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What is it about the Cthulhu mythos that makes it such a good theme for games like this? I guess the race against time nature of the stories matches up well with snowballing game mechanics where you're trying to win right before things completely spiral out of control, and when you do manage to pull off an unlikely win it's that much more memorable. I think maybe also it's because in Lovecraft's stories the humans never actually win; the best they can do is to postpone universal doom for a while, which isn't how things generally go in the games but there's still that sense that the deck is stacked against you right from the start. That's partly why these games make me laugh so much. That whole 'how are we gonna get hosed up this time?' aspect keeps me coming back. You're doing well for the first time ever, blowing away chumps left and right like you're Doom Guy then all of a sudden an Ancient One hits the table and you have to read his stats twice to make sure they're real. "Uh... run??" And by 'these games' I mean this and Eldritch Horror, the other FFG Cthulhu game I've played and loved. Ah, that time we were almost about to prevent the return of the Dark Pharaoh but we couldn't put a scratch on the sphinx monster that embodied the final mystery we had to solve. Our professor companion held a Promise of Power and also... two Dark Pacts... which according to him was totally fine and normal and there was no chance he would be instantly devoured by an unspeakable horror the next time the omens went awry. Fortunately for us, and the rest of the world, peer pressure is a thing that exists, and he agreed to claim the power that was promised. The ritual commenced, the heavens parted, and the monster was instantly slain. Oh, and the professor died horribly as well. But hey, that's otherworldly power for you. So I've been collecting AH for a while but haven't played much past the core scenario until recently, and I really love AH's multiple different story resolutions and campaign system where not getting the best outcome doesn't end the game, it just makes things harder for you in the next chapter. I think the newest EH expansion introduces a campaign system, which I'm looking forward to. I'm also looking forward to some duo Dunwich Legacy tomorrow, but just now I tried a solo Carnevale of Horrors as Jenny Barnes and uh, I didn't make it past the second location. I kind of knew rogues needed time to set up their rig but I decided to just dive in right away, and the first carnevale dude I tapped on the shoulder wasn't an innocent reveler but a 4/4/3 badass who smashed my face in a couple of times. I used Narrow Escape to safely play Jenny's Twin .45s and blew him away, but I couldn't afford enough ammo for Round 2 against the next guy who also didn't turn out to be an innocent. I haven't actually seen what an innocent reveler looks like yet but I know two things about them : 1) I'm supposed to save three of them, and 2) the mythos deck really, really wants to kill them. So that should be fun.
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Apr 1, 2018 14:52
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I ran solo Wendy through the first six Dunwich scenarios recently and I was mostly evading everything because it seems like that's kind of what Wendy is supposed to do as a 4-agi Survivor. I have a solid understanding of general card game mechanics but for AH specifically I'm still very much in the learning stage when it comes to evaluating cards and building decks, so I've been including a bunch of 1-ofs for testing and I think Waylay is pretty good. My current deck is weaponless but I have 2 x Backstab, 1 x Waylay, and 1 x Fight or Flight because sometimes you do actually have to kill something. FoF is pretty interesting in that the bonus lasts for the whole round, but it's only good in the late-game because you obviously need to have some horror to make it work. I'm running 2 x Lantern to help get me through the first scenario before I get Lockpicks, and also because a Backstab + Lantern discard is enough to slay just about any important non-elite enemy. Once you get Lockpicks Wendy becomes an investigation powerhouse and I'm really pleased with 2 x Double or Nothing for clue-grabbing efficiency, and it also works with Backstab in a pinch (I could have slain [Blood on the Altar]Silas Bishop pretty easily with that but I went for the other option instead). The rest of my deck is trying to do stuff with Scavenging and recurring items to feed Wendy's ability but I've hardly made any use of that aspect of it so far. I added 1 x Elusive between campaigns because free movement is incredibly useful (too bad Wendy can't use Shortcut) and the disengage comes into play a lot with all the evading I end up doing. But yeah, sooner or later evaded hunters will catch up with you and I don't think there's any investigator in the game who can get away with zero killing.
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Apr 7, 2018 10:14
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Speaking of Jenny, I played a lot of solo Dunwich last week with her while trying to learn the ins and outs of the game and it feels like her base stats (3-3-3-3) actually present more of a challenge to deck building than other investigators who have clear strong and weak stats. The more I play, the more I appreciate how big a difference a single point makes to your chance of success when passing any test, which I guess goes to show the game has some solid math at its core. Granted, my only basis for comparison is a few standalone duo scenarios with me playing Daisy and then a full duo Dunwich campaign as Harrigan (the highlight of which was my trusty pal, the local Beat Cop XP2 whipping out his truncheon and landing the killing blow on extra-dimensional god-like being Yog-Sothoth on the final turn) so maybe it has more to do with the difference between solo and group play when it comes to specialization rather than raw stats. Anyway, after reading this thread and bits on ArkhamDB and from playing the first few Dunwich scenarios a heap of times, this is the current iteration of my deck : Assets 2x Physical Training (Core Set) 1x Machete (Core Set) 1x Switchblade (Core Set) 2x .41 Derringer (Core Set) 2x Leo De Luca:The Louisiana Lion (Core Set) 2x Flashlight (Core Set) 1x Jenny's Twin .45s:A Perfect Fit (The Dunwich Legacy) Events 1x Dynamite Blast (Core Set) 2x Elusive (Core Set) 2x Emergency Cache (Core Set) 2x Think on Your Feet (The Dunwich Legacy) 2x Sleight of Hand (The Path to Carcosa) 1x Fight or Flight (The Unspeakable Oath) Skills 2x Overpower (Core Set) 2x Unexpected Courage (Core Set) 2x Double or Nothing (The Dunwich Legacy) 2x Quick Thinking (Undimensioned and Unseen) 2x "Watch this!" (The Pallid Mask) Treacheries 1x Random Basic Weakness (Core Set) 1x Searching for Izzie (The Dunwich Legacy) So unlike in group play where you can specialize in fighting or investigating, a solo deck needs to be able to do both. In the specific case of Jenny where you don't have a natural stat advantage for one or the other you'll do fine against most of the board but you'll run into problems with both the high shroud locations and the high attack/HP monsters. The way forward here is to leverage the one advantage Jenny does have : money! Her trait plus the rogue card pool means you can generate a lot of resources quickly and then pump them into expensive but powerful assets like Leo De Luca or Streetwise, but there is kind of a feast or famine element to consider; when you're cashed up you can beat any challenge pretty handily, but when the money runs out you don't have much to fall back on. So with regards to specific cards, the context here is that the deck is of course trying to fight and investigate, but I also considered its overall action economy because having highly efficient turns is kind of the secret to winning at AH. I also gave some thought to handling what the encounter deck can throw at you, but only in general terms; I didn't want to tailor my deck to any particular scenario. 1) Fighting. I experimented with three, four, and five weapons and settled on five for consistency. Machete for weak mobs or Sleight of Hand into .41 Derringer for the more threatening ones. It's annoying that Jenny's Twin .45s don't work with Sleight, and they often require a lot of setup beforehand, but if you really need to kill something that guaranteed +1 damage is a life-saver. Weapons that don't do bonus damage are trash. Elusive and Think on Your Feet are important for avoiding fights you don't need to take, and in a pinch they can also combo with Dynamite Blast. Fight or Flight is a good late-game trick when you've accumulated a heap of horror. The bonus lasts the entire round so you can use it to guarantee a kill or evade on even the toughest mobs. 2) Investigating. Sleight of Hand into Flashlight whenever possible before playing the Flashlight outright. I tried Lockpicks a few times but the fact you have to exhaust them means you can't do multiple searches so I ended up keeping the Flashlights. After you get Streetwise they're still good for saving you cash. Also, if your location has two or lower shroud you can use Double or Nothing to 'cheat' an extra clue (apply the Flashlight effect first and your shroud is 0 x 2). 3) Action Economy. Did I mention Sleight of Hand yet? I generally hard mulligan for Leo De Luca and the games where you don't get him make me wonder how the hell non-rogue investigators make it through solo at all. The Quick Thinkings are a staple here too, for the same reason : simply taking more actions per turn is strong as gently caress. Elusive and Think on Your Feet are great combat tricks but they also help you get around the map without spending actions. You don't have to be engaged to use Elusive, and you can use Think on Your Feet to move to an unrevealed location. When doing The House Always Wins second, I found it impossible to rescue Peter Clover without Elusive and I'm Outta Here (after revealing the Back Alley) because there simply isn't enough time to move normally, especially if there are mobs in the way. Card cycling (or card draw) is an important part of your action economy, and I initially tried Perception and Guts and Overpower together, but in the end I settled for just Overpower. With Leo it didn't feel completely awful to use actions to draw cards every now and then. 4) The Encounter Deck. So this is basically just willpower tests. I was running Guts for this but I found most of the time they sat in my hand, and even when I used them it didn't feel like I avoided a particularly nasty fate very often. The milling mechanic in a few Dunwich scenarios doesn't really come into play if your deck is generally efficient, and I have Physical Training if I really need to pass, and it doubles as asset protection along with the empty Flashlights and Derringers. The nastiest encounter cards for me are Unhallowed Country, which blanks Leo, and Kidnapped! for similar reasons, but that one is an agility test so I can usually handle it with Streetwise. I basically chose to just eat whatever the encounter deck threw at me, but I did have Unexpected Courage to help out if I really needed it. And now for the general upgrade path for the first few scenarios : -> Charon's Obol -> Adaptable, swapping 1 x Double or Nothing for I'm Outta Here as a safety net for the Obol -> Streetwise 1 x Emergency Cache -> 1 x Hot Streak or 1 x Switchblade -> 1 x Lupara 1 x Emergency Cache -> 1 x Hot Streak 1 x Double or Nothing -> The Gold Pocket Watch I found Double or Nothing was generally pretty poor value after the first couple scenarios because there were fewer situations where I could use it safely, so it was my main priority swap along with the Switchblade when making any scenario specific swaps with Adaptable (amazing value, it pays for itself with the first swap). Last thing I will say is regarding resource generation, I tried Lone Wolf for a long time but I hated how the second one you draw is always dead, and I don't think the trickle is as good as what you can get from "Watch This!" which also has better icons. I'd love to hear from more experienced players whether anything I've said here does or doesn't make sense, or what you think of my deck or Jenny in general. I'm going to play the last Dunwich scenario with this deck soon and it'll be interesting to see which resolution will be easier, if I make it all the way...
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Apr 16, 2018 12:12
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I've seen Milan in some decklists and the +1 intellect is really tempting (I didn't think I needed extra resources) but having the extra action from Leo every turn feels really forgiving if things go sideways and I can sometimes get greedy with it too by overextending for an extra victory point or even a better resolution. I was getting Lupara early for a while but I kept coming up short on cash for Streetwise so I started prioritizing Hot Streak. I guess the Milan money might help there too. I should definitely try it.
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Apr 16, 2018 13:08
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I do think of Leo as an auto-include (and if Jenny can't afford him, who can?) but even if he doesn't show up early I do get him in most games just due to how much you end up cycling through your deck. I just feel like I can stay ahead of the agenda deck much easier with him and I have more options at the start of every turn. Lockpicks are only one point higher than a Flashlight (which I do consider to be significant) but I remember a series of frustrating games where they felt really limiting. Like, the Miskatonic Museum halls mostly have two clues and if you want to collect as many as you can for extra VP I don't see how you can do that with Lockpicks and/or without Leo, just as an example. I dunno, I loved them in my Wendy deck (where I also got better Double or Nothing rolls) but in this one they didn't seem as good, and also you can't really get Sleight of Hand value from them either. I did try a single copy of Lone Wolf for a while but then it's just less likely to appear early when you can get the most value from it, and it's not great as a skill card. It's definitely not bad or anything, I just feel like "Watch This!" is generally more beneficial. I can see my opinion on these things reversing again with more play time, it just felt like I'd played enough to gain some appreciation for the variance and that I was making headway on evaluating different cards! You raise a good point with Leo; I didn't even consider not playing him, but now I'm wondering what it would be like. edit : thinking about this some more, I think I was gravitating towards a general strategy of 'more actions with lower chance of success' vs 'fewer actions with higher chance of success' and I think it's because I wasn't able to game the token bag like I could with Wendy or Mark Harrigan, by which I just mean as Jenny it's harder to do consistent tests where you've accounted for the biggest negative modifier because her stats aren't as good. Does that make sense? I guess it's the wrong way to think about this stuff. Kalko fucked around with this message at 14:48 on Apr 16, 2018 |
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Apr 16, 2018 14:33
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Orange Devil posted:Why are you comparing Lone Wolf to Watch This rather than Emergency Cache anyway? Emergency Cache is such a meh card. Emergency Cache is a card I always want to cut but then the times it lets you do something now instead of next turn (or saves you spending actions on resources, ugh) feel really impactful. That probably doesn't outweigh all the times you draw it and it's basically dead, though. quote:I do understand where you're coming from with this logic. Having played a lot of Netrunner my first assumption was also that quantity of actions would be very strong. However, especially when playing on Hard or Expert, you quickly find that actually quality of actions is more important. Only once you have solid quality of actions does quantity become super strong as you would expect it to be. Losing an action + resources (either literal resources or card commits) to a failed check is just really costly and bad stuff happening due to a chaos token just seals the deal. Yeah, the Lockpicks are great up to shroud two for covering the -4 token, it's all the times you have to investigate shroud three or four where they feel lacking. And for those spots you need to Lockpicks + Streetwise or double Streetwise to guarantee the success, which gets very expensive very fast. I can see the Milan value here and I'll definitely swap him for Leo next time. Speaking of second allies, I've taken Charisma at some point on all of my runs. Earlier with my Daisy deck, which started with a couple of different allies, and later on Mark and Jenny where I ended up taking some story allies (along with Brother Xavier + Beat Cop on Mark). If affordability is part of the issue with Leo, how do you feel about Leo XP1 as a late upgrade after you get Charisma? KPC_Mammon posted:Lockpicks aren't just an additional point over flashlights, they also don't run out nearly as easily. Do you mean you don't play with Sleight at all? I do use Machete and Switchblade but I find it great for just getting more shots from a Derringer when you need the +2 attack, and later with Lupara it's amazing.
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Apr 16, 2018 22:17
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KPC_Mammon posted:I just played through Carcosa with Jenny and never used or needed Sleight despite having it in my deck for most of the campaign. The campaign felt a lot more evasion friendly though. I almost never needed my guns, backstab + double or nothing is really, really powerful. Yeah, when I played the first few Dunwich scenarios as Wendy I was able to evade a lot and Backstab + DoN key enemies, but the same trick didn't work well for me as Jenny and I'm trying to remember why. I think because it's too expensive to repeatedly boost with Streetwise? Wendy has +1 agi and Peter Sylvestre, making agi tests more consistent in general, I guess. quote:Regarding the number of clues per location in single player, check out this spoiler free breakdown someone did: https://strangesolution.wordpress.com/2018/04/05/location-location-location-clue-count-charts/ This is a great site. The differences between campaigns are really interesting, and it does back up my feeling that Dunwich has a lot of 2+ clue locations. Lockpicks definitely do help for triggering the +2 threshold bonus on a lot of rogue cards, and I'm thinking that alongside Milan I would probably see better returns on Double or Nothing. One thing I'm taking away from this is that Adaptable is even better than I thought. I didn't actually swap much between each scenario, but if you run the numbers (or go with your feels like me) you can probably get huge value from it. The scenario where Leo felt most useful to me was Blood on the Altar, where you have to fully investigate multiple locations and one of them is three shroud with three clues ("welp, hope it's not that one" [skips to next location]). Also, a lot of the locations are one-way travel only, and after fairly bad RNG in tracking down the required parts at the end I was able to get the 'good' resolution with the Necronomicon by moving into Silas Bishop's room, investigating twice, then moving back out to avoid his attack. Repeat for the 7-8 clues it takes. But I can see how stuff like that biases my opinion of Leo, and it took this thread (thanks Orange Devil) to make me realize most of the extra actions you get from him don't amount to much. edit : just while I was thinking about Blood on the Altar, I love that they included some weak enemies you can kill to automatically grab clues, relieving a bit of the burden of pure investigation (and giving fighters something to do in group play) even though 1) they have to spawn at an empty location you might not be able to get to easily, and 2) you might not even draw them. The fighting and clue-hunting is balanced really well across the scenarios so that even if one is favored over the other there are still a lot of different ways you can progress. Game is well designed. Kalko fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Apr 17, 2018 |
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Apr 17, 2018 03:56
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1. I believe FFG have said they expect and fully support you using newer player cards for older scenarios. It's part of the LCG experience (LOTR was the same). Return to Night of the Zealot isn't a new core set; you still need the base game, it just has a heap of new encounter cards and upgraded player cards. I'm looking forward to it as I think it's balanced for the current card pool. 2. Going in blind is the most fun you'll ever have with a new scenario but you can only do it once. I also enjoy the min-maxing experience when it comes to repeating a scenario, but they all have at least two different resolutions and there are some choices you can make which don't affect anything until multiple scenarios later. I've played through the first 6-7 Dunwich scenarios a heap of times now and even when I know what's coming and I've planned for a particular outcome I'm still surprised at how the game can turn on you when you least expect it. 3. There are a lot of rules traps for new players (eg. removing doom when an agenda advances removes it from ALL cards in play, not just the agenda card) but I can't think of anything specific with regards to mechanics. I would definitely say that most of the time it's better to have not taken damage via a card effect or ally than to use something like Bulletproof Vest which functions only as a soak and nothing else. Maybe another trap is spending too much time setting up your rig before actually starting the game. One weapon or clue-finding item plus one ally is more than enough preparation to leave the starting location.
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Apr 17, 2018 04:33
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Quidthulhu posted:Absolutely the loving worst. Happens every drat scenario. With all the milling in Dunwich I was able to avoid it a lot, and there were a couple of sweet runs through The Essex County Express where I was able to place it on a location which got sucked up into the void, discarding it. It's interesting that Jenny's weakness (and Zoey's and Roland's) do nothing if you're playing standalone. Looking at every investigator weakness, they all seem to have wildly varying opportunity costs while most of the basic weaknesses are pretty much just 'lose three actions.' I think this shows they're designed for thematic impact first and foremost without much consideration for comparative balance, which is good because it further distinguishes each investigator so that even within the same class you get more varied play experiences. Also I found out yet another rule I wasn't aware of : weaknesses are treacheries, which is an encounter deck card type, so any investigator on your space can actually use the action on your weakness to get rid of it (if it's one which allows for that). Discussion here.
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Apr 19, 2018 11:53
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New pack is up and holy poo poo at this new rogue ally. Also, apparently The Forgotten Age has a street date of May 10.
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Apr 26, 2018 02:42
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Carrying on from discussions on the previous page, I recently completed a solo Jenny Barnes run through Dunwich using Milan instead of Leo and he is without a doubt the superior ally. I'll make some comments about the deck I settled on and a bunch of specific Dunwich scenario stuff, so I won't be using spoiler tags. Jenny Barnes (Standard) Assets 1x Physical Training (Core Set) 2x Dr. Milan Christopher:Professor of Entomology (Core Set) 2x .41 Derringer (Core Set) 1x Hard Knocks (Core Set) 2x Knife (Core Set) 2x Flashlight (Core Set) 1x Jenny's Twin .45s:A Perfect Fit (The Dunwich Legacy) 2x Lone Wolf (Blood on the Altar) Events 1x Dynamite Blast (Core Set) 2x Elusive (Core Set) 2x Backstab (Core Set) 1x Think on Your Feet (The Dunwich Legacy) 1x "I'm outta here!" (The Essex County Express) 2x Sleight of Hand (The Path to Carcosa) 1x Fight or Flight (The Unspeakable Oath) 2x Narrow Escape (Black Stars Rise) Skills 2x Overpower (Core Set) 2x Unexpected Courage (Core Set) 2x Double or Nothing (The Dunwich Legacy) Treachery 1x Searching for Izzie (The Dunwich Legacy) 1x Drawing the Sign I replayed the first 3-4 scenarios a LOT trying out different cards, and also because Charon's Obol killed me a bunch of times. It's an interesting card; you would think the free XP would make it easier for you to settle for resigning without resolution more often but in practice I usually got super greedy and pushed for the resolutions I wanted anyway (and paid the price). I guess if you do take the 'no resolution' option too many times you miss out on rewards which maybe the bonus XP doesn't entirely compensate for, but I do like the high risk/reward style it encourages. I got over my brief and inexplicable aversion to Lone Wolf but for other cards I kept going back and forth. In general, the main criteria I used to evaluate how useful a card would be was in terms of action compression, that is accomplishing the most you can with the fewest actions. I wasn't a fan of Backstab for Jenny but it does kill a lot of early game mobs in one hit and you do have the skill icons to boost it. And speaking of boosting, with Milan and Lone Wolf you're swimming in money for the first few scenarios (at least until you get Streetwise) so one way to leverage that is with cards like Hard Knocks and Physical Training. They make Double or Nothing better, and can act as a poor man's weapon if you happen to be unarmed for too long. Physical Training was also my only nod towards willpower boosts for the encounter deck in the early stages of the campaign. Narrow Escape is hard to evaluate. Usually you can afford to take a few attacks of opportunity over the course of any scenario so on paper it looks like it's probably not going to do much, but when you actually have it in hand it opens up options you didn't have before. I guess you can think of it as a one-time damage soak asset, and at the very least its icons are good for Backstab. So for the campaign itself, I did Extracurricular Activity first because I wanted Rice over Morgan, and having an extra ally in the deck makes that club action where you ditch one for clues more likely to occur (hey, it worked a few times!) 2xp -> Charon's Obol The House Always Wins was a major stumbling block with regards to Obol deaths, and I reckon doing it second with that card makes it one of the hardest scenarios in the game (along with Blood on the Altar, which I feel has the highest variance out of all of them). With so few turns and so many mobs that can stack up on you, simply moving around to find the back door exit proved the death of me too many times. I always tried to game the abomination's movement to kill as many gangsters as possible, but then you also have to deal with the Striking Fear encounter set. So many games lost to Frozen in Fear or Dissonant Voices. 5xp -> Streetwise, 2 x Lockpicks Peter Clover resolution. The Miskatonic Museum is my favorite XP farm and I wasn't sure I'd be able to do as well without Leo, but as we discussed earlier, higher quality actions beats simply more actions any time. I was able to consistently clear the place out, and knowing exactly when the snake thing would spawn and where lets you game it a fair amount (if it's in play and the agenda is going to advance next turn, do not kill the snake). Previously I took an early Lupara here but having Backstab means you can dispatch the snake in one action the first time it appears, and two for a subsequent time. 7xp -> Adaptable, 2 x Backstab -> 2 x Lupara (I forgot I had 2 x Knife or it would've been this, it was late). Also 1 x Fight or Flight -> 1 x Physical Training, 1 x Hard Knocks -> 1 x Think on Your Feet Took the Necronomicon. The Essex County Express is the easiest scenario but if you rush ahead too quickly you can get smashed by the location revelation effects, so I learned to slow down and basically only move to a new location as the first action of a turn. I swapped the second Physical Training in here for Frozen in Fear (really hate that card) and because I wanted to have two later on. Swapping for specific scenarios is actually kind of hard because you need to swap out again at the start of the next one if the swapped cards are too niche. Speaking of which, I added a Think on Your Feet here because they're great against the Grappling Horror, or at least that's how I remembered it being one time (I forgot they have hunter). I got rid of the Hard Knocks because I have Streetwise now for the agility boosts and I maintained two combat pumps with the second Physical Training. 4xp -> 2 x .41 Derringer Stole the luggage (perhaps in Return to the Essex County Express, this will matter). So yeah, Blood on the Altar is ridiculous with bad RNG and a cakewalk with good. This game was one of the few in the latter category; the key and the chamber were the first two hidden cards I revealed, and I had the Necronomicon in my opening hand so I was able to get the banishment resolution. 6xp -> 1 x Charisma, 2 x Narrow Escape -> 2 x Cat Burglar, 1 x Think on Your Feet -> 1 x Moxie, 2 x Knife -> 2 x Guts Silas Bishop banished, one sacrifice victim, Zebulon Whateley taken. 1 x Chronophobia weakness added (next scenario). I haven't played Undimensioned and Unseen many times but I knew I wanted more willpower tech, and it was at this point I remembered Moxie is a card that exists. I added the Charisma because I took Zebulon (four allies in the deck at this point), and then I took the Cat Burglars because I wanted to try them out for mitigating bad Brood RNG and because they seem pretty good regardless. I had to bag five Broods and of course I ended up drawing four of the encounter cards that buff them (I stacked them all on one guy and used all the Powder clues on him). I actually didn't draw any Cat Burglars but I ended up killing four out of five Broods before resigning with two Lupine Thralls bearing down on me. Zebulon came out early and was MVP. 6xp 1 x I'm Outta Here -> Ace in the Hole One Brood escaped. I'd only played Where Doom Awaits a couple of times before and I got punished pretty badly by the location revelations and encounter deck flips, but having the rewards from the Peter Clover and Silas Bishop resolutions allowed me to win pretty comfortably. Ace in the Hole is really loving good. 4xp 1 x Lone Wolf -> 1 x Hot Streak, 2 x Physical Training -> 2 x Fight or Flight Lost in Time and Space, the coolest scenario (well ok, the train is pretty loving cool but I've seen it way more than this one). I went slowly to make sure I was following all the rules properly and in the end I'm not sure I played one thing right : when the Tear Through Time replaces the Edge of the Universe but Yog-Sothoth is sitting there, does he just... vanish? That's how I played it, and I got the resign resolution. It wouldn't have made much of a difference because my deck was still over half full after having cycled once before I drew a Beyond the Veil, and I won a turn or two after the Tear went into play. 34xp in total. Fantastic game, but I'm so very ready to play a different investigator. I want to play a mystic, and I want to play Carcosa, and I also want to play on hard now that I've worked out how to build for action quality, so next game I'll do one or more of those things. Final Dunwich comments : what do you think of the story allies? Rice feels like a third Milan, but I never take Armitage even though his stats are great for the cost and he's basically a third Unexpected Courage. I guess it depends on who you're playing as to which ones you'd want, but they all seem pretty strong. The thing about adding more cards is that it makes all of your cards that much less likely to be drawn, but then over the course of a game you end up drawing through a lot anyway. That raises another question, too, how much card draw do you want in your deck? Maybe for another time...
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Apr 26, 2018 05:20
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alansmithee posted:Last investigator from the next expansion was previewed, looks really interesting. Limited deckbuilding, but starts with 5 xp. Just enough XP to double-down on his theme and include Seal of the Elder Sign which you can still use even if that token is sealed, as per the new keyword. I love the design concept of him performing miracles with elder sign manipulation, and auto-passes from his signature item have the potential to be highly impactful since you can plan for them. Also, the more tokens you seal away the higher the chances of drawing the auto-fail token, allowing him to use his printed ability. Not sure you would really want to push for that, though. But yeah, that deckbuilding. From a quick DB search it looks like the Blessed keyword doesn't exist on any current cards, so the pool for them will be pretty small for a while.
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Apr 28, 2018 05:26
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Does every mystic deck need to run Arcane Initiate? I've been playing solo Agnes through the first few Carcosa scenarios and when you don't get your spells it feels like you can't accomplish anything. My deck is basically like this one from an ArkhamDB guide except I'm using Fire Axe instead of the bat and Forbidden Knowledge instead of the Fight or Flight. I feel like Agnes wants Peter Sylvestre to preserve her own sanity for pinging (and she really wants the 2XP version with the +1 willpower) so that kind of rules out the Initiate. Also, Carcosa seems to have a lot of single clue locations so you're not really getting full use out of Rite of Seeking or Drawn to the Flame but they're still the most reliable way to grab clues so they stay. The problem is when you don't draw them your investigating really suffers. I tried Lantern for a while as a mini-Flashlight that had some ping synergy but it's not great so I guess I just put Flashlight in the deck? When I scraped out some XP from the first few scenarios my first pick was the upgraded Sylvestre, and then Song of the Dead for more fight power but I think I should probably reverse those so that I'm more likely to draw a combat trick when I need it. Agnes laughs at the encounter deck willpower treacheries but getting a couple of enemies within the first few turns is a huge problem because unlike with weapons, the horror ticks from spells and other ping-enablers puts you on a clock and you quickly reach a point where your ability to keep fighting just shuts off.
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Apr 30, 2018 05:20
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It's situational. I think I would always replace Song of the Dead with a Shriveling if I didn't have a spare slot (like say if the other one was holding a Rite of Seeking that I still needed), but since Jenny's guns take up both hand slots you generally don't want to play them right away just for the sake of having a weapon out like you would with the .41 Derringer. You want to use them during a window where you don't need to investigate but you really need to kill something; they're fantastic when you know a particular scenario objective is about to appear.
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Apr 30, 2018 15:45
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Orange Devil posted:Well discounting Charisma, think of it this way: you never want to replace Peter with Initiate. But is the reverse true? Not only no, but having an extra way to dump the Initiate and her doom is actually a good thing. For some reason I forgot how it can actually be a good thing to replace the Initiate despite the fact that my very first deck was Daisy with 5-6 allies and Calling in Favors as one of several ways to manage the doom. Regarding draws, how many actions would you spend at the start of the game drawing cards before finally dropping a couple of assets and setting off? I've always felt you need to get moving by turn two at the latest and hope your upkeep draws deliver, but I admit it as a mystic it does feel necessary to get those key cards as soon as possible. After reading advice in various places and playing the game a lot I've kind of conditioned myself to think that spending an action to draw a card or gain a resource is generally a poor play (much like in Netrunner) and I only tend to do it if I need to burn an action for an advantage on the following turn (eg. wanting two spare actions after moving into a particular location, or timing hunter enemy moves to get the jump on them) or if I absolutely have to pay for a card right now and not next turn. If you hard mulligan for something and don't get it, sitting around for a couple of turns just drawing for it has got to be a trap, but maybe one full turn of draws isn't too much of an opportunity cost in the grand scheme of things? At the very least you'll have plenty of stuff to ditch for skill boosts, and hopefully your deck was built well enough to survive for a while without that key card.
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May 1, 2018 08:08
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Orange Devil posted:I'm going to just type another wall of text on Arkham Horror theory. If these are starting to annoy people please do let me know. No this is good stuff and it helps me consolidate my own thoughts on the game re: action economy. The latest post in this blog touches on a few of the same points in its discussion of solo investigators. It also confirms my sneaking suspicion that Agnes is one of the worst investigators you could run through Carcosa, which is my current project. Curtain Call in particular with the respawning boss is hugely inconsistent for me because it sucks up Shriveling charges that I need to use on some non-rat enemies and the main scenario objective (since it's practically impossible for her to solve it through investigation). Kalko fucked around with this message at 04:34 on May 2, 2018 |
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May 2, 2018 04:31
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Mists of R'lyeh would be welcome in my solo Agnes deck for the action compression alone, and it also saves charges on Shriveling when you don't need to kill something. The main problem is that you want Shriveling in one slot and Rite of Seeking in the other so it would be awkward to use. Book of Shadows (3) is an option, I suppose, and it also does something when you're not actually filling all three slots, which would happen pretty often given how hard it can be to draw the spells in the first place.
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May 8, 2018 02:15
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Sort of related to the Arkham Horror LCG, in the latest Eldritch Horror expansion they introduced 'personal stories' for all 55 investigators in the Arkham universe along with a campaign mode which lets you play the game a bunch of times in sequence, keeping various bonuses and penalties much like in AH. Anyway, some of the stories match concept to mechanics really well. Pete's is one of the more straightforward ones : These are the requirements for success or failure (excuse my bad scans). Clues in EH are drawn randomly from a box and have a corresponding number which matches a location on the game board :  This is the sad Pete result :  And the happy Pete result :  I like how in each Arkham universe game the investigators all have pretty much the same motivations and stories even if they're only a couple of paragraphs on the back of the card. There's just enough world building to provide flavor without getting in the way of the different narratives you build each time you play.
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May 8, 2018 14:52
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New pack is up and I love this. Couple new cards shown, including a new evade trick which looks good for Wendy.
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May 30, 2018 14:43
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Threads of Fate spoilers are now up (set Encounter Set to blank). Scene of the Crime seems real good. Takes a bit of planning and I guess if you want two clues out of it you probably have to take a hit on your previous turn, but test-free clue gathering is strong. Persuasion is pretty funny and possibly good in solo since shuffling something back is probably as good as killing it a lot of the time, and without checking I'm going to say there are a lot of 2-3HP humanoid enemies that have zero horror.
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Jun 12, 2018 06:16
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New pack is up on the main site. The two player cards are an upgraded Mists of R'lyeh and Skeleton Key, which is a drat interesting card but I'm not sure if it's good. Using it frequently is very action intensive, but it does let you nail high shroud locations which have extra rewards for successfully investigating them or costly ways of increasing your chances (I'm only half-way through Carcosa and can't think of specific examples at the moment).
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Jul 4, 2018 04:47
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The Boundary Beyond is up on CardgameDB. Set the Encounter field to blank. There's a new cycle of Talent assets that give skill bonuses, of which the Rogue one seems best at a glance.
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Jul 17, 2018 01:45
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Orange Devil posted:Take the Initiative seems legit also. Yeah, the key to it is 'this phase' instead of 'this turn.' I'm pretty sure most of the time it's a better Unexpected Courage, though I suppose its usefulness decreases somewhat as the player count increases.
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Jul 17, 2018 13:58
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I wonder what this means for the future of EH. I've never played the AH board game but I love EH and the last big box was released in February with no announcement since then of any more expansions. I guess this is why?
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Aug 2, 2018 06:17
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Quoting myself from my Dunwich trip report five months ago :quote:Stole the luggage (perhaps in Return to the Essex County Express, this will matter). Anticipation intensifies.
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Sep 7, 2018 08:03
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At the end of the Dunwich Legacy campaign notes they say something about how they didn't want to recreate the Dunwich Horror story, but instead they made DL as a kind of follow-up to it. The events of DH are referenced in a lot of ways in DL but it's about a separate incident. Lovecraft's stories are all available online for free so I read some of DH a while ago and it was kind of interesting to see how it influenced the campaign story. I wouldn't say anything was a spoiler unless you count mentioning place names or monsters that appear as such.
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Sep 27, 2018 08:50
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Quick rules question I couldn't find the answer to after scrolling through the rules. In City of Archives, my friend playing Sefina was one point of horror away from being defeated and he drew her weakness, Stars of Hyades as the tenth card in his hand, triggering the act objective which ended the scenario. From what I can tell, drawing weaknesses adds them to your hand first, then they resolve, so since the objective stated that it advanced 'immediately' we played it so that it interrupted the resolution and didn't go off. Is that right?
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Dec 26, 2018 13:37
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I played duo FA for the first time at Xmas, as Leo, who is not the most agile dude in the jungle. So many pitfalls, snake bites, and ants everywhere. Ants! Since Leo is 'the follower guy' I kind of just chucked in a bunch of followers with Calling In Favors, but in hindsight it probably would've been better to go with a standard guardian build and just treat his reaction as a bonus money-saver, and it's amazing for holding onto followers until you really need them since you can drop one safely with enemies present. The Treasure Hunters sure didn't do much. Also I had to try out the M1918 BAR and it was great fun to use, but the Flamethrower was probably the smarter pick (with Well Prepared, I only saw that 'combo' mentioned here later on).
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Jan 14, 2019 07:51
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Building a solo Carolyn Fern deck seems like an interesting challenge, but I wonder if there's enough card support for her yet. She has a lower than usual stat line and her ability to generate extra resources seems fairly action intensive. Also, being restricted to level zero weapons is a pretty big handicap for a Guardian. But then she does have good base intellect and full access to Seeker and Mystic kit, and generating extra resources is strong if you can leverage it well. On the face of it, the whole 'heals horror' theme seems like a pretty big deck-building trap. Cards like First Aid or Clarity of Mind are garbage that I don't want in my deck no matter who I'm playing. I'm not even sure Peter Sylvestre is worth it after reading the insights from this guy's deck which is kind of the only one currently listed which has any real thoughts behind it. Having said that, you obviously do need ways to heal horror. And every deck needs a way to reliably deal +2 damage per attack, so I've decided to try the new Meat Cleaver weapon from The Secret Name. I figure with trickle horror from the scenario plus that weapon, there will probably be enough to keep Peter Sylvestre busy every turn. The alternative is Shrivelling but I don't like the limited charges and the fact that she won't be able to upgrade it. With low base strength my plan for enemy management is the Cleaver plus the Physical Training (2)/Well Prepared combo, figuring that her excess resources will be enough to keep it powered up. Dynamite Blast is another affordable drain, and it's a one-of along with Prepared for the Worst because they'll both eventually be put under Stick to the Plan. I feel like I'll probably need either more tutoring or another way to kill things without the Cleaver, but I'm not sure what that should be. I do like the Ancient Stone -> Ancient Stone - Minds in Harmony (4) combo with Shrewd Analysis (upgrading the second AS is guaranteed to be the horror healing one because it's the only eligible upgrade for her) as that gives you some really efficient horror healing. I was thinking of trying Return to the Dunwich Legacy with this deck. I don't get to play as much as I'd like and I'm still a rookie deck builder, but I'm hoping others here have tried solo Carolyn or at least have some thoughts about how she might work. One last thing : I think Hypnotic Therapy is one of the strongest signature cards in the game but it's paired with a fairly mediocre investigator (at least with the current card pool). But that doesn't mean playing Carolyn can't be fun, right? Carolyn "The Cleaver" Fern Assets 2x Physical Training (Core Set) 2x Magnifying Glass (Core Set) 2x Peter Sylvestre:Big Man on Campus (The Dunwich Legacy) 2x St. Hubert's Key:Cleansing Fire (Black Stars Rise) 1x Shrewd Analysis (Threads of Fate) 1x Hypnotic Therapy (The Circle Undone) 2x Meat Cleaver (The Secret Name) Events 1x Dynamite Blast (Core Set) 2x Ward of Protection (Core Set) 2x Emergency Cache (Core Set) 1x Prepared for the Worst (Blood on the Altar) 2x Preposterous Sketches (Blood on the Altar) 2x Logical Reasoning (A Phantom of Truth) 2x Second Wind (The Boundary Beyond) Skills 2x Deduction (Core Set) 2x Perception (Core Set) 2x Eureka! (The Pallid Mask) 2x Take the Initiative (The Boundary Beyond) Treacheries 1x Random Basic Weakness (Core Set) 1x Rational Thought (The Circle Undone)
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Apr 26, 2019 14:22
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Plavski posted:She's just way more of a multiplayer focused investigator tbh. You're gonna have a hard time with her no matter what you do. I wouldn't actually play her with less than three players as there are so many better investigators to spend your time with at one or two player. Yeah, this is the truth of it. I've never played more than 2-player so I didn't really consider that some investigators are actually designed for multiplayer, but it makes perfect sense when you look at it from that angle. I shouldn't be surprised really, support characters are a thing in a lot of games.
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Apr 27, 2019 05:49
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The Greater Good spoilers are up : http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/arkhamhorror/arkham-horror-the-card-game Click 'more search options' then select the set, then select the blank option in Encounter Set to filter the player cards. The entire set is composed of upgrades to the dual class cards, plus one neutral tutor. My first thought was using Sleight of Hand with Leo on the Guardian .45 Thompson could be a net resource gain, but a Flamethrower is probably still better if you want a big gun.
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May 1, 2019 08:47
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After my first time through, I never go anywhere in the Forgotten Age without my trusty blanket. I played it through with a friend last year and failed on the final scenario, and just this weekend I decided to return with a solo Silas Marsh deck. I wanted a fighter Survivor so it was a coin flip between Silas and William Yorick. I'd also just been reading the FA post mortem articles on the Strange Solution, including this article about the Old Hunting Rifle. I'd never played a Survivor deep into a campaign before so this was a pretty good learning experience, by which I mean a made a lot of mistakes and I was even able to identify some of them. Firstly, here's my starting deck (playing The Forgotten Age, on Hard) : Silas Marsh Assets 1x Fire Axe (The Dunwich Legacy) 2x Peter Sylvestre:Big Man on Campus (The Dunwich Legacy) 2x Meat Cleaver (The Secret Name) 2x Grisly Totem (The Secret Name) 2x Drawing Thin (The Wages of Sin) Events 2x "Look what I found!" (Core Set) 2x Lucky! (Core Set) 1x Act of Desperation (The Circle Undone) Skills 1x Nautical Prowess (Books) 1x Dreams of the Deep:The Deep Gate (Books) 2x Unexpected Courage (Core Set) 2x Quick Thinking (Undimensioned and Unseen) 2x Resourceful (The Path to Carcosa) 2x Eureka! (The Pallid Mask) 2x Stunning Blow (Threads of Fate) 2x True Understanding (The Boundary Beyond) 2x Take Heart (Heart of the Elders) 2x Steadfast (The Circle Undone) Treachery 1x Internal Injury (The Dunwich Legacy) I originally had Inquiring Mind, Live and Learn, and Flashlight but they were replaced by Steadfast, True Understanding, and Unexpected Courage after several replays of the first scenario and then more replays of The Boundary Beyond, where I kept failing; I never replay a lost scenario unless I intend to start over completely and in this case I wanted to understand what was wrong with my deck. I put it down to a general lack of willpower support, plus Live and Learn wasn't doing much. The 1 x Act of Desperation was intended for future Old Hunting Rifle mitigation. I also replaced the Flashlights with True Understanding to free up the hand slots, and it actually performed really well over the course of the campaign. This is the upgraded deck heading into the final scenario. Early upgrades were 2 x Peter Sylvestre XP2, Charisma and 2 x Lucky XP2, mid-game was 2 x Grisly Totem XP3, 1 x True Survivor (simply amazing), and 1 x Old Hunting Rifle, and late-game was the second Old Hunting Rifle, 1 x Will to Survive, and 2 x Stroke of Luck, and Scrapper. Non-spoilery comments : Grisly Totem feels really good even though I sometimes forgot about the XP3 version's clause about returning the card if the test fails (aka. the whole point of upgrading it). Nautical Prowess is a ridiculously good signature card, it was MVP for the entire campaign. And the Drawing Thin/Take Heart economy is solid. One card I was constantly unsure about was "Look what I found!" - I didn't ever want to remove it for fear of not having enough clue finding tools, but I think I only ever actually played it for its effect a few times throughout the whole campaign. Perception might have been a better bet. What I learned about Survivors, which I kind of already knew just from reading about AH in general in places like this, is that they don't have a lot of flashy, high-XP cards. Going into the final couple of scenarios I wasn't sure what to pick so I added Scrapper and Stroke of Luck (second copies of Will to Survive or True Survivor would have been overkill). I really like SoL but my inclination was to use them early because my general feeling in this game is that as soon as you lose momentum things can go off the rails very, very quickly. Slightly spoilery comments : the Old Hunting Rifle plan didn't work out. My 2-damage Meat Cleaver sufficed for just about everything until the final scenario, and two of the cards I included as OHR mitigation, Act of Desperation and Oops! (yeah, oops alright) were dead draws most of the time. I guess it didn't help that I got the rifles mid-to-late game but I got into the situation too often where if I drew one early I didn't want to replace my Cleaver since after three shots I'd be without a weapon, and I was using my Resourceful recursion on other stuff. Speaking of which, I enjoyed Silas's recursion, and having an Elder Sign pop up when you have a big discard pile often requires some serious thought, in a good way; do I want to chain that Resourceful into another key card, or do I want a free Quick Thinking action, or do I want to grab a clue here with True Understanding? Also, Silas's four base agility helps a lot in FA when there is a higher than usual amount of agility treacheries floating around in most of the scenarios. Very spoilery comments : it pays to know the scenario well when you're playing on hard. In the seventh scenario, The Depths of Yoth, I went downstairs and generated a new layout the turn before the agenda advanced and placed Yig right in my face. It also dropped a random pursuer, which just happened to be one of the snake guys that gets +X fight according to how much Vengeance is in the victory display, and on the previous turn I just happened to have killed the Harbinger of Valusia, adding +5 to said display. In the sixth scenario, City of Archives, I breezed through on the strength of a heavy skill-based deck and the interaction between Grisly Totem XP3 and Body of a Yithian (since both are reactions, I get to choose the order they go, so I chose to add an icon then double it). I solved all six tasks with plenty of time to spare. In the final scenario, Shattered Aeons, I actually didn't finish. Never in my life have I had so many cards in my hand and no good plays to make. Turn after turn, I was wasting actions on removing double-action treacheries or weaknesses, or having to deal with multiple enemies clogging up the few locations, including the Formless Spawn. I had to keep evading it because I didn't have the horror tolerance to continuously Cleaver it five times in a row (even with Peter XP2) and I couldn't drop an Old Hunting Rifle safely. I feel like you're either supposed to be able to kill it easily in a turn (like I did with Leo last year) or be mobile enough to take all the evading in your stride (like Rogues/Seekers) but as a Survivor I just didn't have the tools to get by. Either that or I just hit some bad variance, but I replayed the scenario twice to get a feel for what went wrong and the same sort of stuff kept happening. Final comment : The Forgotten Age is pretty uneven, difficulty-wise, but the theme is fantastic and I enjoy the narrative aspect of this game as much as the mechanical. The lead designer has gone on record saying they front-loaded the difficulty too much, and that The Boundary Beyond in particular is designed to be very hard for maybe not-obvious reasons (its outcome changes some variables in future scenarios), so I wonder if when they eventually release Return to The Forgotten Age they will attempt to re-balance some of that, or whether they'll just go all-in on New Game++. Kalko fucked around with this message at 20:55 on May 7, 2019 |
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May 7, 2019 12:56
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Orange Devil posted:Isn't Grisly Totem 3 XP? Yeah, I meant XP3. And I also called it Grotesque Totem in one spot. Will edit!
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May 7, 2019 20:50
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Agnes, Minh, and Preston can all grab Fortune or Fate but typically they wouldn't have the spare XP like a Survivor, right? Would it be worth it in a 4-player game? I play mostly solo, but with four people doesn't this card basically read 'take an extra twelve actions this turn?'
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May 15, 2019 07:31
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Ubik_Lives posted:I’m pretty sure max one per game is across all players. I had to check the rules on this because I thought it says 'group limit' when it means that, but you're right, the word 'max' means across all players. https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Limits_and_Maximums
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May 15, 2019 09:24
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The Blob That Ate Everything. 2019 Gencon event.
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May 18, 2019 09:47
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This is great, the Dreamlands was my favorite Eldritch Horror expac and it's my favorite Lovecraft setting, not that I've really been exposed to many outside of various games. Also, a Mystic with built-in movement is pretty interesting.
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Jun 4, 2019 02:52
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New pack up on the main site. Let God Sort Them Out... I like it. I haven't played The Circle Undone yet but I know since Carcosa there's been a trend with increasing enemy HP, and with multiple players this shouldn't be too hard to trigger provided you have the firepower. I'm thinking Leo could use this pretty effectively.
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Sep 10, 2019 00:55
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Cards for the next pack spoiled. The two survivor cards seem great, and I really like Fast Reload for my Leo deck. Been so long since I've played any AH. Got caught up on all the packs for the year recently and I've got some Xmas sessions planned with a couple of friends. Is Murder at the Excelsior Hotel good? Might add that to our TCU playthrough.
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Nov 30, 2019 08:49
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Preview for Where the Gods Dwell is up. That's certainly a Survivor card.
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Dec 5, 2019 03:22
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