Arkham Horror: The Card Game

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Skids is good. Perhaps even a better fighter than Roland!

The thing is, he has access to Guardian's Machetes and Dynamites (that's actually playable with all the cash you'll have) and poo poo for decent monster slaying AND very good capabilities for evade stunlocking (making him a great tank for teammates). Also, Hard Knocks is a baller talent and with green economy will allow you to poo poo all over encounters that should have caught you with your pants down. What you lose by not having access to high-level Guardian gear is pretty much made up by Sneak Attack and Backstab. The deckbuilding secret with him is to never care about green weapons, unless you really want some spare ones to fill the gap while you draw for blue ones you really want to use. His Elder Sign ability is really, really good, if obviously unreliable, and Leo de Luca is an MVP card that wins games on its own.

His real weakness is that he has little answers to high-shroud investigations other than Flashlights and Perceptions - so use them judiciously.

Really, Skids is the most pure warrior class in the core set, with Roland actually being more of a ranger/rogue - a sort of glass cannon with fancy non-combat utility. Try pairing him with Daisy - one investigator rushes the objectives, while the other takes care of obstacles along the way.

Kerro posted:

He can evade okay, but doesn't seem to be able to capitalise on this in a way that seems any more helpful than just killing the enemies.

Apart from being able to hightail it when outmatched (hello weaponless Roland drawing a ghoul), it's super useful to engage + evade an enemy (or two, if you pay for an extra action) to effectively stun them and allow other players to run around unharassed. Also, I had pulled some sweet Benny Hill shenanigans running away from Hunter bosses with Pickpocketing on.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 00:37

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:43

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Kerro posted:

more than one scenario has some sort of 'test X willpower, lose one sanity for each point you fail by' which can easily drive him half insane off a single card if you don't have suitable skill cards in hand.

The lowest value a botched test can have is 0! It's a common mistake.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 00:40

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

I remember the designer saying (in a Team Covenant interview) that thematically the whole resource thing was meant to convey taking a big, slow, powerful, exhausting swing.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 11:04

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Orange Devil posted:

It's best not to think too hard about what the resources or the spending thereof represent thematically because it really doesn't make a lot of sense for long. It's pretty much the only part where the game doesn't just breathe theme though so who cares.

Cigarettes. They're cigarettes.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 14:11

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

So it keeps following me. Duh.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 14:29

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Quick Thinking looks like a great card for lovers of nifty tricks.

# ¿ Jan 25, 2017 16:26

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

"Ashcan " Pete is the chillest of investigators. Like, literally, you cannot have a bad draw with him and his doggie.

Except Paranoia, but let's be honest - the second you'd see it in your deck, you'd restart the whole drat campaign.

As an aside, I wholeheartedly recommend splashing 2xRitual Candles, 2xShrivelling, 1xWard of Protection into him. Make use of that 4 Willpower (further buffed by obligatory upgraded Sylvestre) and leave hands to further buff your doggie (and your own shenanigans)!

# ¿ Feb 6, 2017 23:48

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Kerro posted:

I don't even find Paranoia that bad on Pete.

I'm dumb and somehow mistaken resources for assets. :downs:

# ¿ Feb 7, 2017 00:04

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

My god, the griefing potential of Flare.

# ¿ Feb 7, 2017 18:00

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

You should have had. It's got a bloody stealth mission!

# ¿ Feb 8, 2017 14:42

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

One thing I'm wondering about these one-shot exile cards is if it'll mean final scenarios of each campaign shall get extra difficulty jump, as everyone will invest in these powerfulshort-term solutions.

PS. I've played Curse of the Rougarou twice and feel so lucky to have drawn Peter Sylvestre within the first act each time.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2017 11:30

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Kai Tave posted:

Yeah, the thing that frustrates me most about this game is how it's constantly sold out all the time. Idk if it's new game hype or FFG was extra conservative with print runs or what.

SUSD just did a gushing review of it, so it's about to get turbo sold out.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2017 14:36

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Miskatonic Museum player card spoilers, y'all!

# ¿ Feb 11, 2017 23:26

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

thocan posted:

Does solo play actually work, or are you going to end up forcing it to work, and the game ends up kinda janky and weird without two players? When playing solo, do you control two investigators, or just one?

Works both ways just fine. Solo-solo feels a bit like Ghost Stories or something, where you're moving nimbly through the scenario trying not to get bogged down, at which point it's easy to be overwhelmed. With few investigators, it's more about powering through a barrage of dangers. I never bothered playing two-handed so far, but it really mostly depends on what sorts of decks you feel like playing.

quote:

How far does replayability realistically go? Is there enough variability of events in the core to get a good chunk of time out of it? Or, after one or two playthroughs, are the events predictable enough that you start to need expansions to keep the game challenging?

First time, you play to be surprised and die horribly. Then, you play it like a proper card game for the mechanics. Replayability is high, but it really comes from trying out different decks in different circumstances. Second core set might be a big deal in this regard, as it's basically necessary to open up fun deckbuilding. If you're some card game savant, each mission comes with four difficulty levels.

quote:

Lastly, I heard that two core sets are highly recommended, and some characters kinda suck unless you have the extra cards. Is this correct, or is that kind of exaggerating the necessity?

It is true, as has been for every LCG. Single core is basically a set of five pre-generated decks with sooome leeway to tweak them with playing solo. With second one, you get both enough cardboard to do proper deckbuilding to taste, and have far greater consistency in your decks - for example, the one character that truly sucks in a single core is the mage lady, who is at the mercy of the draw with just one offensive spell in her 33-card deck.

It's really much better with two (thankfully, between Dunwich and core set, enough of the spare encounter cards are used in multiple scenarios, so they feel like a convenience rather than complete waste).

quote:

Is the same true for the other little expansions, or the Dunwich box? Is it possible to just proxy a bit, or are there tiles, dials, or tokens that are necessary and would be difficult to proxy?

Everything past the core is 1x. It's just the cores that are packed to allow maximum possible scope to give a broad taste of the game. As for proxies - it's not like you're going to a tournament to be scolded by FFG police, are you?

quote:

Beyond that, any advice for someone looking to maybe buy in to the game in the near future? Thanks!

Unless you're really shy and undecided, go buy both cores from the get go, you'll thank me later. Personally, I'd recommend getting a binder for cards, but ymmv in terms of storage solutions.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2017 08:46

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Also, as it's an LCG, treat it like a more of a cardboard mmo subscription, rather than a game in a box.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2017 08:47

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Holy poo poo, Pathfinder.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2017 13:53

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Isn't House the one scenario that cares the least about Intelligence and Investigating? If anything, it's Wendy's chaos token shenanigans that could break the first act.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2017 23:44

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

There's a reason this game is stingy with XP past the Night of the Zealot, 'cause there's some bonkers stuff incoming.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2017 10:44

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Orange Devil posted:

Why Skids over Roland? Roland can fight and investigate well, which are the two core tasks you must be able to do well to be succesful solo.

Roland sounds like a perfect solo choice, but he's really more of a teamplayer. Consider:
- With his puny evasion and willpower, the second he gets pinned by something he cannot dispose of by the end of the turn, he's hosed.
- He's not that good at investigating to consistently deal with high-shroud locations without relying on his ability...
- ... which is more luck based the less players there are. With more buddies drawing more cards, there's always a monster to kill somewhere. If you're soloing you might get stuck on a high shroud location drawing treachery after treachery.

Skids is indeed pretty nice at solo, I ripped through core campaign on a single core with him. Though his willpower is trouble indeed.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2017 12:19

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Yeah, I meant Horror.

As for evade - it's really situational, but there's plenty of situations where things happen at a wrong time, at a wrong place. Unexpected spawn can swarm you turning off machetes, catch you without ammo, or a weapon at all, deal the kind of damage you've already taken, etc. Evasion is as much about avoiding enemies, as tanking them - oftentimes just an unlucky skill check means you can't finish a beast in the same turn and there's so much poo poo you can take and still be able to tackle on the boss later on (who is also really nice to evade before end of each turn).

The evasion makes him a bit of a glass cannon.

# ¿ Mar 15, 2017 19:46

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Help, I need to break my crippling addiction to Ashcan Pete, I know other investigators are fun too.

It's not even that he's good, just that he's so convenient in that you can't really have a bad draw with him (other than weaknesses, obviously).

# ¿ Mar 17, 2017 12:21

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

I'm outright surprised how god the rogue permanent skillbooster is. I mean, I know it's Jenny's thing, but still, I'd expect some strings attached like other classes have.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 07:40

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Oh, that makes more sense now.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2017 07:53

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Now don't forget the art sleeves!

# ¿ Apr 25, 2017 14:02

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Goddamn, Inquiring Mind is level zero.

As an aside, as I'm late with dunwich mini-packs - have we seen the secret behind Strange Solution so far?

# ¿ May 3, 2017 13:49

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

PJOmega posted:

Don't know if they'll see play outside of characters with very low Sanity like Roland.

It'll sure be interesting with Agnes. I could also envision some yolo decks aiming to freefall down to 3 sanity and stay there via Culver's trumpet, Peter Sylvestre etc.

# ¿ Jun 7, 2017 13:19

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Yeah, the thing is, he can deal with a 4-5 skill challenge every once in a while, but really suffers if he has to pass them consistently a few times in a row (fighting a boss, being forced to grind high-shroud location), as he can't just keep up by chucking skills/events all the time.

I'm really hype for trying out Dark Horse with him, though, that should help a lot.

# ¿ Jun 17, 2017 13:25

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

thocan posted:

Got my hands on two cores recently, and having a blast with that both solo and two-handed, mostly some combination of Roland, Agnes, and Daisy. Haven't really figured out Skids yet, and Wendy I've only played once. Something about them just isn't clicking for me. Any tips for them would be welcome, maybe I'm just not seeing something obvious.

Tip #1: draw Leo the Luca in the first turn.
Tip #2: as Skids, import all necessary murdertools from Guardians and proceed to out-warrior Roland by virtue of your superior evade-tanking.

Wendy is kinda tricky, you either keep her as a monster-manipulating generalist for larger teams, or do obscene janky event combos

# ¿ Jun 20, 2017 16:16

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Yeah, mono-green is really not a great idea, as a lot of rogue stuff (like the whole "win by 2+" gimmick) isn't yet developed to the point of being a proper archetype on its own.

At least if we're talking Skids; Jenny Barnes simply splashes Arcane Studies and whichever expensive cards she likes and simply deals with all problems by throwing money at it (via the pumpable talents).

# ¿ Jun 20, 2017 18:49

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Do we have any word on what's the street date for Lost in Time and Space?

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 22:49

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

As a counterargument, this card (particularly with its "can advance agenda" clause) does keep players honest when they get too cute juggling doom.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2017 22:32

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Would work nicely with Chance Encounter too.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2017 19:59

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

They cost 2x, but count 1x for purposes of deckbuilding level restrictions.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 13:07

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Yeah, Maleson is pretty great. I'd actually like him in Rex too, as the clue cost is essentially negated whenever you're standing in a place with odd number of clues.

I'm also thinking of some possible jank with regards to Deciphered Reality. The obvious use is to keep last clue in each location on big scenarios, to scoop up later with the card, but I'm wondering about possibly abusing it for solo play. As in, with one investigator there's a lot of locations holding only one clue, so you could zip around (hello, in-faction Pathfinder) and then gather everything in bulk.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2017 10:31

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Fat Samurai posted:

Anyone tried Dark Horse on a standard low cost Ashcan deck?

One extra attack when spending resources on the axe seems nice

Check this out: if you splash Forbidden Knowledge in, you can pop it after using the axe, tank the horror with Peter Sylvestre and take another pumped-up swing with it.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2017 15:38

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Bottom Liner posted:

Hmm, I love playing super aggro decks in LotR, but I'm trying to figure out who could pair well with Mark Harrigan.

Daisy with medical texts. Jim trumpeting horror away.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2017 08:20

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

I need a good, concise pitch for what the Wendy actually does. I always have trouble succintly describing her to newbies.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2017 16:58

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Basically, deck size is way less of a problem than competing for limited slots (there's a lot of story-awarded allies, in particular). Other than that, you have to decide whether it's a nice boon that fits your deck type, or random clutter. Also bear in mind it often doubles as both deckbuilding and campaign choice, the latter of which might mean some particular repercussions in future scenarios.

In multi-player parties, you usually try to specialize (e.g. one guy buys charisma and grabs the allies, daisy gets the book, seeker gets intellect-boosters, etc).

# ¿ Aug 17, 2017 23:11

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

What's the jankiest build at the moment? Grotesque Scavenger Jim? Some Wendy's weird event combo? Something else entirely?

# ¿ Aug 18, 2017 18:03

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:43

Lichtenstein: May 31, 2012; It'll make sense, eventually.

Pete is like prime anti-jank though, as he doesn't really care what the hell he's drawing. Right now I crave pointless, flashy, johnny combos.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2017 21:14

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