, N.I.M. is available as a target right from the start of the game. While this might seem to make this encounter trivial, the interplay of N.I.M. and its systems is anything but.

Going Offline

Each of N.I.M.'s systems has its own Hit Points and can be defeated. When a system is defeated, it goes offline and is no longer available for N.I.M. to use. Taking key systems offline can make your task of defeating N.I.M. itself easier. The question is, of course, whether assigning that damage to a system is worth the trade-off of not attacking N.I.M. itself. This is an especially difficult question when taking a system offline is not necessarily a permanent solution.

Shields Up!

One of N.I.M.'s most critical systems is his shield generator. While this system is online, N.I.M. itself and all of its henchmen are immune to damage and cannot be staggered. Bringing down N.I.M.'s shields is always the first step in defeating the robotic menace and keeping them down will be a recurring task that is not easy. The shields also have the most Hit Points of any system, almost as many as N.I.M. itself.

Field Repairs

The other of N.I.M.'s most critical systems is the repair drone. This system is the only one that acts independently as a henchman that activates at the start and end of each player's turn, like normal. This system restores Hit Points to N.I.M. and its systems, following a predictable pattern, and can bring an offline system back online this way. Restoring the shields is the repair drone's top priority so, unless you take the repair drone down, you'll have to keep dealing with the small amounts of shield that the drone can bring back.

Of course, dealing with the repair drone is also not easy. At the end of each round of gameplay, N.I.M. attempts to activate the repair drone's special ability. If the drone is offline, though, N.I.M. brings it back online. This means that you're almost certainly going to have to bring the repair drone offline frequently, just like with the shields.

Weapons Hot!

Three of N.I.M.'s systems are weapon systems. At the start of the round, N.I.M. activates all of its online weapon systems. Because N.I.M. has epic initiative, though, this also happens at the end of every player's upkeep phase as well. This can cause N.I.M. to do an awful lot of damage very frequently. If you've gotten through the robot's shields, you can take these weapon systems down. This might make your life a little easier for a while, but if N.I.M. has no weapons systems to activate at all, it activates the repair drone instead. It might be helpful to leave one weapons system online, but do you leave the autocannon, the flamethrower, or the chainsaw?

Support Systems

As if weapons, shields, and a repair drone were not enough of a challenge, N.I.M. also has a few support systems to make things even harder. The booster jets keep the robot at long range, making it more difficult to deal the damage you need to take down the shields. The diagnostic module increases the effectiveness of the repair drone but also prevents N.I.M.'s ability to activate and restore the repair drone from being staggered. The targeting module increases all damage dealt by N.I.M.'s weapon systems and prevents his ability to activate them from being staggered.

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N.I.M.'s play experience is very different from any of the other villains in the card game. The robot may seem like an insurmountable challenge, but its algorithm is not super complex. If N.I.M. has a weakness, it's being predictable enough to be exploited. Being as ruthless and calculating as the robot itself can turn this encounter into a fun logic puzzle. So... are you ready to shut this robot down? Next time we'll return to the Tome of Whispers to continue exploring military combat, with a whole new style, so stay tuned!