|
So I'll be playing 3P TCU (hard) over Xmas and I'm going to be the team's dedicated monster killer. I think I'll try the newest Guardian, Tommy Muldoon, but it's been a while since I've played so I'm looking for ideas on what to put in the deck. Checking Arkhamdb.com it seems like everyone goes all-in on the soaks with multiple allies and items, and I also see a lot of True Grit and Something Worth Fighting For, which I feel are bad cards (and not improved by Tommy's ability). I feel like leaning heavily into soaks is a bad idea since you're not really being proactive (ie. not killing poo poo) and you'll lose out on utility, so I'm thinking I'll make a general Guardian Good Stuff.dec but with a few different choices for Tommy's ability. So I'll have some of the following : Prepared for the Worst Steadfast Take the Initiative (still useful in 3P? It works fine in 2P, mostly in the mythos phase) On the Hunt (minor thinning to help my allies not get ambushed, plus I can search for VP enemies) Scene of the Crime (will probably have a Seeker in the team but I still want some clue tech) 2 x Good Weapons (probably the Enchanted Blade as I've heard only two things about TCU : you want a magic weapon, and there are enemy swarms) Dynamite Blast/I'll see you in hell? (for the swarms) Let Me Handle This? Survivor tech options might be Take Heart (I feel like some card draw will be necessary) and, uh, Lucky? And my soaks will be : Guard Dog Cherished Keepsake (one action for two resources plus the horror soak makes it worth it, I think) Venturer (expensive, but can be refunded and is a reliable way to keep Becky topped up if I don't draw other soaks) Madame Labranche/Leather Coat? (again, good return but I'm not sure it makes up for the opportunity cost of playing bad cards (I saw Labranche in a lot of net decks but I don't see her abilities being used well here)) Early upgrades will be the ever-present Charisma, Ace of Swords, Ever Vigilant, and some more allies. Beat Cop (2) is great, and I'm interested to try Brother Xavier (1) and Jessica Hyde (1). Anyone played Tommy for a full campaign yet? How did you fare, and what, if anything, would you have changed?
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2019 13:02
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 10:22 |
|
|
Thanks for the advice! I picked up A Thousand Shapes of Horror yesterday and Tetsuo Mori is pretty interesting as a Prepared for the Worst replacement which can also get Becky back from the discard pile. Worse on turn one for setting up, but it's a pretty good body for Tommy so I'm going to try it. I might try Daring instead of Overpower, too. One thought : is Steadfast much worse in 3/4 player games? With more 'stuff' (enemies/treacheries) in play does it lose value quicker as you take more chip damage? I do like how the card is designed to get worse the later the game gets, as it kind of nudges you towards playing the game well (don't save poo poo for a rainy day; keep your momentum going!) but I wonder if it's worth a slot at higher player counts.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2019 06:12
|
|
|
Funny you should say that, I just tried a few games of (Return to) Curtain Call with some solo modifications to the deck and the thing that really struck me is just how important it is to keep Becky loaded. I'm still not sold on True Grit/Something Worth Fighting For (maybe they're better in practice) but Venturer is starting to look a lot better. Dogs/Mori/Venturers would normally be overkill on followers for a L0 deck but I think it works here because of their Tommy value. And you make a good point about Tommy doing only one thing, so I'll definitely try Live and Learn. I'm running 1 x Prepared for the Worst alongside the 2 x Moris but I might bump it up to two simply because of how crucial it is to find Becky.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2019 07:15
|
|
|
Tommy Muldoon update : I tried a heap of Return to the Path to Carcosa (on hard) over the weekend to get a feel for how he plays and to check out the revamped campaign. I'll mention my thoughts on the investigator, the campaign (I'll use spoilers for specific Return bits but not general Carcosa info), and how my deck changed during the copious amounts of replaying I did. I mentioned last week that I was preparing for a TCU 3P campaign over Xmas (on hard, I'm going in blind but my teammates have done it before), so playing solo RttPtC means there will be a few significant changes to the deck, but I think I've got the gist of how Tommy plays. Firstly, here's the deck in it's current base incarnation : Tommy Muldoon - RttPtC (Beat Cop is a stand-in for Tetsuo Mori) I replayed Curtain Call and The Last King a lot, Echoes of the Past and The Unspeakable Oath a few times, and I'm currently up to The Pallid Mask, having just finished A Phantom of Truth (and only scoring 2XP - I'm not really familiar with it, having only played through the original back half of Carcosa once each). In the past I've felt like it was kind of cheesy to take specific silver bullet cards for a particular opening scenario, assuming you aren't going in blind, but now I think that kind of optimization is really how the game is intended to be played (with the whole concept of upgrading cards by replacing them, and the fact that Adaptable exists). The card I have in mind here is Fine Clothes, which you would never take if you were trying to make an all-rounder deck, but you would consider if you wanted to do well in The Last King. But then, if you're playing on a higher difficulty on a campaign you're already familiar with, I feel like part of the challenge (and fun) is optimizing your deck as much as possible, or to put it another way, trying to mitigate the bullshit as much as you can (spoiler : you will never mitigate all the bullshit). I didn't end up running with Fine Clothes, but it's kind of interesting in Tommy as another soak with a potential positive return, and it also makes me take a second look at Interrogate. But as much as I want to make bad cards with good synergy work, it's a lot better to just use good cards that have good synergy instead. So, for general advice on playing Tommy, what I learned is that Becky is everything. Your whole deck revolves around it; how early you get it out and how well you keep it stocked has a linear correlation to how well you perform in any scenario. I was originally using 1 x Prepared for the Worst, but it wasn't enough (even with 2 x Tetsuo Mori as well) so I added a second with a eye to replacing it once I got Stick to the Plan. I also learned that three weapons just isn't enough either, so I added 1 x .45 Thompson. It's a more expensive Becky, and while you don't want to see it as your only weapon on turn one, generally if you haven't found Becky by the mid-game (certainly possible) you'll easily be able to afford it because all of your asset recursion will have been generating cash for you instead of ammo. And speaking of assets, Tommy has basically two modes of play : before Rookie Mistake, and after Rookie Mistake. Before Rookie Mistake shows up you ideally want to get a Cherished Keepsake down and float one point of horror on it as quickly as you can so that it gets taken as soon as the weakness shows up. If you want to put horror or damage on an ally before Rookie Mistake hits, try to do it so that the ally dies before your next draw so you can get value out of it. But also, you don't want to be in a situation where Rookie Mistake triggers two, three, or even four times without taking anything because that's a lot of lost draws, so if you have to float points on an ally for that reason (or because that Guard Dog was really worth using) then do it anyway. After Rookie Mistake hits, you're free to float as many points as you like. The last thing I would say about asset management is don't be stingy with Becky. It's surprising how quickly you can burn through 4-5 ammo so keep piling it on unless you absolutely know you need cash for something. Becky is a real powerhouse. And now for some card analysis. I'll start with the Guardian block : 2 x Scene of the Crime It's a great card, but Carcosa doesn't have a lot of two clue locations so you don't get full value, and it does cost an action. I replaced it with Evidence, which still has synergy with On the Hunt, and it's... kind of the same really? I find both sit in my hand waiting to be used about the same amount, but Evidence feels better, at least in solo play. I'll definitely take SotC in my 3P TCU game. 2 x Daring Took this instead of Overpower, and it felt pretty good, though I did replace it fairly early for XP cards. The card draw is unconditional, and giving an enemy Retaliate isn't generally a huge deal with all the soak in the deck. 2 x On the Hunt Not as good as I thought it'd be, and I just replaced them for A Phantom of Truth. They were good for guaranteeing I wouldn't see a potentially crippling treachery in a key moment, but a lot of the time I already had an enemy or two on me and/or my ammo/action math didn't make it worth it to pull another one. Again, I think this card will perform much better in multiplayer when I can focus more on killing and not have to worry so much about my clue economy. 2 x Guard Dog Just great. Testless damage. Also saves actions when you intentionally trigger AoC, which I find I do more often than even with other Guardians simply because of the ammo/cash/action math. 2 x Vicious Blow Boring but simply too good to pass up. Killing three and five HP enemies saves actions and ammo. 2 x Enchanted Blade Chose this as my backup weapon for the Poltergeist enemies in Curtain Call, but to be honest it's a pretty good weapon in general. Good to play early if I don't have Becky or if I do have it but want something to fight with before my asset economy gets rolling. 1 x Dynamite Blast Always makes me smile when I draw it in anticipation of the massive, insane value I'm going to get out of it. And... sometimes I do! In all seriousness, though, it's often good value even if it only hits one thing. Side note : one of the new Return treacheries, Fragile Thoughts, is pretty annoying for it. And the Survivor kit : 1 x Trial by Fire Tried this early on for handling non-combat related tests or investigating in a pinch, but it just rotted in my hand most of the time. 2 x Live and Learn Good generally, and great for saving ammo, but kind of bad for attempting a test at parity expecting a failure just so you can play it, which is a habit I'm trying to break out of. 2 x Take Heart Great as always, and my only real card draw aside from Guts. Upgrades and Scenario analysis : Return to Curtain Call wasn't much different except for the increasing HP on the Encore dude which wasn't a problem for me. I found it better to grab my clues from Backstage rather than the Lobby. Actually, Curtain Call was kind of different with the replacement mythos cards. I prefer pretty much all of the alternatives. I was able to consistently get 4-5 XP from this scenario, but I got six on the one I took into The Last King. Upgrades : 1 x Charisma Standard Guardian no-brainer. In some of my initial runs I added 2 x Beat Cop (2) early after picking this up, but even with six followers I didn't feel like I needed a second Charisma because they cycle fairly quickly and/or I can't afford to play a third anyway. That might change if I also add even more, in the form of Agency Backup, which I definitely absolutely will do. I love that that card exists. 1 x Well Prepared Since my whole deck relies on getting Becky into play consistently, WP becomes essentially a guaranteed 2 x Combat boost per turn. Also useful for the 2 x Agility on a few tests or evasion attempts, in a pinch. 1 x Ever Vigilant Huge value, goes straight onto Stick to the Plan when I get it. The Last King is one of my favorite scenarios and I replayed it a hell of a lot, eventually realizing that you want to leverage the +2 resources or +1 draw locations as much as possible right away, depending upon who ends up there, of course. This scenario actually went a lot smoother for me when I still had Scene of the Crime because in most cases it was a lot easier for me to kill people than talk to them. I could actually consistently kill 4-5 of them after they turned, but then I was doing nothing else; wading through the corpses left no time to actually pick up clues. I have to say, the first few times I killed Sebastien Moreau I thought nothing of it, but then I had a streak where every time I met him the game decided nope, it was time for me to die, so for a while every time he appeared I was like  Also, one of the new Return treacheries, Shocking Display, is complete bullshit and introduces the wrong kind of variance to the scenario. I do like the new Dianne Devine though for that juicy 1VP. With SotC I was getting 5XP per run fairly consistently, but without it I was barely managing four most of the time. And that's what I went into Echoes of the Past with, banking it all so I could grab Stick to the Plan for The Unspeakable Oath. Echoes of the Past didn't seem much different, but I hadn't played it a lot before so I couldn't really tell. I replayed it a few times this run, learning that cultist whack-a-mole is the safest way to proceed (I expect as a Seeker you can just outrun them straight to the Hidden Library). I decided to wait in the library (after taking its clues) for the big guy who shows up at the end because he was dead easy to kill and it means you can collect both sets of 2VP. I think I got five in total, so I now had nine to spend. 1 x Stick to the Plan In my earlier runs I chose different upgrade options for the previous two scenarios, but after arriving again at The Unspeakable Oath I remembered how punishing it was on your action economy. The first time I played Carcosa was with Agnes, and I had a hell of a time surviving TUO. The same seemed true initially for Tommy simply because, like Mystics, Guardians don't have much in the way of free movement or similar action compression. I expect Seekers and Rogues fare a lot better in TUO, but anyway, I wanted Stick to the Plan for it so that I could guarantee Ever Vigilant and Prepared for the Worst. I also stuck a new card under it... 1 x Fool Me Once... RttPtC spoiler : Corrosion is loving gone! But Straitjacket remains, and was poison for Becky on my first few runs, hence me trying Fool Me Once... and it worked when I needed it so I'm going to call that a win. 1 x Well Prepared I liked how this was performing so I added a second one. So, The Unspeakable Oath. I usually play in ironman mode, but I was replaying these runs a lot for the purposes of familiarizing myself with Tommy's playstyle, along with the scenarios themselves. Still, since TUO is the first scenario where failure = game over, I decided that if I replay it at all I won't proceed to the next one. And I did replay it initially a few times, learning that the old action economy was still my biggest enemy here. So I started over with the goal of returning here with Stick to the Plan. It worked first time, due either to my excellent planning or perhaps simple variance, but I did get a huge shock when I found this new card : Radical Treatment. Like, what in the actual gently caress? I actually had four turns remaining when I entered Daniel's cell, my best run ever, and I only just made it out of the asylum on the last turn before reaching my horror limit and having to kill him. Two Guard Dogs mowed down Constance (one of the few survivors of that ill-fated party) as I strode from the basement to the garden, whereupon I made the final Agility check using Well Prepared on Becky. I ended up with 4XP. 2 x Beat Cop (2) I had been postponing these this time around for Stick to the Plan, but they were always going in. As I mentioned earlier, I'd only played A Phantom of Truth once before so I wasn't sure how different it would be, but it seemed like a pretty easy scenario compared to everything else before it. Frozen in Fear still loving sucks, but I didn't come across anything else too problematic from the mythos deck. This post is probably too long, so my final thoughts on Tommy are that I wonder if another path might be to not focus on Becky and just buy other good Guardian weapons. But then if you take more weapons than non-weapon assets you're not really utilizing his ability as much, nor are you getting as much out of it, even if it's only extra cash. And final, final note : if the Ancient Evils replacement in Return to Dunwich wasn't a tacit admission by FFG that Ancient Evils is a piece of atrocious game design then the new RttPtC replacement seals the deal. Looking forward to the Forgotten Age themed replacement already.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2019 04:39
|
|
|
alansmithee posted:I appreciate the long writeup. Some thoughts: That's the exact follower spread I plan to run, but I've only just done my first scenario with six allies in the deck so I haven't really got a feel for 2 x Charisma yet. Will definitely report back when I finish this campaign. I think I would have to try a non-Becky run to see how it compares; it really could be better, my gut reaction was just that there might be too much stacked against it. I think in a campaign with more item hosers like the original Corrosion you would definitely consider it. Losing Becky is a huge momentum swing, even with Mori to pick it right back up for you. I like the grenades idea too, I saw someone from an Arkhamdb deck talk about them in the comments. Not sure how much more XP I'll extract from this campaign but I do want Agency Backup to be my next upgrade. alansmithee posted:I don't think Shocking Display is really that bad. There's an additional 2 enemies to pull out I believe, so having a random one pop up isn't as harsh as it seems. Also it's kinda funny you talk of dealing with all the named guests, when we've typically either killed them all in the scenario or just burned the house down There are two more enemies but their bystander cards need to be in play otherwise they don't trigger, and that actually happened quite rarely on all my playthroughs. What I usually found is that pulling Shocking Display within a turn or two of a regular transformation event left two big enemies up to deal with, and while I usually managed to do just that, it was a lot of HP to burn through and really killed my momentum. Do you usually kill all the enemies in solo? I guess my only point of comparison was when I did original Carcosa as Agnes, and I definitely didn't have the staying power for that. Also, I didn't want to burn the house down this time because I wanted to try a Doubt run. alansmithee posted:And I think the biggest issue with Ancient Evils is the number that are in the set. I like the idea of having 1 thing that can mess up your scenario planning, but the fact there's so many and they can show up multiple times if you end up in situations where the deck reshuffles makes them too punishing with no real counterplay imo. I think one or two would've been fine, or even having VP 0 would make a big difference. As is some scenarios just are basically ruined when you hit a couple early or become too easy when they don't show up/show up late. Yeah, the multiple hits and reshuffling is what I hate about it. Also how it doesn't scale in multiplayer - the alternative options on the Return replacement feels like a complete no brainer; do I want to lose three actions outright (or six or nine in multiplayer) or have one of my actions fail? Hmm.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 17, 2019 10:20
|
|
|
Tommy Mudoon vs Return to the Path to Carcosa update : as alansmithee surmised, 2 x Charisma is necessary, and Becky doesn't cut it for the final scenario (but was fine up until then with the other support in the deck). I'll continue with some scenario reports and upgrade choices, then finish with some final thoughts on a few cards and also how the deck performed as a whole. If I have time this weekend I'll probably try restarting with a different strategy in mind, but for now, here's the deck as it was heading into the final scenario : Tommy Muldoon - RttPtC Upgraded Having only played the last four scenarios in the original campaign about once each I can't really comment on the Return changes. And I was also at a disadvantage from not having a plan or strategy going into each scenario, but regardless, The Pallid Mask seemed fairly straightforward. I did get defeated with one location (the all-important one, I assume) still in the catacombs deck, and if I would have replayed it I'd probably have spent a bit less time setting up before I started burning through the locations, as the mythos deck didn't seem particularly threatening. There was an awkward moment a few turns before the end when the only locations with clues were a 5-shroud and a 3-shroud which had an effect that makes you lose one hand while investigating, which meant I would've had to have dropped Becky, and moving back to the 5-shroud location took a couple of actions. I chose to move back to the 5-shroud location but I think I was screwed either way by that point, as I was still only on Act 1. Not sure why I didn't feel it in the few earlier attempts when I had six allies in the deck, but this was the first time it really felt like I needed that second Charisma, and multiple attempts of the next two scenarios really sealed the deal for me. Having allies sit in your hand when you can afford to play them but don't have the slot is a pretty big handicap for this deck. Anyway, I got 3XP from this scenario. +1 Physical trauma, +1 Madness treachery (Amnesia) 1 x Charisma (banking 2XP from the previous scenario to ensure I can afford an Agency Backup for Dim Carcosa) Black Stars Rise is a weird scenario. With two agendas (no act deck) I had no idea how to measure the urgency of any of my actions, nor did I really know what my goal was, so I decided to just pile all the doom onto one agenda to see what happened. I hardly used the ability to trade a clue for doom because I didn't feel like I needed to speed it up much, but after finishing it I can see why you might want to. I replayed this one twice due to some play errors and my overall impression is that it's a bit undertuned (ie. too easy). Pretty cool though; I do like it when they try new things even if sometimes they don't work out. Finished with 5XP. 1 x Agency Backup 2 x Flare So, Dim Carcosa. Yeah. I must've played it at least six times and I didn't come close to beating it. This is where Becky's power hit a wall and my reliance on assets for effective damage became a liability, what with treacheries like Realm of Madness and Melancholy floating around. Once I realized I could precisely control when to spawn Hastur I settled on a strategy of using my early turns to set up my assets, then grab the two clues I needed from the 2-shroud locations to either side of the palace, then spawn Hastur and hit him for the requisite amount of damage and proceed to spawn the location required to finish him off. The problem with this plan was that the longer I waited to set up my assets and for Rookie Mistake to show up, the more poo poo from the mythos deck would pile up against me, in the form of chip damage or resource impairing treacheries or enemies which Becky couldn't deal with efficiently now that the token bag was on fire. And if I waited too long, the 7HP Beast of Aldebaran would be up at the same time as Hastur. Also, I had Amnesia in my deck so holding onto a heap of cards was risky. I can see how the scenario is tuned so that if you can't just shoot Hastur you can evade him and then run around using the locations against him, but at this stage I was essentially a Guardian that couldn't shoot well, and being a Guardian, my non-shooting options were fairly limited. In most games I did manage to ping him for the amount needed to flip the palace (I resorted to using Well Prepared to evade him in a few games) but as soon as I accomplished that my deck just completely ran out of steam. I didn't manage to actually flip the palace in any game. So yeah, the heavy ally base of my deck wasn't resilient enough without a strong weapon backing it up. I would reiterate that Becky + testless ally damage was fine in each of the earlier scenarios, but I have serious doubts it will be good in multiplayer where there's just that much more HP to churn through, so I do want to test a standard big weapon Guardian version of Tommy if I can. Some final comments on a few cards : 1 x Fool Me Once... I liked having one of these under Stick to the Plan, as there's almost always one treachery in each scenario that you really don't want to see again. Not sure I would use it generally, but it helped mitigate effects that had a major impact on Becky (ie. the core of my deck). Also, a minor effect, but it prevents the card going back into the deck upon a reshuffle if it's still sitting there. 2 x Tetsuo Mori Obviously a Tommy card, and once you have a weapon it's your second best Rookie Mistake float target. 1 x Agency Backup Feels great to use, as I knew it would. Its clue-grabbing ability is just amazing. I think one is the correct number. 2 x Flare I normally wouldn't have considered Survivor exile cards earlier in the campaign because Guardian is kind of XP hungry, but since I was heading into the final scenario that was no longer a factor. I had 2XP spare and was looking at Dynamite Blast (2) for improved testless damage but I figured Flare would be better value, especially since my allies get shuffled back into my deck. It was really good for setting up my board early, and in one game I used both Flares to recur Agency Backup (so much value, but I just wasn't able to put it to good use). Take the Initiative/Lucky/Guts I find it hard to evaluate test boosters. Of course you want some, but with a base Will of three, Tommy eats most of the binary treachery effects anyway on Hard. Guts in particular felt pretty mediocre, and I wonder if I should've replaced it on upgrade instead of Daring, since Daring guarantees you the card draw and it's tied to a stat which is more integral to my success. I understand in AH it's better to play to your strengths than try to shore up your weaknesses, but I would be interested to hear more experienced players' thoughts on how they evaluate which and/or how many of these types of cards they include. Now for a few upgrades I didn't take... Jessica Hyde (1) Is this a Tommy card? Probably not, but +1 Combat for three is about the best deal you'll get, and since she comes into play primed with damage it only takes a couple of points to get positive value. But then taking an action to play a card for three just to turn it into four is not what I would call efficient. Dynamite Blast (2) I've always looked at this as a nice-to-have if you can already leverage the base version, but there were quite a few situations (particularly in Dim Carcosa) where the AoO clause would have turned this into a baller move instead of suicide, so I'm going to look on it more favorably next time. I expect it could be a good multiplayer card, too. Bandolier (2) Another nice-to-have, or is it? The main advantage would have been it would have let me play with Flashlights, and with the rest of my deck designed to bring Becky into play quickly it would have been a +1 Will most of the time. You can also fetch it with Mori. Custom Ammunition I only considered this because, again, my deck was designed to get Becky into play early, and putting this under Stick to the Plan means it's always going to be available. And there sure are a lot of monsters in Carcosa. Ace of Swords I liked this when it came out, but every time I looked at it this game I felt it just didn't do enough, even though passive Combat boosts would have benefited my strategy. Final thoughts : Guardian is my favorite role in this game and this was an interesting experiment, but I now feel like this isn't the best way to play Tommy. I'm going to try a new run with slightly fewer allies, and I'll spend more of my XP and resources on guns. With Survivor being Tommy's off-class I feel like you must take Lucky and Take Heart every time, and probably Live and Learn, though I'm less sure about that one in a non-Becky build since I mostly used it to save ammo. Leo is still my favorite Guardian and I'm looking forward to trying M1918 BAR / Swift Reload the next time I play him. Oh, and "Let God Sort Them Out..." Rogue cards are the best. edit : One thing I forgot to mention was that since I killed the big bad guy in Echoes of the Past, I had the option to take The Tattered Cloak. I decided not to, though, because I didn't want to toy with low sanity when the new hidden cards that deal direct horror were in so many scenarios, but it would've been pretty sweet in Dim Carcosa. Kalko fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Dec 20, 2019 |
|
#
¿
Dec 20, 2019 10:29
|
|
|
Thanks for your thoughts! I've been hitting AH pretty hard this week and I had today free so I did go back and make a new variant. I've just put it down after failing Dim Carcosa again, because apparently this time I had one more total Doubt + Conviction so it gave me the only Hastur I couldn't just walk up and shoot.  Anyway, here's the deck : Tommy Muldoon Returns The plan this time was to keep the same ally package for the whole run (2 x Guard Dog, 2 x Tetsuo Mori, 1 x Venturer), grab 1 x Charisma early, and then use the XP I spent on a second Charisma, 2 x Beat Cop (2) and 2 x Well Prepared (2) on big guns instead. Looking at your comments, I feel right away I should've played Overpower instead of Steadfast. My boost package here is 2 x Daring, 2 x Take the Initiative, and 2 x Steadfast. I decided to try 2 x Fine Clothes, replacing them after the first two scenarios. They actually didn't feel terrible for Tommy. The other big change was 2 x Flashlight, which really smoothed out my clue grabbing (as it always does). As a general rule, I would mulligan for an Enchanted Blade and Flashlight, but if I got a 2H weapon instead I'd play the Flashlight first and try to burn through it quickly, ready to eat an AoO to play the 2H weapon if an enemy showed up early. Guard Dog can work as weapon early on, too (except on horror-only enemies). So, some quick scenario summaries : Curtain Call The nice thing about having high base HP and allies is that when the Encore mob returns, I can often choose not to finish it on the last action of a turn. Eating a hit and finishing it with the first action of the following turn (or, better still, a Guard Dog AoO) means you get an 'extra' two actions, as the agenda doesn't right away go to four doom. This run went pretty smoothly : 5XP. +1 Charisma, +1 Dynamite Blast (2) The Last King Mulligan'd for Fine Clothes over Flashlight here and got some early value out of it, then somebody I was talking to turned into a monster and I had to go on a killing spree. Interviews : 2/5. Murders : 6/8 (Ashleigh lived). 4XP. 1 x Fine Clothes -> +1 Ever Vigilant (1) (banking 3XP for Stick to the Plan) Echoes of the Past I feel like this scenario has the potential to be the quickest in the game if you don't get on top of poo poo right away. I knew my best floors were Ground and Basement (maybe tied with Third) so that's where I spent my time. I managed to clear the clues from the Hidden Library (2VP) but one of them got eaten by a cultist so I couldn't actually advance to win. I also couldn't kill the big guy this time so I got no resolution, but luckily it gave me a consolation prize of 1VP so I had the exact amount for SttP. +1 Stick to the Plan (6) The Unspeakable Oath SttP : Ever Vigilant, Prepared for the Worst, Dynamite Blast (2) Armed with more knowledge of the Returns changes this time, plus Flashlights (they did work here), I made it into Daniel's cell with six turns to spare. The mythos deck kept setting monsters aside (I think all but one ended up in the deck) but only one of them actually spawned and it was the dumbest one, I guess, cause I was nowhere near the basement when it appeared there. Saved Daniel, so I ended with 4VP, which I banked because I had my eye on a Flamethrower (5). A Phantom of Truth Is it just me or is this scenario really easy? Like last time I got the one where the guy keeps running away, and I had plenty of time to visit every location and scoop up as much VP as possible. I ended with 4VP. 1 x Fine Clothes -> Flamethrower (5) (banking 4XP for its twin) The Pallid Mask So in my earlier run through here, Becky + allies + Well Prepared handled everything pretty well, but the Flamethrower handled everything really, really well. 1-shotting the scary ghost with Vicious Blow felt really good, then some other 5HP chump got lit up later and I was sold on this being the better way to build Tommy. The actions saved both in killing and setting up made a noticeable difference. I made it out with time to spare, and 5VP. 1 x .45 Thompson -> Flamethrower (5), 1 x Enchanted Blade -> +1 Mk1 Grenades Black Stars Rise This scenario also feels pretty loose with time. I got the opposite agenda to last time but I was able to breeze through it, though somehow only collecting 1VP. 1 x Enchanted Blade -> +1 A Test of Will Dim Carcosa I was so keen to light Hastur up but as I mentioned at the beginning, I got the one out of three Hasturs who doesn't actually sit on the board. I tried running around using the locations but my clue grabbing was not the best. If I try again I think I'll swap the grenades for Bandolier (2) to see how effective it is at letting me hold a Flashlight alongside the Flamethrower. I feel like if it's going to work, it'll work because of Mori, as Spritz3 mentioned. I kind of wanted to test the grenades, mostly to try using them on weaker mobs which don't really justify a blast of flame. Overall, the deck performed a lot better. Not having to get a heap of assets in play to deal effective damage, but rather being able to just use them for resources (or Becky ammo on the early scenarios) feels a lot more effective. I also like the 1 x Venturer; it felt useful every time it showed up. Regarding Flare, in my other deck I didn't actually put it under SttP (I was using PftW, Ever Vigilant, and Fool Me Once... then) but the times I got them in my opening hand and thus could use them early were pretty impactful. I pretty much always have PftW and EV under my SttP so I only have one flex slot, but maybe I should rethink PftW for the later scenarios with 2 x Mori in the deck and 3-4 strong weapons. fake edit : reading alansmithee's reply now that I've finished writing this post, that's a shame about Timeworn Brand being the go-to in multiplayer. The big guns are some of the most flavorful stuff in this game!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 21, 2019 16:17
|
|
|
Another possibly overlooked rule might be that negative modifiers can't make a skill test result fall below zero except for the purposes of positive modifiers you might play to raise it back up again (eg. Lucky). This is why cards like Flashlight are so good - if you use it on a location with a shroud of two or less it's guaranteed to be successful regardless of the token you draw (except for the auto-fail).
|
|
#
¿
Dec 29, 2019 00:48
|
|
|
Browsing the FAQ, I came across this :quote:If a skill test both automatically succeeds and automatically fails, the automatic failure takes precedence, and the test automatically fails. The rules also say that automatic success or failure applies in step ST.6, which is after you reveal a token, so if you reveal the auto-fail on an ability like Augur after discarding for the auto-success, you actually still fail. I'd always taken 'automatically succeeds' to also implicitly include 'don't bother actually revealing a token' but that's obviously wrong. So, then I wondered how this applies to abilities that 'automatically evade' like Decoy, and I found the FAQ also has this to say : quote:A “skill test on a card” is any ability that directly prompts a skill test, either through the template “test skill (X),” or by initiating an action that is, in itself, a skill test (for example, any card with Fight, Evade, or Investigate action designators) So, presumably, for Decoy you still reveal a token and it can still fail if you draw the auto-fail. Right? Or does the wording 'automatically evade' bypass the requirement to actually run the test (in which case it should have said something like "Evade. You automatically succeed at this skill test.")?
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2020 12:10
|
|
|
Oh, thanks, good to know. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the rules, even the weird corner cases, but playing a multiplayer campaign over Xmas it was kind of surprising how many times we looked up a particular rules interaction. And I think AH is on the better side of that stuff when it comes to card games in general (nowhere near the gold standard, MTG, but then nothing is).
|
|
#
¿
Jan 8, 2020 12:58
|
|
|
Dark Side of the Moon player cards. Three Aces immediately stuck out to me because I've been experimenting with a Mandy Thompson deck lately and she would easily be able to satisfy that condition. But she also doesn't really want to draw cards outright (I was going to write up some thoughts about the deck at some point). I like Extensive Research too, seems like it wouldn't be hard to reduce its cost a heap in most Seeker decks.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2020 00:48
|
|
|
Point of No Return Pretty interesting pack. I really like Haste.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 4, 2020 07:41
|
|
|
The Return set we've all been waiting for has arrived! No real details on how they've unfucked some of the scenarios, but that new Survival Knife looks pretty tasty (lets you attack before taking damage now) and I think the new On Your Own is the first Exceptional survivor card?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2020 00:51
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/FFGames/status/1229860422213304320 The Innsmouth Conspiracy is the next deluxe cycle, not an arctic themed one as hinted at in various card arts (according to Reddit sleuths). No details, just the name and a piece of art. It was revealed on a stream where they also said something about a new type of product appearing for the LCG too, so presumably not another box or standalone pack.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2020 02:54
|
|
|
Weaver of the Cosmos player cards have been spoiled, apparently due to a mix-up with some Australian stores, [checks online] including mine! Where the Gods Dwell was supposed to be the next pack. So, Abigail Foreman is, um, very good. I like the upgraded Scavenging but it's been a while since I've played that archetype. Still, action compression is always worth a look. And I'm definitely going to be making a jank Sawed-Off Shotgun deck.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 24, 2020 04:52
|
|
|
Dunwich was the first campaign I played (outside NotZ) and having played through Return to Dunwich recently I was struck at how... vanilla it was as a game experience. Not bad, it's just that there's not much going on from a mechanical and especially narrative point of view. I would definitely recommend Carcosa or Circle Undone over Return to Dunwich (or Forgotten Age, which is my favorite so far, thematically, but has a few glaring issues with pace and difficulty which will hopefully be resolved with its own just-announced Return set).
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2020 13:36
|
|
|
Three Aces + Double or Nothing is a 12-damage shot out of Sefina, who is probably the best candidate for such a (dumb/amazing) deck.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 26, 2020 00:32
|
|
|
Where the Gods Dwell player cards. The entire Dream-Eaters cycle has now been revealed. I really like that cat but off the top of my head I feel like those tokens are pretty uncommon in most bags (I think you can play the whole Circle Undone campaign without getting a tablet token depending upon your choices, for example). And it's 5XP. But still, removing nasty effects and big negative modifiers on hard/expert could be worth it. I also like Garrote Wire for smoothing out ammo usage, but if it took an action it would be unplayable.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 2, 2020 02:02
|
|
|
Investigator Starter Decks. This is a lot more content than I was expecting. Great stuff.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 24, 2020 21:05
|
|
|
More cards! That new Necronomicon is my favorite of the revealed cards. It's like a 1920s smart phone. "There's a spell for that!" And kind of funny with Sleight of Hand out of Mandy or Rex. edit : The investigators are pretty interesting. Mono-color only, but with pushed stats (5 in their core stat and 15 health/sanity, except for Stella with 16) and their signature cards are all in their class color as an additional bonus. I know Rogue's pool of "succeed by 2 or more" cards has never amounted to an actual archetype, but now that there's an investigator based around the concept I'm wondering : can it be good? On hard/expert where you have to commit a lot just to pass tests, let alone succeed by any additional amount? Kalko fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Mar 25, 2020 |
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2020 02:38
|
|
|
alansmithee posted:Of the new investigators, Jaqueline and Harvey seem by far the best. I can't think of many situations where Nathaniel Cho wouldn't be inferior to Mark Harrigan (although throwing 4 damage Dynamite Blasts could be fun). When Cho throws dynamite it's +1 damage to one of the targets, not all of them (clarified on the stream apparently). Still pretty good value, I think. He probably needs more card support in the form of fast events like Counterpunch which lets him use his ability in more phases, and a high XP fight event to use in lieu of big guns is a niche waiting to be filled (and it could be thematic) but I don't know what that would look like (Monster Slayer doesn't really cut it). Boxing Gloves is pretty decent draw, but I feel like you'd need a lot of recursion too if you're going to rely on event fighting in multiplayer.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 25, 2020 10:52
|
|
|
Couple of new cards spoiled by a fan site/podcast. Sharpshooter is a great effect but exhausting it is a dealbreaker. Stella's signature is Unexpected Courage+ and you get three copies of it.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 14, 2020 06:52
|
|
|
A couple more cards spoiled by a fan Youtube. MAF is only one more XP than Charisma and I don't see the restriction being too bad since you can still use your base ally slot for soak as long as it's non-Miskatonic. I just checked and almost all Seeker allies actually are Miskatonic (notably Mr Rook is not). I guess you can use out of faction allies, but I feel like Seeker generally doesn't run non-Seeker allies so maybe it is something to consider.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2020 02:54
|
|
|
Innsmouth cards from the live stream showing a taste of the new token support. Amanda Sharpe is the Seeker and I don't know what to make of her because I don't play a lot of Seeker, but I feel like she'll be capable of some Mandy-level bomb turns while also having a harder than usual time dealing with enemies. Feels like the variance will be high but I'm sure she'll get particular card support throughout the cycle, as usual. edit : According to Reddit they confirmed on stream that the remaining investigators are Dexter Drake and Trish Scarborough (hinted at Rogue/Seeker). Set for release in October, which is so far away, but not too surprising. Kalko fucked around with this message at 02:48 on May 1, 2020 |
|
#
¿
May 1, 2020 02:42
|
|
|
From the upcoming Survivor starter deck : The times I've played Survivor I tend to only spend XP on exile cards in the last couple of scenarios. The more I think about this card the more I like it.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2020 07:16
|
|
|
Alternate investigator on the FFG site, but it's only print and play. I really don't like this - I wish it was at least a FFG print on demand thing. Don't really like the blue highlight either. Ever since they started printing alternate signatures and weaknesses with the novellas I had hoped they'd release some for the original investigators if only so that Agnes could actually have a playable signature. I guess upgraded signatures (and corresponding weaknesses) are alright.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2020 21:19
|
|
|
Quality matters! I can't get over using pieces of paper as cards - I've never even been able to play with proxies. I was glad when FFG switched its PoD stuff to a new printer as it was always kind of disappointing to play with some of the old Netrunner promo cards and LotR nightmare decks. The difference in card stock was really obvious and you could even tell through a sleeve.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2020 11:32
|
|
|
Two more cards from the upcoming Jacqueline Fine starter :
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2020 03:52
|
|
|
Some new spoilers. Called by the Mists and Dark Future are Stella and Jacqueline's weaknesses. Flesh Ward is one of the rare 'healing' items that doesn't take an action to use, so it might actually be playable, and I kind of like Relentless but it probably won't feel good to play.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2020 00:29
|
|
|
A few more spoilers from a Youtube posted to Reddit. Nathaniel Cho's weakness is pretty rough, I think. It'll usually take three actions to clear, outside of Beat Cop/Guard Dog pings.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 8, 2020 02:28
|
|
|
Some more spoilers. The sweetest card (Dynamite Blast) just got even sweeter!
|
|
#
¿
Jun 15, 2020 23:24
|
|
|
AH's templating isn't as robust as MTG's but as in that game I'm pretty sure everything before the colon is a cost, so you wouldn't be able to do that. Lucky (3) really is a stand-out, and seeing it was the first time I've really noticed raw power creep in this game. I still think Lucky is a great, well designed card both mechanically and thematically, because it's always been powerful but not busted and it really sells the core identity of the Survivor class.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 16, 2020 01:57
|
|
|
And the 3XP isn't much of a problem since Survivor is the class that needs XP the least, though with some of the new options appearing in the starter that might change.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 16, 2020 08:31
|
|
|
Couple more cards. 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 21, 2020 03:33
|
|
|
A few more. I think we've already seen the XP versions of Robes and Writings but they're in this video if you missed them : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGuAb85bBLY     
|
|
#
¿
Jun 22, 2020 07:39
|
|
|
KPC_Mammon posted:Some of you guys haven't played a seeker with dream enhancing serum holding most of their deck in their hand or in play as assets while they cycle through their super thin deck playing multiple deductions and quick thinkings every turn and it shows. This must be the missing piece of the puzzle I was almost going to ask about when you commented a while ago about Mandy + Three Aces being busted. I remember playing it in a deck with her and thinking it was worth it (I generally saved it for a key narrative test I had no chance of otherwise passing) but I wasn't able to recur it efficiently. A hand-size deck makes sense though. Also re: Mandy, Pendant of the Queen might as well be her signature card; it's a perfect fit, and playing it twice per scenario without effort (more times in your deck?) enables some crazy turns.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2020 03:02
|
|
|
The latest spoilers :   
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2020 00:35
|
|
|
Yeah, they showed Manual Dexterity XP2 early on as a Rogue card and I never realized until now that UC was the Survivor card for that cycle.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 26, 2020 01:01
|
|
|
A few more :   Love that Overpower upgrade.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 29, 2020 00:22
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 21, 2024 10:22 |
|
|
Latest starter deck spoiler : Seems pretty good! And some Return to the Forgotten Age spoilers :     I like this a lot more than the original campaign cycle since it has the opportunity for counterplay in the form of floating resources.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 1, 2020 03:18
|
|