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I had forgotten about Tetsuo Mori; he does seem good. I haven't actually played much with Steadfast -- I'm just scared of drawing it in the late game after I've been recklessly spending my health and sanity. But I have seen it used to good effect in three-player games and I wouldn't expect it to be a whole lot worse than with one or two-players. I will say that the ability to commit to other investigator's tests becomes increasingly important at higher play counts -- for this reason I still like Unexpected Courage, although those Will icons on Steadfast are useful for everyone.
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Dec 14, 2019 08:48
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We’re about to start the Return to Dunwich campaign. Since we played the og version the card pool has grown considerably and we’ve gotten a fair bit better at the game. Does Return increase the difficulty, or would we have more fun playing on hard? (We usually play at standard)
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Dec 14, 2019 14:03
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uncle blog posted:We’re about to start the Return to Dunwich campaign. Since we played the og version the card pool has grown considerably and we’ve gotten a fair bit better at the game. Does Return increase the difficulty, or would we have more fun playing on hard? (We usually play at standard) Increases difficulty but has some much needed bug fixes, like when climbing that fukken hill or the possibility of first turn kills on the train. It sounds like Carcosa needed less fixes so that return to box is less necessary than Dunwich. We're all waiting to see how they attempt to fix Forgotten Age.
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Dec 14, 2019 18:00
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jeeves posted:Increases difficulty but has some much needed bug fixes, like when climbing that fukken hill or the possibility of first turn kills on the train. Surprise, supplies from the skies! Test agility (6) or take two physical trauma crushing damage
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Dec 14, 2019 18:15
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Tommy Muldoon update : I tried a heap of Return to the Path to Carcosa (on hard) over the weekend to get a feel for how he plays and to check out the revamped campaign. I'll mention my thoughts on the investigator, the campaign (I'll use spoilers for specific Return bits but not general Carcosa info), and how my deck changed during the copious amounts of replaying I did. I mentioned last week that I was preparing for a TCU 3P campaign over Xmas (on hard, I'm going in blind but my teammates have done it before), so playing solo RttPtC means there will be a few significant changes to the deck, but I think I've got the gist of how Tommy plays. Firstly, here's the deck in it's current base incarnation : Tommy Muldoon - RttPtC (Beat Cop is a stand-in for Tetsuo Mori) I replayed Curtain Call and The Last King a lot, Echoes of the Past and The Unspeakable Oath a few times, and I'm currently up to The Pallid Mask, having just finished A Phantom of Truth (and only scoring 2XP - I'm not really familiar with it, having only played through the original back half of Carcosa once each). In the past I've felt like it was kind of cheesy to take specific silver bullet cards for a particular opening scenario, assuming you aren't going in blind, but now I think that kind of optimization is really how the game is intended to be played (with the whole concept of upgrading cards by replacing them, and the fact that Adaptable exists). The card I have in mind here is Fine Clothes, which you would never take if you were trying to make an all-rounder deck, but you would consider if you wanted to do well in The Last King. But then, if you're playing on a higher difficulty on a campaign you're already familiar with, I feel like part of the challenge (and fun) is optimizing your deck as much as possible, or to put it another way, trying to mitigate the bullshit as much as you can (spoiler : you will never mitigate all the bullshit). I didn't end up running with Fine Clothes, but it's kind of interesting in Tommy as another soak with a potential positive return, and it also makes me take a second look at Interrogate. But as much as I want to make bad cards with good synergy work, it's a lot better to just use good cards that have good synergy instead. So, for general advice on playing Tommy, what I learned is that Becky is everything. Your whole deck revolves around it; how early you get it out and how well you keep it stocked has a linear correlation to how well you perform in any scenario. I was originally using 1 x Prepared for the Worst, but it wasn't enough (even with 2 x Tetsuo Mori as well) so I added a second with a eye to replacing it once I got Stick to the Plan. I also learned that three weapons just isn't enough either, so I added 1 x .45 Thompson. It's a more expensive Becky, and while you don't want to see it as your only weapon on turn one, generally if you haven't found Becky by the mid-game (certainly possible) you'll easily be able to afford it because all of your asset recursion will have been generating cash for you instead of ammo. And speaking of assets, Tommy has basically two modes of play : before Rookie Mistake, and after Rookie Mistake. Before Rookie Mistake shows up you ideally want to get a Cherished Keepsake down and float one point of horror on it as quickly as you can so that it gets taken as soon as the weakness shows up. If you want to put horror or damage on an ally before Rookie Mistake hits, try to do it so that the ally dies before your next draw so you can get value out of it. But also, you don't want to be in a situation where Rookie Mistake triggers two, three, or even four times without taking anything because that's a lot of lost draws, so if you have to float points on an ally for that reason (or because that Guard Dog was really worth using) then do it anyway. After Rookie Mistake hits, you're free to float as many points as you like. The last thing I would say about asset management is don't be stingy with Becky. It's surprising how quickly you can burn through 4-5 ammo so keep piling it on unless you absolutely know you need cash for something. Becky is a real powerhouse. And now for some card analysis. I'll start with the Guardian block : 2 x Scene of the Crime It's a great card, but Carcosa doesn't have a lot of two clue locations so you don't get full value, and it does cost an action. I replaced it with Evidence, which still has synergy with On the Hunt, and it's... kind of the same really? I find both sit in my hand waiting to be used about the same amount, but Evidence feels better, at least in solo play. I'll definitely take SotC in my 3P TCU game. 2 x Daring Took this instead of Overpower, and it felt pretty good, though I did replace it fairly early for XP cards. The card draw is unconditional, and giving an enemy Retaliate isn't generally a huge deal with all the soak in the deck. 2 x On the Hunt Not as good as I thought it'd be, and I just replaced them for A Phantom of Truth. They were good for guaranteeing I wouldn't see a potentially crippling treachery in a key moment, but a lot of the time I already had an enemy or two on me and/or my ammo/action math didn't make it worth it to pull another one. Again, I think this card will perform much better in multiplayer when I can focus more on killing and not have to worry so much about my clue economy. 2 x Guard Dog Just great. Testless damage. Also saves actions when you intentionally trigger AoC, which I find I do more often than even with other Guardians simply because of the ammo/cash/action math. 2 x Vicious Blow Boring but simply too good to pass up. Killing three and five HP enemies saves actions and ammo. 2 x Enchanted Blade Chose this as my backup weapon for the Poltergeist enemies in Curtain Call, but to be honest it's a pretty good weapon in general. Good to play early if I don't have Becky or if I do have it but want something to fight with before my asset economy gets rolling. 1 x Dynamite Blast Always makes me smile when I draw it in anticipation of the massive, insane value I'm going to get out of it. And... sometimes I do! In all seriousness, though, it's often good value even if it only hits one thing. Side note : one of the new Return treacheries, Fragile Thoughts, is pretty annoying for it. And the Survivor kit : 1 x Trial by Fire Tried this early on for handling non-combat related tests or investigating in a pinch, but it just rotted in my hand most of the time. 2 x Live and Learn Good generally, and great for saving ammo, but kind of bad for attempting a test at parity expecting a failure just so you can play it, which is a habit I'm trying to break out of. 2 x Take Heart Great as always, and my only real card draw aside from Guts. Upgrades and Scenario analysis : Return to Curtain Call wasn't much different except for the increasing HP on the Encore dude which wasn't a problem for me. I found it better to grab my clues from Backstage rather than the Lobby. Actually, Curtain Call was kind of different with the replacement mythos cards. I prefer pretty much all of the alternatives. I was able to consistently get 4-5 XP from this scenario, but I got six on the one I took into The Last King. Upgrades : 1 x Charisma Standard Guardian no-brainer. In some of my initial runs I added 2 x Beat Cop (2) early after picking this up, but even with six followers I didn't feel like I needed a second Charisma because they cycle fairly quickly and/or I can't afford to play a third anyway. That might change if I also add even more, in the form of Agency Backup, which I definitely absolutely will do. I love that that card exists. 1 x Well Prepared Since my whole deck relies on getting Becky into play consistently, WP becomes essentially a guaranteed 2 x Combat boost per turn. Also useful for the 2 x Agility on a few tests or evasion attempts, in a pinch. 1 x Ever Vigilant Huge value, goes straight onto Stick to the Plan when I get it. The Last King is one of my favorite scenarios and I replayed it a hell of a lot, eventually realizing that you want to leverage the +2 resources or +1 draw locations as much as possible right away, depending upon who ends up there, of course. This scenario actually went a lot smoother for me when I still had Scene of the Crime because in most cases it was a lot easier for me to kill people than talk to them. I could actually consistently kill 4-5 of them after they turned, but then I was doing nothing else; wading through the corpses left no time to actually pick up clues. I have to say, the first few times I killed Sebastien Moreau I thought nothing of it, but then I had a streak where every time I met him the game decided nope, it was time for me to die, so for a while every time he appeared I was like  Also, one of the new Return treacheries, Shocking Display, is complete bullshit and introduces the wrong kind of variance to the scenario. I do like the new Dianne Devine though for that juicy 1VP. With SotC I was getting 5XP per run fairly consistently, but without it I was barely managing four most of the time. And that's what I went into Echoes of the Past with, banking it all so I could grab Stick to the Plan for The Unspeakable Oath. Echoes of the Past didn't seem much different, but I hadn't played it a lot before so I couldn't really tell. I replayed it a few times this run, learning that cultist whack-a-mole is the safest way to proceed (I expect as a Seeker you can just outrun them straight to the Hidden Library). I decided to wait in the library (after taking its clues) for the big guy who shows up at the end because he was dead easy to kill and it means you can collect both sets of 2VP. I think I got five in total, so I now had nine to spend. 1 x Stick to the Plan In my earlier runs I chose different upgrade options for the previous two scenarios, but after arriving again at The Unspeakable Oath I remembered how punishing it was on your action economy. The first time I played Carcosa was with Agnes, and I had a hell of a time surviving TUO. The same seemed true initially for Tommy simply because, like Mystics, Guardians don't have much in the way of free movement or similar action compression. I expect Seekers and Rogues fare a lot better in TUO, but anyway, I wanted Stick to the Plan for it so that I could guarantee Ever Vigilant and Prepared for the Worst. I also stuck a new card under it... 1 x Fool Me Once... RttPtC spoiler : Corrosion is loving gone! But Straitjacket remains, and was poison for Becky on my first few runs, hence me trying Fool Me Once... and it worked when I needed it so I'm going to call that a win. 1 x Well Prepared I liked how this was performing so I added a second one. So, The Unspeakable Oath. I usually play in ironman mode, but I was replaying these runs a lot for the purposes of familiarizing myself with Tommy's playstyle, along with the scenarios themselves. Still, since TUO is the first scenario where failure = game over, I decided that if I replay it at all I won't proceed to the next one. And I did replay it initially a few times, learning that the old action economy was still my biggest enemy here. So I started over with the goal of returning here with Stick to the Plan. It worked first time, due either to my excellent planning or perhaps simple variance, but I did get a huge shock when I found this new card : Radical Treatment. Like, what in the actual gently caress? I actually had four turns remaining when I entered Daniel's cell, my best run ever, and I only just made it out of the asylum on the last turn before reaching my horror limit and having to kill him. Two Guard Dogs mowed down Constance (one of the few survivors of that ill-fated party) as I strode from the basement to the garden, whereupon I made the final Agility check using Well Prepared on Becky. I ended up with 4XP. 2 x Beat Cop (2) I had been postponing these this time around for Stick to the Plan, but they were always going in. As I mentioned earlier, I'd only played A Phantom of Truth once before so I wasn't sure how different it would be, but it seemed like a pretty easy scenario compared to everything else before it. Frozen in Fear still loving sucks, but I didn't come across anything else too problematic from the mythos deck. This post is probably too long, so my final thoughts on Tommy are that I wonder if another path might be to not focus on Becky and just buy other good Guardian weapons. But then if you take more weapons than non-weapon assets you're not really utilizing his ability as much, nor are you getting as much out of it, even if it's only extra cash. And final, final note : if the Ancient Evils replacement in Return to Dunwich wasn't a tacit admission by FFG that Ancient Evils is a piece of atrocious game design then the new RttPtC replacement seals the deal. Looking forward to the Forgotten Age themed replacement already.
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Dec 17, 2019 04:39
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Kalko posted:Stuff I appreciate the long writeup. Some thoughts: I'm still not sure if Becky is the way to go, especially on hard. One of the advantages that a lot of the non-timeworn brand high xp guardian weapons have on hard is that they have much higher bonuses to hit. Often overkill on normal, but on hard much more of a benefit. Also keeping Becky running will somewhat take away Tommy's advantage of getting money from cards. Of course, you can compensate by using xp you'd normally use on weapons into boosts (like well prepared). I also saw a deck with someone using the grenades which I thought was interesting-they don't take up a slot so can be used for some AoE damage and recurred with Mori. I also think 2xCharisma is necessary-you'll want to have a beat cop or two up just to boost your fight, and even with cycling through your allies you want to make sure they can be played when needed. I think Tommy wants to run 7 (2x Dogs, Mori, Cops, 1x Agency Backup). I don't think Shocking Display is really that bad. There's an additional 2 enemies to pull out I believe, so having a random one pop up isn't as harsh as it seems. Also it's kinda funny you talk of dealing with all the named guests, when we've typically either killed them all in the scenario or just burned the house down And I think the biggest issue with Ancient Evils is the number that are in the set. I like the idea of having 1 thing that can mess up your scenario planning, but the fact there's so many and they can show up multiple times if you end up in situations where the deck reshuffles makes them too punishing with no real counterplay imo. I think one or two would've been fine, or even having VP 0 would make a big difference. As is some scenarios just are basically ruined when you hit a couple early or become too easy when they don't show up/show up late.
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Dec 17, 2019 08:38
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alansmithee posted:I appreciate the long writeup. Some thoughts: That's the exact follower spread I plan to run, but I've only just done my first scenario with six allies in the deck so I haven't really got a feel for 2 x Charisma yet. Will definitely report back when I finish this campaign. I think I would have to try a non-Becky run to see how it compares; it really could be better, my gut reaction was just that there might be too much stacked against it. I think in a campaign with more item hosers like the original Corrosion you would definitely consider it. Losing Becky is a huge momentum swing, even with Mori to pick it right back up for you. I like the grenades idea too, I saw someone from an Arkhamdb deck talk about them in the comments. Not sure how much more XP I'll extract from this campaign but I do want Agency Backup to be my next upgrade. alansmithee posted:I don't think Shocking Display is really that bad. There's an additional 2 enemies to pull out I believe, so having a random one pop up isn't as harsh as it seems. Also it's kinda funny you talk of dealing with all the named guests, when we've typically either killed them all in the scenario or just burned the house down There are two more enemies but their bystander cards need to be in play otherwise they don't trigger, and that actually happened quite rarely on all my playthroughs. What I usually found is that pulling Shocking Display within a turn or two of a regular transformation event left two big enemies up to deal with, and while I usually managed to do just that, it was a lot of HP to burn through and really killed my momentum. Do you usually kill all the enemies in solo? I guess my only point of comparison was when I did original Carcosa as Agnes, and I definitely didn't have the staying power for that. Also, I didn't want to burn the house down this time because I wanted to try a Doubt run. alansmithee posted:And I think the biggest issue with Ancient Evils is the number that are in the set. I like the idea of having 1 thing that can mess up your scenario planning, but the fact there's so many and they can show up multiple times if you end up in situations where the deck reshuffles makes them too punishing with no real counterplay imo. I think one or two would've been fine, or even having VP 0 would make a big difference. As is some scenarios just are basically ruined when you hit a couple early or become too easy when they don't show up/show up late. Yeah, the multiple hits and reshuffling is what I hate about it. Also how it doesn't scale in multiplayer - the alternative options on the Return replacement feels like a complete no brainer; do I want to lose three actions outright (or six or nine in multiplayer) or have one of my actions fail? Hmm.
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Dec 17, 2019 10:20
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Moving to a bigger apartment, and girlfriend and I are going to buy a fukken nice Jasper gaming table! Maybe we'll finally be able to play Arkham more if we don't have to break down the game each time we play. We've been stuck on like scenario 6 of 8 on TFA for maybe... 4 months? It's just such a pain to clear the kitchen table. Not to mention we've both been kinda super turned off from TFA thanks to thinking it would be way more about jungle fun and less about getting punched in the dick. I'll give a trip report once we finally pull the trigger and it arrives. I think a game like Arkham definitely benefits from having a save state feature of keeping the game set up inbetween sessions.
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Dec 17, 2019 17:22
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Ancient Evils with VP 0 would be a pretty good fix to that set, all things considered. Could still gently caress you over in scenarios where the first agenda advancement is a big deal and you get them all early, but solves their biggest problem, which is the huge variance that is getting them early, shuffling and then getting them again vs never getting them.
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Dec 18, 2019 14:03
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Anyone interested in a collection of the early stuff? I'm trying to pare down my game collection and there's so much overlap with LotR that I've decided to just focus on that.
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Dec 19, 2019 17:21
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EdsTeioh posted:Anyone interested in a collection of the early stuff? I'm trying to pare down my game collection and there's so much overlap with LotR that I've decided to just focus on that. I might be interested in a second copy of the base set if you want to split your stuff up.
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Dec 19, 2019 19:28
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suicidesteve posted:I might be interested in a second copy of the base set if you want to split your stuff up. Not really. Rough list I think is 2x core, Curse of the Rougarou, Miskatonic Museum, and Dunwich Legacy.
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Dec 19, 2019 21:11
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Does anyone in here live near Pittsburgh? I've been trying to find people to play with but it's like pulling teeth to get anyone to do anything. I have pretty much everything they've made besides the book promos, but I don't think I've played anything since Forgotten Age. Although it sounds like I wasn't missing a whole lot there.EdsTeioh posted:Not really. Rough list I think is 2x core, Curse of the Rougarou, Miskatonic Museum, and Dunwich Legacy. Yeah, I'll skip it then unless you're somehow still willing to get rid of all that for less than the cost of a core set. I don't get a chance to play much so it's not worth a whole lot to me.
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Dec 19, 2019 21:34
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Tommy Mudoon vs Return to the Path to Carcosa update : as alansmithee surmised, 2 x Charisma is necessary, and Becky doesn't cut it for the final scenario (but was fine up until then with the other support in the deck). I'll continue with some scenario reports and upgrade choices, then finish with some final thoughts on a few cards and also how the deck performed as a whole. If I have time this weekend I'll probably try restarting with a different strategy in mind, but for now, here's the deck as it was heading into the final scenario : Tommy Muldoon - RttPtC Upgraded Having only played the last four scenarios in the original campaign about once each I can't really comment on the Return changes. And I was also at a disadvantage from not having a plan or strategy going into each scenario, but regardless, The Pallid Mask seemed fairly straightforward. I did get defeated with one location (the all-important one, I assume) still in the catacombs deck, and if I would have replayed it I'd probably have spent a bit less time setting up before I started burning through the locations, as the mythos deck didn't seem particularly threatening. There was an awkward moment a few turns before the end when the only locations with clues were a 5-shroud and a 3-shroud which had an effect that makes you lose one hand while investigating, which meant I would've had to have dropped Becky, and moving back to the 5-shroud location took a couple of actions. I chose to move back to the 5-shroud location but I think I was screwed either way by that point, as I was still only on Act 1. Not sure why I didn't feel it in the few earlier attempts when I had six allies in the deck, but this was the first time it really felt like I needed that second Charisma, and multiple attempts of the next two scenarios really sealed the deal for me. Having allies sit in your hand when you can afford to play them but don't have the slot is a pretty big handicap for this deck. Anyway, I got 3XP from this scenario. +1 Physical trauma, +1 Madness treachery (Amnesia) 1 x Charisma (banking 2XP from the previous scenario to ensure I can afford an Agency Backup for Dim Carcosa) Black Stars Rise is a weird scenario. With two agendas (no act deck) I had no idea how to measure the urgency of any of my actions, nor did I really know what my goal was, so I decided to just pile all the doom onto one agenda to see what happened. I hardly used the ability to trade a clue for doom because I didn't feel like I needed to speed it up much, but after finishing it I can see why you might want to. I replayed this one twice due to some play errors and my overall impression is that it's a bit undertuned (ie. too easy). Pretty cool though; I do like it when they try new things even if sometimes they don't work out. Finished with 5XP. 1 x Agency Backup 2 x Flare So, Dim Carcosa. Yeah. I must've played it at least six times and I didn't come close to beating it. This is where Becky's power hit a wall and my reliance on assets for effective damage became a liability, what with treacheries like Realm of Madness and Melancholy floating around. Once I realized I could precisely control when to spawn Hastur I settled on a strategy of using my early turns to set up my assets, then grab the two clues I needed from the 2-shroud locations to either side of the palace, then spawn Hastur and hit him for the requisite amount of damage and proceed to spawn the location required to finish him off. The problem with this plan was that the longer I waited to set up my assets and for Rookie Mistake to show up, the more poo poo from the mythos deck would pile up against me, in the form of chip damage or resource impairing treacheries or enemies which Becky couldn't deal with efficiently now that the token bag was on fire. And if I waited too long, the 7HP Beast of Aldebaran would be up at the same time as Hastur. Also, I had Amnesia in my deck so holding onto a heap of cards was risky. I can see how the scenario is tuned so that if you can't just shoot Hastur you can evade him and then run around using the locations against him, but at this stage I was essentially a Guardian that couldn't shoot well, and being a Guardian, my non-shooting options were fairly limited. In most games I did manage to ping him for the amount needed to flip the palace (I resorted to using Well Prepared to evade him in a few games) but as soon as I accomplished that my deck just completely ran out of steam. I didn't manage to actually flip the palace in any game. So yeah, the heavy ally base of my deck wasn't resilient enough without a strong weapon backing it up. I would reiterate that Becky + testless ally damage was fine in each of the earlier scenarios, but I have serious doubts it will be good in multiplayer where there's just that much more HP to churn through, so I do want to test a standard big weapon Guardian version of Tommy if I can. Some final comments on a few cards : 1 x Fool Me Once... I liked having one of these under Stick to the Plan, as there's almost always one treachery in each scenario that you really don't want to see again. Not sure I would use it generally, but it helped mitigate effects that had a major impact on Becky (ie. the core of my deck). Also, a minor effect, but it prevents the card going back into the deck upon a reshuffle if it's still sitting there. 2 x Tetsuo Mori Obviously a Tommy card, and once you have a weapon it's your second best Rookie Mistake float target. 1 x Agency Backup Feels great to use, as I knew it would. Its clue-grabbing ability is just amazing. I think one is the correct number. 2 x Flare I normally wouldn't have considered Survivor exile cards earlier in the campaign because Guardian is kind of XP hungry, but since I was heading into the final scenario that was no longer a factor. I had 2XP spare and was looking at Dynamite Blast (2) for improved testless damage but I figured Flare would be better value, especially since my allies get shuffled back into my deck. It was really good for setting up my board early, and in one game I used both Flares to recur Agency Backup (so much value, but I just wasn't able to put it to good use). Take the Initiative/Lucky/Guts I find it hard to evaluate test boosters. Of course you want some, but with a base Will of three, Tommy eats most of the binary treachery effects anyway on Hard. Guts in particular felt pretty mediocre, and I wonder if I should've replaced it on upgrade instead of Daring, since Daring guarantees you the card draw and it's tied to a stat which is more integral to my success. I understand in AH it's better to play to your strengths than try to shore up your weaknesses, but I would be interested to hear more experienced players' thoughts on how they evaluate which and/or how many of these types of cards they include. Now for a few upgrades I didn't take... Jessica Hyde (1) Is this a Tommy card? Probably not, but +1 Combat for three is about the best deal you'll get, and since she comes into play primed with damage it only takes a couple of points to get positive value. But then taking an action to play a card for three just to turn it into four is not what I would call efficient. Dynamite Blast (2) I've always looked at this as a nice-to-have if you can already leverage the base version, but there were quite a few situations (particularly in Dim Carcosa) where the AoO clause would have turned this into a baller move instead of suicide, so I'm going to look on it more favorably next time. I expect it could be a good multiplayer card, too. Bandolier (2) Another nice-to-have, or is it? The main advantage would have been it would have let me play with Flashlights, and with the rest of my deck designed to bring Becky into play quickly it would have been a +1 Will most of the time. You can also fetch it with Mori. Custom Ammunition I only considered this because, again, my deck was designed to get Becky into play early, and putting this under Stick to the Plan means it's always going to be available. And there sure are a lot of monsters in Carcosa. Ace of Swords I liked this when it came out, but every time I looked at it this game I felt it just didn't do enough, even though passive Combat boosts would have benefited my strategy. Final thoughts : Guardian is my favorite role in this game and this was an interesting experiment, but I now feel like this isn't the best way to play Tommy. I'm going to try a new run with slightly fewer allies, and I'll spend more of my XP and resources on guns. With Survivor being Tommy's off-class I feel like you must take Lucky and Take Heart every time, and probably Live and Learn, though I'm less sure about that one in a non-Becky build since I mostly used it to save ammo. Leo is still my favorite Guardian and I'm looking forward to trying M1918 BAR / Swift Reload the next time I play him. Oh, and "Let God Sort Them Out..." Rogue cards are the best. edit : One thing I forgot to mention was that since I killed the big bad guy in Echoes of the Past, I had the option to take The Tattered Cloak. I decided not to, though, because I didn't want to toy with low sanity when the new hidden cards that deal direct horror were in so many scenarios, but it would've been pretty sweet in Dim Carcosa. Kalko fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Dec 20, 2019 |
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Dec 20, 2019 10:29
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Dynamite is my personal pet Guardian card and I always try to include it. I don't know if I just get lucky, but I feel like I almost always get value out of it. Obviously best when stacked with Stick to the Plan, but I find it useful even without.
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Dec 20, 2019 23:26
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I appreciate your posts, Kalko; a bit of vicarious Arkham playing hits the spot when I don't have opportunities to play it myself. So: true-solo, hard Return to Dim Carcosa is a pretty daunting prospect. I'm not confident I know how to handle it. (But Fight or Flight might be part of the answer.) I think of skills with inbuilt card-draw (Guts, Overpower, Daring etc.) as entirely different creatures from boosters without draw (Take the Initiative, Steadfast etc.). I like both but I consider the former among the strongest cards to take in deck that can use them. The one-time boost is good but the actionless, resourceless card-draw to help get to the rest of your deck more consistently is just as important; I haven't built a Guardian since getting hold of Search for Kadath but my instinct is to try to make room for Overpower and Daring. Guts is, as you suggested, pretty useless if you can't commit it to a test you have a good chance of passing. I think I suggested it upthread but it is certainly not as strong in 3-Will Guardians as in 4-Will Guardians. A few more considerations: It is better with more players -- any other investigator at your location drawing a treachery is an opportunity for it to be useful and sometimes multiple investigators commit to a must-pass test making success and thus your card-draw more likely. Some campaigns hit you with more Willpower treacheries than others and I believe that Carcosa, for all the pressure it puts on your sanity, is actually at the low end; it has a nasty habit of not even allowing you a test before it eats your assets/actions/whatever. As for latter kind of booster, I think the number to take depends on how much draw power the deck has; you're spending cards without spending actions or (usually) resources which exactly what some decks want to do. A typical Guardian does not have that kind of draw power and I usually take about 2 (that is 4 cards total). But I'm not at all certain that that number is optimal. And Tommy is really spoiled for choice here -- I'd say he has access to all the best examples not named Defiance. I like the sound of Flare. A Flare on Stick to the Plan is some serious consistency and efficiency; and Tommy is currently the only investigator that can do it. I don't know if you were using it with SttP and I'd be interested in your thoughts about whether it's worth one of those three slots. Jessica Hyde is great in a vacuum, but she really has anti-synergy with Tommy's ability. Since you don't want your stat boosting asset to die, the Ace of Swords is probably more use as it doesn't take an ally slot. And the Ace of Swords itself it doing a similar job to Reliable, but usually for 2 more resources and an action. Wait... I should recommend Reliable. I haven't used Bandoleer(2) before, but I do like idea of Mori and this card. If you have too many hand-slot items and no Bandoleer he can fetch the Bandoleer, and if you have vice-versa he can fetch a hand-slot item.
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Dec 21, 2019 13:48
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Kalko posted:stuff again I was wondering if Becky would cut it late, maybe not surprised to see it doesn't but looks like the deck ran decently otherwise. It may even be possible to simply bank some extra going into the last scenario or two to get your big gun(s). I still think the ally count is pretty key but I do realize it's a somewhat large XP total. As for multiplayer, I still think the biggest issue is that guns kinda suck vs. non-guns. On higher difficulties the top-end guns obviously all can get huge to-hit bonuses which helps, but even in those cases are you wanting to use one of your whopping 3 lightning gun shots to deal with a ghoul? Or what are you supposed to do about something like a nightgaunt with 4 wounds? You can obviously just use one shot, but then you're left trying to punch it at maybe +2 or +3 if you're really stacked? It's really funny how comically timeworn brand blows away basically all high xp weapons in multiplayer (much like how machete pre-taboo, and meat cleaver kinda overshadow all the low level guns). The fact that high level guns often take 2 hands is just an additional kick in the teeth. And while I think the ammo cards definitely have uses for certain weapons (goofy BAR builds and flamethrower mainly) it's still more resources you're throwing in to do your basic job. I really think they need to all have (player icon) somehow incorporated into their ammo. Or, they needed to have made reloading a basic action (much like ornate bow, which is a great weapon especially for any secondary fighter) and have the ammo cards more like custom ammunition and similar to the upgrade cards rather than just needing to add more ammo on. Even if they made it like a double arrow action that would help a ton (and it would also help differentiate them more from spells). It just sucks that even with guardians anytime I look to upgrade to their cool weapons, I instead just throw in timeworn brands. Especially since that does leave a hand open for magnifying glass, flashlight, or whatever else I may need in a hand slot. And as for when to get rid of skill boosts, they're typically some of my first things to go (excepting things like vicious blow, deduction, etc that have additional benefits). It obviously depends on the character and whatever, but a lot of time as things progress I'm looking to swap those type of things out for either things that give more permanent bonuses or other powerful effects that will allow for better mitigation. I will say the card draw cycle can have value even late for people who want to quickly cycle through their deck, especially when they need to keep costs down.
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Dec 21, 2019 14:10
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Thanks for your thoughts! I've been hitting AH pretty hard this week and I had today free so I did go back and make a new variant. I've just put it down after failing Dim Carcosa again, because apparently this time I had one more total Doubt + Conviction so it gave me the only Hastur I couldn't just walk up and shoot.  Anyway, here's the deck : Tommy Muldoon Returns The plan this time was to keep the same ally package for the whole run (2 x Guard Dog, 2 x Tetsuo Mori, 1 x Venturer), grab 1 x Charisma early, and then use the XP I spent on a second Charisma, 2 x Beat Cop (2) and 2 x Well Prepared (2) on big guns instead. Looking at your comments, I feel right away I should've played Overpower instead of Steadfast. My boost package here is 2 x Daring, 2 x Take the Initiative, and 2 x Steadfast. I decided to try 2 x Fine Clothes, replacing them after the first two scenarios. They actually didn't feel terrible for Tommy. The other big change was 2 x Flashlight, which really smoothed out my clue grabbing (as it always does). As a general rule, I would mulligan for an Enchanted Blade and Flashlight, but if I got a 2H weapon instead I'd play the Flashlight first and try to burn through it quickly, ready to eat an AoO to play the 2H weapon if an enemy showed up early. Guard Dog can work as weapon early on, too (except on horror-only enemies). So, some quick scenario summaries : Curtain Call The nice thing about having high base HP and allies is that when the Encore mob returns, I can often choose not to finish it on the last action of a turn. Eating a hit and finishing it with the first action of the following turn (or, better still, a Guard Dog AoO) means you get an 'extra' two actions, as the agenda doesn't right away go to four doom. This run went pretty smoothly : 5XP. +1 Charisma, +1 Dynamite Blast (2) The Last King Mulligan'd for Fine Clothes over Flashlight here and got some early value out of it, then somebody I was talking to turned into a monster and I had to go on a killing spree. Interviews : 2/5. Murders : 6/8 (Ashleigh lived). 4XP. 1 x Fine Clothes -> +1 Ever Vigilant (1) (banking 3XP for Stick to the Plan) Echoes of the Past I feel like this scenario has the potential to be the quickest in the game if you don't get on top of poo poo right away. I knew my best floors were Ground and Basement (maybe tied with Third) so that's where I spent my time. I managed to clear the clues from the Hidden Library (2VP) but one of them got eaten by a cultist so I couldn't actually advance to win. I also couldn't kill the big guy this time so I got no resolution, but luckily it gave me a consolation prize of 1VP so I had the exact amount for SttP. +1 Stick to the Plan (6) The Unspeakable Oath SttP : Ever Vigilant, Prepared for the Worst, Dynamite Blast (2) Armed with more knowledge of the Returns changes this time, plus Flashlights (they did work here), I made it into Daniel's cell with six turns to spare. The mythos deck kept setting monsters aside (I think all but one ended up in the deck) but only one of them actually spawned and it was the dumbest one, I guess, cause I was nowhere near the basement when it appeared there. Saved Daniel, so I ended with 4VP, which I banked because I had my eye on a Flamethrower (5). A Phantom of Truth Is it just me or is this scenario really easy? Like last time I got the one where the guy keeps running away, and I had plenty of time to visit every location and scoop up as much VP as possible. I ended with 4VP. 1 x Fine Clothes -> Flamethrower (5) (banking 4XP for its twin) The Pallid Mask So in my earlier run through here, Becky + allies + Well Prepared handled everything pretty well, but the Flamethrower handled everything really, really well. 1-shotting the scary ghost with Vicious Blow felt really good, then some other 5HP chump got lit up later and I was sold on this being the better way to build Tommy. The actions saved both in killing and setting up made a noticeable difference. I made it out with time to spare, and 5VP. 1 x .45 Thompson -> Flamethrower (5), 1 x Enchanted Blade -> +1 Mk1 Grenades Black Stars Rise This scenario also feels pretty loose with time. I got the opposite agenda to last time but I was able to breeze through it, though somehow only collecting 1VP. 1 x Enchanted Blade -> +1 A Test of Will Dim Carcosa I was so keen to light Hastur up but as I mentioned at the beginning, I got the one out of three Hasturs who doesn't actually sit on the board. I tried running around using the locations but my clue grabbing was not the best. If I try again I think I'll swap the grenades for Bandolier (2) to see how effective it is at letting me hold a Flashlight alongside the Flamethrower. I feel like if it's going to work, it'll work because of Mori, as Spritz3 mentioned. I kind of wanted to test the grenades, mostly to try using them on weaker mobs which don't really justify a blast of flame. Overall, the deck performed a lot better. Not having to get a heap of assets in play to deal effective damage, but rather being able to just use them for resources (or Becky ammo on the early scenarios) feels a lot more effective. I also like the 1 x Venturer; it felt useful every time it showed up. Regarding Flare, in my other deck I didn't actually put it under SttP (I was using PftW, Ever Vigilant, and Fool Me Once... then) but the times I got them in my opening hand and thus could use them early were pretty impactful. I pretty much always have PftW and EV under my SttP so I only have one flex slot, but maybe I should rethink PftW for the later scenarios with 2 x Mori in the deck and 3-4 strong weapons. fake edit : reading alansmithee's reply now that I've finished writing this post, that's a shame about Timeworn Brand being the go-to in multiplayer. The big guns are some of the most flavorful stuff in this game!
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Dec 21, 2019 16:17
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Another great writeup. You're actually tempting me to write up some of our group's playthroughs. And you'll want to double check flamethrower. You can't use it with bandolier as they both take up body slots. Despite that it's easily the best non-timeworn brand weapon for xp (excepting ornate bow). Even in multi it can kinda hold it's own with it's ability to spread damage, but you'll typically want to use some taunt like abilities with it. And 4 ammo isn't terribly low either for what it's worth. It just compares favorably vs. all the other weapons-it's not as high attack as Lightning Gun but it has an additional shot and +1 dmg per shot. The BAR doesn't compare really either-the most efficient breakdown is +2 to hit, +2 dmg for 4 shots. Really the only thing the BAR does better is hitting 5 damage in one attack. Really the big drawback is having to be engaged, but it's a super good weapon and imo I think the only real alternate to timeworn brand for anything over 2 players. Also I still think 1 agency backup is worth it in Tommy, but part of that may just be because I love the card. Venturer may be enough for supporting some ammo weapons in multiplayer, but I've just seen in my experience that when the main fighter tries gunslinging, everyone else needs to pick up the slack because there's just more enemies in general going around. Again, great report, been really enjoying reading them.
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Dec 22, 2019 02:11
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So my friend and I bounced off this early in our time in the hobby and we kind of think it was because of the step up in rules from games we previously played and getting confused with them. So I bought it again for 20 bucks to give it another try, so what are some common rules mistakes to avoid?
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Dec 26, 2019 18:20
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Well, the rule my group just recently realised we'd been messing up is that the agenda counts all doom on every card that is on the table, not just doom on the card itself. Ooops. Suddenly made a lot of other things make sense, like why the basic cultist enemy gets a doom counter when it spawns. Not sure how we'd missed that one, seems like a big oversight on our part in retrospect.
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Dec 27, 2019 01:12
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Here's a random but easily-overlooked rule: Weakness cards with the Treachery subtype (e.g. Cover Up, Hospital Debts, Haunted), while shuffled into and a part of player decks, are considered scenario cards for the purposes of interaction. Unless otherwise specified on the card, any player may activate the abilities on those weaknesses. If you get stuck with Haunted and don't have two actions to spend to get rid of it, another investigator in the same location can spend two of their actions to clear it for you. Note this only applies to weaknesses with the treachery subtype, as it makes them a scenario, rather than player, card, after they've been drawn. Weaknesses with a player card type, like Asset, Event, or Skill, can only be interacted with by the controlling player. e.g. Daisy Walker's Necronomicon weakness is a player card type (Asset), so only she can activate the abilities on the cards.
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Dec 27, 2019 01:44
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Lemony posted:Well, the rule my group just recently realised we'd been messing up is that the agenda counts all doom on every card that is on the table, not just doom on the card itself. Ooops. Suddenly made a lot of other things make sense, like why the basic cultist enemy gets a doom counter when it spawns. now make sure you don't make the same mistake my group made a while back and remember that this also means that when the agenda advances you clear the doom off of EVERYTHING and not just the agenda
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Dec 27, 2019 01:57
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IcePhoenix posted:now make sure you don't make the same mistake my group made a while back and remember that this also means that when the agenda advances you clear the doom off of EVERYTHING and not just the agenda Hahaha, holy crap. Yup, missed that too. Well, that's going to change some things.
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Dec 27, 2019 03:06
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Baron Fuzzlewhack posted:Here's a random but easily-overlooked rule:
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Dec 27, 2019 07:11
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Another possibly overlooked rule might be that negative modifiers can't make a skill test result fall below zero except for the purposes of positive modifiers you might play to raise it back up again (eg. Lucky). This is why cards like Flashlight are so good - if you use it on a location with a shroud of two or less it's guaranteed to be successful regardless of the token you draw (except for the auto-fail).
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Dec 29, 2019 00:48
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2 questions for all y'all 1. Does it particularly matter what order you do the campaigns in? If you did (say) Path to Carcosa then TFA would Dunwich Legacy be too easy when you went back to it? 2. How do you add new investigator cards into the pool? Do you just add them as you buy them or only add them when you get to the mission they came with?
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Dec 31, 2019 17:30
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1. No order. Generally Dunwich is the most straight forward with the most straight up monster fighting. TFA is the one that needs the most bugfixes to be more fun, so we will see how Return to TFA is. Carcosa's story is great, and the Circle and Dreamlands are pretty much when it feels like the game got on its sure footing and knows what it wants to do in campaigns. Dunwich was written at the same time as the core so it just feels like a default campaign and TFA just honestly tried to do too much too fast and kind of is frustrating for it. 2. Add investigator cards whenever. Obviously some of the newer cards will be a bit overpowered in older campaigns but whatevs. This game is co-op and hard enough as it fukken is, so using a newer card to help you win easier (especially when new to the game) is not a bad thing. To be honest, the biggest crutch in the game right now for new players is that the Dunwich investigators were not really balanced that well and are REALLY good-- Rex especially. Using him may make you think the game is easier than it really is. Maybe that's a good thing to make the game easier for new folks though  Honestly, unlike every other LCG (except Marvel) you don't gotta buy everything if you don't want to. Thanks to the XP system and how most packs are 80% story, you can just skip entire campaigns if you want and just do without some of the few player cards you may miss. It's not game breaking if you miss them.
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Dec 31, 2019 17:40
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I've always thought Ursula is way more overpowered than Rex in almost any campaign/scenario barring maybe like....Rougarou. Consistently getting a free action every turn feels better to me than increasing the stakes game of your investigate actions, even playing without the Taboo list rules. I might be biased though because I really, really hate Rex's Curse. That weakness screws me over in ways that are ridiculously statistically unlikely.
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Dec 31, 2019 17:47
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/arkhamhorrorlcg/permalink/2844239792287546/ Really loving the boss mechanic here
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Dec 31, 2019 18:14
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Chaotic Flame posted:https://www.facebook.com/groups/arkhamhorrorlcg/permalink/2844239792287546/ Yeah, Facebook as an all-consuming force of creeping destruction of our society for profit does make for a good elder god. I pretty much only use FB now for groups like that Arkham group but gently caress I wish there was a better way.
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Dec 31, 2019 20:19
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Chaotic Flame posted:https://www.facebook.com/groups/arkhamhorrorlcg/permalink/2844239792287546/ I got an error message clicking on that link
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Dec 31, 2019 20:24
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Oops, sorry all. Actual link https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/12/30/weaver-of-the-cosmos/
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Dec 31, 2019 22:51
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food court bailiff posted:I've always thought Ursula is way more overpowered than Rex in almost any campaign/scenario barring maybe like....Rougarou. Consistently getting a free action every turn feels better to me than increasing the stakes game of your investigate actions, even playing without the Taboo list rules. Rex is really good in hard and expert where you need to commit more to succeed but will occasionally draw a not terrible modifier. Getting a single extra action a turn is fine on the lower difficulties but unless you have some way to make those actions valuable it's not going to help nearly as much in expert. She also loses value in higher player counts because you're more likely to need to hunker down at a location to scoop up all the clues. She excels in solo easy mode more than any other investigator though Leo De Luca is similarly great in lower difficulties and often a liability in expert.
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Jan 1, 2020 20:19
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Browsing the FAQ, I came across this :quote:If a skill test both automatically succeeds and automatically fails, the automatic failure takes precedence, and the test automatically fails. The rules also say that automatic success or failure applies in step ST.6, which is after you reveal a token, so if you reveal the auto-fail on an ability like Augur after discarding for the auto-success, you actually still fail. I'd always taken 'automatically succeeds' to also implicitly include 'don't bother actually revealing a token' but that's obviously wrong. So, then I wondered how this applies to abilities that 'automatically evade' like Decoy, and I found the FAQ also has this to say : quote:A “skill test on a card” is any ability that directly prompts a skill test, either through the template “test skill (X),” or by initiating an action that is, in itself, a skill test (for example, any card with Fight, Evade, or Investigate action designators) So, presumably, for Decoy you still reveal a token and it can still fail if you draw the auto-fail. Right? Or does the wording 'automatically evade' bypass the requirement to actually run the test (in which case it should have said something like "Evade. You automatically succeed at this skill test.")?
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Jan 8, 2020 12:10
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Kalko posted:I'd always taken 'automatically succeeds' to also implicitly include 'don't bother actually revealing a token' but that's obviously wrong. You were right originally, I think - apparently Matt Newman has confirmed that you don't reveal a token for automatic success. Some discussion on reddit. It's supposed to be going into a later version of the FAQ. quote:So, then I wondered how this applies to abilities that 'automatically evade' like Decoy, and I found the FAQ also has this to say : Automatic Evades are a different kettle of fish (and the cause of a lot of rules questions about Patrice's weakness) because there's no skill test at all, it's just a fait accompli. From the online Rules Reference, "If an ability "automatically" evades 1 or more enemies, no skill test is made for the evasion attempt."
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Jan 8, 2020 12:30
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Oh, thanks, good to know. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the rules, even the weird corner cases, but playing a multiplayer campaign over Xmas it was kind of surprising how many times we looked up a particular rules interaction. And I think AH is on the better side of that stuff when it comes to card games in general (nowhere near the gold standard, MTG, but then nothing is).
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Jan 8, 2020 12:58
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Dark Side of the Moon player cards. Three Aces immediately stuck out to me because I've been experimenting with a Mandy Thompson deck lately and she would easily be able to satisfy that condition. But she also doesn't really want to draw cards outright (I was going to write up some thoughts about the deck at some point). I like Extensive Research too, seems like it wouldn't be hard to reduce its cost a heap in most Seeker decks.
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Jan 9, 2020 00:48
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Just finished mythos pack 3 of Path to Carcosa and loving the story but whoo boy 2 mental trauma on Roland is not a great feeling. Thinking of getting Circle Undone next as the cards look interesting and the story is apparently good - I don't own Dunwich/Forgotten Age though, am I gonna get my rear end kicked? Also it's a weird experience playing without Dunwich since so many of the cards people talk about as staples - Charisma, Streetwise, the Dunwich investigators, Fire Axe, Dark Horse, Rite of Seeking... deckbuilding seems very different without it for sure.
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Jan 12, 2020 12:53
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Got the Arkham Bug again and I’m working on catching up on all the releases. I tapped out right after Dunwich, which I have the full cycle of, and I’ve got all the expansions and Return to’s ready to go and plan to play them in order and pick up the mythos packs as I go through. I’d like to go ahead and start with Return to Night of the Zealot, as I’ve never played it and am really curious to see how the opening scenarios (which I’ve played a bunch) have changed with it. My questions are: 1. What sort of card pool do they expect me to have going in to RtNotZ? Am I look at a major challenge if I haven’t gotten to all the cards that would have been available at the time it was released? 2. Is the same also true for Return to Dunwich Legacy? 3. If I haven’t ever played the entire Dunwich mythos cycle, is it worth doing it vanilla all the way through before going to Return? I’ve done the first three scenarios several times at this point. Thanks! I’m so excited to see what I’ve missed in this game~
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Jan 29, 2020 08:31
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