Arkham Horror: The Card Game

For the Greater Good is wrapped up.
I have mixed feelings on it. I liked what it had going on on the map. And through the agenda. I have to think that this is incredibly frustrating to play at a full 4 players. I can see it being pretty cool at 1 and 2. What sticks in my craw on this is the wonky doom engine. Through no bad play on the players part you can just get trucked. In the first act I landed 5 doom in one turn. One for mythos, no issue. Then a generic cultist that adds one doom to itself on spawn, sucks but sure, then a treachery card that adds 2 doom to nearest cultist. Last card I flip is Ancient Evils. Boom Agenda advances. I guess you could ward something in there but that’s not a real “valid” bit of player agency. I don’t mind getting slapped in the face. This is Arkham after all, but doom treachery stacked like this just has “feels bad man” written all over it.

My team is not good at evasion. It’s their worst line of gameplay. So this was never going to be easy, but the five doom kick in the junk just sucks. I still made it through. Mostly by skipping 3 rooms all together. I came close to getting hit a second time with the doom mousetrap. I was lucky and had a ward that time. I have already stated that Ancient Evils is my least favorite encounter card. I think that’s still true. It just does nothing interesting. My only real experience with investigator doom tech is the Arcane Initiate and it’s generally a pretty simple choice to not play that till the turn the agenda will flip already. So not the best judge on how much of a knifes edge it runs. But it’s player choice to put that doom on the board.

What do you guys think on this?

So we visited the Unvisited Isle. The scenario ended, the jury is still out on how well it went. I continue to oppose the lodge and keep rolling with it.

This was a pretty neat scenario. I like the combo stat checks. They are a nice wrinkle. I still hate ancient evil and it feels super arbitrary in such a big encounter deck. I flipped two early. I was able to ward two more after a mid game reshuffle.

Success was achieved at the end with Yorick spending 3 turns with 3 monsters on him just face tanking. Diana helped kill one or two things off him while also clue grabbing. Carolyn meanwhile did some heals and also just got on with the job around her. I did nothing really flashy but Yorick had a few of his less flashy cards really step up. Riot whistle really helped at the end, as he just grabbed every critter that popped on his teammates. It also let him collect Whipperwhils that spawned for free. This is really welcome action Econ for this team they lack it for the most part on clues. Yorick having the most at 6 2 clue actions. But 4 of those conditional. Diana has 4 cards but also a huge deck. Only 2 in Carolyne but she has the most actions to clue and the best stat. Yorick also has Well Prepared. This was great in this scenario as the three combat helped put out braziers. Once again the closing card for the scenario was Minds Eye. My end game Diana usually runs willpower 7 pre card commits. Applying that to other stats that may be less good really help her. It’s how I have to do anything agility related.

I mostly have no idea who is good or bad in this campaign. But the early scenario dictated that I oppose the lode so I am running with it. I will be interested to replay this and play working with the lodge.

I don’t mind Ancient Evils so much anymore. I did hate it at first since it felt cheap and lacked counterplay, but the Return to Dunwich box included a variant that gave a choice: take the doom or draw two additional encounter cards. It feels good to have the option if you know an agenda flip will end you like in Essex, but I don’t think I’ve ever taken the extra draws. A doom in hand doesn’t feel as bad as two treacheries in the deck. If you want, just house rule all Ancient Evils that way.

I can see that.
At its most basic one doom = number of players x3 actions. In my case here that’s 9 actions. So that’s a huge hit for any team. For this team where my action compression is in weird places maybe it feels worse. I think the worst part of Ancient Evils is that it can trigger agenda advancement. I would be less miffed if I had a chance to deal with the doom that just popped up on cultists. And it’s likely much less an issue at 2 players.

I understand the importance of being able to threaten players playing doom tech with a mid turn Ancient Evils is important too. Need to have some teeth in there for Delve and drawn to the flame.

I just got hit at the end of the Rube Goldberg doom chain. Nobody expects to lay 5 doom in one mythos phase.

In the Clutches of Chaos has been completed. If ever the was a scenario built for my team this was it. Everyone’s tech contributed to this. Wards of protection nuked some real bad encounter cards. While Alter Fate blew up some in play treachery. And lots and lots of horror healing. So very much. The team just bounced around the map clearing breaches and killing things. The slow rate of clue population played to my strengths. Damage and horror would be the clock on this scenario normally I think. Not really a factor for this group. The only real issue was one of the locations required agility checks. This continues to be a thing for this team. Minds Eye to the rescue again. It’s not for every mystic but boy is it good here.

I plan to wrap up this campaign later today.

Wowzers but Before the Black Throne is melting my brain. Don’t think I am going to get this done tonight. I am on the second board and I think things are going ok. My guys are well setup. On the flip side I am running through the doom. So no ide how this will play out. By getting slapped in the face I have kept doom off Azathoth so far. So that seems really good.

Diana is not really made to fight combat 6 monsters. This is a bit of an issue. I have had to rely on chainsaw mania for a chunk of this. My solution may well be Minds Eye again.

So, right after I started playing again I took 3 doom on the big guy. So there was that.

Long story short, I finished with none of the exciting endings.

I got crazy lucky on my location guesses and landed each one on the first crossing. That helped immensely.

Then it was just grinding there. Campaign was a blast. But I am happy to be getting a break. I was grinding games pretty hard there. Happily I will be out of Isolation for a while. So taking a break will be easy.

Not sure what I plan to do next. Still missing a pack from carcosa. So I do t feel that’s an option.
Maybe night of the zealot into all the standalones.

Last night I played War of the Outer Gods, the latest standalone and epic multiplayer scenario. Great conceit in that three cults are battling to bring about their particular apocalypse and would rather beat on each other than worry about the investigators. It was fun. I’d put it a little behind Blob just because the map was too symmetrical in its location abilities, but the flavors of the different cults were pretty solid.

We won. My wife got to punch all the bad guys which is all she needs. Gloria Goldberg and her ability to send treacheries to the investigator best suited to manage them was beast if neutered by all the surge in the encounter deck.

Any of you have any idea where one might locate the TTS mod for Arkham?

Join the TTSClub Discord: discord.gg/cBZTXQ4S

It’s in #save-trading and is updated regularly.

So I think I game decided to do night of the zealot into all the one offs. Should be a fun change of pace. Not sure when I start. But I have the decks built.

Multi purpose / big monster killing Dexter Drake

Going back toe the well that is Winnie for a second run now that I am better at the game and with a very different deck than my first go. Pretty excited to fine this a go. I feel like I have learned a lot since the first time.

Filling the team out with a bit of an offensive Minh.

Should be a fun team. Lots of Rogue stuff in it A fun change of pace since the last crew had none.

Trying to figure out how I do this. Do I just ignore the trauma at the end of night of the zealot? Or take the trauma and just press on?
I feel thematicly I should finish night of the zealot first.

This is apropos as I just finished my own grand tour of standalones and the core campaign. Most people, and I agree, say the best choice is to fit the standalones between scenarios. One, standalones cost experience, and you won’t be able to guarantee you can pay for all of them after a campaign is finished because some of them are real stingy in victory points. Two, if they’re within the campaign, you can play with the scenario rewards longer, which is fun. If the world tour breaks the literal one-night narrative of Zealot, too much, just imagine they’re flashbacks.

I ran Preston and Tommy for my campaign, with the intention of Tommy soaking all of Preston’s damage and horror from the encounter deck. My Tommy deck wasn’t very good, but it had me excited to try him again because he was rolling in money even with a weakness that attacked his resources. Preston, on the other hand, had a much better deck, but he frustrated me much more. There were too many straight skill tests within the scenarios that he couldn’t do anything about.

Regarding the scenarios, Rougarou just feels dated, not surprisingly. It’s fine mechanically and thematically but so straightforward. Doesn’t feel up to snuff for a standalone considering what has come since. Blob and Excelsior Hotel are still really impressive, and Eternal Slumber and Night’s Usurper are still beaters, though I beat Slumber for the first time with the tightest possible finish.

I love the idea of a standalone world tour interspersed with the original campaign; definitely going to try that out soon!

Thanks for the feedback.
It should be a blast as I have not played any of them. And have avoided spoilers. So lots of surprise in my future.

I want to give Preston a try. Likely after this game.

I don’t know if it’s on your list, but I’d skip Labyrinths of Lunacy. It’s at its best epic multiplayer and a lot weaker standard. Every other standalone is just fine, though.