Arkham Horror: The Card Game

My fearless team presses on. This is the exploring the cave mission. Won’t say more on that front but I found this to be by far the easiest scenario so far. Part May have been to some luck earlier in the campaign. My lead investigator had made a smart purchase with supplies at one of the two buy points and so was able to thin the explore deck. In addition I got lucky and opened with a scenario item that helped as well and so I whipped through the explore deck.

Sister Mary did not find any of her guns and so made due with a blessed blade. Mary’s bag loading and Olive McBride did enough to make her a deadly enough in combat. She killed the only VP monster.

Silas had another solid game. A great hand of skill cards saw him through the beginning of the game. Eventually he got a spear I. Play and took down some Of Yig’s creatures. He also found a few clues. I was able to buy a Brand for him. He can really do whatever is needed.

Trish races all over and sucks up clues. She had a solid game. No real amazing plays.

This was just one of those times that most everything fell in my favor.

Into the City we go!

So getting some instant feedback on this scenario. Months ago, and sorta what got me back into Arkham was watching Team Covenant stream playing The Forgotten Age. I quit watching right before this scenario. So I had a little idea of what was coming prior which helped for sure.

I am watching them play through this now. I got to skip the first half of the scenario which may have really helped in my steamrolling of the second half. But I may have understated how huge my choice of investigators has aided in my success so far. My lowest Agility stat is 3. With two starting at 4 and both employing remains in play buffs to that stat. Agility is just so huge.

Also someone tell me if I am spewing too much info without spoiler tags. I am attempting to be vague.

Advice on this thread and some of what I have seen on stream have really helped my game.

More observation to follow as I progress through the stream today.

So finished the stream for that scenario. The second half seems about the same as my experience. Agility was pretty big in tests.
Not much more to say.

Sure thing. I have been having a blast. It’s something that’s not TV in quarantine too.

It’s a really amazing design. They do so much with the scenarios. I can’t help but compare it to Marvel Champions. I like Champs as well but miss the huge scope and upgrades that Arkham has. I really enjoy the upgrades. I think it’s another reason I like Spirit Island. You get to grow and change.
It may be why I am struggling to really dig into Marvel in isolation while I am blowing through Arkham content. It’s interesting to ponder.

That’s a hard one Shelly. You can’t begrudge her the excitement of all the new shiny things. But sometimes you want what you want. I so get it as I have been super in my head on Arkham when not playing.

Next scenario done. And wow was that thing a bear. I can see why people loath it. I got by on skill cards. Mainly on Silas. I’ll be curious to watch the team covenant stream on this one. Only two scenarios left. Seams a little unreal.

I find myself really enjoying the survivor class for complexity. Followed by the blunt but fun play of the guardians. I likes me some monster slaying.

Upgrades are more of the heavy hitters. Lightning gun. Another Time Worn Brand. And some permanents for Trish.

So, watching the stream of this scenario and reflecting back on my play of it I can see how the heavy skill cards of Silas’s deck really carried water. More so than I originally may have given credit. They sometimes added 6 icons to tests. With the possibility for more.

Brute force
Sharp vision
Not without a fight

All three are great normally but really shine here. The upgraded Grizzly adding 2 icons when used was huge as well. Then having recursion for these skills to keep them going.

This scenario still stinks and is just sorta ass backwards for it’s time in the campaign. I feel you should be leaning into who you are. But I guess on the flip side it’s pretty much Arkham horror to a T.

My plan currently is to knock out the last 2 scenarios tonight and tomorrow. I get out of quarantine on Monday so i won’t be playing for a while as I am saving scenarios for when I will be back in.

I think I should try a Mystic investigator as that’s the only class I have yet to try. I may revisit that Diana deck. That build seems very much a hybrid guardian though.

Finished the Depths. Really cool scenario. Had a pretty epic conclusion as I debated if I should try and kill the big monster. In the end I decided not to. I likely could have but it ended with Silas running past the monster with his track shoes as his companions were waiting for him and they all escape.

This was awesome. It captures so many cool aspects of the game. The repeated aspect of this was pretty great. It let everybody shine doing those things they want to do wile bad things are constantly hunting you. The treachery deck gets nastier and your health and sanity creeps lower and lower. It is exactly what you want. It’s nice and long. So you get to play with all the cards I. Your deck.

I spent the early game derdeling and getting geared up. Then just went nuts on things. This was the first game I got the lightning gun in play and it did some work.

This was the first game Silas got what was his whole rig up. Two drawling thin with a grisly totem, track shoes and timeworn brand with the big man on campus out. Everyone shined but Silas was a mad man. His skill cards just do so much work. I am just really enjoying the synergies of his deck.

Trish almost had a real bad day. I had to throw a bunch of decent cards at tests as she drew what felt like every willpower test the team encountered. She was down to sanity one before I managed to heal 2.

Mary had a cool Turn where she canceled 4 inbound damage for four bless tokens into the bag with hand of fate. Not sure where I sit on that vs dodge with the three cost difference. But that sure was a huge swing in this game.

And so ends The Forgotten Age. The last scenario was great. Another one that plays into movement. On the whole I can see why some would enjoy this and others find it a slog. I was never super behind the 8 ball. I knew going in that poison was really really bad and leaned into that. I managed to avoid it. Sometimes by throwing important cards at it. Watching the treachery cards that key off of it I get why. I think that was key to my enjoyment.

Mary finally got to cut lose with streams of lightning. She butchered 2 large monsters while her teammates got other things done.

Silas was kinda quite in the one. He got a few clues and killed some little stuff. The biggest thing he did was recur Alter Fate 3 times and clear out a bunch of stay in play treachery. He also clued a bit in prep for Trish.

Trish was the star of this one. On a lark I added Chuck Fergus and a Charisma to her deck. It really played into the crazy whirlwind that Trish was. Had a pathfinder in play as well as Lola Santiago and Chuck. I was able to play things like the new Breaking and Entering as a free fast action to dig up 2 clues as well as Lola and working a bunch. As well as Cryptographic Cypher. The action compression got pretty silly. As she was a dervish.

I had a real enjoyable time with this. I think the team really helped. I can see investigators with lackluster Agility really not having a good time. Silas had 6 most games and Trish 5 with lots of cards to chuck. Mary was my low with 3 and she had a 4 a good chunk of the time and blessings. As well as some treachery cancel.

I am kinda excited to build for Dream-Eaters as its 100% blind. As I say this I am also happy that I was a little clued in on Forgotten Age. I expect this next campaign to be equally crazy.

So. With some idle time while watching football I built some decks. It’s pretty amazing how being sequestered in a room focuses your ability to do shit.

Looks like I have two differently built teams.

Zoe and Stella. Both these decks are well rounded. Zoe has a surprising amount of clue capability and Stella should be pretty decent as well. Both are pretty rough and tumble. Zoe’s are more auto success vs the survivor thing, but Stella has some too.

Akachi and Amanda make up the other. This is very much a focused role team. With Akachi the monster slayer and Amanda the clue gatherer.

This was a lot tricky. Building four decks form one card pool took some work. I am pretty jazzed about how it all has turned out.

Working my way through the last episode of the team covenant steam of the final scenario. I’ll be curios to see how it plays out for them.

So finished the Team Covenant. My biggest takeaway from it was the observation that the Forgotten Age rewards multiple play throughs. Maybe more so than any other campaign. I have see you guys talk about the secret scenario. I can see where it is I think. I will be excited to try for it in the future.

I found their play through to be a great watch and super informative. It of course is littered with spoilers for the campaign. Lots of good things about it if you have 40 hours of YouTube time. I can see where it’s not for everyone.

I am having a blast talking about what is generally a sort of private or small group experience.

If anyone wants I would love to try a collective deck build. I have some ideas I want to try but don’t quite know how to pull off. And would love to help anyone else who would like the same.

I enjoyed my blind play of Forgotten Age, but I think replays help in two ways. One, you know what the supplies do. I think some are clearly better than others (though the Return to box mitigates this some) and taking upwards of three trauma because you thought a compass was a better pick than a blanket can feel bad. Two, you’re ready for City of Archives. It flips your gameplan so completely that some otherwise good decks will get destroyed by it. Planning for it from the beginning helps a lot.

Regarding your decks, assuming they’re for Dream Eaters you can build a fun, unique Zoe deck with Well Connected. Her innate triggers on every swarm enemy and with the upgraded .45 Thompson and Act of Desperation, I had her pumping skills by four or five by the end of every scenario. I think a killer Akachi has a lot of support between a huge suite of attack spells, Empty Vessel and upgraded Decorated Skull.

If you want to deckbuild, maybe post an ArkhamDB link, and we can chat.

Will do. I’ll post the 4 I have made. I was more looking post DreamEaters. But I am open to change before then. Give me a little to plug them in. Zoe’s the only deck that is 100% self made. The others are mostly other peoples work. I’ll post them anyway. Cause it’s fun to look at them.

Ok.
Decks are built and added.
I threw TWBG at the front of the name for ease of search. There are 4.
Thoughts and feedback welcome.

Regarding Akachi: You're definitely all in on the combat to the point that she won't have much to do on those turns when there aren't any enemies about. Read the Signs is your only clue gathering tech. I would consider switching Spectral Razor for Drawn to the Flame as you have seven other fight cards already. I would also consider swapping Eldritch Inspiration for Deny Existence as it's more widely useful, and Manual Dexterity for Fearless as you already have Sword Cane for evasion and plenty of horror you'll want to deal with. Your curve is pretty high, so even with Alchemical Transmutation and Uncage the Sould, I'd try to find room for David Renfield, especially as he's more soak and a will pump.

I don't really have anything to say about Stella. Looks like a Stella deck. I didn't notice any must-have cards you missed.

I haven't played Amanda, so I can't say much about her either. I would only mention that your cost curve is rock bottom. Half your deck is skill cards and those that aren't skills are pretty cheap. Crack the Case and Dr. Milan are overkill for what you need to pay for. Maybe Whitton Greene (also in Harvey's pack) over Dr. Milan to find the Dream Diary and get the same buff?

Regarding Zoey, I really don't like Boxing Gloves in this deck. It only finds six other cards in this deck and fills your hands until you find your Bandolier. Even with it, I think your damage is just too low. I'd strongly consider swapping it and Bandolier for any other weapons. The Crystallizer is cute, but it does compete for the accessory slot with Zoey's Cross, which is really powerful. Unless you're going for Relic Hunter early, I'd definitely cut the Riot Whistle and switch for On the Hunt or "Let Me Handle This!" which can fill a similar role. Maybe find room for an Emergency Cache too, to help pay for your five-drops like Grete and Dynamite.

Hope this helps.