|
I'd have to check the campaign guide to be certain, but I'm pretty sure you can finish Gideon's story to unlock the same "Marquez has a plan" ending, and no part of it requires you to have done The Longest Night. If you have the mineral thing from the mine you can unlock the "I've got this" ending that stems from that one too, which I haven't followed all the way through yet, and you can still get the mineral if you go during the night. Regarding the tokens, if you do the main story path you get a bunch of Cultist tokens in the bag, which are "positive" during the campaign but negative during the finale. You don't get any Cultist tokens if you avoid the main night missions. You do get more of the other two, but I think it's interesting that you have a lot of control over the tokens that get added to the bag (you can even pick up an extra Skull token for that Jim Culver value) and that might translate to various advantages depending upon the investigators or decks you're running. Also, some of the scenarios are probably quite a bit harder with certain investigators too (eg. I'm currently doing a William Yorick/Luke Robinson duo on Hard and I'm planning to go into the mine to get the mineral, but Luke won't be able to go to his special place). I feel like the scenarios in this campaign are differentiated from each other much more so than in any other campaign, and it's probably because of all the unique design mechanics they use. I think, in turn, it gives your investigators a chance to really shine (or suffer) moreso than in other campaigns. Like, The Longest Night is very combat heavy, at least in the bunch of times I've done it so far (is it even viable to get enough clues to trap/decoy/barrier everything and still get a perfect result?) so you might want to avoid it for that reason. That is kinda bad from a story perspective though, that you might be locked out of certain options, but then there is the Gideon path. You won't know any of this going in blind, of course, but I don't see that as a problem at all. Diverse paths and requirements add replay value. Also about the tokens, is it just me or are they all like, super bad? Except for the Cultist one. I've only just started a Hard run and there's a -7 in the starting bag, and some of the modifiers for the Tablet and ET seem really blown out, moreso than TSK except near the end.I assume that default bag has the -7 because you can tailor your tokens more than in other campaigns too. edit: if you choose to go off the beaten path at night, then The Black Cat is a good friend to have! Kalko fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Mar 23, 2024 |
#
?
Mar 23, 2024 13:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2024 15:40 |
|
|
Ending(s) campaign guide spoilers: There's no secret unlockable scenario or anything, just some bits of lore if you do quest lines for certain characters. So there's no reason to go off the Marquez line unless you want the extra challenge and to see more scenarios in a playthrough. Skipping The Longest Night is its own reward though, I'll never play that one again. Too much poo poo all over the map and even between locations, too many exceptions to the scenario rules on cards, etc. It's overwhelming to remember everything.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2024 14:07
|
|
|
Kalko posted:I'd have to check the campaign guide to be certain, but I'm pretty sure you can finish Gideon's story to unlock the same "Marquez has a plan" ending I don't have the cards with me and arkhamdb doesn't have all the campaign cards in the system yet; can someone check the back of the second-to-last act in Fate of the Vale where it gives you four choices of ending? To do the "good ending", does it require specifically "Dr. Marquez has a plan" or is there another option involving Gideon? Because I know the former is only available via The Longest Night. What I remember after my first playthrough was thinking, "ok, I guess Dr. Marquez, Simeon (and maybe Leah, idk), River, and William are the only characters that truly matter for the endings and the rest are sort of optional sidequests," so if there's another option then I guess I'm fuckin bad at reading comprehension. I am 100% certain that the Hemlock family ending requires doing The Longest Night, though.
|
|
#
?
Mar 23, 2024 22:52
|
|
|
DontMockMySmock posted:I don't have the cards with me and arkhamdb doesn't have all the campaign cards in the system yet; can someone check the back of the second-to-last act in Fate of the Vale where it gives you four choices of ending? To do the "good ending", does it require specifically "Dr. Marquez has a plan" or is there another option involving Gideon? Because I know the former is only available via The Longest Night. I just checked, and you can definitely get the "Marquez has a plan" ending by doing this instead: Gideon: Night 1 talk to him (mutually exclusive with Leah) -> Day 2 or Day 3 do The Lost Sister and help him "find his treasure" -> Dawn 2 talk to him -> Final Evening talk to him. The River/William story resolution does require The Longest Night, but you can do the same Act by reuniting the Peters family, which doesn't. You can reunite the Peters family and do Gideon's story at the same time too, because that's what I ended up with in my Wilson/Daisy run when I skipped the recommended night missions. I missed out on getting the mineral that time though so I decided to do Fate of the Vale 2 instead, and it's quite different. I think Fate 2, 3, and 4 all have you returning above to the Vale locations flipped to their Night sides, which is the only place in the game they're used. It seemed a lot harder than the Marquez Plan ending since all you have to do for that one is keep spamming skills to empty the Abyss (and survive a turn or two when all the boss enemies lose Aloof I guess). In my blind run I did the mine and I successfully rescued Simeon and got the mineral as well, but in all my subsequent runs I haven't come close to being able to get the mineral. I think I must've just had a really charmed first run. I remember getting huge analysis paralysis over where to send the mine cart before deciding "you know what, gently caress it, I'm sure the designers planned it so you can afford to wing it a bit" and that worked out, but yeah not so much after that. I think a lot depends on how quickly you get through the first stage, and it's actually better to have less doom on the agenda going into A2 than more switches on your card, since there are multiple ways to gain switches inside the mine and floating them can actually be bad with how many locations discard one when you land there. If you have some token manipulation and a Cultist token or two in the bag you might be able to keep your switch count up for the whole scenario. One thing I noticed is that the amount of XP you can get from each scenario is mostly normalized across the Night/Day/Resident choices. Like, if you do the mine at night you miss out on 2XP from rescuing someone, but you can get 2XP from the boss instead because it only appears at night. I haven't checked every permutation across all the scenarios but I think it holds up for most of them such that your choices will have you end up with roughly the same amount of XP going into the finale. You can still optimize it in other ways by going for the bonus completion bits though (eg. having no damage on the survivors during The Longest Night, or smashing the whole house down or sealing everything in Hemlock House).
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2024 02:05
|
|
|
Oh, okay. So I guess you can get all four endings without The Longest Night, but it does cut off one of two ways to get to some of them. Geez, this campaign is confusing.
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2024 05:06
|
|
|
Here's a couple of decks I took up to the fourth scenario in FHV on Hard. I'll talk about scenario itself and the reasons for some card choices further below, but for now here's some spoiler-free thoughts on the decks themselves: William Yorick (33XP). Luke Robinson (34XP). William Yorick Assets 1x Wolf Mask :The Moon's Sire (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion) 2x Police Badge [2] (Revised Core Set) 2x Well Prepared [2] (The Boundary Beyond) 1x Ace of Swords :Let Your Arrow Fly True [1] (The Circle Undone) 1x Short Supply (Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion) 2x Schoffner's Catalogue (Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion) 2x Bandages (Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion) 2x Sledgehammer [4] (Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion) 2x Guard Dog [2] (The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion) Events 2x Emergency Cache [2] (Blood on the Altar) 1x Bury Them Deep (The Path to Carcosa) 2x Sweeping Kick [1] (Edge of the Earth Investigator Expansion) 2x Salvage [2] (The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion) Skills 2x Strong-Armed [1] (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion) 2x Long Shot (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion) 2x Vicious Blow (Nathaniel Cho) 2x Overpower (Revised Core Set) 2x Resourceful (The Path to Carcosa) Treachery 1x Random Basic Weakness (Core Set) Enemy 1x Graveyard Ghouls (The Path to Carcosa) I tried doing a Yorick Sledgehammer/Police Badge deck back in TSK but I didn't put much time into it so I didn't get great results. This version works a lot better, and the new Strong-Armed offers protection from the Auto-fail when you do the big swing. Yorick with Short Supply just feels really good to play, for so many reasons. One example: the deck only has two weapons and no tutors, but you have a really good chance of getting a Sledgehammer either from your mulligan or from Salvaging one. And if that fails, you can beat up a small enemy (there are six skills that add damage to an attack) and play it with your ability. Salvage is also great for generating resources by removing a spare hammer or Police Badge from the game, since you only ever need one of each per game. Sweeping Kick is great against bosses you can't kill in one turn, and Well Prepared gives you +3 Combat when you use it on the Sledge, which is crucial if you're doing multiple attacks per turn because the Hard bag in this campaign can be brutal. When William doesn't need his Police Badge (which is most of the time) he uses it to boost Luke's clue-grabbing efficiency. The level zero version of this deck used the .45 Thompson as the only two weapons, alongside Act of Desperation. For future refinements, I'd like to take Brute Force but I'm not sure it's really necessary. Bandages work well with the Guard Dog but they're also not completely essential. The Luke Robinson Mysteries Luke Robinson Assets 1x Mouse Mask :The Meek Watcher (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion) 2x Dr. Milan Christopher :Professor of Entomology (Revised Core Set) 1x Relic Hunter [3] (The Essex County Express) 2x Hemispheric Map [3] (The Depths of Yoth) 1x Death • XIII :Free from the Past [1] (The Circle Undone) 1x Gate Box :Worlds within Worlds (The Dream-Eaters) Events 2x Testing Sprint (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion) 2x Thorough Inquiry (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion) 2x Transmogrify (The Feast of Hemlock Vale Investigator Expansion) 2x Storm of Spirits [3] (Return to the Path to Carcosa) 2x Seeking Answers [2] (Harvey Walters) 2x Logical Reasoning (A Phantom of Truth) 2x Ward of Protection [2] (Black Stars Rise) 2x Deny Existence (The Circle Undone) 2x Read the Signs (The Search for Kadath) 2x Uncage the Soul [3] (The Scarlet Keys Investigator Expansion) Skills 2x Perception (Revised Core Set) 2x Deduction [2] (The Essex County Express) Treacheries 1x Random Basic Weakness (Core Set) 1x Detached from Reality (The Dream-Eaters) The reason I chose Luke is for the Testing Sprint/Hemispheric Map combo, which isn't as janky as it sounds. I originally took Seal of the Seventh Sign to eliminate the Auto-fail token in preparation for a big Testing Sprint turn, but 10XP is a huge investment for that. It was good for William when he used the big hammer swing too, and it's nice knowing that you can't fail any tests if you can cover the other tokens, but even going full Intellect Luke still didn't guarantee success on 4+ shroud locations for the whole Sprint. The Mouse Mask is great for Luke because you get a charge each time you use your Gate Box. I tried adding a second copy but deck space here is really tight. The level zero version didn't have any enemy management cards at all, but I added a bunch in as I iterated on it. Seeking Answers (2) works well from your special location; you can investigate a 1-shroud location and grab two clues from any other revealed location, which is good value when you have two -5, one -6, and one -7 tokens in the bag. Luke's ability to play an event as though you were engaged with every enemy at a location comes in handy in for dealing with Aloof enemies, and it's also just action-efficient when you don't have to move to a location before you investigate it (with Read the Signs or Drawn to the Flame, which was in the level zero version of the deck). Luke is fun to play and he has a few nice tricks, like how you can stall Hunter/Patrol enemies by using your Gate Box to disappear during the player window in the Enemy Phase after enemies move but before they attack. He's really mobile, and it's a nice change of pace to play a Mystic that doesn't rely on having a bunch of spell assets in play. ============================ SPOILERS BELOW (no spoiler text except for the name of the scenario) ============================ So, I did a bunch of replays to optimize these decks for The Longest Night, which is a really interesting and difficult scenario to get a perfect result in. Firstly, on a broader note, I chose these two investigators because I thought they would be a good fit for the "suggested" path, where Judith Park and Dr Marquez are with you for most of the scenarios in the game. For William, I suspected that having the extra action from Judith would be really valuable with the Sledgehammer's expensive three-action attack, and it was. I also took Elaborate Distraction in the level zero deck, again thinking that these new Double events would "feel" better if you have extra actions per turn. It was good up until TLN, surprisingly, where it didn't work against every enemy because some of them are Elite, and also because it's too expensive to play with everything else you need to do. For Luke, the +1 Intellect from Dr Marquez is exactly what his build needed (and he made friends with William Hemlock to get an extra +1). I also did The Thing in the Depths on Day 1 and Hemlock House on Day 2, and both of these scenarios begin with every location revealed so you can do an enormous Testing Sprint as soon as you boost your Intellect enough to make it worth it. The Hemispheric Maps are good in this campaign even when you're not in your house because most of them have grid layouts and you'll frequently have four connecting locations (the Night 1 scenario, The Twisted Hollow, is great for this). Regarding TLN specifically, it took me a bunch of attempts to work out a decent strategy and I'm definitely not 100% of the way there, but basically the idea with these decks is to begin with each investigator at an Outer Fields (William starts on top of the bear, and if he can play a Sledgehammer on his first turn he can drop it to 2HP right away - bonus points if Luke starts at the location that lets you move an enemy, so he can pull it onto the starting trap and blow it up immediately!). Each investigator then moves inwards to reveal the farm locations as quickly as possible. You need to find the ones where you can set fires, then as long as most of the map is revealed, both investigators can hang out at the Farmhouse for the rest of the game (mostly). Decoys and Barriers are the most useful things to spend your clues on. Ideally, you can have at least two fires going, then you can spam Barriers to BBQ the enemies that can't ignore them and use your other tools to deal with the Aloof ones that can (the birds are the most annoying enemies to deal with). That last point didn't really coalesce for me until I put more enemy management tools back into Luke's deck. For the longest time I had William trying to run around and kill everything, but there simply aren't enough actions in the game for that. You need to be able to get clues efficiently to keep your supply of Barriers running, but with Luke's movement tricks that's usually not a problem. Transmogrify is excellent against the Aloof birds and you can use it in a pinch against the squid things too, but they're pretty easy to kill since they don't have the damage reduction ability. Here are the MVP cards for this scenario: William: Guard Dog (2): After adding this I had the smoothest run out of all my attempts. The free trigger engage is magnificent because you can never get enough actions in this scenario. You can use it in the Enemy Phase after Hunter/Patrol enemies move but before they attack, so you can "protect" the Captives from the Aloof enemies that move in. And of course it's just straight-up good against the damage reduction enemies because it pings for one point. Long Shot: Speaking of pinging for one point, this card deals damage separately (unlike Vicious Blow or Strong-Armed) so with one attack you can do two 1-point pings. Sweeping Kick: William tests at +7 without any other bonuses with this, which is a good starting point for the enemies here, but its evade also helps for taking the pressure off him with the damage reduction enemies. Other cards I tried: Beat Cop (2): You'd think this would be good, but I was never able to afford it with all the other stuff the deck needs to pay for, and the Guard Dog (2) is just better. I wouldn't write this one off, but with my current build it's not quite there. Elaborate Distraction: Expensive to play in both resources and actions, and while both the ping and exhaust effects are good, it requires several targets to really be worth it. It's too reactive, and it also doesn't work on the larger enemies because they're elite. Riot Whistle: Ok, I didn't actually try this one but I think it could be good if you weren't using the Police Badge. Possibly good for Wilson too but it conflicts with Cleaning Kit and I don't know if it's worth taking Relic Hunter for. Luke: Transmogrify: Perfect for stopping the Aloof birds and squids that ignore Barriers. Really solid. Logical Reasoning: The encounter deck has Frozen in Fear, and William isn't great at passing the Rotting Remains tests. Deny Existence/Ward of Protection (2): There are two treacheries which make you choose between either removing one doom from the agenda, or dealing two damage to the Captives (bad if you want a perfect result, though there is one Outer Fields location that can heal them if you can get to it and clear six clues before the end of the scenario) or taking three direct damage and horror. Deny Existence cancels the damage and lets Luke take the horror, which is fine, and Ward completely nullifies the whole thing. Hemispheric Map: The Farmhouse has four connecting locations and it serves as a good base of operations for most of the scenario. Luke can duck out to stall enemies with his Gate Box trick, but otherwise he can simply do Testing Sprint or Seeking Answers (2) from the Farmhouse to scoop up a lot of clues. Cards I'm not sure about : Storm of Spirits (3): I took the upgrade mostly to get the +2 skill bonus on attack. It's a good one to cast at a connecting location and it pings all the damage reduction enemies and it can finish off some of the bigger ones, but I wonder if the base version would suffice for that. It probably is more consistent to have this version considering you won't always get both Maps out every game, but 6XP is still a lot. Other cards I tried: A whole bunch of crap that's not worth mentioning. In conclusion, I've really enjoyed trying to min/max this scenario and I feel like I've only just scratched the surface. It's kind of a stand-out within the campaign too because to get a good result from it really requires you to specifically tech for it, as I've done here. Going in blind, you'll probably get smashed, moreso than any other scenario in this campaign (or most others to be honest). I like it for what it is though and I'm already thinking about my next pair of investigators to run through it. The Butterfly Swords would actually be really good here since you get two pings for one action, and the Cultist token is quite beneficial to pull so there's also an upside to performing all those extra tests. It's been two full expansions since I've played Lily Chen so it might be interesting to revisit her and see what new stuff there is to play with. I'm also thinking about Bob Jenkins as main cluever, using Damning Testimony to remotely discard the annoying enemies (and then discard the DT with Joey The Rat and get it back with Scavenging - I've never made a Scavenging deck and after recent discussions here about how degenerate the card is I don't really like the idea, but since Bob can only take the base version and he'll be dealing with the Hard token bag I can probably rationalize it). TLN seems to be one of those love/hate scenarios. I do kinda love it, but it's a shame there isn't really any advantage to doing non-story scenarios at night. After my blind run I was expecting there to be a higher risk/reward for doing the other ones, but you just end up with a worse token bag and not much to show for it. It could still make sense for certain investigators and with the right plan, I think, but yeah that's one of my few gripes with this campaign.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 08:13
|
|
|
You can’t add a second copy of mouse mask, all the masks are one per deck. You also can’t testing sprint in Hemlock House because the act says “you can’t get clues from locations without investigators.” And while you can use it once from gatebox, all subsequent locations are connecting locations, which don’t act as if Luke was there. Spoilers below. For TLN, we got the good ending (4 damage) by dancing with two people who gave us actions. The MVP for the scenario is beguile. We did Jacqueline/Countess Zorzi. The countess player noticed that the boss enemy only goes for the lead investigator… But also counts fields as adjacent. So we were able to dodge the creature the entire game without engaging it by alternating between interior and exterior spaces, So it moved between the West fields and close to the farmhouse, but never went inside. Only three of the 13 things in the enemy deck are elite, so if we could’ve afforded it in our builds, we would’ve added mind blank. Luke’d absolutely love mind blanking someone who steps into a trap, taking full damage instead of none. We beguiled people into distractions repeatedly. The countess’s weakness was also great for this scenario. Because his ability doesn’t really matter until late in the game, you can blast him and get rid of all that doom. And since he’s elusive, it’s very easy to hit him or have him hit you, and then step onto a trap. For new Tech that works really well they came in the investigator box: rod of Carn(2), to freeze enemies in place or make them so they can’t attack, which is identical. Ravenous myconid: carnivorous strain, although it’s one of the most broken cards released this pack. British bulldog(2), vamp, stir the pot spectral razor(2), drain essence(which doesn’t count as an attack) stall for time (which lets you move people onto traps), Ofuda, Confound, and as you noticed, transmogrify. Ethereal form was essential in defeating the silent heath. Allowed us to walk out and ignore six enemies and resign. Another problem Luke wouldn’t have.  Golden Bee fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Apr 1, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 16:00
|
|
|
Pretty sure it's limit 1 mask in play rather than in deck.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 16:07
|
|
|
sirtommygunn posted:Pretty sure it's limit 1 mask in play rather than in deck. Yeah, that's how it works, same as Haste and stuff like that. "Limit 1 Mask per investigator." vs "Limit 1 per deck." Rythian fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Apr 1, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 17:55
|
|
|
My b.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 18:38
|
|
|
Good catch on Hemlock House, I did play that incorrectly. Luke is still good there though, as you say, since he can still do an adjacent Read the Signs or Drawn to the Flame. Regarding "Prey - Lead investigator" on the bear, keep in mind it will still head towards the nearest investigator whether they're the lead or not. The Prey instruction in this case is only relevant for who it chooses to engage if there are multiple options. If it had "Prey Lead investigator only" it would then indeed ignore everyone except the lead even while moving via its Hunter keyword. Once I realized that I mostly stopped trying to juke it because it was more hassle than it was worth. And regarding doom building up, I did consider trying the TSK charm that lets you evade an enemy at a connecting location, but then I realized all that doom still counts for the Skull token, of which there are three in the bag (on Hard it's equal to the amount of doom in play, and by doing the standard path and choosing to hide from Rachael in the intro you get the third Skull token here). Towards the end of the scenario that Skull is basically another Auto-fail and I didn't want to hasten it there with any extra doom shenanigans. Countess does sound like a silver bullet here with Beguile. From all I've read she seems like an S tier investigator and I'm looking forward to trying her. I did try Mind Wipe for Luke but it wasn't good enough because after the first few turns I was mostly holed up at the Farmhouse, so blanking an enemy at that point was only useful if you could follow it up with an attack anyway. Also, you can't use it to lure something into a trap because it removes the Patrol keyword so they don't move at the start of the phase anyway! Oh, and six of the enemies in the deck are Elite (the wolf and stag enemies, of which there are three each). I used Drain Essence and Stall for Time in my original run with Patrice and yeah, they are very good here. The Rod seems like it would be great too. I've never done a Cursed run but I'll probably try it out if I do one day. The Silent Heath is my favourite place in the whole game to use Dynamite Blast (when the elite spawns with its buddies). So much value.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 22:06
|
|
|
Good points. We found that stir the pot was essential, because of how many aloof enemies spawn and then are interested at the end of scenarios.
|
|
#
?
Apr 1, 2024 23:55
|
|
|
My group played through Hemlock this weekend on normal difficulty. We ran Tommy, Amanda, and I was on Kohaku. Tommy and I were blind, and Amanda had played it once before and for the most part kept us in the dark, but made some deckbuilding decisions that trivialized a couple of late campaign mechanics. And to be honest, thank goodness. The mechanic of the first part of the final scenario is extremely unfun on investigators who build their decks around the abilities on their character sheet, and were Amanda not able to consistently succeed by +15 or more, we'd have never made it through in time to do anything in the final act. It's funny because we had explicitly criticized a fan campaign we playtested a few scenarios of for doing exactly this but only for a single turn at a time (using a treachery). As for the scenario that there has been much discussion of, the longest night we are firmly in the "never playing this again" camp, despite perfecting it. By about turn 7 I had crossed out the name of the act and retitled it "the longest most boring scenario" and we more or less declared victory a turn and a half early because there were no way for enemies to get to the center anymore. Tommy and I both had lots of trickle ping damage we could do to the one damage at a time enemies, and a well timed storm of spirits cleared out a group of aloof enemies, so ultimately no enemies entered the barn because Amanda was extremely mobile and able to pull up clues and set up barriers and traps and decoys very efficiently. Other random thoughts: We liked the morning town phases a lot as a fun way to power up and set up your starting hand before getting to the meat of the day. We did the Mines, the Caves, and the House as our three scenarios in that order. I think I liked the house the best with the two alternative ways to win the scenario. I think the Mines are very challenging to get both the item and rescue the person. On day two, with all of the experience gain from the town we earned 17 experience that day (and we missed one in the scenario) which is just an insane number.... but whenever I play a mystic I always run delves because I have no self control, so I will admit I was juicing the team a little bit. That said I think this is the earliest I have cut them from my deck in a campaign. One funny outcome of the insane amount of experience is that by the end of the campaign we were really reaching about what to add to improve our decks, to the point where I grabbed Charisma and Ikiaq solely to take Amanda's self centered weakness out of play because the deck got built to cycle insanely quickly and we could never get rid of it once the engine got going. As for Kohaku, I feel like it takes a lot of effort on him to do a lot of things other mystics can just do. Even with the team all running Tempt Fates, I felt like the 4th actions were more or less just breaking even with things other mystics can do more consistently, including if they want to play a curse package. Managing the bless/curse bag would have been extremely tedious had we been playing IRL.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2024 01:28
|
|
|
Kohaku's excellence comes more from the bless/curse tokens at will than the extra actions, IMO. Throw in some Favors of the Sun/Moon, his signature book, and cram your deck full of assets and events that wants symbols to be revealed (Armageddon, Eye of Chaos, Upgraded Read the Signs/Spectral Razor), skills like Diabolical Luck or Fey... I'm running a campaign with a friend playing it right now and it's doing serious work.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2024 01:47
|
|
|
I was making use of those as well, and guaranteed successes off the back of ancient covenant were extremely strong... but I felt like if I wanted to do that, I can do it with Jaqueline much more efficiently and consistently.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2024 02:27
|
|
|
Jaqueline can’t get the blesses or run the covenant. They mutated ancient covenants so it doesn’t affect other people, which is completely fair. It was by far the best covenant. Ko is amazing with ritual candles in one hand and his book in the other. Spectacles give him flexibility, and he has the most building options of any Mystic. I think he’s the best mystic in years.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2024 02:41
|
|
|
I ran something like this and it was excellent: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/47001/khaku-fifty-shades-of-blurse-fhv-intro-deck-guide-1.0 My only problem is I hate fiddling with the bag that much, it's such a mental drain. If I was only playing one character I'd like it a lot more. The Hemlock campaign lets you pretty much guarantee starting with his signature asset book in three scenarios, it makes him even better.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2024 02:44
|
|
|
I was using Key of Solomon in his other hand, and I think that's the stronger one to start with (though the intro missions do make it pretty easy to make sure you get both - one in play, one in hand, though not guaranteed).
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2024 05:22
|
|
|
They really need to nerf ritual candles so it's once per test at most.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2024 17:48
|
|
|
The Essex county Express can suck one. Didn't have a great time there.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 04:20
|
|
|
I haven't read the spoilers for Hemlock above but I finally got it and started playing it in 2 player, only halfway through and man, I dunno, I was possibly unreasonably hyped for it but to me it's feeling like the designers of the game kinda just wanna make a different game at this point but are stuck making Arkham Horror (and I know the lead designer has just changed between Scarlet Keys and this but both of them have this feeling to me). I don't mind the large amount of reading which I know was a big bugbear for a lot of people. For me the scenarios just have this real, real messy feeling compared to the relative elegance of the older ones, lots of gotcha moments where doing something unknowingly leads to you getting hosed over by some enemies you put a load of resources into killing getting resurrected or something. Loads of reshuffling locations and such that have me constantly checking some rules somewhere.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 19:07
|
|
|
I love the variety of H-vale. Who you playing as?
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 21:17
|
|
|
thebardyspoon posted:I haven't read the spoilers for Hemlock above but I finally got it and started playing it in 2 player, only halfway through and man, I dunno, I was possibly unreasonably hyped for it but to me it's feeling like the designers of the game kinda just wanna make a different game at this point but are stuck making Arkham Horror (and I know the lead designer has just changed between Scarlet Keys and this but both of them have this feeling to me). I don't mind the large amount of reading which I know was a big bugbear for a lot of people. For me the scenarios just have this real, real messy feeling compared to the relative elegance of the older ones, lots of gotcha moments where doing something unknowingly leads to you getting hosed over by some enemies you put a load of resources into killing getting resurrected or something. Loads of reshuffling locations and such that have me constantly checking some rules somewhere. It's great in my opinion, but I agree about the location setup. I had this idea back in Edge of the Earth, but back then it was only for the map sizes - I wouldn't mind an app version of the location grid with flippable and draggable objects. Just for the map, I wouldn't want anything else handled by the app.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 21:31
|
|
|
I'm also halfway through Hemlock, going what feels the default route of just going wherever Dr Martinez does, and I've liked the scenario's so far. I have the same problem that I do with all modern Arkham though, in that these scenarios take so loving long to complete. Is it just me being slow, each one has been 2-3 hours including running around the town. I also feel like I really made a good call playing as Kate and Alessandra because so many of the enemies thus far have been Aloof, running a pure Fighter feels like it would blow chunks. Alessandra also trivialises the town sections. It's pretty great. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Apr 8, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 22:08
|
|
|
We are only one scenario in but it does feel like it takes a while. I think the prelude scenarios are really interesting and I’m eager to see all the mechanics at work, but a normal Arkham scenario already takes my three player group about three hours to complete. We may end up splitting the preludes and scenarios up by necessity.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 22:28
|
|
|
Golden Bee posted:I love the variety of H-vale. Who you playing as? I've not really played with melee weapons much at all, usually spells or firearms for fighters so I'm playing a fighty Zoey deck with melee weapons, just the basic one, not the parallel which I am now regretting cause I have ended up going with some bless stuff anyway and obviously the parallel would have done that just better and then Alessandra with mostly clue gathering and a little bit of enemy management. I'm generally not struggling with killing stuff, or actually dying and I'm getting clues at a reasonable clip, it just feels like I'm getting hosed up even if I'm not cause I'm coming out of the scenarios with XP up to my ears, some of that is the bonus xp in the preludes of course but it leads to this odd feeling where I'm not seeing much of the scenarios I've done so far but have scads of XP. I've done Thing in the Depths, Twisted Hollow and then Silent Heath. Thing in the Depths just doesn't feel like my kinda scenario tbh, it escalates very quickly and then has its foot on the pedal from there whereas I like to feel like I have a chance to explore a little before poo poo pops off. Twisted Hollow was the one that prompted the location comments, I know they're trying to evoke the feeling of being lost in some spooky woods but I think they've done the increasing intensity in a changing place thing better before and less of a pain in the rear end. Silent Heath was the one that really irked me though, I had two of those crystal parasites treacheries come out of the deck in quick succession and then had them pop in a similar succession, decided they needed to die right now cause they heal if they get a hit off so I decided to dynamite blast them and whale on them a bit, was happy to have them down.... and then the very next turn, the bloody queen spawned which pulls all insect enemies out of the victory display. So now if I want the 2 xp I already "earned" in my mind and to not die, I have to kill all 12 health of them again, plus the queen who has 9 health, plus any enemies that crop up in the midst of doing that. Felt like a real gotcha moment that I'm not a fan of generally. Nephthys posted:I'm also halfway through Hemlock, going what feels the default route of just going wherever Dr Martinez does, and I've liked the scenario's so far. I have the same problem that I do with all modern Arkham though, in that these scenarios take so loving long to complete. Is it just me being slow, each one has been 2-3 hours including running around the town. Are you just 2 players as well or more? I generally find with 3 or 4 players then yeah, the scenarios tend to take around that long in most campaigns. With 2 players it does vary a bit.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 22:37
|
|
|
Yeah the trick in that scenario can be nasty. The first time we played it, we just had that person sacrifice themselves. The next time we were smart enough to grab the upgraded intangible, which debuts in this investigator box.
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 22:40
|
|
|
thebardyspoon posted:Are you just 2 players as well or more? I generally find with 3 or 4 players then yeah, the scenarios tend to take around that long in most campaigns. With 2 players it does vary a bit. Yep, playing two-handed by myself as Kate and Alessandra. I find scenario's tend to take a bit longer playing two-handed since I have to do everything and figure both turns out. I watch PlayingBoardGames on youtube and they generally play quicker than I do with 3 players just because they can do 3 things at once. I'm almost positive that up until Edge of the Earth most scenarios only took about an hour to hour and a half to run. Between the reading, set up time and location and mechanic switch-ups they tend to take very long these days. I'm starting to think switching to a quicker game like Marvel Champions might be a good idea. Nephthys fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Apr 8, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2024 22:58
|
|
|
I noticed a big jump in playtime with the first scenario in Edge of the Earth, but part of that might have been because of the new checkpoint mechanic and the fact that it has 2-3 sections. I do think overall the playtime has gotten longer but I'm not sure it's by much. I remember the seventh scenario in TFA taking ages in particular, and I'm planning to return to RtTFA soon so I'll see how it feels. I really like the longer playtimes though, having kind of grown with the game over the time it's been out. I think FHV does have some shorter ones too, like The Thing in the Depths or Hemlock House. I enjoy the gotchas on my blind runs too. That's, like, what Arkham Horror's all about. Oh poo poo, I'm hosed! In other news, my latest experiment is a parley-focused Jenny Barnes with Carson Sinclair. I thought Carson would be uninteresting to play but he's actually really novel and fun. Here's a couple of decklists with commentary: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/48121/jenny-we-have-the-countess-at-home-barnes-in-fhv-hard-1.0 https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/48122/carson-sinclair-in-fhv-hard-1.0
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2024 14:50
|
|
|
Kalko posted:In other news, my latest experiment is a parley-focused Jenny Barnes with Carson Sinclair. I thought Carson would be uninteresting to play but he's actually really novel and fun. Here's a couple of decklists with commentary: I'm interested in how viable parley decks are outside of Alessandra, so if your Jenny deck ends up succeeding it would be cool to hear about it. I'm hoping its a new thing for Rogues. I ran The Longest Night a few days ago and managed to squeak out a perfect score just about. The secret to my success was definitely drawing the Eyes of Valusia in my opening hand which let me start Alessandra on the location with the bear and chunk him down in the first two turns. She may not be as efficient as a real fighter but it definitely is great to be able to just kill stuff with only that card + events for an entire scenario. I also managed to get the Myconid out on Kate halfway through the scenario so a couple of the most annoying enemies to deal with conventionally just got ate, lol. Only take 1 damage from everything? No you get ate, sorry. Ignore barriers, traps and decoys? Can you also ignore this big leafy boy? Nephthys fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Apr 17, 2024 |
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2024 00:11
|
|
|
Nephthys posted:I'm interested in how viable parley decks are outside of Alessandra, so if your Jenny deck ends up succeeding it would be cool to hear about it. I'm hoping its a new thing for Rogues. Choose a non-Elite enemy at your location with equal or fewer remaining health than the amount of growth on Ravenous Myconid: Defeat that enemy. Remove all growth from Ravenous Myconid. Seems designed for that scenario.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2024 01:58
|
|
|
Nephthys posted:I'm interested in how viable parley decks are outside of Alessandra, so if your Jenny deck ends up succeeding it would be cool to hear about it. I'm hoping its a new thing for Rogues. It worked really well in Jenny and it would probably work even better in Sefina. Stir the Pot is really good (and its 5XP upgrade is worth it IMO if you want to kill Elites) and Grift was surprisingly good too, though I did usually save a Scrying Mirror charge for it (it's a huge cash injection if you use Watch This! on it too). Vamp was the least used, but it was still useful in odd situations for putting two damage on something or avoiding high shroud. Its upgrade lowers its test difficulty to two, so with Fine Clothes out you can do four zero difficulty tests. If you had a British Bull Dog, Vamp is probably a good way to cheat it into play to save on resources or if you're already engaged. Kinda like a backup False Surrender (dunno if that card is good though). Snitch is your big payoff card; it's two free clues from your location and connecting ones when you succeed at a parley test (it works on the Resident ally tests too, of course). String of Curses was a great combo with Kicking the Hornet's Nest. It's two actions for two testless clues, some resources, and an exhausted enemy which can either enable your other parley cards or get finished off with a second String from Eldritch Voice. My Jenny deck went into the finale with 78XP. Gotta love the Green Man Medallion. Plus Charon's Obol and a few Delve Too Deeps for good measure. The biggest surprise for me was how legit Carson is, and that he's fun to play as well. He might be the best guy for Eyes of Valusia, and he's probably the best user of Miracle Wish too since he's pretty much always glued to a partner and he can benefit from their Elder Sign effect too (a Father Mateo and his butler run maybe?) And he also doesn't need to spend XP on big weapons or anything, though I really do want to try a Lightning Gun Carson build. I toyed with it a bit in my early testing for my Jenny/Carson run but it was a bad fit there. It makes him more active but I think you lose out on a fair bit of support so it might be hard to make it work effectively. Oh, he's great with Task Force too. With that and a Safeguard in play you can do a lot of fun things.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2024 05:38
|
|
|
Golden Bee posted:Choose a non-Elite enemy at your location with equal or fewer remaining health than the amount of growth on Ravenous Myconid: Defeat that enemy. Remove all growth from Ravenous Myconid. Yuuuup. Felt nice, like the game was letting me cheat. Reminded me of the good ol' Double or Nothing days. Kalko posted:It worked really well in Jenny and it would probably work even better in Sefina. Stir the Pot is really good (and its 5XP upgrade is worth it IMO if you want to kill Elites) and Grift was surprisingly good too, though I did usually save a Scrying Mirror charge for it (it's a huge cash injection if you use Watch This! on it too). Vamp was the least used, but it was still useful in odd situations for putting two damage on something or avoiding high shroud. Its upgrade lowers its test difficulty to two, so with Fine Clothes out you can do four zero difficulty tests. If you had a British Bull Dog, Vamp is probably a good way to cheat it into play to save on resources or if you're already engaged. Kinda like a backup False Surrender (dunno if that card is good though). That's good to hear, I was also planning to game max-profits from Grift by committing Well-Dressed to the test but sadly I've never managed to draw both at once in 4 scenarios so far. String of Curses is also a card that I forgot existed so that's a good shout. I'm glad to hear that it works even without Alessandra, the parley archetype is my favourite thing from Hemlock so far. I think Trish would also be a great parley user, using it to trigger her ability and she can take Existential Riddle which is a cool parley card imo. I was also planning on running Lightning Gun Carson in my Scarlet Keys run through but chickened out on it for the same reason you backed out of it; it just takes up way too much of his deckspace when he really wants to be a pure-support. I have heard good things on him though. I just don't know if I have it in me to run a game three-handed but trying him with a Flex would probably be the way to go. If I re-run Scarlet Keys maybe.
|
|
#
?
Apr 17, 2024 15:03
|
|
|
I put Well Dressed in my Carson deck because he was running Practice Makes Perfect, and it actually worked really well. He's extremely support-focused and I don't think I committed a card to any of his tests for the entire game, except maybe once during TLN when I had to use Savant to free him from a Frozen in Fear. Here's another deck experiment: doing The Eternal Slumber as a side story in FHV, but doing it first because it doesn't make sense to leave the Vale with its whole 3-day story arc. This means doing TES with 1XP (using the other 2XP from In the Thick of It to pay for it) and it was a lot of fun trying to find a pair of investigators that could get through it consistently, or at least farm some XP before heading into FHV. Here are the decklists and articles: https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/48196/lily-chen-1xp-in-the-eternal-slumber-hard-fhv-1.0 https://arkhamdb.com/decklist/view/48197/kate-winthrop-1xp-in-the-eternal-slumber-hard-fhv-1.0 I love The Eternal Slumber. Definitely an all-timer for me, and maybe the best standalone, though Fortune and Folly might have eclipsed it. I loved that one too and I might try something like this with it as well since I remember trying to do it with low XP in my TSK run and it was reasonably effective.
|
|
#
?
Apr 18, 2024 11:57
|
|
|
Anybody got any opinions on the side scenarios? I remember some not being good outside a con setting, is that accurate? Does it apply to the later ones as well?
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 14:02
|
|
|
Excelsior Hotel is great and very replayable! Apparently Blob is also very good, if hard. I don't know how the Venice one has aged, but Rougarou is pretty rough to play novadays. Labyrinth of Lunacy is for Cons. I think one poster here played Fortune and Folly (the newest one) and said it was way too long to play.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 14:14
|
|
|
Tevery Best posted:Anybody got any opinions on the side scenarios? I remember some not being good outside a con setting, is that accurate? Does it apply to the later ones as well? The Labyrinths of Lunacy is basically only for a con setting and even then it seems like hot garbage; it can't be run as a side scenario in a campaign. I've enjoyed all of the other ones, though Rougarou and Carnevale are a bit short/simple. I think a lot of people also had complaints about Machinations Through Time; the concept is neat but it's convoluted in a way that doesn't entirely pay off. Top of my list would probably be Fortune and Folly, The Blob That Ate Everything, War of the Outer Gods, and Murder at the Excelsior Hotel, likely in that order. High Tension Wire posted:I think one poster here played Fortune and Folly (the newest one) and said it was way too long to play. Fortune and Folly is great but it's multiple connected scenarios and I think you can really drag out the last one if you gently caress it up.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 14:16
|
|
|
Hotel is definitely the one people seem to like, I've played it twice and found it alright at best personally, you kinda don't want to fight a lot of the enemies in it for the first 2/3rds which can be awkward and very boring depending on your groups decks for a pure fighter and then once you find out what your main objective is, which feels like it should then be the meat of the scenario, it's kinda basically over cause that's just a boss fight, or has been for us. Haven't played any of the others yet, I've toyed with the idea of doing just a campaign of them, maybe starting with the first two scenarios of Return to Night of the Zealot and then just going on a world hopping tour. I've heard Guardians of the Abyss is really tough so I'd make that the finale I guess. I've not really seen much talk about Machinations either way and only bad about Labyrinths, the others all seem relatively well received.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 14:25
|
|
|
thebardyspoon posted:Hotel is definitely the one people seem to like, I've played it twice and found it alright at best personally, you kinda don't want to fight a lot of the enemies in it for the first 2/3rds which can be awkward and very boring depending on your groups decks for a pure fighter and then once you find out what your main objective is, which feels like it should then be the meat of the scenario, it's kinda basically over cause that's just a boss fight, or has been for us. I'd love a Return to Excelsior Hotel where it flips this dynamic, so the opening is shorter, and the main objective is more transformative and not just a boss fight. It has a decent amount of replayability due to the random way it determines what the final boss is, so the first few times you play it you're going to love it as long as you keep in mind it's better not to bring someone whose only job is to fight. Curse of the Rougarou - This was the first side scenario, so it's kind of unpolished. I think I remember it being very combat heavy with beefy enemies? The final rewards are interesting in a way that makes some people want to pay XP to insert this into their campaigns. Carnevale of Horrors - I like this one a lot. In comparison to other content, it feels like a The Scarlet Keys scenario even though this came out years earlier. The Labyrinths of Lunacy - Never played this one. Guardians of the Abyss - This one either. Is this the super difficult one? The Blob That Ate Everything (and the sequel) - I don't like goofy poo poo in my Arkham, so I didn't pick this one up. My friend has it and I'll play it if my group asks, but I don't feel like owning it. War of the Outer Gods - I don't have this one. I think it's one of the ones that's made for epic multiplayer, which I'll never have enough people for. Machinations Through Time - See above. It sounds interesting. Fortune and Folly - This one is great, but a time commitment as already said. The first section is slightly shorter than an average Arkham Scenario. It also has the Excelsior Hotel problem of combat-focused decks not having a lot to do early in the scenario. The flavor is on point. In a strange coincidence, right before it came out I was thinking about developing a scenario based on China Mieville's short story "The Dowager of Bees", where strange playing cards start showing up in underground tournament games using poker decks. I was trying to figure out how to get the custom card program Strange Eons to put poker card suits and values on encounter card frames when they announced this.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 15:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 30, 2024 15:40 |
|
|
GotA is hard also in the sense that its failure can end the campaign. WotOG has the extra complication that you're running three NP factions in a kaiju battle over the world.
|
|
#
?
Apr 19, 2024 16:52
|
|
