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Based on the feedback to my Carcosa Run I revised my decks and ran it again, with a slightly different upgrade path for each. The base decks were mostly the same except that for Rex Murphy I changed my enemy management cards to all be level zero and I re-added Eureka! 2 x Breaking and Entering: As before. 2 x Elusive: The latest taboo for this one reads "Disengage from each enemy engaged with you and move to a connecting location with no enemies." It was useful for dumping non-hunter enemies and could also be used as a second Shortcut in a pinch. It didn't get a huge amount of use but it was very useful in the final scenario. 1 x Enraptured: One copy of this makes Practice Makes Perfect more consistent.  This time I spent the XP from In the Thick of It on 2 x Eon Chart (1), leaving 1XP left over. I also included 1 x "I've got a plan!" but didn't end up using it much.  Dendromorphosis was the new basic weakness I drew for Rex, and it was actually slightly beneficial because it gave him an extra point of HP to work with. But I say slightly because it did make him drop a Magnifying Glass or two at some point during every scenario. Rex Murphy in Return to The Path to Carcosa (Hard) - 2XP As for Winifred Habbamock, her deck was also mostly the same except I dropped Delilah O'Rourke for Charon's Obol and The Moon - XVIII. The only dangerous scenario before the end is The Unspeakable Oath, and if you get defeated in that one you go insane anyway so it felt like the Obol was a pretty safe bet (and also during all of my test runs I don't think Winifred was ever defeated, though Rex was a few times).  Not having Delilah meant I had to rein in some of my ambitions for Curtain Call (it was a very noticeable loss of consistent damage) and plan on a quicker exit, but of course the extra XP from the Obol would make up for it in the long run. The Moon turned out great since Winifred is so heavily dependent on Agility. She could even afford to play it pretty much anytime it appeared because I also completely solved her economy issues with a key upgrade.  I also added 2 x Slip Away to try to help with enemies I couldn't spend the resources to kill, especially the Comtesse. I dropped the 2 x Lucky Cigarette Case for them since the Lobby still provided kind-of efficient card draw to keep Winifred's hand stocked. The only other change was 2 x Intel Report instead of 2 x "You handle this one!" since it had been useful in the past for clearing a side room and I thought it might hasten the overall clock and let us get out of there sooner.  Her new basic weakness was The 13th Vision, which I generally played chicken with until I lost and then I begrudgingly got rid of it. I still think it's fine to keep out as long as you have the resources to keep doing big commits, but yeah, sooner or later it will bite you. Winifred Habbamock in Return to The Path to Carcosa (Hard) - 3XP And now for some brief campaign rerun highlights, along with the new upgrade path. All of the resolutions and Conviction/Stranger/Token configurations were the same as on the original run except for the bag having one Cultist and one Tablet token at the end of Curtain Call. Actually, I think I did a bit worse on Stranger kills despite having better damage overall, but I was never concerned about doom in the final scenario so I didn't expend any extra effort chasing him. Curtain Call went fairly smoothly despite the fact I drew five enemies from the first three Mythos phases. One of the Lobby Doors was the Box Office (with the other being the Theatre Lounge) so I had to open the Backstage up. Ended up getting the Prop Shop and the Trap Room, which was cleared by a Fanatic. The Man appeared at a Lobby Door which turned out to be the Lighting Box, and the act advancement was the one with the Mists where if you fail you either cancel the move or lose all of your remaining actions. Winifred could only afford to kill the Royal Emissary once so I decided to bail since I'd already picked up 1VP more than I was expecting (thanks to the Fanatic). Rounds: 11. 7VP (one enemy, five locations) = 8XP for Rex (1XP left over from In the Thick of It) 9XP for Winifred (Obol) Rex :  1 x Inquiring Mind -> 1 x The Eye of Truth: Getting the Eye ASAP was a much better plan. I left 3XP on the table to ensure I'd be able to get the second one after The Last King because it can sometimes be a very low XP scenario. 3XP left. Winifred :  1 x Small Favor -> 1 x Pickpocketing (2): This is the card that solved about 90% of her economy problems. It may seem unassuming, but at the end of each of the remaining scenarios I'll record its numbers. It turned out to be an exceptionally good card for Winifred. Thanks for suggesting it, Nephthys! 2 x Coup de Grace -> 2 x Delilah O'Rouke. 1 x Adaptable. 0XP left. Adaptable: 2 x Slip Away -> 2 x Pilfer: As before, Pilfer is actually pretty useful for the late game in Scenario Two. I also still had Intel Report to pick up the odd 1-2 clues that got dropped when someone turned into a monster (or to commit to one of Rex's tests). The Last King proceeded much like last time since Rex once again failed to get any Fine Clothes from his mulligan. Winifred managed to score a LGSTO from killing a Crazed Guest and a Maniac on the same turn, and I scored two interviews (Jordan and Constance, coincidentally the two most useful ones) but slightly less XP overall since on the very last Mythos phase Rex drew a Fine Dining which forced him to either drop a clue or be defeated.  Rounds: 11. Pickpocketing: 9 cards, 8 resources. 11 clues = 5XP. 2XP for Rex 6XP for Winifred (3XP + Obol + LGSTO) Rex: 1 x Inquiring Mind -> 1 x The Eye of Truth. 0XP left. Winifred: 2 x Intel Report -> 2 x Sharpshooter: Going for guns earlier proved a more viable path to consistent damage. I would've grabbed the second copy of Pickpocketing (2) here except that the following scenario had a bunch of small enemies where the guns would prove useful and it was one of the easier ones in the campaign so I wasn't too concerned about resources at this point. And I'd also be able to grab it at the end with the bonus XP from the Obol since I'd be doing The Eternal Slumber after it just like before. 0XP left. Adaptable: 1 x LGSTO, 1 x Pilfer -> 2 x .25 Automatic. Echoes of the Past was about as uneventful as usual, though the agenda did advance during the second Mythos phase due to an unlucky combination of Mysterious Chanting and The Cult's Search.  That did allow me to advance the act and replenish all of the spent locations, which meant that Rex got all of his clues from the ground floor. Winifred spent all of her time on the third floor slaying cultists, at one point confronting a 9-fight Fanatic (from a double Edict pull) which, well, grats dude, but Sharpshooter uses your evade value instead. Rounds: 7. Pickpocketing: No cards or resources (didn't draw it). 2VP (one location) = 2XP for Rex 4XP for Winifred (Obol) Rex : 2XP for side scenario. 0XP left. Winifred : 2XP for side scenario. 1 x Small Favor -> 1 x Pickpocketing (2): This card generates even more resources than it seems because some of the cards it draws will be your resource-generating ones, though by the end of the campaign I'd replaced all of them except for Faustian Bargain. 0XP left. Adaptable : 1 x Pilfer, 1 x Backstab -> 2 x Intel Report: I spent some time reflecting on my earlier strategy of having Rex clear the desert while Winifred waits back in town cleaning up Supplicants or taking location actions to lower the Strength of the Abyss, and after some more test runs I decided it would be a lot better for her to help explore. Each of the desert locations has two clues, and since it's fairly late into the game when you're out there the Skull token is likely to be an issue. Intel Report gets around that, plus it also has good icons for Taylor's Parley action (and good icons for Rex, as always). This also means I ended up spawning Neith earlier, which was important since Rex didn't have the Ancient Stone (4) this time (and it's just straight up better to spawn her earlier anyway). The Eternal Slumber is a really challenging and fun scenario. This time I had a great start and would've defeated four of the named cultists except that Winifred failed an Abyssal Reach when the SotA was four, which added a doom and cost a full turn.  On the final turn before the first agenda would have advanced I deliberated for a long time before spawning one final cultist, and it turned out to be Farid at the Bazaar. Rex could have moved there and covered the Skull token on his test by committing Search for the Truth, Perception, and a Breaking and Entering, but then he would've been at the furthest location from the Camp without any cards in hand. There was already 3VP in the victory display (Nassor, Taylor, and Nimir) so I decided to move to the Camp instead and give myself a much better chance of actually completing the scenario. Restraint is a virtue born of hard-earned experience.  One of the locations Rex ended up at this time was the Sandswept Ruins, which I'd hardly ever seen before through all of my practice runs. He used its action and then committed Search for the Truth and one other card to meet its less-than-five-cards clause, putting him at +8 to guarantee a two-clue success (the final two clues needed).  A couple of turns later Winifred drew a Slumber, which was unfortunate, but on the following turn with both investigators at the Streets of Cairo I advanced the act and spawned Neith, and Rex was able to pass two tests to remove the Dreamer tokens and hit her for two (one at +5 with The Eye of Truth and the other at +3, with the Skull being -5 this time since I'd managed to keep the SotA fairly low). She was defeated in one round after Winifred dealt eight damage in three actions (having passed the Slumber check with Anything You Can Do, Better). Rounds: 11. Pickpocketing : 12 cards, 12 resources. 6VP (four enemies, two treacheries) = 6XP for Rex 8XP for Winifred (Obol) Rex:  2 x Fine Clothes -> 2 x Ariadne's Twine: After this scenario the Fine Clothes are no longer useful but Ariadne's Twine is very useful indeed, providing extra Eon Chart activations. I hadn't played with it much before so I was also pleasantly surprised at how you can store resources on it. That came in handy against some of the treacheries in the later scenarios. 0XP left. Winifred:  2 x Sneak Attack -> .45 Thompson (3): This was an experiment that turned out pretty well for a bunch of reasons which weren't entirely obvious when I was contemplating it in my head. The big one is that with Sharpshooter you can actually make use of its ability pretty consistently, and hitting two enemies also helps you get more value from each Sharpshooter activation since it exhausts. You can also boost and then copy the damage with Hatchet Man, and it can hit Aloof enemies like The Man in the Pallid Mask. And unlike the Flamethrower you can choose to attack a weaker enemy (or one without potentially dangerous traits like Retaliate) and still hit a larger one, though of course the Flamethrower is a much better weapon overall and in fact probably the best one in the game if you ignore the existence of the Cyclopean Hammer.  1 x .25 Automatic -> .25 Automatic (2): This is actually a pretty solid upgrade. I didn't think it would be, but an action saved is an action gained, or something like that.  Adaptable : 2 x Intel Report -> 2 x Sleight of Hand: The latest taboo errata for this one reads, "Put a level 0-3 Item asset into play from your hand. At the end of your turn, if that asset is still in play, return it to your hand." This lets you put the 5-cost Thompson into play when you might not otherwise have been able to afford it, which is especially useful in the early game, and if you fire it twice and copy one or both of the shots that's 3-4 ammo gone in a single turn anyway so it also goes a long way towards making it more efficient. It does knock off a .25 Automatic if you happen to have one in play, but that can be a good thing since the deck now cycles a lot more often with Pickpocketing in the mix. And the .25 Auto is also a Fast asset so you can keep it in hand until you really need it anyway. The Unspeakable Oath went a bit longer this time because I decided to do a slightly different strategy. I usually clear the clues on the Yard (and have Winifred activate it by taking one damage) but I don't reveal the Garden because that wastes a few actions since you have to return there later on (though as Orange Devil pointed out it's good if you're running a copy of "I'm outta here!") But this time I decided to clear and activate the Garden because it meant I could have a clear run at the end and only have to worry about moving (and I thought it might take longer to kill the boss without the Ancient Stone (4)). Winifred had a terrible start here, picking up three of the direct damage/horror Visions cards and a bunch of other horror treacheries. The Thompson's ability proved pretty valuable for dealing with a Mad Patient without actually attacking it.  I cleared the Kitchen's Willpower test this time around since Rex was right there and had an Eye of Truth in hand, which put him at +4. Rex actually spent most of the game in a Straitjacket since he didn't have any Magnifying Glass to play, and Winifred spent a few early turns in one, too, until she had to start using her hand slots. I found Daniel's cell on turn 13 but Winifred was too stricken to be able to kill the Host of Insanity so I decided to just leg it out of there. Rounds: 16. Pickpocketing: 1 card, 1 resource (played the first one on the thirteenth round. Being a card, its main disadvantage is that you have to actually draw it to be able to play it). 3VP (three locations) = 4XP for Rex (1XP from the Interlude) 6XP for Winifred (Obol + Interlude) Rex:  1 x Eon Chart (1) -> 1 x Eon Chart (4): I'm not sure why I ever had any misgivings about this card. It's super strong, and you can just use it like the earlier version if you want to by choosing Evade when there's no enemy to use it on. 1XP left. Winifred : 1 x Relic Hunter. 1 x Sneak By -> 1 x Lucky Cigarette Case (3): It was time to address the deck's draw variance, and I think this makes more sense as a later upgrade (as Orange Devil suggested). A Phantom of Truth was pretty uneventful, though Winifred did score a double Byakhee kill with a 3-point Thompson shot. I think I added doom on every turn it made sense to do so (so all but one when the agenda would have advanced anyway) and I pulled a Spires of Carcosa right at the end, but it only slowed things down by one round. The Organist is kind of a chump, really. Rounds: 12. Pickpocketing: 15 cards, 15 resources. 4VP (four locations) = 5XP for Rex (1XP left over) 6XP for Winifred (Obol) Rex: 1 x Eon Chart (1) -> 1 x Eon Chart (4). 2 x Magnifying Glass -> 2 x Magnifying Glass (1): This is the only economic upgrade I made this time, and I think it's a good one because Rex's resources are slightly pressured now with Ariadne's Twine and the Magnifying Glass is a card that you will always want to play immediately so it will pretty much always represent a saving of one resource (think about how other cards sit in your hand waiting to be played either because they're expensive or situational). It also let me do some janky poo poo with Dendromorphosis where, if possible, I'd always take a MG back to hand at the end of the turn or if I was about to draw cards (but I still lost my fair share of MGs). Winifred: 1 x Sneak By -> 1 x Lucky Cigarette Case (3).  1 x Another Day, Another Dollar: This is the other 10% of the solution to Winifred's resource problems. It's great because you don't have to spend a card or a resource to play it, you don't have to replace cards in your deck that actually do things, and you get it at the start when resources are most important. Very solid upgrade. 0XP left. Adaptable: 2 x "Watch this!" -> 1 x LGSTO, 1 x Pilfer: I didn't need "Watch this!" anymore and there's another boss in the next scenario, along with a bunch of 4-clue locations. The Pallid Mask is still my favourite scenario in this campaign. I had one of those moments early on which made me think I was good at the game where I made sure Winifred stayed with Rex on the first turn because she had her Ancient Ankh out. Then during the first Mythos phase Rex drew a Grasping Hands and pulled a -3 token, which would have hit him for three damage (making the Lost Soul weakness instant death if he drew it) but instead it only hit him for one.  This is the most dangerous scenario in terms of damage in the whole campaign, and there are three copies of that treachery in the deck so I always made sure I had a copy of The Eye of Truth or some other mitigation on hand.  I had a couple of really interesting fights here which made me appreciate how Rogue combat is a lot more technical than Guardian with the evading and the Thompson and various other tricks that can come into play. In this case, I drew a Malformed Skeleton on round three but couldn't kill it until round nine because of a combination of things, including multiple ghouls appearing, the Specter of Death spawning, and then Rex discovering the Mound of Bones on the turn Winifred was finally going to put it down. At one point she used the Thompson to put three damage onto an exhausted Specter, getting around its damage reduction trait, and she actually took three double-hit shots during this scenario, with one of them dispatching two ghouls on the turn before a Corpse Dweller appeared. The Tomb of Shadows ended up being six locations from the entrance, which was unusual because I usually try to get it closer, but I only ended up getting one other VP location because the remaining three were all in the set-aside pile. Rounds: 12. Pickpocketing: 12 cards, 15 resources. 4VP (one enemy, two locations) = 4XP for Rex 7XP for Winifred (Obol + LGSTO) Rex: 1 x Logical Reasoning -> 1 x Logical Reasoning (4): An essential upgrade for the final scenario. Winifred: 2 x Unexpected Courage -> 2 x Copycat: I still rate this card with these two decks. Pulling The Eye of Truth gives Winifred some treachery resilience and it also provides a very strong oversuccess generator, plus it allows Rex to reuse it. The test doesn't have to succeed for that either; it will always be placed on the bottom of his deck, and now that Winifred had this in her deck I tried to save Eureka! for its shuffle if she used it early in the game. Adaptable: no changes. Black Stars Rise went about the same as last time. I took it slow and methodically cleared every location necessary to be able to reveal the incorrect location and claim its sweet 2VP. Rex used an Eye on a round four Crashing Floods because I was hesitant to take too much damage early in the game, but then he ended up passing a couple of other treacheries at parity.  I ended up getting the path through the clouds again, which is the harder of the two, but what can you do. Rounds: 16. Pickpocketing: 19 cards, 19 resources (I avoided using it a few times because I didn't want to waste cards). 6VP (one enemy, four locations) = 6XP for Rex 10XP for Winifred (Obol + LGSTO + 1XP left over) Rex: 1 x Logical Reasoning -> 1 x Logical Reasoning (4).  1 x "I've got a plan!" -> 1 x Medical Texts (2): So, I did a few more test runs of Dim Carcosa, and one commonality among them is that Rex took a fair amount of damage. I also learned that the Ruins of Carcosa is a much more beneficial location to clear multiple times than the Dim Streets, but each time you clear its clues it hits you for one damage. Also, the Creature Out of Demhe might be in play, which would also hit for one damage. The Medical Texts proved very useful because they were only needed late into the game (usually after Dendromorphosis had gone off) and I could return a Magnifying Glass to hand to free up the slot, and it only took one or two successes to get all the value I needed. The other card I tried here was Emergency Cache (2) because there are a couple of resource-hitting treacheries, but the Texts proved to be the final piece of the puzzle, so to speak. 0XP left. Winifred: 1 x .25 Automatic -> 1 x Sawed-Off Shotgun: This isn't just a cool gun, it actually makes strategic sense here (another thing I learned from my extra practice runs). 1 x LGSTO -> 1 x Swift Reload: Two copies was too many, but one is just right. 1 x Another Day, Another Dollar: This is the best use of the remaining XP. It felt perfect. 0XP left.  Adaptable: 1 x Pilfer, 1 x Backstab -> 2 x Heavy Furs: The other thing I learned from my test runs is that starting at the Dark Spires is harder not just because you don't get a "free" exhaust on Hastur like you do if you start at the Shores of Hali, but it also means you have two Elder Thing tokens in the bag (instead of Tablet tokens). When you draw one during an attack or evasion attempt you lose one action, and this proved absolutely devastating for Winifred even if it only happened one or two times per game. Add to that the fact that her Skull token can easily get up to -7 or -8 before any relief kicks in (Rex finding his second Logical Reasoning or managing to flip a few horror healing locations) and the ability to reroll one of those tokens is extremely valuable. If Medical Texts (2) was the final piece of the puzzle for Rex's deck, then Heavy Furs was the same for Winifred's. Dim Carcosa got off to a pretty good start with Rex having Milan, a MG, and a Logical Reasoning (4) as notable cards in his opening hand (Winifred only had a Pickpocketing). He grabbed two clues from the Dark Spires on the first turn and the remaining two on the second, then healed four horror from himself and two from Winifred to bring each of their Skull tokens down to -2. During the first Mythos phase a Fanatic spawned at the Shores of Hali (Rex could sometimes flip it late in the game with Elusive if a few Fanatics had cleared it and were hanging out there) and Winifred drew a Melancholy. At the end of the turn she committed Quick Thinking and Rex committed The Eye of Truth to it because I knew if I didn't remove it ASAP it could tank the game, but it failed at +3 (I thought it had a good chance since it covered her Skull token). On the following turn, Winifred committed Copycat to it with the Eye plus another Quick Thinking and Rex's Shortcut (she had Arrogance in hand now) and that one succeeded, sending it to the victory display and the Eye to the bottom of Rex's deck. The Creature Out of Demhe appeared on the following Mythos phase, and Winifred dispatched it with a Thompson she had up her sleeve, then on the following turn she played it for real and blew away a Preying Byakhee. She then proceeded to draw a couple of Visions treacheries and spent most of the game at around 6-7 horror. Rex cleared the Depths of Demhe and the Palace, and then I waited a couple of turns for Winifred to get more of her rig online before spawning Hastur. She drew a Realm of Madness while she had eight horror, but luckily I had held onto the second copy of the .45 Thompson and only had to discard that plus a Swift Reload to avoid having her lose a lot of very important things.  The High Priest of Hastur appeared on the same turn as Hastur and kept giving Rex the side-eye since he had two Possession cards in his hand, but Winifred held onto him for most of the rest of the game. After evading Hastur with a Breaking and Entering, Rex ended his turn at the Depths and then on the following one he moved to the Spires and flipped it for the 4-damage hit on Hastur (and two horror to himself) then he moved back to the Depths and flipped it. I was hoping for the 5-horror group heal but it turned out to be the 2-damage Hastur hit.  While sitting with Hastur at the Palace, Winifred dealt with the Agent of the King (she usually ended up with another enemy or two on her there, so she got a lot of use out of the Thompson's ability). Rex moved to the Ruins of Carcosa and cleared it, flipping it for an exhaust on Hastur and a 5-point horror heal for himself. On the next turn, a Spawn of Hali appeared there. These things were the bane of my existence when they appeared at the Palace because they don't have Hunter so you just want to evade them and forget about them, but when you're at Hastur's digs you can't just get up and leave.  Anyway, at this point I was searching for a way for Rex to extricate himself from this situation, so I had Winifred go first and use Copycat during one of her evade attempts, putting The Eye of Truth on the bottom of Rex's deck. He had a Practice Makes Perfect in hand but the Eye was now inconveniently card number ten, so he played a Preposterous Sketches (now that the clues on the Ruins had been replenished) taking an attack of opportunity, which cleared his Dendromorphosis, then he evaded the Spawn of Hali with PMP plus the Eye and a Eureka! to cover the -6 token (this was a very important test to pass). He succeeded, but he drew the Elder Thing token, making him lose his remaining action! It seemed I couldn't escape it. On the following turn, the second agenda advanced and the Beast of Alderbaran spawned at the Palace.  I mentioned earlier that the Sawed-Off Shotgun had some strategic relevance here, and the reason is because that second agenda advances either when you meet its threshold of seven doom or Hastur has ten or more damage on him (for a two-player game). Also, you can't flip the Palace until Hastur has at least fourteen damage on him, which means that if he has 8-9 damage on him he's below the threshold for advancing the agenda while remaining a single 6-point shotgun hit away from being sent to the The Throne Room.  This time I let the agenda advance naturally because I wasn't quite ready for the Beast, but in a couple of my test runs I pushed it earlier because I was fully prepared. The other good thing about the shotgun is that a second 6-point hit brings the Beast to 1HP, which means Delilah can finish it off without Winifred having to evade it, which is good because it's actually very expensive to do that (in terms of cards, that is - it still costs five resources to have her kill it). So, the agenda advanced and Winifred took two 6-point shots, clearing the Palace of all of its inhabitants. Well, except for that creepy Priest who wouldn't leave her alone, and also a Byakhee that had flown in earlier that round. On this same turn, Rex finally freed himself of the Spawn of Hali with a Breaking and Entering drawn from the Sketches the turn before. This conveniently also cleared the Ruins of its clues again, but before flipping it (the Creature Out of Demhe was at... Demhe) he played the Medical Texts (2) and then healed himself for two. It turned out to be the "heal three horror from each investigator" Ruins, which was great (he actually went first this round so it helped reduce Winifred's Skull token to -6, and she actually drew it on one of her shots but she could have re-rolled it anyway if it had mattered). He was then out of actions, but he was able to Shortcut himself to the Plains and flip that one as well (I'd cleared it earlier in preparation) before ending his turn. That one hit Hastur for four damage, so he now had 19 damage on him and would die as soon as the clues on The Throne Room were cleared. On the next turn, Rex moved to the Palace then used the Eon Chart (4) to move to The Throne Room and Investigate at +8 with a Deduction, netting him three of its clues. He then performed another Investigate at +5 for the final clue and flipped the location, learning Hastur's secret, which turned out to be: "if you have damage on you equal to or greater than your health, you die." Rounds: 13. Pickpocketing: 11 cards, 11 resources. Number of times The Eye of Truth was committed to a test: 8. Resolution 3. The investigators prevented Hastur from escaping from his prison. The investigators win the campaign! A few months later, Rex waited excitedly backstage at the Ward Theatre. It had taken a while to arrange everything necessary for a new production but he was confident he'd assembled the best possible cast and crew. This would be the greatest performance of The King in Yellow ever! Rex Murphy in Return to The Path to Carcosa (Hard) - 36XP Winifred Habbamock in Return to The Path to Carcosa (Hard) - 56XP I finally made a good Winifred Habbamock deck, and all it took was 56XP! Seriously, though, you could probably build something effective around Pickpocketing (2) and any number of different investigation/combat tools, and her future is looking pretty bright already with only a few spoilers from The Scarlet Keys (the Thieves' Kit in particular looks pretty sweet for her). Kalko fucked around with this message at 07:05 on Jul 23, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 12:54
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In general I find the difference between a bad and a good Rogue deck is XP. More than any other class, maybe Mystics come close. Purely coincidentally these are the two classes with cards that give themselves more XP. You're making me want to play a Finn deck with Pickpocketing (2) though.
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Jul 21, 2022 14:06
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Yeah, I totally get that now. Pickpocketing (2) is fantastic but I imagine it's not like that for every Rogue, so yeah it seems busted and also balanced at the same time. A well-designed card.
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Jul 21, 2022 14:25
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Yay, hearing that my suggestion paid off has made my day! I was also really surprised at how good Pickpocketing (2) was, its such an upgrade over the base version. Especially being fast and that you can have both copies out at once. I'm sure Kymani will also find it a solid staple. I'm also really surprised at how much use you got out of the Rogue version of the Thompson. I have to admit I wasn't convinced but it seems that the combination of that and Sharpshooter makes it much more reliable and powerful than I had thought. I'll have to keep it in mind for my future Winnie deck, especially since it'll be Dream Eaters so hitting swarms will be useful. I've still got my fingers crossed for a Permanent version of Sharpshooter coming out in Scarlet Keys, but maybe I could think up a custom version.... Nephthys fucked around with this message at 15:33 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 15:24
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So just a quick trip report on my first time through Innsmouth. Like a bunch of idiots we decided to play Innsmouth blind 2-player on Hard. We picked Ashcan and Dexter, which was our first mistake. First scenario we win but get no flashbacks other than the mandatory one to win, so we get stuck with the worst loving chaos bag. Then we proceed to lose the next 4 scenarios in a row and learn that Innsmouth loves to snowball on you where loving up one scenario just means more bullshit coming at you in the next. Ended up quiting because losing stopped being fun after a while and not getting XP to be able to do poo poo plus getting scenarios made harder for losing was just discouraging. However, did learn that Innsmouth has, by my estimation, higher shroud values on locations on average than other campaigns, especially scenario 1. Also thought that bringing some Dynamite might be good for a certain car chase. So we go again this time playing Norman Withers and Nathaniel Cho. The Nathaniel deck was a Nathaniel deck, cus well, not much else you can really do with him unless you go for some crazy bandolier poo poo, and we were just trying to win the loving campaign here so we didn't do that. With one notable exception though I'll get to in a second. The Norman deck I was playing though, oh boy. It started like this https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2212905 and then ended up really loving good about 11 XP in https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2229875 and just kept getting more insane from there https://arkhamdb.com/deck/view/2258490. Turns out playing Deduction every turn is very good. Also having 4 cancels in your deck and cycling through your deck about 3 times per scenario is quite excellent. Divination(1) is like 2 more Deductions and Divination(4) is like having 2 more Deducation(2)s. Ended up running Scrying just so I could discard the Divination and cycle it back in my hand. Turns out Scrying(3) is real good with Foresight(1) though. Which you're already running cus it's just good economy for Norman early, and then just straight cancels late. Blur(1) is completely insane also, in case anyone hasn't figured that out. Let's just evade a nerd using a good stat and then get my action back 3 times and even if I run out of charges I can now still evade motherfuckers with my good stat forever. Blur(4) just makes you want to draw an enemy so you get more actions it is absurd. Deck is just slightly light on economy if it doesn't get an early Milan, but having Nathaniel Stand Together fixes that. Did this deck need Deny Existence(5)? No. I barely played it and never for anything serious. Means you can't die anymore to health damage though. Fearless(2) plus Atlas already means you are not dying to horror. Did the deck need Ward of Protection(5)? No. But it was hilarious just discarding an Aquating Abomination. Did this deck need Seal of the Elder Sign(5)? Nope, didn't use it on myself once, was just there to make sure Nathaniel wasn't running out of Event gas. Doesn't hurt that it thins my own deck. Did this deck need Blood Pact? Nope, never even used it once. Did this deck need Observed? Does any deck need Observed? I didn't know what the gently caress to spend my XP on anymore a long time ago when I bought this ok? Did this deck break the campaign over its loving knee? Yes. Yes it loving did. So turns out we didn't even need the Dynamite Blast and ended up not using it in the car chase because Nathaniel with XP just takes fools out. Also learned that Innsmouth snowballs hard the other way too. A lot of scenarios feel like the design intent was that you would partially succeed. But if you just get every single flashback in every single scenario and win most of them with plenty of time to spare, the campaign just gets easier and easier. A Light in the Fog was a total joke because of this. Like 6 turns in we go "uhhh, the encounter deck doesn't appear to be even trying to do anything to slow us down?". And yeah, having an investigator with 5 Intellect is *the big important thing* for this campaign. Between high shroud locations, Malfunction, a couple other treacheries that test Intellect and Pump Room I understand why Ashcan was having so much trouble. Like I thought we weren't doing this poo poo anymore after we learned our lesson in OG Dunwich? Anyway, we got the double secret ending and had some good fun regardless. Still a little bit sour that my planned 4 player Bless+Curse playthrough fell through though. Got a good idea for a Wendy Curse deck that needs some other players to be pumping in some curses to function. Maybe some other time. Also, most notable card we were impressed by other than the brokeness I unleashed with Norman was Handcuffs. Pretty sure Tommy Malloy is into some BDSM cus that boy got promptly cuffed every time he showed up. Also some Deep One Bull's and some other random shmucks. Long story short, if you ever run a Nathaniel deck, bring some Handcuffs imo. Best scenario of the campaign has got to be In Too Deep. Worst scenario is Devil Reef because there is just so much variance there in terms of order of locations and key draws. Worst mechanic in the campaign hands down goes to only being allowed to take the free action to enter or leave a vehicle once per round. I can't jump out the boat, Shortcut over into some tunnels, grab all the clues and then hop back in the boat so Nathaniel can take the 2 actions to peddle us to the next goddamn island? We gotta sit around on this island letting that doom tick up staring into the water for a while for what reason exactly? Anyway overall verdict the campaign is fine, somewhere in the middle of the pack for me. Just don't try anything fancy because once you start losing it goes "hey I noticed you didn't earn any experience and got some trauma, so how about I make these next scenario's even more difficult for you? That sounds fair right?". Which is uhh, a design decision I guess. Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 21:28
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Orange Devil posted:And yeah, having an investigator with 5 Intellect is *the big important thing* for this campaign. Between high shroud locations, Malfunction, a couple other treacheries that test Intellect and Pump Room I understand why Ashcan was having so much trouble. Like I thought we weren't doing this poo poo anymore after we learned our lesson in OG Dunwich? We played through Innsmouth on a blind run with Sister Mary, Father Mateo and Dexter Drake and did really well, so intellect isn't a total deal-breaker. I think you're 100% right about it being a snowball campaign though; you can earn so much XP if you do well early on that you just completely outpace the difficulty curve.
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Jul 21, 2022 21:53
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Orange Devil posted:So just a quick trip report on my first time through Innsmouth. Norman is broken for sure, he only needs 3 XP to get the Atlas and start doing crazy things. He's Amanda Sharpe but you actually have to put work in. I think Ashcan can get his Int up pretty high, but you have to strictly be gunning for that and it spoils his jack-of-all-trades stuff. You can also do Ancient Covenant + Favor of the Sun + Jacob Morrison tricks to pass whatever test you want, but again, that's a very specific playstyle. The true MVP card of the car chase is Pocket Telescope, to avoid bad turns and to pick up clues on locations you've already passed. You still need at least one charge to activate Blur, it says "If Blur has charges remaining" in its cost. I haven't tried Handcuffs yet, but I keep meaning to. Dragging an enemy around and getting those "if an enemy is at your location" bonuses every turn must be great.
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Jul 21, 2022 21:59
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Oh poo poo I misread Blur. I think I only misplayed it once in the entire campaign though. Blur(1) is a "get out of poo poo" card, but by the time I got to Blur(4) I was using it just to get more actions. We never dragged an enemy around with us with the Handcuffs since Nathaniel wasn't running any "if an enemy is at your location" cards. Just fire and forget on chonky enemies to get rid of them with 1 test. Playing the Handcuffs is what you do in those downtime turns when fighters have nothing else to do. Innsmouth has a lot of Humanoid enemies so utility might vary greatly in other campaigns. But being able to deal with Nathaniel's weakness without having to punch him three times is amazing. I was real skeptical of this card when we went into the campaign, but I'm 100% sold on it now for both Innsmouth and Nathaniel, and if you're running Nathaniel in Innsmouth it's an all-star. Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 22:03
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My biggest problem with Innsmouth is definitely that they use those goddamn tidal tunnels in something like 6 out of 8 scenarios. I was so sick of them by the end of the campaign. It really soured the campaign for me, but in general I would agree that the scenarios are just ok. It could use a Return To box much more than Dream-Eaters.
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Jul 21, 2022 22:35
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Yep, Handcuffs for Nathaniel every time. Do I want to remove my weakness with three tests or only one? Hmm. It became one of my favourite cards when I took it through RtTCU with Roland, too. I also love the mental imagery of Nathaniel punching the cars off the road. Actually I love pretty much love everything he does. I liked Innsmouth a lot when I did my run through but then it still had the fresh campaign smell. I didn't really like its delayed XP spending gimmick and I also noticed the big important Intellect test on Malfunction. Carcosa has one, too, but it's not super critical to pass. Dream-Eaters is the campaign I played once and wasn't keen on revisiting because it's only four scenarios long so I never got to sink my teeth into it. I do remember liking some of them and, I dunno, maybe I'll try it again just because it'll probably still feel fresh, but The Scarlet Keys is surely only 2-3 months away. And in spoiler news, here's the latest one:  Very cool flavour but it feels like one of those Guardian cards which isn't quite good enough to make room for. Maybe on a Shotgun?
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Jul 21, 2022 23:00
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So you've got a gun, and not quite enough bullets, and maybe you're worried about accuracy, and also ideally you have a spare action this round to use the reloaded gun... (There needs to be a "gunslinger" keyword for this and Eat Lead and Warning Shot so you can have a permanent Stick to Your Guns and have them ready for you when the stars align.)
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Jul 21, 2022 23:10
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Kalko posted:And in spoiler news, here's the latest one: It's all coming together for the big Lightning Gun Carson deck. I can see a use for this card. Guardians can always use a cheap, fast supply card to get back ammo in the middle of a fight and you could use the +3 skill to combo with Vicious Blow (2).
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Jul 21, 2022 23:27
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Kalko posted:
Good to see this officially, considering how many custom cards did something like this. And any rogue that can take blue events will like this, much cheaper than their typical reload cards.
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Jul 22, 2022 00:20
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Isn't this the first non-rogue zero xp card to give ammo? Contraband 0 is really expensive but it is the only other option. This card seems pretty alright if you can trigger the bonus on a second attack. Compared to a vicious blow you are spending a resource and getting a significantly higher bonus. I'd definitely try it in a 3 or 4 player game where triggering should be easy. I've run out of bullets mid turn often enough for this to feel like a good backup. Edit: I like how it solves the common problem with two handed guns where you are low on ammo, could play a new gun to reset the ammo count to be on the safe side or just risk only having one or two bullets when an elite shows up. KPC_Mammon fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 03:29
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When are they going to nerf Cyclopean Hammer? It just feels too good. High damage, high attack modifier for characters that can use it, no weird deck building requirements, and best of all, infinite uses. Lightning Gun and Flamethrower used to be considered the best of the best, but you needed to bring some way to reload them and probably some kind of bandoleered sidearm for Lightning Gun to avoid wasting those precious, precious ammo. Or you can just take Cyclopean and smash things with no other restrictions. Cyclopean is so much better than Holy Spear it depresses me. Even Sister Mary prefers Cyclopean over Holy Spear. Oh, and Butterfly Swords is really bad. It can only deal the three damage once per turn and you have to pass twice as many skill checks per attack, so twice as many chances to pull symbols with bad negative effects or the autofail. Why is it in the same set as Cyclopean Hammer? Nebrilos fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 06:37
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KPC_Mammon posted:Isn't this the first non-rogue zero xp card to give ammo? Yes, it is. And it's a really interesting level 0 ammo card. Nebrilos posted:When are they going to nerf Cyclopean Hammer? There's supposed to be a new Taboo list coming soon. It wouldn't surprise me if they chained it HARD, or just bit the bullet and made it Exceptional. The hammer would deserve it.
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Jul 22, 2022 06:43
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Yeah, apparently FFG hired someone to be an official Rules Guru a while ago, I think for all of their games. I'd expect the new Taboo list around the time TSK releases.
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Jul 22, 2022 07:14
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Except for sweeping kicks, the game over values adding your dexterity to attacks.
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Jul 22, 2022 07:40
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Kalko posted:Yep, Handcuffs for Nathaniel every time. Do I want to remove my weakness with three tests or only one? Hmm. It became one of my favourite cards when I took it through RtTCU with Roland, too. I also love the mental imagery of Nathaniel punching the cars off the road. Actually I love pretty much love everything he does. Nathaniel punched the absolute poo poo out of two ancient ones in a row without breaking a sweat. Those guys gotta learn to keep their cover up, maybe work on their footwork. One in the chamber definitely gets better with bigger guns, especially Shotgun likes 50% extra ammo and a +3 skill test. It's a good chunk of hoops to jump through though, having to have the card in hand + a resource ready + an action left over + an enemy to fight (last two only if you want full value) at the moment you spend your last ammo. Mostly feels like insurance for drawing the autofail on a crucial last shot. You can put it on Stick to the Plan but I don't think you want to. Icons aren't good enough for all those times when you end up not needing it imo. KPC_Mammon posted:Edit: I like how it solves the common problem with two handed guns where you are low on ammo, could play a new gun to reset the ammo count to be on the safe side or just risk only having one or two bullets when an elite shows up. This is absolutely the best use for the card. Also, Butterfly Swords is not as bad as it looks. Especially considering that since it is melee it has infinite uses. Just don't compare it to the hammer because that card is so busted it makes every other weapon except original Machete look stupid. Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 08:21
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 Yep, Amina is going to have some pretty good support.
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Jul 22, 2022 08:40
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Orange Devil posted:You can put it on Stick to the Plan but I don't think you want to. Icons aren't good enough for all those times when you end up not needing it imo. Sick to the Plan let's you play cards from under it, you can't commit them. https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Play
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Jul 22, 2022 08:55
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The more Amina rises, the more Marie gets pulled up in her wake. Exciting times for people that want to make their friends dread pulling an Ancient Evils too soon!
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Jul 22, 2022 08:59
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I'm glad something like that got printed because without it I don't think I'd want to play Amina. It's still 6xp, but it's also permanent which is amazing and it readying the asset is just gravy.
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Jul 22, 2022 09:10
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KPC_Mammon posted:Sick to the Plan let's you play cards from under it, you can't commit them. I know, I'm not saying you can? Also finally some proper doom management to really enable that archetype. Feels like it will work best in campaigns where Ancient Evils was replaced by a card that gives you a choice to do something else instead. Orange Devil fucked around with this message at 09:23 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 09:20
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Kalko posted:
This card is amazing. Amina + Marie are getting some massive support. Even just combo'ing this with David Renfield gives you insane resource generation. Someone on Discord worked out the combo with Amina: Turn 1 as Amina Play David for 0 + 1 doom on him Exhaust David - Add 1 Doom - gain 2 resources Use Sin Eater - take 1 doom, ready David Exhaust David - Add 1 Doom - Gain 2 resources Results: 1 action - 4 resources, 3 Dooms (2 if attached to Elle Rubash) Turn 2 Exhaust David - Add 1 Doom - gain 3 resources Use Sin Eater - take 1 doom, ready David Exhaust David - Add 1 Doom - Gain 3 resources :ActionTrigger: Clean Sin Eater Results: 1 action - 6 resources, 3 Dooms (2 if attached to Elle) Turn 3 Exhaust David - Add 1 Doom - gain 4 resources Use Sin Eater - take 1 doom, ready David Exhaust David - Add 1 Doom - Gain 4 resources :ActionTrigger: Play Moonlight Ritual Results: 1 action - 8 resources, 1 Dooms (0 if attached to Elle) Total 18 resources in 3 turns
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Jul 22, 2022 10:52
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feels like a lot of energy and motion to be purple Preston.
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Jul 22, 2022 15:21
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Orange Devil posted:I know, I'm not saying you can? I thought you were saying you wouldn't want to put it under stick to the plan because it has bad icons. I like it as a 0xp option for SttP. Sweeping Kick is a card I'll often put under SttP. With most investigators I'd much rather draw an important ally or asset but sometimes you need a Sweeping Kick and you need it now. This card has a similar role if you use guns. There are better xp options but that is almost always the case with 0xp cards.
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Jul 22, 2022 17:36
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The new doom management reminds me that my preferred solution would have been making doom thresholds per player. Ancient Evils comboing with cultists would be a lot less swingy if you added doom to the agenda equal to the number of players each round. Agnes's weakness and Marie's special ability would also scale better. Right now I'd hesitate to use either in a large game. I think the argument against doing so is that a good team of 4 is more powerful than two investigators but in my experience two player is significantly easier. Some scenarios have enough doom related treacheries that there just isn't enough time to finish them with a party of 4 unless multiple people bring ward of protection. This could be a player issue. I've played the most in my group, followed by another guy I game fairly often with. Everyone else has less experience.
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Jul 22, 2022 18:06
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The four player synergy really adds up when you add remains in play cards. Shortcut isn’t that useful for one person, same with portals, but in on four players they can save almost 2 digit number of actions per game. Same with safeguard. And investigators that focus on support like Bob, Tony, or the psychiatrist, really shine when they can help out multiple people. I agree that having to plan early campaigns around encounter deck mitigation is obnoxious.
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Jul 22, 2022 19:04
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Bob with Joey, Scavenging, and Eon Chart aint support, he's a top tier Seeker. I played him with Well Connected because he prints money. He got me through a blind playthrough of Antarctica at release, no problem. Edit: He takes about as long to set up as pre-taboo Mandy and can't pick up infinite clues from two locations each round like she could but he's a ton of fun and is extremely competitive. Edit 2: I'd like to see a competently played hard difficulty 4 player game sometime. Reading write-ups of playthroughs is also great because they'll often make very different decisions than my group might while still achieving success. I love how wide the deck building and actual play decision space is in this game. KPC_Mammon fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 19:10
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KPC_Mammon posted:I thought you were saying you wouldn't want to put it under stick to the plan because it has bad icons. If you have guns you want Prepared for the Worst and Extra Ammo and probably Ever Vigilant on SttP. If you miss that one XP for Extra Ammo then sure, but I don't think you'd ever willingly choose it over Extra Ammo. Sometimes you want Custom Ammo over Extra Ammo.
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Jul 22, 2022 19:45
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KPC_Mammon posted:Edit 2: I'd like to see a competently played hard difficulty 4 player game sometime. Reading write-ups of playthroughs is also great because they'll often make very different decisions than my group might while still achieving success. I love how wide the deck building and actual play decision space is in this game. PlayingBoardGames on youtube is mostly 3 player but they have a few stand-alone games where they play 4 player. Only on standard though. I watched an Investigator tier list on Twitch recently and they were ranking purely based on a 4 player hard standpoint. They made it sound like a completely different game. It was kind of nuts hearing them dismiss characters I thought were amazing like Stella and Wendy because of how overwhelmingly important action-compression is. Their strongest characters were ones that could recur Deduction or Pilfer to get tons of clues over and over. And Gloria because she's straight-up OP. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jul 22, 2022 |
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Jul 22, 2022 21:27
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 This one certainly doesn't lack for flexibility. The Perfected option seems pretty good with just the base version.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:13
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This is the upgradable card that’s the best at level zero. You can upgrade it, but funneling people money seems very good.
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Jul 23, 2022 00:32
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I'm very very interested in that distillate, for anyone who can take it, it can become a cheaper, non-exhausting, targeted thermos for removing In The Thick of It's trauma or arm/leg injuries, can pay for itself, and/or provide card draw or extra soak It does run the risk of drawing auto fail and fizzling, but I can see it being incredibly useful for not very much investment at all
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Jul 23, 2022 01:01
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Golden Bee posted:This is the upgradable card that’s the best at level zero. You can upgrade it, but funneling people money seems very good. 4 actions (taken by the cluever), 2 resources, a card and three tests for 6 resources seems like a good deal to you? Perfected feels like a mandatory upgrade here and Empowered is a trap unless you really want the cards and resources and only 1 other option.
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Jul 23, 2022 01:07
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Orange Devil posted:4 actions (taken by the cluever), 2 resources, a card and three tests for 6 resources seems like a good deal to you? If that's in my deck, I'm aiming to put as much XP into it ASAP for the reasons you said. If it stays level 0 for more than the first scenario it's a wasted deck slot. Everything looks great on paper until you remember that it's always been easier than this card for someone to just spend two actions to draw 2 or gain $2.
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Jul 23, 2022 04:57
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I wonder if the eventual Kate Winthrop investigator ("The Scientist") will have the extra action per turn clause for Science cards. Might be a bit too obvious but it would be a mechanically neat way to demonstrate she's actually, like, doing science to solve mysteries and fight monsters.
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Jul 23, 2022 05:07
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New card: Laughs in Harvey Walters. This is just a better Handcuffs, lol. Chalk this up to another thing Seeker does better than other classes. Great card.
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Jul 25, 2022 18:23
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Yelling "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck…" at giant penguins at the top of my lungs.
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Jul 25, 2022 18:31
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