Arkham Horror: The Card Game

So. Now that I have built them, I am 100% in my head. Not sure that one fingerprint kit and two deduction is enough clue gathering on its own for a three player game. The Dexter deck has a pair of Rite of Seeking, but that’s still likely not enough. Not a whole lot of clue gathering from Diana.

So now not sure what to do.
Thinking about a duo of Bless bag Yoric and Carolyn. The 1 xp new smite card would fine her a little more bite. And Yoric should be pretty balanced.

I just feel awkward doing a three player game without a seeker, or Trish. I may just need to jump in and see how it goes.

Without seeing the Dexter and Carolyn builds, that does sound light on clues to me. Definitely add Clairvoyance to Dexter and maybe some Flashlights for him and Diana. Mystics can be great at clues, but if their draw is weak, they’ll fall behind.

Thinking Yoric for Dexter May be the answer.

Here are some links
arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1135127
That’s the first pass at Yorik

Diana
arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1098367

Carolyn
arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1128119

And Dexter
arkhamdb.com/deck/view/1123854

I am least sold on the Dexter deck. I think it’s concept is ok. If Yoric is added in there are some good options for Carolyn with blessings in the bag. It also makes the Winchester way better for Diana. Also some very solid clue options for Yoric. Likely worth dropping Magnifying Glass altogether for Carolyn and moving to Fingerprint Kit and looking to upgrade Emergency Cache to restock it. Both Ancient Covenant and Sacred Covenant are options for me. And both pretty good.

One thing I missed in my last game was the interaction between Stick to the plan and Astounding Revelation. Through most of Dreameaters Zoe would have had 2 extra bucks to start the game. That would have helped that build a good bit.

I agree that Dexter feels the least complete of this batch and would focus on the rest.

I think there is too much clue tech in Yorick for a character that prefers combat. You could probably cut Scavenging and Winging It. He’s not putting out consistent high damage either with the Blessed Blade and Survival Knife. Maybe throw in the .18 Derringer? Regarding the Knife, it only activates on damage specifically. You’re not running any damage soaks, so it feels risky until you can get Jessica Hyde.

The only thing I’d say about Diana is that her curve is pretty high with minimal economy. I would definitely find room for Emergency Cache.

Regarding Carolyn, you’re running Peter Sylvestre in her and Yorick. I think he’s better in her than him as consistent economy. If you want to be janky, Carolyn can bankroll her expensive teammates by taking their horror, turning it into money and sharing with Teamwork.

You mentioned it as a concern before, but I think your clue gathering is fine with these lists.

Yeah. As much as I want to play Dexter he feels like the odd man out.

I realized the error with Peter and replaced him in Yorick with a pair of ravens till Jessica Hyde gets slotted in. I plan to go back to the tried and true chainsaw and oops in time. And some of the cheap amazing skills to beef up. Dropping winging it for cherishes keepsake makes sense. Dumping Scavenging for lucky is likely the right choice too.

Diana’s Econ should clean up with I’ve had worse after the first session.

For Carolyn the fingerprint kit is temporarily as I want Ancient stones. This is likely ok as everyone should chip in for some clues. I am considering adding Book of Psalms to keep the bag loaded with bless. As it’s a marginal healing card. May not be worth it. I’ll defiantly squeeze in Radiant Smite for some killing power.

Is there a good reason I should not replace fingerprint kit with a rite of seeking in Carolyn? I know it’s side effect sucks. But I have arcane slots free.

With Carolyn managing horror, Cherished Keepsakes seem unnecessary in Yorick. I’d prefer Fingerprint Kits to Rite of Seeking in Carolyn since she’ll be testing higher, but if you want to fill an arcane slot, consider Clairvoyance since its penalty is horror.

Right. That’s exactly the thing I was overlooking.

Maybe I’ll try Riot whistle. Seems like it should provide a good economy of actions. Can always replace with Sharp Vision or some other awesome card if it’s meh.

Well. Knocked out the first session of TCU. Went well. Diana unloaded a Winchester and nearly a full clip from the Thompson in her role as lead witch killer. Yorick also shot of quite a few rounds. Everybody was able to do a decent job of clue gathering. It’s a decently rounded team.

I scored 9 xp on the table and one from resolution for a strong 10 to open. Yorick grabbed the ally chick and a pair of sharp vision to replace old key ring. Which I love but I am grooming him for Chainsaw fun and so cleared his hands. I also grabbed one chainsaw and an oops. So he has some combat power that I was lacking.

Diana went all over the place. Grabbed charisma and 2 I’ve had worse to shore up her econ as well as a pair of Marksmanship for extra damage and both can go under her for max utility.

For Carolyn I have passed up Deduction ranked up for now. Although that’s now at the top of my list. I instead upgraded Peter, bought some Ancient stones and a Tarot card bringer up to three in her deck. She is the lead investigator. She also bought Pathfinder. Cause why not.

Decent start. We will see how it progresses from here.

Finished the fourth scenario of The Innsmouth Conspiracy this afternoon, and it’s the first since Carcosa(?) that my wife and I have been all the way caught up on a new campaign’s releases. It’s pretty solid. The narrative is the strongest it has ever been. The flashback structure allows the investigators to be proactive, and all of the scenarios and threats make sense. We might be getting lucky in our encounter draws, but it’s also been our easiest run since Carcosa. Will our story allies betray us again? Probably.

Solid recommend, if currently behind Forgotten Age and Dream Eaters for my favorite.

Finished the second Scenario. I got absolutely destroyed in the first half. One bad encounter turn spawned 4 doom and that was that. This was the same turn I drew all 3 signature weaknesses the same turn. It was kinda bananas. Diana was able to Deny Existence FTW. The other two were just hosed.

The team quickly stabilized once we were sucked into the mist. Diana controlled the middle of the board while Yorick and Carolyn went to work.

Yorick is very simple in this build compared to Silas and Stella who came before him. This is not a bad thing. He is playing rock solid. Not sold on Right of scantifacation as my prime Econ. I’ll likely upgrade to emergency cashe with card draw. He has been all business no real crazy action compression like the other two named. I have some with a pair of chainsaw and Oops. Also look what I found. I am likely not taking full advantage of him. But he is doing work so far. The key thing is he is bringing some clues with some heavy damage. My only regret was I had Riot Whistle in my opening draw and I chucked it. Only to see 5 aloof enemies really fast. I may have been able to save the first act if I had the wise out.

Diana was a rockstar in the middle of the board for me. She drew kinda crazy with 2 wards and a deny existence as well as an I’ve had Worse that jump started her Econ. She opened with a Thompson and finished with a Winchester. I got to live the Winchester dream teamed up with Marksmanship to land a 4 damage hit at one location away and then tuck the card for ignoring Aloof. It was pretty fing sweet. She was living her best life with Grete and Olive out. She pretty much kept everyone clean. I am getting slightly goofy with her upgrades. I threw in Minds Eye. I have nothing else to slot in arcane and it seems a solid boost. It rounds her out end game and after the initial play the rest are fast and don’t clog my hand. It’s a 3 point bump for combat or agility tests. We will see how I like it in action.

Carolyns game was weird. She was off to an ok start. Peter was out and had some horror on him. Then her sig weakness came out and she sorta stalled out and just gathered clues with not a heal to be found. During this period she drew her ancient stone and I landed that on a diff 6 test. She was a clue hound though as her mates held up the critters. For upgrades I got Healing stones. I expect her to be much better with them. Also bought charisma and added in Whinton Greene to help her find it and give another int boost. Mr Rook might have been the better add but I am trying to mostly play with the Taboo list so he was not an option. I would love for the upgraded version and f Whinton but that’s sadly not an option. It should still be a welcome search for doing nothing. 2 wasted experience there. As I could have started with her. But that’s life.

This is really different than the two previous three man teams I fielded. I am quite enjoying it though.

The Secret Name is in the books. Everything just fell into place on this one. Diana canceled some bad stuff and ended up with the most clues on the team. Mainly from killing stuff.

Interesting game for Yorick. After I criticized the Econ package I of course drew a right of Sanctification and Keep Faith in my opening hand. This really got the others rolling quick. He quietly just does work. I bought Well Prepared for him and ditched on the hunt. It has really not been relevant this whole campaign. Chuck that up to the difference between 3 and 2 players. It was a pivotal card in Dreameaters. Riot whistle did tons of work. Helped kill the fanged mouse. I realize usually Rabbits foot or Grizzly totem are much better. But it works in this sorta bland deck that’s not survivoring too hard. Finished out the upgrade with Emergency Cache 3 as it’s money to get me started or 4 more chainsaw hits. Well Prepared is gonna be bonkers with the saw. And may add some icons on other random checks.

Diana is into some expensive upgrades now. Bought the first Deny Existence. Also bough Bandolier 2 as well. She has her major stuff but I may grab a grotesque statue to aid in shooting shenanigans. And can’t go wrong with another pip of willpower. Her rig being a two handed gun and her sig knife. She just killed stuff and aced the encounter deck. Really like Grete in this deck. Money has not been to bad for her. Ritual of Sanctification helped her early this game.

Carolyn was a boss this game. She acquired the black book. And proceeded to use it a whole lot. It really juiced her game. It gives the stats she wants and horror for cash 2 ways is the name of Carolyns game. She does not garner clues really fast with only 2 deduction, but she really does not have much else to do with her actions so it does not feel like a big deal. Added Stick to the plan for Dynamite on demand as well as I have a plan. I lacked a third card so I bought Ever vigilant with my last xp replacing a mag glass. As now I want the book there. Which as a bonus Whittion finds. Where she would not find the glass. So win win.

With 2 forms of passive healing on allies and Diana crushing bad things this team is stupidly resilient. Like I don’t even sweat 3 sanity or health hits. It’s bonkers. They play sorta like plodders but nothing really stops their momentum. It’s pretty different than my prior groups in that way.

May get another game in today. May not.

So had a bit of a boondoggle. I missed that there were 2 act cards and I started the scenario. So I am plodding along waiting for shit to happen. Only it never does. I know why now. I only made it 8 turns In... oops.

I had the perfect open with Carolyn too. One solemn vow and Death and three assets that added up to 8. Oh well. I am one turn into the reset. We will see how it goes.

Watching the Team Covenant stream / YouTube vids of their play through. The basic Winnie and Stella decks are ok. But man do they have some holes.

So, I have been slow playing my redo of The Wages of Sin. Stop me if you have heard this before, It was going well till it wasn’t. Team got early clues, got setup and progressed. Doing the first Act definitely changed things. In someways it helped. Yorick got better with the aloof enemies hanging out with Scene of the Crime. We grabbed up as many clues as we could with the expectation that everyone would be able to fight with the nets we had received. From my failed play I knew what the agenda flipping would do and Yorick and Diana kicked it off a turn early. Everything was going ok. Then in the matter of one turn it all crumbles. Mostly just for Carolyn. Due to her dual pathfinders in play she had been zipping around the map. I, in hindsight foolishly left her on her own as far away from her allies as she could be, this was ok. Just had one heretic on her. No big. Then she draws an enemy. Ok. I can deal. It’s only doing 2 horror. I can heal that on card draw. So she then pulls her sig weakness for a 4 horror shunt before she can heal. Yikes.

The other two are doing well. I got lucky on one heretic was actually on it’s needed location and got squared away on the spot. Diana and Yorick are on the way to help the beleaguered Carolyn.

Well. I finished it up. What a brutal scenario. I did finally use my Dynamite. It took all the healing I had to pull it out. Diana had to pause and throw down the Mirror so she could heal up from her precarious 1 health left. Yorick finished at 2 health and that was with Jessica Hyde out and having healed upwards of 6 damage at least over the course of the scenario.

Things that saved my ass:
A timely elder sign for Yorrick that let him grab back Emergency Cache for another 4 supplies on chainsaw. I went right through those as well as the first 3 and the previous reload.
Deny Existence 5 for clutch healing for Diana.
The inclusion of Minds Eye. This game me evasion I would not have otherwise had as well as boosting some random other ability checks. It is for sure not an early game Diana card. But it’s pretty sweet at the end of scenarios when specific things need done that my team kinda sucks at.

Upgrades were mostly simple.

Yorick added another Emergency cache. Also max level Alter Fate. Removed Ritual of Sanctification and one Keep Faith.

Carolyn added Hawkeye, Kerosene and max level dynamite. She removed her mag glass. Not a huge fan of Hawkeye, but it has a home for her. She has money to burn and can routinely investigate three times in a turn. The combat bonus is maybe useful. They key is it’s a permanent.

Diana got another max Deny Existence and upgraded her other Bandolier.

That was a wild session.