Arkham Horror: The Card Game

I just watched the Team Covenant GenCon demo and the game looks amazing. Looks to be more fun than the LotR LCG. Can't wait to get my 2 core sets.

That Team Covenant video was awesome. They helped make the game seem cooler because they were so into it, but I really like how it tells stories. Of course it's somewhat abstract that you suddenly have a baseball bat, but I can easily make it make sense in my mind. For instance one of them played a Physical Training card. That is obviously not a matter of doing some exercise while exploring the attic, but rather - I think - showing that the investigator remembers his training.

Very stoked about this one. I only hope that tweaking your deck between won't be as big a part of it as it was in the LotR card game.

The game is looking pretty good, seems easier to get into and more thematic than lotr lcg

So... here's Shut up and Sit Down's review as well, FWIW.

www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/review-a...orror-the-card-game/

F:AT thoughts? Anyone keeping up with the release cycle? I'm kind of excited about it but I'm going to sit on it and wait till I can get a bunch of it at a time. I'm guessing people will be selling collections off in the next year or so. It's what I did with LOTR LCG.

Also, setting is no attraction here, but I'm not actively hostile to it. I just think of the FFG Lovecraft theme as pulp detective stories these days.

I'm enjoying it so far. I've played the base campaign with my wife, and she's enjoyed it a lot too. She even suggested we go out and get a second base set to get more copies of certain cards. I've heard people complain that certain characters need the extra cards to be playable. I've heard good things about Dunwich Legacy, the first large expansion, so I'm looking forward to that. I like that the games take about an hour maybe. I've never played Arkham Horror the board game, but I've played Eldritch Horror a few times. The latter always takes way too long, and has a crap load of fiddly bits.

Things that suck are FFG's typical crap of not giving you full playsets of cards in the base set of an LCG. Also, I wonder if there's some deliberate scarcity for this game. It's selling out really quickly everywhere.

Well, color me surprised.

I like this game.

I'm a Lovecraft nut. I'm a Chaosium nut. I own almost every FFG Cthulhu title (Eldritch Horror seemed too redundant) with the exception of the card games. Because...

I hate card games. I despise CCGs, and LCGs just seemed like lipstick on a pig. I saw this title at Gencon, and I agreed with earlier sentiments here: pass.

However, AH LCG was getting a lot of review love. I started to question my sanity. Then, my good friend who works at a game store told me he was resigning. He asked me if I'd like to grab any games using his employee discount. I said yes. I got FFG's Fury of Dracula, and on a whim - AK LCG. Both games for fifty bucks? Hard to say no.

I played my first LCG this weekend. Three times. I'll give it another go tonight. My wife joined me for the first two sessions, as I learned the game. Her patience wore thin, and after the second play through of scenario one (The Gathering), she said she was done. It just wasn't here thing. That's too bad, as I had allusions she may be my investigator in crime (if you will). So I played my third game solo. I don't know shit from shingles when it comes to LCG mechanics, but I think this game is rather clever. The RPG/narrative elements may be a little abstract, but it's better story telling than Elder Sign or Arkham Horror. Eldritch Horror may have better narrative elements, but it's too world/globe spanning for my tastes. Mansions of Madness? I gotta say: I think I prefer the LCG.

These are just initial impressions. I'll hopefully finish the core box campaign this evening. I can see the money grabbing aspects, as they are alluded to in the rulebook itself (consider buying two core boxes!) - but if I continue this venture as a solo operation, I may be okay. Maybe? Replay value is a little light, unless you were the kid (like me) who enjoyed re-re-reading 'Choose Your Own Adventures' with different decisions. The main story arc will only be unique one time, but playing that story with another investigator does open some new "doors" if you will.

I'll report back.

Both your reports are MUCH appreciated, thanks and I will be reading if you have more thoughts later!

This game sounds like it does quite a bit right. I've come very close to purchasing it, but I've managed to hold off. We'll see how long I remain strong.

I'm secretly hoping that they redo the LotR LCG with the exact same system.

Just as a comment, they must be burning through this shit saleswise. Almost everything is out of print (temporarily, obviously, but...)

Gary Sax wrote: Just as a comment, they must be burning through this **** saleswise. Almost everything is out of print (temporarily, obviously, but...)

Cool stuff still has some core sets: www.coolstuffinc.com/p/231085

Should you start off with two cores?

I'm not a LCG expert, but I don't really buy the rationale for two core boxes. Sure, you'll have every option available to you for deck building an initial investigator. From my perspective, that possibility isn't interesting. At all. I've played the core campaign four times with four different investigators and never once did I think, "Damn. I wish I had another copy of this or that." Instead, I usually died. And death is important with a game of this theme.

Just get a core box* and have fun.

*I really can't believe it, but I'm now a subscriber to this LCG at my FLGS. I get an email when a new expansion arrives, and I get 20% off my copy. That said, I haven't played any of the expansions yet (gotta get through the semester first).

Yeah, I've been waffling on getting it for a while. Not having any of the campaign expansions in stock is good excuse not to.

So are the one off campaigns they release any good or is the dunwich box and subsequent expansions the place to go?

Varys wrote: Things that suck are FFG's typical crap of not giving you full playsets of cards in the base set of an LCG.

FFG/Asmodee is still doing this. Their new version of the Legend of the Five Rings card game is an LCG, but they are admitting that you will need up to three copies of the core set. Three has always been the maximum number of copies of a specific card that you can have in an L5R deck, and I bet that some of the best cards in the core set will be limited to one copy per core set.

I don't think "FFG's typical crap of not giving you full playsets in the base set" is crap. It only takes ONE extra base set to get a full playset, and unlike the other LCGs, you don't get a ton of redundant cards by doing so (though you do get some). If they included full playsets, it'd increase the cost of the core set, which would make it much less amenable to "buy the core set and try it out".

I also disagree with Drewcula: with one core set, there is almost ZERO deckbuilding flexibility: the amount of cards they give you is the literal minimum to build a legal deck. If you enjoy customizing a character at all, you should definitely get a second core set.

To answer Gary's question: the Dunwich box and subsequent expansions is definitely the way to go. The other expansions are once you know you're really into it.

^So they don't give you much/any like new characters or assets or anything? Just purely new one off scenario material for the most part? I was thinking that stuff was in the dunwich base box, which is a sensible way to do this to me.