Worst. Enemy. Ever.

Since trading wood for sheep isn't my idea of a fun game I enjoy games that feature conflict. Something that we gamers never think about though is how important it is to have a worthy foe to make a conflict stimulating. Perhaps it's because the vast majority of our foes are the classic opponents: battle hardened troops of the Third Reich, flesh hungry zombies, or grotesque orcs.

On Halloween night I gathered with my friends for an annual tradition of horror gaming/movie watching. I had recently gotten the Something Wicked expansion for the excellent A Touch of Evil board game and was eager to try it out.

A Touch of Evil is essentially Arkham Horror Lite, which makes the Unspeakable Horror villain in the expansion fit right in. All of us being fans of things that induce sanity loss, we played our first session against it and had a rousing time. Our next session wasn't quite so exciting.

I randomly chose the villain from the expansion's new cast and got the Bog Fiend. The Bog Fiend looks sorta cool, resembling a cross between a Saughin and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and has the interesting ability to cause the regions to sink into the countryside. Once a location is sunken no more adventuring can be done there. This creates a race against time as the heroes need to stop the Bog Fiend before too many areas are out of their reach.

Unfortunately the Bog Fiend only has one minion, a Mosquito Swarm.

Yes, that's right, your brave heroes are now reduced to playing the role of Dale Gribble. You fight bugs. Not even giant bugs. Just a lot of bugs.

How about giant man-eating frogs? Or giant alligators? Or giant ticks? Or will o' wisps?

"Foul fiend, I swear I shall track you to your lair and make you pay for evil ways. If you think you can stop me, send your worst!" A moment later a bug lands and is quickly squashed. Yep, epic conflict going on here.

Ah well, at least the other three villains in the expansion have cool minions.